Chapter 5

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If it were any other time, Su Yunchu would’ve been able to deal with these people without any difficulty. No one under the sky could match her in close combat martial arts but the few days spent running around had made her a little disoriented.

Although they had taken frequent trips over the years, it had always been leisurely. It was indeed the first time that they had traveled this way so this time, it was inevitable that she was a bit overwhelmed.

Therefore, when she heard the three of them calling out in panic, she also couldn’t dodge the attack. After all, she still hadn’t finished the fight with the two people in front of her.

Before she could regret that she hadn’t properly acclimated to the long carriage ride, the sound of swords clashing rang out behind her. The feeling of the sword entering her flesh did not happen. Instead, she heard Fu Ling and Yu Zhu’s surprised voices, “Chen gongzi!”

Chen Ziming’s appearance seemed to have infused a layer of strength into Yu Zhu and Fu Ling, and the current fight became a bit more intense.

Su Yunchu, however, exhaled a sigh of relief. Although she didn’t turn her head to look behind her, she still asked, “Ziming, why are you here?”

Chen Ziming had reached Su Yunchu’s side, “I have something to do in Qingzhou.”

Knowing this was not the time to catch up, Su Yunchu only asked that one question then no more, and also concentrated on the fight. With the addition of Ziming, in no time at all, the fight had a winner and a loser.

Fu Ling, with one hand, pointed her sword at the throat of the man who had been called Lao San earlier and stepped on his chest. “Tell me, who took care of who.”

The man was not a resolute one, and in such a situation, at a glance, anyone could see who was on the chopping block and who was holding the knife. Now, he also hurriedly begged for mercy, “Great aunt, spare our lives, great aunt, spare our lives. It was you who settled us, it was you who settled us.”

Fu Ling snorted, “Spare your life? You dare to scream ‘spare your life’! Someone as spineless as you doesn’t deserve to beg for mercy.”

Although the man was spineless, it was clear that the man who was the leader of the gang was much stronger than him, and only said in contempt to the man begging for mercy. “Old third, why are you so spineless.”

“Boss, what else can you do now that we’re like this?” Although he had no guts, in the end, he was a man who knew reality.

That leader just heaved a heavy sigh of sorrow, admitting that he was right.

Yu Zhu was obviously a calmer person who paid attention to the root of the problem, and with Su Yunchu’s indication, also went over to ask the leader. She pointed her sword at him. “Say who sent you here.”

The sound of the sword entering his flesh merged with the man hissing a cry of pain, but he still gritted his teeth, “I don’t know!”

Yu Zhu didn’t believe him and the tip went in a little further. The location was a pain acupuncture point on the human body. She believed he wouldn’t be able to take it, but the man still gritted his teeth as he cried out in pain, “I really don’t know.”

Yu Zhu pulled out the tip and stabbed it into his other shoulder on the same acupuncture point and asked again, “Will you talk or not?”

The man had been tortured by the pain to the point where his head is dripping with cold sweat, “In this business, we just collect money and carry out the job. How would we know the identity of the customer? You aren’t from the world of crime if you don’t know these rules?”

This was indeed true. Some people who do this kind of business, when the buyer pays, carries out what was asked. That person’s name, for the guest’s identity information, naturally, would not ask much.

Yu Zhu, after following Su Yunchu for so many years, understood this of course, but couldn’t help it at that moment.

Instead, Chen Ziming spoke up, “Miss Yu Zhu, they’re right. The buyer is looking for someone to take a life, naturally wouldn’t say too much. They definitely wouldn’t know who the buyer is.”

“This gentleman’s right; that’s the reason, miss. Even if you kill me, I couldn’t say who the other party is.”

But Chen Ziming took over the job from Yu Zhu and asked, “If you can’t tell who the other party is, then tell me what they wanted you to do. “

The leaderof the group had been tortured by Yu Zhu, and the pain was naturally unbearable, so he told the story of what had happened earlier, “It was half a month ago. A man gave us 300,000 taels of silver and said to kill a carriage returning to the capital from Jiangnan carrying a fourteen-year-old female. Judging the distance, a carriage should have passed by a few days ago, but we waited for days without seeing it. Us brothers thought we were tricked by that man, but you unexpectedly arrived today…”

With that said, the few people in Su Yunchu’s group had already understood that this was someone paying for their lives!

Fu Ling inherently had violent temper. As soon as she heard this, she exchanged a look with Yu Zhu, each stabbing the one called Lao San’s shoulders, “You deserve to die, how dare you try and kill Miss!”

Ying Li was a man of few words, but it was clear that he felt no less strongly than the two girls. These people were basically trash.

Su Yunchu didn’t really want to extinguish their lives. In the end, she was still a doctor, and had a bit of compassion for life.

Over the years, she had traveled to countless places in Jiangnan, and had encountered all kinds of situations that weren’t without their danger. But in this life, she had never killed anyone. Perhaps in her previous life, as a military doctor, she was killing people and saving them at the same time, the two incompatible concepts occurring jointly. She wasn’t a kind person, but in the end, she wouldn’t kill at will in this era where human life was treated like grass. Besides, this hitman organization was their source of income, how they made a living. In the end, she also wasn’t a vicious person after all.

Only after this side of the matter was resolved did she have time to spare to ask Chen Ziming, “Why did Ziming appear here?”

Chen Ziming’s eyes flickered, only to respond, “Before, when I heard that you were returning to the capital, there wasn’t any time to escort you. But I didn’t expect to be able to meet here.”

Su Yunchu nodded her head, not delving into the hidden discrepancy between Chen Ziming’s words and her question, but still followed his words, “Earlier you said that you were going to Qingzhou for business?”

Chen Ziming replied with an ‘en. He looked like he was hesitating about something, but finally opened his mouth, “Why didn’t you have Brother Haoliu send you back to the capital? The whole journey was already dangerous. Just now, if I hadn’t heard the sounds of fighting over here and rushed over, afraid you…”

Su Yunchu interrupted him with a smile, “Older cousin was busy. The library1 is in need of cleaning and tidying up right now. He is so meticulous and cherishes the library, the whole process requires his full attention. I shouldn’t inconvenience him to escort me, besides… older cousin is just a scholar. Not having learned martial arts, he doesn’t need to. Besides, if this journey was truly dangerous, wouldn’t it also put older cousin in danger?”

(unclear if it’s a business/store or a private library)

In this generation of the Song family, no one practiced martial arts. Song Haoliu, the first of the four great gongzi of Jiangnan of great talent and learning, was rich in knowledge yet was, nevertheless, a weak scholar. If not for Su Yunchu’s thoughtfully offering to cultivate some personal guards in her years with the Song family, afraid that Song Haoliu wouldn’t have been so protected in his travels over the years.

After hearing Su Yunchu’s words, Chen Ziming smiled and said, “It’s true that I didn’t consider that. I forgot that, although Brother Haoliu is more learned than the other three of us, he’s never practiced martial arts.” But after a pause, he continued, “Even so, your party of four is really not suitable.”

“Rest assured, I think the danger has already passed. I’ll reach the capital in ten more days. Even if there’s danger, it’s unlikely it’ll appear again as we approach the capital.” Regardless of who it was, since they were wanting to murder Su Yunchu, this attempt was unsuccessful and missed the best time and terrain. Later on, it’d be even more difficult to have such an opportunity again. Anyways, was Su Yunchu someone who could be taken advantage of?

“En.” Chen Ziming did agree with such thoughts and judgments, but still spoke out, “Don’t go on this road, I’ll escort you back to the capital.”

“No need. Since you’ve come to Qingzhou on business, how can I delay your affairs? There’s no danger in going this route. Besides, you know my skills.” Su Yunchu still refused Chen Ziming’s request.

“Just… “Chen Ziming still wanted to say something more, but Su Yunchu had already interrupted him.

“Rest assured, Ziming. In the future, when you return to Jiangnan, please don’t mention this to cousin, so as to avoid worrying my family. If we can meet in the capital, we’ll catch up again.”

Having said that, Chen Ziming couldn’t say anything more. The whole bunch of them in Jiangnan, between them and Su Yunchu, could be said to have grown up together so they somewhat knew her temperament. Her stubbornness and persistence, sometimes wouldn’t even fall short to her. Not to mention that, having traveled together all these years, he himself understood this clearly.

There was no more to be said now so he simply said, “Be careful on your way.”

“En, thank you for today’s matter.” Su Yunchu sincerely said.

“Between you and me, there’s no need to say thank you… For the sake of Brother Haoliu, I naturally wouldn’t stand idly by with folded arms.” Chen Ziming waved his hand to Su Yunchu.

“Then, farewell.”

“Farewell.” Chen Ziming finally watched Sun Yunchu with a gaze of unclear meaning, eyes following her back ascend into the carriage. He watched her carriage ride into the distance, before spurring his horse to leave.

Fu Ling, who had gotten into the carriage, predictably burst with complaints. “ Really don’t know who sent them to kill Miss, but if it weren’t for Chen gongzi appearing in time, how dangerous it would’ve been.”

Yu Zhu shot a glance at her, her voice unexpectedly containing some of Su Yunchu’s coldness, “ Disregarding who sent them for the time being, after returning to the capital, there will definitely be some clues.” Taking another look at Su Yunchu who didn’t express any other indication, she continued, “It can be assumed that, afraid that this matter has something to do with the Zhiyuan Marquis residence. After all, back then, Zhiyuan Marquis was interested in Miss…”

Su Yunchu faintly smiled. Back then, she didn’t understand much about the things inside the Zhiyuan Marquis residence. When she transmigrated, the real Su Yunchu had just died. Her birth mother’s whole body was sickly. Bewildered, how could she grasp so many things. A six years old’s memories were mostly incomplete. Thus, even though she inherited her predecessor’s memories, everything about the Zhiyuan Marquis residence was unfamiliar and no warmth at all. Now, as the years passed, and after the Zhiyuan Marquis’ seven years of indifference, if not for her surname Su, this layer of relations,and if not for the literary reputation of the women from the Song family, if it were just her, it was really possible that she wouldn’t return to the Zhiyuan Marquis residence. But after all, she lived in the world and there was no avoiding the conventions.

“I haven’t even returned to the capital yet, and I’ve already incurred such a calamity. From this, I’m afraid there’s still quite a bit to come after returning to the capital.” Her sneer had her uncommonly seen cold temperment to it.

“Miss…” Yu Zhu and Fu Ling were a little worried.

However, Su Yunchu smiled instead, “What, are you two scared?”

“Scared?” Fu Ling immediately declared, “Miss, we aren’t afraid. Where Miss goes, we’ll go.” She continued, vowing, “We will protect Miss.”

Fu Ling and Yu Zhu were said to be a year older than Su Yunchu, but Su Yunchu’s soul was already over twenty years old. Thus, towards these people serving by her side, she always had a feeling of looking after them. Towards Fu Ling’s attitude, she couldn’t help bursting into laughter.

Outside, though Ying Li did not say anything, he had a relatively more vigilant and tense expression compared to earlier, all of which showed his determination to protect his master.

The journey was without further danger, and the party finally reached the capital after more than ten days of travel.

A/N

Well… Chen Ziming is also an important character, ah…

i had this chapter half-translated and finally pushed myself to finish it so here it is! belated xmas gift :)) sorry if there’s any discrepancies from previous chapters, i haven’t read this novel for months

i forgot how exhausting it was to translate this novel, the wording is so awkward and difficult to convey (honestly why i kept giving up). unfortunately, i don’t think i’ll be continuing translating this novel any further, i’m just not motivated but maybe in my spare time.

want faster updates? sponsor a chapter for $6 on my kofi! specifically comment that it’s for FCMC

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