With most of the evening’s performances already through, Kang Xian finally made his way down from the main barge, returning along the water to his own boat. He exchanged greetings with a few people on the first floor before heading upstairs, chatting briefly with the younger folk he encountered there. Only when he glanced toward the side barge did he notice something a little odd.
There were, remarkably, two pairs of people by the windows, watching the performance while playing a board game at the same time.
“It really is strange — every time I run into you, you’re the most relaxed young man around, which frankly is rather infuriating. All those women down there working so hard, and here you are splitting your attention like this — aren’t you worried someone will scold you for wasting such a fine seat…” Kang Xian, as always, couldn’t resist a bit of ribbing whenever he saw Ning Yi. Then, catching sight of the board, he paused, puzzled. “Eh? This game looks awfully strange…”
He glanced over toward the other window as well, and found the game in front of the two siblings equally odd. The sister sat there frowning with clear displeasure, holding a stone as though calculating something; the brother, meanwhile, looked positively gleeful. “Sister, if you don’t block here, you’re going to lose.”
Kang Xian had never seen anything quite like this before; only once Ning Yi explained the rules of gomoku to him with a smile did understanding dawn. “You really do have a knack for finding these sorts of amusements.” Going over to look at the children’s game, he found the sister had already lost. On spotting Kang Xian, one of them called out “Grand-uncle,” the other “Grandpa Consort.” Kang Xian laughed and introduced the two parties to each other.
“Looks like you’re all already acquainted. This is Ning Yi, Ning Liheng, whom you’ve asked about so often… Liheng, these are two young ones from the family — the sister here is Xiaopei, the brother is Junwu, thirteen and eleven. Xiaopei is quite the noted talent of the family, been dying to test her wits against yours for a while now.”
Kang Xian made the introductions cheerfully, while the two children’s faces darkened, the sister especially, turning her head away with clear displeasure. The brother tattled: “Grand-uncle, he just told me a lie — said he wasn’t Ning Liheng.”
Kang Xian blinked in mild surprise, and once the whole story came out, laughed. “Coming straight in to test someone the moment you meet them — of course that wouldn’t end well. I’ll have to remember to scold you for it later… And Liheng, you’re just as bad, always playing king of the children, still scheming up ways to toy with them… Eh, Xiaopei, Junwu, do you have any questions left to ask? I’ll make sure he answers them properly.”
The sister, Xiaopei, turned her head away. “Hmph, afraid of being tested, that’s why he’s guilty about it — no real learning to speak of. Already reached my conclusion, no need to ask further!” She got up and went off to collect the game pieces. Junwu laughed too. “Then I won’t ask either — I’ll go play with my sister instead.” In ordinary games of Go, he’d never once beaten his sister, but having just learned this gomoku, he’d already won several rounds in a row, quite pleased with himself, and his ill feeling toward Ning Yi had eased considerably as a result. As for Xiaopei’s own displeasure with Ning Yi, at least half of it likely traced back to the gomoku itself — though stubborn as ever, she settled back down to play another round with her brother, determined to master the game and turn the tables on him.
With someone else there to chat, Xiao Chan had already gotten up from her seat. Kang Xian sat down with a smile in her place, glanced over the unfinished gomoku board, casually set down a stone, and laughed. “Rather amusing, when you think about it — Xiao Chan calls you ‘young master,’ and now these two have to call me ‘grand-uncle.’ Used to be people called me ‘Consort,’ now it’s ‘Grandpa Consort’ — ha, seems each generation just tacks on another word to the title…”
Then, recalling something, he gestured toward the two children and lowered his voice. “These are the two children of Prince Kang, Zhou Yong — they’ve always spoken very highly of you, been wanting to meet you for a while now. The girl really is quite the talent of the Zhou family — well-versed in poetry and prose, picks up any skill quickly, but her real gift is mathematics. Last year, when the family was going over the accounts, this little one grabbed the ledger for fun and, without even using an abacus, worked out every single figure in it, not a single error. The brother’s a bit more ordinary in his abilities, has a formidable sister, always getting bossed around by her — heh, quite entertaining, really…”
Ning Yi glanced back over, and there was the girl, Zhou Pei, brow furrowed as she studied the board across from him, unable to resist shooting him a glare. Ning Yi laughed. “Looks like he’s finally found the one game he can beat his sister at.”
The performances below continued, and Kang Xian, naturally, couldn’t stay here mingling with a couple of youngsters all night. Having finished that half-played round and gotten some sense of what gomoku was, he took his leave. Ning Yi and Xiao Chan went back to watching the performances, while the pair of siblings beside them kept right on playing gomoku. This girl, Zhou Pei, was an odd one — losing round after round early on, she never suggested switching back to Go or giving up entirely, but simply kept playing, and by the end had apparently clawed back some ground.
The evening’s performances came to a satisfying close, followed by a grand announcement of the Four Ranking Beauties: the previous year’s Reigning Beauty, Feng Xiaojing; Qilan, backed by the Puyang family; Yuan Jin’er of Jinfeng Pavilion; and a new rising star named Luo Miaomiao. Lu Caicai, one of last year’s Four Ranking Beauties, had failed to make the list this time.
Ning Yi had only come to watch the performances — rankings and the like were of no concern to him.
All in all, the evening’s viewing had been quite pleasant, and everything had gone smoothly. As the venue began to empty out, some still lingering to socialize and build connections, most of the crowd headed toward the exits. Once Ning Yi and Xiao Chan disembarked, some faint commotion drifted over from near the entrance. From what others were saying, it seemed a group of Lu Caicai’s supporters, unhappy with the results, had gotten into a verbal spat with some others, leading to a minor scuffle.
This sort of thing wasn’t unusual — some incident, large or small, happened almost every year, and it was nothing serious; the soldiers keeping order had already rushed over, and it would likely be settled soon enough. Over at the main barge, various officials and dignitaries were still exchanging pleasantries — for many of them, tonight’s revelry was far from over, with further banquets still to attend. Kang Xian, too, was over there bidding people farewell; when Ning Yi and Xiao Chan came over, he smiled and told them there was no need to rush off. “My boat’s headed back too — no trouble at all if we go together later. You two didn’t bring a carriage, and walking back would be quite tiring.”
Across the grounds, near and far, the crowd continued to gather and disperse, the lanterns beginning to stretch out along the road back toward Jiangning proper. A moment later, as the crowd here thinned further, another unexpected incident occurred at the edge of Ning Yi’s field of view. Perhaps due to the heat, someone in one of the large tents behind the stage seemed to have knocked over a candle, and a fire broke out on the riverbank there, catching the tent and the surrounding items alight, blazing fiercely.
People from the various pleasure houses came running out from that direction; fortunately, the crowd in this area had already thinned considerably by now, with mostly those still socializing left behind — notables, officials, dignitaries, their attendants, soldiers, and a handful of stragglers who hadn’t yet left — so there was no risk of any stampede. Someone was calling out orders: “Hurry, go put out the fire…” and a good many people headed that way. Ning Yi thought of Nie Yunzhu, left Xiao Chan behind for the moment, and went over as well, running into Nie Yunzhu coming this way partway there. As for Yuan Jin’er, having made the Four Ranking Beauties, she was off attending her own celebration, surrounded by a large crowd elsewhere, apparently unaffected by the fire.
“That’s the big tent belonging to Piaoxiang House — it’s quite far from us. It was just a bit frightening hearing about the fire at first. But it didn’t actually reach anyone, everyone got out — it’s just that with the tent being so large, and everything around it, putting the fire out won’t be easy now…”
From a distance, the blaze on the riverbank looked alarming, mainly because the tent itself was so large, with plenty of surrounding material to feed the flames. But there was little real chance of it spreading much further — at this point it was simply a matter of watching a crowd of people heroically fighting the fire. Ning Yi made his way back up the slope, found Xiao Chan again, and settled in leisurely to watch the spectacle. Tonight, everything else had gone off without a hitch; this fire wouldn’t cause any real trouble, and now it was just a matter of waiting to head home.
He stood there thinking this, nearly stifling a yawn, when a cool gust of wind swept past — and suddenly some thought cut sharply through his mind, leaving him stunned for a good while.
His gaze swept from the fire below back over the crowd around him, searching for something, certain scattered clues suddenly taking on shape in his mind. That was it… When the fire had first broken out, Chen Yong, commander of the Martial Might Army, had shouted, “Go, put out the fire—” and the men he’d called weren’t only the yamen soldiers responsible for keeping order, but also a portion of his personal guard, now actively occupied around the fire…
The reason he’d sent them was that the great crowd outside was in the middle of leaving, and with that earlier scuffle on top of it, the yamen’s arrangements simply couldn’t keep up — there weren’t many soldiers left in this area at the moment…
“That’s the big tent belonging to Piaoxiang House…” Yunzhu had said.
Piaoxiang House — the leading courtesan Chen Yong of the Martial Might Army had been supporting belonged to that very house. And that woman, right now… Ning Yi turned to look… the leading courtesan of Piaoxiang House was standing right beside Chen Yong at this very moment… which was exactly why he’d sent his personal guards over there…
He couldn’t find Song Xian anywhere — the man likely had business elsewhere, probably already preparing to leave and attend to matters as the crowd dispersed. Then the fire had broken out, Chen Yong had dispatched his guards to fight it, and Song Xian had left a portion of his own guards behind — but had he himself already left, or not?
A strong wind blew through, fanning the flames on the distant riverbank, sending the blaze suddenly higher. Ning Yi’s expression flickered between light and shadow. Last night, amid the crowd, he’d considered any number of plans — if he himself meant to kill Song Xian, how he might go about it. But last night’s situation had been different from tonight’s; tonight he hadn’t given the matter any thought at all. Yet now, thinking it over — if he himself meant to kill Song Xian, if these two small “coincidences” weren’t coincidences at all…
A moment later, he took Xiao Chan’s hand and walked toward Kang Xian nearby. Xiao Chan’s face flushed red. “Y-y-y-y-young Master…”
“Old Kang, do you have a carriage ready nearby?”
“Something the matter, Liheng?”
“Just remembered something urgent — I’m afraid I need to head back with Xiao Chan first.”
“All right.” Kang Xian didn’t press further, simply nodding. “I’ll have A’Gui take you there.”
Not long after, a carriage bearing the Consort’s estate emblem left the grounds and turned onto the main road. Though the road on either side was thick with people heading back to Jiangning, a clear path had still been kept open down the center of the official road, allowing the carriage to move along at a moderate pace. Ning Yi flicked the whip now and then, his gaze fixed on Jiangning at the far end of the road. The leading edge of this dispersing crowd had already begun nearing the city gates…
Two carriages bearing the Martial Might Army’s insignia entered Jiangning, making their way through the streets.
By now, the contest out near Egret Islet had ended not long ago, and the vast majority of the crowd hadn’t yet returned to the city. The hour was already fairly late; those who’d stayed behind in Jiangning had, for the most part, already gone to bed. The two carriages passed through streets alternately lit and dark, heading steadily toward the city gate on the far side. The clatter of wheels and hooves rang out, quick and rhythmic, swallowing up the road behind them, light and shadow flashing past. About halfway along, on a stretch of road that was relatively open but quiet, the shops on either side already shuttered for the night, various stalls, refuse, and signboards scattered about, light spilling from a few windows here and there, dim lanterns hanging at the street corner — just as the whip cracked once more, the driver of the lead carriage suddenly barked out: “Who goes there!”
The answer came in the next instant — like two beams of light colliding head-on, tearing apart from each other the very moment they met!
Destruction, shattering, disintegration, a sky full of blood—