◎Confrontation◎

When Qu You woke again, the first thing that filled her vision was a man before her, dressed in deep blue-green robes with a jade-topped hat.

Her head ached faintly, and it took her a long moment to come back to herself.

The man before her wasn’t strikingly handsome, but he had a delicate, refined look about him, dressed in a well-fitted, pale blue-green scholar’s robe. Seeing her wake, he offered a smile. “Awake now?”

But the smile never reached his eyes, and it looked faintly sinister.

Only then did Qu You realize she’d been tied to a chair. She turned her head and saw Bo Ying bound to another chair, still unconscious. For a moment she felt dazed. “You… are you Young Master Yan?”

This person had ambushed both her and Bo Ying — and succeeded?

Given how careful Zhou Tan usually was, he must have had someone follow her when she left the Ministry of Justice. She’d even caught sight of one or two people quietly watching her while drinking tea earlier — that was the only reason she’d dared to barge into the Heart of Fragrance House at all.

Those people hadn’t dared to save her yet — probably not wanting to alert anyone prematurely, or perhaps still waiting to see how things developed. For now she wasn’t in any mortal danger, so she might as well try drawing this man out first.

“Who sent you?” Yan Wuping asked, looking at her, his voice soft and gentle. “The men downstairs don’t know quality when they see it and only judge by clothes. That hairpin on your head is sandalwood — the most prized small-leaf red sandalwood, in fact. What are you here for?”

His voice was mild and warm, without a trace of menace.

Even when Zhou Tan had prepared this wooden hairpin for her, she hadn’t realized it was something so precious.

Qu You silently cursed, forcing herself to stay composed. “You still haven’t answered my question.”

Yan Wuping gave an amused little “Oh.” “What are you here to see me about?”

Qu You had no room left to dance around the subject with him, so she asked bluntly. “What’s your relationship with Gu Xianghui, the woman who fell from Fan Tower?”

“I was her patron,” Yan Wuping answered without the slightest hesitation. “The Ministry of Justice hasn’t even summoned me yet — how did you get here first?”

Qu You thought back to what Zhi Ling had written earlier, and felt her lips trembling with anger. “So you’re the one who runs this place? No — who’s behind you? These women here didn’t come here by choice at all…”

“Women who choose to drift into a pleasure house of their own will have always been rare, from ancient times to now.” Yan Wuping cut her off, reaching over to pour himself a cup of tea, a teasing note in his voice.

“But they were all decent women to begin with!” Qu You glared at him. “You people forced them into prostitution, and let them be humiliated in a place like this! Was Gu Xianghui the same way…”

“Speaking to me like this,” Yan Wuping said, blowing gently at the foam on his tea, unhurried, “aren’t you afraid of dying?”

“You wouldn’t dare kill me,” Qu You said, staring steadily at him, speaking quickly. “If you meant to silence me, you already had your chance a moment ago. You haven’t figured out who I am yet — killing me would bring consequences you might not be able to handle. If I were you, sent here on someone else’s behalf to clean up a mess, I wouldn’t want to create more mess for myself.”

Yan Wuping said nothing, seeming to consider this. Qu You pressed on. “That hairpin is yours, and yet in the end you’re still working for someone else. You look like an educated man — doesn’t a job like this weigh on your conscience? You gave Gu Xianghui an ornament like that — there must have been real feeling behind it. I can help you!”

Yan Wuping suddenly sighed and set down the teacup in his hand.

As if hearing some cue, Zhi Ling immediately emerged from behind the curtain and crouched down to untie Qu You.

Qu You froze for a moment, staring at Zhi Ling before her, finally remembering that it seemed to have been Zhi Ling who’d knocked her out. “You—”

Yan Wuping said, with a note of helpless amusement, “Next time you run into someone dangerous, don’t try this approach of turning them to your side. If the other party doesn’t kill you right away, it might just be because they want more information out of you. The moment you stumble onto something too important, even if you were a member of the imperial family, they wouldn’t hesitate to burn the body and erase every trace — no fear of consequences at all.”

Qu You rubbed her wrists, still wary. “Who exactly are you?”

“My name is Yan Wuping — attendant to Peng Yue, Chief Minister of the Court of Judicial Review,” the person answered. “Ordinarily I handle certain matters for him that can’t see the light of day. As for what exactly those are, Zhi Ling should have already told you.”

Zhi Ling knelt off to the side, her eyes red. Qu You reached out and helped her up, then turned back to Yan Wuping. “Why tell me all this?”

Yan Wuping said meaningfully, “Because I need your help.”

“Help you with what?”

“I’ll be summoned by the Ministry of Justice for questioning any day now, and there’s no telling what will happen then,” Yan Wuping said, glancing at Zhi Ling, who nodded and moved off to untie Bo Ying as well. “Given your standing, I need you to look after the Heart of Fragrance House for me. I’ll have the Ministry of Justice take away all the thugs and errand boys, and I’ve already drugged the madam — there’ll be no one else here. When the time comes, you’ll need to get the women out without anyone noticing. Can you do that?”

Qu You smoothed back the sweat-damp hair at her forehead and considered this. “I can help you, but you have to tell me the full story behind this — the purpose of what you’re doing, and… why you’re confident enough to ask me for help.”

“Fine,” Yan Wuping agreed readily, seeming to enjoy smiling, keeping his gaze on Qu You with amusement the whole time. “You’ve likely already seen what Zhi Ling wrote for you. I work for Peng Yue, but I’m ashamed of what he does. Privately, I’ve wanted to help these women.”

Zhi Ling gave Qu You a small nod. Yan Wuping continued, “But I’m just a commoner myself, my life as fragile as duckweed on water, no different from these women. After much thought, we decided to risk everything to drag Peng Yue down with us.”

“So…” Qu You had already guessed as much while Zhi Ling was writing those words, but hearing it confirmed aloud still sent a chill through her. “Gu Xianghui conspired with you, gathered information one way or another, and chose the most crowded day to take her own life at Fan Tower, leaving behind something that could prove your identity — you’d planned all along to use this to draw attention?”

“A rather clichéd method, isn’t it? But it was all we had left — a last, desperate throw.” Yan Wuping replied. “As for why I chose you… little miss, for a woman of a noble household to feel genuine anger on behalf of women of the lowest status — that’s no small thing already.”

Zhi Ling gave a soft gasp of surprise beside them, apparently not having realized Qu You was a woman. This Yan Wuping had sharp eyes indeed, though Qu You had no attention to spare for that just then.

“Have you considered that what you’ve left behind only proves you had a close relationship with Gu Xianghui? Even if you know plenty of Peng Yue’s secrets, and perhaps even have evidence, how can you be sure he won’t pin everything on you instead?” Qu You asked. “Even if you took all this to sound the Registered Complaint Drum, you’re not the aggrieved party yourself. He surely made preparations before harming anyone — what crime would this even amount to?”

Yan Wuping looked at her, a hint of admiration flickering in his eyes. “I’ve thought of all that. Don’t worry, I have my own way of handling it…”

Just as he finished speaking, Bo Ying, off to the side, suddenly clutched at his neck and started groaning in pain. He opened his eyes, and taking in the scene before him, froze in confusion. “What’s going on?”

“I’ll explain later.”

“You need to leave now,” Yan Wuping said, no longer in the mood to keep talking. “With Xianghui’s death, I came here today to deal with her belongings on Peng Yue’s behalf. As you’ve seen, the men outside all belong to Peng Yue. Pour some wine on your clothes, act thoroughly drunk, and stumble out cursing loudly. If you don’t leave soon, the men downstairs will start to suspect something.”

Qu You had no choice but to agree. Just as she reached the carved wooden door, she suddenly heard Yan Wuping ask quietly behind her, “Aren’t you going to ask me why I’m doing all this?”

Bo Ying looked between the two of them, utterly baffled. Qu You turned back and, quite suddenly, bowed deeply and gracefully to him.

It was the first smile she’d shown since entering the room, and she believed Yan Wuping would understand exactly what it meant.

Qu You said softly, “I already know why you’re doing this.”

Yan Wuping laughed as well, and gave her a whistle. “Until we meet again.”