“Come in.”
The voice from inside the room was slightly hoarse, making it hard to discern the speaker’s age.
Pushing the door open, the man wrapped in bandages found no light inside. It was so dark he could barely make out any shapes.
Only a broken old wooden table against the wall held a half-burned candle. The flame flickered from a draft coming from somewhere, casting long and short shadows on the wall.
The other corners were littered with rotten wood and rubble. Only that broken wooden table seemed to speak of traces left behind long ago.
Standing in the shadows where the candlelight didn’t reach was a man dressed in black, his face covered.
He stood with his hands clasped behind his back, half his face hidden in darkness, only his eyes visible as they stared toward the door. His gaze was gloomy and inscrutable.
As if sensing that gaze, the bandaged man immediately dropped to one knee, bowing his head and clasping his fists.
“Sir.”
His voice was hoarse, as if he was suppressing something.
“This subordinate never imagined things would turn out this way.”
“Please forgive this offense!”
The man’s voice trembled slightly, his tone tinged with unease.
Hearing this, the masked man did not reply immediately, letting the man before him remain kneeling.
An eerie silence filled the entire room. Just as the kneeling man thought he was surely in for severe punishment, sweat beading on his forehead about to drip, the masked man moved.
He reached out and picked up the half-burned candle from the wooden table. The weak candlelight fell on the masked man’s face but brought no warmth, only illuminating the deep-seated, unyielding malice between his brows.
He lowered his eyes to look at the man still kneeling on the ground and finally spoke.
“Rise.”
Hearing this, the bandaged man did not immediately stand up, but remained kneeling, not daring to move.
Seeing his subordinate didn’t move, the masked man didn’t care. He simply turned around, holding the half-burned candle, and used its faint light to slowly scan the entire room.
“Now…”
“…Wu Lu San, report on last night’s situation.”
“Yes!”
The man with the code name Wu Lu San, hearing the masked man’s order, finally raised his head, but still maintained his kneeling posture, hands braced on the ground.
Wu Lu San took a deep breath, steadying his voice before speaking.
“Last night, Wealthy Wang was so enraged he fainted. And that Wang Huaiyu is just a woman. No matter how shrewd and capable she is, after last night’s events, she is currently at a loss.”
“Next, we just need to wait for public opinion in the town to swell, and your plan, sir, can be accomplished.”
The masked man didn’t turn around, only his hand holding the candle paused slightly.
“Hmm… not bad.”
Hearing this, Wu Lu San’s originally somewhat anxious heart finally settled completely. But just as he was about to speak, the masked man suddenly turned around and pinched his chin, his movements so fast the afterimage of the candle couldn’t even be caught.
“Speaking of which… it’s also thanks to this face of yours that my plan can continue.”
Although his words affirmed Wu Lu San’s appearance, the coldness in his tone was not hidden at all.
Wu Lu San didn’t dare struggle, didn’t even dare blink.
“N-no, I wouldn’t dare.” His chin hurt from the pinch, but he didn’t even have the courage to swallow. “If not for your recommendation, sir, how could someone of my appearance be of any use?”
“Hmph!”
The masked man flung his face away, took a step back, and lightly patted his own shoulder as if brushing off something dirty.
“Good that you know. What I fear is that after staying in the Wang Family for so long, being showered with that foolish woman’s affection, you might come before me and forget who you are!”
The masked man’s tone turned sharply cold.
“You still have to go back to the Wang Family.”
Wu Lu San, covering his scraped face, was stunned for a moment, his voice trembling slightly.
“But, sir… wouldn’t it be faster if you went personally?”
“Not yet. I need you to continue being that fuse in the Wang Family.”
“You just need to stay there a moment longer, and Wang Chengye’s trust in his daughter will lessen by one point.” He turned around, his back to Wu Lu San, his voice drifting from the shadows.
“When the time comes, the Wang Family will be ours. Deploying covert agents right under the nose of the Capital City… do you think that will be difficult?”
After saying this, he didn’t continue, just stood with his back to Wu Lu San, motionless.
Just as Wu Lu San thought he was pondering the next step, the voice suddenly became gloomy.
“Speaking of this… it makes me angry.”
The masked man’s tone suddenly filled with rage, startling Wu Lu San so much his whole body stiffened, and he even held his breath.
“I infiltrated the Wang Family properly for half a year, lowering my head and bowing to that Wang Huaiyu—”
He suddenly turned around, his furrowed brows overflowing with anger.
“And her? From start to finish, she never even gave me a proper look!”
“Hah…”
The masked man—or rather, Zhou Hongfang—exhaled, calming down a bit. Then the corner of his mouth lifted, his tone icy.
“However, I truly never expected… that the sect had planted a chess piece in the Wang Family so early.”
Zhou Hongfang’s gaze fell on Wu Lu San, who now didn’t dare move a muscle, his words full of amusement.
“Although our Jie sect has agents spread everywhere, if I hadn’t coincidentally seen that unique code mark on you, I really wouldn’t have discovered you. Isn’t that right, Wu Lu San?”
Wu Lu San gave a dry laugh twice. Unexpectedly, Zhou Hongfang took a step forward. The candlelight stretched his shadow long, pressing down on Wu Lu San.
“What are you laughing at?”
“You think I’m praising you?”
Zhou Hongfang’s face was cold.
“If that woman Wang Huaiyu weren’t so cautious, do you think there’d be a role for you to play?”
“I’d have gone solo long ago! I’m just one step away from the Bing Rank now!”
Wu Lu San shrank his head, not daring to respond.
‘Maybe it’s not that the woman is cautious… maybe she’s just completely uninterested in you…’
Of course, Wu Lu San only dared to criticize his superior like this in his mind. If he said it out loud, Zhou Hongfang might strike him dead the next second.
“Heh… for the grand plan of the sect, I still have to use other means…”
“The seed I planted… yet I have to let you be the nominal father…”
“Then let a guy like you! Put a green hat on me! On my head!”
As he spoke, Zhou Hongfang, momentarily carried away, suddenly slapped Wu Lu San across the face, making his already somewhat swollen cheek swell even more.
And Zhou Hongfang had completely lost the meek, weak scholar demeanor he had maintained in the Wang Family.
After the slap landed, Zhou Hongfang suddenly closed his eyes and took a deep breath.
When he opened them again, his eyes had regained their gloomy calm.
“The child in that woman’s belly is mine. You remember that clearly—you are just a shadow shielding me from the front.”
“Alright, get out of here and go back.”
“Soon, the sect’s ‘Executioner’ will arrive. During the time I’m not at the Wang Family, play your role well for me!”
After saying this, the half-burned candle in Zhou Hongfang’s hand suddenly went out. Wu Lu San’s eyes could no longer capture even a trace of the other’s figure.
Only after confirming Zhou Hongfang had truly left did Wu Lu San feel his way in the dark, open the door, and leave.
He walked along the street, feeling the strange gazes of others around him, and wandered all the way to the front of the Wang Family.
The main gate was pushed open, and a woman in light blue clothes looked at him in surprise.
“Liu Shan!? What are you doing here? Are you alright?”
“Aunt…”
Looking at the woman before him who was concerned about him, Wu Lu San’s eyes couldn’t help but waver slightly.
But the familiar chilling sensation came from behind him, scaring him so he didn’t dare think of anything else.
“Oh, Auntie. It hurts so much, come take a look~”
“Alright, alright, really. Next time, don’t run off like that, understand?”
The woman hugged Wu Lu San, her tone full of doting affection.
But the Wu Lu San being hugged had a cold light hidden deep within his eyes.