"I understand what you're asking for, Nephew," Su Jixin said, stumbling slightly over addressing the young man as 'nephew.' If he stepped back and applied a Scholar's reasoning to it, he had to acknowledge that Wu Ling's arguments made sense. He could even acknowledge that no one got to pick their relatives and he didn't entirely have to like his niece's sworn brother to accept that he was family. "I promise to listen. More than that will depend on your offer."
"Uncle is being entirely reasonable," Wu Ling said with a smile. Carefully, he folded up the letter he'd written and sealed it in wax, pressing his identity jade into the soft wax to mark the seal.
"Uncle didn't have a chance to evaluate the Bamboo Silk House to see how it could keep Junior Sister Su Yao safe. I'm going to give you an opportunity to put the sect to the test. I wonder how well Uncle knows our sect," Wu Ling asked, holding out the sealed letter. "Do you know what the two most valuable services our sect provides are?"
"You mentioned that your sect 'trains' young women who are to become wives and concubines of powerful men," the older man said, scowling in distaste at the practice. "Don't tell me that the rumors are true, does your sect truly sell women as property?"
"There are reasons for that rumor to exist," Wu Ling acknowledged. "But the truth of it isn't what you'd imagine. What I'm about to tell you is told in confidence. The letter of introduction I'm offering you will allow you to seek out the services of the sect, with me acting as your guarantor. If you speak of this to others, the consequences for me will be unpleasant, but for you, they will be dire," Wu Ling emphasized.
What he was about to do was no less risky than when he sent a letter to his half-sister but he believed that Su Jixin cared enough about his daughter to keep his lips sealed about things that shouldn't be spoken of easily.
Su Jixin frowned at the letter in Wu Ling's hand, his mind spinning as he tried to recall every other rumor he'd heard about the sect. Unfortunately, most of the rumors had to do with hiring 'special' services from the women who worked in the sect as entertainers.
There were persistent rumors of such women robbing men they 'serviced' but since those men would have to admit to paying for those services if they wanted to appeal for any kind of justice, nothing was ever done about the issue. Given Wu Ling's grave tone, he doubted the young man was offering him a trip to an exclusive brothel operated by the sect.
"I will keep this confidential," he finally promised. "But please be direct. You may feel that you're being clever and manipulating me but you're not being subtle and I dislike being forced onto a narrow path," Su Jixin said firmly.
"Fair enough," Wu Ling acknowledged. He wasn't trying to be subtle since he knew the older man valued honesty but evidently, he'd still been too circumspect. "While much of the sect is dedicated to providing the services of a myriad of trained artists, the real power in the sect comes from the halls of the sect dedicated to acquiring and selling secrets, as well as the services of skilled assassins," Wu Ling said bluntly.
"What I'm offering you with this letter," he continued. "Is the chance to select a person who is a threat to you, your wife, or your daughter, and to hire the elimination of that person. This service won't be free, I will not cover the cost of having this done," he emphasized. Depending on the target, such an offer could be exorbitantly expensive!
"This letter gets you through a door that not everyone is allowed to enter," Wu Ling explained. "I hope that when you see the sect's capabilities to eliminate threats, you'll come to understand more of how we'll keep your daughter safe."
"You're a monster!" Su Jixin said, his eyes wide as they darted from Wu Ling's unnaturally calm face to the sealed letter in his hand. "You tricked my precious Yao'er into…"
"I tricked her into nothing," Wu Ling interrupted. "I told her what I've told you and much more. I've also shown her the sorts of jobs that the Bamboo Silk House specializes in. There are powerful people who are beyond the reach of common justice. People who possess so much wealth, so many connections or so much raw power that they can flaunt the rules and norms that constrain lesser men," Wu Ling explained, trying to keep his tone even and calm even as the other man's emotions threatened to boil over again.
"While such men aren't the only targets of our work, they are among the most common," Wu Ling continued. "You work in the Office of the City Lord don't you? I'm sure you've seen men who have reputations for abuses of power and position that are also so well connected or favored that no one dares call them to account for their misdeeds."
"So you're saying that your sect is what, a group of vigilantes finding justice for the weak against the powerful?" Su Jixin asked, deeply skeptical of such a claim.
"No, far from it," Wu Ling replied with a shake of his head. "While I admit that the sect has a soft spot for women who have been wronged, it's left to individual members of the sect to choose which missions they want to undertake. Not all of them are so pure, and many of the disputes that we may become involved with have plenty of blame on both sides. The world is rarely black and white, we're just honest about living in the gray."
"Will my daughter be expected to do this kind of work? Are you going to turn her into a killer?"
"She'll do the work she chooses to do, but the sect isn't unfamiliar with her kind of curse," Wu Ling said. He couldn't be more specific because the choices really were largely up to Su Yao herself.
"There are methods she can use to be helpful to the sect without leaving the sect, again, because of her unique gifts. This isn't a conversation about her though, it's about you and your ability to assess the sect. The door is open for you to see the results the sect can deliver. Will you walk through it?"