“…Why would constables be watching Liheng? Has something happened?”
Under the bright moon and scattered stars, Kang Xian’s voice drifted out from the room. Zhou Pei crouched beneath the window, listening intently. Her curiosity about this young teacher of hers had only been growing lately. She’d guessed it might have something to do with some new development in the recent assassination case, but as she listened further, it turned out to be something else entirely.
“Apparently it’s related to a case from last year—the assassination of Song Xian—and it seems to also connect to the disappearance and murder of an entire household belonging to another official…”
The one answering inside was Uncle A’Gui, a man Grandfather Consort had long relied upon. Hearing this, Zhou Pei blinked in astonishment outside the window, momentarily stunned. Inside, Kang Xian, too, seemed to have furrowed his brow.
“How did it get this serious?”
“Nothing’s confirmed yet—there’s no solid evidence. But this Chen Feng, I’ve known him for a while, and he’s genuinely skilled when it comes to solving cases. What he’s uncovered so far isn’t much, but it’s brought some other things to mind.”
“Oh?”
“Do you remember, my lord, that around this time last year, Young Master Ning showed a keen interest in martial arts?”
“Ha, of course I remember.” Kang Xian’s laughter carried through from inside. “Though most of what he knew about such things back then was rather off the mark—who knows what kind of tall tales he’d been reading. I remember telling Elder Qin at the time that for someone who seemed so mature and composed in most matters, he showed a rather youthful enthusiasm on this particular subject. Still, given his talents, it wasn’t so strange that he’d eventually find some proper channel to actually study it. Looking at it now, it seems he really did learn something. But overall, from what I heard about the assassination attempt the other day, what impressed me most about Liheng was still that decisive nerve of his.”
“Just so. But my lord should also recall that around that time, he’d been asking about the details of the Song Xian assassination and the assassin as well…”
“I don’t believe he had anything to do with that.”
“Nor did I, at first. But it’s a connection I only made today after hearing what Chen Feng had to say. Chen Feng himself doesn’t know this part—what he was investigating at the time wasn’t the Song Xian assassination at all, but the disappearance of an official named Gu Yanzhen.”
Kang Xian thought for a moment. “Gu Yanzhen… I’ve met the man a few times. Quite talented. Did he pass the examinations?”
“He got his first proper post last year. He came back to Jiangning to visit friends around March or April, and was due to take up his position as magistrate of Leping County in July. But sometime in June, after he’d left Jiangning, he vanished without a trace. His body and a servant’s were later found outside the city, along with an entire household bearing the surname Yang, all murdered. Around the same time this happened, several of Gu Yanzhen’s own household servants were also killed—apparently silenced because they knew something. The one responsible, it seemed, was that same female assassin who killed Song Xian, and at the time it was believed Gu Yanzhen’s death was connected to her as well. Chen Feng turned up some suspicious leads back then, but with no way to catch the assassin, the case was hastily closed. With so few clues to go on, the investigation didn’t proceed further at the time.”
“How does this connect to Liheng?”
“The family that died alongside Gu Yanzhen wasn’t made up of upstanding people. These two brothers, Yang Yi and Yang Heng, were notorious thugs in Jiangning, known for their brutality—even the smaller gangs didn’t dare cross them lightly. The household included Yang Yi, his two grown sons who apparently had decent skills of their own, and his wife—five people in total. They generally didn’t cause trouble on a small scale, but reportedly took on kidnapping and extortion jobs from time to time. The authorities were never able to pin anything on them, though they likely had a number of deaths on their hands. The prevailing theory at the time was that this family had taken on a job from Gu Yanzhen—kidnapping someone within the city…”
At this point in Lu A’Gui’s account, Kang Xian gave a sudden snort from inside. “An imperial official, colluding with such criminal scum!”
“…Exactly who they kidnapped is now difficult to determine. But the most likely candidate—and one my lord happens to know—would be Nie Yunzhu of Bamboo Records.”
Silence fell in the room for a while, Kang Xian apparently digesting this information, beginning to connect it, however loosely, to Ning Yi. Then Lu A’Gui continued.
“It’s said that Gu Yanzhen, back when he was still in Jiangning in years past, had some history with Miss Nie, who was still working at the Jinfeng Tower at the time. After passing his examinations and returning to Jiangning, he apparently still couldn’t let go of his feelings for her—though by then Miss Nie had already left the trade…”
“Hmph, I know of this talented Gu Yanzhen fellow’s reputation well enough—no shortage of women he’s been closely involved with in the pleasure houses, I’d wager. But setting his sights on Nie Yunzhu shows he had some taste, at least. Whatever her origins, that woman’s character and conduct really are quite exceptional.”
“Just so, my lord. From what I understand, by that time, Miss Nie’s relationship with Young Master Ning had already grown fairly serious. Even so, it seems Gu Yanzhen still couldn’t quite let go—there’s even a story of him proposing to her openly on the street and getting slapped across the face for it. Chen Feng, piecing together Gu Yanzhen’s past conduct, suspected that the person he’d hired the Yang brothers to kidnap might well have been Miss Nie. But upon further investigation, it turned out Miss Nie hadn’t gone missing at all around that time, so he looked into the men connected to her instead—though he came up empty.”
“…So the Yang brothers kidnapped Liheng instead?” Kang Xian didn’t need much more explanation to piece the theory together himself. “What happened next? You said the Yang family was wiped out, the whole household?”
“All five members, not a single survivor.”
“…What month did this happen, last year?”
“June.”
“That’s not possible.” Kang Xian shook his head. “In May, Liheng was still asking about martial arts—he was clearly still nothing more than a frail bookish scholar at the time, and the Song Xian assassination also took place in May. Even if he’d managed to find some martial-world master by then, or even took that female assassin as his teacher outright, his skill couldn’t possibly have progressed far enough in a single month to accomplish something like this… Oh, though, if it was that female assassin who wiped out the other family, and then killed Gu Yanzhen afterward, that would make more sense…”
Kang Xian’s reasoning was sound enough, but Lu A’Gui went on to contradict it. “What’s strange, though, is that both the deaths of the Yang family and of Gu Yanzhen very likely weren’t the work of any martial-world master at all. Based on Chen Feng’s assessment at the scene, it seems more likely that someone at a significant disadvantage killed the entire Yang family, and that same person also killed Gu Yanzhen and one of his guards that same night… seven people in total.”
Outside the window, Zhou Pei’s eyes had already gone wide. She’d crouched here precisely to hear things like this, but never in a thousand years would she have imagined her teacher could be tangled up in something of this magnitude. Sure enough, before long, the two men inside arrived at much the same conclusion she was already forming.
“You think Liheng did this?”
“I think it’s possible, sir, though reconstructing exactly what happened would be very difficult at this point…”
“And what does Chen Feng think?”
“That day, someone was kidnapped by the Yang brothers—a notoriously vicious family, four men and one woman, all of them killed by someone operating at a clear disadvantage. If the person kidnapped was indeed Young Master Ning, he wouldn’t even have known martial arts at the time yet. Chen Feng arrived at this theory because after the Yang family was killed, this person had also clearly been severely wounded—and yet, rather than fleeing, he made a choice: he stayed near the Yang brothers’ residence, set up some kind of trap, and waited—for who knows how long—for Gu Yanzhen, the man who’d hired the kidnapping, to arrive…”
Kang Xian nodded slowly. “…Ruthless. Thorough. Leaving no roots behind to grow back.”
“There were traces left at the scene suggesting that while this person waited in the nearby woods, he vomited twice at the same spot, and chewed through a large quantity of bitter leaves. This suggests he was severely injured, likely in constant pain, which caused the vomiting—and that he chewed the leaves to stay conscious long enough to see the man behind the hired kidnapping arrive… This isn’t something an ordinary person could pull off. I confess, even I doubt I could manage such a thing under those circumstances. And the most striking part is this: having already killed the entire Yang family while himself gravely wounded, any ordinary person’s first instinct would surely have been to flee as quickly as possible…”
As Lu A’Gui laid all this out, Zhou Pei outside had already let her mouth fall open, utterly overwhelmed by the implications. Kidnapped by a gang of murderous thugs, turning around and killing the entire family in retaliation, then, gravely wounded, sitting in the woods chewing leaves to dull the pain while waiting—matched against the image in her mind of her young teacher, she found herself struck by a wave of something she couldn’t quite name. Had her teacher really done something like this? Thinking about it now, she found herself thinking… it was entirely possible. That teacher of hers really might be capable of it.
“That feeling of being watched from behind, of danger lurking unseen—that kind of nerve is exactly the foundation needed for someone destined for great things…” Kang Xian mused, and then a note of realization crept into his voice. “Oh, right… his hand was burned, and the bone broken too, though he never said much about it at the time…”
Lu A’Gui apparently nodded in agreement. “Young Master Ning did vanish inexplicably for a few days around that time. When he came back, he said he’d been injured helping out a friend, and his hand stayed bandaged all the way until just before the new year. Chen Feng doesn’t know any of this, of course—I only made the connection myself after hearing what he had to say. Put together like this, it all lines up.”
“This can’t be allowed to reach Chen Feng’s ears, of course.” Kang Xian said this, then paused. “This matter… there’s no proof of it?”
“In truth, I’m only speculating, my lord. It might well be pure coincidence. Chen Feng only recently discovered the connection between Young Master Ning and Miss Nie these past few days, which is what prompted him to start digging again. If it ever came to be formally raised, it would be difficult to substantiate.”
“Whether it’s difficult, whether it’s even true—none of that matters. What matters is that this must never be raised at all. An imperial official hiring men for kidnapping—that Gu Yanzhen deserved what he got, and that Yang family too, more than earned their fate. Only…” Kang Xian trailed off, then continued. “Ha, I’ve been puzzling over something these past few days myself—on the day of the assassination attempt, Liheng’s actions were mostly a matter of quick wit, and yet his physical skill turned out to be remarkably sharp too. Living up to that ‘Bloody-Handed Butcher’ name of his, it seems. Truly impressive… beautifully handled. A’Gui, see to this matter yourself. This Chen Feng fellow—can he be reasoned with?”
“He’s been pursuing this out of habit more than anything—it’s simply what constables do. He’s not an unreasonable man, and if I mention to him what Young Master Ning did during the famine relief effort, he’ll understand what needs to be done.”
“Good, that’s fine then. From what you’ve told me of his reasoning, the man’s clearly quite capable. Since you know him well, find out what ambitions he has as an official. If he’s genuinely talented, see about finding him a better post within the Jiangning prefectural office—help him move up. Most of the people in positions of authority these days are dead weight anyway; no sense letting real talent go to waste.”
Hearing that this man could be reasoned with, someone worth cultivating, Kang Xian spoke of him warmly enough. Had Lu A’Gui instead described him as a stubborn zealot, hell-bent on justice regardless of consequences, whatever the old man planned to do next likely wouldn’t have boded well for the man at all. Lu A’Gui simply said, “Understood,” nodding in agreement, and then the sound of the door creaking open followed.
Having overheard all this, Zhou Pei’s mind was still reeling in shock as she hurriedly scrambled up to flee—but having crouched there so long, the sudden movement sent her tumbling backward onto the ground. She scrambled to crawl away on all fours, only to hear Lu A’Gui’s voice call out, “Young Mistress?”
The little girl’s head drooped—there was no point running now. A moment later, Kang Xian’s voice came from within the room, showing little surprise at all. “Xiao Pei, come in, then.”
“Ohh…” The girl pinched her own ear, trudging in with obvious reluctance. “I won’t be a traitor, I promise—Grandfather Consort, please don’t silence me…”