The gatekeeper was remarkably skilled at keeping a straight face. Gu Xiaojia had shouted loudly enough for anyone to hear, yet the man somehow managed to pretend he had heard nothing at all. Lowering his head, he murmured, “Have a safe journey, everyone.”
Gu Xiaojia curled his lip.
Hao Guozi obligingly added, “They say without coincidences, there’d be no story to tell—and Young Master Lu is a man of letters, after all.”
Gu Xiaojia said, “It seems Young Master Lu really has read… quite a lot of books.”
Hao Guozi snickered.
Tao Mo stepped in front of him, blocking him from the gatekeeper’s view, and said apologetically, “Please tell Young Master Lu to rest and recover properly.”
The gatekeeper replied, “Many thanks for Lord Tao’s concern.”
Tao Mo then boarded the carriage with Gu She.
Hao Guozi and Gu Xiaojia sat in front to drive.
Tao Mo sat near the carriage door and said to Hao Guozi, “Young Master Lu merely happened to fall ill at an unfortunate time. Why must you mock him?”
Before Hao Guozi could answer, Gu Xiaojia sneered. “What do you mean, ‘an unfortunate time’? I’d say he chose a remarkably convenient time to fall ill! One moment he says he’ll take the woodcutter’s case and earns himself everyone’s gratitude, then the next he falls so ill he can’t even get out of bed. He gets all the benefits without taking any of the trouble. How could there possibly be such a convenient coincidence in the world?”
Tao Mo silently turned to look at Gu She.
Gu She said, “Breaking one’s word is not the conduct of a gentleman.”
A smug expression immediately appeared on Gu Xiaojia’s face.
“But he does not strike me as a hypocrite either,” Gu She continued.
Gu Xiaojia’s smile collapsed. “What does Young Master mean?”
“Although he is not especially clever, he is not stupid enough to go back on his word so blatantly.”
Gu Xiaojia said, “Could it really be such a coincidence? He went to the temple the day before yesterday, came home, and immediately fell ill?”
Gu She remained silent. The illness was probably not genuine, but there was most likely some reason behind Lu Zhenxue’s sudden reversal.
Hao Guozi suddenly said, “Could Huang Guangde have secretly done something?”
Gu Xiaojia frowned. “Since when is Huang Guangde so all-powerful? Lu Zhenxue says inside the Guanyin Temple that he’ll take the case, and Huang Guangde somehow learns of it from a thousand li away?”
Hao Guozi also thought that was unlikely. Still, there was undeniably something strange about what had happened with Lu Zhenxue.
Gu She asked, “Who is in Lu Zhenxue’s family?”
Gu Xiaojia thought for a moment. “I’ve heard that two members of the Lu family serve as officials in the capital, and that their ancestors even produced a Grand Tutor and a Minister.”
Hao Guozi clicked his tongue. “You really wouldn’t guess he came from such a family.”
Gu Xiaojia snorted. “There are plenty of officials in the capital. What’s so impressive about that?”
Remembering the great official from the Gu family who also served in the capital, Hao Guozi silently pursed his lips.
The longer Tao Mo listened to them analyze the matter, the more confused he became. At last, he could not help saying, “Whether Young Master Lu is truly ill or only pretending, if he no longer wishes to take the case, why should we force him to do something against his will?”
Gu Xiaojia said, “If I could force him against his will, I’d be more than happy to.”
Beside him, Hao Guozi muttered, “Wouldn’t that be forcibly carrying off an innocent young man?”
Gu Xiaojia spat, “Stop talking nonsense!”
And so the carriage swayed leisurely all the way back to the county yamen.
After stepping down, Tao Mo still felt reluctant to leave. He could sense himself becoming increasingly attached to Gu She: partly because he greedily craved Gu She’s tenderness, and partly because he feared that the next time they met, that tenderness might be gone.
These conflicting emotions left him lingering beside the carriage long after he had gotten down, dragging his feet and unwilling to go inside.
Gu Xiaojia was beginning to grow impatient, but since Gu She showed no sign of urging Tao Mo away, he could only swallow whatever he wanted to say.
The moment the yamen runners saw Tao Mo return, one of them immediately dashed inside to inform Old Tao.
Thus, just as Tao Mo and Gu She had arranged to meet again the following day and were about to part, Old Tao came hurrying out. He pulled Tao Mo aside and whispered, “Young Master, something terrible has happened!”
Gu She lifted the curtain and saw Adviser Jin coming out as well. His gaze shifted slightly, and he told Gu Xiaojia to stop the carriage.
Gu Xiaojia had already noticed Old Tao emerging with a grave expression, and his curiosity had long since gotten the better of him. Before Gu She even gave the order, he had already pulled the horse to a halt.
Old Tao leaned close to Tao Mo’s ear and whispered something. Tao Mo’s face instantly drained of color.
Gu She stepped down from the carriage and walked slowly to Tao Mo’s side. “What happened?”
Tao Mo drew a deep breath. “The woodcutter killed himself in prison.”
Gu She frowned.
With the woodcutter dead, the case had become one with no thread left to follow. Trying to overturn the verdict now would be vastly more difficult.
Everyone gathered in the hall wore a grim expression, as though a bucket of icy water had been dumped over their heads, leaving them chilled, angry, and anxious all at once.
Adviser Jin had spent many years navigating officialdom; naturally, this was hardly the first time he had heard of something like this. He sighed. “I heard that after the neighboring county magistrate submitted the case to his superiors, no response came for quite some time, and the matter dragged on. The magistrate sent people several times to inquire after it, but every inquiry disappeared as though a stone had sunk into the sea. Then, not long afterward, the woodcutter smashed his head against the wall of his cell and killed himself.”
Gu Xiaojia said, “How could there be such a coincidence? I’d wager that county magistrate was afraid that the longer the matter dragged on, the more trouble it would cause, so he decided to put an end to it once and for all and forced the woodcutter to die in prison!”
Adviser Jin said, “Without evidence, we should not make reckless accusations.”
Gu Xiaojia said, “Do you really believe there could be such a coincidence?”
Hao Guozi said, “I only think there have been far too many coincidences lately.”
Old Tao asked, “What other coincidences?”
Hao Guozi then told him about Lu Zhenxue suddenly taking ill.
Old Tao said, “Put together, it does sound as though someone may be manipulating matters from behind the scenes.”
“Exactly,” Gu Xiaojia said.
Old Tao looked toward Gu She. “What does Young Master Gu think?”
“There is only one thing on my mind at the moment,” Gu She said.
The moment Old Tao and the others heard that Gu She was preoccupied with something, they knew it had to be important. Every one of them waited attentively for him to continue.
Gu She slowly said, “When is the tea coming?”
Old Tao and the others: “…”
The fragrance of tea filled the room as wisps of steam curled upward.
Watching Gu She sip his tea at an unhurried pace, Old Tao asked, “Would Young Master Gu care to tell us what you think of the matter now?”
Gu She set down his teacup and said evenly, “The tea leaves are passable, but the brewing technique still needs improvement.”
Old Tao lifted his own cup and drank, no longer saying a word.
Adviser Jin said, “The woodcutter’s death merely conceals the truth behind Wan Feng’s murder, while Wan Feng’s death itself is only the tip of a much larger conspiracy. What we truly need to worry about now is what the other side ultimately wants.”
Tao Mo looked toward Gu She.
Gu She remained perfectly composed.
Old Tao and Hao Guozi exchanged a glance. Hao Guozi had not yet mastered the art of concealing everything he felt, and a trace of unease showed on his face. Adviser Jin silently took note of it.
Gu Xiaojia said, “If there really is a conspiracy, all the better. That means whoever is behind it won’t stop here. They’ll have to make another move sooner or later!”
Tao Mo said, “Wan Feng and the woodcutter both lost their lives. What a pity.”
“If you truly grieve for those two lives, then you should work even harder to bring Huang Guangde to justice,” Gu Xiaojia said.
Tao Mo’s hands, resting on his thighs, slowly clenched into fists.
Old Tao said, “Huang Guangde has been able to hold sway over one region for so many years largely because of the connections he has cultivated throughout the imperial court. Bringing him down will not be easy.”
Gu Xiaojia snorted. “What connections could possibly be so impressive?”
“I’ve heard Huang Guangde claims to be a protégé of Chancellor Gu,” Old Tao said.
Gu Xiaojia froze. “Chancellor Gu? Which Chancellor Gu?”
“How many Chancellor Gus are there in the capital?”
Gu Xiaojia turned to look at Gu She.
Gu She said blandly, “He would not even shield his own brother-in-law, much less an outsider.”
Gu Xiaojia drew his shoulders in.
Although Old Tao did not know which brother-in-law Gu She was referring to, he understood that Gu She had effectively dismissed any connection between Gu Huankun and Huang Guangde. That was just as well. Old Tao had no desire for Chancellor Gu to become entangled in the matter later and make the situation even more complicated.
“There are countless factions at court,” Gu She said. “Even if his patron is not surnamed Gu, he could easily be surnamed something else.”
“You mean…” Prince Lingyang? Old Tao immediately thought of the horse. But he swallowed the words just as quickly. Although Adviser Jin was currently in the same boat as the rest of them, there was no guarantee that circumstances would not change someday. One should never seek to harm another, but neither should one go without vigilance. Better to keep this matter to himself for now.
Gu She glanced at him and immediately understood his meaning.
Unexpectedly, Adviser Jin drew a completely different conclusion. “Could you mean Grand Preceptor Shi?”
Ever since Marquis Xueyi had departed for the far southwest, the imperial court had been divided between the factions of Chancellor Gu and Grand Preceptor Shi. The emperor trusted and favored both men greatly, yet never attempted to mediate their disputes. Whenever their struggle became too fierce, he merely issued an imperial edict ordering them to remain at home and reflect upon their conduct.
Therefore, if Grand Preceptor Shi truly stood behind Huang Guangde, the situation would indeed be troublesome.
Adviser Jin said, “Didn’t the Prefect of Qincheng say that Grand Preceptor Shi’s nephew was coming?”
A trace of surprise flashed through Gu She’s eyes. He had not known about this beforehand.
Old Tao said, “You mean Huang Guangde sent him here?”
“Huang Guangde could hardly order someone like him around,” Adviser Jin replied. “I’m afraid he may have used some method to lure him here instead.”
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