C05: Duan Xiang

The next day was sunny and the four arrived early to pay their respects at Lu Yun's grave.

They did the same things they both did every year. Lu Ziqu spent some time explaining to the two of them, while Lu Qing did the heavy work and sent his elder brother to rest while he and Fang Shi burned paper money together.

When Lu Ziqu found a shady place to sit and rest, Fang Yinggui followed him, not carelessly, but, in fact, he was their target.

"We'll leave later." Fang Yinggui fanned himself with his fan, apparently because it was hot, but Lu Ziqu understood that he was hiding his mouth, "You must take care of yourself." 

Regardless of what happened last night, when he saw him this morning he was overcome by the thought of his master being killed by someone he knew.

Fang Yinggui just smiled and sat beside him.

If he thought of him as a person, was it strange to see such a cold and even disgusting attitude? Perhaps the fact that he was overzealous made him wary of everything.

"What I told you yesterday, keep it a secret, especially from your shidi. No matter how close the two of you are, one mistake could be fatal. You don't really want your master to become extinct, do you?"

Lu Ziqu didn't let emotion show on his face, but his heart was cold. What happened yesterday would he know? He had clearly tried to suppress his voice? He silently watched Fang Yinggui, his face had no meaning of mockery, but he couldn't be at ease anymore, his eyebrows furrowed especially hard.

Lu Ziqu coughed a couple of times and asked him if he had any more information about the person who had killed his master, his dry voice mingled with the sound of burning paper money. Fang Yinggui handed him a piece of paper with a faint "mmh" and handed it to him. The words were folded inside so that nothing could be read unless it was opened; but as soon as Lu Ziqu took the paper, he noticed something strange and frowned.

When he was about to ask, he saw him pucker his lips and utter a "Shh", which was very mysterious.

"You can try starting with the person I wrote on it. Make sure you burn it after you read it."

Lu Ziqu thought it would be a bad time to pick it up and look at it, not to mention that there was something inside, so he put it in his pocket, while Fang Yinggui shouted to Fang Shi who understood and went to his side.

"Master, are we leaving already?"

"Well, the purpose of the trip has been fulfilled and there is an urgent family matter, so let's go."

Apparently, while the two brothers were going through that blushing skin-to-skin encounter last night, the master and disciple had also discussed their further arrangements, as one would guess just by listening to their unspoken conversation. With the paper money burnt, Lu Ziqu and Lu Qing rested for a while before returning home.

On the way home, they talked to each other, and the journey, which had originally taken almost a day, was cut in half, and when they arrived home they could hear the watchman shouting, "It's four in the morning and it's very cold".

Lu Ziqu's intention to send Lu Qing to bed first did not succeed, so he had no choice but to go to bed with him, but he did not go to sleep and quietly got out of bed when the watchman first shouted, "Time to go to bed, get up early, take care of your health".

It was shortly after dawn and the atmosphere was treacherous, so Lu Ziqu left the house to open the letter for fear that Lu Qing might see it.

The handwriting of the letter was indeed very different from the previous one, so it seemed that Fang Yinggui's claim that he had written it for him was a little more plausible; the paper rippled with the gestures of his hands and the wind, and he could smell a faint fragrance, and when he sniffed it carefully, he felt that it was something similar to that of Fang Shi's body.... Lu Ziqu shook his head, telling himself not to get sidetracked and concentrate on the contents. There were only two words in the letter.

Duan Xiang...

He still remembered the story he had heard from the storyteller in the market years ago, and didn't it include the existence of Duan Xiang? This woman was the daughter of the famous Duan family, a famous family in the Jianghu area. Whenever the Duan family is mentioned in business and official circles, Master Duan and his almost divine sense of money is mentioned first. But when the Duan family is mentioned in the jianghu world, it used to start with the warrior of the Duan family.

Lu Ziqu had heard some of these stories when he was shopping in the market, and at the time he thought the storytellers had exaggerated, but as soon as it was connected with his master's death, these stories had something believable about them. 

"She killed him?"

Lu Ziqu didn't know whether to believe it or not, but his hands were already bruised and shaking slightly as he clenched the paper.

He had no idea what to do, but decided to leave it at that, because it was already dawn and Lu Qing would be up any minute for his morning walk, so he was afraid he would see the paper and ask questions about it, so he went to the backyard, took some firewood and threw it into the pot to burn the paper while the porridge was boiling.

"Brother, you got up early! Couldn't you sleep well?"

Lu Qing saw the firelight and knew it was Lu Ziqu who was there, but he had never woken up so early before. Having given up his role as a disciple, he was eager to be a man, so he took care of everything.

"The porridge will be ready in a few minutes, so go and bathe."

Lu Qing pouted and insisted on staying with him until the porridge was ready before reluctantly going to the backyard to take a shower. Lu Ziqu shouted at him to grab a handful of millet along the way to feed the two chickens, but ordinary conversation was like honey, his cheeks were a little hot, the memory of that night leapt to mind at this moment, making him unconsciously grab the small round box in his pocket. In addition to the two words of the letter, there was another small paragraph, which was hidden next to the name, so that no one could see it.

At the thought of using the ointment, stained by memories, the heat in his cheeks refused to go away, no matter how hard it was. He had to keep splashing water on his cheeks so that Lu Qing would not misunderstand whether he had caught a cold or not.

"Brother, take a sip."

Lu Qing knew nothing of his brother's difficulties and concealment, but he said he was hungry because of his abnormalities, so he picked up some soup and porridge and fed him. The two brothers sat at the table and ate an ordinary, but especially warm breakfast. Lu Qing treated Lu Ziqu like a wife and took care of him. The porridge with pickled radish was served to his brother, and the joy in his eyes could not be hidden.

-.-.-.-

Lu Ziqu really didn't know where to look. The Duan family was both a family of merchants and martial artists, so a high level of security would be an understatement. Although Lu Ziqu was an excellent agile man, he was meticulous and thoughtful, he could not see any chinks in the Duan family's defences, even though he had been keeping watch for several days in various teahouses on the streets outside the Duan family. The Duan family had many enemies and was very cautious in its defences, not to mention others. Even the Duan family members themselves, if they went out for a long time, were not able to find out the pattern of change from time to time.

There were no gains for many days. The only thing he found out from the neighbours was that Duan Xiang had not returned to the house for months. Now there were only two masters in the big Duan house. Lu Ziqu knew that the trail was lost. He couldn't help but feel discouraged and annoyed that he had wasted time for many days.

"Damn Fang Yinggui Fang."

Lu Ziqu simply hated himself for believing that in Fang Yinggui and wasting days of his life on this matter. Now that he thought about it, he was still strange all over.

Was he really Lu Yun's friend? But Lu Yun had never mentioned him before he died, not even the word "Fang" had he heard. When the bloodshed happened 18 years ago, he didn't even show his face, let alone help them. How did he learn the identity of the killer of this bloodshed, without even showing his face, let alone helping him? I blame his desire to avenge his murder on the fact that he could not even see the flaw in such a simple excuse.

He stayed in the teahouse for half a day in remorse until Lu Qing arrived.

"Brother, what's with the sad face?" Lu Qing asked with concern. 

Seeing that he was nervous, Lu Ziqu shook his head with a smile and told him to sit down, and before his plate was empty, he took a small piece of soybean cake and told him to eat it. Lu Qing loved these snacks with tea and looked satisfied.

"I have many things on my mind."

Lu Qing was confused and asked him what had been on his mind for so many days, and in a few words he realised that he had already seen his brother's worries.

Lu Ziqu was not surprised by this. His grown-up younger brother was already very obvious about everything. It was as if he had grown up overnight. He was no longer childish, less spoiled, less naive and optimistic; he began to know how to hand out robes instead of asking for warmth, and he was no longer sleepy and lazy in his martial arts training, even pestering him to teach him more difficult and advanced kung fu.

"At first I was worried, but now I'm better."

He wanted to tell her the whole story, but changed his mind mid-sentence, because it was bound to end in nothing, so why bring it up again? So he changed his mind and wanted to take Lu Qing to buy clothes.

"Clothes? Brother, it's not New Year's Eve."

"We both weren't well on New Year's Eve, so how could we have the time and means to do it?" He said he had noticed a few days ago that none of his clothes were in good condition, so he was ashamed of himself, so he took Lu Qing and they left the teahouse.

-.-.-.-

He heard a loud "grrr" coming from Lu Qing's direction and asked with a smile, "Hungry?"

The two had been buying their clothes from the Chun Niang house since they were children, so they had a strong bond over the years. They were told that the clothes they were wearing were made of material that was several years old and should have been thrown away long ago. When they objected, they put on a straight face and pretended to be angry, forcing them to accept them.

"I'm hungry, brother."

Lu Qing was not displeased with Chun Niang, but it was unbearable to stand and be manhandled for hours, and he looked aggrieved, saying his shoulders and back hurt. 

"Let's go back and I'll give you something to eat."

"Could it be egg noodles? I'd like you to put egg in it." 

"No wonder the hen in the backyard wants to peck at you, she's always after her babies."

Lu Qing sighed in disbelief, saying that he hadn't eaten an egg for a long time and had only eaten chicken soup recently, but now he was so hungry that he was thinking about eggs. Then, he grabbed Lu Ziqu's hand and ran home with his light martial skills. The elder sighed in exasperation at the impetuous gesture. He had just thought the boy had finally matured, but now he was so childish because of an egg.

"Qingqing!" shouted Lu Ziqu violently.

It was dark, the road was dimly lit and he was naturally alert, so the flickering blade in the darkness was clear.

At this call, Lu Qing panicked and dropped the bag he was holding and stepped back, a move taught by Lu Ziqu, not to advance when the enemy's whereabouts were unknown, as his opponent's weapons were mainly pointed forward, but rarely backward.

Shizzz! A small knife shot out, just a cotton thread away from the tip of Lu Qing's nose.

The man's body went backwards, but did not fall to the ground. Lu Ziqu with the force of the kick, kicked Lu Qing back to a standing position. The two brothers quickly peered into the shadows and saw a man dressed completely in black and a black cloth covering his face, coming out of the shadows. His feet were lightning fast and his eyes were sharp as blades.

It was impossible to see through him. The man gave the two men no chance, he approached them with a fierce stomp, holding in his palms two curved swords like crescent moons. If Lu Qing had not been alert enough to push his brother away, both would have been killed.

"Good reaction."

The man was not upset that he did not win, instead he calmly stood between the two men and smiled at them, his already treacherous eyes became even more sinister with this action, the curved knives in his palms were enough to cut the air, and the small crystals were now embedded with spikes on the edges of the blades, which were too delicate to notice for a moment, but once the blades touched them, flesh would split open, blood would flow and even the white bones would be exposed.

"This brother is from the West?"

Lu Ziqu immediately recognised that the scimitar was not of domestic origin, and if not deliberately obtained by lining the hand, it had been bequeathed to him from childhood. The man smirked and made no reply.

"My brother and I have never had a grudge against anyone, have you found the wrong enemy?"

"I advise you not to seek the truth about the bloodshed of 18 years ago."

The man finally spoke, but his voice was muffled and indistinguishable because of the cloth, and the words he used were uncharacteristic, so his true identity remained a mystery. Lu Qing was surprised by the words, but when he looked at his brother, he saw a frown on his forehead, not at all surprised by these words.

"Qingqing" Lu Ziqu saw the frustration in his brother's eyes and spoke to calm him down, as there was an external enemy and he would only be asking for his own death if he was upset.

Lu Qing was wise enough to come back to his senses and was no longer worried about this.

"My master has seen you guarding the Duan family outside the teahouse for several days, and he asked me to convey to you that you did not commit two cases of bloodshed back then. He thought that eighteen years had passed and they had all been killed. But if you don't know what is good for you and persist in pursuing the case, you will be failing the good intentions of my master."

 "Who is your master?" Lu Ziqu couldn't have imagined that the assassin would be so arrogant as to send someone to warn him, disregarding them both.

"Never mind, my master has said you are not worthy to know his name."

The more the man in black revealed, the clearer it was that he could be someone else, and the more he became visible, the more apparent his delicate posture, and the longer the fragrance, the more it penetrated his nostrils.

The scent was long and refreshing, a far cry from his murderous stance at the moment. 

"Is it possible that your master is simply a figment of your imagination and so cannot speak for himself?"

The man in black was not embarrassed by what he said, but gave Lu Qing a smiling look, and if there was anyone who could force himself on people with his eyes, this man was the best.

"I can see that as a provocation," he said, "Unfortunately, my master forbids me to kill you, but if you two insist on going further, I will go after everyone who is related to Lu Yun. They must be a lot of people, but not impossible."

Lu Qing was about to sneer when he saw a flash of silver in front of him, the man had grabbed him and put a scimitar on his neck!

"Qingqing!" Lu Ziqu didn't expect this, but he couldn't move because of Lu Qing's security, and his worry was overwhelming.

"This is a small warning."

The man began to slide his blade, leaving a red mark on her neck and shoulder, the blade was so sharp that at first it was just a red, swollen line, but then blood ran down her skin and her clothes quickly turned red, giving a terrifying look.

Lu Qing was about to attack, but the man in black had already finished his 'warning' and retreated.

The movement was like a trumpet, and Lu Ziqu couldn't take it anymore, so he rushed forward and hit him with a blow to the neck!

The scimitar slid through the air in a smooth arc and blood spurted out on Lu Ziqu's cheek as he fought back the pain with a series of sharp kicks in the direction of the man in black, each one landing in the same place and causing the most pain, he was worried about his brother and would show no mercy.

"Yuck!" The man in black shouted, as if he had expected them to do so.

Lu Qing's legs were so powerful He had prepared for it, but he also received several kicks, and his wounds vaguely hurt. Lu Ziqu's surprise was also noticeable, at first glance it was meant to hit him in the neck, but in the middle it was deflected to his chest. He was hit from above and from below at the same time. Apart from the pain, he regretted his recklessness, for he had forgotten his master's orders and had thought that two young men barely twenty years old were not to be feared?

Because he had an important task and was not allowed to kill them, the man in black simply used his scimitar to fight off the fists and kicks of the two men, and in less than a second he was able to escape and jump to the roof, where his footsteps could only be heard in the night. Lu Qing was about to catch up to him with his lightning-like skills, but he felt a strange sensation in the corner of his coat and looked down to see that his brother had stopped him.

"Don't chase him, you won't catch him," he told her.

"Why?" Lu Qing was not convinced. Anyone walking along the road would have been enraged if a masked man had warned him not to pursue him any further, or else he would have been killed and slashed with a scimitar.

"He was ordered to come, and he never told us who was behind it, and he didn't even respond to our attacks."

Lu Ziqu never thought to pursue him, except for the fact that Lu Qing had been wounded and knew nothing about the man's identity or origins, except that the man behind him was closely related to the bloodshed.

"But...!"

"You won't be able to follow him." Lu Ziqu said, his lightness of movement was very strange, it was clear from the moment he was able to move quickly to slash Lu Qing in front of him. It was fortunate that the situation didn't cause a commotion, as it wasn't a busy road.

As he had no medicine with him, he had to take off the hem of his shirt and tie it around Lu Qing's wound to stop the bleeding, and then pick up the clothes he had left by the side of the road. When Lu Qing tried to pick up the clothes that had fallen by the side of the road, he glared at him, at which point he remembered that his brother had kept something from him and didn't mention a word about it, so he became annoyed again. 

"Let's go home first and talk about it when we get home." How could Lu Ziqu not feel his brother's displeasure? But he couldn't have expected such a surprise, and the thoughts of revenge he had wanted to put aside were burning again because of this.

-.-.-.-

The man in black covered the spot where Lu Qing had kicked him and looked to his right and left to make sure the two men were not pursuing him before he rushed into a hut, built on the side of the road, surrounded by thick, tall grass, which provided good cover.

"Master" he shouted in a muffled voice. There was Fang Yinggui sitting in the hut, while Fang Shi attended to him as usual, and when he saw the man in black covering his stomach, he asked him if he was hurt.

"It's nothing, I got kicked a couple of times." The man in black laughed bitterly.

"You can even get kicked, huh?" He knew that the two brothers were not inferior in martial arts, what was even more difficult was that Lu Ziqu had a very delicate mind and was very active. Although he had many men, even with a large number of men, he was the only one who could do the job after being selected by a thousand people.

"One of us was so good at kicking that I couldn't help it, so I had to leave," he said.

"Did you really tell him what I told you?" Fang Yinggui didn't like to probe, so he asked bluntly.

"Yes." The man in black took Fang Yinggui's instructions as holy orders and dared not hesitate.

"Very good, you've worked hard." He took out a heavy bag from his pocket and tossed it to the man in black, "Let Fang Shi look at your wound."

The man in black thanked him repeatedly, while Fang Shi examined him briefly and said the wound was not serious, gave him a bottle of medicine and advised him to change it three times a day and replenish it before returning to Fang Yinggui's side with a face full of confusion.

"I usually say you're stupid, but are you really stupid now?"

Fang Shi looked at him innocently and wasn't sure how he could ask a question and be scolded for being stupid, but he had heard the word for years and it didn't bother him, so he understood that his master was just scolding him for his comfort, so he laughed twice and acted as if he was being taught. This worked, and the one who scolded the fool took two sips from his cup of tea before speaking again.

"Lu Qing doesn't interest me, Lu Ziqu doesn't trust me," he said. Her hand had hesitated for a moment when she handed him the note with the clue, and it was then that she realised that he didn't trust the clue she had given him.

If Duan Xiang was not in town, and neither of them were members of the jianghu community, there would be no one to connect them and the trail would be broken. How could he allow all his hard work to go to waste? He had to think of other ways.

"Wouldn't it be better if Master did it himself?" Fang Shi still didn't understand, it was too much trouble to find someone to provoke him.

"Stupid!" this time he not only scolded him, but also slapped his disciple's forehead while scolding him!

"Why didn't I call you sha (stupid) in the first place?" he finished his scolding and then took the sugar cake from the table and ate it. The sweetness of the cake was comforting and the man who had brought it with him was relieved that it had been useful.

"What would Lu Ziqu think if he received all the information from me, surely he wouldn't believe it!"

"In that case, it would have been useless and a missed opportunity, but what if it had been passed on by someone else? But if someone else communicated it, it would only be taken as if the real killer had felt the need to act, and it would only make Lu Ziqu even more determined to take revenge, and he would persist in his investigation."

"Lu Ziqu?" Fang Shi frowned, unable to imagine that the one who was most determined to take revenge was the one who seemed so calm.

"Surprised?" the laugh from Fang Yinggui was particularly happy. "The one who was difficult to deal with was Lu Ziqu, Lu Qing was relatively easy, pure and simple. his brother is in the deepest of the city and his belief in revenge is mostly sustained by the greatest."

The last piece of sugar cake was put in the mouth, and the snow-white icing sugar was smeared on the fist of Fang Shi's sleeve, the cup of tea that had been cold for a long time was not to his taste, so he threw it away, it was cheap tea, it didn't matter.

"Master, where are we going now?" Fang Shi asked as he cleaned up.

"Wherever the two brothers go, we go."

He turned his head and saw the doubt in Fang Shi's eyes, then remembered that he had not told his disciple about the circumstances surrounding this matter.

"I will tell you... another story when this is over."

"Yes, master," Fang Shi thought he was thought he was aware of the other party's differences, but he did not reveal them. Instead, he took good care of his old habits and went to his master's side to await his next order.

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