Peerless Trick

Xue Niang was still considering whether to teach him martial arts again when Gu Shenwei made another request: some money to win someone over.

The less than two taels of loose silver he had first given Shangguan Hongye had used up all his savings.

"It doesn't need to be much. Twenty taels will do. Shangguan Hongye probably owes a dozen or so taels. This will be enough to clear his debt, with a little left over for a few more bets. Then he'll come asking me for help."

"How will you explain where the money came from? You're only a servant, yet you're better off than your master."

"This little servant begs Xue Niang to take a few of the young lady's gold and silver vessels. I'll have 'stolen' them, and since Shangguan Hongye needs the money, he'll keep quiet."

Xue Niang slowly shook her head. Huan Nu's plan was growing more and more childish, and might well bring trouble down on her and the young lady. She would have to think it over carefully.

Xue Niang was Gu Shenwei's patron now. In his competition with the boys in the fortress, that gave him an enormous advantage. Without the resources she provided, he would get nowhere.

Early the next morning, Xue Niang brought him a small bundle herself.

Old Zhang had gone to tend the horses early. Xue Niang tossed the bundle onto the kang and said to Huan Nu, who had just finished dressing:

"See that it works."

Whether it would work or not, Gu Shenwei couldn't be sure. He was still a child himself, with too little understanding of human nature. But he knew one thing: he must never let his doubts show. He assured Xue Niang with absolute confidence that his plan would work.

At noon that day, on his way home from school, he "found" another of Shangguan Hongye's little silver cups. One corner was missing, and the cup had been crushed flat, but that didn't diminish its value. It was made of pure silver and weighed nearly three taels.

Shangguan Hongye quickly pocketed the cup and gave a grunt, as though it really had been something he'd dropped. Little Book Boy, however, began to look puzzled. This time he'd learned his lesson and didn't ask any questions.

For five days in a row, Gu Shenwei "found" little things Shangguan Hongye had dropped. The plan was progressing to his satisfaction: Shangguan Hongye accepted the silverware without a qualm, and even sent Little Book Boy away, always walking home alone.

The bundle Xue Niang had brought was full of all sorts of gold and silver vessels, enough for Gu Shenwei to give something away for many days. They all belonged to the young lady and bore the distinctive "Iron Mountain Gang style"—in other words, they had no identifying marks, and no one could trace their origin.

The New Year holiday began a few days later. School was closed, and Gu Shenwei's plan to win Shangguan Hongye over was put on hold.

After hesitating for several days, Xue Niang finally agreed to teach him martial arts.

Even if Gu Shenwei trained hard for another ten years, he might still be unable to defeat Shangguan Yushi with one or two moves. But he wasn't trying to truly surpass her by a wide margin. He only wanted to catch her off guard and give her a little "surprise."

Shangguan Yushi trained alongside the Twins, so their techniques ought to be similar. Gu Shenwei wasn't very familiar with her skills, but he knew Shangguan Ru's inside out. In his daily reports, he had demonstrated them all to Xue Niang.

Xue Niang knew Golden Peng Fortress's martial arts well, and she had spent these past few days considering how to defeat an opponent with a single move.

"You can't kill her. You can only beat that little girl through technique, and that won't be easy. Golden Peng Fortress has a bewildering variety of martial arts. There are more than a dozen sets of barehanded techniques alone. It's impossible to counter every move."

Xue Niang was right, and Gu Shenwei knew it too. That was why he had come up with an idea:

"I'll make Shangguan Yushi use her ultimate move as soon as the fight begins. Of the dozen or so barehanded styles in Golden Peng Fortress, there can't be many moves worthy of being called ultimate, right? I only need to..."

Xue Niang gave a cold laugh and shook her head. There certainly weren't many ultimate moves, but by definition, they were the hardest moves to counter.

With Xue Niang's skills, she could kill someone like Shangguan Yushi with a single move. But Huan Nu's Internal Force was too weak for him to learn such techniques, and he absolutely couldn't use them against a "master."

A few days later, the New Year ended amid cheerful laughter and lively celebrations. Xue Niang had finally come up with a solution—and found Huan Nu a sparring partner.

He Nu and Qian Nu had been killer apprentices for several months, yet they still spent every night at the Eighth Young Master's courtyard rather than staying in East Fortress like everyone else. This had provoked plenty of gossip, all of it aimed at the clueless Eighth Young Madam. Gu Shenwei suspected that this had actually been Xue Niang's idea.

The sparring partner was He Nu. She was the perfect stand-in for Shangguan Yushi.

The months of training had done He Nu a world of good, and Gu Shenwei couldn't help feeling a little jealous. If he had become a killer apprentice, he would surely have progressed faster than anyone. But now this girl his age, who had been learning martial arts for less than a year, was already his equal, and even better than him at hand-to-hand combat.

Xue Niang had Huan Nu demonstrate Shangguan Ru's strongest techniques. Using them as a foundation, she chose five moves from among Golden Peng Fortress's many basic fist and palm techniques and carefully worked out how to counter them.

"Remember, people have 'ultimate moves'; martial arts don't. The moves you've practiced most and understood most deeply are what people call 'ultimate moves.' The five I've chosen may not be the strongest, nor the ones that girl is best at, so nothing is certain."

Whatever the case, Xue Niang had her reasons for choosing these five moves. Gu Shenwei listened respectfully. If they hadn't each been hiding ulterior motives, he really would have thought Xue Niang was a good "master"—even better than his father, Gu Lun, or their servant Yang Zheng.

"These five moves focus more on attack than defense and go straight for vital points. If your opponent wants to finish the fight quickly and take you down in just a few moves, she may well use them."

The five moves came from three different styles. He Nu hadn't even learned two of them yet. She had only been in East Fortress for a few months and couldn't compare to Shangguan Yushi, who had trained for more than a decade. But He Nu had a focus and tenacity that Shangguan Yushi lacked, making up for her weaker repertoire.

Moves were dead, but people were alive. Each of the five moves could branch into three or four variations, and Xue Niang had taken those into account too. Her countermeasures therefore numbered as many as fifteen. Even so, she thought it wasn't enough. Then she remembered that Shangguan Yushi wasn't a Peerless Master and stopped delving further.

Most of those fifteen moves were modifications Xue Niang had devised from her own martial arts. They would have little use in a real fight. Their sole purpose was to counter the five Golden Peng Fortress moves she expected Shangguan Yushi to use.

Gu Shenwei spent three whole days mastering those moves, but this was the easiest part of the plan. Learning how to counter a move was useless unless he could anticipate what his opponent would do.

If his opponent lowered her shoulder, for instance, Gu Shenwei had to figure out which move she was about to use. Otherwise, once she had taken her stance, it would be too late to apply the counter, even if he knew it.

That was where He Nu proved valuable as a sparring partner. She never announced which move she was about to use, and sometimes didn't use any of the five at all. Gu Shenwei had to rely entirely on keen observation and sharp instincts.

Xue Niang was a strict "master," and He Nu held nothing back either. Her moves were vicious, as though she had a grudge against Huan Nu. In that, she was rather like Shangguan Yushi.

Gu Shenwei took plenty of hard knocks as a result. By the fifth day of the first lunar month, when the New Year holiday ended, he was covered in bruises, yet still hadn't mastered the counters well enough to use them smoothly. School had already resumed.

Fortunately, most of the students were still lingering at home. The Twins and Shangguan Yushi reportedly wouldn't show up before the fifteenth day of the first lunar month, giving Gu Shenwei a much-needed buffer. He had thought learning the counters would be easy, but hadn't expected them to take so much effort.

The path of martial arts required repeated cycles of moving from the simple to the complex, then from the complex back to the simple. Gu Shenwei understood that now. He still had a long way to go.

Among the handful of students who showed up for class was Shangguan Hongye. Gu Shenwei thought this was a good sign. Even better, Qing Nu didn't come. He sent word that the boys accompanying the young masters no longer had to stand guard at the gate, but still had to report in every day.

The Twins' attendants scattered with cheers. In an instant, only five or six boys remained outside the schoolhouse. If Gu Shenwei stayed, he would stand out too much, so he had no choice but to leave and wait in the stone hut.

When he reckoned it was time for school to let out, he circled around to the lane in front of the main gate and walked slowly toward the schoolhouse. Before long, he ran into Shangguan Hongye coming the other way.

Shangguan Hongye was alone, without his Little Book Boy. He walked along as if he didn't see Huan Nu at all.

Gu Shenwei stepped in front of him and bowed. "Young Master Hong."

Shangguan Hongye gave an indifferent grunt, but his pace slowed involuntarily, betraying a hint of anticipation.

Gu Shenwei pulled a silver bowl from inside his robe. "Is this something you dropped?"

The bowl was larger than the vessels he had brought before. Shangguan Hongye's eyes lit up, but he didn't take it right away. He glanced around, then pushed Huan Nu into a corner and asked, half bewildered and half annoyed:

"What exactly are you after?"

"After? I just found something and wanted to return it to its owner."

"Don't try to fool me. You're a dog of a servant. Where would you find so many valuable things? You must have stolen them... Tell me, what do you want from me? Otherwise, I'll have you sent to Heart Washing Courtyard."

Gu Shenwei brusquely shoved Shangguan Hongye's arm aside. This wasn't a good place to talk; Golden Peng Fortress's ever-present guards might be lurking nearby, listening. But there was nowhere better. He tucked the silver bowl back inside his robe and watched the boy across from him.

The look in Shangguan Hongye's eyes was shifting from arrogance to greed.

"When something's right in front of you, you can't help picking it up. As for Heart Washing Courtyard, I've already been there."

Gu Shenwei spoke coldly. He really had been inside Heart Washing Courtyard, the place known as Ghost Courtyard, and had endured torture there. The memory clearly left Shangguan Hongye both shocked and frightened. He stepped back, no longer looking quite so superior.

"If this isn't yours, I'll ask someone else."

Gu Shenwei finished speaking and pretended to leave. Shangguan Hongye no longer cared about the distinction between master and servant. He grabbed Gu Shenwei's arm, hesitated for a moment, then said with a smile:

"No need to ask anyone else. It's mine."

Gu Shenwei took the silver bowl out again and handed it to Shangguan Hongye, but didn't let go at once. "If I find something like this, I have to give it to whoever asks for it. If you have any good brothers, you might want to tell them."

Shangguan Hongye practically "snatched" the bowl away, then said with absolute certainty, "No. I have no brothers."

The little game of giving things away went on for several more days. Whatever Huan Nu brought him, Shangguan Hongye took without a word, no longer asking questions.

Gu Shenwei thought it was time to close the net and make his demand of Shangguan Hongye.