The night was deep and pitch black.
The celebrations in Jiangning City had not yet dispersed, and the occasional sparse crackle of firecrackers could still be heard; it was the commoners celebrating the victory in the Northern Frontier.
However, at the gates of the Wang family mansion, the atmosphere was eerie enough to make one's hair stand on end.
"Thud!"
A heavy, muffled crash shattered the drowsiness of the gatekeeping servants.
A fast horse, foaming at the mouth, had crashed violently into the tall stone lion at the entrance of the Wang estate, dying on impact.
The black-clad rider was thrown from its back, smashing into the threshold with a sickening crunch of breaking bones.
"Who goes there!"
The terrified gatekeepers crept closer, holding up their lanterns.
The man in black was not completely dead yet. Covered in blood, his fingers clawed so desperately into the wooden threshold that his fingernails had flipped back.
He glared with bloodshot eyes, spitting bloody froth from his mouth, and hoarsely squeezed out a single word.
"Xu..."
As soon as the word left his lips, the black-clad man's head lolled to the side, and he breathed his last.
When Wang Ruhai rushed over with his coat draped over his shoulders, this gruesome scene was what he saw.
He recognized the man in black on the ground. It was the leader of the death-sworn assassins the Wang family kept in the capital, a man with formidable martial skills.
But now, this man was completely ruined.
"Search him!"
Wang Ruhai's voice trembled, a sense of ominous foreboding gripping his heart tightly.
The steward tremblingly fumbled around inside the corpse's robes, soon pulling out a blood-soaked jade pendant.
The jade was smooth and warm throughout, carved with the Wang family's qilin totem. However, right at the qilin's eyes, someone had forcefully gouged out several scratches with their fingernails.
Crooked and twisted, they formed a hastily and hideously scrawled word: Death!
Wang Ruhai took the jade pendant. With just one look, a chill rose from the soles of his feet and shot straight to the top of his skull.
This was the personal belonging of the Imperial Censor, Wang Defa!
Who was Wang Defa? He was the Wang family's eyes in the capital, their tongue in the imperial court!
For this jade pendant to be sent back, with the word 'death' carved into it, could only mean one thing.
The sky was falling.
Half an hour later, in the Wang family's secret chamber.
The flickering candlelight stretched the shadows of several Wang family elders and trusted aides into long, distorted shapes.
"Patriarch, what... what exactly is going on?"
Someone huddled in a chair, no longer flicking his golden abacus, his entire body trembling violently.
Wang Ruhai's face was ashen as he tightly clutched the blood-stained jade in his hand.
"The Northern Frontier has won. The military rations sent by Xu Qinghuan worked a miracle."
"Wang Defa sent this jade back, meaning... the imperial edict is already on its way."
"An imperial edict?"
One elder had not yet processed the situation. He asked, "Isn't that a good thing? Can't we..."
"Good my ass!"
Wang Ruhai fiercely smashed the highly valuable blood jade to pieces.
The sharp crack made everyone flinch in terror.
"That girl Xu Qinghuan was already a County Princess, and now she has achieved such a monumental merit, even saving the Northern Frontier's defense line!"
"How do you suppose His Majesty will reward her?"
Wang Ruhai swept a sinister gaze over the crowd, sending shivers down their spines.
"A Commandery Princess? Or perhaps... an Imperial Princess?"
"Once the imperial edict enters Jiangning City, the Xu family will be true imperial relatives! They will be the face of the imperial court!"
"When that time comes, those of us who bullied and schemed against the Xu family will have our homes confiscated and our entire clans exterminated!"
"Not to mention that our Wang family's situation has taken a sharp turn for the worse; the Weaving Bureau is nearly crushed by the Xue and Xu families."
The secret chamber fell dead silent.
Everyone's breathing grew heavy.
The teeth of the steward, Lao Liu, began to chatter.
Confiscation and extermination.
These words made them feel that their doom was imminent.
"Then... then should we run?"
Wang Mang swallowed hard, his face pale, and said, "Take the silver, go to the South Seas, go to..."
"Can we run?"
Wang Ruhai sneered coldly, a look of desperate madness in his eyes.
"Under the whole heaven, every spot is the sovereign's ground. Our roots are in Jiangning. If we leave Jiangning, we are nothing but a flock of fat sheep waiting to be slaughtered."
"Then what do we do? Are we just going to wait here to die?"
"Wait to die?"
Wang Ruhai stood up. At this moment, the fear on his face vanished, replaced by a ferocious look of someone ready to risk it all.
"Even a cornered rabbit will bite, let alone us, the local overlords of Jiangning!"
He leaned forward with both hands resting on the table, looking incredibly fierce.
"The imperial edict is sent from the capital by land. Even if it travels via the eight-hundred-li express relay, it will take three days to reach Jiangning."
"These three days are our only chance to survive!"
An elder seemed to understand something and widened his eyes.
"Patriarch! You... you're not thinking of..."
"In for a penny, in for a pound!"
Wang Ruhai squeezed these words through his teeth, carrying a thick scent of bloodlust.
"As long as we slaughter the entire Xu family before the imperial edict enters the city!"
"When that happens, dead men will tell no tales!"
"We can say the Xu family fell victim to bandits, or caught in a fire, or even died of a sudden illness!"
"As long as Xu Qinghuan is dead, His Majesty wouldn't possibly uproot our four great aristocratic families of Jiangnan just for a dead person, would he?"
"The law cannot punish the majority! As long as the deed is done and irreversible, the imperial court will have to hold its nose and accept it! Besides, we are an aristocratic family! A Jiangnan aristocratic family!"
Crazy.
Everyone felt that Wang Ruhai had gone mad.
Yet, in these mad words, there lay their only chance of survival.
If they didn't fight, they would undoubtedly die once the imperial edict arrived.
If they fought, they might just carve out a sliver of hope.
"Let's do it!"
That elder ruthlessly slapped his thigh, a vicious glint appearing in his eyes.
"It's death either way, so we might as well drag that crazy girl down with us!"
Wang Ruhai nodded and turned to beckon toward the darkness.
A sinister figure stepped out from the shadows.
"Take my calling card and go to the Qinhuai River."
"Find the Water Transport Gang."
Wang Ruhai pulled a stack of banknotes from his robes; it was the Wang family's final reserve funds.
"Tell him, one hundred thousand taels!"
"I want the Jiangning Xu family wiped from the face of the earth after tonight!"
...
On the Qinhuai River, festive lanterns shone brightly.
But behind this glamorous facade, a dilapidated black-awning boat was moored.
This boat had no lanterns hung on it and was pitch black all over, looking just like a coffin floating on the water.
This was the ghost ship of the Water Transport Gang.
Inside the cabin, smoke swirled.
A bare-chested, burly man sat on a tiger-skin chair, playing with two sharp daggers in his hands.
This large man had a face full of fierce flesh, and a black dragon with bared fangs and brandished claws was tattooed on his chest, extending all the way to the base of his neck.
He was the grand chief of the Water Transport Gang, known as River-Churning Dragon Duan Tiande.
"One hundred thousand taels?"
Duan Tiande looked at the stack of banknotes on the table, entirely unable to conceal the greed in his eyes.
He reached out, picked up the banknotes, and took a deep sniff under his nose.
"Steward Wang, this money is a fine thing, but this job..."
Duan Tiande narrowed his eyes, twirling the daggers in his hands.
"The Xu family is riding high right now. I heard they even won the war in the Northern Frontier."
"Making a move on the Xu family is like tying your head to your waistband."
The Wang family steward stood opposite him, his back straight; the one hundred thousand taels of silver gave him confidence.
"Chief Duan, wealth and honor are found in danger."
The steward took a step forward and lowered his voice.
"Moreover, after the deed is done, the Wang family is willing to offer another hundred thousand taels to fund Chief Duan's retreat to another region to lay low."
Duan Tiande's hands paused.
Two hundred thousand taels.
This sum of money was enough for him to buy an official title and live out the rest of his life in utmost comfort.
"Screw it!"
Duan Tiande slapped the table, making up his mind, shaking the wine jars on the table.
"Men die for wealth, just as birds die for food!"
"I'll take this job!"
