The assembled crowd chattered excitedly: “I’ve heard something about this. They say the Empress’s younger cousin is lovely, as gorgeous as a heavenly maiden!”

“Yesterday, when Duke Kui’s carriage escorted her out of the city, I was by the roadside hoping to catch a glimpse. This future duchess proved to be as elegant and dignified as the rumors suggested – she didn’t even lift a corner of the carriage curtain. It makes one curious.”

“She must be an incomparable beauty without question. How else could she have snatched Duke Kui away from Princess Qile?”

“That Princess Qile is now truly the most pitiful person in the capital. You see, women shouldn’t make their feelings too obvious. If you can’t get the one you want, you’ll become the laughingstock of others.”

“Exactly! If it weren’t for this Miss Wang, with Princess Qile’s family background and beauty, wouldn’t she and Duke Kui have been a perfect match? I bet Princess Qile is now shut away at home, cursing the future Duchess Kui every day, haha…”

As the hall buzzed with discussion, the storyteller just listened with a smile. When the voices finally quieted, he said, “But do you all know that despite how fortunate this Miss Wang is, becoming the envied Duchess Kui of the capital, this marriage still couldn’t avoid encountering obstacles?”

The audience fell silent upon hearing this. The storyteller was truly eloquent, recounting the magical incident at Xianyou Temple yesterday. He embellished it with countless speculations and fantasies, even including details about a figure ten feet tall with an eight-foot waist, blue face, fangs, and wings growing from his ribs. He wove in how this monster attempted to abduct the duchess, and how Wang Yun fought him with his sword for three hundred rounds. When the monster couldn’t prevail, he jumped outside the circle and roared, “There are still ten days until Duke Kui’s wedding. Duke Kui should be careful!” He intended to take the duchess away from within the high palace walls, under everyone’s watchful eyes, before the wedding.

The storyteller grew more excited as he spoke, slapping his wooden block and gesturing animatedly: “When Wang Yun heard this, he was so angry smoke came from his seven orifices, and he swung his sword to strike. With a clang, the monster transformed into blue smoke and vanished, leaving behind only a black arrowhead inscribed with the words ‘Duke Kui of Great Tang’ – the very arrow that had pierced Pang Xun’s throat!”

“Excellent!” As the storyteller finished his last word, the audience erupted in thunderous applause. Amidst the excitement, only Huang Zixa shook her head silently. Li Shubai asked quietly, “Not well told?”

Huang Zixa shook her head: “I just don’t understand. If he had wings, why did he need to turn into smoke? Couldn’t he just flap his wings and fly away?”

“How else would it be intriguing?”

Huang Zixa recalled how this storyteller had claimed to be the reincarnation of the White Tiger Star when they first met at the pavilion outside Chang’an. She held her head and collected herself silently for a moment, then asked Li Shubai, “Shouldn’t the Metropolitan Governor deal with people like this?”

“What’s wrong with adding some entertainment to people’s lives?” His expression remained indifferent, not even his eyelashes flickering.

She listened as outside, the storyteller had begun talking about that old case.

In the ninth year of Xiantong, Pang Xun of Guilin rebelled, leading an army of 200,000 to pressure the court, demanding to be made military governor. When the court refused, he declared himself king, conquered several provinces, and massacred local officials and civilians. At the time, the military governors held their troops in check, and the court had no power to mobilize forces from various provinces. Amid the military crisis, the Li Tang royal family was helpless. Only Li Shubai traveled to various powerful provinces to gather troops, recruiting 100,000 soldiers. He also used the reasoning of advantages and disadvantages to persuade neighboring military governors, finally uniting six major military governors to form a connected defensive line. In September of the following year, they crushed the rebel army and killed Pang Xun.

During the chaos, Pang Xun stood atop the city wall, and it was Li Shubai who drew his bow and shot an arrow through his throat. As the rebel army scattered in chaos, Pang Xun fell from the tower and was trampled into a paste by the horses below. Only that blood-stained arrow was preserved, placed in a crystal box in Xuzhou’s Drum Tower as a warning to future generations.

It was also then that Li Shubai obtained that charm written with his birth date and time. Years had passed, and the teenage boy had become today’s all-powerful duke, yet since then he had fallen into that strange curse, unable to break free.

Last month, there were rumors that in Xuzhou’s Drum Tower, while the crystal box remained untouched, the arrowhead had mysteriously vanished. The Xuzhou authorities searched urgently throughout their jurisdiction but found no trace. It turned out it had appeared at Xianyou Temple, coincidentally on the day Wang Ru came to offer incense, left behind in the temple by a mysterious person.

“Ladies and gentlemen, isn’t this strange and supernatural?”

The storyteller’s wooden block clap seemed to ignite discussion, and everyone began debating: “Could it be that Pang Xun’s vengeful spirit hasn’t dispersed, and is seeking revenge during Duke Kui’s wedding?”

“Come on, only loyal officials and filial children have spirits. What kind of spirit would a traitor have?”

“Well, Pang Xun killed countless people. Maybe he’s an evil ghost reincarnated – why couldn’t he have a spirit?”

As the topic quickly turned to supernatural matters, Huang Zixa could only turn her head and fix her gaze on Li Shubai across from her.

Without looking up, Li Shubai simply asked, “What is it?”

“I was wondering… when you were nineteen and shot that arrow at Pang Xun, what were you thinking?” She rested her chin on her hand as she watched him.

His expression remained unchanged, like a windless lake surface without a single ripple: “You’ll be disappointed if you hear it.”

“No way, tell me?”

“I was thinking, if a sudden gust of wind came and blew the arrow off course, wouldn’t that be rather embarrassing?”

“…” Huang Zixa was speechless.

“Some things are better left unknown.” As he spoke, he pointed outside and said, “Magic shows are starting over there, let’s go.”

Huang Zixa looked at her barely touched dishes with a growling stomach and reluctantly stood up to follow him.

It was past noon, and street performers were scattered about performing their acts. Most were just ordinary tricks like juggling balls, balancing bowls, or walking on water barrels, but a sword swallower had drawn quite a crowd.

“Sword swallowing is pretty common, what’s so special about it?” she asked a man beside her who was desperately trying to squeeze through.

The man replied excitedly, “This one’s different! The sword is four feet long, but the dwarf swallowing it is only three feet tall!”

Huang Zixa suddenly wanted to squeeze through as well. Li Shubai gave her a contemptuous look and turned to leave. Huang Zixa could only silently follow behind him, thinking that someone like him seemed to have nothing in life that interested or pleased him – did he ever feel happy himself?

Yet in an instant, she suddenly thought, what about herself? Parents dead, all relatives lost, bearing an unavenged grievance without a single clue how to resolve it – would she ever have any way to return to being that joyful, lively girl she once was?

Li Shubai walked ahead, noticing the silence behind him, not even hearing footsteps. He turned his face slightly to look back at Huang Zixa.

She followed two steps behind him, but her gaze was fixed on a young couple passing by on the street. They held their little girl’s hands on either side, and the child would bounce and jump, sometimes deliberately hanging from her parents’ hands like a monkey on a swing.

Li Shubai stopped walking, waiting for Huang Zixa.

She stood there silently watching the family of three disappear into the distance. The sunlight fell on her face, casting soft shadows across her features.

After a long while, when she turned back, Li Shubai slowly said, “Let’s go.”

Ahead was another crowd, this time watching a proper magic show performed by a husband and wife team, both wearing the dust-covered, slick manner of traveling performers. They stood among the crowd, watching them first perform a fish-dragon illusion, then the common trick of turning water into wine. The woman showed some skill with paper flowers turning into real ones – though the technique was ordinary, the final effect when dozens of fresh flowers were thrown into the air and scattered down was quite impressive.

As the show ended and the crowd dispersed, the couple began packing up their things to leave. Seeing Li Shubai’s glance, Huang Zixa had to approach them: “Brother, Sister, your magic was truly amazing, absolutely astounding!”

The man smiled and returned the greeting, saying, “Nothing special, nothing special. Did you enjoy watching, young man?”

“Yes, especially that… that paper flowers turning into real flowers trick. I know the real flowers must have been hidden in the sleeves beforehand, but where did the paper flowers go?”

The man laughed, “That I can’t tell you, it’s how we make our living.”

Huang Zixa looked back at Li Shubai, who tossed her a piece of silver. She placed it in the man’s hand and said earnestly, “Brother, to be honest, my master has a bet with someone. You must have heard about yesterday’s rumor that someone at Xianyou Temple waved their sleeve and made a bird in a cage disappear?”

The man clutched the silver piece, beaming: “I don’t know about that incident, but I know how to make a bird disappear from a cage. Just say the word.”

“My master has a friend who insists it’s impossible. My master bet him that within three days, he’d show him how it’s done. So you see… could you teach my master this trick?”

“That’s just a simple trick,” he immediately said. “The bird is trained beforehand. Once the master gives a signal, the bird will stand in a certain spot in the cage where there’s a mechanism prepared. Just press a rod on the cage with your left hand, that mechanism moves, and the bird falls through. Then sweep your right sleeve past and catch the bird – that’s all there is to it.”

“Oh! So that’s how it works!” Huang Zixa showed an expression of sudden understanding and reached toward Li Shubai, who tossed her another piece of silver. She held up the silver and asked, “Brother, since you’re so familiar with this mechanism, you must have such a cage and bird?”

“I did,” the brother looked at the silver piece, suddenly appearing dejected. “But unfortunately, someone bought them a few days ago.”

The woman finally couldn’t help interjecting from the side: “I told you, what good were those five taels of silver? That bird was passed down from the master, trained so well – even ten taels would have been too cheap!”

Huang Zixa asked again, “Do you use mynah birds for training? Can they be trained in three days?”

The brother said regretfully, “It wasn’t a mynah bird, mine was a white bird, absolutely beautiful.”

“Oh my, that’s such a shame.” Huang Zixa said as she handed the silver to the man, “Do you know who bought it? I’d like to try my luck and see if they might sell it to me.”

“I don’t know about that. They learned the trick and left – I don’t even know their name.”

“Then, what did they look like? Do you remember, Brother?”

“Hmm… a young master in his twenties, slightly above average height, quite handsome and refined looking… ah yes, there was a cinnabar mole on his forehead!”

The woman added from the side: “The cinnabar mole was right in the center of his forehead, perfectly placed. He was already good-looking, but with that mole, he had an otherworldly air about him, just like someone from a painting.”

As they headed toward Duke Kui’s mansion, neither spoke.

Huang Zixa pondered the course of events and the mysterious threads she still couldn’t unravel. Looking up, she found Li Shubai had left her quite far behind.

She hurried several steps to catch up. The sky had darkened, and all the street lamps were lit, rows of lanterns lining both sides of the street stretching into the distance, bathing everything in a red glow. Li Shubai turned to look at her from beneath a lamp. His usually cold features were softened by the warm orange light, his cool, clear countenance taking on a gentle radiance, his gaze no longer so cold and pure but showing a slightly dreamy quality.

She hadn’t expected him to care so much about that person and found herself somewhat tongue-tied, not knowing what to say. She stood beneath the lamp, looking up at him, watching the street full of lights wavering like flowing light in the wind, casting unstable shadows.

She struggled for words, and after a long while finally managed to say with difficulty: “Actually, I thought… I originally felt that a man who could compose verses spontaneously and had such a refined manner shouldn’t be a traveling performer. He must have learned it secretly from someone else, so I came to ask… But the person who appeared before us that day definitely couldn’t be… that person.”

“Mm, he couldn’t possibly have any connection to Pang Xun, much less sneak into Xianyou Temple past everyone.”

But he could have someone else enter Xianyou Temple. As they both simultaneously thought of this point, he added: “Moreover, he has plenty of subordinates who could act on his behalf – why would he need to learn tricks from two street performers himself?”

The street was bright as day with lanterns. As they stood silently by the roadside, suddenly a carriage slowly approached, with guards and eunuchs clearing the way before and after, dozens of people in orderly formation.

They tried to stay out of sight by the roadside, but the person in the carriage happened to have the window open and spotted them with a glance.

The carriage slowly stopped, the door opened, and out stepped Prince E, Li Run.

He was a fair-skinned and handsome youth, refined and gentle, always wearing a smile. Those who had seen him said he had a natural, ethereal quality about him, for his features were as perfect as a painting, and right in the center of his forehead was a bright cinnabar mole, placed as perfectly as if in a painting.