Chapter 13

After thoroughly enjoying herself at Wei Xun's expense, Baozhu thought back over everything that had happened since they met and still found it unbelievable. "You actually dared tell me you were some poor, unknown thief! Now it turns out that 'poor' was the only truthful word in the whole thing. I believed your lies and unwittingly became an accomplice to a master thief who flies over rooftops. If Yang Xingjian hadn't arrived in time to protect his mistress, who knows how things would have turned out?"

Throughout her scolding, Wei Xun offered only an occasional reply and never defended himself. Then Baozhu remembered that he had disappeared because of his illness, not because he had deliberately gone into hiding, and her tone softened. "Even court officials in the Capital can take leave to seek treatment when they fall ill. Since you weren't feeling well, why didn't you tell me before leaving? Even if you had some difficulty you couldn't speak of, you could at least have left a note. You had me worried sick for days, angry and anxious all at once."

Wei Xun finally raised his head from his silence. He gave her a look filled with complicated emotions and said quietly, "I can't..."

Baozhu had not heard him clearly. "Can't what?"

Wei Xun drew a deep breath, as though mustering every scrap of courage he possessed, and forced himself to say it. "I can't write."

Baozhu froze, then grew even angrier. "More damned lies! Whenever we pass an official notice or wanted poster, you're always the first to push your way over and read it. You hid all those bamboo slips in Green Micro Temple. If you can't read, were they there for firewood?!"

Wei Xun lowered his eyes, looking dejected. "I can read, but I can't write. Chen Shigu had plenty of books, but he never taught me. I learned by lying on the roof of the County School's study hall and listening in. I never paid the instructor's tuition fee, so no one taught me to write."

He paused, then added bitterly, "People in the underworld use Mynah Talk wall drawings to contact one another. It isn't some romantic custom. It's simply because most of them can't read."

Baozhu's eyes widened in astonishment, and for a long while she could not speak. She had assumed that everyone in the world ought to be literate, never realizing that many people had no opportunity to learn. Thinking back to the day they had drunk together at the tavern, she remembered how gloomy Wei Xun had been after she mocked him over the wall drawings. So this had been the reason. This proud master thief, whose name thundered throughout the underworld, had now been forced to admit that he could not leave so much as a note. His face was filled with shame and a sense of his own inferiority.

She also recalled that Wei Xun had left a wall drawing at the Sun Family Inn. Unlike its usual nimble self, the blue lynx had been lying in the grass. He had indeed left a discreet message; she simply had not noticed.

As she pieced together those past events, Baozhu immediately forgave him for leaving without a word. Seeing him still standing miserably against the wall with his head lowered, she thought for a moment and said gently, "That's nothing to worry about. I can teach you to write from now on. I'm not boasting, but I studied calligraphy under Junior Preceptor Liu. I even taught Yuanyi his first lessons myself. I'm leagues above some instructor at a county school!"

Hearing that her voice no longer held any mockery, Wei Xun gave her a startled look. Baozhu guessed that these wandering heroes might have a strong sense of pride, so she added, "In exchange, you can teach me things I don't know. For instance... you could teach me Spring Code Cant."

Wei Xun managed a faint smile. "You really want to learn that?"

Baozhu nodded earnestly.

Wei Xun agreed with a serious expression. "All right. That's fair."

With their old grievances settled, Baozhu returned to the matter at hand. "I've already cleared up the third woman's disappearance we were discussing. You really weren't responsible. But the first two cases remain unsolved, and you haven't been cleared of suspicion..."

As she spoke, she casually swept her long hair behind her ear, exposing one rounded cheek. Wei Xun froze, his expression changing violently. He strode toward her and demanded in a low, furious voice, "They beat you after all? Who did it? Who gave the order?"

They had been getting along perfectly well, yet Wei Xun's expression had suddenly changed for no apparent reason. His cold, fierce gaze frightened Baozhu. Bewildered, she asked, "Who was beaten?"

Wei Xun stared at the two long, crescent-shaped blood marks running from the corner of her eye across her cheek. Against her flawless skin, they looked strikingly vivid and hideous. Through gritted teeth, he said, "Your face..." He choked back the rest, unable to say that she had been disfigured. His blood surged in his chest, and his hand found the dagger at his waist as murderous intent crept into his eyes.

Baozhu had never seen such an unfamiliar look in his eyes. A little frightened and even more confused, she asked, "What's wrong with my face?" She rose and went to the bronze mirror. One glance left her speechless with amusement. Taking some Camellia Oil from her cosmetics box, she applied it beside her eye, then wiped it away with a brocade handkerchief. The wounds vanished.

Confined here with nowhere to go, she had grown bored during the day and used rouge to paint the Blood-Halo Slanted Red makeup popular in the palace. Distracted while removing her makeup that evening, she had missed that one spot. By candlelight, it did indeed look rather frightening.

Baozhu turned back to let him see clearly and explained sheepishly, "It really is inconvenient not having a maid who suits me."

Having watched her wipe away such terrible wounds as though by magic, Wei Xun was startled too. Once relief washed over him, his chest felt utterly hollow. His emotions had been tossed through twists and turns all night, rising and plunging without rest. With a bitter, self-mocking smile, he braced himself against the table and slowly sat down. Rushing here as soon as he awoke had been too much for him after all.

Seeing how slow and labored his movements were as he sat, nothing like his former lightness, Baozhu could tell that he had not fully recovered. She felt the earthenware pot he had brought back. It was still heavy, its contents untouched. Displeased, she said, "Why haven't you taken your medicine? I had to go out with someone thoroughly detestable, and only managed to buy this during a brief taste of freedom."

Wei Xun buried his head between his arms and said in a muffled voice, "I can't eat spicy things."

Baozhu snapped, "Good medicine tastes bitter but cures the illness! Black pepper is the best medicine for driving out cold. Isn't that what you're suffering from?"

Wei Xun added, "A broth made with dogwood or Sichuan pepper can drive out cold just as well. Why buy such an expensive spice?"

Baozhu answered with perfect confidence, "Black pepper is sold at shops for medicinal aromatics, while dogwood and Sichuan pepper are sold at seasoning shops alongside oil, salt, sauces, and vinegar. How can they be used as equals? If it costs more, there must be a reason. Do you need to be coaxed with rock sugar before you'll take your medicine, just like seven-year-old Li Yuanyi?! Eat!"

Under her relentless urging, Wei Xun had no choice but to lift the pot's lid. He had taken a few slices of dried meat with him when he left, but during his attacks, the pain had blotted out heaven and earth, and he vomited even after drinking water. He had hardly eaten and was now thoroughly starved after several days.

This porridge of lamb, goji berries, and wheat kernels was a nourishing medicinal dish meant to replenish the liver, nurture the heart, and warm the middle and lower body. Simmered slowly over a low flame until the lamb and wheat were tender, it ought to have been delicious. Unfortunately, Baozhu had been extravagantly generous, pouring in enough black pepper for an entire banquet. It was bitter, fiercely spicy, and choking, fit only to be swallowed like a medicinal decoction.

Baozhu declared proudly, "This is one of Sun Simiao's medicinal recipes. I added the ingredients myself."

The spice twisted Wei Xun's face and made him cough repeatedly. His lips turned bright red, lending his pale face a rare splash of vivid color. He gave her a sidelong look and asked suspiciously, "You cooked it yourself?"

Only then did Baozhu blush. She sat before the bronze mirror again to comb her hair, pretending she had not heard.

As a woman, even a noble daughter of the imperial house, she had been required to learn household duties from childhood. Her brothers studied the classics, histories, philosophical works, and literary collections that taught the art of governing, while she had to memorize texts such as Instructions for Women and Admonitions for Women, preparing her to become a wife and mother. When her parents fell ill, she also had to serve them food and medicine, fulfilling a child's filial duties.

Fortunately, as a princess, she did not have to endure hardship and toil at the well and mortar like women from ordinary households. Merely taking a bowl from a maid's tray and passing it on counted as attending to her parents. Sprinkling a pinch of salt over a dish presented by the Bureau of Imperial Foods counted as making soup with her own hands, satisfying the duties prescribed by propriety.

Naturally, this pot of meat porridge had simply been prepared at her orders in Wu Zhiyuan's kitchen, after which she sprinkled in the ground black pepper. Whether her hand had been heavy or light, and how much she had added, was none of her concern.

For this little thief to eat medicinal porridge prepared by her own hands was an extraordinary honor. He ought to have been so grateful that tears streamed down his face, promising to follow and serve her even at the cost of being smashed to pieces, and deliver her safely to Youzhou. Proud of the art of handling people that her parents and elder brothers had taught her, Baozhu grew increasingly pleased with herself, until her delight began to show.

Wei Xun was indeed streaming tears and mucus, though only because he was choking.

This isn't medicinal porridge. It's golden porridge, he repeated to himself. Gritting his teeth, he forced down half of it, feeling as though every organ inside him had been boiled and scalded through. It drove out cold more fiercely than the strongest liquor. Finally unable to swallow another mouthful, he wiped the tears from the corners of his eyes and said, "I've read all thirty volumes of the Medicine King's Essential Prescriptions Worth a Thousand Gold for Emergencies. I never saw black pepper used like this."

Baozhu smiled. "Here's something you don't know. In his later years, he wrote another thirty volumes, the Supplementary Prescriptions Worth a Thousand Gold, to supplement his earlier Essential Prescriptions. That's why the title calls them 'wings.' He wrote them while living in seclusion on Mount Wutai in Tongguan County. During the Yongchun era, after the Medicine King passed away, Emperor Gaozong sent people to pay their respects at his former residence, and they brought those thirty volumes back to the palace. Based on his words, 'Black pepper directs qi downward, warms the middle, dispels phlegm, and removes wind-cold from the internal organs,' the Bureau of Imperial Foods made medicinal dishes to serve us. Whenever we caught a chill as children, we ate this porridge. Listen-'removes wind-cold from the lungs.' Doesn't that suit your cold-evil affliction perfectly?"

Hearing this, Wei Xun reflected that he had prowled around the imperial city many times and even searched royal book repositories such as the Institute of Literary Advancement and the Hall of Assembled Worthies. He had never imagined that the Medicine King's books were kept in the Bureau of Imperial Foods under the Department of Palace Affairs, used solely to cater to the daily meals of imperial nobles rather than to practice medicine and save lives. Truly, a bright pearl had been cast into darkness. Then again, judging by this recipe, it would be little use even if it reached the common people. They might save enough to afford lamb and goji berries, but what ordinary family could afford black pepper?

Wei Xun sighed. "To think you've studied medical books so closely. That's surprising."

Baozhu opened her round, almond-shaped eyes wide. "I haven't read them. I only remember this because black pepper was involved in a dispute some years ago."

It suddenly struck her that they had been talking for so long without the slightest movement outside. Wei Xun had not even tried to suppress his coughing, and she wondered whether those watching her had heard. Baozhu rose, quietly opened the door, and went out to investigate. In the corridor, she found the two maids slumped awkwardly, one seated against the wall and the other half-draped over a flower stand, both deeply asleep. She went over and touched their shoulders, but neither stirred. There were no visible injuries on them, and she could not tell what had happened.

Returning to the room, Baozhu asked, "What happened to them?"

Wei Xun was still chewing bitter bark and swallowing needles with an agonized expression. Only after forcing down his mouthful did he look at her and say, "I sealed their sleep acupoints. They won't wake until tomorrow. If you want to leave, I can take you away right now."

Baozhu froze. Remembering that he had indeed said he could carry someone on his back over the city walls, she felt her heart leap and immediately wanted to escape her cage and race toward freedom. But after weighing the matter carefully, she still could not agree. Regretfully, she said, "No. The case hasn't been solved. Even if we escaped over the wall, it would only confirm our guilt. If everything went smoothly on the road to Youzhou, that would be one thing, but if I became a wanted criminal, taking even a single step would be harder than traveling without household registration."

Wei Xun nodded and said nothing more.

The man truly was a gallant hero tempered into steel by a hundred trials of endurance. He spent a full hour slowly forcing down the peppery medicinal porridge, mouthful by mouthful. By the time he finished, he was drenched in sweat. Apart from the burning in his stomach and a tongue so sore he could not speak, he really did feel much better. It certainly deserves to be called the Medicine King's final work, Wei Xun thought. If I get the chance, I must go into the palace and get those last thirty volumes.

After glancing at the moon's position, Wei Xun rose and told Baozhu, "Since you're staying, rest here without worrying. I have something to take care of."

Baozhu asked in surprise, "You... whose trouble are you going to stir up?"

Wei Xun said slowly, "You were implicated because of me and confined here, but the root cause was Liu Mao reporting me to the authorities. That feud has been made, and it has to be settled."

Baozhu pondered this. "So the message delivered by throwing knife really did come from that old man..."

"If it wasn't Liu Mao, it was one of his men. As the local Acupoint Chief, he has to take responsibility."

"After you disappeared, Liu Mao came to the Sun Family Inn once. He still wanted to ask you to return the White Snake Pearl."

A belated chill of fear ran through Wei Xun. Raising his brows, he asked, "Was he disrespectful to you?"

Baozhu shook her head. "No. He offered a few toasts and left. But you haven't recovered yet. Must you go now? That old man has a lot of men under him."

Wei Xun said with solemn conviction, "I can't leave a grudge overnight. It keeps me awake. Besides, being able to walk is enough to deal with the likes of Liu Mao." Seeing the worry on Baozhu's face, he smiled calmly. "None of the formidable enemies Wei Da has faced in his life have been as daunting as that pot of medicinal porridge of yours."

With that, he slipped lightly out the window. A moment later, he leaned back inside and earnestly cautioned her, "Close and bar the door and windows before you sleep. I'll come see you tomorrow, so no one else will be coming tonight."

Baozhu hurried forward a couple of steps to see how he would jump down, only to find Wei Xun bending backward at the waist and plunging as though he had lost his footing. Smothering a scream with her hand, she clutched the windowsill and looked down. He deftly flipped over in midair, touched down on the tips of his toes, and darted into the darkness, vanishing from sight.