Su Luo Yan laid on a fresh banquet to entertain Li Qingge, with Wang Chong, Lu Yaoniang, and Sun Mingke naturally among the accompanying guests. With neither Lu Yaoniang nor Sun Mingke naming him as the lecher, Wang Chong was in fine spirits, and his talk was a string of pearls, brilliant lines tumbling out one after another. Not to speak of Su Luo Yan, who had known his caliber all along—even Lu Yaoniang and Li Qingge looked at him with new eyes, and Sun Mingke's gaze brimmed over with admiration; he had never imagined that anyone could speak so pleasingly.
As for the little maid Yu Zao, her eyes fairly shimmered. She felt that the soundest choice of her whole life had been to step forward and volunteer, asking her young lady to give her to Wang Chong.
Humble as her origins were, her discernment and breadth of view set her apart from other maids. She knew her station all too well: the Eight Maids who followed Su Luo Yan enjoyed no small standing in the Su household and could even take masters in the Ten-Thousand-Year Fox House and learn a whole art of martial arts—yet they were servants in the end, their futures not their own to decide. Even the daughters of the foremost great houses of Chang'an and Luoyang, even the lofty dignity of a princess of the realm, might not marry a husband after their own hearts—let alone a maid like her? If she did not seize one chance to break free, Yu Zao believed she would surely live to regret it.
Unable to sit at the table and not needed to serve, Yu Zao quietly slipped out to look up old friends such as Jiang Zhu'er.
Su Luo Yan's Eight Maids had originally all been out gathering information, but with one White Chrysanthemum already dead and the ranks of the Chrysanthemum-Killing Alliance mostly scattered, they had hardly been sent out since; now all of them were at the residence, enjoying a small gathering. When Yu Zao saw her seven sisters laughing merrily over a game of pitch-pot, she called out, "Sisters, did you miss me?"
At the sight of Yu Zao, Jiang Zhu'er felt a flicker of pique and cried, "Well, if it isn't the Wang household's little concubine! And have you found your dream husband?"
Yu Zao giggled. "I'm just an ordinary maid at the young master's side. How did a dream husband get dragged into this?"
"Sister Jiang Zhu'er, do you miss me or don't you?"
With Yu Zao tugging at her arm and pleading in soft tones, Jiang Zhu'er could not work up any anger. She reflected, too, that even if Liu Xian had refused at the time, she would at most have offered a few words of persuasion—she would never have been so bold as Yu Zao, volunteering outright to be bestowed on Wang Chong. This Young Master Wang was indeed a dragon among men, but she had not yet reached the point of giving him her heart and her person. Whatever small grudge she nursed, it was not a heavy one. Patting Yu Zao's shoulder, she said, "You chose this yourself. Don't come to regret it."
Yu Zao's fox eyes were demure and smiling, but in her heart she thought, "I'm afraid I shall never regret it—not in this lifetime."
The other six maids had met Wang Chong too, but none had lost her heart the way Yu Zao and Jiang Zhu'er had. Talented as he was, after all, Wang Chong was dreadfully poor; even if he soared to greatness someday, for now he would have to live through quite a few years of hardship first. Had their own lady bestowed them on him, they could hardly have refused, but they would certainly never have volunteered as Yu Zao had. In their eyes Wang Chong was not the best of choices, and for precisely that reason none of them felt jealous—if anything, the depth of their sisterly feeling showed all the more.
Relaxed as his mood was, Wang Chong inevitably drank a few cups more. The wines of this world were terribly thin; he did not get drunk, only pleasantly tipsy.
Li Qingge suddenly set down her cup and said, "In this investigation I find myself rather like a single beam that cannot bear the roof alone. Might Miss Su and Miss Lu be willing to lend me a hand?"
Su Luo Yan answered, "I would gladly join the endeavor."
She was determined to avenge her younger brother. She had already killed one White Chrysanthemum—the one who used the Ice Soul Finger—but she did not mind killing a few more. She had once held back out of regard for her reputation, unwilling to be entangled with the lecher affair; but with Li Qingge taking the lead, there was no need for such scruples.
Lu Yaoniang answered, "I came for White Chrysanthemum in the first place. With Sister Li at the fore, I am willing to bring my junior brother along in your train."
Wang Chong said with a laugh, "As for me, I'll make no declaration! I'm already aboard the pirate ship!" The whole company laughed together.
Lu Yaoniang said, "I made a point of finding two of the women who were victims, so that they might identify that lecher. Only, neither of them is in a position to step forward. One is the Lotus Immortal, Nan Xinlan; the other, Five-Flower Blade Xie Sanniang."
Wang Chong had just laid his worry down—Nan Xinlan had never laid eyes on him, and though Xie Sanniang was harder to say, they might well never have crossed paths—when Lu Yaoniang spoke again: "There is also Sister Nan's good friend Tie Mingzhu, who is likewise willing to do her part."
Li Qingge added, "I too can get in touch with four of the victimized women. Reverend Mother Li Miaomiao is at a Daoist temple close by, and all of them can identify White Chrysanthemum."
At the name Tie Mingzhu, every trace of Wang Chong's good mood evaporated. Whether he was the lecher was anyone's guess, but Tie Mingzhu was one hundred percent certain that he was. True, she had lied to everyone, claiming she had never run into the lecher White Chrysanthemum—a girl's good name comes first, and she might never dare come forward and identify him—but Wang Chong dared not gamble! He knew perfectly well that he had once put Tie Mingzhu through bondage play, and might even have said a good number of outrageous things besides—things like Go on, scream; the louder you scream, the more excited this young master gets...
"Somehow or other, I must contrive to meet Tie Mingzhu once, in secret..."
He had not yet worked out what exactly he ought to do when he saw her. He was, after all, a modern man transmigrated into this world, without any habit of killing people left and right. Of course, if no other way offered, then kill her he must...
With feigned casualness, Wang Chong asked, "Are these victims also staying in the garden?"
"They don't wish to see people," Lu Yaoniang replied. "I've rented a mansion nearby."
Wang Chong asked nothing further, but he was confident that finding out where Tie Mingzhu lodged would be no hard task, and he had a mind to go scout it tonight.
When the banquet broke up, Wang Chong went back to his quarters. Yu Zao had not yet returned; he did not wait for her—it was no business to bring a maid along anyway. With a flip he gained the rooftop, applied his lightness skill, and in moments was out over the main street.
Lu Yaoniang came from a house of aristocratic power and privilege; she would never have chosen some squalid, poverty-stricken mansion. Wang Chong thought, "One loop around the neighborhood, and I'll have a fair idea where they are."
Taking the garden Su Luo Yan was borrowing as his center, he spiraled outward two or three loops. He had not yet found his quarry when he heard someone call: "Brother Wang Chong, what are you looking for?"
Wang Chong wheeled around lightly in midair—there was Sun Mingke crouched on a rooftop a few dozen paces off. His mind spun through one rapid revolution, and he said, "Your senior sister and the others are all women; it isn't proper for them to be out at midnight. But a lecher of that sort is bound to work at night. Even if he may not dare offend in Pengshan County, he might come out and make a circuit or two—what if he got lucky?"
Sun Mingke believed it on the spot. "Then I'll keep you company, Brother Wang Chong."
Wang Chong, having no alternative, could only take Sun Mingke along on the patrol. He soon picked out several suspicious houses, but did not dare go in and inspect them. Both were superb at lightness skill, and in less than half a night they had covered all of Pengshan County. Wang Chong was just proposing they turn back—nothing more could be done today in any case—when Sun Mingke said in a lowered voice, "Brother Wang Chong, I think we've stumbled into some luck."
Wang Chong collected his focus and looked. He heard it too: the rush of air made by someone speeding through the night. The man's lightness skill was very high, but his movement art was heavy, raising rather too much commotion.
Sun Mingke was a newborn calf that knew no fear of tiger or wolf; off he shot with his lightness skill, and Wang Chong could only follow. In an instant the two made out a man tearing madly through the night with a constantly wriggling sack over his shoulder. With signs as plain as these, if not a lecher, then what?
...Wang Chong: Holy crap, I actually know this guy...
...Sun Mingke: Isn't that the White Chrysanthemum I once stabbed and wounded...
Chapter 38