When they left the city, Huo Qilang had worried that having only an old man with dim eyes and poor hearing drive the cart meant they lacked protection. After getting out, however, she discovered Yuan Shaobo, Song Yinghui, and the other military officers waiting outside in plain clothes.
Looking around through the veil hanging from her curtained hat, Huo Qilang saw that the ox cart had stopped in open country near a rammed-earth platform, perhaps the remains of city walls abandoned in some unknown dynasty. Near the platform stood a three-story Scenic Pavilion undergoing renovation, with a three-character plaque above its entrance and a couplet on either side.
Two men dressed as wealthy merchants stood at the pavilion entrance to welcome them. The moment they saw Li Yuanying arrive, they fell to their knees and prostrated themselves.
Huo Qilang found the man in front extremely familiar: he had a plump figure, a round, pale face, and a beard that was neither long nor short. She reached out, seized him, and dragged him into the sunlight for a closer look.
This time, she remembered. On her last day off, when she had gone out drinking and making merry with Yuwen Rang, she had seen this man frequenting the city's taverns wearing a false beard. But he had already seemed familiar then. Today must have been their third meeting.
She did her utmost to erase his bearded appearance from her mind and finally remembered who he was-this was the eunuch from the Palace Attendants Department who had come from Chang'an on the Double Ninth Festival to deliver the External Appointment Subsidy to Prince Shao. Back then, he had looked like a beardless eunuch.
From a pale, clean-shaven face, to a false beard, to a real one-that was why she had needed three