Son

"You old bastard, you really didn't die!" a cold voice rang out.

"Plenty of people hoped I'd die. I knew that. I just didn't expect you to be one of them." Qiao Weisheng stared straight up at the ceiling beam, without a hint of surprise in his voice.

The figure on the beam drifted silently down and stood beside Qiao Weisheng, his expression complicated.

"You recognize me?"

"Your eyes are exactly like hers."

"Heh. You still have the nerve to bring her up?" The man seemed to have heard the funniest joke in the world and chuckled under his breath.

"I wronged you both. I wronged you both." Qiao Weisheng's voice grew quieter and quieter, until it was almost inaudible—not even as loud as the ticking of the clock in the room.

"I don't need you to feel sorry for me! Until today, we were no more than strangers." The man paused. "Isn't that right, Father?"

"I looked for your mother, but she went into hiding."

"Of course she went into hiding! If she hadn't, would she have become your concubine or your mistress?" The man spoke with bitter resentment. "My mother was proud and haughty. How could she lower herself and become a concubine to a young lady from the Book of Documents family?"

"I wronged her. I wronged her..." Qiao Weisheng repeated.

"Back then, you were penniless. My mother took a liking to you, taught you martial arts, and gave you money. That was how you got the means to sell tea in the Rakshasa." The man sneered. "My mother even counted on you to come back rich from Petersburg and marry her properly. But you made your fortune, and the woman you properly married was someone else."

Qiao Weisheng had no answer. He only gazed silently at the son who had suddenly appeared before him.

"People climb toward higher ground, while water flows downhill. For a business genius like you, being heartless and faithless was only to be expected." The man took out a dagger and ran his finger along its edge. "But you're a businessman, so you know debts must be repaid. I've come to collect what you owe my mother."

"I thought if anyone came to collect, they'd have come sooner." Qiao Weisheng's chest heaved, but his voice remained calm.

"If I'd had my way, I would've collected long ago. But my mother still cared about you, and wouldn't let me."

"Your mother..."

"She passed away this year." The man drew a deep breath. "You couldn't be husband and wife in life. Go on and be a pair of resentful ghosts in death. I'll send you down to join her now!"

At his words, Qiao Weisheng began to tremble all over, as if he were trying to struggle into motion.

Seeing this, the man shook his head. "I don't know what you're scheming by pretending to be dead here. But I do know that if you use your Internal Organ Displacement even once, you won't be able to move for three days."

"Keep some dignity! Don't forget, my mother taught you the Muscle-Shifting Bone-Misplacing Secret Manual you cultivated."

With that, the man raised his dagger, lifted Qiao Weisheng's clothes, and stabbed once more into the wound Chen Wu had made yesterday. The heart, which had long since returned to its proper place, was struck dead on and shattered in an instant. But the assassin's inner force surged, sealing off the blood that should have sprayed out. Not a drop spilled.

The shock of death forced Qiao Weisheng to squeeze out the last of his strength. Miraculously, his left hand rose. The assassin was startled at first, but when he saw how weak and feeble Qiao Weisheng's movements were, he paid it no mind.

The left hand summoned all its strength, then trembled as it reached toward his topknot, pulled out the silver hairpin tucked into it, and offered it to the assassin.

"Take... take it..." Qiao Weisheng's eyes brimmed with pleading.

The assassin had never expected this. He hesitated, then took the hairpin.

It was made of silver, its surface darkened with age. A line of tiny characters was engraved upon it.

The assassin looked closely and read aloud in a soft voice, "A hairpin to bind a good match, together until our hair turns white."

At those words, Qiao Weisheng finally lowered his hand and relaxed completely. He looked at his son and smiled, as if recalling something.

"Ha... ha... ha... ha..." Once the son realized what the hairpin meant, he suddenly burst out laughing, tears streaming down his face.

If only he'd known this day would come, why hadn't he acted differently from the start?

The son remembered a song his mother often sang to him when he was little. She would always start to cry before she finished. For some reason, he found himself singing it now, seeing off a father with whom he had no father-son bond.

"When peach blossoms come, you turn red; when apricot blossoms come, you turn white.

Over hill and dale I search for you, A-ge ya-ya-dai..."

With his heart ruptured and the blood in his body no longer flowing, Qiao Weisheng found it hard to breathe. His mind grew hazy, and the darkness before his eyes deepened.

Suddenly, a beam of light appeared. Qiao Weisheng saw that bright-eyed young woman again. She leaned against a carriage by the roadside, softly singing a song as she saw him off on his journey west to Petersburg.

"When the fruit trees come, you blossom; when day breaks, you wake.

I don't think of anyone else, only you, A-ge ya-ya-dai.

Golden needles, you blossom; six petals, you turn yellow.

I hope to be joined with my dear brother, A-ge ya-ya-dai..."

The young woman gazed at him with eyes full of affection and offered him a silver hairpin. Qiao Weisheng knew that when a woman gave a hairpin as a token of love, it meant she would never become a concubine.

He had just reached to accept it when he suddenly understood: he had betrayed her long ago!

When he came to himself, everything before his eyes crumbled and vanished, leaving only emptiness. Qiao Weisheng fell utterly silent.

Dong—

At that moment, the clock in the room chimed to mark the hour. Dawn had broken.

"Qiao Weisheng is dead!"

Wang Zhenyi returned with some flatbreads for Chen Wu, as well as some news.

Chen Wu had expected this. Qiao Weisheng had gone to such lengths, so he must have been pretending to be dead. But what she said next left him stunned.

"The Constabulary Office examined the body this morning. The autopsy concluded that he died after a sharp blade pierced his heart, and they've officially named you as the murderer!"

That didn't make sense!

Qiao Weisheng had been pretending to be dead. Why would he let the Constabulary Office examine his body? An autopsy, too? Could Qiao Weisheng have bribed the authorities and put out this smoke screen?

He'd gone all the way to make the act convincing. A true master of his craft.

"Oh? Has the Constabulary Office posted a notice?" Chen Wu asked.

"They haven't put one out yet. Senior Brother Shui told me himself at the banquet just now. He was there for the autopsy this morning."

Huh?

"Why was General Shui involved?"

"He's also from the Sea-Pacifying Palace and has a good relationship with the Star-Pulling Sword. After the assassination yesterday, he went to visit the Star-Pulling Sword this morning and happened to be there when they performed the autopsy."

"You mean General Shui watched the examination and autopsy himself?" Chen Wu's voice grew more and more panicked.

"Of course!" Wang Zhenyi realized something was off about Chen Wu's tone. "Why are you asking such strange questions? Weren't you the one who tried to kill him? He's dead now. What's so surprising?"

"This..."

Chen Wu was at a loss. Could Old Qiao really have been trying to kill himself with Chen Wu's help?

Impossible!

Right, Guo Xuchu! Qiao Weisheng had paid someone to assassinate Chen Wu, and Guo Xuchu had been there at the time!

"What did Guo Xuchu say? What did he say?" Chen Wu asked urgently.

"Well..." Wang Zhenyi hesitated too. "That's the strange part. Senior Brother Shui said the Star-Pulling Sword acted very strangely. He didn't insist that you were the murderer."

"I knew it..." Chen Wu relaxed a little.

"But the Star-Pulling Sword didn't say you weren't the murderer, either. He only asked for a thorough investigation."

Uh...

Guo, you're being unfair!

He knew the truth. Why didn't he tell them what really happened?

Chen Wu grew anxious and struggled to get out of bed.

"Don't move around!" Seeing him try to get up, Wang Zhenyi quickly pressed him back down. "Even though you've cultivated the rare Copper Skin and Iron Tendons, and your body can withstand far more than an ordinary person's, you were struck by the Yin-Yang Chaos Finger. You'll need at least two days of rest before you can move."

Copper Skin and Iron Tendons?

Those words caught Chen Wu's attention. Old Ma seemed to have said the same thing.

"What are Copper Skin and Iron Tendons?"

Chen Wu knew the question might make the girl in front of him suspicious, but she was the best person to ask about these strange things. First, she hadn't known the old Chen Wu, so she wouldn't suspect his true identity. Second, she was with the Dashun Academy of Sciences, not the Golden Wind and Drizzle Tower, so even if she got suspicious, it wouldn't be much of a problem. Third, her martial arts level didn't seem very high. She couldn't sense Chen Wu's Concentrated Spirit Realm, and didn't think of him as a master in that realm. That spared him a lot of trouble.

"What? You've already cultivated them, and you don't even know what they are?"

As expected, Wang Zhenyi was only a little surprised, just as she had been when Chen Wu hadn't known about the Sea-Pacifying Palace.

"I'm from the countryside!" Chen Wu used his all-purpose excuse again.

Wang Zhenyi rolled her eyes and started explaining. "There are nine ranks in martial arts. The first three realms are called Copper Skin, Iron Tendon, and Jade Bone. They're named this way because when each realm is cultivated to its limit, the corresponding phenomenon appears: copper skin, iron tendons, or jade bones."

"Copper Skin means your skin is as tough as copper. Iron Tendons means your tendons are as strong as iron. Jade Bone means your bones are as hard as jade."

"That's not just a metaphor. According to the Academy of Sciences' research, once someone reaches the limit of the first three realms, their skin, tendons, and bones all become nearly as hard as copper, iron, and jade. That's the limit of the human body."

Chen Wu listened, fascinated, nodding again and again.

"But only a tiny number of martial artists in this world can develop these phenomena. Most experts who cultivate to the sixth or seventh rank never manage it."

"That rare?"

"I know you're a martial arts genius. No need to show off!" Wang Zhenyi said impatiently.

"Heh." Chen Wu could only play dumb and change the subject. "Then can I move around tomorrow?"

"The day after tomorrow!"

Chen Wu nodded, planning to lie low until the day after tomorrow before going out.

"Everyone outside is looking for you. You're that eager to throw yourself into the net?"

Chen Wu met Wang Zhenyi's gaze and said solemnly, "If I told you Qiao Weisheng wasn't the one I killed, would you believe me?"

"I believe you."

"You really do?"

"Tch!" Wang Zhenyi threw the flatbread at Chen Wu and left the room.

Chen Wu picked up the flatbread and slowly chewed it.

"Disciple, you're in quite the mood to be eating flatbread!" Just as Chen Wu was eating the last piece, a voice came from outside the window.

Chen Wu didn't even bother to respond. He kept eating.