Hidden Shadow – CH 146

Chapter One-Hundred-Forty-Six: Hua

An Jiu leaned against the roof beam, watching the start of another day at the Li residence.

Li Ting attended the morning court session at the end of the hour of Yin¹. His residence at Tianshui Alley was some distance from the palace, so he had to rise before dawn to prepare. Madam Li rose early each morning to serve him as he washed and dressed, personally escorting him to the second gate.

Bianjing experienced significant temperature differences between morning and afternoon; summer mornings were slightly cool.

Inside the room, Li Ting sat before his dressing mirror, Madam Li combing his hair.

The room was quiet, and the warm, gentle light created a peaceful and cozy atmosphere between the two, one that An Jiu had never witnessed before.

Li Ting’s hair was already somewhat gray, but he seemed to be in good spirits. Madam Li, judging by her appearance, looked only about thirty, perhaps younger than her actual age. Her features were regular, but she was not considered a beauty; however, her elegant and dignified bearing immediately revealed her to be a typical lady of high birth.

After dressing, several maids carrying lanterns led the way, and the two went out together.

Madam Li always lagged half a step behind, and Li Ting would glance at her every so often.

No one spoke, but anyone could see the deep affection between them.

An Jiu quietly followed him to the second gate.

“Husband, be careful on the road.” Madam Li took the cloak from the maid and personally fastened it for Li Ting.

“Mm.” Li Ting’s expression was stern, but his words were clearly concerned. “The dew is heavy; go back quickly.”

Madam Li smiled and agreed, but she did not return until Li Ting was out of sight.

An Jiu turned and left the courtyard, waiting at the gate for Li Ting’s sedan chair to emerge, following him all the way.

Li Ting was accompanied by a fourth-level guard. This level of defense made him easy to attack, but he was traveling on main roads. Every two hundred steps in Bianjing City, there was a fortified armory storing city defense weapons, and each armory was garrisoned. Although the number of guards was small and their combat strength was not high, alerting them would be troublesome.

Assassinating Li Ting was easy, but the five-day time limit made it very difficult.

An Jiu followed him all the way to the imperial road before leaving. Afterwards, she walked back and forth along Li Ting’s route to court several times, finding several suitable ambush locations.

Furthermore, the nearest city defense depot to the Li residence was only fifty paces away. The Li residence was not large, so the best time to act without alerting the garrison was at night when Li Ting was alone in his study.

Having chosen her locations, An Jiu lay in ambush at one of the spots the next day, bow drawn, waiting for her prey.

However, seeing Li Ting’s sedan chair pass by, she did not release an arrow. Instead, she went to a second ambush location to wait.

Similarly, she only aimed at him. Still, she did not make a move. That afternoon, she disguised herself, rented a sedan chair, and traveled from Tianshui Alley to Pan Tower Street.

The sedan chairs all had curtains, and An Jiu needed to know the position of Li Ting’s head and chest when he sat inside, given his stature… After sitting in the sedan chair for almost two cups of tea, An Jiu’s expression became somewhat solemn. The difference between leaning against the back of the chair and sitting upright was about a foot in height, not to mention her head. From her observation, Li Ting was a meticulous person; such a person might always sit ramrod straight, but what if he was not?

To be absolutely certain, it seemed that ambushing him on his way to court would not work.

“Young master, we’ve arrived,” the sedan chair bearer said.

After getting out of the sedan chair, a bustling street came into view. An Jiu took out a small piece of silver and tossed it to him.

“Young master, here’s your change…” the sedan chair bearer said, looking down to find some change.

Another sedan chair bearer nudged him with his elbow. “Let’s go.”

In the blink of an eye, An Jiu’s figure disappeared into the crowd.

The sedan chair bearers assumed it was a servant sent by a wealthy family on urgent business and did not pay it any mind. He happily pocketed the silver.

Pan Tower Street was bustling with activity. An Jiu looked like an ordinary young man, dressed in a gray robe, completely unremarkable. Even now, looking around, to outsiders, she was just a naive boy who had not seen much of the world.

An Jiu found a teahouse and sat down by a window on the second floor facing the street, waiting for Li Ting to return home in the evening, hoping for a good opportunity to assassinate him.

If he returned from court the same way, in a sedan chair, then she would have to find an opportunity within the mansion. Recalling the actions of Li Ting and his wife, An Jiu subconsciously did not want to act within Li Ting’s residence.

An Jiu picked up her teacup and looked out the window, taking in everything on the street.

As an assassin, An Jiu’s forte was sniping, but her inherent violent tendencies meant she was also formidable in close combat. She possessed exceptional eyesight and observation skills; in this noisy and chaotic environment, she would not miss a single person or object, and could quickly distinguish anything unusual.

So when the man leading the horse came into An Jiu’s sight, she spotted him immediately.

His figure was familiar. So familiar that she recognized him at a glance.

An Jiu picked up a peanut and flicked it onto his straw hat.

The man stopped and slightly raised his head. Half his face was in shadow, but An Jiu still saw it!

Hua Rongjian!

It was not Chu Dingjiang!

An Jiu froze.

Hua Rongjian’s gaze quickly swept over everyone sitting by the window, finally meeting An Jiu’s eyes.

An Jiu stared at him without flinching. This man was burly, with strong facial features and cold eyes, vastly different from the Hua Rongjian she remembered. Upon closer inspection, he did not actually resemble Hua Rongjian at all.

He frowned and walked towards the teahouse.

After a brief eye contact, An Jiu was certain that this man bore a striking resemblance to Hua Rongjian but was not the frivolous philanderer he was portrayed as.

“Hua Rongjian” went upstairs to the second floor, heading straight for An Jiu.

He did not remove his bamboo hat. After sitting down, he ordered a pot of Tieguanyin tea, his gaze lingering on her hands beneath the hat.

“You’ve come out?” Up close, An Jiu felt he looked more like Chu Dingjiang.

The waiter brought the tea. He calmly poured himself a cup, drank it in one gulp, wiped his mouth, and gave a deep, resonant “hmm.”

Her intuition was correct; it was indeed Chu Dingjiang.

Sitting face-to-face, she finally noticed a flaw: a faint stubble on his chin, without pores, was covered by a thin layer of something.

An Jiu was puzzled. Chu Dingjiang was indeed strange. Even with a human skin mask, his physique did not resemble Hua Rongjian’s. Why would he bother with such a conspicuous face? Many people in Bianjing City knew Hua Rongjian!

“Are you alright?” An Jiu asked.

Chu Dingjiang shook his head.

After sitting for a while, Chu Dingjiang glanced at her, then got up and left.

An Jiu paid the bill and followed him out of the teahouse.

The two walked along the street for about the time it takes to drink a cup of tea before Chu Dingjiang turned into a small alley.

When An Jiu followed him in, she found that Chu Dingjiang was nowhere to be seen. She used her mental power to scan the area; there were no Transcendent Realm experts around, only a ninth-level expert less than ten chi away.

An Jiu stopped in front of a tightly closed door. The door opened, and she saw Chu Dingjiang standing in the dim light. He had removed his human skin mask and changed back into his original attire.

“What happened? Your cultivation level…” An Jiu entered the room and closed the door behind her.

The room contained only a table with a scroll of bamboo slips on it, a bronze oil lamp with a sparrow design, and simple, rough furnishings, quite different from the delicate and exquisite furniture of the Song Dynasty. Although An Jiu found it a little strange, she did not pay too much attention to it.

Chu Dingjiang spread his hands, and An Jiu noticed several black needles attached to his palm. He smiled. “I have others too. They’ve restricted my power and banished me to the Konghe Academy. Many people want to get rid of me. I need you now.”

So his appearance before her was not accidental.

“What do you need me to do?” An Jiu asked. Chu Dingjiang had done her a favor, and she would not refuse his request.

“Three years ago, I was only at the sixth level, with ninth-level mental power. It was because I obtained the life’s worth of power from a senior that I was able to reach the Transcendent Realm so quickly. Although there were some losses along the way, it was enough to help me break through in one fell swoop,” Chu Dingjiang said. He did not answer her immediately but spoke of the past, “Something that does not belong to you is very unstable. I spent a lot of effort to barely grasp this power.”

“Why are you willing to take such a big risk?” An Jiu remembered him saying in the ancient temple that if you obtain someone else’s power and your meridians were not strong enough to contain the powerful internal energy, you would explode and die. He was clearly at the Transcendent Realm; if he wanted to leave, no one could stop him. Why, despite being treated like this, did he still insist on staying in the Konghe Army?

Chu Dingjiang’s dark eyes were unsettling, and his words were equally unsettling: “Ambition.”

An Jiu frowned. “You approached me today just for this?”

When Chu Dingjiang uttered the word “ambition,” An Jiu felt a tightness in her chest, a feeling she usually only experienced when Mei Jiu was sad. So she knew she was sad too.

He was so good to her, just to use her, was he not?

“Yes and no,” Chu Dingjiang said. “If I truly had purely ulterior motives, I would not have told you this. I’ve used tricks on many people, but in my current situation, I do not want to lie to you. If you do not agree, I will not force you.”

“I agree,” An Jiu said, suppressing a trace of displeasure. “No matter what your intentions were before, I owe you a life; that’s an undeniable fact, and repaying a debt is only right and proper.”

“Fourteenth.” Chu Dingjiang tried to grab her hand, but she dodged it.

The door opened and closed, the room flickering between light and darkness, mirroring An Jiu’s current state of mind.

Chu Dingjiang stared at the closed door, his hand falling limply. He sat down, picked up a Weiqi piece from the table, and stroked the Zhao seal script on it, his heart heavy with sorrow.

He was incapable of pure emotion anymore. Beneath his facade of magnanimity, lies and deception were second nature. He had long anticipated that a relationship that began with exploitation would inevitably crumble when confronted with reality, yet he still chose to tell her the truth.

Never in his life had he so desperately wanted someone’s heart.

He used the Weiqi pieces to spell out the Zhao seal script character “Hua” on the table, a bitter smile playing on his lips.

“If I had your company, I would not be so lonely on this path, Fourteenth Young Lady. If I opened my heart to you, would you stab me in the back when I least expected it…?”

He had always loved taking risks, his methods unpredictable; everyone called him a heartless young master. Who would have thought he’d end up like this?