Chapter 64: Welcome Banquet? A Banquet of Betrayal!
On the other side...
After asking whether they should slow their pace, Hu Er once again tugged at the reins, urging his horse forward to catch up with his brothers’ carriage.
He seemed to recall something amusing, his eyes glinting mischievously as he said with a laugh, “Big Brother, not only does that young mistress of the Song family look charming and refined, but in certain respects, she might be even more open-handed than we thought.”
“Hm?” Hu Da was momentarily taken aback, clearly not following his meaning. He frowned and scolded, “If you have something to say, say it straight. Stop beating around the bush.”
“I went to ask earlier, didn’t I? The one who answered was the young mistress’s friend.” Hu Er chuckled. “I saw that fellow still had a lipstick mark on his lips, Big Brother. Tell me, what good deeds do you suppose a man and a woman get up to together in a carriage?”
“Who would have guessed?” Hu San, riding alongside, grinned knowingly. He glanced back at the trailing carriage, a lewd smirk spreading across his face. “So that’s why the young mistress insisted her friend come along—it’s her lover, eh?”
He paused, signaling to Hu Da with a look, and snickered, “Not only is she a beauty, she’s wild too. Big Brother, why don’t we…”
“Don’t get any crooked ideas.” Hu Da shot him a look. “Just the Song family’s businesses are worth, conservatively, a hundred thousand taels. Add in their ready cash, and the total’s even more. Even if we only take half, that’s still tens of thousands of taels. With that kind of silver, what kind of woman couldn’t we have?”
“Half?” Hu San said with a cheeky grin. “That old fox Pei Yingli said the Qingsha Gang might be eyeing the Song family’s assets, making you come all this way for nothing. Now we’re doing the job, and that old fox still wants half? He must be dreaming!”
“Exactly,” Hu Er agreed, licking his lips. “Pei’s already sold us the Song widow. We’ll take the silver, and the woman too. Wouldn’t that be perfect?”
“Save that talk for when we’re at the hall.” Hu Da glanced at his two wayward brothers. “If she’s sensible, there’s no need to make things difficult after we’ve got the money. If not, heh…”
He didn’t finish, but the cold sneer on his face said enough.
“By the way…” He seemed to recall something, spat on the ground, and said, “As for her lover, we’ll find an excuse to finish him off once we reach the hall. Damn it, who does he think he is, looking down on my carriage?”
Hu Er bared his teeth in a grin. “No need for you to say it, Big Brother. We brothers know what to do.”
Suddenly, Hu Da seemed to sense something as well and turned to look at the official road behind them.
When he saw a group galloping swiftly down the road, he raised an eyebrow and instructed, “Third, don’t block their way.”
“Hm?” Hu San glanced back, saw the riders, but paid them little mind, lazily pulling his horse to the side.
But before he’d gone a few steps, a galloping horse splashed him with muddy water as it passed.
Furious at being splattered, he shouted, “Are you all blind?”
From the carriage, Hu Da’s expression changed, and he quickly called out, “San, watch your tongue!”
Hu San had barely begun to curse when a sharp, whistling sound split the air. A crisp snap and a cry of pain followed.
Hu San howled in agony, nearly tumbling from his horse, his rain hat flying off to who knows where.
A bloody welt had appeared on his face, left by a whip!
Among the riders, a woman with a heroic bearing withdrew her whip, casting a cold glance at Hu Da on the carriage. Her steed didn’t even slow as she galloped past.
Hu San, steadying himself, clutched his cheek and, only after the riders had disappeared into the distance, grumbled resentfully, “Damn them!”
He wasn’t stupid. In that moment of anger, he’d spoken rashly, but when he heard his brother warn him to be careful, he’d already regretted it.
When he realized he’d been whipped and his own brother hadn’t dared protest, he understood clearly that those riders weren’t people he could afford to provoke.
Hu San, holding his reins with one hand and his cheek with the other, came alongside the carriage and asked, “Big Brother, who were those people?”
“They’re with the Saturn Bureau,” Hu Da replied coldly. “The fact that your tongue’s still in your mouth, that you’re still alive, only means they’re busy and don’t have time to waste on you.”
Hu San turned pale upon hearing he’d cursed at the Saturn Bureau.
He swallowed hard, no longer bothering with his cheek but instead feeling his neck, asking nervously, “Is my head still on?”
“What do you think?” Hu Da shot him a glare. “If you keep running your mouth, next time it might not be.”
On the official road, the two carriages kept their distance—close enough to see each other, but too far to overhear.
Not near, but not far either.
Behind them, Hu San had grown noticeably quieter, spending most of his time holding his face, visibly shaken.
Yu Shan’s demeanor, however, was a touch more nuanced.
Perhaps he felt a kinship with Liu Shen, both of them marked by ill fate and sharing the same star of calamity.
Or perhaps he’d been moved by Liu Shen’s words—“My fate is mine to decide, not Heaven’s.”
Whatever the reason, his tone had softened, and he spoke more than before.
Unconsciously, more than half the day had passed.
As the distant outline of Xiyang County came into view, Yu Shan frowned and muttered, “We’ve made it safely to the county. Maybe they really aren’t bandits?”
“Who knows…” Liu Shen’s brow knit with confusion.
In his memory, Pei Yingli was no doting father. A safe journey could be explained by his schemes for the Pei family’s ancestral rites, but why go to such lengths as hiring a third-rank martial artist to fetch Pei Xueyan?
Was he worried she’d meet with trouble on the road?
If Pei Yingli had such fatherly concern, he wouldn’t have sold his daughter like a commodity to the Song family, notorious for the deaths of their wives.
Liu Shen couldn’t figure out the reason for hiring a third-rank fighter to escort Pei Xueyan, but seeing that they’d reached Xiyang County without incident, the tension he’d carried finally eased a little.
Meanwhile—
Hu Er again tugged at the reins, slowing his horse as he came alongside, saying with a smile, “Young Mistress must be weary from the journey. Before we set out, Master Pei specially instructed us to arrange a welcome banquet. Once we arrive in town, we’ll take you straight to the feast.”
Before Pei Xueyan could respond, Liu Shen smiled and cut in, “I’m the young mistress’s friend and accompanied her on the journey. I’m weary as well—would I be welcome at the banquet too?”
Hu Er feigned hesitation, then replied with a grin, “The banquet was arranged by Master Pei; we’re just the guides, not the hosts. But since you’re the young mistress’s friend, I’m sure Master Pei won’t mind an extra place at the table. There’s no harm in you coming too.”
“That’s perfect.” Liu Shen waved his hand, signaling for him to lead the way.
As Hu Er rode ahead, Liu Shen exchanged a puzzled glance with Yu Shan—they both sensed that everything was going too smoothly.
So smooth, it felt wrong.
Once inside the county, Liu Shen returned to his carriage.
Now that they were in town, the distance between the two carriages shrank to just a few paces, with Hu Er and Hu San deliberately slowing to ride alongside Liu Shen’s carriage.
Peeking out from beneath the curtain, Liu Shen memorized the streets they passed and the people and things around them.
The more he saw, the more uneasy he felt. He asked with a smile, “Which inn has Master Pei arranged the banquet at? Why does it seem so out of the way?”
“That I couldn’t say…” Hu Er chuckled. “We’re just the guides. But Master Pei did say it would be at a friend’s place.”
“How much farther?”
“We’re here, we’ve arrived.”
Liu Shen watched as the carriage ahead turned abruptly into a large, secluded compound. His heart skipped a beat.
When he took in the layout of the residence, so similar to the hall of the Qingsha Gang, his pupils contracted sharply, and a chill swept over him.
It wasn’t just similar—this was a gang’s headquarters.
Pei Yingli had arranged the welcome banquet at a gang’s lair?
Was this a welcome feast, or a sale?
Liu Shen lowered the curtain without a word, drawing the Wild Goose Wing Saber from its hiding place in the carriage. He tapped thrice on the false panel.
When he heard Yu Shan’s answering knock from outside, he licked his dry lips and looked into Pei Xueyan’s eyes, instructing softly, “In a moment… don’t be afraid…”