Dantai Qi led a column of guards in from outside. Two men to each person they were carrying — the procession entered like an enormous centipede, leaving Gui Yuanshu blinking in bewilderment.

Easily twenty-some were walked in, and more than twenty were carried. They were set down on the ground, carefully arranged.

Laid out in a neat row.

Li Chi turned to Gui Yuanshu with a tone of earnest and humble inquiry: “No idea where these people came from — they suddenly rushed us trying to rob me of my silver. I ask you: were they out of their minds? Could they not have simply waited for me to hand it over? They had to go and steal it. My men dealt with them a little roughly and perhaps didn’t know their own strength. What do you think should be done with my men, my lord? Shouldn’t the injuries be assessed first? Does your court have a physician? Shall I lend you a few?”

Gui Yuanshu thought to himself: this man is so infuriating, my head is about to explode.

He narrowed his eyes at Li Chi: “Young Marquis — were you this law-abiding back in Yuzhou as well?”

Li Chi put on a look of puzzlement: “What does my lord mean?”

Gui Yuanshu said: “In Yuzhou, when someone dared to rob the Young Marquis of his silver, and the Young Marquis’s men beat them for it — did the Young Marquis also send them to the local authorities and sincerely ask whether the punishment was appropriate for such a beating?”

Li Chi said: “That never happened in Yuzhou.”

Gui Yuanshu said: “Of course not. In Yuzhou, who would dare rob the Young Marquis of his silver.”

Li Chi said: “No, it’s not that — in Yuzhou, it was the prefecture officials who would come to me and ask: Young Marquis, how do you think this should be handled?”

Gui Yuanshu stopped walking and turned to look at Li Chi.

Li Chi said, perfectly seriously: “I usually just let them go. I don’t trouble people unnecessarily.”

Gui Yuanshu thought to himself: and I’d believe that.

He walked over to the men laid out on the ground, looked them over — and felt a quiet shock ripple through him.

Whoever had done this knew exactly what they were doing. From the outside, the injuries looked almost modest — and yet not one of these men could so much as stand.

He turned back to Li Chi: “Were they beaten on the open street, or inside the official courier station?”

Li Chi said: “Inside the courier station.”

Gui Yuanshu asked: “You’re certain?”

Li Chi answered: “Absolutely, completely certain. They were beaten inside the courier station.”

Gui Yuanshu sighed: “If the altercation took place inside the courier station, then… the Young Marquis and his men bear no liability whatsoever.”

Li Chi said: “Is that so?”

He turned to Dantai Qi and said: “Quick — carry them back to the courier station and give them another round.”

Gui Yuanshu: “…”

He sighed: “Young Marquis, that would not be appropriate.”

Li Chi said: “See, I was joking.”

Gui Yuanshu: “…”

Li Chi said: “Quickly — take everyone to a physician for treatment. All expenses will be covered by us. Be careful carrying them, mind you don’t drop anyone.”

Dantai Qi immediately nodded: “Understood.”

Gui Yuanshu asked: “Just now, Young Marquis — what did you say? ‘Mind you don’t drop anyone?'”

Li Chi said: “Did I? What I meant was, carry them to the clinic for treatment. Whatever you do, don’t drop them.”

Even as he was still speaking, two of his men lifted one of the troublemakers — and then, as if losing their grip, the man’s head clunked straight into the ground.

Li Chi said: “You lot — didn’t I say, be careful, be careful.”

Dantai Qi: “Right, right, right — careful. One by one. Everyone, careful.”

Gui Yuanshu sighed to himself, wondering which poor unfortunate had been unlucky enough to provoke Cao Du.

—

Meanwhile, at the Prime Minister’s residence.

Yao Wuhen had returned from the palace not long before. He spread his arms wide as his attendants hurried forward to help him remove his cumbersome court robes.

He asked: “How did the people we sent fare?”

The residence steward, Zeng Ziji, replied with a troubled expression: “Prime Minister… our people ran into a complication.”

Yao Wuhen frowned: “I only asked you to stir up a little trouble. How could you run into complications?”

Zeng Ziji said: “Following the Prime Minister’s instructions, I arranged men to pose as workers demanding unpaid wages — to publicly accuse Cao Du’s people of hiring them, then refusing to pay and beating them.”

Yao Wuhen said: “What was so difficult about that?”

He looked at Zeng Ziji and said: “All I needed was a pretext. With that in hand, I could have had people bring him in for questioning. Even if nothing came of it formally, it would at least give him a taste of hardship.”

Zeng Ziji said: “But… the moment our people arrived, they were surrounded by Cao Du’s men. There were more of them, and they turned it around — accused our people of stealing their silver.”

Yao Wuhen frowned: “And our people?”

Zeng Ziji said: “Prime Minister, they… were all dragged into the courier station by Cao Du’s men.”

“The courier station?!”

Yao Wuhen said: “If Cao Du claims our people forced their way into the courier station to make trouble, there’s no way I can intervene or ask questions about it.”

Zeng Ziji was nearly in tears: “It wasn’t as if our men went in willingly — they were hauled in. And then they started putting on a performance…”

Yao Wuhen asked: “A performance? What sort of performance?”

Zeng Ziji said: “There were ordinary people watching from outside the courier station. Every so often, one of their men would come flying out and claim our side had beaten them. Then another would come flying out, shouting that thieves had stolen money and attacked people… They were throwing themselves out on purpose. Meanwhile, our men inside were being held down and beaten…”

He looked at Yao Wuhen: “It was awful, Prime Minister.”

Yao Wuhen’s face had gone somewhat pale. He shot to his feet: “They dare be so brazen?!”

Zeng Ziji said: “And now word is spreading all over the city — people are saying that some powerful figure in the capital took a dislike to Cao Du, deliberately tried to frame him, and when the framing failed, resorted to armed robbery and violence.”

Yao Wuhen said: “Couldn’t you think of some way to get our people out first? If this traces back to me, you won’t escape the consequences!”

Zeng Ziji quickly said: “Prime Minister, you have no idea — these people operated like professionals. Utterly practiced…”

“They were performing and beating people simultaneously, while also dispatching men in all directions to spread the story — crying and wailing in front of the common folk. Weeping with great conviction.”

“And then…”

Zeng Ziji looked at Yao Wuhen with a somewhat fearful expression: “Then our men watched as Cao Du, with one attendant beside him, walked straight to the Court of Judicial Review.”

Yao Wuhen raised a hand and slapped himself on the forehead: “You useless idiots…”

Zeng Ziji said: “Prime Minister, it truly wasn’t that our men were incapable — it’s that Cao Du’s people are too crafty, and the things they do are too underhanded.”

Yao Wuhen thought for a moment, then shook his head: “Let this matter end here. Don’t concern yourself with those men anymore. Cao Du wouldn’t dare actually kill anyone… I’ll think of another approach.”

He waved a hand: “Get out.”

Zeng Ziji bowed hastily, his face drained of color, and left.

As he walked away, he muttered under his breath: “It really wasn’t that our people are stupid — those men are just impossible to deal with…”

—

The Court of Judicial Review.

Li Chi said to Gui Yuanshu: “My lord, there’s something I nearly forgot.”

Li Chi reached into his lapel and produced a thick sheaf of papers, which he passed to Gui Yuanshu: “These are written statements from those men, already signed and fingerprinted.”

Gui Yuanshu took them and looked through them — then couldn’t help himself.

He asked: “The format, the handwriting, everything — all done properly, by the book. Young Marquis… you know rather a great deal about this sort of thing?”

Li Chi said: “We thought to spare the court’s people unnecessary effort. Whatever we could prepare in advance, we did. The only thing left is for the court to affix its seal — though really, whether you do or don’t…”

He had almost said: actually, I could stamp it myself — I’ve carved the seals of the Ministry of Justice, the Court of Judicial Review, and the Daxing Prefecture all right here. And if you could handle it, I could even press a little copy of the imperial seal on there.

He decided that might be too much for the man’s constitution, and kept it to himself.

Gui Yuanshu set the sheaf of papers to one side: “Tomorrow I’ll have someone send these to Lord Qian at the Daxing Prefecture office for his review.”

Li Chi said: “Splendid.”

He turned and looked around: “Oh — the food is ready.”

He rose and went to check on the pot.

Gui Yuanshu watched the man, thinking: whoever crosses this one is going to come off worse for it.

Someone like this couldn’t possibly be a genuine idle good-for-nothing.

Just then, his deputy Zhang Youdong came hurrying in from outside, leaned close, and murmured a few words.

“Sir, Cao Du’s people have dumped all the injured men on a street not far from the Prime Minister’s residence — and they’ve arranged the twenty-some injured men in the middle of the street to form two characters.”

Gui Yuanshu asked: “What characters?”

Zhang Youdong said them aloud. Gui Yuanshu didn’t understand them, and asked: “Shǎ zǒu? ‘Walk away, fool’? Like walk, as in walking?”

Li Chi turned from across the room: “I heard that. I don’t think those are the two characters.”

He picked up a charcoal stick and wrote on the ground: 傻辶.

Then looked up at Gui Yuanshu and explained, with great seriousness: “Could be that they didn’t have enough people to spell out the full character — the stroke count was too high. Ah… they must have been thinking of that certain Daoist master’s story…”

Gui Yuanshu asked: “So what do these two characters mean?”

The moment the question was out, he regretted it — he’d already worked it out.

Li Chi answered: “‘Bless’d fool.’ As in: fools have their blessings.”

Gui Yuanshu exhaled with some force: “Young Marquis — your people have deliberately left them near the Prime Minister’s residence…”

Li Chi said, with an expression of mild surprise: “Near the Prime Minister’s residence? That really is terribly inconvenient timing.”

Gui Yuanshu said: “Young Marquis, as Chief Justice, I feel I must counsel you: since you are now in the capital, do your best to stay within the bounds of the law. If the Young Marquis truly cannot manage that, then I will have no choice but to…”

Before he could finish, Li Chi immediately said: “I’ll absolutely stay within the law. I find you very agreeable, my lord — I would never wish to cause you difficulty.”

Gui Yuanshu looked at Li Chi. That line — *I find you very agreeable* — somehow felt like it was really saying: *I’ve dug quite a few pits for you already, you know.*

—

Out on the street.

Dantai Qi waved a hand, signaling one of his men to go find him a chair. The man ducked into a nearby shop, paid for one, and brought it out.

Dantai Qi sat down at the edge of a small alley beside the street and settled in to watch.

Word reached the Prime Minister’s residence swiftly. When Zeng Ziji heard about it, he was very nearly fit to burst with fury and fright.

He immediately went to find Yao Wuhen and told him the whole story. Yao Wuhen, having heard it, nearly burst himself.

This Cao Du was doing everything but calling him by name.

There were more than twenty of those men — arranged in the right configuration, they could probably spell out “Yao Wuhen” well enough. Easier than those two characters, in any case.

“Prime Minister, what should be done now?”

Zeng Ziji said: “If we go and take those men back directly, it’s tantamount to admitting they were sent by our residence. But if we leave them there — so close to the Prime Minister’s residence — word will spread through the entire city before long. Especially the common folk. They never tire of a spectacle.”

Yao Wuhen erupted: “It’s all because you’re useless!”

Zeng Ziji immediately bowed: “Yes, yes… the Prime Minister’s reprimand is just. It is I who was insufficiently careful and thorough.”

Yao Wuhen paced back and forth across the room, thinking at length. Then his expression shifted — turning sharp and vicious.

“Don’t touch them. Send word in secret to the Daxing Prefecture officials — they are not to touch them either.”

He turned to Zeng Ziji: “Now go find some people. You’ve always claimed to have connections in the jianghu — said you have men ready to act at my command. Call them up. Tonight, under cover of darkness, have them all killed.”

He looked at Zeng Ziji: “Do you understand what I mean?”

Zeng Ziji immediately grasped it: “Understood. These men were beaten by Cao Du’s people and left on the street. No one would dare touch them. Then all of them turn up dead — the only explanation is that Cao Du’s men hit too hard and killed them. Twenty-some dead at once. Not even the Emperor could shield him.”

Yao Wuhen smiled: “You’re not entirely hopeless after all. Go and make the arrangements.”

Zeng Ziji bowed: “I’ll see to it at once.”

—