Chapter 209 - The Choice (2)

Xu Yuan’s voice came through the crystal again. “And Xu Changge has no objections?”

Xu Yinhe did not answer directly. Instead, he said meaningfully, “Changtian, I am the one who decides matters in the Chancellor's Manor.”

“But Eldest Brother’s opinion matters,” Xu Yuan insisted with unusual stubbornness.

Xu Yinhe studied Xu Changge’s expression with an amused smile before replying softly, “Mhm... probably not. You know your elder brother’s temperament. But how did you work it out? Just from the two skin masks I gave you?”

Xu Yuan sighed, his voice carrying a trace of helplessness. “I know Xu Changge too well. My conclusion had more to do with that rotten temper of his. In all the years he has been managing affairs, he must have clashed with Lou Ji and the others quite a few times, right?”

Xu Changge’s eyelid twitched.

Xu Yinhe gave him an indifferent glance.

Xu Changge sighed soundlessly.

Xu Yuan was not wrong.

The last time Lou Ji and Wu Zigeng, who managed the Calm Sky Martial Halls, argued with him over the year-end funding allocation, they had nearly come to blows inside the Chancellor's Manor. As for slammed tables and shouting matches, there had been too many to count.

Xu Yuan, however, was not finished. He continued rambling on. “Xu Changge may look impressive to outsiders, but to Father’s old friends and subordinates, he is probably still just some wet-behind-the-ears brat.”

Xu Changge’s eyelids twitched again.

“And not just any brat, either. The kind who loves putting on airs and ordering everyone around like he owns the place. I cannot speak for the others, but with Auntie Lou Ji’s personality, there is no chance she could tolerate him. And another thing, Xu Changge has that—”

“Changtian.”

Xu Yuan immediately shut his mouth.

“When you return to the Imperial Capital to formalize your engagement, I will personally meet you outside the city.”

Xu Yuan’s expression turned ugly. He never expected Xu Channge to be with their father right now.

Beside him, Xu Xinyao fought desperately to hold back her laughter.

The atmosphere froze solid.

In the end, it was Xu Yinhe who dragged the conversation back on course. “Enough. Changtian, did you contact me solely to confirm this?”

Xu Yuan gave a light cough. “Ahem. There are two other matters. One small, one large.”

“Oh?” Xu Yinhe’s tone rose slightly.

“The small matter is that I would like to ask a favor of you.” Xu Yuan lowered his voice and glanced at Xu Xinyao beside him. “There is a gang leader here in Myriad, the head of the Calm Bay Gang. He discovered my identity...”

He stopped there. The implication was clear enough.

After listening carefully, Xu Yinhe asked, “You want to spare his life?”

“Mhm.” Xu Yuan nodded and answered honestly, “I think he is quite capable. It would be a shame for him to die like this.”

Xu Yinhe did not answer immediately. Seated on his cushion, he slowly savored the spirit-roasted tea sent from the Heavenly Mountains.

Only after a long while did he speak. “Changtian, is this what you want, or what Xinyao wants?”

Xu Yuan hesitated. “Does that matter?”

“Very much.”

Xu Yuan considered the question seriously, though his answer remained deliberately vague. “Father, many people’s achievements are limited by the platform available to them. I do not believe Bai Zhao’s potential ends here.”

“So you are doing this because you value his talent?” Xu Yinhe asked.

“Mhm.” Xu Yuan nodded, then briefly explained what had led him to that conclusion.

After hearing him out, Xu Yinhe neither agreed nor refused. He merely offered one meaningful remark. “Changtian, if that man is truly intelligent, he will not place you in a difficult position.”

ᯓ➤

At noon, in the western district of Myriad.

The main room of the Calm Bay Gang leader’s residence was quiet.

Sunlight streamed through the open doorway and latticed windows, casting bright patches across the floor. Dust motes danced endlessly in the beams.

On the table in the center of the room sat the remains of a simple family meal. It had been plain, but warm.

A middle-aged man with graying temples stood in the doorway, watching tenderly as his daughter skipped out into the courtyard. He then turned toward the woman beside him.

Beneath the sunlight, the wife of the mighty Calm Bay Gang leader looked almost excessively ordinary.

Yet Bai Zhao’s gaze was filled with tenderness.

When he had first arrived in Myriad as a teenager, she had taken him in and found him work as a hired hand in her family’s butcher shop. When they married, she had even threatened to take her own life rather than allow him to become a live-in son-in-law.

In the blink of an eye, 30 years had passed.

“Why are you staring at me like that?” The woman’s voice was gentle.

Bai Zhao shook his head and smiled. “It is nothing. You are just as beautiful as you were when you were young.”

“Saying things like that in broad daylight. Have you no shame?” The woman rolled her eyes. There was nothing seductive about it, but Bai Zhao loved it all the same.

He smiled, then lowered his voice. “Qu’er, once you and Qingqing leave Myriad this time, someone will be waiting to receive you.”

The woman studied her husband. She caught something unusual in his eyes. “Has something happened?”

Bai Zhao smiled and answered with two careless words. “Avoiding trouble.”

After more than 20 years of sharing both hardship and happiness, Bai Zhao knew there was no hiding anything from her. He might as well be direct.

The woman asked, clearly no stranger to this sort of evacuation, “Is it serious?”

Bai Zhao shook his head. “Not particularly. But for your safety and Qingqing’s, it would be best for you to leave the city early. I will join you in a couple of days. We may even be able to return after a couple weeks.”

The woman said nothing more. She merely smiled gently. “Qingqing and I will wait for you outside Myriad.”

Bai Zhao watched her retreating figure, no longer slender after all the years that had passed, and smiled as he shook his head. He turned to close the door and go inside, but after one step, he stopped. Gritting his teeth, he called out, “Zhang Qu.”

The woman walking through the courtyard turned around in confusion and looked at her husband standing in the doorway. “If you have something to say, say it all at once.”

Bai Zhao’s expression was solemn. “Thank you. For all these years.”

The woman froze.

The sunlight in the courtyard suddenly seemed far too bright, so bright that she could no longer clearly see the man standing in the shadows.

Her eyes darted about in embarrassment. Turning away, she spat, “Idiot. Qingqing and I... we will wait for you outside Myriad.”

Bai Zhao did not answer. He silently watched her leave, then slowly turned back into the room and personally began clearing the scattered bowls and chopsticks from the table.

As expected, whenever moments like this came, she always hid her worry away.

Just as she had back when he was first building his fortune, stitching up his wounds while cursing him under her breath.

Once everything had been carefully put away, he sat silently in the seat of honor and looked around the luxurious room he had spent his entire life struggling to earn.

“In the end, it all amounts to nothing...” Bai Zhuo sighed. The image of his family eating together here earlier surfaced before his eyes.

“Perhaps not entirely nothing.” He smiled. Then he lit a hand-rolled cigarette with a fire striker

Smoke curled upward as he slowly drew a short dagger from his waist.

His hand was perfectly steady. Yet in the bright reflection along the dagger’s edge, he saw his own lips trembling ever so slightly.