After a few cups of wine, Manager Wang was already growing muddled. His tolerance for alcohol was genuinely poor — in the yamen, there had been few occasions to drink.

“What did I do wrong?”

Manager Wang draped his hand over Xie Huaide’s shoulder, his face full of grievance. “Why was I just thrown out like that?”

Xie Huaide glanced sideways at the hand on his shoulder, his eyes full of disdain.

Who was he? And who was this Manager Wang? In his view, that hand was no different from a pig’s trotter.

But he endured it, because this Manager Wang genuinely had his uses.

He patiently offered words of consolation for some time, then finally asked, “Do you know Administrator Xie Huainan, who works at the Jiedushi yamen?”

Wang Bin said, “We know each other fairly well. Every day I led my detail to guard the Jiedushi, and Administrator Xie worked alongside the Jiedushi, so we’d see each other every day.”

A smile broke across Xie Huaide’s face. He waved a hand, and one of his attendants brought out another wrapped package of silver.

“This is a thousand taels. We were fated to meet, and we get along like old friends. Take this silver and spend it however you like. If it runs out, come back to me for more.”

Xie Huaide set the silver on Wang Bin’s lap — inside were ten large silver ingots, each worth a hundred taels, heavy and substantial.

Wang Bin was drunk, but still had a few scraps of his wits about him. When he saw the silver land in his lap, he broke into a smile at once.

“This is too much. I haven’t even helped you with anything yet, and you’re giving me this much silver.”

Xie Huaide smiled. “I won’t deceive you — actually, there is a small favor I need. The truth is, we’re also from the Xie Family, just a distant branch, nowhere near Administrator Xie Huainan’s standing.”

“We know that Administrator Xie has come to serve under Prince Ning and holds a high position. We’ve come hoping to attach ourselves to him, but have no way to get an audience. If you can help arrange an introduction so we can meet with Administrator Xie, I have a generous gift prepared for you as well.”

Wang Bin shook his head. “I can’t put in a word for anyone now. Before, maybe.”

He looked down at the silver in his lap, his expression pained. But he still lifted it and tried to hand it back to Xie Huaide. “Since I can’t help, I shouldn’t take this.”

“Keep it!”

Xie Huaide pushed the silver back. “Can’t help doesn’t matter — we’re still friends.”

Wang Bin froze for a moment — and then let out a sudden sob.

Perhaps it was the wine, but once he started crying, he couldn’t stop. His grief was raw and wrenching.

“I work in the yamen — five taels a month. Up before dawn, back after dark, grinding myself to the bone. Even in ten years I couldn’t save this much. And then there’s entertaining to do, and a family to feed — by the time it’s all said and done, I’ll never save a thousand taels in my lifetime.”

He wept and spoke at the same time. “I’m not some soft man. Even if I wasn’t one of the original men who rose with Prince Ning, I was already a company officer here in Yuzhou before they came. And then Lady Tingwei waves a hand, and just like that I’m sent away. I can’t take it.”

“I can’t say a word at home either. They still think I’m going to the yamen every day. They don’t know I’ve gone to work for the Caiyue trading firm doing odd jobs, earning five broken taels a month — my dignity is gone. Going from company officer to shop boy…”

Xie Huaide was getting impatient listening to him sob and stopped paying attention. He poured himself a drink.

After some time, Wang Bin finally stopped crying, as though something had suddenly come back to him. “Even though I can’t make introductions for you, I know how you can get to see Administrator Xie. He stays in the Xie Family’s old residence. Every morning, a carriage from the Jiedushi yamen comes to collect him. It always takes the same road — it never changes. You could intercept him on that road. Since you’re all family, if you stop him there, you can talk things through.”

Xie Huaide’s lips curved upward in a small smile. “That works just as well.”

The next morning, Wang Bin woke up in his own bed. When he sat up, a cascade of silver tumbled to the floor.

Looking around — large silver ingots everywhere, some on the floor.

Wang Bin sat in a daze, his head buzzing.

How had this silver come to be here?

Confused and frightened, wondering what terrible thing he might have done the night before to explain it, he sat there in growing alarm.

Just then, his wife came in with a cheerful smile, carrying a basin of warm water. “You’re awake. Let me wipe your face.”

Wang Bin went pale and pointed at the silver. “Where did that come from?”

His wife broke into a laugh. “You really drank yourself senseless last night? You’ve forgotten everything you did?”

His wife’s face flushed slightly. “You came home reeking of wine, threw the silver down in front of me, and said you were definitely going to give me a good life someday. Then you were all arms and hugs… we’ve been husband and wife for so long, but when have you ever been that… affectionate?”

Wang Bin grew agitated. “I’m asking you where the silver came from!”

His wife blinked, taken aback. “You brought it home. You said you’d just met a new friend who’d come up from the south — someone you took to immediately, the two of you hitting it off like old acquaintances. He gave you all this silver. Said you’d been working hard in the yamen, watching your step every day for not much pay, and he wanted you to use the money to start your own business so you’d never have to risk your neck for a wage again.”

Wang Bin raised his hand and struck himself on the head twice — hard, sharp smacks.

His wife was startled and grabbed his hand. “What are you doing?”

Wang Bin’s eyes held a trace of fear. “This silver is definitely trouble. I remember — I didn’t like the look of that man when I first met him. And I remember he gave me a package of silver to get rid of me, to keep me from dealing with them. But it wasn’t this much. I counted it myself — four hundred taels. Not this much…”

His wife was frightened by his reaction now too, and quickly said, “Try to remember again — what exactly happened?”

Wang Bin couldn’t remember. He just couldn’t.

He asked, “What time is it?”

His wife glanced back. “The sky is just barely beginning to lighten.”

Wang Bin frowned. “I was drinking yesterday. I have some memory of talking about something I was supposed to do first thing in the morning, but I just can’t remember what.”

At the same moment, out on the streets of the city.

Four guards flanked the carriage on either side. They had traveled this road every day for two months — they knew every inch of it.

Every day at this hour, the carriage came to the Xie family residence to collect Administrator Xie Huainan to the yamen. Administrator Xie placed enormous importance on punctuality. Rain or shine, he never missed the appointed time.

The end of the second month — the nights were still longer than the days. At this hour, the sky was only just beginning to brighten, and there wasn’t a single person on the street.

Administrator Xie was consistently among the first to arrive at the yamen each morning. The only one earlier was Jiedushi Yan, who essentially never went home — if official business kept him late, he simply slept at the yamen.

The wheels of the carriage rolled over the stone-paved road, the sound somehow perfectly suited to this early morning — as though the two belonged together, each incomplete without the other.

The four guards had not grown careless simply because the route had become familiar. Their duty was to protect Administrator Xie’s safety.

All four of them were drawn from the Tingwei Army — experienced, without exception.

Whether in pursuit and investigation or in martial skill and reaction, not one of them was weak.

Administrator Xie had personal guards of his own, but he had insisted on not using them, and had asked Lady Tingwei to assign these four — which in its own way was a gesture of loyalty.

Just then, a figure appeared ahead of the carriage — a peddler pushing a single-wheeled cart.

All four guards immediately closed their hands around their sword hilts, the motion almost perfectly synchronized.

They had traveled this road for two months. This was the first time they had ever encountered a peddler out this early.

The wheels of the small cart ground against the stone paving — louder even than the carriage wheels. The axle must have rusted, producing a rhythmic, grinding squeal.

“Alert!”

One of the guards called out immediately.

A peddler who ran a regular business route would never allow his cart to fall into such disrepair. And the color of the wood was wrong — it lacked any of the warm sheen that came from constant use. That dull, ashen color was what wood looked like after sitting unused for a long time.

“What is it?”

Xie Huainan’s voice came from inside the carriage.

“Administrator, please do not step out.”

A guard gave the warning as he drew his sword and approached the peddler. “Halt!”

The peddler stopped immediately, as if startled.

“Officer, what’s happening?”

That single word — “officer” — gave everything away.

The common people of Yuzhou City all called Ning Army soldiers “soldier brother” in an affectionate way — never “officer.”

“Step away from the cart and kneel with your hands behind your head!”

The guard called out again.

In that instant, two men burst out from a nearby woodpile, blades drawn, charging at the guards.

From the other side, several figures vaulted over a courtyard wall and rushed toward the carriage.

The four guards split into two pairs — two to hold back the attackers coming from the front, two to protect the carriage against those closing in from the sides.

“Signal!”

One of the guards shouted, and another reached into his collar, pulled a cord, and triggered a flare that burst in the sky overhead, releasing a sharp shrieking sound.

More assailants kept appearing from all sides — easily dozens of them.

The four guards were visibly reaching their limit.

The leader of the attackers was powerfully built — a broad back and powerful, ape-like arms. He stepped forward in long strides, grabbed the carriage door, and with a single pull, wrenched it clean off.

In the next instant, this hulking man reached inside to seize Xie Huainan by the collar.

But there were two people inside the carriage.

The man was one of the Xie Family’s top fighters, a man who had served the household for many years, and who was supremely confident in his own formidable strength.

He had wrenched the carriage door off and expected to haul Xie Huainan right out of it — but his hand froze in midair.

His eyes went wide. Even though he’d prepared himself mentally, he still went rigid with shock at what he saw.

He was looking at Qiu Qing.

“Qiu — Qiu Ye!”

The man called out instinctively.

Qiu Qing let out a soft sigh. “How did you ever dare?”

He extended his hand — with no visible effort whatsoever.

But his hand moved like it was piercing through a block of tofu — it plunged straight through the man’s chest.

When his hand emerged from the man’s back, it was completely red.

He withdrew his hand. The man’s body toppled backward.

In that same instant, a small-framed woman concealed behind the hulking man thrust a sword forward.

This thrust had been waiting for exactly this opening — the single moment when Qiu Qing’s hand was still inside the man’s body. The sword arrived in a flash, aimed straight for Qiu Qing’s throat.

Qiu Qing snapped his head down, and bit down on the sword’s tip.

He bit it. With all the force of that driven thrust — the blade could not move another fraction of an inch.

Qiu Qing jerked his head upward with a sharp twist. The tip of the sword snapped off. He opened his mouth and spat it out — the broken tip shot forward like a projectile.

The female assassin threw herself aside immediately — but she dodged the wrong way.

The spat sword tip was a feint.

Qiu Qing’s left hand had already hooked outward, waiting for the female assassin to dodge in that exact direction — and then three fingers drove into her temple.

Qiu Qing stepped down from the carriage and surveyed his surroundings. The four guards had pulled back to form a defensive perimeter around the carriage, covering each other back to back. Every one of them was wounded. It was clear they wouldn’t hold for long.