Martial King's Retired Life

You Have Yourself a Deathwish

Moving as lightly as a drifting cloud, Hua Feihua entered a room without anyone sensing his presence on the way over.

“Boss.”

“Any news?” Hua Feihua peeled off his paper mache mask and tossed it aside as mindlessly as he wore it, yet it landed on the table as if it was his intention, then took a seat.

The tall young man on the opposite side sat up at long last and passed over a flask of wine giddily. “You act faster than news travels. Let the brothers catch a breather. Were it not for Matriarch Zi’s wedding invitations drawing crowds, it would have been challenging for our brothers to sneak into Hangzhou.”

Lu Mangmang, also known as “Unbothered”, was one of the four vice-leaders of “Wandering Song Alliance”, who oversaw Jiangnan’s underworld. If there was something Hua Feihua had learnt from working in the underworld since childhood, it was that one had to trust their friends. Lu Mangmang was his Hong Jiu without the bad luck. Hua Feihua entrusted the administrative tasks of the group to the four vice-leaders while he himself only tackled jobs he enjoyed. Therefore, it was a rare occasion for Lu Mangmang to actually meet his leader.

“All the maidens of Hangzhou are infatuated with you. When are you going to spare some time for the one living inside of your heart?”

“Mind your own business.”

Even if one did not know Hua Feihua as well as Lu Mangmang, they could easily sense the emotions stirred.

Hua Feihua had so numerous motivations for his trip to Hangzhou that it was no easy undertaking to break them down and arrange them in order of importance. One thing that never changed, though, was that it brought him closer to her. He was aware of details of her life through letter exchanges, but he was unable to become a part of her life.

Yes, despite how many years it had been, despite both of them having established themselves in the martial world, despite him no longer being an ignorant youth, he still could not be with Miss Su – and was still a disappointment! He had tried all sorts of methods but could not find an entry point. He had sent plenty of gifts he thought were good and followed the advice of his friends, but he managed to turn every attempt at a confession into a provocation that angered her. Putting aside the difficulty of reading a maiden’s mind, he was never good at reading minds or between lines. That was why he made a strong effort to learn what maidens liked and how they thought when he interacted with them during this trip. As for having heart-to-heart talks with them, he just wanted to do something for them.

While Hua Feihua was decent at combating evil, his actions did create some unwanted misunderstandings. Cha Hao had misunderstood him, but he did not know where to start explaining from, so he decided to apologise another time.

To assist his leader, Lu Mangmang took the risk of coming to Hangzhou, a city abundant in government hunting dogs, to collect information.

“There is one interesting individual.”

“Tell me more,” replied Hua Feihua.

Lu Mangmang threw a sheet of paper to Hua Feihua with the intensity of throwing a dart.

Whilst reading through the information, Hua Feihua read aloud, “Yan Manor’s Yan Qingluo. Her father is an imperial exam winner and a student of the Prime Minister, so her background is perfect. She only shows herself in public and shopping, and she only shops for makeup, yet she reportedly sighed all day today and went to the pharmacy to buy drugs for committing suicide.”

Lu Mangmang smiled as he shook his head. “I have never heard anything about Yan Buer getting married and having a daughter, yet he suddenly has a daughter. What do you think?”

“Forget it.” Noticing Lu Mangmang’s confused stare on him, Hua Feihua explained, “When I used to foll-, when I was building myself up, Yan Buer gave me a lot of grief. I’d rather not let him know I’m here and catch my tail. Considering she’s his daughter, I can’t imagine her having any big problems. Just have our brothers keep tabs on her.”

Lu Mangmang knew that Hua Feihua was not one to speak without thought, but he felt he was missing out on something. He smiled the thought off, took out another sheet to read, then shook his head. “Who is still so lame in this day and age?”

“What is it this time?”

“Two young masters with too much money have lost their minds. They issued an individual a martial arts challenge, declaring they would fight for their crush’s heart if they beat him.”

“Let me see.”

Lu Mangmang smirked as Hua Feihua took the sheet. “What has the world come to. Resorting to robbery for lust and bullying once there’s nowhere to spend money. Leader, are you going to intervene?”

“Li Shoulin and Lu Jianqiu? Li Shoulin and Lu Jianqiu? Aren’t they… the same as him?”

Finally catching on, Lu Mangmang patted his thigh. “You are right. You really are on another level, Boss.”

“Why would they resort to bullying given their backgrounds? It’s taboo for people with their family backgrounds. You’re right. We should intervene in this sort of stuff.” Hua Feihua pressed the sheet that contained all the newest information of trouble in Hangzhou recently.

Li Clan and Lu Clan’s young masters had issued a challenge (addressed to someone with the nickname “Seriously Ugly”) to fight 14th August at Moongazer. The winner would have the privileges to courting the beauty.