Shiyuan Palace, Imperial Study.

Emperor Yang Jing looked toward the chief imperial bodyguard Hui Chunqiu and asked, “Has Cao Du made any moves these past two days?”

Hui Chunqiu bowed and replied, “Your Majesty, this person has continued to make quite a spectacle of himself these past few days, yet he has had no contact with any court officials.”

The Emperor asked, “A spectacle? What sort of spectacle?”

Hui Chunqiu said, “The night before last, the courtesan of Lanxing Quarter was performing her appreciation ceremony for patrons. They had prepared enough fireworks to burn for a full two hours, yet less than half an hour in, it all stopped — Cao Du had sent people to Lanxing Quarter and bought up every last firework from the establishment, then set them off for his own amusement outside the official inn.”

“The next morning, that courtesan girl apparently hadn’t properly looked into Cao Du’s background — or perhaps she thought she had powerful patrons to back her — and she actually led a group of people to the official inn to cause trouble.”

The Emperor paused at that. “This woman of the pleasure quarters was so brazen?”

Hui Chunqiu explained, “She’s most likely been spoiled rotten — assumed that the many patrons fond of her would stand up for her. She asked around carelessly and only learned that Cao Du had come from Yuzhou, so she probably figured he was just some ordinary wealthy man, easy to push around.”

The Emperor was so provoked he laughed: “Did it not occur to her that if Cao Du were so easy to push around, how could he have bought all those fireworks right out from under her establishment’s proprietor?”

Hui Chunqiu said, “A young woman who thinks every man in the world revolves around her probably doesn’t think that carefully.”

The Emperor asked, “And then?”

“Then she and the people she brought with her were all held down by Cao Du’s men. The courtesan herself was held down as well.”

A twitch played at the corner of Hui Chunqiu’s mouth, as though he were suppressing a laugh. But he couldn’t laugh freely in His Majesty’s presence, so suppressing it was agony.

“Cao Du had someone hold her down while she copied out the Tao Te Ching one hundred times. If she didn’t finish, he’d shave her head bald.”

Hui Chunqiu continued, “As for the hired thugs she’d brought — each one had to spin in circles on the spot a hundred times. Anyone who could still walk out after a hundred spins was free to go. Anyone who couldn’t also had to copy the Tao Te Ching a hundred times.”

He looked at the Emperor. “They’re still copying now. Someone is thinking about stepping in, but they’re still watching, not reckless enough to provoke him yet.”

The Emperor raised a hand and rubbed his temple. “This fellow… is he putting on an act, or is he genuinely this dissolute and good for nothing…”

Hui Chunqiu said, “The first completed copy the courtesan produced — Cao Du had someone take it out to sell. He called it a courtesan’s manuscript, and said that whoever bought it could bring the handwritten Tao Te Ching to the official inn and collect a unique gift. Limited supply, only one.”

The Emperor raised his hand to rub his temple again. “Did anyone buy it?”

Hui Chunqiu answered, “Someone bought it. Everyone knows Cao Du spends lavishly and treats money as nothing, so someone paid two hundred taels of silver for this handwritten Tao Te Ching and came to the official inn to claim the gift from Cao Du.”

The Emperor looked at Hui Chunqiu’s nearly contorted face, sighed, and said, “Stop holding it in — just laugh. What happened?”

Hui Chunqiu could endure it no longer, and finally let out a burst of laughter: “The man arrived at the official inn and collected two catties of eggs.”

The Emperor stood there, first stunned for a moment, then the corners of his own mouth began to twitch.

Hui Chunqiu was the commander of the imperial bodyguard — he had just felt that laughing too freely would be improper. The Emperor was the Emperor, after all, and an Emperor naturally couldn’t laugh too freely either…

Straining to hold himself together, Hui Chunqiu continued, “He also said that if the manuscript was no longer wanted, Cao Du would buy it back. The man who’d bought it looked at the eggs and felt cheated, so he said he didn’t want the manuscript anymore. Cao Du said in that case, it could be exchanged for a basin.”

When the Emperor heard this, something twitched in his chest. He composed himself and waved his hand: “Understood — you may leave.”

Hui Chunqiu bowed, turned, and walked out of the imperial study. Upon reaching the doorway, he could contain himself no longer, and ducked behind a pillar to laugh for quite some time.

The Emperor walked very calmly to the window and glanced at Hui Chunqiu, then very calmly closed the window.

Then he sat down and laughed until he was stamping his feet.

That Cao Du, really… was not a decent human being.

After laughing for a good while, the Emperor breathed out and finally settled down. He thought about the fellow who’d walked away with two catties of eggs, wondering what kind of expression the man’s face must have worn.

Come to think of it, the Emperor was barely thirty years old — it was simply that he was far too serious in ordinary times.

At this moment, he genuinely wanted to see for himself what people in the city might be planning to stand up for that courtesan.

After a moment’s thought, he reflected that he hadn’t left the imperial palace for quite some time. He eased his expression, opened the window, and called out, “Hui Chunqiu, come in.”

Hui Chunqiu had laughed until his stomach ached. Hearing the Emperor call him, he turned and hurried back inside. “Your Majesty, this servant is here.”

The Emperor said, “Make preparations. We wish to go see how the Hero Assembly is coming along, and along the way… see if there’s any excitement to be had.”

Before long, the Emperor changed into plain clothes, took the head eunuch chamberlain Zhen Xiaodao and Hui Chunqiu with him, and under the protection of a group of plainclothes imperial bodyguards, left the palace.

—

**The Official Inn.**

A full day and night had already passed.

That courtesan was still here. She wasn’t permitted to leave until she’d copied out a hundred copies of the Tao Te Ching, and the proprietor of the Immortal Companion House she came from had already sought an audience several times — Li Chi simply refused to see him.

The proprietor of the Immortal Companion House was named Wei Guang, and the power backing him was none other than Daxing Prefecture’s prefectural administrator Qian Yu.

But just two days prior, that backer of his had been killed inside his own yamen, and the case had yet to be solved.

Circulating in whispers was the rumor that the death of Qian Yu, Lord Qian, might be connected to this young lord Cao Du.

Those who ran pleasure house businesses naturally had dealings with forces in the underworld, so Wei Guang had also heard: something had happened in the underworld these past few days as well.

A few days ago, someone had put out a price to give Cao Du a lesson. The people who’d taken the job were still bedridden.

After Qian Yu died, someone posted a notice in the underworld offering thirty thousand taels for Cao Du’s head. The assassin who’d accepted the contract was found hanged at the entrance to his own lodgings an hour later.

By now, every faction in the underworld — large and small — had established one certainty: whoever moved against Cao Du would die first.

In fact, after the assassin died, there had already been speculation that the mysterious Cloud Mist Map was connected to Cao Du. That rumor was confirmed within a day.

Every faction in the underworld received a warning. A warning issued by the Cloud Mist Map: whoever dared raise a hand against Cao Du — those without a sect would be silenced, those with a sect and associates would be wiped out entirely.

Once the Cloud Mist Map issued that warning, every underworld faction went quiet — collective silence, not a single peep from any of them.

Who in the underworld didn’t know that the most fearsome assassins all belonged to the Cloud Mist Map?

So the proprietor of the Immortal Companion House, Wei Guang, had no choice but to come personally to seek an audience with the young lord, hoping for clemency. Having waited a full day outside the official inn without being received, Wei Guang had to seek intermediaries — to see whether any connections might be worked.

He eventually learned that the Chief Justice Gui Yuanshu had a good relationship with this young lord, so Wei Guang began asking around about who had ties with Lord Gui, and whether anyone could put in a word.

The more he asked, the more he discovered: this Gui Yuanshu had a terrible reputation. Among the entire court, not a single official was willing to deal with him.

Just then, a young gentleman found him and told him he needn’t trouble himself with the matter any further.

The moment Wei Guang laid eyes on this gentleman, he knew things had taken a terrible turn. Yet he had no recourse — he couldn’t afford to offend the young lord Cao Du, and he couldn’t afford to offend this gentleman either.

This gentleman was the son of the current Minister of Revenue, Lord Zheng — his name was Zheng Le.

The courtesan of the Immortal Companion House was named Du Wanyun, known to patrons as Miss Yun’er, and her admirers called her the Cloud Immortal. Zheng Le was one of Miss Yun’er’s devoted followers — in fact, he was the one who had elevated her to her current status. The only reason she had missed her own courtesan debut that evening was that his father had refused to let him leave the house, keeping him locked inside.

Were it not for that connection, that Miss Yun’er would never have grown so reckless.

The Minister of Revenue’s standing at court could be said to be second only to Dachu’s Chancellor Yao Zhidong. The financial power of the court rested in the Minister of Revenue’s hands — everyone had to come seeking favors, and everyone had to show the man respect. Even Chancellor Yao Zhidong gave Lord Zheng face, and rumor had it the two were privately quite close.

Zheng Le was Lord Zheng’s only son — famous in Daxing City as a dissolute wastrel who practically lived in pleasure houses.

Miss Yun’er’s courtesan status had been established by him, and girls at other establishments, even if more accomplished than Miss Yun’er, could only swallow their grievances in silence.

When Wei Guang heard that Zheng Le intended to handle this matter, he knew it would end badly.

He thought it over, didn’t dare follow Zheng Le to the official inn, and immediately returned home to have his things packed up. Taking his family and money, he fled outright.

Just then, the men Zheng Le had dispatched also arrived at the gate of the official inn.

This man was a trusted subordinate of Zheng Le’s named Tang Wangcong — a ruffian and scoundrel. Originally a hired thug at the Immortal Companion House, somehow he’d caught Zheng Le’s eye and been taken on as a personal attendant.

This Tang Wangcong could be said to have ascended to heaven in a single step — from a hired thug at a pleasure house, as lowly a figure as could be found, he had transformed himself overnight into one of the Young Lord’s men, and his status and standing were naturally incomparable to before.

In the eyes of such a person, nothing in heaven or earth was greater than his master, and if his master was the greatest in the world, then he himself was second greatest.

So the manner in which he arrived at the official inn can be easily imagined.

Swaggering to the gate of the official inn, he looked up and down at the guard standing outside — that particular way of looking at someone with raised eyes and drooping lids, giving the impression of *do you have any idea how impressive I am*.

“Tell your young lord Cao Du, my Young Lord will be waiting for him shortly at Deyuan House. Tell him to get himself over there promptly.”

He finished speaking and turned to leave.

No response came, however, so Tang Wangcong grew displeased. He spun back, walked right up to the gate guard until they were nearly face to face, and asked: “Did you not hear what I said?”

The guard at that moment was probably thinking to himself… *ah, something fun is finally about to happen.*

*Looking forward to it.*

In the next instant, before Tang Wangcong could say another word, a rope loop suddenly flew out from inside the official inn — landing squarely around his neck. Immediately his body lurched forward, pulled by an enormous force straight into the inn’s courtyard.

The guard glanced back, lips curving in a smile, reached out and closed the gate.

In the courtyard, Tang Wangcong had been dragged face-first to the ground. Struggling upright, he saw a group of people kneeling with hands pressed to the floor, still copying the Tao Te Ching.

That courtesan, Miss Yun’er, was in a state of wretched misery — like an eggplant beaten down by frost — her makeup wept away, her face looking like a painted fool’s mask.

The rope was held in Yu Jiuling’s hands. He looked at the fellow who’d just been hauled in, and a smile gradually spread across Yu Jiuling’s face.

Yu Jiuling walked up to Tang Wangcong, looked at the man who was still trying to act fierce, and asked a single question.

“You destroyed my kite. How will you compensate me?”

Tang Wangcong froze, instinctively looking around. Where was there any kite?

There was a rope loop around his neck — what did that have to do with a kite?

Yu Jiuling said, “I was perfectly minding my own business flying a kite inside the official inn, and then some ill-bred servant of some household — no idea whose — had the gall to destroy my kite. Not only that, but he’s trespassed into the official inn with intent to cause harm…”

A group of large men closed in around Tang Wangcong, surrounding him.

Yu Jiuling said, “I’ll give you two choices. One: compensate me with a kite. Two: you can come and be my kite.”

—