The shout made the false Zangjie sitting across from him flinch violently. The man had been terrified since the moment he learned he was truly going to meet the Emperor — not a drop of color had returned to his face since then.
Now Xu Ji’s face was turning a faint, sickly green from the mingling of fear and rage, while the false monk had gone the color of paper — an oddly well-matched pair.
Xu Ji’s heart hammered as though it might beat its way out of his chest. But he had to be calm. He breathed, slowly and deliberately, until some semblance of rational thought returned.
Never mind for now why Zangjie was doing this to him — there was no time for that. What mattered was how to stop the Court of Justice from bringing those Shu Province men into Chang’an. Once they appeared before the Emperor, even if His Majesty had genuinely been willing to give Xu Ji a little more time, there would be nothing left to give him.
He told himself: go into the palace as a dead man. Walk in front of the Emperor as though you have already died.
He got the false Zangjie to his feet, whispered last-minute instructions — *don’t embarrass me, just say what I taught you* — and the two of them made their way inside, guided by an inner attendant toward the Eastern Warm Chamber.
“Yujian.”
He called to the bodyguard who was almost never far from his side, and the man answered at once from outside the carriage.
“I need you to go now to Lord Ye’s residence. Tell him what’s happened — he’ll know what to do. And if Lord Ye is unwilling to help, pull our men out of his household yourself and handle it personally.”
Yujian acknowledged the order and left.
This man had once belonged to the Mountain River Seal, the assassin organization, and at a considerable rank within it. The Seal’s most formidable members were known by the Four Symbols — Azure Dragon, White Tiger, Vermillion Bird, Black Tortoise — and were broadly regarded as the four strongest within the organization. If a ranking were made of all the Seal’s killers, those four would unquestionably be in the top ten. Azure Dragon stood first; White Tiger Blade-Buster second. But Black Tortoise and Vermillion Bird were not necessarily third and fourth — the Seal was vast, so large that even the Cao family patriarch had never fully controlled it. After the Cao family fell, most of its killers went to ground, quietly severing their ties.
Yujian was one of those — formidable enough to rank in the top ten himself, and almost certainly above Vermillion Bird and Black Tortoise. But those four had always had each other’s backs: touch one and you touched all three of the others. He could beat Vermillion Bird alone, but the moment he tried, Black Tortoise would come for him, and if Black Tortoise was involved, White Tiger wouldn’t be far behind.
After the Mountain River Seal dissolved, Xu Ji had found Yujian and offered him something he could not refuse, along with a degree of freedom he hadn’t had before. Over time, Yujian had become one of Xu Ji’s most trusted men.
The private forces Xu Ji had assembled during his years in Jizhou were divided between Guan Mo’s command and Ye Celeng’s household. He had given Ye Celeng — his brother-in-law — a number of men under the pretext of finding him bodyguards, and at the time Ye Celeng hadn’t thought too hard about it. The realm was still unsettled then; every important minister and general had good reason to maintain a large retinue.
Yujian’s errand to Ye Celeng’s household was to have Ye Celeng order those men to intercept the Court of Justice outside the city walls. It was a desperate gamble — mishandled, it would drag in a great many people. But doing nothing would drag in just as many, and sooner. Faced with the choice between bad and worse, and between now and later, Xu Ji had chosen both of the former.
When Yujian arrived, Ye Celeng had only just returned home. Hearing the situation, his expression darkened at once.
“Absolutely not.” He turned on his heel to find his outer robe. “Does Xu Ji have any idea this constitutes treason? He thinks he can drag me down with him? I want nothing to do with this. I’m going to the Weiyang Palace right now — I’ll report him myself.”
“My lord!” Lady Ye crashed to her knees in front of him, sobbing. “Please, think carefully. He’s my only brother — my only family left… If you won’t help him, at least don’t be the one who destroys him.”
“I told him time and again — don’t go too far, don’t cross the Emperor’s line,” Ye Celeng said. “Look at what he’s done.”
“He was young and reckless, he didn’t know any better,” Lady Ye wept. “He deserves to be punished for his mistakes, but he shouldn’t die for them — he’s still so young, there’s still time to change…”
“Foolish woman! This is treason — do you think that’s a small mistake? Handle this badly and we both get dragged down.”
Lady Ye only sobbed harder, pleading without end, until Ye Celeng’s head was splitting.
Yujian saw that things were stalling dangerously. He had no idea how long before the Court of Justice would have those men inside the city walls — once they were in, there would be no opportunity to intercept at all.
“My lord, if you don’t wish to be involved, you can transfer the men to me. These men were originally sent to you by my master. I’m asking for them back to use now — you have no reason to refuse.”
Ye Celeng wheeled around furiously. “You people will be the ruin of Xu Ji’s name!”
Lady Ye tugged at her husband’s sleeve. “Please, just stay out of it — can’t you let them handle it themselves?”
Ye Celeng stamped his foot and shook her off, striding out of the room.
His walking away was itself an answer: I want nothing to do with any of this.
But Lady Ye, the moment he was gone, turned to Yujian. “I’ll take you to the men. Quickly.”
Yujian helped her to her feet, and the two of them hurried off to muster the household forces.
Ye Celeng stood at the window and watched them go. He closed his eyes with a long, quiet exhale.
*It’s over. Everything — it’s all over now.*
At that moment, Xu Ji’s carriage had already arrived at the palace gates. He had spent the ride breathing deeply, trying to look calm, and had spent the last few minutes whispering to the false Zangjie — *stay steady, no one knows anything, just say what I taught you and it will be fine.*
The false monk was so frightened he could barely understand a word. He looked like a man whose soul had mostly left his body.
As Xu Ji stepped down from the carriage, something suddenly struck him. In one moment of clarity, it all came together.
Zangjie wanted the Emperor to scoop everyone connected to Xu Ji up in a single net.
And in that same instant, Xu Ji began to suspect whether Zangjie had been the Emperor’s man all along.
If that was so, then walking in right now with a fake Zangjie — the Emperor would see straight through it. He would look like a clown.
With one move, Zangjie had pulled Lian Xiwu, Ye Celeng, and the most prominent officials of the civil service into the net. Lian Xiwu now had to race to the Imperial Garden to prove his own innocence. Ye Celeng, as Xu Ji’s brother-in-law and custodian of his private forces, was already impossible to extricate.
Conspiracy. Faction. Treason.
One move by Zangjie, and the entire civil service was backed into a dead end.
The more Xu Ji thought about it, the more he was convinced Zangjie was the Emperor’s agent. And looking at the false monk beside him, the more frightened he became.
He could almost picture it now — Zangjie’s smile, that self-satisfied, knowing smile.
What he had never imagined, not for a moment, was that Zangjie was the instrument of Yang Jing — the dead last emperor of the fallen Kingdom of Chu. A figure of such pathos, who had died with no one at his side — and yet he had people loyal enough to do this?
As a man of letters, Xu Ji knew that history was full of such servants. When Chu fell, how many scholars had chosen death rather than surrender? Some had drowned themselves. Some had dashed their heads against walls. Some had hanged themselves. Some had even thrown themselves in front of Ning army formations to hurl curses until they were cut down. But that even now, years later, someone should still carry that old loyalty into the world and cause such trouble…
Yet it was Xu Ji himself who had given Zangjie the platform. Without him, what waves could one monk make?
While Xu Ji’s thoughts ran in circles, Lady Ye had rallied the household — not just the men Xu Ji had originally placed there, but every able body in the compound. She was past careful thinking. All she wanted was for her brother to survive.
As Lord Ye’s senior official, his household guard was substantial, and several among them were men who had served him loyally for years. When Lady Ye gave the order, they assumed it came from Lord Ye himself, and no one objected.
Lady Ye looked out at the assembled men and bowed low. “I beg all of you — if you can help my brother through this crisis, I will spend the rest of my life in your debt, whatever you ask of me. You will be the saviors of us both, and neither my brother nor I will ever forget this kindness, not in this lifetime or any other.”
Yujian couldn’t afford to wait. He said only, *Do not worry, my lady*, then beckoned the group and led them swiftly out of the Ye estate.
—
The scene now shifts to the previous night.
In that small courtyard in the south of the city, Zangjie the monk had lit four or five oil lamps, filling the room with as much light as it could hold. He had a stick of charcoal in hand, drawing on the floor.
The first thing he drew was a diagram of connections — Xu Ji at the center, lines radiating outward to the people around him. One line to Lady Ye. Lady Ye to Ye Celeng. Ye Celeng branching to the many officials transferred from Yuzhou into Chang’an.
Another line to Lian Xiwu. The connection between Xu Ji and Lian Xiwu was thin, but the Imperial Garden had forged it.
Zangjie had hidden something in that cellar — a false piece of evidence he had fabricated: a torn-up map. It showed only the precise route from the Imperial Garden to the cellar. Drawing it had not been difficult. As Chancellor, Xu Ji had once toured the Imperial Garden in the Emperor’s name, and had at that time noted that some of the survey cellars were still unfilled. He had filed that knowledge away. Tracing a route between the two points on paper was trivial.
But once the Court of Justice found that torn map, they would immediately suspect the official who oversaw the Garden’s construction — had he colluded with the assassin? A single sketch drawn by Zangjie, and an entire cohort of Works Ministry officials would be implicated.
Crouching on the floor over his diagrams, Zangjie let the corners of his mouth curl upward — the quiet confidence of someone who has thought everything through.
He loved this kind of work. He loved what he was doing.
*By one person’s hand alone — to bring down an entire dynasty.*
—