Caught in a Trap

The atmosphere in the Shocking Heron Martial Hall's main hall was tense.

Three men in black fighting clothes stood there, the words "Dragon Gate" embroidered on their chests.

The man in front was bald, with a fleshy face and eyes like lightning. One look told you he was a trained fighter.

He stood with his arms folded, sweeping a contemptuous gaze around the room. With that arrogant air, you would think this was his backyard, not a martial hall.

When Li Xiang and the others came out, the bald man's gaze locked onto them.

"You're Qin Zhong? And you're Li Xiang?"

He held his chin high and spoke bluntly, without a trace of courtesy. He sounded like a man interrogating his inferiors.

Then again, the Dragon Gate Escort Agency had operated in Linjiang County for a hundred years. It was an emperor in its own domain. Even the constables gave it some respect, let alone a newly opened martial hall.

Li Xiang frowned. He did not like the man's attitude.

"That's right. I'm Qin Zhong."

Hot-tempered as ever, Qin Zhong stepped forward and raised his voice. "And this is my brother Li. What brings you gentlemen of the Dragon Gate Escort Agency to our martial hall so early in the morning?"

The bald man sneered, paying Qin Zhong's question no mind.

"Good. You're the ones I'm looking for."

He pulled a waist token from his robe and flashed it. A ferocious dragon's head was carved into it.

"My name is Zhao Long. I'm one of the managers of the Dragon Gate Escort Agency's inner compound. The chief sent me to ask you a few questions about the Third Young Master. You'd better answer honestly. If I hear so much as half a lie..."

He left the consequences unsaid. The threat was clear enough.

This was no questioning. He was treating them like criminals.

The Dragon Gate Escort Agency's people really had been cast from the same mold. Just like Lu Jin, they treated everyone else as beneath them.

But strength dictated the situation. Zhao Long represented the greatest power in Linjiang County, and there was no need to clash with him now.

Li Xiang stepped forward, his expression calm.

"Manager Zhao, ask whatever you like. We've done nothing to be ashamed of, so we've nothing to hide."

Zhao Long stared into Li Xiang's eyes, as if trying to read something on his face.

"You were at Zither Strings House last night?"

"That's right," Li Xiang said with a nod. "Instructor Huang Silang of the Eight Gates Martial Hall was there too."

"And you were with our Third Young Master, Lu Jin?"

"Yes," Li Xiang continued. "Instructor Huang Silang of the Eight Gates Martial Hall invited us. We had the good fortune to share a table with Third Young Master Lu."

"Someone will question Huang Silang. Just answer for yourselves."

Zhao Long raised his voice, his gaze sharpening like a blade. "Are you sure it was our Third Young Master? You didn't mistake him for someone else?"

He stressed the word "mistake," watching both men intently for any crack in their expressions.

Clearly, the Dragon Gate Escort Agency was in an uproar.

A hundred thousand silver dollars was no small sum. Even the Lu family would feel the strain of putting together that much ready cash.

When the chief had heard the news, his first reaction had been disbelief. His second had been to suspect a trap.

They urgently needed to confirm whether the man who had thrown money around at Zither Strings House last night really was Lu Jin, or whether someone had impersonated him to set up the Lu family.

Qin Zhong laughed and glanced at Li Xiang. "My eyes are as true as a ruler. That outfit, that air of... ahem, that manner of someone returned from overseas—no ordinary person could imitate it.

"Besides your Third Young Master Lu Jin, could you find a second man like that in all of Linjiang County?"

"So he wasn't an impostor?" Zhao Long pressed, sounding dissatisfied with the answer—or perhaps hoping for a different one.

"What, you think someone would dare impersonate Young Master Lu?"

Zhao Long ignored Qin Zhong's mockery. "There are plenty of disguise techniques in this world. What have two country bumpkins who crawled out of the lowest trades into martial cultivation ever seen? You might have been fooled and still helped the swindler count his money."

"Watch your mouth!" Qin Zhong roared.

Li Xiang held back Qin Zhong before he could explode, then stepped forward to face Zhao Long.

"If you think we mistook him for someone else, that's easy enough to settle. I can draw him for you."

"Draw him?" Zhao Long paused.

Qin Zhong caught on at once. "Brother Li's painting is as good as any famous Painter's. Draw a portrait of the Third Young Master Lu we saw last night and let this gentleman from the Dragon Gate Escort Agency take a good look."

Li Xiang saw Qin Zhong give him a look and immediately understood what he had in mind.

"All right." Li Xiang wasted no time. He turned to a student nearby. "Junior Brother Ma, fetch my painting supplies from my room."

The supplies were soon laid out.

Li Xiang picked up a brush but did not put it to paper at once.

Scenes from the previous night at Zither Strings House replayed in his mind like a film.

Lu Jin's slicked-back hair, gleaming with oil; his ivory-inlaid walking stick; the arrogant expression that looked down its nose at everyone; and those unforgettable words: "Flesh is weak; ascend through machinery."

Every detail was perfectly clear.

Li Xiang ran through it all once more, then set brush to paper.

Swish, swish, swish!

Ink spread across the rice paper.

[Quick sketch completed. Painter experience +1]

In the time it took to drink a cup of tea, Li Xiang set down his brush.

"Manager Zhao, have a look."

Li Xiang handed him the painting.

Zhao Long took one look, and his pupils contracted.

It looked like him!

It looked exactly like him!

The figure was drawn in black-and-white lines, yet its spirit had been captured perfectly.

That fawning admiration for the West, ingrained to the bone; those eyes that thought themselves above everyone else and regarded others as ants—who else in Linjiang County could it be but their Third Young Master?

Yes. It was Third Young Master Lu.

The Dragon Gate Escort Agency's intelligence network was no decoration. Because of the contest between the Shocking Heron Martial Hall and the Eight Gates Martial Hall, they had already dug up everything there was to know about Li Xiang.

Li Xiang came from Blackwater Ancient Town. He had worked in one of the lowest trades, stitching wounds on corpses, and had arrived in Linjiang County less than a month ago.

Before then, he had been worlds apart from Third Young Master Lu, who had been studying in the West. There was no chance they had ever met.

Without having seen the man in person, no one could have captured his likeness so vividly through imagination alone.

The painting was proof.

Zhao Long's expression darkened.

Now that it had been confirmed as Lu Jin himself, the Lu family could not deny the debt of a hundred thousand silver dollars.

"I'll take the painting."

Zhao Long carefully rolled it up and tucked it into his robe. His manner softened a little, and he cupped his hands toward Li Xiang.

"Thank you for your cooperation. I apologize for my rudeness earlier. Farewell."

With that, he said no more. He led his men away at a hurried pace, seemingly eager to report back.

"What was that about?" Qin Zhong spat as he watched them leave. "Is everyone at the Dragon Gate Escort Agency touched in the head? They need outsiders to identify their own young master?"

Li Xiang looked at the empty doorway, his gaze deep.

"It seems the Dragon Gate Escort Agency is in serious trouble."

"Who cares?" Qin Zhong curled his lip. "That hundred thousand silver dollars isn't coming out of my pocket. As long as it really was Lu Jin, that's enough for me."

Li Xiang said nothing, but he had a faint premonition.

The storm over those hundred thousand silver dollars had likely only just begun.

The same thing was happening at the Eight Gates Martial Hall.

But compared with the witness statements at the Shocking Heron Martial Hall, the atmosphere there was far more oppressive.

In the inner hall, Huang Silang saw off the Dragon Gate Escort Agency manager who had come to question him. He shut the door, and the smile vanished from his face, leaving it grim.

He sat in an armchair with his eyes closed, tapping a finger lightly on the armrest as he reviewed the events of the previous night.

From Huang Shendu's clash with Li Xiang at the entrance, to their entry into the private room, to Lu Jin's offer of a hundred thousand silver dollars.

Every detail replayed in his mind.

"Fourth Uncle, what does the Dragon Gate Escort Agency mean by this?"

Huang Shendu stood beside him and asked uneasily, "Why do they seem to doubt it was Young Master Lu?"

"Heh. Someone set him up."

Huang Silang opened his eyes and gave a cold laugh. "Old Master Lu is far too shrewd to spend a hundred thousand silver dollars buying a reputation. Especially that kind of reputation... heh."

"Someone used Lu Jin to lay a trap for the Dragon Gate Escort Agency."

He rose and straightened his clothes.

"I'm going to see the hall master. Wait here."