The speed of the Azure Ranks’ response left Li Diudiu somewhat struck. From Gate Commander Lei Yuan’s death to the Azure Ranks already moving to strike back—barely half an hour.

Xiahou Zuo had once said that Military Governor Zeng Ling ran the Azure Ranks by military standards. And so in that disorienting moment, Li Diudiu couldn’t help thinking… a Military Governor who governed a great border region had the wherewithal to build a covert underground force run by military standards—yet how could he not govern a locality properly?

Was he really so much better than Lian Gongming?

This was nothing more than the difference between one very bad and one not-quite-as-bad.

Both were bad.

And that speed of response—was there really no preparation made in advance?

Li Diudiu stood in a daze. Xiahou Zuo’s attention was entirely on the Azure Ranks members and he didn’t notice the disappointment slowly taking shape in Li Diudiu’s eyes.

Before reaching this realization, Li Diudiu had thought the Azure Ranks were not an underground power—but something like knights-errant.

Today’s realization: the Azure Ranks were not knights-errant.

Li Diudiu let out a long breath, and thought of Wang Heita. He felt that man’s death had been truly unjust. The heat of blood that had flared up a moment ago when the Azure Ranks appeared was instantly extinguished.

“I’m heading back.”

Li Diudiu said it quietly and walked away without waiting for Xiahou Zuo to respond.

Xiahou Zuo exchanged a few words with the three Gate Commanders and tried to go after Li Diudiu—only to find Li Diudiu had already vanished.

He made his way back to the academy at a run, found his way to Li Diudiu’s quarters, and looked. The young man was in the courtyard, dressed only in trousers with no shirt, in the process of upending a bucket of cold water over his own head.

With a great splash, the boy shuddered.

“The things of the world can all be sorted by right and wrong.”

Xiahou Zuo walked into the courtyard. He took the water bucket from Li Diudiu’s hands, went and drew a bucket of his own, and poured it over himself.

He shook the water from his head and looked at Li Diudiu. “I can probably guess what you were thinking. You feel that for a moment you lost your sense of justice.”

Li Diudiu shook his head without speaking.

Xiahou Zuo said: “You’re just twelve years old. You shouldn’t be troubled by things like this yet. This isn’t the right age for it.”

Li Diudiu looked at Xiahou Zuo. After a long moment he said: “I probably shouldn’t be. But I already am.”

Xiahou Zuo asked: “Have you thought of how to resolve it?”

Li Diudiu shook his head again.

“Let me tell you something.”

Xiahou Zuo said: “One month ago, Prince Wu flew into a great rage at Prince Yu’s residence and issued a death order to Military Governor Zeng Ling. If Lian Gongming’s entire family was not dead within one month, then Zeng Ling’s entire family would die instead.”

Li Diudiu’s heart lurched.

Xiahou Zuo said: “Yesterday afternoon, Gate Commander Lei Yuan led people to investigate and reportedly uncovered something—looks like he found out about Lian Gongming’s secret stores, which are stocked with considerable quantities of grain and weapons. That alone is enough to put Lian Gongming to death.”

Li Diudiu said: “So Lei Yuan died. Lian Gongming is telling the Military Governor he won’t go quietly.”

“He has no chance.”

Xiahou Zuo said: “If you can’t sleep tonight, I’ll take you to watch the show. I didn’t know it would come so fast—but as you know, I’m not privy to everything.”

Li Diudiu suspected he truly wasn’t going to sleep tonight. He sometimes thought about how it was that at his age he spent every day worrying about the state of the world, and wondered what for exactly.

“Whatever the case.”

Xiahou Zuo looked at Li Diudiu and said seriously: “Lian Gongming’s death is a good thing for the people of Jizhou City. It’s a good thing for you too.”

Li Diudiu reached for his clothes nearby, draped them over himself, and began walking out. “Let’s go.”

Xiahou Zuo gave a grunt of acknowledgment, then murmured to himself: “Absolutely freezing.”

Li Diudiu: “…”

He walked a few steps, then nodded. “It really is.”

The two of them left the academy one after the other. They made no effort to conceal their movements and simply walked down the main street. Xiahou Zuo had Li Diudiu tie the Azure Ranks’ red cord properly—that way there would be no trouble.

The night breeze was growing stronger. It was the beginning of autumn, so the chill was deepening.

Xiahou Zuo walked along for a while and then suddenly sighed.

“I feel like the cold has… shrunk everything.”

Li Diudiu gave a sound of agreement. He thought so too—not just shrunk, but tightened.

After walking about a li or two, Xiahou Zuo suddenly stopped. He glanced down a side street—that lane had no night lanterns, so he could only make out the dense shifting silhouettes of people and thickets of blades and spears.

Those were troops dispatched by Military Governor Zeng Ling.

Li Diudiu suddenly came to a realization. He opened his mouth as if to ask Xiahou Zuo whether Lei Yuan’s death had been truly unavoidable.

But the question never came out. What was the point in asking? It would only put Xiahou Zuo in an awkward spot—and what did any of it have to do with Xiahou Zuo? Lei Yuan was dead. The Azure Ranks members were filled with hatred and vengeance. None of that was something Xiahou Zuo could have controlled.

Walking another half a li or so, a large courtyard on the side of the road stood with its gate open, light blazing within. Xiahou Zuo paused to look inside. Li Diudiu stopped alongside him to look.

Inside the courtyard, on the open ground, Azure Ranks members were executing people—one kneeling figure after another—blades rising and falling in the lantern light, lives snuffed out like grass.

“Li Chi—didn’t I say a lot of good things about the Azure Ranks to you before?”

“You did.”

“Those good things—I’d still say them now.”

Xiahou Zuo looked at Li Diudiu and said seriously: “The very thing that disappoints you is what I still find something to be grateful for. In an age like this, there’s no good option to choose from. You have no choice, I have no choice, and the common people almost certainly have no choice either. So just try to accept whichever is somewhat better. We can’t find anything good—but choosing between bad and worse isn’t so hard.”

He gestured toward the interior of the courtyard. “In this Jizhou City, Prince Wu has arrived, and so Lian Gongming is going to die. Whatever the case—this is a good thing.”

Li Diudiu said nothing. But Xiahou Zuo had used the phrase “whatever the case” twice in close succession—and that alone said enough about Xiahou Zuo’s state of mind.

What Li Diudiu was actually thinking about was something else: why, when Prince Wu had ordered Military Governor Zeng Ling to act, hadn’t it been done in a straightforward, open manner—a thunderous punishment through proper legal authority? Why this method first?

Because this was plunder. One powerful clan plundering another. Whatever remained after the plundering was left for the law to deal with.

After tonight, everything that had belonged to Lian Gongming would pass into the Military Governor’s hands—not a single copper would enter the imperial treasury’s accounts.

That was why every lane and alley was packed with Dachu’s garrison troops—and yet they simply stood there waiting, because it was not yet their turn to take the stage.

“Don’t want to watch anymore.”

Li Diudiu shrugged his shoulders. “Going home to sleep.”

Xiahou Zuo said: “You should watch more. If you don’t want to end up as just another face in the crowd—if you don’t want to be like those common people who bow their heads and pretend not to see when something happens—then watch more.”

He clapped Li Diudiu on the shoulder and said: “You haven’t yet seen what’s right. So watch more of what’s wrong. It all has its use. At the very least, you’ll learn exactly what kinds of wrong things make you sick to your stomach.”

Li Diudiu asked: “Are you sick to your stomach?”

Xiahou Zuo nodded. “Sick to my stomach… but I’ve reached the age where I have to endure being sick.”

Li Diudiu fell silent again. Xiahou Zuo was only seventeen.

—

At the Jizhou prefectural office, Lian Gongming was not at home—he was at the government hall. He knew tonight was the critical moment, a threshold that perhaps could not be crossed no matter what, and inside the hall he felt somewhat more settled, because this place was a symbol of authority.

But now he was utterly alone.

He found it somewhat laughable—because at this moment, the person who had stayed by his side was not any of those subordinates who had always spoken of loyalty and righteousness, but a hired assassin who had stayed in exchange for his silver.

Lian Gongming had never given Yao Wuhen a second thought in the past—in his eyes, Yao Wuhen was lowlife scum, a minor figure.

“My lord appears somewhat displeased?”

Sitting off to one side with his legs propped on the table, Yao Wuhen smiled. Not mockingly—merely finding it amusing.

“Was I not good to them?”

Lian Gongming looked around. “I gave them careers. Silver. Power. But when the moment came, every one of them ran faster than anyone. And yet it’s someone like you—a man who kills for money—who stays by my side. Why haven’t you left?”

Yao Wuhen said: “I’m not an honorable person, but I keep my word. You hired me. This ends when one of us is dead.”

Lian Gongming asked: “Do you have any chance of getting me out of the city?”

Yao Wuhen shook his head. “No.”

Lian Gongming asked: “Can you hide me somewhere safe?”

“No.”

Lian Gongming laughed bitterly. “You can’t even be bothered to tell a pretty lie.”

Yao Wuhen said: “Wouldn’t do any good.”

Lian Gongming looked into Yao Wuhen’s eyes and said: “If you killed me right now, you could take all the valuables here with you. No need to worry. No need to risk your life. Why don’t you?”

Yao Wuhen looked at Lian Gongming the way one looks at a fool—and this time there was a very thick layer of contempt in that smile.

“Now I understand why you’ve been abandoned by everyone. It’s not just that your subordinates feared death—it’s also that you’re not worth dying for.”

Yao Wuhen said: “I set my prices for killing. A person who doesn’t pose much of a threat—two hundred taels. But if in the course of the job I run into danger, even the possibility of losing my life, I won’t ask you for more money. Because I agreed on two hundred taels and two hundred taels it is.”

“You hired me to protect you. I said one thousand taels a day—one thousand taels it is. Whether you have a million taels has nothing to do with me. Do you know what this is?”

Yao Wuhen stood, walked to within a foot of Lian Gongming, and looked him eye to eye. “Contract. You people in office are utterly worthless—Dachu’s officials, every single one like you, and you have no shame about it? I’m a hired killer, yet I can stand right in front of you and point to your face and tell you that you operate like filth. Doesn’t that strike you as filthy?”

Lian Gongming stared blankly.

Yao Wuhen said: “I have nothing but contempt for the lot of you in official robes. Not a one of you knows what it means to stand by your word. Not a one of you knows what shame is.”

Looking at Lian Gongming’s still-bewildered expression, Yao Wuhen asked: “Still not moving?”

Lian Gongming instinctively glanced back at the dozen or so great chests on the floor, each one stuffed to the brim with gold and silver.

“Life matters more.”

Yao Wuhen pulled Lian Gongming forward. “Come on—I’ll keep you alive as long as I can.”

Lian Gongming let himself be pulled along, still turning to look back repeatedly. Before going out the door he asked Yao Wuhen: “You care so much about money—any single jewel in those chests is worth more than a thousand taels. Why didn’t you take any?”

Yao Wuhen said: “They’re valuable, yes. But they’re not mine.”

Outside, the streets were growing more chaotic by the moment—fighting everywhere. The underground factions that had depended on Lian Gongming were fated to be slaughtered this night.

At the rear gate of the government office, Lian Gongming let out a long sigh. “I gave half my life to this place, and now…”

Crack!

Yao Wuhen slapped him across the face.

“Are you going to walk or not?”

Yao Wuhen glared at him.

—