On the way there, the two laid down three rules, though in practice it was mostly Fu Xi Yan talking by himself.
“First things first, even thieves have principles. We may be going there to steal, but we’re going to be thieves with character and a bottom line. Especially since we’re about to enter a young woman’s private room, anything we shouldn’t look at, we absolutely won’t look at! Anything we shouldn’t touch, we absolutely won’t touch! We’ll only use our eyes to search for additions to the case… ah, the truth. Aiya, my accent slipped out. Aiya, now Fu Gui Gui’s catchphrase slipped out too… Ahem, say something.”
Pei Yuan Jin walked leisurely down the street with his arms folded and a half-smile on his face. “I’m only keeping watch. Is there anything in the wind that I shouldn’t look at or touch?”
Fu Xi Yan tugged at the clothes around his waist. “How about we switch?”
“Sure.”
Fu Xi Yan had not expected him to agree. He immediately jumped up. “Well, well, Pei Yuan Jin! You always look so proper. I thought you were Northern Zhou’s last good man, but who would have guessed, who would have guessed… you really are Northern Zhou’s last good man. What virtue did I cultivate, what extraordinary good fortune did I earn?”
Pei Yuan Jin said, “Joy to the whole family.”
Fu Xi Yan had no idea why he had suddenly said that, but at a time like this, nodding was clearly the correct response. “Joy to the whole family, joy to the whole family.”
Pei Yuan Jin pointed at the gate behind him. “The opera troupe you mentioned is staying in that old residence with ‘Joy to the Whole Family’ pasted on the gate.”
Fu Xi Yan turned around. They really had arrived.
“Well, look at that.” He was just about to spring upward and vault over the wall when Pei Yuan Jin held him down.
“I’m Northern Zhou’s last good man, so does that mean you aren’t a good man?”
Fu Xi Yan blinked. “I am a good wife.”
Seeing the corner of Pei Yuan Jin’s mouth lift, Fu Xi Yan knew he had coaxed him into a good mood and hurriedly said, “No time to waste. I’ll go in and take a look. You stay here and keep watch. If someone comes, we’ll use a rooster crow as the signal.”
Pei Yuan Jin was speechless. “If you start crowing like a rooster at this hour, are you warning me, or warning the person coming that something is wrong here?”
Fu Xi Yan said, “Then a cat. There are plenty of stray cats in alleys at night.”
Pei Yuan Jin: “…”
Afraid he might change his mind, Fu Xi Yan vaulted straight over the wall and crept toward the young woman’s room. With his martial arts, he could actually hear perfectly well whether there was anyone in the courtyard and exactly how many people there were. Pei Yuan Jin did not even need to come. But… if you were going to be a thief, doing it this way gave the whole thing more atmosphere.
The young woman’s room was messier than he had imagined. Opera costumes lay scattered everywhere, and a container of rouge on the dressing table had overturned, spilling most of its contents onto the floor like a small red carpet.
Fu Xi Yan stopped before the “red carpet” and looked around.
An ordinary person’s mess was random and careless. Something could go missing without them noticing. But Fu Xi Yan was here precisely because he suspected the young woman’s background was anything but simple. Once he viewed the “mess” through that assumption, everything suddenly seemed deliberate. Every object appeared to have been placed after careful calculation, as though moving even a single thread would let the owner know the instant she returned.
Fu Xi Yan stood there for a while without finding a solution, then poked his head toward the doorway. “Meow. Meow.”
A moment later, Pei Yuan Jin appeared atop the wall.
Fu Xi Yan gave him an awkward smile and beckoned.
Once they were both inside the room, Fu Xi Yan was about to explain the problem when Pei Yuan Jin suddenly extended one hand and pressed lightly downward through the air. The opera costume tossed over the chair, the rouge scattered across the floor, the outer robe hanging over the screen… all maintained their original shapes as they rose one chi into the air together.
Fu Xi Yan stared. “Is this… a supernatural power?”
Pei Yuan Jin said, “Wrap the objects in spiritual energy, then lift the spiritual energy. They’re all elementary methods. Once you become proficient at using spiritual energy, you’ll be able to do it easily too.”
Afraid Pei Yuan Jin would immediately devise some tedious training exercise for him, Fu Xi Yan hurriedly changed the subject. “If she arranged even her room this carefully, there’s an eighty or ninety percent chance she’s hiding a secret.”
His eyes rapidly swept the room. He wanted to move forward, only to discover that after the spilled rouge rose one chi, it now floated directly in front of his shins.
Seeing his hesitation, Pei Yuan Jin reminded him, “Do you really have to stand upright with both feet planted firmly before you can use Shattered Stars, Lingering Shadows?”
Fu Xi Yan thought about it, abruptly bent his body like a shrimp, then furtively leaped over the floating “rouge carpet” and landed beside the screen.
The outer robe draped over the screen was extremely broad. Once suspended in the air, it resembled a huge cloak. As Fu Xi Yan passed, he could not help glancing upward. Then he stopped and looked again.
Pei Yuan Jin said coolly, “There’s another piece of clothing hidden beneath that one.”
Calling it clothing was not quite accurate. Judging from the thin fabric, it ought to be a bellyband. Thanks to the information explosion of his previous life, Fu Xi Yan still recognized one. But the reason he was staring so carefully was not because he was lecherous. It was because… clues.
Fu Xi Yan said, “There seems to be something inside the bellyband.”
He used the Spirit-Sight Art and clearly sensed another object hidden inside. Pei Yuan Jin “lowered” the bellyband. Fu Xi Yan wanted to reach for it but felt somewhat hesitant and could not help glancing at Pei Yuan Jin. Pei Yuan Jin raised a hand and sent out a thread of sword qi, slicing the bellyband open. A piece of paper fell out.
A list of names was written on the paper, with Hu Yu among them. Each name had a notation after it: some said “complete,” some “half,” and some “none.” Hu Yu was marked “half.”
The young woman and Rong Liang had both signed the lower-right corner of the paper.
Fu Xi Yan handed the paper to Pei Yuan Jin. “‘Complete,’ ‘half,’ and ‘none.’ What does that mean? Loan-sharking? Some paid everything back, some paid half, and some haven’t paid anything?”
Pei Yuan Jin said, “Why not seize them and ask?”
“They might not tell us.”
“Were you planning to discuss it nicely?”
Fu Xi Yan was somewhat resistant to coercive interrogation. What if they had misunderstood? Any harm inflicted on someone could not simply be erased afterward. He said, “Shouldn’t we use a little technique? The prisoner’s dilemma, for example.”
He spent five minutes explaining the prisoner’s dilemma, then rapidly formulated a plan.
“You go find Rong Liang, and I’ll go find… or I’ll find Rong Liang, and you find…” Fu Xi Yan circled two fingers toward each other. “Either way is fine with me. You choose.”
* * *
Late that night, an urgent job landed at the Haojing branch of Immortal Treasury Palace. Wei Li Ming personally led the operation, separately interrogating the two people who had been secretly detained.
Fu Xi Yan repeatedly emphasized, “Control the degree. Absolutely no hitting them, and definitely no forcing confessions out of innocent people.”
Wei Li Ming accepted the order and left.
Seeing Pei Yuan Jin sitting at the table and leisurely eating the fruit and pastries prepared by the branch, Fu Xi Yan envied his composure. “I never believed anyone could watch Mount Tai collapse in front of them without batting an eye until I met you.”
Pei Yuan Jin handed him a date.
Taking it, Fu Xi Yan said, “You’re probably the one who made Mount Tai collapse.”
Pei Yuan Jin: “…”
Wei Li Ming worked efficiently. Before the late-night meal had even arrived, he obtained two confessions that were almost identical.
Rong Liang admitted that he was working for the north. He and Rong Yue had already been close before Rong Yue left. After Rong Yue went north, he secretly sent Rong Liang a letter promising that once the north entered Haojing, Rong Liang would certainly be rewarded with promotion and noble rank.
The young woman was a liaison sent from the north.
The paper was their list of people to turn. “Complete” meant someone had already been turned, “half” meant they were currently making contact, and “none” meant they had not yet approached the person but had marked them as a target.
There were two copies of the list, one kept by each of them. When Rong Liang eventually went north, the paper would serve as his record of merit.
Pei Yuan Jin said, “Everything went very smoothly.”
“Not that smoothly. If you weren’t peerless in martial arts and I weren’t incomparably brilliant, we wouldn’t have found that paper so easily.” Fu Xi Yan paused, then said, “You suspect someone is helping us from the shadows?”
“…”
“Lord Shi? I never expected that although Lord Shi doesn’t have a kindly, benevolent face, he actually possesses such a gentle heart.”
“…”
“But how could Lord Shi know I’d find that list? Unless he personally sewed it into the bellyband. Which means there’s another possibility…” He looked at Pei Yuan Jin.
Pei Yuan Jin picked up the last date.
Fu Xi Yan leaned over, opened his mouth, and ate it from his hand. Chewing, he shook his head. “Setups. They’re all setups.”
* * *
“When the Dipper points southeast, it is Lixia, the Start of Summer. By this time all things have grown large, hence the name Lixia.”
Early in the morning, Fu Xi Yan took a basket of boiled eggs from the kitchen and went around challenging people.
There was technique involved in egg-tapping contests. Fu Xi Yan first selected an egg with a pointed tip, then mastered the secret of speed, ruthlessness, and accuracy. “One man felled every ten steps.” Almost every egg that met his was defeated in a single exchange, allowing him to carry forward the spirit of “Dugu Qiubai” to the fullest.
Elio’s Notes: “One man felled every ten steps” echoes a line from Li Bai’s Song of the Gallant. Dugu Qiubai is a legendary swordsman in Jin Yong’s novels whose name literally means “Seeking Defeat Alone,” so Fu Xi Yan is treating an egg-cracking game like an undefeated martial career.
Carrying the remaining eggs, he returned to the courtyard in high spirits and saw Pei Yuan Jin, unusually, heading out.
“Looking for me?” Fu Xi Yan offered him the basket.
Pei Yuan Jin said, “I’m going to meet someone.”
Fu Xi Yan asked, “Who? Do I know them?”
Pei Yuan Jin looked at him, took the eggs, and said calmly, “You still have to report for duty today. Don’t be late.”
Fu Xi Yan remained standing there with his hand out, staring resentfully at Pei Yuan Jin’s departing back. Unfortunately, once the man set off straight ahead, he went straight ahead without so much as looking left or right.
Fu Xi Yan tossed the egg in his hand and thought, The monk may run, but the temple can’t. Whoever he’s going to meet, won’t he still have to obediently come home and sleep tonight? Hmph.
He did not bother changing into official robes. Carrying his eggs and dressed in ordinary clothes, he grandly took a carriage to the Censorate.
Since his return, everyone at the Censorate treated him very differently. Even in plain clothes, the gatekeeper respectfully invited him inside. Fu Xi Yan asked, “Has Lord Shi returned from court?”
The gatekeeper replied, “Reporting to my lord, Lord Shi has not been seen here this morning.” The format of his response was proper, the contents rigorous, and not a single unauthorized embellishment had been added.
If the boss was not around, there was no shame in slipping away.
After checking in for a “mao” roll call that was very much not held during the mao hour, Fu Xi Yan prepared to give himself the rest of the day off. Just as he headed out, he ran straight into Shi Wei Liang returning.
The moment Shi Wei Liang saw him, he said, “Inside. We’ll talk.”
Fu Xi Yan happened to be itching for a contest. He happily followed with his beloved King Egg, only for Shi Wei Liang to ask about the investigation before Fu Xi Yan could issue a challenge.
Fu Xi Yan explained the relationship between Tian Tuo and Hu Yu. As for whether the story was true, his colleagues had not yet sent word back, so it was too soon to say.
“What about Rong Liang? I heard you were investigating his connection to an opera troupe.”
Fu Xi Yan said, “Already checked. A young woman in the troupe is his kept mistress. Back when Hu Yu was undercover, ahem, pretending to be a Rong family spy, he had dealings with Rong Liang. Later, when the Rong family fell into trouble, Rong Liang lost his position and wanted Hu Yu to use his connections on his behalf.”
Shi Wei Liang’s fingers stopped tapping on the table. “That’s all?”
Fu Xi Yan said, “What else?”
Shi Wei Liang looked at his hand. “What are you holding?”
Fu Xi Yan said, “An egg. Lord Shi, want to have a match?”
Shi Wei Liang: “…”
* * *
Still undefeated, Fu Xi Yan carried King Egg and skipped work right in front of his superior, walking away beneath the warm sunlight of Lixia. Because he was still thinking about Pei Yuan Jin going to meet someone, he deliberately made a circuit past the city gates. Unfortunately, Haojing was enormous and had far too many gates. After checking two, he got hungry and had no choice but to go home for lunch.
After eating, he took an afternoon nap.
When he woke from his nap, he practiced martial arts for a while.
These days, he concentrated on cultivating The Soul-Essence Art. His battle with Mei Xia Ying had made him understand the importance of the soul. Especially since the final escape technique of that biological father who had been eyeing his body was to let his soul leave his body. Of course Fu Xi Yan had to study hard so that the next time they met, that dear father would have nowhere left to retreat.
He trained until evening, ate dinner, and then it grew dark.
Yet Pei Yuan Jin still had not returned.
For the past several days, Fu Xi Yan had always been the one running around outside. Suddenly having their roles reversed made him strangely uncomfortable. He paced around the courtyard, called Fu Gui Gui down from the roof and groomed her feathers for a while, then went to the kitchen to find something to eat. Afterward, he even brought a portion back for Pei Yuan Jin.
And yet…
He still had not come back.
Fu Xi Yan leaped onto the roof and paced back and forth there with Fu Gui Gui.
When the moon reached the middle of the sky, he finally saw movement by the main gate.
Fu Xi Yan immediately jumped down from the roof, raced back to the room, took off his outer robe, crawled beneath the covers, and lay on the pillow pretending to sleep. But he had to admit that once one got used to this pillow, it was genuinely comfortable. Fu Xi Yan had intended to wait for Pei Yuan Jin, yet as he waited and waited, he wandered into dreamland and continued waiting there instead.
When he woke again, it was already the next morning.
The other side of the bed was cold, as though no one had returned the previous night.
He had actually stayed out all night?
Fu Xi Yan flew into a rage, threw on an outer robe, and rushed outside. Then he saw Pei Yuan Jin sleeping on the couch in the outer room. Hearing the commotion, Pei Yuan Jin opened his eyes.
“Everything was perfectly fine, so why are we sleeping separately?”
Fu Xi Yan felt infinitely wronged.
Pei Yuan Jin said helplessly, “You were sleeping too soundly. I didn’t want to wake you.”
Fu Xi Yan wanted to say that Pei Yuan Jin’s absence was precisely what would wake him, but yesterday’s facts were sitting there in plain sight, so he could not get the words out. He could only grumble, “Who did you go meet yesterday? What kind of person was it that kept you out so late?”
Pei Yuan Jin said, “They’re in the neighboring courtyard. Why not go see for yourself?”
If Pei Yuan Jin had brought the person directly home, it was probably someone they knew. But Fu Xi Yan insisted on putting on a performance. He clutched his chest and staggered several steps backward, saying in “heartbroken outrage,” “You, you-you-you-you-you actually brought someone home and let them enter our very halls! Where does that leave me?!”
“Speak properly.”
“Oh.” Fu Xi Yan dropped his hand and asked solemnly, “Is it Aunt Yu?” Wang Ku had asked him to deliver something, but Fu Xi Yan had been too busy to make the trip himself, while asking someone else to deliver it risked leaving things unclear. So back in Jiangling, Pei Yuan Jin had written Yu Su Huan a letter asking her to come to Haojing.
Pei Yuan Jin said, “Half right.”
Fu Xi Yan clapped happily. “Elder Shou? Elder Yi? Chief Steward Jing? Tan… at least give me a hint.”
Pei Yuan Jin said, “Willowwood Manor.”
“Pharmacist Jiang?”
That truly was excellent news. The reason was simple: Fu Xi Yan was close to gathering all the medicinal ingredients required for the Golden Origin Pill, but refining a pill required a pharmacist. In terms of skill and closeness alike, Jiang Xiu was the one and only obvious choice.
Fu Xi Yan asked, “Did Aunt Yu only arrive last night?”
Pei Yuan Jin glanced at him and sat up. “No.”
Fu Xi Yan fell silent and stared at him without blinking, a trace of teasing laughter still hanging at the corner of his mouth.
Pei Yuan Jin was, after all, the sort of person who remained fearless even if Mount Tai collapsed before him. Completely composed, he rose and began changing clothes.
Fu Xi Yan hugged him from behind. “I won’t run around everywhere anymore.”
Only after a long while did Pei Yuan Jin give a soft “Mm.”
“If I do run around, I’ll take you with me!” Fu Xi Yan still left himself an escape clause.
Pei Yuan Jin turned to look at him. Fu Xi Yan laughed awkwardly. “When you’re in officialdom, you can’t always decide your own movements.”
Pei Yuan Jin said, “You didn’t tell the Censorate about Rong Liang?”
Fu Xi Yan shrugged. “Rong Liang and Hu Yu aren’t related to me in any way. I’m not in a hurry. Let’s see who can hold out longer.”
* * *
A friend had come from afar. Naturally, that meant taking a day off at home.
Fu Xi Yan silently approved his own leave request, then ran to the neighboring courtyard without the slightest burden on his conscience. Jiang Xiu was still asleep, but Yu Su Huan was already awake. They had not seen each other for several months. Her spirits seemed good, but her complexion had grown much more haggard.
Jing Luo had been carrying out organizational reforms, and the audit team was one of the main targets. Yu Su Huan had been run ragged lately. So when Pei Yuan Jin wrote saying he needed to speak with her in Haojing, she immediately dropped her work and rushed over without stopping.
Instead of taking out the sachet immediately, Fu Xi Yan circled around the subject. “Aunt Yu, do you know a monk called Wang Ku?”
Yu Su Huan frowned in thought, then shook her head. “I’ve never heard of him.”
Of course, a monk had not necessarily always been a monk.
Fu Xi Yan described Wang Ku’s appearance.
This time Yu Su Huan thought much longer before saying, “To tell the truth, I have met two or three people with features like that, but I don’t know which one you mean.”
Fu Xi Yan asked, “Do you know how to embroider sachets?”
Yu Su Huan seemed to realize something, and a trace of tension entered her expression. “Why do you ask?”
Fu Xi Yan said, “A monk named Wang Ku asked me to deliver a sachet to you, along with a message. He said the person who gave this item away is now in the north.”
As he spoke, he watched Yu Su Huan’s expression. She suddenly went completely still, yet tears quickly gathered in her beautiful eyes until they seemed about to spill over.
Clearly, Wang Ku had not simply found some random sachet and invented a story around it.
Fu Xi Yan hurriedly took out the tattered sachet he had wrapped in a handkerchief.
The instant the handkerchief opened, Yu Su Huan’s tears finally fell in streams. She stretched out a hand, wanted to take the sachet, then seemed afraid to. Only after several hesitations did she tremblingly pick it up and hold it before her eyes for a careful look.
Her vision was now completely blurred by tears, so how could she possibly see clearly? Yet the less she could see, the more earnestly she looked, nearly pressing the sachet against her face. Only when a faint smell of blood reached her nose did she realize how badly she had lost control. She hurriedly wiped away her tears, grabbed Fu Xi Yan’s hand, and asked, “Where is Monk Wang Ku now?”
Her grip was somewhat tight, but Fu Xi Yan did not pull away. He slowed his speech and said gently, “We met at a private restaurant in Jiangling. Our first impression of each other wasn’t very good. We even fought, and I had a slight advantage. Later, he stopped fighting and asked me to give you this sachet, along with the message I just repeated.”
He paused, then carefully asked, “Is it someone you know?”
Yu Su Huan said, “This sachet was the token of love I gave my husband.”
Fu Xi Yan’s mouth fell slightly open.
There was far too much information packed into that sentence. For a moment, he did not even know where to begin asking, or whether he should ask at all.
Yu Su Huan said, “He truly said the person who gave away the sachet is in the north?”
Fu Xi Yan nodded. “Word for word.”
She clutched the sachet tightly. Only after a long while did she slowly let out a breath. Then her body seemed to lose its strength and she staggered backward. Fu Xi Yan hurriedly caught her and guided her onto a chair behind them.
She caught Fu Xi Yan’s arm in return and whispered, “I always thought… I thought he was gone. I’ve been living as his widow all these years. I never imagined he was still alive. He’s alive. If he’s alive, why hasn’t he come to find me?!”
After shouting that last sentence, she gradually began to sob.
It was the grievance that followed overwhelming joy and grief.
All the emotion she had suppressed for years suddenly erupted at once, and once it began, she could no longer contain it.
Seeing Yu Su Huan cry until she nearly fainted, Fu Xi Yan helplessly looked toward Pharmacist Jiang, who had emerged from the side room at some unknown point.
Pharmacist Jiang looked at the two of them, then turned around and walked away.
Fu Xi Yan: “…”
Yu Su Huan cried for roughly half an incense stick. By the end, both her eyes resembled two bright-red walnuts, yet her spirits were visibly much better.
She tried to open her swollen eyes wider. “Do you know how to find Monk Wang Ku?”
Fu Xi Yan wanted to say no, but faced with the light in her eyes, how could he bear to disappoint her? He said, “Why should you have to find him yourself? Immortal Treasury Palace has so many people. We’ll have someone bring him straight in front of you in no time. Where he’s been all these years, why he never came to find you, we’ll ask everything clearly. He won’t be allowed to hide a single word.”
Yu Su Huan could not help laughing. “Good. That man has always been terribly self-important. It’s time he suffered a little.”
Fu Xi Yan remembered that when Yu Su Huan had first joined Immortal Treasury Palace, she had effectively come in with her own funding attached. Her background had to be extraordinary, or Ying Zhu Cui would not have been wary of her for so many years. Her husband had once narrowly survived death, vanished without a trace, and had now appeared in the north.
Although Wang Ku’s exact identity was still unclear, there was an eighty or ninety percent chance that he was connected to the Northern Alliance.
Taken together, these clues suggested that Yu Su Huan’s husband was probably no ordinary person.
Fu Xi Yan had his suspicions, but since Yu Su Huan did not say anything, neither did he ask.
After returning to his room, however, he still discussed the matter with Pei Yuan Jin.
“I don’t know whether I’m thinking in the right direction, but I really feel like… Liu Huan may be about to have both parents again?” Fu Xi Yan shook his head. “No. Given Aunt Yu’s position in Immortal Treasury Palace, if she had a child wandering around outside, she would have sent people looking long ago. Why wait until now? Unless… the child belongs to someone else?”
His imagination ran wilder and wilder, and his mind had already started playing the background music: For all the pain of clinging to love, for all the wounds of clinging to hate…
Pei Yuan Jin said, “Why not ask her yourself?”
Fu Xi Yan said, “Digging into someone’s private affairs isn’t good.”
“Discussing them behind her back is?”
“…Then how about you go ask?”
“…”