25. Chapter Twenty-Five
Chapter Twenty-Five
Xiao Shu
Iglance down at the note that was just delivered by a dirty faced young boy. The Ghost Market isn’t safe, is scrawled across it in Xiao Wen’s elegant handwriting.
I press my lips together and toss the kid a copper coin. He drops into a bow. “Thank you mister!”
I nod, waving him away before I crumple up the note. I miss having Quanyu here, it’s like I have lopped off my own right arm by having him stay with Fanqing. He is usually always on lookout and the one to handle affairs anyway while I stand aloof and make calculations in my head.
I can figure out how people work, Quanyu is the one who puts in the legwork to actually get them to agree to our terms.
I’ve always driven a hard bargain that sometimes takes a bit of cajoling to get others to agree to it.
I have quite the mind for business, always figuring out where to save and what can be done to squeeze every last cent of profit out of any given run.
Xiao Wen often despairs, telling me that if I really liked business so much, I should have gotten into a respectable one. Run a pawnshop or a jewelry store.
I slide the note into the front of my robe, glancing around twice to make sure no one is watching before I slide my mask off and tuck that in as well. I straighten, adjusting my black robe.
Perhaps if my family wasn’t slaughtered, I would have been a businessman. The rest of our family could bear the strain of the responsibility to hunt spirits. Wen would have watched the stars, and we could have both been happy.
But now I am the Fourth Lord, and I carry all the responsibilities of the Xiao clan on my shoulders. If I tried to open a legitimate business, the emperor would be flooded with memorials complaining about me slacking in my duties by jealous nobles who have nothing better to do than compare wealth.
Well, they have no idea about the wealth I have amassed. Far more than anything I could have gotten with a legitimate business.
As it is, I believe that my night here at the Ghost Market has been profitable.
I have found a discreet buyer who will be able to move my goods.
Soon enough I will have to find some officials I can pay off to turn a blind eye to my Midnight Runners.
Liying is out of the picture, she would never go for that.
Not to mention that it’s best that I have as little interaction with her as possible, even if she wouldn’t know it is me because I would be operating as the Midnight Runner’s Shadow Master.
I shudder slightly at the memory of my last meeting with Liying before meeting her here again in Yanzhou.
It was some years ago, shortly after my family’s massacre.
She had sent me betrothal gifts and did not take it well when I turned her down.
She had said that I would marry her someday and I didn’t have a choice in the matter.
Gao Liying is stubborn. Growing up with her, I have never witnessed an instance where she didn’t get her way in the end.
However, what she fails to realize is that I’m just as stubborn. Thank everything I have Fanqing now. It seems this arranged marriage is a bit more convenient than I originally thought it would be. Now I have a wife to use as a shield against any women who want to be my bride.
With Wen’s warning, it’s best to act like I have nothing to hide.
After all, existing in the ghost market is not a crime in and of itself.
I step out into the crowded streets, striding through them, turning my head to admire the stalls as though I am just a passerby when suddenly someone steps directly into my path.
I draw to a halt, turning to take in Ren Shang.
“Lord Xiao,” he says with a bow. As he rises, I feel his eyes move over me, taking in every detail in my outfit.
From its close cut to its dark coloring.
It’s plain, it’s simple, it’s certainly not clothing befitting a lord of my status, but then Ren Shang likely knows me well enough from his acquaintance with Xiao Wen to know that I don’t dress like a lord.
“What are you doing in such a place at such a late hour and without any servants for protection?”
I open my mouth ready to tell him that I’m investigating.
It’s unbelievable how often that excuse has been used to aid my smuggling endeavors.
No one wants to get in the way of me hunting and slaying some spirit that has been killing people.
Especially since I have been sent by the emperor himself this time.
However, before the words are past my lips a new voice exclaims, “There you are, darling!”
Suddenly Fanqing is at my side, beaming brightly as she lays a fur rimmed cloak on my shoulders. “You need to wear your coat. You will catch a chill without it.”
I blink, glancing down at myself and the heavy cloak hanging off me before I turn to Fanqing. Over her shoulder I see Quanyu who appears to be trying to communicate something with his facial expressions. A warning of some sort, although I have no idea what.
It wouldn’t be the same warning Xiao Wen already conveyed. He already sent the note and besides those two don’t speak to each other unless they can absolutely help it.
I turn my attention back to Fanqing, unable to understand how she got here or what she is doing here or even much of anything really.
She is smiling as she turns to Ren Shang. “Please don’t think poorly of my husband, it was I who insisted that we come here. I had heard so many things about the ghost market and I was quite curious. I simply had to see it for myself.”
My eyes flick to Ren Shang to see that his expression has changed, it has softened somewhat but there is a pain in his eyes.
If there is one thing that I know about Ren Shang is that he is a fairly steady person.
Boring as a block of wood is what Xiao Wen calls him, complaining how he never goes out drinking with him or plays games and makes their travels as dull as possible.
And yet Ren Shang is immediately distracted from investigating me. His gaze is focused solely on Fanqing. I frown as I glance over at her.
“Fanqing?” he breathes out. I don’t think I like the way he says her name, almost as if it is a reverent prayer rather than a simple name. And who does he think he is calling her by her given name? She is Lady Xiao, or even Cultivator Mu. Certainly not Fanqing. At least not to the likes of him.
“Hello, Ren Shang,” she says with a smile, not bothering to correct him and tell him to call her by her proper title. “Long time no see.”
Wen had warned me about Fanqing having a past with Ren Shang; however, I don’t think that anything he said could have prepared me for the soft smile that graces her lips as she gazes up at Ren Shang.
I turn back to Ren Shang, eying him sharply, truly taking him in for the first time.
He is handsomer than I would like. With classical features and a straight nose.
His long hair hangs down well past his back, held back by a single pin.
Whisps of bangs and thick, straight eyebrows set a contrast to his pale skin.
He is dressed in a flowing white robe that I have no idea how it isn’t filthy from travel. The robe itself is made up of multiple layers with draping sleeves.
He has traveled with my cousin for three years, so I know a fair bit about Ren Shang.
He’s a passable cultivator who trained as a scribe for some years before he joined the Ministry of Justice.
He told Wen once that he wanted to return to cultivating once he had earned enough to provide steady income for his family, and he hoped to use the reward money for catching me for that purpose.
It’s only a pity that I never had any intention of being caught.
Especially since he is not a bad investigator. Wen had to put in twice the amount of work to keep him from growing suspicious. He was constantly complaining about how difficult Ren Shang and I had worked to make his life.
Wen always called him a stickler, claiming that he was too boring to get along with.
I always wondered why since the two of them seem to have quite a bit in common.
They should have been fast friends, but perhaps it was their similarities that drove them apart.
They are both sharply intelligent, with an elegant air around them, and a penchant for enjoying the more refined things in life, with an elegant air about them.
Not to mention that they both have similar temperaments, they are both quiet and introspective.
Quite the opposite of Quanyu and I who have been hardened by the martial arts world. We are brash and bold. We care little about clothing and our appearance. Food is good for nourishing but does not need to be fancy or flavorful.
Meanwhile Xiao Wen and Ren Shang are always finely dressed and enjoy dining at the same restaurants. I know that Xiao Wen’s tastes are expensive, so I have to assume that Ren Shang’s are the same.
I wonder what type of person Fanqing prefers.
She is also elegant and intelligent. Her every appearance is carefully cultivated to show only her best qualities just like Ren Shang and Xiao Wen.
Is she the type of person to be drawn to those like her?
Or does she not mind someone who is perhaps her opposite in every way?
Ren Shang smiles now, although it doesn’t quite reach his eyes.
“I hear that you are married now,” Ren Shang says, his voice is low and melodic. He folds his hands and holds them up to us. “Congratulations.”
Fanqing smiles more widely. “Thank you. I am sure you know my husband, Xiao Shu.”
Without thinking I wrap my arm around Fanqing’s shoulders when she calls me her husband. I nod stiffly toward Ren Shang, somehow unable to find it in myself to smile. “We are acquainted.”