News from the prince's residence

Chen Fan lowered his head, the broad bamboo hat concealing his expression completely.

He answered slowly, "My life belongs to the Holy Maiden."

What a master manipulator.

This woman was really determined to lock horns with him.

When he was Black Wind Baleful Intent, she had screwed him over, indirectly bringing about the destruction of Black Wind Mountain.

When he was Lin Shou, she had used him as bait and an expendable pawn, leaving him in no doubt as to how he had died.

Now that he had reincarnated as Chen Jinzhong, he had become one of her dogs.

This cycle of cause and effect really was endless.

Chen Fan thought that, sooner or later, he would settle the score with this woman.

"Go."

Su Xin was very satisfied with his answer and waved a hand.

Chen Fan said nothing more. He rose, pulled open the shabby wooden door, and soon disappeared into the night outside.

After leaving the docks, Chen Fan did not hurry to the prince's residence.

He first found a secluded corner and changed out of his conspicuous black clothes, replacing them with a set of ordinary coarse linen clothes he had helped himself to by the roadside.

Although Chen Jinzhong's face had been exposed to the prince's personal guards, the scene had been chaotic and shrouded in darkness. Probably not many of them remembered what he looked like.

Besides, his current identity was that of a jianghu assassin risking his life for the White Lotus Sect, not a guard of the prince's residence.

Following the route he remembered, he passed through several alleys and soon arrived near the Prince of Xiushan's Residence.

Unlike the bustle of the daytime, the prince's residence looked even more heavily guarded at night.

Its towering walls resembled a great beast lying on its belly. Along the top stood a guard every three paces and a sentry every five, while torches illuminated the surroundings as brightly as day.

White lanterns had also been hung before the gates, and an atmosphere of somber menace and grief enveloped the entire residence.

Li Zhong was dead, and security at the prince's residence was more than ten times tighter than when Chen Fan had been Lin Shou.

Under cover of darkness, Chen Fan used the Dragon Traversing Sect's Movement Method to climb silently onto the roof of a nearby house, as nimbly as a wildcat.

He gazed into the distance, taking in all the defenses of the prince's residence.

The patrols were twice as frequent as before, and every guard wore armor and carried a weapon, their expressions tense.

There were also considerably more hidden sentries. People were concealed in secluded corners he had never known about, even when he was a guard.

Sneaking inside would be as hard as ascending to heaven.

Trying to force his way in would be courting death.

It seemed the task Su Xin had given him really was a hot potato.

Of course, he had no desire to risk his life for the White Lotus Sect. They didn't even pay him, so why should he risk his neck?

Chen Jinzhong had risked his life before because he was Su Xin's simp, but Chen Fan wasn't.

So he would just do enough to get by.

Chen Fan did not linger. After watching for the time it took an incense stick to burn, he quietly withdrew.

Two streets away from the prince's residence, he found an inn called Welcome and took a room.

It was neither too large nor too small, and people came and went, making it ideal for hiding his identity and gathering information.

He asked for a room by a window on the second floor, from which he could see the main road leading to the prince's residence.

For the next two days, Chen Fan's life was unusually peaceful.

He spent most of each day in his room, quietly absorbing the martial arts memories of Chen Jinzhong's body.

The Dragon Traversing Sect's Movement Method and its uncanny footwork, as well as the Soul-Severing Dagger technique, which had been created specifically for assassination, were all completely different from what he had learned before.

He also occasionally went downstairs to sit in the inn's main hall, ordering a pot of the cheapest bad wine and a plate of fennel beans while listening to merchants and travelers from all over chat.

But most of what he learned was inconsequential gossip.

For example, Butcher Zhang in the west of the city had taken another concubine, and the dog belonging to Squire Li's household in the east had gone missing.

There was, however, very little news about the Prince of Xiushan's Residence.

Li Zhong's death was like a boulder pressing down on the deep waters of the prince's residence, leaving not a single ripple.

Everyone had become careful about what they said and did, afraid that a single wrong word would bring death upon them.

Not until the afternoon of the third day did that change.

As usual, Chen Fan sat in a corner of the main hall, drinking in utter boredom.

The inn's door curtain lifted, and a staggering figure reeking of alcohol stumbled inside.

The man wore the clothes of a servant from the prince's residence. His steps were unsteady and his face was flushed red; he had obviously just come from drinking at some tavern.

Chen Fan's movements paused slightly.

Zhang Cheng.

He was the colleague who had once told him that the wound medicine was a reward from the princess consort and envied him for his great stroke of luck.

Why was he in such a state?

Without betraying any reaction, Chen Fan tugged down his bamboo hat, hiding his face deeper in its shadow.

Zhang Cheng had clearly drunk too much. He plopped down at an empty table not far from Chen Fan and slammed a few copper coins onto it.

"Innkeeper! Bring me wine! Your best Daughter's Red!"

The innkeeper came over with an ingratiating smile. "Sir, you've already had quite a bit. Why don't you take a rest first?"

"Rest my ass!" Zhang Cheng glared and roared in a coarse voice, "I'm going to drink myself to death today! Bring the wine, and you'll get your money!"

With no other choice, the innkeeper went behind the counter to fetch the wine.

A jar of wine was soon brought out.

Zhang Cheng could hardly wait. He slapped off the clay seal, picked up the jar, and began gulping straight from it.

The fiery wine ran down the corners of his mouth and soaked the front of his robe.

As he drank, he cursed indistinctly.

"Fuck... I can't go on living like this..."

"Captain Li is dead... Everyone at the prince's residence acts like their fathers died... Every last one of them has a long face..."

An idler drinking at the next table leaned over and struck up a conversation. "Brother, you work at the prince's residence too, don't you? Why are you drinking alone to drown your sorrows?"

Zhang Cheng gave a drunken belch and shot him a sidelong glance.

"What the hell do you know..."

He seemed to have found an outlet, and the floodgates opened at once.

"You have no idea. At the prince's residence these days, you have to be careful even when you breathe. The prince hasn't smiled once these past few days. If anyone upsets him, he has them dragged out and beaten to death on the spot!"

"It's that serious?" The idler clicked his tongue.

"You bet!" Zhang Cheng took another huge swig, then lowered his voice and spoke with a hint of mystery. "That's not even the worst of it! You don't know this, but the day before yesterday, the prince and the princess consort had a huge quarrel!"

Chen Fan's hand, holding his wine cup, stopped in midair.

The idler's interest was thoroughly piqued, and he hurriedly pressed for more. "A quarrel? What about? Hadn't the prince long since grown tired of the princess consort and cast her aside?"

"Who knows why?" Zhang Cheng waved a hand, his face showing a mixture of schadenfreude and regret.

"I heard from the sisters in the inner courtyard that the princess consort cried her heart out and even cursed the prince to his face. Apparently, things were said that brought them to the point of breaking with each other..."

"The prince flew into a rage and ordered her... confined to her quarters on the spot!"

"Confined to her quarters?"

"That's right! Confined to her quarters! She's shut up in Moon-Gathering Pavilion, no visitors allowed, and she can't take a single step outside! How is that any different from being banished to the cold palace?"

When Zhang Cheng finished, he let out another string of sighs.

"Poor woman, truly pitiful. Back then, the princess consort was the number one beauty in all Xiushan Province... and now..."

"And that lad Lin Shou died for nothing... He lost his life protecting his mistress, and what happened? His mistress ended up like this, so his death was worth absolutely nothing..."

He sprawled across the table, mumbling drunkenly.

In the corner, Chen Fan sat quietly.

The clamor outside the window and the conversation at the next table seemed to fade into the distance.

Only those words remained in his mind: "Confined to her quarters."

He thought of the woman whose ears had turned faintly red when she accepted Phoenix Seeks the Phoenix in the Treasure Pavilion.

He remembered how she had softly recited that poem in the carriage and asked him with eager anticipation what its second half was.

Clouds brought her raiment to mind, and flowers her face; spring winds brushed the balustrade, where dew shone in abundance.

If not upon the heights of Mount Qunyu, one would meet her beneath the moon on the jasper terrace.

Beneath the moon on the jasper terrace, there was no meeting in the end.

Instead, she had been confined within the depths of the palace.

Chen Fan picked up the cup of wine before him, long since gone cold, and tilted his head back to drain it.

The wine was strong, sharp on his tongue and scorching as it ran down his throat.