Liu Wu lay in bed at home. His ribs were broken, and he had suffered internal injuries as well. It would take months for him to recover.
Even now, he could not figure out when Lin Lang had recruited Xiao He as an undercover informant. He had not noticed a single clue.
What frustrated him even more was that he had not only lost the probationary hundred-household post that had been within his grasp, but would also be sent to Great Song to gather intelligence on the martial world. With his meager strength, he would have only one chance in ten of surviving.
He was a Chief Banner Officer, after all, and still the third-ranking figure in the hundred-household office. Yet now that he was injured, not a single person had come to visit him, including the nephew he had brought into the Jinyiwei.
People said the tea went cold once a man left, but he had not even left yet, and his tea was already cold!
"Someone get in here! Where the hell have you all gone?" Liu Wu roared from his bed.
A few days earlier, he had sent his wife back to her parents with the children, hoping to use the opportunity to bring Xiao He home as his bride. He had never expected that he would now have no one to look after him.
Once he could sit up, he would teach the servants in his household a proper lesson.
The door was pushed open. Hearing someone enter, Liu Wu continued cursing, "So you finally remembered to come? I must have been blind when I bought you lot and brought you home. Not one of you knows how to serve a man."
"Go fetch the chamber pot and help me piss."
Lin Lang came to Liu Wu's bedside. "Well, Banner Commander Liu, you certainly live in comfort. You even have someone help you piss."
Realizing the voice was wrong, Liu Wu turned his head and saw Lin Lang. Rage surged through him, and his internal injuries seemed to worsen.
"Lin Lang, what are you doing here?"
"This is my home. You're not welcome. Get out! Get out now!"
Lin Lang sat down beside Liu Wu's head. "Banner Commander Liu, we're colleagues. Isn't it a little improper to throw me out like this?"
"Besides, I came to visit you. I even brought you a gift."
Liu Wu looked at the apple in Lin Lang's hand. Hadn't the bastard just taken that from the fruit platter in his room?
"Lin Lang, what exactly do you want? You've already won. You're the probationary hundred-household now, riding high, and you have a good chance of succeeding to the hundred-household post in the future. Do you really have to come here and laugh at me?"
Lin Lang looked astonished. "What are you saying, Banner Commander Liu? What do you mean, I have a chance of succeeding to the post? My becoming hundred-household is as certain as a nail driven into a board."
"Besides, I didn't come to laugh at you. I came to put you out of your misery."
Liu Wu stared at Lin Lang in terror. "What are you planning? Murdering a colleague is a capital offense!"
Lin Lang looked at Liu Wu with a smile. "You didn't hold back against me in the arena. If my Golden Body Child Skill had really been broken then, I would have ended up dead or crippled."
"Look at you now. You're better off dead. I came to help out of the kindness of my heart."
"You can't expect me to work overtime for free, can you? Just thank me with your estate."
Liu Wu struggled to shift his body, but the pain left him unable to move at all.
"Lin Lang-no, Lord Lin, there are banknotes in a hidden compartment beneath my bed boards. You can have them all. Please spare me. Once my injuries heal-no, once I can get out of bed and walk, I'll go to Great Song. I promise I'll never come back."
"I shouldn't have competed with you for the probationary hundred-household post. I shouldn't have paid Hundred-household Li to persuade you to settle the appointment with a duel in the arena. And above all, I shouldn't have tried to drug you."
Liu Wu truly regretted it now. If he had not done those things, he would still have been a full eighth-rank Chief Banner Officer in the hundred-household office, with plenty of men under his command. He would not have found himself in mortal danger without even a chance to escape, let alone fight back.
He could not understand it. Every step of his plan had gone smoothly, yet the outcome was completely different from what he had imagined.
Ignoring Liu Wu's injuries, Lin Lang shoved him toward the inside of the bed, opened the hidden compartment beneath the bed boards, and found a stack of banknotes.
"Well now, we were both Chief Banner Officers before, but your fortune is much bigger than mine."
Lin Lang hated greedy people most of all, especially those who had pocketed more than he had.
"All right, I've received your thanks. Time to send you on your way."
Liu Wu cursed furiously, "Lin Lang, you took the money and still want to kill me? You don't follow the rules-"
Squelch!
Lin Lang drew Liu Wu's Xiuchun Blade and flicked it casually, piercing Liu Wu's heart without letting a single drop of blood splash onto himself.
"How am I not following the rules? My rule is that my enemies must die!"
"What if you stumble upon some extraordinary opportunity in Great Song and come back for revenge?"
"Isn't this better? You're no longer suffering, and I no longer have to worry. We both win."
In her room, Xiao He kept her eyes fixed on the window. Why wasn't Lord Lin back yet? What had he gone off to do?
As she walked to the window and peered out, she suddenly saw Lin Lang climb in through it with her gauzy robe wrapped around his head. "What, you've only been apart from me for this little while, and you already miss me unbearably?"
Seeing Lin Lang return without a scratch, Xiao He sighed in relief and immediately gave him a seductive smile. "I was worried you hadn't taken that back route before, my lord, and wouldn't be able to find your way back."
Lin Lang picked up the teacup on the table and gulped down its contents. "Oh, I have plenty of experience taking the back route. I can teach you in a little while."
Although Xiao He did not quite understand what Lin Lang meant, she could tell that his outing had left him in a good mood.
She had to make Lin Lang even happier if she wanted to fulfill her dream of becoming the probationary hundred-household's concubine.
That night, under Lin Lang's instruction, Xiao He finally understood what taking the back route meant.
She could not understand it. Hadn't Lord Lin never been intimate with a woman before? How did he know more than she did, when she had grown up in the Jade Green Pavilion?
Early the next morning, Lin Lang woke to the sound of Xiao He arguing with someone at the door.
"Madam Li, these are all my savings. You can have all this jewelry too. Please give me back my indenture."
"Absolutely not! I told you, buying your freedom will cost at least a thousand taels. All these years, I've hired people to teach you music and singing, and dressed you up beautifully. So many wealthy households wanted to buy you, and I turned them all down. Now you think you can leave for this pittance? Not a chance!"
She knew very well that Xiao He had saved a considerable amount of silver over the years.
Not one woman who left her establishment had ever been allowed to take any money with her!
Xiao He was about to plead again when Lin Lang suddenly opened the door.
At the sight of Lin Lang, Madam Li immediately put on an ingratiating smile. "Lord Lin, did you spend last night in Xiao He's room again? You see, Xiao He eats my food and lives under my roof, so about the payment...?"
Lin Lang glared at her. "You've got some nerve! Don't you know Xiao He works for my Jinyiwei?"
Madam Li was dumbfounded. Since when had Xiao He become one of the Jinyiwei? Whoever heard of a woman joining the Jinyiwei?
But if Lin Lang said so, what could she do? It seemed she could only let her money tree, Xiao He, walk away for nothing today. Had she known, she would have taken Xiao He's banknotes and jewelry just now.
"Lord Lin, how could I have known Xiao He worked for the Jinyiwei? I'll go fetch her indenture for you right away."
Lin Lang raised a hand. "Don't say I'm bullying you. How much did you pay when you bought Xiao He?"
Madam Li's lips trembled twice. "T-ten taels of silver."
Lin Lang casually took a stack of banknotes from inside his robe. Madam Li's eyes lit up, only for her to watch him pull out a fifty-tael note and toss it over. "Consider the extra a tip."
Bitterness filled Madam Li's mouth. She had spent more than fifty taels training Xiao He over all these years!
Yet not only could she show no displeasure, she even had to thank him. "Thank you, Lord Lin."
Lin Lang was not particularly happy either. The smallest denomination among these banknotes was fifty taels. Why wasn't there a ten-tael note?
That old woman had made forty taels off him. He would have to earn a hundred times that back!
Madam Li turned to leave, but suddenly felt a blade resting against her neck. Her entire body went rigid. "Lord Lin, what are you doing?"
"Madam Li, you've settled your accounts with Xiao He. Isn't it time we settled ours too?"
Madam Li froze. You haven't paid a single coin for your food and drink during these three or four days at the Jade Green Pavilion. Why does that sound as though I'm the one who owes you money?
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