A small token made of maple wood, no bigger than a child's palm, tied with a red silk ribbon, was engraved with a pair of ethereal bee wings.
Xue Ling'er turned the beehive token over and over in her hands, not even asking what it was for.
It was proof of a bee's wings; obtaining it officially granted her status as a bee's wing.
"Sister Ping, when will the mission come?" Xue Ling'er asked respectfully before the woman in emerald green.
The woman had black hair and green clothes, and her features were delicate and beautiful. At first glance, Xue Ling almost mistook her for her own age, but upon closer inspection, she could see the traces of age on her face.
She was He Ping, the proprietress Fang Bie had been referring to, and Sister Ping, as he needed to address her. She was not only the proprietress of the Xiaohun Inn, but also the bee herdsman for Fang Bie and himself.
According to beehive rules, bee stingers and bee wings were ultimately just killing tools; they had no right to communicate with the hive. All missions and instructions were handled by this bee herdsman.
He Ping tilted her head, looked at Xue Ling'er, and smiled. "The mission will come when it's due."
"But before we begin, we have more important things to do."
What could be more important than an assassin's mission?
Xue Ling'er didn't know at first, but she soon learned.
...
...
"I disagree!" This was Xue Ling'er's first reaction after listening to He Ping's explanation.
Are you kidding?
She's here to go undercover as an assassin, not to be a waiter.
Yes, this is the more important thing He Ping was talking about.
"A normal inn requires a bookkeeper, a waiter, a cook, and a handyman," He Ping explained to Xue Ling'er at the lobby table.
"So we also need a proprietress, right?" Xue Ling'er replied.
"You're not wrong if you think so." He Ping tilted her head and smiled, her smile light, not only concealing her teeth, but also expressing the feeling of being polite. "Before you came, I was the bookkeeper and cook, and Fang Bie was the waiter and handyman."
"I'm the book keeper!" Xue Ling'er said firmly.
To make her case, Xue Ling'er continued, "I can do accounting, I can keep accounts, and I have beautiful handwriting."
He Ping looked at Xue Ling'er and asked, "Then I'll be a cook?"
Xue Ling'er hesitated for a moment to utter the word "good. "
Being a bookkeeper was undoubtedly the easiest job, but how could she possibly compete with her immediate superior for such a position?
"But why do we have to open an inn?" Xue Ling'er finally asked, "Aren't we assassins of the Beehive?"
"Assassins of the Beehive can live without food and drink?" He Ping stared at Xue Ling'er and asked, "Or do you think that with daily missions, we can kill people endlessly?"
Isn't that what assassins do?
Running through fire and wind, killing one person every ten steps, leaving no trace a thousand miles away?
Xue Ling'er suddenly felt that she had misunderstood some of the concepts of assassins.
"This Xiaohun Inn is also the organization's intelligence base in Luocheng. We're not just a carpenter bee for the organization, we're a hive," He Ping calmly explained to Xue Ling'er. "So we need to support ourselves, and we also need a proper profession to hide our tracks."
This isn't quite the Jianghu I imagined. Isn't being a hero a profession in itself?
Could it be that all heroes secretly have another profession to support their families?
Isn't that a disillusioning thought?
It's like knowing that the hero's lavish spending in Yihongyuan was all earned from mopping floors, counting accounts, and running escorts.
Such a world of martial arts is truly disillusioning.
"I'll be a cook," Xue Ling said, biting her lip. "I don't know many dishes, but I can learn."
Yes, since you're already here, you might as well make the best of it. If you think about it, being a cook is definitely better than being an assassin.
Is that the good thing about disguised professions?
"Okay, then let's divide the monthly wages first." He Ping nodded. "Fang Bie works part-time as a waiter and a handyman, so he gets two paychecks, a total of six qian of silver."
"You're the cook, so you get four qian a month. I'm the accountant, so I get four qian a month."
With this, He Ping pulled a few pieces of silver from her sleeve, weighed them, and then pushed them one by one to the two people at the table.
Fang Bie took them silently, but Xue Ling, weighing the light silver ingots in her hand, felt a momentary daze.
When she was a maid, she routinely received two taels of silver a month, and during the holidays she received nearly a hundred taels as lucky money. Even with the Jinyiwei salary, she still earned a hundred and twenty dan of millet a year, which translated to sixty taels of silver.
But then Xue Ling bowed slightly at the table, "Thank you, Sister Ping." "Why should I thank you? I earned the money through my own ability, so why should I not thank you?" He Ping said with a faint smile. "So, starting today, we've established a division of labor. When there are tasks, we won't discuss them. When there aren't, we'll each do our own work. The monthly salary will be paid once a month. This is my advance payment."
As she spoke, a snow-white pigeon fluttered into the inn courtyard. It poked its head out, spotted He Ping, and fluttered in, landing on her shoulder.
It cooed three times.
Xue Ling'er looked at the snow-white carrier pigeon, its eyes a blood-red. Such a carrier pigeon was priceless, perhaps even twenty taels of silver.
He Ping gently scratched the pigeon's chin, then removed the copper tube tied to the pigeon's feet, and then took out a handful of millet from her waist bag and sprinkled it on the table. The white pigeon jumped down from He Ping's shoulder, jumped onto the table and pecked at the grains.
On the other side, He Ping opened the copper tube herself, and inside was a piece of paper as thin as gauze. He Ping took a look at it, clicked her tongue, and then rolled it up again, pressed it on the table and pushed it to the center of the table.
"It's better to arrive at the right time than to arrive early."
"There have been no missions for a month."
"You've only been here for two days, and you already have a new mission."
Xue Ling didn't move. Fang Bie reached out and took the paper, unfolded it and took a look, then rolled it up again and put it down.
He glanced at Xue Ling.
Xue Ling nodded, reached out and took the thin paper, opened it and took a look.
Written in tiny handwriting on it was the following:
"Mission No. 1.
Assassinate Ning Huaiyuan, a traitorous Huashan Outer Sect disciple.
Mission Description: Ning Huaiyuan has rebelled against Huashan by killing a fellow disciple. He will pass through Luocheng in three days. Please assassinate him when the opportunity arises.
Mission Reward: 20 Assassin Points, 50 taels of silver.
Also: According to the Huashan Sect, this disciple may be carrying a copy of the Zixia Divine Art."
(End of Chapter)