Chapter 48: The Curtain Falls

Chapter 48: The Curtain Falls

A plump man in his forties, dressed in dark scholar-gentry robes, came rushing over as if tumbling and crawling.

Consort Ding glanced at Yu Xian and, seeing him remain completely indifferent, understood what to do.

Swish!

A bead of blood drifted through the air.

Wu Ziyi clutched his throat, his eyes wide with disbelief, seemingly unable to comprehend that he had just died.

"My son! My dear son!"

The plump gentryman collapsed to the ground, embracing Wu Ziyi’s lifeless corpse, wailing bitterly.

The Wu family servants, who had previously harbored a fair bit of resentment, suddenly found a strange sense of balance in their hearts.

All they had lost was a tendon in their hands, but the young master had paid with his life.

The gentryman’s cries finally disturbed the others inside the inner cabin.

A middle-aged noblewoman, who had been chatting merrily with the Princess, walked out from the inner cabin. Upon seeing the scene, she was stunned for a moment before her expression turned furious.

"Master! Who is it?! Who killed my son?!"

"Supervisor Yu, what has happened?"

The Princess asked with a solemn expression; in front of outsiders, she still needed to maintain appearances.

Yu Xian replied nonchalantly, "Consort Ding saw someone trying to forcibly seize a commoner's daughter, felt a surge of righteous indignation, and killed him in anger. A trivial matter, nothing more."

Looking at the family of three embracing and wailing on the ground, the Princess’s eyes betrayed a hint of pity.

However, the virtue of such a woman was that whatever the head of the household decided to do, even if she held reservations in her heart, she would never voice them in public and damage her man's pride.

Since Yu Xian said it was a trivial matter, then it was a trivial matter.

Thus, she took half a step back, falling behind Yu Xian, and asked no further questions.

Consort Ding looked at Yu Xian with a bewildered expression.

*Didn't you tell me to kill him?*

Yu Xian returned a look.

*Did you or did you not say it?*

Consort Ding nodded.

*Whatever Supervisor Lord says goes.*

After crying and wailing mournfully for a long while, Master Wu turned red-eyed and gritted his teeth as he spoke:

"Supervisor Yu, Wu had already called out for mercy just now. Why did you still deal a fatal blow?"

Yu Xian gave a soft "Oh" and replied, "I didn't hear it very clearly. Did Master Wu really call out just now?"

He looked toward Consort Ding and asked again, "Did he call out?"

Consort Ding shook his head. "I didn't hear it."

"You?!"

Master Wu instantly flew into a rage.

Before his anger could erupt, however, he heard Yu Xian say:

"Master Wu, this supervisor has just considered the matter. With the Princess residing on this vessel, it would be somewhat inconvenient for you all to remain aboard.

How about this: I shall purchase this grain carrier, and you may seek out another ship."

With that, Yu Xian fished a single copper coin from the seam of his belt.

With a sharp *clang*, it dropped to the ground and rolled right up to Master Wu's feet.

"Let this single cash coin serve as my passage fare. I wonder if you agree?"

A father's fault when his son misbehaves.

To raise a son to be such a scoundrel—not executing him on the spot along with the boy was only out of consideration for Master Wu having offered up this grain ship.

Master Wu’s complexion instantly turned ashen, the death of his son temporarily pushed to the back of his mind.

"Supervisor Yu, do not forget, this is a vessel belonging to the Wu family!"

"This is a vessel of the Hundred Treasures Tower, and a vessel of Prince Fu's estate—it is precisely *not* a vessel of the Wu family!"

Yu Xian’s eyes lowered, and an oppressive aura naturally emanated from him.

"Master Wu, will you accept the coin or not?"

Clutching his son's corpse, Master Wu was in no position to harbor anger. He merely stared blankly at the single copper coin on the ground for a long time before he finally spoke:

"Supervisor Yu, I beg you to leave a path of survival for the Wu family. This wretched boy angered you, and his death is no loss, but I beseech you not to vent your wrath upon the Wu family."

A dead son could always be replaced by having another, but if the ship were lost, the Wu family would find no second vessel in such a short time. When the rebel forces breached the city, not a single member of his household would survive.

"You might as well ask your deceased son: had the situation been reversed, would he have ever spared a path for others?" Yu Xian sneered. "Ah, I forgot, he can no longer answer you."

"So, will you preserve your dignity yourself, or shall I do it for you?"

Master Wu fell into a harrowing dilemma. As he desperately searched his mind for any remaining way to preserve the Wu family, he heard his wife's hysterical roar from the side:

"Master! We'll fight them to the death! Fight them! What grand prince's estate? A phoenix without feathers is worse than a chicken, yet they still have to beg to board our ship! They killed Ziyi, and I want them to pay with their lives! Pay with their lives!"

*Slap!*

Master Wu delivered a heavy blow across the noblewoman's face, roaring furiously:

"If you hadn't doted on and spoiled our son on ordinary days, how could he have brought about today's catastrophe?! Shut your mouth, or I will cast you out of the Wu family today!"

The noblewoman was instantly struck dumb. Touching her bruised cheek, she did not dare utter another word.

Master Wu picked up the single copper coin from the ground, laboriously scooped up his son's body, and said with a hollow, lifeless expression:

"Supervisor Yu, this ship is yours."

Just moments ago, he had been daydreaming about latching onto the Prince's estate and staging a grand comeback in the future, but now his dream had violently shattered.

Right at that moment, the Wu family steward, Wu Liu, happened to be returning aboard quite cheerfully with the young woman and her family. Before he even had a chance to claim credit, he was seized upon Master Wu's direct order, designated to be buried alongside the young master.

If he couldn't even keep watch over the young master, what use was there in him living?

The Wu family—alongside their various concubines, children, maidservants, bodyguards, and a portion of their dependents, numbering fifty or sixty souls in total—were all chased off the vessel in disgrace.

Consort Ding watched the bedraggled Wu entourage and rubbed his own neck, gesturing to ask whether they should eliminate the roots to prevent future trouble.

Yu Xian shook his head. "Master Wu is a sensible man. Since he accepted the money, he will not harbor thoughts of revenge. It isn't worth sacrificing the entire Wu family for the sake of a single son.

Besides, does the Prince's estate have any reason to fear the retaliation of a mere Wu family?"

"Go check if all the cargo has been brought aboard. Prepare to set sail."

"Understood."

Consort Ding acknowledged the order and withdrew.

Yu Xian watched the tragic scenes of parting still playing out along the riverbank, and suddenly let out a self-deprecating chuckle.

"This supervisor is kind-hearted; I cannot bear to watch such sights, yet truly I cannot save you all."

He possessed empathy and compassion, but he would never actively court danger for the sake of a crowd of unrelated strangers.

Otherwise, given his current level of cultivation, wielding Dharmic artifacts and taking advantage of the terrain, he might well have been capable of defending a city single-handedly.

Yet what of it? It would only draw the gaze of the Lin family toward him.

When that time came, regardless of whether they dispatched a Foundation Establishment grand cultivator or merely a Qi Refining late-stage squad accompanied by mid-stage cultivators, it would be more than enough to obliterate him utterly.

When all was said and done, he was merely a selfish, ordinary human being.

Even saving the young girl just now had stemmed from a somewhat ridiculous sense of compensatory guilt, as though doing so could make him feel slightly better inside.

Clearly, none of this was of his making.

Feeling somewhat disppirited, Yu Xian turned around to face the family of the young girl who were still kneeling on the deck. Aside from the girl herself, there was a young boy and a middle-aged couple, presumably her parents and younger brother.

"The ship will head straight north. If you are planning to seek out relatives and wish to disembark anywhere along the way, simply let me know."

"Your great benevolence, benefactor—"

Before the family could finish speaking, Yu Xian waved a hand to cut them off.

"There is no need to thank me. I saved you for reasons that have nothing to do with you."

Not far away, the high-pitched chant of the boatmen rang out. The vessel hauled up its iron anchor, slowly shifted its position, and began pulling out of the harbor.

Yu Xian cast a backward glance at the majestic city of Changning, as though already witnessing the sweeping flames of war that would soon engulf it.

If he were ever to tread this soil again, would any old acquaintances remain?

With a soft sigh, he turned and stepped back into the cabin.