The courier station.

Li Chi had climbed up to sit on the roof, watching the fireworks rising in the distance. In the night sky, they looked impossibly beautiful.

That was the Lanxing Quarter — Daxing’s most celebrated entertainment district. There one could find the finest venues for pleasure in all of Dachu.

Pleasure houses, taverns, gambling dens…

However thoroughly Dachu had decayed, the Lanxing Quarter remained ablaze with light and noise, as crowded and lively as ever — as if Dachu were still in the full flush of its glory.

Gao Xining climbed up by ladder and looked toward where the fireworks were most brilliant. Then she smiled.

Whatever one might say, every girl’s delight in fireworks was something she wore on her face — at the sight of that dazzling bloom of light, a small smile would curl the corner of her mouth unbidden.

At this moment, the little stars in her eyes made her look as if she were gazing not at fireworks, but at the most beautiful sight the world had to offer.

“Beautiful?” Li Chi asked.

Gao Xining nodded: “More or less. Just a bit far away.”

Li Chi said: “That place wouldn’t be appropriate for you. I’ll have Ninth Sister take a good look on your behalf.”

Gao Xining’s eyes went slightly wide: “That woman went there?”

Li Chi said: “Official business.”

Gao Xining sighed: “I just hope that woman remembers the official business, and doesn’t get distracted by… the other sort of business.”

She stopped herself mid-sentence, and felt a flush creep up her face.

Li Chi: “Ha! Why are you learning such nonsense?”

Gao Xining said: “It’s not as if I made any effort to learn it — do you think I don’t understand all your coded talk? Shameless.”

Li Chi said: “Here you are, an immaculate and lovely young woman — why do you know such things?”

Gao Xining said: “Here you are, an immaculate and dashing young man — and you know them just as well…”

Li Chi said: “If you’re going to put it like that, perhaps we ought to investigate this matter of… doing that certain something — and exactly why one does it.”

Gao Xining sighed: “Master and my grandfather — neither of those two old men would agree to it.”

Li Chi asked: “Why not?”

Gao Xining recounted what the junior Daoist Master Zhang had divined for them. When Li Chi heard that the young master had said they absolutely could not do anything too improper before marriage — that it would interfere with his imperial destiny — his eyes went round.

“That’s superstition.”

Li Chi said with great conviction: “Such superstition cannot be tolerated.”

Gao Xining let out a small breath: “I… also… although… even so… let’s leave it for now.”

Her face had gone as red as a ripe apple. Looking at a beautiful woman by moonlight, in such a moment and such a setting — Li Chi felt he had a responsibility to bravely challenge these dubious superstitions.

He leaned his mouth forward and puckered his lips.

Gao Xining backed away: “No — we can’t!”

And then she placed her hand on the back of Li Chi’s neck.

Li Chi’s eyes lit up with sudden alertness.

Just then, from below, someone coughed several times.

Li Chi thought to himself: whoever is coughing at this precise moment deserves a good beating, on the grounds of ruining a perfect night.

He looked down. Yu Jiuling was standing below, grinning at him in sheepish embarrassment.

“Boss… it wasn’t on purpose. When I got back, it just happened to be…”

Li Chi dropped down from the roof, looked Yu Jiuling up and down, and then noticed the red lipstick smeared all over his face.

He grabbed Yu Jiuling by the arm, dragged him to one side, and gave him a kick in the backside: “Damn you, the well-fed have no thought for the hungry!”

Yu Jiuling laughed awkwardly: “Boss, I only did all that for official business… if it weren’t necessary for the mission, do you think I’d do something like this?”

Li Chi said: “Get to the point.”

Yu Jiuling said: “Had dinner with two gentlemen from the ministerial offices, then went to the Lanxing Quarter with them. After two jugs of good wine, the two old lechers started talking…”

He paused to collect his recollections, then said: “One is a Deputy Minister of Rites by the name of Liu Shijun, the other is Minister of Works by the name of Xu Fang. They said the Emperor was in a blazing fury in the imperial study today…”

Yu Jiuling gave a full account of what had happened in the Shiyuan Palace. Li Chi’s brow furrowed slightly.

“The Emperor’s thinking runs deep… he actually had Qian Yu of the Daxing Prefecture killed, just to protect Yao Wuhen.”

Li Chi paced as he spoke: “It seems the Emperor really does care about this Grand Hero Assembly. Then let’s add more fuel to the fire.”

Just then, a dark shadow dropped from above and landed on one knee before Li Chi: “Chief, tonight there are considerably more people outside than in recent nights — and their martial skills are a cut above.”

The one delivering the report was early-shift officer Zaoyun Jian of the Tingwei Army.

Li Chi nodded: “Most likely top fighters from the Shiyuan Palace’s imperial guard. Don’t pay them any mind — if they want to watch, let them watch.”

He glanced up at Gao Xining, still sitting up on the roof, and smiled: “If they can’t see clearly, we’ll light things up for them.”

—

An hour later, carriage after carriage pulled up outside the courier station and began unloading goods.

Elsewhere in the city, some of the ordinary folk who had been watching the Lanxing Quarter’s fireworks began to notice, mid-spectacle, that they had suddenly stopped. They murmured to one another in puzzlement — tonight was the night the celebrated beauty performed; the fireworks were supposed to last all evening. Why had they gone out?

Before long, the fireworks reappeared — blazing up above the courier station.

Li Chi had sent people to buy up every single firework in the Lanxing Quarter within the space of an hour.

Above the courier station, countless glittering streaks shot into the night sky, unfurling into a galaxy overhead.

Gao Xining sat on the roof with her head tilted back, watching. The light in the sky and the light in her eyes reflected each other.

She knew he was looking at her. He knew she knew he was looking at her.

After tonight, there would likely be yet another tale circulating through Dachu’s capital about Cao Du — that on the night of the celebrated beauty’s grand performance, he had bought up every firework meant for her.

Somewhere right now, that celebrated young woman — accustomed to being the center of all adoration — was perhaps standing at a high window watching the distant blooms of light, wondering which girl had stolen away her brilliance.

Gao Xining jumped down from the roof and tilted her head back once more. The last firework faded slowly into the night.

She raised her hand and rested it on Li Chi’s shoulder, standing beside him like two old companions.

“When did you learn how to court a girl?” Gao Xining asked.

Li Chi smiled: “When did you admit you’re a girl?”

Gao Xining gave a small laugh, snapped her fingers, and said: “Before, I never admitted I was a girl — isn’t it because of what the junior Daoist Master Zhang said? That before marriage, I can only be your brother…”

Li Chi said: “Between brothers, there can actually be a bond that surpasses ordinary friendship.”

Gao Xining burst out laughing: “Ninth Sister, my lord Chi wants to form a bond that surpasses ordinary brotherhood with you.”

Yu Jiuling, who had just come back after the fireworks and understood nothing at all, grinned and said: “A bond beyond ordinary brotherhood — haven’t you always had that?”

Li Chi: “…”

Gao Xining nudged Li Chi with her shoulder: “Go attend to business, elder brother. I’m going to sleep. Tomorrow morning early, I’m going to a storyteller’s teahouse in the city — Wanyun Studio, I think — to listen to a performance. They say there’s a young master there, remarkably handsome.”

Li Chi said: “Ninth Sister — note that name and location.”

Yu Jiuling slapped his chest: “Leave it to me, boss. Though, with respect, this matter calls for some reflection on your own conduct.”

Li Chi asked: “Meaning what?”

Yu Jiuling said: “Then let me patiently walk you through it… our Ning-sister is going to see a pretty young man. That means you, boss, should be feeling guilty, ashamed, and apologetic. She’s going to see someone else — what does that say? It says your own pretty-young-man charms are deficient, boss.”

Li Chi tilted his head back toward the sky: “I wonder if I threw a person up there, whether the fireworks would still go off.”

Yu Jiuling ducked behind Gao Xining: “Big sister, am I right?”

Gao Xining nodded: “You are. You are a true friend to women.”

Yu Jiuling said: “They all tell me that.”

Li Chi: “You treacherous wretch — prepare to meet your end.”

Yu Jiuling shot off like a bolt, bounding away like some untethered scoundrel.

Li Chi looked at Gao Xining: “Tell me then — what charm would I need, for you not to go see pretty young men?”

Gao Xining said: “I honestly don’t know. I’ll go take a look tomorrow at how other pretty young men work their charm, and come back and teach you.”

Then she turned, clasped her hands behind her back, swinging her ponytail, and walked away.

Li Chi: “Life, truly…”

He sighed — and then, mid-sigh, something struck him.

When exactly had he started abiding by these so-called arrangements for his imperial destiny?

Now that he thought about it, it had probably been around the time his master Changmei and Gao Yuan had begun to believe in it.

He thought: you two old men, not a shred of consideration for the heart of youth… when I get back, I’ll find each of you an old companion — someone to drive you utterly mad with longing — but who absolutely will not marry either of you or consummate anything.

Having arrived at this thought, Li Chi decided: I am truly ruthless.

But then he thought of his master, hobbling along on his walking stick, going off to carouse with Yu Jiuling…

Li Chi concluded that his master was, when it came down to it, the most cunning old fox of the lot.

—

Early the next morning, Zaoyun Jian and Fang Xidao took over on rotation; Shang Qingzhu and Yu Hongyi came on duty.

By midday, Yu Hongyi came to report that the number of skilled fighters keeping covert watch outside the courier station appeared to be growing.

Li Chi smiled and said simply: “Let them watch. The next move has already been set in motion by others.”

He walked to the window and looked outside: “Our friend at the Court of Judicial Review has climbed up onto the tiger’s back. Dismounting isn’t going to be so easy.”

—

The Court of Judicial Review.

Gui Yuanshu watched those cooks busying themselves with the midday meal, and felt an involuntary sigh rise in his chest.

From the moment the Emperor had tasked him with keeping watch on Cao Du, he had been like a puppet on strings.

He had thought at first that the one holding those strings was the Emperor. But later he had understood — it was that man.

He turned to Zheng Shunshun: “Have you found anything?”

Zheng Shunshun was working through a stack of case files, shaking his head: “Not yet.”

On the other side of the room, Zhang Youdong raised a hand: “I’ve turned up something… The reason for the bad blood between Prime Minister Yao Wuhen and the Cao family goes back to a peerage investiture ceremony.”

Gui Yuanshu turned: “What do the records say?”

Zhang Youdong said: “When Cao Du’s father, Cao Dengke, was ennobled as the Marquis of Feilong, he came to the capital. At the time, Yao Wuhen was a fourth-rank official serving as a Deputy Minister of Rites — he oversaw the ceremony. Cao Dengke felt the ceremony had been conducted in a shabby manner and said some scornful things about it.”

“Yao Wuhen then deliberately arranged for an incorrect time. He told his staff the wrong hour for the late Emperor’s audience with Cao Dengke — and when that staff member passed it on to Cao Dengke, they gave him the wrong time. As a result, Cao Dengke arrived a full hour late and was roundly rebuked by the late Emperor.”

Gui Yuanshu smiled: “Our Prime Minister has always been one to nurse grudges.”

Then he stopped. A realization began to form.

All four of his deputies looked up at him simultaneously.

Gui Yuanshu was silent for a moment, then gave a rueful smile: “So our grudge-nursing Prime Minister is now presumably thinking of how to cause problems for me.”

The four of them looked toward the cooks. Zheng Shunshun sighed: “It’s all Cao Du’s fault.”

Zhao Shanying said: “Exactly. It’s all that man’s doing — and he still has the nerve to send people here to cook us meals. My lord, let’s not eat anymore!”

Gui Yuanshu, who had been sitting on the steps, stood up and slapped the dust off his backside: “Eat! The food of such people — why wouldn’t we eat it?”

He said it — and then all five of them went quiet.

The four of them looked at him. He stared at his own words.

*The food of such people…*

Who exactly was he cursing?