The night sky hung like a canopy over the closely packed rooftops, giving off the stench of fish.

Unnamed birds flew through the dark night, near and far, fishing lanterns bobbing on the water.

The man called Pu Xingui waved his hand in the dimness, leading his men to withdraw gradually along the web of narrow paths.

A figure in a cloak stood atop a broken shed roof, watching them quietly.

The Fish King, Gao Xingzong, came over and spoke a few concerned words in this dim, faintly starlit night before departing as well.

The cloaked figure atop the broken roof smashed something to pieces, sending a wide spray of roof tiles crashing down. After a while, the flagpole at the edge of the roof snapped and fell toward the river below.

Ripples spread across the water’s surface; by the time they reached a nearby fishing boat, they were nothing more than a faint stirring. This bit of commotion burned briefly in the night, drawing a few grumbling curses from nearby residents.

Ning Ji cursed back at them.

Before long, this brief exchange of insults faded into the ordinary, negligible ripple of the city’s nighttime noise.

The night wind drifted gently along the river, and he shed his cloak, changed into a simpler set of clothes, and walked along the unpaved dirt path beside the river. This half a night’s meeting with Pu Xingui had gone remarkably well — he’d learned what he needed to, confirmed a joint strategy against Chen Shuangran, and even gotten the names of several informants in the city who might have connections to her. For him, this had been a complex plan he’d only ever heard about but never actually carried out himself — yet the sense of accomplishment had drained away from the very start.

An empty, hollow feeling, and a pale kind of anger, lingered in his heart. If it had to be summed up, it was probably: — damn Zuo Xingzhou.

He thought of that stupid face of his.

Just like that, gone.

You’ve disgraced the Zuo family, fine, but this time you’ve dragged the Huaxia Army’s reputation down with you too — going back to the southwest, people are going to laugh us to death!

What was left after that was just hollowness.

He had, in fact, once experienced the feeling of parting with comrades before, back on the battlefields of the southwest — but perhaps because he’d been younger then, or perhaps because he’d braced himself for it every single day, the deaths of certain elder brothers and uncles hadn’t left him quite this caught off guard. And having spent so long in the Huaxia Army, he understood well enough by now that whatever cruelty the jianghu might hold, it never came close to the violence of the state. Zuo Xingzhou being casually taken out in this almost child’s-play squabble, over a mere misunderstanding, made it especially hard to keep his composure.

When the anger surged up again, he threw a punch in the dim light by the riverbank, snapping a tree planted there in half.

When he’d first met Zuo Xingzhou and the others, he’d still been a kid trailing after his brother, sister-in-law, Hei Niu, and the rest, running around everywhere, occasionally joining in the village children’s scuffles, more often than not getting knocked around himself. But by now, his body had filled out, and he’d entered that age of overflowing energy and boundless strength.

If Zuo Xingzhou, a few years his senior, could have taken a good look at his ferocity and power right now, he’d surely have been startled — pity that, the last time they’d met, he hadn’t gotten the chance to properly beat him up.

He really should have hit him harder…

Turning over these pointless thoughts in his head, he crossed the riverbank and gradually entered a more crowded stretch of the marketplace. Shabbily dressed peddlers pushed their carts along; beggars picked at their feet by the roadside; half-open doors along the street revealed yellowed teeth trying to solicit business; useless scholars in the taverns above clinked cups, telling jokes about the court; two listless constables with rascally looks brushed past him, one of them sparing a glance his way — and having nothing to show for it.

Might as well not even be there…

If it were him, in a situation this tense, seeing a black-and-blue, one-eared figure walking the street like this, would he let it pass?

Question him! Arrest him! Beat him and haul him in!

In his heart, he cursed the little southeastern court once again.

All this talk of reverence for the throne, of constitutional monarchy, and they couldn’t even catch a few small-time thugs! Useless — worse than the Fairness Party even!

That the Zuo family folk had been sent all the way out here — they’d lost their nerve entirely too!

Thinking this way, he passed through the nighttime streets of Fuzhou, through empty alleys and crowded thoroughfares. Passing by a marketplace, he sat for a while on a stone bench beneath a memorial archway at the crossroads, watching the people come and go before him. In his heart he imagined that little wretch Chen Shuangran might well be hiding in some marketplace exactly like this one, that maybe in a moment those fools would walk right past him and he’d catch them and beat them to death — but of course, no such coincidence occurred. And in that stretch of time, his thoughts drifted back to Zuo Xingzhou, and then, one after another, to the many people who had once fallen on the battlefields of the southwest.

The faces of those people, as they’d been in life, seemed to walk past his eyes; for some reason they’d suddenly grown clearer than before. He thought of the uncles and elder brothers and sisters who had teased him, given him sweets, sometimes even smacked him around — people just like Zuo Xingzhou — and it all left him feeling sorrowful. Death and life, things he hadn’t fully understood at twelve or thirteen, things that had once seemed so ordinary to him, had, this particular night, gradually taken on a deeper weight. They were gone forever.

Without meaning to, a couple of horse-tears leaked out, which he wiped away decisively.

There was no luck in running into Chen Shuangran tonight — the plotting and vengeance ahead would still require some patience. Ning Ji stood up and headed toward the Princess’s residence, crossing rivers and small bridges, passing through several streets, and the residence gradually drew nearer.

At the back of the residence, Yue Yinping had once given him a signal that let him slip past a small gate manned by a handful of guards. He passed through the hidden door, able to make out the sentry posts near and far, and by now the layout again seemed to have shifted somewhat from what it had been during the day.

Changing things every day — does that count as tight security? — Tight my ass!

His temper flared.

Ning Ji crossed through the alleys, then slipped over the wall under cover of the trees, dodging the guards’ blind spots, moving forward.

Back in the southwest, he’d heard people talk about this pair of siblings, about Fuzhou — people always said there was still some hope here. When his father received intelligence from this region, he’d occasionally remark, “The young Emperor’s diligent enough,” “the Princess has a good head on her shoulders” — “there’s still hope.” Hope, his ass! Here was the mighty Princess’s residence, its defenses effectively a joke — he, an obscure junior scout on probation with the Huaxia Army, had already broken through several courtyards in the blink of an eye and was nearly at the inner core.

He crossed through another stone archway, entering a courtyard with a small pond and rockery, and Ning Ji was just about to plant his hands on his hips and grumble under his breath when he suddenly stopped, because from up ahead came a soft “heh, heh, heh, heh” sound. Looking more closely, past the cover of the rockery, he could just make out a figure walking along the path there, seemingly lost in its own little world. He was about to hide when he felt a gust of wind coming from the side.

“You…!”

Damn it… spotted…

The figure that lunged out seemed to have been lurking in the rockery’s blind spot too, unsure whether guard or assassin, charging forward and opening its mouth to speak. Displeased, Ning Ji swung a heavy punch, his hand curling like a claw, sweeping toward the other’s neck. The figure surged forward too, drawing a blade with a flick of the hand, but Ning Ji’s punch knocked it straight back into its sheath. The two shadows flickered and crossed a few times before Ning Ji landed a solid punch, sending the person crashing to the ground.

The blow had struck the back of the neck, and the person went out cold at once. Ning Ji’s body flashed forward like lightning, because the figure making that “heh heh heh” sound across the way had also drawn near by now, and had clearly seen the two of them fighting just moments before. Ning Ji raised a hand, meaning to knock that one out on the spot too, but stopped himself halfway through the motion.

Walking toward him from the other side was a little girl, bouncing along, licking a lollipop, tongue sticking out, blinking her eyes.

Ning Ji, in a foul mood, couldn’t very well go around hitting some silly little girl. He stood there, curling his fist into a threatening gesture, before deciding it didn’t matter whether she called out or not, and turned to look back — the woman lying on the ground was dressed as a guard, though he had no idea why she’d been hiding in the shadows to try to startle him.

“Utterly useless, so unprofessional…” Ning Ji muttered under his breath, grumbling.

“Oh, Sister Zou…”

The little girl up ahead came running over, lollipop in hand, crouched down and poked at the guard’s face a few times, then looked up. “What happened to her?”

Ning Ji stood with his hands on his hips for a moment, then walked over too, crouched down, and reached out to check the other’s breath. “She’s still alive. She’s just asleep!”

“Oh, still alive.” The little girl copied his gesture, checking the guard’s breath as well.

This little girl was clearly a simpleton — he could ask the Yue siblings later whether she was their little sister… Ning Ji thought, glancing around, and then lifted the woman’s arms and began dragging her toward the rockery. “She’s asleep. Can’t just sleep in the middle of the path — need to find her a proper spot.”

He dragged her into a hollow in the rockery, and the little girl with the lollipop, seeming to find this perfectly reasonable, followed along, even picking up a stone from the ground and handing it to Ning Ji: “Need a pillow to sleep.” Ning Ji nodded in agreement, had her set the “pillow” down, and the little girl then gathered a few leaves and arranged them on top, indicating they were a pillowcase.

With the two of them working together, the knocked-out guard was laid out neatly in the rockery, resting peacefully. Ning Ji, still simmering with anger, wasn’t quite sure how to proceed. He backed out of the rockery, hands on hips, looked around, then glanced at the little girl standing beside him, seemingly finding the whole thing rather amusing, and his anger flared again. He pointed a finger between the two of them.

“You two know each other, don’t you?”

“Yep, me and Sister Zou are together.”

“…You… in a world full of people as dim-witted as you, no wonder things go wrong!”

“…Huh?” The little girl blinked, dumbfounded, unsure why she was being scolded.

“What do you mean, huh? You know her, but you don’t know me — what if I’d been a bad person?”

“…Huh?” She opened her mouth, licked her lollipop. “So… are you a bad person?”

“I… of course I’m not!”

“Oh, you’re not.” The little girl licked her lollipop a couple more times, then, seemingly imitating someone, nodded solemnly, word by word. “Then I can relax.”

“…”

Ning Ji fell silent for a moment, not sure whether he was the foolish one here or she was the one being wise in her simplicity. He stood with hands on hips, glanced around, and calmed himself. “So do you know who I am?”

“Nope.”

“Then let me tell you — I’m a magician.”

“Huh?”

“Here, let me do a magic trick for you!”

Ning Ji rolled his neck, stretched his limbs, then reached out a hand. “Let me borrow your candy for a second.” Without waiting for a response, he reached out and snatched the lollipop right out of her hand.

The little girl blinked, unsure whether she might cry.

Ning Ji stood before her, holding up the lollipop. “Look, candy.” Then he opened his mouth wide. “See, nothing in there, right?”

The little girl nodded, peering into his wide-open mouth, then nodded again.

Ning Ji went “aaah,” opening his mouth as wide as it would go, then popped the lollipop straight in, and with a “mmph,” snapped his mouth shut, followed immediately by loud, crunching bites.

“Ta-da, ta-da, ta-da, ta-da—”

When he pulled his hand back out, all that remained was the little stick. He opened his mouth wide toward her and grinned wickedly. “Gone! All gone!”

The little girl blinked, watching him.

In the dim light, her eyes seemed to be welling up.

Ning Ji braced himself for her to burst into tears.

He’d had a bellyful of pent-up frustration tonight and wanted an outlet — finding this silly little girl, this small prank had already been the mildest form of release he could manage.

“Giggle giggle giggle giggle, hahahaha…”

The little girl pointed at the small stick in his hand, making an odd sound.

He listened for a moment before realizing it was actually laughter.

“Giggle giggle giggle, giggle giggle giggle…”

She was laughing so hard she clutched her stomach. “You’re so amazing—”

Ning Ji’s face fell flat.

Before he could come up with his next prank, the little girl reached out and grabbed his hand. “Come here, come here, hehehe…”

Giggling with excitement, the little girl pulled him through the rockery, through the courtyard gate, and into the neighboring courtyard, tugging him along into a side room. Ning Ji, still not fully calmed down, watched as she strained to lift a box out from beside her bed, hauling it with effort onto a stool and opening it — revealing, spread out before him, a box entirely full of lollipops, big round ones, piled high enough to sicken a person three times over just looking at them.

“Hahahaha, you’re so amazing, do another trick…”

The little girl’s voice was sweet, as though she herself were made of candy. Ning Ji stood there, stunned into stillness with anger — clearly she was playing him for a fool, though he couldn’t quite be sure of that either…

And it was in that very moment that the alarm bells began to ring.

Torches burst into the courtyard, and people suddenly rushed in through the doorway.

Ning Ji spun around and clashed with them at once — in an instant, spinning and weaving, he sent the first two soldiers who charged in crashing to the ground. He rushed past the little girl and flung a harsh line back at her: “Like hell I’d eat your candy!” The little girl gasped in surprise, watching as he shot out through the back window like the wind.

At that moment, Ning Ji realized just who the girl was.

Because the alarm ringing through the courtyard was: “Assassination attempt on the Princess!”

This was the little Emperor Zhou Junwu’s daughter — dim-witted with absolutely no future ahead of her, just like his own foolish little niece Ning Xiaoke —

More guards were already converging around him. Ning Ji broke into a full sprint, his anger flaring back up — he was going to test just how far this Princess’s residence’s security could really be pushed.

In the dead of night, the commotion once again spread through the courtyard behind the Princess’s residence.

It drew a good number of curious onlookers, and by daylight tomorrow, who knew what bizarre rumors it would spawn.

Yin Ping, Yue Yun, and Qu Longjun in the courtyard behind were roused as well; the Yue siblings grabbed their weapons and rushed over toward the commotion…

In the darkness of night, the sounds of unrest spread once more through the back of the Princess’s residence.

It drew no small number of curious glances, and by the following day, there was no telling what strange rumors it would spawn.

Jun Wu and Zhou Pei had spent a worried while behind the residence; only once the guards brought the Princess over and confirmed the little girl was unhurt did they finally breathe a sigh of relief.

The commotion continued spreading for a while before finally being brought under control. The attempted assassination the night before still hadn’t been resolved, and now, on this second night, it had happened again — this time even involving the little niece their younger brother had brought along. Zhou Pei was thoroughly furious and ordered Zhao Xiaosong to have the intruder captured, dead or alive.

But when Zhao Xiaosong went out and returned after a while, her expression had grown rather complicated as well.

“The, the assassin’s been cornered in the back, but… something strange is going on. They haven’t managed to take him down…”

“Give me the details.”

“Yin, Yin Ping is fighting him right now, but… but they won’t let anyone else go over there. Yue, Yue Yun told me…” Zhao Xiaosong hesitated, glancing around.

Zhou Pei frowned. “What is it, what can’t be said!”

Jun Wu waved a hand. “Everyone else, go wait outside.”

Several guards filed out one after another. Zhou Pei stood there, and Jun Wu, holding his daughter, listened as Zhao Xiaosong cupped her hands and said, in a very low voice, “Yue Yun says… that person is from the southwest.”

The room fell quiet for a moment. The daughter in Jun Wu’s arms was still gesturing with her hands about the magic trick and the giant lollipop. “Such a big lollipop…”

“What did you say? Where?” Jun Wu asked.

“Yue Yun says he’s from the southwest.”

“From the southwest — that would be the Zuo family… the Zuo family…”

Jun Wu’s expression turned serious. He set his daughter down, realizing the intruder couldn’t possibly be one of the Zuo family’s own men. He listened as his daughter told him about the man teasing her, and took a breath. “…Tell me more, in detail.”

“Yes. It seems this is connected somehow to last night’s disturbance too — that was something Master Cheng and Master Zuo Wenxuan handled together. This servant only knows…”

Zhao Xiaosong recounted the events of the previous night in a flustered rush, and by the time she was halfway through, the shape of things had become clear enough. Jun Wu waved a hand. “Go, go get Cheng Zhouhai.”

Zhao Xiaosong was about to bow and leave when Zhou Pei added, “Have Zuo Wenxuan come too.”

“Yes, I’ll go right…”

“Get Yue Yun first.”

“Fang Jinghao’s in the residence — bring him too… have those two come first…”

Orders came in a flurry, and Zhao Xiaosong scurried off, hands over her head. Once she’d left, Jun Wu paced the room, listening to the noise outside. After a while, he said to Zhou Pei, “Should we have kept it down a bit more?”

“Let that person keep fighting with Yin Ping for now.”

“Yin Ping can hold her own against him — they know each other, he’s not a bad person.”

“…Let’s find out the full picture first.”

“If he were a bad person, Fuyang would already be in trouble.” Jun Wu said, hands clasped behind his back, pacing a couple of steps before waving a hand. “Come on, let’s go take a look out back.”

“You’ve certainly grown crafty…”

“So what if I want to see the excitement — it’s not exactly official business anyway…”

The Emperor strode out the door, and Zhou Pei had no choice but to follow behind him. Halfway there, they ran into Yue Yun and Fang Jinghao and listened to them recount a bit of what had happened the night before…

…

In the courtyard, the fighting was gradually settling down.

Ning Ji sat amid the wreckage of the courtyard, catching his breath.

“What’s gotten into you?” Yin Ping, thoroughly annoyed, paced through the courtyard, tossing aside a strip of cloth that had originally been used to bind a wound. “What are you going crazy for!”

“Utterly useless…”

“What do you mean useless, who do you think you are… you were fine when you left…”

“You people.” Ning Ji pointed at her. “You have absolutely no hope. Can’t even handle a few thugs, no hope at all.”

“What hope, what thugs — if you’re not satisfied, keep fighting then!”

Ning Ji was actually feeling a bit worn out by now — after bullying a little girl and knocking down more than a dozen guards, his emotions had gradually settled. Yin Ping had been angry for a while too, and worried he’d flare up again, sat down beside him. Not far off in the courtyard, guards peered out from hiding, having been held back, evidently rather displeased themselves.

“If I hadn’t held them back, how many could you have taken down — they could’ve killed you! And look at you, going out for one trip…”

“…Zuo Xingzhou is dead.”

Ning Ji said it quietly.

Only Yin Ping could hear this. Her expression went blank for a moment.

After a while, Yin Ping propped herself up with both hands behind her, tilting her body backward, her eyes now filled with the starlit sky.

“…Oh.”

…

Not far away, the window of a second-floor building opened, and someone looked out toward them from inside. Zhou Pei, apparently thinking this improper, stepped back as the window opened, but after a moment, tilted her head and leaned back out to look anyway.

“He really isn’t very old…”

“Hehehehe.”

Yue Yun chimed in beside her, offering an introduction.

“This is… the great, the famous, the one known throughout the Huaxia Army, the one everyone knows—”

…

Under the starlight, Yin Ping reached out and patted Ning Ji on the shoulder.

…

Ning Ji smacked her hand away.

…

“—the Four-Foot Lecher!”