The gambling den’s owner quickly disposed of Sun Biehe’s corpse. In the current atmosphere of Dachu, transporting a body out of the city gates required only a small bribe to the soldiers on duty, and they wouldn’t even look twice.

As above, so below — it was largely the same everywhere.

This person would perhaps be forgotten by people for a very long, very long time — perhaps forgotten forever.

The matter of Sun Rugong’s expulsion from the academy would of course not be made public. His father Sun Qiu’s version of events was that his son had left of his own accord in righteous indignation over certain goings-on at the academy.

That was said only at home, naturally — they wouldn’t dare say it openly, as the Sun Family lacked the strength to directly confront Dean Gao.

Back at the same gambling den, in that same small room in the back courtyard.

Sun Rugong looked over the group of people he had summoned. Every one of them wore an ashen expression, as if their souls had left their bodies. Though all of them were older than Sun Rugong, he truly looked down on them.

But he still needed them, so he still had to put on a show, still had to seem especially sincere. Most importantly, he knew how to exploit the advantage of being a child — how to use their habit of underestimating him precisely because he was a child.

“My brother may already be gone.”

Sun Rugong said with an expression of grief: “Gentlemen and elder brothers, you were all my brother’s closest friends. I’ve summoned you not only because of my brother’s situation, but because this matter touches upon all of you as well.”

One of them immediately took several steps back: “Whatever your brother did, I know nothing about it. Whoever he offended, I don’t know either. Don’t say this involves us — what does it have to do with us?”

Another quickly added: “That’s right — whether your brother lives or dies has nothing to do with us.”

“Exactly — don’t drag us into anything. We know nothing.”

These men were already moving toward the door. Sun Rugong rushed over to block the entrance: “Gentlemen and elder brothers, could you hear me out first?”

One of them reached out to push him aside: “You little brat, stop blocking us. What does your Sun Family’s business have to do with us?”

Sun Rugong quickly said: “It’s not just our family’s business. Don’t you gentlemen want to know how my brother came to this end?”

Seeing the men hesitate, Sun Rugong said: “My brother got on the wrong side of Prince Yu’s household this time. As I just said, I know all of you were his closest friends, so I’ve hidden nothing from you.”

“My brother has been missing for many days. His last known whereabouts were here. Someone claims to have seen my brother killed… Prince Yu’s household is already looking into this matter. The young lord who used to stand on our side hasn’t dared utter so much as a word.”

“So now we need to look out for ourselves. We can’t become other people’s scapegoats, can we?”

Sun Rugong said all of this in one breath. The men looked at each other, and no one made any further move to leave.

Someone asked: “What exactly do you mean?”

Sun Rugong said: “I’ve heard from my father that upon receiving word of Xiahou Zuo’s injury, Prince Yu may have already returned. Once Prince Yu returns, all those in the household who originally wanted to kill Xiahou Zuo will immediately turn into cowering turtles. They will spare no effort in pushing the responsibility onto others.”

He pointed at himself, then at the assembled men: “Naturally, onto us.”

“What does that have to do with us?!”

One man said: “If it hadn’t been for your brother, we’d never have gone and stirred up that ill-omened star Xiahou Zuo!”

“It’s all your brother’s fault!”

“Exactly — every bit of it!”

Sun Rugong said: “Blaming my brother is fair, and I also feel my brother handled things poorly. But now isn’t the time for us to argue — now is the time for us to discuss how to handle the situation.”

Someone said: “You’re just a little brat. What are you going to come up with?”

Sun Rugong said: “I actually have thought of something… That day, you were all there too, weren’t you? Several of you outside the inn who helped direct Li Chi — and also directed Xiahou Zuo. Xiahou Zuo hasn’t come after you yet only because he was seriously wounded and hasn’t had the time to deal with it.”

The men looked at each other, suddenly struck dumb.

Sun Rugong continued: “And as for this matter — who actually knows what happened? You gentlemen, myself — who else?”

One man said: “Xiahou Zuo, and that Li Chi fellow.”

“Exactly.”

Sun Rugong said: “Only the people in this room, Xiahou Zuo, and Li Chi know. And Li Chi is the one who could most directly threaten us all. Once Prince Yu returns and meets with Li Chi, he will certainly implicate all of us.”

He said with an expression of complete sincerity: “However forceful Prince Yu may be, he still needs evidence in a case like this. Without evidence, would he dare drag in all our families? He wouldn’t dare — not even a prince would dare. All of your families are people of standing. One person’s strength is limited, but together we are formidable. Prince Yu can’t possibly deal with every single one of us.”

Someone asked: “So what are you getting at?”

Sun Rugong said: “Xiahou Zuo was the direct party involved — his testimony alone without corroboration isn’t sufficient proof. When an official inquiry is conducted, his word alone cannot serve as evidence — but Li Chi’s testimony can.”

The men finally began to grasp his meaning. One said with sudden clarity: “You mean — if Li Chi were dead, Xiahou Zuo couldn’t prove anything on his own.”

Sun Rugong quickly said: “Exactly. In this matter, isn’t Li Chi the only true witness? If he were dead, who could prove anything?”

The men looked at each other again. Someone said: “But Li Chi isn’t easy to kill right now — he doesn’t leave the academy. We can’t just go into the academy to kill someone.”

Sun Rugong said: “I know Li Chi has a master. Find his master, force his master to write Li Chi a letter — or some other method. Once Li Chi finds out, he will surely leave the academy. The moment he steps outside the academy’s gates, how he dies is entirely up to you gentlemen, isn’t it?”

He cupped his hands in a bow: “I’m only a child, with limited ability. I can only entreat you gentlemen to find Li Chi’s master as quickly as possible and use that to threaten Li Chi. He won’t be able to hold out.”

The men fell silent. After a long while, one of them spoke: “Fine — we’ll go try to find him. If we locate Li Chi’s master, the actual killing is on the Sun Family.”

Sun Rugong said: “That goes without saying. This matter was started by my brother. The fault lies with him. He’s gone now, so I’ll bear the burden in his place. If this is handled well, it will serve as my apology to all of you on his behalf.”

Sun Rugong bowed once more, looking at each man in turn, memorizing each of their names — because every single one of these names was a blade he would use to kill others with another’s hand.

Liu Dengfei, Yang Yuzhi, Gao Xiao, Peng Peifei, Li Yan…

“But — how are we supposed to find his master? Going inn by inn? That’s too much trouble.”

“Right — we might not even find him. Li Chi’s master has definitely gone into hiding.”

Sun Rugong listened to this and inwardly cursed them all as a bunch of fools — but he couldn’t let it show. Feigning sudden insight, he said: “Gentlemen and elder brothers — I just thought of something. Li Chi was going to buy a house for his master.”

He looked at Yang Yuzhi and said: “Brother Yang, your father happens to handle exactly these affairs at the magistrate’s office. I saw with my own eyes that day that Li Chi collected the banknotes from those assassins’ belongings. He must intend to use that money to buy his master a house. So…”

“I understand!”

Yang Yuzhi’s eyes lit up: “When I get home, I’ll find a way to pull the property-sale records that have been recently filed at the magistrate’s office. There won’t be many — we’ll definitely be able to find Li Chi’s master.”

Sun Rugong said: “That’s exactly it. As expected, it’s your planning that’s most thorough, elder brother.”

Yang Yuzhi smiled: “Good thinking from you… Here’s what I’ll do — I’ll head back right now and find a way to get the information from my father. Same time tomorrow, we meet here again. If I can find out, we’ll work together and go seize Li Chi’s master.”

Everyone nodded in agreement, then dispersed.

Yang Yuzhi returned home and waited until his father Yang Zhongzhao came back from the magistrate’s office. He attended to him with great enthusiasm, offered him hot tea, stood behind his father, and while giving him a shoulder massage, probed carefully with a few questions.

“Father, a friend of mine from the academy came to find me today and entrusted me with something.”

Yang Zhongzhao made a sound of acknowledgment: “The moment you suddenly start fawning on me like this, I know you want something. Speak — what is it?”

Yang Yuzhi said: “A good friend of mine — his relatives have come to Jizhou. Their hometown was overrun by bandits, and they can’t go back. But houses in the city are hard to come by; they’ve been staying at an inn in Jizhou for over half a month and it’s become quite unbearable for them…”

Yang Zhongzhao said: “Why do you always get yourself involved in these kinds of things?!”

Yang Yuzhi produced several banknotes from his sleeve — given to him earlier by Sun Rugong — and presented them to his father: “Firstly, because this friend truly is close to me, and secondly, he gave me these as a token of thanks directly, and I really couldn’t turn him away.”

Yang Zhongzhao took the banknotes and his expression shifted visibly.

Added together, these notes totaled over a thousand taels. Yang Zhongzhao was only a sixth-rank chief clerk at the Jizhou magistrate’s office; his annual salary amounted to little, and if he hadn’t happened to oversee certain matters, he’d have had no money to fund Yang Yuzhi’s extravagant habits.

A thousand taels was more than enough to move Yang Zhongzhao.

“Since he’s such a close friend of yours, it would be inappropriate for your father not to help. Go fetch paper and brush — I’ll write down a few addresses for you. You can have your friend bring his relatives to look at them tomorrow. If they find something suitable, I can help smooth things along at the office and get the paperwork filed quickly.”

Yang Yuzhi was immediately pleased and hurried to fetch paper and brush.

Before long, Yang Zhongzhao had written down several addresses on the paper. He handed it to Yang Yuzhi and said: “There aren’t many properties left for sale in Jizhou city. This is the complete list of recent filings. Take it.”

Yang Yuzhi quickly said: “Thank you, Father. I’ll go deliver it to my friend first thing tomorrow morning.”

Yang Zhongzhao’s eyes fell on the banknotes and narrowed slightly, then he tucked them into his sleeve.

The next morning, Yang Yuzhi went out early. He first went to meet up with the others. They discussed the matter and decided it was best not to have their own hands in it at all — they’d hand the paper to Sun Rugong and let the Sun Family do whatever they pleased with it.

With that decided, Yang Yuzhi went alone with the paper to wait in the gambling den’s back courtyard. Before long, at the agreed-upon time, Sun Rugong arrived.

He took the paper from Yang Yuzhi’s hands, looked it over, and broke into a smile. He bowed and said: “Many thanks for your help, elder brother. Rest assured — this matter will soon be behind us.”

Yang Yuzhi said very seriously: “I’ve handed you the item. This matter has no further connection to any of us. You understand that, correct?”

Sun Rugong said: “Understood. Don’t worry.”

He walked out with the paper, then raised his head to look up at the sky, and broke into an unstoppable grin.

“Li Chi… I told you. You’ll regret this.”