Tianshu Purple Mansion!

A sheen of sweat broke out across Chen Chong's back. He knew precisely who the people facing him were — and what risk he had shouldered by adding that line of his own. Before speaking he had turned it over in his mind a long while — not whether he could say it, but how to say it so it sounded perfectly natural while still planting the hint. This roomful of thick-skulled brothers might hear nothing in it, but those two great ones were bound to understand. Especially the white-robed woman among them. The way she had handed over the money for Xu Yao's clothes that day had left an exceptionally deep impression on Chen Chong. She looked young, yet understood the ways of the world to the bone. That much Chen Chong knew well. But he had said it all the same. Physician Xu had once saved his life. Chen Chong had not forgotten. To open up a possibility for his son, he was willing to take on a little risk. "Yes." Xu Yao answered and went off to his chores. "Each of you, lead your men in fist-and-kick drills and tempering of bone and sinew. Everything proceeds as usual," Chen Chong went on with his orders. "Yes." The other squads, too, led their men out one after another with words of farewell, each back to its own quarters — every man's heart hammering. Only Chen Chong was left in the great room. "This way, sirs. There's a tea room over here. That lot knows nothing of drinking tea, so they hardly ever come in..." The woman surnamed Ning smiled gently. "Captain Chen, no need for such ceremony. We'll be sharing each other's company a long time yet — too much stiffness suits no one." One sentence, and Chen Chong understood. "As you say, sir." Smiling, the woman produced two gleaming gold ingots, each a full fifty taels. "This covers lodging and meals for the time being. Thank you for your trouble, Captain Chen — please, don't hold back." "My thanks for the generous gift, sirs." Chen Chong gave the gold a long, steady look, weighed it in his mind, then stowed it away without so much as a blink. Young Master Ning smiled. "Captain Chen, were you just now considering whether that money is enough?" he said, with a note of amusement. Caught out so exactly, Chen Chong simply laughed. "I was. Given the caliber of you two, and how handsomely you spend, if this mission calls for thirty-odd brothers of ours to throw our lives into the balance, it ought to come to more than this. So I accepted without a worry." "Hahaha, what an interesting man!" Young Master Ning laughed heartily, then said gravely, "Set your mind at ease. If lives truly must be spent, we will not be so stingy. Captain Chen, you are a fine man — bold enough, loyal enough, with principles and with the willingness to bear responsibility. Serving as brigade captain in a place like this rather wastes you." Chen Chong laughed from the heart. "But a man like me could never rise to high office either." Young Master Ning nodded promptly, in complete agreement. "Right — never high office." Chen Chong chuckled, touched in spite of himself. "I don't know where you two hail from, but you hold high station without arrogance and treat those beneath you without disdain. From this one may judge that the disciples of your honored school come of a house both noble and upright." Young Master Ning smiled. "I am Ning Weiyu, and this is my younger sister, Ning Wuxia. We are of the Ning family of the Tianshu Purple Mansion. It is not that we concealed it on purpose — the name of our school is kept private, and even if I spoke it aloud, no one would know it... Heh. I daresay you have never heard of it either, Captain Chen." Now it was Chen Chong's turn to be embarrassed, because he truly had never heard of it. He smiled awkwardly. "My apologies." "Pfft, hahahaha..." Ning Wuxia burst out laughing. Ning Weiyu and Chen Chong turned to look at her together. Ning Wuxia waved her small hands rapidly. "It's nothing, nothing! Captain Chen, pay it no mind. I was laughing because my big brother wanted to put on such grand airs, and then — hahaha..." Ning Weiyu clenched his teeth, face tinged red as he glared hard at his sister, straining with all his might to let his elder-brother authority come pouring out. "Quiet!" Clearly Ning Weiyu's "elder-brother authority" carried little weight with his sister. Though Ning Wuxia had stopped laughing, her small shoulders kept shaking. The more her brother scolded, evidently, the harder it became for her to hold it in. Ning Weiyu sighed, entirely helpless before this sister of his, and said to Chen Chong with a rueful smile, "It's her first time out in the jianghu — a raw fledgling, and spoiled rotten by the family. You've had a good laugh at our expense, Captain Chen." "That is the very joy of family. How could it be a laughing matter?" Chen Chong said, not without envy, "Who knows how many people in this world must envy Young Master Ning a sister so lively and charming." Inwardly, three points had already formed in his mind. One: this woman understood the ways of the world, yet was on her first outing into the jianghu — plainly her upbringing was excellent and her education complete. Two: before her brother she showed a lively, playfully innocent side — two faces, existing at once. She must be greatly doted on at home, and the bond between brother and sister plainly deep. Her true nature was a lively one. Three: this girl's figure and features were both exquisite, yet she carried an aura all her own — at first glance it made people unconsciously overlook her beauty and notice nothing but her bearing. And that aura, young as she was, had not yet fully taken shape; her future was clearly boundless! Chen Chong arrived swiftly at his conclusion: a prodigy of her generation. At Chen Chong's praise, Ning Weiyu's lips could not help but blossom into a smile. He glanced at his sister and said dotingly, "My sister is a good girl — just a touch mischievous." Ning Wuxia rolled her eyes. Xu Yao tidied the room, though in truth there was nothing to tidy — everything within was already spotless. Even so, he conscientiously wiped down the table, the chairs, and every out-of-the-way corner, and laid out brand-new bedding. He backed out the door and, closing it, was about to head off to Third Squad training — when he faintly caught a whiff of some nameless, delicate fragrance. He turned his head, and there was the white-robed woman of the pair, the one with white gauze over her face, looking straight at him. Her eyes were black and bright. Though her face was hidden, he could say with absolute certainty that she was a great beauty. Only, her eyes darted about far too nimbly — plainly, her true nature did not quite match the stately front she presented to the world. "Sir, the tidying is done." "Thank you for your trouble." Ning Wuxia spoke very solemnly and gravely, her voice perfectly even — she had plainly added extra depth to it on purpose, yet it still could not quite hide its clear ring. "It was nothing." Xu Yao bowed and moved to take his leave. "You are called Xu Yao, aren't you?" Ning Wuxia asked, "I hear that day the mission had been issued for one mountain demon, and it was you who saw there were three — and so kept everyone out of danger?" Xu Yao nodded. "That's so." From that one sentence alone, Xu Yao understood that these people already knew far more about him than he had imagined. His circumstances lay fully bared before them. "Your eyes can see ghosts and spirits?" Ning Wuxia asked. Clearly this was what had drawn her interest. She mused aloud, "The Daoist Pure Qi Eye? The Buddhist Divine Eye? The Demon Suppression Bureau's Yin-Yang Eye? The Heavenly Demon Wheel Seal Eye? The Left Path Bright Wheel? Or else..." Xu Yao was rather taken aback. "That many different eyes... and every one of them can see ghosts?" And here he'd thought he was one of a kind... "Every one of those takes cultivation — you must train to a certain stage before they work." Ning Wuxia's black, gleaming eyes settled on Xu Yao, and under that gaze he felt himself go transparent in an instant. "Mm. You've plainly never cultivated. So how do you manage it?" "I don't know." Wearing an expression of guileless honesty, Xu Yao said, "Ever since I was small I could see strange things now and then, but always blurrily. Only this year did they come clear — strictly speaking, around half a month ago." Xu Yao was not lying. As a child he truly had glimpsed vague, flickering shadows. When his father, Xu Dashi, learned of it, he put his son on medicines for months on end, and only stopped when the treatment had finally cured him so that, like anyone else, he saw nothing at all. And that was also why, this time, Xu Yao had not dared to tell his father right away. "You mean it's inborn!" Ning Wuxia's gleaming black eyes went still at once, and then her gaze turned deep. The answer had plainly taken her greatly aback. Then she raised her hand as if to clap — and stopped herself, suppressing a gesture far too lively, far too revealing of her true nature. She coughed once and said, with heavy gravity, "Well then. During this period, you are to come along on all missions." "Yes," said Xu Yao. He had already tasted the sweetness of going out on missions, and of course wished to keep going along. He had been racking his brains for how to put it, what excuse to offer to tag along — and before he could say a word, he'd been press-ganged. "Whatever the command, I will not shrink from the duty," said Xu Yao solemnly. Ning Wuxia was clearly well used to this "grave, formal" mode of conversation, so she too, putting on the manner of a grown-up, replied with perfect reserve, "Then we are much obliged." And then, while Xu Yao was training with Third Squad, this "great personage" — who looked "pure as frost and cold as the moon" — actually came again. Hands clasped behind her back, every inch the lofty master, she watched from the side. Liu Zhen, captain of Third Squad, felt his spirits lift, and threw himself into the punching drills with his men all the harder. What if he picked up a few pointers? A word or two of guidance from a personage like that could genuinely spare a man years of wrong turns on the martial road.