Li Chi had not expected Jiang Ran to be such a man of action. On the third day after announcing his allegiance — the second day after being hidden in that little courtyard — he had already drawn up a treasure map.

For safety, Li Chi and Yu Jiuling wore their face covers when they arrived. They could not afford to be careless.

Seeing Li Chi and Yu Jiuling come through the door, Jiang Ran immediately came forward to meet them, limping on one leg. The wound on his leg was severe; fortunately, the medicine Li Chi had given him earlier was effective enough, and suturing wounds was something all veterans of military service had learned — even if most hadn’t used the skill in a long time.

Yu Jiuling, watching Jiang Ran shuffle along with such difficulty, felt a faint twinge of guilt deep in his heart. A gust of wind blew it away.

Getting him to change his view of officials wasn’t something that would happen overnight. His acceptance of Jiang Ran was purely because Jiang Ran had said he could help get them money.

“This is the layout of the military garrison’s storehouses.”

Jiang Ran handed the map to Li Chi and continued: “I’ve also marked the shift-change times, the audit dates, and the routes in and out.”

Li Chi was genuinely surprised by Jiang Ran’s cooperative attitude. He sat down and asked, “The military garrison’s storehouses — those must be heavily guarded.”

“That would be wrong.”

Jiang Ran said, “You don’t know the garrison. Who would dare steal from a place like that, other than our own people?”

Li Chi: “Well…”

Jiang Ran said, “Since I intend to follow you from here on, I’ll tell you the truth from the heart. The garrison storehouses look heavily guarded on the surface — but in reality, those bastards, which one of them doesn’t slack off? Which one doesn’t cut corners?”

He said with some shame: “I served as general in the garrison for over a year, and I did my fair share of taking things from the storehouse to exchange for silver. The silver vault is harder to access — that one is genuinely under heavy guard, and those are the garrison commander’s soldiers, not the garrison’s own men.”

Li Chi asked, “Could we get leather armor?”

“We could.”

Jiang Ran said, “Let me be completely frank — I want you to trust me. A few days ago when I told you who wanted to kill me, I didn’t dare say the name yet, because I was afraid you’d hear it and be too frightened to rescue us. The one who wants to kill me is Prince Yu…”

He looked at Li Chi and said, word by word: “Actually, I’ve figured it out now — you people have nothing to do with the Azure Formation, and nothing to do with Yue Huanian. And when I think about it, the sorry state I’m in is nine-tenths your fault…”

Yu Jiuling sighed: “And the remaining small fraction you just rounded off out of generosity, I suppose.”

Jiang Ran laughed out loud. “I hold no grudge against you, because I’ve also thought it through — even without what you did, I would have ended up on this same road sooner or later. I made enemies with Prince Yu in the past. With his vindictive nature, if he didn’t move today he’d move tomorrow.”

He said to Li Chi: “Might as well go all in and rebel against the whole damned thing. Nothing matters more than staying alive.”

Li Chi made a sound of acknowledgment, then said: “Before we talk about any of that, there’s something I should tell you. I had people look into it — your wife and children have indeed left the city. Prince Yu doesn’t intend to wipe out your entire family. I sent people after them; they’ve been caught up with, and I’ve arranged for them to be sent to Yanshan Camp.”

Jiang Ran shot to his feet. His complexion drained in an instant. By instinct his hand went toward his weapon — it stretched out partway, then hung frozen in midair.

“Yanshan Camp…”

Jiang Ran stared at Li Chi. After a long moment, he let out a slow, deep breath. “So be it. So be it.”

Li Chi said, “Do you still want to work with us?”

Jiang Ran said, “It doesn’t matter. Yanshan Camp is Yanshan Camp — at least it’s somewhere. Just now, in that moment, I thought it through: there’s nowhere else that could necessarily keep them safe.”

Li Chi nodded. “I’m telling you this not to hold it over you, but to let you know your family is accounted for.”

Jiang Ran sat in silence for a moment, then said: “If I were to join Yanshan Camp… could I have some kind of command post?”

Yu Jiuling said, “Depends on how much you contribute.”

Jiang Ran fell silent again.

After a while, he said: “There’s leather armor. There are weapons. I can help you get them — but there is one condition.”

Li Chi said, “Say it.”

Jiang Ran looked at Li Chi and said, slowly and deliberately: “You have to trust me. Going in and out of the garrison storehouses — it has to be under my direction. I don’t want to die.”

Li Chi said, “Agreed.”

Jiang Ran let out a long breath, settled back into his seat, and continued: “For both our peace of mind — I can’t move around yet, so I stay here. Each time you go to the garrison storehouses, my men lead the way, and your men follow their instructions. My staying here puts your mind at ease; your men following my men’s instructions puts my mind at ease.”

Yu Jiuling smiled. “As long as we’re getting goods, we’ll follow your lead.”

Jiang Ran said, “The question is — how do you get the goods out once you have them?”

Yu Jiuling said, “Don’t worry about that. We have our ways. However much there is, we can move it.”

Jiang Ran nodded, then turned to look at his personal guards: “What do you all think? I’m not forcing any of you to stay. I only ask one thing — if you leave, don’t sell me out.”

Squad leader Liu Shan said, “Sir, we’re all with you.”

Jiang Ran nodded. “Good. Then let’s seal the deal tonight — let’s go pull off a job!”

An hour later, Li Chi and Yu Jiuling were walking back along the main street. Yu Jiuling looked rather excited; whenever there was something to be acquired, whatever it was, he got excited.

“I think that Jiang Ran fellow probably won’t deceive us.”

Yu Jiuling said, “Tonight I’ll bring a few brothers and go along with them. If they actually come back with something, at least when we get to Yanshan Camp we won’t arrive empty-handed.”

Li Chi smiled. “You’re not going to look for Xiahou anymore?”

Yu Jiuling went quiet at once. After a long silence, he sighed and said: “I don’t want to go anymore. It’s not that I’m afraid of dying, and it’s not that I’ve forgotten I owe it to the shop owner to avenge him — I just don’t want to go over there and eat humble pie. Even Xiahou Zuo is being pushed around. If I went there, I’d have even less chance of avenging the shop owner.”

As they talked, the two passed the Cloud Study Teahouse. Li Chi unconsciously quickened his pace — he didn’t want to be seen by anyone inside.

As they passed, they heard someone singing inside, accompanied by rounds of applause and cheers. Li Chi felt a measure of relief: the Cloud Study Teahouse had not grown desolate after his departure; for Madam Sun and Proprietor Sun, at least, there wasn’t so great a blow to endure.

Yet all the cheering was from men. This made Li Chi curious; he glanced through the window as they passed. In the spot where he used to sit every day, someone new had taken his place: a young woman in a pale-yellow long skirt, a pipa cradled in her arms as she played and sang, her face veiled, her age and features impossible to make out.

Her voice was beautiful — her song melodious and lilting. From the sound, she was likely young. Since Li Chi had stopped performing at the Cloud Study Teahouse, nearly all the young women and young wives who had come to listen had drifted away, and the place had been reclaimed by a crowd of men.

Yu Jiuling said as they walked, “That’s the finest tune I’ve ever heard, and the finest voice. I’d wager that girl must be heavenly to look at.”

Li Chi shook his head and quickened his step.

That night.

In the back courtyard of the Cloud Study Teahouse, the young woman who had sung there during the day sat in the yard, gazing at the moon in a daze.

She was indeed young — perhaps fifteen or sixteen — with a pair of exceptionally beautiful eyes. Yet those eyes held only sorrow.

A woman of about forty came to stand before the girl, and said with a slight bow: “Little mistress, it is time to rest.”

The girl looked at the woman and said: “Yun-gu, go make some inquiries tomorrow. We’ve been in Jizhou three days now — it’s time to start making preparations.”

The woman addressed as Yun-gu bowed her head and said: “Yes… only, Little Mistress, you came out this time without the Gate Master’s knowledge. I worry she will reproach you.”

The girl shook her head. “Master said herself that if this matter is left unresolved, it will always be a thorn in my heart. Besides, if I don’t kill him, Jizhou will eventually be destroyed at his hands. The people of Jizhou have suffered enough — to let them suffer war and chaos on top of that, because of him, would make him a villain for the ages.”

Yun-gu said, “Prince Yu’s residence is sure to be full of formidable people. Killing him will be extremely difficult, and the Little Mistress has come with so few hands…”

The girl said, “I am enough on my own.”

She glanced at the pipa lying nearby, picked it up, and turned to go inside.

“The proprietor and his wife here are decent people. Don’t implicate them. Once the matter is settled, we leave.”

Yun-gu bowed: “Understood.”

Half an hour later, the girl lying in bed couldn’t fall asleep no matter what. Tired of lying there, she got up and stretched, then noticed the window was still open, and through it she could see a sky brilliant with stars and the breathtaking beauty of the moon.

She pulled open the door and went out into the courtyard, and stood there gazing up at the moonlight for quite a while. These past few years, she had always loved being alone at night in quiet contemplation of the moon.

With a flick of her wrist, a ribbon slipped out from her sleeve and coiled around the wine jar on the table inside the room. As the ribbon drew the jar flying back toward her, she had already drifted lightly upward, pressing one hand against the eave, and landed atop the roof.

She shook the ribbon loose, and the wine jar dropped into her palm.

She leaned against the ridge of the roof and drank, eyes still fixed on that silver-dish moon.

Just then, footsteps sounded from outside — not loud, but numerous.

The girl glided to the back of the roof and looked down. A group of people were passing along the street below, every one dressed in dark nightwalking attire with their faces covered. Stranger still, each of them carried an enormous bundle on their back, bulging and full — contents unknown.

The girl blinked. *Is Jizhou City truly this unsettled?*

So many people out in the night like this — whether thieving or plundering, these were certainly not decent folk.

Irritation rose in her chest.

Whether big thieves or small, she would teach them a lesson first and ask questions later.

She was already in a poor mood; running into rogues at large in the night only made it worse. And most importantly — she had been drinking. In her sect, everyone knew one thing: when the junior sister wasn’t drinking, she was the junior sister; when the junior sister had been drinking, she was a rampaging tiger.

The girl pulled a gauze scarf from her sleeve and tied it over her face, then leaped down from the rooftop. Her movement technique was light and swift; she landed without a sound.

She watched the dark-clad figures running ahead, a cold glint flashing in her eyes.

She was just about to pursue them when she heard sounds approaching from behind. She spun around — and saw two shadows coming up in the distance. These two must have been part of the same group as those ahead; the reason they were slightly behind was that each of them was carrying two large bundles.

The girl in the long skirt decided she wasn’t going to chase the ones up ahead. After all, the two in back were greedier.

—