With the arrival of Minor Snow, one of the twenty-four solar terms, Xiangzhou grew colder by the day.

The desolation left in the flood’s wake seemed to have done nothing to diminish Xiangzhou’s bustling energy. Xiangyang County, which had taken in large numbers of disaster victims, was especially lively. Pedestrians hurried past in an endless stream, and children in thick padded jackets and tiger-headed shoes had their small faces reddened by the cold wind, yet remained cheerful and bursting with energy, weaving through the streets and alleys in pursuit of the candied hawthorn vendor.

The moment temperatures dropped, the aromas drifting through every street and alley seemed to carry even farther.

The clean, fresh scent of steamed buns and filled buns rising from bamboo steamers. The cloyingly sweet fragrance wafting from confectionery shops. The savory aroma of beef noodle soup and wonton broth drifting from the various street stalls.

The mingled scents of countless varieties of food blended together, painting a scene of people living and working in peace and contentment.

A young gentleman sat inside the main hall of an inn, brow tightly furrowed, watching the passersby walking through the door outside.

He was handsome and elegant, with an air of refinement and wealth. He wore a brocade robe in deep crimson shading to purple, patterned with auspicious clouds and leaping carp, and at his waist hung a jade pixiu pendant of exceptional quality. Anyone could tell at a glance that he was the scion of a great and wealthy family — all the more conspicuous in a Xiangyang that had only just weathered a flood disaster.

The peddlers who passed by the inn’s entrance and called out to him without exception let their gaze settle upon him. Yet no matter how they hawked their wares, no matter what they were selling, not one of them managed to draw so much as a glance from the young gentleman.

One after another, the peddlers went away disappointed.

The young gentleman’s expression grew increasingly impatient as he watched the door. At last, he saw the person he had been waiting for.

A pair of twin attendants came running up to him side by side:

“Young master—” one twin said, and the other continued seamlessly, “they’re here!”

The young gentleman’s expression brightened at once. He immediately rose from the table and strode quickly toward the door.

“Hey! Young master, you haven’t paid—”

The waiter had just started after him when a flash of silver came arcing through the air. The waiter quickly thrust out his hand and caught it.

For something worth no more than a string of copper coins, the young master had given him a piece of silver.

The waiter suppressed his wild joy, tucked the silver into his waist, and went off cheerfully to attend to other customers.

The young gentleman outside had already made his way to the eaves of the inn.

He stood restlessly, watching the carriage that had turned out from around the street corner. He nervously smoothed his clothes, then turned to look at his two attendants: “Is there anything amiss with my appearance?”

The two attendants, who looked absolutely identical, shook their heads in perfect unison:

“Young master is as dashing and distinguished as ever — nothing at all out of place!”

The young gentleman let out a breath of relief and looked again toward the carriage, which was drawing nearer.

“Proceed as planned!” he said, steeling himself.

“Young master,” the one on the left began, and the one on the right continued, “are you truly set on this? Horses’ hooves have no eyes — if something goes wrong, won’t we have to go down to keep you company?”

“What nonsense! What a foul mouth you have, always talking about the worst and never the best!” the young gentleman said, flustered and furious. “Enough talk, hurry up and start, bring me my—”

The words “padded cushion” were still lodged in his throat when the young gentleman was shoved forcefully — one push from the left, one from the right — toward the middle of the road.

He stared at his two attendants in dumbfounded disbelief, his body lurching out of his control and pitching forward under the horses’ hooves.

“Whoa—!”

The street erupted into sudden chaos.

The twin attendants, hand in hand, turned their backs to the commotion and walked away.

“I feel like there’s something we forgot to do,” said the one on the left.

“What could it be?” The one on the right looked thoughtful.

A moment later, both let out a startled cry at the same instant.

The twins stopped in their tracks. They looked at each other — like a mirror image — and both reached up to scratch the backs of their heads.

“…Didn’t we forget to give young master the padded cushion he had on underneath his clothes?”

They turned around at the same time, speaking as one once again:

“Young master… is he still alive?”

……

“What has happened?” Shen Zhuxi put on the veiled hat that Ti Niang handed her and hurried down from the carriage.

The helpless coachman stood in front of the horses and looked at her with a troubled expression: “Madam… this man suddenly rushed out of nowhere. He’s saying our horse trampled him and wants to claim compensation from us…”

The brocade-clad gentleman who had been rolling around on the ground wailing suddenly stopped. He raised his head and shouted furiously: “Open your dog eyes and take a good look — do I look like a man who needs money? Your horse trampled me — I’m asking you to take me to a physician. Is that extortion?!”

Judging by his ostentatious attire, he truly did not look like someone who needed money.

Shen Zhuxi could not make out any visible injuries on him. He still had plenty of energy to shout and curse, and appeared to be in perfectly high spirits — yet judging by the way he had been rolling on the ground without a care for his dignity, it seemed he genuinely might be in considerable pain.

Every year, horses’ hooves claimed many lives, and those left permanently disabled were no small number either. Some people who appeared initially uninjured would still be unable to get out of bed by the next day, or even lose their lives.

Shen Zhuxi did not dare delay. She immediately said: “Please be at ease, young master — I will take you to a physician at once—”

Only then did the brocade-clad gentleman put away his fierce expression and uttered a vague sound of acknowledgment from the back of his throat.

As it happened, Doctor Tang’s medical clinic was not far away. Shen Zhuxi had someone help the brocade-clad gentleman up and brought him there without a moment’s delay.

With winter arrived, people with minor ailments were plentiful, and the medical clinic always had a queue.

The Sincere Heart Hall run by Doctor Tang was packed with people. The common folk who had come to see the physician glanced at Shen Zhuxi in her veiled hat a few extra times, assuming she was simply a young lady of some household who had ventured out — none of them connected the person before them with the Madam of Xiangzhou whose name had been appearing so frequently in the storytellers’ tales of late.

Doctor Tang was in the middle of taking someone’s pulse. When he saw that the newcomer was Shen Zhuxi, he raised his eyelids and looked at her briefly, then glanced at the brocade-clad gentleman being supported in by her attendants. He said in a casual, offhand manner:

“Well now — who in these times would dare try to swindle the prefect’s wife?”

“Old man, what kind of way is that to speak?” The brocade-clad gentleman, who had been crying out in pain the entire way, flared up immediately, glaring furiously at Doctor Tang. “I was hurt by a horse’s hoof — everything hurts terribly!”

Doctor Tang said: “You’re definitely not dying. I’ve yet to meet anyone about to die who looked as lively and vigorous as you do.”

“You… you’re cursing me?!” The brocade-clad gentleman nearly twisted his nose in rage. “When this gentleman says he’s dying, I obviously don’t mean I’m literally about to die! You quack — you can’t see anything, and you turn around and say I’m swindling people — is there no law in Xiangzhou?!”

“There is, of course there is—” Doctor Tang said. “And the person standing beside you is half of that law.”

The brocade-clad gentleman immediately looked toward her.

“Doctor Tang is joking. The law belongs to the Son of Heaven.” Shen Zhuxi quickly said: “At most, I am nothing more than the wife of a minor imperial subject.”

“Alright, nothing serious — go home and sleep it off for a day or two,” said Doctor Tang, releasing the patient’s wrist and taking the damp cloth the medicine boy handed him from behind.

“What about my medicine?” the patient asked in puzzlement.

“What medicine? Stay out of the brothels and you’ll be cured at once.” Doctor Tang wiped his hands without enthusiasm and cast the man a sideways look.

The patient’s face flushed scarlet. He fled the clinic with his sleeve over his face amid a burst of laughter.

“Old me has no talent for prescribing… that sort of medicine…” Doctor Tang muttered as he straightened the cloth pad on the table where patients placed their wrists. “Sit down.”

The brocade-clad gentleman looked left and right at the patients waiting for their consultations, then pointed at himself in disbelief: “Me?”

“Who else?” Doctor Tang stroked his long white beard. “You’re the only one here who’s in danger of dying from the pain.”

“I… I feel somewhat better now — there’s no need to give me special treatment,” the brocade-clad gentleman said.

“No, no, that won’t do. If you die of pain in old me’s clinic, won’t that ruin my reputation? Stop dawdling and come here!”

Doctor Tang gave the cloth pad a firm pat.

Shen Zhuxi looked at the visibly nervous brocade-clad gentleman and said encouragingly: “Don’t worry. Doctor Tang is a very skilled physician. Even if there are any internal injuries, he will spot them at a glance!”

The brocade-clad gentleman sat down at the consultation table with obvious reluctance.

“What’s your name?” Doctor Tang raised his eyelids and asked in a languid tone.

“You’re here to treat me, not to manage my business — why do you need my name?” The brocade-clad gentleman’s eyes widened.

“Old me certainly needs to know. What if I accidentally save a wanted criminal?” Doctor Tang said.

“Is that not what they call the physician’s heart of a parent?” the young man countered.

Doctor Tang said with complete composure: “Not something old me said.”

The brocade-clad gentleman had no choice but to say: “Tian… Shu… Jiong.”

Doctor Tang made a pained face. “Old me has practiced medicine for many years, and still has found no cure for stuttering — a difficult ailment indeed.”

“This gentleman does not stutter!” Tian Shujiong said with indignation.

While Tian Shujiong and Doctor Tang were going back and forth, Ti Niang drew Shen Zhuxi aside and said quietly: “What should we do, Madam? We’ve run into someone trying to swindle us, haven’t we?”

Shen Zhuxi hesitated: “This person is dressed expensively. He doesn’t seem like the type to pull a swindle.”

“Hard to say!” Ti Niang responded at once. “Who’s to say he didn’t get those fine clothes by swindling in the first place?”

Shen Zhuxi thought for a moment and said: “In that case, let us leave him in Doctor Tang’s care.”

Taking advantage of the moment while Tian Shujiong was not looking, Shen Zhuxi slipped back to the carriage, leaving one of her attendants behind — just in case Tian Shujiong truly had been injured by the horse’s hooves, the Li household could not shirk responsibility and would of course pay for his treatment.

The carriage set off again. Inside it, Shen Zhuxi could finally breathe a sigh of relief and removed her veiled hat to have some tea.

She had gone out today to visit the abbot of Anxi Temple outside the city, to offer her thanks for his earlier contribution. Had the abbot not generously donated fifty thousand taels of silver from the temple’s incense and oil funds at the last moment, she would never have been able to raise the full five hundred thousand taels of silver to send to Shangzhou as emergency relief.

Several days of rushing about had left Shen Zhuxi thoroughly exhausted. Each night she hit the pillow and plunged into a dreamless sleep, too tired even to dream.

The physical exhaustion was repaid, however, by an unprecedented sense of spiritual fulfillment. Shen Zhuxi could only hope that her efforts would not go to waste — as long as the Shang River Dam could be repaired at the earliest opportunity, the hardships of these past few days would amount to nothing at all.

Back at the Sincere Heart Hall behind the carriage, Tian Shujiong had only just realized that his target had long since slipped away like a cicada shedding its shell. He leapt up from the consultation chair in a fury:

“When did she disappear?!”

“Isn’t she right here?” Doctor Tang grabbed his wrist and pulled him firmly back into the consultation chair. “Relax. All those ailments of yours — old me will have a look at all of them today. Kidney deficiency, physical weakness, heavy dampness — none of these seem like the sort of thing a horse’s hoof could cause.”

“If you keep talking nonsense, this gentleman will have someone tear down—”

“Tear down what?” Doctor Tang dropped his joking tone and said coldly: “Deception and trickery should at least be practiced somewhere appropriate! Old me may not know what your purpose is in coming here, but if you intend to do any harm to the Madam of Xiangzhou, this old set of bones will be the first to refuse you!”

“You—”

Tian Shujiong was both startled and furious. Before he could open his mouth to retort, the Sincere Heart Hall erupted.

“Was that the Madam of Xiangzhou just now?!”

“The Madam of Xiangzhou who personally donated relief to the four flood-ravaged prefectures?!”

“I heard she also raised hundreds of thousands of taels of silver to send to Shangzhou for the Shang River Dam reconstruction!”

“And there are people who mean her harm? How can anyone scheme against someone so kind and virtuous without fearing heaven’s retribution?”

The Sincere Heart Hall instantly surged with indignant voices.

“…This gentleman will not stoop to argue with the likes of you!” Tian Shujiong stormed out in a fury. The patients inside pointed and chattered at his retreating back.

Doctor Tang beckoned to the attendant from the Li household and said: “Tell Li Wu about this.”

“…About someone trying to swindle the Madam?” the attendant said blankly.

“Tell him what happened today. He will know what to ask you.” Doctor Tang said.

The attendant nodded in agreement and hurried out of the Sincere Heart Hall, heading toward the yamen where Li Wu was stationed.

Upon reaching the yamen gates, however, the attendant found that Li Wu was not at the yamen.

“The prefect went out early this morning with his people,” said the gatekeeper.

“Where did the prefect go?” the attendant asked in surprise.

“The prefect didn’t say,” the gatekeeper replied, shaking his head.

The attendant returned empty-handed, and made his dejected way back toward the Li household.

Meanwhile, in a quiet alley tucked behind the busy marketplace, Li Wu was standing inside an unmarked shop with his two brothers, Li Kun and Li Que.

The shop was in complete disarray. Tables and chairs had been knocked over everywhere. Dried droplets of blood led a trail from the counter all the way to the door, then vanished into thin air.

Li Que crouched down near the counter and leaned in close to a dark brownish stain, sniffing it for a moment before raising his head with a grave expression:

“It’s human blood.”

Li Wu’s brow was deeply furrowed, his gaze fixed on the deserted doorway outside.

The shop had been closed for days. The interior was disordered and bloodstained. Whether the owner was alive or dead, no one knew.

What on earth had happened to Du Yanlong?