Zhao Huan unfolded the note, and the moment he read the first line, his whole body sprang up from the bed.
His head struck the crossbeam above him with a painful thud. He grimaced, but had no time to rub it. He continued reading.
When he saw the words “Young Master is safe,” he dropped heavily back onto the bed and let out a long breath. His back was already soaked with cold sweat.
He carefully folded the note and tucked it beneath his pillow. Then he lay back down and stared at the rafters overhead, unable to sleep any longer.
He tossed and turned for what felt like ages before suddenly sitting up. He put on his clothes, crept out of the room, climbed over the wall, and rode toward the city gates.
Xie Zhaolin stood atop the wall in his family’s rear courtyard, his figure straight as a pine beneath the moonlight.
He, too, clutched a note in his hand. He had taken it from the leg of a homing pigeon. The handwriting was hurried and messy, yet every stroke seemed carved into his heart.
He had wanted to follow personally, but his father had suddenly sent him to handle another matter, and he could not get away.
He had sent someone else in his place—the most capable man under his command.
And yet something had still gone wrong. Someone had still managed to get to Shi Huai.
Xie Zhaolin leaped down from the wall, tore the note into pieces, and watched the scraps drift away on the night breeze like butterflies.
He went to the stable, untied a horse, swung himself into the saddle, and rode toward the outskirts of the city.
Before dawn, people were already waiting outside the inn.
Shen Jinghong’s eyes were ringed with dark circles. He clutched the severed rope in his hand, and traces of blood from Shi Huai’s wrist still stained it.
He wound the rope around one finger, over and over. He would pull it tight, then loosen it; loosen it, then wind it tight again. The mechanical motion made him look like a toy wound by a key.
The Third Prince jumped down from his horse. He wore a somewhat worn dark-green robe, and his hair was tied back carelessly. He was not even wearing his crown—clearly, he had rushed out in haste.
His gaze lingered for a moment on the rope in Shen Jinghong’s hand. His lips pressed into a thin line, and his voice came out slightly taut.
“How is he?”
“Only superficial injuries. Nothing serious.”
Shen Jinghong tucked the rope into his sleeve and looked up at the Third Prince’s carefully composed expression.
“You certainly arrived quickly, Highness. It should take an entire night on horseback to get here from the palace, shouldn’t it?”
The Third Prince ignored the remark. He turned toward the inn, then stopped after taking two steps.
“What about the kidnappers? Have they been interrogated?”
Shen Jinghong followed behind him, lowering his voice.
“They’ve been questioned. They said someone contacted them through an intermediary. They don’t know who the employer was. Their job was only to abduct the person and deliver him to a designated location, where someone else would take over.”
“And the person who was supposed to take him?”
“Escaped. He was already gone by the time we arrived.”
The Third Prince stood in the inn’s main hall and looked toward the staircase.
Shi Huai’s room was at the very end of the second floor.
The door was shut. The corridor was quiet, without the slightest sound.
“Would Your Highness like to go up and see him?” Shen Jinghong asked from behind.
The Third Prince shook his head and sat down in a chair by the window.
“He only just fell asleep. Don’t disturb him.”
Shen Jinghong sat down across from him. The two men faced each other over an Eight Immortals table, neither saying a word.
The inn’s attendant emerged from the back room with a yawn. When he saw the two men sitting in the hall, he started in fright and quickly retreated.
Water had boiled in the kitchen. Steam forced the lid of the kettle up and down with a series of sharp bangs. The attendant hurriedly lifted the kettle from the stove.
His movements were too abrupt. Water splashed onto the flames, producing a sharp hiss and a plume of white smoke.
The Crown Prince’s men arrived before anyone else.
They had not come from the capital. They had already been stationed in Qingyang Town.
The Eastern Palace maintained covert agents throughout the various regions. Though Qingyang Town was small, its location was excellent. Merchants traveling north and south often stopped there to rest, making it a place with a steady flow of information.
The head of the covert network was a man surnamed Zhou, in his forties. On the surface, he was the proprietor of the town’s largest grain shop. In secret, he specialized in gathering information for the Crown Prince.
Shopkeeper Zhou stood in the woodshed behind the inn. Three men knelt before him, bound hand and foot. Their mouths were stuffed with rags, and all they could do was whimper incoherently.
He looked down at them expressionlessly, a dagger in his hand. Its blade gleamed coldly in the candlelight.
“I’ll ask you one more time. Who was your employer?”
The man in the middle shook his head frantically, terror filling his eyes. His face was smeared with tears and snot, and indistinct sounds came from his throat.
Shopkeeper Zhou crouched down and tapped the dagger against the man’s face, as though patting a ripe watermelon.
“Won’t talk? That’s fine. I have all the time in the world to wait you out.”
He stood and handed the dagger to the man behind him before turning and walking out of the woodshed.
Two people stood in the courtyard.
One was his subordinate. The other was the personal guard of the Crown Prince, who had ridden from the capital at breakneck speed.
He had been faster than the Third Prince. Moreover, the Crown Prince had received the news earlier. Even so, it had taken him most of the night to arrive, and two horses had run themselves to death on the journey.
“What did His Highness say?” Shopkeeper Zhou asked as his subordinate handed him a cloth. He wiped his hands.
The guard took a letter from inside his robe and passed it to him.
“His Highness said that he wants the living brought to him and the dead accounted for. The mastermind behind the kidnapping must be found. Not one person is to be overlooked.”
Shopkeeper Zhou unfolded the letter and glanced over it before folding it again and slipping it into his sleeve.
“Report to His Highness that the person has been rescued. He suffered only superficial injuries and is in no danger. The kidnappers are still being interrogated. We’ll report immediately once we have results.”
The guard nodded and turned to leave.
By the time the Crown Prince received the news in the Eastern Palace, it was already the evening of the following day. He had not slept for two days.
The messenger had ridden two horses to death, covering the more than two hundred li from Qingyang Town to the capital in less than four hours.
After reading the letter, the Crown Prince placed it on the table. His fingers remained pressed against the paper for a long while before he finally withdrew them.
“Someone come.”
A eunuch outside pushed open the door and knelt on the floor.
“Bring me the complete list of every covert agent under the Eastern Palace. I want to see it.”
The eunuch froze. He raised his head and glanced at the Crown Prince, then hurriedly lowered it again.
The list of the Eastern Palace’s covert agents was an absolute secret.
Apart from the Crown Prince himself and a few core members of his faction, no one knew the complete list.
The Crown Prince had never asked to see it before. This was the first time.
“Why are you still standing there? Go.”
The eunuch acknowledged the order and scrambled out of the room.
The Crown Prince leaned back in his chair and closed his eyes. His fingers tapped unconsciously against the armrest.
The contents of the letter continued to circle through his mind.
Every word felt like a branding iron pressed against his heart—scalding and painful.
According to the letter, Shi Huai had been carried straight out of his bed at the inn.
The kidnappers had pried open the window from outside, used a drugged cloth to cover his mouth and nose, and stuffed him into a sack after he lost consciousness before carrying him out of the inn.
If members of the Shen, Lin, and Zhao families had not been secretly keeping watch nearby, the kidnappers would have transported him away immediately after carrying out the abduction. By the time anyone found him, who knew what might have happened...
