At the gates of Maoyang County, Gui Yuanshu had told quite a magnificent boast — the kind that, if it came true, could be told for the rest of one’s life.

A boast about seven men taking on more than a thousand, and a hundred and seven men taking on more than ten thousand.

He said it and ran, feeling thoroughly exhilarated, without a trace of embarrassment.

About forty-odd li from Maoyang County there was a mountain gully, and Gui Yuanshu’s party left the main road and concealed themselves inside it.

“Our men and horses are weary. If they keep chasing us we won’t be able to outrun them, so let’s hide here for a while. Best case is the pursuers never find us — if they do, this terrain suits an ambush, we’ll fight and then move on. Right now, the priority is rest.”

After saying this, Gui Yuanshu looked over at Zheng Shunshun and the others: “You four, take turns leading shifts for the watch while the rest sleep.”

Dong Dongdong’s head was full of question marks. There was far too much he didn’t understand — yet it was already clear that Gui Yuanshu intended to go to sleep.

“Lord, where are you going?”

Dong Dongdong still couldn’t stop himself from stepping forward to intercept Gui Yuanshu.

Gui Yuanshu gave him a look: “I’m going to sleep, naturally. Are you about to ask why the two of you take turns on watch while I sleep? First: I outrank you. Second: I can fight.”

Dong Dongdong shook his head: “It’s not that — there’s something I’d like to ask you, sir.”

Gui Yuanshu patted him on the shoulder: “Ordinary questions, ask Zheng Shunshun’s group. I must conserve my energy now. If there’s real danger and someone needs to hold the rear, it will be me and not you — so please do not disturb my sleep.”

And then he truly went off to sleep in the mountain gully, without another word.

Dong Dongdong watched Gui Yuanshu’s retreating figure and thought: this man is truly a strange one.

Qi Qiangqi came over and said: “You get some sleep first. I’ll keep watch.”

Dong Dongdong said: “How can I possibly sleep? There’s too much I can’t figure out.”

Qi Qiangqi said: “Try to get some sleep. If you truly can’t, just lie down and rest.”

Zheng Shunshun’s group of four conferred briefly. Zhang Youdong and Zhao Shanying went to rest first, while the other two divided the men into three shifts — two resting, one on watch. After one double-hour, if nothing had happened, one resting shift would be woken to rotate out; after another double-hour, the final shift would rotate. This way, over three double-hours, each shift would get two double-hours of rest.

Dong Dongdong still couldn’t sleep. He went and sat down beside Zheng Shunshun: “Can I ask you a few questions?”

Zheng Shunshun smiled: “Go ahead.”

Dong Dongdong said: “The two of us aren’t actually key to any of this, are we?”

Zheng Shunshun smiled back: “Why did you think the two of you were key?”

Dong Dongdong said: “Your group showed up in our village, found us, talked with us about the Yin family, and then Lord Gui took all of us to Shang’an County.”

Zheng Shunshun said: “Leave the two of you out of it — we were going to Shang’an County regardless.”

Dong Dongdong nodded, relieved.

“That explains it then.”

He asked: “You already knew about the Yin family’s affairs before you arrived?”

Zheng Shunshun shook his head: “We didn’t. We only found out after coming here. By the time we reached your village, it was already the seventh village we’d canvassed.”

Dong Dongdong said: “One more question. You knew nothing about Shang’an County, nothing about the Yin family — yet once you found out, you didn’t seek instructions. You moved immediately to arrest and kill…”

Zheng Shunshun asked: “Are you asking whether we’re proper officials?”

Without waiting for Dong Dongdong to answer, Zheng Shunshun already provided one: “We’re not.”

Dong Dongdong nodded: “I didn’t really need to ask — I could already tell.”

Yet Dong Dongdong still felt something was off about the whole situation, though he also knew Zheng Shunshun had no obligation to tell him the truth about everything.

He and Qi Qiangqi were nothing more than uninvolved villagers — and even now that they were involved, they were merely two helpful villagers at that.

So whatever truth lay behind all of this, they might one day find out — or perhaps never would.

What no one had anticipated was that they lay hidden in the gully for a long while, and no pursuers appeared.

This was yet another thing that made no sense. When they’d arrived at Maoyang County, they’d seen it plainly — the garrison on the walls was sizable, and well-equipped at that. Just the force visible at the gate numbered at least two or three hundred, and that was only what could be seen on the surface.

So the county magistrate had been seized, and yet his subordinates hadn’t given chase? How was that normal?

Gui Yuanshu woke from his sleep, sat up, and rubbed his eyes: “No movement?”

Zhang Youdong said: “None. It’s already been a full double-hour and a half. Not a stir on the main road — not a single person, not even a ghost.”

Gui Yuanshu sat in thought for a moment and then said: “Then this has gotten interesting.”

He reached out and picked up a piece of hard ration, nibbling at it as he gave orders: “Bring Yin Chang and Yin Xinping to me. We won’t move until nightfall anyway — I might as well conduct an interrogation. It’s been a long time since I questioned a prisoner; I should get back into form.”

Shortly after, his men brought the two captives over. The old one and the young one both looked utterly despondent, their eyes filled with fear.

Gui Yuanshu sat on a rock and offered the hard ration to Yin Chang; Yin Chang shook his head in fright. He offered it to Yin Xinping; Yin Xinping only glared at him with fury.

Gui Yuanshu took no offense and continued eating on his own.

“I know what schemes the Yin family has been plotting. Whether you tell me or not is rather beside the point, because the order I received was simply to grab someone and bring them back.”

Gui Yuanshu pointed at the two of them: “As it happens, I’m brazen and greedy and rather capable — so I picked one up in Shang’an County and then went and picked up another in Maoyang County.”

Yin Xinping raged: “I have no idea what you’re talking about. What I do know is that in broad daylight you have unlawfully abducted a local official…”

Gui Yuanshu glanced at him: “Stop that posturing. I have no patience to listen to you.”

He finished eating and accepted a water flask someone handed him, then asked those nearby: “Did anyone bring paper?”

Yin Xinping sneered coldly: “Planning to torture us into a false confession? Forget it — I won’t allow you to manipulate me.”

Gui Yuanshu looked toward Yin Chang and asked: “This man is of a younger generation than you, yes?”

Yin Chang nodded.

Gui Yuanshu said: “The young people in your family are all this tiresome? Poor upbringing. I’m a traditional man — in front of an elder, when a junior cannot stop prattling, that needs to be corrected.”

He gestured toward the rock he’d been sitting on. Zhang Youdong and Zhao Shanying stepped forward immediately, grabbed Yin Xinping, and pressed him down against it.

Not face-down — face-up. Looking at the sky.

Gui Yuanshu walked over, took a sheet of paper, and laid it over Yin Xinping’s face. Then he took a mouthful of water and sprayed it onto the paper, and the paper clung tight to Yin Xinping’s face.

Yin Xinping panicked, struggling but unable to break free. He opened his mouth to shout and broke through the wet paper.

But the next sheet was pressed down immediately — one sheet, a spray of water, then another sheet, one after another…

At first the nostrils could blow through it, the mouth could too — but as the layers of paper built up over his face, all that could be seen was one small area rising and falling in short, shallow, rapid movements.

Gui Yuanshu’s expression didn’t change in the slightest.

Before long, the struggling Yin Xinping went still. His legs gradually straightened; his arms straightened too.

A moment later, even the small area where the paper had faintly shifted ceased to move.

By now the color had drained entirely from Yin Chang’s face. He watched this unfold, as though his own breathing had been stopped up too — suffocating and terrible.

Gui Yuanshu said in a perfectly even tone: “As I just said — my task was simply to grab anyone and bring them back. Of the two of you, I can afford to lose one.”

He looked toward Yin Chang: “Would you like to take his place?”

Yin Chang immediately shook his head, shaking it large and fast.

Gui Yuanshu smiled faintly: “What a devoted senior relative.”

He waved his hand. Zhang Youdong stepped forward and tore the sheets of paper off Yin Xinping’s face, leaned down to check that the nostrils were clear, then stood, and drove one foot savagely into Yin Xinping’s stomach.

The kick folded Yin Xinping’s body nearly in half.

But that kick also kicked Yin Xinping back to life.

With breath restored, he curled into himself, coughing and gasping in great heaves, tears and snot running down together.

Gui Yuanshu settled himself nearby, not the least bit hurried, waiting until Yin Xinping had recovered before he spoke again.

“Yin Xinping — just now I asked your uncle, while you were being put through that, whether he was willing to take your place. He said he was not.”

Gui Yuanshu smiled and asked: “I try to be fair in all things, so I’ll ask you the same question now: if it were your uncle being put through that, would you be willing to take his place?”

Yin Xinping shot a fierce glare at Yin Chang. Yin Chang’s expression held a trace of shame, his eyes unwilling to meet Yin Xinping’s.

Gui Yuanshu rose to his feet.

“You don’t really know me yet, so allow me to introduce myself. My name is Gui Yuanshu — Commander of the Intelligence Guard Army under Prince Ning, and formerly the Chief Justice of the Dachu court.”

He continued: “I have many bad habits, all of them developed during my time as an official in the capital. For instance — I’ve always found that prisoners rarely speak the truth easily, especially when there are multiple prisoners. This one says one thing, that one says another, and trying to make judgments from their conflicting testimonies gives one a terrible headache. So I had to find a way around that…”

He walked around behind Yin Chang, placed one hand on top of Yin Chang’s head, and stood there. Yin Chang trembled uncontrollably beneath that hand, not daring to move.

With his other hand, Gui Yuanshu slowly drew the dagger from his waist. He moved so deliberately at first that Yin Xinping almost thought he was simply using the blade to threaten Yin Chang into confessing.

But in the next instant, the dagger plunged into Yin Chang’s neck.

Gui Yuanshu gripped Yin Chang by the hair, and that dagger sawed back and forth inside the neck. The blood that spurted from the artery drenched Yin Xinping, who stood directly opposite — and Yin Xinping began screaming and wailing.

Blood was all over him, all over his face — blood still warm with life.

Gui Yuanshu severed the head, held it up, examined it, and then grinned: “Quite ugly.”

He tossed it aside, walked back to Yin Xinping, and wiped his blood-slicked hands on Yin Xinping’s clothing.

“I’ve always been the sort who dislikes trouble. Comparing the testimonies of several prisoners, finding whose words are true and whose are false — that really is a bother. So now…”

He crouched down and looked directly into Yin Xinping’s eyes: “There’s no need for me to make any comparisons. There’s only one of you left.”

Yin Xinping shook violently — and the shaking grew more and more severe. His lips trembled. His shoulders trembled. His whole body trembled.

Gui Yuanshu asked: “What was the plan?”

Yin Xinping raised his head mechanically to look at Gui Yuanshu. His face was white as chalk, his lips a dark bluish-purple.

“It… it…”

He repeated it several times, but the words that followed refused to come out.

“Wait a moment.”

From not far away came a voice, and Gui Yuanshu looked in that direction. He saw two men striding toward him with complicated expressions — something like guilt, something like confusion, and a touch of urgency.

The one in front looked at Gui Yuanshu and said: “My lord — leave him to us.”

He said this, and then both men bent forward in unison in a deep bow.

“Tingwei Army Hundredth Officer Dong Dongdong, paying respects to the Commander.”

“Tingwei Army Hundredth Officer Qi Qiangqi, paying respects to the Commander.”

—