Shisan Lang smiled bitterly: “The relationship between us martial brothers is different from ordinary families. On the surface we’re harmonious, but if anyone shows the slightest weakness, someone will seize the chance to stick in a knife. You’ve seen the scar on Seventh Martial Brother Huo Qi’s face – that was Second Martial Brother’s doing. Elder Martial Brother knows I won’t harm him, but he can’t guarantee other enemies won’t torture me to reveal his hiding place, so he doesn’t tell me or you.”

Bao Zhu suddenly fell silent.

When it came to fraternal strife and sibling slaughter, nothing was more bloody and ruthless than the imperial family. For the throne, the conflicts between the Li Tang and Wu Zhou royal clans weren’t just about cutting a scar on someone’s face – they involved destroying entire families and exterminating entire bloodlines. Hadn’t she, this precious imperial princess, been inexplicably buried alive?

Thinking back this way, Wei Xun had indeed done everything possible to make arrangements before leaving. It was just that immediately afterward, the major case of pearl theft and murder occurred in Xiagui County, and he was identified as a suspect by all forces – that was unpredictable divine will.

Shisan Lang said: “Now that Jiu Niang has been implicated by martial brother and arrested and confined here, I had no choice but to tell you the truth. These past two nights I’ve found martial brother’s hiding place. I estimate he needs another three or four days before he can move. I came tonight to tell you not to cry or be afraid – when Elder Martial Brother recovers, he can easily deal with these bad people and rescue Jiu Niang.”

Bao Zhu looked at the little monk blinking his dark eyes with an extremely sincere tone. Though he could barely take care of himself, he still thought to comfort her, so she let go of her anger about his concealment. Turning to look at the scissors, water bowl, and the dish of cheese that Shisan Lang had eaten clean, she found it amusing. This scissors cat-finding method was infallible – she had just set it up and indirectly found traces of Wei Xun, truly hitting the target in one strike.

After eating, Shisan Lang wanted to climb out the window to leave, but Bao Zhu grabbed him saying: “Wait a moment, I’ll change clothes and go see Wei Xun with you.”

Shisan Lang was startled: “How can you go in and out through windows?”

Bao Zhu said impatiently: “If you can climb through windows with such clumsiness, how am I inferior to you? The people who captured me think I’m weak and frail like Old Yang, so they’re lax in their precautions – they’re gravely mistaken!”

She immediately changed into trousers and, learning from Wei Xun’s trick in the haunted house, used bedding to pile up a human shape on the inner side of the bed and draped it with a silk scarf. Unless someone came close with a lamp, they would think she was sleeping soundly. Then, under Shisan Lang’s terrified gaze, she climbed out the window, stepping on his shoulder midway to slow her descent. After landing, except for scraping her trousers, she wasn’t injured.

Bao Zhu patted the dust off herself and asked: “Do you really have the same master as your elder martial brother? You seem even less capable than me.”

Shisan Lang stood watch for her at the street corner, saying: “Same master. But I have no talent for lightness skills – I practice the Prajna Repentance internal cultivation, completely different from Elder Martial Brother inside and out. The other martial brothers also vary according to their individual natures, learning quite different things.”

Bao Zhu was surprised: “Then your master must truly be a learned and talented expert to understand so many martial arts.”

Shisan Lang saw the street was clear and beckoned to her: “Not only are his martial arts high, he understands everything and has many, many books, but he doesn’t allow us to read them.”

Bao Zhu tiptoed after him, “So you greatly admire him?”

Shisan Lang shook his head, and after a moment said: “His temper was too bad – he never had a happy day. I was very afraid of him. Ah, it’s truly sinful, but when master passed away, we all breathed a sigh of relief.”

Bao Zhu was secretly surprised, wildly speculating whether that bad-tempered bandit chief was directly buried in the coffin she usually slept in. Walking along, she discovered their destination was very familiar – Wei Xun’s hiding place was actually not far from the Sun Family Inn, separated by only two small alleys.

Shisan Lang skillfully found an uninhabited courtyard with fresh seals pasted on the door – apparently an empty house that bailiffs had already searched after the pearl theft case. Bao Zhu stepped on Shisan Lang’s shoulder, and the two climbed over the wall again. Shisan Lang picked up a broken ladder from the back of the courtyard and carried it inside.

Bao Zhu coughed twice from the old dust in the house, “How did you find such a remote place?”

Shisan Lang said: “Once, he didn’t say he was ill, but somehow fell from the roof beam. That was truly rare – I remember it vividly to this day. This time, I thought he wouldn’t hide too far from you and should be somewhere near the Sun Family Inn.” He leaned the ladder against the horizontal beam in the room.

Bao Zhu looked up and saw that above the beam was a wooden platform, and judging by the house’s external structure, there should be a hidden triangular attic above.

Shisan Lang lit a candle, and the two climbed up the ladder onto the beam, then crawled along the beam onto the rooftop platform. This triangular attic wasn’t originally for habitation – the wooden floor was just laid to prevent dust and for appearance. Even at its most spacious point, one had to crouch to stand, making it extremely concealed. As long as there was no sound, even if people lived in the house below, they probably wouldn’t discover it.

A person in a blue shirt was curled up in the shadows of a corner of the attic – undoubtedly Wei Xun.

Bao Zhu bent over and gently walked over to check on him. She saw him lying on his side curled up, his pale-as-paper face shrouded in a gray mist, looking like he had only one breath more than a corpse. Beside him was the stove used to melt jewelry, with the charcoal fire inside already extinguished.

Shisan Lang said quietly: “When this cold paralysis syndrome attacks, even in the height of summer he feels like falling into an ice cave, cold beyond endurance, so when he asked me to buy charcoal that day, I roughly guessed.”

So that’s what the charcoal was for!

All this was like the story of “suspecting the neighbor of stealing an axe” in the Liezi – if you first suspect someone of being a thief, then any behavior you observe will seem like that of a thief. Once the truth is revealed, all previous actions have their own reasons. This master thief that the outside world thought capable of flying through heaven and escaping through earth to commit crimes was actually so ill he couldn’t move, taking the blame for countless crimes out of thin air.

Bao Zhu instructed: “Light the stove.”

Shisan Lang did as told.

By candlelight, Bao Zhu examined him carefully and saw his delicate eyebrows knitted together, his lips bitten raw from enduring pain. His hands also had red, swollen, festering wounds – apparently from touching the hot stove wall while delirious trying to warm himself.

Bao Zhu hadn’t expected him to be so severely ill. She asked heavily: “Why hide when you’re sick? Couldn’t you find a doctor to examine you? Though I’m poor, I should still be able to afford a few doses of medicine.”

“Elder Martial Brother’s illness can’t be cured by doctors. He visited many famous physicians in Chang’an in his early years, and they all said there was nothing they could do, let alone in this small city.”

Thinking of how wild and unrestrained this person usually was, yet now lay dejected in the dust like an injured lynx, Bao Zhu felt great pity and reached out to feel his forehead.

But before she could touch him, an extremely cold hand fiercely gripped her pulse point. Wei Xun suddenly opened his eyes, startling Bao Zhu. What dark and profound eyes they were! Hollow like they would suck a person into the underworld, deep as an abyss without the slightest light.

Shisan Lang was terrified and quickly came over to release the grip: “Never touch Elder Martial Brother when he’s sleeping! He strikes to kill!”

Bao Zhu bent over in pain, thinking he had been awakened, but seeing he made no further moves and his eyes didn’t focus, she realized it was just instinctive reflex. From his unconscious grip, blue finger marks immediately appeared on her snow-white wrist.

Wei Xun slowly closed his eyes again and became silent, his whole body shrouded in the vigilance of a trapped beast.

With him unconscious, she could finally abandon propriety and brazenly examine him carefully. She saw his eyebrows were sparse, slender, and shaped like sharp knives, his nose bridge high and suspended like a dangerous bridge, his lips thin and pale in color. His features were too sharp – no matter how you looked, this was what the palace called “shallow fortune, thin fate” physiognomy, yet she only felt more pity in her heart.

Seeing her sorrowful expression, Shisan Lang tried to console her cheerfully: “Let’s go. Since Elder Martial Brother won’t let anyone touch him, even if we spent a lot of money to hire a doctor willing to climb roof beams for house calls, he’d be stabbed before taking a pulse. It’s just a matter of days – when Elder Martial Brother’s symptoms ease, he’ll naturally come back to find you.”

Bao Zhu sighed, stroking her burning, painful wrist, and murmured in an almost inaudible voice: “My cat, oh my cat…”

Author’s Note:

Cats are wild by nature and won’t let you pet them