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Shen Zechuan immediately smiled and said, “This is no big secret anyway… Goodbye.”
“Why don’t hear me out first?” Xiao Chiye was in a good mood after recovering his lost thumb ring. “Since Ji Gang is your master, then we are fellow disciples. I’m older than you, so it wouldn’t put you at a disadvantage to call me shixiong.”
“The Ji Clan has nothing to do with Libei.” Shen Zechuan’s mind quickly recalled his fight with Xiao Chiye in the snow five years ago. Back then, he had felt a sense of familiarity that kept bugging him.
“Not necessarily so.” Xiao Chiye said, “It’s hard to say for sure when it comes to stuff like affinity.”
Shen Zechuan gestured to Ge Qingqing and Xiaowu and sat back down beside Xiao Chiye. He said, “You checked Ge Qingqing out.”
“I can’t forget it.” Xiao Chiye looked at him, “Five years ago, he fled so fast. Five years later, he’s close to you. How could I not get suspicious of something so glaring? So I took the opportunity to check him out and managed to dig out all about him.”
“What do you want to do?” Shen Zechuan asked with a smile.
“Nothing.” Xiao Chiye raised a finger to point and tap at Shen Zechuan’s eyes. “There’s no need for you to force a smile. We could be considered sworn friends in life and death. So there’s no point in putting on an act of bravado. Your mind is already troubled. Afraid now, huh.”
Shen Zechuan said, “Not quite there yet.”
Xiao Chiye reversed his chopsticks and tapped the table intermittently. He said, “Since Ji Gang is your shifu, then it makes sense for the Imperial Bodyguards led by Ge Qingqing to spare your life back then.”
“You are oversuspicious.” Shen Zechuan looked at the brown oil stain accumulated on the tabletop. “Just because that kick didn’t kill me, your suspicions were roused, and you kept probing into it. You are really dogged.”
“That’s all the virtues I have.” Xiao Chiye said, “And I use them all on you.”
“Since we are from the same school of martial arts,” Shen Zechuan said, “It wouldn’t do for you not to report your shifu’s name, right?”
Bored stiff, Xiao Chiye tossed the chopsticks back into the bamboo holder and said, “Let’s hear you call me shixiong first.”
Shen Zechuan said nothing.
Xiao Chiye said, “Ji Gang could be considered a real man. I sent someone to Duanzhou to make enquiries. Everyone thought he was burned to death—Was he the one who killed Xiaofuzi?”
“Nope.” Shen Zechuan righted the chopstick holder. “My shifu is already advanced in age. How could he have killed him?”
A slight wind rose right then. Neither man moved.
Xiao Chiye said, “You looked like you have done nothing. Yet I feel as if you have done everything.”
“Whether I did it or not, all of you will not let me go.” Propping himself on his stool, Shen Zechuan turned to Xiao Chiye and smiled slowly. He said softly, “Then why don’t I do all the bad things so that you are justified in hating me?”
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The next day.
It was only when Xiao Chiye entered the palace that he learned Imperial Concubine Wei was dead.
YOU ARE READING
Qiang Jin Jiu (Author : Tang Jiuqing 唐酒卿)
Historical Fiction*Re-edited and intended for offline purpose only* The six prefectures of Zhongbo were surrendered to foreign enemies without resistance, and Shen Zechuan found himself apprehended in the capital, reduced to a state of utter disgrace, despised and co...
