The rain kept falling until nightfall, then gradually eased.

Beneath the pitch-black sky, the damp city had already lit its lamps.

News of the incident in Houguan County was spreading in every direction along special information networks; unease was brewing in the darkness, but at least, at this moment of nightfall, the streets still appeared calm.

At Silver Bridge Quarter, the night market remained lively as ever. Fat Auntie had set up her rice-cake stall early, and while steaming her cakes she whispered and laughed with the fellow stallkeeper beside her.

In recent days, the stall at the street corner of Silver Bridge Quarter had become the central topic among nearby vendors—the exciting atmosphere of fighting and violence had already begun ten days ago, reaching its climax just yesterday. Fat Auntie’s stall had been repeatedly caught up in it, but since she’d received compensation every single time, her tables and chairs were now all brand new, leaving her in a fairly settled state of mind these days. Setting up her stall early every day felt like grabbing a good seat at a theater to watch a show—occasionally she even made a small windfall. In her several decades of life, things had never been this exciting and entertaining before.

The other vendors on the street also knew that some formidable figures had arrived at the corner. Whenever their curiosity got the better of them, they would come ask Fat Auntie for the inside scoop, and she would hold forth grandly, her vanity thoroughly satisfied by it.

“Do you know where they’re from? Their martial skill is so high?”

“Shaolin Temple!” Fat Auntie declared with great conviction. When the young man from the neighboring stall arrived, she’d even jump up and call out loudly, “Hey, little monkey, you’re from Shaolin Temple, aren’t you?”

The cold-faced youth next door would glance at her, then throw a couple of punches into the air. “That’s right, I came from the Bodhidharma Hall! Wukong is my Dharma name.”

“Heh heh heh, did you hear that, did you hear that? The Bodhidharma Hall, Wukong is his Dharma name, Wukong is his Dharma name…”

Her relationship with this youth—whom she’d once cursed as something like “rice-scraps mixed with dog scraps”—still couldn’t be called good, but knowing by now that neither of these two bullied ordinary people, Fat Auntie was no longer afraid, and their usual mode of bickering carried on as before.

This night of the third proved even more interesting. Ever since the killer who had assassinated the Chief Constable of the Ministry of Justice came to make trouble the night before and was chased off, it seemed the two youths here had gained even more fame. As soon as night fell, quite a number of flirtatious women began arriving one after another. Among them were some dressed to the nines, so beautiful it seemed unreal—clearly the reigning courtesan queens of the local pleasure houses, brought over by carriage—as well as plainly dressed women of respectable families, “lady swordswomen” carrying wooden “precious swords” on their backs, one after another making their way here and getting tangled up at the general goods stall.

Some sat at the rice-cake stall for a while, ate something, and then quietly asked Fat Auntie what the youth next door liked. Fat Auntie chuckled and told them, “He’s a monk—his Dharma name is Wukong.”

“I don’t believe that.”

None of the women believed it.

Fat Auntie herself was a bit puzzled, though. On ordinary days, it was Young Master Long Aotian who held court at the stall—handsome, good-looking, and polite—and the courtesan queens of Gold Bridge Quarter along with some local landowners’ daughters often came by. But most of the women who’d come today weren’t the same crowd as before.

And after what had happened yesterday, the only one manning the stall today was that youth surnamed Sun whom she’d bickered with. Watching him deal with wave after wave of women coming up to question him, some even trying to grope him, all with a thoroughly annoyed expression, Fat Auntie found it quite satisfying to watch.

After a while, several young maids from the pleasure houses of nearby Gold Bridge Quarter arrived too, standing beside the stall to face off against these women who’d suddenly turned up, and began cursing at them. “Where are you lot from, shameless, coming to our Gold Bridge Quarter territory to seduce men…”

“Ha, shameless yourselves—this is clearly Silver Bridge Quarter, not your Gold Bridge Quarter turf at all. And besides, does your Gold Bridge Quarter forbid other people from coming to visit? We sisters heard two formidable heroes had shown up here and came specially to get acquainted… and our place charges even more than your Gold Bridge Quarter!” the maids on the other side cursed back.

“I’ll show you, you shameless little—blah blah blah blah…”

—@#$%&**()&)###$—

The young maids traded fierce curses back and forth, while the beautiful women playing the part of dignified ladies drifted gracefully closer to the stall, but before long they too grew angry after being pushed aside.

“Where—where’s Young Master Long…”

Having seen someone encroach on her territory, the young maid Fendie had jumped straight into the fray, but after discovering the man himself was absent, she shrank back again.

“Off on a date with Zheng Huahua,” the youth answered, a cold smile at the corner of his mouth.

“Zheng Huahua… a date? Who’s Zheng Huahua?”

“My dog.”

“Hmph.” Fendie’s expression darkened and she began to grow angry, but noticing he remained unmoved, she pulled a handful of fava beans from inside her robe instead. “Here, let’s not fight—have some fava beans.”

Ning Ji accepted them without hesitation. “Trying to poison me, are you?” He tossed one into his mouth and found the taste decent enough.

“I just want to know where Young Master Long went, that’s all.”

“I told you, he had something to do—he went on a date.”

“…So when’s he coming back?”

“None of your business.”

“My mistress is going to come find him once she’s free later.”

“Heh, usually it’s you all calling him over to the pleasure house—today she’s coming here herself?”

“My mistress happens to be free today.” Fendie kept her small face tense, trying to look adorable, then bowed deeply. “Brother Sun, I apologize—now please tell me.”

Ning Ji’s mouth twitched. He stepped back, then leaned in closer. “Then tell me—where did all these strange characters who suddenly turned up today actually come from?”

“Strange characters…” Fendie laughed and glanced back. In truth, all these women who’d suddenly appeared were quite good-looking, and by the standards of the pleasure houses, every one of them was a top-tier performer with genuine skill. If they’d really just come because they’d heard rumors of some great hero, that was a bit odd—but thinking about it, if there were some other reason connected to Young Master Long’s stall, it could make sense too. Her eyes shifted. “Actually… the one who just left looked like Miss Mu Xiaoxiang from Flying Rain Tower in the city—the rest are probably from Flying Rain Tower as well… I’ve seen them at the courtesan competitions, though I don’t remember all of them clearly…”

“Oh, Flying Rain Tower… who owns it?” Ning Ji made a note of the name.

“That I don’t know—probably only my mistress would know that,” Fendie said. “So when’s your Young Master Long coming back?”

“I told you, he had things to do—he won’t be coming by at all today.” Ning Ji tossed another fava bean into his mouth.

“Aww…” The girl studied his expression, trying to tell whether he was lying, then lunged at him. “Give me back my beans—ahh—”

Ning Ji shoved all the fava beans into his mouth with one hand and grabbed the girl’s braid with the other, lifting the flailing girl off to one side.

With his cheeks puffed out, he crunched through all the fava beans and swallowed them, then finally stuck out his tongue.

“Nyeh nyeh nyeh nyeh…”

“You’re a great martial hero bullying a poor little woman…” the girl wailed in protest.

“When did I ever say I was a great martial hero? Hahahaha…” He put his hands on his hips and laughed loudly.

The night bustled on, people passing back and forth along the street, while Ning Ji quietly took stock of everything happening around him. One wave of strange women had arrived and been sent off, and now several more attractive ones came along in succession, clearly acting with purpose and clearly not with pure motives—they’d received orders, though exactly whose orders wasn’t easy to determine. By his estimation, they most likely came from Yu Hezhang’s group.

His mind remained calm; occasionally he greeted people he knew, bantered, even teased the young maids from the pleasure houses, all while waiting for more possibilities to unfold. At the third quarter of the Hour of the Dog, an arresting officer arrived. This one had a steady, rooted stance and a build like an iron tower—clearly an expert with the steel whip. It wasn’t Tie Tianying; this was another constable from the Ministry of Justice.

“…This one is Miao Fang, a disciple of the Tianqing Sect of Jiangnan. Two years ago Lord Tie recruited me here, and now I too hold the post of chief constable in the Ministry of Justice. I heard two young heroes had come to Silver Bridge Quarter and came specially to make their acquaintance.”

“Let’s clasp hands, then.” Ning Ji held out one hand.

At only a bit over ten years of age, though built solidly enough from his training, his arm was barely half the thickness of an adult martial artist who spent years swinging a heavy steel whip. Miao Fang was slightly taken aback, but had no choice but to extend his large hand as well. “Well… haha, that’s fine too… let’s not spoil the goodwill between us…”

The two palms clapped together, and in an instant, through a flurry of grappling holds and counters, each had seized the other’s wrist. Veins bulged on Miao Fang’s forehead as he tried to overpower Ning Ji’s strength, but the stalemate lasted only a moment before Ning Ji withdrew his hand and kicked a nearby bench toward him.

“Sit.”

“Huh?”

“Your internal cultivation is incomplete, and you’ve been practicing hard external techniques on top of it. There’s stagnant hidden injury along your Hand Taiyang meridian, and your upper arm has already been aching for a while now. Your Foot Taiyang meridian has a latent ailment too—your eyesight weakens at night, and eating organ meats won’t fully fix it either. Beyond that, there’s an injury on your left waist, and old wounds under your ribs and along your back… When I left home, my elders taught me: when you meet a local strongman, yield a few steps first. Let me treat you a bit.”

He took out medicinal oil and gave the man’s meridians a working-through, then pulled out a long set of silver needles and pierced them in one after another.

The silver needles weren’t actually much use—mostly they were for show, meant to intimidate the man into staying still.

On the busy street where passersby came and went, Miao Fang, needles stuck in his shoulders, arms, and legs, having felt just how formidable the man was through the meridian-working, awkwardly twisted his head around.

“Actually… this one was also good friends with Song Xiaoming. He was killed yesterday; the murderer was rampant, and afterward came here to cause trouble for you brothers too—fortunately he was beaten off by you brothers. Now the ministry has issued a task, and I have no idea what school of learning you brothers come from…”

Ning Ji was busy writing out a prescription with brush and paper behind him, not even looking up. “Treating your injuries was showing you three-tenths of respect as a representative of the authorities. We brothers came here to run a legitimate business—we’ve paid our stall fees. We’re not out here trying to scrape by or curry favor with anyone. I gave you face, and here you are prying into my background?”

“No, no. Since brother doesn’t wish to say, naturally I won’t force it… By the way, that Brother Long—how come he’s not here today?”

“Have you caught Ni Po yet?”

“That is… not yet…”

“We brothers, walking the martial world, believe in the saying ‘the way rises one foot, the demon rises ten’—” Ning Ji said, then paused slightly.

Miao Fang narrowed his eyes as well. “…Huh?”

“No, wait, we believe in ‘if a man respects me one foot, I’ll respect him ten’…” the youth corrected himself, as if the previous line had never been said. “That goes for friends and enemies alike. This time, coming to Fuzhou, things had been going fairly well, until suddenly some villain came knocking with bad intentions—that’s your side’s fault. And who was behind Ni Po coming to attack us, who’s been targeting us two brothers—none of that is known, and it leaves a man feeling quite uneasy.”

“That’s right, that’s right…”

“You need to find him.” Ning Ji finished writing the prescription, stood up, blew on the ink to dry it, and tossed it into the man’s arms. “If you find him, give me the chance to get to the bottom of things—at that point, we’ll be friends, and I’ll tell you about my family background. But if you can’t find him, and you still put on official airs in front of me, then that’s me respecting you and you not respecting me back—and we’ll settle it on the edge of a blade… Do you think I have a point or not?”

His internal power was deep and pure, superior to the other man’s, and having seized the upper hand, he spoke on with such fluent confidence that it genuinely sounded reasonable. Miao Fang gave a wry smile and had no choice but to nod—this was indeed an old pattern of the martial world, and since he’d come here in the capacity of a fellow martial-world man, there was nothing else he could say.

Ning Ji sat down beside him.

“About the matter with Ni Po, we brothers find it quite strange too. Since we didn’t know if you all could handle it properly… my elder brother went to deal with it himself.”

When he finished saying this, Miao Fang turned his head sharply, startled.

The youth’s voice dropped low. “Whoever starts it is the cheap one—it was Ni Po who came looking for trouble with us brothers first; we were only defending ourselves. If we really do find him… you won’t have any objections, will you?”

“It mustn’t turn into a big mess,” Miao Fang said, then added, “If possible, we would still hope… that he could be handed over to us.”

“Don’t worry, when my elder brother acts, there won’t be a big mess. As for whether he’ll be handed over to you, that depends on whether he’s still got anyone left… but why worry about it—we brothers just got here and don’t know many people. Maybe you’ll find him first, and then just let me have a look at him when the time comes.”

“…” Miao Fang frowned, privately estimating just how lethal this “Long Aotian” must be.

Before he’d worked it out, the youth tilted his head. “Oh, right—there’s a Fish King over at the marketplace.”

“Ah.” Miao Fang nodded.

“…Yesterday, when Ni Po fled, that Fish King arranged a boat for him. I’ve already threatened him—if he can’t come up with a lead within two days, he dies.” The youth turned to look at him. “I know he has a grudge with you officials—you won’t have any objections, will you?”

“…”

Miao Fang froze for a moment.

Finally, he said:

“I’m still a constable, after all, brother… a matter like this… I can only pretend I don’t know about it. Just make sure it’s done cleanly…”

Having sat here only this short while, he’d already learned of two potential murders about to happen, and had even been asked “you won’t have any objections, will you?”—it felt rather like an unwarranted misfortune landing on him out of nowhere. After chatting a bit more, Miao Fang, weighing his words carefully, revealed some information about “Chen Shuangran,” forging a bit of goodwill before finally taking his leave. Through their clasped-hands test he had, after all, learned just how skilled this youth was, and had temporarily indicated he’d play the role of a “law-abiding citizen”—giving him something to report back on from this errand.

After Miao Fang left, Fish King came over from the other end of the street. He hesitated for a while before finally coming over to greet Ning Ji, and the two of them sat down in front of the rice-cake stall.

“The word’s already gone out… but Chen Shuangran’s side isn’t easy to reach. Young… Young Hero Sun, could you… give me a two-day extension… no, one day…”

Ning Ji looked at him with the eyes one might give a dead man.

After a long while like this, he finally spoke. “My elder brother isn’t here today.”

“…” Fish King nodded.

“…He went in person to deal with this matter, with these people.”

“…”

“If you don’t bring me word by tomorrow, I’ll kill you right on schedule.”

Around them, figures came and went on the busy street, and amid the noise, the local strongman across the table nodded with difficulty, swallowed hard, and started to rise before sitting back down. “Young Hero Sun, I really am working hard on this matter… if I can find her, I’ll absolutely put my life on the line to find her for you. But if I can’t, there’s some news today that should be related to Chen Shuangran—let me tell you about it, to at least prove I’ve truly tried my hardest. If that little wretch truly doesn’t turn up tomorrow, then whether it’s death or dismemberment, please consider carefully.”

“…Speak.”

“It’s said that this evening, that Yue Yun—the young official’s son from the Beiwo Army who fought with you that day—ran into trouble in Houguan County…”

Figures passed through the marketplace one after another, the lamplight flowing like water. In front of the rice-cake stall, the aging local strongman and the youth spoke in low voices, streaks of bright and dim light sweeping across their faces…

“…There’s talk going around privately…”

…

“…The whole thing… was done by Chen Shuangran…”