Chapter 16

Calculated Solution

“Stop!” the head guard yelled out as they stop in front of Yueyin’s group.

One of the house workers that was pulling one of the two supplies cart set it down and asked “Sir, is there something we can help you with? We’re in a hurry, can you let us pass?”

The head guard look the house worker up and down, then looks past him to scan the others. He noted five men and two girls. “Have you seen two suspicious character passed by?” he asked.

“No Sir”

“Where are you all headed at this time of day?” he eyes the girl with her face half-veiled suspiciously.

“We’re heading to the HePing Shelter to deliver emergency supplies.”

The guard pointed at Yueyin and demanded “You, drop your veil.”

As soon as he said that, all the house workers tensed up and the maid standing next to Yueyin step in front of her to shield her away from his line of vision.

The house worker that has been talking with the guard said “Sir, that is our young miss. She’s an unmarried lady, it’s inappropriate to demand her to unveil in front of a bunch of men unwillingly.”

“We are chasing after assassins and they could have hidden anywhere or even amongst you. I have every right to suspect if you do not do as told!” the guard said loudly, trying to exert his power as a head guard over them.

“How will seeing my face help you determine whether or not I’m the assassin you’re looking for? Do you know what the assassin looks like?” Yueyin asked the guard while keeping her calm composure.

Not getting any real fearful reaction from this crowd already irks the head guard. Now a girl was even questioning his command. Not wanting to lose his image in front of his other guards any further, he gave the command to the twenty guards that has been standing behind him “Search them!”

The house worker puts out his arms to either side of him to stop the guards from advancing “Sir, you cannot do this!”

The head guard just shoved the house worker to the side and made his way towards the carts. He raised his sword, getting ready to stab it through the covered-up supplies on the cart. But before he could stab his sword in, Yueyin spoke up again, “Should I remind you that illegal searches of an official’s belongings is a punishable crime?”

Upon hearing that, the guard stopped his movement. His sword only inches from the cart. He quickly put up his left hand, signaling for the other guards to stop their advances. He looks over at Yueyin, who still haven’t budged an inch from where she was standing. He now understands why they weren’t at all fearful of him. Turns out they belong to another official’s household. But they are wrong if they think he would coward before them. This was his chance to make it big, if he manages to catch the assassins he will surely be rewarded and promoted. He wasn’t going to let this chance slip by. He’s also the head guard of a third rank official household, there are only a few officials above his master in the city that he has to worry about.

The head guard made his way over to Yueyin and looms over her and the maid threateningly, “If I find even a small trace of the assassins, the one punished won’t be me. When that happens, even if you beg to be my little mistress, I’ll still won’t let you or your family off.”

“Don’t you dare to insult our young miss! No one would ever even want to be wedded to an ugly person like you” the maid shouted at the guard.

“Xiaolan, don’t be rude to the guards or father will be angry with you,” Yueyin said and pulled the maid out of the head guard’s reach. She locks eyes with the guard, and though her face is veil, he can still see her small smile behind the semi-sheer veil. “You must be the head guard of Official An,” he scowls as he wonders how she was able to tell who his master was. Yueyin continues “If being the keyword. Only if you find anything will you be rewarded. But what if you don’t find anything? Do you truly believe that you will go unpunished even if your master is a third rank official?”

The head guard took a step back, surprised at Yueyin’s confidence. How can a little noble girl who rarely steps outside her house be so confident in front of a man with position? It’s like she’s one hundred percent confident that he will be punished, while he’s only seventy percent sure that he won’t be. He started to doubt himself. If she was this confident then maybe they were telling the truth about not having met the assassins? She didn’t seem to be worried about his master’s rank, is her father of higher ranking?

“Who’s your father?” he asked.

“Zhang Weimin” she replied.

The head guard laughed loudly, “Your father is only a fifth rank official and you still dare to challenge me?” he then motioned to the other guards “Search them!”

He kept his eyes on her, wanting to see her fearful reaction. But when she still stood there composed and calm, his anger grew. He reaches for her veil, wanting to yanked it away. He wanted to embarrass her and to see the face of the little girl that dare to challenge him.

Before his hand could touch the veil, it was kicked away causing him to lose his balance and stumble a little. He quickly looks towards the direction the kick came from to see who dared to assault him. His eyes widen with hatred upon seeing another veil-faced girl.   

“Touch my sister and I will chop your arms off” Meiyin said as she drew her sword and pointed it at the head guard. She then turns and glared at the other guards, daring them to make a move.

Yueyin let out a sigh and reaches out to touch Meiyin’s shoulder. She hadn’t expected her sister to appear and didn’t want her sister to be involved. She shook her head when Meiyin turn to look at her. Once Meiyin withdrew her sword, Yueyin took a few steps towards the head guard. “At such an ungodly hour, right outside the residence of a fifth rank official, you dare to conduct an unlawful act towards his belongings and commit violence towards his family members. Your master might be of higher ranking, but sir head guard,” she looks directly into his eyes, “You are not.”

“Since we are in a hurry to deliver these supplies and have no time to waste with people like yourself, I shall allow you to conduct your searches. However, if you do not manage to find any traces of the assassin or damage anything in the process of your search, do know that you will be heavily punished.” Yueyin said as she makes her way over to one of the supplies carts. She reaches for the cover and pull it open, revealing all of the supplies underneath. Out of the corner of her eyes, she can see Minseok flinched when she pulls the cover away. “If you are willing to risk your head guard position, then go ahead with the search” she said as she turns back to look at the head guard.

The head guard unconsciously took a step back as Yueyin turn to look at him. Taking a risk with his position was definitely not something he was brave enough to put on the line. He had worked very hard and had endured so much just to get to where he is today. He doesn’t know if saving his pride is worth risking his hard-earned position. Then he quickly looks straight back at the girl, realizing this was her game. She pokes at his weakness so that he would back down. Of course, how could he fall for that so easily. Her father is only a fifth rank, and no lower rank officials ever dared to go against a higher rank.

He hesitantly makes his way over to the cart that was still covered. He grabs onto the cover and was about to lift it when someone grab onto his arm to stop him. He glares daggers at the guard that had stopped him. “What do you think you are doing?” he glowers at the guard.

“Sir, I think we should back down. She said her father is Zhang Weimin.”

“So?”

“Sir, although Official Zhang is only fifth rank, but the Zhang family was granted royal honors. They’re not people that you or master can easily mess with. Let’s stop while we still can.” the guard pleaded in a whisper so only the head guard could hear.

The head guard’s eyes widen upon hearing the new information. He didn’t know about the royal honors. If he had he wouldn’t have picked a fight with them in the first place. Royal honors weren’t usually granted to officials’ or generals’ families with rank lower than three. If a fifth rank official's family managed to grain royal honors, then they must be special in the Emperor’s eyes. Families or person with royal honors are treated with utmost respect even by higher ranking officials or generals because they have the emperor’s favor. Their words have more weight in front of the emperor. He definitely doesn’t want to mess with people like that. His pride isn't worth as much as his head does. He kicks his subordinate “Why didn’t you say so earlier?!”

“Are you going to search or not? Stop wasting our time” Meiyin said with an annoyed tone.

The head guard took his hand off the cover and put on his best smile. He turns towards the Zhang sisters, “Our deepest apologies misses for delaying your time. We’ve seen what we needed to. You can go on ahead now.” He then turns back towards his troops and command them to fall back into formation, preparing to leave.

“Wait.”

The head guard turn back towards Meiyin, “Yes miss?”

“My sister did say that if you do not manage to find anything then you will be punished didn’t she?” Meiyin said as she pulls out a whip that she had hanging on her waist band.

The head guard’s face pale. He really shouldn’t have picked a fight with them. Lucky for him, Yueyin spoke up “Let him go, we are in a hurry, remember?”

Meiyin gave the head guard one last glare before putting away her whip, then motion for the house workers to put the cover back on the cart. Once they finished checking everything over, they make their way towards the shelter. The head guard and his troops watch as they disappear from sight.

---

Yueyin led her group to a vacated area near the shelter. She instructed two house workers to stay with her along with the cart that she pulled open earlier. She had the rest of the house workers and the maid take the other supplies cart and head to the shelter first.

“Jie, why are we splitting up? and what was all that about earlier?” Meiyin ask.

Yueyin pet her sister’s head, “Good job remembering to wear the veil when going outside. Why are you up so early? I thought I told the maids to not disturb you.”

Meiyin pushed Yueyin’s hand away “Don’t change the subject. Why were you up against the guards? Didn’t we agree to stay out of their way to avoid causing trouble for father? And why didn’t you just let him know about our family’s royal honors earlier so we could get rid of him sooner?” Meiyin was a bit frustrated. She had tossed and turned the whole night, unable to get much sleep. When she finally gave up and decided to sneak into Yueyin’s room, her sister wasn’t there. She asked the maids and found out about the emergency request for supplies from the shelter. Meiyin changed and headed towards the back door, planning to catch up to her sister. She heard commotions near the door, and after she quickly exited it, she saw what the guard was trying to do. Using her martial arts skill, she made it in time to kick the man and prevent him from hurting Yueyin. She just didn’t understand why her usually calm and cool-headed sister would pick a fight with the guards.

“Well…I forgot about it. You know that because father don’t like flaunting that status around so we never really put it to use.”

“Then why didn’t you just let them search and be done with it? Usually you wouldn’t have bothered with…” Meiyin paused as realization hit her, “Jie, please don’t tell me you did it again.”

Yueyin smile guiltily as she looks towards one of the two house workers that stayed behind. Meiyin followed her gaze and facepalmed as the house worker took off his straw hat. Yueyin motion for the other house worker to help her uncovered the cart and get Jun out while Minseok takes off the house worker’s clothing he wore over his black clothing.

Minseok drew his sword and pointed it at Yueyin’s throat. Meiyin was about to also drew her sword but Yueyin reaches out to stop her while keeping her gaze on Minseok.

“Why did you lift the cover of this cart earlier?” Minseok asks, “You knew he was in there yet you still did it.”

“He was well covered and it’s just a little psychological trick. That head guard was trying too hard to flaunt his authority as a man of position over us. That makes it obvious what his weakness was, and if you poke at a person’s weakness their mentality will become a bit frantic. Once that happened, they’ll be unstable enough to not focuses on certain details. In that state of mind, if I personally open one cart up he would immediately think that my reasoning for opening up that cart is because I’m confident about it. He would then suspect the other one and want to personally check it so that I wouldn’t have a chance to do anything more. At that moment, his weakened mentality just wants to grab onto the first thing that will help him regain confidence…I know you don’t trust me, but his course of action was within calculation” Yueyin explained.

“What if he didn’t act how you predicted?”

Yueyin smile to herself “Well, if you must know. The guard that came forward to stop the head guard was an old acquaintance of my father. I have met him before and recognized him amongst the troops when they arrived. I knew once he heard my father’s name, he would remember me and help, so all I had to do was led the head guard to ask the right kind of questions.”

Minseok was amused for a short second at how quick witted this girl was. “Why did you help us?” he asked.

“You were going to kill us.”

Minseok narrowed his eyes suspiciously at her, “Although that was one of my two choices, but it wasn’t the only ones or the best ones considering the situation. I could have just continued running and not waste my time killing you.”

“Then why didn’t you? Because we might try to stop you or reveal your direction out to the guards? Wasted time wasn’t the main reason you accepted the deal was it?” She looks from Minseok to the unconscious Jun. “You cared for your partner. You knew what I said was right, that he wouldn’t last if you had continued running.”

Caring? Him? For this troublesome kind of partner? This girl must be seeing things.

“I think I can understand what happened now, but if you don’t take your sword away from my sister, I can’t guarantee that you’ll walk away unharmed” Meiyin threaten him, her patience running thin with how long he has his sword against her sister’s neck. “That is not how to thank someone who just saved you.”

Minseok glared at Meiyin. He snickered internally at her for thinking she could beat him in a sword fight. A noble girl who never been through hardships in her life dare to threaten him. “Leave her out of this,” Yueyin said, drawing his attention back to her, “We had a deal. Surely I’m not wrong in thinking you’re a man of honor and will keep your end of the deal?”

“You’ve seen my face, surely you knew that the deal is no longer in effect when you thought up of this plan.” He moved his sword closer, the sharp edge only millimeters from her neck. Meiyin tensed and immediately drew her sword.

Yueyin reaches up and pull away her veil, “Will this make us even? I’m sorry, there wasn’t any other way I could think of at the moment. I couldn’t possibly let you hide inside my house and risk disturbing my father. Now that you know what I look like, you can come back for my life if I ever reveal your identity.” 

Minseok stared at her for awhile, then he withdrew his sword. He makes his way over to where Jun and the house worker was. He’s a bit relief to see the now banaged Jun is not bleeding out anymore. He pull Jun up and support him on his uninjured side. Before leaving, Minseok turns back and said to Yueyin “Don’t think that you’ll always be able to see through everyone.”

The Zhang sisters and the house worker watches him disappear from sight. “Young misses, shall we head to the shelter?” The two girls nodded and followed behind the house worker as he pushes the cart towards the shelter.  

“Why did you help him?” Meiyin asked.

“Because I saw hesitation in his eyes when he was considering whether he should kill us. Not the kind of hesitation if that was his best option, but the kind where he doesn’t want to involve the innocents.” Yueyin replied, putting her veil back on.

“Can you not do this kind of thing again? I’m happy with Master Wong, I don’t really need another martial art master.” Meiyin complain as she recalls the time when her sister told her the story of how Yueyin and Master Wong met. 

Yueyin laughed, “If I find you another one, father will have my head.”

Meiyin stop suddenly causing Yueyin to also stop and look towards her questioningly, “Wait…he doesn’t know I have a martial art master does he? Last time he was just mad I was out late playing sword fighting with a friend. We didn’t tell him about Sifu...so he doesn’t know right?”

“Meimei, our father is not a dense head.”

Author's Notes:

T^T so sorry for the long wait, life has not been nice to me because it haven't given me much time to sit down to write. I was going to do double update but thought that I should squished this scene into just one long chapter instead of two short ones. Cut out some stuff and saved it for the next chapter. So there's not much scene changes in this one, hope that doesn't make the stor'sy flow boring...