“…I’m talking back? What do you mean, I’m talking back?”

Inside the room, furious shouts rang out, along with the sound of a wooden stool being swung through the air.

“Now I see it clearly—you leave home and instead of picking up something good, you go and learn something bad, completely lawless now!”

“Ha ha, Glasses, the only reason I never hit you before was out of respect for my elders—you want to go all out with me? You must have a death wish! I’m in the scouting business, you know—”

“If you respected your elders, you wouldn’t have gone after Tie Tianying. What did you promise me? To consider the bigger picture…”

Amid a series of crashes, Zuo Wenxuan smashed a stool and, wielding its two legs as weapons, swung wildly at Ning Ji. Though he had come up through the staff corps, between his sustained physical training and years of exposure to the fierce, battle-hardened soldiers of the southwest, he too carried a certain intimidating presence when he struck. Ning Ji laughed furiously and grabbed a broom from the room to fight back.

“Bah, Tie Tianying’s the enemy—”

“The bigger picture, the bigger picture… I should have known better than to count on you—the moment something happens, your head just goes hot with rage…”

“It’s all your fault! All of you! You bunch of bastards actually taught the Hegemon Blade to that dog, and he used it right in front of me—shouldn’t he die for that? You all should die too—”

“Now people are practically dying, there’s a mess everywhere you look, inside and out, and I’m the one who has to come clean it up for you—”

“Hey, watch it, don’t go sticking things up my ass—”

“…What… huh?”

The cursing and fighting went on without pause, sending the tables and chairs in the room toppling every which way. As things grew heated, Ning Ji swung the broom, striking Zuo Wenxuan across the head and face several times in a row, dust filling the air; Zuo Wenxuan wildly swung the stool legs back in retaliation, one of them striking the wall and flying off. Ning Ji felt a moment’s pity, but in the midst of the dust, Zuo Wenxuan swung a fist directly into his still-swollen face, sending him staggering backward several steps, teeth bared in pain.

Ning Ji rubbed his face, wincing. “Tch, didn’t expect a weakling like you to still have some strength left in you…”

Zuo Wenxuan shook his head, waved his sleeve to clear off the dust, wiped his face, spat twice onto the floor, and only then, expression darkening, looked around, raising a hand as he spoke. “I train every day, old man. If I hadn’t held back just now, I could have killed you with one punch.”

He had a scholarly, refined look about him, and ever since returning to the southeast had always carried himself as the strategist working behind the scenes—but beneath his sleeves at this moment, there were, in fact, bulging muscles.

“Sure, sure, held back…” Ning Ji ground his teeth, then reached out and pointed toward one side of the room. “Over there.”

Zuo Wenxuan fumbled about, searching for his glasses; Ning Ji pointed several more times. “To the left, the left… a bit further…”

Finding his glasses, wiping them clean, he crouched briefly on the floor, then stood up holding a stick, swung it to one side, kicked away a tabletop, and pointed it at Ning Ji. “You… you nearly hacked Tie Tianying to death…”

“Didn’t die, though… so nothing happened, right?”

“You nearly killed him—can’t you have even the slightest sense of the bigger picture?”

“Me, no sense of the bigger picture? Tie Tianying used the Hegemon Blade right in front of me—which one of you bastards taught it to him? You bunch of ungrateful traitors, I’ll report you all once I’m back in the southwest, get every one of you sentenced to death, carried out immediately! And repeated indefinitely!”

“How would I know who taught him? Master Ning teaches without discrimination—he taught everyone the essentials of the Hegemon Blade. Tie Tianying’s a master himself—wouldn’t it be easy enough for him to pick some of it up on his own? With this many people, how am I supposed to know who taught him—why don’t you go investigate yourself? Or should I gather everyone together and announce that the ‘Five-Chi Lecher, Ning Xiao’er’ has arrived in Fuzhou, and you can go around chatting with each of them personally about it—”

“—Mention that nickname again and I’ll hack you to death.”

“Half the world already knows that nickname…” Zuo Wenxuan gave a cold laugh, then spread his hands. “The real problem right now is that Tie Tianying’s gravely wounded, and he’s extremely curious about you—the Ministry of Justice is going to start looking for you too, the assassin who was wrapped in floral cloth! This whole thing keeps growing, with everyone’s eyes turning this way—who’s going to hold that back? Sooner or later your identity’s going to reach all the way to the top…”

“That’s just how it goes when you’re out mixing it up in the jianghu.” Having confirmed Tie Tianying wasn’t dead, Ning Ji’s mood relaxed; he straightened his hair, looking utterly indifferent. “You lot with your glasses, worrying about this, worrying about that—you overthink everything, and you’re too timid besides. Isn’t this a great outcome as it is? Tunyun’s people—we wiped out five of them in one go, round up and that’s basically ten…”

“Who cares how many lackeys died? Tie Tianying’s gravely wounded—why didn’t you finish off Tunyun and Fan Zhong while you were at it?” Zuo Wenxuan scolded, then paused. “And besides, is this really a question of courage or timidity? With that shady identity of yours hanging over everything—do you really think it’s on the same level as the rest of this?”

“One thing has nothing to do with the other—I go out into the jianghu without ever using the southwest’s name. And besides, my father is fair and impartial—even if I die here in Fuzhou, it won’t drag any of you down with it.”

“You little runt, talking so lightly about it…” Zuo Wenxuan gave a cold laugh. “Master Ning is fair and impartial, sure, and he’ll swallow whatever happens without a word—but what about everyone else? Ning Ji, I won’t even mention the scheming going on among the rest of them—but if something happened to you, wouldn’t Lady Liu of the Hegemon Blade household come demanding answers? And forget even Lady Liu of the Hegemon Blade—if the First Lady ever truly lost her temper, could your father even hold her back?”

“Uh…”

Ning Ji tilted his head, thinking it over for a while, and after a moment, scratched his head with a finger. “Heh-heh…”

He found himself at something of a loss for words.

If something really did happen to him, Auntie Gua and the First Lady would, more likely than not, demand an accounting. Auntie Gua’s side was somewhat more manageable, given her involvement with military authority—his father could suppress it openly, out in the open. But the First Lady rarely lost her temper; yet once she did, her influence reached into every corner, and even his father might not be able to hold her back. Truly, the burdens of a fortunate man.

“You’re a walking disaster!” Zuo Wenxuan said.

“Ah, heh-heh… it’s just a small thing, no need to get angry.” Ning Ji shrugged, smiling apologetically. “And besides, it’s not like I don’t understand the bigger picture at all—look, on my way here I was already thinking, if I really had hacked Tie Tianying to death and put you in an impossible spot, I’d listen to you, leave the city right away and go far, far off, and never come back at all…”

Zuo Wenxuan’s eyes lit up. “Then run now—I’ll see you off myself… get lost immediately.”

“But he’s not dead now, so what are you in such a rush for!” Ning Ji flipped his dog-like face around. “And look, I’m already about to work my way into the enemy’s inner circle—sure, there was a bit of conflict, but you can tell those villains on Chen Shuangran’s side are quite taken with me…”

“No wonder they’d be taken with you…”

“Right… don’t rush me, there’s Pu Xingui’s side too, they’ve taken a shine to me as well now. They’ve got a discerning eye—all of them want to work with me. What does that tell you? Glasses, you seeing this? You lot of dimwits can’t get anything right, but I’m the protagonist here, I can save all of you. Hmph, I’ve already got a plan, let me tell you—next I’m going to sweep the whole lot of them up in one net, and when that happens I’ll get my satisfaction, and you’ll get your results to report—win-win, isn’t it? As the saying goes, great wealth comes from great risk—if you’re telling me to leave now, you’re nothing but a coward!”

Zuo Wenxuan adjusted his glasses, sighed, and stood there thinking it over for a while, before finally righting a fallen stool and sitting down.

“Actually… leaving now would be the best possible timing.” He spoke slowly. “Everything else, including Zuo Xingzhou’s matter, none of it carries the risk that your presence here does. When you set up your little stall before, I let it go—but if you push things any further now, and something happens, I won’t be able to control it.”

“I’m not leaving.” Ning Ji shook his head, and sat down too. He was quiet for a moment, then spoke slowly. “Zuo Wenxuan, I’m the son of the Ning family, but I’ve been trying to break free of all that since I was a child. I’ve fought on real battlefields—what’s a little place like Fuzhou to me? And besides… my father supports me doing this, Glasses. If I died, he’d be heartbroken—but if I can make my own way through this, I know… deep down, he’d be glad.”

His gaze fixed on Zuo Wenxuan before him.

Having grown up on real battlefields since childhood, wild and unrestrained by nature from a young age, he rarely spoke formally with anyone about his father—but at this moment, as he spoke of him, his eyes carried an unmistakable light of deep sincerity.

His heart was set on freedom, but more than anything, it was the people closest to him who had, all along, been passing that very freedom on to him. His father would tell him of the wide, boundless world, of his own longing for the jianghu; his mother would speak to him of the past in Jiangning. They cherished him dearly, yet even in speaking of that care, there had always been a faint note of wistful regret—that as a child of the Ning family, he was not free… and it was precisely because of these various things they let slip that he had, from a very young age, joined the military, and gradually, they had come to accept his path onto the battlefield.

His father, his mother, his siblings at home, and other relatives besides—perhaps all of them had, long ago, come to terms with this in their own hearts. And so he had left the southwest and embraced this heavy, dark kind of freedom; young as he was, his heart understood clearly that some things could only be broken through by moving forward—there was no path left in retreating.

Zuo Wenxuan looked at him for a good while, and finally reached up to press at his temple.

“Really not leaving?”

“Not leaving.”

“Then… let’s talk about the connections you’ve made, and this half-baked plan of yours…”

Zuo Wenxuan had backed down, and Ning Ji came over with a grin, telling him about his dealings with Pu Xingui’s side, as well as the fight with Tunyun and the others that had followed. Once he’d laid it all out, Zuo Wenxuan indicated he understood, and in turn explained the situation with the Ministry of Justice and Tie Tianying, cautioning him to be careful.

Ning Ji, though, seemed rather unconcerned.

“You’re all on the same side—can’t you all leak a bit more, get them to lay off investigating me? You don’t need to tell Tie Tianying the truth—just say I hit too hard for the sake of the cover, ask him to bear with it, and I’ll apologize to him properly later… hmph, by then it’ll all be over, I’ll cut him down clean and quick, and be on my way…”

“What do you mean, the same side?” Zuo Wenxuan gave him an exasperated look.

“You lot—Wenren Buer, Cheng Fang, Li Pin, Tie Tianying, the Zuo family—aren’t you all wholeheartedly loyal lackeys of the same cause? We’re all on the same side, just vouch for me, how big a deal could it be?”

“…” Zuo Wenxuan rubbed his temple. “You little runt, you don’t understand the first thing about politics… Even blood brothers can’t fully trust each other, let alone colleagues serving at the same court. People already suspect my Zuo family answers only to the southwest and not to the court—and now they’ll suspect it even more… Get lost! I don’t want to look at you.”

“Heh-heh, get lost immediately.”

Having gotten a handle on the situation and squared things away with Zuo Wenxuan, Ning Ji left in high spirits, satisfied, backing down with a smile.

But just as he reached the door, he heard Zuo Wenxuan speak up again from behind him.

“Hey.”

“Hm?” Ning Ji turned back.

Zuo Wenxuan raised a finger and pointed at him. “It was your own choice not to leave. If things get any bigger than they already are, and trouble comes of it, I can’t say for certain what will happen… don’t blame me when it does.”

Ning Ji thought it over, shrugged, and disappeared through the doorway. He was still in high spirits.

The afternoon sun streamed in through the doorway, dust drifting through the air. Once Ning Ji had left, Zuo Wenxuan sat there a long while longer, wrestling with the difficulty of it all. The question of Ning Ji’s identity couldn’t simply be measured in terms of severity—once quantified that way, every other matter would have to take a back seat, and any decision made in the opposite direction would count as nothing but soft-hearted foolishness.

He turned it all over carefully in his mind for a long while, and in the end could only sigh.

Having roughly sorted out the situation, there was nothing to do now but go back and clean up the mess—sort out what moves the Ministry of Justice and Tie Tianying’s people might make, and see if there was anything that could be done to head things off in advance. He set out from there, and had only made it halfway back when a carriage quietly pulled up alongside him.

Reaching out to lift the curtain, Zuo Wenxuan saw a smiling face looking back at him.

“What a coincidence, Wenxuan.” Cheng Fang greeted him from within, then gestured. “Shall I come to you, or would you rather come over here?”

“I’ll come over, I’ll come over.” Zuo Wenxuan rose with a smile and climbed into the other carriage.

“Today’s affair was handled beautifully.” Once seated, Cheng Fang offered his praise with a smile. “Where were you headed just now?”

“To… tie up a few loose ends…” Zuo Wenxuan chose his words carefully, speaking slowly.

“I’ve just come from seeing Lord Tie…”

“Lord Tie’s injuries are, indeed, quite…”

“…When exactly did Ning Ji arrive?”

Cheng Fang’s tone was casual as he asked this, even lifting the curtain to glance outside as he spoke.

Inside the carriage, Zuo Wenxuan’s mouth slowly fell open. Cheng Fang turned back, saw his expression, and, just as casually, continued.

“Oh, some years back I went to Chengdu, and saw that young friend of yours—he looks remarkably like Ning Yi’s concubine Xiao Chan. All these years later, I still recognized him at a glance at Silver Bridge Ward. Fuzhou’s a small place—if this had happened back in Bianliang or Lin’an, I wouldn’t have bothered going to take a look myself over some minor incident in the city… Wenxuan… Wenxuan?”

Cheng Fang sat there, smiling at him, and then asked.

“…Wenxuan, a matter of this magnitude—why hasn’t it been reported up the chain?”

“…”

Zuo Wenxuan sat there, stunned, for a long moment before letting out a sigh and leaning back against the carriage wall…

Cheng Fang watched his expression with evident interest, savoring it.

“Don’t panic… take your time, tell me everything.”

“No need to panic, it’s fine now.”

While Zuo Wenxuan and Cheng Fang’s carriage headed south, Ning Ji and Qu Longjun’s figures passed through the eastern streets and alleys, making their way home along the dappled shade of the winding lanes.

“The old fool’s got a hard life to kill—he didn’t die. Zuo Wenxuan gave me a whole mouthful of nonsense over there… even tried to threaten me, but I talked him around. As long as things don’t blow up any further, he’ll keep covering for me a while longer… yeah, so you see, you’ve got to have a proper method for doing things—save the old dog for last…”

“Word of you killing Chen Shuangran’s people this morning will have spread by now—Pu Xingui’s side should trust you more because of it.”

“Exactly, exactly, that’s just how clever my planning is! Once that little Pu mongrel sees I killed Chen Shuangran’s people, he’s bound to trust me even more. As for that demoness Chen Shuangran, well, she’s mixed up in the underworld herself—it’s not like we’ve completely burned that bridge either. If she wants to get things done, next time she’ll have all the more reason to try harder to win me over… This time I’ve had my cake and eaten it too—hmph, I’m definitely going to give those Zuo family mongrels a taste of their own medicine. Let them see how it feels to be looked down on…”

“I keep feeling like we’re about to offend absolutely everyone in this entire city.”

“What’s wrong with that.” Ning Ji lifted his chin, then turned to glance at Qu Longjun, and his smug expression suddenly settled into calm. “Actually… don’t worry, it’ll be fine, really…”

Sunlight fell through the tree shade; he hesitated for a moment.

Looking back, it had already been two years since he first met Qu Longjun in Chengdu. They had gone through strange partings and reunions; the once-timid, fearful girl beneath that cold exterior had grown resilient and clear-eyed, and the two of them had come to understand a great deal about each other. Now, only certain matters from the very beginning still remained unspoken between them.

“…Once… once a few more days pass, there’s something about my family… I want to talk to you about…”

“…Mm.”

The lane was empty; hand in hand, they walked on ahead.

On the other side of the city, the carriage rolled slowly along, and Cheng Fang quietly listened to what was being said across from him.

……

Having bought a bit of food to fill their stomachs along the market street, they made their way back all the way to the little courtyard in Huaiyun Ward. Qu Longjun fetched some clean water, had Ning Ji take off his shirt, and tended to the wounds on his body and face.

As a military physician herself, Ning Ji had already dealt with the more serious wounds on his own, but Qu Longjun, still learning the craft, nearly burst into tears upon seeing the several blade-wounds on his back. Ning Ji seemed entirely unbothered by it, pulling her into his arms to comfort her for a while, after which the two of them lay entwined on the bed, talking softly together for some time.

On this summer afternoon, a rare cool breeze drifted in through the window; Qu Longjun spoke to him of her worry and her heartache—though she had already witnessed a great many things and had braced herself mentally for this, seeing him wounded still ached at her heart all the same. He, in turn, said a few foolish things to her, telling her that despite having been through so many similar situations, being beaten black and blue still hurt just as much every time, and so on. The words young lovers exchange are always foolish yet clear, without much substance to them at all—except that these are precisely the words they will carry with them for the rest of their lives.

Settling into calm in each other’s embrace, in the midst of their kisses, something nearly happened between them, but Ning Ji held himself back all the same, saying, “In a few days… there’s something I need to talk to you about…” Qu Longjun bit her lip and nodded. “…Mm.”

Leaving the room, though his heart felt calm and at peace, his pulse raced faster than he could ever remember. Ning Ji drew several deep breaths in a row, and when he finally looked back, he saw the young woman on the bed, lips pressed together, watching him with clear, bright eyes.

“I’ll be back soon…” he said softly.

There were still things to attend to that afternoon.

Having taken part in the melee against Tunyun, Fan Zhong, and Tie Tianying, the events that had unfolded that morning at Heyun Pool were already beginning to spread through the city; Pu Xingui’s side, too, should gradually be receiving concrete word of it by now. As an “ally,” Ning Ji could arrange another meeting with him to discuss the next steps, and even, if the conversation went smoothly, quietly probe him a little regarding any news of Zuo Xingzhou.

He left Huaiyun Ward, went to the agreed-upon teahouse, and left a message there.

It was nearly the hour of the Rooster; a cool breeze swept over the seaside city, and a magnificent sunset was already spreading in from the distance. Ning Ji sat in the teahouse, his thoughts on the matter between himself and Qu Longjun.

As a military physician, and as someone with plenty of experience of his own, he naturally knew what would happen next, and had already made up his mind—he wanted to marry her. And as an honorable young man, he did not want this to happen carelessly this time—what had happened with Yu Xiao’er still lingered in his heart like a shadow, and this time, he would approach it with proper seriousness.

As for the matter of his parents and family background, he would need to lay it all out for her honestly, in full. He had long known why she had gone to the southwest in the first place—but that had been because she’d been forced into it by Wen Shoubin, back then. He would tell her that none of it mattered anymore, that he held no grudge over any of it, and that his parents and older siblings were, all of them, good people, easy to talk to—every concern could be worked out, in time.

He needed to buy some food to bring back.

He’d already left the message; Pu Xingui’s people hadn’t yet arrived. Perhaps tonight, at Silver Bridge Ward, they could meet… Ning Ji turned all of this over in his mind, and rose from his seat in the teahouse. In the distance, he heard a “boom—” rise up from within the city.

Cannon fire?

How unusual…

Ning Ji looked out into the distance from the teahouse, and after a moment, having pinpointed the location where the smoke was rising, his brow furrowed.

Boom, boom—

Two more startling cannon blasts—

Ning Ji’s body moved at once; he burst out through the teahouse window, leapt onto the rooftop like a gibbon, and dashed several steps along it.

The blood-red sunset spread across the sky, the city’s countless rooftops stretching out in the distance, all the way to Huaiyun Ward, far off.

The sound of fighting and killing carried over from that direction, and then, another explosion…

What’s going on…

Ning Ji’s head swayed slightly, a wave of dizziness washing over him.