From beyond the mouth of the alley came the calls of peddlers making their rounds through the streets; inside the alley itself, not a sound stirred.

The stranger who had introduced himself as the Chief Clerk stood at the gate of the courtyard. His manner appeared courteous, yet his bearing was in truth rather haughty — his eyelids perpetually drooping, his gaze never once settling on Li Wu.

“Give me the time it takes to drink a cup of tea,” said Li Wu.

The Chief Clerk’s expression remained unmoved. “Master Li, the Prefect cannot wait long.”

“If your Prefect doesn’t mind receiving me in my underclothes — I have no objection myself.”

The Chief Clerk’s gaze swept over Li Wu’s undershirt, and his brow gave the faintest flicker of a furrow.

“…One cup of tea’s time. Please make haste, Master Li.”

Li Wu promptly shut the gate and walked back to the front courtyard.

Shen Zhuxi was already up. She had draped an outer robe over her shoulders, her right hand gathered at the collar, and she stood before the side room watching him with concern. “What happened?”

Li Que had also emerged from the room across the way.

“The Xuzhou Prefect has sent someone to summon me,” said Li Wu.

“I’ll go wake second brother.” Li Que turned to head back into the side room.

“There’s no need to rush — the messenger only asked for me.” Li Wu said.

Shen Zhuxi was immediately gripped by anxiety. “Why would the Xuzhou Prefect summon only you?”

“There are no wealthy merchants surnamed Wang within Xuzhou’s territory. The Miss Wang we rescued on the road is likely not the daughter of an ordinary merchant household.” Li Wu walked into the side room and, without ceremony, undid the tie on his trousers. The wide, loose undertrousers dropped in an instant — Shen Zhuxi spun around in alarm and lunged for the door, pulling it shut behind her.

She gripped the door handle, her back to Li Wu as he began changing, and said, “Miss Wang is well-mannered and literate. Judging by her speech and conduct, she is indeed not the kind of young lady a merchant family could have raised.”

“Quite calculating, too,” Li Wu added.

“…Miss Wang doesn’t seem to like me very much.” Shen Zhuxi said quietly, a little deflated.

“And you were hoping to make friends with her?”

Shen Zhuxi caught the note of mockery in Li Wu’s voice and lowered her head, muttering under her breath in indignation, “Who has too many friends…”

The only sound left in the room was the soft rustling of Li Wu changing clothes. Shen Zhuxi said quietly:

“I’ve been missing Sui Rui and Jiu Niang… Do you think they’re all right?”

It had been nearly half a year since they left Yutou County, and three months since they left Xiangyang. Having lived through war and famine, were those two fragile women managing?

“Jiu Niang could get by anywhere,” Li Wu said without hesitation.

“And Sui Rui?”

“Madame Sui?” said Li Wu. “Whoever tries to give her trouble had better be prepared to be chased down with a cleaver. If I hadn’t been fast on my feet back then, I’d have taken a blade to the backside myself.”

Shen Zhuxi couldn’t help but laugh. “And whose fault was that? You were the one trying to steal her family’s secret recipe.”

“How can you call that stealing?” Li Wu raised his voice, righteously indignant. “Madame Sui was hoarding her knowledge, and I was helping her spread it — what’s wrong with that? Confucius spread knowledge he’d learned from others all across the land, and nobody stabbed him in the backside. So it’s fine to take advantage of me, is it?”

“It’s not hoarding — the saying is ‘to treasure a worn-out broom’… Never mind, that’s beside the point.” Shen Zhuxi estimated he must have finished changing by now, turned back around, and walked over to him, straightening his collar and belt for this careless, rough-mannered man.

The treasured robe with the linked-pearl paired-duck brocade had been destroyed somewhere along the road. What he wore now was the best set from his pack — a short brown jacket with long trousers. Shen Zhuxi felt this was a little too casual for a meeting with the Prefect, but she could find nothing better to put him in.

“When you meet the Prefect, you must not forget your manners. You’re a commoner — in front of an official, you must set aside that arrogance and carelessness of yours.” Her worry surfaced despite herself, and she couldn’t help but remind him.

“I know,” said Li Wu, unconcerned. “Your husband hasn’t exactly never met a prefect before. My last-but-one employer was a prefect.”

Ah, yes. The Xiangzhou Prefect.

Whose head had since rolled — by all accounts, when the Xiangyang uprising came, his head was severed and hung at the city gate for three days, and by the time it was taken down it had turned into dried, wind-cured jerky.

And then there was his previous employer — that merchant surnamed Jiang — who had likely begun to rot by now.

This fellow Li Wu. It seemed that whoever he took on as his employer came to a bad end.

His Majesty, when he was still Crown Prince, had been fond of romantic leisure and elegant pursuits. Someone who could compose monstrous works like “Lament for the Pig’s Trotter” was unlikely to be kept on as a close attendant.

So… it should be fine. Probably.

Li Wu took the dagger down from the wall, lifted his trouser leg, and tucked it into his black boot, then carefully fastened the leg of his trousers back down.

“I’m off—” He straightened up and patted Shen Zhuxi on the head. “Stay put and behave. If I’m not back by noon, do everything Que’er says.”

Those words only made Shen Zhuxi more anxious.

“You… don’t let anything happen to you. You must come back safe.” Shen Zhuxi reached out without thinking and caught the hem of his garment.

Li Wu grinned and gave her hand a brief squeeze. “Nothing’s going to happen to me. Don’t go getting your hopes up about becoming a widow.”

He stepped out of the side room, gave Li Que a nod where he stood under the corridor eaves, and strode with long, unhurried steps to the front gate. He pulled open the double gates and said to the Chief Clerk waiting with hands folded outside:

“Let’s go.”

“After you, Master Li—”

The Chief Clerk turned and extended a hand toward an unremarkable, subdued-looking carriage parked at the roadside.

Li Wu walked toward it.

The carriage’s interior was no different from its exterior — bare and spare, containing nothing but two narrow benches fitted with soft cushions.

Li Wu sat down on one of the benches. The carriage swayed as the Chief Clerk climbed in as well, settling across from him without a word.

The coachman called out: “Hiyah!”

The carriage rolled slowly forward.

After half an incense stick’s worth of silence, the carriage drew to a halt before an imposing residence.

Beneath a high gate and deep-set eaves hung a solemn plaque, on which two characters were inscribed in bold, sweeping brushstrokes: “Wang Residence.”

Under the laws of the Great Yan, only officials of the third rank and above, and members of the imperial family, were permitted to hang a residence plaque. But with Great Yan on the verge of being wiped off the map entirely, there was naturally no one left to enforce such rules.

Fan Wei of Xiangyang had hung a residence plaque above his own house, after all.

Li Wu stepped down from the carriage. The Chief Clerk followed, descending carefully via the mounting step. He cupped his hands and bowed to Li Wu. “Master Li, please proceed ahead and knock — someone will come to escort you to the Prefect.”

Li Wu turned and climbed the stone steps between two stone lions, arriving at the wide-open red lacquered doors, where a middle-aged man who had evidently been waiting inside stepped out and bowed to him without expression. “Master Li, please follow me.”

The doormen standing on either side cast a look at Li Wu in his short jacket and trousers, and a faint flicker of contempt passed through their eyes.

Li Wu gave them no notice whatsoever. With the ease of a man strolling through his own home, he followed the steward-like figure unhurriedly through the gates.

The Xuzhou Prefect’s residence was in a style entirely different from the Xiangzhou Prefect’s. Aside from the stone lions at the entrance and the seven broad stone steps, everything spoke of restraint and simplicity — none of the gaudy carved walls and towering architecture of the Fan residence.

Compared to the Xiangzhou Prefect, who had seemed half afraid people wouldn’t know he was bleeding the populace dry, this Xuzhou Prefect looked to be either a genuinely honest official, or a very intelligent corrupt one.

The steward brought Li Wu to a courtyard on the western side of the residence, went in to announce him, and then waited another full incense stick’s time before the voice of Xuzhou Prefect Wang Wenzhong finally came from within the study:

“Come in.”

“Has he gone in yet?”

The moment Chun Guo stepped through the door, Wang Shiyong couldn’t stop herself from asking.

“He has,” said Chun Guo. “The master thinks very highly of Master Li — he sent Chief Clerk Chen to fetch him, and Steward Zhao was waiting at the gate first thing this morning.”

“Good.” Wang Shiyong let out a breath of relief. “Master Li may be of common birth, but he carries himself with great pride. If Father treated him like an ordinary commoner and sent him off dismissively, Master Li might not say anything to his face, but he would be displeased with me in his heart.”

“All thanks to you, Miss, for speaking so well of him to the master,” said Chun Guo.

“Go bring me that pomegranate-red dress.” Then, the moment Chun Guo turned to go, Wang Shiyong changed her mind. “No — not the pomegranate red. Bring the goose-yellow one, the one with the floral deer pattern. And bring my hair ornaments — I’ll have a look through them.”

“Miss, are you going to meet Master Li?” Chun Guo hesitated slightly. “…Is that quite appropriate?”

Wang Shiyong sat down at the dressing table and studied her own features carefully.

“My benefactor has come to call — it is only proper that I come out to thank him. What could possibly be inappropriate about that?”

Chun Guo heard the trace of displeasure in Wang Shiyong’s tone and, swallowing whatever else she might have said, went reluctantly to fetch the dress.

Once she had dressed and arranged herself, Wang Shiyong made her way to her father’s study with Chun Guo in attendance. Steward Zhao stood with hands folded before the door, and upon seeing her emerge from behind the spirit wall, he came forward quickly.

“Miss.” Steward Zhao bowed with clasped hands. “The master is receiving a guest in the study. Does Miss have urgent business to pass along?”

Wang Shiyong smiled lightly. “Nothing urgent — only a few details regarding the family banquet in two days’ time that I wished to discuss with Father.”

The steward was just about to speak when the study door opened from within, and Li Wu walked out.

Wang Shiyong dipped into a curtsy toward him.

Li Wu came to a stop before her. “You’re here to see your father?”

“I was coming to see Father, yes.” Wang Shiyong said with a gentle smile. “Master Li — is Shiyong one who keeps her word?”

Li Wu understood that she was referring to her parting words: “I will not go back on what I say.” But he had come here to collect a thousand taels of silver, and with the silver not yet in hand, he was in no position to nod along.

“Your father offered to give me the post of a centurion. I told him I needed to go home to have a look first, so he gave me a month’s time.”

“That sounds perfectly good, doesn’t it?” Wang Shiyong said with a smile. “With Master Li’s abilities, going home to farm would be a waste of your talents. Xuzhou is a place of great people and fine land — starting from centurion, Master Li would surely distinguish himself before long.”

“I’ll need to go back and discuss it with my wife first.”

Wang Shiyong looked genuinely surprised. “Can Master Li not make his own decisions?”

“This concerns the two of us, so naturally we decide together.” said Li Wu.

“Perhaps it’s because sister-in-law is usually so agreeable toward Master Li that I mistakenly assumed she simply deferred to your every word…” Wang Shiyong smiled lightly. “It seems I was mistaken.”

“Slaves defer to their masters. I have no need for her to defer to me.” Li Wu had grown impatient. He got directly to the point. “Where is the thing you promised me?”

“I have it ready.” Wang Shiyong smiled. “Only, there are too many eyes and ears here — it wouldn’t do to let people see.”

She turned to the steward. “Steward Zhao, I happen to be heading to the front courtyard — I can escort Master Li on his way. You go about your business.”

The steward lowered his head in acknowledgment.

Wang Shiyong led Li Wu toward the front courtyard.

“Why is Master Li dressed like this today?”

Walking side by side, Wang Shiyong said it as though in passing.

“Dressed like what?” Li Wu looked down at his own clothes and saw nothing amiss.

“Clothes make the man, gold makes the Buddha. Why didn’t sister-in-law prepare a proper robe for you to receive guests in? You’re fortunate Father is not one to judge by appearances — otherwise, Master Li, you might have been met with a great deal of cold looks already.”

“Does taking a few cold looks cost a man flesh?” said Li Wu.

Wang Shiyong was caught off guard.

Li Wu said with displeasure, “And even if it did, I’d be the one to settle accounts with those snobbish people. What would any of that have to do with my wife?”

Wang Shiyong shifted course at once. “Master Li is magnanimous. Shiyong could not compare.”

Without realizing it, the two had reached the front courtyard, and the main gate was right before them.

Li Wu stopped walking and looked at Wang Shiyong.

Wang Shiyong gave a look. Chun Guo stepped forward and quietly pressed a bank note into Li Wu’s hand.

Transaction complete. Li Wu turned without any lingering and walked out through the gate.

Wang Shiyong stood where she was, silently watching his figure until it vanished at the end of the street.

“Miss…” Chun Guo ventured.

Wang Shiyong turned and walked back, saying quietly, “Let’s go inside.”

Chun Guo’s face showed a flicker of indignation. She could not stop herself from saying, “This Master Li doesn’t know what’s good for him at all. You’ve spoken on his behalf and given him silver, and he couldn’t even spare you a pleasant expression—”

“…Chun Guo,” Wang Shiyong said softly, “between me and Master Li’s wife — whose looks are more superior?”

After a brief hesitation, Chun Guo answered, “Naturally our Miss surpasses her.”

“Then why does he not spare me so much as a second glance?” Wang Shiyong said, at a loss.

Her looks, her accomplishments, even her family background — all were of the finest quality. The talented young men of Xuzhou who admired her were too many to count. Yet Li Wu — a man of common birth who had never even attended a village school, a rough-footed peasant — was not even willing to look at her twice.

“Miss…”

“I don’t understand… Is it that I am not as lovely as his wife, or is it…” Wang Shiyong’s voice dropped lower. “That he despises me for having been touched by those bandits?”

“Miss!” Chun Guo’s expression changed drastically. She seized her hand tightly. “We said we would never speak of that matter again. You escaped from those bandits — nothing happened. Nothing at all!”

Wang Shiyong said nothing.

How desperately she too wished she could act as though nothing had happened.

Yet every time she returned to consciousness in the dead of night, she would find herself back in that terrible cave — seven or eight men with obscene smiles closing in on her, tearing at her clothes.

When she woke from those dreams, countless fine young men still waited for her favor, and she was still the unblemished, untainted daughter of the Xuzhou Prefect.

But she knew that was not so. And Li Wu knew it was not so.

Yet if only he would fall at her feet like those foolish men — then she would know that she was still the same as she had always been.

She wanted this man — the one who had seen her at her most wretched — to be utterly captivated by her.

Only then could she lay that nightmare to rest.