“These methods are vicious and ruthless — not the kind of tactics Central Plains merchants typically employ, or at least none we’ve heard of before.”

Guo Hui said, “This is the first time Jinzhou locals have dealt with merchants like this.”

Li Chi turned to look at Yu Jiuling. “Bring Gang Gang and Chen Dawei here.”

Shortly after, Gang Gang and Chen Dawei arrived and paid their respects to Li Chi.

Li Chi gestured for them to follow and, after stepping aside, said: “When it comes to jianghu affairs — are you two still well-positioned to make inquiries?”

“Absolutely.”

Gang Gang replied, “The jianghu sects are divided into the upper three and the lower nine. The two of us belong to the lower nine gates. People of the lower nine gates are spread across every trade and profession — as long as there are lower nine gates members active in an area, we can get word to them.”

Li Chi said, “Go and find a way in through the lower nine gates. See if there’s any word on this Lü Wuman.”

“Yes, sir.”

Gang Gang and Chen Dawei acknowledged the order and turned to leave.

Li Chi turned and walked over to the street performer and his daughter, smiled, produced those two hundred taels of silver, and handed it to the young girl.

“From now on, you manage the money. Don’t let your father handle it.”

The girl’s face flushed red again — she was at that tender age of early youth, impossibly endearing in every way.

In her heart she was wondering what method Prince Ning had used, that he could alter his appearance so convincingly, and that when his true face was restored, he actually looked even more handsome than before.

Li Chi had no idea the girl had managed to think all of that in just a moment.

When the girl saw her father reaching toward her, she tucked the coin pouch into her sleeve. “From now on I manage the money — Prince Ning said so himself. Father, are you really going to disobey Prince Ning’s words?”

“I… I’ll listen. Of course I’ll listen.”

The old man grinned sheepishly, his eyes drifting every now and then toward his daughter’s sleeve, where two hundred gleaming taels of silver were tucked away.

Li Chi turned and called out, “Bring paper and brush.”

He asked the girl, “Do you read musical notation?”

The girl nodded. “I’ve learned a bit, but I’m not very proficient.”

When his attendants brought the writing materials, Li Chi carefully transcribed a piece of music and handed it to the girl. “This song is a gift for you both. From now on, you’re welcome to come live in Jizhou.”

“Wonderful!”

The girl bowed deeply. “Thank you, Prince Ning.”

Li Chi looked over at the old man. The greed in his eyes was identical to his master’s.

He could see that the old man’s love of money was perhaps the same as his master’s had once been — a desire to save up enough so that his daughter could settle comfortably somewhere.

“This silver is enough for you to buy a small courtyard in Jizhou and make a home there.”

Li Chi looked at the old man. “What happened today was my intrusion upon the two of you, so I owe you both a favor in return. Once you reach Jizhou, go to Yongning Tongyuan Carriage House — if you need to buy a property or find your footing there, someone will look after you.”

The old man bowed and expressed his gratitude profusely.

The next day, quite a few townspeople gathered outside the official relay station — but not a single one had come to file complaints against Zhou Qixi. They had all come to beg Li Chi to show mercy and leave their Zhou magistrate in Jinzhou.

Inside the relay station.

Li Chi asked Gang Gang, “Any news yet?”

Gang Gang replied, “Your Highness, yesterday Chen Dawei and I talked it over. The other party would have needed to use lower nine gates members most extensively for gathering intelligence.”

“So we reasoned that if he wanted to learn everything about the commerce scene within Jinzhou, he would need to pay someone for that information.”

“We tracked down a fellow called Guo Jiu, gave him a bit of a scare, and he told us everything. Quite a few pieces of information had been bought from him by Lü Wuman’s subordinates.”

“He said he has no idea what Lü Wuman’s background is, but with such a large sum of money being moved around, it couldn’t be carried on his person — it’s probably deposited in a money house in one of the nearby counties.”

“But it definitely wouldn’t be a local one. People have ties to their home soil — using a local money house would create complications.”

Li Chi nodded and looked toward his thousand-commander, Fang Xidao. “Take a detachment of Censorate cavalry, go with these two to search the surrounding area, then rendezvous with us at Yanshan Camp.”

Fang Xidao bowed. “By your command.”

After issuing his orders, Li Chi stepped outside. The moment he emerged from the relay station, the townspeople gathered outside prostrated themselves to the ground.

He called out in a loud voice: “Fellow townsfolk, have no worries. I have decided to promote Zhou Qixi to Circuit Inspector of the Three Northern Prefectures of Ji. The Inspector’s office will be established right here in Jinzhou — he is not leaving.”

“Ten thousand years!”

“Ten thousand years to Prince Ning!”

No one knew who shouted it first, but the crowd took it up all at once.

Behind Li Chi, Yu Jiuling sighed softly. “You see — the common people really are this easy to satisfy.”

Li Chi looked over at Guo Hui and the others kneeling to one side and went to help them to their feet.

“You used a little cleverness — you calculated the legal penalties and figured that with your anonymous denunciation, the worst that would happen was a setback to Magistrate Zhou’s promotion, not grounds for his dismissal.”

Guo Hui and the others bowed their heads, faces full of remorse.

Li Chi said, “You studied so carefully — but what you studied was the laws of Dachu. In Jizhou, we don’t use the Chu code. We use the Ning code. You spent all that effort scheming without thinking to first ask whether the rules even applied here. And who told you that Zhou’s promotion necessarily meant transferring out of Jinzhou? You made a mess of things.”

Guo Hui and the others prostrated themselves to beg for forgiveness.

Li Chi said, “Where I’m concerned, merit and fault never cancel each other out. You made a mistake — falsely denouncing a local official — and that must be punished. Three months’ detention, to be dealt with personally by Magistrate Zhou.”

This sentence was essentially as lenient as leniency got — like a flood holding back its waters.

“As for what you did for the people of Jinzhou — they have reason to thank you. So do I.”

Li Chi stepped back, clasped his hands together, and gave them a slight bow.

This startled Guo Hui and the others, and they immediately dropped to their knees again.

Li Chi said, “Elder Guo, from this day forward, you will receive the salary of a hundred-commander of the Censorate Army. You hold no official rank within the Censorate, but you will be considered one of its people. For matters in Jinzhou — large or small — whenever you deem it necessary, you may send word to Jizhou.”

Li Chi turned. “Magistrate Zhou, as Circuit Inspector of the Three Prefectures — dozens of counties across three regions — I am handing all of it over to you from this day forward.”

“Your servant bows in grateful thanks to his king.”

Zhou Qixi prostrated himself in a deep bow.

Two days later, Li Chi’s convoy departed Jinzhou and continued on toward Yanshan Camp.

Two hundred and twenty li from Jinzhou: Guàn County.

Gang Gang walked a full circuit of Guàn County’s main streets, then returned to the place they had temporarily taken up lodging — Guàn County had a branch of Shen Medical Hall, so they went straight through to the back courtyard.

He had just returned when Chen Dawei came back as well.

Fang Xidao asked, “What did you two find?”

Gang Gang said, “I found a Sparrow Gate marker. Thousand-Commander, please wait in the relay station — we’ll go out again tonight for another stroll.”

Fang Xidao nodded. “If you need anything, just say the word.”

Chen Dawei laughed. “For small-time jianghu business, the two of us are more than enough. Mobilizing the Censorate cavalry for this would be giving them too much face.”

Fang Xidao smiled. “Just in case, though.”

That night.

Inside Guàn County, three small-time thieves — Wang Xian, He Xiaochuan, and Zhao Ke — gathered together.

Wang Xian lowered his voice. “Near sundown today, Manager Li’s incoming shipment arrived. Unless something’s gone wrong, most of the people in his shop will be over at the warehouse unloading and taking inventory. There won’t be many left at the shop itself.”

He Xiaochuan said, “I’ve got everything ready.”

He turned and gestured behind him — there sat a single-wheeled pushcart.

He Xiaochuan grinned. “One cart, three sacks. We each grab a sack, go in and fill up, work independently, move fast — pack it full and get out, then push the cart and run.”

“Sounds good!”

The other two chimed in.

In the dead of night, the three of them quietly pushed the single-wheeled cart to the back of the shop, left the cart in position, and each with a sack in hand, climbed over the wall.

Manager Li ran a grain depot. The three of them had come to steal rice — and obviously it wasn’t practical to try to haul a full sack of rice while running. Hence the single-wheeled cart, its axle greased with cooking oil in advance so it wouldn’t creak and squeak when they pushed it.

All three were seasoned thieves, quick-handed and nimble. With few guards on watch inside the grain depot, they went in and each filled their sack with rice.

In this part of Jizhou, white rice was rarely seen — it was a valuable commodity, not easy to sell off quietly, but they could always eat it themselves.

He Xiaochuan was the first to climb out. Once outside, he couldn’t help letting out a breath of relief.

Under normal practice, when three people commit a theft, one must stay outside as a lookout. But greed got the better of them — they all wanted an extra sack of rice — so they’d hidden the cart in a shadowed corner and left no one on watch.

He Xiaochuan climbed out, and the other two jumped down right behind him.

“Damn! Where’s the cart?”

He Xiaochuan asked.

The other two were equally baffled.

Zhao Ke said, “I left it right there at that corner in the shadows. Let me check — you two make sure your sacks are tied tight, I’ll bring the cart around.”

Zhao Ke headed off, and the two of them checked their sacks.

But in the time it took them to bend down and straighten back up — they looked up, and Zhao Ke had vanished.

He Xiaochuan: “What the—! Where’s Zhao Ke?”

Wang Xian shook his head. “I didn’t see him go anywhere. He was just there a second ago…”

Both of them tensed up. He Xiaochuan’s voice dropped to a slightly trembling murmur. “Let’s count one-two-three and turn around at the same time. Check if anything’s wrong.”

Wang Xian said, “Why not have you watch my side while I watch yours?”

He Xiaochuan thought about it — fair point.

So he said, “Let’s go back to back.”

The two of them turned away from each other, standing back to back. He Xiaochuan felt the person at his back — Wang Xian — give a muffled grunt. Very faint. He spun around immediately, startled.

“What the—! Where’s Wang Xian?”

In the time it took to turn around, Wang Xian had vanished too.

Then something dark came down over He Xiaochuan’s head, covering it completely.

“What the— I’m going to be go—”

Two quarters of an hour later.

He Xiaochuan and the other two felt a sudden brightness before their eyes. They rubbed their eyes and found themselves in a room with bright, blazing lights.

“Good fellows — good fellows, spare our lives! We’re good people.”

He Xiaochuan immediately begged for mercy. Whoever it was, he’d beg first and ask questions later.

“You’re good people?”

Gang Gang raised his hand and gave He Xiaochuan a whack on the head. “Good people steal someone’s rice?”

Chen Dawei looked the three of them over and then said with grave solemnity: “We have come from Jizhou. Having heard that Guàn County harbors three great bandits, we are here under Prince Ning’s orders to apprehend them.”

He Xiaochuan narrowed his eyes. He thought to himself: Brother, that’s quite the whopper you’re spinning there. A particularly large one, at that.

Because for the three of us, Prince Ning personally dispatched someone all the way from Jizhou? Why don’t you say Prince Ning sent the terrifying Censorate Army riding down from Jizhou while you’re at it.

Gang Gang said, “The criminals are in hand — no point wasting words on them. Go ahead and read the sentence.”

Chen Dawei nodded. “These three criminals have stolen three sacks of rice. In accordance with the statutes promulgated by Prince Ning, the sentence is death by cavalry trampling.”

He Xiaochuan wasn’t scared anymore — in fact, he started to laugh.

“Brothers, you’re in the same line of work, aren’t you? If you want a cut just say so. Reading out a sentence… death by cavalry trampling for stealing three sacks of rice? Are you trying to make me laugh myself to death?”

Wang Xian also sneered coldly. “You’re from out of town, aren’t you? Don’t you know it’s a cardinal rule not to make enemies of the locals?”

Zhao Ke said, “Couldn’t even make it convincing. You’ve got the nerve to call up cavalry? I’d eat my hat.”

Chen Dawei sighed and picked them up and tossed them outside.

The three small-time thieves were flung out into the courtyard. They clambered to their feet, ready to start cursing.

The two of them turned back to face Chen Dawei and the others — and before they could get a single insult out, He Xiaochuan grabbed at the other two.

When those two turned around, what they saw was the courtyard packed with row upon row of Censorate cavalry in tight, orderly formation.

Black armor, black horses, ghost-faced masks — eerily, hauntingly terrifying.

“Now, who was it that said he’d eat his hat?”

Chen Dawei looked at Zhao Ke. “That was you, wasn’t it? Let’s start with you, then.”

Zhao Ke’s knees buckled and he dropped to the ground.

Gang Gang sniffed and asked, “Who the hell wet himself.”

He Xiaochuan raised a trembling hand. “Me…”

—