On his way to the study with Black Hawk, Gongsun E kept wondering whether Wei Xiao had discovered something. After all, he had not returned to the residence until dusk and had been absent all day. It would hardly be surprising if he aroused suspicion.
Then there was Zhu Changfeng. The Eastern Depot had him locked away. What if he could not withstand their torture and confessed that Gongsun E and He Tianyang had hidden at the guild headquarters?
One thought after another surfaced, only to be suppressed in turn. Worrying was useless. Whatever came, he could not prevent it.
As they neared the study door, Gongsun E deliberately slowed his steps and buried his unruly thoughts before crossing the threshold.
Wei Xiao disliked bright light, so as usual, only one dim lamp burned inside.
When Gongsun E drew aside the curtain, Wei Xiao was seated in the grand armchair behind his desk, holding a celadon teacup. He slowly traced its rim with the pad of his finger. Hearing Gongsun E enter, he lifted his eyelids slightly and set the cup down on the table at an unhurried pace.
“You’re here. Sit.”
Gongsun E’s gaze swept casually across the desk, but his heart gave a small jolt.
The reason was simple: the cup’s pattern was extraordinarily familiar. Its green glaze was decorated with scrolling lotus vines, exactly like the cup Steward Qian had used to serve him tea at the Canal Guild headquarters that very day.
Wei Xiao ordinarily used a set of imperial-bestowed sacrificial-blue glazed teacups, dark as pooled ink and so precious that even the palace treasury might not possess more than a few sets. The unexplained appearance of an ordinary celadon cup of the sort used by wealthy households was suspicious, however one looked at it.
Unsure whether Wei Xiao was deliberately testing him, Gongsun E drew back his gaze without a change of expression and seated himself in the armchair opposite. “Your Excellency, is there some urgent matter you wished to discuss so late at night?”
Wei Xiao’s eyes were fathomless. His reply revealed nothing. “I would rather have found you during the day, but I couldn’t catch sight of you all afternoon.”
Gongsun E smiled faintly, without betraying the slightest discomfort. “I went to the outskirts to investigate the case today. I meant to return before the city gates were locked, but I was delayed along the way. I must have worried Your Excellency.”
“The outskirts?”
For some reason, Wei Xiao picked up the celadon cup at the corner of the desk again. He lowered his eyes to its pattern and slowly traced a circle along the cup with his fingertip.
“I thought you might have gone to the docks south of the city. I saw someone there today who looked rather like you from a distance.”
The southern docks were precisely where the Canal Guild had its headquarters.
Gongsun E showed just the right amount of puzzlement. “Your Excellency must have mistaken someone else for me. Whatever would I be doing at the southern docks?”
“Exactly.” Wei Xiao’s lips curved slightly. He deliberately drew out the last syllable. “I was wondering myself what business you could possibly have at the docks.”
“And the interesting thing is, not only did that man look like you, someone was with him who looked rather like that young Registrar He.”
With those words, he gently set down the cup. Its base clicked crisply against the desk, and the air in the room seemed to freeze.
“…”
Gongsun E went still, then slowly lifted his eyes to Wei Xiao.
Wei Xiao was staring at him without moving.
In the wavering candlelight, the blind, bluish eye gleamed coldly. Its tiny black pupil was as fine as a needlepoint, calling to mind some cold, venomous serpent and sending an inexplicable chill down one’s spine.
For an instant, Gongsun E almost believed Wei Xiao had caught him and He Tianyang out. But when he met the other man’s gaze, he suddenly noticed something amiss.
Wei Xiao’s reaction was wrong.
Given his temperament, if he had truly seen Gongsun E together with He Tianyang at the docks, his explosive temper would have erupted long ago. It would have been fortunate if he had not arrested them on the spot. How could he have the patience to sit here probing him step by step, even going to the trouble of bringing back a cup as a prop?
He was bluffing to draw out a confession.
Once Gongsun E realized this, his nerves actually settled. Lowering his gaze, he said quietly, “I thought Your Excellency had summoned me so late to speak from the heart. I never imagined you had called me here because you suspected me.”
Wei Xiao’s expression shifted almost imperceptibly. He was about to speak when Gongsun E gently raised a hand to stop him. His voice remained warm and his manners impeccable, but every word struck straight at Wei Xiao’s sorest point.
“Your Excellency may suspect me. Once is no matter, twice is no matter, even three times is no matter. But if you doubt me every time without the slightest evidence, don’t you think that damages the affection between us?”
“Even a magistrate’s office needs evidence to arrest someone. The next time Your Excellency sees people who resemble Registrar He and me, there is no need to watch from afar. Send men over and catch them in the act. That would spare you the trouble of testing me and spare me the difficulty of defending myself.”
With that, Gongsun E rose from the armchair and smoothed his sleeves as if preparing to take his leave.
Wei Xiao finally lost his patience. He shot up from behind the desk. “When did I ever say I suspected you?” he demanded in a low voice.
Gongsun E halted and looked back, his manner still cool. “Whether Your Excellency suspects me is something only you yourself can know.”
“If I suspected you, I wouldn’t be standing here wasting words on you.” Wei Xiao strode around the desk to stand before him, lowering his voice. “Besides, if you have nothing to hide, why should my words upset you so much?”
“Really?” Gongsun E slowly lifted his gaze, interested. “Now that’s a novel argument.”
“By Your Excellency’s reasoning, if I defend myself, it proves I have something to hide; if I don’t, then I’ve admitted it. Either way, I’m the one at fault.”
Wei Xiao was struck speechless.
Gongsun E smiled and continued, “In that case, I might as well say nothing tonight and simply confess. Tell me, Your Excellency, which crimes do you need me to admit? Best to list them all at once.”
Wei Xiao stared at him, silently clenching his jaw.
He did suspect Gongsun E, but it was equally true that he had no evidence. Just now, he had only been trying to bluff a confession out of him.
He had been exceedingly careful, doing his best not to leave Gongsun E any opening, yet a few sentences had been enough to turn the tables on him. Even his accusation that Gongsun E had something to hide had become a slap in his own face.
A long silence fell over the study, broken only by the faint crackle of the lampwick.
After an unknown interval, Wei Xiao slowly breathed out and forced his anger back down. He retreated half a step, and his voice finally softened somewhat.
“Gongsun E, I asked where you went because I wanted to hear one truthful answer from your own mouth. Instead, you talk in circles without a single honest word, and then accuse me of suspecting you.”
He paused, and his tone abruptly grew heavier. “Do you know that I sat here in this study waiting for you all day?”
Gongsun E’s eyelids flickered.
Someone else hearing that would have been overcome with guilt by now.
But Gongsun E knew very well that Wei Xiao was deliberately changing the subject and turning the accusation back on him.
He frowned slightly, looking entirely innocent. “But didn’t I already tell Your Excellency that I went to the outskirts to investigate? Besides, Your Excellency went to the southern docks today. The journey there and back must have taken at least two shichen. How can you claim to have waited in the study for the entire day?”
He paused on purpose and leaned close to Wei Xiao’s ear, sounding so sincere that he was almost solicitous.
“I think it would be more accurate to say half a day.”
Wei Xiao: “…”
Half a shichen later, Gongsun E emerged from Wei Xiao’s study unscathed.
He felt no triumph over it. Quite the contrary, he felt both lucky and troubled. He and He Tianyang had left far too many clues behind when they escaped that day. The only reason Wei Xiao had not found anything to hold against him was that Zhu Changfeng was a man of some loyalty and had not talked yet. But no one could guarantee he could hold out forever.
The most urgent task was to find Shen Wanjin, force him to reveal where the missing salt-tax silver was hidden, and escort him to the capital for trial as soon as possible.
Early the following morning, when the sky had barely begun to lighten, Gongsun E and He Tianyang met in the outskirts.
Both had disguised themselves. They wore bamboo hats and patched, coarse-cloth short jackets, each with a woodcutting knife tucked at his waist, posing as woodsmen going into the mountains. In their usual clothes, they would have stood out far too much in this deserted wilderness.
They followed a mountain path for a long while before finally finding the God of Wealth Temple A-Shi had mentioned.
The temple had fallen into disrepair long ago. Half its enclosing wall had collapsed, exposing an ancient, crooked locust tree inside. Beneath its shade lay a few worn straw mats, where three or five gaunt, sallow-faced beggars were resting.
A few other men were squatting a short distance away from the beggars. Their clothes were just as ragged, but their sharp, ferocious gazes were unlike those of ordinary displaced wanderers.
One look was enough for Gongsun E to conclude that those men were probably fugitives wanted by the imperial authorities.
Some likely had killings on their records; others had committed crimes punishable by exile. The moment they entered the city, officers would arrest them, so they could only shelter in ruined temples outside the walls. It was why the elders used to say, “One person should not enter a temple, two should not look into a well, and three should not embrace a tree.”
In those days, ruined temples were often filled with vicious fugitives. Anyone who went in alone was likely to be robbed and murdered.
Unfortunately, they were lying in wait today and had no time to investigate those men’s backgrounds.
He Tianyang had watched from behind a grassy slope for a good while without seeing A-Shi, the little beggar from yesterday. He could not help muttering, “Lord Gongsun, could that little beggar have tricked us? I’ve been watching for ages and haven’t seen him anywhere.”
Gongsun E found a comfortable spot, leaned against the slope, and closed his eyes. “What’s the hurry? Day has only just broken. Those beggars have no work to do. Naturally they’ll sleep until they wake and only then go out to beg. Keep watch carefully, and call me if anything happens.”
Rather than resenting such unfair treatment, He Tianyang seemed quite pleased. He leaned forward and whispered, “Lord Gongsun, if I help you catch Shen Wanjin this time, would it count as a major achievement?”
Gongsun E lifted his eyelids to glance at him. “What, are you hoping for promotion and riches?”
He Tianyang nodded, then shook his head vigorously. “I don’t want riches. I only want a posting in the capital, where I can investigate cases.”
Gongsun E was rather amused. “Your elder brother is a distinguished senior third-rank official in the Qinglü Office. If you want to transfer to the capital, surely all he needs to do is say the word.”
He Tianyang lowered his head and muttered, “My brother is my brother, and I’m me. He earned his third rank for himself. What’s that got to do with me? If I used his connections to get transferred to the capital, I’d die of shame when my colleagues talked behind my back.”
He glanced down the slope and continued in an even lower voice. “To tell you the truth, when I sat the civil examinations, my family offered to smooth the way for me, but I refused. If all I wanted were rank and money, I could have gone to the capital seven or eight years ago. Why would I have stayed in Yangzhou as a lowly registrar everyone finds annoying?”
Gongsun E looked at him anew. “So you want to capture Shen Wanjin and earn major credit for it?”
He Tianyang scratched his head. “I’m not expecting any earthshaking feat. I only thought that if I genuinely helped Your Lordship resolve this case, I’d have a solid accomplishment to my name when the Ministry of Personnel assessed my record. Then perhaps I might get transferred to the capital.”
Gongsun E smiled without quite smiling. “We haven’t even caught Shen Wanjin, and you’re already thinking about how they’ll award the credit.”
He Tianyang blushed. “I—I was only asking in advance.”
“No point asking yet.” Gongsun E tugged down the brim of his bamboo hat and shut his eyes again. “Find the man first. Without him, all talk of merit is empty.”
He Tianyang gave an embarrassed acknowledgment and retreated behind the slope to continue watching. But his thoughts were already racing, and he resolved to capture the man.
They waited until the sun was high in the sky. Just as the sunlight was making He Tianyang’s vision swim, he finally heard children laughing and playing near the ruined temple.
His spirits leaped. He turned to shake Gongsun E awake, only to find the other man had been awake for some time and was now half reclining against the slope, eyes fixed on the temple.
Four or five grimy little beggars emerged from behind the temple’s half-collapsed wall, chattering and chasing one another. The oldest was fourteen or fifteen; the youngest only seven or eight. The boy running ahead of them all held a long bamboo pole and kept looking back as he ran. It was A-Shi.
He Tianyang’s eyes lit up. “That brat really is here!”
After watching for a moment, he noticed something wrong.
“Why haven’t we seen Shen Wanjin?”
Gongsun E sighed softly. “Shen Wanjin is cautious by nature. He won’t show himself easily. Just keep your eyes on A-Shi, and we’ll find a lead.”
As though to prove him right, A-Shi soon said goodbye to the others and headed off alone along the East Mountain path, skipping along with his bamboo pole.
Gongsun E and He Tianyang exchanged glances, then ducked low and circled out from behind the slope, following A-Shi at a distance.
The path was narrow and secluded, with untended vegetation crowding either side. A-Shi seemed familiar with it, tapping his pole first left and then right as he went. After roughly half a shichen, he stopped beside a rock face, peered carefully around, and struck the stone five times in a distinct rhythm with his pole.
He repeated the sequence twice. A faint rustling came from the rock face, and then someone lowered a vine from above.
A-Shi tucked the bamboo pole into his belt, seized the vine, and scampered up the cliff as nimbly as a monkey, disappearing in an instant.
He Tianyang’s pupils contracted. He was about to step forward when Gongsun E seized him.
Gongsun E shook his head slightly, warning him not to alert their quarry, then pointed toward the back of the mountain. He Tianyang understood and immediately followed him around.
They struggled across a steep, rugged slope before finally reaching the rear. From behind shrubs half as high as a person, they could just make out two figures seated inside a cave. One was A-Shi; the other, a disheveled old man.
The old man’s hair and beard were streaked with gray. His face was hard to see, but his frame was visibly bent and thin. A-Shi’s clothes were shabby enough, yet the elder’s were in even worse condition, so black and greasy they had matted together like felt.
At the thought of having to arrest someone so foul-smelling in a moment, He Tianyang’s eyelid gave a violent twitch.
Gongsun E stared intently into the cave and asked under his breath, “You’ve seen Shen Wanjin before. Does that man resemble him?”
He Tianyang looked troubled. “Lord Gongsun, forget me. Even his own mother might not recognize him looking like that.”
Shen Wanjin had been one of Yangzhou’s famous great salt merchants, a man who lived amid fine food and luxurious silks and would hardly bother picking up a fallen gold ingot. He Tianyang could not reconcile that man with the wretched elder curled near the cave mouth, looking worse off than a beggar.
“Whether it’s him or not, we’ll know when we catch him.”
Gongsun E did not intend to act in front of A-Shi, and He Tianyang clearly felt the same. They waited patiently. Soon A-Shi carefully took two meat buns from inside his clothing and handed them to the elder, then crouched and said something to him.
The old man waved him off. A-Shi climbed back along the cave wall and vanished behind the hanging vine.
He Tianyang rubbed his hands together. “He’s gone. Shall we move?”
Gongsun E also thought the time was right. “You take the left; I’ll take the right. We’ll close in together.”
They had concealed themselves well, but bushes covered the area. However carefully they crouched and approached the cave mouth, some sound was unavoidable.
The elder was bent over, ravenously devouring a bun when he abruptly heard something outside and froze in mid-bite.
He turned to look toward the entrance, tossed the bun onto the ground, and scrambled on hands and knees deeper into the cave.
“Stop!”
He Tianyang immediately gave chase, but the passage farther inside the cave was so narrow that only one person could squeeze through sideways. Being tall and broad, he struggled for ages without managing to get in. In that brief instant, the old man disappeared into the darkness deep inside.
“Lord Gongsun! This is bad! He’s escaped!” He Tianyang cried in alarm.
Gongsun E ignored him and climbed to higher ground to examine the shape of the mountain. The man would not have fled deeper into the cave unless he knew it was not a dead end; otherwise, he would only be trapping himself. There had to be another exit.
To the east were sheer cliffs. Impossible.
To the west, the two of them had blocked the way. Impossible as well.
To the south lay a lake…
Where there was a lake, there was flowing water. And where water flowed, there was a way out.
As the thought occurred to him, a dark light flashed in Gongsun E’s eyes. He immediately hurried toward the southern side of the mountain cave.
Meanwhile, the old man had reached the depths of the cave, where, astonishingly, there was a frigid pool. Ignoring the cold, he plunged in headfirst, and the icy water instantly rose above his chest. Gritting his teeth, he swam desperately toward a gap in the rock beneath the water, where a little light shone through.
The gap lay within a hollow in the underwater rock face, opening onto the lake beyond. He had discovered this escape route by chance. If he could squeeze through and swim underwater to the reeds on the far shore, no one would be able to find him again.
After a desperate struggle, he was almost at the shore when he suddenly heard movement on the water above his head.
His heart tightened. Looking up, he saw human silhouettes shifting above the surface. Then a voice reached him through the water, muffled but perfectly intelligible.
“It’s cold down there. You’d better come up before you freeze those old bones of yours.”
The old man almost lost his breath on the spot.
Submerged in the water, he could neither go up nor go down. His breath slipped, sending a string of bubbles gurgling from his nose and mouth. At last, unable to hold it any longer, he burst to the surface and clung to a rock at the edge of the pool, gasping for air.
Gongsun E stood on the bank. He squatted down unhurriedly and, for the first time, got a clear look at the old man’s face.
Deep knife scars crisscrossed the aged face, leaving scarcely a patch of unmarked skin. Blue-white with cold as he emerged from the water, he could easily have been mistaken for a water ghost.
Gongsun E studied his face for a moment, then slowly lowered his gaze to the right hand gripping the rock.
A section of the little finger was missing. It was an old injury.
“Shen Wanjin.” He spoke slowly, no longer testing a possibility but stating a certainty.
The old man panted heavily. He neither denied the name nor nodded in acknowledgment. Countless emotions churned in his clouded eyes: fear, exhaustion, and a trace of despair from a man driven to the end of his road.
After a long while, he finally spoke hoarsely.
“Must you people hunt this old man down until there’s no way left for him to live?”
“Who wants to kill you? We’re arresting you to stand trial in the capital!” He Tianyang had finally managed to force his way through the narrow cave passage. Seeing Shen Wanjin in the water, he hauled the man up, pulled out the shackles he had prepared at his waist, and snapped them into place. Then he said through gritted teeth,
“Shen Wanjin, you’ve made us search so hard!”
Shen Wanjin said nothing. His bony chest rose and fell, his soaked clothes clinging to his skeletal frame until he resembled a desiccated corpse nearing the end of its days. Slowly he lifted his head and looked around. Seeing only Gongsun E and He Tianyang, he suddenly gave a cold laugh.
“I was once a person of some consequence in Yangzhou. This is a case involving over a million taels of salt-tax silver, and the authorities send two wet-behind-the-ears lads to handle it? Are they looking down on Shen Wanjin, or on those million taels?”
Apparently, he was offended by the lack of ceremony.
Gongsun E cast him a leisurely glance. “What sort of ceremony does Master Shen require? Had I known, I would have notified the Yangzhou prefecture in advance and had them send a whole battalion of soldiers to surround the mountain, then play drums and music to welcome you out of your cave. Would that have befitted your standing?”
Shen Wanjin choked on the retort.
He Tianyang almost burst out laughing and hurriedly turned his face away.
Gongsun E said, “Stop laughing. Take him down the mountain. First we’ll find somewhere to hold him while we question him about the silver.”
He Tianyang gripped the shackles tightly as he followed Gongsun E. “Lord Gongsun, where should we hold him? If we put him in the prefectural prison, the Eastern Depot and Zhou Mao will probably hear of it. There are only two of us, and we might not even be able to intervene.”
That was precisely Gongsun E’s own concern. If Wei Xiao found out, Shen Wanjin would unquestionably die. “Let’s get down the mountain first. If we have no other choice, we can keep him at your house for a few days.”
He Tianyang let out a startled “Huh?” “Th-that doesn’t seem quite right, does it?”
Without looking back as he descended, Gongsun E answered evenly, “Didn’t you want to earn some merit? Here’s your chance. Whether you can seize it is up to you.”
He Tianyang opened his mouth, at a loss for words. But on second thought, his house had so many rooms that clearing one to hold a prisoner did not seem impossible.
They descended faster than they had climbed, but it was still far from easy. Shen Wanjin was old and had been in the water for so long that he could go no farther by the time they were halfway down the mountain. He bent over, hands on his knees, panting as though he might expire at any moment.
Wiping sweat from his face, He Tianyang looked back and frowned. “Lord Gongsun, at this rate, we may hold out, but Shen Wanjin won’t. The riverbank is just ahead. Why don’t we hire a boat into the city?”
Gongsun E stopped and looked back at Shen Wanjin. The old man really was at his limit: his face was ashen and his lips purple. If they pushed on, he might collapse halfway.
“Very well. Let’s hire a boat by the river.”
The three reached the riverbank, where seven or eight boats were moored at the crossing. Gongsun E examined them one by one and finally chose a black-awning boat that would help conceal them. He went up to its boatman and asked,
“Boatman, could you take the three of us into the city? We can discuss your fare.”
The boatman wore a bamboo hat and sat cross-legged at the stern, mending a fishing net. He paused at Gongsun E’s question but gave no reply.
He Tianyang thought he had not heard and raised his voice. “Boatman! We’re talking to you! How much to take us into the city?”
At last, the boatman stopped his work. He stood, casually tossed aside the net, and replied in a low voice with something they had not expected.
“Unfortunately, someone has already chartered this boat.”
The moment the words left his mouth, cold dread crept up Gongsun E’s spine.
In the next instant, a company of black-clad Eastern Depot agents burst from the trees along the bank. Their blades flashed out in unison as they surrounded all three men. The boatman slowly raised his head and lifted the drooping brim of his bamboo hat.
The instant Gongsun E recognized that face, his eyelid twitched violently.
It was Black Hawk.
At the same time, the curtain of the black-awning boat was drawn aside. Inside sat a figure quietly brewing tea alone. He wore luxurious black silk robes and a jade belt, his bearing dark and unreadable. Who else could it be but Wei Xiao?
He idly toyed with a white jade cup full of freshly brewed tea. With a careless turn of his wrist, he emptied the expensive brew, worth a fortune, into the river at his feet. His voice was low and quiet.
“If Lord Gongsun wished to cross the river, you only had to say so. With the affection between us, how could I possibly have the heart to charge you a fare?”
As he spoke, he deliberately gave a bundled shape at his feet a kick.
Gongsun E instinctively looked over. Fang Shoulian was lying hog-tied in the boat’s compartment, his limbs drawn together, a wad of coarse cloth stuffed into his mouth. He whimpered and sobbed like a newborn baby.
Plainly, he had not held out. He had confessed everything.