Fu Xi Yan suddenly doubled back to the private residence on a whim. He had originally intended to catch them off guard and see whether Wang Ku would do anything while he was away, but when he arrived, he happened to see Madam Fenfang seeing Wang Ku and Miss Huo out as though sending off a pair of plague gods.
Miss Huo had failed to get any advantage over him and was already angry, so even Madam Fenfang now looked irritating to her. “With food this terrible, only idiots and suckers would ever come here!”
Madam Fenfang froze for a moment and instinctively looked toward Wang Ku.
Wang Ku lowered his head and murmured a Buddhist invocation, his gaze drifting off to the side as though he had no desire to interfere in a war between two women.
Madam Fenfang recovered and gave a faint, mocking smile. “Miss Huo is so young, yet the things you say sound like someone who has already reached the age of knowing Heaven’s mandate.”
Elio’s Notes: “Knowing Heaven’s mandate” comes from Confucius’ account of the stages of his life: at fifty, he understood Heaven’s mandate. Madam Fenfang is mocking Miss Huo for sounding prematurely old and death-obsessed.
Miss Huo sneered. “Doesn’t that just prove I make sense?”
Madam Fenfang said coldly, “Whether it makes sense or not, every word reeks of someone nearing the end of life, old and ready for the grave.”
Miss Huo flew into a rage and stepped forward to hit her, only for Wang Ku to grab her by the hair.
Miss Huo had not expected that, and even Fu Xi Yan, who was watching the show, froze. The monk was an expert, yet the moment he made a move, he went straight for someone’s hair. Could it be that because his own head was barren, he was jealous of the lush growth on a young woman’s scalp?
Wang Ku pulled her hair with remarkable precision, neither too high nor too low, neither too much nor too little, just enough to keep her fists from reaching Madam Fenfang.
Miss Huo had no choice but to step back and hold the back of her head. Wang Ku released her hair and said mildly, “It is time to leave.”
Miss Huo had been about to keep raging, but her expression froze at those words. Then her eyes reddened, and she suddenly shouted, “I’m not going!” before running toward the other end of the street.
Wang Ku did not seem troubled by her departure. He remained where he was, politely bid Madam Fenfang farewell, then turned and headed down that same end of the street.
Fu Xi Yan watched, hesitating over whether to grab Miss Huo. She was young and looked relatively easy to fool. Before he could move, however, Miss Huo came running back from that direction on her own, faster and faster until she caught up with Wang Ku. She kept three paces behind him, her face full of grievance and anger.
Wang Ku did not stop or speak to her. As time passed, the expressions on Miss Huo’s face gradually faded until only a numb calm remained.
The two walked one behind the other along the streets and alleys, slowly making their way forward. Just as they were about to leave through the city gate, Fu Xi Yan suddenly stopped.
The distance between the two sides gradually widened.
Just as Wang Ku was about to disappear from sight, Fu Xi Yan abruptly turned around and ran toward the Fu residence.
“Benefactor.” Wang Ku suddenly turned. His figure flashed, crossing three or four zhang in an instant. “You’ve followed us all this way. Why stop now?”
Fu Xi Yan looked back with a smile that was not quite a smile. “Because I don’t want to be an idiot sucker.”
Miss Huo had come running back too. Hearing that, her pretty face reddened. She seemed not to have realized that he had been following them for quite some time. The thought of her walking ahead while he trailed behind made a strange sweetness rise in her heart, and the look she gave him immediately softened.
Wang Ku said, “If you give up halfway now, wouldn’t the road you walked before have been for nothing?”
“If I don’t cut my losses in time, half my life will have been for nothing.”
The more Wang Ku tried to talk around the point, the more certain Fu Xi Yan became of his suspicion. Outwardly he appeared to be talking with Wang Ku, but his feet were quietly shifting into a position better suited for escape.
Wang Ku lowered his head and murmured another Buddhist invocation. Fu Xi Yan turned and ran. By the time Wang Ku looked up again, not even his shadow remained.
Miss Huo looked reluctant. “Aren’t we going after him?”
Wang Ku asked, “And what would we do if we caught him?”
Miss Huo thought that naturally they would fight, but Wang Ku did not seem capable of beating him. An untimely flicker of pride and regret rose inside her. Pretending composure, she asked, “Then where are we going now?”
Wang Ku changed direction. He really had known Fu Xi Yan was following them earlier and had deliberately been leading him away.
“Let’s meet up with your father first.”
* * *
Fu Xi Yan had not suddenly fled because he had noticed something wrong with the route Wang Ku was taking. If he did not know where Wang Ku had come from or where he was going, how could he possibly tell the man was taking a detour?
He had merely returned the matter to its earliest and simplest logic.
Why had Wang Ku gone to eat Madam Fenfang’s private cooking in the first place?
Judging from what happened afterward, it had been to lure Fu Xi Yan there. So why had he wanted to lure Fu Xi Yan there?
Once that point was understood, everything that followed became easy to explain.
And to understand that point, he had to think back to what he had been doing before going to Madam Fenfang’s private residence.
Wang Ku had said he came to delay him. Perhaps that part had actually been true.
The reason both Fu Xi Yan and Pei Yuan Jin had first thought of the Liu residence was their subconscious trust in Lu Qing. With a Martial King stationed at the Fu residence, even if Mo Xiao Ran came personally, it was not as though they would be completely unable to resist.
But if the real problem were at the Liu residence, then this whole lure-the-tiger-away-from-the-mountain scheme would have been completely unnecessary.
Fu Xuan did not live next door to the Liu family. The neighborhood where he stayed consisted almost entirely of rented homes and was obviously no wealthy district. Good and bad mixed freely on the streets, the alleys twisted every which way, and if Fu Fu had not moved in and caused the yamen to increase patrols, theft and petty crime would probably have happened every day. It was even farther from the Liu residence than Madam Fenfang’s private residence was. Wang Ku’s later frank confession had actually allowed Fu Xi Yan and Pei Yuan Jin to reach the Liu residence sooner. A scheme to lure the tiger away from the mountain was not supposed to bring the tiger closer to the mountain, was it?
Did that make sense?
Obviously not.
After thinking it over again and again, Fu Xi Yan began to suspect that the problem might lie precisely at the place he had considered least likely to have a problem: the Fu residence.
Was someone planning to attack Lu Qing? Or perhaps Fu Xia Qing?
Concern threw the mind into chaos. Fu Xi Yan’s thoughts were now a tangled mess. The only thing he could be grateful for was that nowhere in the city had an Immortal Treasury Palace distress signal risen into the sky.
His thoughts were a mess, like a headless fly unable to find the loose end of a thread, but his feet never stopped. He moved like a shooting star, already gone by the time others saw him.
Yet as he approached the Fu residence, he visibly slowed.
When he had left, several vendors had set up along this street, selling stinky tofu, fried cakes, sugar paintings… Now every one of those stalls was gone.
At this hour, the household with wintersweet trees would normally be filled with the clear sound of a student reading aloud.
The two grandsons next door would imitate him in exaggerated voices. Only after the student coughed in annoyance would the adults in that family put on a show of scolding them.
Across from their home lived a widow with a child. The widow washed dishes at a nearby wine shop, and the afternoon was when she usually finished work and came home. Whenever she returned rubbing her sore lower back, the family dog would bark first, and her child would excitedly run to open the door.
…
He had not lived here long, yet he had already grown used to the ordinary, peaceful warmth of everyday life around him.
But now this street was so quiet, so cold, so unfamiliar.
A snow-white figure sat on a bamboo stool outside the widow’s door. A Go board rested in front of him with three white stones on it. Two lay near the center point, while the third sat alone in the lower-right corner.
He stared at the board as though gazing at the person he loved most. Only when Fu Xi Yan reached him did he speak. “Would you like to sit down and play a game?”
Fu Xi Yan said, “I really don’t understand. When you come looking for trouble, does brewing tea and setting up a Go board make you look especially cool and profound? What if the other person shows up while you’re still moving the furniture around? Wouldn’t that just make you look stupid?”
“I thought the first thing we would say after meeting should be… long time no see?”
Mei Xia Ying lowered the stone held between his fingers and raised his head.
Fu Xi Yan said, “Some people are better remembered than met.”
Mei Xia Ying said, “I didn’t expect you to come back so quickly, so I didn’t prepare a stool. My apologies.”
Fu Xi Yan said, “Since neither of us is crippled, there’s no need to sit on stools while fighting, is there?”
Mei Xia Ying sighed. “Why must we fight at all?”
Fu Xi Yan’s brows shot up and his eyes widened. “That’s what I should be asking you! What the hell are you doing sealing off our house? Lu Qing was afraid you were trying to lure the tiger away from the mountain, so he didn’t dare leave. But I’m a free-roaming midfielder! I can switch between offense and defense whenever I want!”
Mei Xia Ying changed the subject. “How was Madam Fenfang’s cooking?”
“Not good enough to shut me up.”
“Then there’s nothing to negotiate?”
“You came with ill intent, yet ask me to entertain you. Your looks are average, your dreams mighty grand; you stammer and stall, can’t say it at all; dazed and foolish, so let me teach you a lesson…”
The strange rhythm made Mei Xia Ying freeze for a moment. Just as he was about to ask what that was, Fu Xi Yan suddenly threw a punch. Mei Xia Ying leaned backward and flipped the Go board up with one hand, sending it crashing toward Fu Xi Yan’s abdomen.
Fu Xi Yan borrowed force in midair and launched himself upward. The fist he had extended suddenly pulled back, and his elbow smashed into the board. With a dull thud, the board rocked from side to side like a small boat struck by a wave, yet did not sink. It continued along its original path and kept smashing toward him.
A bruise appeared on Fu Xi Yan’s elbow. The Heaven-and-Earth Mirror flashed on his forehead, and the bruise quickly faded, but his fist still failed to reach Mei Xia Ying’s face. The board forced him backward again and again until he finally blocked it with both fists.
He stared in surprise. “You’re a Martial King?”
Mei Xia Ying had barely made a move, yet the strength he displayed was clearly a full level above Fu Xi Yan’s. At the question, Mei Xia Ying smiled faintly. “More or less.”
Knowing he could not win, Fu Xi Yan decisively stopped attacking and began considering whether to go inside and trade places with Lu Qing.
But Mei Xia Ying’s true depth was unknown, and battles between Martial Kings were far more dangerous than ordinary fights. Lu Qing was not like Pei Yuan Jin, who could challenge above his level and grow fiercer the more he was pressed. If something happened to Lu Qing, Fu Xi Yan would feel guilty for the rest of his life.
While he was still hesitating, Mei Xia Ying’s figure suddenly flashed. By the time Fu Xi Yan reacted, he had already rushed toward the other end of the street.
Fu Xi Yan gave chase entirely on instinct. It was like how, when someone suddenly starts chasing you, you instinctively run. But once reason returned, he had to consider Mei Xia Ying’s motive. Was this another attempt to lure the tiger away from the mountain?
Mei Xia Ying did not run far. Near the end of the street, a figure suddenly rushed out. Fu Xi Yan had not even seen the person’s face before their legs carried them forward another few steps by momentum alone, and then they pitched headfirst onto the ground.
Mei Xia Ying had moved quickly, but Fu Xi Yan had been on guard and had kept the Spirit-Sight Art active. He clearly saw Mei Xia Ying make a motion, after which the soul and spirit inside the person who had rushed out abruptly dispersed.
Fu Xi Yan stopped as well and stared at the young man as though seeing him for the first time. “You’re a disciple of the Puppet Path?”
Mo Xiao Ran has male disciples too?
Mei Xia Ying walked over to the fallen person, took out a small bottle, and was just about to sprinkle its contents over the corpse when Fu Xi Yan used the Object-Commanding Art to drag the corpse’s clothes to one side.
Mei Xia Ying’s figure flashed and shifted along with it.
As Fu Xi Yan’s aversion toward Mo Xiao Ran deepened, he had used Puppet Arts less and less often. His Object-Commanding Art had therefore not improved much, and using it against a Martial King was plainly beyond him.
Seeing that the corpse was about to be erased beneath Mei Xia Ying’s ruthless hands, Fu Xi Yan hardened his heart. The Earth Mirror shot from his forehead and streaked toward Mei Xia Ying.
Mei Xia Ying did not pause. The contents of the bottle spilled out and were about to land on the corpse when a powerful surge of qi burst from the Fu residence and scattered the liquid.
On the roof of the Fu residence, Lu Qing stood proudly and looked over from a distance.
“You dare touch the Young Madam of the Immortal Treasury Palace?”
His shout rang through the sky.
As the protagonist of that sentence, Fu Xi Yan could only say: deeply moved, deeply moved.
At the same time, the Earth Mirror had already reached Mei Xia Ying. Mei Xia Ying raised a hand to catch it, but the mirror was too slippery to grasp, as though it did not belong to any rank of object in this world. Even with Martial King strength, Mei Xia Ying missed twice.
Baochai chasing butterflies was a beautiful scene. Replace Baochai with Mei Xia Ying and it was still pleasing to the eye, but none of the people watching had any desire to appreciate it.
Elio’s Notes: “Baochai chasing butterflies” refers to a famous scene in Dream of the Red Chamber in which Xue Baochai follows a pair of butterflies through the garden. Fu Xi Yan jokingly turns Mei Xia Ying’s attempts to catch the darting Earth Mirror into the same elegant picture.
Even Mei Xia Ying himself stopped.
He looked at Fu Xi Yan.
Fu Xi Yan felt his soul and spirit tremble. Then the results of cultivating The Soul-Essence Art showed themselves. That slight tremor did not harm him in the least, and his soul and spirit immediately sent feedback in return.
The exchange between them was entirely invisible. It was as though Mei Xia Ying pushed out an unseen wave, and Fu Xi Yan promptly answered in kind and pushed it back.
Mei Xia Ying could not help letting out a soft “Hm?” but quickly regained his composure. Since he knew Fu Xi Yan had learned Puppet Arts, he attributed the counterattack to those arts.
He glanced up at Lu Qing and discovered that, at some point, Lu Qing had drawn closer and was now standing atop the Fu residence wall, looking ready to leap in and rescue Fu Xi Yan at any moment.
A glint passed through Mei Xia Ying’s eyes. Including the person lying on the ground, he had already intercepted three separate attempts to send messages. No matter how many hidden agents Fu Xuan had left behind, they could not be endless.
Things were not supposed to happen more than three times. Surely three was the limit.
Having found an excuse to withdraw, he hesitated no longer. His figure shifted, he grabbed the corpse in one hand, and while still facing Fu Xi Yan, he retreated backward.
Fu Xi Yan tried to trip him with the Earth Mirror but failed. Mei Xia Ying even flicked the mirror lightly with one finger and sent it flying several zhang away. The Earth Mirror had always been nearly unstoppable against weapons, but Mei Xia Ying happened not to be carrying one, so it naturally could not display its greatest advantage.
After Mei Xia Ying left, the people sealing off the street also withdrew silently like the tide.
Fu Xi Yan immediately ran back and vaulted over the wall into the widow’s home. The family’s yellow dog lay on its side, its abdomen rising and falling gently. It was clearly still breathing.
He went farther inside and heard the widow and child breathing softly, wandering through their dreams.
Even so, Fu Xi Yan was still uneasy. He went to them, first used the Spirit-Sight Art to check that their souls and spirits were still there, then took the widow’s pulse. Only after confirming there was nothing seriously wrong did he quietly leave.
He checked several neighboring homes as well and confirmed that everyone was accounted for. Only then did the heart he had been holding up finally settle.
Warm wind moved through the street. Before long, sounds began emerging from behind doors and walls. A student cried out in alarm that he had wasted his time. Adults scolded children for falling asleep on the floor. Dogs belatedly began barking in unease.
Fu Xi Yan stood in the street listening to the familiar commotion and finally smiled in relief.
He bent down and picked up the Go board and stones from the ground. They were all made of ordinary materials, so Mei Xia Ying clearly had never intended to take them back when he came. But there were only white stones and no black ones. Had he never intended to let the other side make a move?
When Fu Xi Yan returned to the Fu residence, Lu Qing was waiting at the entrance.
“I sensed something unusual outside and feared a feint in one direction while the real attack came from another, so I stayed here the entire time.”
Lu Qing’s explanation matched exactly what Fu Xi Yan had thought.
“You’ve worked hard, Martial King Lu.”
Lu Qing said, “That man is not from the Puppet Path. He should belong to Borrowing from All Living Beings.”
Borrowing from All Living Beings was somewhat unfamiliar to Fu Xi Yan, though not entirely unknown.
“Borrowing from All Living Beings… from the north?”
That would actually make more sense than the Puppet Path or Mo Xiao Ran. All the storms and turbulence in Jiangling had arisen around the north and Northern Zhou in the first place.
Only…
“I remember Borrowing from All Living Beings is an evil faction too.” Fu Xi Yan’s impression of the Northern Alliance had never been particularly good, mainly because he had no fondness for the Northern Zhou emperor either and therefore could not summon any feeling of sharing a common enemy with them. If the Northern Alliance and Borrowing from All Living Beings were colluding together, then the Northern Alliance was hardly anything good either.
Thinking of the leaders of Northern Zhou, Southern Yu, and the north, Fu Xi Yan felt as though he had swallowed a whole jin of flies. His heart was so tired he did not even want to speak.
Lu Qing said calmly, “Evil factions are the ones that like meddling in court struggles and profiting from them.”
That was true enough. The Immortal Treasury Palace and Heaven-and-Earth Mirror were both thoroughly laid-back factions whose only real ambition was ascension.
…
Though perhaps they were a little too laid-back. Looking at the Immortal Treasury Palace’s internal management and then thinking about how the Heaven-and-Earth Mirror was running short of talent, Fu Xi Yan could only say: if your name wasn’t Yu Xiong Jian, then don’t dream about getting both shark fin and bear paw.
Elio’s Notes: This is a double joke. Yu Xiong Jian’s name sounds like “fish and bear together,” echoing the classical saying that one cannot have both fish and bear paw. Fu Xi Yan then upgrades the “fish” to the luxury dish shark fin, joking that if you are not literally named Yu Xiong Jian, you should not expect to have both delicacies at once.
Lu Qing had originally wanted to ask why Fu Xi Yan had returned alone and where the Young Master had gone. But Fu Xi Yan stood with one foot over the threshold and the other still outside, head lowered in thought. Afraid that he had once again stumbled onto some profound truth and entered a moment of enlightenment, Lu Qing did not dare disturb him.
Fu Xi Yan suddenly said, “Mei Xia Ying killed that man and then tried to destroy the corpse. He was probably afraid the man would get a message out. Something must have happened somewhere, and they don’t want us to know about it.”
Lu Qing could not help worrying about Fu Fu and Fu Xuan, who had gone to the Liu residence. Fu Xi Yan said, “Yuan Jin is already there.”
If nothing else, he had limitless faith in Pei Yuan Jin’s fighting ability.
Besides, what could possibly happen at the Liu residence?
Kill Fu Fu, Fu Xuan, Zhang A Gu, and Chu Shao Yang?
It was true that one should capture the king first when catching bandits, but the Fu family was nowhere near the level of “king” in the Southern Border. Fu Fu’s position as Governor of Hubei had been appointed by the emperor, and if one governor died there were plenty of successors. Fu Xuan did hold military authority, but in name he was still Liu Tan Du’s subordinate and could not stir up too great a storm. Zhang A Gu and Chu Shao Yang were Emperor Jianhong’s envoys. Killing them would merely remove a pair of annoyances without hurting Emperor Jianhong himself.
Fu Xi Yan racked his brains and still could not imagine what sort of stunt Liu Tan Du, already master of the Southern Border, could possibly be trying to pull. Naturally, this was because Liu Tan Du had refused to meet the Fu family ever since they entered Jiangling, causing Fu Xi Yan to assume from the beginning that Liu Tan Du had already defected to the north.
He asked, “What kind of thing could the north and the Liu family possibly not want our Fu family to know?”
Could Emperor Jianhong have died? If that were true, the Northern Alliance and Liu Tan Du ought to show up at their front door popping champagne together, terrified that the Fu family might somehow fail to hear the news!
Seeing him scratching his head in frustration, Lu Qing said, “Could it be troop movements?”
Fu Xi Yan froze.
“If they are preparing to raise troops, naturally they would not want us to know.” The Fu family had been sent by Emperor Jianhong to reclaim military authority. Lu Qing saw through to the heart of the matter: control of the Southern Border army.
Fu Xi Yan clapped his hands. “That makes sense! The Liu family detained my dad and uncle, pretended the marriage would continue to lull the emperor into complacency, while secretly preparing to rise up! That explains everything! The man Mei Xia Ying killed may have been one of Uncle’s trusted men in the army!”
Their guess was still some distance from the truth, but different paths had led them toward much the same conclusion.
Fu Xi Yan angrily rolled up his sleeves. “I can ignore all their other underhanded tricks, but if they touch my First Dad and Second Dad, I’ll make their lifeline keep plunging!” With that, he started to leave, forgetting that one foot was still outside the threshold. The moment he moved, he kicked the threshold apart.
Lu Qing: “…”
Fu Xi Yan gave an awkward laugh. “Well, as the saying goes, wear out the ‘threshold’ searching everywhere, and what you seek comes without the slightest effort.”
Elio’s Notes: Fu Xi Yan mangles the idiom “wear out iron shoes searching everywhere, only to find it without effort” by replacing “iron shoes” with “threshold” immediately after kicking the threshold apart.
Lu Qing remained behind to guard the Fu residence while Fu Xi Yan hurried toward the Liu residence. In his mind, if the Northern Alliance dared make such a large move against Fu Fu and Fu Xuan, then they had to have accounted for Pei Yuan Jin’s strength.
A Martial King-level Mei Xia Ying had appeared in front of the Fu residence. Then what level of opponent would be waiting at the Liu residence?
Zheng Jiao Jiao of Borrowing from All Living Beings?!
As he ran, he kept glancing at the sky, equally afraid that a signal would suddenly shoot upward and that no signal would appear at all. Burning with anxiety from both directions, he finally reached the Liu residence.
The Liu residence really was steeped in chaos.
People inside were running out, people outside were running in, everyone rushing back and forth in a panic. Fu Xi Yan casually grabbed one of them and asked, “What happened?”
The man looked at him and seemed to recognize who he was. “Young Master Liu is missing!”
Liu Huan was missing?
Fu Xi Yan’s first thought was that Liu Huan had woken up and fled the marriage. Then he remembered that Liu Huan actually wanted to marry his elder sister, which meant someone must have stolen him away. He and Pei Yuan Jin had once accidentally overheard Wen Ping talking about “stealing the man.”
He hurried inside just as Chu Shao Yang came rushing out. The moment Chu Shao Yang saw him, he asked, “Where did you go?”
Fu Xi Yan answered instinctively, “What business is that of yours?”
Chu Shao Yang fell silent and kept walking out.
Fu Xi Yan grabbed him again. “Where are you going?”
Chu Shao Yang badly wanted to throw “What business is that of yours?” straight back into his face, but the situation was urgent, so he could only answer, “Young Master Liu has disappeared. He may have been taken by the Northern Alliance. We’re going after them now.”
“Where is General Liu?”
“Inside.”
Fu Xi Yan released him and thought, That answer carries a lot of information. If that was the case, had Liu Tan Du fallen out with the Northern Alliance? Then was his earlier theory wrong?
If Liu Tan Du was not moving, what movement could there be from the Southern Border army?
At the thought, he relaxed. He might dislike both Emperor Jianhong and the Northern Alliance, but if war truly broke out, the first people to die would certainly not be the ones he disliked.
Fu Xi Yan was just about to go inside when he looked up and saw Pei Yuan Jin coming out. Seeing him safe and sound erased the last of Fu Xi Yan’s worry. He ran over with a bright smile. “I thought Zheng Jiao Jiao had come.”
That immediately blocked the question Pei Yuan Jin had been about to ask. “Zheng Jiao Jiao?”
Fu Xi Yan said, “I ran into Mei Xia Ying outside our house just now. Lu Qing says he belongs to Borrowing from All Living Beings.”