After nightfall, lights gradually flowed through the city. Groups of officers were finishing their work in the markets and wards, while soldiers carrying orders moved through streets bright and dim. The night wind stirred the evening leaves, rustling gently.
Atop a corner tower of the imperial palace, Jun Wu held a telescope, watching the area around the Princess Imperial’s residence. After a while, his expression turned solemn, and he lowered the telescope.
“Outrageous…”
With the distance between them, it was impossible to make out the details clearly. Jun Wu had simply been bored and curious whether his elder sister was watching the commotion in the city, but it turned out the commotion extended all the way to the rear of the residence, and that changed the nature of things entirely.
After a moment’s thought, he waved for the eunuch attending him.
“Firing cannon within the city requires prior authorization. Go to the Imperial City Bureau and find out who’s behind tonight’s affair… If it wasn’t sanctioned with the Princess Imperial’s seal, then ask them why they’ve dragged my sister into this!”
The eunuch bowed and left at once.
…
At the training ground behind the Princess Imperial’s residence, what had looked like a fierce confrontation was gradually easing.
Yue Yun, left standing idle, drifted toward Cheng Zhouhai and the others. Yin Ping, spear in hand, was slowly retreating as well. Since Zuo Wenxuan had spoken, it had become clear that Cheng Zhouhai and the elder of this “four-foot lecher” were old acquaintances—and this “four-foot lecher” turned out to be…
“So they really are people from the southwest…” Yue Yun murmured to his sister.
“Didn’t we hear about this back in Jiangning…”
“But…”
Before Yue Yun could finish, something in front of him struck him with even greater shock, and he pointed ahead.
Qu Longjun broke away from Cheng Zhouhai’s side and ran toward Ning Ji, who opened his arms and caught her. He then used his blade to cut the cloth binding her wrists and mouth, checking her condition. “Are you hurt?”
“I’m fine…” Qu Longjun shook her head, eyes brimming with tears.
“He-he-he-he-he…” In the dim distance, Yue Yun’s mouth fell open into a huge circle as he railed against the world. “…those two men are hugging each other—”
Yin Ping swung her hand and smacked him on the head with a crack.
“That’s a woman… and she doesn’t know martial arts either,” Yin Ping said, keeping her voice low.
“Hm… I see… I did think something was odd…” Yue Yun understood, mulling over several things, then looked over there, turned to glance at his sister, looked over again, and seemed to ponder. “Mm… but… his sister also looks like a man.”
Yin Ping’s foot came flying at him in a kick.
“She’s a woman disguised as a man! She’s a woman in male disguise—”
The siblings scuffled while trying to keep quiet. Cheng Zhouhai’s eye twitched, and he reached up to rub it. Ning Ji, holding Qu Longjun, quietly observed the other side: the two fools were bickering among themselves, but both Cheng Zhouhai and Zuo Wenxuan were seasoned and cunning; his own position here was somewhat weak, and it wasn’t wise to start a fight. He took Qu Longjun’s hand, intending to pretend today’s events had never happened.
“Let’s go…”
“Worthy nephew, you’ve come all this way without so much as a greeting to your elder, and now you mean to simply leave? Isn’t that a bit rude?”
From across the way, Cheng Zhouhai spoke with a smile.
“Ignore him…”
Ning Ji said quietly, leading Qu Longjun further away. Cheng Zhouhai opened his mouth, gave a helpless little laugh, then said, “You won’t be able to leave.”
He continued, “Outside the training ground, the Imperial City Bureau has stationed over two hundred men, all armed with crossbows, strings drawn taut. If they fire together, worthy nephew, with your skill you might not die—but the young master Long beside you certainly will. You brought only one companion today; how could you possibly get away?”
“I don’t believe you’d dare shoot at me.” Ning Ji waved a hand—since his identity was already exposed, he might as well be shameless about it.
“The order’s already been given. Step outside, and the arrows fly… Don’t misunderstand, no one wants you dead. But your companion here isn’t nearly so important. If he dies, the Huaxia Army won’t so much as blink.”
“You dare!” Ning Ji turned back. “Aren’t you afraid I’ll kill you?”
“Worthy nephew certainly has the ability, but you won’t believe this—I have men I trust in Fuzhou, and I’ve already given them their orders. If you kill me, they won’t kill you, but just as I’ve drawn a line here, they’ll kill young master Long in return, to avenge me… Well, and by the time you make it back to the southwest, you’ll likely get a beating from your family besides. This is no profit for me, but at least it’s no loss either.”
Standing calmly in the night wind sweeping the training ground, Cheng Zhouhai smiled faintly, then reached out and tapped Ning Ji. “You see, now that I’ve got hold of your weak point, you’ll have to behave. Consider this your first lesson from your uncle.”
Ning Ji stared at him, his expression twisted with conflict. Qu Longjun stepped closer and took his hand in both of hers. After a moment, Ning Ji stamped his foot. “What exactly do you want!”
Cheng Zhouhai laughed and looked toward Zuo Wenxuan. “See, now we can finally have a proper conversation.” Then he turned to the siblings on the other side. “Yue Yun, you’re injured—why not let Miss Yin Ping take you to get treated?”
Yue Yun’s eyes went wide. He and his sister exchanged a look, and in the next moment Yin Ping gritted her teeth, stepped forward, and cupped her hands in salute.
“Master Cheng, might we be allowed to stay and listen to the reason behind today’s affair? Truly… we have some history with these two from back in Jiangning, and there are many things we don’t understand and can’t let rest…”
Back in Jiangning, the siblings had clashed from a distance with the “four-foot” and “five-foot” lechers. After arriving in Fuzhou, Yue Yun had even been on the losing end of a verbal sparring match with Qu Longjun. Then this afternoon, Cheng Zhouhai and Zuo Wenxuan had suddenly arranged for the two of them to be involved, and they hadn’t yet had a chance to ask why. Yue Yun had originally hated the “five-foot lecher” because of Yan Yunzhi, but now, hearing his sister say the other party was a woman, and moreover knew no martial arts, that hatred had suddenly become tangled with more questions. Confused, he saw his sister step forward and quickly jumped out as well.
“That’s right, that’s right, Master Cheng, who exactly are they? We had a falling-out with the two lechers back in Jiangning… Also, this is just a minor wound…” Yue Yun flexed his arm, trying to show off his muscles.
On the other side, Ning Ji frowned and jumped forward too.
“Ha, what falling-out? Who even are you two? I don’t know either of you at all. Also… Uncle Cheng, this business is pretty confidential—do they even have the standing to hear it?”
“Don’t know us? Then tell us what you did to Miss Yan Yunzhi—”
“Yan Yunzhi? Who’s Yan Yunzhi? All I know is that someone made false accusations with a slingshot-sword and slandered my good name—besides, we never even crossed paths in Jiangning, I don’t even know if you two were there…”
“Ha, the name ‘lecher’ for you two is known throughout the land, no one needs to slander you further! And crossed paths, you say—didn’t know if we were there, did you? Let me tell you, just so you’re not too shocked—the head of ‘Mountain-Opening General’ Luo Yan was taken by my brother and me!”
“Ha ha, some ‘general’? Never heard of him. You’re bragging about some nobody. Let me tell you, the head of ‘Mad Tiger’ Wang Nantuo was smashed open by yours truly, and afterward Lin Zongwu chased me all over the streets trying to kill me and never managed it—”
“Feh, anyone who didn’t know better would think you’d killed Lin Zongwu…”
“I’ll kill him sooner or later…”
“Remember, that’s a job for yours truly to do—”
“I’ll smash your dog head open along with his—”
“…”
“…”
The two of them barked back and forth at each other for a while. Cheng Zhouhai and Zuo Wenxuan both rubbed their temples. After a moment, Cheng Zhouhai spoke up. “Alright, my call—they can stay.” He glanced at Ning Ji, who looked ready to object. “It’ll spare young master Sun here from getting so worked up he tries to kill me, and then goes home to get his backside thrashed for it.”
“Hmph, who’d dare hit me!” Ning Ji put his hands on his hips, then glanced quietly at Qu Longjun and murmured, “What else can we do?”
Qu Longjun shook her head, looking a little troubled.
Cheng Zhouhai’s expression had turned serious.
“Alright, Little Sun. Our two families have been friends for generations, and though our paths differ now, that friendship hasn’t faded. Your coming to Fuzhou should have been a good thing, but you’ve been throwing your weight around and stirring up trouble without a care, so I had no choice but to step in and teach you something…”
“What do you mean, throwing my weight around and stirring up trouble.” Ning Ji jumped up. “Look at what you people have been doing in Fuzhou—can’t even handle a few troublemakers, and it’s me who has to step in and fix it…”
“You’re curious about the situation in Fuzhou—stay by my side a while and you’ll understand soon enough. As for what I mean by throwing your weight around and stirring up trouble…” Cheng Zhouhai looked at him, his tone growing heavier. “Do you have any idea what position the Zuo family holds at court, now that they’ve returned from the southwest? What responsibilities they bear? They’re trying to promote the southwest’s methods within the court, to build a bridge between the two sides’ ways of thinking—their position is a sensitive one, and even when nothing is wrong, plenty of people watch them constantly, waiting to pin labels and charges on them! You think your identity is a small matter, you think you haven’t caused anyone trouble—but if the one who’d recognized you today hadn’t been me, but some conservative official at court instead, do you understand that the entire Zuo family could be threatened and used as leverage? Even if they escaped disaster this time through His Majesty’s leniency, they’d never be trusted with real responsibility at court again—and the door for exchange between the southwest and the court would be shut for good—”
Cheng Zhouhai turned to Zuo Wenxuan. “Zuo Wenxuan, you too—faced with something like this, how could you still hesitate and drag your feet? The right move was to surround him the moment you spotted him and take him into custody. If you’d acted decisively, would I have had to come clean up after you today?”
“Hey, you like to jab too—” Ning Ji, old campaigner that he was, couldn’t resist getting a jab in himself, but stopped halfway through when he caught the twitch in Zuo Wenxuan’s expression and sensed Cheng Zhouhai wasn’t someone to trifle with.
Zuo Wenxuan cupped his hands. “Master Cheng speaks rightly.”
Ning Ji said, “—So what do you want, then?”
“As I said, our families are old friends. Since you’ve come to Fuzhou, I’ll spare the time to be your teacher for a few days. In the days ahead, you’re welcome to keep acting up and causing mischief as you please, but young master Long here will stay with me as a hostage, and his treatment will depend on your behavior. As for your curiosity about the situation in Fuzhou, that’s fine too—I’ll take you through it in detail, and in time you’ll understand.”
With Cheng Zhouhai holding Qu Longjun as leverage, Ning Ji gritted his teeth, ready to protest again, but Qu Longjun, sensing no real malice in the other man’s words, tugged at his hand and nodded. “It’s fine for now, don’t worry…”
Cheng Zhouhai smiled and nodded, then turned and walked inward. “Come along with me, then.”
Yue Yun, Yin Ping, and Zuo Wenxuan followed, and Ning Ji and Qu Longjun trailed after, hand in hand. After a few steps, Yue Yun couldn’t help but ask, “Uncle… Uncle Cheng, which southwestern family is he from? Don’t tell me it’s the Qin family? Is his father General Qin?”
Back when the Chancellor’s household and the Secret Investigation Bureau and other factions had risen up alongside Ning Yi, there had been no shortage of key figures, and Yue Yun was guessing as broadly as he could—though of course he didn’t dare guess outright that this was a son of the Ning family.
Ning Ji jumped in. “My father is your long-lost grandfather!”
Yue Yun glanced at him, then turned to his sister and Zuo Wenxuan. “See, turns out his father’s already dead.”
He too had grown up rough-and-tumble in the army, well used to this kind of shameless mudslinging where you hurt yourself as much as the other guy, and it didn’t faze him a bit. Zuo Wenxuan pinched the bridge of his nose, while behind him Ning Ji’s face fell flat before he caught up again, hand in hand with Qu Longjun.
“Little Yue, you’re with the vanguard, aren’t you?”
“So what? I’ll take your head even out of ten thousand troops!”
“Know who I am? I’m with the army medics.”
“So what of it?”
“Look at you, bleeding all over, you’re about to die. We’re practically brothers-in-arms—if you won’t see a doctor, fine, I happen to have needles and thread and wound medicine on me. Come, let me treat you for free…” As he spoke, Ning Ji reached into his robe and pulled out a whole satchel of scalpels and needle and thread, then glanced ahead. “Uncle Cheng, let me go treat his wound…”
Yue Yun cursed. “Like hell I believe you, you just said you were with the scouts, you liar—”
Cheng Zhouhai glanced over and nodded. “Excellent, the two of you should get better acquainted.”
Yue Yun’s eyes went wide. “What, even if I die—”
Cheng Zhouhai said, “If you want to hear the secrets, you’ll have to show some good faith.”
Zuo Wenxuan said, “Let me be fair here, Little Sun really is an army medic.”
“I believe your mother’s idea of fair…”
“Wahahahahaha—a doctor’s heart is like a parent’s! Yue Yun, don’t worry! Uncle here will stitch you the prettiest little bow today—”
The city’s clamor went on outside, wicked laughter echoing into the night sky as the group crossed the training ground and made their way deeper into the Princess Imperial’s residence. After a while, Cheng Zhouhai finally set up a tea stand in the courtyard, and amid Yue Yun’s anguished cries, listened as Ning Ji reluctantly began recounting the various things that had happened to him on his journey out of Sichuan.
In the night, they drew closer together, warmly…