The commotion on the main street continued. Cheng Zhouhai and other members of the Qin family, including Qin Shaoyu, blocked the approaching constables, while the elderly matriarch, leaning on her cane, stood trembling in the doorway. With Cheng Zhouhai holding them back despite his injuries, Tie Tianying was reluctant to force his way through for the moment — but he carried a warrant from the Ministry of Justice to make an arrest, which lent him an inherent air of righteousness, and his words, while yielding ground rhetorically, were delivered with passionate conviction.

“…I know you fought bravely at Taiyuan, and I know Lord Qin Shaohe died a martyr’s death there as well. But does an elder brother’s death for the country mean the family can flout the law? You can block me like this all you like — sooner or later he’ll have to come out! Qin Shaoqian, I respect you as a hero. If you’re truly a man of honor with nothing to hide, you should walk out on your own, and we’ll go to the Ministry of Justice to sort this all out properly—”

His words stirred agreement from many onlookers, and the constables under his command added fuel to the fire as well. Someone in the crowd could be heard shouting: “That’s right.”

“If you’re guilty or not, why be afraid to go to the Ministry!”

“If you’re innocent, go explain yourself…”

Most of those speaking were ordinary townspeople; after the Jurchen siege, nearly every household had lost someone, and people’s tempers had grown short and volatile. Seeing Qin Shaoqian not even daring to go to the Ministry of Justice — what clearer proof of guilty conscience could there be? After a moment, someone even began cursing at the elderly Qin matriarch directly.

“…You old witch, think that having an official in the family means you can cover the sky with one hand? Blocking the officers from doing their duty — you might as well be dead!”

“That’s right, that’s right, they think this capital belongs to their family…”

“The Qin family’s always been used to throwing its weight around…”

Such voices rose one after another, and before long the crowd had grown genuinely agitated. The old woman stood at the gate of the chancellor’s residence, cane in hand, saying nothing, though her hand was visibly trembling. Then, from behind the gate of the Qin residence, a man’s voice rang out: “Mother! I’ll go along with them…”

At those words, Qin Shaoqian made to step outside. Built solid and powerful, blind in one eye now covered with a leather patch, he carried himself with an air of grim, composed menace. But just as he took a step forward, the old woman turned and struck at him with her cane. “You are not to come out—”

Tie Tianying called out from outside: “Good! Qin Shaoqian, now that’s a real man!”

Cheng Zhouhai turned back, coughing twice: “Go back, go back!”

On previous occasions, whenever Qin Shaoqian’s mother grew agitated like this, he had always been driven back inside. This time, he simply endured the blows of the cane, saying loudly: “If I go to the Ministry, they can’t do anything to me right away! If things can be explained, they’ll be explained! If not, I was going to die sooner or later anyway! Mother—”

“Get back inside!”

“I cannot let the Qin family’s name be sullied—”

Someone in the crowd shouted: “Your Qin family still has a name to protect? The eldest son who had a name worth protecting is already dead — he was nothing like the rest of you!”

Qin Shaoqian’s tiger-like eye went wide as he swept his gaze over the crowd; his one remaining eye was already bloodshot red. He said in a low voice: “I fought for my life outside those walls, and saved this entire city…” He might have wanted to say “saved this city full of beasts,” but in the end, he held his tongue. His mother blocked his path. “Get back inside — if you don’t, I’ll die right here in front of you—”

“Mother—” Qin Shaoqian looked at her and shouted the word.

“They’ll have to leave at least one of us Qins alive—”

By this point, Qin Shaoqian stood there, unable to go back, while his mother simply blocked him, leaning on her cane. In truth, though Qin Siyuan had already been imprisoned, the harshest sentence he could face was exile of three thousand li — but given his age, exile might as well be death. Qin Shaoqian, however, was merely a military man; once he went into the Ministry of Justice, the matter could spiral out of control in ways he couldn’t predict, and the difficulty of maneuvering on his behalf from outside versus from within was truly night and day.

If there was one person truly suffering through these days, it was undoubtedly Qin Shaoqian.

In the past, commanding troops, he had always dealt with things directly — even amid scheming and rivalry, he had a blade in hand and could simply cut through it. But this time, with the situation suddenly turning dire, his father Qin Siyuan had summoned him back, and the army was no longer his to command. Not only had he lost the army, but within the chancellor’s residence itself, there was little he could actually do. First, to prove his own innocence, he had to remain still — for a civil official to act was a small matter, but for a military man to act invited grave suspicion. Second, with his parents still present in the household, it wasn’t his place to make decisions. In a small, humble family, if someone came to bully them, he could simply go out and fight. But in a great and prominent household, his fists were of no use at all.

And all of this was happening while his father sat in prison and his elder brother lay tragically dead — and there was nothing at all he could do about any of it. Trapped in the household these past days, all he had was grief and rage. Even when Ning Yi, Wenren, and the others came to see him, what could they possibly say to comfort him? His former position had been commander of the Wu Rui Camp — if he dared act rashly now, others would descend on the Qin residence with overwhelming force, and it would only drag him further into the mess. He longed to draw his blade in fury and spill blood in five steps, but his own mother stood before him.

This woman who had borne and raised him had just endured the pain of losing one son, while her husband had already been thrown into prison; she had collapsed and risen again, her hair entirely white, her body stooped and frail. Even if he wished to throw away his own life right now, there was nowhere for him to throw it.

All around, the shouting and cursing continued — this great hero who had risked his life fighting the Jurchens and the Resentment Army outside the city now found himself with no way forward and no way back.

All he could do was stand there, fists clenched, eyes bloodshot, his whole body trembling.

Someone in the crowd shouted again: “Ha, look at him, he came out, now he’s scared again, what a coward…”

Just then, several carriages arrived from one side. People climbed down from them — first a group of steel-hardened soldiers, then two elderly men, who parted the crowd and made their way to the front of the Qin residence. One of the old men said: “If you mean to arrest Qin Shaoqian, you’ll have to arrest us as well.” It was Yao Zunian, and his manner made clear he too had come to buy time. The other old man went straight to the elderly Qin matriarch, while the rest of the soldiers lined up behind Yao Zunian, their posture making clear that any constable who dared approach would be cut down without hesitation.

Tie Tianying froze for a moment — the men behind them were clearly Western Army soldiers. After the siege of Bianliang was lifted, plenty of these soldiers remained in the capital area, waiting for Zhong Shidao to lead them back; they were all hardened, difficult men, the type who would kill without a second thought if provoked. Skilled as he was, with only a dozen-odd Western Army soldiers standing before him, his own constables would have no chance of making an arrest.

Of course, that wasn’t really his concern. If it truly came down to force, Qin Shaoqian could summon a whole company of family retainers right now, and the entire street would be littered with bodies. The real trouble was the identity of the second old man.

The crowd stirred with confusion again; someone said: “What official is this now…”

“Using seniority to bend the law for personal favors…”

“The Wu Dynasty will be ruined by men like this…”

“The Qin family is one of the Seven Tigers, after all…”

As people talked, the old man had already arrived; he swept his gaze over the crowd and spoke: “This old man is Zhong Shidao. I’ve come to protect Qin Shaoqian.”

The crowd fell silent. Old Master Zhong — now that was a true hero.

Tie Tianying bowed respectfully to Zhong Shidao. “I have long admired Old Master Zhong. But even a hero like yourself cannot disregard the law of the land. I hold a warrant from the Ministry of Justice here — I only mean to bring General Qin back for questioning.”

“Questioning, is it? Nothing so simple as that! Would questioning require such a grand show of force? Do you take this old man for a fool?”

“Master Zhong, this is an official warrant from the Ministry of Justice…”

Zhong Shidao was renowned throughout the realm; though aged, he carried all the more authority for it. He didn’t argue points of law with Tie Tianying, only spoke of plain common sense, and in a few sentences left Tie Tianying at even more of a loss. Still, Tie Tianying wasn’t frightened — after all, he had the Ministry’s order and the law behind him. He meant to take Qin Shaoqian away today no matter what; and if, in the process, the old matriarch were driven to her death or Qin Shaoqian driven mad, so much the faster the Qin family would fall.

In the crowd, Shishi understood something that others did not: for men of such standing, most matters were settled through behind-the-scenes deals. With Qin Shaoqian’s situation unfolding this way, the household must be seeking help from every direction. That Yao Zunian had gone to fetch Zhong Shidao, and that Zhong Shidao himself had come in person to stall for time, suggested that no other solution had been found. She looked out over the crowd again — layer upon layer of onlookers now, perhaps several hundred people gathered to watch the spectacle. Some of the loudest agitators from before seemed to have received fresh instructions, and people began shouting again: “Master Zhong, you may know a man’s face, but not his heart — don’t let yourself be misled by scoundrels—”

“If they’re innocent, why would they fear going to the authorities to clear things up…”

“That’s right, that’s right, it’s not as if they’re being condemned outright…”

“Old Master Zhong, your lifetime of honor…”

The crowd grew noisier because of this. Shishi was just considering whether to step forward and say something to disrupt them when someone suddenly shouted from the other side: “Someone put them up to this — I saw people over there coaching what to say…”

Another voice chimed in: “That’s right, I saw it too!”

“You’re slandering us with lies—”

“No lies — don’t believe me, look at that man on the corner—”

“What’s there to argue about? There’s the law of the land — if the Qin household means to obstruct the law, is that not rebellion…”

“Who said anything about rebellion — grab him, don’t let him leave—”

Chaos erupted all around at once, and the topic was successfully derailed. Shishi glanced around and noticed that one of the men in that chaos was a face she vaguely recognized from among the Bamboo Registry.

In front of the chancellor’s residence, the standoff between Zhong Shidao and Tie Tianying continued. This old man, with a lifetime of honor behind him, was doing this partly out of his old friendship with Qin Siyuan forged during the city’s defense, and partly because he genuinely had no way to resolve this through official channels — over this past stretch of time, though he and Li Gang had received no end of honors and rewards, he had grown thoroughly disheartened, had already submitted a petition to Zhou Zhe, and intended to leave the capital for the northwest within the next few days. He hadn’t even yet managed to bring Zhong Shizhong’s ashes back home.

Just then, a sudden cry rang out: “Mother!” In front of Qin Shaoqian, the elderly Madam Qin swayed and began to collapse to the ground; Qin Shaoqian caught her, and behind them, maids and household staff came rushing out in a panic. The moment Qin Shaoqian had steadied the old woman, he abruptly rose to his feet. “Tie Tianying! I’ll have your worthless life—”

The old woman, held by others, reached out a hand but couldn’t catch him — Qin Shaoqian had already crossed several strides, and with a flash of steel, drawn a blade. Though he had been suppressing his fury in helpless frustration until now, the moment it truly came to killing, the murderous, iron-blooded aura radiating from him was terrifying; the blade he’d drawn belonged to a nearby elite Western Army soldier. Far from fearing this, Tie Tianying seemed almost pleased, stepping forward at once to block Zhong Shidao. “Well timed! Master Zhong, be careful — don’t let him harm you!”

As Chief Constable of the Ministry of Justice, Tie Tianying was highly skilled in martial arts — he had been among those who once besieged and killed Liu Dabiao, and his skill might well have matched Liu Xigua’s or Chen Fan’s in their prime. Qin Shaoqian, though he’d survived the desperate fighting of the battlefield, wasn’t one to shy from a real confrontation either. But as Tie Tianying reached out to block him, the elderly Zhong Shidao’s tiger-eyes flew open, and he too reached back and seized his arm. Cheng Zhouhai suddenly threw himself in front of Qin Shaoqian. “Don’t let a moment’s impatience ruin everything — no blades—”

This bought a moment’s delay, and then someone outside the crowd shouted: “Stop! Everyone stop!”

Shishi’s heart leapt with relief — it was Ning Yi’s voice. From across the street, a group of men parted the crowd and rushed in; Ning Yi held an official order in his hand. “Everyone stop. Tie Tianying, this is an order from the Left Chancellor, instructing you to thoroughly verify all evidence and forbidding false accusations or reckless investigation…”

As the group pushed forward, Tie Tianying gave a cold snort. “I hold a warrant from the Ministry of Justice. This is a Ministry case — how can the Left Chancellor overrule it with a single word…”

“Minister Geng of the Ministry of Justice’s own handwritten note is right here…”

“A mere personal note carries no weight against an official warrant. I’m taking him in — issue a formal document if you want him back!”

As they argued, the two groups had already surged together. Ning Yi stood in front of Tie Tianying, reaching out a hand to block him; but Tie Tianying, a martial artist himself, twisted his hand back to seize and lock Ning Yi’s arm. Ning Yi’s arm flipped free, and he stepped back half a pace; as he raised both hands, Tie Tianying’s fist landed square on his chest with a heavy thud, sending Ning Yi stumbling back three full steps.

During this whole troubled stretch since the chancellor’s residence had come under fire, the Bamboo Registry too had faced no end of trouble — a storyteller had even been arrested and taken to the Kaifeng prefectural office, and advisors had been implicated, with Ning Yi doing everything in his power to get them released. Times were hard, but he had already expected as much, and so these past days he had tried to avoid stirring up more trouble — which was why he’d raised his hands and stepped back, to show good faith. He hadn’t expected Tie Tianying’s fist to actually land. His own martial skill was nowhere near that of a first-rate master like Tie Tianying, and there had been no way to dodge it. He staggered back three steps, blood already trickling from the corner of his mouth — and it was in the wake of that very blow that everything suddenly changed.

Killing intent erupted all around at once, boiling and surging forth; a stabbing pain shot through Tie Tianying’s brow, and the men beside Ning Yi suddenly drew their blades, ready to cut him down. The followers who had come running with Ning Yi earlier now spread out on all sides, and in an instant, more than a dozen flashes of steel rose with a ringing clang — the sheer killing intent left even Tie Tianying momentarily frozen in place.

The row of elite Western Army soldiers ahead were stirred by that same killing intent, drawing their own blades on reflex. At once, with Ning Yi’s great shout of “Stop—”, the entire street in front of the Qin residence was ablaze with the gleam of bared steel.

In the next instant, chaos and uproar erupted—