Gao Xining passed Li Chi a freshly peeled apple. Given that this was a time of scarcity between harvests, and that Jizhou City had been sealed for so long, finding an apple at all was no simple thing. One could only imagine how difficult it had been for a merchant to keep last autumn’s apples unspoiled this long.

So Li Chi shook his head. “I don’t like apples.”

He knew why Gao Xining had gone to the trouble of having someone track down such an expensive apple — only because he had once mentioned offhandedly that back when he was wandering the jianghu with his master, being able to eat an apple was genuine happiness. Apples really were delicious.

So Gao Xining had no faith whatsoever in those three words, I don’t like apples, and simply pushed the apple directly up to his mouth. Li Chi had no choice but to open up and take a bite, and while he chewed he grinned foolishly, grinned foolishly and looked at her.

“Do I look nice?”

Gao Xining asked with a smile.

Li Chi pointed outside the courtyard wall and said, “The willows outside are green and the flowers are red. Did you see them?”

Gao Xining nodded. “I did. I can’t go out, but sitting on the roof I can see the trees along the street full and lush, and the flowers and grass in full bloom. Very beautiful. But I was asking — am I pretty?”

Li Chi said, “I’ve calculated — it’s about ten li from here to the academy. The trees on both sides of the street have been turned green by the spring wind, the flowers turned vivid. All the way from here to the academy, the scenery is beautiful as a painting.”

He took a bite of the apple and looked at her, cheeks full as he said, “Spring wind for ten miles — not as beautiful as you. A painter can paint the spring wind across ten miles, but not you.”

Gao Xining’s face went red.

After a moment she sighed and said, “That’s trouble then — if you look for a wife by this standard, you’ll have a hard time finding one.”

Li Chi made a sound of agreement. “Of course it’ll be hard. You could walk all ten li of that long street and everyone would look at you, not at the spring wind.”

Gao Xining’s face still flushed, she looked at Li Chi and asked, “Have you been reading some strange book lately? Why does it feel like you keep saying stranger and stranger things?”

Li Chi said, “So — do you think these strange things are nice to hear?”

Gao Xining gave a small nod. “They’re… rather nice to hear.”

Li Chi said, “Then I’ll read more strange books and learn more strange things to say, and trade them for one smile from you. A very good bargain.”

Gao Xining made a small sound of scorn, on the surface looking a little put off by his glib tongue, but inside her heart was bubbling and fizzing like something was slowly boiling.

“You’re leaving Jizhou tomorrow.”

Gao Xining looked down and said, “Be careful on the road. Those people certainly have some scheme in mind. I’ve thought it over, and I think this matter may be connected to the young lord Yang Zhuo.”

Li Chi was startled. Something he had spent a long time unable to arrive at seemed to come to Gao Xining with no effort at all.

“You might be exactly right.”

Li Chi said, “I only just thought of it too. When you get to the root of it, this isn’t about dealing with me — it’s about dealing with Xiahou. The best way they can get to Xiahou is to strike him on the road halfway back to the northern border.”

He looked at Gao Xining. “But they don’t know when Xiahou Zuo is going back. If it really is Yang Zhuo, he’s in a rush to act — probably because he’s afraid Xiahou won’t go back to the north at all, that he’ll stay in Jizhou and compete with him for the position.”

Gao Xining said, “So he can’t wait any longer. He’s afraid Prince Yu will truly give the position to Xiahou, so first he removes you to strip away Xiahou’s protection, then he can uproot the carriage company entirely. With his backing gone, Xiahou will be exposed. And he may also be thinking — first kill the people Xiahou cares about one by one, and then kill Xiahou last, to make him suffer the grief.”

Li Chi instinctively reached out and tousled her hair. “Don’t think about all these dark and twisted things. You’re a girl — what’s the point in filling your head with all this scheming, it’s not good.”

Gao Xining was startled. She looked up instinctively, and Li Chi’s palm was still resting on top of her head. Lifting her eyes she could see the edge of his hand. His palm was very warm.

She stood there for a good while, and then raised her hand and tousled his hair in return.

“You messed up my hair,” she said. “I’m messing yours up too.”

Li Chi said, “You can keep going a while longer — then I won’t need to wash my hair, and it’ll still smell nice.”

Gao Xining’s face went a shade redder. She said “shameless,” and walked away — hands clasped behind her back, bouncing lightly as she went.

Li Chi thought: have I failed again?

Courting a matchmaker — it was, it seemed, a genuinely difficult thing.

He looked down at the half-eaten apple in his hand and couldn’t help but break into a foolish grin again. Just then Gao Xining came back, reached out and snatched the apple from his hand, made a sound of disdain, and said, “You dare flirt with me — you don’t get your apple back.”

Then she put the apple in her own mouth and walked away, taking bites as she went.

Li Chi looked at his empty hand, clicked his tongue, and asked with a slightly dazed expression, “I already bit it.”

Gao Xining, still walking, called back: “You already bit it, and you think you can just not give it back? That’s a very pleasant little dream you’re having!”

And she kept eating her half-apple.

Li Chi narrowed his eyes and thought — does this count as an indirect kiss?

Tsk!

What a filthy mind!

—

Not far away, Liu Yingyuan stood holding a small dish piled with shelled dried fruits. She watched Li Chi and Gao Xining laughing and chatting so happily, and felt something strange stirring inside her.

Just then Gao Xining happened to be walking her way, which so startled Liu Yingyuan that she spun to run. She had meant to bring the dried fruits to Li Chi, but now all she wanted was to hide — she had a feeling that if she was seen, she would be terribly embarrassed.

Gao Xining, still nibbling the last of the apple, spotted Liu Yingyuan and quickened her pace.

“Wait.”

She called out. Liu Yingyuan gave a fright and shuddered, then turned around slowly, face wearing a complicated sort of smile.

“Did you shell those for that fool?”

Gao Xining saw the dish in Liu Yingyuan’s hands, and something sparkled in her eyes — whether it was simple-minded delight or open-heartedness, it was hard to say. She seemed to feel that Liu Yingyuan and Li Chi might have something between them.

She might have been both simple and open-hearted.

Liu Yingyuan reddened and nodded, embarrassed. “I just… had nothing to do. I peeled a few. Sister, you eat them.”

“I won’t.”

Gao Xining put her arm around Liu Yingyuan’s shoulders as they walked forward together. “Do you really like that fool?”

Liu Yingyuan felt as though this was not the sort of thing one could just say out loud. Her face grew redder.

Gao Xining said, “If you do, you do. If you don’t, you don’t. If it’s true — does who you like depend on anyone else’s opinion?”

Liu Yingyuan said, “But — but it seems to me, Sister, that you like him too.”

Gao Xining said, “I do.”

Liu Yingyuan was completely lost. She looked up at Gao Xining with her mouth open. “Ah?”

Gao Xining said earnestly, “If you do, you do. If you don’t, you don’t. Does who you like depend on anyone else’s opinion?”

She had said this once before — but only now did Liu Yingyuan begin to understand a little of what was behind it.

“But — I’m not as good as you, Sister.”

Liu Yingyuan murmured softly.

Gao Xining, arm still around Liu Yingyuan’s shoulder, gestured grandly with her other hand like one surveying the world. “What of it? If we’re talking about looks — the two of us, hmm, more or less the same, I’d say. Both roughly in the category of celestially beautiful. In other respects, just work hard to surpass me.”

She could actually say this with such matter-of-fact composure.

Liu Yingyuan thought she must have heard wrong.

Gao Xining kept walking and talking. “I said I was going to find him a wife, didn’t I? And you’re the first person I ever introduced him to. If you end up not working out… I’d have to go find someone else to try.”

“Don’t!”

Liu Yingyuan blurted back immediately. “Not yet…”

Gao Xining sighed. “Are we both pretty?”

“We… I suppose so.”

“Is he good-looking?”

“He… I suppose so.”

“Then it’s a match!”

Gao Xining gave another little wave of her small hand.

Liu Yingyuan was utterly at a loss — a sudden, unprepared kind of loss.

—

Behind them, Li Chi sat watching Gao Xining walk away with her arm around Liu Yingyuan, and couldn’t help but let out a long sigh. This one, he thought, seemed to be better at pursuing girls than he was.

But she was a girl herself.

He looked down at the half-eaten apple in his hand and broke into a foolish grin again, unbidden. Just then Gao Xining came back, reached out, snatched the apple back, sniffed at him with disdain, and said, “You dare flirt with me — no apple for you.”

Then she put the apple in her own mouth and walked off, biting into it as she went.

Li Chi stared at his empty hand, clicked his tongue, and said with a slightly dazed look, “I already bit it.”

Gao Xining, still walking, called back, “You bit it once and think you can keep it? Dream on!”

And she kept eating the half-apple.

—

The following morning, Li Chi rose early to practice his exercises. By the time everyone had woken in turn, he gathered them and went through all their equipment once more. He had agreed with Shi Ci to bring eighty men — but the carriage company still had around fifty-odd people staying behind. For most situations, that would be enough.

But Li Chi suddenly changed his mind. He decided to bring a hundred and thirty people, leaving only a skeleton crew to mind the place.

Two quarters of an hour later, after the meal, Li Chi gathered everyone together. He smiled and said, “Someone wants to make trouble for us. What do we do about that?”

Everyone grinned.

Li Chi said, “Look at those worthless smiles — as though someone making trouble for us is the same as someone handing us money. You really are… absolutely right.”

He raised his voice. “I don’t care who wants to come at us. Our goal is…”

Over a hundred men answered in unison.

“Make money!”

Li Chi laughed. “That’s right. Nothing more to say. If you’re all ready, let’s move out.”

Everyone raised their hands and gave a shout.

Li Chi said, “Then — move out!”

The hundred-and-thirty-man column marched out of the carriage company, heading in force toward the eastern city gate. Outside the company, in different spots along the street, watchers had their eyes on the building. Seeing this many men pour out, they immediately split up to go report.

Before Li Chi’s group arrived, their informants had already reached the convoy waiting outside the eastern gate, running to find Shi Ci and dropping to their knees before him.

“Sir, Li Chi is coming with his men — but he’s brought not eighty men but what looks to be over a hundred.”

Shi Ci frowned. “Don’t call me sir. Have you forgotten who I’m supposed to be right now?”

He was Xu Yuanqing — the pampered and well-provided-for Honorable Xu — come out in person.

Shi Ci looked toward Yuan Qianshou. “Old Yuan, would you be so good as to get into the carriage and play the part of the distinguished personage?”

Yuan Qianshou bowed. “Understood. Leave it to me.”

He climbed into the carriage and sat upright, composed and imposing.

Shi Ci smiled to himself and said, “He’s brought everyone he has — he’s afraid something might go wrong on the road. Oh, also — yesterday a garrison unit was seen entering the carriage company, but then they left again. Where did that unit end up?”

Someone answered, “In reply to Master Shi — that unit appeared to be border troops, Xiahou Zuo’s men come to escort him back to the northern border. Yesterday before the city gates closed, Xiahou Zuo left with that unit. They rode through the night; by now they should be at least a hundred or so li away. They departed in a hurry — there may have been something urgent at the border.”

Shi Ci nodded. “Good. Then we deal with Li Chi — and while we’re at it, have the people inside the city pick the right moment and take care of Xiahou Zuo’s mother and sister. As for Xiahou Zuo himself…”

Shi Ci paused and looked ahead. At the front of the convoy, Chen Fengliao was waiting.

He smiled. “The young lord hasn’t paid enough to cover killing Xiahou Zuo.”