Xue Dongting stood outside the courtyard gates, listening to Song Yuming"s raging question, and she was stunned. She hesitated whether to go in or not, but then she heard a chilling voice behind her ear say gravely, “Don"t move! You"d better listen nicely unless you want a b.l.o.o.d.y hold in your neck!”

Xue Dongting was startled, she felt an ice-cold dagger against her throat. “Who… Who are you?”

The person didn"t answer but said, “Call Song Yuming out here.”

Xue Dongting was frozen, unable to move, but her mind was racing.

“Song Yuming won"t come out,” she said sadly. “He won"t ever trust me again.”

She felt a cold sting at her throat as the person applied pressure, the blade just cutting into her flesh. “Don"t try to trick me. Hurry up and call him out here.”

Xue Dongting didn"t dare do anything rash. She knocked on the courtyard gates lightly and called out, “Song Yuming, come out here.”

The person spun and hid to one side, the dagger in one hand still pressed against her throat, his other hand wielding a c.o.c.ked crossbow, aimed through the crack between the doors at the main hall gates. Xue Dongting was pale with fright, but she dared not cry out. Not because she was afraid to die, but because she feared it would make Song Yuming come out even quicker. She clenched her fists, her heart lodged in her throat.

Inside, Song Yuming heard the call and froze, then jumped up and pushed the doors open and went out.

The main hall doors opened with a creak and just at that moment, Xue Dongting suddenly shot her elbow back and rammed it into the man behind her. He had been focused on getting ready to shoot Song Yuming, so he was not expecting Xue Dongting. The jolt knocked the crossbow to the side and the bolt was loosed by the trigger and whined off and chunked into the main hall door where it lay lodged, the shaft quivering.

An unforeseen development!

The man was furious at missing the mark and he slapped Xue Dongting in the face. Blood spurted oozed out of the corner of her mouth and there was a scratch at the edge of her cheek from his strike, but she ignored the pain and struggled and called out, “Song Yuming, watch out…” Then there was no sound.

No one came out of the main hall doors, but there was a crash and a dark figure burst through the window, Song Yuming holding a sword. He didn"t run for the courtyard gates, but use his light, nimble feet and leapt over the courtyard wall and landed on a branch of an ancient sophora tree on the other side. At the gates stood the man in black, his dagger still held at Xue Dongting"s throat, but she had already been knocked unconscious.

The man sneered, “Come one step closer and I"ll kill her.”

There was a murderous look in Song Yuming"s eyes. “Who are you?” he said sternly.

“Someone put a price of a thousand gold on your head.”

“This is men"s business, women should not be dragged into it. Let her go and you and I can have it out.”

The man gave a sinister laugh. “Prince Yu, Your Highness, with you living out here in seclusion, I wonder if your sword has rusted?”

Song Yuming snorted and sneered, “Whether you were aware or not, you were a dead man the moment you accepted this a.s.sa.s.sination a.s.signment.”

The man flinched, his eyes cold and dim.

Song Yuming continued, “Whether I die or not, there"s no way you will come out alive. Regardless if you"re a jianghu hitman or imperial palace henchman, the one who sent you to a.s.sa.s.sinate me will not spare your life. As soon as you take my head and report back, it will be your head that falls next.”

The man in black sneered, “Who would have thought that Your Highness, Prince Yu, is not only an excellent killer on the battlefield, but you"re also fond of scaremongering.”

“I"m not scaremongering. I have my own strategy.”

The man in black studied Song Yuming, then looked at the woman who had been knocked out with a press to her acupoint, and he was silent for a time. Then he raised his head and said coldly, “Let"s make a trade with Your Highness.”

“Go on.”

“If I don"t kill you I will have to deal with a lot of court a.s.sa.s.sins coming after me. A fugitive life among the jianghu will require some funds.”

“Keep going.”

“Your Highness will prepare a hundred taels of gold and I will not harm the princess consort. What do you say to that deal?”

“Alright!”

“Haha, Prince Yu is straightforward, sure enough. But now is not the time for the exchange. If I let the princess consort go, but you don"t let me off, then what good would that be? If I recall, there is a precipitous cliff nearby. How about this, at the hour of the rabbit, at first light, I"ll take the princess consort to the bottom of the cliff. You go up to the top. You leave the gold, I leave the woman. Sound good?”

Song Yuming fixed him with a hard look and said coldly, “If you harm a single hair on her head, I will make your life a living h.e.l.l. I may be living in seclusion here, but if I want to take your life it will be an easy matter. So you had better not try anything funny.”

The man in black laughed. “I make my living among the jianghu, naturally I am aware of Your Highness, Prince Yu"s methods. Then I shall take my leave. Of course I will treat the princess consort with the utmost respect.”

Song Yuming put his sword behind his back and watched the man in black carry Xue Dongting off. His brows were furrowed, his face grave.

He drifted down to the ground and went inside to the kitchen and lit an oil lamp and then went down into the cellar. In the corner of the room he moved a heavy trunk made of agarwood and pried it open with the tip of his sword. Under the feeble lamplight, the innards of the trunk glittered gold. Song Yuming looked at the gold. “A thousand taels of gold for my head, what a generous emperor.”

That night there was no moon.

Along the riverbank there was a cliff with a waterfall. It was about fifty feet high with a reef of rock below it. A person at the top of the cliff could clearly see the bottom of the cliff.

In the hazy predawn light, the sound of a fisherman"s song came wafting over the water as Old Zhang anch.o.r.ed his boat in the center of the river and looked off at the back of the resolute figure standing atop the cliff in the distance. The old man mumbled to himself, “Why bother with a trade? I can guarantee I could get that girl back safe and sound, but you don"t want to do it that way, instead willing to pay a hundred taels of gold. General Who Pacified the Border, Prince Yu, Your Highness, when did you become so timid?”

At the hour of the rabbit, a ray of sunlight burst out over the surface of the sea and shone on the pointed contours of Song Yuming"s face. He looked down the cliff and saw Xue Dongting leaning against the reef, still unconscious, a scab already forming over the wound on her cheek, the cold wind blowing her black hair around. Beside her crouched the man in black.

“It"s time,” Song Yuming called down.

The man in black stood and called back, “There"s two paths. You come down the east path and I"ll go up the west path. I had no choice in this matter, I ask Prince Yu"s benevolent forgiveness, and that you not give me a hard time.”

“You talk too much,” Song Yuming said icily. He whisked his sleeve and set off down the eastern path.

The man in black said no more and ascended the western path. Song Yuming reached the bottom of the cliff at the same time the man in black reached the top. The man saw ten gold bars laid out on a rock and he picked them up and packed them in his sleeves and called out, “The road of the jianghu is long, much thanks, Prince Yu, for this reward.”

Song Yuming paid no attention but stooped down and picked Xue Dongting up. He inspected the wounds on her throat and cheek and he frowned, pained, his heart aching. He kneaded acupoints all over Dongting"s body, and before long she began to come to. When she saw Song Yuming she was startled. “You"re… You"re not hurt?”

Song Yuming"s eyes were welling up and he held had tightly in his arms.