CHAPTER 111: CHAPTER 110 XUANZHU COUNTY → YANJING

"I hope in the future, we’ll have the chance for a genuine conversation."

That was what Yin Minghong said to Le Yu at the end of their discussion.

Le Yu knew that he knew she wasn’t Yin Yinyin, and he knew Le Yu knew that he knew she wasn’t Yin Yinyin, too.

But both sides tacitly acknowledged this truth, and Le Yu’s achievements would be reported under "Yin Yinyin’s" name; likewise, the White Night would treat Le Yu as they would "Yin Yinyin."

Though everyone thought there was no benefit in using the identity of "Yin Yinyin" to contact the White Night, in reality, there actually was a slight advantage—at least, the White Night recognized Yin Yinyin as a master assassin and intelligence broker, and would certainly take intelligence from "Yin Yinyin" seriously.

If Le Yu approached the White Night with a new identity, who knew how much time it would take to earn their attention and trust. Of course, if Le Yu joined the White Night as Jing Zhengwei, he could get their attention quickly—but the problem was he wasn’t willing.

Because that way there’d be no way out.

Overthrowing the Silver Blood Association, staging a revolution in Xuanzhu County, that sort of thing wasn’t like having a dinner party, you couldn’t just do it on a whim. If Le Yu joined the White Night as Jing Zhengwei, then he’d either end up dying as a sacrifice or have to work till the revolution succeeded—there was no other possibility.

As for running away or giving up, Le Yu could do it, but he might not actually go through with it. "After all, he’s just that kind of person, still burning with passion—otherwise, why would he have contacted the White Night in the first place? If the day came when all his comrades were dead or wounded, and the heavy burden fell on his shoulders, how could he just turn his back on everyone’s sweat and sacrifices and walk away?"

Just like back in Star Engraving County, as Yin Yinyin had said, he could have gotten on the train with Qian Yuya and headed to Yanjing to start a new life.

But he hadn’t gone.

Not just because Le Yu felt the plan to seize Star Engraving County was solid, but more because he felt responsible to see how it all played out. Lin Jinyao, his Qian Yuliu mentor, had been killed by him; Director Dong Heng of the Imprisonment Department was assassinated by him and Yin Yinyin together; Chen Fu was his lackey, blindly loyal; An Qian was the big sister who made him feel warm inside, and then there was Yin Yinyin—

"This man with only a few years left, always preaching common sense and spitting venom, bantering with him had given Le Yu a taste of what life with friends in his previous world had felt like. He couldn’t deny it—part of the reason he stayed in Star Engraving County was, in fact, because of Yin Yinyin."

"Arriving in this world, Le Yu had been so alone."

"As a result, if anyone was even a bit nice to him, he just couldn’t bring himself to cut those ties."

If he used to have the instinct for self-preservation, keeping him away from danger, the existence of "Death for Life" had flat-out erased that trait.

"Compared to dying, he was more afraid of letting people down, letting everyone’s suffering go to waste, betraying his own inner moral code."

At first, Le Yu hadn’t thought too much about it—he just instinctively used the "Yin Yinyin" mask to hide the Jing Zhengwei identity.

He was willing to do his part to take down the Silver Blood Association, but didn’t want to give up his whole life for it.

For others, "Yin Yinyin" was a dangerous mask, but for Le Yu, it was just the perfect fit.

With this, the White Night folks wouldn’t treat him as a comrade, wouldn’t get to know him, yet they’d still value his intel, maybe even work with him.

"Le Yu had already experienced firsthand the Charm of the White Night Walker—so to avoid being taken in by them again, it was better to make them hate him right off the bat. Whether as ’Yin Yinyin’ or ’Jing Zhengwei,’ either way he was guaranteed to be a target for the White Night Walkers’ hatred."

As for the "Yin Yinyin debacle," that was just a sidequest to be completed along the way.

As long as he didn’t have any attachments in Xuanzhu County, Le Yu could do whatever he wanted—he could help the White Night, he could screw over his own brothers, he could even pack up his stuff in the dead of night, leave Dongyang, and start his own "smash through the secret realms" adventure... As long as there was no responsibility, then he was free.

If things really became impossible, he could just say, "I did my best," then dust off his ass and walk away.

"But he knew, he absolutely could not carry vows, responsibility, or overwhelming desire."

"Because his life was just too damn long."

So far, Le Yu had substituted death for three people: Qian Yuliu, Yin Yinyin, Jing Zhengwei.

All three of them had been tormented by vows, responsibility, and unspeakable desire, to the point they could hardly be called human. "Even though the only lesson history teaches is that humanity never learns a damn thing, Le Yu still made up his mind—not to follow in their footsteps."

After all, they were all already dead, while Le Yu might live to see the day humans achieved machine ascension.

Le Yu just didn’t want to make his own life exhausting.

Hell, just losing Chen Fu had already made him depressed for days.

An Qian, big sister, had probably met Lan Yan at the Governor’s mansion and was likely already dead. The thought hurt again—he really liked big sister An Qian.

Simply put, Le Yu was the type who could get shit done, but bring up feelings and he’d want out.

’So... it’s about time to get started with the newspaper office.’

Although Le Yu had already decided to leave the editor-in-chief position to Qing Lan, they still needed a lot of staff. Not that that was a problem—just round up a bunch of White Night double agents and that was that.

Just, what should they publish? What kind of sections?

On his way down Daimen Stone Street, Le Yu saw a little paperboy selling newspapers and bought a copy to check it out.

The paper was super basic, just called the Xuanzhu Times. The format was almost the same as in his last life, tabloid-sized, six pages total. As for the quality—if you used it for wiping your ass and your ass could talk, it’d probably file an abuse complaint.

The content was at least normal. The front page covered the civil war under the Sky, recent happenings in the Huiyao Districts; Le Yu even saw news about Governor Lv Zhong taking over Star Engraving County and throwing a lavish wedding for the Linhai Army and county officials. The bride was Lv Zhong’s daughter, while the groom was... What the hell!? Lan Yan!?

Didn’t expect you, Lan Yan, with those thick eyebrows, to have a bad stomach—mooching off your wife, huh!

Le Yu tsk-tsked in surprise, flipped through, and was shocked to see there was actually a story section. Even better, the story fit right in with what Xuanzhu County folks loved: the servant finds out the butler is evil and tells the master, only to get beaten, but remains steadfast, matches wits with the bad butler, finally earns the master’s trust, gets the bad guy kicked out, and the master and servant live happily ever after.

And what was their happy life? Why, loyal ruler and loyal subject, master and servant, of course! As a servant, being trusted by your master—what else could you possibly want?

Even so, the story was pretty entertaining, full of twists and turns, like a fantasy version of Tom and Jerry, and its values lined up with mainstream Xuanzhu thinking. Le Yu read it with relish.

Looked like the Silver Blood Association knew exactly how to use media to subtly brainwash people—these capitalists definitely had some brains.

Reading the paper as he walked, Le Yu suddenly saw a "Windward Post Office," so he went in and stated his identity.

This world had post offices, even telegrams—regular people could afford to use them, since it was poor folks doing the delivering and the post office just took a cut as the middleman.

With the Jing Family heir showing up at the post office, the manager didn’t dare slack off and personally invited him to the office to talk. "Sir, is there a parcel you’d like us to deliver?"

The manager was a little puzzled. The Jing Family already had their own post office partners—if Jing Zhengwei wanted to send something, why not just use one of those?

Le Yu said, "I want to send some money and a letter to someone in Yanjing, but I want it sent anonymously."

Sending money but staying anonymous? I wish I was on the receiving end... the manager thought to himself, guessing this must be some rich-kid move, and replied, "Don’t worry, your money is safe with us. But if it’s a decent sum, I’d suggest paying extra so we can send three employees who’ll watch each other and get enough of a cut not to try anything funny."

"No problem."

"All right then, do you know where in Yanjing this person lives, and their name?"

Le Yu scratched his head, "Uh... I don’t know where she’s living now."

The manager blinked and spread his hands, "Then we really can’t deliver. At the very least, you’ve got to give us an address to search for. If you don’t know where she lives, maybe where she works?"

"Oh!" Le Yu suddenly thought of something. "She’s studying at the Royal Academy now, should be a first-year student—will that be enough?"

"That’ll work." The manager nodded, "It might take some searching, but that’s no big deal. So, what’s the name, any identifying features?"

Le Yu said, "Her name’s Qian Yuya, she’s a very beautiful, cool, and adorable girl."

Knew it. So these days, rich folks chase girls by literally shelling out cash from the start—blunt as hell... the manager thought.