How To Polish A Pearl

Chapter 97 - Dying (1)

Author's Notes:

I feel like you can guess that this and the next chapter might be a bit rough. Warning for violence as the battle begins.

⊂ (▀▿▀) つ

Everything was going according to plan. She had watched from afar as the three different parties had set out in different direction early in the morning—destination Wuming. All three had wagons so that no one could tell from the outside which one actually contained Nu Zhuren. It was just that she knew that none of them did. Zhou Zi Shu had actually left much earlier in the morning, under the cover of darkness, to take a long detour around the valley. He had taken all of the elite guards, but still—she had more minions and that should tip the scale in her favor.

All he had to do now was come through the mountain pass, and head either left or right along the river and ride straight into her ambush. Her ghosts were waiting on either side—just in case. She knew he was expecting it, but with the amount of ghosts that she had brought—that shouldn't be an issue. What she didn't know was if Guigu Guzhu was following as well. He had still been at Wu Ying by the time she had left. However, she was starting to faulter in her desperation to just get this over with. So what if he was here and got hurt? At least he would be here to see Zhou Zi Shu die first and then I will just kill him here as well. And if not, then I will just stick to the plan and kill him later.

She stepped out of the sunlight to rest her eyes for a bit. She was well hidden up on the mountain side, on the other side of the river and she would stay here until the battle was over. And even then, she would head straight back to Wu Ying as if nothing had ever happened and wait for the good news.

Not too far away from where Hongtao Huanghou is waiting, another woman is also hidden with the shadows as she watches the scene before her.

(◣_◢)

Wen Ke Xing is in fact following his husband. Anything else would have been unthinkable. He wasn't even sure why he couldn't have just gone with his husband straight away, but they did what they could in order make it look believable. Maybe every little thing would help. They had even sent Ah-Xiang away, out to the humans under the pretense of wanting her to find out more about that third child.

The route had been specifically picked for the limited areas where an ambush was actually possible, either due to the steep mountain sides or the roaring rivers. Together, they had made a calculated guess on the closest distance for the ambush and he had stayed behind until the very last moment from when he knew that he would be able to catch up with Zhou Zi Shu at that exact location. They had agreed that an ambush hadn't made sense through the pass due to the cliffs and that it would likely be along the river or further down the pass, where they would travel through woods.

He hadn't caught up with Zhou Zi Shu yet, but he couldn't be more than five minutes behind at this point. He was suspecting that the tiny puff of brown he could spot further ahead, was the dust cloud from the horses. He himself was traveling by air so as to not leave a trail. So far, not even the shadow of an assassin had been seen. Not even a pebble had fallen from the cliffs above. The mountain pass was silent, as if taking a long deep breath before the exhale.

The plan was relatively straight forward. Kill as many underlings as they could, but towards the end Zhou Zi Shu would die in the fight. No—not actually die—just fake dying. Wen Ke Xing gets heart broken and this will hopefully tempt Hongtao Huanghou into making her final move and expose herself.