“She’ll be helpful in tracking down the people on the list,” Hong Fei explained. “And… I like her spirit.”
“Of course, that’s your prerogative,” Sun Han replied. “But do I have your permission to examine her meridians? It’s rare to come upon someone immediately after they improve their cultivation from an insight into the Dao.”
Hong Fei’s head tilted in confusion. “You should ask her yourself.”
“Ah, yes.” Sun Han said. He moved to kneel beside Yellow’s Ugly Dog.
The woman was apparently still grappling with the change in her fortune. “I’m not going to die?”
“Even if you don’t want to work for me,” Hong Fei answered. “Your life is your own, and I suspect there’s someone who would very much like to see you again.”
“Rock Head,” she said, her voice soft.
“That’s the one,” Hong Fei replied.
“Do I have to say yes to…” Ugly Dog gestured toward Sun Han.
“You don’t,” Hong Fei replied. “I expect you to follow orders, but this isn’t one of them.”
“Then I’ll ask you to keep your hands off of me,” Ugly Dog told the scholar.
Sun Han argued, “You’ll come to no harm. It’s purely an investigation.”
“No is no,” Ugly Dog said, “and you’ll not bother me while I follow my orders, which is to steady my foundation.” She then closed her eyes and regulated her breathing.
Hong Fei raised his brows at the interaction between the two of them, but he let his people be. As long as they did as they were told and didn’t cause a ruckus, he’d not interfere.
###
In the time it took for the sun to move half a hand’s width across the sky, Hong Fei searched the bodies downstairs and stacked them to the side so that the Yu family retainers coming to loot the brothel would be able to get to work immediately. The money the dead carried went into his own pouch, but he left the rest of the brothel’s property alone.
Another half-hand’s width passed before a mixed team of Yu soldiers and servants arrived with a pair of ox-pulled wagons. The shízhǎng, a man named Hu Dacheng, had been woken up from his sleep to take charge of the effort. He normally led the squad responsible for the estate’s interior during the morning.
Hong Fei saw that Hu Dacheng had run a comb through his hair and tied it back into a knot. His uniform was also in order. He was a conscientious man, and by all accounts loyal too, which the Yu family very much needed at the moment.
Under the shízhǎng’s oversight, the people still hiding in the brothel were rousted and questioned. Hong Fei listened in on the interrogations, but none of these people knew anything about the gang’s inner workings, including Early Plum who’d been awoken from the sleep induced by Sun Han.
Meanwhile, the process of taking the couches, the paintings, the tableware, and everything else to the wagons began. They would be transported to one of the Yu-family warehouses in the city. The intention was to empty the building, which would likely require a number of trips back and forth.
Partway through the task, Yellow’s Ugly Dog finished her meditation and came downstairs to watch the work being done with interest. Nothing about her posture or mannerisms indicated second thoughts about joining the Yu household. The former guard even went so far as to discuss the ways bloodstains could be removed from the rugs, which pulled Hong Fei into the conversation. The Hongs had historically used a dilution of vinegar.
Steadily, the brothel was emptied and the prisoners let go until there was just the lists with the names left, and they were carried down with care and placed into the back of a wagon devoted to them alone.
###
News of the raid had spread, and oil lamps burned behind the shutters of the buildings along the route back to the estate. Shadowed figures came to the windows to peek out onto the street.
The procession moved from the middle city toward the Wing Span Bridge, across the gorge through which the Tistkil River flowed down below, and then up again toward the high city. The estate at the farthest point belonged to the Yu, a sprawling collection of buildings to support the noble family in exile, a family that now only consisted of Duchess Yu Ning and her brother Yu Yong.
It was Yu Yong who’d originally been the heir, but the young man had abdicated the position after crippling his cultivation during a misadventure. A small ceremony had been held for Yu Ning’s assumption of the title.
Ostensibly, it should’ve been a grand affair, but the consensus among the retainers had been to keep it private and secure. They forewent noble pride to keep the family’s enemies from using the opportunity to finish the Yus off. Thus, the paperwork had been sent to the city’s overseer, as well as the empire’s capital, and tongues had wagged at the abruptness and severity of changes within the House of Yu.
The estate’s slate-covered outer walls blended it with the dark of the night. Lanterns glowed around the main gate. More came toward the returning raiders as soldiers approached to check on their identities. Hong Fei was now one of the family’s most recognized retainers, yet he was asked to show his badge of office, a pendant depicting a hawk in flight against a background of turbulent winds.
The soldiers waved the wagon and its escorts toward the side gate and associated stables. The servants there were awake and ready to receive the returning oxen. They also helped to unload the stone slats found at the brothel.
“Any word of the xiàowèi?” Hong Fei asked.
The servants glanced at each other, then directed their gazes toward the head groom. The lanky woman was named Hu Qin. Her skin was tanned like old whip leather, and she was known for being just as tough. Her gray hair was pulled back into a tight braid.
Hu Qin had come to oversee the wagons’ return, though no horses were involved in the work. She shook her head at the question. “All we heard was to call for the doctor. The xiàowèi’s been locked away since, with Shízhǎng Cai running errands for those inside."
“And the duchess?” Hong Fei asked.
“In the library,” was Hu Qin’s answer. The head groom came forward to put a hand on an ox’s side. “How was it? Not good if our Qi Blossoming xiàowèi was injured.”
Hong Fei saw how her eyes went to the staff eavesdropping. For those ears’ benefit, he replied, “We killed the bosses and took everything, including their earnings from across several businesses.”
“That’s good then,” Hu Qin said and clapped him on the shoulder with approval, like he was one of her horses. Then, she turned to harry the servants into returning to work. “Lazy dogs,” she scolded. “Those oxen aren’t going to unharness themselves!”
The servants had just gotten back to work when Mei Hua came running into the stable yard. Yu Ning’s companion was seventeen, the same age as the duchess, and was so beautiful that the estate’s residents called her fairy. The normally lively young woman looked harried at the moment, however. She offered nods to the head groom and the dūtóu on the way to grabbing Sun Han by the arm and pulling him away.
“You’re wanted at my uncle’s courtyard,” she said by way of explanation.
Sun Han looked a question at Hong Fei, who gestured in response that it was all right to follow her. The scholar had helped to diagnose Yu Yong’s ruined cultivation, which people at the estate remembered. There might be help he can offer Chen Wenbin in adapting his cultivation practices to the loss of an arm.
Everyone in the stable yard stopped to watch them go. They were interrupted by Hu Qin’s voice, low and threatening: “What did I say, you lazy dogs?”
The servants jumped in alarm and scrambled to care for the oxen and unload the wagons.
###
Hong Fei escorted the slats to the library. The labyrinthine layout of the estate meant that they passed the carpentry workshop, the auxiliary storerooms, and the quarters for live-in servants along the way. These were areas that hadn’t seen any fighting during the Tiger Mask invasion, and Yellow’s Ugly Dog gawked like a peasant in a treasure house. His new servant obediently trailed after him, however, running to catch up whenever she fell behind.
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Eventually, the slats reached the library, and Hong Fei sighed at seeing the door open and the guards who were supposed to be stationed there missing. He directed the slats inside, but waited outside while the servants finished their work.
He nodded his thanks as they passed by him on their way out. Most would likely head to their beds now. A few, no doubt, had other duties that couldn’t wait.
Hong Fei stepped into the library and gestured for Yellow’s Ugly Dog to follow him. Inside, the book-covered walls were normally a refuge for Yu Ning, but it was currently her temporary office. The courtyard normally occupied by the head of the house had been demolished in the recent fighting.
The duchess stood beside a table upon which lay a map of Ruby Swift City. The slats had been propped against a bookcase next to it. The black 13 above her head had remained unchanged. The deaths at the Dreaming Ox hadn’t affected the curse upon her.
Hong Fei saluted, then asked, “Where are your guards, my lady?”
“They were needed elsewhere,” she replied, gazing at the names on the slats. A strand of hair had come loose, which she distractedly swept out of the way. Her ink-stained fingers brushed against the engravings. “Shízhǎng Cai Shi informed me about this list you’d found.” She turned and saw the woman standing behind Hong Fei. “But he didn’t mention any new guards. Who is this with you?”
“A prize won from the enemy,” Hong Fei answered. He heard a light inhalation behind him, but his focus was on the duchess.
Yu Ning’s gaze had sharpened. “In what way a prize?” she asked. “Does she know of the bosses behind the gang?”
Hong Fei shook his head. “They remain hidden, but you’ll have noticed the names…” Hong Fei left the rest unfinished.
Yu Ning glanced back at the slats. “The people listed are all low born.”
“And this is Yellow’s Ugly Dog,” he said, stepping aside to fully reveal the former Rock Knife. “I’ve offered her a position in my courtyard.”
A breath passed, and then another as Yu Ning followed Hong Fei’s reasoning. “Ah, I see.” She gestured for the woman to come forward, then she pawed among her papers to find one she could safely write on. Like a common secretary, the duchess intended to take her own notes.
Hong Fei hurried to take the brush from her hand. “Let me,” he offered.
She nodded, her attention already on Yellow’s Ugly Dog. “Start with the first name, then work your way down.”
The response from the estate’s newest servant was to bend over and heave. Nothing substantial came out, fortunately—just a thin line of spittle that hung from her mouth.
Yu Ning glanced questioningly at Hong Fei.
He blinked back at her, then quickly thought of a reasonable explanation: “It’s the battle stress catching up to her, I imagine. Not everyone responds to it in the same way. I used to know a man, for example, who dropped his pants after… no, perhaps not that story. There was a comrade who laughed at the end of every battle—she couldn’t help it. Sometimes she wept at the same time.” Hong Fei set down the brush carefully. “She was a beast during the fighting. There was no one more skilled with a battle club than she, and yet afterward she’d lose herself to laughter.”
“And where is this skilled fighter now?” Yu Ning asked.
“Dead,” Hong Fei replied, “and her body left on the Askalousan Steppes.” He placed his hands on the table’s surface to keep them from clenching. He took a breath to quell the memory and directed Yu Ning’s attention back to Yellow’s Ugly Dog by adding: “This one climbed a tier of the Body Forged realm earlier this evening and that may also be affecting her.”
Yu Ning’s expression softened. “It seems congratulations are in order.” She reached into her pouch to retrieve a silver tael. “A welcome gift from our house,” she said.
Even while bent over and recovering, Yellow’s Ugly Dog stuck out her hand to receive the money. As soon as it was placed there, it disappeared into her own pouch. She coughed and managed a, “Thank you, and I’m sorry, your highness. I don’t know what happened.”
“Your grace,” Hong Fei corrected her. “Not your highness.”
Yellow’s Ugly Dog levered herself upright, her brow covered in sweat. “Your grace,” she said, her voice tight, like she was in the presence of a monster.
Perhaps to the low born of Ruby Swift City, the duchess is one, Hong Fei thought. We all have them creeping in the backs of our minds. “Just do as the duchess instructs,” he said aloud. “Tell us what you know about the people whose names are listed.”
A long breath steadied Yellow’s Ugly Dog’s nerves. She turned away from Yu Ning to examine the list in earnest, and that also seemed to help. “Stinky Hu has been missing since the winter. Fat Legs around the same time.” Her brow wrinkled, and she stepped back to take in more of the names at once. “Dead, dead, missing, dead,” she muttered.
Yellow’s Ugly Dog asked, “These stones came from the boss’s office?”
“From under the bed there,” he replied. “What’s the pattern you’re seeing?”
“I don’t know all the folks personally, but the gossip gets around, you know?” Yellow’s Ugly Dog snuck a peek at Hong Fei, then kept her eyes firmly on the names. “Most of these people are famous for something bad happening to them—fallen into the river, accidents at the quarries they worked at, stabbed in a fight gone wrong, and more than few just plain missing.”
“Are there any patterns in the marks next to the names compared to the kinds of things that happened to the people?” Hong Fei asked.
Yellow’s Ugly Dog folded her arms and ducked her head in thought. “The ones with a single line, they’re missing. And the names with lines like crossed swords, they’re dead. The rest don’t have marks, except for Beauty’s Second Daughter who has three strikes of the chisel.”
“What makes this one different?” Yu Ning asked.
“That’s Little Ruyun,” Hong Fei replied. “The Rock Knives were ordered to stay away from her, so we can assume the mark of three indicates she’s no longer in play.”
“That seems a strange coincidence,” Yu Ning said, moving to stand next to Yellow’s Ugly Dog.
The former Rock Knife edged away from her, while Hong Fei considered how to avoid telling the duchess about the numbers. “Perhaps if we knew more about what brought these people to the gang’s attention in the first place. A list of tragedies serves no obvious purpose, does it?”
Yu Ning left the slats to retrieve a lamp and bring it closer to the one engraved with a tiger. She studied the inscription for a time before saying, “I would think that a person interested in destroying fate would look for recruits among those who’ve suffered its vagaries.” She paused to bite her lip. “Unless they’re studying fate’s movements? Could it be a kind of divination based on suffering?”
Yellow’s Ugly Dog had continued to back away until she stood next to Hong Fei. “The real tragedy is that many of those folks had come into good fortune before it turned into bad.”
“Oh?” Hong Fei shifted in his seat to look at her. “In what way?”
“Stinky Old Hu found a rare piece of red sapphire, which earned him a good bit money. Not as much as the quarry boss earned from when it was auctioned, but enough to buy him and his family a year’s worth of rent.” Yellow’s Ugly Dog shrugged. “The rumor was that someone kidnapped him, and then killed him and tossed the body when the old fool wouldn’t give up where he hid the money.”
Yellow’s Ugly Dog awkwardly rubbed her nose. “As for Beauty’s First Daughter, she was considered lucky just to be born so pretty. ‘Fortune smiled on her’ is what the aunties said. It was going to be her way out of the low city, but then she was run over by a wagon.”
Hong Fei’s throat had gone dry while listening. He couldn’t help wondering if the lack of people with numbers in Ruby Swift City was due to them dying at the hands of the Rock Knives and their hidden allies. Then, the idea shifted in his mind: perhaps they were influencing the flow of fate with those deaths, or searching for victims to drain of their good fortune.
“I’m mindful,” he said carefully, “of the secret room in Ma Zhi’s residence. This list might be connected to the dark art practiced by the Tiger Masks.”
“That seems probable,” Yu Ning said, her eyes locked onto the engraving of the tiger. Softly, she added, “I also can’t help wondering if our family’s misfortunes aren’t related in some way.” She turned and stepped toward Hong Fei. She leaned on the table to study him as she asked, “I don’t know if such a thing is even possible. Do you?”
He gazed back at her steadily. “With shen, almost anything is possible.”
Yu Ning swallowed. Her eyes widened in fear. “That means a Refining Spirit cultivator,” she whispered.
Hong Fei nodded. “Or the rituals and tools provided by one.”
Yellow’s Ugly Dog looked between them, seemingly lost. “Shen? What’s that?”
“As one ascends toward unity with the Dao,” Hong Fei explained, “essence transforms into qi, and qi transforms into shen.”
“Qi is what makes magic happen,” Yellow’s Ugly Dog said.
Hong Fei nodded. “Qi establishes the first steps toward magic, but shen is what makes a true magician. Climb high enough, and one becomes the magic.”
“So, this is very bad,” Yellow’s Ugly Dog observed.
“How are we all not dead?” Yu Ning suddenly exclaimed in frustration. “I don’t understand! A Refining Spirit cultivator could just kill all of us with a wave of their hand. We’re less than ants to one such as them. Why go to all this trouble?” She picked up a handful of papers on her desk and threw them at the slats.
Hong Fei stood and placed his hands behind his back. Yellow’s Ugly Dog, noting the sudden formality, did her best to follow suit. That sudden stillness in them caught the duchess’s attention. She closed her eyes, took a long breath, then raised herself to full standing to face them.
“The most important weapon a warrior possesses is their mind,” Hong Fei said. “Do not do the enemy’s work for them by disarming yourself.”
“I’ve shamed myself before you,” Yu Ning replied, composing her face.
Hong Fei nodded. “Mistakes are common on the battlefield. Learn from them and keep fighting. The lesson now is that frustration can motivate just as well as anger or fear. Use that feeling to drive ahead. Turn the frustration into motivation—make yourself sharper, not duller.”
“I understand.” Yu Ning offered him a bow. “This student has learned.” She tilted her head at him. “The question stands, however. Why are we all not dead?”
“It’s exactly because we hardly matter.” Hong Fei let himself stand at ease. “You wouldn’t use a siege engine to kill a fly, would you? That is what’s happening here.”
“Oof, it sounds to me like we should run,” Yellow’s Ugly Dog muttered. Then, she seemed to realize that she’d spoken aloud and snapped her jaw shut.
“We are bound by duty,” Yu Ning replied.
“To the people under us,” Hong Fei added, which was probably not what he should’ve said in the presence of nobility, but that was what happened when emotions ran high and circumstances were fraught. He cleared his throat and gestured toward the list. “Let’s continue.”
“And the Refining Spirit cultivator in the shadows?” the duchess asked. “We ignore the threat they pose?”
“We deal with the enemy in front of us,” Hong Fei argued. “At least for the time being, until we know the aims of the mastermind or masterminds. There may be more than one.”
“Heavens, this just gets worse and worse,” Yellow’s Ugly Dog muttered.
Hong Fei ignored her. “If we can discover their intentions, we can craft a strategy that helps us survive them.”
“Which is our aim: survival.” Yu Ning sighed. “How far we’ve fallen.”
“We survive until you yourself are able to ascend to the Refining Spirit realm,” Hong Fei clarified. “You are more than your frustration. I’ve seen the anger in your eyes, and I know your desire for revenge. Survival is not enough for the likes of you.” And in the quiet of his mind, he added, Or for me, either. Not anymore.
-
Scholar Sun Han, a summons
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Chen Wenbin, the xiàowèi of the Yu's soldiers
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Cai Shi, a shízhǎng of the Yu family
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Little Ruyun, daughter of Kang Lian
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Ma Zhi, a traitor to the Yu family, deceased
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Mei Hua, companion to Yu Ning, Black 2
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Rock Head, a resident of the low city with a Red 3
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Yellow's Ugly Dog, a former Rock Knife guard with a Red 3 above her head
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Yu Ning, the new duchess of the Yu family, Black 13