Luo Jiuhong looked at his second brother, at a loss for words. After a moment of silence, he rose and said: “Old Two, you should go rest. Finding Yang Sixi and Geng Niu is what matters most right now.”

Sun Jingyi stood. “I understand, Big Brother. Tomorrow I’ll personally take men to search further out — those two traitors may have already left the city.”

Luo Jiuhong said: “Don’t call them traitors yet. Without solid evidence, I won’t suspect any of my brothers. It was I who assigned those two to protect Old Four. All these years they served diligently at his side…”

He paused here, and cast a look at Sun Jingyi — a look that carried a deeper meaning.

Sun Jingyi was a sharp man. He understood his big brother’s meaning at once and quickly bowed. “Big Brother is right. I was rash. I shouldn’t have suspected Old Three.”

Luo Jiuhong said: “Just don’t bring it up again.”

Sun Jingyi nodded quickly. “Don’t worry, Big Brother. I understand.”

After Sun Jingyi stepped out, he glanced back at the old man inside the room. His big brother sat alone, looking desolate, and drained his cup in one go.

Sun Jingyi sighed inwardly. A deep, uncontrollable guilt rose up from somewhere within him.

—

The next morning, Sun Jingyi was just stepping out when he ran into Third Head Liao Feijiang coming out as well. The two exchanged a greeting.

Sun Jingyi asked: “Where are you heading to search today?”

Liao Feijiang said: “I couldn’t sleep most of last night. Every time I closed my eyes, Old Four was standing in front of me, calling out over and over — *Third Brother, you have to avenge me*…”

He looked at Sun Jingyi. “At first I was too frightened to open my eyes. But later, I couldn’t even tell anymore if it was a dream or if I was truly seeing Old Four. He was soaking wet, dripping water constantly.”

He asked: “Second Brother — could Old Four be trying to tell me something?”

He glanced at Sun Jingyi. “Where are you going to search, Second Brother?”

Sun Jingyi said: “I’m going outside the city to look.”

Liao Feijiang said: “Then you go ahead, Second Brother. I’ll check the places in the city where there’s water. There might be a clue there.”

Sun Jingyi clapped Old Three on the shoulder. “Everyone’s grieving over Old Four. Take care of yourself too — don’t run yourself into the ground.”

Liao Feijiang shook his head, waved his men over, and left.

Sun Jingyi set out toward the city gates with his men — but as he walked, a growing unease gnawed at him. By the time he was nearly at the gate, he suddenly changed his mind.

He ordered his men to continue outside to check the nearby villages, then turned back with two of his personal guards to find Liao Feijiang.

It took him less than half an hour. He spotted Liao Feijiang standing beside a well in one part of the city — it looked as though someone had gone down into it.

“Old Three — did you find something?!”

Sun Jingyi called out as he ran over.

Liao Feijiang heard the voice and turned. Seeing it was Sun Jingyi, he called back quickly: “Someone drawing water said there was something in the well. I came to have a look.”

Hardly had the words left his mouth when the rope below was given a sharp tug, and the men beside the well began hauling with all their strength.

Whatever was down there clearly weighed more than one person — the burly men straining on the rope looked to be struggling enormously.

Sun Jingyi reached them and, too impatient to wait, grabbed the rope and pulled alongside them.

Sure enough, the man who had gone down into the well came up with a body tied to him. The moment he surfaced, his first words were: “There’s another one down there.”

Sun Jingyi pulled the body over and turned it to look at it carefully. It was one of You Yuren’s trusted personal bodyguards — a man named Yang Sixi.

Yang Sixi had originally been one of Luo Jiuhong’s capable personal attendants, with some knowledge of medicine. You Yuren’s constitution had always been somewhat frail — he was fine in good weather, but suffered whenever it turned overcast or rainy. So Luo Jiuhong had assigned Yang Sixi to You Yuren’s side to look after him.

The second body was soon hauled up as well — the other man, named Geng Niu.

Sun Jingyi stared at the two bloated, waterlogged bodies, the fury in his eyes so vivid it looked ready to spill out. Then, in the next breath, he dropped to his knees and knocked his head against the ground several times before the corpses.

“I’ve wronged you both, my brothers. I had no right to suspect you. The filth was in my own heart.”

He raised his hand and struck himself across the face several times, then hoisted one of the bodies onto his back and walked. “I’ll carry you back to see our Chief.”

—

About half an hour later, Cao Lie was summoned to the main hall of the yamen. He had been plagued by a cough these past two days — perhaps a touch of the local climate not agreeing with him since arriving in Shu Province.

He looked at Luo Jiuhong. Luo Jiuhong gestured toward the bodies laid out on the floor. “These were the guards I assigned to Old Four. Are these the men you saw that night?”

Cao Lie crouched down and examined them carefully. The bodies had been distorted by the water, but Cao Lie’s memory was sharp enough that he could still make them out.

“These are the two.”

He examined the fatal wounds on both bodies — each had a single thrust to the chest. One strike, and death. Not a single additional wound on either man.

He looked back at Luo Jiuhong. “Something doesn’t add up.”

Luo Jiuhong nodded slowly. “Indeed it doesn’t.”

Three men. All killed from the front. One thrust apiece. Not a single one had been given the chance to fight back.

You Yuren’s constitution may have been weak, but his martial skill was anything but. In this entire jianghu, there were few who could kill him from the front with a single move.

“Could it have been one person?”

Third Head Liao Feijiang suddenly asked.

Second Head Sun Jingyi murmured as if to himself: “One person… could ambush and kill Old Four, and then ambush and kill these two as well? Three people — it’s impossible that none of them reacted at all.”

Liao Feijiang said: “If it wasn’t one person, then it means all three of them — Old Four and these two — knew whoever they came face to face with.”

Sun Jingyi turned to Luo Jiuhong. “Big Brother.”

He said nothing more. But the question in his eyes was unmistakable — he was asking whether to investigate their own people.

Cao Lie crouched over the bodies, and after a long moment said: “If it was one person, under what circumstances could they have killed all three?”

He closed his eyes, thinking aloud: “Sir You’s carriage left the city — my men saw it at the time.”

“So the killer struck outside the city. Yet they were able to transport the body back inside without anyone noticing, and dispose of these two brothers’ remains in the well.”

He opened his eyes. “What if there had been a fourth person in that carriage?”

He looked at Luo Jiuhong.

Luo Jiuhong said: “We’ll know shortly. Qin Ke sent someone to see me yesterday — saying he had made an error. While I was away from the stronghold, he had secretly conducted his own investigation. He wanted to know: on the day Old Four left the stronghold, who else had left.”

Luo Jiuhong walked back to his chair and sat down. “First, let’s wash and change these two brothers’ clothes. Everyone stays here today — no one is to go out. We wait for Qin Ke. He sent word yesterday that he would come here today to see me — and to ask forgiveness before his brothers.”

As he lowered himself into the chair, his hand rested on the armrest. The veins on the back of his hand stood out starkly.

In that moment, something became clear to Cao Lie.

Luo Jiuhong had suspected it was an inside job from the very beginning.

There was no way Qin Ke had acted behind the Chief’s back — of course Qin Ke had understood Luo Jiuhong’s meaning perfectly. On that day outside the city, when Luo Jiuhong sent Qin Ke back to the stronghold, Qin Ke had likely already known exactly what he was supposed to do.

Luo Jiuhong was the Chief. He had never been willing to suspect his own brothers. He could not, without any grounds, simply order an investigation into his own people.

So when he came to the county town, he had already worked out how everything would unfold.

Even if Cao Lie had not gone out to wait at the gate, Luo Jiuhong would have found another way to have Cao Lie prove — just as on that day — that it was not the Ning King’s people who had committed the act. That would lead inevitably to Cao Lie inviting Luo Jiuhong into the city, and Cao Lie, in order to clear the Ning King’s people of suspicion, would hand the case over to Luo Jiuhong’s men to investigate.

Cao Lie thought this through and couldn’t help but sigh inwardly.

The older the ginger, the spicier it burns.

Luo Jiuhong’s reputation was long-standing — and that reputation rested on his jianghu brotherhood.

Precisely because of that, he could not be the one to openly suspect his own people. He could only force Cao Lie to cooperate with him.

This old Chief — his depths were unfathomable.

Thinking this, Cao Lie smiled to himself with a touch of self-deprecation. He had sensed it from the start — how could the man who commanded the reverence of all of Shu Province be anything less than extraordinary?

The jianghu loyalty was genuine. But the razor-sharp mind behind it — that was equally genuine.

Horse Gang men came in to wash and change the bodies. The two had been in the water so long they were badly swollen. Fortunately the temperature was low, and the well water ice-cold — otherwise the bodies would already have begun to decay.

About an hour passed. The main hall was utterly silent. No one spoke. Everyone stood where they were.

Around midday, one of the Horse Gang men came running in and called out that the Fifth Head had arrived.

The Fifth Head followed close behind — young and striking, seemingly without a single flaw.

“Chief.”

Qin Ke bowed to Luo Jiuhong the moment he stepped through the door.

Luo Jiuhong gave a slow nod, opened his eyes, and asked: “What did you find at the stronghold?”

Qin Ke bowed his head. “Chief, the only people who left with Fourth Brother that day were Yang Sixi and Geng Niu. Quite a few of the brothers guarding the gate all saw this.”

“I also checked each person who left the stronghold that day on various errands — what each of them did, where each of them went — and sent men to verify every account. All checked out.”

He raised his head to look at Luo Jiuhong. “On the day Fourth Brother left the stronghold, not a single brother who went out that day has any reason for suspicion.”

Hearing this, Luo Jiuhong’s grip on the armrest seemed to tighten.

Yet a moment later, Luo Jiuhong said slowly: “You suspected your own brothers. You conducted a private investigation in the stronghold without authorization. Do you admit your wrongdoing?”

Qin Ke knelt. “Old Five admits the wrongdoing. I accept punishment.”

Luo Jiuhong said: “From today forward, you are no longer the Fifth Head of our Tiger Gang… You should not have distrusted your brothers.”

“Big Brother!”

Second Head Sun Jingyi and Third Head Liao Feijiang cried out at the same moment.

“Big Brother, Old Five was only trying to avenge Old Four!”

“Big Brother, he didn’t do this because he doubted the brothers — he did it because he wanted justice for Old Four!”

The two rushed to Luo Jiuhong’s side, speaking urgently in Qin Ke’s defense.

“Second Brother, Third Brother — I was wrong. I accept my punishment.”

Qin Ke knelt and pressed his forehead to the ground before Luo Jiuhong. “The Chief is right. I am no longer fit to be Fifth Head of our Tiger Gang.”

Luo Jiuhong raised his hand — and it was trembling. “You… are expelled from the Tiger Gang as of this moment. Go. Do not come back.”

Sun Jingyi and Liao Feijiang moved to argue further, but Luo Jiuhong suddenly rose, turned, and strode away.

Qin Ke pressed his forehead to the ground several more times in the direction Luo Jiuhong had gone, then kowtowed once to each of the Tiger Gang brothers around him. He rose, and walked out — alone, and quietly bereft.