Li Diudiu was walking back to his quarters from Yan Qingzhi’s courtyard when he spotted Sun Rugong waiting along the path. He found this rather tiresome and had no particular desire to engage with him—but when Sun Rugong saw Li Diudiu, he smiled and waved. There was no avoiding it.

Sun Rugong came over quickly, clasped his hands in a bow, and said: “I’ve thought about it for a long while, and I believe there are some things that should be said clearly before the monthly examination.”

Li Diudiu returned the courtesy politely and said: “Say what you want to say.”

Sun Rugong said with an apologetic tone: “I know I’ve done some things wrong before—it was all out of a competitive spirit, and because I knew I wasn’t as capable as you, so I was afraid you’d take first place. But then I thought about it more carefully. Whether first place goes to you or to me, we’ll most likely end up in different class sections from here on.”

He paused before continuing: “So I’ve come here to gather my courage and offer you an apology. What I did before was wrong of me. I’m sorry.”

Li Diudiu was taken aback. He studied Sun Rugong’s eyes carefully—because he didn’t believe it.

Sun Rugong said: “I understand that you don’t believe me. But judge it in time by what comes next—just watch whether I bother you again or not. When I went home, I told my parents about everything that had happened between us. They said I had been setting my sights far too low. I’ve been thinking about it, and I suppose they’re right. I don’t ask that we become friends going forward—I only hope that from here on, we can leave each other in peace.”

Li Diudiu nodded: “As you wish.”

Sun Rugong clasped his hands again: “Good. I’ve said what I came to say. I have a dinner engagement—a few of my older cousins suffered some minor injuries, and I’m going to check on them and see if there’s anything I can do.”

He finished speaking, turned, and left.

Li Diudiu took a few steps forward and then stopped again. He turned over in his mind what Sun Rugong had just said about a few older cousins having sustained some minor injuries.

On the day that he and his master and Xiahou Zuo had gone to Fengming Mountain, Li Diudiu had noticed someone tailing them. Xiahou Zuo’s people had taken care of those individuals afterward.

So he looked back over his shoulder. Sun Rugong was walking away quickly, without turning around.

Li Diudiu thought about it for a moment. He didn’t return to his quarters. Instead, he made his way toward the private courtyard where Xiahou Zuo was staying. When he arrived and called out for a good while, Xiahou Zuo didn’t appear. A student who appeared to be around sixteen or seventeen walked past. He saw Li Diudiu and said: “Don’t bother calling—I just saw Xiahou Zuo leave the academy a moment ago. He was in a hurry. Something must have come up.”

Li Diudiu frowned.

He thanked the student and ran toward the academy gates.

The student watched Li Diudiu run off, and a scheming smile crept across his face.

Meanwhile, on the other side of the academy grounds, Xiahou Zuo had been lifting stone locks in the small practice yard. He stopped, looked at the person who had come to find him, and said: “You’re saying Sun Rugong lured Li Chi out?”

The person nodded: “I happened to see Li Chi leaving the teaching master’s quarters. He ran into Sun Rugong on the path. I got close and only heard them mention your name before Li Chi took off and ran out of the academy in a hurry.”

Xiahou Zuo dropped the stone lock to the ground, grabbed his outer robe, and strode outside.

After Xiahou Zuo left, the person who had delivered the message let a smug smile spread across his face—exactly the same smile as the one worn by the person who had tricked Li Diudiu into leaving.

Li Diudiu arrived at the academy gates. He knew the gatekeeper, and the gatekeeper also knew Xiahou Zuo well. He asked: “Brother Liu, have you seen Xiahou Zuo?”

The gatekeeper named Liu Geng nodded: “I did—he went that way, moving fast. Something must have come up. He didn’t even acknowledge me when I greeted him.”

Li Diudiu thanked him and ran in the direction Liu Geng pointed.

He had run about a li or two when he spotted a group of people in academy uniforms standing at the entrance of an inn, as though waiting for someone. Li Diudiu called out to them: “Brothers, have any of you seen Xiahou Zuo?”

The group exchanged glances, then one of them pointed: “Just saw him—he went that way.”

Li Diudiu sped up and ran in that direction, thinking to himself: that fellow better not run into trouble.

Just then, Xiahou Zuo came charging out of the academy. He looked at Liu Geng and asked: “Have you seen Li Chi?”

Liu Geng pointed in the direction Li Chi had gone: “Just ran past a moment ago. Seemed to be in some kind of hurry—didn’t acknowledge my greeting either.”

Xiahou Zuo acknowledged this, drew a deep breath, and sprinted forward. He ran about a li or two until he reached that same inn. A group of students in academy uniforms were still there, chatting. Xiahou Zuo called out while he was still some distance away: “Have any of you seen Li Chi?”

One of them pointed: “Just passed by—that way.”

But the direction this person pointed was not the way Li Diudiu had actually run. The inn sat at a crossroads. Li Diudiu had continued straight ahead along the road. But the one who pointed directed Xiahou Zuo to turn right.

Xiahou Zuo turned at the crossroads and ran forward. He hadn’t gone far when he spotted a short figure in an academy uniform sprinting ahead—the back looked like Li Chi. Xiahou Zuo shouted and pushed himself to run faster.

The two of them were one behind the other, roughly seventy or eighty zhang apart. Xiahou Zuo called out several times, but the person ahead didn’t hear him. At the next crossroads, the figure turned and disappeared.

Xiahou Zuo cursed under his breath—Li Chi you deaf fool—gritted his teeth, and pressed on.

The person running ahead was not Li Diudiu. It was Sun Rugong. His height was nearly the same as Li Diudiu’s, and he wore the exact same academy uniform. At any distance, from behind, there was nothing to distinguish them.

Xiahou Zuo gave chase to the next crossroads. He turned and saw that Li Chi had already made it to the next corner—a turn, and he was gone. He thought to himself: when did this little brat get so fast?

He reached another crossroads, turned—and in a single glance, he saw it: in a courtyard with its gate standing open, Li Chi had been struck from behind with a kick to the lower back, and now someone had drawn a blade and was raising it to thrust downward.

In that instant, Xiahou Zuo’s eyes went round. A roar burst from his throat.

“Stop!”

The sound of it—like a tiger’s cry—startled the attacker, who looked up at Xiahou Zuo and then bolted. Xiahou Zuo could see plainly: the man was masked, but he moved like Sun Biehe.

Xiahou Zuo ran into the courtyard. He saw Li Chi face-down on the ground and motionless—clearly that kick had landed with tremendous force. Xiahou Zuo crouched down to pull Li Chi up.

But in the very instant he bent down, he stopped.

He said: “Let me give you a hand up.”

The next moment, he sent a kick slamming into the person on the ground. It launched the figure rolling and tumbling away, the force of it enormous. The person let out a muffled groan, rolled over several times, and stopped moving.

That one kick left everyone watching from their hidden positions completely stunned.

A group of assassins dressed in black emerged from all four directions. Someone closed and barred the courtyard gate.

Xiahou Zuo looked around, and he actually broke into a smile: “So my useless brothers have finally learned to play a bigger game.”

Sun Rugong had taken a powerful kick. Had Xiahou Zuo intended to kill him, that kick would have done it. As it was, the blow had knocked him briefly unconscious. He came to moments later, looked back at Xiahou Zuo, and his face changed color with fright. He frantically began crawling forward.

More than twenty black-clad figures had surrounded them, and they carried long swords.

Xiahou Zuo retreated step by step, shrugging off his outer robe. He noticed a large water vat behind him. He backed up to it and pushed the robe into the water. When he lifted it out, water poured from it in rivulets.

One black-clad assassin charged in, blade raised high. Xiahou Zuo snapped the robe out like a whip. The waterlogged garment cracked across the assassin’s face and tore away the mask in one stroke.

The assassin recoiled a step in pain, a vivid red welt blooming across his face.

Xiahou Zuo curled his lips: “The ones hired this time don’t seem to have commanded much of a price. Are my brothers really so stingy?”

Several more assassins charged at once. Xiahou Zuo swung the robe in a rotating motion, the bundled fabric spinning like a wooden staff. He swept it horizontally into the foremost attacker’s neck, sending the man flipping through the air to crash on the ground.

The robe snapped back, and then shot forward again like a viper striking—cracking into another assassin’s face with a sharp snap. The man’s head jerked back and he toppled backward out of control.

At that moment, the courtyard gate boomed—someone had kicked it in from outside. The two wooden doors swung outward, and the assassins guarding the gate were swept off their feet by the flying panels.

Li Diudiu stood in the gateway, taking in the scene. He had a rope in hand—a length of cord that appeared to be knotted from waistbands. It rested on his shoulder, and dragging behind him were four men in black, obviously beaten badly, their faces distorted out of shape.

“Hey!”

Li Diudiu called out to Xiahou Zuo: “Name your price.”

Xiahou Zuo kicked away an approaching assassin and snorted: “I can handle this myself.”

Li Diudiu shrugged, and he actually stepped back and sat down to one side. The surrounding assassins were momentarily unsure whether they should go after him or not.

Li Diudiu looked over at the hesitating assassins and smiled: “He’s too stingy to pay me. How about you name me a price? I’ll help you kill him.”

“You little brat—you’re asking for death!”

One black-clad assassin came striding over, bringing a blade chopping down toward Li Diudiu’s head. Li Diudiu shot forward, driving his shoulder into the man’s abdomen—the blade sliced through empty air. He used his shoulder to push the attacker back and began driving his fist up, again and again, directly into the man’s groin. Three or four punches in, the assassin collapsed. His face, too, was twisted out of shape.

So that was why the four Li Diudiu had dragged in looked that way—he hadn’t punched them in the face. There was something strangely remarkable about the human body: a blow to that particular spot made a man’s face contort.

Li Diudiu called over to Xiahou Zuo: “That’s five, mind you.”

Xiahou Zuo called back: “They’ll have silver on them—search them yourself! What are you asking me for?”

Li Diudiu nodded: “Fair point.”

He proceeded to pat down all five of them. Sure enough, every single one was carrying banknotes. Each person carried the same amount: one hundred taels.

He pocketed five hundred taels, deeply satisfied. He waved the banknotes at Xiahou Zuo: “You fetch quite a price.”

Xiahou Zuo: “Nonsense!”

Li Diudiu: “Quite a nonsense price?”

Xiahou Zuo: “Get in here and help or I’ll nonsense you myself.”

Li Diudiu loosened up. He sent a kick into the garden wall nearby—a section of it crumbled outward. He picked up a paving brick. It was too large for one hand and awkward to grip, so he hoisted it up with both hands above his head, took a running start, and hurled it forward—

A dull crack. One assassin took the brick to the back of the skull, dropped without a sound, and went still.

Li Diudiu went back, picked up another brick, took aim, and sent it spinning through the air. It brought down the next one.

Between Xiahou Zuo fighting and Li Diudiu hurling bricks, the black-clad assassins felt something was very wrong. More and more of their companions were going down. Of the group that had originally surrounded Xiahou Zuo, only three or four remained standing.

They looked at one another—and turned and ran.

Xiahou Zuo couldn’t be bothered to chase them. On the other side of the courtyard, Sun Biehe and Sun Rugong had already vanished—no one knew when they had slipped away.

Xiahou Zuo rolled his arms a few times to loosen them, then walked over to Li Diudiu: “How did you find us?”

Li Diudiu replied: “When things line up too conveniently, something’s usually off.”

He asked Xiahou Zuo: “You came charging out to rescue me because you heard I’d been lured away?”

Xiahou Zuo nodded: “And you?”

Li Diudiu held up the banknotes: “I wasn’t here to rescue you. I was purely here for the money.”

—