Chapter 50: Speculation
Chapter 50: Chapter 50: Speculation
"Eldest Young Master Wang, isn’t the Wang Family overreaching a bit?"
At the gates of the Inner City, Hu Yuxing didn’t step out from the shadows until Su Mu had disappeared in the direction of the Outer City.
Wang Guan fanned himself with a paper fan, a smug look on his face. "You’re being so subtle. I have no idea what you mean."
"Su Mu is a constable of my South City Bureau. It was I who promoted him to squad leader.
Now you’re interfering. You’re breaking the rules."
Hu Yuxing said gravely.
The four great families of the Inner City were locked in both open and secret struggles. For now, however, they maintained a superficial peace, and on the surface, everyone still followed certain unwritten rules.
"No, no."
Wang Guan shook his head. "I’ve told you, Su Mu isn’t one of our Wang Family. He and I are just friends, on a personal basis. It has absolutely nothing to do with the Wang Family. Or do I, Wang Guan, need to report to you, Sima Hu, every time I make a friend?"
"Just friends?"
Hu Yuxing and Feng Wandong both frowned.
It was an open secret in the Inner City of Wuling that the Second Young Master of the Wang Family was useless in both scholarly and martial pursuits. He was capable of any absurdity, so it wasn’t entirely impossible that he’d befriend a junior squad leader from the Outer City.
’Could it be they really hit it off and became friends?’
"I’m leaving. But I’m warning you: if you bully my brother again, you’ll get a slap from me."
Wang Guan swaggered off with his entourage in tow.
Hu Yuxing and Feng Wandong stared at each other.
"Do you believe him?"
Hu Yuxing finally spoke after a long silence.
"Believe him? Hell no."
Feng Wandong said irritably, "Not a single true word has ever come out of the Second Young Master Wang’s mouth. Something must have happened that we don’t know about."
"However, the Second Young Master Wang probably wasn’t lying when he said Su Mu isn’t part of the Wang Family. Even if Su Mu had really sworn allegiance to them, he wouldn’t be qualified to call the Second Young Master his brother.
Don’t be fooled by the fact that Su Mu has mastered saber momentum. His Body Tempering Realm is too low. Even our Hu Family wouldn’t place too much importance on him, and the Wang Family is no different.
A direct heir of the Wang Family would never call someone like him a brother just for that."
Feng Wandong mused aloud, "I suspect there’s someone else behind Su Mu. That must be why the Second Young Master Wang is calling him a brother."
"And this person... who is it?"
Hu Yuxing sucked in a sharp breath. If Feng Wandong’s guess was true, then the person backing Su Mu was likely no ordinary figure. Otherwise, Wang Guan would never have shown such an attitude.
"Could it be someone from the City Lord’s faction...?"
He and Feng Wandong exchanged a look, their eyes filled with gravity.
"The City Lord wants to interfere in the affairs of the Outer City?"
Hu Yuxing’s expression was grim. In Wuling City, the City Lord’s surname was Luo. The Luo Family was the most powerful, but their influence was mainly confined to the Inner City. They rarely interfered in the Outer City, which was intentionally left as the domain for the other three families.
"This is no small matter. I must inform the family as soon as possible," Feng Wandong said.
"As for Su Mu, don’t alert him for now. And don’t try to recruit him again. Just act like you don’t know his identity and carry on as usual."
"Understood," Hu Yuxing said gravely.
......
"Hiding your identity to train in the Outer City, I get it. I definitely won’t reveal who you are."
Walking through the streets of the Outer City, Su Mu recalled what the Second Young Master of the Wang Family had said to him with a conspiratorial wink.
Su Mu had no idea what he thought he understood, nor what conclusions he had jumped to.
But since the Second Young Master of the Wang Family had stepped in, Su Mu didn’t need to continue his bluff.
That kind of bluffing could have repercussions. If that "Taiping" guy found out, who knew if he might take a disliking to Su Mu?
Although Su Mu hadn’t actually lied, it was better to avoid throwing his weight around unless absolutely necessary. After all, the influence he was leveraging wasn’t really his own.
If he ended up offending that "Taiping" guy, the loss would far outweigh the gain.
’I’ve already been to the Taiping Bureau. I don’t know when they’ll be back from outside the city. I can only wait for news,’ Su Mu thought to himself. ’Going out of the city to search for them is out of the question. The Daxing Mountain Range stretches for eight hundred li; I have no idea where the people from the Taiping Bureau have gone.’
’Besides, the world outside the city is teeming with monsters and fraught with danger.’
’This is a good chance to consolidate my strength. By the time that "Taiping" guy gets back, maybe I’ll have grown even stronger.’
By the time darkness had completely fallen, Su Mu had returned to Yang Jin’s home.
Yang Jin wasn’t there.
But Yang Jin was always acting mysteriously, often sneaking out in the middle of the night, so it was hardly strange for him to be away.
Su Mu paid it no mind, went straight to the room from the previous night, and fell asleep as soon as his head hit the pillow.
He woke up sometime around midnight.
The fatigue from the long day was completely gone. Lying in bed, Su Mu called up his system panel.
[Name: Su Mu]
[Status: Constable Leader (Official)]
[Points: 65]
[Cultivation Technique: Golden Scale Skin Tempering Technique (Major Accomplishment)]
[Martial Arts: Submerging Wave Saber Technique (Perfection), Archery (Entry-level)]
His status still hadn’t changed. The base point gain for a squad leader was only twenty points.
’Still no news from the Taiping Bureau, and who knows when Hu Yuxing’s promised promotion to Chief will be made official.’
Looking at the information on the panel, Su Mu thought to himself, ’I’d better keep doing my job as squad leader diligently. At the very least, I need to earn more merit points.’
The mere thought of "work" made a wave of drowsiness wash over Su Mu, and he quickly fell asleep again.
......
「The next morning.」
Yang Jin had returned at some point and was now fast asleep in his room, his snores shaking the heavens.
Su Mu didn’t wake him. He just thought to himself that since he couldn’t go to the Inner City for the time being, it wasn’t really appropriate to keep living with another grown man. Perhaps he should find his own place first.
He got himself ready, grabbed his long saber, and headed for the South City Bureau.
Since he couldn’t leave for the time being, he figured he might as well get his own jurisdiction in order.
Just as Su Mu arrived at the entrance to the South City Bureau, Zheng Wang, the squad leader in charge of Pingkang Square, came up to greet him.
"Constable Xiao Su, you’re finally here!"
He sidled up to Su Mu, grinning as if he’d just found two taels of silver.
"Sergeant Zheng, I’m not a Chief yet," Su Mu said humbly.
"It’s only a matter of time."
Zheng Wang laughed it off, then suddenly lowered his voice. "Xu Mingchen is inside waiting for you."
"He’s got some nerve, coming to the South City Bureau to find me," Su Mu said.
"He’s here to turn himself in."
Zheng Wang’s expression was a little strange. He whispered, "Steward Xu confessed to everything. He was the one who hired assassins to kill the last two squad leaders of Guangfu Square."
"If Steward Xu did it all, what is Xu Mingchen turning himself in for?"
Su Mu asked, confused. He was all too familiar with this kind of scapegoat ploy. It was absolutely impossible that Steward Xu had done everything without Xu Mingchen’s knowledge.
But he also knew that it would be impossible to find any evidence against Xu Mingchen.
Since Steward Xu had taken all the blame, no further investigation would lead back to Xu Mingchen.
"That, I don’t know."
Zheng Wang shrugged and shook his head. "He insisted on waiting for you to get here before he’d say anything. Guangfu Square is your jurisdiction, after all, so it makes sense he’d ask for you.
If you can take down the Xu Family, Constable Xiao Su, you’ll have another great achievement under your belt."
Zheng Wang’s face was full of envy.
"Achieving great things isn’t what’s important. I just want to do right by the people of Guangfu Square. It’s simply my duty."
Su Mu said, "Let’s go. Let’s hear what Xu Mingchen has to say."