Ever since the incident with the spilled tea, Master Wu had stopped his covert monitoring.
Which was why as the orange-tinted light of dawn heralded a new day and the manor awoke from its slumber, Jiang Shiqin could still freely read the intelligence reports without needing to be on guard against servants who, intentionally or unintentionally, went closer to the oak desk than necessary. Nonetheless, even though the party being suspected of illicit activities was himself, Jiang Shiqin could not muster any dislike for Master Wu's cautious attitude, especially when he had shown some semblance of knowledge regarding Jiang Shiqin's inglorious history. The principle of treating a guest like a master and protecting that person once he had entered one's house threshold till death, which was apparently part of a "gentleman's code of honor" in this era, was simply irrelevant to Jiang Shiqin. In other words, guest or friend, if they did anything harmful, they should be kicked out.
Though, perhaps if Master Wu's method of subtle surveillance had been more effective and had actually proved detrimental to Jiang Shiqin's actions, his emotions would have been very different.
Browsing through the stack of slightly yellowed papers, the surface of which appeared to be coarse and of low quality, Jiang Shiqin marveled at the concision and preciseness of the people who had penned these reports. Clear-cut, no superfluous information and to the point - the capabilities of the prince's forces were no less than that of brightest officials within the Intelligence Agency. Undoubtedly, they had gone through a strict period of training.
As his long fingers lightly traced the rows of black ink, an image of a carefree young man with half-closed eyes faintly swaying to a faraway melody flashed through Jiang Shiqin's eyes. He smiled wryly, a helpless sense of defeat rising in his heart. Xia Jingming, truly the embodiment of a wolf in sheep's clothing! No wonder you became collateral damage so early on in the original novel; if it wasn't for your premature death, who knew if you'd have been the one to have the last laugh sitting on the dragon's throne...
He closed his eyes, and when they opened again, they revealed a unique clarity that seemed as tranquil as a vast autumn lake. Silently, he started reading the reports again.
"Yu Wentian disappeared at that town, but someone with similar stature was sighted at a nearby town a few days later. That person was travelling with three others. These three are suspected of being cultivators, ranging from Xiantian to Jindan."
"There was a spike in the number of disciples in Blazing Hawthorn Sect who broke into Xiantian realm during the period of time right after when Yu Wentian left the sect."
"Nothing unusual in Heart Devil Sect's movements during the following week."
The crystal-clear clinking of decorative glass leaves lightly bumping into each other mixing with the fluttering sound of a breeze gently swaying wooden branches formed a harmonious symphony. Outside, weak morning rays painted the entire courtyard in white gold. A half-bloomed mohur flower, its deep crimson striking against the pale colour of the picturesque scene, spread its silk petals with a hint of a maiden's shyness.
In stark contrast to this soothing scene, Jiang Shiqin's mind was a turbulent flow of information and theories. Lines after lines of characters appeared in his sight, and at long last, the feather-light brush resting on the side was picked up in a swift motion.
"Investigate Prince Qing's activities during that period."
He slightly paused in contemplation.
"Short questioning permitted."
There were some grades of "questioning" in his liege' forces that required special authorization. "Short questioning" meant pulling the target from the roadside by force and spend no more than half an hour beating him up to obtain information while remaining anonymous. More hardcore grades consisted of "threat questioning", which referred to making threats against the target and the target's family and friends, as well as mild violence to make it more authentic, "physical threatening", which referred to all forms of violence except for death against the target, including month-long torture, and finally, "death questioning", which referred to killing the target after the work was done.
His Highness had once explained that these grades were arranged according to the risk of backlash and not the level of cruelty, which accounted for why "short questioning" was considered low-level. Nonetheless, quite often, "death questioning" was safer than "physical threatening", so the grading system were tentative. The risk of backlash usually depended on the targets themselves.
All of this reeked of cruelty and heartlessness. Jiang Shiqin had deeply understood this ever since he saw his liege coldly watching as one of the court officials was tortured in his personal prison to death. The metallic tang of blood and fear, coupled with the icy indifference of lord and subordinate alike, clearly showed that such a scene was customary in the ultimate play for power. Despite this attitude of viewing human lives as wild grass on the road, however, Jiang Shiqin still preferred his liege over Prince Qing - at least his lord had remained impassive throughout the session, while Prince Qing would have frowned in disgust and ordered the corpses to be thrown away so as to not dirty his eyes...
"Pay special attention to any militaristic action, especially uprisings or border skirmishes."
-0-0-
"Master Wu, I am afraid that what I am wearing now is inadequate."
The older man stared at the dumbstruck youth for a while, then burst into raucous laughter. He could almost imagine the refined Jiang Shiqin cross-dressing and saying that sentence coyly... It was simply a once-in-a-lifetime occurrence! Seeing their master so jolly-looking, the surrounding servants had slight smiles on their routinely expressionless faces as well.
Feeling rather embarrassed - if only he had brought an assistant to handle this kind of miscellaneous tasks - Jiang Shiqin faked an indignant look, but that only made Master Wu bellowed harder, even knocking down one of the porcelain vases on the table. The sharp bearing of a great merchant was thus completely ruined by this unceasing spasm of laughter.
After a few moments of being awkwardly silent - for Jiang Shiqin, that was; for others, it was a great source of amusement, especially to the out-of-breath culprit, Master Wu finally calmed down enough to make a comment.
"So the unfailingly cultured Jiang Shiqin, the perfect gentleman, the elegant young master whose skill with the brush could move mountains and shift rivers, would one day have a slip of the tongue as well."
Jiang Shiqin took a deep breath, desperately hypnotizing himself that he wasn't feeling so shameful that he was yearning for a hole to jump into right now, no shame at all, not even a speck of it...
"What I meant was that I would like to buy something appropriate to wear for the celebration organized by Falling Stars Sect in two moons." He hurriedly explained before Master Wu could interrupt with something more outrageous.
"Suitable attire for the upcoming banquet?"
Jiang Shiqin nodded in earnest. "Yes, Master Wu. I did not bring anything decent enough to mix in with these young heroes and distinguished personage."