The two of them spoke at the same time, then fell silent at the same time, both turning their eyes toward Shi Huai.
Shi Huai looked at them and shifted slightly.
“Is there anyone else? If there is, come out together. Don’t keep appearing one at a time—it’s frightening.”
As soon as he finished speaking, another head rose above the wall.
This time, it belonged to an old man who looked to be in his sixties. His hair was streaked with white, his face lean and gaunt, and he wore a dark-brown short tunic with a gourd of wine hanging from his waist.
He drifted lightly down from the wall like a falling leaf, making no sound at all. When he landed, he did not even stir up a speck of dust.
The old man walked up to Shi Huai and took a token from his sleeve.
The token was black, with the character “Zhao” carved into it.
A man sent by Zhao Huan.
Shi Huai stared at the token, the corner of his mouth twitching faintly.
That seemingly carefree fool Zhao Huan actually knew enough to send someone to follow him in secret.
The old man put away the token, glanced at the people from the Shen and Lin families, then looked at the kidnappers lying on the ground. He stroked his beard.
“Young Master Shi, those who know the truth would say you’ve gone on a scholarly journey. Those who don’t would think you were making an inspection tour.”
Shi Huai was both amused and exasperated by his words.
Looking at the three guards before him, each from a different household and serving a different master, he suddenly found the whole situation rather absurd.
He was merely the illegitimate son of a fallen marquis’s household, yet when he left home to travel and study, three groups of people had secretly followed him.
Shen Jinghong had sent someone. Lin Huaiyuan had sent someone. Zhao Huan had sent someone too.
What about everyone else?
Had the Crown Prince sent anyone? Had the Third Prince? Gu Changning? Wang Ren?
Shi Huai rubbed his temples. “Take me back to the inn first. We’ll deal with everything else tomorrow.”
The three men nodded at the same time. They walked over to Shi Huai together, then stopped at the same moment.
The Shen and Zhao family guards glanced at the man from the Lin family. The Lin family guard expressionlessly stepped half a pace to the side.
The three men formed a triangle around Shi Huai, shielding him in the middle.
Shi Huai was escorted between them for several steps before suddenly stopping.
“Do you actually know about one another’s existence?”
The three men fell silent at the same time.
The young man from the Shen family was the first to speak. “We know.”
The adult from the Lin family nodded. “We know.”
The old man from the Zhao family stroked his beard. “We know.”
“If you knew, why did you keep it from one another? Appearing one by one from the tops of walls in the middle of the night—was that deliberate?”
The three men fell silent again.
This time, the Shen family guard said nothing, and neither did the Lin family guard. The old man from the Zhao family paused in stroking his beard and gave a dry cough.
Shi Huai took a deep breath. “Let’s go. We’ll return first. Qinghe must be worried sick.”
It took roughly the time needed to finish a cup of tea to walk from the abandoned courtyard to the inn.
Not one of the four spoke along the way.
At the entrance to the inn, Qinghe stood on the steps, stretching her neck as she peered toward the mouth of the alley. Tangerine crouched at her feet, its round eyes fixed on the same direction.
The moment Qinghe saw Shi Huai emerge from the alley, her legs gave way and she collapsed onto the steps. Covering her mouth, she burst into tears.
Tangerine shot out from beside her feet and raced to Shi Huai, rubbing its head frantically against his boots while crying, “Meow, meow.”
Shi Huai bent down and scooped Tangerine into his arms. Then he crouched before Qinghe and gently patted the top of her head twice.
“Don’t cry. I’m fine.”
Qinghe raised her head. When she saw the scratches on Shi Huai’s face and the marks left by the rope around his wrists, her sobs only grew louder.
“Young Master, what happened to your wrists? Who tied you up like that? I’ll go find him and fight him to the death!”
Shi Huai pulled her up from the ground. “They’ve already been captured. It’s all right. Go back and get some rest. We have to set out again early tomorrow.”
Qinghe nodded vigorously and hurriedly wiped her face with the back of her hand before following Shi Huai upstairs.
The three guards remained at the entrance of the inn. They looked at one another, but none of them showed any intention of leaving first.
The Shen family guard was the first to speak. “How are you planning to explain this to your masters?”
The Lin family guard replied expressionlessly, “We’ll tell them the truth.”
The Zhao family guard stroked his beard. “What else can we say? We can’t exactly tell them that none of the three families managed to keep him safe, can we?”
The three men fell silent again. After several breaths, they sighed in unison.
By the time Shen Jinghong received the news, he had already gone several days without a good night’s sleep.
There were dark circles beneath his eyes, and his haggard face made him look nothing like an eighteen-year-old.
The messenger pigeon had flown back from Qingyang Town, a small bamboo tube tied to its leg.
Shen Jinghong pulled the slip of paper from the tube and unfolded it. His eyes swept across the page, and his fingers suddenly clenched.
The handwriting on the note was so hurried and messy that it was almost illegible, but he could make out two lines clearly.
“Young Master Shi was attacked and kidnapped by unidentified individuals. This subordinate has rescued him. The young master is unharmed.”
Shen Jinghong’s hands trembled. He crumpled the note in his palm, which was soon slick with sweat.
“Someone.”
The guard outside pushed open the door and entered, kneeling on the floor. “What are your orders, Young Master?”
“Prepare a horse. We’re leaving the city.”
The guard froze. “Young Master, it’s nearly midnight. The city gates are closed.”
“Then we’ll leave first thing tomorrow morning—as soon as dawn breaks. No, we’ll go now and wait at the city gates.”
The guard acknowledged the order and withdrew.
Shen Jinghong sat in his chair and unfolded the crumpled note in his palm, reading it once more.
His eyes reddened, and his lips pressed into a thin line. His fingers gently stroked the paper, as though he could reach through it and feel Shi Huai’s warmth.
When Lin Huaiyuan received the news, he was in his study speaking with his son, Lin Zhilin.
Lin Zhilin was kneeling on the floor, his head lowered. Before him lay a copy of the Analects whose edges had been worn soft from repeated reading.
Lin Huaiyuan held a ruler in his hand and was lecturing him about the line, “The gentleman neither worries nor fears.”
A messenger pigeon flapped down onto the windowsill. Lin Huaiyuan set aside the ruler and walked over to remove the note from the bamboo tube. He unfolded it.
His expression changed at once.
Lin Zhilin secretly raised his head from where he knelt. Seeing his father’s livid face, his heart lurched. He had no idea what he had done to provoke such fury.
“Father, what happened?”
Lin Huaiyuan did not answer. He folded the note, tucked it into his sleeve, and walked to the desk. After sitting down, he picked up his brush, spread out a sheet of rice paper, thought for a moment, and began to write a letter.
Kneeling on the floor, Lin Zhilin watched his father write. The unease in his heart grew stronger and stronger.
“You may go back for now. Tomorrow morning, deliver this letter to the Yongning Marquis’s residence and place it directly in Marquis Shi’s hands.”
Lin Huaiyuan folded the letter he had written, slipped it into an envelope, and handed it to his son.
Lin Zhilin accepted it and lowered his eyes to the writing on the envelope.
“To Marquis Shi.”
He acknowledged the order and rose to leave. When he reached the doorway, he glanced back.
His father was leaning against the back of his chair with his eyes closed, seemingly lost in thought.
When Zhao Huan received the news, he was lying under the covers reading a popular storybook.
He had asked someone to bring it back from Jiangnan. It was the story of a scholar and a fox spirit.
The scholar’s situation was somewhat similar to his own. He was secretly in love with someone but did not dare confess his feelings, and spent every day distracted and heartsick.
The carrier pigeon was sent back by the man he had dispatched to follow Shi Huai.
