The dead of night was no time for a visit. Old Tao was not normally so impatient that he could not wait until morning. If he had come now, there had to be a reason.
Tao Mo hurriedly dressed and went to the main hall. There he saw Old Tao sitting hunched over, his face ashen, looking as though he had only just recovered from a grave illness. Tao Mo was immediately shocked. “Old Tao? What happened?”
Seeing him, Old Tao lifted one hand slightly. “Young Master.”
Tao Mo walked closer. Old Tao’s lips were pale and completely drained of blood, utterly unlike the energetic man he had been when they parted. Tao Mo grew even more worried. “What exactly happened?”
Old Tao sighed. “It’s a long story. Let’s leave it aside for now. I came only for two things. First, the Investigating Censor dealt with Huang Guangde’s case not long ago. But before the matter could be reported to the Emperor, Huang Guangde took his own life in admission of guilt. Before he died, he wrote a confession taking all responsibility upon himself. The Investigating Censor, however, apparently has no intention of closing the case there. I’m afraid he intends to keep investigating until the family property is confiscated and exile is imposed as well.”
Tao Mo could not help sighing too.
Strictly speaking, the hatred between him and Huang Guangde was as deep as the sea. Now that he heard Huang Guangde had killed himself out of fear of punishment, Tao Mo felt glad, yet also somewhat melancholy. Huang Guangde’s end was a warning struck directly before him. Of all places, officialdom made it easiest to be tempted by power and wealth. If a person lost his true nature because of those temptations and forgot why he had become an official in the first place, then even if the people endured him, Heaven itself would punish him!
Tao Mo asked, “That’s the first thing. What’s the second?”
Old Tao said, “I need to leave for a while.”
Tao Mo frowned. “Now?”
Old Tao glanced at Hao Guozi.
Hao Guozi immediately said, “Old Tao originally planned to leave nothing but a message and go. I was the one who dragged him here by force. Young Master, persuade him! He’s clearly injured, yet instead of resting properly, he still wants to rush all over the place. It’s as though he doesn’t even remember how old he is.”
The moment Old Tao heard him begin rambling, his head started aching. He said to Tao Mo, “Young Master, you know I possess martial arts. Ordinary people cannot injure me.”
Hao Guozi said, “If ordinary people can’t injure you, then whoever injured you obviously isn’t ordinary. Doesn’t that make it even more dangerous?”
Old Tao said, “Young Master, there is no need to worry.”
Hao Guozi said, “You’re injured this badly. How could anyone not worry?”
Listening to them go back and forth made Tao Mo’s head swell. It felt a hundred times harder than hearing a case in court, and his eyes involuntarily began searching for Gu She.
As though their minds were connected, Gu She happened to enter at that exact moment with a robe draped over himself.
Old Tao did not know exactly what Tao Mo and Gu She had been doing before, but one look at Gu She’s expression told him enough to guess. A faint blush immediately appeared on his old face. “Young Master Gu, forgive my intrusion.”
Six words, rich with implication.
Gu She looked at his complexion and frowned. He walked over and held out a hand.
Old Tao froze, then hesitantly extended his own.
Gu She placed his fingers against Old Tao’s pulse. Only after a long while did he ask, “Internal injury?”
Seeing that there was no hiding it, Old Tao could only say, “Just a few petty scoundrels from the martial world. Nothing worth mentioning.”
Gu She released his hand. “The injury is serious.”
When Hao Guozi had said it earlier, Tao Mo had still been half doubtful. Hearing the same thing from Gu She erased every trace of uncertainty. He said to Old Tao, “You should stay and recover. Whatever needs doing, just leave it to Hao Guozi.”
Hao Guozi immediately agreed from the side.
Old Tao sighed. “This is something I must handle personally.”
Tao Mo and Hao Guozi stared at him imploringly. Even Gu She’s eyes revealed a hint of disapproval.
Old Tao said, “At this point, there is no reason to hide it from you any longer. The truth is, I am an elder of the Demon Sect.”
Tao Mo had already known for some time and showed no particular reaction.
Hao Guozi simply had no reaction whatsoever to the words “Demon Sect.”
Gu She remained perfectly composed, as though the answer did not surprise him at all.
With all three of them looking so calm, Old Tao suddenly felt that he was the one making an unnecessary fuss. “Do you remember Mu Chun, who once stayed at our yamen for a while? He is also one of our sect’s elders. The reason he left in such a hurry back then was that our sect had come under attack from a foreign sect at the border.”
Tao Mo and Hao Guozi understood nothing about the affairs of the jianghu. Gu She understood them, but he was not a man of the martial world and had never paid much attention to those grudges and disputes. Thus, all three remained completely unsurprised.
Old Tao continued, “But that foreign sect is extremely mysterious, and its martial arts are strange and unpredictable. Duanmu—ah, I mean Mu Chun—went missing during one clash with them.”
“Ah! Missing?” At last Tao Mo understood something. “Did you find him?”
Old Tao shook his head. “I received the news while I was in the capital and hurried to meet the other elders so we could return to Pini Mountain together and discuss what to do. Who would have thought we would be ambushed on the road!”
Tao Mo asked, “By people from the foreign sect?”
“We still don’t know. But their martial arts were unlike anything we had ever heard of or seen before. Nine chances out of ten, they belonged to that sect.”
Hao Guozi could not resist asking, “What happened after that?” He had already begun treating Old Tao like a storyteller and was completely absorbed.
Old Tao said, “We were all injured. Of course, they didn’t get off cheaply either. Fortunately, at the crucial moment Mingzun and Marquis Xueyi arrived. That was the only reason a few of those people were left alive!”
Tao Mo’s expression changed. His lips moved, but in the end he said nothing. The jianghu and officialdom were ultimately two different worlds. To him, human life outweighed Heaven itself, while Old Tao could speak of lives as casually as grass beneath one’s feet. Their views were fundamentally opposed, but Tao Mo could not force Old Tao to think as he did. He had never truly entered the jianghu, yet even he knew that people of the martial world lived with blood on the edge of their blades. One moment of carelessness could mean being shattered to pieces with not even one’s bones left behind. That was the law of the jianghu.
Old Tao knew from Tao Mo’s expression that the mention of lives lost had displeased him and hurriedly changed the subject. “Afterward, I was afraid Young Master would worry, so I quickly took my leave of them and hurried back here.”
Hao Guozi said, “What if you were ambushed again while coming back alone?”
Old Tao gave a cold, mocking laugh. “Do you think that foreign sect truly has an endless supply of first-rate experts? In my view, the group that intercepted us was already nearly every top fighter their sect could send. Where would they so easily find another group like that?”
Tao Mo asked, “Then when you said you were leaving, you meant you were going…”
“To the border,” Old Tao said. “Duanmu is one of the Demon Sect’s people. No matter what, we cannot leave him in the hands of that foreign sect!”
“But your injuries haven’t healed.”
“This little injury can heal just as well on the road.”
Tao Mo turned toward Gu She as though asking for his opinion.
Gu She said, “Old Tao must know his own limits.”
Tao Mo frowned and, in the end, could only sigh helplessly. Old Tao was an elder of the Demon Sect. Tao Mo had no real authority to restrain him. Old Tao had come to tell them because he cared about them. Had he simply left without saying a word, Tao Mo and the others would have been equally powerless to stop him.
Because of this, Tao Mo did not sleep soundly the entire night. The following morning, he rose together with Gu She and accompanied Old Tao all the way beyond the city to see him off.
Sitting in the carriage, Old Tao looked at Tao Mo’s reluctant expression and forced a smile. “Even if you accompany someone for a thousand li, there must eventually be a parting. You may as well stop here.”
Tao Mo held his hand and said earnestly, “If anything happens, come back to Tanyang County. I’ll be waiting for you here.”
Old Tao laughed. “Do I have to wait until something happens before I’m allowed to return? Even if nothing happens, I’ll still come back. This is my home, after all.” His time in Tanyang County had unconsciously made him forget that he had once been a Demon Sect elder who could shake the martial world. Little by little, he had grown accustomed to being the old steward of the yamen. If not for the trouble involving Duanmu Huichun this time, perhaps he really would have spent the rest of his life quietly retired here, no longer concerning himself with worldly affairs.
Only after hearing that did Tao Mo manage a faint smile. He gave Old Tao several more reminders before finally getting out of the carriage together with Gu She.
Watching Old Tao’s carriage gradually disappear into the distance, Tao Mo’s heart felt unbearably heavy. Perhaps I should have made him stay. He was already so old. Thinking of his own father only made Tao Mo feel sadder.
Gu She said, “If he wished to stay, he would stay on his own. If he wishes to leave, who could possibly stop him?”
Tao Mo said nothing.
Gu She suddenly pulled him into his arms.
Tao Mo was slightly startled. Since marrying Gu She, he had rarely seen him show such intimate affection in public.
“If you miss him, then govern Tanyang County well and give him nothing to worry about when he looks back,” Gu She said softly.
Tao Mo slowly lifted his arms and wrapped them around Gu She’s waist. The solid warmth beneath his hands immediately steadied his heart, and the corners of his mouth rose without his realizing it. “All right. Shall we govern Tanyang County together?”
“We?” Gu She smiled and released him. “I’m merely a commoner.”
Tao Mo hesitated. “But…”
“I’ll concern myself only with managing the Gu residence well, so that you have no worries behind you,” Gu She said, amusement flashing through his eyes. “I’ll be the dutiful helpmate behind our proper county magistrate.”
Tao Mo’s face immediately reddened. “Th-then I’ll bring my salary home to you every month.”
Gu She laughed. “Then I’ll have to trouble Madam.”
“Let’s go.” Tao Mo tugged at his sleeve. “I still have to go to the county yamen.”
Gu She drew his hand from his sleeve and took Tao Mo’s hand in his own. “Mm.”
“Ah. What if someone sees us?”
“We haven’t entered the city yet.”
“But what if a traveler happens to pass by…”
“There is no one on this road.”
“But…”
“Madam, if you don’t want this, I can let go.”
A while later, a shy little voice answered, “I do want it.”
“Then let’s walk more slowly.”
“Mm.”
Elio’s Notes: Finally after almost a decade! Thank you for reading. Feel free to leave a comment about this story at Novel Updates here.
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