*Yibin Court.*

When Xu Ke came to, he found himself bound to a post. His first instinct, honed by years of living undercover in the Prince of Wu’s estate, was to survey his surroundings immediately.

First thought: I’m captured. Second thought: look for an escape route.

He found none. Every direction he turned, there were masked figures — broad-shouldered, imposing, forming an airtight circle around him. And all of these people were here for him alone.

“Now that you’re awake,” a voice said from somewhere behind him, “let’s have a conversation.”

Gao Xining came around from another direction and stopped in front of him. “You are the Prince of Wu’s estate steward. That is currently the only reason you’re still alive. I suggest you appreciate it.”

Xu Ke looked at this woman. His first impression was *beautiful* — genuinely, almost unreasonably beautiful.

Inside Yibin Court, Gao Xining typically dressed as a man. She had put on women’s clothes now deliberately — purely to unsettle him.

“Who are you people?” he asked.

He had already scanned the room, but it was empty and nondescript. The figures around him were plainly dressed. He had no way to identify them.

“I’m the one asking questions here,” Gao Xining said. “You only need to answer yes or no.”

Xu Ke let out a quiet scoff and looked around once more. “Women are always like this,” he said, his tone deliberately contemptuous. “All show, no substance. You can’t actually do much, so you fill the room with people to pressure me. Borrowing someone else’s power to frighten people — women are naturally gifted at it.”

Gao Xining shook her head slowly, with an expression of mild regret. “You’re wrong. My principal told me you’re still of use, and that we may need you to leave here in one piece.”

“So what does that have to do with all these people?”

“The people aren’t here to frighten you,” she said. “They’re here to block the view from outside.”

She walked back a few steps, settled into a chair, and said quietly: “His hands are needed. His legs are needed. Find somewhere that won’t interfere with those.”

“Understood.”

The廷尉府 *[Judicial Bureau]* operative Yuhong Yi stepped forward and examined Xu Ke carefully. “Somewhere that causes real pain without damaging the limbs… that does narrow things down considerably.”

Her gaze settled on his ears. Her hand rose.

“Wait.”

Xu Ke spoke quickly. “You clearly need something from me. Starting in on me before asking a single question makes no sense. Tell me what you want — I’ll decide whether it’s something I can do.”

Gao Xining studied him for a moment. “Since you prefer directness: is the Imperial Prince inside the Prince of Wu’s estate?”

Xu Ke’s eyes snapped wide. “You’re Xia Houzhu’s people!”

Gao Xining smiled. “Clever.”

Xu Ke watched her expression — and then slowly shook his head. “No, you’re not. Xia Houzhu doesn’t have women near him. I guessed you were his people to test you, and you confirmed it immediately…”

A subtle shift crossed Gao Xining’s face.

“Are you Lord Guan’s people?” Xu Ke asked.

“It doesn’t matter whose people we are,” Gao Xining said. “Answer the question. Any more wordplay and I’ll let you experience something unpleasant first.”

*Women,* Xu Ke thought with private contempt. *Useless.*

“I’ll ask again,” Gao Xining said. “Is the Imperial Prince inside the estate?”

“Yes.”

His answer came fast and clean. He knew there was no point in lying. They had clearly come to him with most of the picture already in place. The question was confirmation, nothing more. Prolonging it would only cost him.

“And someone tasked you with taking the Prince out of the estate?”

Another nod. “Yes.”

“If you’re willing to work with us,” Gao Xining said, “whatever terms someone else offered you, we’ll double it. And we’ll see to it that your life afterward is considerably better.”

Xu Ke smiled slightly, a faint edge in his voice. “So you have no real intention of harming me. Because we’re already on the same side.”

Gao Xining’s eyes narrowed. “We’re not on the same side. You’ve been too close to the Princess Consort for too long.”

An artfully vague statement. The craft of drawing someone out lay precisely in making them believe you knew more than you did — while saying nothing of substance.

From the start, Gao Xining had arranged all these people in the room specifically so that Xu Ke would underestimate her. Then she let him doubt her identity, exploiting the particular arrogance that often lived in men.

When Xu Ke had said *you’re Lord Guan’s people*, and she had let the faintest change cross her face — that too was deliberate.

She had been calling the 长眉道人 *[Long-Browed Daoist]* Master for many years now. Who wasn’t a crafty little fox in this line of work?

“If the terms from Lord Guan’s side are better than what Mister Tailai offered,” Xu Ke said, “then naturally I’d rather go with Lord Guan.”

He looked at her levelly. “Have them untie me. It’s really quite unnecessary.”

Gao Xining appeared to consider this briefly, then waved her hand. “Release him.”

Yuhong Yi stepped forward and loosened the ropes. Xu Ke rolled his shoulders and flexed, then asked: “What are you planning to do?”

“What we plan to do is none of your concern,” Gao Xining said. “As I said — there’s currently no way to know whether you can be trusted.”

“Then give me your terms.”

“You first.”

Xu Ke was silent for a moment. “Other conditions can wait. When the child is taken from the estate, he stays with me. No one takes him away.”

This was about securing his retreat.

That Imperial Prince was an enormously valuable piece. Whoever held that child could force Emperor Yang Jing of Chu to surrender simply by threatening the boy’s life. And as long as the child was in his hands, Xu Ke would always have options.

He trusted none of them — not the people in this room, and not Mister Tailai. He had long suspected that the moment he delivered the child, he would be killed.

This was why he hadn’t run.

He understood clearly: if he left Daxing City on anyone else’s terms, he would die outside the gates. Staying, and controlling the child himself — the child was his shield. His ladder to something better.

In truth, he had never intended to hand the child over to Mister Tailai. That was precisely why he had kept Gao Jianjia and the other three men close as backup.

“Agreed,” Gao Xining said. “The child stays with you — but you stay within our reach.”

Xu Ke had no real choice left. The child was his only remaining card.

“Fine,” he said. “I have an arrangement with my contact inside the estate. I go in tonight to take the child out. Before I leave, I’ll tell you where to meet me.”

“You understand,” Gao Xining said quietly, “that a man like you, once he breaks his word, will not find the consequences pleasant.”

“I understand.”

He glanced around. “Send everyone else out. I need to eat. I need to rest. I need to recover my strength.”

—

*Meanwhile, at the Daxing Prefecture.*

Maijie was staring at Gui Yuanshu. The afternoon had passed, and the street outside was still perfectly calm. No one had come.

“I want to go to sleep,” Maijie said. “Aren’t *you* tired?”

“You sleep,” Gui Yuanshu said. “I’ll keep watch.”

Maijie opened his mouth to reply — and then stopped. Footsteps outside. He turned to see several constables entering.

These men knew him well. He’d given them enough silver over the years that they practically greeted him as a patron.

“Maijie.” The lead constable, a man named Dong Shi, called out. “The Prefect would like a word. He has questions for you.”

“Understood,” Maijie said. “I’ll be there shortly.”

“Better make it quick,” Dong Shi said. “His Lordship is in a hurry.”

Maijie waved him off impatiently. “I said I heard you.”

He turned to Gui Yuanshu. “You can wait here if you want. I have business.”

Gui Yuanshu let out a long sigh. His expression was the kind that carries many unspoken meanings. In a perfectly sincere voice, he said: “I’d strongly advise against going. Or at the very least — don’t go alone.”

—

*Two quarters of an hour earlier. Inside the study of Prefect Wang Zhanjian, Daxing Prefecture.*

Cai Nan looked down at Wang Zhanjian, who was bound in his chair, her expression cold as winter iron. Wang Zhanjian was visibly trembling.

“A moment ago we were getting along perfectly — what is the meaning of this? I may be from the Prince’s estate, but I am a court official of—”

Her palm connected with his face before he finished the sentence. The crack was sharp enough to echo.

“Don’t pretend you don’t know,” Cai Nan said icily. “I’ve already confirmed it. Your people were behind last night’s inn. They killed our estate’s steward. And you’re going to sit there and play innocent?”

“Impossible!” Wang Zhanjian’s voice climbed toward panic. “This is slander — I have no quarrel with the Prince’s estate, why would I ever kill—”

“Maijie is your man. It was Maijie’s people who killed our estate’s steward. Are you still going to tell me you knew nothing?”

Wang Zhanjian’s face drained to the color of paper. He had not known — had not, in his worst imagining, suspected that Maijie was behind this.

“I can bring him here,” he said desperately. “We should investigate properly before acting — this must be a misunderstanding, I swear it on my life. If it truly was Maijie, I’ll kill the man myself!”

Cai Nan nodded. “Since you put it that way, I’ll take you at your word. Call him here, then.”

“Yes, yes, right away—”

Her operatives cut the ropes from Wang Zhanjian’s wrists. He was so shaken his legs barely held him upright.

The guards outside had not the faintest idea what had just happened. They had seen the Prince of Wu’s people come in, and of course hadn’t tried to stop them — only to find, moments later, that their Prefect had been bound inside his own study.

Wang Zhanjian made his way to the door and called several nearby constables over, instructing them to go and fetch Maijie. They took their orders and left.

Cai Nan watched Wang Zhanjian’s reactions and concluded he genuinely hadn’t known. But that hardly mattered now. He still had to die.

She had deliberately not led her people straight into the underground cells. That would have been reckless — Maijie had two or three hundred fighters down there, and she didn’t know the terrain. Storming his stronghold head-on was a gamble she didn’t want to take.

If Wang Zhanjian was connected to Maijie, then having Wang Zhanjian summon Maijie here was far simpler than going to him.

What she hadn’t accounted for was Gui Yuanshu being in that underground cell.

—

Back in the cells, Maijie said: “If you’re actually telling me not to go, you owe me a reason.”

Gui Yuanshu said: “If you were really this foolish, you couldn’t have lasted as long as you have in Daxing’s underworld — not with this city drowning in blood year after year.”

Maijie found himself laughing despite himself.

“You’ve been playing angry,” Gui Yuanshu said, “but you haven’t actually made a move against me. That’s because last night you recognized exactly who those dead men were — and I brought you in to look at them on purpose. You knew then that I was tangling you up in this, and that it wouldn’t be easy to shake loose. So if I hadn’t come to you first — you were planning to camp on the doorstep of Yibin Court until I came out, weren’t you?”

Maijie shrugged. “Nothing happened, so I’m not confirming anything.”

He looked at Gui Yuanshu. “So, Lord Gui — what do you suggest we actually do?”

—