On the hillside. In the grass.

Chief Cheng looked over at the people approaching in the distance along the imperial road, then reached out and knocked Little Six on the back of the head.

“How do you figure they look like bad news?”

Little Six rubbed the back of his skull. “Chief, look — dressed that finely and elegantly, obviously not ordinary common folk.”

Chief Cheng said: “They dress nicely, so they’re bad people?”

Little Six said: “Dressing nicely might not mean bad people — but they’re all better-looking than me too. *That* definitely means they’re not good people.”

He pointed at the approaching figures: “Chief, look at those two silk-clad pretty boys — do they look like good people? One glance is enough — plainly the kind of wastrels who’ve ruined the lives of countless decent young women.”

“Then look at that black-robed fat man. Before I saw him, I always thought you were the most handsome fat man in existence, Chief. But he’s actually more handsome than you.”

Little Six asked Chief Cheng: “Can we accept this?”

Chief Cheng shook his head: “We cannot.”

He asked: “And the last one?”

Little Six said: “That one’s probably not a bad person — since he’s not good-looking. We can let him go.”

As for how Yu Jiuling might react if he heard that — who could say.

Chief Cheng said: “I think you’ve got a point. Pretty boys — never any good, the lot of them.”

Little Six said: “Rob them!”

“Rob them!”

Chief Cheng raised his hand: “Move!”

Two or three dozen people came howling and charging down the hillside, blocking the road, weapons leveled at the four figures coming toward them.

This Hospitality Army had one most prized possession: the somewhat battered spyglass. The only metal weapon among them belonged to Chief Cheng himself — a pair of great iron hammers. Real, genuine iron.

Every other man held a staff — long ones, short ones, various lengths.

Chief Cheng pointed one hammer at the four and bellowed at the top of his lungs: “Halt, pretty boys! All of you — STOP!”

Yu Jiuling instantly flared up, shouting back: “Who are you calling pretty boys?!”

Chief Cheng said: “Not talking to you. Get out of the way.”

Yu Jiuling: “Oh come on!”

Dantai Yajing gave a surprised snort of laughter.

Li Chi smiled and said: “You said I was showing signs of reckless indulgence, didn’t you? Well, I came out here specifically with this lot in mind. Shall we go have a look at what they’ve got?”

Dantai Yajing asked: “Who are these people?”

Li Chi said: “Master Lian Xiwa, who came to Jizhou from Chanzhou, told me he met a band of brigands on the road to Jizhou, halfway through his journey.”

Dantai Yajing smiled: “So we’re here to wipe out bandits — and the golden-thread fish is just incidental.”

Li Chi said: “The fish must still be eaten. But these bandits can’t be wiped out.”

Dantai Yajing asked: “Why not?”

Li Chi smiled: “Master Lian came from Chanzhou. His carriage broke down on the road, with only a young book-servant for company — the two of them stranded on the roadside with nothing to be done.”

“Master Lian said — as if calamity wasn’t enough, it started to rain on a leaky roof. Just when he was at his wits’ end, a band of mountain bandits came howling down out of the hills.”

“They came charging down looking wild and ferocious — Master Lian thought: that’s it, this time it’s truly finished.”

“The bandits did take him — hauled him up into the mountain. And Master Lian said he was then compelled to spend three days on the mountain, lecturing to the bandits.”

“By the time he came down, his carriage had been repaired for him, packed with half a cartload of mountain produce. A whole crowd of bandits lined the hillside waving him off, not wanting him to go.”

Dantai Yajing could not hold it together — he laughed so hard his stomach cramped. Once the image of that line of bandits on the hillside waving goodbye had fixed itself in his mind, there was no stopping it.

“This…”

He had just been about to say — are these bandits really worth your personal attention?

Li Chi said: “Don’t underestimate them. Master Lian said the leader — a man by the name of Cheng Wujie — seems crude and unruly on the surface, but is actually… well, about like that.”

Even as Li Chi said it, he laughed.

“But this man has real ability. Master Lian said he spotted a persimmon tree with ripe fruit on it at the time. Master Lian, being a scholar with no way to pick them himself, was eyeing the tree, and Cheng Wujie noticed. He asked: ‘Sir, would you like some?’ Master Lian nodded, and Cheng Wujie went over, wrapped his arms around the tree, and shook until every single persimmon fell off — and then kept right on shaking until the tree was bare.”

Dantai Yajing laughed: “Innate divine strength.”

Li Chi said: “Want to try?”

Dantai Yajing nodded: “Let’s give it a try.”

He urged his horse forward.

Before he’d even spoken, Chief Cheng demanded: “What were you two whispering about just now?!”

Dantai Yajing said: “We were saying that pair of iron hammers of yours are probably fake.”

“Your bloody nerve!”

Chief Cheng said: “These hammers of mine — one alone weighs eighty-eight *jin*. You dare say they’re fake?”

Dantai Yajing said: “I’d like to test those hammers.”

Chief Cheng said: “Then aren’t you looking for death?”

Dantai Yajing said: “If you kill me, that’s my own lack of skill. But before the fight, let’s settle one thing first.”

Chief Cheng scowled: “What’s there to settle? We’re robbing people here! What kind of person comes to get robbed and then wants to negotiate first?”

Dantai Yajing said: “If you don’t hear me out, we just ride away and you don’t get to rob us.”

Chief Cheng immediately said: “Speak, speak.”

Dantai Yajing looked back at Li Chi, and the look in his eyes said: *this is what you came all this way personally for?*

Li Chi’s look back said: *well, we’re here now…*

Dantai Yajing sighed quietly and looked at Chief Cheng: “If you win, everything we’re carrying is yours.”

Chief Cheng nodded: “Goes without saying — that’s the whole point.”

Dantai Yajing said: “And if you lose?”

Chief Cheng said: “If we lose… pfft! We’re highway robbers! Mountain bandits! Are you going to try to get money *from* us?”

Little Six said: “Exactly — trying to collect money from us? Like we’d have any? If we had money, why would we be robbing people?”

Little Nine: “Genuinely — what a bunch of idiots. If we had money, would we be out here?”

Dantai Yajing suppressed a laugh and said: “I don’t want your money. Give me your iron hammers.”

Chief Cheng said seriously: “That’s not acceptable. Everything else — the hammers, no.”

Dantai Yajing asked: “Why?”

Chief Cheng answered: “I am the descendant of a great general. A great general’s descendant must also become a great general. A great general who can’t even keep hold of his own weapons — what kind of great general is that?”

He declared loudly: “Your life can be lost, but your weapon cannot!”

In that moment, Dantai Yajing felt this man had some genuine depth to him.

So he dismounted from his horse, drew his long saber — not his lance — and stepped forward: “I have no wish to take your life. Be careful.”

Chief Cheng said: “You’re not bad.”

Little Six reminded him: “Chief — we’re supposed to be robbing people.”

Chief Cheng quickly nodded: “Right, right — robbery.”

He stepped forward: “If I don’t beat you in three moves, you can all pass through.”

Dantai Yajing said: “Bold words. There are few in this world who can beat me in three moves.”

*And all of them live in my family,* he thought to himself.

Chief Cheng launched himself forward. His right hammer came sweeping down at Dantai Yajing.

Dantai Yajing knew those hammers were heavy. His saber couldn’t take the impact directly — he planned to sidestep the blow and counter. But he’d had no idea the bandit’s strength was this absurd. He knew the man was strong; he hadn’t anticipated *how* strong.

If one hammer truly weighed eighty-eight *jin*, swinging it would require considerable effort. But in this man’s hands, the right hammer moved as though it weighed one or two *jin* at most — it was there in front of Dantai Yajing in an instant.

Dantai Yajing threw himself back sharply, the great hammer sweeping past his face with a rush of wind.

Before he could straighten up, Chief Cheng shouted a warning, and the second hammer was already coming — again the right. Swept out, swept back, the speed astonishing — not something you’d expect from an eighty-eight *jin* hammer, or even from an ordinary blade.

Dantai Yajing hadn’t fully come upright from his backward lean, and had to throw himself back again to dodge the returning right hammer.

“You’re about to lose!”

A great shout from Chief Cheng.

This time: left hammer. But he held back the force. He simply moved it toward Dantai Yajing’s chest.

Dantai Yajing was mid-backward-lean when the left hammer came at his chest.

Now — picture a man bent backward, and someone resting an eighty-eight *jin* iron hammer on his chest…

But Dantai Yajing — who was Dantai Yajing?

Even as he bent back, his right-hand saber stabbed downward, planted in the earth, and he used it as a lever — both feet kicked off the ground, launching himself into the air. He planted a kick square on Chief Cheng’s chest.

He had no intention of injuring the man — Chief Cheng had even warned him — so the kick wasn’t full force. It was just a second moment of leverage, off that soft belly, to send himself flying backward.

He retreated and held his saber ready, and found Chief Cheng’s expression had gone quite ugly.

*I didn’t hit him that hard,* Dantai Yajing thought. *Have I hurt him?*

Then, in that moment, he noticed something wrong. He looked down at himself. There was dust on his clothes.

Dantai Yajing’s expression also went ugly, because that hammer — he hadn’t quite dodged it. When the third hammer came with held-back force, placed lightly against his chest — even so, it had touched his clothing. If full force had been used, that hammer would have—

Which explained why Dantai Yajing’s face had gone ugly. He understood: in that moment, if they had been on a battlefield, he would already be dead.

But in that same moment, on a battlefield, Chief Cheng would also be dead.

They had traded lives.

It was precisely this realization that made Dantai Yajing understand Li Chi’s purpose in coming. This Cheng Wujie — Li Chi really had been right to come for him personally. He looked back at Li Chi, who was grinning from ear to ear — the grin of a man who’d found a great windfall.

Think about it: wasn’t this worth more than any windfall of gold?

How many people in all the realm could trade lives with Dantai Yajing in three moves?

Dantai Yajing stepped forward to say: you’ve won.

But Chief Cheng was backing away repeatedly: “That’s enough, that’s enough — you win, just go on through.”

Dantai Yajing said: “You won.”

Chief Cheng shook his head: “I say you won, so you won. Just go.”

Dantai Yajing said: “If we had truly been fighting, we would both be dead — life for life. Winning or losing can’t truly be settled that way. Your strength is beyond measure. If we continued, I would not be your match.”

He might have his pride, but he was a man of open honesty — he believed that if they continued at length, he would definitely not be able to beat this Cheng Wujie.

Chief Cheng, however, crouched down and looked thoroughly miserable.

“If we keep going… I only have three moves. If we keep going, won’t that be obvious to everyone?”

Dantai Yajing was bewildered.

He asked with surprise: “But aren’t you making it obvious *now*?”

Chief Cheng startled, and looked between Dantai Yajing and his own subordinates.

He asked: “Did I just say that out loud?”

Little Six nodded: “You did, Chief.”

Chief Cheng dropped onto his backside: “That’s not going to make me look very bright, is it?”

Little Six said reassuringly: “It’s fine, Chief. It’s not like we didn’t already know.”

—