Misty Wave Tower, on the lakeshore.
"Zixin, of the three towers in your Purple Xiao Pavilion—Listening to Rain Tower, Flower Pavilion Tower, and Wondrous Sound Tower—Listening to Rain Tower seems to do the worst business?"
The speaker was a young man dressed like a scholar in a moon-white Confucian robe. Refined and courteous, he gazed at the building standing in Misty Wave Lake.
Several others stood behind him.
Had Xie Guan been there, he would have recognized them as the people who had shared a boat on the lake in Grand View Garden.
Xue Huaian, and Liu Zixin and Su Zhirou, two celebrated courtesans of Purple Xiao Pavilion.
Besides those three, there were two more.
One was the woman following behind with a sword in her arms: Luo Susu, the current manager of Gold Embroidery Tower.
The other was a middle-aged man in blue, a bagua diagram embroidered around the hem of his robe: Mei Qingsu, chief of the Giant Whale Gang.
The five of them had encountered disaster at Xie Manor last time, and the Xue Clan's old patriarch had furiously demanded an accounting from the Xie Clan.
After Daoist You met his end in the Yellow Springs, White Bone Temple lost its backer. Besieged by the Xue Clan, Gold Embroidery Tower, and the Giant Whale Gang, it was uprooted and nearly wiped out.
After the danger Xue Huaian had faced, the old patriarch could not bear the thought of the grandson who had finally returned home meeting another mishap in Bianjing.
After much deliberation, he asked Mei Qingsu and Luo Susu to guard him for a few days.
Neither refused. The Xue Clan had shown them both great kindness, and the old patriarch had made the request in person.
Thus, for the past month, whenever Xue Huaian went