V2C133

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“It’s fortunate that you arrived in time, my lord.” Ruo Ping said in a hurry, “Otherwise it would have been really troublesome.”

“This little brat, refused a toast of wine only to be forced to eat a punishment*!” The head guard carried the child onto his shoulders, turned back to look at the two maids in the night, and suddenly sighed, “Alas, you two, you are really unlucky as well.”

What did that mean? There was something strange about that glance, and Ruo Ping, who was older and experienced after all, subconsciously took a step backwards. However, as soon as she moved her feet, a sharp flash of light already swept over.

“Help…” Xiao Hui tried to escape, but her scream was cut short from her throat.

The head guard took the unconscious child and left without a second glance, leaving the bodies of the two maids behind him.

According to the Head Steward’s orders, this matter was extremely confidential and no one was to be preserved alive, regardless of success or failure – originally, even if the plan would have been successful and the shark child would have taken the money in faith and gone away forever, the two women would have been silenced regardless. All the more so now that the first plan was a complete failure.

The head guard, carrying Sumo in his arms, was about to leave the Red King’s palace. Suddenly, the voice of a man reached from the deepest recesses of the darkness: “What, the two of them failed to hush the child?”

The head guard recognized whose voice it was and couldn’t help but blurt out, “Lord Headmaster?”

His face also changed swiftly, and he subconsciously took a step backwards, almost slamming the child he carried in his hand onto the ground – yes, that person standing in the dark corner of the garden was, indeed, the Grand Head Master of the Red King’s Mansion!

“What, did I startled you?” The Head Steward couldn’t help but burst out laughing when he caught sight of the expression on the Head Guard’s face, “You look like you had seen a ghost.”

“Didn’t you… accompanied the Red King to the capital for his meeting with the emperor?” The head guard was mumbling, frightened, “How could you… how could you suddenly appear in the Palace?”

“Alas, the Red King is too concerned about this brat and insisted that I come here overnight to keep an eye on things.” The Head Steward shook his head, “What, it is your turn to take action? Ruo Ping and the girls didn’t manage to take care of him?”

“Yes,” the head guard exhaled slowly, “the boy is very young, but he is very shrewd! No matter how much he was persuaded, he insisted on going to the Princess to ask for a clarification in person. Even a smart person like Ruo Ping couldn’t fool him, and he even managed to escape by accident.”

“…Really he has no idea what’s going on.” The Head Steward frowned and looked at the little shark child, a cold glint passing through his eyes, “I had hoped to do things a little more gently and leave this little brat alive as long as he left the house with a clear conscience, but I didn’t expect him to be so ungrateful. Who’s to blame?”

The unconscious child turned his head unaware, clutching the tiny doll in his hand, his beautiful, delicate face also resembling a doll.

“A shame.” With a hint of regret in his voice and a wave of hand, the Head Steward ordered, “Dispose of the boy overnight, and don’t keep the body, throw him into the sea – just pretend as if the boy went missing and never returned to the Palace ever since.”

“Yes!” The head guard received his orders and hauled the child up in one hand.

“Move quickly, I have to rush back to the Imperial Capital tomorrow for the big wedding ceremony!” The Head Steward barked after him, “When you’re done with it, bring a token back so I can account to the King as well.”

“Yes.” The head guard nodded and with a slight leap of his feet, he left the palace.

After midnight, the wind outside on the beach was chilling. The head guard skimmed across the deserted beach carrying the unconscious child a couple of times up and down, stopping on a reef. He placed the child down, crunched on to the bottom of his feet, drew out his long knife and thrust it into the sand with a quick swipe, looking around.

Up there, unexpectedly, there were already a couple of silhouettes waiting, in silence.

“Have you brought the child?” The man in the forefront asked, with an aged voice and his eyes appeared to be crystal blue under the cold moon, revealing a strand of white, faint azure hair under his hood.

“It’s been brought in.” The head guard placed the child down from his shoulders, “There was almost an accident.”

The moment they saw Sumo on the ground, a hooded woman behind the old man let out a low gasp, instantly rushing over to pick up the boy, looking at him over and over again, with tears in her eyes.

“It’s him.” The woman turned back and nodded in confirmation to the elder.

Elder Quan breathed a sigh of relief and nodded to the head guard, “Good work.”

“That was close.” The Head Guard patted his hands and let out a deep breath, “I was just planning to bring this little one out in private tonight, but to my surprise the Head Steward suddenly rushed back to the Palace from the Imperial Capital! I almost exposed myself – luckily the Head Steward doesn’t like to see blood and didn’t tag along, otherwise I would have exposed myself!”

“What?” Elder Quan looked stern, “Did the Red King discover our deal?”

“That’s not the case.” The head guard pondered for a moment and said, “I guess it’s probably because the Princess was once bewitched by that shark called Yuan, so the Red King doesn’t want her to have anything to do with sharks anymore, I suppose – even if it’s just a little child, he’d rather kill him wrongfully than let him go.”

“Is that so?” Elder Quan and the others behind him shuddered and exchanged glances – these Kongsang nobles have always been cold-blooded and selfish, and if the Red King really planned that, it would be just what they wanted. From now on, this child will have nothing to do with the Red King’s House.

The Head Guard frowned, “Where is what I asked for?”

“It will be no shortage for you.” The woman behind Elder Quan stepped forward and handed a heavy bag into his hands, “Ten thousand gold baht, do the count.”

“No need.” The head guard just weighed it in his hand and got a rough idea of the amount, “And the other thing that was agreed upon? Without that, I can’t go back and turn in.”

“Here.” Elder Quan nodded lightly as another man behind him placed an object on the ground. It was a long bundle of cloth, and when unrolled, it revealed a dead child inside – a tiny body hunched into a ball, thin and shapeless, with long pale blue hair tangled in a ball.

“Is it already dead?” The Head Guard was a little dissatisfied, “Why didn’t you find a living substitute? In case of being seen…”

“After looking around the Western Market, this is the only one that resembles him better, the other slaves don’t match in age and stature.” Elder Quan briefly interrupted his discontent, saying calmly, “We’ve disguised this child, so the average person can’t distinguish them, enough to hide it from the Head Master of the Red King’s Mansion.”

“Forget it.” The head guard muttered, walking over and with a slash, he chopped off the head of the child’s corpse with a stroke and brought it up in his hand, “I guess this will be enough to barely pass the test.”

“Ah!” The moment he chopped down the child’s lifeless body to be used as proof, the masked woman subconsciously let out a shriek, her voice sounding extremely miserable. The head guard couldn’t help but turn to look, and a hint of surprise passed through his eyes, “Strange… your voice sounds a bit familiar, have I seen you somewhere before?”

The woman turned her head, no longer locking eyes with him, and her fingers trembled slightly.

“Well,” Elder Quan coughed, interrupting them, “ten thousand baht is almost ten years of your wages, isn’t it? Don’t ask any more questions about irrelevant matters.”

The head guard took his eyes off the woman, glanced at the golden baht in his hand and smiled, “So be it.” He collected the money, bent down and lifted the child’s head up, “I’m going back to deliver my duties. Today’s incident will be treated as if it never happened…”

“See you later.” Elder Quan’s voice turned cold as he watched him leave.

The ocean was exceptionally dark before dawn, with only the faint sound of waves coming from the horizon and echoing around the ears. The old man walked down to the beach, bent his knees, put the headless body of the child away, sighed long and hard, and looked again at the unconscious child in the woman’s arms.

“Do you think that this child can really become the Ocean Emperor?” Someone spoke up behind him; it was another one of the three elders, and his tone became heavy, “Such a rebel, with no home or country in his heart – after being acknowledged by the Dragon God at the Abyss of Cangwu, not only did he not accepted his status of Ocean Emperor, but he tried his best to escape!”

“He’s just a child right now, perhaps he doesn’t really understand the burden on his shoulders yet.” Elder Quan sighed, “It’s still quite simple to change a child’s thoughts.”

“…” All three elders fell silent and stopped talking.

“Let Ruyi take care of him first… just don’t take this child back to the Mirror Lake camp, find a safe place to settle down.” After thinking for a long time, Elder Quan spoke up, “This child is unruly and untamed, forcing him back over to the Army Encampment and forcing him to shoulder the burden of leadership is not a good idea.”

The other two elders frowned, “What should we do then?”

“One step at a time.” Elder Quan nodded, “We need to get rid of this head guard of the Red King’s House when we get back, to avoid leaving a trail for the Kongsang people to trace behind us.”

“Good.” Elder Jian nodded and replied with a clear mind, “This man loves to drink and gamble and is often in debt, that’s why he was so easily bribed by us – have the owner’s wife of Silver Hook Gambling House arrange a time to say that the gamblers lost and started a fight among themselves, and take advantage of the chaos to kill him off.”

“Good, then it is arranged.” Elder Quan nodded, and after a pause, added, “Heaven be praised, now that this child is finally safely back in our hands… we have to make sure that this child cuts off all ties of his previous life in order to make him become a true Ocean Emperor!”

*refused a toast of wine only to be forced to eat a punishment – 敬酒不吃吃罚酒 – Chinese saying, which can be translated as: Coaxing a person with good manners to do something, but if they refuse, bring in the aggressive manners.

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