The night grew deep, and the rear wall of the Zou Manor lay in heavy silence. An old crow perched upon a fringe tree within the courtyard, dozing fitfully.
A night breeze swept through, and within that silence, a faint stirring arose.
The crow was startled awake. It turned its head to see a human pate suddenly cresting the bare top of the wall. With two sharp caws, the bird took flight and vanished.
The head was masked with a peach-pink silk scarf. Two large eyes peered out from above the fabric, blinking as their owner cursed under her breath, "Damned bird." She tilted her head, listening intently for a moment. Sensing nothing amiss, she signaled to the person waiting at the base of the wall.
Soon, a second head appeared beside the first, this one masked in emerald green. The voice that spoke was laced with hesitation. "Are you sure this is alright?"
The one in the red scarf spoke with absolute certainty. "My years of experience wandering the martial world cannot be wrong. A mask is merely to hide one's face; the color is of no consequence."
The green scarf wavered. "But..."
Before the sentence could be finished, the red scarf had already vaulted into the Zou Manor, landing as light as a swallow. Left with no choice, the green scarf followed.
***
The Zou Manor was a sprawling estate in the truest sense. Its design seemed to emulate the tastes of ancient nobility, featuring a labyrinthine arrangement of courtyards and pavilions that could house a hundred souls without them ever crossing paths.
Master Zou had a particular fondness for rock gardens and water features. He had spent a fortune on landscaping, meticulously selecting greenery and constructing winding corridors and spirit screens according to the principles of feng shui. To put it kindly, it was "a new vista at every ten steps"; to put it bluntly, it was a "treacherous maze."
The night draped the vast garden in shifting, ghostly shadows. Amidst this gloom, a flicker of white suddenly appeared, drifting slowly through the long corridors. Because no lamp was lit, "it" bumped into pillars several times and nearly stumbled over uneven steps even more often.
Finally, this white mass arrived before Master Zou’s bedchamber. After a furtive glance around, it slipped through the door.
As soon as the creaking wooden door was shut, Hao Bai tore off the sweat cloth masking his face. He took a deep breath, patting his racing heart, and crept toward the inner room.
This was the room Master Zou had occupied before falling ill. Hao Bai had not visited this chamber during the day and was entirely ignorant of its layout. To avoid lighting a lamp and alerting others, he could only grope about blindly to get a sense of his surroundings.
He lifted even the heaviest porcelain flower vases to peer beneath them, rummaged through every drawer and casket, and pried open multi-tiered cosmetic boxes one by one. Within the time it took to drink a cup of tea, he was panting with exhaustion. It was clearly his first time engaging in such a ransacking endeavor, and he lacked any semblance of technique.
Leaning against the wall to catch his breath, he resolved to continue his search. However, as he looked up, he saw a shadow cast upon the window lattice.
It was pitch black—the silhouette of a person.
His soul nearly departed his body in fright. Losing his balance, he knocked against the side table behind him. Before he could react, he watched helplessly as a copper basin the size of a washbowl wobbled on the table and crashed to the floor.
*Clang!*
The thunderous ring echoed through the room.
Moments later, lights flickered to life in the guards' quarters of the west wing, and the sound of voices began to rise.
The shadow on the window had long since vanished. Hao Bai wailed inwardly at his misfortune. Ignoring the mess he had made, he bolted for the door and fled.
***
In a rock garden not far from the west wing, a speck of emerald green and a flash of peach-pink darted through the creeping vines and flowing water, their movements hurried.
"Did you hear something just now?"
"I don't think so. First, tell me—where are we?"
Xiao Nanhui felt the scarf over her face becoming increasingly stifling. How could something procured from a brothel have such poor breathability?
They had been circling this courtyard for half an hour and still couldn't find the way out.
Bolao finally lost her patience and asked in a low hiss, "Didn't you look at the map? Why are we still walking in circles?"
Xiao Nanhui looked around, feeling helpless. "I did look at it, but there weren't this many damn rocks on the map."
Bolao, ever the hothead, paced in frustration. "Bullshit! Rocks are rocks, and houses are houses. How could you mistake one for the other?"
Xiao Nanhui snapped back, "It's pitch black! I can't see a bird's nest in this! I told you we should have scoped it out from the wall before coming in, but you wouldn't listen!"
"It's not too late to look now."
With that, Bolao leaped up, catching a branch of the pine tree beside the rockery. With a few agile bounds, she was perched upon a nearby roof, shading her eyes as she scanned the surroundings.
Xiao Nanhui, lacking such nimble footwork, didn't dare risk treading on the tiles and breaking them. She could only wait below in an anxious fret.
"Hey, have you seen enough yet?"
Bolao didn't respond. The Zou Manor at night was not as peaceful as imagined. Just as she thought she might have seen wrong, a dark shadow flickered past not far beneath her eyes, moving as swiftly as a wisp of smoke.
Bolao froze, then quickly flipped back down.
As Xiao Nanhui stepped forward to question her, Bolao clamped a hand over her mouth and whispered, "There's someone else."
Xiao Nanhui’s eyes widened. A second later, she saw that very shadow glide across the top of the rockery.
Immediately after, torchlight flared nearby, and the voices of the Zou Manor guards drifted over.
"It looks like they went that way. You few, head to the side chambers. The rest of you, follow me to take a look."
Xiao Nanhui and Bolao exchanged a glance and took off running.
The Zou family was indeed wealthy; the guards they employed were no ordinary sentries. Their skills would be considered top-tier even in the martial world. Coupled with the girls' unfamiliarity with the terrain, the sound of pursuing footsteps drew closer and closer.
Bolao stopped, speaking with sudden gravity. "We have to split up. You go that way, I'll go this way. See you later."
*See you later? Where?*
Before Xiao Nanhui could react, the other girl had already sprinted ten paces away.
Truly, it was a case of: *Master and servant are birds of the same forest, but they fly their separate ways when disaster strikes.*
She shot a fierce glare at Bolao’s rapidly vanishing, agile figure and was forced to choose another path to flee for her life.
Months of continuous rain had left the ground damp. It was easy to leave footprints in the mud and fine sand. Xiao Nanhui looked around and chose a small path paved with bluestone slabs. She even untied the scarf from her face and tossed it onto a different path to buy herself some time.
She ran along the path for a moment until she saw a cluttered courtyard. Millstones and mortars were piled about, and neat stacks of firewood lined the walls. It was the servants' kitchen for the Zou Manor.
By the faint moonlight, Xiao Nanhui saw a square wooden board covering a section of the bluestone floor. It was likely a vegetable cellar or something similar. The voices of the guards seemed to be closing in. In her desperation, she felt for the edge and pulled the board open. There was indeed a space beneath.
Without a second thought, she jumped in.
As soon as her feet hit the ground, she felt the warm breath of another person. Her heart jolted. Just as she was about to strike, her nose caught a familiar scent that even the smell of rotting cabbage couldn't mask.
As her eyes adjusted to the dim light, she looked up and met the somewhat surprised face of Zhongli Jing.
Truly, what a small world.
Footsteps sounded faintly overhead. Xiao Nanhui didn't care for formalities; she gave the man in front of her a shove.
"Squeeze in a bit, thanks."
With that, she reached up and pulled the wooden board shut. The space plunged into total darkness, save for a few slivers of moonlight filtering through the cracks in the floorboards.
The footsteps drew nearer, sounding exceptionally steady—the gait of a trained martial artist. She held her breath, and Zhongli Jing’s breathing also went quiet.
The next second, the wooden board above was yanked open, revealing an anxious, square-jawed face.
"Master, your subordinate is late..."
Xiao Nanhui squeezed out a friendly smile, staring back at the bewildered Ding Weixiang.
Dressed in black, Ding Weixiang spoke with an unfriendly tone. "What are you doing here?"
She replied with equal frost. "I should be asking you that."
Ding Weixiang glanced at his master, who was squeezed into a corner with a look of profound grievance. He gritted his teeth. "I am here because my master is here."
Faint voices drifted over again, sounding utterly chaotic. Ding Weixiang leaped into the cellar and pulled the board shut behind him.
Silence returned as the three of them strained their ears to listen to the movement outside.
Sure enough, footsteps sounded again. This time, it wasn't just one person; it sounded like a disorganized mess.
The footsteps stopped directly above the wooden board. Faint panting could be heard.
Xiao Nanhui was puzzled. She had thought Master Zou’s guards were quite skilled, but now they seemed pathetic, panting like that after just a short run.
As she was thinking, a voice sounded through the wooden board.
"What... what do we do now? If I’d known, I wouldn't have run. I’m not a thief, why did I run...?"
*Wait, that voice sounds familiar.*
Another even more familiar voice rose, laced with exasperation. "Who told you to run? I was running perfectly fine on my own, but you insisted on following me, and in white clothes no less..."
Xiao Nanhui rubbed her temples, feeling that the Zou Manor was exceptionally small tonight. She stood up and threw open the wooden board.
Standing in the moonlight were two people who looked like startled deer—none other than Hao Bai and Bolao.
Xiao Nanhui gestured expressionlessly. "Want to squeeze in?"
***
Meanwhile, the guards of the Zou Manor, torches held high, had pursued their quarry all this way only for the intruders to vanish into thin air.
the leader searched the area with his torch, finding only a scarf snagged on a tree branch.
An emerald-green scarf.
He brought it to his nose and sniffed. It smelled of a woman’s rouge and powder.
"Big brother, this must have been left by those two thieves. Why don't we give it to the Madam and let her decide?"
The leader seemed to have other ideas. He lowered his voice and signaled for the others to lean in. "I don't think those were thieves."
The other three looked at each other. "If not thieves, then who?"
"Tell me, what thief would use a scarf from a flower-house girl to mask their face?"
The others nodded, finding this logical. The leader continued his analysis.
"I heard that a while back, the Master was completely infatuated with that girl Feiyan from Wangchen Tower. He even booked two elegant booths long ago; he was supposed to go listen to her sing tonight."
"Now that you mention it, that does seem to be the case. It was kept a secret from the First Madam. Who knew he’d collapse before he could even go?"
"That’s truly eerie. Could it be some kind of sorcery?"
"Ah... do you think those two just now... could they be...?"
The men stared at the scarf, their expressions shifting through a kaleidoscope of suspicion.
***
"Um..." In the darkness, someone finally broke the eerie silence. "Does anyone have a flint?"
After a flurry of rustling and searching, a small flame finally flickered to life in the impenetrable dark.
Five people were squeezed into the cramped cellar. Everyone looked somewhat disheveled, except for Zhongli Jing, who appeared as poised as if he were still sitting by a mountain stream.
Xiao Nanhui, currently perched atop several heads of cabbage, couldn't help but sneer. "I thought Brother Zhongli was a man of high elegance and detachment. I didn't realize you also engaged in such sneaky, thieving business."
The man remained expressionless, seemingly unbothered by her sarcasm. Beside him, Ding Weixiang produced an exquisite candle and lit it with his fire starter. "My master and I were merely passing by. Young Master Yao, do not misunderstand."
*Passing by? You call this "merely passing by"?*
She was stunned by the sheer thickness of the man's skin.
Hao Bai, sitting on a pile of radishes, chimed in hastily. "I was commissioned to treat Zou Sifang’s illness. Please do not misunderstand me either, Young Master Yao."
Under the candlelight, the rouge on his face had vanished, revealing his original dark complexion. He looked much more agreeable than before.
"Wait a minute," Bolao cut him off rudely. "You say you came to treat Zou Sifang. What kind of illness requires sneaking into someone's room in the dead of night?"
Hao Bai clearly lacked the master-servant duo's talent for lying through his teeth. He stammered for a moment. "I... I left something behind during the daytime consultation. I was just looking for it." Having said that, he quickly turned the spear on Bolao. "Speaking of which, what were you doing just now?"
Bolao didn't bother to answer. Hao Bai turned his gaze to Xiao Nanhui, who forced a smile, trying to move past the subject. "Actually..."
"Have you all come to Huozhou for the matter of the Precious Jade?"
The voice was enough to make one shiver.
Though he hadn't used the words "Secret Seal," his meaning was crystal clear.
Xiao Nanhui’s face turned red before she managed to squeeze out a few words. "Not at all, not at all. It's all a misunderstanding."
Hao Bai’s expression was also a sight to behold, caught between admitting and denying. Finally, he offered a weak rebuttal. "Whether it is or isn't, what business is it of yours?"
Zhongli Jing did not look up at them. He merely extended a finger to test the flame of the candle. The tiny flame danced at his fingertip, casting long shadows.
"Experts are currently gathering in Muerhe. Who among them is not here for the Qu family’s jade appraisal? You need not be guarded. We can discuss a cooperation."
*A trap. There is definitely a trap.*
That was Xiao Nanhui’s first instinct. Hao Bai was equally wary.
"How would we cooperate? There are three parties here, but only one item. Are we to smash it into three pieces once we have it?"
"Though I am not a merchant, I understand something of the way of business. Everything in this world has an exchangeable value. If a deal is not struck, it is usually because the offer did not meet expectations, not because the item itself cannot be traded. The same applies to this Precious Jade. If you seek the jade for wealth, you need only name your price when the time comes. If it is for something else, we can deliberate. Given your skills, I am certain you will not come out at a loss."
Zhongli Jing spoke leisurely, then shifted his tone. "But that is a matter for later. At present, the jade is not yet in our hands. Your worries are perhaps a bit premature."
While his words weren't entirely convincing, they held enough logic to be tempting.
Regardless, if the item fell into someone else's hands, these current thoughts would indeed be useless.
Ding Weixiang glanced at the two hesitant fools, shook his head inwardly, and closed his eyes again.
As if oblivious to the expressions on their faces, the man continued unhurriedly, "Zou Sifang is ill. Master Hao, you have surely identified the cause of his ailment, have you not?"
Hao Bai nodded. "What if I have?"
"Can it be cured?"
Hao Bai was stumped, the words catching in his throat. Xiao Nanhui watched from the side, finding it somewhat amusing. It seemed some people truly had a talent for making others choke on their words.
After a moment of frustration, Hao Bai decided to defend his medical prowess. "To cure Zou Sifang, one requires a specific medicinal primer. This primer is difficult to find. If it cannot be obtained, even the most brilliant medical skills are useless."
"The primer you speak of, Master—is it the Buddha's bone sarira?"
At these words, Hao Bai’s eyes bulged like copper bells. "You... you... you..."
"How I know is not important. What matters is that I can provide this primer. Consider it a gesture of my sincerity."
Xiao Nanhui sensed something was off. "The Buddha's bone sarira is such a precious thing. How could you have it?"
"Not only do I have it, but I am willing to help because Zou Sifang must remain alive. Only if he lives can he bring out that Precious Jade, and only then can the subsequent plans be set in motion."
Bolao scoffed. "Even if he dies, as long as the thing is still there, someone will dig it up sooner or later."
Zhongli Jing nodded. "True. But I wonder, did any of you manage to dig it up just now?"
Bolao was silenced by the retort and turned her head away in a huff.
The culprit summarized smoothly, "Seeing how cautiously you all act, you must be people of status. You should know that timing is precious; sooner is always better than later. I am willing to offer this sarira in exchange for your assistance. If we succeed, we shall negotiate further as I mentioned."
No matter how good the jade was, it was a dead object. Living people had to use the methods of the living.
Having more help might be better than her and Bolao scaling walls every night. Moreover, Zou Sifang was the most difficult hurdle; if the man died, it truly would become a dead end.
As the saying goes: *When soldiers come, send a general to block them; when water rises, use earth to dam it.* Once the Secret Seal was in hand, it would be a contest of skill, and he wouldn't be able to change his mind then.
On the other side, Hao Bai’s expression shifted as he weighed the risks.
The flickering candlelight grew shorter and shorter. Finally, the wick sputtered and snapped, and the only light in the darkness vanished.
Xiao Nanhui and Hao Bai spoke almost simultaneously.
"We shall do as you say."
A low, soft chuckle echoed in the darkness, like a gentle breeze brushing past Xiao Nanhui’s ear.
"Very well."
***
| Chinese | English | Notes/Explanation |
| :--- | :--- | :--- |
| 佛骨舍利 | Buddha's bone sarira | A sacred relic (sarira) of the Buddha, used here as a rare medicine. |
| 秘玺 | Secret Seal | Refers to the Imperial Seal or the "Precious Jade" everyone is hunting. |
| 绯烟 | Feiyan | A courtesan at the Wangchen Tower. |
| 药引 | Medicinal primer | A substance added to a prescription to enhance the effect of the main drugs. |
| 汗巾 | Sweat cloth | A small towel or handkerchief used for wiping sweat or, in this case, as a mask. |
| 火折子 | Fire starter | A traditional Chinese fire piston or match-like device. |
| 宝玉 | Precious Jade | A general term used by the characters to refer to the secret seal. |
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