That punch was genuinely heavy. Liu Huan could still move, but his body instantly curled inward. His mouth opened, yet no sound came out.
Fu Xi Yan thought, I already gave him a chance. If he insists on remaining stubborn, then stopping this marriage is no longer breaking up a loving couple. It’s cutting losses in time.
He looked at Liu Huan on the bed and was just considering how to clean up the mess when Pei Yuan Jin suddenly made a hand signal. Their eyes met. Both flashed behind the folding screen.
Not long afterward, the door was pushed open.
The person entering made a surprised “Huh?” sound, apparently puzzled that Liu Huan had gone to sleep at night without closing the door. He did not think much of it and started toward the bed, only for a pillow to suddenly come flying at him.
Unable to speak, Liu Huan could only throw the pillow as a warning. Unfortunately, the newcomer did not appreciate the gesture. One large hand reached toward the bed while he said, “Even better if you’re awake. Then I can’t be accused of taking advantage of someone unconscious.”
Liu Huan had no choice. He sprang off the bed and landed on the floor. Before he could stand, someone seized the back of his collar.
The folding screen shifted slightly, letting in a thin strip of lonely moonlight that landed directly across the newcomer’s bearded face. It was the potbellied man who had been staying with Wen Ping in the western courtyard.
As a Dao-Entry expert, he was a hundred times more sensitive than ordinary people to changes in his surroundings. Earlier, when he noticed the banyan leaves moving in a slightly unusual manner, he could not explain exactly why, but it had been enough to make him wary. So he moved his plan to seize Liu Huan forward to tonight.
He had not expected to enjoy such a happy coincidence with the late-night visitors Fu Xi Yan and Pei Yuan Jin.
The moment moonlight entered his vision, he had already lifted Liu Huan and prepared to retreat. Pei Yuan Jin’s Martial King pressure instantly froze his limbs. Fu Xi Yan shot out at once and punched him in the face.
Since Fu Xi Yan’s realm had advanced, his Soft-Gentle Fist had developed subtle changes. The punch appeared to strike the bearded man’s face, but the actual force landed on his shoulder, making the arm go numb and his fingers loosen instinctively.
Fu Xi Yan kicked the newly freed Liu Huan behind him, then drove another fist into the bearded man’s chest. This punch landed solidly, yet the strange force of true qi struck the man’s stomach instead. He opened his mouth and vomited yellow fluid mixed with undigested food, filling the room with an unpleasant sour stink.
Fu Xi Yan dodged quickly, but a little still splashed onto the hem of his clothes.
Taking advantage of the opening, the bearded man surged all his true qi and forcibly broke free of the Martial King pressure, throwing himself toward the exit. Pei Yuan Jin shifted slightly and blocked the only route he could take.
The bearded man looked round, but was extraordinarily agile. His legs crossed and twisted his body around, while his back seemed to strike an iron plate and rebound. The returning momentum was like being launched by a slingshot, even faster than before.
Fu Xi Yan raised his fist again and was about to add another punch when Liu Huan lunged from behind and crashed toward him. Fu Xi Yan turned aside, avoiding Liu Huan’s bear hug, but in doing so opened a “path to survival” for the bearded man.
The bearded man’s round body smashed violently through the window, taking the frame with him.
Outside lay a covered walkway, with a pond beside it.
The bearded man used too much force, cleared the walkway entirely, and landed in the pond with an enormous splash.
Fu Xi Yan thought, For that entry splash, I give zero points.
Liu Huan was still staggering, yet he struggled toward the broken window and planted himself in front of Fu Xi Yan, making muffled noises through his sealed throat.
Fu Xi Yan released his mute acupoint. “Don’t shout. Shouting won’t help.”
Liu Huan let out a long breath. “I won’t shout, I won’t. Don’t chase him.”
The disturbance had been too loud. The surrounding compound became lively again. Hearing footsteps outside, Fu Xi Yan also did not want to expose their identity. From a distance, he watched the dripping bearded man crawl onto the opposite bank and still remembered to threaten him. “The monk may run, but the temple cannot.”
Liu Huan seemed to surrender. He obediently went to the door and sent away the servants who came to ask questions. Only after the courtyard grew quiet again did he smile bitterly. “With the Master of the Heaven-and-Earth Mirror and the Young Master of Immortal Treasury Palace joining forces, naturally I can only surrender.”
After acting so openly, Fu Xi Yan had already prepared to be recognized. There were only so many people at the very top of the martial world. Especially because he and Pei Yuan Jin were known as a pair, being guessed was completely unsurprising.
But he still denied it mercilessly. “You have the wrong people. What sort of figures are Immortal Treasury Palace’s Young Master and the Master of the Heaven-and-Earth Mirror? Handsome, elegant, dashing, magnificent, radiant beyond measure. How could two ugly mugs like us compare?”
Without a window, the room was exposed to the chilly night wind. Yet for some reason, after he finished speaking, the wind blowing inside seemed even colder and sharper.
Liu Huan slowly said, “A combination of one Martial King and one expert at least at Dao-Entry is not common in this world.”
Fu Xi Yan glared at him. “That’s because you’re ignorant. Heaven and Earth are vast. Naturally there are experts you know nothing about.”
The more Fu Xi Yan argued, the more certain Liu Huan became. “If you wanted fame, you would state your names. If you did not want to be recognized, you would simply accept my guess and move on instead of arguing against it.”
Fu Xi Yan thought, I argue because I want to. None of your business. Then he realized this bickering sounded like children playing house, and the person opposite him was still the faithless bastard who had wronged his sister.
He said coldly, “An imperial merchant who supplies weapons turns out to be a Dao-Entry expert and sneaks over in the middle of the night to abduct someone. Your play truly has one dazzling twist after another.”
Liu Huan had not expected the bearded man to come for him in the middle of the night either, and from the posture, “stealing a person” was very literally what he had intended. Liu Huan flushed with embarrassment, probably because the harsh words he had spoken earlier had clearly achieved nothing.
Fu Xi Yan looked at him coldly. “And by an even greater coincidence, these imperial merchants include someone from the northern lands.”
Liu Huan paused, then remembered that there had originally been three candidates to take the Harmonized Yang Pills, and Wen Ping was one of them. It was perfectly reasonable for Pei Yuan Jin to recognize her.
He did not realize Fu Xi Yan had actually inferred her identity from their conversation.
Since his cover had already been pierced, Liu Huan stopped hiding things. “Civil war is about to begin in Southern Yu. I was ordered to remain here and inspect traffic through the checkpoints and movements along the Southern Yu border. Those people… came to monitor me.”
Fu Xi Yan raised a brow. “Monitor you?”
Liu Huan said, “Both the Southern Yu emperor and Prince Yue sent alliance proposals to the Northern Alliance and to King Bu Ha Si He of Mengwu. No matter who wins or loses in Southern Yu, they are willing to become allies. In exchange, they hope the northern forces will hold Northern Zhou in check during the Southern Yu civil war. At present, the one hundred thousand troops lent by the King of Mengwu and the Northern Alliance’s fifty thousand soldiers are stationed along the border between the two countries.”
That was an enormous amount of information.
Fu Xi Yan looked toward Pei Yuan Jin.
Pei Yuan Jin, who had no interest in the matter whatsoever, had no choice but to summon a little attention.
They had left the mountain somewhat hastily. Apart from exchanging views with Jing Luo on internal Immortal Treasury Palace affairs, they had focused only on Southern Yu. Movements in the northern lands had clearly escaped their attention.
But everything beneath Heaven was interconnected. A butterfly casually flapping its wings in the Amazon rainforest of South America could eventually produce a tornado elsewhere, much less something as enormous as a civil war in Southern Yu.
Then Fu Xi Yan thought again. If Liu Huan were not involved, dragging in his sister’s marriage and faintly touching the Fu family’s future political position, this matter would not actually have much to do with him.
He considered himself a person of Northern Zhou because this was the land where he had grown up. That did not mean he had any intention of sacrificing his life for Emperor Jianhong.
He looked at Liu Huan without reaction. “What does any of this have to do with you?”
Liu Huan smiled bitterly. “They want to win over my father. That’s why they keep pestering me.”
Fu Xi Yan was clearly unmoved by his pitiful expression and calmly pointed out, “Yet you are protecting them.”
Liu Huan was silent for a moment, then answered something else entirely. “After the former Master of the Heaven-and-Earth Mirror died, a rumor began circulating through the jianghu that his daughter had been turned into Mo Xiao Ran’s King Puppet.”
Fu Xi Yan frowned. Not many people knew Shi Luo Ying had been Mo Xiao Ran’s King Puppet. Shi Yi Ming would certainly not run around announcing it. If the information had not come from Fu Xi Yan or Jing Luo’s side, then Mo Xiao Ran had almost certainly released it himself.
Why would he do that?
Liu Huan said, “You were in Haojing when my eldest uncle died.”
Fu Xi Yan thought back and casually answered, “I think I was in prison.” The moment he finished, he regretted it. Didn’t I just admit who I am?!
Liu Huan did not seem to notice anything strange. In his mind, this ordinary-looking middle-aged man was already unquestionably Fu Xi Yan, regardless of whether Fu Xi Yan personally admitted it.
“Emperor Jianhong said my eldest uncle had been refined into a King Puppet by Tie Rong Rong.”
Fu Xi Yan froze. He had not expected Liu Yan Sheng’s death to contain this hidden layer. If so, Liu Yan Sheng truly loved Emperor Jianhong. After all, hiding one’s thoughts from the person controlling a King Puppet was not easy. Fu Xi Yan was not Shi Luo Ying, but he could imagine the inhuman mental torment she had endured in order to deliver that final strike. He had not expected Liu Yan Sheng to precede her.
Mockery appeared on Liu Huan’s face. “According to him, King Puppets are mindless walking corpses, so Emperor Jianhong killed my eldest uncle to free him. But Shi Luo Ying was not a mindless corpse.”
There was one more thing Liu Huan did not say. The corpse Emperor Jianhong sent back had been preserved against decay. His father had already asked a coroner to examine it. Liu Huan never learned the result, but afterward, people from the northern lands came looking for them.
After thinking through cause and effect, Fu Xi Yan felt he had given Liu Yan Sheng his respect too early.
He had instinctively placed Liu Yan Sheng on the same level as Shi Luo Ying because, in Fu Xi Yan’s understanding, Emperor Jianhong and Liu Yan Sheng were publicly regarded as the model of a ruler and subject perfectly in accord. But if Emperor Jianhong had killed Liu Yan Sheng, then privately their relationship was clearly not as harmonious as outsiders believed.
Liu Huan looked seriously at Fu Xi Yan. “My father was temporarily blinded by private hatred, but I will persuade him. I will definitely persuade him.”
Fu Xi Yan said, “You know this is my sister’s second engagement.”
Liu Huan’s brows drooped. “I know.”
“So I need absolute certainty.”
Liu Huan said, “My father is only angry right now. Once he calms down, he’ll understand cooperation with the northern lands is impossible. The southern army is not his alone to command. Even if it were, we are far too distant from the north. If Emperor Jianhong truly moved against us, we would probably be surrounded and destroyed before northern reinforcements could arrive.”
Fu Xi Yan looked at him silently, apparently weighing whether the words were true.
Liu Huan continued, “Besides, my aunt is still inside the palace. We already lost my eldest uncle. We cannot lose another aunt.”
Fu Xi Yan did not believe this. He sneered. “In your father’s heart, does a living younger sister truly outweigh a dead elder brother?” If Liu Tan Du were genuinely considering Noble Consort Liu’s position, Wen Ping would never have been able to move into the government compound this openly.
Liu Huan remained silent for a moment, then said firmly, “I will persuade him.”
Fu Xi Yan asked, “Why is Wen Ping so determined to marry you? Surely it isn’t simply to force Liu Tan Du to prove his sincerity? When men decide to become heartless, how much use can one woman possibly be?”
His words plainly carried another meaning.
Liu Huan’s face went white, and the straightness in his back slowly collapsed. In this matter, he undeniably had a bad record. In truth, he and the prefect’s daughter from his previous engagement had never suited each other, while his feelings toward Fu Xia Qing were genuine. But saying that now would only sound like excuses and make him look even more pathetic.
Liu Huan said, “Give me some time. I will handle it.”
“How long?”
Liu Huan gritted his teeth. “Three months.”
Fu Xi Yan sneered. “And then abandon my sister on the eve of the wedding and turn her into a laughingstock?”
Liu Huan said, “Then two months.”
“And if you fail…”
“I will break the engagement… or let your sister break it.” Liu Huan’s voice gradually weakened, as though his earlier certainty and decisiveness had been held up by sheer effort and could no longer sustain themselves.
He was silent for a moment, then looked up. “So until then, please keep this secret for me.”
Fu Xi Yan stared at him, then slowly moved his head up and down.
Liu Huan released a long breath and was just about to find a lighter subject when Fu Xi Yan said, “Return the egg tomorrow morning. Also, do not tell anyone we came to Yicheng.”
Liu Huan agreed to everything. He still wanted to say more, but Fu Xi Yan had already grabbed Pei Yuan Jin and jumped through the open window without looking back. They controlled the jump perfectly, so there was no tragic repeat of someone falling into the pond.
After leaving, the two avoided the courtyard’s main entrance so they would not meet Wen Ping waiting there and simply climbed over the wall.
The darkness had already begun to fade. A faint gray light appeared in the distant east. Dawn was coming. Yet when Fu Xi Yan and Pei Yuan Jin returned to the inn, they found their room door had been kicked open and left hanging half shut.
Fu Xi Yan’s first thought was, Fuck, thieves. His second thought was to check the luggage. Robbed openly, stolen from secretly. Wasn’t this journey ridiculously unlucky?
He blamed himself for leaving home without checking the almanac.
But everything was still there, even placed exactly where it had been before they left. Apparently the intruder had done nothing except kick the door. While Fu Xi Yan was thinking, Pei Yuan Jin had already walked back into the corridor.
Everyone in the convoy lived on the same floor. Their room was at the very end, beside the escort chief’s. The chief’s lamp was still lit. The moment Pei Yuan Jin made the slightest sound in the corridor, the neighboring door opened and the chief came out with a dark expression. “Didn’t I tell you not to wander around? Where were you two all night?”
Fu Xi Yan hurried out. “We were robbed.”
The escort chief froze. “What did you lose?”
“Ten thousand taels in banknotes!” Fu Xi Yan lied decisively. Judging by the escort chief’s expression, he suspected someone from the convoy had kicked their door.
Sure enough, the chief snapped, “Nonsense! I haven’t closed my eyes all night. I was right here guarding the corridor. No one entered your room!”
Fu Xi Yan looked innocent and aggrieved. “Then where did my banknotes go?”
The other escorts, who had secretly opened their doors a crack to listen to the entertainment, finally could not resist coming out. One said, “You’re a tiny escort. Dream on. Maybe there are ten thousand taels in your dreams.”
Fu Xi Yan pouted at them.
If he had not been disguised, making this expression with his original face would have been extremely pleasing to look at. On the face of an ordinary middle-aged man, however, it inspired a certain physical revulsion.
The escort immediately looked away and said to the chief, “They went out in the middle of the night. Who knows what trouble they caused?”
The escort chief glared at him. “Go back to sleep!” Then he turned to Fu Xi Yan and Pei Yuan Jin. “You two, come inside!”
Fu Xi Yan could only pull Pei Yuan Jin along as the two obediently entered.
“Two grown men holding hands. Disgusting!”
The escort muttered as he closed his door. At the instant it shut, his foot somehow went weak and his entire body tipped backward. He tried to use martial arts to correct his balance, but no matter what he did, his leg refused to produce strength. His head struck the table with a heavy thunk. Only then did his foot lift again, but it was already too late.
Before long, a lump the size of a steamed bun rose on the back of his head.
In the neighboring room, the escort chief shut the door and asked coldly, “What exactly did you go out to do tonight?”
Fu Xi Yan said, “The city seemed abnormal, so I thought I’d go gather some information.” He was supposedly a secret agent, after all. That counted as diligently performing his duty.
Unexpectedly, the escort chief flew into a rage. “Nonsense! Your mission is to enter Southern Yu safely and gather information there. Northern Zhou matters have other people assigned to them. It was difficult enough to arrange passage with Mr. You. Do not ruin this. If the entire mission fails because of you, forget the two of you. Even I won’t be able to escape punishment.”
Fu Xi Yan thought, Mr. You? Is that the seriously ill merchant?
After lecturing them for a while, the escort chief sent them back to their room.
Before leaving, Fu Xi Yan could not help asking, “Who kicked in our door?”
The escort chief said coldly, “What? You want revenge?”
Fu Xi Yan said, “I was thinking that if the innkeeper asks for compensation tomorrow, I should at least know who is supposed to pay.”
The escort chief fell silent. He looked at Fu Xi Yan with a mixture of doubt and confusion, probably wondering why such an important mission had recruited two idiots like these.
Dejected, Fu Xi Yan returned to the room. While dawn had not yet arrived, he lit a lamp and wrote a letter describing what he had seen in the Yicheng government office. He repeatedly emphasized the importance of marriage to a woman and told Fu Fu to discuss the matter properly with Madam Fu.
Watching from beside him, Pei Yuan Jin raised a brow. “Didn’t you promise not to tell?”
Fu Xi Yan asked, “When did I promise?”
“You nodded.”
Fu Xi Yan shamelessly said, “No. Oh, I remember. My neck felt a little uncomfortable at the time, so I was moving it around. Aiya, surely he didn’t misunderstand?”
His lament carried not the slightest sincerity. Inside, he thought, Fu Xia Qing is my sister. Who the hell is Liu Huan? Why should I help an outsider hide something from my own family? Does he think I’m stupid?
Fu Xi Yan blew gently on the letter and let the ink dry. When he turned, he found Pei Yuan Jin staring at him with profound concentration.
“What is there to look at with this face?” Thanks to the disguise, Fu Xi Yan had successfully broken his habit of stopping to admire himself whenever he encountered a reflective surface.
Pei Yuan Jin said, “I was wondering which times you nodded at me in the past and which times you were only moving your neck.”
…
Fu Xi Yan said speechlessly, “Your ability to infer three things from one example is developing way too fast.”
The sun rose, but did not dispel the cold. Many people even felt the weather had become colder.
The letter Fu Xi Yan wrote before dawn had already been handed to Xiao Sang and would presumably reach Fu Fu soon. What result would follow, Fu Xi Yan could not guess.
But their family had endured so many things. He had confidence in both Fu Fu and Madam Fu. He only hoped that under their protection, his sister could pass safely through this change in her marriage.
That was right. Although Liu Huan had promised to solve everything, Fu Xi Yan already viewed the marriage pessimistically. Liu Huan’s words had revealed too much: the Liu family’s conflict with Emperor Jianhong, the grievances between the northern lands and Northern Zhou, and Liu Huan and Fu Xia Qing’s marriage caught helplessly between them. The marriage felt too small, so small that one careless moment could see it abandoned and sacrificed.
Fu Xi Yan did not want his gentle sister to walk such a thorn-covered road. Even if it eventually produced a good ending, that did not erase the difficulty and pain of the process.
In his view, Liu Huan was not outstanding enough to justify Fu Xia Qing taking such a risk. That was only his personal opinion. The final decision belonged to Fu Fu, but if Fu Xia Qing suffered too much, Fu Xi Yan could never stand aside and watch.
Thinking this way, the Southern Yu trip needed to be resolved quickly.
Once sounds appeared in the corridor, Pei Yuan Jin and Fu Xi Yan left their room and went downstairs with everyone else.
Because their faces were disguised, they could not properly scrub themselves these days. After washing, they had to reapply color, which was extremely troublesome. Especially now that the weather was becoming colder and the air drier. Sigh. Fu Xi Yan wondered whether the Heaven-and-Earth Mirror repaired flaky skin too.
They finished breakfast and were preparing to depart when the runners who had confiscated the Red Peng egg yesterday returned. The leader looked Fu Xi Yan up and down several times in confusion, then, amid endless apologies from the escort chief and the others, handed the egg back.
The inn remained silent for quite a while.
Only after the runners left, Fu Xi Yan finished his final steamed bun, and Pei Yuan Jin stood holding the egg did the escorts slowly recover their voices.
One escort asked uncertainly, “Why did they bring it back?”
When had anyone ever seen government runners spit back out something they had already swallowed? Could there be some kind of induced-vomiting technique?
Fu Xi Yan lied freely. “Maybe they felt guilty because someone mysteriously kicked in my door last night, so they returned the egg. This is Yicheng territory, after all. With public security this bad, they have to take at least some responsibility.”
…
The escorts scattered in every direction. The escort chief sent Fu Xi Yan several deeply meaningful looks.
Fu Xi Yan gave up completely. Pretending to be weak and playing nice socially had accomplished nothing. Fine then. From now on, they could put their cards on the table and play openly!