"So, that person was Granny Long?"
Hearing Lou Ji reach this point, Xu Yuan felt they were finally arriving at the crux of the matter. Yet after mulling it over for a second, he thought it might have been his old man instead: "Or... my father?"
"You really are completely detached from mortal reality."
Lou Ji extended a slender finger and tapped Xu Yuan lightly on the forehead. "The Green Snake Gang was far too insignificant. Even back then, if your father had wanted to wipe it out, he would have only needed to knit his brows slightly while listening to a subordinate's report, and someone would have done it for him that very night. How could such a petty matter ever trouble a paramount figure like your father?"
Xu Yuan wore an odd expression. "After your first meeting, he didn't send people to keep tabs on you?"
"From what I know now, he indeed did back then."
"The Green Snake Gang may have been small, but it was wiped out by a ten-year-old girl. Wouldn't something like that warrant his attention?"
"Of course it did."
"Then—"
"Changtian, do you know what the man in Wanxiang City who changed his name to Bai Jingtian is doing right now?" Lou Ji interrupted.
"......"
Xu Yuan pondered for a moment, then answered with some hesitation, "It seems... he's acting as a supervisor over in Wanxiang City, overseeing the business around there."
Lou Ji chuckled softly. "He was poached long ago. Now he's the director of the Liuyuan Fabric Firm under the Tian'an Chamber of Commerce, and he even came to the Prime Minister's Manor the night before last to report on his duties."
"......" Xu Yuan fell silent.
"See?"
Lou Ji wore a nonchalant 'I told you so' look. "Back then, your father was vastly busier than you are now. Things done on a whim were forgotten as soon as they were finished. I was merely one among many seeds he scattered at random in those days."
Xu Yuan smacked his lips. "Then who took notice of you?"
"The King of Black Alley."
"Pfft—" Xu Yuan couldn't hold it in.
Amid the swirling snow, Lou Ji also murmured with a radiant smile, "It does sound ridiculously lacking in self-awareness, but it was actually a title of dread given to him by the people of Black Alley."
Xu Yuan asked in a low voice, "But you said earlier that you spent a peaceful period after that. Does that mean this King of Black Alley harbored good intentions toward you?"
"No," Lou Ji denied.
"Malice, then?" Xu Yuan's expression turned strange.
Strike the younger, and the elder comes along—a classic cliché.
"Not that either."
Lou Ji denied it again, saying softly, "He was a very complicated man. He helped me a great deal; my very introduction to cultivation began with that old man. But he also caused me no small amount of trouble."
"Trouble?"
"He wanted to bind me to his family."
"Marriage?" Xu Yuan's expression grew odd.
"Yes." Lou Ji nodded gently. "The old man had a son late in life, and hoped that after he passed away, I would help his son."
Xu Yuan let out a soft exclamation. "The old fellow certainly had an eye for talent."
"Indeed."
Lou Ji thoroughly agreed with this. "Some people's limits aren't determined by their own potential, but by the limits of the platform they occupy. That old man controlled Black Alley as a mere mortal for over thirty years in a place like Di'an City."
"A mortal?" Xu Yuan raised his brows.
"Yes, a mortal," Lou Ji nodded.
"Then that truly is impressive." Xu Yuan let out a breath.
As the imperial capital of Great Yan, Di'an City's very nature dictated that a place like Black Alley would harbor all sorts of people with ulterior motives, and it also dictated that the imperial court had to maintain absolute control over it.
A single battle of words in the imperial court could result in a sweeping crackdown in Black Alley. To stand tall for more than thirty years as a mortal, the old man Lou Ji spoke of could truly be considered an extraordinary figure.
Lou Ji waved her hand at his words and murmured, "Forget it, let's not talk about the old man. Overall, that period was actually rather dull..."
"Don't stop now." Xu Yuan was curious about this remarkable old man, and not without a touch of gossip-seeking interest.
Lou Ji gave a helpless smile and said softly, "There really isn't much to say. After the Green Snake Gang was destroyed, I obtained quite a bit of silver and moved. That old man then moved into the courtyard next door to mine."
At this, Lou Ji chuckled softly. "In such a dilapidated place, he wore expensive, luxurious robes every day, sitting at his courtyard gate playing chess against himself."
"Fishing for you?"
"Yes," Lou Ji explained. "Luring me to take the bait."
Xu Yuan understood the general idea.
Lou Ji wanted to climb upward, and the old man could offer her that opportunity. Everything that followed flowed naturally.
Still—
"A man like that wouldn't do something as foolish as forcing you, right?"
"......"
Quiet fell for a moment before Lou Ji murmured faintly, "The old man's methods were sophisticated; he never forced anything. Even though I was working under him at the time, rather than a subordinate relationship, it was more like a business arrangement. He assigned me tasks, and I took the corresponding pay."
Xu Yuan's eyes flickered. "Considering your status back then, for him to treat you like that, he really was an exceptional fellow."
Lou Ji smiled faintly. "Indeed. If he were still alive today, even with the immense trouble he caused me back then, I wouldn't have any reason to raise a hand against him."
After a brief silence, Xu Yuan suppressed his curiosity about the old man and asked in a low voice, "Then how did the matter of marriage come about?"
Lou Ji curved her eyes into crescents and said softly, "He created an environment for me."
"An environment to spend time with his son?"
"You could say that."
"He wasn't a dissolute scion, then...?"
Xu Yuan murmured under his breath.
He had originally assumed the old man wanted to bind her as a child bride to serve as a capable, supportive wife for his heir. But judging from this, the old man must have been quite confident in his son's ability and charm.
Lou Ji glanced in a certain direction of the Prime Minister's Manor, sighing with a touch of melancholy. "Of course not. The old man didn't want to bind me to his son just to preserve what he had, but to break through the shackles of his platform. He knew very well that within Black Alley, he was a king revered and feared by thousands, but in the eyes of Di'an City's truly paramount figures, he didn't even count as human."
"It seems the old man succeeded."
Xu Yuan noticed the direction of Lou Ji's gaze.
Over there lay the quarters of the Prime Minister's Manor's male retained elders.
"Yes, that old man underestimated his own son."
In the winter night, Lou Ji exhaled a fleeting puff of white mist from her red lips, amusement in her eyes. "After that incident, I parted ways with them, and the old man's son relied on himself to crawl out of the abyss of Black Alley step by step."
"That incident?" Xu Yuan asked.
Lou Ji considered for a moment, then said in a low voice, "After destroying the Green Snake Gang, I stayed in Black Alley for roughly three years. Because of the environment he deliberately engineered, more than half of that time was spent alongside that fellow—carrying out missions together, sharing hardships together, facing life and death together..."
"During all that time, did your young heart never flutter, Sister?" Xu Yuan suddenly interrupted with a grin.
"Of course not," Lou Ji replied without the slightest hesitation.
Xu Yuan looked doubtful. "But you seem to hold him in quite high regard. Spending so much time together..."
"Oh, you mean that."
Lou Ji blinked, lightly pursing her crimson lips with captivating charm.
"Because he was ugly."
"......" Xu Yuan.
Lou Ji nonchalantly let out a breath and said softly, "Still, having spent so much time together, there were naturally some lingering feelings. And under those circumstances, the old man created a dilemma for me."
"A dilemma?" Xu Yuan chimed in, playing along.
Lou Ji lifted a fair hand to gently brush her chest, tilting her head as she said, "The sequence of events was complicated, but to put it simply, the old man used several missions as bait, causing me to injure a lecherous scion of Di'an City outside of those tasks. After numerous twists and turns, that scion traced his way into Black Alley demanding my surrender.
"And coincidentally, although that scion's family wielded far greater influence than the old man, they still had to give the old man some face."
Xu Yuan's eye twitched. "So he pressured you to marry his son to protect yourself?"
Lou Ji nodded. "Yes. He urged me to agree, I refused, and then he handed me over."
"......"
"Sister, don't tell me we have to kill that old man's son tonight too?" Xu Yuan suddenly asked.
Lou Ji glanced at Xu Yuan with slight surprise and asked, "Why would you think someone who crawled out of a place like Black Alley would betray your father?"
With that, she chuckled softly. "That fellow is one of the most radical figures among the Prime Minister's Manor's upper echelon. If your father wanted to proclaim himself emperor tonight, he would fetch an imperial robe right now and drape it over his shoulders."
"......" Xu Yuan was left speechless.
After speaking, Lou Ji gave a soft humph and murmured, "Though truth be told, I really would like to settle a personal score. That was the only time in my life I ever faced an inescapable dead end where I was utterly powerless to resist.
"If Long Xinling hadn't happened to wander into Black Alley for fun and saved me back then, Changtian, you probably wouldn't be seeing your sister today..."
Chapter 516