Making the rounds (15)

"Thank you for standing up for me, Inspector."

After everyone dispersed, Zhang Xing, who had been waiting outside, hurried forward to thank Bai Yousi as soon as she emerged. He knew perfectly well that if she had not gone beyond normal procedure to defend him at the end, and Inspector Chai had really decided to press the matter, he would have lost a layer of skin even if he had stuck to his story and held firm.

"I did protect you, but you also protected yourself."

Bai Yousi stopped and turned to face him. "I won't waste words, but if you had shown even a trace of panic in this affair, I wouldn't have acted so decisively, let alone transferred you straight into my Patrol Group... There's no need for thanks between us."

"Yes." Zhang Xing's expression remained unchanged as he climbed straight up the pole she had offered. "I understand. We're all on the same side."

Before Bai Yousi could even answer that, the White Ribbons and brocade-clad patrol cavalry behind Inspector Bai exchanged looks... Evidently, not a single one of them had ever encountered anyone like this.

"Zhang Xing." After some thought, Bai Yousi brought it up herself. "There was a reason I didn't let you join the patrol cavalry when I brought you and Qin Bao here that day... Even now, you still can't remember which division, company, or squad you belonged to in the Central Rampart Army, and there's still no Zhang Xing to be found on its rolls. This isn't something that can simply be brushed aside."

"That's my fault." Zhang Xing sighed softly, looking thoroughly remorseful. "But after my injury, I really couldn't remember. And Zhang Xing was indeed what my brother called me... It might have been a similar-sounding name, but the surname is definitely right. At most, it was the Zhang written with the character for 'composition.'"

"I dare not believe you, yet I can hardly refuse to believe you either." Bai Yousi actually laughed.

"As long as you trust my character, Inspector." Zhang Xing shamelessly puffed out his chest, prompting several of the young people behind the female inspector to curl their lips again.

"Stay here and see this case through. Someone will come to arrange your appointment in a few days." Bai Yousi smiled again, said nothing more, and left with her sword in hand.

Once Bai Yousi left, the seven or eight Brocade-Clad Patrol Cavalry members behind her did not follow. Instead, led by a Black Sash, they came forward one after another to exchange greetings with Zhang Xing.

Among them were people he had met, such as the Black Sash named Hu Yan; people he had never met but had heard of, such as a young man named Li Qingchen, who habitually bullied Qin Erlang; and people he had neither met nor heard of, such as a tall White Ribbon named Qian Tang.

Their ranks varied, and so did their attitudes.

The Black Sash Hu Yan, for instance, was something of an elder brother in the group in terms of age, served as Bai Yousi's deputy, and held Principal Sixth Rank. There was a clear distinction in seniority between him and everyone else, so he merely exchanged a couple of pleasantries before leaving as well.

Among those below him, the older men who looked as though they had families were almost all warm and friendly... Some praised Zhang Xing for carrying a friend's corpse a thousand miles home; others, taking note of his rapport with the inspector, simply said that she had a keen eye for heroes.

The younger ones, however, inevitably had their little tricks. Some were cold and cutting, giving their names before cupping their hands and leaving; some spoke in perfectly ordinary terms while secretly exerting force through their hands, even faintly using true qi, forcing Zhang Xing to cool them down in return; and some spoke with extravagant warmth, yet everything they said carried an unmistakably snide undertone.

The sole exception was naturally Qin Erlang.

Seeing Zhang Xing being needled by those young men, Qin Bao was so moved that he nearly cried. But he still had work to do and only said that they should get together again in a few days.

Just like that, before long, Bai Yousi's entire party had gone.

Zhang Xing could have left directly too, but he was always meticulous about the oddest things. He actually doubled back into the tavern, where he found not Inspector Chai but another Black Sash. After a brief, polite conversation, he learned that Wang and Shen had been arrested outright and thrown into the imperial prison, and that Bai and Chai had both put in a special word regarding Xiao Yu, who should be all right. Only then did he head back.

When he came out again, he discovered that the Street-Cleaning Tigers, who had sat idle all day, had already scattered around outside the Feng Residence and were deep in discussion. When they saw Zhang Xing emerge from a distance, none approached to speak to him.

His treatment was almost identical to that of Han Min, who had killed his friend with his own hands... Clearly, none of them still suspected Zhang Xing of committing the crime. They simply took him for an embedded informant planted by the Central Pacification Office.

An embedded informant, after all, also betrayed the code of brotherhood.

Naturally, Zhang Xing could not be bothered to explain. Not only did he not care, but more importantly, he barely knew them in the first place.

In fact, thanks to Bai Yousi's determined protection, he had extricated himself from the major case involving Feng Yong and his wife and picked up a new post in the process. Zhang Xing felt relieved from head to toe. That evening, once back in Xiūyè Ward, he ate and drank his fill, then lay down to read.

But after the ward gates closed, just as he finished speed-reading the first book, "The Wandering Dragon Sees the Phoenix," following the plot, and had opened the second, "Biography of the Heroine Li Yue, Part Two: Bringing Down the Dragon and Ending the War," and read only its first two pages, an uninvited visitor who hardly counted as a guest arrived.

"What's all this, old brother?"

Opening the door, Zhang Xing found Ward Chief Liu carrying a jug of wine and a jar of pickled radish himself, with his youngest daughter behind him holding a pot of some thoroughly stewed meat soup. He could not help being astonished. "I've just eaten-at your family's stall, no less."

"I've come to congratulate you on your promotion, little brother," Ward Chief Liu replied with a hearty laugh. "We happened to have a pot of old duck soup to go with pickled radish. It won't fill your belly, and you can sweat a little tonight... Aren't you going to let me in?"

Smiling wryly, Zhang Xing could only hurry to welcome him inside.

After setting out a table and chairs in the courtyard, laying out bowls and chopsticks, and putting a small charcoal stove in place, Liu's youngest daughter Fenniang left straightaway. Only Ward Chief Liu and Zhang Xing remained, sitting across from each other, one warming the wine and the other adding pickled radish to the old duck soup.

"You really do hear things quickly, old brother." Zhang Xing sneaked a piece of pickled radish first and felt his mouth water. Even without the duck soup, it was refreshingly tart enough. "News from noon, and you already know it by now. You came over as soon as the ward gates closed..."

"I've been a ward official for over a decade. I may not have other talents, but I do hear the local news a little sooner than most... If you ever want to ask about things around here, you can come to me too." Ward Chief Liu pushed a cup of wine over, talking all the while. "Actually, when that female inspector from the Marquis of Ji'an's household stepped in and settled the case at noon, word had already spread by the afternoon. But at first I thought the case had merely been solved. It wasn't until just now that I learned you had connections with the Marquis of Ji'an's household and were actually being transferred into the Brocade-Clad Patrol Cavalry... No wonder friends from the patrol cavalry kept visiting you before."

Zhang Xing had intended to explain, but on second thought, explanations would be useless, so he simply played along. "I am being transferred, and it is indeed through Inspector Bai. But moving from the Eastern Pacification Office to the Central Pacification Office, I'm still an ordinary soldier without even an official rank. How does that count as a promotion?"

"Listen to yourself, little brother. You were a front-rank soldier in the Upper Five Armies too. Tell me, among the rank-and-file soldiers, are the garrison troops digging pits out front the same as the Black-Armored Cavalry stationed before a Supreme Pillar of State's command tent?" Old Brother Liu laughed at that. "Of the Jing'an Directorate's three great Pacification Offices... the Western stands high, the Central stands firm, and only the Eastern lies limp... Jumping from the Eastern Pacification Office, where you do hard labor, to the Central Pacification Office, which specializes in major cases, suddenly throws your prospects wide open. And you're still so young! I told you long ago that you were destined for bigger things."

Zhang Xing smiled again at this. Whatever else might be said, he had spent the better part of a month as a Street-Cleaning Tiger and had long since asked around about the Jing'an Directorate, so he knew perfectly well that the man was entirely right.

Of the Jing'an Directorate's three great Pacification Offices, the Eastern Pacification Office oversaw public security in the two capitals and the provinces. It had a great many personnel, with even the vast majority of Black Sashes belonging within its sphere. Its combined strength was not actually poor, and its senior leadership included six Vermilion Sashes and one Junior Assistant... But its fatal weakness was that the provincial and commandery Black Sashes had no chain of command linking them to one another, nor did their paths to promotion lie within the Eastern Pacification Office. Its strength was therefore far too scattered.

Even the six cities-the eastern and western capitals, Taiyuan, Ye Capital, Chengdu, and Jiangdu-each with its own Vermilion Sash, could only play lord of heaven and earth within their respective bathtubs.

The Central Pacification Office presented a sharp contrast.

The Central Pacification Office had far fewer personnel than the Eastern Pacification Office and maintained bases only in the eastern and western capitals, but it possessed three immensely powerful treasures.

The first was the special case system. Whenever an imperially commissioned case arose, or a major case that had drawn the attention of the Southern Office's chief ministers or the Northern Office's eunuchs required investigation, the Central Pacification Office was generally given the commission. It would then assign a Vermilion Sash, with specific responsibility for that particular case;

The second was the notorious brocade-clad patrol cavalry system. Vermilion-Sash Inspectors frequently led their units on inspections of unspecified provinces and commanderies at irregular intervals. These patrols were intended to pursue fugitives, suppress powerful local families, and pool forces across jurisdictions to handle major cases, while also examining and supervising the local Black Sashes under the Eastern Pacification Office... At the same time, one secret that was hardly a secret was the frequent rumor that they were also responsible for collecting intelligence on local officials and garrisons, compiling it, and presenting it to the palace;

The last was that, within both the Eastern Capital and the western capital, the Central Pacification Office possessed entirely its own penal departments and prisons.

In short, very good and very powerful.

As for the Western Pacification Office, it was located in the Western Park and oversaw military law for the Jing'an Directorate's other two offices, the imperial guards, and the inner court. It also specifically managed the archives of the Jing'an Directorate, the imperial guards, and the Northern Office. There were even rumors that it commanded a Crouching Dragon Guard made up entirely of high-level cultivators, few in number but taking orders directly from the sovereign... Naturally, then, they too were very powerful-the sort everyone steered clear of... But that depended on the palace having decided to purge the Jing'an Directorate or the imperial guards. Otherwise, they seldom appeared.

And judging by historical experience, they generally only emerged to lead the washing of the floors when a new sovereign brought in a new set of ministers.

As for why this situation had developed, after reading several histories of this world, Zhang Xing could more or less guess a little.

Put plainly, the existence of true qi and cultivators had forced the traditional Ministry of Justice, Court of Judicial Review, and imperial guards to hold their noses and each contribute some of their strength to establish a new department with specialized duties. But such a powerful secret-service department was naturally compatible with imperial power. Thus, as imperial power developed, it had in turn strengthened itself through successive dynastic changes and internal struggles, ultimately swallowing institutions such as the Court of Judicial Review and even forcefully suppressing the Ministry of Justice, becoming the present Jing'an Directorate, which stood alongside the Censorate and vaguely above the Six Ministries.

In other words, the Jing'an Directorate had not split into three. It had always been three powerful departments sharing a household.

"The Brocade-Clad Patrol Cavalry is better than the Street-Cleaning Tigers, that's true, but I really wouldn't dare dream of bigger things." Zhang Xing gave a dry chuckle and raised his cup in a polite gesture. "In times like these, staying alive and finding enough to eat is good enough."

"Why belittle yourself, little brother?" Ward Chief Liu disagreed entirely. "Now that you're following the young lady of the Marquis of Ji'an's household, you've boarded a great ship..."

Zhang Xing had intended to offer another perfunctory reply, but something suddenly stirred in his mind. He simply drained his cup and asked a question of his own. "Come to think of it, I remember you've been in the eastern capital for at least twelve years, old brother?"

"That's right."

"In that case, since I'm going to join the Brocade-Clad Patrol Cavalry, do you have any official-protection charm to give me?" Zhang Xing asked seriously.

"What official-protection charm?" This time, Ward Chief Liu was the astonished one.

"It's a provincial expression... They say that when local officials take office, they generally first ask about the powerful clans and great families in the area. Over time, every place develops its own little rhyme, a customary set of words like a slip of paper that every new official has to read before taking office." Zhang Xing did not so much as blink. "You've really never heard of that here in the eastern capital, old brother?"

Ward Chief Liu considered for a moment, first nodding and then shaking his head emphatically. "In principle, something like what you're describing ought to exist. But I've been in the eastern capital for over a decade, and I truly haven't heard of it."

Zhang Xing was briefly taken aback.

But he soon came to a measure of understanding. "I see. Under the emperor's very feet, with imperial relatives, several Supreme Pillars of State, and the great surnames and prominent clans east of the passes all right here in plain sight... The eastern capital doesn't need such things."

"No." Ward Chief Liu kept shaking his head. "I won't keep you guessing. You'll understand once I say it... If things were as you describe, it would actually be possible to compose that official-protection charm. But the situation now is that the civil and military factions, the east and the west-in other words, the Supreme Pillars of State and the prominent clans east of the passes-are fighting every moment of every day."

Zhang Xing paused slightly, then smiled wryly.

"The eastern capital has stood for twenty years, and for twenty years they've fought like fire and water. Innocent people down in the wards get dragged into it at the drop of a hat. Somewhere like the Brocade-Clad Patrol Cavalry is even less able to escape it." Ward Chief Liu lowered his voice slightly and continued. "Besides, before this, I might still have advised you not to board a ship lightly. But since you were already one of the Marquis of Ji'an's people, you ought to know that the Bai family descends from one of the Eight Supreme Pillars of the State of old. You yourself were already aboard... Thinking about some official-protection charm at this point-isn't that a joke?"

Zhang Xing had already understood completely as he listened. Then, following the man's words, he recalled his conversation with Bai Yousi in this courtyard the previous night and had nothing to say in reply.

Still, after a long pause, a few more cups of wine, and some pickled radish, with a mild tipsiness in the air, Zhang Xing finally could not help asking in turn, "Old brother, since you know the eastern capital isn't a peaceful place, why don't you leave? Even someone as slippery as Feng Yong was preparing to go home before he died."

Old Brother Liu was slightly tipsy, but he still fell silent at the question. Only after a good while of thought did he shake his head. "I can't leave, and it's not the same... For someone with deep roots, wanting to leave is itself a risk. Didn't Feng Yong lose his life over that? Someone insignificant like me can naturally leave, but once I'm out of the eastern capital, where can I go? I can only serve as a ward official for another day and beat the street-clearing gong for another day."

Zhang Xing sighed.

"You're a grown man, and still so young. What are you sighing for?" Seeing this, Ward Chief Liu instead began to counsel him. "Hard as the times are, bad as they are, everyone has their own way of living. People like us naturally keep to our place and live our lives properly. Young men like you, with ability and character-wherever you go, whatever situation you encounter, what's wrong with simply putting your abilities to use and showing your bold spirit and character? You must understand: it's precisely because people like you exist that people like us can enjoy a little peace, steal a sunset, and have a bowl of old duck soup with pickled radish."

At first, Zhang Xing merely found it amusing... After all, he knew how thick the calluses on the man's hands were; he might well be someone who concealed his true abilities... But after a moment's thought, he felt that, whatever the case, the man was offering encouragement, and his goodwill toward him was sincere.

Better still, casual as those words had been, they actually accorded closely with Bai Yousi's solemn words of the day before. One spoke from above, from a position of strength, the other from below, from a position of weakness, but both urged him not to keep looking ahead and behind, to hold fast to his own heart and stride forward with his head high.

Viewed that way, it was he who had been sitting here thinking this way and that, lacking decisiveness and falling a notch below them instead.

At that thought, Zhang Xing reached out, pinched up a piece of pickled radish, ate it in one bite, and raised his cup again. "Well said, old brother! Heaven gave me talents that must find their use; scatter a thousand gold pieces, and they'll come back again! With the road ahead already open, why keep looking forward and back? Thank you for your encouragement today. In the future, please keep watching from behind me and see whether I've lost my character or my bold spirit!"

With that, he actually tipped his head back and drained the cup on his own, making Ward Chief Liu roar with laughter across from him and slap an empty bowl against the table.