No sooner had Steward Qian finished speaking than a deathly silence fell over the room.
Before Zhu Changfeng could react, someone seated on his lower right abruptly rose, cupped his fists, and spoke with haste.
“Guild Leader Zhu, Registrar He and I are investigating privately. It would be unwise to run into Lord Zhou and his party face-to-face. If we alert them, it may harm your son’s case. Might you allow the two of us to hide in your rear hall for a little while?”
Gongsun E could scarcely explain why he had come to the Canal Guild in secret as it was. If Wei Xiao caught him together with He Tianyang again, no amount of explaining would ever get him out of it.
Zhu Changfeng clearly understood the urgency of the matter. His expression turned grave as he said,
“Rest assured, Lord Gongsun. The Canal Guild has its own rules. No one here will disclose your whereabouts. Old Qian, take these two gentlemen to the rear hall at once.”
Steward Qian answered and hurriedly led them toward the back.
Only a screen wall separated the rear hall from the front. Beyond a narrow doorway lay a quiet, spacious courtyard. Discarded planks and mooring ropes were piled in a corner, and strings of dried garlic and corn hung beneath the eaves. The place looked quite plain.
Steward Qian opened a room in the west wing and stepped aside to let them enter. Lowering his voice, he said, “Please bear with these humble accommodations for a moment. I’ll let you know when the people outside have left.”
Gongsun E nodded his thanks and slipped inside with He Tianyang close behind. Steward Qian pulled the door shut and hurried back.
No lamp had been lit in the room. It was dim and cramped, with only a thread of daylight filtering through the window frame.
Standing by the door, He Tianyang had a nagging sense that something was wrong. He frowned and asked under his breath, “Lord Gongsun, why would the Eastern Depot suddenly surround the Canal Guild?”
Gongsun E said nothing, though he could guess the reason.
Wei Xiao had been searching the entire city for Shen Wanjin these past days. Shen Wanjin had been closely associated with Zhu Lan, and the Eastern Depot had probably come to the guild because it suspected them of sheltering him.
If Zhu Changfeng could hold them off, all would be well. If not, they would eventually search the rear hall and discover the two of them.
After turning the situation over in his mind, Gongsun E decided they could not simply sit there waiting to be caught. He said to He Tianyang,
“Whatever brought the Eastern Depot here, I doubt today will end peacefully. If they reach the rear courtyard, we’ll be turtles trapped in a jar. We should look for a back gate and get out as quickly as possible.”
He was about to open the door when he noticed He Tianyang standing motionless, plainly wanting to speak but hesitating. Gongsun E stopped. “Brother He?”
He Tianyang ventured, “Lord Gongsun, there is something I don’t understand.”
Gongsun E looked puzzled. “What is it?”
The question had clearly been weighing on He Tianyang for a long time. “We’re both carrying out official duties. There’s nothing improper about coming here to investigate, even if someone sees us. Why are we sneaking around as though we were thieves?”
For a moment, Gongsun E was speechless.
He could hardly tell the man that he was afraid Wei Xiao would catch them together in private and take them for a pair of shameless male lovers.
Gongsun E himself would probably be fine. He Tianyang, on the other hand, would very likely lose his life.
But he could not very well explain any of that, so Gongsun E had to muddle through.
“It’s difficult to explain in a few words. In any case, the Eastern Depot’s methods are brutal. They would sooner kill an innocent man than let a suspect escape. Nothing good will come of them finding us here. Our priority is to find a way out.”
He Tianyang only half understood and remained full of questions. But the clamor outside was growing louder, and he knew this was no time to press the matter. He could only nod in agreement.
The two of them quietly left the side room and first surveyed the rear courtyard.
Intent on finding an exit, He Tianyang slipped along the foot of the wall and discovered a small door in the rear boundary wall. Unfortunately, the chain securing it had rusted solid. He pushed twice without budging it and had to turn back to search elsewhere.
Meanwhile, Gongsun E walked along, discreetly studying every room.
All three main rooms were secured with iron locks. He could not get inside.
The remaining rooms were servants’ quarters, plain and roughly furnished, but so tidy that he could take everything in at a glance. Nothing seemed out of place.
Just as Gongsun E was about to give up and resign himself to finding nothing today, one room on the eastern side caught his attention.
Its doors stood wide open. Above them hung a black plaque with gold lettering: “Hall of the Righteous.” Inside stood a large elmwood offering table, crowded with tiers of black wooden memorial tablets commemorating generations of Canal Guild members who had died in service or earned great merit.
Seeing Gongsun E stop at the entrance, He Tianyang came over and asked, “Lord Gongsun, what’s wrong?”
Gongsun E did not answer immediately. Standing outside the threshold, he ran his gaze over the tablets. The Canal Guild had existed for a hundred years, and many members had died in its service or distinguished themselves. The table was filled with memorial tablets, some new and others old. Incense burned there year-round, darkening the wood to varying degrees.
“Brother He,” he suddenly said, “what sort of person can have a memorial tablet placed in this hall?”
He Tianyang thought for a moment. “Under guild rules, someone who dies carrying out guild business or renders an outstanding service may be enshrined here at the leader’s discretion, to receive incense offerings from later generations. It’s one way the guild honors those who have served it well.”
Gongsun E nodded and stepped over the threshold. He walked around the side of the offering table and bent to inspect the names and dates inscribed on the tablets, his gaze moving from row to row.
He Tianyang followed, growing more perplexed. “What exactly are you looking for, my lord?”
Gongsun E straightened and pointed to a tablet in the front row. It was engraved: “Memorial tablet of my late wife, née Murong, reverently enshrined by her husband, Zhu Changfeng.”
“Is this the memorial tablet for Guild Leader Zhu’s deceased wife?”
He Tianyang leaned closer and nodded. “I think I heard that his wife’s surname was Murong. She died more than ten years ago. They were deeply devoted to each other, and Guild Leader Zhu has never remarried.”
Gongsun E reached toward the tablet as though intending to pick it up. Alarmed, He Tianyang quickly stopped him. “Lord Gongsun! It would be terribly improper to touch someone’s late wife’s memorial tablet!”
Gongsun E glanced at him. “As long as one’s heart is respectful, why fuss over formalities?”
Ignoring He Tianyang’s objections, he picked it up and studied it for a moment, his brows drawing together. He weighed it in his hand, then lifted an older tablet inscribed “Memorial Tablet of a Deceased Canal Guild Member” and compared their weights, one in each hand. The difference was obvious.
He Tianyang watched with his heart in his throat. “My lord, that’s the tablet of someone else’s late wife. How can you keep hefting it this way and that? The dead deserve respect, you…”
Ignoring him, Gongsun E placed the tablets side by side on the offering table. Pointing at Lady Murong’s, he interrupted, “Look at this one. Isn’t it much brighter than the one beside it?”
He Tianyang bent down to examine them and found that it was true. The other tablets had stood for years in incense smoke, their wooden surfaces and gold lettering darkened almost to black. Only Lady Murong’s tablet had a bright coat of lacquer, as though it had been repainted quite recently.
“Perhaps Guild Leader Zhu loved his wife deeply and tends it often?”
Gongsun E shook his head. “No amount of careful tending does more than keep the dust off. How could it still look brand-new? Lady Murong died ten years ago. Her tablet stands near the front, exposed to years of incense offerings. There should be smoke marks and scorching. Yet even the lettering on this wooden tablet is new. It was clearly made not long ago.”
He Tianyang found that unsurprising. “Perhaps someone accidentally damaged the old one, so they made a replacement.”
Gongsun E said, “Even a replacement ought to resemble the other tablets. But the base of this new one is three fen thicker than the rest, yet somehow much lighter to hold.”
As he spoke, he turned the tablet over and tapped the edge of its base with his fingertip. A hollow sound answered.
Only then did He Tianyang’s eyes widen in realization.
After feeling along the edges for a moment, Gongsun E applied a little pressure and separated the wooden tablet from its base along a seam. The base had indeed been hollowed out. Inside lay a roll of crumpled paper. He removed and unfolded it. The edges had been torn, and there was not a single written character, only several winding lines and a few points marked in cinnabar. It resembled half a map of waterways.
“This…” He Tianyang leaned in. “What is it?”
Gongsun E did not answer. He studied the lines for a moment. It vaguely seemed to be a map of the waterways, but it was plainly incomplete, and he could not tell which stretch of river it depicted.
He slowly rolled up the paper and tucked it inside his sleeve.
“It’s a waterway map, but half of it is missing. If it has anything to do with the missing salt silver, the points marked in cinnabar may show where the silver is hidden.”
He Tianyang was shaken. “Why would a map like this be hidden inside Lady Zhu’s memorial tablet?”
Gongsun E shook his head, his voice grave. “Either Zhu Lan put it there or Guild Leader Zhu did. Whichever it was, the Canal Guild is likely entangled in this affair. Come, we can’t linger here.”
He Tianyang nodded. They carefully reassembled the tablet, returned it to its place, and headed outside.
But they had barely crossed the threshold when furious arguing broke out in the front hall. Someone seemed to smash a cup, the breaking porcelain clearly audible even from several meters away.
Zhu Changfeng’s voice followed, anger barely restrained. “Zhou, don’t push us too far! The Canal Guild may be no more than a brotherhood of the martial world, but we’re not pushovers for you to bully as you please!”
Zhou Mao answered in his usual amiable, leisurely tone. “You’re taking it too seriously, Guild Leader Zhu. This humble official is merely acting on the Chief Eunuch’s orders. If you cooperate with the search, everyone can save face.”
Gongsun E and He Tianyang exchanged a glance, each seeing the other’s grave expression. They moved along the wall and took shelter behind the screen wall to observe the front hall.
The atmosphere inside was taut as a drawn bow. Zhu Changfeng sat in the place of honor, beyond their line of sight. But a number of yamen runners and Eastern Depot agents had flooded the outer hall, packing the formerly spacious room. Shards of cups still littered the floor.
Amid the disorder, a figure in dark crimson sat quietly in the grand armchair on the right.
His eyes were lowered and his expression indifferent, as though the tension around him had nothing to do with him. Black Hawk and several Eastern Depot agents stood behind him, their faces expressionless, blocking half the hall.
Gongsun E’s gaze fell upon him, and he paused.
Inside, Zhou Mao stroked his beard. “Guild Leader Zhu, if you’re truly not sheltering a fugitive, just let the Eastern Depot search the premises. If they find no one, the matter ends there. The harder you resist, the more it looks as though you have something to hide.”
Zhu Changfeng gave a cold laugh. “You say we’re hiding a fugitive, and that makes it true? Where is your evidence? If Lord Zhou can accuse anyone on his word alone, may I announce tomorrow that you’re conspiring with rebels and bring men to ransack your residence? Even the Eastern Depot needs some pretext to arrest people. Yet you expect to search our guild headquarters on nothing but your empty words?”
Only then did Wei Xiao slowly raise his eyes.
He set down the teacup in his hand. Its porcelain base struck the tabletop with a faint, crisp click. Everyone in the hall fell silent without meaning to. Even Zhou Mao lost his agreeable smile and stepped aside, not daring to speak before him.
“Guild Leader Zhu, the Eastern Depot has never needed evidence to arrest anyone.”
Though Wei Xiao was speaking to Zhu Changfeng, his gaze did not settle on the guild leader. His long fingers swept idly over the tabletop. He lowered his eyes and rubbed the surface for a moment, as though inspecting something.
Gongsun E noticed that tiny movement. His pupils abruptly contracted.
When he and He Tianyang first entered the front hall and sat down, Steward Qian had served them two cups of hot tea. The cups had been hurriedly removed, but two rings of moisture remained on the very table where Wei Xiao now sat.
Zhu Changfeng evidently noticed the two glistening rings as well. His expression changed, and he was about to speak when Wei Xiao raised a hand to silence him.
Wei Xiao slowly swept his gaze across the people in the hall, pausing deliberately in the direction of the rear quarters. His voice was calm as he uttered a chilling command.
“Search the place for me.”