Joy of Life - V1C6
Chapter 6
Master Wu Zhu
With an unconscious assassin lying on his floor, Fan Xian had little time to ask questions. “Someone came to kill me,” he said, getting straight to the point. “I knocked him unconscious, and he’s lying on my floor.”
The blind boy tilted his head slightly. His heart skipped a beat, but his expression remained unchanged. He bowed his head courteously. “Young Master Fan, what on earth are you talking about?”
“There’s no time to pretend. You know who I am.” Fan Xian laughed, knowing that the boy would always act as if he didn’t know him. He pulled the blind boy by the hand, trying to lead him back to the villa.
“You’re still talking nonsense, Young Master.”
The blind boy furrowed his brow. It seemed unlikely that this young child could know his identity. When he had brought Fan Xian to Danzhou, wrapped in swaddling clothes, he had been only two months old. He shouldn’t have been able to remember him. Could the Old Mistress in Count Sinan’s villa have told him who he was?
It was the dead of night. In the distance, dogs howled mournfully. Someone in a nearby house had used the wrong door.
Wu Zhu’s expression remained indifferent as he listened to Fan Xian talk beside him. Finally, he closed the shop door and headed to the Count’s villa. Fan Xian let out a relieved sigh and followed, struggling to keep up with his small strides.
Upon reaching the Count’s villa, the two squeezed through a dog hole and entered the bedroom. Wu Zhu “saw” the unconscious assassin on the floor. Fan Xian looked at the man, unsure whether he was alive or dead.
“Wu Zhu,” he asked nervously, “why did you always pretend not to know who I was when I came to your shop?”
Wu Zhu tilted his head again. He paused for what seemed like a long time before finally speaking. “Young Master, you really amaze me.”
He was indeed surprised. Even though he knew that the boy standing before him was her Ladyship’s child and would certainly be an unusual young boy, he never expected a four-year-old to be so mature, let alone capable of matching wits with Master Fei.
“Let’s deal with him first,” Fan Xian said, managing to turn the assassin over with great difficulty. He removed the cloth covering the man’s face, revealing his identity.
The assassin’s features were thin, and he appeared to be older. The beard on his chin had streaks of white, but there was also a faint green tinge as if he were unwell.
Slightly perturbed, Fan Xian jumped behind Wu Zhu and grabbed his sleeve. “This person doesn’t look pleasant,” he murmured.
“This is Master Fei, head of the Third Bureau of the Overwatch Council,” Wu Zhu replied, squatting on the floor and feeling the assassin’s jawline. “He is one of three people known to be masters of poison. He is skilled in using it, identifying it, and remedying it. For someone as fearsome as this to be struck down by a kid like you, holding a chunk of porcelain as a weapon? I don’t know if you’re extremely lucky or if his luck just ran out.”
“He was unlucky,” Fan Xian said quietly to himself. While he was astonished to encounter such a powerful figure, he realized it was far worse luck for a man like this to run into a freakish young boy with a soul from another world.
“Don’t touch him,” he warned Wu Zhu. “What if there’s poison on his body?”
Wu Zhu didn’t pause or explain anything, but his determination suggested to Fan Xian that he wanted to show that no poison out there could harm him.
Fan Xian knitted his brow with a pained expression. “Uncle, what do we do about him?”
He wasn't always of a mature temperament, but in this world, this blind young man was the first person he had ever known and the only one he felt he could trust completely. Aware of his own strength as a warrior, he chose to act cute and deferential, deciding that calling him "uncle" was the best option.
His gaze darted from place to place and finally fell upon the knife. He gritted his teeth. He said, “The best thing to do would be to stab this Master Fei to death.”
Sensing his movement, Wu Zhu stood up. “You are so different from her Ladyship,” he said, shaking his head. “So young and yet so ruthless. I don’t know who taught you to be like that.”
“I learned it myself.” Fan Xian didn’t dare offend this warrior, not when he was the only person he trusted. “Uncle, I know you’ve spent all this time protecting me in the shop. And I know you’re worried my mother’s enemies might find me because you’re in Danzhou, so you didn’t stay in the Count’s villa. So, it’s good that I’m a little ruthless.”
Wu Zhu shook his head again, saying nothing.
Fan Xian knew that this sworn servant of his mother was becoming wary. He laughed. “Uncle, what do we do next?”
His meaning was clear. Killing was an area in which Wu Zhu excelled.
Wu Zhu’s response came as a surprise. “Young Master, you got the wrong man,” he said coldly.
“Huh? The wrong man?” Fan Xian stood dumbfounded, slowly lowering his head to look at the assassin’s bloodied face.
“But either way, we can’t stand around doing nothing.”
“Master Fei is head of the Third Bureau of the Overwatch Council,” Wu Zhu said coolly. “But secretly, to be precise, he is a subordinate of a subordinate of your father. He hasn’t come to Danzhou to kill you. If he wanted to, I don’t think there would be anything you could do about it; you’d already be dead.”
Fan Xian thought back. The assassin, now lying on the ground, had said that his father had sent him, but shaking his head, who would believe this old lech?
Fei Jie had been in the Overwatch Council for years. He was now in his fifties, and though he had a reputation as an expert in poisons, the truth of it was that he was already semi-retired. If he hadn’t had an offer from a powerful person to teach in Danzhou and dared to turn it down, he’d never have left the capital.
But he didn’t expect to be assaulted, left bleeding and close to death the first time he laid eyes on his student.
Looking at this young boy's cherubic face and big blinking eyes, he felt a twinge of fear mixed with shame. He knew exactly who this cute little kid was, and it filled him with a sudden anger that he couldn’t express.
He turned to face a young lad who looked like some kind of servant, ready to take his anger out on him. “You! Untie me this instant! I am Master Fei, and the Count has paid much money for my services!”
The servant appeared to be even more arrogant than he was. He didn’t pay any attention to him at all. “I don’t recall it ever being stated in your boss’s and my agreement that you would come to teach,” he said coolly.
“Master Wu?” Fei Jie’s muddied eyes widened. Though they were discolored greyish from poison use, he could now see who the servant was. “Oh, it’s you!”
Fan Xian stared at the now-awake assassin. This was puzzling indeed.
Fan Xian was perplexed by Fei Jie. Why would a father send a man like him? Why would he hire a teacher? If all he needed was someone to teach him to read, then why did he send for this old weirdo?
Fan Xian could see that Fei Jie recognized Wu Zhu. He didn’t feel it was right to interrupt their conversation. Waiting for the men to explain everything, Fan Xian loosened the bed sheet with which he had bound Fei Jie, then sat on the bed and played dumb, his face distracted.
The two imposing men looked at him and knew he was no ordinary child.
Daylight was beginning to break. Crowing roosters and servants boiling water could be heard faintly in the distance.
“At some point, I’d like you to explain how you know who I am,” said Wu Zhu to Fan Xian coldly as he led Fei Jie out of the door.
Fan Xian’s heart skipped a beat. He had no idea how he should explain it. When he traveled hundreds of miles to Danzhou with Wu Zhu four years ago, he was barely 2 months old. He racked his brains but couldn’t think of a good excuse; all he could do was blame that strange old man for his frightening intrusion.
