Chapter 1 When Faces Meet

The last time this face had appeared before Liu Yong, he was still the chief guard of the Dongping King's palace, spirited, promising, with his career, family, social status, and martial skills all satisfying, all allowing him to enjoy honor. But that time, the appearance of this face and some others caused immeasurable changes. It was during that assassination attempt against the Dongping royal family that Tan Weixin shielded her younger brother, Tan Weiming, with her own body, taking a palm strike that forever tied her already frail health to her sickbed. And among the assassins who attacked, this face, along with a few others, basically escaped unscathed. This could be considered one of the few shameful episodes in Liu Yong's glorious career.

In the years that followed, Liu Yong resigned from his position as chief guard and began serving as Tan Weixin's personal guard, a role he holds to this day.

Without even notifying Zhou Rui, Liu Yong quietly tailed him. Could this long-standing grudge finally be settled this time?

But Liu Yong's disappearance left Zhou Rui feeling frustrated for quite some time. It wasn't that he was worried about Liu Yong's safety; the kind of person who could silently eliminate Liu Yong without making a sound simply didn't exist. And as for the idea of surrounding Liu Yong with a group of people to take him down instantly? Considering Liu Yong's formidable track record, if he lacked that much awareness, what kind of royal palace chief guard and personal guard would he be?

Zhou Rui circled around and around. The surrounding area was all bustling streets. Liu Yong had left on his own, and hadn't left any marks to be followed. But Zhou Rui hadn't come away empty-handed either. After circling the Hongyun House so many times, and spending so much time there, he had taken in the entire aftermath of the assassination. At first, there was a wave of panic followed by a clearing of the scene. Then came several constables, a team of yamen runners, and some soldiers to control the area. After a period of chaos, the entire Hongyun Ward gradually returned to order. After that, Xia Yu and his elder brother Xia Shang rushed to the scene after receiving the news. Xia Yu only stayed at the Hongyun Ward for a short while before leaving in a hurry, while Xia Shang remained to coordinate the various parties.

Zhou Rui wasn't worried that he might have left behind any clues during his infiltration, the killing of the two men, and his departure that would lead them back to him. He had always been quite proud of his talent in this area. Later, for a while, Ye Tao, probably because he hadn't made much progress in his research, had spent a lot of time trying to strike a blow against him, explaining methods like fingerprinting, fiber analysis, soil analysis, and trace analysis to track someone down. Of course, Ye Tao also admitted that those methods, with the use of magnifying glasses and low-powered microscopes, wouldn't be completely without tools, but were still a long way from being fully developed. That was fine, but comparisons of those fingerprints, dust, fibers, etc., all required a massive database as a prerequisite, and there was no such thing yet. But ever since he learned that a person could leave behind so many different kinds of clues at any time, Zhou Rui had become even more careful.

The aftermath at Hongyun Ward involved not only people from the Xia household, but also those who would lend a hand in coordinating matters, or those sent by people who weren't exactly on the same page as the Xia household to watch the spectacle. This commotion had quite the feel of a grand play. If it weren't for Liu Yong's disappearance, plus the fact that Zhou Rui had to rush back to report on this operation that hadn't been approved by Ye Tao, Zhou Rui would have really wanted to stay a little longer.

What he didn't expect was that Liu Yong had already returned to their lodging. Not only that, but Liu Yong was standing next to Ye Tao, and apparently with Ye Tao's approval, was assigning people to prepare to do something. Several guards had already changed into clothes to conceal their identities and were waiting for orders in the courtyard.

Seeing Zhou Rui return, Liu Yong quickly greeted him, saying, "Just in time, we might have caught a big fish this time."

Zhou Rui immediately threw the complaints he had about Liu Yong to the back of his mind, and excitedly asked, "What happened? I couldn't find you anywhere, I thought something had happened."

Liu Yong chuckled and said, "Indeed. This time, we might be able to catch Feng Jiang."

Zhou Rui was shocked and asked, "That Feng Jiang who's ranked first on Dongping's wanted list?"

Liu Yong nodded, his expression extremely serious. And Zhou Rui immediately understood why Liu Yong was acting so sharply... Feng Jiang wasn't just the number one person on Dongping's wanted list, but also a blemish on Liu Yong's career.

Ye Tao looked at the two of them and said, "I won't remind you of anything. However, we had agreed to go see Yan Gong again tonight. Uncle Liu, if you're not there, anything that happens afterward will inevitably be linked to you. Are you going to hand over the surveillance and control to Zhou Rui, or someone else?"

Liu Yong frowned, but without much hesitation, he said, "Alright. Then I'll hand it over to Zhou Rui. Hehe, we absolutely can't let this guy get away this time." Liu Yong turned to Zhou Rui and instructed, "You have to be careful, this guy looks a lot like the description on the wanted posters, you won't mistake him. Old Xu was also a guard who came with us back then, he recognizes Feng Jiang, you go with him. That Feng Jiang's kung fu is very thorny, you can't be careless. Also... try to resolve this in a deserted place, it's best to capture him alive. Don't attract attention. This guy is currently at the home of Xiao Mu, the Minister of Personnel of Chunnan. I'm afraid... it will inevitably involve some other people. I want to pry something out of his mouth."

Zhou Rui nodded and said, "Yes, Uncle Liu, don't worry."

Liu Yong didn't mind Zhou Rui's address of him as "Uncle Liu." He just didn't know why Zhou Rui, who had always called him Chief Liu, had suddenly changed his address. Liu Yong wasn't too worried about whether Zhou Rui could complete the mission. Compared to his grand-nephew Bi Xiaoqing, Zhou Rui might not be more skilled in martial arts, but his experience and mindset were much stronger, especially since Zhou Rui was the kind of person who dared to make decisions and dared to take action.

"Master, then, what is the purpose of meeting with Yan Gong tonight?" Liu Yong asked in the carriage.

"Uncle Liu," Ye Tao thought for a moment and said, "I'm wondering if there's some movement in the Chunnan court? Chang Hongquan has put on this show with us, both overtly and covertly, and has reaped enough benefits for himself, and is clearly leaning towards self-preservation. And Yan Gong has also insisted on meeting with us again before we leave, and also seems to have something he wants to talk about. Chang Hongquan is fine, the deeper he is entangled with the court, the more threatened he will feel. But Yan Gong, and the Song family, have always been relatively detached and neutral, haven't they? I can't figure out what they want to talk to me about."

Liu Yong thought for a moment and said, "Could it be that someone got wind of something and wants to persuade you not to cooperate with Chang Hongquan?" Immediately, Liu Yong refuted himself, "No, no... this kind of thing wouldn't move Yan Gong to come forward. That would be the same as having Yan Gong state which side he's on. Moreover, Yan Gong and Chang Hongquan have always had a good relationship."

"I don't know, it'll be revealed soon anyway. At least it won't be a bad thing, right?" Ye Tao shrugged and said indifferently, "If it's similar to Chang Hongquan, wanting to strengthen his own power to protect himself, then there might be some big movements within the Chunnan court. They can't reveal the news, but they can react. Actually, this splitting tendency in the Chunnan court is a good thing, but I'm afraid that supporting pro-us forces in Chunnan will dilute Dongping's power. After all, although Dongping has indeed become richer year by year in recent years, it hasn't become rich enough to be squandered at will. Every agreement reached still requires paying a considerable additional price to ensure that everything runs normally. ... If only I could know why Chang Hongquan is paying so much attention to strengthening his own power, to know what's going on in the Chunnan court..."

Liu Yong didn't say anything. In today's world, it wouldn't be too difficult for any country to infiltrate the middle and lower-level officials of another country. After all, people always have various weaknesses, flaws, and desires. But to infiltrate the upper echelons and know the most critical content related to the country's development plans is very difficult. Especially the content that is controlled by a small number of people, and is never written down, but is slowly arranged and planned through the different divisions of labor in everyone's hands, it is even more impossible to find out. To buy off a minister-level official of a country is really as difficult as ascending to heaven. And that's why the matter of Ye Tao and Sun Boping, the governor of Taizhou in Xiling, reaching an agreement, is known to no more than ten people in the entire Dongping. You have to know that as long as Sun Boping doesn't make any big mistakes, he will inevitably be one of the central government's important officials in ten or fifteen years.

Liu Yong's thoughts quickly moved away from these things that weren't very relevant to him, and turned to worrying about whether Zhou Rui could successfully capture Feng Jiang. Although there were many good people assisting, Zhou Rui's martial arts weren't higher than Feng Jiang's. And according to what Liu Yong knew, Feng Jiang was also one of the top assassins and experts in the world, and he would probably escape with the slightest opening.

Liu Yong's worries weren't without reason, but this time Zhou Rui was also doing his best to try to achieve a perfect capture, or at least a kill. Xiao Mu's old home was far away in the south of Chunnan, and even after he took office as the Minister of Personnel, a very powerful position, his elderly mother and other family members were unwilling to move to Yuhang. Xiao Mu's residence was just him and his wife, plus a concubine and a group of servants. Xiao Mu's residence usually didn't even have any guards. However, today, those who pretended to be vendors hiding in the corners of the walls on the street, or pretended to be beggars huddled in the side alleys, guarded the entire residence. These people had sharp eyes, and in this weather, the clothes on their bodies couldn't completely hide the powerful muscle lines on their bodies. It was Zhou Rui who was more sensitive to this kind of threat, and after discovering it, he led the guards and the special operations camp soldiers under his command to surround the entire residence from a distance.