Outside the city, at Pine Crane Bay.
Pine Crane Bay bordered the Luo River and was a summer retreat for the city's rich and powerful. It contained a thousand villas, but as autumn deepened, few people remained.
As an assistant minister of the Court of Judicial Review, Zhou Ming'an did not hold a particularly high rank. He owned only a small, two-courtyard residence in a secluded part of Pine Crane Bay, surrounded by bamboo groves in a rather elegant setting.
As the sun sank westward, Zhou Ming'an paced the residence's study with his hands behind his back, his expression inevitably betraying some nervousness:
"Mister Gongsun, you mustn't be careless. Xie Jinhuan may be young, but his strength cannot be underestimated. He might even have renowned weapons or secret treasures in his possession..."
Five men sat inside the small study, all sent by Li Gongpu.
Since they were here to "capture a villain who assassinated an Imperial Court official," none of the five were common martial-world roughnecks.
Their leader, Gongsun Duan, was an instructor of the Imperial Guards whose strength had already reached the second rank. He had brought four elite Imperial Guards, equipped with Qi-Breaking Bows, Immortal-Binding Ropes, and other such gear.
To withstand the Imperial Court's scrutiny, Gongsun Duan had prepared his explanation beforehand-while recuperating at a villa in Pine Crane Bay, he had heard a disturbance at the Zhou residence, come to investigate, and unexpectedly captured Xie Jinhuan, a traitorous villain who had assassinated a court official.
With such an arrangement, as long as Xie Jinhuan dared come, he could not possibly leave Pine Crane Bay alive. Moreover, they would have every justification and would not incur the slightest trouble.
But all this depended on Zhou Ming'an being successfully assassinated before they could jump out and make the