Chapter 77: One Step Late, Destined to Lose
Lu Cang controlled half the court, and even the Minister of War was under his command. If one added the Chief Eunuch at the Emperor’s side to that... staging a rebellion would be as easy as flipping his hand.
But there were always exceptions in this world—like someone who had anticipated his rebellion, or like all the other aristocratic families banding together to play this game against him.
Xiao Li couldn’t make another public move. She passed all her intelligence to the Fang family, letting the father and his two sons act as intermediaries.
Fortune favors the bold. She had offered them the ladder; whether they could seize the opportunity was up to them.
Seeing the Princess Mansion swallowed by firelight in the distance, Xiao Li smiled and walked away.
In this world, everything came down to timing. One step too late, and you were doomed to lose.
’The Lu family was even a step too late to kill me. And they think they can win?’
In a house less than fifty meters from the Chang Chun Building—a simple residence with two rooms, a main hall, and a woodshed and kitchen tacked onto the side—it looked like any ordinary commoner’s home.
Someone knocked a secret signal, and the door opened at once. A slender girl looked up at the visitor, words catching in her throat, before she bowed and ushered him inside.
From within, pairs of eyes peeked out, regarding the stranger with a mixture of apprehension and curiosity.
The main door closed, and two lamps were lit inside the house.
A room barely large enough for a single table was crowded with seventeen children and... a baby.
The visitor frowned at the sight of the baby sucking its thumb but said nothing. He took a register from his robes and handed it to the oldest girl.
"This is a list of all the patrons of the Chang Chun Building."
"My master instructed me to tell you that having the Gao Family executed was the most she could do. You will have to seek revenge on the others yourselves."
He then produced a pouch. "The items you took from the Chang Chun Building cannot be exchanged for money right now. Inside this pouch are eighteen portions of silver—some silver notes, some broken silver. Each portion is one hundred taels. After you take it, those of you who know where your families are may return home. Those who wish to leave may do so. If you have nowhere to go, the deed to this house is also here. You can continue to live here."
When he had finished speaking, the girl who had opened the door summoned her courage and asked, "Can we... know our benefactor’s name?"
All eyes swiveled to him in an instant.
She explained anxiously, "We just want to know who saved us. If we have the chance in the future, we will definitely repay our benefactor’s immense kindness."
The man gazed at the room full of children. The oldest was the fifteen-year-old girl before him; the rest were around twelve or thirteen. At an age that should have been full of innocence, their eyes were numb and lifeless. But when they spoke of their benefactor, a glimmer of hope suddenly sparked within them.
The thought of what they had endured made his heart ache.
"You cannot. My master does not need your gratitude. However..."
He looked at the oldest girl, at the last flicker of light burning in her eyes, and couldn’t bear to watch it be extinguished.
"My master is a very capable woman. She admires people who are strong-willed and resilient. Her name contains the character for ’dawn.’ Live well, and perhaps one day, she will be willing to appear before you."
"Then..." the girl asked hesitantly, "Will our benefactor... look down on us?"
He sighed softly. "In my heart, I believe she would never look down on you. On the contrary, she feels great pity for you. But as for the true answer, you will have to ask her yourselves when you stand before her one day."
"Alright, I must be going. We will meet again."
Everyone watched him leave, their gazes lingering on the door long after it had closed.
--------
"What took you so long?"
An impatient voice drifted down from the upper floor. Yang Jun pulled down his cloak and looked up at Xiao Li, who was perched on the edge of the railing, drinking.
She dangled a wine pot from one hand over the outside of the railing, her sleeve pushed up to reveal a sliver of a snowy-white arm that was strikingly pale even in the dark.
"Those children were clamoring to see the Princess. I had to placate them a little."
Xiao Li glanced down at him. "You know how to placate children?"
Yang Jun’s build wasn’t as tall and brawny as Rong Qing’s, but as a martial artist, he was far from scrawny. He only ever appeared docile in front of Xiao Li; at all other times, he was stern and unsmiling, as if someone owed him money and refused to pay.
’I really can’t imagine someone like that trying to soothe a child.’
Yang Jun only answered after he had come upstairs. "They were staring so expectantly. I couldn’t just turn my back and walk away."
Xiao Li didn’t ask any more questions, instead telling Hong Yue to warm a cup of wine for Yang Jun as well.
The north wind had arrived tonight, bringing an exceptional chill.
"Thank you for this gift, Princess."
Yang Jun accepted the wine and drank it down. The warm liquor warmed him body and soul. Perhaps because he had just seen the children, he found himself more talkative than usual.
"Actually, Princess, you could go see them. Those children are incredibly grateful to you. With a little training, they could surely be of use to you. The great aristocratic families always choose children like them to train as Death Warriors."
Xiao Li shot him an annoyed glare. "You talk too much."
Yang Jun didn’t mind the scolding. This whole affair had taught him that his master was all bark and no bite.
He glanced at Xiao Li, then at the night sky. ’Tonight will not be peaceful.’ Rong Qing had been sent to the Military Department, so he had to be on high alert to ensure the Princess’s absolute safety.
At the third quarter of the Yin Hour, a signal arrow shot into the sky in a dazzling, brilliant burst. It was the signal for the battle to begin.
It wasn’t that the Lu family had only just now decided to seize power. Rather, they had discovered that their covert methods—such as the Emperor suddenly falling gravely ill, dying unexpectedly, and leaving behind an imperial edict to pass the throne to Prince Chen—had failed.
The methods of civil servants were always more refined. They disliked brandishing swords and spears; even when they wanted to steal something from you, they had to make sure it looked respectable on the surface.
But when they found they couldn’t kill the Emperor and their conspiracy had been exposed, their only choice was to drop the pretenses and draw their blades.
Xiao Li’s carriage slowly approached the gates of the Imperial Palace. The enormous gates were now completely unguarded, and the carriage drove straight through.
The night air was thick with frost and heavy dew, and though the sky was pitch-black, the entire Imperial Palace was so brightly lit that it seemed like daytime under the moonlight.
There wasn’t much blood on the ground, a sign that the fighting so far had not been too brutal.
However, the farther in she went, the more bodies she saw. The remaining soldiers were all gathered inside the second gate, divided into two opposing factions, observing a temporary truce.
Xiao Li did not approach, instead climbing onto a higher section of the palace wall and leaning against a pillar to look down.
There were many people in the palace tonight. Besides the soldiers, nearly all the civil and military officials of the court had come.
Seventy percent of them stood on one side, protecting the Emperor, while the other thirty percent stood with Lu Cang. At their head was Prince Chen, clad in full armor.
The two factions were in a standoff. Lu Cang’s side was clearly outnumbered, but their presence was no less imposing. This was especially true of the few generals in armor with them; one look was enough to tell they had countless lives on their hands. They were ferocious and intimidating, their aura overwhelming.
By comparison, the people behind the Emperor looked like a disorganized mob.
’The Lu family and Prince Chen really are the protagonists destined to succeed in their rebellion,’ she thought. ’Even though the timeline has moved up and their numbers are fewer, judging by this setup, they’ll probably still succeed tonight.’
Xiao Li hadn’t trusted Xiao Jingyun to handle this, which was why she’d come to see for herself. It seemed her visit was indeed necessary.
She placed the box she had been carrying on the ground and opened it, quickly assembling a few parts by the faint light.
When fully assembled, it was unmistakably a bolt-action sniper rifle—the most perfect weapon she could have possibly forged in such a short amount of time.
She loaded a bullet, then attached the scope.
The glass lens had been polished again and again, but it was still no standard-issue scope. There were deviations, and the view wasn’t perfectly clear.
However, she had already fired more than ten practice rounds and had a rough grasp of its deviation.
She rested the barrel on the wall’s parapet and aimed for Lu Cang’s head.
’I’d love to go for a headshot, but the accuracy isn’t good enough,’ she mused. ’I’ll have to settle for the next best thing.’
She aimed for a spot just to the left of his heart and, without a moment’s hesitation, pulled the trigger.
------