A walk down Heaven Street (4)

Zhang Xing had never imagined that a single question from him would nearly turn the gathering into an Eastern Capital swearing convention, with faint signs that people might seize the chance to stir up trouble. But, quite possibly having noticed the commotion and the rising emotions, an organized squad of Brocade-clad Patrol Cavalry immediately turned their way. The Vermilion Sash leading them was none other than Zhang Xing's immediate superior, Bai Yousi.

"Inspector."

"Inspector."

"Inspector Bai."

"Thank you for your hard work, Inspector."

"Aren't you hot, Inspector?"

And clearly, Bai Yousi enjoyed considerable standing and authority throughout the Jing'an Directorate. The moment she arrived, the atmosphere around them changed.

Though it remained very lively.

"This was decided by the Southern Office. Don't make things difficult for the Intendant." Having arrived, Bai Yousi offered a few words of admonition even though she knew the atmosphere had already eased.

Everyone hastily agreed.

Then Inspector Bai, wearing her Warrior Cap, noticed her own direct subordinate among the crowd and could not help asking, "Zhang Xing, didn't you take leave to move house? Why have you come to the island?"

"Reporting to you, Inspector," Zhang Xing answered truthfully. "I've finished moving. I was just coming to collect my horse..."

"Finished that quickly? But I'm afraid collecting your horse won't be easy today." Bai Yousi glanced behind her, then simply gave Zhang Xing an order. "The squad is busy. Since you're here, come help keep the prisoners under control... From the third level of the imperial prison onward, they're genuine martial practitioners. We mustn't be careless... Anything that happens on this island is bound to implicate us."

Zhang Xing looked up at the blazing sun, then at the spotless, plain-colored brocade robes she wore. He was speechless inwardly, but was forced to work overtime all the same.

Thanks to this, however, Zhang Xing did get to see just what the most vicious wanted criminals in this world were like.

Most of the prisoners dragged out at first were much as he had expected, their hands bound with ropes and their eyes covered with black cloth. Once outside, some cringed and begged for mercy, some hurled abuse with brazen ferocity, and some joked with perfect composure. There were even those who, upon feeling the sunlight, danced toward the sun like sunflowers. But a few swings of the Ministry of Justice soldiers' cudgels generally brought them into line at once.

The several dozen prisoners dragged out from the third underground level presented an entirely different picture. Whether they looked old and frail or strong and healthy, all wore heavy cangues, and some wore weighty iron shackles as well. They all seemed to have lost the ability to move and were practically dragged into the prison wagons.

That alone would have been one thing. What made the people around them uneasy was that these men were plainly alive, yet made no sound whatsoever throughout... not even a groan.

Considering that the first prerequisite for imprisonment on the third underground level was True Qi cultivation reaching the Eight Extraordinary Meridians, it was all the more chilling.

The most chilling sight came with the final prisoner.

He was a man in his prime with an exceptionally large frame, stripped to the waist. Although his exposed body was lean, it was nowhere near the point of being ruined. With black cloth covering his eyes, he was dragged out of the courtyard beneath the tower by four sturdy soldiers. Zhang Xing glanced over... truthfully, his first reaction was to think he had transmigrated into some Western fantasy world, and that this prisoner's class was demon hunter.

And this very prisoner, with his exceptionally large frame, actually turned toward Zhang Xing just before boarding the prison wagon and smiled, revealing a mouthful of large white teeth.

At that one smile, Zhang Xing felt the sweat on his back turn ice-cold.

But very soon, Zhang Xing, Qin Bao, and the other patrol riders around them realized what was happening. The man was not looking at them. He was looking at Bai Yousi.

The reason could not have been simpler. After who knew how many years underground, and with so many layers of black gauze wrapped around his eyes upon coming out, there was absolutely no way the prisoner could see at this moment. He must have been perceiving people through some True Qi method. Presumably, what he saw were masses of True Qi rather than individual people.

And when it came to True Qi, Bai Yousi's was probably like the bright moon hanging in the sky among this squad.

"Sister Si."

Watching the prison wagon recede, Li Qingchen lowered his voice to ask before Zhang Xing could speak. "Who was that? What's his cultivation? Does he know you?"

"I don't know him, and I don't know who he is," Bai Yousi answered calmly. "But in terms of cultivation, he was probably on a level similar to mine before his imprisonment, so he should be a fifth-level prisoner."

"The fifth level?!" Li Qingchen jumped. "How could they dare move someone from the fifth level so casually?"

Zhang Xing was startled too, then instinctively asked, "Does the Ministry of Justice have a Grandmaster stationed there?"

The others around them hurriedly looked toward Bai Yousi as well.

"Of course the Ministry of Justice doesn't." The female inspector gazed thoughtfully at the retreating prison wagon. "But this man spent many years beneath the Black Tower, suppressed all that time by the Intendant's little world. His Qihai Dantian has probably long since dried up. A few years ago, the Intendant clearly advanced to Great Grandmaster, so he was probably suppressed even more severely. Even if he had already achieved minor success in Condensing the Core before his imprisonment, he couldn't recover and put it to use overnight... If he really forced himself to use it, his Inner Core and qi sea would very likely shatter, leaving him dead or crippled."

Only then did everyone relax a little. They followed again, trailing the prison wagons at a distance, and watched until the last wagon went up onto the bridge in the distance and down the other side. Only then was the matter finished.

At that point, the squad turned to look back across the island and saw that everyone, from the brocade-clad warriors to the Jing'an Directorate's ordinary clerks, including the servants and grooms, was gathered together discussing it. They too found it tiresome.

Amid the awkwardness, someone inevitably began making the customary inquiries after Inspector Bai.

"Inspector." The tall, White Ribbon-wearing Qian Tang cupped his hands solemnly as he asked, "Forgive my presumption, but I heard that fellow Zhang has recently reached straight into the Bai Clan? Arrested quite a few people?"

Bai Yousi smiled faintly at this, unconcerned. "It's only that my seventeenth elder brother served as a Commandant under Yang Shen when he was General Administrator of Jiangdu, so he was implicated and voluntarily went to the Ministry of Justice to explain things... Once they've cleared things up, he should be released."

Everyone hurriedly nodded, putting on looks of relief. So those fifty-odd relatives did not count; only some seventeenth elder brother counted as a member of the Bai family.

Zhang Xing, however, remembered what he had learned at the Marquis of Ji'an's residence when he first entered the capital and could not help inwardly curling his lip.

Now, this woman Bai Yousi's family had risen with her grandfather, Bai Zhongchang, one of the original Eight Pillars of the State.

Judging by the flavor Zhang Xing had chewed out for himself from reading the official histories... Old Master Bai's character was nothing special, but there was no getting around his ability to fight, his long life, and his willingness to bow his head.

Just how good a fighter had he been? In the world Zhang Xing came from, he would basically have belonged among the seventy-two great generals of all time, with several major battles that would have made the history books. Even in the Age of Half-Contention when Old Master Bai had shone, he gave the impression of someone guaranteed a place in a top three with five members, and even faintly of someone who could contend for the title of the greatest general of his age.

Under such circumstances, while the old man was alive, whenever the country had a major war to fight, people felt uneasy unless they invited him out of retirement.

As a result, virtually all Great Wei's founding meritorious officials-including the late emperor, Yang Shen's father Yang Bin, Intendant Cao Lin atop the Black Tower, and Gao Lü and Heluo Fu, whom Zhang Wenda had sent on their way-had once served under Old Master Bai.

And somehow, none of this prevented Old Master Bai, when he was already close to dying of old age, from swallowing his pride, kowtowing to the late emperor who was about to usurp the throne, and presenting him with his family's heirloom, the Golden Dragon... It had left the late emperor, who had not yet usurped the throne and was still putting on his "I am a model for all under heaven, I honor the worthy and humble myself before scholars, I am far better than that bastard emperor" act, unbearably embarrassed.

But without that, the Bai Clan would never have passed through three dynasties, six emperors, eight powerful ministers, and over a dozen coups without ever being toppled.

In the third year after the late emperor's accession, after putting down a rebellion for him, Old Master Bai died peacefully, leaving behind five sons, four nephews, and twenty-seven or twenty-eight grandchildren and grandnephews and grandnieces.

As for the present, although Bai Yousi's father was not the eldest son, the preceding generation's achievements were simply too great, and he had also made something of himself. So, besides his eldest brother inheriting the dukedom and the title of Supreme Pillar of the State, he had separately become Marquis of Ji'an through his military achievements in pacifying Southern Chen. Now he was also a Grand General of One Guard.

Furthermore, she had an older male cousin of her father's, adopted into her grandfather's elder brother's line, who served as Minister of Revenue and held the title Duke of Xun.

She also had a paternal uncle who served as General Administrator of Jingxiang and held the rank of Grand General of One Guard.

And an older male cousin who served as Vice Minister of the Ministry of Justice.

And a younger male cousin who was an Imperial Son-in-Law.

And twenty-three male and female cousins of varying ages and ranks, all holding substantive, desirable Principal Sixth Rank posts, scattered throughout local government, the central administration, and the army.

As for Luoyang County Magistrate Zhang Yue being her older female cousin's husband, that was probably hardly worth mentioning... Zhang Yue, by contrast, was known from top to bottom as a son-in-law of the Bai family. Even if he was the Luoyang magistrate whom men and dogs alike despised, people still had to show him some respect.

Oh, and Bai Yousi's mother was reportedly also the eldest legitimate granddaughter of one of the original Eight Supreme Pillars of the State, though this was generally left unmentioned, mainly because Bai Yousi's maternal grandfather had once rebelled and been wiped out by her paternal grandfather.

So, what did it mean to be rich and powerful?

What was an aristocratic bloc?

What did distinctions of high and low mean? What did birth mean?

On his very first day in the Eastern Capital, after finding a rear-courtyard groom in a side courtyard of a side courtyard of a side courtyard of the Marquis of Ji'an's residence and asking about Bai Yousi's family background, Zhang Xing had already understood the broad political outlines of the world he had come to.

Over fifty relatives arrested?

Pah!

You think you deserve the surname Bai?!

Enough digression. Bai Yousi clearly did not seem inclined to say more on the matter. Having brushed it aside, she turned back and saw her subordinates looking nervous or tired, angry or dispirited, perfunctory or mocking. In the end, her gaze settled on Zhang Xing, whose expression displeased her most, and she said with a smile:

"Zhang Xing only just moved house today, yet he came in for duty. That counts as formally joining the squad. Here's what we'll do. The island is a terrible mess, so we won't go back. My treat today. Everyone go back and rest a little, then we'll head into Gentlemanly Ward together before Street-Clearing to celebrate Zhang Xing joining us. No one goes home sober."

Everyone's faces brightened. Even the earnest lad Qin Bao grew excited.

Only Zhang Xing, who seemed to understand everything but actually understood nothing, could not help blurting out a question. "Inspector, I know that because the path of cultivation is there, the rules allow women to hold office and join the army as long as they dress as men. But you can visit Gentlemanly Ward too?"

Everyone looked at him with contempt. Bai Yousi, too, broke into a rare bright smile, raising an eyebrow as she replied teasingly, "Who says I can't?"

PS: Merry Christmas in advance, everyone.