Chapter 43: Nanfu

However, the weather in Nanfu was still dreary. Heading further southeast from Nanfu, it was the region administered under Luyuan. The town of Nanfu had been built along the mountains, and the mountain paths all around it were rugged and craggy; only this bit had smooth terrain, and as a result, had over time become the unavoidable road for merchants and travellers.

The late summer going into autumn rains of Nanfu were still heavy, and it had just rained early that morning; now, though it was evening, the air was still humid and sticky. As people walked along the road, it was as if the jet-black piles of clouds above their heads were about to press down at the very next moment.

Xie Qianbing and Wei Xiren each wore coarse cloth attire, carrying a bag on their backs, and followed the stream of people along the Nanfu road, the dozen or so people following behind them either pulling flatbed carts, or watching after wares. Even if someone with a keener eye were to look, they'd assume that they were no different from the average caravan.

In order to not arouse others' suspicions, and in order to ensure the safety of the capital at this time, when the two had left the capital, they'd only brought along the dozen or so people behind them with them, and the remaining necessary military force would be dispatched from within the garrison barracks nearby the Luyuan Prefectural Magistrate. It was just that, though pigeons carried messages quickly, soldiers' travel required time as well, and they'd probably only all arrive around tomorrow.

Nanfu's road was quire raucous, and the travellers who came and went all spoke in different accents. Though the town was small, it was full of local conditions and customs from all over the Great Li. If one were to look, the items and foods on sale spread out on the various stands would be hard to find even in the capital.

Besides having been sent to Boyang last time by Jiang Changbai, Xie Qianbing had almost never left the capital, and everything she looked at was strange. It was also unfortunate that she and Wei Xiren weren't familiar at all; even though they'd spent all their time together for so many days on the journey, they were only not as much strangers to each other as they had been before. Xie Qianbing's mind was full of delight she had no one to share with, and she could only furtively reminisce in her mind: If I have free time in the future, I've got to bring Laoshi to come take a look.

Wei Xiren wasn't thinking about it as much as Xie Qianbing was. She'd been born on the Western border, and had followed after Song Juguang to a not-insignificant number of places, and so these wares along the street couldn't be any more ordinary to her. Wearied from travel, at this moment, she was only thinking of finding an inn to rest quickly.

There were an unusual amount of inns in Nanfu; there was practically one every hundred metres. But as the inns were many, the people were multitudinous, and only after asking in four of them did they find enough rooms in the fifth one.

"This Lian Zhigao is really full of shit!"

They only entered the lobby after putting away their things, and Xie Qianbing had yet to sit down when she heard someone cursing so. She followed the voice to look, and saw a woman of forty or older speaking with a companion in the corner. The woman's face was fierce, and she wore brocade; looking at her, she was a merchant of means. But taking a closer look, one could see that her brows were furrowed tightly, and there were black marks beneath her eyes, as if she'd been troubled by some worries for a long while. Xie Qianbing's expression twitched, and her heart suddenly hammering, and she silently looked for a spot a bit closer to her to sit down, pricking her ears to listen.

Though she'd rarely engaged in the shady business of eavesdropping, at this moment, she had no choice but to listen in. After all, her coming to Luyuan at this time was precisely in order to investigate what, exactly, it was that Lian Zhigao wanted. If she were to walk into the prefectural magistrate's office so brazenly with the official documents that Jiang Changbai had given her, then she certainly wouldn't be able to discover anything. It would be better to listen in, and hear what it was that the common people thought.

That person was still speaking, as if the all bile in her stomach was about to pour out, such that she couldn't pay mind to controlling her voice, as if she had the intentions of smashing an already-broken pot. So, even if Xie Qianbing weren't so close to her, she could have clearly and distinctly heard the words she was speaking. "So what about being the second candidate in the Hanlin examinations, all the books have gone to a dog's stomach! Even greed isn't so greedy. With the taxes at forty percent, can one even do business? And calling himself a king, he didn't even consider whether he could take such a responsibility."

The woman's voice was full of hatred for Lian Zhigao, as if in the next moment, she was about to pick up a dao and run him through. She'd originally operated a restaurant in Luyuan, and the business hadn't been bad. But in the past few months, the taxes had grown higher and higher, and by the last month, they'd been so much as a tax of forty percent of income. And, besides that, she still had to leave twenty percent to send back to her employer back in the capital. As a result, the restaurant, which saw as many visitors as a busy marketplace, had been brought down like so; first, she'd been unable to pay the salaries of the waiters, and then she couldn't even pay the cooks, and then finally, she'd had to close the business down for good, and put on her best face. She could only leave the place she'd lived for half her life with her tail between her legs.

But in the end, she didn't have the courage to take on Lian Zhigao for a struggle where either the fish died or the net split; Xie Qianbing heard the meaning in her words—she seemed to more or less knew that Lian Zhigao had a powerful backer behind him, and feared doing something to implicate her employer. The woman seemed to esteem her employer a great deal, and had come to Nanfu this time because of her, and was about to head north, and give all the remaining money to the employer, and wait for the employer's orders. Having spoken so long, the woman grew tired by the end, sipping tea, her voice growing more and more quiet.

By coincidence, just then, Xie Qianbing heard the sound of movement before her, and raised her head to see Wei Xiren had pulled out a chair to sit down, and before she'd even sat properly in the chair, she said, "What are you doing sitting here and not going to rest?"

Perhaps Wei Xiren's motions were too loud; that woman's voice was thoroughly gone. Xie Qianbing, who had wanted to hear some more about the popular sentiment, was somewhat disappointed, and even the gaze she looked at Wei Xiren with was somewhat unpleasant. Wei Xiren didn't know what had happened before she'd arrived, and suddenly seeing Xie Qianbing glaring at her so, she was somewhat aggrieved. It was just that, this time, before she could speak, she heard Xie Qianbing say, "There's some matters we should speak of when we return to our rooms; let's not talk about them in this lobby." Once she finished speaking, Xie Qianbing headed upstairs, not paying any attention to Wei Xiren.

Wei Xiren was somewhat baffled; she'd just stood up, when she saw a waiter carrying over warmed food and wine. She thought it over a moment, and then set down half a piece of silver, and, carrying the jar of wine, followed after Xie Qianbing. Actually, Xie Qianbing, having walked a few steps, had remembered the wine she'd just ordered hadn't been served, but the faint resentment had risen in her heart caused her to not turn her head to look at Wei Xiren.

But, when she came to the room and sat down, she saw Wei Xiren, carrying the jar of wine, standing in the doorway. She shot her a glance. "Well, come in, then."

Perhaps fearing the walls had ears, as soon as she entered, Wei Xiren closed the door and window, and though she began speaking, her voice was incredibly low. Wei Xiren, seeming not to have relaxed, looked at the window. "I just received word that my sisters^[1] coming from the south tomorrow will only be here by midday. It would be better if we stay here a day, and wait for them all to arrive before discussing our ext step."

But actually this row of adjacent rooms had all been rented by them; even if the soundproofing here wasn't good at all, they wouldn't be heard by outsiders.

Xie Qianbing, hearing this, nodded, and followed Wei Xiren's example, lowering her voice, and repeated what she'd heard previously in the lobby for Wei Xiren to hear. Yet, Wei Xiren hated evil as greatly as her enemy, and having heard it all, slapped the table with a "pa", and stood up. The porcelain wine jar on the table swayed from the vibrations, the lid striking against the body of the jar, only coming to a stop after a long while of clattering. Wei Xiren became aware that her own actions were a bit excessive as well, angrily sitting down, and then, voice still low, added, "Since it's so, we don't need to go investigate anything. Once my sisters are here, I'll just take them to go storm in—chop that thief's head off, and this matter'll be over."

Xie Qianbing, looking at this impulsive companion before her, could only helplessly shake her head. "Do you know how many soldiers Lian Zhigao has raised, and where they're stationed, and how each person is equipped? Even if you were to kill everyone in your path,^[2] without undeniable evidence of guilt, how ought you and I to explain it to her highness? If the court dispatches troops to kill everyone in a province's magistrate without any prior indications, how would you explain it to the Emperor and the world?"

Yet Wei Xiren didn't pay it any mind, as if none of Xie Qianbing's concerns were within the scope of her considerations. But in the end, she wasn't eloquent and articulate, and for the moment, couldn't think of how to reply, and so could only mind herself and pour a glass of wine; only once she'd swallowed it did she notice its flavour was quite faint. So, she furrowed her brows, and said, "So weak; was I cheated?"

Xie Qianbing was still glaring at her, a cruelty showing in her expression, having an attitude as if she'd keep staring at her as long as Wei Xiren didn't answer. Even if Wei Xiren had a great deal of experience in the battlefield, now, under Xie Qianbing's glare, an alarm rose in her mind; she could only explain, "I don't need to explain anything to the Emperor; as long as I can justify myself to Wangjun, then it'll be fine."

Yet this ordinary sentence had opened up the box of her words; Wei Xiren thought for a moment, and in the end, tossed out the question she'd suppressed in her mind the entire journey. "I've heard it said you grew up with the Emperor, and your friendship must not be ordinary; why are you still so careful when doing things? Is it really possible that the Emperor will blame you?"

Hearing this, Xie Qianbing's expression grew dark in a flash, and even if she were more pitiable, she'd have to work together with Wei Xiren; only so did she forcefully suppress her anger, and, thinking for a while, said, "As subjects, naturally we have to consider her highness, and consider the common people of the Great Li. I merely worry that, making a mistake myself, I'll drag in the common people for no reason."

Wei Xiren wasn't fond of this sort of pompous speech of hers, and felt that, should the two of them keep chatting, it would only be dull and pointless. However, she raised her head and swallowed the wine she'd just poured herself down in one go, and then rose, about to head out.

She'd just taken a single step when she heard the window she'd previously closed tightly make a rattling sound, as if something were striking against the outside. At the moment, the skies had already grown dark, and this room of theirs was on the second floor as well; this rattling sound added a baseless sense of fright.

Yet Xie Qianbing wasn't panicked in the slightest, and reached out to open the window, wanting to investigate. Wei Xiren meant to obstruct her, but wasn't fast enough to do so. The window was opened, and a ball of darkness and night breeze poured into the room at once. Xie Qianbing saw that darkness rush towards Wei Xiren.

Her gaze caught on another piece of black; Wei Xiren lowered her head to look, and saw a jet-black feather flutter down towards her palm.

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Translator's notes:

[1]: Not in the literal blood-related sense; more similar to "brothers-in-arms", indicating compatriots.

[2]: Specifically she uses 神挡杀神，佛挡杀佛 (shen dang sha shen, fo dang sha fo); literally "if gods obstruct you, kill the gods, and if Buddhas obstruct you, kill the Buddhas".