BXBX NOVEL Book 14: Chapter 53
“Mount Lu.”
“I disagree,” I voiced… perhaps too firmly.
As expected, Boss narrowed her eyes on me with rosy cheeks. “You haven’t even heard everything I have to say! You think you run the show now just because you completed a task or two?”
Boss raised her hand to hit me, but she stopped and then turned her head to look at Tang Ye, who watched us without batting an eye. “… Yan Ling, what are you watching?”
Tang Ye blinked. “Nothing. Did you not have something to tell us, Vice-Captain?”
“Uh, right, right, go on Boss.”
Boss chose not to voice her queries. Instead, she said, “Don’t cut me off again,” then glared at me.
Boss seems to be particularly prone to anger today. Is it the accumulated fatigue from work? I should find an opportunity to give her a massage again. She smells nice right after washing up, tsk, tsk.
Catching me smile, Boss took out the inkstone and slammed it on my face without hesitation. “That’s what you go for fantasising about a man’s widow again! Sicko!”
“I’m innocent! I did it all for the greater good!”
“What were you thinking about, then, to smile so perversely?”
“I was wondering if I should give you a massage or something!”
Although she sported a strange face, Boss had hot flushes on her cheeks. “You…” She stopped and glanced sideways to see Tang Ye recording something. “… You didn’t write anything, did you?”
Tang Ye stopped writing, rolled up the sheet and stuffed in his shirt. “Not anymore.”
Boss took a big breath to recollect herself before resuming. “I checked out numerous scrolls… I’ll start with my conclusion. I believe the culprit is very likely part of Mount Lu.” She paused to check if I’d interrupt her again, but I was still rubbing my face, so she continued, “According to Confucianism’s records, the precise time Elder Yu was assassinated was around one to quarter-past five in the morning of 12th August twenty-one years ago. Since you said Gongsun Chu and the Seven Champion White Princes are colluding, Gongsun Chu knows the details and the seven are suspects, I focused my research on what they did eighteen to twenty-five years ago.
“Twenty-one years ago, Gongsun Chu was still Shang Bieshi’s second-in-command. There were no clear traces of him doing anything under his real name, so I investigated communications between Fiends’ Genesis and the Seven Champion White Princes.
“There are no records of Fiends’ Genesis and the Seven Champion White Princes ever being in contact. Fiends’ Genesis did business on the waters, so they frequented the waters of Jiangnan. In turn, they constantly clashed with the Seven Champion White Princes who guarded Jiangnan. Two battles in particular were most worthy of being recorded.
Based on Liu Shan Men’s records, Mount Lu’s patriarch, Ling Hanzhong, led the orthodox martial arts community on the first expedition on Fiends’ Genesis’ seas on 15th April twenty-two years ago. Only Bai Zhiqing and a small number of martial arts escaped under his leadership. The Seven Champion White Princes lost over two hundred members, which included their elites, such as Sword Deity Junior Jian Changzai, Cold Mountain Temple’s temple guardian, and two respected broadsword wielders from Valley of Yearning. On the other hand, Fiends’ Genesis only lost two of their Stars. Following that battle, Bai Zhiqing and Shang Bieshi were known worldwide, and their feud was cemented.
The second campaign was when Sword Deity and Brilliant Broadsworder invaded Fiends’ Genesis’ waters and defeated Shang Bieshi, which happened a year after the first battle, but there was no specific date. Based on forty-six pieces of verifiable information sources, though, I calculated it to be around 27th July to 3rd August.
Going off the information at present, I assumed that if the eight were involved in Elder Yu’s death, then the truth lied within the eight days.
Boss was detailed with her analyses unlike me. My only beef with it was the excessive amount of numbers. I started feeling sleepy half way through because of all the numbers. In contrast, Tang Ye nodded whilst taking notes, or so I thought…
When I looked at the sheet in Tang Ye’s hand, I discovered he was notating music! All the nods must’ve just been him bobbing his head to the rhythm! Moreover… of all the songs he could choose, he chose “A Moonlit Night on the Spring River” by Zhang Ruoxu!
If you have time to entertain yourself, pl-play Five in a Row with me!
I poked Tang Ye.
He knocked back. (What?)
I knocked back thrice. (Play Five in a Row).
He knocked back five times. (I don’t have a death wish just because you have one.)
What do you mean?!
I knocked him again.
“I admire your courage.”
I felt five steel fingers clamp down on my head.
“Ow! Ow! Ow! Boss, please show mercy!”
“I’m analysing a case for you. You think I’m holding a lecture, don’t you?! You want to play Five in a Row, do you?!”
How did Boss read my secret code?!
I looked Tang Ye’s way, and he knocked me a few times. (Vice-Captain asked, so…)
“Still sending signals in front of me?!”
What the hell is the point of secret codes now?!
(I knew you betrayed me! Why would you share the code with a woman?! How are we supposed to sneak out for fights and drinks now?!)
“Where are you going?!”
Crap! Got so mad I got stupid!
“Nowhere! It’s normal to feel sleepy when you hear so many numbers, isn’t it? I just Tang Ye to move around with me to keep our minds fresh.”
“Too many numbers? 600 grams of pork shoulders cost 264 taels. 600 grams of roast chicken costs 137. One baked wheat rolls costs 24. After 3.3kg, you were still hungry, so you ordered another 4.35kg of roast chicken and then ate another 2.5kg of roast pork shoulders and nine baked wheat rolls. How much of your salary do you have left?”
“66 taels and a 160 something coins? How am I supposed to survive for the last two weeks of the month?”
“You just did the maths faster than you can blink!”
Eh? Why was I so quick this time?
Glossary
The maths – I converted so that they’re visualise-able and rounded for ease, so don’t expect it to be exact. Not making excuses for being a dropkick at maths… which I am.