Li Diudiu stayed with his master until near sundown, when he had no choice but to leave and make it back to the academy before dark. Yan Qingzhi had set more rules for him than for any other student, and he worried that if he returned the next morning, there would be consequences.

His master was settled for now, and that eased much of the weight in Li Diudiu’s chest. He left feeling satisfied — the kind of simple, uncomplicated satisfaction that belongs to the young.

His master walked him out to the front of the inn. After Li Diudiu stepped into the street, he looked back every few paces. His master stood there, waving again and again. The two of them traded waves in that way for a while before parting.

Walking down the main street, Li Diudiu felt a small sense of pride in himself. He felt he had done something significant. But there was an even bigger thing waiting for him — he needed to save enough money to buy his master a proper residence in Jizhou City. Smaller was fine, shabbier was fine — it would still be home.

Every ten days he could come back to visit. Just thinking about it made him feel warm inside.

He had walked for about half a shi when the academy gates came into view just across the street. He was just about to break into a run when, without warning, a sack appeared behind him.

It came down over his head in one swift motion, was yanked tight, and Li Diudiu lost his footing and fell heavily to the ground. The person dragged the sack quickly into an alley beside the street.

Three or four people moved to block the mouth of the alley, standing there as though making idle conversation — a screen over whatever was happening inside.

A young man of sixteen or seventeen tied off the sack with a cord and held out his hand for a wooden club.

“Word is you’re the most arrogant little brat at the academy.”

Crack.

The club came down. It was impossible to tell exactly where it struck Li Diudiu — but Li Diudiu’s body went rigid for a moment.

“Consider this a warning. A peasant-born kid like you should know your place. Stay quiet, stay humble. I won’t beat you to death, but I’ll make sure you remember how to behave yourself from now on.”

The man talked as he hit him. Inside the sack, Li Diudiu had curled into a ball. The club came down again and again, hard and without mercy. At last there was a sharp crack — and the club snapped in two.

The man was apparently winded. He straightened up, breathing heavily: “From now on, keep your head down. Bow and scrape to everyone you meet — you hear me? I’ll be watching you. If I see you strutting around again, next time will be worse. And remember — don’t cross anyone in this academy. Cross the wrong person and there’s no good end to it.”

He waved a hand. Two men dragged the sack out and dumped it by the roadside. The group scattered.

A long while passed. Inside the sack, Li Diudiu hadn’t moved.

Then the guard coming on for the shift change spotted the sack by the road, walked over curiously, and in that same moment Li Diudiu stirred. The guard nearly jumped out of his skin.

“Is anyone out there? I’m a student of the Four-Page Academy. I was beaten. Please let me out.”

Li Diudiu’s voice came from inside the sack. The moment the guard heard it was a student, he immediately loosened the ties at the mouth.

When Li Diudiu crawled out, his face was white, and blood marked the corner of his mouth.

“What happened to you!”

The guard’s own face had gone pale with alarm.

“I’m fine.”

Li Diudiu struggled to his feet and bowed to the guard: “Thank you.”

He walked forward, dragging one leg slightly, without another word. His stride was uneven; the guard followed behind him, reaching out as if to offer support. Li Diudiu shook his head to indicate he could manage.

He made his way back to his room like that, and as soon as he was inside he threw himself facedown on the bed, breathing in deep, labored gulps.

The person who beat him was almost certainly someone from the academy. That was Li Diudiu’s first conclusion.

The man had told him to keep his head down and stay humble, and said he would keep watching — which meant he had to be a student here.

But the academy had too many students — from children of ten or so all the way to men in their forties. The oldest were rumored to be from wealthy families who had repeatedly failed the imperial examinations and had been studying at the academy for many years.

Not over twenty years old.

That was Li Diudiu’s second conclusion.

This person was afraid of Xiahou Zuo.

That was his third conclusion.

Under normal circumstances, students who reached seventeen or eighteen had already graduated. And for anyone of average ability, the academy’s instruction was thorough enough that most would at minimum pass the provincial examination — which made them Candidates of Letters. In the countryside, a Candidate of Letters was a rare sight. But in a city like Jizhou, there were far too many.

Students over twenty still in the academy were mostly those who hadn’t passed despite their limited ability but refused to give up — people of means who could keep paying the fees and continued to study. Li Diudiu knew that there weren’t many of those — fewer than a hundred total — and that group had almost no interest in anything outside their books. They only wanted to pass their exams. They wouldn’t involve themselves in something like this.

As for the person definitely fearing Xiahou Zuo — Li Diudiu was certain that Xiahou Zuo had been following him right up until he and his master entered the inn, and only left after that. And whoever planned to beat him must have been watching in secret the whole time as well.

He let out a slow breath.

Almost all his injuries were on his back.

In the split second when the sack came down over him, Li Diudiu had appeared to simply trip and fall — but what he had actually done was bend at the waist, wrap his arms around his head, draw in his knees to protect his stomach and chest, and curl himself up tight.

This was a lesson Li Diudiu carved into himself: from now on, he could never let his guard down. At an age when he shouldn’t have needed to learn things like this, he learned them anyway and pressed them deep into his memory.

When the man brought the club down on him, Li Diudiu had arched his back and done his best to take every blow on his upper back and shoulders. The club had snapped partly because of that arc — the point of contact distributed the force differently.

Even so, the man had no technique in his swings — clearly not a martial artist, though someone accustomed to brawling. One of the blows had landed on Li Diudiu’s leg. That was why his walk was uneven.

I’m going to find you.

Li Diudiu bit his lip.

This person either had a grudge against him or against Xiahou Zuo. If it was against him specifically, it wouldn’t be hard to narrow it down — it couldn’t be far from Zhang Xiaolin or Sun Rugong.

Meanwhile, in a restaurant outside the academy, seven or eight young men had ordered a full table of food and wine. They were not old, and every one of them had a brash, swaggering air. Three whole jars of aged wine were opened before the food even arrived.

Sun Rugong was busy pouring drinks for all of them, face arranged into an expression of humble deference.

Seated in the seat of honor was the one who had beaten Li Diudiu — a man named Sun Biehe, Sun Rugong’s cousin.

“All of you remember this,” Sun Biehe said, expansive and easy. “This is my little cousin. Look after him in the academy.”

The others immediately fell over themselves to agree.

“Brother Sun, rest easy — your younger cousin is our younger cousin. Nobody touches him.”

“That’s right. In the future you can walk sideways in the academy, and if anyone gives you trouble, just come to us. Whether your cousin is around or not, we’ve got you.”

Sun Biehe smiled and beckoned Sun Rugong over: “Did you hear that?”

Sun Rugong nodded quickly: “I heard it all. These are all my brothers.”

Sun Biehe laughed: “That’s right. We are brothers in life and death.”

He pointed to the seat beside him: “Sit here.”

Sun Rugong sat: “Thank you, cousin, for avenging me.”

“Avenging you, that’s secondary,” said Sun Biehe. “What you really wanted was for people to think it was Zhang Xiaolin’s doing.”

Sun Rugong said: “You guessed it exactly, cousin.”

He lowered his voice and leaned toward Sun Biehe’s ear: “To be honest, I’d originally planned to use Zhang Xiaolin. He’s an idiot. I’ve nudged him multiple times to go pick fights with Li Chi, hoping Li Chi and he would end up in a proper conflict. Right now there are four of us studying under Instructor Yan. If Zhang Xiaolin and Li Chi get expelled for breaking academy rules, then it’s just me and Liu Shengying left.”

“Ha ha ha ha!” Sun Biehe laughed out loud. “Not bad thinking.”

Sun Rugong continued: “That Li Chi may be a poor brat, but his learning runs deep. If he takes first place, that’s also a loss of face for our family. As for Liu Shengying, I haven’t thought much of him at all.”

Sun Biehe asked: “And Zhang Xiaolin?”

“An idiot. I’ve had him spinning circles.”

Sun Rugong said: “He had it coming.”

Sun Biehe nodded: “I figured that little wretch would suspect Zhang Xiaolin. You’re young, but you’ve already pulled off the ‘kill with a borrowed blade’ move with some real finesse. I used to think of you as a small kid — I’ve been underestimating you.”

Sun Rugong smiled: “If he goes after Zhang Xiaolin, all the better. Li Chi has a rough nature — he’ll definitely confront him. If the two of them come to blows, the academy rules won’t allow either of them to stay.”

“Good, good, good!” Sun Biehe laughed. “The scheme is well laid, little brother. Come — drink with me.”

Sun Rugong looked a little reluctant: “The thing is… I’ve never drunk wine before. I’m afraid my father will scold me when I get home.”

Sun Biehe gave a dismissive grunt: “Just say it was me who pulled you into it. Do you think your father would dare scold you then? My father is the eldest son of the Sun family — the future head of the clan. Your father knows better than to make things difficult.”

“Yes, yes…”

A flash of cold cunning crossed Sun Rugong’s eyes — there and gone in an instant.

Back at the academy.

Li Diudiu lay on his bed, thinking carefully. A knock came at the door. He pushed himself up on both arms and went to open it, and found Xiahou Zuo standing outside.

“Hm. You don’t look that bad.”

Xiahou Zuo looked him up and down with a grin that seemed almost to relish his misfortune. “Wu the gatekeeper and I go back a ways — he was on duty when I walked you out of the academy that time. You remember him.”

Li Diudiu nodded. “I remember.”

Xiahou Zuo said with a smile: “He just sent someone to tell me you’d been beaten — stuffed in a sack and beaten. Looked bad from what he said. Looking at you now, though, you seem more or less all right.”

“I’m more or less all right.”

Xiahou Zuo leaned against the doorframe: “Need any help?”

Li Diudiu shook his head. “No.”

“Going to let it go?”

Li Diudiu shook his head again. “No.”

Xiahou Zuo made a quiet sound of acknowledgment. “If you need me, come find me. You know — if I want to dig up information on someone in this academy, it’s not hard.”

“I really don’t need to.”

Li Diudiu said it with complete seriousness. “Studying at the academy is a very boring thing. I need to do something interesting every now and then.”

“So you don’t like studying either.”

Xiahou Zuo said: “I thought you were cut out for it. That you were different from me.”

Li Diudiu asked: “Why don’t you like studying?”

Xiahou Zuo shrugged: “Can’t get into it. Always feels pointless. I was never meant for it. In another year I’ll be leaving the academy — then I’m heading to the northern frontier.”

He looked out at the night sky: “Joining the army is what a real man should do.”

He turned to Li Diudiu: “And why don’t you like studying?”

Li Diudiu copied his shrug: “What they’re teaching now is too basic. I covered all this when I was four.”

Xiahou Zuo narrowed his eyes and looked at him for a moment, then sighed: “Did you have the feeling just now that I managed to sneak in a piece of showing off without you noticing?”

Li Diudiu shook his head: “Which part?”

“You didn’t catch it — which might mean my showing off was genuinely too subtle. But I think yours was obvious enough…”

He turned and started walking away, one hand waving over his shoulder: “When you get beaten you hit back. Come find me when it’s more than you can handle.”

“I’ll handle it myself,” said Li Diudiu with a grin.

—