CHAPTER 6 – DOES THIS NAME SOUND NICE?

The Linlang Guild's branches spread with prevalence across Nanbei.

Every year, an auction simply made their business even more

eventful. Although the Linlang Guild executed the auction in different

locations annually — sometimes in Jiangnan, sometimes in Haibei

— today, they were doing it in the City of Six Crafts. Regardless of

whether it was the wealthy, the rich, or commoners and scum,

people from every corner of the world would come to participate.

Watchers would not be able to understand what was going on, they

could only understand that there were a lot of valuable treasures

being sold. The truth was, however, while there were a lot of

expensive treasures, there were also goods such as medicine that

were difficult to purchase on the market and manuscripts that were

long lost to history and spices that came from Western Regions. For

those who did not want to travel to all corners of the country to

purchase them, the auction was a fabulous marketplace; therefore, it

received many welcomes.

Due to Linlang Guild's affluent and powerful background, those from

the pugilist world dare not offend them. There were little bickerings

here and there, but nothing too serious. Every year, the auction went

well.

This year was an exception.

When the Linlang Guild decided to make the City of the Six Crafts

their auction place, anticipation filled the people. The City of Six

Crafts was not grand, nor was it a wealthy place; it was not big or

famous like Daxing City. Although it was a city that many travellers

would pass by no matter where they were heading, this was a place

near to the Göktürks. It was far from any capitals and did not have many people. The rich and wealthy did not like coming here, so the

participants of this year were a lot lesser than the last. Most of them

were Jianghu pugilists and merchants from Nanbei.

The incident happened outside the branch established in the City of

Six Crafts. One man had just walked out, and among the group of

peasants who were simply passing by, someone flew out of the

group with a sword, intending to stab the man. The two men fought.

In the end, the attacker bled to death. At this moment, a woman

came out and lunged herself at the man, crying out loud about the

murder of her brother.

In a public place like that, the murderer and the victim were both

surrounded by the crowd and were unable to leave. Men from the

bureau rushed there promptly and found the murderer's identity

tedious to deal with, so they quickly called for Magistrate Zhao who

begged for Feng Xiao to come and have a look.

When Feng Xiao arrived, the body was yet to be taken away. The

young lady was crying next to him. Seeing two black shadows

moving closer, she stopped crying but did not raise her head. Her

eyes were brimmed with tears as she remained silent.

But Feng Xiao, paying her no attention, instead, moved his gaze

away from her to the murderer.

"Was it you who killed this man?"

The young man looking shocked and surprised, naturally, responded

darkly. It was clear that he was in a bad mood, but he couldn't do

much or shout at Feng Xiao since there were many eyes on them.

Magistrate Zhao saw the situation and quickly said, "This is Lord

Feng from the capital, Daxing City, by the orders of —" He looked at Feng Xiao once. At first, he wanted to name the Jiejian

Bureau, but he wasn't positive if Feng Xiao wanted his identity

revealed, so he changed his words quickly and instead said, "— by

the orders to investigate the assignation of the Khotan ambassador.

He came here to help."

He turned to Feng Xiao and introduced both parties, "This is the

chairman of the Linlang Guild, Wen Liang. The deceased is Ying

Wuqiu. The other is his sister."

Wen Liang took a step forward and said, "I am Wen Liang, you two

better know that just now, I was exiting this building with my

subordinates and that man came out of nowhere as he planned to

take me out. Thank god, I am skilled in the martial arts, and could

avoid it, preventing myself from being injured. He indeed died on the

spot, but I was not the one who killed him."

The woman said in anger, "Under broad daylight, everyone saw it!

You fought with my brother, and my brother died after you hit him a

few times. A life for a life, what do you say?!"

Compared to the young woman's temper, Wen Liang looked very

calm. "This man schemed against me first, I, was only defending

myself. The few hits I had landed were all non-fatal. Once examined,

the truth will be clear."

The young woman shrieked, "If it wasn't for you who murdered our

father, how would Brother be so apathetic about his own life and

come to kill you!?"

Wen Liang smiled, "Do not frame others. Since when have I

murdered your father? You have got the wrong person, from the very

beginning, everything is a joke!"

The young woman glared at him, holding hatred in her heart, "Wen

Liang, even if you turned to ash, I would still be able to recognize you!"

It was evident this case was complicated. Feng Xiao happened to be

the judge, so he made a gesture, and a few men came forward to

bring the related witnesses back for questioning.

The young lady refused to leave but had no choice when she was

held by her left and right arm. She could only look back at Wen Liang

with reddened eyes. For one to describe it, if there were indeed

vengeful spectres in this world, she would have run against a pillar

and have herself killed, turning herself into a vengeful ghost to take

revenge on Wen Liang.

Yet Wen Liang did not look at her, but approached Feng Xiao and

bowed. "Lord Feng, may we speak for a moment?"

Feng Xiao, "Speak."

Wen Liang said cheekily, "These few years the Linlang Guild has

been fairing well, and there are bound to be envious people. I have

succeeded my parents, and have become the chairman, perhaps

this is the reason so many troubles were drawn to me; so please, I

implore Lord Feng and Magistrate Zhao to investigate this to the very

end."

Feng Xiao, "This matter took place in the City of the Six Crafts. The

respective magistrate will take care of the matter. You may relay this

to him, no need to tell me."

The corpse had been taken away, leaving a trail of blood on the

ground, its shade of crimson turning darker as the seconds ticked by.

Feng Xiao stared at the ground and felt a sudden wind against his

ears. As someone who practised the martial arts, his reflexes were

naturally quick and accurate. A needle flew past his body and flew

towards Wen Liang, who was just a few steps away from him! Wen Liang had not managed to react quickly enough, and his skills

were only just moderately above the average, the reason why he

could not avoid such a sneak attack.

Feng Xiao rolled his sleeve, and after a moment, he cast the needle

to the ground.

Wen Liang only saw Feng Xiao making a move and even thought

that he wanted to hit him, so he took a few steps back, "You!"

Feng Xiao, "There is a needle on the ground."

Wen Liang gathered himself and looked on the ground, and saw that

there was indeed a needle there. There was a bluish substance on

the needle, perhaps being poison. He raised his head, staring at

Feng Xiao with a judgemental look.

"I have no idea who hates me so much that he wants me dead!" Wen

Liang laughed bitterly.

Feng Xiao told Magistrate Zhao, "You may take him back to the

bureau first and allow me to question him personally."

Wen Liang, "I am no criminal..."

Feng Xiao interrupted his words, "Anyone related to the case, be it

innocent or guilty, all suspicious people will be questioned by me first

before any judgements are made."

Wen Liang, "But I have to be here for the auction tomorrow!"

Feng Xiao, "Aside from you, is there no one else? If that is so,

Linlang Guild should just shut down!" His words were unreasonable, yet it allowed no retortion. Wen Liang

looked shocked and wanted to say something, but Feng Xiao's men

were already holding him down. He laughed coldly as he spoke,

"What is so great about the capital? If I refuse to allow you to take

me, what can you do?"

Feng Xiao turned around and stared at him, the light shone in the

lines of his face, his eyes as sharp as needles, enough to pin a man

to the ground. "From which corner of the world did you sprout from?"

Only then did he notice that the other man had turned from calm and

impassive to irritated and angry. His nose seemed to have become

crooked.

"I am from the house of the Princess Leping, don't tell me you have

not even heard of the princess! If you have the balls, go to the court

and offer your name and place. When I return to the capital and ask

for the princess' favour, the emperor will surely come to my aid!"

People from the princess' house would mean that they were simply

her servants. When one wants to punish a dog, they must also

regard the identity of their master. If their master was just any

ordinary person, that was fine, but this was the Princess Leping, she

was not only the eldest daughter of the emperor, Yang Lihua, but

also the preceding dynasty's empress and empress dowager. As

Yang Jian tore down the former regime and wrought it anew,

declaring Sui for its name, he took the country from his daughter's

husband and remade the former Empress a princess.

Yang Liuhua was a strict and proper person and disapproved of her

father's actions. However, she was only a woman on her own, so

there was nothing she could do. Yang Jian and his wife wanted to

make up for their daughter; so they treasured, loved, and tolerated

her, even more so than a few of their other sons. Whatever Princess

Leping requested, as long as it was not treason, the Emperor and Empress would not refuse her. Using the princess' identity was

sometimes indeed more effective than naming any officials in court.

Princess Leping had taken some dividend from the Linlang Guild,

and naturally, she became their shield. Anyone who wanted to

threaten the Linlang Guild, when they heard of the princess, they

would quickly retreat. Other than that, the Linlang Guild also had

some other support at their backs.

But when Feng Xiao heard the words 'Princess Leping' uttered from

the other man, not only did he refuse to grant what he wanted, but

the colour on his face had even darkened. His eyebrow twitched,

and he forced a smile, "I am Feng Xiao, I hail from the Jiejian

Bureau. Is this name music to the ears?"

The servants from the princess' house turned deathly pale when

they heard Feng Xiao's name. Minutes before, they were prideful

and stuck up, but presently looking like they had just seen a ghost,

they felt like a thousand needles were pricking their feet. All they

wanted to do at that moment was sprout some wings and fly away.