At the Tingwei Office, Li Chi strode in through the main gate with a dark expression, moving quickly. It had been a very long time since anyone had seen such heavy fury on his face — a fury so intense it radiated killing intent.

At this moment, roughly an hour and more had passed since the incident at the dockside warehouse. The Prince Ning forces had already mobilized boats to give chase downriver, but no word had yet come back.

Still, the dock exit had been sealed. Word could not travel that quickly.

In the courtyard of the Tingwei Office, hundreds of people knelt on the ground.

Tingwei soldiers formed a ring around them, hands resting on the hilts of their blades.

When Gao Xining saw Li Chi come through the gate, she moved quickly to meet him. Walking beside him toward the interior, she summarized everything that had been confirmed.

“They entered through the water gate. Because that gate handles mostly merchant traffic, and because the largest water shipping operation belongs to the Cao Family’s fleet, the dock officials who were retained when we took the city were men who had longstanding ties with the Cao Family.”

“The dock registrar is named Liao Yonghe. He oversees all the shipping vessels at the dock. What allowed a formal military force to infiltrate the city was the fact that he accepted a bribe of one hundred thousand taels of silver.”

“The silver has been recovered from his home. He has already confessed. He is currently in the interrogation room, and Zhang Tang is still questioning him.”

The two of them walked quickly. Gao Xining spoke quickly to match.

“Who was the official who was retained — who left Liao Yonghe in place?”

Li Chi asked as he walked.

“It was… Lord Wu.”

Li Chi’s step faltered for just an instant, and then he continued forward.

“But,” Gao Xining said, “Lord Cao Lie’s people recommended him, so Lord Wu did not conduct a thorough investigation — that part is fair to acknowledge.”

“That’s not Lord Wu’s fault,” Li Chi said. “It’s mine.”

Walking alongside him, Gao Xining continued: “When we came from Jizhou, we had no one experienced in dock management. Jizhou has almost no water shipping trade worth speaking of, but Youzhou is different — so we had no choice but to screen people from the former officials who remained.”

“The water gate lock stays closed — only the small side door is used for entry and exit. All incoming goods are carried through the side door by the dock laborers on foot. The goods enter the city and are delivered to the warehouses, a distance of roughly two and a half li. Inside the small door, carriages from the various trading houses wait to collect cargo. The purpose of this arrangement was originally to make individual inspections more manageable.”

“When those people entered the city, Liao Yonghe was personally waiting at the small door of the water gate. He deliberately arranged it during a shift change, using his own men to replace the soldiers who normally conduct inspections.”

“There’s something else we discovered…”

Walking fast and talking fast, Gao Xining paused to catch her breath.

Li Chi immediately slowed his pace.

Gao Xining went on: “Among those who entered the city at roughly the same time as those people, there was another group — they came in together with the people of Caiyue Trading House. The warehouse where the incident occurred was Caiyue Trading House’s warehouse. Qiu Qing says those others were from the Xie Family, and their purpose was to seize Xie Huainan and bring him back.”

Li Chi asked: “Has anyone from Caiyue Trading House been arrested?”

“Caiyue Trading House’s proprietor, Pan Guangmei, is dead — killed inside the warehouse. He took four arrows, one through the throat.”

“Some survived,” Gao Xining continued. “We’ve already questioned them, but these shop workers know nothing.”

They had reached the entrance to the interrogation room. Li Chi looked back at the hundreds of people kneeling in the courtyard. “Who are they?”

“All of them are subordinates of Liao Yonghe,” Gao Xining replied. “Most are longtime dock workers who are more familiar with…”

Gao Xining had not finished speaking when Li Chi grabbed her arm and raised his left hand to cover her eyes.

“No need to question any further. Behead them all. Send the bodies to the dock to be displayed as a warning.”

“Huu—!”

The Tingwei soldiers surrounding them drew their blades and stepped forward. The hundreds of people kneeling there were struck down one by one — every head struck off.

Li Chi drew Gao Xining forward as they walked. He only lowered his hand when she had turned away.

Li Chi pushed open the door of the interrogation room. Zhang Tang was still in the middle of his questioning. The former official named Liao Yonghe was covered in wounds from head to foot.

“What else has he told you?”

Li Chi asked Zhang Tang.

Zhang Tang bowed and answered: “Over the past year and more, Liao Yonghe has been secretly taking bribes. But he is too familiar with the workings of the dock — he only accepted hard silver and left no written records. And he was clever: he was so thorough about inspecting even the Cao Family’s vessels that he created the impression of a man who took his duties seriously.”

Li Chi asked: “Where did those people come from?”

Zhang Tang replied: “Liao Yonghe says they told him they were from the Xie Family — most likely a lie those people told him. They said the cargo they were bringing in was contraband salt and a quantity of prohibited medicines. They gave him one hundred thousand taels upfront. Under the temptation of such a large sum, he lost his head entirely. They also told him that Xie Family contraband goods would be flowing through the dock continuously from then on, and asked for his ongoing cooperation — they even mentioned that Magistrate Xie Huainan would look after him. So he let them through without checking at all.”

Li Chi turned to look at Gao Xining: “Go back to the dock and keep investigating. Everyone connected to Liao Yonghe is to be brought in for questioning — not a single one is to be missed. Several hundred men — trained soldiers! With weapons! With bows and arrows!”

His voice rose sharply. Even Gao Xining was startled by this anger, an expression she had almost never seen from Li Chi. She knew it was not directed at her — it was the chaos at the dock that had provoked it.

The water gate had genuinely been neglected. Because the main lock stayed shut, ships could not enter the city. Only the small side door was used, and that had strict inspections. Most of the traffic was familiar merchants. And so the vigilance on that side had relaxed considerably.

Of course, part of that relaxation could be traced back to Young Lord Cao Lie — though this had nothing to do with Cao Lie himself.

And because Liao Yonghe had been recommended by one of Cao Lie’s people, even Lord Wu had not investigated too closely.

Gao Xining said immediately: “Fang Xidao and Yu Hongyi are still at the dock conducting their investigation. Not one person will be let through.”

Li Chi acknowledged this with a sound, then turned to Yu Jiuling, who was also standing nearby looking thoroughly alarmed: “Ninth Sister, send someone to fetch my blade. Take the personal guard company and come out of the city with me.”

Yu Jiuling responded at once: “Understood!”

As general of Li Chi’s personal guard company, she executed his orders swiftly and completely.

Gao Xining reached out and caught Li Chi’s arm on instinct: “Where are you going?”

Li Chi patted her on the shoulder. “I’ll probably be gone for a while — half a month at most.”

With that, he left the Tingwei Office. He had barely stepped through the gate and had not yet mounted when he saw Cao Lie rushing toward him.

When Cao Lie caught sight of Li Chi, he leapt from his horse and ran over: “The dock incident…”

Li Chi raised a hand: “Come with me, talk on the way.”

Cao Lie immediately turned and remounted, urging his horse to follow.

“Where are we going?”

Cao Lie asked.

“To the canal,” Li Chi said. “Help me intercept a boat.”

They had hardly ridden any distance at all when a woman of about thirty came running at them head-on, arms spread wide, running and calling out.

Li Chi and the others quickly reined in their horses — just in time to avoid knocking the woman over.

“Prince Ning, Your Highness.”

The woman fell to her knees with a thud: “This humble subject has something to report.”

At the same moment, on the water, a cargo vessel of Caiyue Trading House was moving swiftly downstream. There were few people visible on deck — most were hiding inside the hold.

Standing at the stern, watching the rear for signs of pursuit, was Guo Wei, one of the three generals of the Azure Cord Army.

He had been watching for nearly an hour. No boat came racing up behind them. Guo Wei let out a slow breath.

If the Prince Ning forces had war vessels, they would have had no chance of escape at all.

Before leaving the dock, they had seized two boats. One was this Caiyue Trading House vessel — originally prepared for Xie Huaide’s group. The other belonged to someone whose identity they did not know and did not care to learn; after seizing it, they set it alight and used it to block the dock exit.

“Fortunate, fortunate…”

Guo Wei exhaled a long breath.

“Fortunate that the Prince Ning forces had no boats to deploy. One could almost call this heaven’s assistance.”

He turned and asked: “How is the person?”

Someone answered: “In the hold. He kept struggling a while ago, so he was knocked unconscious again.”

Guo Wei acknowledged this with a sound.

He alone led things aboard the vessel, as Pei Chongzhi had not boarded — choosing instead to separate and go by land.

“I never imagined the Prince Ning forces would respond so quickly.”

Recalling what had just happened, even with his battle-hardened disposition, Guo Wei felt the lingering weight of it on his heart.

Just as they were leaving the warehouse, large numbers of Tingwei soldiers had been converging on them. Fortunately, Pei Chongzhi had arranged for men to hold them back.

Pei Chongzhi had not only brought these Azure Cord Army soldiers into Youzhou City — he had also brought a considerable number of Yang Xuanji’s retainers, as well as fighters hired from the jianghu at great cost.

While the Azure Cord Army killed and seized their target in the warehouse, those retainers and jianghu fighters, at Pei Chongzhi’s direction, lay in ambush along the route outside.

When the Tingwei soldiers arrived, those fighters moved to intercept — they had expected the ambush to inflict heavy losses on the Tingwei forces. Instead, it was their own side that suffered heavy losses.

Most of those lying in ambush were killed. The survivors likely could not escape either.

But if not for their at-least-momentary resistance, Guo Wei’s unit might not have gotten out of the city at all.

He had not seen it himself, but he could guess: the dock registrar named Liao Yonghe who had helped them into the city was almost certainly in custody by now.

At this thought, Guo Wei let out another long breath.

“This operation was well done,” he said. “We seized a man from right under Prince Ning Li Chi’s nose. The so-called invincible Prince Ning forces never even saw it coming. This is more or less the same as personally slapping Prince Ning Li Chi across the face several times — and hitting hard at that.”

Guo Wei smiled. “When we return and tell the Lord of this, he will be greatly pleased. It is only a pity that — had we known earlier how lax the water gate dock defenses of Youzhou City were, we could have arranged something far larger. What a waste. Truly, what a waste.”

A subordinate asked: “General — the instructions Adviser Pei gave us before we parted — shall we carry them out?”

Before they had separated, Pei Chongzhi had told Guo Wei that one of the people they had killed was Xie Huaide — Xie Huainan’s elder brother.

Pei Chongzhi had been there when it happened. He had seen the man shouting and creating a scene but had not recognized him, thinking he was simply a fool. He never imagined it was the second-most important figure in the Xie Family — the blood younger brother of the Xie Family head, Xie Huaiyuan.

Pei Chongzhi had said nothing at the time, and only revealed this after the man was dead. Clearly it was deliberate.

And then, just before they separated, Pei Chongzhi said: if their lord came to know they had also killed a Xie Huaide this time around, he would likely be displeased — after all, it was something that had not been part of the plan. Then Guo Wei had asked him what should be done. Pei Chongzhi told him: in for a penny, in for a pound — simply kill Xie Huainan as well. When they returned to face their lord, they could simply say there had been no opportunity to take him alive, and present his head instead. He further said that if they brought back Xie Huaide’s head as well, that would be sufficient proof that the Xie Family’s involvement with Li Chi was not limited to Xie Huainan alone — the entire Xie Family had gone over.

Guo Wei could see clearly enough what Pei Chongzhi was after. If both principal figures of the Xie Family were dead, the Xie Family could never again be used by the Mandate King. Even if the Xie Family tried to profess loyalty after this, the Mandate King would not dare use them — a grudge this deep would make them a permanent liability.

And the Pei Family would benefit most of all, positioned to completely fill the role the Xie Family had occupied at the Mandate King’s side.

The world knew that the Pei and Xie Families were close — generations of friendly ties between them.

But when it came to this kind of pivotal moment, what did closeness matter at all?

“Do not kill him.”

Guo Wei’s mouth curved slightly. “Keep him alive.”

A subordinate complied at once.

At this same moment, in the hold, a ship worker glanced around cautiously in all directions. Confirming no one was watching him, he noticed that among the remaining cargo in the hold there was some silk fabric. He quietly cut a strip and tucked it inside his clothes.

Not long after, he took advantage of a moment when Guo Wei and the others had moved away from the stern and crept over to the side of the vessel, and tossed out a piece of cloth.

His heart was hammering. His whole body was cold with sweat.

Time moved forward. Back in Youzhou City, outside the gate of Plum Garden, not far away.

A woman knelt before Li Chi: “This humble subject pays her respects to Your Highness. My husband’s name is Wang Bin. He once served at Magistrate Yan’s side. He sent me here — he told me no matter what I must find Your Highness and tell you. He is on that boat. He is on that very boat… At the time, we husband and wife had brought the silver with us to the dock, intending to return it to those people. Then we saw them board the Caiyue Trading House vessel. My husband said he had to go aboard. He said he must. He told me to come and inform Your Highness, and that he would leave markings along the way.”

—