Chapter 10

Luo Chengye's charred head had appeared for only an instant, but it had still dealt Baozhu a terrible shock. Never in her life had she seen anything so horrifying. After Bao Lang's barrage of threats, she returned to the Reflection Pavilion frightened and furious, cried bitterly over the injustice, and asked a maid for a pair of scissors.

Seeing how red her eyes were from crying, the maid dared not decide for herself. She went to ask her master's permission and, after a long delay, brought Baozhu a pair of Cross-Grip Thread Scissors. The sharpened blades were only half an inch long, scarcely useful even for trimming candlewicks, much less for hurting herself or anyone else.

When they had been hauled into the County Yamen's private quarters, Yang Xingjian had taken advantage of the confusion to throw her bow and arrows into the inn's woodpile, lest their identities be exposed and bring disaster down on them. Now she truly had no weapon to hand.

With the toy-like scissors in hand, Baozhu sighed. She filled a small bowl with clear water and laid the scissors flat across it. At first she pointed the open blades toward the door, but after a moment's thought, she turned them toward the window instead. Beside the bowl, she placed a dish of cheese curds and a dish of grilled fish. Once everything was arranged, she pressed her palms together and silently prayed.

Reassured that she had no intention of harming herself, the maid stayed to chat. "What sort of spell are you casting, young lady?"

"It isn't a spell," Baozhu said. "It's a prayer to find a lost cat."

"Do you keep a cat, my lady?" the maid asked.

Baozhu ground her teeth in resentment. "Yes. I kept such a big cat, and he vanished without a sound."

The maid smiled. "Cats are wild by nature. That happens all the time. Are the cheese curds and grilled fish bait to lure him back?"

"Not exactly," Baozhu said. "Usually, this Scissors Cat-Finding Method is set up outdoors. The food is for the stray cats nearby. I invite them to eat and drink, and if they see my cat outside, they're to tell him to come home at once. Since you won't let me out, I can only set it up in here for a little comfort."

Counting on her fingers, she found that Wei Xun had been missing for only six days, yet it felt like dozens. Now she had been implicated and imprisoned, confined in the Reflection Pavilion, threatened and coerced, with no way out. She had actually resorted to a palace game for coaxing cats and teasing dogs to relieve her misery. It was both pitiful and laughable.

After removing her makeup and changing her clothes, Baozhu refused to let the maids sleep in her room. That was her final boundary. If someone watched her even beside her bed while she slept, she truly could not bear it. Worse still, they might report her every move to that Defense Commissioner who had frightened her with a human head.

At the thought of Bao Lang, Baozhu could not help trembling inwardly, whether from fear or disgust she did not know. She could not forget his probing gaze, as though he were appraising the value of merchandise. She had always been the hunter. Now, caged and reduced to prey for others to slaughter, she found this reversal even harder to endure than her fall into a wandering life, dining on wind and swallowing dew.

When she put out the candle and closed her eyes, all she could see was that head with its scorched skin and ruined flesh. When she lit the candle, she could not sleep peacefully either. After several rounds of this torment, the night watch had announced midnight.

The watchman passed through the streets, striking his wooden clapper. A little later, Baozhu heard a faint noise outside the courtyard wall beneath the upper room. The Reflection Pavilion stood in the northeastern corner of the County Yamen's private quarters, right against the enclosing wall. It had originally been the magistrate's study, chosen for its airy height and quiet. Since these were his private quarters, there were no outward-facing windows through which people could peer, only a small ventilation window on the second floor.

The noise climbed up the wall, slipping several times before continuing upward, directly toward the little window in Baozhu's bedroom.

Lynx moved without a sound; he would never be so clumsy. Alarmed, Baozhu slipped out of bed and felt around in the darkness for a suitable weapon. After searching, she found only the stick Wei Xun had left behind. Holding it, she hid beside the window. When the climber pushed open the shutter and groped his way inside, she brought the stick down with all her strength.

He raised an arm to block it. Baozhu felt something crack beneath the stick and rejoiced, but the climber persisted and squeezed through the window anyway. In the moonlight, she saw a bald head sprouting bluish stubble and a very short figure.

Baozhu covered her mouth with a muffled cry. Dropping the stick, she reached to examine the arm she had struck. He shyly drew it back and whispered, "I'm all right."

Baozhu hurriedly lit a candle. Thirteenth Son stood beneath the window, looking embarrassed and awkward as he whispered, "Ninth Lady, do you have anything to eat?"

Wu Zhiyuan dared not neglect the Yang father and daughter, and had supplied everything they needed. Golden Milk Pastry and Wind-Melting Pastry had been set out in the room. Baozhu brought them to him, and Thirteenth Son stuffed them into his mouth with both hands. Seeing him move so nimbly, with no sign of injury, Baozhu wondered whether her blow had missed.

After finishing the pastries, Thirteenth Son noticed a dish of cheese curds beside the scissors and water bowl. He picked it up and swallowed its contents in one gulp. He had been vegetarian from the womb, so only the grilled fish remained untouched.

His hunger filled Baozhu with pity. She opened the door and looked both ways, making certain no one was eavesdropping outside, before they spoke in the quietest voices they could manage.

"Are they refusing to feed you? Oh, I should never have told you to report to the Lotus Flower Temple."

At last full, Thirteenth Son sighed contentedly and wiped his mouth. "It isn't just me. The Lotus Flower Temple has run out of food. A high official said that unless someone confessed, no one could enter or leave. They've shut us in to starve."

"Roll up your sleeve and let me see your arm," Baozhu said. "It sounded as though I broke it just now, yet you didn't make a sound."

Thirteenth Son clutched his cuff and refused to show her. "I'm fine," he whispered. "It must have been the stick that broke."

Baozhu picked up the stick and found a long split running down its middle. Remembering how she had lashed Wei Xun's fourth junior brother with her riding whip and he had seemed to feel nothing, she exclaimed in surprise, "Are you impervious to blades and spears like that fat senior brother of yours?"

Thirteenth Son rubbed his head and answered modestly, "Of course I'm nowhere near Fourth Senior Brother. We both practice external body-hardening arts, but he has more than ten years of training on me. I can only withstand a couple of blows from you, Ninth Lady." He paused, then added, "I secretly climbed out of the temple tonight and went to the inn to find you. When the innkeeper said you'd been taken to the County Yamen too, I was scared to death. If you'd been tortured or beaten, Eldest Senior Brother would have torn every bone in my body apart."

Baozhu gave a cold snort. "I haven't been starved or beaten, but I'm not much better off. They've confined me here and keep threatening and pressuring me. Your senior brother... oh, he greased his soles and ran off himself. Does he still expect a child like you to protect me?"

Thirteenth Son's eyes shifted. He seemed about to speak, then stopped. After a long struggle, he finally gathered the courage to ask, "Ninth Lady... do you still believe Eldest Senior Brother is innocent?"

Baozhu thought for a moment, then said slowly, "When they forced us to move here, I found that he'd put all the gold from the melted jewelry into the saddlebag. He didn't even take that money. Why would he kill an accomplice over a failed division of the spoils? Someone whose eyes light up at money wouldn't abandon even the smallest profit."

At that, Baozhu recalled all the fear she had suffered these past few days for no reason. The more she thought about it, the more aggrieved she felt, and she added petulantly, "Besides, I have more than a dozen pearls an inch across. Those that aren't mounted in jewelry, I usually just play with like marbles. What's so precious about one pearl? I don't believe Wei Xun has such a poor eye for valuables that he would abandon me to steal some pearl of unknown quality."

Liu Mao, Huo Qi, Yang Xingjian, even the local officials of Xiagui County-every kind of person, on both sides of the law-had decided Wei Xun was guilty. Only Baozhu was willing to believe in him. Thirteenth Son's eyes slowly reddened, and he said tearfully, "Eldest Senior Brother really didn't steal the pearl from the Many-Treasures Pagoda, and he didn't kill anyone either. He can't move right now."

Baozhu felt her heart plunge. The fear that had haunted her all along had finally been confirmed, and suddenly all the strength drained from her body.

"Is he... is he hurt?"

Thirteenth Son looked downcast. "He's ill. Eldest Senior Brother was born with a cold-evil affliction. It flares up every six months or a year. When it strikes, the pain pierces his bone marrow, and he can't take a single step. Never mind climbing a pagoda to steal treasure-he can barely preserve his own life. When he felt it coming on, he meant to kill that subordinate who was following you, to eliminate any future trouble. But after watching him for days, he never saw him take any action against you, and in the end he couldn't bring himself to kill him."

That was close, Baozhu thought. Fortunately, Yang Xingjian was on her side, respectful and cautious. Had he shown the slightest disrespect, he might already have lost his head without a sound.

Thirteenth Son continued, "Senior Brother tested him several times and confirmed that he knew no martial arts. He thought I could handle him alone, and only left by himself when he truly couldn't hold on any longer. Who could have guessed that a major murder and pearl-theft case would break out in the town afterward? Everything fell into chaos at once."

The little novice had hidden this until now before finally telling the truth. Angry, Baozhu shot him a fierce glare. "You stood before me swearing solemn oaths that you didn't know where Wei Xun was. Weren't you afraid the bodhisattva would strike you with lightning?"

Thirteenth Son hastily defended himself. "I really didn't know the exact place then. Eldest Senior Brother always finds some corner to hide in by himself."

"Even though you know about his illness, he won't tell you where he's hiding?" Baozhu asked in surprise.

Thirteenth Son smiled bitterly. "The relationship between us fellow disciples isn't like an ordinary family's. On the surface, everyone is friendly, but if anyone shows the slightest opening, someone will seize the chance to slip a knife in. You saw the scar on Senior Brother Huo Qi's face. Second Senior Brother did that. Eldest Senior Brother knows I wouldn't hurt him, but he can't be sure some other enemy won't use brutal means to force me to reveal his hiding place. That's why he won't tell me, or you."

Baozhu fell silent.

When it came to taking up arms within the same household, to brothers slaughtering brothers, none were bloodier or more ruthless than the imperial family. In the struggle for the throne, the conflicts between the Li Tang and Wu Zhou imperial clans went far beyond a mere cut across the face. They meant ruined houses, exterminated families, and slaughter to the last soul. Had she herself, a princess as precious as gold and jade, not been buried alive for no fathomable reason?

Looking back now, Wei Xun had indeed done everything he could to make arrangements before leaving. That a major pearl-theft and murder case had erupted in Xiagui County immediately afterward, and every faction had identified him as the suspect, was a turn of fate no one could have foreseen.

"Now that you've been dragged into this because of Senior Brother and imprisoned here, Ninth Lady, I had no choice but to tell you the truth," Thirteenth Son said. "Over the past two nights, I've found his hiding place. I think it'll be another three or four days before he can move. I came tonight to tell you not to cry or be afraid. Once Eldest Senior Brother recovers, he'll easily deal with these villains and rescue you."

The little novice blinked his dark eyes, his voice utterly sincere. Unable even to look after himself, he had still come to comfort her. Baozhu let go of her anger over his concealment. Turning to see the scissors, the water bowl, and the dish of cheese curds Thirteenth Son had emptied, she could only find it funny. This Scissors Cat-Finding Method never failed. She had barely set it up before it indirectly led her to Wei Xun's whereabouts-a hit with the very first strike.

After eating, Thirteenth Son was about to climb out of the window, but Baozhu caught him. "Wait. I'll change my clothes and go with you to see Wei Xun."

Thirteenth Son was startled. "How are you going to get through the window?"

"If someone as clumsy as you can climb through it, why can't I?" Baozhu said impatiently. "The people who brought me here think I'm as weak as Old Yang, liable to fall over in a breeze, so they've let their guard down. They couldn't be more wrong!"

She immediately changed into trousers, then copied Wei Xun's trick from the haunted house, piling the bedding into a human shape on the inner side of the bed and draping her shawl over it. Unless someone approached with a lamp, they would think she was fast asleep. Then, under Thirteenth Son's terrified gaze, she climbed out of the window, stepping on his shoulder halfway down to check her descent. Apart from scraping a hole in her trousers, she landed unhurt.

Baozhu brushed the dust from her clothes. "Do you really have the same master as your eldest senior brother? You look less capable than I am."

Standing at the street corner to keep watch, Thirteenth Son said, "We have the same master. But I have no talent for lightness skills. I practice the internal art of Prajna Repentance, so my training is entirely different from Eldest Senior Brother's, inside and out. The other senior brothers each learned different things according to their abilities, too."

Baozhu was taken aback. "Then your master must have been a remarkably learned and accomplished expert, to know so many martial arts."

Once Thirteenth Son was sure the street was empty, he beckoned to her. "He wasn't just skilled in martial arts. He knew everything, and he had so many, many books. He just wouldn't let us read them."

Baozhu followed him on tiptoe. "Then you must admire him very much?"

Thirteenth Son shook his head. Only after a moment did he say, "His temper was terrible. He was never happy for a single day. I was very afraid of him. Ah, what a sin-we all breathed a sigh of relief when Master died."

Secretly astonished, Baozhu let her thoughts wander, wondering whether that ill-tempered bandit chief had simply been buried in the coffin he used to sleep in. As they walked, she realized the route was familiar. Wei Xun's hiding place was unexpectedly close to the Sun Family Inn, only two narrow alleys away.

Knowing the way well, Thirteenth Son slipped up to an unoccupied courtyard. Fresh official seals had been pasted on the gate; it seemed the constables had already searched this empty house after the pearl theft. Baozhu stepped on Thirteenth Son's shoulder, and the two climbed over the wall again. From the rear of the courtyard, he picked up a broken ladder and carried it inside.

The years of accumulated dust in the room made Baozhu cough twice. "How on earth did you find such an out-of-the-way place?"

"Once, he didn't say he was ill, but somehow he lost his footing and fell from a roof beam," Thirteenth Son said. "That was so rare that I still remember it vividly. This time, I thought he wouldn't hide too far from you. He should be somewhere near the Sun Family Inn." As he spoke, he propped the ladder against a crossbeam.

Baozhu looked up and saw a wooden platform above the beams. Judging by the house's structure, there ought to be a hidden, triangular attic beneath the pitched roof.

Thirteenth Son lit a candle, and they climbed the ladder one after the other, then crawled along a beam onto the platform beneath the roof. This triangular attic had never been meant for habitation. The wooden boards were only there to keep out dust and improve the appearance of the room below. Even in the most spacious part, they had to stoop. It was so well concealed that, provided they made no sound, even someone living downstairs would probably never discover them.

A man in a blue-green robe lay curled in the shadows of an attic corner. It was unmistakably Wei Xun.

Baozhu stooped and approached quietly to examine him. He lay curled on his side, his paper-white face shrouded in a gray haze. He looked scarcely a breath removed from death. Beside him stood the stove they had used to melt the jewelry, its charcoal fire already extinguished.

"When this cold-pain affliction strikes, he feels as though he's fallen into an ice cavern, even in the hottest days of summer," Thirteenth Son whispered. "The cold is unbearable. So when he asked me to buy charcoal that day, I more or less guessed."

So that was what the charcoal was for!

It was all like the story in the Liezi about the man who suspected his neighbor of stealing an axe. Once someone decided in advance that a person was a thief, everything that person did looked like a thief's behavior. When the truth came to light, every earlier action had its own explanation. This great thief, whom everyone outside imagined soaring through the skies and burrowing through the earth to commit crimes, was actually too ill to move, saddled out of nowhere with countless accusations.

"Light the stove," Baozhu instructed.

Thirteenth Son did as she asked.

By candlelight, Baozhu studied him closely. His two fine brows were knotted together, and he had bitten his lips raw while enduring the pain. His hands were red, swollen, and ulcerated too. It seemed that, in his delirium, he had touched the stove's sides for warmth and burned himself.

Baozhu had not imagined he was so gravely ill. In a heavy voice, she asked, "Why hide when he falls ill? Can't he see a physician? I may be poor now, but I should still have enough for a few doses of medicine."

"No physician can cure Eldest Senior Brother's illness. In earlier years, he visited many famous physicians in Chang'an, but they all said there was nothing they could do. What hope is there in this little town?"

To think how wild and unrestrained he ordinarily was, yet now he lay collapsed in the dust like a wounded lynx. Baozhu could scarcely bear it. She reached out to feel his forehead.

Before she could touch him, an icy hand clamped hard around her wrist at the pulse point. Wei Xun suddenly opened his eyes, making Baozhu start. What dark, fathomless eyes they were! They were hollow, as though they would draw her into the underworld, a bottomless abyss without the slightest glimmer of light.

Thirteenth Son blanched and hurried over to loosen his grip. "Never touch Eldest Senior Brother while he's asleep! One strike from him can kill!"

Baozhu doubled over in pain. She thought she had startled him awake, but he made no further move, and his eyes remained unfocused. It was only an instinctive reflex. That unconscious grip instantly left blue finger marks on her snow-white wrist.

Wei Xun slowly closed his eyes again and fell silent, his whole body shrouded in the wariness of a cornered beast.

With him unconscious, she could finally set propriety aside and study him openly. His brows were fine, sparse, and long, shaped like pointed blades; his high nose bridge hung like a precarious bridge; his lips were thin and pale. His features were too sharp. No matter how she looked at him, he had the sort of face people in the palace called "scant in blessings and short in life." Yet it only deepened her pity.

Seeing her sorrowful expression, Thirteenth Son forced a cheerful tone to persuade her. "Let's go. Eldest Senior Brother won't let anyone touch him anyway. Even if we paid a fortune to find a physician willing to go to the trouble of climbing the roof beams, he'd be stabbed before he could take his pulse. It's only a few days either way. Once Eldest Senior Brother's symptoms ease, he'll go back to find you himself."

Baozhu sighed. Stroking her burning, aching wrist, she murmured almost inaudibly, "Lynx, oh, Lynx..."