Xu Chaohai reached out to push open the heavy door of the armory.

Though the door was heavy, the hinges were extremely smooth, so when the great door opened, it was completely silent. The armory had not yet been lit, dark and silent without a human voice.

This eerie atmosphere made Xu Chaohai pause at the entrance before stepping into the armory.

The two guards at the door immediately closed it again. The armory became pitch black.

In the silent darkness, Xu Chaohai seemed to hear even his own gradually quickening bloodflow and heartbeat.

Then, lamplight suddenly blazed up several steps before him, revealing beneath the lamp a face with eyebrows so thick they were unforgettable at first sight.

Xu Chaohai cried “Ah!” and retreated several steps backward until his back hit the great door, only then stopping.

That person placed the lamp on the long table and raised his head to look at him.

The lamplight shone upward from beneath the man’s chin, making his entire figure appear as terrifying as a ghost.

After the initial shock, Xu Chaohai had calmed down. He stepped forward, cupped his hands and said: “Xu Chaohai greets you respectfully. May I ask which gentleman wishes to see me?”

Meng Jianqing walked out from behind a row of long spears, staring at him with a half-smile: “Xu Chaohai, you should be able to guess. Haven’t you already recognized who this person is?”

Xu Chaohai glanced at that person: “Forgive my poor eyesight, I cannot recognize this brother. Being startled just now was truly because this situation was too strange.”

He had already recognized Meng Jianqing’s uniform colors. When the Imperial Guard came calling, it would never be for anything good. But he still stood straight, facing this sharp-eyed Xiao Wei with composure.

Meng Jianqing studied him.

Xu Chaohai was considerably older than the other second-year students, of medium height, even somewhat too thin, unremarkable in appearance. Put in a crowd, probably no one would pay him special attention. However, as the son of a mere squad leader of ten, he had managed to walk step by step from the poor backwater of Hanshan Guard to Jiangwu Hall. This ambition and ability were truly not to be underestimated.

Meng Jianqing sat down behind the long table, waved his hand, and that person immediately bowed and withdrew from the armory. The great door closed again.

He gestured for Xu Chaohai to sit across from the long table.

As Xu Chaohai approached, Meng Jianqing’s heart suddenly stirred.

He sensed a certain familiar smell.

A faint, indescribable, elusive scent of blood that instinctively raised his alertness.

In the gloom, Xu Chaohai’s eyes seemed to gleam like a beast’s eyes blazing in the mountain forest.

Xu Chaohai sat down. Those eyes now faced Meng Jianqing directly.

Meng Jianqing smiled slightly. He could see the tension behind those bloodthirsty eyes.

He said slowly, “Though Hanshan Guard has poor mountains and bad waters with meager production, it’s close to Qiufeng Ridge, an important transportation route. Merchants and travelers going north and south have always been numerous there, and it’s also a good place for bandits to waylay people. However, those mountain bandits still observed some honor among thieves – once they got money, they would stop. But in the last ten years or so, that road suddenly became much less peaceful. Traveling merchants and pedestrians often simply disappeared – alive, they couldn’t be seen, dead, their bodies couldn’t be found. The Ministry of Justice accumulated a large number of unsolved cases, wearing out two successive ministers with impeachments. Two years ago, the Ministry of Justice finally thought of a method: they sent a capable constable to disguise himself as a merchant and also travel that road, while setting up hidden sentries along the route to track him section by section, wanting to find out in which area these cases occurred.”

Xu Chaohai’s brow unconsciously furrowed: “Does Xiao Wei think the problem lies with the Hanshan Guard?”

Meng Jianqing said calmly, “It’s not what I think, but what the Ministry of Justice investigated. That constable had extraordinary skills and fought with his attackers for a long time before being struck down. All his valuables were robbed, and he was dragged to a mountain valley on the east side of Qiufeng Ridge and buried. The Ministry of Justice later dug up twenty-seven corpses from just that one valley.”

Xu Chaohai raised his eyebrows: “Qiufeng Ridge is still twenty li from Hanshan Guard. Finding bodies in the Qiufeng Ridge area doesn’t prove any connection to Hanshan Guard. Much less prove any connection to me.”

Meng Jianqing smiled: “I thought when you saw that person just now, you should have already understood.”

Xu Chaohai blurted out: “Impossible—”

He suddenly realized his mistake and clamped his mouth shut.

Meng Jianqing stared at him: “What’s impossible? Because you had already killed that constable, buried him deep underground, and he couldn’t possibly still be alive to appear before you, right?”

Xu Chaohai immediately replied: “The Xiao Wei also said that the constable was buried deep underground. If a person stops breathing, how long can they last at most? A quarter hour, half an hour? I think at most no more than half a watch. The backup constables probably wouldn’t discover something was wrong so quickly and find that place in time, find where that constable was buried, and dig him out in time.”

Meng Jianqing watched him for a while, then said, “One reason the Ministry of Justice chose this constable was that he had practiced yoga techniques from India. Buried underground, he could last at least one day and night.”

Xu Chaohai had no answer for a moment. After a pause he said: “Even so, after two years, what basis does that constable have to identify me?”

Meng Jianqing smiled: “Because you had your face covered at the time, right? And precisely because of this, the Ministry of Justice spent two years looking for that lone bandit, investigating everyone within a hundred li of Qiufeng Ridge who was even slightly suspicious. Only when someone suddenly remembered there was one person who fit the conditions but hadn’t been checked did they discover that in the two years since you left Hanshan Guard, no more such unsolved cases had occurred on Qiufeng Ridge.”

A mocking smile appeared at the corner of Xu Chaohai’s mouth: “Perhaps it’s because the Ministry of Justice made too much commotion investigating this case, and that lone bandit went into hiding? I think even a fool would know not to touch this bad luck.”

Meng Jianqing sighed softly: “When that constable fought with the bandit, despite being wounded, he left a special mark on the bandit. Now, take off your upper garment, turn around, and let me see your back.”

Xu Chaohai suddenly stood up.

Meng Jianqing looked at him: “Night has already fallen, cold winds have risen. The scar from the Five Phoenix Facing Sun technique on your back must have started turning blue and stinging by now.”

Xu Chaohai clenched his fists and stared directly at Meng Jianqing without saying a word.

Meng Jianqing said softly, “I want to know why.”

Xu Chaohai suddenly growled: “Why? You also said the Hanshan Guard has poor mountains and bad waters with meager production. I’ve had enough of that kind of life!”

Meng Jianqing watched him.

He knew Xu Chaohai’s family was poor, but he didn’t have more specific information about just how poor they were.

Was it because of poverty, or because of Xu Chaohai’s own desires, that made him start down this path ten years ago?

Meng Jianqing changed course: “I have two more questions. If you can satisfy me, perhaps I can persuade the Ministry of Justice to give you a quick death. You should know that because of those unsolved cases, the people at the Ministry of Justice are all holding back a belly full of anger, swearing that when they catch this fellow, they’ll make him wish he were dead—”

Before he could finish, Xu Chaohai reached out to grab a single-edged sword from a nearby wooden rack, but was shocked to discover that though he grasped the blade, he couldn’t lift it.

Meng Jianqing smiled: “I knew you might be the most dangerous one, so I had someone put a little something in your dinner beforehand, so we could have a calm conversation. Sit down now. You satisfy me, and I’ll satisfy your wish for a quick death.”

Xu Chaohai slowly slumped onto the long bench.

That surge of ferocity that had been supporting him suddenly had nowhere to go, drifting uncertainly in the air.

Meng Jianqing said leisurely, “I’m just puzzled – in these ten years, you’ve robbed so much wealth, how did you manage to resist using any of it? I’ve checked your home – still poor to the bone. If you won’t use it, why rob it?”

Xu Chaohai raised his eyes to look Meng Jianqing up and down, then sneered: “You’re still young now, so naturally you don’t understand why someone would need so much money. When someday you’re like my father – old, crippled, and poor – only then will you painfully realize that without money, you can’t take a single step!”

Meng Jianqing was silent for a while, then nodded: “I understand.”

He then said, “One last question – why did you become a treasury envoy for the Maitreya Sect?”

Xu Chaohai stared at him in shock.

Meng Jianqing said very patiently, “Didn’t you understand? Then let me ask again – why did you become a treasury envoy for the Maitreya Sect?”

Xu Chaohai was stunned for a moment, then almost threw back his head and laughed: “You think I’ll answer that question so you can report back to your superiors, then I’ll end up with my whole family executed and nine generations implicated?”

Meng Jianqing sighed: “You know I have to report back to my superiors. Now you’re going to die anyway, so why not let me use you to complete my mission, rather than harm other junior students—”

When he said “junior students,” Xu Chaohai suddenly remembered who he was. He opened his mouth to speak, but Meng Jianqing stopped him and continued: “You’ve killed dozens of people. Even if your whole family is executed, it still wouldn’t be enough to compensate – it’s not unjust. The reason I ask is just because of that old saying – you satisfy me, I’ll give you a quick death, and maybe I can see about leaving one or two lives in your family, so your line won’t be completely cut off.”

Xu Chaohai stared at him. Should he trust Senior Meng’s promise?

After a long while, Xu Chaohai said, “Fine, I’ll tell you.”

He had joined the Maitreya Sect on the winter solstice three years ago.

Meng Jianqing secretly breathed a sigh of relief and asked: “Was it because they discovered your secret?”

Had they caught him by his weakness?

Xu Chaohai snorted coldly: “With those idiots, they could threaten me?”

Meng Jianqing thought for a moment and guessed: “So it was because of the vast incense money from temples throughout the land that the treasury envoy position controls?”

The temples and monasteries throughout the realm that worshipped Maitreya numbered in the tens of thousands. No one knew which ones secretly paid incense money to the Maitreya Sect.

With Xu Chaohai’s personality of only taking in and never giving out, having him manage this incense money was indeed most suitable.

The Maitreya Sect must have figured this out too, which was why they let Xu Chaohai take on this important responsibility after only three years in the sect.

He looked at Xu Chaohai: “How many storehouses do you manage? Where are they all located?”

A ghostly light again blazed in Xu Chaohai’s eyes. If the other party needed something from him, didn’t he still have greater room to bargain?

But meeting Meng Jianqing’s calm, cold gaze instantly doused the flames rising in his chest like a basin of ice water poured over his head.

Might those storehouses already be under Imperial Guard surveillance?

But he still wanted to try.

Xu Chaohai looked directly at Meng Jianqing: “If I reveal the locations of those storehouses, can Senior Meng show mercy to my family? One storehouse for one life – would Senior Meng be willing?”

Meng Jianqing said with a half-smile: “You’re making conditions with me?”

Xu Chaohai understood his implication. Already trapped in a cage, yet still wanting to make conditions with the Imperial Guard?

Xu Chaohai secretly gritted his teeth and said: “Besides the storehouses, I can tell you another secret. In Jiangwu Hall, there’s someone with a higher status than me.”

Meng Jianqing was slightly startled.

Xu Chaohai nervously searched his expression. Meng Jianqing’s look was somewhat strange. After a while, he began to smile slightly. Xu Chaohai’s heart sank. Did the Imperial Guard already know this secret?

Meng Jianqing smiled: “Having to wait until this moment before you’re willing to reveal that secret, it seems you have some loyalty to the Maitreya Sect after all. Though perhaps I should say you still have great respect for our instructor – unless necessary, you still wouldn’t sell out your teacher. I hope Instructor Gui knows of this feeling of yours.”

Xu Chaohai’s face immediately turned ashen. Indeed…

Meng Jianqing stood up.

Only when he was assigned to handle this case did he qualify to know that Instructor Gui had once been an elder of the Ming Sect’s Maitreya Hall, specifically responsible for training young disciples selected from various local altars.

No wonder Instructor Gui said there were three great pleasures in life: sleeping, eating, and “obtaining the talented youth of the realm to educate them – is this not also a joy?”

His willingness to enter Jiangwu Hall and Jiangwu Hall’s desire to recruit him, perhaps, lay precisely in this last saying. Talent was rare; those capable of nurturing talent, and having the opportunity to nurture talent, were even rarer.

This person, Xu Chaohai, seemed shrewd and capable, yet was so ignorant about worldly affairs. The status of Jiangwu Hall instructors – how important was that? Even though he knew Instructor Gui’s original identity, he thought the Imperial Guard couldn’t investigate it? And he brought it out to bargain with.

No wonder Shen Guangli once said that if a person was occupied by one thing taking up too much of their thoughts, they would be blinded by that thing.

Meng Jianqing looked down at Xu Chaohai from above, his gaze not without pity.

Xu Chaohai shouldn’t have overestimated himself in trying to make conditions with him. He had originally thought that someone with the ability and courage to commit such major crimes would still be worth the Imperial Guard spending some effort on.

Han Xiaotian and Li Mo were innocent, perhaps.

But Meng Jianqing didn’t feel relieved.

In those two, something potentially more dangerous and harder to fathom than Xu Chaohai lay hidden.

Should he suggest to Shen Guangli that they continue monitoring those two? Would Shen Guangli think he was overreaching?

When leaving Jiangwu Hall, the first round of lights-out horn calls had just sounded.

In the horn calls, the high-pitched singing voices of two students on night duty also rang out: “Hair bristling with rage, I lean against the railing, as the gentle rain ceases…”

As soon as one line ended, all of Jiangwu Hall joined in the next: “I lift my eyes and gaze far, raising my head to roar at the sky, my heroic spirit intense…”

The night was deep, the north wind howling, yet this song seemed to burn like fierce fire in the night sky.

This was one of Jiangwu Hall’s three academy songs. The other two were “Lament for the Fallen” and “How Can It Be Said We Have No Clothes,” but they were sung only during sacrificial ceremonies and ten-day rest periods, respectively.

Several guards looked at each other, all thinking whether all of Yingtian Prefecture could hear this singing.

Meng Jianqing’s steps didn’t stop, but a wild fire suddenly ignited in his heart.

He had ten men under him. Sending two at a time to take turns monitoring Han Xiaotian and Li Mo wouldn’t be difficult.

Here, no one could betray-not even betrayal that had not yet taken shape.

Postscript

The story “Maitreya” originated from a line in a certain television drama, roughly meaning: A spy, if he betrays, can only do so for three reasons – faith, women, and money.

So then, might the emperor’s favored sons in Jiangwu Hall also have the possibility of such a downfall?

Having experienced the difficult entrance examinations and the bustling academy life, might these ambitious young men choose another path for these very reasons?