Banner Commander

A basin of bare-bones Pickled Cabbage Fish.

A packet of pork head meat steeped in aged master stock.

Yang Ge and Shen Fa sat facing each other.

Yang Ge stared at the pork head meat.

Shen Fa stared at the Pickled Cabbage Fish.

Yang Ge said, "You don't often eat such humble fare, do you? Sorry you have to put up with it."

Shen Fa said, "What are you thinking? It's not as if I haven't eaten worse!"

Yang Ge picked up a piece of pork head meat with his chopsticks and popped it into his mouth, shaking his head. "This isn't bad at all!"

Shen Fa likewise picked up some mustard greens and fish and put them into his mouth together. "You're no fun," he said scornfully. "I'm sincerely trying to be your friend, and here you are putting on airs."

Yang Ge shook his head. "The waters you people swim in are just too deep. Even a glance leaves my eyes spinning and my head swollen to the size of a bushel basket. I can't even imagine how exhausting life would be if I got mixed up in it, or what end I'd meet..."

Shen Fa concentrated on the Pickled Cabbage Fish, saying casually, "Anything you want to know about last night's mission? I've always been tight-lipped, but today, whatever you ask, I'll answer. And I guarantee I won't lie!"

Yang Ge smiled and set down his chopsticks. "And then? Once I've asked, I either go back to the Embroidered Uniform Guard with you or you throw me in prison, right? I may not have read many books, but I understand that 'the more you know, the sooner you die'!"

Shen Fa looked up at him. "Really nothing you want to ask?"

Yang Ge shook his head firmly. "Nothing!"

Shen Fa set down his chopsticks too. "Fine. Then I'll say what I want to say!"

Under Yang Ge's puzzled gaze, he clapped his hands softly.

The next instant, several burly men in short, practical clothes vaulted over the wall into the courtyard. Upon seeing Yang Ge, they dropped to their knees and knocked their foreheads against the ground without a word.

Yang Ge: ...

Without turning around, Shen Fa pointed at the burly men. "Look familiar?"

Yang Ge glanced over the unfamiliar men and shook his head, completely bewildered.

Shen Fa said, "They're all guards from the merchant ships you saved last night."

Yang Ge's eyelid twitched. He hurriedly forced a smile. "What do you mean, I saved them? Clearly, you and the other esteemed officers of the Embroidered Uniform Guard showed mercy and spared their lives. I was only there for the excitement. What did it have to do with me?"

Shen Fa picked up a piece of fish and put it into his mouth. As he chewed, he said casually, "If you hadn't shouted last night, at least half of them would never have seen today's sun. As for the rest, they'd have been better off dying last night... It's because of you that they, and their families, get to live!"

Then he suddenly smiled. "You didn't really think the Embroidered Uniform Guard's 'Extermination of Three Clans' was just a big threat to scare them, did you?"

Faced with Shen Fa's smiling face, Yang Ge could no longer smile.

As the saying went: out of sight, out of mind.

Now that he had seen those living, breathing men, he could no longer casually say, "What does it have to do with me?"

Seeing Yang Ge's face gradually stiffen, the amusement in Shen Fa's eyes deepened.

He straightened up and reached across the table to pat Yang Ge's shoulder, smiling. "See? Didn't I tell you that you're worth more than you think? A few words from you saved over a thousand lives. I've traveled north and south all these years, and even my good deeds don't measure up to your boundless merit!"

Yang Ge could only lower his head and eat, hiding his tangled emotions.

Shen Fa leisurely ate a few more bites, then gently set down his chopsticks and folded his arms, perfectly at ease. "Now, the Guard Office has two ways to deal with them. It all depends on which you choose!"

Yang Ge had no choice but to set down his chopsticks again. "What does this have to do with me now?" he asked, baffled.

Shen Fa said, "Of course it has to do with you. You saved them. If you won't stand up for them, who will? If no one stands up for them, we can only follow the law!"

Yang Ge opened his mouth, then clamped it tightly shut again.

Shen Fa didn't mind his refusal to play along and continued on his own. "Given the filthy business the Xie Family was involved in, even if they all turned away from darkness toward the light, and I made an exception to grant them leniency, the best outcome would still be reducing them to baseborn status and exiling their entire households to Lingnan!"

Yang Ge felt his head swell to the size of a bushel basket. "So, according to you, doing a good deed was a mistake?"

Shen Fa seemed unmoved. "Not satisfied with my decision? Then why don't you teach me how I should deal with them?"

Yang Ge glanced at the burly men kneeling in the courtyard. "When you make your way in the world, you have to own your mistakes and stand straight when you take your beating. They did wrong. If they deserve demotion, demote them. If they deserve exile, exile them. No one can argue with that. But considering that they turned themselves in, could you show a little more mercy and spare their families? The punishment shouldn't fall on their loved ones..."

Shen Fa curled his lip irritably. "Do you think I wrote the Great Wei Statutes? That I can sentence people however I like? They were involved in unforgivable crimes-colluding with the enemy, betraying the country, plotting rebellion! Just getting them exile means I have to put my old face on the line and beg favors everywhere. What more do you want?"

Hearing Shen Fa's words, the men kneeling in the courtyard lowered themselves even farther, until they were almost flat against the ground.

Yang Ge said, "But you can't saddle me with them! I'm still working for someone else just to feed myself. How could I afford to support them?"

Shen Fa explained patiently, "As long as you're willing to stand up for them, I can still find you a way!"

Yang Ge said, "What way?"

Shen Fa said, "Just like you now: put them on the Guard Office's rolls and give them a wage. We'll treat them as spies the Guard Office planted in the Xie Family beforehand!"

Yang Ge said, "So you do have a solution! Where do I come into it?"

Shen Fa clapped his hands. "There's a solution, but no one's willing to shoulder the responsibility! Have you forgotten again? They were involved in unforgivable crimes punishable by Extermination of Three Clans. Who would stake their wealth, rank, and very lives to vouch for them?"

Yang Ge said, "You won't either?"

Shen Fa said, "Of course not!"

Yang Ge said, "Then who will?"

Shen Fa said, "You will!"

Yang Ge said, "When did I ever say I would?"

Shen Fa said, "You're not even afraid of dying. Why would you fear taking responsibility?"

Yang Ge finally lost it. "Fine, fine, fine! So you're picking on me because I'm all alone in the world, is that it?"

"You can't put it like that!"

Shen Fa softened his tone and said earnestly, "Look at it another way. This might just be the medicine that pulls you out of the mire... You're so young. Surely you don't really want to rot here?"

Yang Ge wasn't about to trip over the same stone twice. "How am I rotting? I have a home, a dog, and a job. Every day, I work diligently and go home happy. How is that rotting? Isn't that how most people live?"

Shen Fa stared at him, his lips moving as though he wanted to say something, but then he closed his mouth.

After a long while, he simply adopted the air of a shameless rogue. "Anyway, that's how things stand. If you won't stand up for them, there's nothing I can do. It's only exile to Lingnan, after all. Their days will just be harder and longer. Dying won't be so easy. You've saved them once, and you certainly don't have to keep worrying about whether they live or die. If they blame anyone, they can only blame themselves for misjudging people and serving the wrong masters. They can't blame you or me..."

Yang Ge lost it again. "This is emotional blackmail! Emotional blackmail, do you understand?"

Shen Fa pulled a cast-iron waist token embossed with "Banner Commander" from his belt and slapped it onto the table. "Just tell me what you choose!"

Yang Ge fell apart. "What terrible sins did I commit in my last life to end up meeting you in this one?"

Thud.

Another dull impact sounded.

Yang Ge turned and saw that the burly men in the courtyard had slammed their foreheads against the ground again, hard enough to draw blood.

Yang Ge covered his face.

Shen Fa thought, Got you!