Death Sutra Chapter 38

Editors: Cypress Venus Trap and Ann

Chapter 38  Lost Property

If the slightest trace of fairness and justice still existed in heaven, Gu Shenwei hoped it could show itself at this moment. He didn’t know why he was reduced to such a miserable state. Had he done too much evil in his previous life? If so, why let him enjoy 14 years life as a ‘young lord’?

The seven fighting-partners came to slap his face in turn. They would be pinched and kicked by Shangguan Yushi if they didn’t slap with strength.

This was it. One was a lord, the other was a servant. It was very clear and they didn’t have to choose on which side to stand.

This was it. Gu Shenwei had to suppress his eager, murderous heart. After each turn of slap, he would add: “Little servant dare not, please forgive me, Yu Gongzi.”

No miracles, no interference. Shangguan Yushi had realized her purpose of punishing the impervious little servant. She looked at Servant Huan, whose face was covered with blood, and with disdain and disgust, she said “I will spare your miserable life.”

Then, she led her companions and left.

Several fighting partners stayed behind and was at a loss about what to do. One of them wanted to carry Servant Huan and made a step forward, but then retreated, when he saw others remained immovable.

Servant Qing came inside, he then took a glance and said, as if nothing had happened, “All of you leave now! Why staying here?”

Gu Shenwei stood up and walked towards the door. He was grabbed by Servant QIng as he passed by.

“I knew you would have a hard time from beginning. The expression in your eyes isn't right. Which servant will have an expression in their eyes like you? As if you are the lord of the castle. Maybe you were once a prince of a small country, but let me tell you, you’re a servant of the castle now and that will remain so for your whole lifetime. If you still want to survive, you’d better be obedient. Do not think you’re somebody even if you’re playing happily with the two gongzi. You’re just a toy, hold back your ambitions.”

Gu Shenwei thanked Servant Qing for his ‘lesson’, hurried back to the stone hut, and grabbed a rag to wipe away the blood on his face. The physical pain was not worth mentioning, but his heart seemed to have been stabbed by countless knives, even the trembling of those knives caused him endless pain. The impulse to kill and his desire for revenge repeatedly rose and rolled back like a tide, and were hard to be restrained.

Elder Zhang came back with lunch. He had been very cautious towards this Servant Huan ever since he was frightened the previous night. At that moment, the same teenager was black and blue, which seemed to have proved the accuracy of his judgement: a man was not as reliable as an animal.

Elder Zhang put the big bowl, which was filled with vegetables and meat, on the edge of the brick bed and pushed it towards Servant Huan. After a while, he picked several pieces of meat from his bowl and put them into Servant Huan’s bowl.

Gu Shenwei raised his head and looked surprisedly at this horsekeeper who was usually cold and silent.

Elder Zhang lowered his head to eat and totally ignored him.

Gu Shenwei held the bowl and wolfed down the meal. He also didn’t say anything.

Xue Niang was not easy to talk with like Elder Zhang. When Servant Huan reported to her as usual at dusk, her face was more cold than usual. She had learnt about what had happened during the day from some sources. Those teenagers who had witnessed Servant Huan's humiliation had no intentions to hide for him.

“Servant Yao would not make such a mistake.”

Xue Niang blurted it out. In fact, she knew very little about the triangle-faced teenager and had not shown any of her appreciation when he was alive.

“Since you have the ability to kill him, you also have to do better than him. Don’t forget about your little secret, and also the hidden trouble of XuanJi acupoint. I will not help cure a servant who causes trouble, not to mention avenging his father's death.”

Although Xue Niang had always been harsh, she had seldom threatened directly. Her frank manner indicated that she was very unsatisfied about the current progress.

Gu Shenwei kneeled on the ground. He had thought about something for a whole afternoon, “Please forgive little servant’s stupidity, Xue Niang. But little servant has found a solution.”

Xue Niang kept silent, so Gu Shenwei continued:

“I will teach Shangguan Yushi a lesson in front of Ninth Gongzi; She fears this the most and also, she won't be expecting it.”

“You seem to forget, you’re a servant, she is the lord.”

“So this will be a burning shame for her. Ninth Gongzi prefers the strongest, Shangguan Yushi was the most formidable person in the school before, I’ll prove that her fame was underserved.”

“Do you think a little kid’s trick like this will work?”

Gu Shenwei remained silent for awhile before replying, “To Ninth Gongzi, everything is little kid’s game.”

Xue Niang’s eyebrows crinkled, her iron-like fingers knocked on the arms of her chair, producing a light bang bang sound.

She was too old to understand a teenager’s thought. She also couldn’t recall her teenage years as liking to play games. She felt Servant Huan’s suggestion was not good, but it also seemed to be effective.

“It doesn’t matter for you if you cause trouble, but you should never get the Miss involved.”

“No, this is just business between kids, the grown-ups will not care. And that Shangguan Yushi is not very respectful to the Miss and should be taught a lesson.”

“Humph, do not sow discord. She is a wolf trained by that woman of the Meng family, naturally she will take the part of that bitch.”

Xue Niang’s tone suddenly became stern, so Gu Shenwei knew his words were effective.

“Yes, Xue Niang is wise.”

“Are you sure you can defeat her? I’ve heard that little girl’s kung fu is not bad. She may be even better than Ninth Gongzi.”

“May little servant be bold to ask for Xue Niang’s help?”

“Ha, you, little servant, are good at shuffling off responsibility. Do you want me to play the little kid’s game by myself?”

“No, little servant hopes Xue Niang can teach more kung fu so little servant can defeat Shangguan Yushi in one move.”

Gu Shenwei had witnessed several times Shangguan Yushi’s martial arts prowess and knew that her kung fu was not bad. If it was a life and death fight, he was confident that he was capable of defeating her once he arouse his murderous heart. Though that teenage girl was cruel and merciless, she still didn’t know the key principle of killing. But it was a normal kung fu competition, so his odds for winning were not high.

Gu Shenwei had learnt a bit about the slight difference between fighting in a kung fu competition and killing someone from Marshal Yang, but he had already been much better than his peers.

But Xue Niang was considering another problem. She stared stringently at the daring teenager and didn’t answer for a long time. She wanted to see Servant Huan’s true purposes.

Gu Shenwei hadn’t gotten a definite promise from Xue Niang, but he still followed his own plan step by step.

On the next day, he arrived early at the school gate and waited for a chance.

He had mingled with the group of footmen all these days. Although no one talked with him, for a person who would like to listen carefully, the ear was much more powerful than mouth.

There were less than 20 school kids in the school. Except the twins, the others were all Unique King’s close relatives. Most of them were surnamed Shangguan, only a few of them didn’t have the same surname. Their ages ranged from 7 or 8 years old to 15 or 16 years old, and only Shangguan Ru and Shangguan Yushi were girls.

Although they were classmates, their status were quite different. Unique King’s son and daughter were ‘lord of lords’ and all the descendants of Shangguan family had to curry favour with the twins. As for the ones who held the lowest status, the respect they gained was not even that of Servant Qing, who was stationed at the gate.

The status of the lord would directly map onto the servants. Although Gu Shenwei had very little contact with the school kids, he still could see that invisible pyramid from the footmen at the gate.

One of the school kid was called Shangguan Hongye, whose name was atmospheric and background was uncommon. His father was Unique King’s younger brother and died at an early age, and he didn’t have the protection of any grown-up brothers. As an orphan and a widow, who lived under others’ roof, he was one of the school kids who held the lowest status.

When Shangguan Yushi entered the school yesterday, she rudely pushed him onto the ground. He was humiliated publicly, but he could not even dare to argue back.

Shangguan Hongye’s expression, however, showed that he actually cared a lot about it and he was very angry.

Gu Shenwei saw everything yesterday, and he thought he could find a chance to take advantage of it.

Shangguan Yushi was domineering and arrogant, but she was not the real ‘lord’. This was her weakest point.

Strictly speaking, her generic relationship with the twins was not as close as Shangguan Hongye. They have the same ancestor only by counting back 4 or 5 generations.

The twins and Shangguan Yushi hadn't come today, they had already started celebrating the New Year in advance.

Servant Qing waited for a while before allowing the footmen to leave. He stayed at the gate to chat for a while and also left for a drink.

The group at the gate became half of its original size when the twins’ footmen left. The remaining teenagers could only envy the ones left. Who would be willing to be exposed in cold weather outside, only in order to hold the small items that their lords may not use for all day?

So, no one noticed Servant Huan who had huddled up in the corner.

The school kids swarmed out at noon. Shangguan Hongye also led his own footman who also doubled as a bookkeeper to walk back home. He was not qualified to live in the inner chamber. He lived in a separate yard together with his mother in west castle, and happened to have an overlapped short path with Gu Shenwei.

Gu Shenwei followed behind the two of them. After they passed through two gates and no one was nearby, he called ‘Hong Gongzi’.

This was a good place for talking privately. Although there were guards at the back and front gates, no one would care about the kids’ chat and no hidden killers monitored nearby.

Shangguan Hongye stopped, and looked surprisedly at the teenager following up.

Gu Shenwei’s injury had not healed yet, his eyes swollen and mouth blue. Shangguan Hongye stared at him for a long time and finally recognized who he was. He curled his lip, and turned back to leave. Although he was not popular in the school, he still disdained to contact with a servant, especially the servant himself was also not popular.

“Hong Gongzi, you lost something.”

As soon as Shangguan Hongye glanced at the small rag handed over by Servant Huan, he knew it was not his. He was about to refuse before the thing had already been stuffed into his hands.

He was a bit angry, because Servant Huan had crossed the boundary between a lord and a servant, which was actually an insult to him. But he swallowed his words right away because he was familiar with the weight. Lifting a corner, as expected, it was several pieces of silver, not too much, but very tempting.

Shangguan Hongye was puzzled. Servant Huan had winked, smiled at him and quickly left. His injury together with his expression made a weird sight to behold and Shangguan Hongye unable to react at that moment. He was stunned for a while, and then quickly put the silver close to his chest.

The little bookkeeper hadn’t been able to figure out the lord’s thought, and cried happily: “Gongzi, where did you get the money? Luckily someone returned it back, we can finally pay some debt before the New Year.”

Gu Shenwei walked forward quickly, but he didn’t have too much confidence. If Shangguan Hongye didn’t value this bit of silver, or didn’t want to accept a servant’s charity, then his plan might not be able to move forward.

After all it was silver. Gu Shenwei had already passed through the third gate and turned to an alley, but there was still no call from behind.

Those school children are all playboys, and they privately gambled a lot. Gu Shenwei had heard several times about it when Shangguan Hongye’s little bookkeeper had been complaining about his lord. His lord lost some money. He was not only in debt, but had also deducted his bookkeeper’s wages.

Even if it was only little bit of silver, it was very important for Shangguan Hongye, who was at the bottom chain amongst all the lords.

Gu Shenwei had taken the first step for his revenge, but he still had to wait to see Xue Niang’s attitude.

Chapter end