It was past midnight.

Inside the Zuo family estate, most everyone had already gone to bed. In the courtyard of the inner residence, Zuo Wenxuan held a teacup, pouring tea for the person who had come to report to him.

On the stone table, a half-burned stick of mosquito-repelling incense sent up curling wisps of smoke. A wave of his hand scattered it into disarray, much like the chaos of his own thoughts at that moment.

“…The young man called Sun Wukong who stopped Yue Yun tonight — he looked very much like…”

“Ugh, I told him not to go, and yet he still went looking…” Zuo Wenxuan rubbed his forehead. “This matter needs to be kept in the strictest confidence.”

“Is it really…”

“If this gets exposed, no matter how big or small the fallout, today’s business of hunting down Chen Shuangran and searching for Zuo Xingzhou would become trivial by comparison. This concerns how the southwest will position itself against the southeast in the future — it may even affect the standing of Confucian scholarship as a whole…”

“Understood…”

“…”

“But Xingzhou…”

“He went missing on the twenty-second, and there’s still no trace of him…”

In the darkness, Zuo Wenxuan’s words came low and slow, as if he feared waking those who slept, or like ripples settling on the surface of water.

“He might be gone for good…”

…

That same night.

He scraped away the stubble on his face with a short blade, scritch scritch, and as the face in the mirror gradually began to look rather more “bright-browed and starry-eyed,” a swell of other emotions rose in his mind, and he slammed the blade down onto the table with a bang.

“What in the world am I doing…”

It was already past the middle of the hour of Chou, and the city outside had gone quiet, but the agitation churning inside him hadn’t settled. It wasn’t only the humiliation he’d suffered that evening in Silver Bridge Ward — there was a deeper sense of frustration underneath it all. He hastily threw on some clothes and went back out, telling the gatekeeper, “Uncle Xu, I’m heading to the Princess’s manor.”

He rode through the night.

Before long, he was sitting in a courtyard bathed in starlight, while his elder sister rubbed some bruise-treatment liniment onto him, and he told her what had happened that night.

“…Back in Jiangning, Commander Chen once said this Long Aotian was a soldier of the Huaxia Army who’d just taken on a temporary mission and left… Miss Yan even thought he’d died at the time. No one knew where he’d gone. Who would’ve thought I’d run into him here…”

“So it was him…”

Yinping, patting the liniment onto Yue Yun’s body, wore a rather solemn expression for a moment.

Then she said, “Why did you shave off your beard? Do you realize you look like neither man nor ghost now?”

“Sis! I’m being serious here!” Yue Yun’s embarrassment flared into anger.

Yinping just smiled.

“Thinking about it this way, Zuo Wenxuan’s attitude actually makes sense now. The night Zuo Xingzhou stood you up in Silver Bridge Ward, he must have met with those two lechers and made contact — Zuo Wenxuan probably knew about it too, which is why he told you there was nothing suspicious going on. But if that’s the case, then there’s probably no way to get any news of Zuo Xingzhou out of those two… Strange — why would they even come here…”

“Sir Ning did save our lives, and he has ties with Father and even His Majesty. But at the end of the day, the southwest’s regicide and rebellion put us on different sides — it’s not so strange that people from there would come here, some openly, some in secret…” Yue Yun muttered gruffly.

“That’s true enough.” Yinping patted him. “In the past, in Jiangning, I dealt with Miss Yan quite a bit, and afterward Commander Chen told us this Long Aotian was one of their own people, so I never thought much of it. But now that I think it over — if he really is a southwest spy, his behavior is genuinely strange. According to Miss Yan, this man has great skill and daring, a forthright temperament but a loose tongue. Yet from what you’ve described of him today, he sounded remarkably careful and meticulous, without a single loose end…”

“…Did he deliberately sabotage the marriage between the Yan Family Fort and Shi Baofeng, back then?”

Yue Yun’s eyes went wide.

“It’s not impossible,” Yinping mused. “But regardless, it’s all strange. The strangest part is that they’re both so young — back in Jiangning, they wouldn’t even have met the qualifications to work as spies — and yet they keep carrying around this reputation as ‘lechers’ wherever they go, which honestly seems embarrassing for anyone to hear…”

“That one surnamed Sun has a remarkably solid foundation — rumor has it he uses something like Taiji circular technique,” Yue Yun said, thinking it over carefully. “Sis, do you think he might be some junior member of the Black Banner out on a training mission?”

“That’s quite possible. But if that’s the case… Yue Yun, if you went out to roam the world and came back with a reputation as the ‘Five-Foot Lecher,’ what do you think people would say about you?” Yinping paused there, shaking her head. “…It’s just too strange.”

“…Too strange indeed.” Yue Yun shook his head with a sigh as well. “Father would strike me dead on the spot.”

“That, at least, wouldn’t happen… though a good hanging-and-beating would be unavoidable.”

“And I’d never get engaged to anyone after that.”

“The whole family would never be able to hold our heads up again…”

“Hmph, hmph…”

“Heh heh…”

Suddenly running into the two lechers they had once searched for back in Jiangning left the siblings both a little bewildered that night. As they mulled it over, they traded a few idle jabs. After a while, Yue Yun finally said, “So there’s still no lead on Zuo Xingzhou, then…”

Yinping fell silent for a moment too.

“The situation in Fuzhou, from what I can tell lately, is no longer a matter of just one or two small incidents… Yue Yun, there’s a war brewing here.”

At the mention of war, the muscles in Yue Yun’s body tensed instantly. “…Hm?”

“Do you remember, before we set out, Father told us that there might be major turmoil in Fuzhou before the fleet returned?”

“…Is this it, then?”

“From how things look now, there’s a very strong chance this is it,” Yinping said. “Over the past six months or so, many of the local gentry across Fujian have grown resentful, stirring up trouble now and then — there was even that whole uproar over killing the yellow dogs. They operate in the shadows, while the court acts in the open — a fight like that can never truly be finished, and honestly, neither side is satisfied with it. His Majesty wants this matter resolved; the gentry with ill intent scattered across the region want the same thing, in their own way — they won’t wait for the maritime trade fleet to return. Either they’ll strike at the ships, or they’ll act before that…”

“…”

“Chen Shuangran’s constant activity these past few months, whether calculated or coincidental, has already drawn attention from every direction. She’s the most visible fuse sitting right next to the powder keg, and in all likelihood, she’s going to be the critical point in this whole game. She wants to stir up trouble, and every faction with ill intent wants to place their bets on her. His Majesty, His Highness, and even the various gentlemen in the city probably want to lay their cards on the table and fight this out openly. If they can win this round, the fence-sitters wavering privately on the sidelines will stay quiet for a long while…”

“But…” Yue Yun thought it over. “Master Li once said that the best way to govern is for the truly skilled to achieve victory without需要 dazzling accomplishments…”

“If His Majesty were to follow the old ways, granting the local gentry of Fujian power and titles, letting them claim credit for restoring the dynasty, then those troublemaking hotheads could naturally be dealt with quietly before anyone even noticed. But His Majesty doesn’t want Fujian to remain just some small, complacent regional court — he wants to carry out real reform, and in that case, there’s no other way. The times have changed from before; eight or nine out of ten people harbor doubts in their hearts. If reform is to move forward, the most conspicuous troublemakers must be crushed first, so that the wavering fence-sitters in the rear understand just how resolute this reform truly is.”

Yinping sighed. “As things stand now, it seems Zhong Ergui and Zuo Xingzhou have both been caught up in the ripples of this coming upheaval…”

“…So does that mean… we don’t cry injustice, don’t go looking for anyone?”

“We’ll still cry injustice, and we’ll still search for him. But we also need to understand clearly what’s actually about to happen. As things look now, if this goes badly, the city of Fuzhou could run with blood.”

Yinping paused briefly there.

“Thinking it over carefully — if those two in Silver Bridge Ward really did come from the southwest, and Zuo Wenxuan knows about it too, then this matter is more complicated than it seems. Some things are better left unasked, and it’s hard to say which questions are safe to ask. Given your temperament, you’d best not go picking fights with them again for now, to avoid stirring up more trouble… If I have the time, I’ll find an opportunity myself to quietly look into this ‘Five-Foot Lecher.'”

Having said this, Yue Yun nodded at first, but then hesitated, seeming to want to say something and holding back. “Sis, why don’t I go instead…”

“…Why?”

“That — that fellow is a lecher, and he’s got that face that looks all upright and proper, and he already fooled a whole crowd of ignorant women in the street with it. Sis… you’re still unmarried, after all…”

Before he could finish, he took a punch to the back from his sister.

“What are you saying? Am I some ignorant woman too?”

“Sis, of course you’re not, but he really is decent-looking — about seventy percent as handsome as me after I shaved off my beard. And besides, lechers supposedly don’t have much real skill — I’m mainly worried you’ll fall for his tricks…”

Yue Yun thought of Yan Yunzhi back in Jiangning. Though he still had no idea exactly what tricks this “Five-Foot Lecher” might have up his sleeve, thinking it over now, his guard shot up to its highest level. As for his ever-reliable sister’s earnest attempts to talk him out of it, along with the beating he took in the process — he no longer cared.

Yinping was left both amused and exasperated by how seriously he was taking this. After a round of hitting him, she mentioned that she had duties at the Princess’s manor lately and “might not have time to go anyway,” which finally got Yue Yun to stop nagging. Thinking it over again afterward, though, she found the whole thing rather absurd.

“Scheming and rivalry, gatherings from every direction — back in the day, things like the old assembly in Chengdu in the southwest, or the great gathering in Jiangning, were at least grand affairs on a large scale. But here in our own backyard… just a few days ago it was some crazy Flower Monk swallowing clouds, and now it’s these two lechers, four-foot and five-foot. What in the world is going on in Fuzhou? For such a major affair, has it really only drawn together a crowd of lechers…”

Under the starlight, she let out a wry, sighing laugh…

…

That same starlight spread out over the skies above Fuzhou.

Waking in the middle of the night, Qu Longjun opened her eyes and found no figure on the bed across from her.

She lay there, staring at that empty space, biting her finger as she waited for a while.

Then she took up a fire striker and lit the small lantern hanging by the bed.

Something felt missing in her heart…

She felt afraid…

Carrying the lantern, she stepped out of the room.

…

It was nearing the hour of Yin, silver moonlight scattering down from the night sky.

Ning Ji sat on the rooftop, watching the close-packed rows of rooftops stretch out beneath the clear glow of night.

His mind turned over complicated thoughts.

At one point, he heard a faint sound rising from below.

Qu Longjun had gotten out of bed and was walking through the room, heading toward the outhouse, then crossing through the side corridor.

“Little Long, Little Long…”

He heard her call out softly, her voice frail and delicate, like a little rabbit in the night.

For some reason, Ning Ji hesitated, and didn’t answer…