Dongxue, like Linlang, was from Jiangkou.

A typical southern waterland woman — slender and light, not a stunning beauty of legendary proportions, but a girl of clean-featured, balanced looks.

Dongxue had a spirited, fierce personality. When that leading Jing Kingdom man began looking her up and down with that hungry, roving gaze, she couldn’t help but shoot him a fierce, hard glare right back.

That, unfortunately, was exactly what he liked.

The singing girls His Majesty of Great Jin had provided for his entertainment were fine enough, but every last one of them was boneless soft flesh — after so many of them, it had grown cloying. But this girl was something different: that fiery edge had a flavor all its own. He’d grown tired of singing girls and dancing girls — a small merchant girl like this, common and unrefined, would make for a different kind of entertainment entirely.

With that thought, the man threw back his head and laughed, then grabbed Dongxue’s wrist with one hand and asked in halting, imperfect Mandarin: “Little girl, how old are you? Have you ever been with a man? Come with me in a while — keep me company for a few days, and I’ll give you a great deal of silver.”

At this, the rest of the Jing Kingdom guards broke into loud, raucous laughter.

Dongxue had never imagined that here in the capital, under the very feet of the Son of Heaven, someone could behave like a common brigand — brazenly harassing a respectable young woman without a shred of restraint.

Furious, she yanked her arm, trying to wrench herself free — but the man’s grip was like an iron clamp, and she couldn’t pull away at all.

Dongxue was beside herself with rage and struck the man across the face with her free hand.

Her force was not great — it was meant only as a warning to make him let go.

But this act completely enraged the man. His leopard-like eyes flew wide, and he swung his hand back and struck Dongxue full across the face.

The blow was heavy, and it sent Dongxue straight to the ground.

Her head struck unluckily against the edge of a nearby table as she fell, and when she hit the floor, blood began to flow in a steady stream down her forehead.

One of the shop assistants, seeing this, turned and bolted for the shop entrance in a panic, intending to run to the nearby government office to report the crime.

Their shop had always had good security in this area — not only were they close to the government offices, but there was even a military barracks nearby.

But before the assistant could even cross the threshold, a Jing Kingdom guard kicked him sprawling behind the counter, leaving him too winded and injured to stand.

That sent the shopkeeper and the remaining assistants into frozen terror — not one of them dared move.

Chu Linlang lowered her head and spoke in a low, rapid voice to Xia He, who stood beside her, her hands pressed over her mouth in fright.

When she had given her instructions, she raised her eyes — and saw the man lift his foot, about to bring it down on Dongxue’s stomach. Without hesitation, Chu Linlang snatched up a paper bag of lime plaster that was sitting beside the door, ready for use on the walls, then threw back the curtain and shouted: “Stop!”

The man who had been acting with such violence was none other than Ke Cha, the Jing Kingdom envoy.

He had been about to lift his foot and teach this Jin Kingdom woman who did not know what was good for her a lesson, when out of the inner room walked a far more stunning woman.

This woman had her dark hair swept up, and wore a long pale lotus-pink gown, its slim cut tracing a figure of slender, graceful curves. Her neck and face were as white as snow piled on the outer steppes; her lively, wide eyes set above fine brows made her look like a beauty painted straight out of a picture.

Since his arrival in the capital, Ke Cha had spent every night in the company of beautiful women — but what were those powdered, painted creatures compared to even a fraction of the woman before him?

By his reckoning, even the favored imperial consorts of the Great Jin emperor did not possess half the beauty of the woman standing here now.

At this, Ke Cha abandoned all thought of the woman collapsed on the floor and fixed his leopard-like eyes on Chu Linlang with the gleam of a predator who has just sighted its prey, looking her up and down without restraint.

Chu Linlang kept her expression composed and moved the paper bag behind her back without drawing attention.

Looking at this man’s dress and appearance, she was fairly certain he was the Jing Kingdom envoy Ke Cha.

Situ Sheng had told her about him — that this man was brutal and savage by nature, that he had plundered frontier villages, personally slaughtering countless women and children, a butcher who killed for pleasure.

That the Jing Kingdom would send such a man as their envoy for peace talks was indeed a calculated decision.

Just then, Ke Cha threw back his head in a loud laugh and said to the guard beside him in the Jing Kingdom tongue: “Hu Dulie really does know how to find good spots — who would have guessed a shop this ordinary would have a beauty like this?”

With that, he reached out to grab Chu Linlang.

Chu Linlang stepped back one pace and said to him: “You must be Envoy Ke Cha?”

Ke Cha had not expected this beauty to know him, and looked her over once more: “You know who I am?”

Chu Linlang forcibly suppressed the fury churning in her chest. She knew that trying to reason with or defy someone of this sort would be utterly useless — the only thing to do was find a way to keep him occupied and give him no further cause to harm Dongxue, who was lying on the floor.

With that thought, she smiled at Ke Cha and said: “I am a Sixth-Grade Lady of Distinction, granted the title by His Majesty himself, and I often attend upon the Empress Dowager in the palace. I have heard a great deal about you, honored envoy. My maidservant is young and ignorant — she has given you offense, and I hope you will be generous and not hold it against her. As for today — whatever all of you wish to purchase, put it all on my account.”

Chu Linlang’s words had made it clear she was no ordinary merchant — she was a titled Lady of Distinction with access to the palace, a reminder to this Jing Kingdom envoy that he ought to rein himself in and not act so completely without restraint.

But Ke Cha was recklessly bold. He didn’t even take the Great Jin emperor seriously — so how much less would he be moved by one small titled lady?

He laughed and glared: “What, did you think I was planning to pay for anything? You Jin people are nothing but lambs lined up for slaughter! Have you ever heard of a wolf walking into a pen of sheep to eat its fill and then paying for the meal?”

At these words, the Jing Kingdom guards burst into their chilling, derisive laughter, mocking the naivety of this pretty little woman.

Chu Linlang had long anticipated that Ke Cha was the kind of man who would not listen to reason.

But she wasn’t trying to reason with a wolf. What she needed right now was to buy time — to wait until Xia He had done what she’d been told.

Even with a shop full of these wolves and predators, she held herself steady, showing not a trace of fear as she said: “Envoy, you have come here not merely to eat lamb. You carry the great trust of the Khan of the Jing Kingdom, hoping to open border trade and commerce. Since you have come to negotiate peace, the spirit guiding everything must be one of ‘harmony.’ Although the honored guests are our visitors and we must receive you with proper courtesy, striking and injuring a respectable young woman in a public marketplace is no small matter. Even if the court chooses not to pursue it, surely all of you understand the dangers of provoking the people’s rage?”

Ke Cha waved this away with contempt, laughing out loud again: “You Jin people are all thin and sickly as ailing chickens. We have come from afar, and you should be serving us with fine wine and good food. Whatever woman I take a liking to should have the sense to come with me quietly, without so much tiresome chatter.”

With that, he reached out to grab Chu Linlang.

He hoped this beauty would be sensible and come along willingly, sparing herself unnecessary pain.

Otherwise, he had ways — plenty of them — to break a Jin woman like her.

But just as his hand shot forward, Chu Linlang suddenly raised her arm and flung the full handful of lime plaster straight into his face.

Ke Cha was caught completely off guard. The lime hit his eyes, and he let out a howl of pain.

The other guards first rushed to support the blinded Ke Cha, and then surged toward Chu Linlang.

At that very moment, a lean and wiry old man shot out from the back room. His dry, sinewy hand clamped down on the wrist joints of two guards with a single swift grip, then delivered a sharp, precise burst of force — and both men’s wrists twisted in an unnatural direction with a sickening crack, drawing smothered cries of pain from them both.

It turned out that Sui Qiye had been in the back alley stable this whole time, washing the horses.

Before charging out, Chu Linlang had hurriedly given Xia He several urgent instructions.

The first of these was to immediately fetch Sui Qiye from the back stable.

Sui Qiye had been some distance away, separated by several walls, and had not heard the commotion at the front of the shop. It was only when Xia He ran to the back alley and told him that he rushed over to see what was happening — arriving just in time to witness Ke Cha’s rampage.

There was no way he would allow the filthy claws of a Jing Kingdom dog to lay hands on Lady Chu. So he had seized the moment when those two Jing Kingdom guards were least expecting it, launched a sudden strike, and in one swift move, wrenched their wrists clean out of joint.

At the sight of two trained warriors being grabbed by the wrists by a scrawny old man and driven helplessly to their knees before him, the other guards were visibly shaken.

The first to recover lunged forward with a blade, eyes blazing, meaning to cut the old man down with a single stroke, while still cursing under his breath in the Jing Kingdom tongue as the slash missed.

Unfortunately for him, he had met his match. Qiye sidestepped with an easy, fluid motion, and at the same moment his right hand shot forward, hooking the guard’s wrist in one smooth movement and stripping the blade clean from his grip. He gave the blade a practiced flourish, then abruptly opened his mouth — and began hurling abuse right back, in the Jing Kingdom’s own tongue.

Chu Linlang couldn’t understand a word of the Jing Kingdom speech, but judging from the way the guards’ faces had gone white with fury, Qiye must have been saying something spectacularly foul.

At this moment, from the tea house directly across the street, a cloaked figure shot to his feet in disbelief, staring at the scene unfolding in the shop.

It was Yang Yi. He had deliberately led Ke Cha to this location and was now standing at the tea stall across the way, watching events develop.

Though it had been a long time, he recognized the old man who had charged out — it was Sui Qiye.

Earlier, when Tao Huiru had declared with such certainty that the bracelet had been given by Situ Sheng to this Chu woman, Yang Yi had still harbored some doubt.

Situ Sheng had always been cold and indifferent, not the sort to be easily moved by a woman.

And this Chu Linlang — he had done some looking into her beforehand. She was an uncultured, worldly-minded market woman with no particular refinement.

Yet Wen Shi, for all her humble origins, had possessed both talent and grace, a gifted and accomplished woman. That was precisely why he had moved heaven and earth all those years ago to bring Wen Shi back to the capital as his wife.

His son should have inherited the same quality of taste. And yet his father’s own guard captain, Sui Qi, was apparently now in the service of this merchant woman.

Every sign pointed to how deeply that unfilial son cared for this common woman.

Just as Yang Yi’s gaze landed on Sui Qi, Sui Qi had already thrown himself into the fray with the guards who were rushing at him.

The old man harbored a bone-deep hatred for these Jing Kingdom people, deploying his grappling arts with precision — wrenching and snapping bones with methodical cracks — and within moments he had dropped several of them.

In those years, he had carried the young master off the battlefield and brought him back. Hoping to give the young master and his mother a better life, he had stripped off his soldier’s uniform and gone into trade to earn money for their keep.

But he had never imagined that by the time he returned, the young master had already been taken away and handed over to someone else by that traitor.

By the time he found the young master again, the young master had changed his name and was now called Situ Sheng, held in check by a father he had never met, who lived thousands of li away, tormented daily by an inner demon, and forced to pass examinations to earn a title and bide his time in this merciless court with no one to depend on.

Now at last, the young master had found a measure of comfort for his soul, coming to know Lady Chu — a woman of both wit and daring.

The two of them had even drawn up a betrothal contract, and this had made Sui Qiye genuinely glad on the young master’s behalf.

But today, these Jing Kingdom animals had come to Lady Chu’s shop to cause havoc.

Unless he drew his last breath — these animals were not going to lay a single hand on Lady Chu.

Chu Linlang stayed close behind Sui Qiye, lime in hand, covering his back. When Sui Qiye fell back slightly, Linlang leaned in close and said in a low voice: “Seventh Elder Sui, these men are envoys — we absolutely cannot let anyone die. Whatever happens, once a crowd gathers at the shop entrance, don’t get drawn into a prolonged fight…”

Chu Linlang understood clearly. These men had been making a complete spectacle of themselves in the capital for days without consequence — whether it was the incident at the courier station where someone had been killed in a drunken stupor, or the contemptuous treatment of Great Jin officials during the negotiations, all of it had been smoothed over and swept under the rug.

Because the Great Jin emperor currently had no confidence in his ability to win a war against the Jing Kingdom.

Even if Ke Cha caused a public disturbance in broad daylight and struck people first, the court would not hold him accountable.

If Sui Qiye truly went up against Ke Cha, even if he could win the fight, he would come out the worse for it in the end.

But… just because the government wouldn’t hold Ke Cha accountable didn’t mean he could run rampant in the streets of the capital unchecked.

Earlier, before stepping out, Linlang had instructed Xia He to do two things — one was to fetch Seventh Elder, and the other was to go out into the street and call for people to come.

So now she spoke her low instructions to the old man, then turned to look toward the entrance of the shop — the timing should be about right.

Ke Cha had his guards fetch cooking oil from a nearby noodle stall to wash his eyes, and finally managed to pry them open. He drew a blade, ready to step forward and hack the old man to pieces — when he heard someone behind him let out a thundering, furious roar from the street:

“Damn it all, these Jing Kingdom dogs have the gall to come right to the imperial capital to bully our people! Do they think every last person in Great Jin is a spineless coward?”

What had happened was this: Xia He, following Chu Linlang’s instructions, had first notified Seventh Elder, then circled around to the main street and cried out at the top of her lungs: “Terrible news — the Jing Kingdom people are robbing the shop! They’re buying things without paying, they’ve beaten someone, and they’re trying to abduct a young woman!”

For the past several days, those Jing Kingdom people had been swaggering up and down the streets near the courier station, frequently taking goods without paying, and had already stirred up deep resentment among the people, who were thoroughly sick of the sight of them.

On top of that, the harrowing incident at the women’s academy at the oasis had stirred a wave of outrage across Great Jin. Xia He’s words spread instantly. Word of the Jing Kingdom people refusing to pay, assaulting people in the street, and harassing a young woman swept through every lane and alleyway, until the neighboring merchants, pushed past their last measure of endurance, surged toward the scene like a rising tide.

As luck would have it, the military examinations were currently underway, and many military exam candidates were lodging in the guest houses along this very street.

The entrance of Chu Linlang’s shop filled with people. When they saw Dongxue with blood streaming down her face, barely conscious, being supported by Lady Chu, many hot-blooded men were seized with white-hot fury, pointing fingers at the Jing Kingdom men and cursing them in full voice.

Great Jin’s resentment toward the Jing Kingdom had been building for years, and Ke Cha’s arrogance and belligerence had ignited all of that long-accumulated rage in an instant.

What did it matter that he was a Jing Kingdom envoy? Common citizens had none of the court’s grand strategic vision or long-term considerations.

These frontier mad dogs thought they could bully the women of Great Jin right here in the capital — not while the men of this city still drew breath.

Ke Cha stared at the crowd surging toward the shop entrance — these plain-looking Jin people, of all heights and sizes, armed with carrying poles, fire forks, whatever came to hand. They looked like nothing but a disorganized rabble, of no threat whatsoever.

His anger had not yet subsided, and he turned back, determined to deal with the old man and grab those two women.

But when he turned around, he found that the beautiful woman, the lean old man, the shop assistants, and the girl with the broken head were all gone without a trace.

What had happened was this: the moment the crowd outside the shop became sufficiently chaotic, Chu Linlang had caught Sui Qiye’s eye and signaled him. Together they gathered the shopkeeper and assistants, helped Dongxue along, slipped through the shop’s back door — locking it behind them and barring it with a heavy wooden post — and swiftly departed in the carriage from the back stable.

As they left, she made a detour past the government office to report the incident.

All her delaying earlier had been precisely to wait for the moment when those Jing Kingdom wolves had their attention split. For all of Seventh Elder’s formidable skill, time would eventually tell against him when facing so many — Chu Linlang’s only aim was to get everyone in the shop out alive.

As for why she hadn’t sent Xia He to report to the authorities first — Chu Linlang knew perfectly well that when dealing with these brigand-like envoys, waiting for the useless officials to show up would do no good. Far better to find a way to draw those men’s attention away and then slip out while the chance was there.

As for the shop — life mattered more than property. She simply left the shop to those Jing Kingdom people. Even if every last piece of merchandise was smashed and looted, she wanted that pack of thieves to feel the full force of a surging tide of Great Jin citizens’ righteous fury beating against them.

Back to Ke Cha: he stood there, red-eyed and burning, staring at the empty shop in impotent rage.

The guard captain took one look at the situation outside the shop and immediately felt the ground shift beneath them. He leaned close and murmured urgently to Ke Cha: “We’re at the most critical point of the negotiations with Great Jin right now — we cannot afford any complications. We should return to the courier station.”

Ke Cha was brainless, but before departing, his Khan had drilled into him that he was to play the heavy-handed villain to the hilt — there were advisors traveling with him to play the reasonable, accommodating side, and together they were to squeeze Great Jin into opening up trade without resistance.

But right now, the street outside the shop was packed solid with furious people, the sounds of cursing and shouting rising in waves upon waves.

Ke Cha, furious as he was and longing to kill someone, could only grind his teeth and bide his time, planning to find the people from this shop and settle the score afterward.

They had tried to leave through the back door first, but that shop’s back door was locked tight — apparently someone had shoved something heavy up against it from the inside.

With no way to slip out the back, they had no choice but to push forward through the front.

But as the Jing Kingdom guards began shoving through the crowd gathered at the entrance, another clash erupted — someone snatched the slop bucket from their own stall and hurled its contents straight over the lot of them.

That bucket of foul slop water cracked open the dam that had been holding everyone back. What followed was an avalanche — rotten vegetable leaves and bad eggs came raining down in a relentless barrage, burying the Jing Kingdom men under a storm of filth.

Ke Cha’s beard was dripping with the raw yolk and slime of broken eggs, and the guards around him had lost every last trace of the arrogance and swagger they had carried in.

Ke Cha was close to losing his mind. He ordered the guards to draw their blades and cut through the crowd — but the guard captain stopped them: “You cannot! We are in the capital city of Great Jin, out in the open marketplace. If you cut people down right here, you may not make it out of this district alive.”

The guard captain had sharp eyes and had already spotted people distributing iron mattocks and other tools in the crowd nearby.

At this juncture, one against a hundred was simply not enough — when a crowd was truly provoked, how could they afford to meet it head-on?

This guard captain had a head on his shoulders, and naturally understood that this matter could not be allowed to escalate further.

Just then, the street patrol officers arrived. They dispersed the crowd and came forward to question the surrounded Ke Cha.

The moment the Jing Kingdom men saw the patrol officers drive back the crowd, their spirits suddenly revived.

But Ke Cha paid the officers no heed at all — and with nowhere else to vent his fury, he simply raised his hand and struck the questioning officer across the face.

At this, a tall, imposing man standing behind the patrol officer roared with furious contempt: “You sons of turtles!”

It turned out that General Li Chengyi had recently been reassigned as part of a rotation in the capital’s defenses and placed in charge of patrolling the city.

His barracks were nearby. He had been passing by when he heard the commotion on this stretch of the market, and had dismounted, bringing his men along with the patrol officers to see what was going on.

General Li Chengyi arrived just in time to see Ke Cha brazenly striking an officer without the slightest concern for consequences. So furious his beard was trembling, he brought his men forward and began dealing with Ke Cha directly.

And just like that, both sides’ men began fighting with real blades in a real brawl.

General Li’s soldiers were no wine-bag deadweights. In the old days, many remnants of General Yang Xun’s forces had come under the Li Family Army’s banner.

And General Li’s grandfather had himself been trained and brought up under Grand General Yang Xun.

The Yang Family Army was gone — but its fighting spirit lived on. General Li’s soldiers trained without rest or let-up, carrying the fierce and savage battle-edge of the Yang Family Army of old.

For years, Great Jin had given ground to the Jing Kingdom again and again. The civil officials might manage it, but the hot-blooded men in the barracks — every last one of them had been swallowing a lungful of stifled, suffocating resentment for far too long.

Now here was a fine chance indeed. Both sides’ men clashed in the open marketplace, and no one had to stand on ceremony with anyone else. Fight it out properly first, and talk afterward.

Ke Cha tried to draw his blade, but Li Chengyi lashed him hard with two sharp cracks of a whip, sending the blade flying to the side.

At last, General Li Chengyi himself entered the fight. Seizing the moment when his men had Ke Cha’s neck in a hold, he stepped in at just the right instant and drove two hard, heavy punches straight into Ke Cha’s eye socket.

The blows sent Ke Cha screaming, his eye socket splitting open and streaming blood.

General Li’s barracks were close at hand. While the brawl raged hot on this end, men had already run back to report. Some soldiers who had pulled a long night watch and were half-naked catching up on sleep couldn’t even stop to put on their clothes before sprinting over to join the fight.

The Jing Kingdom envoys’ warriors were fierce and brave, but how long could even the finest fighters hold out against this kind of rolling, ever-replenishing onslaught?

Before long, Ke Cha — beaten and face-down on the ground — began to change his tune: “I… I am an envoy of the great Jing Kingdom! It is customary not to harm an emissary who comes under a flag of truce! How dare you treat me this way?”

General Li Chengyi hawked and spat full in Ke Cha’s face: “Old me, I’m giving all you turtle sons exactly what you deserve!”

Across the street, Yang Yi had at some point quietly slipped up to the second floor of the tea house.

Though today’s developments had not gone entirely as he had expected — and in particular, this Chu woman had shown real nerve, managing to face down Ke Cha without her composure breaking, and in the end slipping away cleanly with the old man Seventh Sui’s help — this was actually for the better.

Because his target today had never been that merchant woman.

What he was truly after was…

With that thought, he stood alone in the unoccupied private room, lifted the lid of a qin case that had been placed in the tea room long in advance, and drew out a powerful bow. He took two arrows, raised the bow, and trained his aim on the turbulent crowd below.

Now, back to that full-blown brawl in the marketplace — it ended at last with Ke Cha and his men all driven to the ground in defeat.

General Li Chengyi had vented his rage thoroughly, and he called his men to stand down, preparing to hand Ke Cha and the rest over to the patrol officers standing nearby.

But at this very moment, out of nowhere, a feathered arrow streaked through the air like lightning and drove straight through Ke Cha’s throat as he knelt on the ground.

Ke Cha had no time to make a sound. He simply went glassy-eyed and pitched forward, face-down, to the earth.

And that was not all. A heartbeat later, a second feathered arrow came slicing through the air with a vicious, cutting wind — aimed straight at General Li Chengyi, who was still standing there in stunned stillness.

At the very last instant, someone lunged forward and shoved Li Chengyi hard, sending him stumbling clear of the arrow by a hair’s breadth.

Li Chengyi turned to look — and found Situ Sheng standing behind him, his expression grave.

Up in the tea house, Yang Yi loosed his two arrows in quick succession, then immediately crouched down, stowed the bow, and sprinted downstairs. He shoved aside a server who stood in his path and slipped out through the tea house’s back door, disappearing swiftly into the alley.

After pushing Li Chengyi clear, Situ Sheng swept the area with sharp, intent eyes, catching a glimpse of a figure vanishing behind the tea house across the way — and then it was gone.

He moved to give chase, but the surging, panicking crowd pressed in on all sides and blocked his way. By the time he forced through and looked again, there was no trace left at all.

Li Chengyi stepped forward and clapped a hand on Situ Sheng’s shoulder, speaking with difficulty: “What in the world just happened? I already asked around — no one from my men fired that shot.”

Getting into a brawl with Jing Kingdom envoys was one thing. Killing a Jing Kingdom envoy was something else entirely.

Li Chengyi felt a deep, creeping sense of unease and was quick to explain himself.

Situ Sheng patted his shoulder. How could it possibly have been the Li Family Army who fired that cold shot from the shadows? The second arrow had been aimed directly at Li Chengyi.

And what was more — the two arrows were not even the same. The one that killed Ke Cha was a standard-issue military arrow of the kind found throughout Great Jin’s armies.

But the one that had been aimed at Li Chengyi was a Jing Kingdom arrow — black-feathered.