"Heh heh..."
"Ehehehehe..."
In Fuzhou, across the street from the Fuwei Armed Escort Agency, on the third floor of a luxuriously furnished, three-story wooden tavern on West Gate Street, Yue Lingshan sat by the window, grinning to herself. Every so often, she peered down through a gap in the shutters at the Fuwei Armed Escort Agency opposite.
From where she sat, she could see a grand residence stretching across the far end of the straight, flagstoned street.
Two stone platforms stood to either side of the entrance, each bearing a flagpole about twenty feet tall, with a blue flag flying from its top.
A fierce, roaring lion had been embroidered in yellow thread on the flag to the right. It rippled in the breeze, making the lion seem all the more lifelike, and above its head, a pair of bats embroidered in black thread spread their wings in flight.
The flag on the left bore four black characters: "Fuwei Armed Escort Agency," rendered in bold, forceful strokes.
The residence's vermilion doors were studded with gleaming copper knobs as large as teacups. Above them hung a plaque inscribed in gold with "Fuwei Armed Escort Agency," with the smaller words "Head Office" beneath.
That was right!
Yue Lingshan was keeping watch on the Fuzhou headquarters of the Fuwei Armed Escort Agency—the Lin Family residence!
The Fuwei Armed Escort Agency had been founded by Lin Yuantu on West Gate Street in Fuzhou decades ago. Its name meant "fortune first, prestige second."
It was said that Lin Yuantu had once shaken the martial world with his seventy-two stances of the Evil-Resisting Swordplay. At its height, the agency had ten branches and eighty-four escort masters, making it unprecedented in scale and reputation.
For some reason, however, Lin Yuantu had never passed down the Evil-Resisting Swordplay.