Master Shu

A bright room, luxurious furnishings. Delicate dishes; a lonely silhouette. Here at Qiliu Youran there was a room whose very existence the guests knew nothing of. But it existed. There was a man who often drank in this room. The food to go with the wine was the best. But the wine was the worst—the kind you could draw a tael of for a few coppers, harsh enough to scorch your throat when you drank it straight, and flat and flavorless once you watered it down. He liked this wine, because it reminded him who he was. Knock knock—knock knock knock— A knock suddenly sounded, twice, then three times. "Enter." Hearing the correct signal, the man answered. Then the madam pushed the door open and came in. "Master Shu." That was what the madam called the man once inside. But in truth, there was no such character in the man's real name; for some reason, it was only that he demanded to be addressed this way. "Speak." Master Shu, at her call, turned and looked at the madam. Now one could see: this Master Shu wore a dark robe, plainly dressed, with a fair complexion, lean and tall. Though his temples had already gone gray, he looked no more than about forty, his beard not very long but neatly trimmed. "There's a Young Master Sun Yixie, and a Young Master Huang Donglai... they wish to request an audience with Miss Chu Xue," the madam replied. Just moments ago this madam had been over at "Too Happy to Think of Shu," squaring off against the two of them, Sun and Huang—so how had she ended up coming here now? Because just after she'd finished slamming the table, Sun Yixie and Huang Donglai had announced their full names... Although from the fragments of the two men's talk the madam had earlier gathered that one was surnamed Sun and the other Huang, she had always addressed them as "young master" and hadn't known their full names; it wasn't until just now, when she'd turned hostile with the pair, that Sun Yixie and the others had given their full names. A brothel is a place well-informed of news, and Xuzhou was so close to Luoyang; the madam could not possibly be unaware of the deeds of these two rising stars of the martial world in Luoyang. And so, having weighed it over, she had come here... "Sun Yixie, Huang Donglai..." Master Shu repeated the two names, fell silent for a moment in thought, and then he smiled. "Heh... go tell them that they may see Chu Xue, but of the two, only one can meet her, and the other must come keep me company over a drink." These words of his surprised even the madam a little. The madam had been here so many years, and in her memory, Master Shu inviting others to drink with him... had happened only a handful of times, and those he'd invited were all his own "friends"; while Sun Yixie and Huang Donglai were visiting Qiliu Youran for the first time. They probably didn't even know who Master Shu was, let alone have any friendship with him. "What is it?" Seeing that the madam hadn't answered at once, Master Shu asked again. "N-nothing." The madam quickly lowered her head and backed toward the door. "This old servant will see to it at once." ………… By the time she got back to the door of "Too Happy to Think of Shu," the cold sweat on the madam's forehead hadn't yet dried; she wiped it away before going in. "Apologies for the long wait, young masters." Back before the Twin Xies, the madam was in fact considerably calmer. "So how did it go? What did Miss Chu Xue say?" Sun Yixie assumed the madam had gone out just now to go straight to see Chu Xue, and so asked. He didn't know that here at Qiliu Youran you could go straight to ask for anyone, but with Chu Xue alone... to see her, you first had to ask Master Shu. "To see Miss Chu Xue, you must agree to a condition." The madam did not directly answer Sun Yixie's question. "What condition?" Huang Donglai cut in with another jab. "Don't tell me it's to charge more?" The madam ignored the latter half of his sentence and replied with some gravity: "Of the two of you, only one may go see Chu Xue, and the other must go keep our boss company over a cup of wine." "Huh?" Sun Yixie and Huang Donglai popped out that very interjection in perfect unison, with identical expressions on their faces, too. "You may discuss it between yourselves first." The madam wasted no more words on them, and as she spoke she headed for the door. "If you don't agree to the condition, then there's no use talking about seeing Chu Xue, and you two may suit yourselves." With that, she had already stepped out, pulling the door shut behind her. Since they'd left you two to talk it over yourselves, then talk it over you shall. "Damn... just who is the boss here?" Sun Yixie said at once, looking puzzled. "Who the hell knows..." Huang Donglai spread his hands. "How would the two of us dig up something even a regular like Constable Dong doesn't know?" At this, Sun Yixie's little eyes rolled, and a thought suddenly struck him. He went on: "Hey~ Brother Huang, you think maybe it's that kind of setup..." He paused, curling one corner of his mouth into a smile. "Like, say, the boss here is actually a woman, and not just any woman—a peerless beauty even more gorgeous than the four great top courtesans of Spring, Summer, Autumn, and Winter..." "Brother Sun." Huang Donglai fixed Sun Yixie with a very serious look. "You just want to trick me into going off to drink with some man while you go see the head courtesan yourself, that's all... I'll go drink, fine. But this tale you're spinning right now—not even Lei Buji would believe it." "Oh, come on~ what do you mean 'spinning'? A man's got to have dreams—what if it's true?..." As he spoke, Sun Yixie hurriedly grabbed the cup on the table and took a gulp of wine, slightly covering the awkwardness of being seen through by Huang Donglai. These two really did know each other too well; they could fool anyone but each other, so their discussion was quickly done. Before long, the two called the madam back in and gave their answer; the madam wasted no time, immediately telling Sun Yixie to wait in the room a while longer, then led Huang Donglai off to the room where Master Shu was. ………… Knock knock—knock knock knock— The same two-plus-three knock. Only after Master Shu inside said "Come in" did the madam push the door open and, standing in the doorway, announce: "Master Shu, I've brought Young Master Huang." "Mm." As he answered, Master Shu had already risen and walked to the door, cupping his hands in salute. "Young Hero Huang, I've long admired your name." Huang Donglai, sizing up the newcomer, returned the salute as well: "You're too kind. I, Huang, am of little worth—might I ask whom I have the honor of addressing..." "My friends do me the honor of calling me 'Master Shu,'" Master Shu picked up. "Oh~" Huang Donglai cupped his hands too. "Very well, then I, Huang, shall defer rather than stand on ceremony..." On the surface he said nothing more, but inwardly he understood that this was not a man to be trifled with—a man unwilling even to tell others his real name surely carried a great many secrets. In Huang Donglai's experience, such people were basically the type that came "loaded with a heap of information the moment they give their name"... dealing with such a person called for extra caution. "You may go about your business." Having exchanged greetings with Huang Donglai, Master Shu casually dismissed the madam outside the door. Receiving the order, the madam closed the door and left. As it happened, only now was the madam about to go over to Chu Xue's side to inform her that someone sought an audience and to have the girl freshen up and get ready; so the matter of Sun Yixie and Chu Xue, we shall take up a little later. For now, let us continue with the drinking exchange between Master Shu and Huang Donglai. After a few rounds of each inviting the other to "please," Huang Donglai and Master Shu both took their seats. The food and wine were already laid out; for Huang Donglai to sit down was merely a matter of adding another pair of chopsticks and another cup. "Young Hero Huang's name rings in my ears like thunder, and to meet you today—you truly are a hero in your youth, a man of fine bearing. Allow this one, Shu, to first offer you a cup." Master Shu had this speech prepared long in advance; had it been Sun Yixie who came in now, he'd simply have swapped "Huang" for "Sun" and it would work all the same. "Master Shu is too kind; I, Huang, hardly deserve it." With three parts of a smile, Huang Donglai raised his cup, and even as he gave this reply, he had quietly checked whether the wine had been drugged. After all, he was the young master of the Huang Clan; before putting anything a stranger handed him into his mouth, he almost always observed it carefully—a good habit instilled by the training his father had given him since childhood. The first cup down, and before Huang Donglai had even set his cup on the table, Master Shu immediately asked: "Young Hero Huang, how is my wine?" "Awful." Almost tail to head, Huang Donglai gave his answer right on the heels of Master Shu's question. This answer wasn't because Huang Donglai was an honest sort who spoke without thinking—quite the opposite: he thought extremely fast, and so he understood at once that the question was a probe. "Oh?" Master Shu was indeed thrown off for a moment by Huang Donglai's lightning-fast reply, then smiled. "Heh... Young Hero Huang really does speak sharply and straight to the point." "No, I was already being polite," Huang Donglai said. "Then what would count as impolite?" Master Shu said. "The impolite version would be..." Huang Donglai raised an eyebrow, pointing the rim of the empty cup in his hand at the other. "...did you mix wine into a cup of piss?" "Hahahahaha..." Master Shu laughed—laughed out loud. When the laughter subsided, he said again: "Young Hero Huang, wait a moment." With that, he rose once more, went to one side of the room, opened a cabinet, and fetched over a fresh pot of wine. "This is good wine?" Huang Donglai said, looking up at him. "It is good wine," Master Shu said as he walked back. "Why weren't you drinking it just now?" Huang Donglai said. "When I'm alone I drink only the cheap stuff; only when 'friends' come do I join in with good wine," Master Shu said. "So which is it—are you a cheapskate, or a big spender?" Huang Donglai said. "Does that matter?" Master Shu said. "True, it doesn't matter," Huang Donglai said. "What matters is, when I first sat down, I wasn't your friend, but after drinking that piss-like stuff, it seems I am." "Heh heh..." Master Shu smiled again. "Brother Huang..." His form of address for Huang Donglai suddenly changed. "...someone like me should be understandable to you: rather than 'nice words,' I prefer to hear the 'truth.' So as long as you speak honestly to me, you can be my friend." "'Can be'?" Huang Donglai picked out the key phrase and tossed it back as a question. "Right, 'can be,'" Master Shu said. "Because merely speaking plainly isn't enough either." "There's more?" Huang Donglai said. By now Master Shu had sat back down, and personally filled Huang Donglai's cup with a second serving: "There is—you also have to be clever." "So by that reckoning, I'm clever?" Huang Donglai said. "You are clever," Master Shu said. "That's why all this while you've been asking me questions that sound foolish, when in fact you already know everything, and know that most of what you're asking is useless talk." Huang Donglai nodded. "Then say something that isn't useless, and let me hear it." "You're here to investigate Zheng Mukai's death, aren't you?" Master Shu, true to form, wasted no words, and suddenly steered the topic to the two men's reason for coming. Huang Donglai picked up that second cup and drained it once more, then said: "Since you already know, Master Shu, why not... just tell me the whole story of this matter right now, and spare the two of us from flailing around blindly at your place." "Heh..." At this, Master Shu gave a light laugh, then drank a cup of the good wine as well, and went on: "All I can tell you is that no matter how much you two stir things up here, you won't dig out a thing." "Then you mean..." Huang Donglai's expression shifted slightly. "...for us to stop investigating?" "Yes," Master Shu said. "But one of our brothers... ourselves included, is now being watched to the death by the Guangxing Escort Agency," Huang Donglai said. "If we don't get to the truth, we can never clear our names of this injustice." By rights, at this point Master Shu could simply have answered: "That's your own affair." But he didn't say that. What he actually said was: "Then how about... I help you another way?" Huang Donglai's expression turned serious, and he looked at the other. "Oh? What way?" Never mind that Brother Huang looked perfectly composed on the surface right now; inside he was scared stiff, terrified the other would answer him with, "I'll just kill you both right now and settle it once and for all." "Brother Huang..." A breath later, Master Shu went on unhurriedly, "if I told you that I can make the Guangxing Escort Agency vanish overnight, what would you say to that?" Hearing this, Huang Donglai was so floored by the sheer swagger of it that his scalp went numb. An escort agency was not a proper sect of the martial world, but a special sort of organization that ran primarily as a business and taught martial arts only secondarily; still, when it came to real strength, the Guangxing Escort Agency could just barely scrape into the lowest rung of the orthodox path's second-tier sects. Today, even the head of a first-rate major sect would hardly dare claim he could make any second-tier sect "vanish overnight," yet this Master Shu had said it outright, and said it so lightly, without the slightest air of joking. "Master Shu... is willing to do something like this for us?" Huang Donglai first took a sip of wine to steady his nerves, then asked. He didn't even ask whether it "could be done"; instead he began steering things toward "why." "Of course I'm willing," Master Shu said, as if it were a matter of course. "It's not a difficult thing, after all." "Whether it's difficult or not is beside the point," Huang Donglai continued. "Why would you go this far for us?" "Because we're already 'friends,' aren't we?" Master Shu said. "Doing something within your power for a friend—isn't that perfectly ordinary?" Huang Donglai's mind turned, and it clicked. "Then... this matter—will you handle it yourself, Master Shu, or..." "Heh... why would I handle it myself?" Master Shu laughed. "I'm friends with you, and friends with others. In the past, I've helped other friends with a great many things, so today I can ask those friends to see to this matter for you." Hearing this, Huang Donglai thought to himself with a snark: "This isn't what you'd call 'friends,' damn it—it's what you'd call a 'godfather,' isn't it?" "Hahaha..." The next second, Brother Huang burst out laughing. "So can I take it this way... after you wipe out the Guangxing Escort Agency for us today, then to repay you this favor—and at the same time to keep you from letting it slip—someday in the future, I, this 'friend' of yours, will very likely also have to help some friend of yours I've never even met... to handle some similar business." Master Shu smiled, drank another cup of wine, and after setting down the cup looked at Huang Donglai: "What did I say... you really are a clever one."