Clack! Clack! Clack—

Somewhere in the city, the night watchman struck the gong marking midnight. The daytime’s humid heat seemed to have finally eased somewhat. In the courtyard on the edge of Huaiyun Ward, the peddler’s cart had returned from its stall, and warm yellow lamplight had come on inside the room.

After bringing the cold dishes and iced water they’d bought back into the room, Qu Longjun stepped back outside to keep tidying up the jujube-blossom horse and the cart. Glancing back, she saw the two figures still facing off at the table inside.

The young man named Zuo Xingzhou — who had all but begged to be stuffed into the carriage just to be allowed to follow them home — was apparently an old acquaintance of Little Long’s, seemingly carefree on the surface but not so easy to fool underneath. The moment the group had returned, he’d reached out warmly, saying, “So you go by Long Aotian now, brother? Quite the impressive fellow…” — though his eyes had never stopped calculating and appraising. He clearly wasn’t someone to be underestimated.

She, too, was skilled at reading people, and her mind was sharp enough. The fact that Little Long had brought this man back to their “home” meant he must genuinely be someone she’d known back in the southwest, and going by his surname, this Zuo Xingzhou was likely one of the “seedlings” the powerful Zuo family had sent to the southwest.

But watching Little Long’s manner — a mix of familiarity and wariness toward him — she didn’t ask too many questions, simply finding an excuse to step outside rather than getting drawn into further conversation with Zuo Xingzhou.

According to what Little Long had told her, his father had once swept floors in Master Ning’s office, which was supposedly how he’d become one of the core disciples of the Huaxia Army — a claim with plenty of holes in it, and one that could open up all kinds of discussion. But at the moment, Qu Longjun didn’t much care about any of that.

She led the jujube-blossom horse to the stable, cheerfully calling out “Little Flower” a few times to see how it reacted, hoping to counteract the bad influence of Little Long calling it “Bald Donkey” for no reason all day. By this point, the two inside had already started arguing.

“Something’s off about you two.”

“Something’s off about you…”

“His name’s Long Aotian?”

“And yours is Zhou Xing, isn’t it? None of your business… why the hell are you working undercover, you dog?”

“That’s obviously classified, you, you, you… you sudden refugee from the southwest… why the hell did you come here?”

“Also classified. I’m on a major mission…”

“Major my a—”

“Fine, say it louder if you’ve got the guts—”

“I’ve got guts. You want me to yell, I just won’t yell then.”

“Tch…”

The two of them traded a bit more trash talk, gulping down bamboo tubes of iced water, both wearing looks of arrogant displeasure. But as old friends who knew each other inside and out, after a while, perhaps realizing the posturing wasn’t getting them anywhere, Zuo Xingzhou dragged his stool closer and rapped the table.

“Seriously though, how did you end up here. This could be a big deal or a small one, but I’m not leaving until you explain yourself.”

“Hmph.” Ning Ji gave a cold laugh, thought for a moment, and said, “Fine. Since you’re already here… let’s trade.”

“…Trade what?”

“Your business, and…” Ning Ji counted off on his fingers, “and, even if I tell you my business, you have to keep it secret. Don’t you dare leak it… You agree to that, and we’ll talk.”

“I can’t agree to that.” Zuo Xingzhou’s expression turned serious, and as Ning Ji made to slap the table and storm off, he reached out and grabbed his arm. “Don’t get angry, you know how it works — by the rules, I absolutely have to report this up the chain, but I can promise to tell only one person… If you’ve come here and nothing happens, fine, but if something does happen, nobody can be held responsible for it. Since I’ve seen you, there has to be a record kept somewhere, you lunatic!”

Only then did Ning Ji sit back down. “Zuo Wenhuai?”

Zuo Xingzhou rolled his eyes. “Zuo Wenxuan.”

Ning Ji shrank back. “Damn, you know how fussy and long-winded he is, that bookish nerd of a man, who the hell—”

“That’s who your big boss picked, what am I supposed to do about it! I’m not thrilled about it either, us martial-arts tough guys never got along with him anyway.”

“What tough guy? Look at how sleazy you act. I said it before, you Zuo family types are lacking in natural talent — you train martial arts and still don’t get any muscle on you—”

“What do you mean no muscle, you… forget it, let’s not have our own martial arts people fighting among ourselves, alright? We need to stick together. Anyway, one way or another, I have to report this to Zuo Wenxuan, and whatever you think of him, the man’s mouth is tight as a drum even if he’s a nag about everything else, you have to give him that.”

Ning Ji thought it over and nodded. “…Fine.”

Zuo Xingzhou grinned, crossed his arms, and leaned forward. “So… tell me, what’s the story?”

Ning Ji shot him a look. “We agreed. It’s a trade.”

“I swear, no backing out.” Zuo Xingzhou raised a hand. “And there’s nothing hard about my part — you already know I’m undercover, so if I try to weasel out you can wreck my plans anytime.”

“Fine, I need your help with something too, anyway.” Ning Ji nodded, glanced toward the door, then muttered in a low, gloomy voice, “Got screwed over by a woman…”

“What?”

“Got. Screwed. Over. By. A. Woman!” Ning Ji glared at him, gritting his teeth, spelling it out word by word.

“Whoa!”

Zuo Xingzhou’s eyes and mouth both went round, a flash of delighted surprise crossing his face at having landed on something juicy. Ning Ji, of course, understood exactly what that look meant, and pointed a finger at him. Zuo Xingzhou reached out with both hands and clasped Ning Ji’s finger.

“Come on, now, don’t be mad, tell me everything…” He even used his chopsticks to pile some food onto Ning Ji’s plate. “Here, big brother, eat up.”

“If this ever gets out I’ll chew you to death!”

“Ah, kill me, kill me, just talk first…”

“Last year I ran into a teacher named Yu Xiaoer…”

…

By now it was already midnight, the lamplight flickering. Ning Ji’s muffled voice filled the room as he recounted, to Zuo Xingzhou, the whole strange, tangled saga he’d been through since the previous year. When he got to the part about Yu Xiaoer, Zuo Xingzhou couldn’t help eating with a bit of malicious glee, but when the story reached the part about running away from home, he let out a soft sigh.

After that, Ning Ji went on to describe everything he’d seen along the journey — from Dai Mengwei to Tongshan, then the enormous upheavals of the Fair Party in Jiangning. He kept certain details about himself hidden, telling the story in a complicated, tragic tone, and Zuo Xingzhou couldn’t help but marvel: “You really have traveled ten thousand li on this trip of yours.”

“Right.” Ning Ji tilted his chin up. “Not like you lot — here I thought your family of turncoats had stolen something and gone off to live it up back in Fuzhou, but I come over and find you making a total mess of things. I really thought you dog would be commanding troops by now…”

“Commanding what troops? You really think joining the Huaxia Army for a bit means we can compete with people like General Yue or General Han? There aren’t even that many of us who came from the southwest — for now all we can really do is lay groundwork, spread ideas… and that’s not really something I’m good at, either…”

“So you ran off to go undercover instead?”

“Social research, understand?” Zuo Xingzhou frowned, taking a bite of cold dish. “Southeast and southwest, the problems each side faces are different, and so are the things you need to watch for. Once His Majesty arrived in Fujian, he brought in a huge number of displaced refugees from other regions — the whole situation is basically like when the previous dynasty first arrived in Lin’an. Once you get a lot of people together, outsiders and locals start clashing, competing over interests, locals want to drive the outsiders away — and any number of these fault lines could spark real chaos…”

He paused. “So after I got to Fuzhou, Zuo Wenxuan told me we couldn’t just stay up in our lofty offices talking big — we also had to get a clear picture of what’s actually happening down below. So I got sent out. Mainly I follow a group of refugees from elsewhere, occasionally step in to help them stake out territory, build up a good reputation with them, so that when it matters, I’ll have some use… Hey, doesn’t this feel kind of like what Master Ning used to do back in the day at the Secret Investigation Bureau? I figure once the time’s right, Fuzhou’s bound to need its own Secret Investigation Bureau sooner or later…”

“Even with a Secret Investigation Bureau you still wouldn’t be the boss, it’d probably be that dog Zuo Wenxuan.” Ning Ji muttered. “So, what’s going on this time, then?”

“…This time it’s a bit of a mess.” Given the situation, Ning Ji had already explained his own reasons for coming here, so Zuo Xingzhou sighed and didn’t bother holding back any further. “Fujian’s social situation is different from the southwest — lots of mountains, little farmland, poor communication, so the clans and local gentry cling together in tight-knit groups something fierce. You must have seen that on your way here, right?”

“Mm.” Ning Ji nodded. “Saw them killing ‘yellow dogs.'”

“Right, then this’ll be easy to explain.” Zuo Xingzhou nodded too. “After the sovereign arrived in Fujian, wanting to centralize power, we started conducting population surveys and land measurements out in the regions to make tax collection easier — and that naturally created a lot of friction with the local clans. We don’t need to get into why it was necessary or how it went, but the point is, relying on our military strength, we’ve now got hold of several major coastal cities, plus the main roads through Fuwen, Fu’ou, Fupu, and Fuyan in the mountains — but the harder the terrain, the fiercer the fighting between the two sides gets…”

“Last year we cleared out the maritime lanes and took down a pirate clan that had a stranglehold on the local coast, and by the end of the year the sovereign personally drew out several great households harboring rebellious intentions and eliminated them. On the surface, it looks like we won — but they’ve already formed alliances of their own in secret. And that’s exactly what happened — when the typhoon hit at the end of the fourth month, we took a big hit in Hou Guan County, and the worst part is, that’s probably just the beginning…”

He laid it all out in detail — the whole sequence of events following the typhoon, including Chen Shuangran’s scheme and the subsequent resistance and slander campaigns targeting the relief soldiers in various regions.

“The whole Chen Shuangran business has caused quite a stir.” Zuo Xingzhou said. “His Majesty lost face, and a lot of the young soldiers in the army can’t swallow the humiliation either. Zuo Wenhuai and the others have put together a whole set of proper countermeasures, but you can’t just fight fair the whole time… I was actually in Putian following up a lead on that ‘yellow dog killing’ case you mentioned, but Zuo Wenxuan called me back, saying that once is chance but twice is a pattern — these people got the upper hand in this confrontation, and there’s probably bigger moves coming. So we discussed it and figured, like the old Secret Investigation Bureau used to do, why not slip me into their organization to gather intelligence.”

“So that’s why the Yue family’s Yue Yun arranged all that with you…”

“Mm.” Zuo Xingzhou nodded. “Yue Yun and Yue Yinping are both formidable fighters, but they’re too recognizable. After coming back from Jiangning last year, they took part in an arena challenge here in Fuzhou, and half the underworld in the city already knows their faces — so what can you do? Might as well have them make a big public show of it, coming after me. We make it look real, I take some injuries, and later it’ll serve as my letter of credentials. Pity — the whole thing we’d planned got messed up because of you.”

“You could have just pretended not to see me!”

“Get lost!”

The two of them cursed at each other irritably for a bit, then Ning Ji spoke up again.

“So, thinking about it — that guy who kept pacing around the market, the burly, dumb-looking, arrogant one — that was Yue Yun?”

“Mm.” Zuo Xingzhou nodded. “Don’t underestimate him. That guy has raw natural strength from birth, everyone says he’s got talent on the same level as the old General Chen. A skinny little frame like yours, not even fully grown yet, you’d get killed going up against him.”

“Pfft, you say that like I haven’t fought enough tough opponents. Last year in Jiangning, what, I shot Wang Nantuo dead with one arrow, and that fat monk Lin Ezan chased me halfway across the city — you see what he ended up doing to me? Let me tell you, Little Zhou, martial arts is all about facing true terror between life and death. After crossing blades with Fatty Lin, I’m not the man I used to be.”

“Alright, alright, keep bragging. If Fatty Lin were actually chasing you, you think you’d still be sitting here? I’m not some naive bookworm like Zuo Wenxuan — even as awful as he is, the plans to surround and kill him usually involve a dozen-plus men with muskets moving in together.”

The two of them argued back and forth on the topic for a while, Zuo Xingzhou naturally not believing a word of it, Ning Ji fuming but unable to do anything about it. After going on for a bit, Ning Ji saw Zuo Xingzhou wave a hand and change the subject:

“Alright, alright, whether you can actually fight or not isn’t something you can just brag your way into. Anyway, over the past half month or so, something’s been off about the underworld in Fuzhou. Word going around outside is, because the Hou Guan County business was pulled off so cleanly, this Chen Shuangran woman who planned it is now getting a huge reputation — privately, several of the big shots among the rebels are quite impressed with her, and I hear Pu Xingui and Cao Jinlong are recruiting men, planning to team up for some big operation. So my time’s running short too, I need to build up my reputation fast…”

He tapped his chopsticks against the table and sighed. “I was originally supposed to fight Yue Yun today. He couldn’t find me, might think I’m already dead by now — I’ll need to go report back in a bit… What about you, though? What’s the plan, coming to Fuzhou? Don’t tell me you’re here to pull off some huge scheme.”

“Even if I did have some huge scheme, would I tell you? What kind of stupid question is that!”

Zuo Xingzhou lifted his head and stared at him, a look of gloomy frustration on his face.

Ning Ji held his gaze for a moment, then waved a hand. “Alright, alright, what schemes could I possibly have? I’m out here proving that traveling ten thousand li beats reading ten thousand books, just here to see the sights and broaden my horizons. At most, if you all end up fighting, I’ll come watch the fun… There’s just one thing — you can pass this along to Zuo Wenxuan when you go back — get your Zuo family’s resources moving and help me track down that little tramp named Yu Xiaoer…”

“That, I can do, but…”

Ning Ji was rattling on, and before Zuo Xingzhou could even finish his sentence, he suddenly froze, then leaned in close, blinking with a look of horrified fascination on his face, before finally speaking after a long pause.

“Hey, you’re saying… that Yu Xiaoer tramp loves scamming people, and over here, this Chen Shuangran woman also loves scamming people… could they… could they possibly be the same person?”

Zuo Xingzhou blinked too. “…Are you joking, that’s ridiculous. You said it yourself, Yu Xiaoer has been in the southwest for who knows how many years, and the Chen family here has been in the pirate trade for generations — this Chen Shuangran’s been here for ages…”

“Maybe… it’s an alias? An adopted daughter? Someone impersonating her?”

“Get lost, quit clowning around.”

“No, I’m serious.” Ning Ji looked at him earnestly. “I didn’t think anything of it at first, but now that you point out how similar they are, I suddenly… really want to see what this tramp looks like. Tell you what, big brother Zuo, since you’re already undercover anyway, and I’m plenty skilled myself, not exactly a saint either, why don’t you take me along… take the two of us, more manpower, more strength, don’t you think—”

“Don’t even think about it! You just said you weren’t here to stir up trouble—”

Zuo Xingzhou’s shout carried out from the room, startling Qu Longjun, who was walking down the corridor with an armful of old clothes she’d just collected. A moment later, she also heard her companion laughing.

“I’m just someone who hates evil like a mortal enemy, brother…”

More arguing followed from inside the room, and not long after, Zuo Xingzhou, apparently having agreed to some humiliating condition, stormed out through the courtyard gate in a huff, cupping his hands in a farewell gesture to Qu Longjun, who returned the courtesy graciously. Once his figure had disappeared past the gate, Qu Longjun saw Little Long, still grinning, come out to pull the gate shut, then turn around and raise a single finger toward her, the smile on his face fading somewhat.

Qu Longjun nodded, standing quietly, and watched as Little Long leapt up onto the dark courtyard wall, apparently heading off in the direction Zuo Xingzhou had disappeared, vanishing into the night in an instant.

By her understanding, Little Long and Zuo Xingzhou should have had a deep bond of friendship from their time in the southwest, and she wasn’t sure why Little Long was showing this kind of wariness now. But since he’d done it this way, there must be a reason. She’d originally intended to take a bath, but decided against it for now. After thinking it over, she went to check on the jujube-blossom horse, confirmed the saddle and tack were intact, then checked the dry provisions in the kitchen, and finally picked up a wooden staff and sat waiting under the courtyard eaves.

By the time Little Long returned, midnight had nearly passed. He leapt down from the courtyard roof, seemingly lost in thought, then turned and saw her sitting there holding the staff, and a smile flickered across his face once more.

Qu Longjun pressed her lips together, her eyes wide, asking her question with a look alone. The young man across from her shook his head slightly and said, “I’m thinking about whether we should move somewhere else.”

Qu Longjun said, “Should I go pack our things?”

“No need.” Ning Ji thought it over. “I’ll leave a record behind. Should be fine.”

Qu Longjun didn’t quite understand what he meant, but simply nodded regardless.

Having come all this way from the southwest, thousands of li of travel, Ning Ji had always been a formidable fighter with a carefree, fearless streak.

But at the same time, his true identity was, to everyone in the world, the single most sensitive thing imaginable.

The moment Zuo Xingzhou had laid eyes on Ning Ji, nothing could have made him leave without knowing more — because if something happened to Ning Ji on southeastern territory, Ning Yi’s fury was something almost no one in the world could withstand. So, at the very least, having basic information on record took priority over even his important undercover mission.

But at the same time, the Zuo family’s position with regard to the southwest wasn’t necessarily so clear-cut. On a battlefield against the Jurchens, Ning Ji believed every single one of them would stand as his steadfast comrade — but away from the battlefield, they had their own family, their own interests.

If the Zuo family had already secretly decided to help the southeastern court against the southwest, then his exposure here in Fuzhou would leave him with virtually no chance of escape.

Ning Yi’s son could not be allowed to fall into enemy hands — and if it came to that, the only dignified option left would be a swift, clean death.

Ning Ji had received this understanding long before. And in the course of his conversation and joking around with Zuo Xingzhou, he’d come to grasp it with total clarity…

The night was deep. The young man and young woman stood in the courtyard, gazing at each other for a while, then, with a clear and warm look, smiled at one another.