Sword Slaying the Jianghu : Chapter 15: Embracing the Enemy as Father

It turned out that on that night, Nann had made another mistake and was punished to sleep in the guest room. He was in the middle of a dream when the sound of someone crashing through the roof woke him up. Nann, who was born with a love for watching excitement, saw so many people surrounding Su Lianyun and figured it must be a good show, so he hid and watched secretly.

Actually, because heavy snow was about to fall that night, the sky was very dark. He could not make out the face of the person leading the attack at all. However, he remembered some details, which he now told Zhong Yueping as a story. Zhong Yueping’s body, which had been limp as mud, suddenly sat up straight as if struck by lightning. Her expression also showed great shock. Then she made Nann recount what happened that night all over again.

Although Nann had been chattering away since he was three, his language ability was not as strong as an adult’s. But after hearing it twice, Zhong Yueping understood completely. The fire of revenge was lit once more, only this time she placed her hope for vengeance on her son.

She sorted out some of the details her son had seen that night and told him that the leading attacker’s palm strikes and acupoint techniques followed a bad habit in martial arts. Not many people in the martial world would have such a habit, so he must remember it well.

Also, the person who killed Su Lianyun with his claws was clearly using the Eight Division Heavenly Dragon Claw. Apart from monks from beyond the border, no one else knew this technique.

As for the person who tried to kill Su Lianyun with poison palm, apart from a top expert from the Xuanming Sect, who else could have such a palm wind surrounded by poisonous gas?

Although Zhong Yueping could not guess the remaining two, with these three people identified, digging out the other two would not be difficult.

Nann had always been sensible, just naturally mischievous. He immediately told Zhong Yueping that he had memorized everything.

Zhong Yueping finally warned him not to rashly seek revenge, because those who acted as executioners were merely small fry. The truly powerful person was behind the scenes. If that person behind the scenes found out about him, it would surely be very dangerous.

Seeing his mother so serious, Nann also understood how unusual this matter was. So he told his mother to rest assured that he would seek revenge quietly, and he would never tell anyone about this, including Yang Shao, who had saved them this time.

Zhong Yueping, being such an intelligent woman, could easily guess from her son’s description that someone was pulling the strings behind them. If they were not acting under someone’s orders, why would they cover their faces? They could have come openly and honorably. Why be so sneaky?

Su Lianyun had killed countless people. She really did not know who could have planned such a large-scale assassination. But she was certain that this person was no ordinary figure. She even had some suspicions about Yang Shao, mainly because his appearance was too coincidental. But upon further thought, Yang Shao had been fighting battles year round. If he were behind it, the ones coming should have been guards, not so many martial arts experts. So she dismissed her doubts about Yang Shao.

She knew how hard the road of revenge would be, so she wanted to find a solid backing for her son to make his path of vengeance slightly smoother than hers. Therefore, she planned to have her son acknowledge Yang Shao as his adoptive father. But such a major matter would be too abrupt to bring up on the road, so she could only wait until they returned to the prince’s residence.

Zhong Yueping had already made up her mind. After finding a support for Nann, she could finally go to join Su Lianyun in peace. She was truly weary and truly missed Su Lianyun. The bond between Zhong Yueping and Su Lianyun was like that of mandarin ducks: if one died, the other would never live alone.

Inside the Prince of Zhennan’s residence, one magnificent building after another stood closely connected, like a hundred miles of linked military camps on the battlefield, full of grandeur and power.

Zhong Yueping and her son followed closely behind Yang Shao, afraid that one careless step would cause them to get lost among these buildings. They passed through several pavilions and arrived before a great hall. Ancient trees surrounded the hall on all sides, green shade covered everything, and the red walls with yellow tiles glittered with gold and splendor.

Seeing such a magnificent Prince of Zhennan’s residence, Zhong Yueping made up her mind. Even if Yang Shao was cruel and ruthless, she had to entrust her son to him, because she could not find a better backing than Yang Shao for her son’s revenge.

They walked into the great hall. It turned out that this magnificent hall was merely the dining hall of the Prince of Zhennan’s residence. One could imagine just how large the entire residence must be.

Inside the hall was a long table. On both sides of the long table stood several dozen people wearing coarse cloth and hemp shirts, their faces oily and sallow. At a glance, one could tell they were chefs who worked in the kitchen year round. Their gazes were dull and fixed straight ahead at the several dozen dishes of mountain delicacies and sea treasures on the long table. In such cold winter weather, those fine dishes were still steaming with white vapor, as if they had just come out of the pot.

Yang Shao swept his gaze over them and nodded with satisfaction. “Very good. How many times did you make these dishes today?”

These people trembled as they stretched out their hands. Some held up four fingers, some five, and for many, one hand was simply not enough. It seemed these chefs knew the prince was returning, and in order to let him eat steaming hot dishes, they had made these dishes over and over again.

Zhong Yueping swept her gaze over those people. It seemed each of them stood before a corresponding dish. Those who held up fewer fingers had more complicated dishes before them, while those with more fingers had relatively simpler dishes.

Yang Shao waved his hand, and the chefs quickly withdrew their calloused hands. Yang Shao seemed quite satisfied with everything before him. No matter how many times they had made the dishes, as long as he could eat steaming hot food upon his return, he was satisfied. If not, they would end up just like the servants before the gate, dying on the spot.

Zhong Yueping seemed to understand something. It was not that those servants were lazy, but that the prince truly ruled his household too strictly. To the point that in such a huge residence, one could barely see any servants. Most of the servants had probably become souls under the blade. And those few servants before the gate had worked hard for days and nights cleaning the residence. They never expected that near the very end, they still could not escape death. All their efforts seemed to go down the drain.

Thinking of these things, Zhong Yueping could not help but feel some fear toward Yang Shao. But she also felt that Yang Shao’s strictness would be good for Nann’s upbringing. It could mold Nann into a more perfect person, as outstanding as his invincible soldiers.

So Zhong Yueping bit her lip and said to Nann, “Nann, hurry up and kneel before Uncle Yang!”

Nann was staring at those delicious dishes and swallowing his saliva. Suddenly hearing his mother call him, he had not yet reacted and asked blankly, “Mother, what did you say?”

“I told you to kneel before Uncle Yang. Hurry up.” Zhong Yueping repeated.

Although Nann did not understand his mother’s intention, he still fell to his knees with a thud.

“Your Highness, thanks to your mercy in bringing us, a widow and orphan, back to the residence, words cannot express our gratitude for saving our lives. Please allow this humble woman to boldly ask one more thing. I hope you will agree.” After saying this, Zhong Yueping also knelt down heavily.

Yang Shao quickly went to help Zhong Yueping up, but she pushed him away.

“If Your Highness does not agree to this humble woman’s request, I will never get up.”

“Alright, alright, alright. Get up quickly. Yang Shao agrees.”

“Nann, your adoptive father has agreed to take you as his son. Why aren’t you kowtowing quickly?”

After hearing this, Yang Shao’s face turned deathly pale. He had never expected that Zhong Yueping would ask him to take Nann as his adopted son. He had already found this child left behind by Su Lann quite an eyesore and had long wanted to get rid of him. Now this child was to become his own son, and he was truly unwilling in every way.

But he had just agreed to Zhong Yueping. To go back on his word now would seem to damage the image he had in her mind. So he could only accept Nann’s three bows with a bitter face, and gave Nann a new name: Yang Ran.

Changing the family name was probably because he truly could not accept having someone surnamed Su constantly wandering before his eyes.

Ran means the rekindling of dead ashes. He hoped that because of this child, the fire of love between him and Zhong Yueping would be lit once more.