Night descended, as it always did, as it had always done — settling over the world without anyone quite noticing.

One of the differences between night and day is this: every morning, a person opens their eyes and the day has arrived — there is no period of adjustment from darkness to light. But the transition from day to night is slow, and gives a person time to ease into it.

Perhaps it is the greatest kindness nature extends to humankind.

Imagine, for a moment, if night fell suddenly — if you were walking down the street and in an instant the world went pitch-black, without the faintest glimmer. What would that feel like?

And if there were no reliable pattern to it, no telling when the darkness might descend — it would likely drive most people to the edge of madness.

Perhaps it is because humans find darkness frightening that they have, from the earliest times, driven themselves to challenge it, to conquer it.

And among them, a certain kind of person has learned to use it.

Even in the great capital of Daxing, there were operatives of the Mountain River Seal — and their presence was by no means small.

But for the Mountain River Seal, the greatest handicap at present was a blockage of information, and ignorance of all that was most closely guarded.

Before Dachu fell into chaos, they had been able to exploit the courier and military relay networks to pass messages. Merchant caravans traveling the roads were another means of conveying intelligence.

But now Dachu was fragmented, each region held by its own warlord, every border sealed tight — and their communications had grown slow and unreliable.

For instance, at this very moment, the Mountain River Seal’s operatives in Daxing were unaware that their Sect Master had already met her end. And even if they had known, they wouldn’t have known who their Sect Master was.

This was yet another vulnerability for the Mountain River Seal: the overwhelming majority of its members had no idea that Cao Ziluo of the Cao family was its Sect Master.

The number of people who knew Cao Ziluo’s identity could be counted on one hand — and almost all of them were either dead, fled, or under Li Chi’s control.

There had been one person in the capital who knew Cao Ziluo’s identity: the Princess Consort of Prince Wu. But the Princess Consort was no longer in Daxing.

The Mountain River Seal — and likewise the other covert organization that fell under its control, the Cloud Mist Map — were both in this position. They served the Mountain River Seal, yet they too were ignorant of Cao Ziluo’s identity.

What had originally been a measure of secrecy had, precisely because of the Cao family’s downfall, left the Mountain River Seal without any internal awareness of what had happened.

What Li Chi was exploiting was exactly this.

In the dark, out on the street, the men lying trussed on the ground were still there — bound up so thoroughly there was no chance of them going anywhere. The Daxing Prefecture had sent constables, but after receiving a quiet warning from the Prime Minister’s residence, those constables had been swiftly recalled.

And so the sorry lot of them had no choice but to keep lying in the street. By now, they didn’t even have the strength left to groan.

Dantai Qi sat waiting. He knew that if nothing went wrong, someone would inevitably come. But he had waited all the way to the middle of the night, and still everything remained completely calm. Even Dantai Qi had begun to grow a little restless.

Then he spotted dark shapes approaching, and immediately rose, reaching for the long blade leaning against the wall beside him.

But then he saw that the figure was waving in his direction as it came, and seemed to be eating something.

Something about the way the person moved told Dantai Qi it was Li Chi.

Li Chi came strolling along, his left hand carrying a wooden food box, his right hand holding a skewered grilled pig’s trotter, which he was gnawing on contentedly.

Dantai Qi took the box from him and looked at what Li Chi was eating: “You ate the spirit eagle?”

Li Chi said: “Don’t be absurd — was the spirit eagle ever this thin?”

Dantai Qi asked: “We have to wait a while longer?”

Li Chi said: “You’re asking whether to wait before eating the spirit eagle, or whether to wait before the people come? If it’s the latter — no need to wait. I brought you food because something interesting is about to happen here.”

Dantai Qi nodded: “And the spirit eagle?”

Li Chi: “…”

He looked around, spotted a rooftop nearby that looked decent, and pointed to it.

The two of them jumped onto the courtyard wall, and from there up onto the roof, where they sat down to wait.

Dantai Qi opened the food box. Inside were roasted meat skewers and grilled pig’s trotters. The aroma alone was enough to make one’s mouth water.

Just then, a cluster of dark shapes appeared in the distance, moving quickly.

Dantai Qi had barely started eating when Li Chi tapped him on the arm.

The group drew close and approached cautiously. They first sent two scouts forward to check. Once the scouts confirmed that the men on the ground couldn’t move, they waved the rest of the group forward.

Then the leader gave a low set of instructions. Everyone responded with a soft murmur of acknowledgment.

They drew out their weapons. In the faint moonlight, it was possible to see — wooden cudgels and similar blunt instruments. No bladed weapons.

Dantai Qi glanced at Li Chi and saw him wholly absorbed in eating, without any apparent intent to intervene. He thought: are we just going to let this happen?

At that very moment, another group of black-clad figures came running from the opposite end of the street. This second group moved even faster.

Upon spotting the first group ahead of them, these black-clad newcomers didn’t bother with words — they went straight in.

Dantai Qi looked at Li Chi: “Ours?”

Li Chi shook his head: “Not ours. Sort of ours…”

Dantai Qi was beginning to feel confused: “What do you mean, not ours, sort of ours?”

Li Chi smiled: “After I left the Court of Judicial Review, I had Yu Jiuling go and leave the Mountain River Seal’s marking in a certain location. Sure enough, before long, someone came to find Yu Jiuling.”

“Yu Jiuling then had the Mountain River Seal’s people take him to the Cloud Mist Map — and confirmed one thing: the men Yao Wuhen had hired were from the Cloud Mist Map.”

Dantai Qi grinned: “Then you had the Cloud Mist Map send another group. Why not just have them call the first group back?”

“That wouldn’t do.”

Li Chi smiled: “Not elegant enough, stylistically speaking…”

Dantai Qi laughed: “And if the second group and the first group happen to know each other… ha!”

Li Chi said: “They won’t. The first group is lower-ranking. The second group, doing the work on our behalf, is considerably higher-ranking.”

Dantai Qi sighed: “If Cao Ziluo ever found out you were using the Mountain River Seal’s people — and using them this smoothly…”

Li Chi said: “She’d find it very gratifying, I’m sure.”

The second group of black-clad figures dealt swiftly with the first. No killing — they simply broke their legs and left them there, then quickly withdrew.

Shortly after, Gui Yuanshu came rushing by, torch in hand and all four of his deputies at his heels.

Dantai Qi pointed: “You had someone summon him too?”

Li Chi said: “Adds a certain grandeur to the whole affair…”

Dantai Qi burst out laughing.

—

Half an hour later. The Court of Judicial Review.

Li Chi looked at Gui Yuanshu. Gui Yuanshu looked at him.

After a moment, Gui Yuanshu couldn’t help but sigh: “Why go to all that trouble, Young Marquis? If you’d simply left the men here at the Court of Judicial Review without taking them away, wouldn’t that have been far more straightforward?”

Li Chi said: “If the men were left at the Court of Judicial Review and whoever wanted to kill them came inside the Court of Judicial Review to do it, what then?”

Gui Yuanshu said: “Those criminals wouldn’t necessarily dare set foot in the Court of Judicial Review. And even if they did, does the Young Marquis think we couldn’t handle it?”

Li Chi said: “I’m not concerned about you — I’m concerned about the renovation work. I’m paying for it. I didn’t want anything damaged.”

Gui Yuanshu: “…”

Li Chi said: “Chief Justice, would you like to make a bit of extra money?”

Gui Yuanshu frowned: “You’re going to try to give me money again?”

Li Chi shook his head: “My lord knows that’s not what I mean. Before dawn, someone will definitely come to deliver money to your door — consider it an opportunity I’m arranging for you. Would you like to split it half and half?”

Gui Yuanshu smiled: “I had no idea the Young Marquis cared so much about money.”

Li Chi said: “There is no one in this world who cares about money more than I do.”

Gui Yuanshu: “Ha…”

Li Chi glanced around: “It’s far too late to head back now. I’ll stay the night here at the Court of Judicial Review. You won’t turn me out, I hope?”

Gui Yuanshu said: “Young Marquis, that wouldn’t be very appropriate.”

Li Chi said: “I won’t take any of the split — the money is entirely yours. And if you don’t know how much to demand, I’ll be behind the screen where you can see me but others can’t, and I’ll give you prompts. I know you are a clean official who has never taken bribes, and your men are all upright too. But this case is different. These people are coming to you of their own accord — actively paying to have certain troublemakers retrieved. Why wouldn’t you take the money of such people?”

Gui Yuanshu opened his mouth, then in the end said nothing.

It wasn’t the money, really. It was that keeping Li Chi inside the Court of Judicial Review seemed, on balance, somewhat safer than letting him loose outside. Heaven knew what that man might still get up to before dawn.

And as Li Chi had predicted — not even half an hour passed before the Daxing Prefecture’s Prefectural Administrator, Lord Qian, arrived at the door.

The Prefectural Administrator of the Daxing Prefecture was fourth rank. He had no particular affection for someone like Gui Yuanshu, but on meeting, he still observed proper courtesy.

“My lord.”

Lord Qian said with an ingratiating smile: “I received word of the incident and came immediately. This case — should it perhaps now be transferred to my office?”

The Court of Judicial Review was not the appropriate body for this sort of case. Strictly speaking, it should indeed be passed to the local authorities.

But at this moment, all Gui Yuanshu’s mind could produce was — Cao Du said there’d be money.

Seeing Gui Yuanshu considering in silence, Lord Qian ventured: “My lord has been out working this case late into the night — truly exhausting. And your officers as well…”

He leaned forward slightly and lowered his voice: “This case is somewhat complicated. It would be better handled by me. If it turns out to involve someone powerful at court, you won’t need to deal with them directly — I’ll handle whatever difficulties arise.”

He produced a stack of banknotes from inside his robe and set them on the table: “Please take this for your men’s supper.”

Gui Yuanshu looked sideways at the stack. Each note was a hundred taels. All together, it came to no more than four or five hundred.

The Court of Judicial Review might be poor, but someone like Gui Yuanshu wasn’t about to give four or five hundred taels a second glance.

He made no move to take them. Lord Qian felt a slight tremor of unease.

Lord Qian’s reputation was no mystery to him — he thought to himself: this time I’ve got a real problem. With anyone else, a bribe would have done it. But everyone knew Gui Yuanshu didn’t take money — it was common knowledge that this was precisely why the Court of Judicial Review was so poverty-stricken.

Lord Qian said: “I did come in rather a hurry…”

Gui Yuanshu said mildly: “I’m not in a hurry. Though dawn isn’t far off, and this case is quite large… the parties involved — as Lord Qian well knows — I’ll be going to court first thing in the morning…”

Lord Qian immediately said: “This official can try to manage a little more. We can’t let your officers go unrewarded for their efforts.”

Watching Lord Qian’s expression, Gui Yuanshu suddenly had a moment of clarity.

The money of such people — why not take it?

He made a show of turning his head and looking toward Li Chi. Li Chi, from behind the screen, held up one finger and wiggled it at him.

Gui Yuanshu turned back to Lord Qian and held up one finger in turn.

His thinking was: four or five hundred is honestly too little. At the very minimum, he’d squeeze this wretch for a thousand taels.

Lord Qian: “One ten-thousand taels… My lord, that really is… really rather a lot to ask.”

Gui Yuanshu’s eyes went wide.

Seeing his eyes go wide, Lord Qian assumed he was about to fly into a rage, so he immediately said: “Difficult as it is, I will do everything in my power to find a way. Please wait a moment, my lord.”

He stood, clasped his fists, and then turned and hurried out at a near-trot.

Gui Yuanshu looked back toward Li Chi. Li Chi stepped out from behind the screen. One look at Gui Yuanshu’s face told him that Gui Yuanshu had been thinking of one thousand taels.

He curled his lip: “How small-minded.”

Gui Yuanshu: “Tch…”

Li Chi said: “Did you think those people would assume you wanted a thousand? They’re not short of money.”

Gui Yuanshu murmured to himself: “True. These people aren’t short of money.”

Li Chi: “Ha!”

Gui Yuanshu: “Ha ha… ha ha…”

Li Chi sighed: “You’ll get yours sooner or later. Just you wait.”

—