novelden Chapter 229 Reencounter with Old Zhu
Chapter 229 Reencounter with Old Zhu
Wushuang Pavilion.
Lin Shu stared at the half of the tiger tally that had been delivered by fast horse in her hand, raised an eyebrow, and was secretly surprised that the Empress would entrust the tiger tally to her.
However, now that we have more leverage, we can naturally begin to implement our plan to deal with the Imperial Preceptor's Mansion.
Just as I was pondering this, I heard Chou Er report from outside the door:
"Master, the person who was brought in this morning has already woken up."
Lin Shu also remembered Zhu Laoba, who had been brought to her by a peasant woman earlier that day. She was quite surprised when she first saw him that morning, since she had seen him in the secret dungeon of the Imperial Preceptor's mansion before. She did not expect that he would have the ability to escape from there!
It seems this person also harbors a secret!
"Hmm." Thinking of this, Lin Shu responded softly, then lightly flipped her hand, and the tiger tally in her hand instantly disappeared without a trace.
Then she opened the door and said, "Come on, take me to see her."
When she arrived, Shen Lin and Ye Feng were already inside.
Although Zhu Laoba had pretended to be a bandit and ambushed them on Hengduan Mountain when they first arrived in Nanli, he was ultimately not a bad person. He was an old acquaintance of Shen Lin and Ye Feng, who had come to the capital together, which is why the two of them came to visit her.
"Lin Shu, you've arrived. It just so happens that Zhu Laoba has something important to discuss with you," Ye Feng said immediately upon seeing Lin Shu's arrival.
Lin Shu nodded to the two of them as a greeting, then turned her gaze to Zhu Laoba, who was lying on the bed with a look of astonishment on his face, and asked in a deep voice, "What is it?"
Zhu Laoba stared at her blankly, remaining silent.
In the end, Shen Lin gave him a wink: "Didn't you just say you wanted to ask the Peerless Pavilion for help? The leader of the Peerless Pavilion is right here, so hurry up and say it!"
Zhu Laoba's cheeks were sunken from thinness, and his eyes looked frighteningly large. He seemed to have just come to his senses and asked incredulously, "You...you are the Pavilion Master of Wushuang Pavilion..."
"Yes. What is it?" Lin Shu nodded.
No sooner had he finished speaking than Zhu Laoba on the bed struggled to get up.
Lin Shu frowned, interrupting her: "Let's just say that."
Zhu Laoba couldn't get up, so he gave up struggling and lay on the bed, his eyes filled with regret and expectation:
"I'm so sorry, I caused you to fall off the cliff! Please, please forgive my mistake and help me kill someone!"
I know that the Peerless Pavilion pays at least a thousand gold pieces for every murder, I... I have no money, but I can pay with my life..."
Having apparently been through an accident, Zhu Laoba seemed much more mature and composed.
Lin Shu raised her hand to stop her, her face expressionless: "Whether your life is worth it or not depends on who you kill first."
Zhu Laoba assumed Lin Shu had agreed and blurted it out without hesitation, his tone filled with intense hatred: "The Grand Preceptor of Nanli—Zhu Yao!"
Upon hearing this, Shen Lin and Ye Feng gasped, then exchanged a glance before looking at Lin Shu. This mission coincided with Lin Shu's plan.
Lin Shu wasn't surprised by this, but she didn't refuse either. She simply asked, "Why?"
Upon hearing this, Chou Er, who had followed in, was taken aback, because the Wushuang Pavilion never asked for reasons when accepting assassination orders; they only cared about whether the price was right!
Of course, they would assess whether the assassination target was killable before accepting the job, and clearly, Zhu Yao was not among those killable! Otherwise, they wouldn't have gone to such lengths to cooperate with Nangong Jin in using his scheme!
Zhu Laoba, unaware of Chou Er's suspicious expression, recounted in detail what happened after she entered the capital and separated from Shen Lin—
It turns out that Zhu Laoba has an older sister who looks just like her father and is very beautiful.
Six months ago, a group of elegant women in white came to his village and talked about recruiting workers. The pay was quite good, but they only wanted young women under the age of 25.
The village was poor, so almost every household sent their daughters there. The men then took out many wooden frames and other things that the women had never seen before and took the blood of all the women of marriageable age.
A few days later, those people picked and chose and left with more than ten people, including Zhu Laoba's sister.
But those people disappeared without a trace after they left, and there was no news of those who were taken away from the village either. After making inquiries, Zhu Laoba learned that the same thing had happened in several surrounding villages.
So she joined forces with the villagers who wanted to find their relatives and became a bandit in the Hengduan Mountains, partly to make a living and partly to gather information.
Because the people who came to the village were dressed strangely, it was eventually discovered that they were from the Imperial Preceptor's Mansion.
But as a result, none of the sisters who followed her into banditry were willing to risk their lives to find their relatives.
Finally, Zhu Laoba, upon hearing that Shen Lin and the others intended to go to the capital and had some connection with the Wushuang Pavilion, offered to go with them.
Upon arriving in the capital, she wished to visit her sister at the Imperial Preceptor's residence first, and thus parted ways with Shen Lin for the time being.
Unexpectedly, as soon as she explained her purpose to the gatekeeper of the Imperial Preceptor's residence, the gatekeeper turned fierce and said that there was no such person in the residence. In the end, it was a woman called 'Miss Ke' who led her in.
As soon as she entered the mansion, she saw her 'elder sister,' but her demeanor was somewhat strange...
She only snapped out of her daze when the other person spoke, and was so startled by their voice that she backed away repeatedly...
And so, Zhu Laoba was imprisoned in the dark dungeon.
The dark dungeon also held many beautiful women who looked somewhat alike.
It was only then that she realized her sister might have met with misfortune.
During this time, the people from the Imperial Preceptor's residence never brought her food; she survived by picking up leftovers that others had dropped on the ground.
Fortunately, fate spared her. Last night, people from the Imperial Preceptor's mansion came to transport a corpse from the other side of the dungeon. She decided to take a gamble, so she held her breath and lay flat on the ground, pretending to be dead...
Because she was already so weak from hunger, her feigned death was quite convincing. The people carrying the body only muttered "bad luck" and didn't notice anything else.
However, she was weighed down by seven or eight people, making it difficult for her to breathe. So as soon as she left the Imperial Preceptor's residence, she quietly opened her eyes, intending to move around.
Unexpectedly, she met 'Miss Ke's' probing eyes. Startled, she quickly closed them and continued to play dead, not daring to breathe. However, the other party seemed not to have noticed anything, and they remained peaceful throughout the journey!
She thought she had misread it and didn't think much of it.
What happened next is probably clear to everyone!
After listening to Zhu Laoba's account, Shen Lin and Ye Feng were both filled with righteous indignation and were almost ready to help her take revenge!
Lin Shu, however, was thinking a bit more deeply, so she asked a seemingly unrelated question: "You mean, that 'Miss Ke' knows you're not dead?"
Zhu Laoba nodded first, then shook his head: "It's too late, I might have been mistaken, otherwise, how could she have let me live..."
"Hmm," Lin Shu replied perfunctorily, then turned and left, saying as she did so:
"Rest assured and recuperate. Wushuang Pavilion will take on this matter."
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