That night, Gu Heng kept vigil until midnight before returning to her courtyard. With much on her mind, she went to bed early.
Once the lights in her courtyard were out, the door creaked open.
Ah Zheng stepped inside.
These past days, he could hardly restrain himself. Night after night, he would quietly approach Gu Heng’s bedside after she fell asleep.
Only after watching her peaceful sleeping face for a while could he feel at ease.
Treading lightly to her bedside, he saw that she seemed restless tonight—her brows tightly furrowed. Instinctively, Ah Zheng reached out, trying to smooth them out.
But just then, he heard something outside—movement. More than one person. And their intentions were clearly hostile.
In an instant, he assumed a defensive stance.
Sure enough, moments later, several black-clad men appeared inside the room.
They didn’t say a word upon seeing Ah Zheng. They attacked immediately.
Ah Zheng glanced back at Gu Heng, relieved to see she was still asleep. If she woke in the middle of the night to find assassins in her room, who knew how frightened she’d be?
She’d already endured so much lately. He didn’t want her disturbed by these matters.
The next moment, he snatched a sword from one of the assassins and engaged them in combat.
Though he hadn’t used a sword in some time, it felt utterly natural in his hand now—as if he was born for it.
He fought as he moved, drawing the group out of the courtyard. Finally, the leader of the black-clad men spoke up.
“That woman—your little lover? I see your martial skills are quite decent. I don’t wish to make an enemy of you. If you leave now, we won’t kill you.”
Ah Zheng let out a cold laugh. “Such arrogance.”
With that, he struck. In a blink, his sword pierced the man’s shoulder.
The leader’s expression changed instantly.
“Impressive swordsmanship. So you were holding back inside the room?”
Expressionless, Ah Zheng replied, “Of course. If I made too much noise inside, it might wake Ah Heng. That wouldn’t be good.”
The leader flushed with humiliation and rage. “You—!”
Moments ago, they had gone toe-to-toe with this pretty boy, thinking he matched them. Now he was saying he hadn’t even gone all out?
At that moment, Ah Zheng glanced down and frowned at the blood pooling on the ground.
This mess would be hard to clean. If Ah Heng saw it in the morning, she might start asking questions.
Can’t fight here.
With a sigh, he muttered, “Let’s take this elsewhere.”
Hearing this, the leader gritted his teeth. “Fine! You’re just barely past your coming-of-age, yet you’re this arrogant?! If it’s a fight you want, we’ll oblige!”
A lackey nearby hesitated. “Boss… wasn’t our mission to kill the girl inside? Is there any need to stir up more trouble?”
The leader smacked the man’s face. “Idiot. Can’t you see this guy’s determined to protect her? We’ll deal with him first—then we can take our time with her!”
Seeing this, Ah Zheng leapt over the wall using qinggong, and the rest followed.
Soon, he lured them to the outskirts of the city.
Now in the open, Ah Zheng stood alone in the woods. The wind whipped his robe, making him look even more solitary.
Seeing this, the black-clad men regained their confidence, forgetting the pain in their shoulders.
Back in the manor, they had feared alerting the guards. But now, with no one around, they had no such worries.
“Brothers, take him down! There’s ten of us—I don’t believe we can’t handle this little pretty boy! Whoever brings me his head gets the biggest cut of the bounty!”
With that, the others surged forward.
They were all used to living on the edge, licking blood off blades for money. The employer this time had paid generously—five hundred taels of silver. Enough for years of comfortable living.
Thinking of the reward, they charged in with blades raised.
At that moment, Ah Zheng showed no expression. Sword in hand, he stepped into the fight.
He didn’t know what he used to be, but the moment he held a sword, it felt like second nature. Every strike was precise, every movement fluid—as if man and sword were one.
He closed his eyes, feeling the movement of the wind around him, effortlessly deflecting attacks and then countering with lethal precision.
In no time, over half the men were dead.
At last, the leader realized—they had messed with the wrong person.
“No! We can’t beat him! Everyone—retreat!”
Ah Zheng chuckled softly. “At this point, you still want to run? No way.”
His sword flashed, slashing the throat of the man beside the leader. Blood splattered across his face.
Yet even faced with such gore, he didn’t flinch—as if he had long grown used to it.
The leader’s legs buckled, and he dropped to his knees, begging, “Spare me, hero! Spare me! We were just hired for the job, that’s all! I won’t take this contract—I swear! Please, let me live!”
Ah Zheng ignored him. With a swing of his sword, he cut down the remaining lackeys, leaving only the leader.
Dragging the sword along the ground, sparks flying with a screech, he stopped in front of the kneeling man. The tip of the blade touched his forehead, then slowly slid down to his chest.
Looking down at him, Ah Zheng said coldly: “From the moment you set out to kill Ah Heng, there was only one path left for you—death.”
“In your next life, pray that fate treats you more kindly.”
With that, the sword pierced straight through his heart, splashing Ah Zheng with blood once more.
“Tch. I’ll have to change clothes again.”
He looked around, confirmed no survivors, then gathered the corpses in a burlap sack and dragged them to a nearby mass grave.
The blood scent quickly attracted wild wolves. Watching them gnaw the bodies to the bone, Ah Zheng finally left in peace.
This way, no one would know who had killed them. Even if someone found the bodies, covered in bite marks, they wouldn’t be able to investigate further.
They’d just have to consider themselves unlucky.
Back at the manor, he carefully cleaned up the blood, scrubbed himself head to toe, and made sure not a trace of blood remained—not even in his hair. Then he burned the bloodied clothes in secret outside.
….
The next morning, the sun was bright and warm.
Gu Heng rose and washed. Upon opening her door, she saw Ah Zheng already seated in the courtyard, reading a book intently.
That sight suddenly reminded her of all their shared moments in childhood and youth, stirring a tide of emotions in her heart.
“Ah Zheng, you’re up so early today? I’m going to bury Grandmother today. You’re not of the Gu family, so you don’t have to come with me. You could’ve slept in.”
Ah Zheng put the book down, turned around, and gave a slightly shy smile.
“Though I’m not part of the Gu family, I am currently living here, and the Gu Manor has been kind to me. It’s only right that I accompany you to see Grandmother off.”
Seeing that he was insistent, Gu Heng couldn’t argue with him. “Alright then, let’s go to the main hall together.”
Unexpectedly, before they even reached the mourning hall, they ran into Gu Yue halfway.
She seemed to have not slept well the night before—dark circles under her eyes—and now, upon seeing Gu Heng, her expression looked as if she had seen a ghost.
“Gu Heng?! Why are you here?!”
Hearing this, Gu Heng found her reaction quite baffling.
“If I’m not here, then where should I be? Father already said yesterday that we’d be sending Grandmother off today. There’s no way I’d be absent.”
Hit by Gu Heng’s retort, Gu Yue was momentarily speechless.
She clenched her fists so tightly that her nails dug into her palms, but she couldn’t feel any pain—only a burning anger.
This Gu Heng was truly cursed.
Falling off a cliff and surviving was strange enough, but who would’ve thought—last night her mother had sent over ten assassins to Gu Heng’s courtyard, and yet they still failed to kill her!
Not only that, from Gu Heng’s expression, it seemed she didn’t even know about the attempted assassination.
Right—right!
Where were those assassins?
Even if they failed, they should have returned to report. How could they disappear without a trace?
Her mother had promised them five hundred taels of silver!
They had already paid two hundred taels in advance and agreed to pay the remaining three hundred after the job was done. That was nearly double the usual rate—there was no way those assassins would give up easily.
Unless they were truly stupid and ran off with the advance, something must have gone wrong!
But Gu Heng was just a weak girl, with no martial skills, and had even been ill recently. She should’ve been an easy target—how did they fail?
Unless… someone helped her.
Gu Yue’s gaze slowly moved from Gu Heng to Ah Zheng. Her eyes traveled up from his shoes until they landed on his face.
His eyes were as dark as ink, staring at her coldly. He hadn’t spoken a word, yet Gu Yue could feel a chilling, inexplicable killing intent.
Goosebumps rose all over her body.
This was wrong—Shen Zhengyu was supposed to be a gentle scholar with no strength to even truss a chicken. Why did he have such a terrifying presence?
The more she thought about it, the more frightened she became. Dread flooded her heart.
Seeing her in this state, Gu Heng raised an eyebrow.
“Sister, what have you done to weigh so heavily on your conscience? Look at you—sweating all over, so flustered.”
Gu Yue glared at her viciously.
“I’m just hot from the sun. What guilty conscience? You’re the one who killed Yiniang and Grandmother. You’re the one who should feel guilty and ashamed!”
After saying that, she turned and stormed off toward the mourning hall.
Ah Zheng felt a surge of anger in his chest and was about to go after her, but Gu Heng grabbed his arm.
“Ah Zheng, don’t act rashly.”
Gu Heng looked at Gu Yue’s retreating figure with distaste and murmured, “My dear sister and her mother have committed too many evils. Retribution will come—they’ll get what they deserve. We just need to wait for the right moment to act. There’s no need to create more trouble now.”
