For the dragon boat race, the Imperial Guards drew lots and happened to be placed in Group A for the first round of competition. Wang Daxia was handsome, well-built, and strong, so as the face of the Imperial Guards, he was positioned in the front row of the dragon boat, right behind the drummer.
He had tied a red cloth strip around his forehead to prevent sweat from flowing into his eyes and affecting his vision. It was truly a striking red among thousands of men, particularly eye-catching.
This little scheme of Wang Daxia’s immediately drew Wei Caiwei’s gaze from the spectator stands. Wang Daxia craned his neck to look at the densely packed stands. Of course, he couldn’t make out her face clearly, but he still vigorously waved his paddle toward Wei Caiwei’s general direction in greeting.
Wei Caiwei instinctively wanted to wave back in response to that splash of red in the dragon boat, but being mindful of Ding Wu beside her, she put on an indifferent expression instead.
The race began. The Chess Guards’ dragon boat took an early lead, with the Imperial Guards following close behind, and the Jinwu Rear Guards and Yulin Left Guards trailing. All the dragon boats were neck and neck, separated by no more than one person’s body length. They were evenly matched, chasing and overtaking each other—it was quite a spectacle.
Wei Caiwei nervously stared at that splash of red, not even noticing that sweat had soaked through her collar.
Ding Wu had been fanning her with a folded fan, and seeing she was still hot, he gave her the fan and went to buy ice bowls himself. In the past when they went out to play in Tieling, Ding Wu would always handle tasks like buying things and running errands, letting Sister Banxia rest.
Where common people gathered, they sold mung bean soup, sour plum soup, and other cooling drinks. Ice bowls were more expensive, and here in the stands were people with some standing in the capital, so most ice bowl vendors did business here. Each ice bowl stall had no shortage of customers, with long lines in front of them.
Ice bowls were made by laying ice at the bottom of a bowl, then adding lotus root, lotus seeds with bitter cores removed, water chestnuts, and fox nuts, sprinkling snow sugar on top, then pouring fresh walnut kernels, almonds, chopped sweet melon, and honey peaches over it. Ice-cold and sweet, it was the perfect summer treat.
Ding Wu looked around for the shortest queue to join, not wanting Sister Banxia to wait long. Just as he was about to head to the ice bowl stall under the willow tree on the west side, a vendor pushing a wheelbarrow came over. On the cart was a large barrel wrapped in cotton quilts, and it stopped right beside him.
The vendor pointed to the wooden barrel, “Want an ice bowl? They’re ready-made. I use only good ice, no fragments or dirty foam. Look if you don’t believe me.”
Ice quality mattered—winter ice was taken from rivers, some clean, some mixed with debris and trash. Eating it could cause severe diarrhea, and every summer people died from eating contaminated ice bowls.
The vendor lifted the lid, and Ding Wu bent down to look, wanting to check if the ice in the barrel was clean. He sensed quite a few people gathering behind him but wasn’t alarmed, assuming they were customers wanting ice bowls.
Someone struck him hard on the back of his neck. Ding Wu immediately lost consciousness, and the vendor, under cover of the crowd, stuffed him into the barrel and put the lid back on.
Wei Caiwei was completely absorbed in watching that splash of red disappear around the river bend. Only when she came back to her senses did she realize Ding Wu hadn’t returned yet. At first, Wei Caiwei thought there were many people buying ice bowls and he needed to wait, so she didn’t mind. But when the dragon boats returned and the sound of drums reached the stands, everyone was craning their necks nervously watching the river surface to see which guards’ dragon boat was in the lead.
Wei Caiwei also wanted to know very much. The preliminaries only took the first place from four boat teams—if you weren’t first, you lost the qualification for the semi-finals.
But when she stood up to gaze at the river in the distance, she also noticed that all the people who had gone to buy ice bowls had returned to the stands. Under the row of trees, the ice bowl stalls only had their owners, no customers.
Where was Ding Wu?
The drumbeats grew closer and closer, about to reach the finish line. Four dragon boats were all sprinting, and the drumbeats became increasingly urgent, just like Wei Caiwei’s mood.
She could no longer stay in place waiting for Ding Wu to return.
Wei Caiwei searched while calling out Ding Wu’s name, even checking with the ice bowl stalls and calling outside the men’s restroom.
There was no response at all.
Wei Caiwei sensed something was wrong. Ding Wu would absolutely never leave without saying goodbye.
Under the blazing sun, she walked toward the stands at the finish line, where the commanding officers of the capital’s twenty-four guards were located.
At this moment, one dragon boat was first to reach the finish line, grabbing the red flower as the crowd cheered: “Imperial Guards victory!”
In the stands, Imperial Guards Commander Lu Bing was quite pleased inside but maintained a composed expression as he cupped his fists toward the three commanding officers of the Chess Guards, Yulin Left Guards, and other guards, saying: “I yield, I yield!”
The three commanders thought: Hypocrite!
On the dragon boat, Wang Daxia, who had just won, was exhausted and felt stifling hot, so he simply jumped into the river to cool off. When he emerged from the water and came ashore, his clothes clung tightly to his body, outlining the curves of the young man’s figure—even Wang Xiaoxia could barely be hidden.
This startled the female guests, who all covered their faces with fans.
Lu Ying naturally saw this too, but since she was disguised as a man, she couldn’t cover her eyes. Lu Bing felt his anger rising, thinking Wang Daxia was defiling his daughter’s eyes, but he couldn’t lose his temper publicly. He instructed his subordinates: “Have him change into dry clothes so he doesn’t catch cold. There’s still the finals later.”
At this time, a guard whispered something in Lu Ying’s ear. After hearing it, Lu Ying immediately took her leave.
Wang Daxia changed clothes and followed his teammates to receive Lu Bing’s reward, passing by Lu Ying as she hurried past.
Lu Ying almost always wore the same expression, like she’d had a stroke, showing no emotion. Wang Daxia couldn’t read her mood, but as he climbed the stairs to the stands, he saw Wei Caiwei being blocked by guards below.
Wei Caiwei was clearly very anxious, and moreover, Ding Wu wasn’t beside her.
Wang Daxia couldn’t be happier that Ding Wu had disappeared—but not now!
Wang Daxia made an excuse: “Everyone go up first, I need to use the latrine.”
Wang Daxia turned back and followed behind Lu Ying.
Lu Ying walked over and also noticed that someone beside Wei Caiwei was missing. She gave a look: “Let’s talk over there.”
On the day of the dragon boat races, it wouldn’t do to let people know the Imperial Guards had lost an exile.
Away from the crowd, Wei Caiwei told Lu Ying about how Ding Wu had gone to buy ice bowls and never returned. Lu Ying wasn’t anxious and said: “I had people secretly follow Ding Wu. Ask them and we’ll know.”
It turned out Lu Ying didn’t trust the stands—she had never relaxed her surveillance of Ding Wu, just like when she had initially assigned people to follow Wei Caiwei, never overlooking anything suspicious.
For the first time, Wei Caiwei felt that Lu Ying’s suspiciousness was an advantage: “Quickly go find the secret agents.”
Lu Ying blew a bamboo whistle to summon the secret agents, but after blowing several times, no agents came to respond.
Lu Ying frowned and ordered her subordinates to spread out and search.
The subordinates found two secret agents under a large willow tree. Both had already fainted, with spilled ice bowls beside them—lotus seeds, fox nuts, peach juice, and so on scattered all over the ground.
Wei Caiwei checked their breathing: “They’re fine, just unconscious. Someone must have drugged the ice bowls.”
Wang Daxia suddenly appeared: “This place is far from where Dr. Wei was sitting in the stands. How could they conduct surveillance?”
“How did you get here? You still have the finals later!” Lu Ying pulled a Western telescope from the unconscious agent’s chest. “Of course they used this for surveillance. Getting too close would be discovered.”
Wang Daxia picked up the telescope and looked through it. Indeed, he could even clearly see a brat next to Wei Caiwei’s seat picking his nose.
This was an excellent surveillance location—far from crowds, with tree shade, and close to the ice bowl stalls. Perfect for eating while monitoring.
Wang Daxia returned the telescope to Lu Ying: “Now there are two possibilities. First, Ding Wu ran away and has accomplices secretly helping him. Second, someone means Ding Wu harm and kidnapped him right under the Imperial Guards’ noses.”
If an exile escaped during deportation, they became a fugitive who could be killed on the spot!
Wei Caiwei was anxious: “Ding Wu couldn’t possibly have escaped. If you insist he has accomplices, then that would be me. But I was in the stands the whole time—how could I possibly be in two places at once, drugging ice bowls and knocking out Imperial Guard agents? Someone definitely kidnapped him, and they’d been watching for a long time, knowing the Imperial Guards were conducting surveillance.”
Lu Ying said: “It must be that the kidnappers disguised themselves as ice bowl vendors, first knocking out my agents, then abducting Ding Wu. But Ding Wu is a grown man—if he was kidnapped, he would definitely resist. How did no passersby notice?”
Seeing Wei Caiwei’s anxiety, Wang Daxia pointed to the row of ice bowl stalls: “Look, the ice barrels are all wrapped in thick cotton quilts. You could hide a person inside. Let me go check—if we’re dealing with someone bold and skilled, the person might still be in a barrel.”
With that, he actually opened every ice barrel to look, but found nothing.
Meanwhile, Lu Ying brought a hunting dog. Wei Caiwei opened Ding Wu’s usual folding fan for the dog to smell, wanting the dog to lead the way. When the dragon boat race had just begun, Ding Wu had been constantly waving the folding fan, fanning her.
Wei Caiwei’s eyes reddened slightly: “He cared for me like a real sister, but I lost him.”
Wei Caiwei regretted it so much! In her previous life, Ding Wu had stayed safely in Tieling as a clerk until the dynasty changed, a new emperor ascended the throne, pardoned Ding Rukui’s crimes, returned his property, and gave him an official position before coming to the capital for father and son to reunite.
In this life, because of her, Ding Wu had been brought to the capital to verify his identity, only to meet with disaster.
The hunting dog led everyone to where the ice bowls were sold, then would go no further.
Ding Wu couldn’t have burrowed into the ground. Wang Daxia and the others questioned the vendors, who all claimed ignorance: “…At that time there were three layers of people inside and out surrounding customers buying ice bowls. We were all busy collecting money and doing business—who would pay attention to such things?”
In all of the capital, where should they begin searching?
Wei Caiwei forced back her tears and made herself calm down: “I think the biggest suspect is Minister Yan. We fooled him together that night, but there must be someone within the Imperial Guards who leaked information and aroused his suspicion. Ding Rukui is held in solitary confinement—only Commander Lu’s orders can grant access to him. It would be very difficult to kill Ding Rukui, but Ding Wu is different. Ding Wu is Ding Rukui’s only weakness. Capture Ding Wu, and you control Ding Rukui’s lifeline.”
Lu Ying’s eyes brightened: “You’re saying Minister Yan is using Ding Wu’s life to threaten Ding Rukui?”
Wei Caiwei nodded: “As a loving father, if only one of his son or himself can live, what choice would he make?”
Wang Daxia had a flash of inspiration: “Actually, this question can be viewed from the opposite angle. As long as Ding Rukui is alive, Ding Wu will definitely be alive too, because they still need Ding Wu’s life to threaten him. Dr. Wei, don’t worry. Even if Ding Wu suffers some physical pain, his life won’t be in danger. The capital is so large, and Minister Yan’s power reaches the heavens—even if we had evidence, we couldn’t get the person back. So we—”
“I understand what you mean.” Lu Ying said: “We immediately return to the Imperial Prison to see who delivers the message using Ding Wu to threaten Ding Rukui to commit suicide. Whoever does so is the traitor, and then we follow the trail from the traitor to find where Ding Wu is being held.”
Wang Daxia wanted to go along, but Lu Ying stopped him: “There’s still the finals later. Changing generals before battle would shake morale. You do your job well, and I’ll do mine. You secure first place, and I’ll find Ding Wu.”
Author’s Note: Lu Ying and Ding Wu have the script of star-crossed lovers turning from family feud to romance, like Romeo and Juliet. From their combat prowess perspective, it’s actually Lu Romeo and Ding Juliet—everyone, don’t get it backwards.