Zhao Luan glanced at Prefect Wang Zhanjian and said, in an even tone: “My Lord, might we speak with them privately?”

Wang Zhanjian was only too glad to be elsewhere. “Of course, of course — ask them whatever you like. I’ll be right outside.”

Cai Nan leaned close and kept her voice low. “His Lordship is gracious. The estate will remember it. A gift will be sent to his residence shortly.”

Wang Zhanjian brightened. *These Prince of Wu people really know how to make a man feel seen.* He offered his thanks and withdrew from the hall.

Zhao Luan stepped down from the raised platform and walked up to the innkeeper. “Lift your head and look at me.”

The innkeeper was not a particularly timid man by nature, but he had never found himself in a situation like this. He was already close to soiling himself from fright. There had been a murder in his inn. He knew it. Standing before a woman in official-looking dress was enough to make him tremble head to foot.

“You’re the innkeeper?”

“Yes, yes — I’m the keeper of the Xiangyun Inn, just a small business, always honest, never done anything—”

Zhao Luan cut him off. “Tell me everything you saw last night. Leave nothing out.”

“We are from the Prince of Wu’s estate,” she said. “One of our people may have died in your inn. Think carefully before you speak. The consequences of concealment should be obvious to you.”

“I wouldn’t dare, I wouldn’t dare—”

The innkeeper spilled everything he knew, holding nothing back. In truth, he hadn’t known much — by the time Cai Nan had been quietly killing people on the second floor, the innkeeper and his household had already gone to sleep. He hadn’t woken until Maijie and his men came crashing through the door.

“Gambling house people?”

Cai Nan’s expression shifted almost imperceptibly when she heard that, and just as quickly, she smoothed it over. Her mind was racing.

She had killed those nine men herself. Where had a gambling house come from?

She had spent the whole journey here running through every possibility — agents of Prince Ning Li Chi, men of the Emperor, even operatives of Mister Tailai. She had not once considered local underworld figures.

People who ran gambling dens were the lowest of Daxing’s underground. Compared to the great estates, they were mud against cloud.

“What gambling house?” Cai Nan demanded.

The innkeeper shook his head. “I don’t know which one. They only said the guests upstairs had wronged them — I assumed those men had cheated the house out of money. People who run underground gambling dens, they don’t hesitate to kill. If they tracked you down, what would be left of you?”

Cai Nan looked at Zhao Luan. “Perhaps it isn’t complicated after all. It sounds like Gao Jianjia and the others had run afoul of someone.”

Zhao Luan murmured agreement, then turned back to the innkeeper. “Do not leave Daxing City. Return to your home and wait. The estate will see to your safety.”

*’Your safety,’* meaning: you are bait. If anyone comes to silence you, we’ll catch them in the act.

The two women went back to see Wang Zhanjian, asked him to assign officers to escort the innkeeper’s household home, and arranged for guards to be placed.

Then they returned to the Prince of Wu’s estate to report.

The Princess Consort listened in mounting fury. A simple task, and it had somehow tangled itself up with some wretched gambling house.

People like that — the dregs of the city — were beneath her contempt.

“Go and find out which gambling house it is,” she said. “Pay them a visit. Someone moved against our people. That cannot go unanswered.”

She added: “Make it quick. No more complications. We leave the city the morning after tomorrow.”

“Yes, my Lady!”

Zhao Luan and Cai Nan bowed together and went to make inquiries.

As Cai Nan had predicted, tracing Gao Jianjia’s preferred haunts was not difficult.

What they found surprised them: fully a third of the estate guards had been to that same gambling house.

It was located inside the Daxing Prefecture’s own underground cells — which, they reflected, made it feel rather safer and more legitimate. Even men from the Prince of Wu’s estate had nothing to fear, of course, but a comfortable, discreet location was its own recommendation.

“The Daxing Prefecture’s cells,” Cai Nan said, looking at Zhao Luan. “It seems our Lord Wang, who we just spoke to, may not be quite so clean.”

Zhao Luan considered. “We can’t be certain Wang Zhanjian knew. A local official having ties to underground operations is hardly unusual. But he’s an official — even a mere prefect — and if we move against him openly, it becomes a matter the Princess Consort herself would have to answer for.”

Cai Nan shook her head. “Unless Maijie never told him — but would Maijie dare hide something this large from Wang Zhanjian?”

“Still,” Zhao Luan said, “I think we should handle the gambling house first and leave Wang Zhanjian aside. Once we question those people, we’ll know what we need to know.”

Cai Nan frowned. “This Maijie supposedly has two or three hundred men under him, and his own martial ability is nothing to dismiss. Going into his territory and doing this quietly won’t be easy.”

“So what are you suggesting?”

“The gambling house is in the Prefecture’s underground cells,” Cai Nan said. “We were already at the Daxing Prefecture this morning. If we wait any longer and Wang Zhanjian passes word to Maijie, those three hundred men will scatter to the winds and we’ll never find them.”

Zhao Luan thought it over. She was right. The longer they delayed, the more likely the window would close.

“Go and prepare our support.”

Cai Nan’s tone turned serious. “I’ll take my own team in first. You muster the rest and follow immediately. If we move fast enough, the Daxing Prefecture won’t matter — we’ll tear through it regardless.”

Zhao Luan said: “If we’re going to act, why not simply bring the estate’s own guard? Even if the Emperor questions it, the Princess Consort is here — His Majesty wouldn’t press matters too far.”

“Bring whatever you can,” Cai Nan said. “I have to move now. I think Wang Zhanjian is already a problem.”

“Then so be it.”

Zhao Luan turned. “I’ll go petition the Princess Consort to deploy the estate guard and encircle the Daxing Prefecture outright.”

Cai Nan had no more time to spare. Her deepest fear was that Xu Ke was being held in the Daxing Prefecture’s cells — that if he was alive and Zhao Luan got to him first, the truth about Cai Nan might come spilling out.

She was past caring about the missing child now. Staying alive was what mattered.

She stepped outside, called her most capable operatives to her, and rode back toward the Daxing Prefecture.

—

At this very moment, deep in the Daxing Prefecture’s underground cells:

Maijie wore the expression of a man who had been slowly crushed by fate. He was very nearly begging as he looked at the man across from him.

“What exactly do you want from me? I told you — I’ll do the job, after that we’re finished. You go your way, I’ll go mine. Can’t we just do that?”

Gui Yuanshu let out a sudden, helpless laugh. That phrase — *I’ll go mine* — somehow got past his defenses entirely.

“Why can’t you believe me when I say someone’s coming for you?”

“You’re the one who killed them,” Maijie said. “You’re the one who took the silver. And you’re the one who has the exit pass. What do any of those things have to do with me?”

“Isn’t it really just that you don’t want to spend money?”

“You show up out of nowhere telling me someone wants to kill me, then offer to protect me for ten thousand taels of silver. You really think I’ve lost my mind?”

“The price is negotiable,” Gui Yuanshu said. “But you need to believe me about the danger.”

“Give me one good reason.”

“Knowing the full truth would hurt you,” Gui Yuanshu said earnestly. “I’m thinking of your wellbeing by not explaining.”

“If you won’t tell me why someone’s supposedly going to kill me,” Maijie said flatly, “then get out.”

Gui Yuanshu sighed. “You really want to know?”

Maijie: “Not hearing it, not moving.”

“Fine,” Gui Yuanshu said. “I sold you out. Last night’s business — I put your name on it.”

Maijie blinked. Then he started laughing. Then: “Wait — what did you just say?!”

“I told you knowing would hurt you—”

Maijie reached for his blade. Before his hand even got there, Gui Yuanshu had already taken it.

“Don’t get worked up. It’s bad for your health.”

“You sold me out, sent people to kill me, and now you’re standing here asking me for ten thousand taels of silver to *protect* me?!” Maijie stared. “What is this — you’ve turned it into a one-stop full-service operation?!”

Gui Yuanshu gave a slightly sheepish smile. “I did say the price was negotiable.”

“Lord Gui. Do you genuinely think I’m easy to push around?”

“The people coming to kill you are already on their way,” Gui Yuanshu said calmly, setting the blade down on the table and stepping back. “Take your time deciding. I’m not in any hurry.”

He gestured politely toward the door.

Maijie: “I’ll start by killing you!”

“Prince of Wu’s estate,” Gui Yuanshu said simply. “It’s them.”

Maijie’s feet stopped mid-stride. He had seen the bodies of those estate guards, yes — but *he* hadn’t killed them.

“The people coming are all from the Prince of Wu’s estate. Do you think there’s anywhere in Daxing City you could hide from them?”

Maijie turned and fixed Gui Yuanshu with a furious glare.

Gui Yuanshu smiled. “Are you thinking that the man who could save you right now is Prefect Wang of the Daxing Prefecture?”

He shook his head. “That won’t work. Wang Zhanjian can barely save himself at this point.”

“What have I ever done to you?!” Maijie burst out.

“I’ve said it before — you’re a useful man. If possible, I’d very much like you to work for me.”

“Given how you operate,” Maijie said, “if I ever went to work for you, you’d play me to death inside a month.”

“You’d survive,” Gui Yuanshu said. “Believe me. You think I don’t know what it’s like? How do you suppose I ended up following Prince Ning?”

—