"The one directing me behind the scenes was Master Du Ming. His real target wasn't Right General Wang's household, but Xi Linhai's, and at the root of it all was that Lu Song.
"He told me Lu Song was a wretch from the Northern Migrant Shan Family who had only managed to gain a foothold South of the Yangtze under his protection, yet had brazenly snatched away the Xi Family, the fattest piece of meat of all, and was now encroaching on his business throughout Kuaiji. He was therefore beside himself with rage and determined to leave the man dead without a place for burial. But for that to happen, Xi Linhai had to stop protecting him. That was why he used me.
"As for payment, it was the manor beside Jurong Avenue in Jingkou. Because it stood near my home in Jurong and had always pressed against my family's chest like a sharp fang, I was naturally tempted. That was how everything afterward came about."
In the blazing summer heat of the fifth month, cicadas shrilled like a roaring wind. Liu Acheng sat in the magnificent main hall of Master Du Ming's home, holding a bowl of fragrant tea into which he had inexplicably tossed a few grapes. He sipped his tea and calmly listened to a middle-aged man, his face still streaked with blood, standing in the hall and recounting everything at length, as though listening to some little anecdote about a celebrated gentleman.
There was no helping it. After muddling through several years in this age, Liu Cheng had learned these people's basic ways: whatever filthy business you were up to, first learn to put on an act.
As for Master Du Ming, seated at the head of the hall, and his sons on the other side,