He Minghu raised the coarse porcelain bowl and tipped the remaining half bowl of Xifeng liquor down his throat in one go.
The fiery liquid burned its way down his gullet, spreading a wave of comfort through his body.
"Now that's a drink!"
Ma Jin'an lifted his delicate white jade cup and took a slow, measured sip.
"General He, once the Khan's cavalry tramples Zhenbeiguan, this city will be ours to control."
Ma Jin'an flicked his wrist, unfurling his folding fan with a sharp snap, and began to fan himself leisurely.
"That girl Xu Qinghuan, strutting around all high and mighty with her imperial commissioner status."
"These past months, she's stripped us of our military command. Once the city gates fall, her commissioner's residence..."
He Minghu grinned, the scars on his face twisting together in a hideous scowl.
"The gold, silver, and treasures in that residence are all yours, Lord Ma."
"As for the three thousand warhorses of the Crack Assault Battalion and those firearm blueprints that blacksmith Su Mu cooked up—those are mine!"
He snatched up the wine jar and sloshed liquor into both their bowls.
"And that woman Xu Qinghuan!"
He Minghu slammed his palm onto the edge of the table.
"I'll flay her alive myself! I'll hang her head on the city wall as a chamber pot!"
"She needs to learn who really calls the shots in Zhenbeiguan!"
Ma Jin'an nodded in agreement, his wrinkled face bunching up.
"Formidable, General He. Once this is done, Tie Lanshan won't hold the position of Zhenbei commander for long—there'll be a new man for the job."
The two men were lost in their feverish dream of carving up Zhenbei City.
A noise came from the side door behind the study.
Creak.
The wooden door slid open a crack.
Old Gou hunched his back and squeezed through the gap.
The moment he entered, he dropped to both knees, slamming them hard onto the blue bricks.
Thud! Thud! Thud!
He kowtowed three times with real force, leaving a reddened bruise on his forehead, dust clinging to it.
He Minghu and Ma Jin'an paused.
Ma Jin'an set down his jade cup and pointed his folded fan at Old Gou on the floor.
"Lift your head. Did it go smoothly?"
Old Gou trembled with excitement, scrambling on all fours to the writing desk, kneeling there and rubbing his hands together.
"My lords! Done! All done!"
Old Gou waved his hands around wildly in the air, spittle flying.
"Your servant followed your instructions to the word and passed the message along to Manager Wu at the Wu Teahouse."
"That manager Wu nearly knelt down to thank me when he heard it!"
He Minghu leaned forward, palms pressed against the table, urging him on.
"Spit it out! What did he say?"
Old Gou swallowed hard, his Adam’s apple bobbing, greed glinting in his eyes.
"Manager Wu said the Khan's army is heading south in force! This is a monumental achievement!"
Old Gou's voice rose as he spoke, eventually cracking with excitement, his hands gesticulating wildly.
"Manager Wu promised on the spot!"
"When all is done, a hundred taels of gold! And a title—a thousand-household marquis for your humble servant!"
At the word "marquis," Old Gou's eyes gleamed with a green light.
Drool dripped from his chin onto his collar.
He was already daydreaming—how to spend that hundred taels of gold, which street to buy his marquis's mansion in the capital.
He Minghu threw his head back and roared with laughter upon hearing this.
"Ha ha ha ha! Good! The Helian are generous!"
"A hundred taels of gold and a thousand-household marquis! If a messenger boy gets that much, our riches—where could they possibly run?"
Ma Jin'an joined in the laughter.
He tapped his folded fan against his palm, looking down at Old Gou.
"That was a clever errand. But Xu Qinghuan is a sinister woman."
"On your way back, did you leave any loose ends? Her residence's secret agents aren't to be underestimated."
At this, Old Gou straightened his back instantly.
He thumped his chest, thumping it hard to make his point.
"Rest assured, my lords! Your servant has been in this trade for years—no traces left behind!"
Old Gou began to boast, counting off his clever tricks with his fingers.
"Your servant took a long detour. First, I picked out sugar-coated hawthorn sticks from the vendor on East Market Street."
"Then I went to Old Zhang's smithy to gossip about hoe prices. Passed by the mutton soup stall and shot the breeze with the owner about grain costs."
"I stuck to the busiest places!"
Old Gou lowered his voice, putting on a fawning air, his face full of self-satisfied cunning.
"It's what I call counter-tail surveillance! Even if Xu Qinghuan sends someone to check on me, all they'd see is a man buying things—no one could find a fault!"
"Not even her spies with a thousand eyes could see through it!"
Ma Jin'an nodded approvingly after hearing all this.
"Good. Cunning in the details—you've got the makings of a real talent. When the army enters the city, I'll personally commend your efforts."
Ma Jin'an waved him away dismissively.
"Enough. Go back to your room and keep dreaming about that marquis title."
"Stay put these next few days. Don't wander! When the fires start outside, we'll have need of your services."
Old Gou gave repeated thanks, kowtowed twice more, and backed out of the study.
The door closed again.
The draft filtering through the crack was sealed off completely.
The room fell silent.
The cup of Xifeng liquor in Ma Jin'an's hand tilted slightly without his noticing.
The clear wine spilled over the rim, falling onto the back of his hand.
He didn't wipe it away.
Ma Jin'an's smile was slowly fading, his skin tightening until it vanished entirely.
He stared unblinkingly at his own hand.
He Minghu was tearing into a roasted chicken leg, chewing noisily, grease smeared across his lips.
Sensing the shift in the atmosphere, he turned his head to look at Ma Jin'an, speaking with a mouthful.
"Lord Ma, what's with the daze? The Helian are about to move! We need to muster our men and get ready to open the city gates."
Ma Jin'an didn't acknowledge him.
He slowly set the cup down, his gaze fixed on the map of the northern territories hanging on the wall.
His voice was tight, carrying an eerie chill.
"General He."
"Have you ever heard of the Helian making someone a marquis?"
He Minghu blinked.
He swallowed the chicken in his mouth and wiped his mouth with the back of his greasy hand.
"What marquis?"
"A thousand-household marquis!"
Ma Jin'an pointed toward the door, his finger trembling.
"When the Helian reward services, they only care about cattle, pasture, and slaves!"
Ma Jin'an stepped forward, staring He Minghu down, his eyes nearly bulging from their sockets.
"A hidden agent shopkeeper lurking in the city—how could he promise a 'thousand-household marquis'—a title unique to the Great Qian Dynasty?!"
The fat on He Minghu's face quivered.
The scar, like a centipede, drained of color, turning into a pale dead worm.
The half-eaten chicken leg in his hand dropped with a thud onto the table, rolled, and landed on the floor, coated in dust.
"What..."
He Minghu opened his mouth, but no words came out.
Ma Jin'an disregarded him entirely, turned, and hurried to the bronze basin in the corner.
He plunged both hands into it, scooped up cold water, and splashed it roughly across his face.
Drops clung to his chin and tip of his nose, streaming down, soaking a dark splotch into his collar.
Ma Jin'an paced the room, each footstep pounding on both men's taut nerves.
"A thousand-household marquis... a hundred taels of gold..."
Ma Jin'an repeated those words over and over in his mouth, his pace growing faster and his voice increasingly shrill.
He stopped in his tracks.
His entire body froze in place.
Ma Jin'an lifted his head, staring at He Minghu, his eyes filled with terror.
"Wu Ji Tea Shop—that Wu Zhanggui was all part of Xu Qinghuan's trap!"
He Minghu staggered back a step, his lower back slamming heavily against the rosewood table.
The table shuddered violently, the jars of wine rocking so hard that liquor spilled across its surface.
"You mean…"
He Minghu's voice trembled, uncontrollably.
"Lao Gou's entire trip—he walked right into Xu Qinghuan's snare?"
Ma Jin'an grabbed fistfuls of his own hair.
"It's worse than a snare!"
Ma Jin'an was completely losing his composure.
"Use your head! Hélían's secret agents hidden in the city—how could they so easily promise gold, silver, and noble titles to a mere errand boy?"
"Would the Khan's loyal men casually leak top-secret intelligence like 'the great army is marching south' to some servant they hadn't even met face-to-face?!"
The more Ma Jin'an spoke, the more his heart raced with dread, his whole body shaking.
"Every word Wu Zhanggui said was a trap, digging deeper into Lao Gou's greed!"
"In his hurry to claim the reward, Lao Gou must have spilled every detail of our planned support inside the city!"
He Minghu gasped for breath, like a cornered beast.
He flipped the table in front of him.
Boom!
The rosewood desk crashed to the floor, wine jars shattered, and liquor mixed with chicken bones splattered everywhere.
"Xu Qinghuan!"
"If she wants to drive us to the wall…"
He Minghu gritted his teeth, a rasping roar of a dying beast escaping his throat.
He grabbed his heavy blade, kicked open the door, and strode outside.
The sharp tip of the sword scraped across the blue brick floor, dragging out a trail of glaring sparks.
"I'll go gut her alive right now!"
