Yu Jiuling felt rather short-changed. Being short-changed on silver was already hard to accept — but to also be short-changed in body…

So he looked at Li Chi very seriously and asked: “Boss, you mean I go and spend all three thousand taels, and all I get to do is look at her?”

Li Chi said: “Think of it this way — can anyone else even get to see her right now?”

Yu Jiuling pulled out the three thousand tael banknotes and handed them back to Li Chi. “I don’t want to go anymore.”

Li Chi said: “Now you have feelings about this?”

Yu Jiuling said: “My body and I both have feelings about this.”

Li Chi: “…”

Tang Pidi looked at Li Chi. “How about we divide the labor — you handle him, or you handle his body?”

Li Chi: “I’ll handle both.”

Tang Pidi turned and shouted: “Bring me my iron spear!”

Somewhere in the distance, the soldiers who were training actually heard this, and someone really did start trotting off to bring Tang Pidi his iron spear. Yu Jiuling stared at them, thinking — how are there so many simpletons here.

Yu Jiuling rushed over and intercepted the soldier, coaxed the man back to his post, and returned.

He then plopped down on the steps and muttered to himself: “Anyway, I don’t want to go be someone’s stand-in and have our money spent with nothing to show for it. Total loss.”

Li Chi said gently: “If you don’t handle this well, you might feel a little upset.”

Yu Jiuling asked: “Why?”

Li Chi said: “The money I gave you yesterday was for gathering information — it was operational funds. But you used it for… ahem. I’m considering whether to deduct it from your wages.”

Yu Jiuling snatched the three thousand tael banknotes and stuffed them firmly into his own breast.

He patted his chest and declared: “How can a man measure his worth by personal gain? Is something not worth doing just because there’s no benefit in it? I despise that kind of person. I, Yu Jiuling, have always been one to answer the call without hesitation.”

Li Chi said: “If I hadn’t just seen what I saw, I’d be clapping for you right now.”

Yu Jiuling said: “Applause is too cold and formal — better convert it into errand fees. You can see that to pass myself off as a man of wealth, I don’t have a single decent garment on me right now, so…”

Li Chi looked toward Dantai Qi. “Old Dantai!”

Dantai Qi looked back at him. “Dantai!”

Li Chi said: “Old Tai, come here a moment.”

After Dantai Qi walked over, he said: “What is it?”

Li Chi said: “We’re planning to send our ninth brother on an errand, and he’ll need to dress the part of a wealthy young gentleman. I was thinking our attire is a bit lacking — might we borrow a couple of your garments?”

Dantai Qi frowned. “My clothes — not to be borrowed. Once someone else has worn them, I no longer want them.”

Li Chi said: “Many thanks to Young Master Dantai for his free donation of one set of clothing.”

Dantai Qi’s eyes went wide. “How can you be so shameless? I said no such thing. I said my clothes cannot be worn by others — if someone does wear them, I won’t want them back.”

Li Chi said: “Ninth brother, go beg him.”

Dantai Qi glanced at Yu Jiuling’s face, then imagined his fine and costly garments on that figure — and gave an involuntary shudder.

The outfit that had formed in his mind: he had already begun to not want it.

He reached into his breast and pulled out a banknote, handing it to Yu Jiuling: “Go buy your own. Don’t wear mine!”

Li Chi said: “From free donation to financial sponsorship.”

Dantai Qi shot Li Chi a glare. Li Chi smiled. “Thank you, Old Dantai.”

Dantai Qi: “Dantai!”

Li Chi laughed: “Now that ninth brother is all arranged, it’s a matter of how to work Young Lord Yang Zhuo — we need him to find out that Luo Jing is about to have a private rendezvous with his girl.”

He looked toward Jiang Ran in the distance, who was training bare-chested, and said with a smile: “For this — we’ll need Old Jiang to take the field.”

Jiang Ran, who was training bare-chested in the distance, hadn’t heard what Li Chi and the others were saying, but he saw them all looking his way, and a chill ran down his spine. He had the distinct feeling something unpleasant was about to happen to him.

Half a quarter-hour later, Jiang Ran listened to Li Chi finish explaining, then nodded. “You startled me. I’m out here training bare-chested and you were all staring at me — I thought ninth brother went to Twin Stars Tower last night and came home unsatisfied.”

Yu Jiuling: “Drop dead!”

Jiang Ran said: “When I was an official back then, I knew a number of the Young Lord’s regular associates. Those fellows are mostly spongers who beg meals and drinks off others — give them a little silver and they’ll do anything.”

Li Chi said: “Draw the money from the accounts. This needs to be done today.”

Jiang Ran said: “Relax, it’s not difficult.”

He picked up his clothes and walked away, then turned back after a few steps and flexed his pectoral muscles at Yu Jiuling.

Yu Jiuling: “Get lost!”

Li Chi said: “Ninth brother, you go too. We said three days to give Zeng Ling an answer — today is the second day. We need to move fast.”

Yu Jiuling nodded: “Don’t worry. Joking aside, business is business. I’ll go right now.”

He turned and ran out.

Li Chi stood and said: “Old Tang, let’s go see Master Ye — not sure if he’s back yet.”

—

Midday.

Young Lord’s residence.

Young Lord Yang Zhuo had originally lived inside Prince Yu’s mansion, but as he grew older he found it thoroughly inconvenient — everything was inconvenient, increasingly so with each passing year.

So he petitioned his father, and Prince Yu decided that since his son had come of age, he had Zeng Ling arrange a large compound for him.

The compound was sprawling — it had to be, to accommodate all those retainers.

These retainers fell roughly into three categories, each with their own characteristics.

The first kind: capable people without money. The lord, recognizing talent, would invite them in and provide for them. They would rarely be asked to do anything, and when needed, the lord would consult with them.

The second kind: wealthy people without talent. What they sought was a reputation — they voluntarily contributed funds in exchange for the name of being a Young Lord’s retainer. This made them appear very well-connected when they went out, and their business dealings were also more convenient, since everyone gave the Young Lord some face.

This second kind had to contribute money, which meant the first kind was largely sustained by what the second kind provided.

The third kind: neither capable nor wealthy. Not that they had absolutely no skill — at the very least they had to be smooth talkers who could deceive, convincing the Young Lord that they had talent and getting themselves kept on as the first type.

So — did the first kind truly exist?

In Young Lord Yang Zhuo’s compound, while it didn’t quite reach the three thousand retainers of those ancient worthies, there were several hundred in residence.

These hundreds had their own factions and cliques. The incompetent clustered together; the genuinely capable were reluctant to mix freely with others.

In the courtyard, Young Lord Yang Zhuo lounged in a rocking chair watching the lively scene around him, feeling rather pleased with himself.

There were many things in life that could inspire self-satisfaction. Yang Zhuo was fond of exactly this — he felt it was an expression of his ability, status, and prestige.

In this entire Jizhou, in the entire northern frontier, who else but he, Yang Zhuo, Prince Yu’s heir, had so many elite retainers?

“Young Lord.”

A retainer came hurrying over, looking as though he had something to report.

Yang Zhuo glanced at him and asked with a smile: “Master Zhu, what urgent matter brings you in such haste?”

The one addressed as Master Zhu said: “Young Lord, I have just learned that hiding right here in Jizhou City are two concealed masters of extraordinary ability — one could almost say without rivals under heaven, or very nearly so. If these two could be invited to assist, the matter of killing Zeng Ling might have a real prospect of success.”

Yang Zhuo was pleased. He sat up straighter and asked: “These two are truly so capable? Tell me specifically who they are.”

Master Zhu answered: “These two were originally the martial brothers of the Jizhou Gold Blade Sect’s leader, but due to a falling out with the sect leader, they left the sect in a rage and have since lived in seclusion in Jizhou. Had it not been for a fortunate coincidence, it would have been impossible to discover two such masters in hiding. This is your subordinate’s good fortune, and also proof of the Young Lord’s boundless heaven-bestowed luck.”

Yang Zhuo said: “Then why haven’t you gone to invite those two masters here at once?”

Master Zhu said: “Well… those two, though living in seclusion, are proud and self-important. If I approached them without warning, I fear they’d drive me away. But if the Young Lord could grant me a visiting card with your name, along with some generous gifts…”

Yang Zhuo said: “A trifling matter.”

He ordered someone to fetch his name card, then had another five hundred taels of silver brought out for Master Zhu. Master Zhu departed in high delight.

What Yang Zhuo did not know was that the Gold Blade Sect was already nothing but a hollow shell with no substance.

And Master Zhu had just swindled another five hundred taels and, armed with the Young Lord’s visiting card, headed off to con someone else entirely.

Yang Zhuo had just settled back into his satisfaction when another retainer, Zheng Liucheng, came rushing in from outside at a trot, hastened to Yang Zhuo, and said in a lowered voice: “Young Lord, there’s trouble.”

Yang Zhuo asked: “What matter has you dashing about so carelessly? Have some composure.”

Zheng Liucheng said: “I’ve had Twin Stars Tower under watch for the Young Lord all along — that Miss Yin can’t be let near anyone else. I was worried the madam might not keep her word, so I kept an extra eye on things. Today I indeed learned something.”

Yang Zhuo laughed: “A girl from a pleasure house — what’s there to be concerned about?”

Zheng Liucheng said: “Young Lord, if it weren’t important I wouldn’t have come rushing in to report. Today I learned that Luo Jing, that Youzhou general, somehow found out you favor Miss Yin at Twin Stars Tower, and has actually sent someone over.”

“That Luo Jing made it explicit: precisely because Miss Yin is the Young Lord’s person, he wants her. He just wants to know what the Young Lord’s woman tastes like.”

Yang Zhuo had actually not been all that concerned at first — Miss Yin was a woman of the pleasure quarters, and before him she’d had any number of patrons. What was there to be concerned about?

She had simply risen in status and standing after attending to him, that was all.

But these words from Zheng Liucheng truly enraged Yang Zhuo. The good mood of a moment ago evaporated entirely.

“Did Luo Jing really say that?!”

“Yes.”

Zheng Liucheng said: “He sent someone to Twin Stars Tower to bribe the madam, saying he wants to take Miss Yin out for a private meeting tomorrow night. The madam said she didn’t dare make a fuss about it, and Luo Jing said he was the foremost contributor to Jizhou’s success and that the Young Lord wouldn’t dare do anything to him.”

“Foremost contributor?”

Yang Zhuo raged: “He’s an outsider — how dare he act so wildly in my Jizhou City?”

Zheng Liucheng said: “I don’t understand why this man is so arrogant. Twin Stars Tower has over a hundred girls, and he could have anyone — he had to pick Miss Yin…”

Yang Zhuo shot to his feet and shouted across the courtyard at his assembled retainers: “Everyone come here!”

A crowd came running immediately, surrounding the Young Lord and awaiting instructions.

Yang Zhuo announced loudly: “Tomorrow night someone is trying to take Miss Yin out of Twin Stars Tower for a private meeting. You are all to station yourselves around Twin Stars Tower. The moment you see that carriage arrive, intercept it. I don’t care who it is — beat them!”

His face dark with fury, he said: “This person dares act so outrageously without putting me in his eyes at all. You go ahead and act — whatever happens, I’ll take responsibility for all of it!”

“Yes!”

The crowd responded in unison, every one of them eager and raring to go.

This kind of thing — they were naturally glad to do.

Zheng Liucheng let out a quiet breath of relief. Those three hundred taels were as good as in his pocket — he’d already collected one hundred, and now he could go collect the remaining two hundred.

—