Dongye City.

The Prefecture Office.

With a loud thud, Chang Hang was thrown onto the ground, crying out in pain.

“I once told the Prefect that Chang Hang was a man of crooked intentions — one who should neither be kept close nor pushed too far away.”

Wu Naiyu looked down at Chang Hang, who was struggling to stand, though with tremendous difficulty.

Wu Naiyu walked over and kicked Chang Hang square in the face. Chang Hang was sent sprawling, hitting the ground hard.

Wu Naiyu crouched down and seized Chang Hang’s left arm.

“A man like you — if you keep someone close, they’ll be calculated against, drained like blood being sucked out, leaving nothing but a shriveled husk.”

Crack. Wu Naiyu snapped Chang Hang’s left arm, then grabbed his right.

“A man like you — if someone keeps their distance, you’ll ruin them, swallowed whole like prey in a python’s gullet, not even the bones left behind.”

Crack. Wu Naiyu snapped Chang Hang’s right arm.

“Back then, I told the Prefect: neither keep him close nor push him away — the best course is to kill him.”

Wu Naiyu crouched there, one hand pressing down on Chang Hang’s knee, the other gripping his left ankle. He pressed down with one hand and pulled upward with the other.

Crack. The leg was wrenched backward and broken.

Wu Naiyu spoke as he worked.

“But the Prefect said: he was an official. How could an official casually take a man’s life?”

“The Prefect also said: even if your heart is crooked, your businesses are large and employ many people — at the very least, they put food in mouths.”

“The Prefect also said: the imperial court doesn’t just fail to support its officials — it doesn’t support its people either.”

“He’d gone years without receiving a single copper coin in salary. By that measure, was he even still an official of the court?”

“If not a court official, then he was the people’s official — and naturally couldn’t bring himself to tax the people either.”

As he spoke, Wu Naiyu broke Chang Hang’s other leg as well.

Chang Hang, all four limbs shattered, was in too much pain to scream. It was as if something had blocked his throat.

Wu Naiyu sat down on the threshold of the office gate and looked up at the lintel above. A length of rope still hung there.

Wu Naiyu said: “The Prefect also said: the court doesn’t provide for the people, but the people still have to live.”

“He said, if Chang Hang truly was a benevolent lord who loved his people, then he would go and be a traitor against the Dachu court without any regrets.”

“He also told me: wait and see a little longer — Chang Hang might yet treat the people well. If you kill him now, won’t someone else just rise in his place? And who’s to say that person would be any better than Chang Hang?”

“But you were not what he hoped you would be.”

Wu Naiyu looked at Chang Hang, who was now twisted with agony.

“You hanged the Prefect to death in this very office. That same day, my wife Su’er came to kill you — and I held her back.”

“Su’er asked me: if you won’t let her kill you, is it because your death would throw the Dongye Army into chaos and bring countless slaughters? She asked me — was I afraid that civil strife would spill rivers of blood?”

Wu Naiyu looked around the courtyard and spotted a coil of rope on a rack along one side. He rose, fetched it, and began tying a knot as he spoke.

“I told Su’er… no. I was afraid not enough people would die.”

He looped the rope around Chang Hang’s neck.

“Kill you, and if your men don’t fall into civil war — only you die.”

“Kill you, and if your men do fall into civil war — only a few hundred or a few thousand die.”

“I told Su’er: don’t kill him. Wait. You deserve to die — and so do those who did evil in your service.”

Wu Naiyu flung the rope upward. It flew over the roof beam.

He glanced at Chang Hang once more and sighed. “I’ll leave the rope here. If you’ve got grievances and come back as a ghost, take a good look at how you died.”

With a surge of strength, he hauled Chang Hang off the ground and left him hanging from the lintel.

Wu Naiyu tied the rope around a nearby pillar, then sat down and let out a long, heavy breath.

“If you had pretended to be a little more humane, the Prefect — fool that he was — would probably have been taken in by you.”

He looked up at Chang Hang. With all four limbs broken, Chang Hang could barely twitch. His tongue had already begun to protrude.

“I’ve killed you, yet I don’t feel much satisfaction.”

Wu Naiyu exhaled again, heavily.

“You’re dead — but the ink that records your name in the historical annals will weigh heavier than the Prefect’s. The annals will record you, Chang Hang, as a great villain who preyed upon the people — yet they may not spare a single line for Han Qingshan, the good official who loved them.”

Wu Naiyu reached into his chest and rummaged around, pulling out a wine pouch.

He pulled out the stopper and poured most of it onto the ground.

“Han Qingshan, Han Qingshan… a life without a single bribe taken, not even a copper coin of improper gain — even his wine was put on credit at my place.”

Wu Naiyu murmured softly: “Today I’m about to sully your good name… this wine — you can’t refuse it now. Consider it a bribe from me, asking you for one last favor.”

He tilted his head back and drained the rest of the wine in one long pull, the liquid gurgling down his throat.

“Just this one favor: down below… don’t be so foolish. Be a little kinder to yourself.”

Wu Naiyu rose to his feet, set the wine pouch down beneath the lintel, and left.

—

Half a day later.

Inside a pavilion in Dongye City.

Li Chi narrowed his eyes, looking at Tang Pidi, then turned his gaze — still narrowed — toward Zhuang Wudi.

He pointed at Tang Pidi. “This ‘Di’ — this enemy — deliberately used me as bait to lure Chang Hang out of the city.”

He pointed at Zhuang Wudi. “This other ‘Di’ — this other enemy — watched me being chased around and didn’t come to my rescue. Instead, he went and wiped out Chang Hang’s home base in one fell swoop.”

Zhuang Wudi said: “Not my fault.”

Tang Pidi said: “Hah!”

Zhuang Wudi said: “Still not my fault.”

Tang Pidi sighed: “To think that someone with such thick brows and an honest face as yours could go bad too.”

Zhuang Wudi said: “Even though it wasn’t my fault — I’d do it again.”

After returning from Yanzhou, Tang Pidi had passed through Jicheng and found Zhuang Wudi, explaining the plan to him then.

Tang Pidi had told Zhuang Wudi to have scouts closely monitor the situation on the Jieshi Prefecture side. The moment Ning forces arrived, he was to advance toward Jieshi Prefecture from the northeast.

He also told Zhuang Wudi: don’t rush to show yourself. I’ll bring the cavalry, and once I arrive, we’ll make arrangements together.

Li Chi had come from the west, and all along the way he had been conspicuously flashy — banners flying, making a spectacle of himself, extravagant to a degree bordering on the absurd.

Yet it was precisely this theatrical performance that had captured Chang Hang’s complete attention.

Chang Hang had been worried all along that there was yet another force behind Li Chi’s army. He never suspected that wolves lurked to the north.

Not long after Li Chi had left Jizhou, Tang Pidi had set his own forces marching. Moving at a rapid pace, he actually arrived a full day before Li Chi.

Li Chi lured Chang Hang’s great army out of the city in pursuit. Tang Pidi’s cavalry swept around and cut off the Dongye cavalry’s rear.

Meanwhile, Zhuang Wudi led a full army and, taking advantage of Dongye City’s depleted defenses, seized it in one swift stroke.

Zhuang Wudi said: “When we first arrived beneath Dongye City’s walls, the gate simply opened.”

He looked at Tang Pidi: “How did you arrange that?”

Tang Pidi sighed: “Though this is the moment where I really should put on a performance, I must admit — this truly was not my doing.”

He looked to the side: “They were the ones who opened the gate.”

Li Chi and the others turned to look. They were all men of the Dongye Army.

One of them said: “Master Wu once told us — if ever a day came when an army appeared outside Dongye City’s walls, and he was taken to the prefecture office, that would be the signal that the time had come.”

This man’s eyes were still slightly red.

“We were all subordinates of the Prefect, all originally working in the yamen. I was the constable-in-chief. These others were constables and runners, plus former militia and civilian soldiers.”

“After the Prefect was murdered, we endured humiliation for the sake of revenge. Following Master Wu’s instructions, we swallowed our pride and threw in our lot with Chang Hang.”

The man raised a hand and wiped at his eyes.

“Master Wu said: if you want revenge, make it thorough.”

Li Chi asked: “And where is Master Wu now?”

The man shook his head: “At this moment, we don’t know where Master Wu has gone.”

—

Earlier.

When Wu Naiyu had been escorted to the prefecture office, he paused at the entrance and looked up at the rope on the lintel.

Then he walked in and looked at the armored guards standing nearby. Under his gaze, those men lowered their heads in shame.

But — that was only what Chang Hang’s people assumed.

When Wu Naiyu raised his head to look at the rope on the lintel, then looked at the yamen men, his meaning was something else entirely.

His meaning was: the time has come.

When those men lowered their heads, it was because they understood what Wu Naiyu meant.

Even with Chang Hang leading his army out to pursue Li Chi, he could not have taken all his forces with him. Dongye City was his foundation. As long as the city held, no matter how chaotic the world became, he could stand unmoved like a mountain.

So the forces left garrisoning Dongye City still numbered at least twenty to thirty thousand men.

Even though Zhuang Wudi’s single Ning Army division was composed entirely of battle-hardened veterans with unrivaled fighting strength, breaking through Dongye City’s walls was simply not possible.

Zhuang Wudi’s forces could have wheeled around to converge with Li Chi’s from two directions, and together, with their combined strength, could have annihilated the seventy to eighty thousand Dongye Army troops outside the walls. That was within the realm of possibility.

But taking the city by assault — that was truly impossible.

Then the gate opened.

These men, acting on Wu Naiyu’s orders, had put their plan into motion the moment they saw Ning forces arrive beneath the walls.

The former constable-in-chief, Liu Ou, led his men and announced they were going to hold the gate. No one questioned it.

With Chang Hang absent, and all four of his top battle commanders absent as well, would the garrison commander left behind even think to question such a thing?

Liu Ou brought his men to the gate and threw it open, welcoming the Ning Army into the city.

The fighting that followed after that, frankly, needed no elaborate telling.

—

When Li Chi had heard it all out, he looked at Tang Pidi and said: “You already knew Master Wu was in Dongye City, and that’s why you had me come?”

Tang Pidi said mildly: “At this point, you still need to ask me that?”

Li Chi smiled: “Then what should I do?”

Tang Pidi, still in the same mild tone: “Praise me.”

Li Chi laughed and grabbed his arm: “Let’s go — come with me to find Master Wu.”

—

At the same time, on the summit of Dongye Mountain.

Getting up here was, in truth, impossible by any proper path.

The peak was all jagged, jutting rock formations. Not a single tree grew there. One wrong step and you would tumble off and be dashed to pieces.

Even the most seasoned hunters dared not wander about here freely.

On the summit stood a long, sword-shaped stone, planted upright in the earth.

Wu Naiyu and Su Xiaoxu sat atop this stone, watching the thick columns of smoke billowing up from the distance below.

“It’s rather beautiful,” Su Xiaoxu said.

Wu Naiyu smiled slightly: “A fire that burned to death quite a few people who deserved to die — so yes, rather beautiful.”

Su Xiaoxu sighed: “I merely said it was beautiful. You had to go and count how many people died.”

Wu Naiyu said: “Then what should I say?”

Su Xiaoxu thought for a moment, then said quite seriously: “You should say: only a true heroine among women like you could find those rolling columns of smoke beautiful.”

Wu Naiyu nodded: “Only a true heroine among women like you could capture a free-roaming spirit like me.”

Su Xiaoxu’s cheeks flushed faintly. She let out a soft huff.

“And yet now it seems you’re about to be captured by someone else all the same.”

Su Xiaoxu said: “I can see it in your heart — you’re already thinking about going to serve the Prince of Ning, aren’t you?”

Wu Naiyu smiled: “It’s not so simple. If he doesn’t come and ask me himself, why would I go looking for him?”

At that very moment, they spotted someone making their way up the mountain below.

Su Xiaoxu said: “Let’s head back — there’s no path up here, the rocks are steep. They won’t be able to get through easily.”

Before she had finished speaking, a young man darted and weaved through the field of jagged stones.

He moved like a hawk in diving flight, treading across the rocks as he came.

Stopping not far from the sword-shaped stone, the young man cupped his hands in salute:

“Li Chi of Jizhou requests an audience with Master Wu.”

—