When the Sun Sets
Within a few minutes I could hear the ringing of the morning bell, and then footsteps as the girls exited from their rooms and made their way downstairs to the entrance hall, easily making out the confusing questioning they made to one another as they descended. I watched as Daiyu stood before them, inspecting each and every girl excessively, I hardly noticed Dajiang return to the rest of the group unnoticed by the courtesans.
"Liu Fen is no longer the owner of this establishment." She bellowed, not even blinking as some of the girls jumped back, startled by the sheer volume of her voice. "She made a swift, practical decision to sell the building and left this morning. You may call me Fang Furen, and effective immediately, you answer to me."
Most of the girls either bowed their heads or curtseyed their new Madame, though some, unable to adjust (or refusing to) audibly questioned the new position of authority, whispering amongst themselves. Within seconds, they were ordered to leave, and if they were not willing, then they were thrown onto the street, with their personal items scattering in the dirt around them. The remaining women were given leave to return to their quarters to sleep, and once they were out of sight, the Assassins met together again.
Though I felt uneasy, and our situation had an air of uncertainty staining it. While the courtesans may accept Daiyu, their integrity would still be called into question. We would depend on absolute loyalty from every one of the girls, if even one suggested the presence of any us except Daiyu (who, with average looks and history as a courtesan would not be looked upon with curiosity), to any man with allegiance to the Emporer, then it could cost all of us our lives.
Thus began the screening process; over the course of a year, we were able to establish a trustworthy and dutiful team of woman, all of whom knew the existence of and pledged allegiance to the Brotherhood. All but one of the girls I had known were gone, and the one who remained was one I never had a particular liking of, until recently. We had been fierce rivals, using guile and allure to cheat customers from one another, though, now I could recognise a kindred spirit. She was valiant, and kind – and I never noticed such warmth in her before, though, I suppose, I had never wanted to. Rapidly, we became close friends and she would join Daiyu and I while we shared tea and conversation. The Master Assassin and I also began to notice how exceptional her powers of persuasion were, and utilised it.
While the remaining members of our original team of fugitives spent day and night relentlessly hunting lost Assassins from what we now called the 'Bureau Massacre', myself, Daiyu and our new companion would use our own abilities to convince the Assassins that were found into settling with us. Most did not take much influencing, but some – those who had lost everything they held dear, often took days or even weeks to convince.
Zhu began overseeing renovations and worked rather closely with an elder Assassin who had gladly taken work with us as our accountant, and together they expanded the business from a simple exotic whorehouse to an enterprise which spilled into the district. By the end of the year, we oversaw almost everything in our local vicinity, from the markets to the dock warehouses and even the local fishermen (who, notably, had been won over by Hai's extensive knowledge of the technicalities of fishing and trading), any other brothels or parlours in the area had either closed or been taken over by us, which Daiyu and I managed.
In this time, Dajiang had taken it upon himself to resume the training of any Assassins who had rejoined us, and Cheng began training hand-picked locals who impressed us, or at least aroused our interest. Together, with the help of some of the Assassins we had recovered, they supervised a network of spies, created for the sole purpose of tracking disoriented Assassins and establishing contact with other branches of Assassins across China.
However, even after a year, we had not heard anything regarding the Masters or even Jun, and as each day passed we all grew more impatient and anxious. Eventually, in one of our weekly meetings, Hai, who was usually rather reserved, was the one who spoke up.
"The Masters," He began, his voice barely a whisper. "They must be dead."
Cheng silenced him instantly with a hard slap to his cheek, but was then reprimanded by Dajiang who pulled her away and scolded her resort to violence.
To my surprise it was Zhu who then responded, but he was openly nervous, so sounded insecure with his words, his breathing slightly uneven. "Even Jun?"
Dajiang, Cheng and Daiyu lowered their heads in acknowledgement, as if it wasn't a question, as if they had never heard such truth; I do not think I had ever been so furious, and I doubt I will be again.
In my fury, I lashed out at my friends, both in speech and action, and it took Dajiang several moments to restrain me, and Daiyu even longer to calm me. During this, Zhu and Hai had retreated to a corner of the room, and Cheng, who had attempted to assist Dajiang, soon joined them after I had struck her numerous times.
The meeting concluded with a new operation: a number of courtesans and elite spies would postpone the search for Assassins and begin to look for information solely regarding Jun. While we had been attempting to find her, we had deluded ourselves thinking that she would seek us out, which was why we heard nothing. But, we were wrong – and without her leadership, the entire structure of the Chinese Assassins was crumbling.
If anyone still reads this fic, I'm really sorry that it took so long to update. Something pretty serious happened in my life, so I had a lot to deal with and not a lot of time to spare, but thank you for sticking with me. ^_^
Also, sherry summerwine, thank you so much for your suggestions! In terms of the language issue, I don't speak any kind of Chinese and don't have access to anyone who does so had to resort to an online translator, I've edited the fic now to add one of your translations in. Also, I admit that I hadn't done much research on Shanghai before I started writing this fic. I used it simply because I've visited Shanghai before and I loved my time there - if I have the time, I'll work on finding a new location for the fic and work on editing that in. :DD