Professional Assassin C24

Chapter 24: Completing job in the Court World (5)

Three days later.

In the dead of night, the Golden Dragon Hall, which should have been guarded at the entrance and attended by servants inside, was completely empty. From a distance, the sounds of intense battle echoed from the various gates of the inner palace. The Imperial Guards’ commander was leading his troops in a desperate fight, with all the palace guards mobilized. The torches and the bloodshed nearly painted the Forbidden City red, and the glint of blades seemed to illuminate the palace sky. Servants within the various halls were either trying to flee or hide in all directions. The palace was in chaos—though the outcome was yet uncertain, the turmoil was absolute.

Lin Yuetian arrived in front of the Golden Dragon Hall, having deliberately applied some makeup to himself.

His original appearance was that of a refined and elegant gentleman, warm and jade-like, an unforgettable sight. But now, he had painted himself to look like a ghostly specter. Dressed in the pre-prepared red robes, Lin Yuetian stepped into the Golden Dragon Hall. He walked very slowly, making his footsteps as light as possible. The vast hall remained silent, not a single sound to be heard. Just like that, he drifted in soundlessly, like a wandering spirit.

The only eunuch who had not fled yet saw Lin Yuetian float in like a vengeful ghost. With the distant sounds of battle ringing outside the palace, he was so terrified that he knelt by the emperor’s bed, trembling uncontrollably, unable to move.

Lin Yuetian stopped before the dragon bed, holding a candle in his hand. He had become quite frugal lately, cutting off only small sections of the drugged candle at a time, afraid of wasting it. The flickering candlelight, along with the dim glow of the palace lanterns, cast his shadow on the bed’s gauzy canopy, illuminating the depths of the curtain where an emperor seemed to be trapped in a sea of imperial yellow.

A cough came from behind the canopy. Zheng Hongxuan was utterly exhausted, his eyes closed as he spoke in a low voice, “…Is it the commander of the Imperial Guards? What of the rebels?”

Lin Yuetian saw that the candle’s effects had kicked in—the little eunuch was now paralyzed—so he called out softly, “Your Majesty…”

He had practiced his voice many times before coming, letting it echo eerily through the empty palace, drifting between the flickering candlelight and shadows, sounding as though it came from the underworld itself.

The system shuddered involuntarily, infected by the atmosphere, and whispered, “Uh, bro, I feel like this scene would be even scarier with Buddhist chanting. Do you mind if I play Tom and Jerry in your head instead? Have you seen Tom and Jerry? It’s really good. I’m not scared or anything—I just want to recommend it to you.”

Lin Yuetian asked curiously, “Is it really that good? Go ahead, play it. I’ll listen.”

The coughing from behind the canopy abruptly stopped, as if someone had suddenly grabbed Zheng Hongxuan’s throat. Lin Yuetian stood before the bed curtains, watching Zheng Hongxuan’s indistinct silhouette. The emperor seemed too afraid to lift the curtain and look at him, only murmuring, “…You’ve come…”

“I have come,” Lin Yuetian replied ghostly, all while listening to Tom and Jerry.

“Have you come to take me away?” Zheng Hongxuan asked, his voice low and filled with complex emotions.

“Your Majesty… do you still remember the day we first met?” Lin Yuetian deliberately modulated his voice, making it rise and fall unpredictably. The palace lanterns on either side flickered in the wind, illuminating the eunuch’s blood-drained face, twisted in sheer terror.

The system muttered, “Damn, this is creepy… I’m turning up the volume on Tom and Jerry. You carry on.”

Zheng Hongxuan seemed to fall into distant memories, his expression dazed. “…I remember…”

Lin Yuetian said softly, “That spring was truly wonderful… I have never seen a better spring since…”

“Yes…” Zheng Hongxuan murmured, “Back then, I was not yet emperor… I went to watch your examination parade… You rode a black horse with white hooves, a magnificent steed, its mane like snow, its hooves like frost… You wore the red robes of a top scholar… I had never seen such a fine horse…”

Lin Yuetian fell silent, intentionally pausing until Zheng Hongxuan’s coughing resumed.

Then, with feigned melancholy, Lin Yuetian asked, “Your Majesty… how did we end up like this?”

“…Of course, you wouldn’t know… I hate you… You never knew your place, you dared to claim yourself as mine… I became emperor, you reached the pinnacle of power… There were no more titles left to grant you, yet you still worried for me… No more titles… Every time I saw you, I remembered the way I once begged you… I will never forget… As long as you lived, I could never sleep in peace…” Zheng Hongxuan’s voice grew fainter, almost like a dreamlike whisper. “I… wanted to see you… humiliated… forced to beg me…”

The system, half-absorbed in Tom and Jerry’s antics, found itself unexpectedly emotional. At the same time, it commented, “What kind of twisted logic is this?”

Lin Yuetian let out a long sigh and said, “Your Majesty, I only have one question. Were you ever sincere toward me?”

Zheng Hongxuan remained silent for a long time. Lin Yuetian was in no rush—he simply waited for the answer.

After an eternity, Zheng Hongxuan finally exhaled like a sigh, “I don’t know. But after you died… I think I went mad… I wanted to see you again. I always remembered you as you were when you were alive. I suppose… I must have loved you…”

“Well, that was smooth sailing,” the system remarked. “A dying man speaks kind words. But how are you going to make him beg you? At this point, he doesn’t seem to want anything anymore.”

Lin Yuetian nodded, though it was unclear whether he was responding to the system or to Zheng Hongxuan. He repeated once more, “I have come.”

Zheng Hongxuan suddenly turned to him. “Yuetian, will you take me away?”

Lin Yuetian countered, “Your Majesty, do you wish to go with me?”

The little eunuch wanted to scream, but no sound came out. He could only stare with wide, horrified eyes at the eerie scene before him, listening to the terrifying conversation.

“Heh… You have come. I tried summoning your soul three times, but nothing happened. I thought there were no ghosts or gods in this world—that when people died, they simply ceased to exist… But I always remembered your words in your farewell letter. You said that even if you became a ghost, you would return. You never lied to me… And indeed, you have come…” Zheng Hongxuan laughed weakly.

The system recalled that the original farewell letter had said, “May we never meet again in any lifetime,” and couldn’t help but click its tongue in amazement. “Damn, they really are the most familiar strangers. He knows exactly how to twist the knife.”

“…The rebels have already broken into the inner palace. My illness is beyond cure, and I cannot turn the tide,” Zheng Hongxuan murmured, still unaware that Lin Yuetian had fabricated the whole ‘I’ll return as a ghost’ line. “Take me with you… The road to the underworld will be less lonely.”

“I hate you. I have no desire to accompany you on the road to the underworld,” Lin Yuetian gently spoke words of extreme cruelty. “Your Majesty, since you remember the past so well, since you will never forget how you once begged me to help you achieve greatness, then beg me once more. Let’s go back to the past. You’ll be the overlooked Ninth Prince, and I’ll be the promising top scholar. Let’s erase the betrayal and the bloodshed… Come, beg me… As long as you beg me, I will take you away—perhaps in our next life, that spring day will come again.”

“…”

A long silence.

The little eunuch by the dragon bed was frozen in terror, on the verge of fainting from the sheer horror of witnessing a vengeful spirit seeking retribution. Then, as if experiencing a final burst of life, Zheng Hongxuan suddenly clutched the bed curtains, struggling to rise, veins bulging on the back of his hand.

He gasped desperately, “Yuetian! Yuetian… I beg you, take me away! Let’s start over! In our next life, we will not be born in the imperial family—I will never part from you again!”

“Mission Two: Make the scumbag Zheng Hongxuan beg you… completed.” The system shuddered. “So… he actually begged you to kill him…”

As Lin Yuetian prepared to finish the job, he complained one last time to the system, “Why didn’t you tell me Tom and Jerry has no dialogue? I’ve just been listening to random sound effects this whole time.”