The rain rustled steadily, falling onto the roof and dripping down along the sides of the room; the small waterway behind the house had grown swift and turbulent, and on the far bank, a black-canopied boat tied by rope bobbed up and down in the water.
Having finished lunch, Ning Ji and Qu Longjun sat by the small terrace, leaning against the railing to watch the rain.
It was also a brief rest during her training as a makeshift martial expert.
The situation within Fuzhou had grown tense. With Zuo Xingzhou’s disappearance, Ning Ji could no longer stand apart from it all—just as he’d been sought out by Ni Po the night before, the two of them might well be drawn into the chaos to come.
Against this backdrop, the daily training of Qu Longjun had become a serious matter. Though it was impossible to turn her into a true martial expert, combining her dance foundation with her coordination made it entirely possible for her to mimic some of the traits of a “skilled fighter.”
In the two days since he’d confessed his feelings, Ning Ji had been intensifying Qu Longjun’s training in the courtyard—the hand, eye, body, and footwork of a “skilled fighter.” Such training had, in fact, happened before, but now it carried a bit more intimacy; occasional physical contact was, for both of them, an unusually novel and sweet step forward.
The morning’s training didn’t stop until lunchtime. Ning Ji went out and bought the meal, Qu Longjun did a bit of preparation in the kitchen, and after eating she went to bathe, put on loose clothing, and tied her hair into a ponytail—fresh now and carrying a faint pleasant scent. Ning Ji stretched his limbs beside her; the sound of wind and rain, and the rising and falling of the boat on the water, all seemed quiet.
“…After what happened with Ni Po, we’ve been putting on a good enough act. Tonight, someone from the Ministry of Justice will probably come to feel things out… Zuo Wenxuan can’t say too much about all this. If the one who comes is that old dog Tie Tianying, it could get a bit troublesome—I’m afraid you might not be able to keep it hidden from him. But it’s not as if there’s no way at all…”
“Are you going to fight him on the spot?”
“No need for that. He’s a high official now—tearing off the mask openly in public would be asking for trouble… If a whole crowd of arresting officers swarmed in, even without firearms, I’d have a hard time getting away…”
“…What do Zuo Wenxuan and the others think?”
“Don’t know, didn’t ask… Tie Tianying’s feud with the Huaxia Army is something everyone in the Southwest knows about. He… cooperated with people from the Manichaean Sect and killed Liu Dabiao of Overlord Blade Manor—that’s the deepest death-feud there is. Later, when that Chancellor of the Qin family fell from grace, several arresting officers kicked him while he was down—not only did Tie Tianying strike Master Ning openly in the street with a punch, he even drove the eldest lady to jump into the river…”
“…During that period, Master Ning’s original plan had been to withdraw from the capital and retreat to Jiangning to live in peace. But because of what happened with Chancellor Qin and with the eldest lady, Master Ning realized that the wretched Emperor had marked him, and the lackeys had set their sights on his family too—so it was from that point that he began plotting rebellion… Tie Tianying was very arrogant back then; many of the old hands at Zhuji would have loved to flay him alive. Like Old Chen the Hunchback—he spent years telling all the children about the regicide and rebellion, and his greatest regret was never getting the chance to hunt down Tie Tianying, kill his whole family, and beat his mother…”
“I’ve heard Great Hero Chen’s name too,” said Qu Longjun, leaning against the railing beside him.
“Heh heh.” Ning Ji smiled. “He’s a good man in his old age, but in his youth he was a villain, and he often said it took a villain like him to deal with someone like Tie Tianying. Later he told several of the old-timers that when Chancellor Qin fell, Zhuji was beset by troubles both internal and external, targeted by petty men from all sides—if Master Ning… hadn’t decided to kill the Emperor, they would have had no choice but to throw everything they had into settling accounts with Tie Tianying…”
He paused briefly, sitting beneath the eaves, his gaze darkening a little. “There was also the matter of throwing filth on Chancellor Qin, and later the assassination attempt in the Southwest… a whole pack of curs, none of them innocent… Those bastards of the Zuo family—back at Xiaocang River, back in the Southwest, they clearly received kindness from Grandpa Chen and knew about the grudge between both sides, and after being back in Fujian this long, they still haven’t found a way to deal with him… ungrateful wolves, traitors—that’s exactly what selling out one’s country for glory looks like…”
To the world at large, the Huaxia Army’s most extraordinary feat had always been that single blade struck in the Golden Throne Hall that year, and within the Huaxia Army itself, whenever its heroes gathered, this incident would naturally come up. During that period, though the Emperor had acted against all reason, the ones who clashed most often with Zhuji’s mid- and low-ranking members had always been the various forces of the Ministry of Justice. Over more than a decade of fighting, most of these men had already died, but those who remained were, without exception, figures at the top of the Southwest whose slightest stomp of the foot would shake the world three times over.
Had they not rebelled that year, it would have been extremely difficult for Zhuji to extricate itself unscathed, and given Ning Yi’s way of doing things, everyone had already secretly discussed many contingency plans for action back then, including Old Chen the Hunchback, who had even prepared to leave Zhuji, wipe out Tie Tianying’s entire household, and then shoulder the blame alone. Beyond that, there were also plans to deal with the other arresting officers of the Ministry of Justice, to bleed them dry, and even plans to assassinate figures such as Tong Guan and Wang Fu. The hot-blooded Zhu Biao had planned, once things in the capital were settled, to head north and assassinate the Qi family, even intending to bring Yue Fei along.
Later, when the group discussed this matter at Xiaocang River and in the Southwest, they were all passionately roused and generous of spirit. Having lived through the bloody battle at Xia Village, their relationship with Ning Yi had long since moved past that of ordinary hired hands, and after witnessing the Qin family’s fate, they felt, as men of the outlaw circles, that even at the cost of their own lives, they could not allow Ning Yi’s family to suffer the same tragedy again. Fortunately, what Ning Yi went on to do was something even more extraordinary, which spared everyone at Zhuji from venting their fury for nothing.
Ning Ji had grown up hearing this kind of talk from childhood and harbored a deep hatred for Tie Tianying. After coming to Fuzhou, he did indeed regard the Zuo family as old friends, but when it came to their stance on this matter, he never held back—muttering under his breath, cursing with words like “curs” and “bastards” for a good while, wishing he could summon the Southwest’s military police to wipe out the whole lot of these wretches along with their mothers. Watching his angry profile beside her, Qu Longjun burst out laughing, leaned her face in, and planted a kiss on his cheek.
Soft and plump.
Ning Ji made a face.
“…What are you doing?”
“You’re cute.”
“Hmph. I’m talking about serious matters here.”
His legs swung back and forth, and after keeping a stern face for a while, Ning Ji finally sighed, his expression turning serious. “Anyway… this time, if I’m going to kill Tie Tianying, there’s a decent chance of falling out with them. Zuo Wenxuan wouldn’t go so far as to betray me, but there’s bound to be some unpleasantness, so we need to prepare ourselves in advance too… Of course, when I go to kill Tie Tianying, I’ll wear a mask—worst case, I kill him and run…”
He rambled on calculating, worrying for a bit, then, seeing Qu Longjun’s relaxed and natural expression, pursed his lips. “Don’t think this is fun—even pretending to be a skilled fighter is easier said than practiced…”
“Little Dragon…”
“Hm?”
“I’ve been thinking—why don’t you actually teach me martial arts?”
“…Huh?”
He turned his head and saw a solemn earnestness on Qu Longjun’s face.
“I know I’m not the right material for martial arts, and maybe I’m past the right age for it too. But now that half the world is at war, and I follow you wherever you go, I don’t want to always be a burden. Even learning some simple martial skills would be fine—once I can handle a blade or spear, I won’t be so panicked if something happens…”
Her words were gentle and soft. Watching her, Ning Ji’s gaze grew heavy, and he was quiet for a moment.
“Learning martial arts… isn’t such a simple matter… You’re a girl…”
“But when I was in the Southwest, I also saw female soldiers, and in other places there are women who practice martial arts too, like that Miss Yan they talk about…”
“Martial arts requires the right temperament…” Ning Ji said, and his voice dropped even lower for his next words. “And that Miss Yan, whoever she is—it’s all showy nonsense, all form and no substance…”
“Little Dragon,” Qu Longjun said, “before I was with you, I ran around out there too—smearing my face black, disguising myself as a beggar. Many times, I carried a knife tucked against my body. This world has been under attack by the Jurchens for over ten years now. Being with you now, if it came to killing someone, I wouldn’t be afraid either. Even if I can’t match women like Auntie Gu of the Huaxia Army, Little Dragon, you shouldn’t look down on me either.”
“I don’t look down on you, but learning martial arts really isn’t that kind of thing.” Ning Ji spoke quietly, gazing at the curtain of rain ahead for a while before weighing his words and speaking seriously. “Learning martial arts—I could teach you, but it’s very hard to become a skilled fighter. Without any training, if something happens, you’ll run. But once you’ve learned martial arts, sometimes you’ll have to actually fight people—maybe two or three times—and your odds of surviving really aren’t any better than if you’d just kept running the whole time.”
He paused briefly. “And besides, as a girl, you naturally have less physical strength, so when fighting you’d need to be even more decisive and willing to stake your life than the average person would. In the Southwest you saw women capable of fighting, but before those women became capable of fighting and killing, you can’t imagine what they went through—they’d all suffered hardships and pain to the point of nearly being unable to survive, no longer even seeing themselves as human—that’s the only way they developed that kind of resolve.”
“…And is that even something good?” In the quiet curtain of rain, Ning Ji gazed ahead and continued. “And even having that kind of resolve is just the first step—they had to fight and kill their way through a dozen, several dozen encounters and survive before they could become truly ruthless figures. Little… Little Qu, I trained as a military physician and grew up in the Huaxia Army from childhood. You don’t know this, but any child in the Huaxia Army who shows some talent will learn martial arts—partly to build up their body, but once they reach a certain level, they all end up on the battlefield… When I was young, there were many brothers and sisters in my sect, but no matter how formidable or talented any of them were, every year some of them would die… In the end, the few who survived became skilled fighters, but not many people actually wish for their own family to… become fighters like that…”
Ning Ji turned to look at her.
“Once you truly enter the so-called martial world, learn martial arts, and start solving problems with blade and spear, there’s an evil in some enemies that you can’t even begin to imagine. And to become a skilled fighter, you have to stake your life dozens of times—one moment of carelessness and it’s over… I’ve survived through luck, killed many times, and lived on secretly, sneaking through to the present—there’s less for me to worry about now. But if you learned martial arts and had to face those evil men… I’d be even more afraid than I am now…”
Qu Longjun listened to him speak, watching him too, her crystalline gaze trembling faintly. After a moment, she leaned in and gently embraced Ning Ji.
Ning Ji embraced her back, as if he were holding a piece of fragile porcelain.
The two of them held each other beneath the eaves like this for a good while. Then Qu Longjun drew her legs back in from the edge of the terrace, knelt before Ning Ji, and gazed at him with her eyes, biting her lip before finally raising three fingers.
“Little Dragon, I swear, I’ll be obedient. If anything happens, I’ll definitely run away. But I don’t want to only learn how to fake it—even if it’s exhausting, I want to learn real martial arts too. I’m scared as well—scared that one day there will come a time when there’s nowhere left to run…”
“That won’t happen.”
Ning Ji blurted out.
But Qu Longjun’s kneeling posture didn’t change.
Ning Ji turned his gaze aside and fell silent for a long while.
He said in a muffled voice, “…I’ll think about it.”
Beyond the corridor eaves, the rain kept falling.
At times, there’s an evil in certain enemies that you cannot even begin to imagine…
…
Near the academy, at the Wenqing Teahouse, the rain falling from the eaves hung like a curtain, enveloping the space rich with the scent of tea.
“…The banquet on the first of the month had a very good effect. It’s proven that the opening up of the grace-examination and His Majesty’s careful consideration are quite persuasive to Fujian’s upper and middle-tier clans… Wang Zhan and Geng Yidao had already declared their intentions at the time, and privately they also revealed some of the schemes certain rats have for this situation. The reaction of bandits like Chen Shuangran proves exactly this—they’re getting desperate, ready to act like a cornered dog jumping the wall…”
Li Pin spoke to the great Confucian scholar across from him while turning the tea whisk in his hand.
“…Officials assassinated, the chief constable killed, and you can’t even catch anyone—can you really call that the enemy being a cornered dog jumping the wall?”
“Assassination is a minor tactic; it can’t determine the overall outcome.”
“But you couldn’t even stop the assassinations…”
“When someone’s cornered and jumps the wall like a dog, no one in this world today could easily stop them.”
“The Southwest could.”
“But where does the Southwest’s advantage lie? Brother Lu, it lies in their unity from top to bottom, in their control over the army… to put it more deeply, in their reforms. Look—now His Majesty has released the Imperial Guards as well…”
“Last time they were released for disaster relief, how did that go? The mess that came out of it still hasn’t been cleaned up, has it… Brother Li, you surely know the old saying, ‘when soldiers pass through, they comb like a fine-toothed comb; when bandits pass through, they scrape like a rake’—you know exactly why that’s said, don’t you?”
“Brother Lu speaks frankly, so let me speak frankly too—after that saying, there should be an added line: ‘when officials pass through, they shave clean.’ Why? Because armies have never, since ancient times, been capable of fine, delicate work—once deployed, they inevitably harm, cripple, and injure the common people. And even officials, if the slightest bit careless, do more harm than good to the populace. Last time the Beiwo Army did disaster relief, it’s true that loopholes were exploited, but Brother Lu, you’re a sensible man—you know it was bad actors exploiting those loopholes. That army, once deployed, had already managed to provide relief without harming the people; it was only the response to the bad actors’ incitement that went wrong.”
“…Hmph, and what if this time the response goes wrong again? Have you caught the bad actors this time or not?”
“What we’re speaking of here is the overall approach of the whole matter. His Majesty wants to reform the military and clean up the officialdom. After the last incident, the Military Preparation Academy has held classes every day, all in preparation for exactly this kind of thing. As for the Imperial Guards, since entering Fuzhou, there have recently been issues of corruption, and His Majesty has already dismissed two successive commanders. This time His Majesty has ordered the Imperial Guards to conduct a thorough sweep of the city in coordination with the Military Preparation Academy and the court’s younger officials—not only is His Majesty personally overseeing it, he has also repeatedly and strictly ordered that the common people not be excessively disturbed… Brother Lu, with your learning, can you not see it? This is true reform; this is the hope of the world to come…”
“…”
“You’re a great Confucian scholar of Fujian with countless disciples under you. You’re also a sensible man—petty squabbling holds no meaning. A new way of living, a new way of doing things—that’s what opens up an era unprecedented since ancient times! As long as this cooperation between the army and officials in disaster relief and administration can become the established practice, and not disturbing or harming the people can become the ongoing norm, His Majesty will have truly lit a new spark. If it doesn’t work once, there’s a second time; if not twice, a third—but in the end, once it’s achieved, we can then break out of Fujian and be unstoppable wherever we go. This is exactly what His Majesty is doing, and it’s nearly accomplished, which is why I wanted to invite Brother Lu to come see it for yourself, and also to properly supervise this matter… Brother Lu, the court has never given up on you. We’ve always hoped your disciples might come join us in accomplishing this great cause.”
“…”
“…”
Li Pin looked at the old Confucian scholar across from him, named Lu Lun.
Lu Lun drank his tea, his expression shifting; after a while, he slammed his teacup down onto the table with a bang.
“Naive!”
“Please, Brother Lu, speak.”
“Li Pin, you’ve never understood why I, Lu Lun, hold the views I do about your side. Well, today I’ll make it clear! Because from beginning to end, you’ve been fussing over these petty, small-minded matters! An army, a city, with His Majesty personally overseeing it so it doesn’t disturb the people—is that really a great matter? What is the Emperor? The Emperor is the Son of Heaven! The Son of Heaven is the supreme sovereign, a dragon—as the saying goes, ‘the flying dragon is in the heavens.’ A monarch must sit high above, ruling his subjects through majesty and awe—only then can he command all nine provinces and ten thousand realms…”
“…”
“And you people? Taking advantage of His Majesty’s youth, always egging him on to do childish things, putting on a show in front of others, showing favor to the common folk—even three days ago, for the sake of a tiny bit of gain, going in person to show favor to dozens of petty clans and small merchant guilds. And you people are pleased with yourselves! Yes, you’ve bewitched and molded His Majesty into a fit magistrate, at most a prefect! Some of those who see him think His Majesty is wise, but Li Pin, in this vast world, there are far more people who never see His Majesty at all. His Majesty doesn’t need to make these people feel close to him, nor is there any way to bring him close to them—he needs to make the whole world feel his majesty!”
“…”
“I think the people of the Southwest are the truly formidable ones—they’ve bewitched people’s hearts, made all of you believe that talk of reform from the bottom up. You even think Confucian learning itself needs reforming—what do you understand of the greatness of Confucian teaching? To govern all under heaven, one mixes the way of the true king with the way of the hegemon; as long as one achieves ‘when punishment cannot be known, then awe cannot be fathomed,’ why must His Majesty put himself at the forefront of everything, handling it all personally—”
“…”
“And another thing—when the army was deployed and clashed with the common people, you couldn’t handle it well last time. Do you honestly think you’ll settle it this time? Once the army’s deployed, for the sake of appearances you also want to avoid disturbing the people—but what if you don’t disturb them and they end up disturbing you instead, what then? Li Pin, you dared to boldly summon me here, and yet you have absolutely no idea how many ways there are to leave you all disgraced and in utter ruin. What tremendous confidence you have…”
When the other man’s tirade reached a pause, Li Pin waited a moment before speaking. “I rather think that since many things here are new, one must go through them again and again before drawing any conclusion.”
“Indeed, I’d like to see just how you go through it. I can see you haven’t truly mastered Confucian learning—you have no idea just how evil people can be—”
The conversation in the room went on for quite a while longer. Lu Lun straightened his robes and left; Li Pin saw him downstairs, and by the time he returned to the tea room, he finally picked up brush and paper to clearly record some of the information from their earlier conversation. As he wrote, servants began coming in to rearrange the room in preparation for the next round of guests. Luo Shouwei came close and watched what he was writing for a while.
“That fellow surnamed Lu seems quite dissatisfied. Since you can’t win him over, will you report this to the court…”
“…” Li Pin paused his brush briefly, thinking for a moment. “Someone who curses you directly to your face is perhaps only dissatisfied—someone who’s truly resolved to work against you won’t say a single word of it… In the end, it all comes down to whether this round of the court’s military training goes smoothly or not…”
“Well, what he said is also true—with the enemy hidden and us out in the open, there will always be plenty of ways for them to cause trouble.”
“As long as it doesn’t erupt into chaos we can’t contain, we’ve already won… Based on the Southwest’s experience, if the Military Preparation Academy’s officers’ discipline over the soldiers and their words carry real weight, then an army like this will already be quite formidable once it reaches the battlefield… We won’t need to fear the Jurchens anymore.”
The fine rain rustled on, and after that, a new round of meetings began within the teahouse.
In the courtyard of Huaiyun Quarter, Qu Longjun assumed her stance and began practicing forms alongside Ning Ji. This lesson was even stricter than the previous ones.
At that same moment, Yue Yun was running through the streets of Houguan County…
The Imperial Guards’ presence spread across the entire city; patrol officers began walking the streets striking gongs, reminding everyone that tomorrow they would need to carry identification documents when going out, because of the rampant bandits, a large-scale screening was already underway in the city—while also reminding people not to panic, and offering simple guidance on how to appeal to the accompanying officers if any problems arose…
Striking the mountain to scare the tiger had already begun to show results—large numbers of outlaws were seen leaving through several of the city gates, but the soldiers stationed there made no attempt to stop them.
The real work and true test would formally begin the next morning.
This was the plan the court had already laid out in advance.
However, as evening approached, an unexpected incident quietly occurred in Houguan County—the very place where, two months earlier, Zhong Ergui had died an unjust death…
At the Wenqing Teahouse, when Luo Shouwei received word from outside and came to tell him, the sky outside had already turned somewhat dark. When Li Pin heard what had happened, he hesitated for a moment, unable to settle his face into any fitting expression at all.
At the Grand Princess’s estate, after reporting to Zhou Pei, Yue Yinping mounted her horse and charged out through the gate. Turning down the street ahead, she saw a large crowd up ahead, dismounted, and ran forward directly on foot—her rain-caped figure tearing a howling trail through the evening streets.
What had happened in Houguan County not long before was, in fact, quite simple.
Not long after midday, the large-scale deployment of the Imperial Guards had startled many of the city’s rats and snakes into all sorts of strange movements. Yue Yun received word that one of the possible masterminds behind the false accusation against Zhong Ergui in Houguan County two months earlier—an outlaw nicknamed “Human Rat,” whose real name was Zhang Li—had gotten wind of the situation and might be about to flee.
Yue Yun went to Houguan County at once and found Zhang Li, who was about to leave, on the street.
The man spurred his horse into a wild gallop, and Yue Yun chased after him closely. Passing a street corner, he saw several fine horses panicking by the roadside, and he seized one for himself in passing, continuing the pursuit.
After charging through half a street, a shriek rang out along the road, followed by the horse collapsing and a body tumbling in the mud. Yue Yun crashed through several roadside stalls and slammed hard into a corner wall by the street.
He wasn’t hurt. As he climbed to his feet and looked back, he froze for a moment. Then he rushed toward a figure on the road, its body twisted from being struck by the horse.
It was a little girl who had suddenly appeared in front of the galloping horse, no more than five or six years old. In the steady falling rain, she twitched in the mud on the road, a streak of deep red already seeping slowly from the corner of her mouth—the only spot of color on the gray-blue street.
Yue Yun stood before her, his eyes wide with shock…
…
The gray-black curtain of rain covered the city, whose ancient walls were just about to light up with lamps.
Unnoticed by anyone, atop a house not far from Yue Yun, Chen Shuangran, Mr. Jin, Chen Yan, Deng Nian, and others were watching how events unfolded along the long street. Some wore smug expressions, others looked indifferent, and a dark-skinned young woman covered her mouth, giggling.
Ahead on the street rode the galloping Zhang Li; at the street corner behind, a “trader” leading several horses; and in an alley midway along the street, Monk Tunyun, who had, not long before, snatched the little girl from a nearby household in passing. All three, part of a carefully arranged scheme, were at this moment silently slipping out of everyone’s sight.
“Heh heh heh heh… heh heh heh heh…”
Chen Shuangran laughed with great delight, her voice low, audible only to the few people beside her.
“A gentleman can be deceived through what seems proper; an upright man… can be soiled through filth… Yue Yun is Yue Fei’s only child. Driving him mad is a far better thing than simply killing him… I really want to see what that ever-upright, ever-selfless General Yue can possibly do about it next… hahaha… hahahaha…”
This latest frame-up had, once again, gone smoothly.
At times, there’s an evil in certain enemies that you cannot even begin to imagine…