Yan Liangrong’s words rang out with such force that they somewhat eased the anxious hearts of Lin Shuang’er and Wan Jie.
“Then…” Lin Shuang’er asked, “Will we be arrested?”
Yan Liangrong answered firmly, “No.”
“But we killed someone…”
“You were coerced,” Yan Liangrong said. “And I suspect you were drugged.”
What?
Lin Shuang’er and Wan Jie both looked up in shock.
Yan Liangrong did her best to remain calm. “From what you told me just now, your behavior became unusually aggressive after the first round. You fought desperately to come in first. And Lin Shuang’er, didn’t you say that you had no strength left after the grape round, yet you felt strangely excited? That kind of emotion doesn’t fit your nature. I suspect they put something in the grapes.”
Yan Liangrong took both their hands. “In any case, go home for now and protect yourselves. Those people have been committing evil deeds for years without facing justice. They must have grown complacent, so they won’t be watching you closely. Remember what I told you today. I, the judicial authorities, and the Kaifeng Prefecture will do everything in our power to bring those villains to justice and make them pay for their crimes with their lives.”
“Really?” Lin Shuang’er and Wan Jie still found it hard to believe. “Were we really drugged?”
Yan Liangrong nodded. “I’m highly confident that you were.”
People who killed to survive, who fought desperately to be the first because their lives depended on it—she was certain that after killing someone, they would not turn around and torment themselves like this.
Knowing that they had been drugged made Lin Shuang’er and Wan Jie feel a little better, but they were still suffering terribly. Fortunately, Yan Liangrong’s unwavering certainty that the culprits would be caught helped steady their frightened hearts.
The two women nodded, encouraged each other, and hurried home.
Only after they disappeared from sight did Yan Liangyu take Yan Liangrong’s hand.
“Sis, loosen your grip. You’ve squeezed your hand until it’s bleeding.”
Yan Liangrong’s body went limp, and she leaned against Yan Liangyu. She had been forcing herself to hold on so that Lin Shuang’er and Wan Jie would feel reassured and remain confident.
This whole affair had gone far beyond the limits of what she believed the world was capable of.
Yan Liangrong took a deep breath. “Let’s go home and tell Tongshu.”
Yan Liangyu nodded hard.
In truth, she was in the same state. This incident had exceeded the limits of her understanding as well, and her legs were trembling beneath her.
Those girls were truly pitiful—and far too kind.
Only kind people would remain trapped in guilt, forcing themselves toward death or madness.
This time, following Yan Liangrong’s instructions, the carriage raced straight to the Yan residence.
Yan Liangrong and Yan Liangyu sat in silence during the journey, their hearts heavy.
Once they arrived, the two of them went directly to Yan Tongshu and repeated everything Lin Shuang’er had said, word for word, without changing a single detail.
When they finished, Yan Liangrong and Yan Liangyu both fell silent.
Even when studying, they had never remembered anything with such clarity, down to every word and detail.
The incident had surpassed the limits of their imaginations. It was so shocking, so disturbing, that every word and sentence had been etched into their minds, impossible to erase or forget.
Yan Tongshu remained stunned for a long while after hearing it all.
How could there be people in this world so vile, so vicious, so utterly depraved?
Those beasts actually enjoyed gambling—with other people’s lives.
Were they afraid?
No. They were despicable and cruel, targeting only the weak.
They even carefully selected kindhearted “soft targets,” afraid that they might encounter someone tough enough to fight back and expose them.
Yan Tongshu closed her eyes and took a deep breath.
Calm down. Calm down. The most important thing now was to remain calm.
The priority was not anger or cursing. It was to capture those beasts as quickly as possible, bring them to justice, and send them to the execution ground to be beheaded.
Yet even after repeating this to herself again and again, Yan Tongshu was still trembling with rage.
After a long while, she opened her eyes and carefully went over everything she had just heard.
Yan Tongshu drew a deep breath, her hands gripping the arms of the chair so tightly that her knuckles turned white.
“The city gates close promptly at half past the Xu hour. That means we set up the stage in the evening each time, and after the performance, we rush back into the city before the gates close. Once night falls, the villagers all follow more or less the same routine, and their bedtimes are nearly identical. Everyone goes to sleep after the city gates close. Even if a few people went to bed early, it would be impossible for so many girls to have done so.
“After drugging the girls unconscious and abducting them, the perpetrators then returned them before dawn. The city gates open during the Mao hour, when the sky is already beginning to brighten. So they must have committed these crimes during the period when the gates were closed. In other words, the estates belonging to these so-called ‘nobles’ are outside the city, not inside it. Considering the time it took to travel back and forth, the estate where the crimes took place probably isn’t far from the village.”
Yan Liangrong and Yan Liangyu nodded.
Exactly. They had been too shocked to think calmly before, but now that they analyzed the situation, it did make sense.
Yan Tongshu continued, “There are also those dogs. They’re highly trained, understand human speech, and are extremely aggressive. They attack whoever they’re told to attack, enter when ordered to enter, and stop when ordered to stop. They’re even more obedient than hunting dogs kept by wealthy merchants. And there are so many of them. They must be unusual animals—not something an ordinary person could possess. All of these details can point us toward the identities of the culprits.”
Yan Tongshu paused, then said, “Lin Shuang’er and the others clearly became excited after the first round. Their minds grew unnaturally active, and their deepest desires were brought to the surface. I suspect the drug was applied to the grapes. The harder they tried, the more of it they consumed, and as their rationality faded, they became increasingly unhinged.
“In the second round, they were made to fight one another. I think the perpetrators had two goals. First, they enjoyed watching beautiful women fight. Second, strenuous exercise would accelerate the effects of the drug and make the girls more aggressive. By the third round, they had completely broken through their sense of shame. By the fourth, they would be desperately wagging their tails and begging for mercy, currying favor with the perpetrators like pet dogs.”
Unfortunately, Lin Shuang’er and the others had been too agitated to explain everything in detail, so this was all Yan Tongshu could deduce from their account.
Yan Tongshu said, “I need to speak with Lin Shuang’er and the others.”
Yan Liangrong immediately replied, “I arranged to contact them through the smallest silk shop in North Lane if anything happened. If you want to meet them, Gao Qi can deliver the message. He’s already made friends with the local ruffians, and they trust him completely. He can go play cards with them and casually drop a few hints. No one will suspect anything.”
Yan Tongshu made her decision at once. “Good. Have Gao Qi go tomorrow. We’ll arrange to meet them during the hour of Shen in the afternoon.”
The next day, Yan Tongshu made a brief appearance at the Kaifeng Prefecture before taking Pearl and Jinbao out of the city to fly kites.
Everyone in the capital knew that she loved to have fun, so no one would suspect anything.
Yan Tongshu sat inside the carriage and lifted the curtain.
“Jinbao, take us around the area once. Find an open place, and then we’ll fly the kites.”
“Sure,” Jinbao replied with a smile.
He was still young and couldn’t hide things well. Even though he knew they mustn’t give themselves away, his nervousness made the smile on his face stiffen again and again.
Pearl couldn’t bear to watch any longer. She lifted the curtain, climbed up beside the carriage driver, and punched Jinbao several times. Jinbao immediately relaxed.
Pearl gave a small snort. “You really are asking to be hit.”
Jinbao grinned at Pearl, tugged on the reins, and guided the carriage in a circle around the area.
There were actually quite a few estates nearby.
Land in Kaifeng was expensive, and so were house prices. Many people therefore liked to purchase one or two residences in the suburbs to accommodate relatives, friends, or secret mistresses.
It was somewhat like a cluster of modern suburban villas.
Yan Tongshu climbed down from the carriage and released a kite, letting the wind carry it into the sky.
At this distance, the round trip would take less than an hour. That should be just enough time for those people to carry out their operation.
Yan Tongshu surveyed the scattered residences from afar. At that distance, the whole area appeared to be filled with splendid mansions. In reality, however, once one came closer, it was easy to see that the houses stood far apart from one another, offering excellent privacy. No one would know who lived across from them or what they were doing.
But the culprit might not be in this particular area. This district lay east of Kaifeng; there was another one to the south, roughly the same distance from Rao Village and Yu Village.
What sort of people kept dogs, practiced archery, gambled away fortunes, acted with complete impunity, and treated human lives as worthless?
From Lin Shuang’er’s description, the perpetrators also seemed to be quite young.
The children of wealthy families?
The children of high-ranking officials?
As Yan Tongshu pondered this, Pearl tugged at her arm.
“Master, you’re distracted. The kite is almost out of sight!”
Yan Tongshu looked up and saw that Pearl was right. The string was nearly at its end.
She quickly grabbed the last section of string and began reeling it in.
Suddenly, the little black speck in the sky plunged straight down.
Yan Tongshu thought she had seen wrong. She blinked, then rubbed her eyes.
It was real. For some inexplicable reason, her kite had dropped vertically and disappeared.
Why?
Had its wings broken?
“Come on. Let’s go look for it.”
Yan Tongshu set off with Pearl and Jinbao in the direction the kite had fallen. They had covered less than half the distance when the hurried thunder of hooves rang out. Several Divine Guard soldiers surrounded her.
The Divine Guard Army’s Commander-in-Chief, Zhuo Yue, sat astride his horse. Taking a closer look, he realized it was Yan Tongshu and shouted in astonishment, “Lord Yan!”
Yan Tongshu stared at Zhuo Yue’s hands. His rough, broad palms held her kite. There was a hole in it, clearly made by an arrow.
Yan Tongshu demanded, “Why did you shoot my kite?”
This was the beautiful butterfly kite she had spent three whole days and nights painting in the spring. Today was the first day she had taken it out to fly.
Zhuo Yue dismounted and saluted Yan Tongshu before saying, “Lord Yan, that is the question this subordinate ought to be asking you. Why were you flying a kite near the Divine Guard Army’s defensive exercise? When your paper kite went up, our brothers thought the enemy had sent up a signal.”
Yan Tongshu was stunned. “The enemy?”
Zhuo Yue bellowed, “That’s right! Today is the day of the Divine Guard Army and Divine Martial Army’s offensive and defensive exercise. The Divine Martial Army is the enemy.”
In the capital, the army responsible for the outer security of the imperial palace was known as the Shence Army, while internal security was handled by the Shenwei Army.
The current Commander-in-Chief of the Shence Army was Deng Xuanying. The Shenwei Army had always been the emperor’s personal force, passed down by the previous emperor into the current emperor’s hands.
The Divine Guard Army worked with the Kaifeng Prefecture to maintain security in Bianjing.
The Divine Martial Army was responsible for the security of the troops stationed around the capital.
All of these forces were collectively known as the Imperial Army. Every year, they conducted alternating offensive and defensive exercises. Regardless of who won or lost, neither side was willing to concede defeat.
Yan Tongshu knew she was in the wrong, but she refused to back down. “Even so, your men damaged my kite. Besides, last time I gave you a warrant ordering you to go to Gao Shengmei’s grave, you never went. If we’re speaking broadly, that counts as dereliction of duty.”
Zhuo Yue protested, “Lord Yan, let’s deal with one matter at a time. Bringing up old accounts is going too far.”
Yan Tongshu glared at him.
Zhuo Yue lowered his head. “This subordinate admits his fault.”
After thinking for a moment, Zhuo Yue broke into a hearty laugh. “Then, to make amends, Lord Yan, why don’t you come and take a look?”
Yan Tongshu asked, “The offensive and defensive exercise?”
“Of course!” Zhuo Yue declared. “You like excitement, don’t you, Lord Yan? Come along. This subordinate will take you to see a truly spectacular show.”
Yan Tongshu considered it for a moment before suddenly asking, “Does the army keep dogs?”
“Why are you asking that?” Zhuo Yue said. He was broad-minded and straightforward, and gave the matter little thought. “Of course we do. We keep dogs and horses, and even cats—specially trained to catch rats.”
A flash of light swiftly crossed Yan Tongshu’s eyes. Then she smiled brightly. “All right. Let’s go take a look.”
With that, Yan Tongshu turned to Jinbao. “Jinbao, go bring the carriage around.”
“Yes.”
The carriage followed Zhuo Yue to the forested hills ahead. The Divine Guard Army and the Divine Martial Army had sealed off a small mountain. The Divine Martial Army would defend it, while the Divine Guard Army would attack.
The exercise would last two hours. If the Divine Guard Army captured the mountaintop within that time, it would win. If the Divine Martial Army held out until time ran out, then the victory would belong to the defenders.
Zhuo Yue led Yan Tongshu into the restricted area and up a high slope from which they could watch the battle.
Zhuo Yue introduced Yan Tongshu to the Divine Martial Army’s Commander-in-Chief, Feng Shen, who was watching the exercise nearby. Upon learning that she was Lord Yan of the Kaifeng Prefecture, Feng Shen greeted her solemnly and gave up the best viewing position.
“Lord Yan, please.”
Yan Tongshu walked over, with Pearl and Jinbao following behind her.
The three of them looked toward the silent mountain forest.
They were too far away. The Divine Martial soldiers were concealed among the trees, leaving no trace of their presence.
The Divine Guard soldiers, on the other hand, could be seen. They were stationed at the foot of the mountain and entering the forest in groups.
After one incense stick’s time, Yan Tongshu scratched her cheek.
Were they not going to fight?
All she could see was the Divine Guard vanguard carefully feeling its way uphill. One squad was even leading military hounds as they searched for traps and ambushes.
After two incense sticks’ time, Yan Tongshu began scratching the other side of her face.
Pearl and Jinbao secretly yawned.
Yan Tongshu glanced to the left at Zhuo Yue, then to the right at Feng Shen.
Both men were watching with great interest, their fighting spirit high.
Yan Tongshu’s expression stiffened.
Was she the only one who failed to understand the appeal?
Nothing had even begun. They were still in the stage of probing, then probing again, then probing some more.
Sure enough, she had no talent for military affairs.
After the lengthy period of testing and maneuvering, Yan Tongshu was already nodding off when the blare of a charge suddenly shook the air. Countless banners rose, and the sounds of slaughter reverberated through the forest, sending the birds in the sky fleeing in every direction.
Another incense stick’s time passed.
Yan Tongshu looked up at the sky.
Once again, she gained a profound understanding of the fact that she had no talent for warfare.
At last, a long blast of the horn announced the beginning of the general assault.
Yan Tongshu immediately perked up and looked toward the mountain. It turned out that during the long period of probing, the Divine Guard Army had already occupied several crucial strategic positions without anyone noticing.
The sounds of fighting and clashing weapons erupted.
Several bright dog barks rang out among them.
Then came the sounds of slaughter and combat.
The sounds of combat and shouts.
Shouts and curses.
The ringing clash of metal against metal.
There was fighting in the east, struggling in the west, fierce combat on the slopes, and clashes in the hollows.
The chaos left Yan Tongshu completely unable to make sense of anything.
“Excellent!” Zhuo Yue roared. “That direction! Circle around from behind and cut off their long snake formation!”
A long snake formation?
Yan Tongshu stared at the mountain.
Then she stared again.
Then she narrowed her eyes and looked even harder.
She still could not find it.
The mountain was enormous, and they were too far away. There was fighting everywhere.
All she could make out was chaos. As for the troop deployments and tactical ingenuity, she could not see a single thing.
Before Zhuo Yue had even finished speaking, Feng Shen let out a derisive laugh beside him.
“They’ve been lured in too deeply, haven’t they? Serves them right!”
Lured in too deeply?
Yan Tongshu’s eyes widened, utterly bewildered.
East, west, north, south—up, down, left, right—which direction had the enemy been lured into?
She looked toward Pearl and Jinbao. The two were standing where they were, shoulders pressed together, eyes closed as they dozed.
Yan Tongshu struggled to keep her eyelids from drooping.
No one knew how much time had passed. At the very last moment, the Divine Guard Army stormed the hilltop and seized the Divine Martial Army’s flag.
Feng Shen’s face immediately turned black.
Zhuo Yue threw back his head and laughed, his booming laughter making the slope beneath their feet tremble.
He moved close to Feng Shen and delivered the killing blow right to his face. “General Feng, what do you have to say now? Who was it that bragged two days ago that the Divine Martial Army had just received a batch of elite equipment and would surely wipe out my entire Divine Guard Army this time?”
Feng Shen’s bull-like eyes gleamed with murderous intent. “It was only an exercise. We couldn’t use real weapons. Our new equipment showed less than one-tenth of its true power!”
“Oh, really?” Zhuo Yue slung an arm around Feng Shen’s shoulders. “Brother Feng, a loss is a loss. You can win it back next time. But refusing to admit defeat is a matter of character.”
Zhuo Yue was thirty-two, while Feng Shen was thirty-three.
Normally, he called him General Feng. The moment Feng Shen lost, he deliberately called him by the younger form of address, Brother Feng. It was even more infuriating than rubbing salt in the wound.
Feng Shen yanked his arm down, exerting force as he secretly struggled against Zhuo Yue.
Did Zhuo Yue look like the kind of man who would tolerate that?
The Divine Guard Army and the Divine Martial Army had just fought a major battle ahead of them. Naturally, they couldn’t let this smaller battle go missing.
Sure enough, the two went from secretly competing against each other to openly throwing punches.
The soldiers from both armies standing guard nearby also dropped the swords they carried and charged at one another.
They weren’t allowed to kill or injure anyone, so they simply beat each other half to death instead!
The military dogs tethered on either side barked several times at one another before lunging into the fray.
The scene was spectacularly chaotic.
Pearl and Jinbao jolted awake. They hurriedly pulled Yan Tongshu into hiding so the three of them could watch.
For the three complete novices, this close-quarters fight was far more entertaining than the battle earlier.
They crouched to one side, watching with great interest.
Both sides fought fiercely, and neither could gain the upper hand.
They continued until Meng Zheng and Wu Baizhang, the deputy commander of the Divine Martial Army, returned on horseback.
Meng Zheng looked toward Yan Tongshu.
Yan Tongshu stood up and waved at him.
Wu Baizhang’s voice boomed like thunder. “What are you doing? Stop—all of you!”
The soldiers of both armies had already fought themselves into a frenzy and could not hear him at all.
Meng Zheng and Wu Baizhang simultaneously leaped down from their horses. Seeing the tangled mass of fighters, they forced their way in with brute strength, knocking one man flat with every punch.
After making one round of the battlefield, they had finally managed to calm both sides down.
The two military dogs, however, were still locked in a vicious struggle.
Meng Zheng looked toward the dogs’ instructor. That instructor’s face was swollen and bruised from the fight as well. He raised a finger to his lips and blew a sharp whistle.
The military dog from the Divine Guard Army froze at the sound. Its ears twitched, and it stopped.
The instructor from the Divine Martial Army hurriedly called his own dog back.
Zhuo Yue and Feng Shen separately apologized to their commanders.
But both men were stubborn as oxen. Their mouths offered apologies, yet there was not the slightest hint of remorse on their faces.
Wu Baizhang noticed Yan Tongshu at that moment. His old face flushed red, and he turned to bark at Feng Shen, “All you do is let outsiders watch us make fools of ourselves!”
Feng Shen gave an awkward smile.
Wu Baizhang mounted his horse and ordered, “Back to camp!”
The Divine Martial Army answered in unison, “Yes, sir!”
Meng Zheng came over to Yan Tongshu and asked, looking down at her, “Why are you here?”
Yan Tongshu pointed at Zhuo Yue and complained, “He shot a hole in my kite—the one I put so much effort into making, the one that was exquisite beyond compare!”
Zhuo Yue was stunned. Why had Lord Yan turned against him again?
She was simply impossible to predict.
Zhuo Yue roared, “Lord Yan, you agreed to come watch the battle. We were supposed to let this matter go!”
Yan Tongshu asked, perfectly reasonable, “Did I ever explicitly say that?”
Zhuo Yue was speechless.
Yan Tongshu stared solemnly at him. “You have to compensate me.”
Pearl and Jinbao immediately chimed in, “That’s right. You have to compensate her.”
Zhuo Yue wanted to curse, but Meng Zheng was giving him an unmistakable warning with his eyes. He didn’t dare.
Zhuo Yue suddenly remembered the last time Lord Yan had issued a written order. He had taken it to Meng Zheng for approval and been given a thorough scolding.
Later, the emperor had personally summoned him and made it clear that Lord Yan’s orders were equivalent to the emperor’s own presence. There was no need to seek further approval. Zhuo Yue had been reprimanded by the emperor too.
Forget it, forget it. He couldn’t afford to provoke her.
Zhuo Yue snorted. “Fine. How do you want me to compensate you?”
Yan Tongshu pointed at the sturdy, powerful military dog with the alert, intelligent eyes. “I want that one.”
“No!” Zhuo Yue bellowed.
That was a military dog, not his personal property.
Meng Zheng looked at Yan Tongshu in confusion, silently asking with his eyes, Are you investigating the case?
Yan Tongshu nodded.
Zhuo Yue failed to notice anything unusual. “Lord Yan, be reasonable. That’s a military dog, not an ordinary pet. Even if I gave it to you, it wouldn’t listen to you. It only obeys Little Jiang.”
A soldier named Jiang Shan stepped forward. “That’s right, Lord Yan. Blackback and I have eaten and slept together for more than a year. Only then did we develop a bond like that between brothers. Even if he were handed over to you, he wouldn’t obey your commands.”
“I see.” Yan Tongshu lowered her gaze to Blackback, studying the powerful military dog.
Military dogs were different from ordinary dogs, and even from hunting dogs. The two most obvious differences were that military dogs had truly killed people, giving them colder, sharper eyes, and that they generally belonged to a unified breed: native dogs with long bodies and slender limbs, skilled at running and tracking. Only a small number belonged to other breeds.
As for hunting dogs, every household had its own preferences and kept different breeds. At most, a family would raise two or three.
Lin Shuang’er’s description had been vague, but judging from the degree of panic those girls had shown, there must have been quite a number of dogs surrounding them at the time.
Yan Tongshu asked, “Do all the military dogs in your army only obey their handlers?”
Zhuo Yue had a naturally impatient temperament and spoke loudly. “Of course. The military dogs of our Divine Guard Army recognize their masters. If just anyone could command them, what would happen on the battlefield? Someone could trick them away. How could we allow that?”
“All right, then.” Yan Tongshu pretended to be disappointed, then put on an expression of intense curiosity. She moved closer to Jiang Shan. “Come on, brother. Tell me about it. How do you train them? Why is he so obedient? If I buy a dog, could you train it to be like this too?”
Training methods for military dogs counted as a military secret. Jiang Shan looked toward Meng Zheng. Meng Zheng nodded, and only then did Jiang Shan relax. He began explaining the finer points of dog training to Yan Tongshu in detail.
Meng Zheng had someone bring Yan Tongshu a horse. She rode beside Jiang Shan as they traveled.
Pearl and Jinbao followed at the very back in a carriage.
Jiang Shan was a veteran when it came to training dogs. Once he began talking about the field he loved, his face lit up and he became impossible to stop.
“Lord Yan, let me tell you. Dogs are animals with a very strong sense of hierarchy. It’s certainly right for you to build an emotional bond with one, to treat it like a brother. But the most important thing is establishing authority in its eyes. So, right from the beginning, you have to make it submit.
“When I first trained Blackback, I always spoke to him gently and gave him his commands in a soft voice. If he made a mistake, I would lightly stroke him and patiently teach him again. But if he kept making the same mistake, I had to change my expression and punish him severely…”
Jiang Shan chattered on and on. Yan Tongshu praised him from time to time, which only made him more animated. Once he started talking, there was no shutting him up.
Partway through, Yan Tongshu asked, “I noticed that you seem to control Blackback with whistles?”
