Blood and Jade

Bai Lingmiao was so startled by his approach that she took a step back, shrinking behind Li Huowang. “I—I’m already married.”

Li Huowang was ready to fight, eyeing the burly servant behind the young man. But the young man’s reaction caught him off guard.

“Oh. My apologies for disturbing your lady. I hope you won’t hold it against me.” A flicker of disappointment passed through the young man’s eyes. He gave Bai Lingmiao a proper bow, then turned and walked on.

Passing a nest of beggars, he casually tossed them a handful of loose silver. Then, turning, he bowed to yet another young woman.

Such forwardness naturally won him no favors, but when rebuffed, he didn’t take offense. He simply moved on to the next girl.

Watching his back, Li Huowang thought for a moment, then raised his voice. “That cat you’re holding is a fake. It’s made from three separate pieces of jadeite.”

“Oh?” The young man spun around, cradling his jade cat. “Are you sure, brother? The shopkeeper just told me it was worth five thousand taels.”

“It’s a setup. You’ve been tricked. Look under the cat’s left paw—there are three vertical scratches and two horizontal ones.”

“With marks like that, anyone who touches it knows to quote you five thousand. But even if you offered it for two, they wouldn’t buy. They know it’s a scam.”

“Oh? Truly?”

Li Huowang watched the young man stare at his jade cat in surprise, then hurry back toward the jade shop. He took Bai Lingmiao’s hand. “Let’s go. There’s probably going to be a fight soon.”

Once they were a little further away, Bai Lingmiao looked up at him in astonishment. “Senior Brother Li, how did you know that cat was fake without even looking at it?”

Li Huowang didn’t answer. The trick was the same everywhere. Deception like this—setting a trap—the Zuowandao used it too.

If one of them left a mark on a target, even if the next Zuowandao had no contact with the first, they would see the sign and follow the same routine to keep the con going.

If one person says it, you might suspect a liar. But if everyone you meet tells you the same lie, even the most stubborn person will start to doubt. They doubt themselves.

Just like before. Those Zuowandao members, even though they’d never talked to each other, all agreed in perfect unison that he was Hong Zhong. They used that exact trick.

He just never expected that, after all that lying, he’d actually become Hong Zhong.

This little incident was forgotten quickly.

Afterward, Bai Lingmiao enjoyed herself thoroughly. She even had a little strong wine.

They played until the lanterns on the street were snuffed out one by one. Only then did Li Huowang carry the slightly tipsy girl home on his back.

Bai Lingmiao’s head lolled to one side, her eyes half-closed. Her pale fingers traced lazy circles on his back.

“Senior Brother Li… the Shangsi Festival is so much fun. I wish every day could be the Shangsi Festival…”

“Mm. We’ll have it every day,” he answered, playing along with her drunken talk.

As he walked, he felt his back growing damp. A choked sob came from behind him.

The sob grew into a cry. Bai Lingmiao tried to muffle it with her hands, but the crying only got louder.

By the end, her face was a mess of tears and snot. Like a child, she buried her face in his back and wailed.

With all her strength, she beat her fists against his back.

———-

Even though he had stayed up late with Bai Lingmiao, Li Huowang was up at dawn.

He didn’t leave right away. He took a deep breath and hooked his fingers into his left eye socket.

With a hard yank, his left eye came out, trailing blood.

“When she wakes up, tell her I went to find a way to fix her eyes.”

Breathing heavily, Li Huowang placed the eyeball into the Second Spirit’s hand.

Watching her red veil bob as she nodded, he gave her a brief hug, then picked up his two swords from the table and turned to leave.

It was still early. Some of the street lanterns were only just being taken down. Many people were yawning, clearly still tired from the night before.

Li Huowang bought a fried dough stick wrapped in sticky rice cake for breakfast and ate it as he walked toward the Supervisory Heavenly Office.

By the time he finished eating, he had arrived. He wiped his greasy hands on the stone lion in front of the yamen and stepped inside.

Today’s gatekeeper was Sima Lan of the Mohist School, a black bird perched on his shoulder. He looked genuinely surprised to see Li Huowang.

“Er Jiu? I didn’t expect you to still be alive. When you didn’t show up for so long, I thought the Zuowandao had gotten you,” the bird on Sima Lan’s shoulder spoke.

“Maybe I wasn’t meant to die. I scraped by,” Li Huowang said, cupping his hands in greeting. “Sima, you look well.”

They had met a few times. Sima Lan of the Mohists was, at best, a nodding acquaintance.

They exchanged a few pleasantries, cursed the Zuowandao together, and then Li Huowang got down to business.

He pointed at his left eye, the socket now covered by a single flap of drooping eyelid. “Does the Office’s vault have anything that can restore someone’s eyesight?”

“The eyes?” Sima Lan thought for a moment. “Er Jiu, the Office’s inner vault is huge. How would I know what’s in there? You’ll have to look yourself. Have you ever been there before?”

Li Huowang shook his head. Sima Lan gave him directions to the inner vault.

He wandered through the labyrinthine underground corridors for a long time. By the time he was completely turned around, he finally found the so-called inner vault.

After verifying his identity with his waist token, Li Huowang walked in.

As soon as he entered, he felt as if he had shrunk down to the size of a mouse and scurried into some giant herbalist’s shop.

The cavernous warehouse echoed with every sound. Row after row of countless wooden cubbyhole cabinets, each one packed tightly, stretched out in neat lines. The cabinets were so tall they reached the ceiling, a full three zhang up.

The contents of each cubbyhole were vastly different. Some had talismans pasted over them. Others were wrapped in chains. Clearly, these held the spiritual treasures and rare artifacts managed by the Supervisory Heavenly Office.

This was what they used to bribe the outsiders who worked for them.

Not everything was locked away in those little boxes. Some items were laid out on long tables, sorted by category.

There was a wild assortment of bizarre objects, but Li Huowang couldn’t identify most of them.

“Wait. Isn’t this mine?” Li Huowang picked up his copper coin mask from the table.

This must have been from the time he was disguised as Hong Zhong. After his head fell off, it had ended up in the Office’s hands along with his body.

He already had the Heart-Turbid spindle that Zhuge Yuan had given him, but Li Huowang wasn’t about to turn down an extra layer of security.

Just as he was about to speak, a eunuch walked over with a welcoming smile.

He was different from the eunuchs in the main hall. This one in the inner vault had no eyes. Two copper coins had been sewn directly into his empty sockets.