that person sat in a daze for a long while before he gathered his wits and climbed out of the pile of dead bodies with difficulty. he slumped on the muddy yellow soil, still feeling unsettled.
didn’t he already die?
am i in king yama’s palace? doesn’t look like it! [1]
suddenly, a few crows that had been circling above the pile of corpses flapped their wings and let out several caws. next, they landed on the rotting corpses and started pecking and clawing at the exposed flesh.
only then did he realise that he was in a mass grave. he wasn’t dead yet. he climbed up weakly and swayed for a while before he managed to stand upright steadily.
under the pale light of the moon, he surveyed his surroundings and quickly got his bearings. once he determined the direction he should take, he braced his injured body and trudged away from this dismal place.
he never noticed the five silhouettes that followed behind him.
an hour later, that person reached the back door of a mansion in the suburbs. he looked around him warily to confirm that there was no one on his tail before he knocked on the door. a moment later, a voice called out from behind the door. “buying cloth? or do you want to dye cloth?”
“delivering cloth.”
creak! the door opened. an old man peered out through the crack. when he saw who had come, he was shocked. “xie qin?”
xie qin’s knees gave out and he leaned heavily on the door frame at his side.
“aren’t you already…” dead? the old man didn’t complete his question.
xie qin replied, “let’s talk inside.”
the old man quickly nodded and helped him stand. he closed the door only after confirming that nobody was watching them.
lang po leapt out from the shadows and hid at the corner of the wall by the back door. he was astounded. the courtyard that xie qin had just entered was none other than that of the si family silks!
and that old man was the same person who received that batch of cloth from the wen family textiles.
although he was shocked, this revelation also came as a pleasant surprise to lang po. he was invigorated and elated by this unexpected turn of events. he had lain in wait for so many days without hearing a single squeak from the si residence. today, his efforts have finally borne fruit, giving him a glimpse of his prey. who wouldn’t be excited as well?
he instructed the guard beside him, "return and report to prince rong."
"yes!" the guard merged back into the shadows after receiving his order, while lang po infiltrated the si residence.
after xie qin was brought into the house, the old man quickly locked the door.
inside the room, there seemed to be two lit candlesticks. one of them was suddenly extinguished while the other was picked up by someone. the light from that candle dimmed as that person slowly moved away until it couldn't be seen at all, leaving the room pitch black.
from the way the light moved, it seemed as if the person holding the candlestick was moving further and further away. but how big could the room be? it was at most 50 square meters large.
how could that person be slowly moving into the distance?
lang po stealthily leapt onto the roof of that room and eased out a tile so that he could peer inside.
the room was piled high with boxes of every size, but it also contained nothing but boxes. even… xie qin and that old man had disappeared.
could there be a hidden chamber? impossible! lang po dismissed his own guess.
previously, he had already sneaked into this room and checked every corner, but had found no sign of any hidden passage or mechanism. then how did those people disappear without rhyme nor reason?
just as he was puzzling over it, a small stone suddenly flew over from the distance and headed unerringly for his head. luckily, he had already detected it and avoided it with a twist of his body before jumping down from the roof. using the light from the surrounding lanterns, he clearly spotted the person who had thrown that stone at him.
wen xian!
wen xian was dressed neatly in an inky-black robe, his dizi on his belt as always. he scanned lang po from head to toe with a surprised expression. “so it’s prince rong’s personal guard. why would you be here so late at night?”
lang po looked at him sternly, with narrowed eyes. “young master wen? why are you here?”
he smiled and stepped forward. “this is my place. is it strange for me to appear here?”
“your place?” lang po was shocked. he had surveilled this place for so long, but had never seen wen xian appear.
wen xian then leisurely started to explain. “i have always operated the si family silks, but because business is not good, it’s been languishing here just like that and wholly managed by other people. i come back to visit when i’m free, but never expected that when i came back today, i would chance upon someone snooping on my roof during my insomniac night walk. thus, i threw a stone at that person, not expecting it to be prince rong’s guard. please forgive me for my offence.”
“none taken!”
“however… you haven’t answered my question. what are you doing here so late at night? and you’ve even climbed up onto the roof.” that last sentence was as shrill and as jarring as the sound of a sharp knife sliding across a metal plate.
although lang po was an uneducated fellow, when it came to serious work, he wasn’t like those junior guards who would panic at any little obstacle. with a straight face, he answered, “young master wen, please don’t misunderstand. this one only came here while chasing after a thief. that thief had stolen something important from our prince.”
“a thief?” wen xian looked around them. “if a thief had stolen something from prince rong, we must search carefully. however, i wonder where this thief had run off to?”
“right into the room behind me.”
“oh?” wen xian was puzzled. “that room is merely a storeroom for cloth; it can’t hide anyone at all.”
creak! the door behind him suddenly opened.
that old man walked out, holding an extinguished candlestick in one hand, and pressing at his own bleeding forehead with the other. when he noticed the people in the courtyard, he hurried over and asked, bowing. “young master? why aren’t you resting so late at night?”
wen xian asked him instead, “uncle wang, this gentleman said that he saw a thief enter the cloth storeroom. did you see anything?”
“was there a thief? i didn’t see anything. i was just inside checking how much cloth we have stocked. i accidentally knocked over the candlestick and almost broke my head in a fall!”
his forehead was still bleeding. he hurriedly continued. “i was inside alone and never saw anyone else enter.”
lang po glared at uncle wang, naturally not believing him. he snatched away his candlestick and took out his own firestarter to light it, then turned around to enter that storeroom. the storeroom was rectangular and piled high with boxes of all sizes. he carefully checked the room, not neglecting even the little boxes that held bolts of cloth.
however, he found nothing, not even a secret passage.
wen xian walked inside. he didn’t even frown when he saw the opened and ransacked boxes, only remarking, “you’ve seen for yourself. this room contains nothing but cloth. there’s nowhere to hide anyone. maybe you saw wrongly and let the thief get away by mistake.”
faced with the empty room, lang po’s face turned black and the hand holding the candlestick tightened. at last, he could only cup his hands and apologies to wen xian with a bow. “my apologies for disturbing you, young master wen. maybe… i really saw wrongly. since the thief isn’t here, i’ll bid you farewell.”
“i won’t see you off then!”
after lang po went out, he immediately disappeared with a single leap.
when he was sure that lang po had really left, wen xian’s placid expression finally darkened slightly as he asked uncle wang, “where is he?”
“don’t worry, young master. xie qin is fine.”
[1] king yama is the ruler of hell.
