Actors

At that thought, Chen Wu didn't hesitate any longer. He flicked his hand behind him and unfastened the scabbard on his back.

The cloth wrapped around the scabbard fluttered to the ground. The scabbard and sword spun through the air, flipping from behind him to before his eyes. Chen Wu's eyes and hands moved in perfect sync as he reached out and seized the hilt.

Whoosh—

Chen Wu lightly tapped the ground with his foot and shot forward at top speed, drawing the sword from its scabbard as he went.

Bzz—

The sword rang out. Chen Wu swung it past the bewildered coachman and thrust straight at Qiao Weisheng's left chest. Embroidered on his satin vest was a copper coin pattern—the very spot Qiao Weisheng had pointed out that day.

Qiao Weisheng kept his eyes fixed on Guo Xuchu's battle, seemingly unaware of the sword tip closing in on him. This assassination looked all but certain to succeed.

"Scoundrel!"

The brocade-robed man beside them reacted, joining his fingers into a sword hand and jabbing straight at Chen Wu's forehead. He was clearly trying to relieve the siege by attacking the besieger.

At this moment, they had met on a narrow path. Chen Wu steeled himself and kept thrusting, only tilting his head slightly to avoid a vital spot.

"Ah—"

The blade pierced his body. Qiao Weisheng cried out, his face contorted in pain, beads of sweat as large as beans covering his forehead.

The brocade-robed man's sword fingers struck Chen Wu's right shoulder. It felt as though he'd been struck by lightning, as if electricity had coursed through him. A force that alternated between cold and heat burst from his right shoulder, wreaking havoc through the meridians in his arm until he could no longer keep hold of the hilt.

Guided by that force alone, Chen Wu's right hand immediately let go. He switched to gripping the hilt with his left, stepped into a battle stance, pulled the sword free, and retreated through the air, turning over and landing on the eaves by the street.

Damn, Qiao Weisheng was one hell of an actor! He deserved an award for Best Actor!

"Don't run!"

Seeing Chen Wu flee, the brocade-robed man sprang after him. With a single movement, he shot straight up onto the roof, even faster than Chen Wu by a good margin.

Damn it, did he have to be so dedicated to the role?

Realizing he couldn't outrun his pursuer, Chen Wu grew frantic. The inner force in his dantian churned as he endured the pain and temporarily suppressed the force rampaging through his right arm. Though he couldn't yet control his right hand freely, he could still manage a few simple movements.

Chen Wu slipped his right hand into his pocket and pulled out the Dezhang Year Two Model, which he'd loaded with bullets long ago.

Sir, times have changed!

The moment the brocade-robed man reached the roof, he saw Chen Wu pointing the gun at him. His face went pale with shock, and he immediately turned tail, retreating from the roof back to the carriage—clearly even faster than he'd been when leaping up.

"Ah—"

Lying in the carriage, Qiao Weisheng let out another timely cry of pain and even spat up two mouthfuls of blood. Seeing this, the brocade-robed man went to attend to him, acting as though Chen Wu and his Dezhang Year Two Model didn't exist.

Chen Wu was happy to be forgotten. He immediately took to his heels, leaping across several rooftops and slipping away from the assassination scene.

"Guo Xuchu, the Star-Pulling Sword, truly lives up to his reputation. I've learned much today!"

Seeing Chen Wu retreat, Old Jin made a feint and jumped out of the fight, fleeing over the rooftops in another direction.

Guo Xuchu didn't pursue him. In an instant, he returned to Qiao Weisheng's side and tapped several vital points on his left chest to stop the bleeding.

Chen Wu had crossed several blocks of rooftops when the strange inner force he'd been forcibly suppressing in his right arm could no longer be contained. It erupted like a volcano. Suddenly, it wasn't just his right arm—his whole body felt caught between freezing cold and scorching heat, unbearable to endure.

Crash—

Chen Wu staggered on the roof, unable to keep his balance, and rolled straight down into a courtyard.

The fall left him reeling, his vision full of stars. In a daze, he heard a crisp, familiar voice.

"Chen Wu, you walked right into my hands! In such a hurry for me to collect your corpse?"

Who did that voice belong to?

With one last flicker of doubt, Chen Wu passed out completely.

Beneath the dim light of a kerosene lamp, a pair of Emei Piercers lay side by side on a table. The lamp's glow reflected off their polished surfaces, making them seem especially dark and ominous.

A slender hand reached toward the pair of Emei Piercers, then hesitated, wavering.

At last, their owner seemed to make up their mind. They took several deep breaths, then rapidly circulated their vital energy, sending it up from their dantian to their mouth.

Then they picked up one of the Emei Piercers, brought it to their lips, and, as if chewing on a snack, crunched through it bite by bite and swallowed it.

As the chewed-up Emei Piercer entered their stomach, the meridians there moved in response. Their abdomen alternately swelled and contracted, and the surging of their meridians and muscles sent out a deep rumble.

The Emei Piercer, already chewed to pieces in their stomach, was crushed and broken down further, becoming metal particles invisible to the naked eye. Corroded by the stomach acid, it finally turned to liquid.

"Huh—I did it!" a familiar voice exclaimed.

The person gave a low growl, reining in their excitement, then hurriedly picked up the second Emei Piercer and moved to put it in their mouth.

The Emei Piercer's surface was polished smooth. In the dim light of the kerosene lamp, it reflected the figure of the person holding it.

It was Chen Wu himself!

Chen Wu's eyes snapped open. Instead of an Emei Piercer, he saw a white ceiling.

"You're awake."

Chen Wu turned his head. A fair, clean face came into view—it was Wang Zhenyi, whom he'd met just two days earlier.

The last time they'd met, she'd been traveling, covered in dust. Today, she wore a brocade horse-face skirt and a plain, high-collared jacket, giving her an air of refined elegance.

"Don't move. Keep lying down." Wang Zhenyi stopped Chen Wu from getting up. She only propped him up with a cushion so that his upper body was slightly raised.

Only then did Chen Wu realize how weak he felt. His meridians were in utter disarray, as if they'd been hacked apart with knives and axes.

"You really are lucky to be alive!" Wang Zhenyi brought over a bowl of water, gently stirred it with a spoon, scooped some up, and carefully held it to Chen Wu's lips. "You were hit by the Yin-Yang Chaos Finger, yet you only suffered minor injuries. Your meridians weren't even completely severed."

Sugar water with salt!

Chen Wu smacked his lips twice after swallowing the warm water and said, "Thank you, miss."

"You've certainly made a big splash. Do you know everyone outside is looking for you? The attempted assassination of Qiao Weisheng has already made the front page of every major newspaper."

"You mean you think I did it?"

"If it wasn't you, who else could it have been? The Crown Prince's Mansion Attendant said he struck the assassin with one finger." Seeing Chen Wu pretend to be clueless, Wang Zhenyi rolled her eyes. "The Yin-Yang Chaos Finger is rare enough. There can't possibly be anyone else in Jincheng Prefecture who was hit by it."

"Are you planning to turn me in?"

"I was. The Constabulary Office is offering quite a reward."

"And now?"

"The Jincheng Industry Promotion Gazette paid me enough. I don't need the reward anymore."

"Thank you, miss." Feeling her kindness, Chen Wu thanked her again.

"You Yongjiu School people really do know how to make a splash. You stabbed Qiao Weisheng right under Guo Xuchu's nose. You're going to be famous across the land!"

"I'd rather not have that kind of fame." Chen Wu could only laugh helplessly.

"Then why did you go assassinating people?" Wang Zhenyi was displeased by Chen Wu's ungrateful attitude. She shoved the last spoonful of sugar water into his mouth.

Chen Wu swallowed it, speechless. He couldn't exactly say that Chen Gawa had taken the job and it had nothing to do with him.

"What about Qiao Weisheng?" Chen Wu changed the subject.

"It's still unclear whether he's alive or dead. There are too many rumors. Some say he died; others say he didn't." Wang Zhenyi picked up a piece of baked flatbread and spoke as she ate. "You can lie low here for the next couple of days. The Constabulary Office won't find you."

"Where is this?"

"The residence of General Fubo Shui Ziyi of the navy. Everyone in Jincheng Prefecture calls it the Shui Family Garden," Wang Zhenyi said. "Well, he's a former General Fubo. He's retired now."

Good grief, that retired navy admiral! So this was his house!

Chen Wu looked around. The room's layout was somewhat like one from a later era. The walls were painted white, and glass was set into the wooden windows. There was little furniture inside, just a table, a cabinet, and the iron-frame bed Chen Wu was lying on.

"This is a guest courtyard at the Shui Family Garden. I'm only staying here temporarily, and no one usually bothers me. Just rest easy and recover."

"How did you come to live here?" Chen Wu asked.

"Shui Ziyi is more or less my fellow disciple. I came to Jincheng Prefecture, so of course I'd borrow a room from him."

What? How could a retired navy general, an old man, be fellow disciples with a young woman?

"You mean you belong to the same martial arts sect?" Chen Wu asked tentatively.

"Why is your mind always full of fighting?" Wang Zhenyi rubbed her forehead. "Senior Brother Shui used to study mathematics, just like me. We studied under the same teacher. He only went to the Sea-Pacifying Palace later and became a navy general."

Mathematics? He'd never have guessed this young woman was a mathematician.

"May I ask what mathematical problems you study?"

"Why do you want to know? You wouldn't understand anyway."

What did that mean? How good could the math of someone from the past be? He was a man who'd studied advanced calculus!

"I'm just curious! If you don't want to say, that's fine."

"The general and periodic solutions to the three-body problem. Have you heard of them?"

T-three-body? Was Great Shun's mathematics really that advanced?

"Does the Great Shun Academy of Sciences study this too?"

Chen Wu was bewildered. He hadn't worked out the periodic solutions to the three-body problem himself; he'd only heard vaguely that the problem had no general solution.

"That's perfectly normal! The Great Shun Navy uses the astronomical almanacs and lunar phase charts published by the Academy of Sciences to calculate longitude. To produce those almanacs and charts, they have to calculate the Moon's orbit. And calculating the Moon's orbit is a three-body problem, isn't it?"

"The astronomical almanacs and lunar phase charts have to be calculated anew every year."

Chen Wu had always been something of a top student, but now that he'd met a true academic prodigy, he looked up to her with reverence. His voice even dropped as he asked, "May I ask, miss, under which great scholar did you and General Shui study mathematics?"

"Professor Euler, from the Department of Astronomy and Mathematics at the Great Shun Academy of Sciences," Wang Zhenyi replied calmly. "I was his last disciple, and I joined late. By the time I began studying under Professor Euler, Senior Brother Shui was already General Fubo."

Eu... Euler? Could it be that Euler?

Chen Wu immediately grew wary. He didn't dare underestimate the people of Great Shun anymore.

"The Professor Euler you mentioned—is he a Westerner? Is he from Switzerland?"

"You know Professor Euler?" Wang Zhenyi grew excited, then suddenly smiled slyly. "How did someone from the countryside like you hear of his reputation?"

Remembering the days he'd been tormented by all kinds of Euler formulas and Euler's theorem in college math, Chen Wu looked at Wang Zhenyi with fresh respect.

"Ahem, I only meant that Professor Euler must be famous if even a country bumpkin like me has heard of him."

"You're a strange person. You don't know about the Sea-Pacifying Palace, yet you know about Professor Euler."

"I only heard about him by chance," Chen Wu said evasively.

"Never mind. You're always so mysterious." Wang Zhenyi shook her head. "I'm going to attend Old Madam Shui's banquet in a bit. You should get some rest."

With that, Wang Zhenyi opened the door and left. The room fell quiet.

"It's so quiet."

In a silent room, Qiao Weisheng, who was publicly said to be dead, suddenly spoke, as if talking to himself.