What Are You Barking About?

On the second-floor gallery of Zither Strings House, red lanterns cast a hazy, intimate glow that made the shadows of passersby sway.

They had just left Xin Tianya's private room and rounded the carved corner. Outside, the noise washed away the solemn mood.

The emotion on Qin Zhong's face vanished faster than a page could turn. He was back to his usual carefree, boisterous self.

He slapped his thigh so hard that even Li Xiang winced at the sound.

"Oh, damn!"

Qin Zhong looked thoroughly vexed, sucking air through his teeth. "I got so caught up in all that emotion that I forgot the important thing. I never asked Master Xin why he came to a money pit like Zither Strings House."

He muttered as they walked, his brow furrowed deep. "It doesn't add up. Master Xin is a notorious miser. What got into him today, coming here to drink tea and listen to music?"

Li Xiang glanced at him.

You forgot?

I just don't have the heart to call you out.

If you'd asked that during such a tender moment, Xin Tianya would probably have smacked you on the spot.

Li Xiang straightened his cuff. "Master Xin is human too. What's so strange about coming here for music, tea, and a change of mood?"

"Brother, you don't understand." Qin Zhong scratched his head, unsure how to explain. "Forget it. Our reserved table is up ahead. If we don't get there soon, the food will go cold."

The second floor of Zither Strings House offered an excellent view. Guests could look down on the singing and dancing in the main hall, while cleverly placed screens preserved their privacy.

The air was thick with the sweet, cloying scent of expensive cosmetics and ambergris. Languid music from strings and pipes drifted past their ears.

Just then, a shrill voice, laced with unpleasant arrogance, pierced the languid music like a thorn driven straight into Li Xiang's ear.

"Young Master Lu, take your time. Watch your step."

"The carpets here at Zither Strings House are soft, but that threshold's high. Don't worry, though. My fourth uncle is already waiting in the Listening to the Waves Pavilion. It has the best view in the house tonight."

That voice was far too familiar.

Its fawning tone and borrowed swagger mixed arrogance with servility. One listen brought Blackwater Ancient Town to mind.

Li Xiang stopped and looked toward the voice.

A sizable entourage was making its way up the stairs.

At its head was a young man who stood out at once.

He looked about twenty-four or twenty-five and wore a sharply tailored blue Western suit. His hair was slicked back in the latest fashion with so much pomade that a fly landing on it would have done the splits.

He held a cane with an ivory handle and leaned on it for show despite walking on level ground. With his nose in the air and arrogance written across his face, he was plainly a scion of wealth and status.

And the man beside him, bowing, scraping, and leading the way with a broad smile, was an old acquaintance of Li Xiang's.

Huang Shendu: the only son of Second Master Huang of the Yellow Dog Gang in Blackwater Ancient Town, the man who had taken his dog out for a walk only to be bitten by it.

What a small world.

Huang Shendu was busy describing Zither Strings House's attractions to Young Master Lu. He swept his gaze around, eager to show how well he knew the place.

Then his eyes landed squarely on Li Xiang, standing beneath the gallery a short distance away.

Their gazes met.

Huang Shendu froze. Then his eyes widened as though he had seen something impossible.

Surprise and anger twisted his false smile into something cruel. He looked like a hunting dog that had caught the scent of prey.

Of all the places to run into him!

"Hm? Who's blocking Young Master Lu's path? Why, isn't that little Li, the one who stitches up dead people in Blackwater Ancient Town?"

Huang Shendu stopped and pointed at Li Xiang, raising his voice to a piercing pitch so everyone would hear.

"What, got tired of sleeping beside corpses in that gloomy shop? Come to Zither Strings House to play the grand gentleman?"

The barb was vicious.

The guests who had been chatting and laughing all changed expression at the words "stitches up dead people."

In an age steeped in superstition, embalmers were indispensable. Meeting one in a place of pleasure, however, was considered dreadful bad luck.

"He stitches up dead people?"

"Oh, what rotten luck! I should've checked the almanac before going out!"

"Keep away. Don't get corpse taint on you, or even your luck at the tables will stink."

The crowd recoiled from Li Xiang as if he were a plague god, leaving a wide empty space around him in an instant.

They had come to enjoy themselves. Bad omens were the last thing they wanted.

If the taint of death rubbed off on them and their gambling luck turned or a deal fell through, they would have only themselves to blame.

"What bad luck. Does Zither Strings House let just anyone in?" someone muttered.

Only Qin Zhong stayed put. In fact, he stepped forward and fixed Huang Shendu with a hostile stare.

"Where'd this stray dog come from, barking its head off?" Qin Zhong started toward him.

"Senior Brother Qin, no need to trouble yourself. I'll handle him."

Qin Zhong looked at Li Xiang. Seeing no fear in his eyes, only cold clarity, he nodded and stepped back half a pace, standing behind him like an iron tower.

"All right. I'll have your back."

Qin Zhong lowered his voice, his tone grim. "Remember what Master said: Shocking Heron Martial Hall doesn't start trouble, but we don't fear it either. As long as you're in the right, go for it. Even if you punch a hole in the sky, Master's got enough flesh on him to plug it."

He gave Li Xiang a heavy pat on the back. "Show some spirit. Don't disgrace us!"

"Don't worry."

Li Xiang straightened his cuff and stepped forward.

He did not speak at once. Instead, he looked to Huang Shendu's left, then to his right, as if searching for something. He even bent to peer behind him.

Baffled, Huang Shendu asked, "What are you looking at? Lose something?"

Li Xiang straightened, a look of concerned confusion on his face.

"I'm looking for that dog of a father of yours."

He brought his gaze back to Huang Shendu. "What, you went out to enjoy yourself without bringing your father? How unfilial. Didn't Second Master Huang teach you that a dog roaming a thousand miles needs someone holding its leash to stay safe?"

A few nearby guests could not hold back their laughter.

In Blackwater Ancient Town, core members of the Yellow Dog Gang called themselves dog brothers and took pride in raising big yellow dogs.

To outsiders, it sounded like an insult.

Huang Shendu's face turned liver-red. Veins throbbed at his temples as rage shot to the crown of his head.

"You... you're asking for death!"

Furious, he made to throw a punch. Then he caught sight of Young Master Lu's displeased face beside him, and it was as though a bucket of cold water had doused half his anger.

Young Master Lu was the third young master of the Dragon Gate Escort Agency, an honored guest even Huang Shendu's fourth uncle had to serve with care.

If one rash move spoiled the guest's mood and disgraced the Huang family and Eight Gates Martial Hall, the consequences would be dire.

"Oh, did that get to you?" Li Xiang's expression did not change. He took another step closer, fixing Huang Shendu with a cold stare.

Huang Shendu drew a deep breath and forced down his anger. "Now that you're out of Blackwater Ancient Town, you dare speak to me like that?"

"What are you barking about?"

The question nearly made Huang Shendu choke.

Blackwater Ancient Town was Yellow Dog Gang territory. Li Xiang had swallowed his anger there to survive and grow stronger. That had been knowing when to bow his head.

Now he was in Linjiang County, apprenticed to the martial arts expert Hong Tianbao and a disciple of Shocking Heron Martial Hall. If he still took this lying down, what had he trained for? What was the point of cultivating his Dragon Spine?

A martial artist trained his courage. Once his backbone bent, he would never rise in this life.

"Well, well. You've grown bold."

Huang Shendu suddenly recalled Second Master Huang's instructions before he left.

He had come to Riverside to do only two things.

First, he was to personally deliver the Yellow Dog Gang's share of this quarter's profits to his fourth uncle, Huang Silang, the head instructor at Eight Gates Martial Hall.

Second, and most importantly, he was to find Li Xiang and question him about Third Master Huang's whereabouts before his death.

According to the Yellow Dog Gang's scouts, when they sorted through Third Master Huang's belongings and retraced his route, they found that the last place he had stayed before his death was the Shroud Shop at the end of the alley.

They later learned Li Xiang had bought a boat ticket well before then, so the timeline did not seem to fit. But Second Master Huang was suspicious by nature. Even if the odds were one in ten thousand, he wanted Li Xiang dragged back for questioning.

Huang Shendu had expected finding one man in a sea of people to be like fishing a needle from the ocean. Instead, the man had delivered himself right to him.

"Li Xiang, my father said you were an honest man. You've got a sharp tongue, though."

Huang Shendu's eyes shifted as he recalled an interrogation trick he had read in a copy of Thick Black Theory.

First, accuse the other person of a crime so grave he could never accept it. Once the pressure mounted, fall back to a smaller question. In his panic, he would often let the truth slip.

My father says I'm not very bright. Hmph. I'll show him how clever I am today.

Huang Shendu sneered inwardly, assumed the air of a judge, and pointed at Li Xiang.

"We'll settle our private business later. For now, I have an official matter to ask you about. If you answer honestly and make everything clear, I might be merciful enough to overlook your disrespect today."

He spoke as though he were an emperor bestowing alms on a beggar.

Li Xiang saw through him as clearly as a polished mirror.

The Yellow Dog Gang's young master had every nasty thought written on his face.

He could only be after the truth about Third Master Huang's death.

Li Xiang knew exactly who had killed Huang San, but he could not say it.

To speak would break the trade's rules, offend a warlord, and throw himself straight into a fire pit.

"Tell me! Did you kill my third uncle, Huang Sanlang?!"

Huang Shendu suddenly roared, staring hard at Li Xiang's face for the slightest flicker of panic.

The crowd erupted again.

Murder?

There was a scandal to watch too?

Their curiosity instantly got the better of their lust, and they stopped admiring the scenery.

"Huang Little Five, you can eat whatever you like, but you can't say whatever you like."

Li Xiang remained composed. "Third Master Huang did come to me with a deceased client, but that was business. Once I'd prepared the body properly and settled the 'guest' he'd brought, he left with his people."

"As for where he went afterward, who he met, or what happened to him, how would a lowly embalmer like me know?"

"You're lying!"

Huang Shendu did not believe a word. "My third uncle was a man of standing. Why would he personally see to a corpse? Who in Blackwater Ancient Town had more standing than the Huang family and needed my third uncle to bring them himself?"

"Believe what you want." Li Xiang shrugged.

"You..."

"Enough."

A low, forceful voice came from the Listening to the Waves Pavilion at the far end of the corridor, cutting the farce short.

The curtain lifted, and a lean, middle-aged man in a black Tang suit stepped out.

His stride was steady, his eyes sharp as a hawk's. He carried the unmistakable presence of a man who had trained in martial arts for years.

It was Huang Silang, the head instructor of Eight Gates Martial Hall.