By the time Ling Zhiyan came out of the Ministry of Personnel, the hour had already passed into the seventh watch of the evening. There was less than a quarter-hour before the imperial city gates closed, so going to the Ministry of Works was clearly out of the question. Ling Zhiyan thought for a moment, and went directly out of the imperial city, heading straight for the residence of Ministry of Works Vice Minister Lu Yingjie, who lived in Jinde Quarter.

Lu Yingjie had just arrived home, and had not yet had time to change his clothes, when a servant came to report that the Court of Judicial Review’s Judicial Reviewer Ling Zhiyan had come to call. The servant added a special note that Judicial Reviewer Ling had brought along two gleaming book-boxes, which from the look of it seemed to be a New Year gift delivery.

News of the glorious episode of Ling the Sixth Young Master going to the Censorate to deliver gifts earlier in the day, only to be kicked out by Censor-in-Chief Fang Feiguang, had spread all through the imperial city. He had then also gone to the Ministry of Personnel, and had been personally seen off by the Minister of Personnel upon leaving — presumably Ling the Sixth Young Master’s gifts this round were rather extraordinary.

Lu Yingjie naturally did not believe a word of it. The miserliness of Yingyang’s Ling Family was hereditary — and with each generation it only grew more entrenched, one generation outdoing the last. Even if Ling the Sixth Young Master came bearing gifts, they were probably no more than a few coins’ worth of pastry — and if the value exceeded twenty coins, he would eat this desk of his.

One cup of tea later, Vice Minister Lu made it known that: his desk was of premium ebony wood, and eating it would indeed be quite difficult to digest, so perhaps they had better just forget it.

Ling the Sixth Young Master’s New Year gift was tea leaves — a product of the Hua Family — priced in the common man’s range, truly not exceeding twenty coins. But the canister holding the tea leaves was Neiqiu white porcelain, the glaze fine, lustrous, and pure white — as frost, as snow. A person without a discerning eye would see it as perfectly ordinary, no different from the common wares sold in the streets. But Lu Yingjie happened to be a connoisseur, and recognized it at a glance: if he recalled correctly, a similar-shaped and sized Neiqiu white porcelain container, at the most recent market price from before the new year, was one hundred and eighty guan apiece.

But looking at Ling Zhiyan’s calm and unaffected expression, he clearly did not know the true price of the tea canister. Mixed-flower tea was also a Hua Family specialty — Lu Yingjie understood immediately. This gift must have been prepared by Hua the Fourth Young Master.

“This is the New Year gift Lin Niangzi asked Ling to bring for Vice Minister Lu — rather plain and simple, please do not take offense.” Ling Zhiyan smiled.

Lu Yingjie ran his hand over the tea canister with deep reluctance to put it down. “So it was sent by Lin Niangzi — no wonder, no wonder.”

Ling Zhiyan: “Lin Niangzi has recently encountered a corruption and malfeasance case, and has traced it to a suspect who previously served in the Ministry of Works. So she specifically asked Ling to come and make some inquiries.”

Though the Censor-in-Chief had already authorized the deployment of Covert Censor investigative powers, the matter had not yet been reported to the Holy Sovereign, which was not in compliance with proper procedure. Moreover, when he had gone to the Ministry of Personnel earlier to review the personnel file, that was overstepping and exceeding his authority, and could only be done in his capacity as a Covert Censor. Lu Yingjie had ties of friendship with the Deputy Court Chief of the Court of Judicial Review, Jiang Huai, and also had an interest in Lin Sui’an’s — well — Qian Jing. So Ling Zhiyan decided first to withhold his identity, and planned to start by trading on personal connections.

Sure enough, the moment he heard it was a case Lin Sui’an was investigating, Lu Yingjie immediately perked up with interest. “How is Qian Jing’s upkeep lately, since using the blade-care method Vice Minister Lu provided?”

“Lin Niangzi says that since using the blade-care method Vice Minister Lu provided, Qian Jing has been considerably more stable, and her martial arts has made quite some progress.”

Lu Yingjie was very pleased. “And who does Lin Niangzi wish to ask about?”

Ling Zhiyan: “An’du City’s currently-serving Director of Works, Zheng Yongyan.”

“Zheng Yongyan…… Zheng……” Lu Yingjie scratched his head. “Is this person a native of Liuan County, Taiyuan?”

“That is correct.”

Lu Yingjie: “Then there can be no mistake — it is him! Back when I was in the Bureau of Water Resources at the Ministry of Works, he was doing a section chief posting at the adjacent Bureau of Forestry and Crafts. You say he is implicated in a case — what sort of case is it?”

“A corruption and malfeasance case.”

“Oh my — truly one cannot judge a book by its cover. This Zheng Yongyan had a timid and cowardly personality, and kept largely to himself. Who would have thought that once he got to An’du City, he would develop the audacity to embezzle.”

Lu Yingjie’s description of Zheng Yongyan was entirely consistent with what Hua Yitang had written in his letter. Ling Zhiyan thought for a moment, then asked: “Did Zheng Yongyan have any friends or colleagues he was particularly close to?”

Lu Yingjie shook his head. “The man was a loner, rarely interacted with others, and likely had no friends to speak of. The reason I have an impression of him at all is because he —— ” Lu Yingjie paused for a moment, “—— did not seem like a son of the Liuan Zheng Family.”

Ling Zhiyan’s eyes lit up. “Could it be there is something noteworthy about this Liuan Zheng Family?”

“In Liuan County, Taiyuan, there are two families that have for generations produced military equipment — the Zheng Family of Liuan and the Xu Family of Liuan. The Zheng Family excelled at design; the Xu Family excelled at manufacture. The two families complemented one another, and were once the highest-ranking family in the entire Tang Kingdom for military equipment manufacturing. The Zheng Family’s former-former head once served at the Bureau of Military Equipment as chief supervisor, overseeing the design and manufacture of all the Tang Kingdom’s military equipment. Later, when the Bureau of Military Equipment was incorporated into the Ministry of Works’ Bureau of Forestry and Crafts, their power was greatly reduced, and the influence of both the Zheng and Xu Families diminished considerably. Afterward they shifted to architectural and construction design.”

“I have seen Zheng Yongyan’s design blueprints — quite ordinary. The Liuan Zheng Family’s characteristic ingenuity is completely absent. From what I have heard, he is an illegitimate son of an outer branch, and likely did not receive the main family’s true teachings. If the Zheng Family’s main line had not been depleted in numbers, and if they were not still relying on the military merits accumulated by their ancestors, he probably could never have entered official service.”

Ling Zhiyan: “The Liuan Zheng Family’s ancestors had military merits?”

“The attack and defense siege weapons designed and manufactured by the Zheng Family in their time were second to none — especially at the great victory of Yi City thirty years ago, where the Zheng Family’s military equipment achieved great merit. I have also collected quite a few of the Zheng Family’s military equipment design blueprints — let me get them for Judicial Reviewer Ling to look at.”

Lu Yingjie enthusiastically dug out two large boxes of design blueprint drafts — several dozen scrolls, rich in variety, including: wheeled cloud ladders, assault engineering vehicles, the Luchong assault vehicle (a variety of large battle wagons), boarding vehicles, ram-and-hook vehicles, night yaksha weights, chevaux de frise (obstacles for blocking horses), wolf-tooth flails, and many others.

Lu Yingjie began to describe them with the loving familiarity of someone recounting treasured possessions. “Take this defensive wall instrument, the wolf-tooth flail: made of elm, five chi in length, four chi and five cun wide, three cun thick, with two thousand two hundred wolf-tooth iron spikes — each spike five cun long, weighing six liang — nailed into the flail panel, projecting three cun from the wood, four-edged blades attached on all four faces, each blade cutting one and a half cun into the wood. Iron rings are set on the front and back, threaded with hemp rope, and hooked over the city wall. When enemies swarm up the wall like ants, operators pull it up and then let it slam down upon them. A winch is fitted at the rear — with a pulley system to equalize force — making operation considerably easier. It has slaughtered countless enemies and is a supremely effective weapon.”

“Look at this design blueprint — meticulous at every point, full of ingenious thought. There are also usage scenario illustrations and detailed production draft notes. And every blueprint has an annotation note from a Xu Family craftsman.”

Ling Zhiyan: “What is an annotation note?”

“Generally speaking, there is always a gap between the design blueprint and the actual production. So a finished military equipment piece goes through multiple rounds of communication and refinement between the design craftsman and the production craftsman before it is completed. During the specific production process, the production craftsman raises improvement suggestions based on problems encountered, and these suggestions are also marked on the design blueprint — these are called annotation notes.” Lu Yingjie pointed to the signature column in the lower left corner of the blueprint. “According to each person’s contribution to the design blueprint, signatures are listed in order of rank.”

The signature column had seven entries. The first four were all members of the Zheng Family, named respectively Zheng Qingque, Zheng Qinghua, Zheng Qingyue, and Zheng Yongfan. The last three were members of the Xu Family: Xu Qianming, Xu Qianzong, and Xu Baishui.

Lu Yingjie: “Zheng Qingque, Zheng Qinghua, and Zheng Qingyue are brothers of the main family — the three with the best technical skills. Regrettably, all have passed away. Zheng Yongfan is from an outer branch — his name could only be listed last. He and Zheng Yongyan should be of the same generation.”

But Ling Zhiyan’s gaze had fixed intently on the name “Xu Baishui.” All three characters had strokes with falling-left or sweeping-right brushwork, and the ends of those strokes each carried a slight upward hook — extremely similar to the handwriting style on “Zheng Yongyan’s” special examination paper.

“Who is this Xu Baishui?” Ling Zhiyan asked. “Where is he now?”

Lu Yingjie was silent for a moment. “Thirty-two years ago, the entire Xu Family of Liuan was exterminated.”

“Why?!”

“The Xu Family colluded with a foreign nation — they committed treason.”

Ling Zhiyan went pale with shock. “Treason?! Why have I never heard of this case?!”

“Naturally you have not heard of it. Because this case involved not only the Xu Family of Liuan, but was also entangled with a great family that was the talk of the realm at the time.” Lu Yingjie let out a long sigh. “Do you know of the great victory at Yi City thirty-two years ago?”

“Of course!”

“Then do you know of the great catastrophe at Yi City?”

“What?”

“One month before the great victory at Yi City, Yi City’s garrison commander committed treason, defecting to the Tuzan Nation and leading Tuzan forces in a surprise attack across the border. The remaining soldiers at Yi City held out against the enemy for a full month — their arrows and food completely exhausted, their casualties devastating. This was called the great catastrophe at Yi City.”

“The Wan Family of Qingzhou answered the desperate call, traveling a thousand li to Yi City, and fought a bloody battle for thirteen days, repelling ten thousand of Tuzan’s elite cavalry. That is what became the great victory at Yi City.”

Ling Zhiyan’s heart pounded wildly. “Who was that traitorous Yi City garrison commander?”

Lu Yingjie looked directly at Ling Zhiyan: “The Tang Kingdom’s greatest war god. The Qin Family of Taiyuan. Qin Nanyun.”

An’du City. The Hua Family’s eighth residence.

After waiting three days, the reply letter from Ling Zhiyan finally arrived. Hua Yitang read eagerly through the first page, and everyone present was struck dumb.

Lin Sui’an pulled out from her breast pocket the woodblock print depicting the “Battle Goddess Consort,” and thought: as expected.

As expected, a key object does not appear without reason.

The Battle Goddess of Yi City was Qin Nanyun. The “Millennium Demon Commander” that Bai Ruyi of Sanhe Academy had mentioned was also Qin Nanyun. Even Yun Zhong Yue had specifically underscored the point, saying this General Qin had a fighting power capable of facing a hundred alone — very similar to her.

No wonder that under the shining aura of Hua Yitang’s “Fourth Young Master’s Curse” — wherein everywhere he went, people died — they had gone over three months without encountering a single murder case. So it had all been building up to this moment, unleashing everything at once!

Hua Yitang turned to the next page of the letter. “Ling the Sixth Young Master currently suspects that Zheng Yongyan is Xu Baishui, and has already sent both the military equipment blueprints and Zheng Yongyan’s special examination papers together to the Court of Judicial Review. However, Xu Baishui’s notations and signatures on the blueprints are too few in number — authenticating the handwriting will take time.”

“The Censor-in-Chief has already authorized Lin Sui’an’s Covert Censor token to initiate the special investigative powers for the case. As for the other token belonging to Gong Feiyang — its original owner cannot be confirmed.”

Lin Sui’an sighed.

Jinruo: “Since this involves an old case from the past, the Court of Judicial Review definitely has case files. And Ling the Sixth Young Master is both a Court of Judicial Review Judicial Reviewer and a Covert Censor — retrieving case files should not be difficult, should it?”

Hua Yitang turned to the next page, clicked his tongue, and said: “Sixth Young Master has searched through the entire Court of Judicial Review’s case registry depository and found no file for this case. He then went to the classified depository to check — unfortunately, twenty years ago the classified depository suffered a fire. The Character Wu classified depository was burned, and what it destroyed happened to be precisely the classified case files from the twenty-fifth year of Xuande through the first year of Xuanchang. In other words, all the classified case files from the five years surrounding the treason case were burned.”

Fangke gave a cold snort. “If there is no suspicious business behind this case, then that would be the truly suspicious thing.”

Jinruo’s eyes rolled back. “It is all finished!”

Lin Sui’an: “Are there other surviving witnesses from the case who can still be found?”

“Given the severity of this case, at the time it would certainly have been a secret joint trial by the Three Judicial Offices,” Hua Yitang put down the letter. “The participants would have been the then-Minister of Justice, the then-Court Chief of the Court of Judicial Review, and the then-Censor-in-Chief. The grass over the graves of these three old men is already two chi tall. As for the rest who knew of the case — they are like Vice Minister Lu — having only heard of the verdict, knowing nothing of the specific inner workings. And anyone even younger than that may not have heard of the case at all.”

Fangke: “What about the people of the Liuan Zheng Family?”

Hua Yitang: “The older generation of the Liuan Zheng Family who participated in the great victory at Yi City have all died. The oldest among the next generation is precisely our Adjunct Zheng here — and counting by age, if he truly is Xu Baishui, then at the time he could have been at most twelve years old.”

Lin Sui’an frowned: A twelve-year-old boy — how much truth could he have known?

“The most troublesome thing now is that the case files have been burned,” said Fangke. “We know nothing of this case’s details — how do we continue the investigation from here?”

Jinruo raised her hand: “Pour three jin of Yita’s smoked tea into Zheng Yongyan, and he will confess everything going back to his ancestors eight generations——”

Lin Sui’an backhanded a flick to Jinruo’s forehead. Jinruo clutched her head and collapsed onto the desk.

“Who said there are no case files and therefore no clues?” Hua Yitang said. “For a case of this magnitude, it will certainly be recorded in the national histories.”

Lin Sui’an was taken aback. “Searching the national histories — can we find detailed case particulars?”

In her impression, history books recorded things in an extremely concise style. Many major events often had only a brief overview — this case in the national histories would likely amount to a single paragraph at most, along the lines of: “On such-and-such a year, month, and day, the Qin Family of Taiyuan, Qin Nanyun, was investigated and found guilty of treason, evidence conclusive” — something along those lines.

Hua Yitang smiled. “The national histories might not be detailed enough, but one can also search the Veritable Records, the Daily Miscellaneous Records——”

Lin Sui’an sucked in a sharp breath. The daily records of the emperor’s words and conduct?

To search a case all the way up to the Holy Sovereign’s eating, drinking, and daily affairs — was that not looking for death?

“This — isn’t that rather inappropriate?” Lin Sui’an cautioned.

Hua Yitang smacked his palm with his fist. “Ah, you are quite right — it is indeed inappropriate. In that case — what about searching the Daily Miscellaneous Records of the great aristocratic families?”

Jinruo shot upright. “What Veritable Records? What Daily Miscellaneous Records? Don’t try to bamboozle me just because you think I haven’t read books — this sounds completely unreliable.”

“The Veritable Records are annalistic chronicles documenting major political affairs, recording by year, month, and day all major events in governance, economics, military, culture, disasters, and auspicious signs. The Daily Miscellaneous Records are the day-by-day records of words and conduct kept by the great aristocratic families.” Hua Yitang tapped his hand warmer. “Based on the daily records of the emperor’s conduct, the Daily Miscellaneous Records of aristocratic families, political records, official department memoranda and submissions, as well as popular notes, stele inscriptions, books, poetry, music scores, and so on, Veritable Records are compiled. Then, using the Veritable Records as the basis, the national histories are compiled. Not to put too fine a point on it: celestial phenomena and the five elements, geography and population, official systems and military institutions, agriculture and commerce — no matter how great or small the affair, all are within them.”

Jinruo: “And if these are also burned?”

“Burned?” Hua Yitang laughed out loud. “Which great aristocratic family does not keep several sets of transcribed copies of the national Veritable Records? Moreover, the Tang Kingdom’s reputation is wide-reaching and its renown far-flung. When envoys from Silla, Fusang, Persia, Goryeo, Dashi, the Western Regions, and other nations depart to return home, they invariably take transcribed copies of the Veritable Records back with them to study and emulate. How could it all be burned?”

Jinruo’s jaw dropped.

Lin Sui’an pressed a hand to her forehead. “We wouldn’t have to go abroad to search, would we?”

Hua Yitang shifted his sitting position and picked up his brush. “Not necessarily. Among the Five Surnames and Seven Clans there is one family that particularly enjoys collecting this sort of material. Their own Daily Miscellaneous Records are also thorough and detailed in every respect. Searching that one family’s Daily Miscellaneous Records alone would probably be sufficient.”

In Lin Sui’an’s mind a clear ding rang out. “You wouldn’t be talking about Bai Ruyi’s family——”

Hua Yitang let out a soft laugh, and his brush moved like a dragon and a snake as he began writing a reply letter. “Bai Ruyi is now serving in the Imperial Library Office — not far from the Court of Judicial Review either. There are probably still some tea leaves left from what was sent to Ling the Sixth Young Master. Paying a visit to Bai the Thirteenth Young Master while we are at it wouldn’t be a bad idea at all!”

“That — er——” Lin Sui’an said. “How many volumes does that aristocratic family’s Daily Miscellaneous Records you mentioned have — roughly speaking?”

Hua Yitang chewed on the end of his brush and thought for a moment. “About a few hundred scrolls, give or take.”

Two days later. Eastern Capital. Imperial Library Office.

“The combined Daily Miscellaneous Records of the Bai Family of Longxi across two dynasties total thirty-eight thousand six hundred and seventy-seven scrolls. The Daily Miscellaneous Records from the twenty-fifth year of Xuande through the first year of Xuanchang total two thousand four hundred and fifty-four scrolls.” Bai Ruyi said, her face puckered up miserably.

Ling Zhiyan’s book-boxes dropped to the ground.

Short Sketch

Ling Zhiyan: There is no living with this anymore!