Xiahou Zuo looked toward Ye Zhangzhu and asked: “Why are you covering your face?”

Ye Zhangzhu said quietly: “That little younger brother of yours is a scene-wrecker, isn’t he? The way he did that—it looked exactly like a wedding bow…”

Xiahou Zuo: “…”

Ye Zhangzhu said: “It seems there won’t be any more trouble. I could tell from the start that you never intended to make things difficult for them. I’ll fall back now.”

Xiahou Zuo nodded: “Good.”

Ye Zhangzhu immediately stepped back several paces. He was the kind of person who only seemed to exist when he was standing directly in front of you—once he stepped back, people would quickly forget he had ever been there.

Xiahou Zuo looked toward Gu Weishan and said: “All of you, go. If Tang Pidi hadn’t come to save you just now, you’d all be dead—and he’d be dead too. I’ve always believed in the principle that if others don’t provoke me, I won’t provoke them. That said, I do enjoy being provoked. Otherwise life becomes terribly dull.”

He looked toward Tang Pidi: “Get lost.”

To Gu Weishan he had still maintained some degree of courtesy; for Tang Pidi, a single “get lost” was all he offered. In that moment, even Li Diudiu could sense the mix of sorrow and indignation in Xiahou Zuo’s words—*what has happened to you, and you’re still going out drinking? Can’t you just endure it? Can’t you keep a lower profile?* Xiahou Zuo said none of this aloud, yet the meaning was unmistakable.

Tang Pidi understood. After helping Gu Weishan to his feet, he bowed deeply toward Xiahou Zuo: “Thank you, Senior Brother Xiahou.”

Xiahou Zuo paid him no mind and turned to walk back into the inn.

As he walked he said: “Let’s get some sleep. We have a long road ahead tomorrow.”

Gu Weishan suddenly halted and turned to look at Xiahou Zuo’s retreating figure. “Young Master Xiahou—I’ve heard you’re heading to Yuantuo Mountain. Something has happened there. I strongly advise you not to go.”

Xiahou Zuo asked: “What happened?”

Gu Weishan said: “Word only arrived a couple of days ago: a group of people attacked the villa of the great scholar Master Yuming and slaughtered everyone within—not a single person was spared.”

These words fell, and Li Diudiu and the others froze.

They had been traveling expressly to visit Master Yuming. To hear that Master Yuming’s entire household had been massacred—how could they not be shaken?

“What happened?!”

Xiahou Zuo strode back quickly and demanded an answer.

Gu Weishan said: “It’s still unclear exactly what occurred. A friend in that area sent me word—they advised me to avoid Yuantuo Mountain for now unless absolutely necessary. Two thousand garrison troops from Laihuxian County have been deployed there and are conducting a search of the mountain. They are arresting anyone deemed suspicious—which in practice means arresting everyone they encounter.”

Yan Qingzhi sighed. “It seems we can only turn back to Jizhou City.”

Gu Weishan asked: “Were you going to see Master Yuming?”

Yan Qingzhi nodded. “We were.”

Gu Weishan advised: “Best not to go. They’ve been using the capture of the killers as justification to arrest many people already. They make no distinctions—anyone found on Yuantuo Mountain has been taken in. Even being from the Academy won’t keep you safe. Those garrison troops aren’t taking orders even from the Military Commissioner, let alone the Academy.”

Yan Qingzhi looked toward Xiahou Zuo. Xiahou Zuo nodded: “Let’s not go, then.”

Tang Pidi helped Gu Weishan away. Li Diudiu and the others returned to the inn and sat there in silence, none of them quite sure what to say. The journey had taken some unexpected turns—and now even Master Yuming had met with disaster. Entirely unforeseen.

“Are we still going?” Xiahou Zuo asked Yan Qingzhi.

Yan Qingzhi shook his head: “I am an instructor at the Academy—I am responsible for your safety. This trip ends here. If you don’t want to head straight back, we can rest for a couple of days near Tangxian County, but going to Yuantuo Mountain is no longer possible.”

Xiahou Zuo nodded: “Then we don’t go. I was only tagging along with you anyway.”

While they were talking, a sudden commotion erupted outside. Xiahou Zuo startled and muttered to himself: “Back already?”

They went downstairs and stepped to the doorway, where they saw several blood-soaked people burst inside—two or three of them protecting an elderly man, all of them utterly spent.

The inn proprietor had gone white as a sheet with fright and was cowering behind the counter, urging the newcomers to leave at once.

“Proprietor, we ask only for one night’s shelter—just one night. We’ll be out of the city at first light tomorrow.”

One of the young men pleaded desperately: “We’re all injured, we need medicine and bandaging, we need rest. My teacher is elderly and he’s had a terrible fright…”

Before he could finish, Yan Qingzhi’s eyes went wide.

“Master Yuming?!”

The breathless elderly man snapped his head up at the sound of his name. His face first showed a look of fear—as if being recognized had frightened him—then, as he recognized Yan Qingzhi, his expression immediately softened in an enormous wave of relief.

“Qingzhi, is that you?”

Yan Qingzhi hurried over. “It’s me—Master, what has happened to you?”

Master Yuming appeared physically uninjured, simply drained of all strength—he could barely stand. Each of the young people protecting him bore wounds, and from the look of the bloodstains, not all of them were fresh. It seemed they had been hiding in Tangxian County for some time before being tracked to this location.

“It’s a long story.”

Master Yuming said: “Qingzhi—save me.”

The inn proprietor called out: “I beg you, please don’t implicate me. Just go. I’ll act as though you were never here—if anyone asks, I’ll say I never saw you.”

Yan Qingzhi looked toward Xiahou Zuo, who nodded. “We can’t stay here. Let’s move first and figure out the rest.”

They helped Master Yuming to his feet and headed toward the back of the inn—without a particular destination, just moving. Heaven only knew how many people were hunting Master Yuming, or when they might arrive.

They had been walking for less than a quarter of an hour when a group of black-clad figures rushed to the inn’s entrance. One of them spotted blood on the steps and immediately swept inside.

“They went to the back!”

The moment the black-clad figures entered, the proprietor—without being asked a single question—shouted out immediately: “I saw them run out the back—they left less than a quarter hour ago!”

The group of black-clad figures immediately gave chase again. The proprietor let out a long breath and thought to himself: this world really is getting impossible to live in—what manner of people keeps turning up here?

Ye Zhangzhu scouted ahead and found a small courtyard with no residents, already somewhat dilapidated, but at least a shelter. He pointed to it and said: “Get inside. Keep your voices down. I’ll stand watch outside.”

Li Diudiu and the others acknowledged this and helped the injured and Master Yuming into the courtyard. It was overgrown with wild grass—clearly no one had lived here for at least two or three years.

They entered the main room and dared not light anything. Both Yan Qingzhi and the others had brought medicine pouches from the Academy when they set out—not much, but enough for the moment. Li Diudiu and Xiahou Zuo tended to the young men’s wounds and applied bandaging while Yan Qingzhi settled beside Master Yuming and quietly asked him what had happened.

“Qingzhi… I fear I won’t escape this time.”

Having calmed down somewhat, Master Yuming was considerably more lucid than before. He gripped Yan Qingzhi’s hands and said: “The one they want to be rid of is me. My disciples here are entirely innocent, yet they’ve all been wounded protecting me. I only ask that you take them away—give them a chance to live.”

Yan Qingzhi said: “Master, rest easy. I will find a way to get all of you out.”

“Impossible. They will not rest until they see me—whether alive or dead. Liu Chongxin will not let me go.”

Master Yuming leaned against the wall and sat on the floor, still panting, and drew something from inside his robe, pressing it into Yan Qingzhi’s hands. “This thing—hide it for me.”

Master Yuming smiled bitterly. “The world calls me a hypocrite. In the court I dared curse Liu Chongxin to his face for the treacherous villain he is, yet after retreating into seclusion I chose to live near Liu Chongxin’s hometown as if seeking his protection—accepting certain advantages. But that is not the truth… If this treacherous villain is not eliminated, Dachu will be ruined.”

He looked at Yan Qingzhi and said: “After I returned from the capital, the reason I chose Yuantuo Mountain for my seclusion—and even went so far as to accept certain favors and purchase that villa on Yuantuo Mountain—was to secretly investigate the charges against Liu Chongxin.”

“The buildings he has had constructed on his family property are normally off-limits to all visitors. But living on Yuantuo Mountain, I would slip away each day to observe from the mountainside. His family estate has already been expanded to over a hundred acres in size, with a layout equivalent to an imperial palace.”

He looked at Yan Qingzhi: “Every day I used a long-range spyglass to observe from the mountain and draw the plans, thinking that if this evidence could be delivered to the capital, even an emperor who trusts that treacherous villain so deeply would have to impose some punishment. But unfortunately…”

Master Yuming said: “One of my disciples learned of this and went running to the Liu estate to inform on me. Liu Chongxin’s people disguised themselves as mountain bandits and stormed my home, killing everyone they could find.”

He pointed to one of the young men and said: “Fortunately my disciple Cai Sanxin sensed what was coming in advance. They protected me and we fought our way out, making it all the way to Tangxian County. We had planned to hide here for a day so the others could have their wounds tended, but Liu Chongxin’s people tracked us here as well…”

Master Yuming gripped Yan Qingzhi’s hand tightly: “Qingzhi, my own death matters little—but they are still just children.”

Xiahou Zuo spoke up from nearby: “Master, while what you did was righteous, your methods were regrettably reckless. Knowing how dangerous it was, you should never have kept your disciples close in the first place. And now you feel they’re still just children and you grieve for their lives—why go through all this…”

Before he could finish, Yan Qingzhi cut him off with a sharp look. “What good does saying this serve now?”

Xiahou Zuo said: “I only wanted to warn you—Liu Chongxin’s people are not to be trifled with.”

Master Yuming straightened himself with effort and said: “Everyone knows Liu Chongxin is not to be trifled with—but because of that, no one is ever to touch him? If this villain is not eliminated, Dachu will be destroyed by him. You ask why I didn’t stop my disciples from the start—I didn’t stop them because they felt exactly as I did: a desire to save this country and rid it of this evil!”

Xiahou Zuo moved to respond, but glanced at Yan Qingzhi’s expression and simply held his tongue.

Yan Qingzhi said: “Master, in a little while we’ll change our outer garments. Have your people wear our Four-Page Academy robes. We’ll leave the city at first light tomorrow.”

Xiahou Zuo still couldn’t hold back: “Do you want to bring disaster down on the entire Academy—a thousand or two thousand people?”

Yan Qingzhi was taken aback.

Xiahou Zuo gave a cold sound and said: “Womanish compassion—its damage will spread far wider.”

He had no patience to say more, and strode out in long steps, saying as he went: “Li Chi, come with me.”

Li Diudiu hesitated, looked at his master. His master gave a nod. “Go with Xiahou Zuo first.”

Li Diudiu asked: “What about you, Master?”

Changmei smiled and said: “Your master is a Daoren. Even a substandard Daoren is still a Daoren. If Daoren stop saving people, the founding ancestors of the Dao lineage will use the most colorful language imaginable. Child… your master taught you this—your master is afraid of death, but there are things one must still do.”

Li Diudiu drew a long breath in and slowly let it out.

“You’re so foolish, Master.”

Changmei smiled. “Your master has always been foolish.”

Li Diudiu gave a sound of agreement. “So you raised a foolish disciple.”

He stood at Changmei’s side, just as he had for so many years.

—