Chapter 39
Chapter 39
“Leaving so soon?” Shocked, He Yu forgot his pain, grabbing Yan Ji’s hand poised for another strike and pressing in a low voice, “What’s going on? Has something urgent happened in your sect?”
Caught, Yan Ji had no room to cause trouble. He retracted his arm from He Yu’s shoulders with a disappointed sigh. “Dull, how you know to fight back today. Must be the confidence from reaching the top three solo. No mercy now for your old brother—” He dragged the word out exaggeratedly, struck a melodramatic pose, mimicking the legend of Xizi clutching her heart, and made a ridiculous flinging gesture with his sleeve at He Yu. Even He Yu’s famous good temper frayed, prompting him to bat the sleeve away.
“Enough nonsense! Answer me properly!”
“—Nothing major, really. Just sticking my neck out where it didn’t belong, got a scolding from Lord Shen, and she ended up detaining quite a few of my disciples. Word must have got back to my master. The old man’s terrified I’ll cause more embarrassment. Letters came flying overnight, ordering me home posthaste! Not just one—one a day these past few days, liveliest communication we’ve had in years!” Yan Ji paused; his words sounded pitiful, yet his face was completely untroubled, radiating leisure. “So off I go, back to eat mouthfuls of sand in my desolate Northlands!”
“That seems odd,” He Yu countered, knowing full well Yan Ji’s faux misery hid glee, but prompted as a friend. “When Yun Shen first suggested you deliver that package to Right Supervisor Shen, it was partly this idea, of course. But from what I observe of Lord Shen, she’s meticulous, deliberate in her methods. She wouldn’t detain your disciples without cause. Forget for a moment whether the arrests were correct; such visible action? Isn’t that alarming the prey?”
“Ah, yes,” Yan Ji seemed to hear without really listening, his agreement perfunctory. “And thoroughly alarmed he is!”
“Lord Shen doesn’t snatch people without proof! She clearly saw…” Chen Shu, still annoyed at Yan Ji for the bump earlier, piped up to rebut, but midway, suddenly remembered Shen Jie’s warning. Her gaze flickered guiltily towards Yun Shen. He was watching her, witnessed that flicker, failed to suppress a smile, averted his eyes, and plainly left it for her to dig herself out. Flustered, she grabbed her hair. “Seen… Argh! She ordered us not to tell!”
Hearing this, He Yu extricated himself from tussling with Yan Ji, turning a serious expression towards Chen Shu. “So there truly is something? Bah, if Lord Shen forbade it, then silence is best.” He struggled briefly, then couldn’t help adding, “But why am I completely in the dark?”
“I… Er…”
Yan Ji stopped too, looking at Chen Shu with curiosity. Instantly decisionless, she looked pleadingly back at Yun Shen.
The Sword Discussion Tournament truly drew everyone to its spectacle. By the second round, the once-thronged flow of people by the Vermilion Wall had vanished, leaving only occasional travellers, merchants in haste. Most shop signs were already taken in, yet the bustle within the eateries remained vibrant. In another hour, the tournament’s tens of thousands of spectators would flood out again, “plundering feasts”. So signs might be down, flags stowed, but within the various taverns, preparations for ingredients were already intensifying. Exotic delicacies hit the woks, their primal aromas wafting into the street, blending with the Vermilion Wall already painted a rosy hue by dusk’s dying light.
Yun Shen’s smile deepened. He spoke slowly. “Go ahead, it’s alright. Lord Shen described the scene to us, and Bro Yan really ought to know.”
“Huh?” Yan Ji asked dumbfoundedly. “Know what? What am I supposed to know?”
Yun Shen’s affirmation seemed like a royal edict to Chen Shu. Faced with Yan Ji’s retort, she answered not the question, but instead stood taller, justified but unreasonable: “Isn’t it your place to know what you should know? Shouldn’t you… well… know?”
“All this ‘knowing’ and ‘not knowing’…” He Yu sighed in exasperation. “It seems only I don’t know! Are you both teasing me with riddles?”
“None of that!” Chen Shu hurriedly defended. “I’m no riddle-monger! It’s about why Lord Shen was capturing people, it was clearly justified—the proof was there! Word is, when you led your Linbo Prefecture disciples bearing gifts to her place, you bumped right into Mounted Bandits! Both sides were stunned! Those bandits immediately knelt and begged for mercy! Obviously recognized some of your disciples! And Lord Shen captured them all red-handed!”
After she said this, Yan Ji suddenly understood. He strode closer, planting his hands on his hips and looking down at her, the pose almost accusatory. “So that’s it! Why didn’t you tell me earlier that those prisoners Right Supervisor Shen is wringing confessions out of are Mounted Bandits?”
“You weren’t aware?” Yun Shen interjected.
“How should I know?” Yan Ji frowned, finally turning serious as he retorted. “All I know is that Right Supervisor Shen detained several disciples of our sect just because of the way that prisoner was begging and crying. It took several days for them to be released—no, not just after several days, and even then not all were freed. In the end, one remained detained. How did you know that person was a Mounted Bandit?”
As it turned out, Yan Ji was erratic in his actions, having grown too carefree within his sect. Unfamiliar with the standard interrogation procedures of ordinary government offices, he had committed the absurd act of forcing his way into the courtroom. Given this, when he saw the Mounted Bandit kneeling and pleading for mercy, he didn’t realize the person was a bandit and thus felt no surprise. He simply assumed Shen Jie’s interrogations were always that terrifying and didn’t pay it much mind. What’s more, he completely failed to grasp what Chen Shu and Yun Shen had just recounted.
“—Ah, I finally understand!” said He Yu. “No wonder folks from your Linbo Prefecture were nowhere to be found in recent days. It wasn’t because you were all laying low—you were locked up in the government office, interrogated one by one by Right Supervisor Shen!”
“Exactly!” Yan Ji said, noticeably indignant. “And here I was treating you all as brothers, giving you my whole heart day after day, even sending you mare’s milk! Turns out I’m the fool who was kept in the dark, blithely thinking myself clever—the one who gave you that brilliant idea only to be doused with muddy water in return!”
He seemed genuinely angry, yet his exaggerated tone carried a hint of mockery, making it hard to tell where sincerity ended and performance began. Only He Yu, familiar with Yan Ji’s temperament, stepped in to coax him: “How do you know we weren’t kept in the dark? Haven’t I told you before? Lord Shen operates by her own rules. Not only am I only learning of this today, but even Little Shu and Yun Shen—how can you be certain Lord Shen has revealed the full truth to them? There are surely things being kept from us, too. Besides, as for that Mounted Bandit—”
“That Mounted Bandit was caught by me personally, so of course we know!” Chen Shu snapped, unable to contain her impatience as she snatched He Yu’s words mid-speech. She jutted her chin at Yan Ji. “What of it? If your Linbo Prefecture truly colluded with bandits, then being detained is only what you deserve! You ought to thank me—and thank Yun Shen for urging you to surrender!”
“Well, isn’t this monkey all talk and trickery!” Yan Ji said, stretching a hand to pinch her nose tip before she squeezed her eyes shut and dodged, instead glaring fiercely at him. Unbothered, he then ruffled her hair affectionately; his anger over his fellow Linbo disciples seemed half-hearted at best. Having finished his mock scolding and seemingly over it, he then circled back to his earlier invitation: “What do you say? The two of us share another drink tonight?”
His words reminded He Yu of the question he’d posed earlier. He hesitated briefly before asking, “Ah… just the two of us?”
“Well, of course!” Yan Ji gestured toward Chen Shu, chuckling. “Unless you’d prefer to get this little macaque drunk? How’s she supposed to compete tomorrow then? Losing the Sword Discussion Tournament over this—that’s a weight I won’t carry!”
“…But I can drink!” Chen Shu retorted hotly, her cheeks flushing as he pointed at her.
Yet following her astonishing “drunken stupor from milk” episode, she alone seemed to hold this belief. Even He Yu, whose own tolerance only stretched to a small flask, shot her a glance, nodding in agreement as though he had never stumbled drunk.
The two of them fell silent. Before Chen Shu could launch into a defense of her drinking abilities and recount in vivid detail He Yu’s past drunkenness back in Mengcheng, He, Yan, and even Yun Shen seemed to have reached a silent consensus. Without lingering another second, He Yu and Yan Ji zipped off on nimble feet, vanishing around the corner through the street crowd after only waving back from afar. Yun Shen, however, stayed beside her, patting her shoulder as he kept chatting.
Seeing him remain behind, Chen Shu’s soft spot for the seemingly weak clouded her resolve to chase after them. Pursuing them now felt suddenly rude.
“Brother He just said something. Do you remember what it was?” Yun Shen asked, turning back towards her. A moment before, he’d been gazing at the receding figures and the swelling crowds on the street. The rays of twilight dyed the Vermilion Wall thick, glorious red, like strokes of paint. Perhaps noticing Chen Shu mimicking his stance, staring blankly in their direction too, he offered her a thoughtful smile.
Only one sentence stuck stubbornly in Chen Shu’s mind: “Which one? The one where he accused me of speaking in riddles?”
Bathed in the slanting sun, even the locks of her hair tucked neatly behind her neck seemed to glow golden. Her gaze, lifted towards him, reflected the same blazing red as the wall—as pure and endearing as her spirit itself.
Yun Shen chuckled softly. He took several strides back towards their lodgings before pausing upon hearing the “clip-clop” sound like hooves behind him—Chen Shu scrambling to catch up. Only then did he turn around and ask lightly, “… Not that one. The one where he said, ‘Wasn’t Right Supervisor Shen being so brazen stirring the grass and likely frightening the snake?’
“Before today, I too, had that doubt. Haven’t you noticed? Even after all those explanations, no one truly clarified why Right Supervisor Shen dared act so boldly—detaining a group of Linbo Prefecture disciples without the slightest fear that the news might leak. What exactly was her goal? Until just now, Young Master Yan inadvertently solved my confusion: Three letters. One sent each day. Right Supervisor Shen wasn’t just shaking the grass to scare a snake—she might have accidentally stirred multiple big snakes. Think carefully: Those Linbo disciples were detained just a few days ago. That first letter—even rushed by fast horse, could it have reached Diancang Pass from the farthest north just the other day?”
“Per… perhaps it could have?”
“And if we count the round trip?”
Chen Shu, however confused, grasped his meaning immediately upon this hint. She inhaled sharply: “The person who sent that first letter left Diancang Pass before Yan Ji sent the milk! The only thing connected to this incident… someone reported it to Linbo Prefecture the moment that Mounted Bandit was caught!”
“Exactly,” Yun Shen confirmed. Raising his gaze towards the distant horizon, he murmured, almost weightlessly, “So the ‘big snake’… isn’t Linbo Prefecture at all. The martial world… truly is treacherous, a place where one must constantly be wary…”