The county magistrate, Magistrate Zhang, of Yuhu County was having a day of mixed feelings — half joy, half unease. The joy, naturally, came from those people who claimed to be the Tianming Wang’s agents.

From their bearing alone, he could tell they were genuine.

They were genuine!

And precisely because he could tell they were genuine, he felt a nagging anxiety, terrified that he might have failed to receive them properly.

Yuhu County’s geographic position made it inevitable that he consider pledging allegiance to the Tianming Wang — located in the northern part of Jingzhou, it was considerably farther from Daxing City than from where the Tianming Army currently stood.

And even if the county had been closer to Daxing City — it would have made no difference. He would still have chosen Yang Xuanji.

That was simply the way things stood. If someone went all the way to Daxing City to report him as a rebel, even the Emperor himself would have no power to do anything to him. But if he offended the Tianming Wang’s people — and the Tianming Wang’s great army arrived on his doorstep — that would be catastrophe made manifest.

He turned to the county deputy, Magistrate Qian. “Do you think that Lord Li today was satisfied with everything?”

Magistrate Qian thought it over carefully and shook his head. “I don’t think so — the only awkward moment was that young woman selling mountain fruit.”

At the mention of the young woman, Magistrate Zhang felt his displeasure rise at once.

A coarse village woman like that — so completely without manners, so utterly uncouth. Thank goodness Lord Li didn’t seem to take offense.

Magistrate Qian said, “I’ve been thinking about it ever since — why did Lord Li step off the carriage and walk straight over to that woman?”

Magistrate Zhang replied, “Lord Li has peculiar tastes? I had singers and dancers arranged for him in the city — each one graceful and alluring — and he didn’t spare a single one a glance. Yet he takes an interest in some village woman.”

Magistrate Qian said, “That’s something you wouldn’t understand. Men of that stature tend to look down on women from the pleasure quarters — they find them common and tiresome. Noticing a village woman, now — there’s novelty in that, and a kind of purity.”

He lowered his voice. “And is there not a certain thrill in taking another man’s wife?”

Magistrate Zhang broke into a sly grin. “You make a fair point. Shall we send men to fetch that village woman back?”

He paused. “But what if Lord Li doesn’t want her?”

Magistrate Qian also broke into a grin. “That woman, however plain her clothes, can’t conceal her looks. If Lord Li doesn’t want her — you, Magistrate…”

“Ha ha ha ha ha…”

Magistrate Zhang burst out laughing and nodded. “Then have someone go. She’s probably from a nearby village — shouldn’t be hard to find.”

They were at the moment accompanying Gui Yuanshu and the others at the estate, where a banquet was being prepared for the evening.

So Magistrate Qian stepped outside and found the constable Zhao Zhuangkuo, whispered a few words in his ear, and Zhao Zhuangkuo immediately agreed, leading a dozen or so men out of the estate.

Going west from the estate for two or three li was a village — the woman they were looking for was almost certainly from there.

Zhao Zhuangkuo and his men rode into the village and stopped a villager, asking about the woman. The villager said, “She’s not from this village. That woman has always lived alone up on the mountain. She makes her living coming down to sell things she catches — wild rabbits, mountain pheasants — and fruit she picks.”

“A woman living alone on the mountain?”

Zhao Zhuangkuo’s eyes narrowed slightly. This made things even easier, he thought.

He asked for directions and led his men up the mountain. It was only just past midday — no risk of failing to return before dark.

When they had followed the directions and ridden away, the villager’s eyes flashed with something sharp and hard. He spat on the ground. “Hah. A pack of dog officials, marching off to their deaths.”

In times like these, a woman of decent looks living alone on a mountain — and not a single man in the village had ever had ideas about her?

Every man who went up had disappeared without a trace. After one, then another — no one dared approach anymore. Some even said she was no human woman at all, but a demon or mountain spirit in disguise — appearing in public to lure men to seek her out, then devouring them.

Back at the estate, Magistrate Zhang gave instructions for the evening meal to be as lavish as possible.

The estate was staffed year-round — servants, cooks and the like. When word went out that everything should be as sumptuous as possible, the cook, Old Sun, suddenly remembered: a woman from the mountain sometimes came down to sell foraged goods, wild rabbits and other delicacies among them.

Old Sun was an honest, straightforward middle-aged man. He’d encountered that young woman a few times. Since he was spending public money on the purchases anyway, he had always tried to help where he could, buying from her on several occasions.

What that young woman brought to sell was remarkably fine — some might wonder what could be so fine about trapped game. But the mountain pheasants and wild rabbits she brought were different. They never bore wounds. Even the fruit she sold had been clearly and carefully selected — not a bruised or inferior piece among them, and every one had been washed.

Such a meticulous woman, living alone in the mountains — it was inevitable that unpleasant characters would come to bother her.

Old Sun, kindhearted as he was, had even tried to offer her work at the estate — not much pay, perhaps, but at least she’d have no worries about food or shelter.

But the woman never responded. At most, she would offer a small smile.

Thinking of her, Old Sun sent his apprentice, young Xiao Gangzi, up the mountain to try his luck — see whether there was any game to buy.

Xiao Gangzi was only fourteen or fifteen years old, also someone Old Sun’s good heart had taken in.

The estate had originally belonged to the Marquis of Weiyang. When the marquis met his downfall, everyone here had been arrested — reportedly not one survived.

Magistrate Zhang had taken a liking to the estate and installed the county office’s cook and staff. When that cook refused to move out to this remote place outside town, he recommended his own master from his apprentice days — Old Sun.

Magistrate Zhang found Old Sun simple and honest and kept him on. Later, finding him reliable, he appointed him estate manager as well.

Ordinarily around ten or more people lived at the estate, keeping it clean day to day. Magistrate Zhang would spend seven or eight days there each month.

Xiao Gangzi took the silver and set out, eyeing the sky and seeing the distance was not short, quickening his pace.

He didn’t go to the village, but took a small path directly into the mountain from behind the estate. This path had been built by villagers mobilized by the Marquis of Weiyang’s household — they were promised two taels of silver each when the work was done, but when it was finished, the steward of the Marquis’s household pocketed all the money.

Too afraid to make a scene, the villagers could only curse in private.

The stone stair path into the mountain had been built for those occasions when the Marquis came back and wanted to climb up to take in the scenery.

Xiao Gangzi ran along the path, getting irritated every time he used it. His father had come here to help build it — and had fallen and hurt himself — and on top of that, received no wages. The old man had gone home and taken to his bed in a fit of rage, and never recovered.

Xiao Gangzi had lost his mother long before. Fate seemed to have singled him out for hardship, pressing down on him relentlessly.

Had his master not taken him in, who knows where he would have died by now.

But he never imagined his master was the kind of master he turned out to be. He had once hidden in the shadows and seen what his master could do.

He also knew the young woman’s dwelling — he had been there twice before, sent by his master to buy foraged goods and leave behind some rice.

The woman, to be honest, was not very polite. She never once said thank you, and when Xiao Gangzi spoke to her, she would simply gesture at a spot, indicating he should set things down and go.

Xiao Gangzi went back and told his master, and his master said: a woman who chooses to live on a mountain rather than in a village has her reasons. Of course she’s guarded — that’s natural.

Whether she thanks you or not — you’re doing a good thing. Think of it as your master using those thieving corrupt officials’ money to earn you some merit.

Xiao Gangzi had grinned at that. His master said using those thieving corrupt officials’ money to earn him merit — that made him happy, and he thought his master had put it perfectly well.

His master cringed and bowed before those thieving corrupt officials — and Xiao Gangzi had never thought less of him for it. That was simply surviving.

He suddenly thought — when he got back to cook, he ought to add something special to those thieving corrupt officials’ dishes. Something potent.

His master had done it before. But his master said you can never tell what’s in a person’s heart — he was not allowed to mention it to anyone else in the estate; it would stay between the two of them.

Xiao Gangzi understood perfectly well what his master meant. His master was both cook and estate manager — there was profit in that position — and the others had jealous eyes and dark thoughts.

Last time his master cooked for those thieving corrupt officials, he had told Xiao Gangzi to pick up two little pellets of goat dung, mince them fine, and scatter them into two of the dishes. The thieving corrupt officials couldn’t taste a thing, and even declared the food was exceptionally delicious.

That had nearly made Xiao Gangzi die of laughter.

This time, he thought, he’d add a sprinkle of his own water into the dishes for those scoundrels, and see if they’d find that delicious too.

Lost in these happy thoughts, he ran along, and before long — about four or five li — he arrived. Just ahead was the woman’s dwelling.

A small wooden house of two rooms, surrounded by a ring of bamboo fence. The woman was meticulous — she had planted climbing roses along the fence. The season had passed somewhat, but a few scattered blossoms still lingered, quite beautiful.

The last time he came, he had also noticed that the woman had set up a hanging swing bed in the courtyard.

That visit had made him feel the woman was truly extraordinary.

She wasn’t strongly built — actually she looked somewhat slender and frail — which made him wonder how a woman alone had managed to hang that swing bed.

A gauze curtain surrounded it, swaying gently in the breeze — it looked wonderfully beautiful.

Xiao Gangzi ran up to the gate in one breath. His master had taught him proper manners — you don’t just walk into someone’s home, you announce yourself first.

So Xiao Gangzi stood at the gate and called out, “Elder sister, are you home? It’s me, Xiao Gangzi — my master sent me to see if you have any game to sell.”

He held up his coin pouch and shook it so the coins inside jingled and clattered.

Inside the house, the young woman turned and glanced back. A flicker of killing intent crossed her eyes.

But a moment later, that killing intent dissolved into nothing.

“Wait at the gate. Do not come in.”

The young woman called out to him. Xiao Gangzi immediately agreed, and stood obediently outside to wait.

The young woman looked down. The more than ten corpses on the ground were still bleeding — the smell of blood inside the house was indeed rather strong.

She crouched down, gripped a corpse in each hand, and tossed them out through the back door, moving swiftly until all of them had been cleared out. She would deal with them later.

Noticing a few bloodstains on her clothing, the young woman walked to the wardrobe and opened it to select a change of clothes.

Inside hung several exquisitely crafted long robes in a vivid violet-purple, each in a different style, the workmanship exceptionally fine and the fabric luxuriously costly — yet every one the same color.

She pulled off the small floral cotton jacket. Beneath it was a pure white bodice. The sunlight from outside fell on her skin like a pale golden wash over white jade.

That pure white bodice, viewed from behind, was nothing but a slender neck above and a pair of thin cords at the waist, almost the entire back exposed.

And against her snow-white skin, in stark contrast, was a vivid crimson phoenix with wings spread wide, covering her left arm and half her back.

She changed her clothes, then went to the other room, reached into the cage, and brought out two wild rabbits and a mountain pheasant before stepping outside.

Xiao Gangzi saw her come out and smiled in greeting. “Elder sister.”

The young woman still said nothing, and her expression showed little. She handed him the animals. When Xiao Gangzi moved to pay her, she gave a slight shake of her head and pointed to the rice jar sitting just inside the door.

Xiao Gangzi thought of what his master had said — don’t think that just because you’ve given someone something, they owe you. It’s a gift, not a loan, so what debt could there be?

So he shook his head firmly, tossed the coin pouch over the fence into the courtyard, and turned and ran.

Watching him go, the young woman slowly exhaled. The hidden weapon she had been holding between her fingers quietly slipped back into her sleeve.

His master had said: think of it as using those thieving corrupt officials’ silver to earn you some merit, little one. Xiao Gangzi didn’t know it, but in that moment, the choice the young woman had just made was the merit he had built up before.

Xiao Gangzi ran back with the game, and it was only after he had run some distance that he suddenly realized — that elder sister’s clothes just now had been so beautiful.

He felt a pang of regret. He hadn’t managed to look properly — never before had he seen her wearing anything so fine.

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