Chapter 11

A new day brought new challenges. After they had eaten longevity porridge for breakfast, Bao Lang actually sent a personal guard to invite Lady Fang Xie out riding to enjoy the spring greenery.

They had only just fought bitterly the night before, yet today he made this outrageous request as though nothing had happened. Yang Xingjian could scarcely believe his ears. He stood stunned for a long while before recovering, then flew into a rage. "Never in my life have I seen anyone so brazenly shameless, with such a wolf's savage ambitions!!!"

Wu Zhiyuan had been keeping him company in idle conversation. Hearing this, he too looked thoroughly embarrassed and said with a wry smile, "Neither of them is married. Special Envoy Bao Lang is a fine-looking man with a splendid future. There is really no need for you to be so angry, Chief Clerk..."

Yang Xingjian cursed him by his full name. "Wu Zhiyuan, has your conscience been eaten by dogs? You have an unmarried daughter yourself! Why don't you send your own daughter to keep that Heaven-cursed brute company?!"

Wu Zhiyuan gave an awkward laugh. "I would like to, but the special envoy wouldn't consider her. You belong to the Hongnong Yang Clan, Chief Clerk-a great aristocratic house. Naturally, you are different from humble families like ours."

Baozhu found it baffling as well. She took a bowl of tea from a maid and rinsed her mouth before asking the guard, "The city is sealed. Where are we supposed to go to enjoy the spring greenery?"

The guard answered nervously, "Apparently, a household in the west of the city has reported a crime. The complainant believes the pearl thief was responsible."

Yang Xingjian sucked in a cold breath, his eyes staring wide. "Did I hear that correctly? A spring outing to a crime scene?!"

Baozhu paused, her thoughts turning, then murmured, "Now that is interesting."

Yang Xingjian carefully observed the princess's expression. He was astonished that she showed no anger at such an affront. Yesterday, Bao Lang had brought out a severed head and given her a terrible fright; she had cried with anger on the way back. Yet after only one night, she was eating and drinking as usual, with a hearty appetite and perfectly steady spirits.

Baozhu set down her teacup and told the guard, "Tell him to have the horses ready. I need to dress. Let me make this clear first: since he is the one inviting me out riding, I won't touch a poor horse or a nag." Then she rose to go upstairs and change.

Yang Xingjian turned pale with alarm. In his desperation, he nearly fell to his knees before her, pleading, "Prin... Such blatant insolence! You must not! Absolutely must not! Besides, that crime scene is bound to be bloody and filthy. It is no place for Fang... Fang Xie!"

"Anywhere is better than being confined in this cage," Baozhu said. "Besides, until this case is solved, he won't let either of us out. We might as well settle it sooner."

Yang Xingjian was as frantic as an ant on a hot pan. With outsiders all around, he could not openly ask what she intended. He wanted to say more, but Baozhu had already turned and left.

Baozhu thought that since she had established Wei Xun's innocence, she might as well try to solve the case first and clear his name. That would also let her escape this cage sooner and bring order to this tangled situation. Bao Lang had troubled her time and again, presumably because he was desperate to solve the case. Otherwise, having lost a treasure entrusted to him as an envoy, he would never be spared by Cui Keyong.

Although she had no desire to let Bao Lang succeed in presenting the pearl, their interests temporarily aligned when it came to finding the stolen goods and solving the murder. Given that, she doubted he would dare do anything improper to her in public.

Her plan settled, Baozhu put on the jewelry and clothes given to her by Wu Zhiyuan's wife, made herself presentable, and walked gracefully out of the Reflection Pavilion.

Sure enough, Bao Lang stood waiting for her at the entrance to the inner residence with two horses. One was a great black horse, tall and long-legged, powerfully built-a fine steed of Khitan stock. Even as he stood there, he kept shifting his feet and snorting, his bearing proud.

When Bao Lang saw her arrive, he said courteously, "I heard that Lady Fang Xie requested a good horse. Coming from Xuzhou, I made no preparations beforehand, so I could only offer my own mount. But Te Le Li has only recently come to the Central Plains and has quite a fiery temper. I'm afraid he isn't suitable for a gentle lady like you. For safety's sake, please ride this docile mare instead."

Baozhu turned a deaf ear to Bao Lang. She carefully examined the great black horse's build and bearing, then held out both hands and spoke gently to him in Khitan. Te Le Li froze for a moment. Baozhu continued calling to him in his native tongue. After a brief hesitation, the black horse lowered his head and sniffed, then nestled it between her hands, offering himself for her to stroke.

After murmuring softly to Te Le Li for a while, Baozhu looked up at Bao Lang. "He isn't bad-tempered. He simply can't understand what anyone is saying and feels lonely. There is no spirited horse I cannot tame. You ride the docile mare."

Bao Lang was startled inwardly, but showed nothing on his face. Smiling warmly, he offered a few words of praise, then graciously extended a hand for Baozhu to lean on as she mounted.

Baozhu ignored it and brushed past him, vaulting lightly onto the horse. Her skirts unfurled like a peony before falling neatly on either side of the saddle flaps against the horse's belly. At a glance, she was clearly an expert rider. She put on her veiled hat, her long sleeves covering her hands, leaving not a sliver of skin exposed-the very picture of a lady from a distinguished noble house going out.

Bao Lang was left standing there with his hand extended. He could only smile helplessly and mount the mare, whose back stood a foot lower.

They rode out side by side, followed by eight of Bao Lang's personal guards and eight constables from Xiagui County. The procession was quiet and orderly. All the attendants feared Bao Lang as they would lions, tigers, snakes, or scorpions. Baozhu did not know what he had done in the past, but she could tell he was certainly no compassionate or merciful master.

Looking again at Te Le Li, she saw that although his saddle and bridle were splendid and finely made, and his mane had been carefully arranged into five braids, his neck bore many whip scars. It was easy to imagine what sort of life he had led in Bao Lang's hands.

They rode to the household in the west of the city that had reported the crime. The buildings were old, with damage in several places on the tiled roof that the owners could not afford to repair and had covered with thatch. The courtyard held only two rooms; it was the most ordinary of commoners' homes. Baozhu noticed that the property stood right against the city wall, and this stretch of wall happened to have a damaged gap, half a zhang lower than the rest.

Seeing her look up at the gap in the wall, Bao Lang said approvingly, "What a keen eye you have, Lady Fang Xie. You noticed the crucial point so quickly."

Baozhu did not answer, only shook her head.

The complainant was an ugly middle-aged man. Kneeling at the doorway, he kowtowed several times to Bao Lang and gave his account. "Please secure justice for this humble commoner. The treasure thief stole my wife away, along with thirty strings of good coin from my home."

Hearing this, Baozhu thought, So no one died. It is only a theft.

One of the accompanying constables demanded, "How do you know it was the treasure thief who stole your wife?"

The middle-aged man said, "My wife disappeared after the city was sealed. That night, I heard someone stepping on our roof, then jumping onto the gap in the city wall and escaping over it. Only someone who could steal the treasure from the pagoda would have skills like that!"

The neighbors gathered to watch murmured among themselves. Suddenly, someone in the crowd shouted, "His wife's nickname is Stone-and-a-Half! What thief would steal her?"

Bao Lang immediately ordered his men to drag out the man making the remark and have him kneel to explain.

The man had thought he could make a joke from within the crowd, never expecting to be seized on the spot. Trembling with fear, he said, "This humble commoner wasn't lying. Cheng the Second's wife is less than five feet tall and weighs a stone and a half. She looks like a squat stone drum, so she's nicknamed Stone-and-a-Half."

Listening to his account, Baozhu suddenly giggled. Bao Lang turned to her in surprise. "Why are you laughing, Lady Fang Xie?"

Unable to suppress her amusement, Baozhu said, "Nothing, really. I was imagining that little thief climbing over the wall with a woman weighing a stone and a half on his back, along with two hundred jin of copper coins. The picture is simply too funny."

Even with the gap, the city wall was still three zhang high. No expert, however skilled, could climb it carrying such a weight. A little thought was enough to expose the lie.

Bao Lang laughed too. "Clearly, this man's report is absurd."

Another person in the crowd shouted, "Cheng the Second owes me two strings of cash and hasn't repaid them for over a year! If he had thirty strings of ready money at home, why did he keep putting off paying me back?!"

With his neighbors exposing him one after another, the middle-aged complainant broke out in sweat and stammered, "But my wife really is missing. The gates have been sealed for days, and we have no other relatives in Xiagui. Where could she have gone?"

Bao Lang had no desire to deal with petty affairs such as commoners' wives taking lovers. The main investigators were now all tied up in cases like these, while the pearl theft and murder investigation made no progress. These troublesome commoners were nothing but stumbling blocks. His face darkened, and he ordered the constables beside him, "Spreading alarm and fabricating rumors. Give him a hundred strokes of the heavy cane and close the case."

Baozhu was shocked. A hundred strokes was a severe punishment under the law; even if it did not kill him, it would certainly leave him gravely injured or crippled. For merely making a false report, Bao Lang had casually decided the man's fate.

She dismounted from Te Le Li and said with feigned innocence, "I have never seen a commoner's house. I'd like to look inside."

Not wishing to deny her, Bao Lang dismounted as well.

The two rooms were not only cramped but shabby and filthy. For a moment, Baozhu could not even imagine where these people slept. Bao Lang kicked the clutter aside, barely clearing a place for her to stand. Beyond the rooms was a tiny rear courtyard against the city wall, no more than three zhang across, overgrown with weeds and containing only an old stone mill. The claim that an expert in lightness skills had stepped on the roof and leaped onto the gap in the wall did seem plausible.

Baozhu wandered around the little rear courtyard and spotted a little fresh, loose earth scattered among the weeds. Yet the ground throughout the yard was dry and hard, with none of the signs of digging Wei Xun had described. She felt puzzled. If there were no signs of digging, where had that fresh earth come from?

The constables brought in the complainant and two of his neighbors under guard. Hearing that he was to receive a hundred strokes, the complainant had already wet his trousers in terror. Trembling, he muttered nonsense such as, "I don't want my wife anymore, just spare me."

Baozhu asked the two neighbors, "He says he heard someone stepping on the roof and jumping onto the city wall in the middle of the night. Did either of you hear it?"

One said he had slept soundly and heard nothing. The other said he had indeed heard a very muffled thud from this courtyard, but could not tell whether it was the sound of someone stepping on the roof. Two constables climbed a ladder to inspect it. The complainant's roof already had so many damaged and leaking patches that they could not tell whether anyone had stepped there.

The entire house and courtyard reeked of foul body odor and years of neglect. After standing there a while, Baozhu could bear it no longer and turned to leave. Suddenly, she caught sight of an inconspicuous fresh chip in the old stone mill and stopped.

She felt the chipped spot and found a little earth clinging to it. Then she told the constables and personal guards Bao Lang had brought, "Pull this stone mill over. Let me see underneath."

Though she was only a young girl, her words carried an innate authority. The constables glanced at Bao Lang, and when he showed no sign of objecting, they obeyed her, found a hemp rope, and pulled the stone mill over with a muffled thud.

The complainant dropped to his knees and wept. "My wife must have taken the family money and run away with her lover! I felt disgraced, so I lied and blamed the thief... I am willing to admit to making a false report!"

The soil beneath the stone mill was moist and fresh. That could have been explained by its having been covered and pressed down, but Baozhu's eyes were exceptionally sharp: she spotted a few strands of weeds mixed into it, roots and all. Grass should not have grown in a place with no sunlight and a heavy weight pressing down on it. Nor were the weeds lying in the direction they would have grown. Instead, they looked as though they had been mixed into earth that had been dug up and filled back in.

She glanced back at the complainant, who had just admitted to lying. He was shaking like chaff in a sieve, his face turned waxy yellow.

Baozhu sighed and told the constables, "Dig down from here and see. If my guess is right, his missing wife was neither abducted by a thief nor eloped with a lover. She is buried beneath this stone mill."