Gui Yuanshu and the others could certainly not return to their previous inn. His thinking was that they might as well move into Yun Su Tower — his reason being purely that it would cost him nothing.

But Yun Xiazhao was unwilling to go back. She said she had been living at Yun Su Tower for so long without ever once staying anywhere else outside, and the novelty appealed to her. She wanted to try it.

Gui Yuanshu was still searching for an excuse to refuse when Old Sun looked ready to kick him aside. He thought: this girl has been dropping hints this obvious the whole time, and this blockhead still doesn’t get it.

If this were his own child, Old Sun felt he could bring himself to break the boy’s legs.

Gui Yuanshu was not genuinely obtuse. The fact that this Miss Yun had been staying close to them all along and kept refusing to return to Yun Su Tower was decidedly abnormal.

Pei Bancheng might not be truly trustworthy — who knew what that fellow had concealed in his heart? Yun Xiazhao’s refusal to return to Yun Su Tower was most likely done at Pei Bancheng’s instruction.

“Then we’ll find a place to stay at random.”

Gui Yuanshu also wanted to see what the people from Yun Su Tower were actually trying to do, so he pointed at a nearby inn at random. “This one will do.”

But Yun Xiazhao shook her head. “Not this one.”

Gui Yuanshu asked, “What’s wrong with this one?”

Yun Xiazhao said, “It looks dirty.”

Gui Yuanshu sighed. The inn was indeed quite small, but it was certainly cheap.

Old Sun pulled him aside. “The young lady is a person of fine standing — how can she stay in a place like this? Find somewhere better.”

Gui Yuanshu had grown up in Daxing City, so he naturally knew that not quite two li from here stood an extraordinarily luxurious inn: the Fenglin Inn. The common people of Daxing also called it the Rich Man’s Estate.

Only those of no ordinary standing could afford to stay at the Fenglin Inn.

Word had it that a single superior room there cost thirty taels of silver per night — and that was only for lodging. Even the most modest room came to five taels per night.

Five taels of silver was enough to support a family for over three months. No common person would ever stay such a place for even one night.

But people had also said that the most accomplished courtesans in all of Daxing City were to be found not in any pleasure house, but at the Fenglin Inn. The most sumptuous of indulgences were likewise to be found there.

Rumor had it that whatever a guest could think to wish for, the proprietor of the Fenglin Inn would go to every possible length to provide.

Gui Yuanshu had been to the Fenglin Inn once before — just after being appointed as Chief Justice of the Court of Judicial Review, when certain powerful figures at court had made a pretense of drawing him in and taken him there for a meal.

He was reluctant to stay at the Fenglin Inn now, for it seemed a little too convenient.

On the walk to a spot not far from the Fenglin Inn, this girl had suddenly announced she did not want to go back to stay at Yun Su Tower — which could only mean that Pei Bancheng wanted him to stay at the Fenglin Inn.

If nothing unexpected intervened, whatever scheme Pei Bancheng had devised — whatever he was planning to do — would yield its answer inside the Fenglin Inn.

Gui Yuanshu glanced back at Old Sun. He reckoned Old Sun could handle whatever came.

Old Sun caught the encouraging glint in Gui Yuanshu’s eyes and thought: she’s got her eye on you, she wants to go stay at an inn with you — and you’re looking at me with that kind of encouragement? What does that mean?

“Fine. Then the Fenglin Inn it is.”

Gui Yuanshu thought to himself: in this city of Daxing, am I really going to back down?

In earlier days there had been a rumor that the Fenglin Inn was Liu Chongxin’s property, and so despite all the offices and powerful figures in Daxing City, not a single one had dared to trouble it.

The rumor was not far wrong. During Liu Chongxin’s time in power, sixty percent of the Fenglin Inn’s annual earnings had been offered up to him. How much that place brought in each year was something even the most energetically guessing outsiders would never arrive at.

This place charged at least ten taels of silver for a single pot of tea — more expensive than a night in one of the ordinary rooms.

A meal, even ordering only three or five dishes, came to no less than twenty taels at the minimum, and even then it would look somewhat frugal.

The food was said to be made from the rarest of ingredients, and both the quality of materials and the methods of preparation were refined to the utmost degree.

When Gui Yuanshu had come the previous time, his one overriding impression had been… yes, it tasted wonderful — but every dish had such a comically small portion it looked like something from a children’s game.

Gui Yuanshu was carrying a good deal of silver, for Cao Lie — unlike Li Chi — had given him support in the form of money.

They checked in smoothly to this still-celebrated lavish establishment and were led toward their rooms by a willowy young woman in a gauze skirt. Gui Yuanshu found himself wondering what would be an appropriate gratuity — enough that he would not come across as miserly.

As it happened, just as they had entered and Gui Yuanshu had asked for two decent middle-grade rooms — fifteen taels a night each — the young woman leading them was suddenly called back by another girl who came running from behind.

The two exchanged a few words, then the girl turned to Gui Yuanshu with profuse apologies: due to an oversight on the inn’s part, the rooms they had requested were no longer available.

But the Fenglin Inn would never leave any arriving guest dissatisfied. And so, free of charge, they were being moved to the only remaining unoccupied suite — Room One of the Jia Wing.

Gui Yuanshu was privately rather averse to that name, for as a former Chief Justice, he knew that prison cells were numbered in precisely this fashion.

The occupant of Cell One in the Jia Wing of any prison was invariably someone of considerable significance.

But whatever one might say, the service at this inn was truly beyond reproach.

When they arrived, however, they found that Room One of the Jia Wing was in no way a mere room — it was an entire estate.

It was a large compound of no less than four or five acres. The grounds contained a small lake. On the left and right stood five side rooms each. At the center rose a three-story wooden pavilion.

This place could house not three people but three hundred without difficulty. Gui Yuanshu could not help asking out of curiosity how much Room One of the Jia Wing cost per night. The young woman smiled and answered: five hundred taels.

Gui Yuanshu thought to himself: being upgraded without charge from a fifteen-tael room to a five-hundred-tael estate — if there were no scheme involved in this, who would believe it?

Yet the girl had led them here with such unhurried candor. Which left Gui Yuanshu feeling that, in truth, no one was particularly bothered with him. He was simply being shown a road, and expected to follow it to its end.

“I’m exhausted. I’m going to have a bath.”

Yun Xiazhao was perfectly delighted with this place. After all, there were few spots in Daxing City more sumptuous than even Yun Su Tower — and this was one of them.

If Yun Su Tower was spoken of as heaven on earth, then the Fenglin Inn could be called the heaven above heaven.

Yun Xiazhao was led by a maidservant to take her bath. Gui Yuanshu sat down on the steps at the main pavilion’s entrance. He glanced at Old Sun. “If someone chose this place specifically to kill me, I’d feel it was the least I could do to cooperate a little — it would be ungracious not to.”

Old Sun laughed aloud. “If you’ve already figured out that they want to kill you here — why did you still come?”

Gui Yuanshu said, “You talked me into it the whole way here. Now you’re asking me why I came? If it weren’t you I’d found first, I’d almost suspect you were their plant.”

Old Sun said, “If I really were their plant, that would actually be ideal — they’d probably pay considerably better than you.”

Gui Yuanshu said, “Is money really that important?”

Old Sun glanced at him. Gui Yuanshu answered his own question. “Yes. It really is. If what they could pay you were ten times what I’m paying, I’d almost want to talk you into finishing me off myself.”

Old Sun said, “Two times. No need to talk me into it.”

Gui Yuanshu said, “Hmph…”

Old Sun asked, “Do you know why I talked you into coming to a place like this?”

Gui Yuanshu said, “Because you’re wicked.”

Old Sun smiled slightly. “This place is so secluded. Kill someone here — who outside would ever know?”

Gui Yuanshu said, “You really are one of their people.”

Old Sun said with a smile, “You were once a very senior official in Daxing City. Surely you know who actually owns the Fenglin Inn?”

Gui Yuanshu shook his head. “Truly, I do not. After I came here that one time, I wanted to investigate, but I found nothing — not a single lead. The trail led to Liu Chongxin, but it was absolutely not Liu Chongxin’s.”

Old Sun said, “Liu Chongxin is already toppled, yet the Fenglin Inn stands as strong as ever. Take a guess — who might own it?”

Gui Yuanshu frowned, thought for a long while, and still could not work it out. So he asked, “You know?”

Old Sun nodded. “I do.”

Gui Yuanshu asked, “Who owns it?”

Old Sun said, “When someone comes to kill you in a moment, I’ll grab one of them and ask.”

Gui Yuanshu: “…”

Old Sun rose to his feet and looked around the compound. The walls enclosing the courtyard were more than double the height of an ordinary household’s, and broad enough that people could walk and patrol along the top.

So to enter here was essentially to enter a cage that someone had already prepared.

“How much silver do you still have on you?”

Old Sun asked.

Gui Yuanshu said, “A fair amount. Why?”

Old Sun extended his hand. “Let’s settle the remaining balance.”

Gui Yuanshu was taken aback.

Old Sun said, “It could get… difficult.”

Gui Yuanshu’s heart clenched hard. He knew how capable Old Sun was — he had seen it on the road to Daxing City. And now, with Old Sun’s expression turning grave, Gui Yuanshu knew things might truly not look good.

Because Old Sun could see figures increasing along the top of the courtyard walls — and those people did not look anything like ordinary guards. They wore leather armor, carried longbows on their backs, and held quivers of arrows in their hands.

At the main gate, a dense, shifting mass of figures could be made out moving — packed close together.

Old Sun asked, “Any regrets?”

Gui Yuanshu said, “I’d imagined all sorts of possibilities. The one I never imagined was that Pei Bancheng could deploy an entire army.”

Think about it — Pei Bancheng, a man who operated in the shadows, and a member of Shanhe Seal at that, was openly deploying a military force in Daxing City?

It was absurd.

Old Sun said, “I’m asking whether you have any regrets.”

Gui Yuanshu shook his head. “None.”

He took all the silver notes from his robe and handed them to Old Sun. Old Sun looked down at them. “This is more than we agreed on.”

Gui Yuanshu said, “I’m giving you double. The rest — if you make it out alive — distribute it among my brothers.”

Old Sun let out a long breath.

Outside, the forces seemed to still be gathering. There were already so many, and yet they still showed no urgency to move. Evidently, they intended to leave absolutely nothing to chance.

Old Sun suddenly bumped Gui Yuanshu with his shoulder. “Can’t think of any regrets? Let me think of one for you.”

Gui Yuanshu asked, “What?”

Old Sun began slowly opening the pack he carried on his back, removing the items inside one by one.

He said, “If you don’t go and take a peek at that woman while she’s bathing, you’ll definitely regret it.”

Gui Yuanshu said, “Pfft!”

Then he nodded. “But you do have a point.”

Old Sun set his things down, assembling them as he spoke. Three iron rods, each about two feet in length, connected together to form a staff of more than seven feet.

Gui Yuanshu looked it over. “So it extends as well.”

Old Sun said, “If you go right now, you might find something that extends too.”

Gui Yuanshu laughed heartily. “Then I’ll really go.”

Old Sun took the staff in hand. “Go on. Take a good long look. On me.”

He was sending Gui Yuanshu to find Yun Xiazhao — not to peep at her bathing, but to catch the ringleader first.

Old Sun was a man of his word. The agreements he had made, never written down in any contract, lived as inviolable commitments in his heart.

There were many people here. An entire army.

He would hold them off.

—