Let Us Wander Together [Wenzhou]

Chapter 4

Capture the Ghost Valley Master! The shout from one of the assassins echoed in Zhou Zishu's mind, the image of his own half-turned face staring at him between their ranks accompanying it. In the middle of the battle, he had heard it, and instantly, his alertness had shot up, his brain recognising the familiar title. His mind had flashed to Wen Kexing and Gu Xiang and after a few stunned seconds, he had deduced who the Ghost Valley Master was. Gu Xiang was too rash and unrestrainable. Furthermore, when fighting with her earlier, her martial arts were clearly not high. Although there was a slight chance that she was concealing the true level of her martial ats, like he had been, there was no reason for the Ghost Valley Master to draw such attention. That left only one option. The only other person that had been in that area at that time – Wen Kexing.

As for seeing his own face amidst the crowd, he knew that it was Han Ying in disguise. From this, he could tell that the assassins, whoever they were, wanted to capture him, and the Ghost Valley Master, which meant that they weren't from Mount Qingya, or assassins from the Window of Heaven, else they would have recognised that it was not him. And that they wanted the two of them, or at least him, captured alive, likely for information or as a hostage. But Bu Meshi could clearly have chased after us, why let us go? Sighing in frustration, Zhou Zishu concentrated on following Wen Kexing. Great. This assignment's getting more complicated by the second.

Turning to face the man on his right, Zhou Zishu couldn't help but think of plunging a dagger or hitting him with a palm right then and there. However, something stopped him. It could have been a sudden streak of rebellion against the prince, it could have been a realisation of Wen Kexing's high martial arts, it could have been his curiosity of why the man seemed so familiar, it could have even been a combination of all three.

In the end, he convinced himself that it was because of the other's level of martial arts, and since he wanted to do his job well, there was no way he could try to attack him at the moment as it might fail. Still fooling himself, Zhou Zishu reasoned that to stand a better chance of ending the man, he had to get Wen Kexing to trust him.

Before he could construct a plan, Wen Kexing stated descending, intending to land. Zhou Zishu automatically followed his lead, Gu Xiang falling into place behind him. As his feet touched the ground, Wen Kexing turned around and asked, "Zhou Xu, do you have any idea who those people are? Wait, can I call you A-Xu? After all, we've just been through a life-or-death attack together!"

Noting the small spark of suspicion behind the casual tone that would have otherwise been undetected but for his years of being the Window of Heaven's leader, Zhou Zishu tried to thin of an answer that would alleviate the suspicion and at the same time evade the question. Disagreeing will just lead to more hostility. Thankfully, upon hearing Wen Kexing call him by his alias, an idea popped into his head. He would distract the other man by revealing his true identity – or at least letting him think that Zhou Zishu had. Maybe it was the way Wen Kexing called him 'A-Xu', but he chose to continue using the fake name and only take off his disguise.

Peeing off the mask, he said sombrely, "I'm sure you've guessed by now that this isn't my true face. I disguised myself because..." He faltered, trying to think of a believable lie and hoping that Wen Kexing would treat it as a decision to trust him, "because...those people were chasing me. They also kidnapped my brother so I'm trying to track them down..." That wasn't entirely untrue. Han Ying had remained loyal to him, and under such trying circumstances for so long Zhou Zishu regarded him as a brother. And I hadn't specified how long the assassins had been chasing me.

With that lie, he would also have an excuse to work with Wen Kexing for the Ghost Valley Master would no doubt investigate who was foolish enough to attack him. That way, he would be able to slowly gain the other's trust, making the final blow a lot easier. And harder... emotionally, a voice whispered in his mind. The voice that had convinced him to put in the nails, the voice that had ignited the long-kindling flakes of anger at the prince into a blaze of rebellion. But this time, for his long-awaited freedom, he had to complete the assignment and not let the prince accuse him of anything.