There was no time to react at all. The man’s eyes went wide with shock, and then he collapsed, his face a mask of blood.

“You!” The ruffians drew their blades in unison.

Chen Baoxiang’s gaze settled on the hand of the innocent tile-setter, and she ground her back teeth together. “Hit them — hit them just like this. Don’t let a single one get away.”

“Yes!” The people behind her answered in one voice, and the sound was enough to make the ground seem to tremble slightly.

Zhang Zhixu watched from where he stood. In truth, only the four or five people up front looked like bureau officers from her unit — the ones behind them were a mixed lot gathered from who knows where. But with that many people stationed here, those ruffians had no nerve left for a direct confrontation, and were trying to slip away again as they had before.

Chen Baoxiang knew the drainage channels beneath Shangjing even better than they did. She shouted an immediate command: “Fenghua! Block them! Flush out all the other rats hiding down there too!”

And then she threw herself into the fray, seizing two grown men simultaneously and yanking them out from a channel entrance, slamming them down hard onto the ground.

Xie Lanting’s jaw nearly came unhinged.

“Is that…Bao, Baoxiang? Miss Baoxiang?”

Zhang Zhixu kept his eyes fixed on her movements and corrected him with mild displeasure: “Call her Official Chen.”

“Official Chen?”

He nodded. “Official Chen’s strength — one look and you can tell she’s no ordinary person. Remarkable valor.”

Remarkable valor, yes — but remarkable roughness as well. Xie Lanting stared in open-mouthed astonishment as Chen Baoxiang’s eyes bulged round as bells, her mouth twisted and nose scrunched in a fierce grimace, and she brought a fist crashing down on someone — at a level of ferocity that could have been painted on a door to ward off evil spirits.

But then he looked over at Zhang Zhixu — this most finicky of his acquaintances, a man who had been known to remark that the head courtesan of Chunfeng Tower was “nothing remarkable” — and found that Zhang Zhixu was watching Chen Baoxiang’s display with an expression of open admiration.

“Don’t you think she seems unbecoming of a woman?” he challenged.

“What does ‘unbecoming’ have to do with it? She simply is a woman.” Zhang Zhixu was entirely unmoved. “Since she was born a woman, how could throwing a few punches change that?”

And then he gave an approving nod at Chen Baoxiang’s technique: “That move is far more decisive than anything I’ve seen from her before. She’s clearly been putting in serious work at the bureau. Our Official Chen is truly diligent.”

Xie Lanting had, in truth, harbored doubts about Chen Baoxiang ever since she’d seemingly appeared out of nowhere and become Zhang Zhixu’s closest companion. What kind of ordinary woman — one whose playing of the qin was actively offensive to the ears — could possibly make Zhang Zhixu give her a whole residence?

But today, standing before Zhang Zhixu and watching his expression, Xie Lanting conceded.

He even thought to himself that gifting someone a residence was a small matter — and one that couldn’t fully convey the degree of Zhang Zhixu’s partiality toward Chen Baoxiang.

This man was actually frowning at the cut on Chen Baoxiang’s hand.

Working in the bureau meant getting injured — that was simply how it was. Chen Baoxiang’s injuries were already on the lighter end; they didn’t even require bandaging.

But once things settled down at Guangsha Quarter, Zhang Zhixu was the first to have Ningsu bring out the Mafei grass.

“How did you end up here?” he asked, taking her hand quite naturally and applying the medicine.

Chen Baoxiang was still a little out of breath. She gave a perfunctory greeting to Xie Lanting and then answered him: “I was supposed to be doing rounds at Xuanhe Quarter today. On the way, I heard from the patrol officers that there was trouble here, and quite a lot of people involved, so I brought my people over.”

“Where did they all come from?”

“You noticed?” She scratched her head with her other hand and looked a little sheepish. “My regular people were deployed elsewhere, so I had to put together a group of idle men at short notice. I still need to go settle up their wages afterward.”

She, who was so attached to every coin — the moment she heard he was in trouble, she’d actually dipped into her own pockets to hire this many people?

Zhang Zhixu felt a small, quiet wave of feeling, though outwardly he only lowered his eyes and gave a soft snort, lifting his hand to apply the Mafei grass for her.

Chen Baoxiang pulled her hand back slightly. “It’s just a tiny cut from a bamboo strip. Medicine this expensive is unnecessary.”

He held her wrist and didn’t let go. “A small cut is still a cut. Ask yourself — without medication, how long would it take to heal?”

Probably a good half a month, at least.

She gave a dry laugh, then turned to Xie Lanting. “You see? Having a friend like Official Zhang — isn’t that the best thing in the world?”

Xie Lanting, seated between the two of them, covered his forehead with his hand and didn’t want to look at anything.

Something had clearly gone wrong today. How could this person possibly be Zhang Zhixu? Zhang Zhixu could not have spoken so many human words in one stretch.

And the one on the right couldn’t possibly be the real Chen Baoxiang either — she had just single-handedly taken down twenty ruffians without even drawing her blade. What woman could do that?

But after calming himself down and lowering his hands, what Xie Lanting saw was still Zhang Zhixu and Chen Baoxiang.

And Zhang Zhixu was bowing his head to blow gently on Chen Baoxiang’s wound.

Blowing on it. He blew on it.

Xie Lanting could not endure another instant of this. He shot to his feet and left the tea shelter.

Chen Baoxiang looked puzzled. “What’s gotten into him?”

Zhang Zhixu didn’t look up. “He’s just not used to things.”

Applying medicine to her had become such a habit by now that he had learned precisely how to minimize her discomfort — and so this was a task only he could carry out.

Still, he was also somewhat shaken by what had nearly happened: “Next time, don’t charge so far ahead. Just now, several of their iron rods nearly came down on your head.”

“That won’t do,” Chen Baoxiang said, raising an eyebrow. “The leader has to be at the front — otherwise no one will follow you into the breach, especially when most of today’s people were strangers.”

When commanding seasoned troops, a general could hold back from the front line — because the enemy would try to eliminate the main commander first, and protecting the general was how morale was sustained. But with untested men, the minds of so many people were uncertain; there was no guarantee some wouldn’t lose their nerve or ignore orders. In that case, the only way was to charge at the front and establish the commander’s authority through action.

Zhang Zhixu noticed that while Chen Baoxiang had never read a treatise on military strategy, she had a remarkably clear instinctive grasp of all these things.

He felt an involuntary swell of pride: “I said all along she was a born military commander. Xie Lanting didn’t believe me.”

Far down the road, Xie Lanting’s back suddenly felt a chill.

He crouched at the edge of the Guangsha Quarter ruins and surveyed the aftermath.

The people Chen Baoxiang had brought with her were efficient: around fifty ruffians had been rounded up and sent off to prison, and pursuit was already continuing through the drainage channels below. The injured tile-setter had been sent to a physician, and the rest of the workers had been properly reassured and settled.

Her people seemed to have no intention of leaving. They simply stayed on at Guangsha Quarter.

The long-halted construction site, after an hour of clearing and reorganization, finally resumed operations.

Xie Lanting let out a sigh tinged with something like awe. “Our Official Zhang was right — our Official Chen is genuinely capable.”

Jiuquan poked his head over and asked: “Would your honor like to ride back to the Construction Bureau in our master’s carriage?”

Xie Lanting put his hands behind his back. “Our Official Xie is perfectly capable of getting back on his own. Go relay this to your Official Zhang: tell him to give proper commendation to your Official Chen.”

Jiuquan walked away scratching his head in puzzlement. Xie Lanting, meanwhile, burst out laughing on his own and stepped out to board his carriage.