Chapter 33

"What are you doing?!" the villager at the head of the group shouted, sitting on the ground and pointing at Meng Zhou.

"I should be asking you that. Here at the Son of Heaven's feet, you can report your grievances to the authorities, and the law will mete out punishment. Yet you dared take justice into your own hands and defy the law. What punishment do you deserve?"

"Lady Lin failed to uphold a wife's virtue. Her husband has been dead less than a month, yet she took up with another man and planned to sell the ancestral property and run away with him. She violated clan law. Heaven cannot tolerate her."

"The clan chief is right! She can't have the property. Drown her in a pig cage!"

"My lord, even an upright official finds family disputes hard to judge," the remaining shadow guard advised him.

"Even if that woman behaved improperly, the child in her womb is at least five months along. Does it not belong to your clan?" Meng Zhou walked up to the so-called clan chief. "I noticed that the woman was finely dressed, with hands that had never done household work. Presumably, she has considerable property, and her husband must have treated her well while he was alive. Were you drowning her to take advantage of her plight, wipe out a widow and her orphaned child, and then seize their property? Well?"

Throughout the danger just now, Lady Lin had protected her unborn child. She still clutched an unfinished handkerchief. Meng Zhou had glanced over it and seen embroidered scripture, the sort that someone close to the deceased would finish embroidering and burn for them on the hundredth day after their death. Lady Lin had clearly been seized by this group while still doing her needlework. How did that look like someone about to run away with a lover?

"You're making vile accusations!" the clan chief snapped, humiliated and furious.

"Clan law does not stand above the law of the land," Meng Zhou said mildly. "Once Lady Lin wakes, I can open a case to establish the truth. If she really is as you say, I will certainly give you an answer."

At the mention of opening a case, panic appeared on everyone's faces. They tugged at the clan chief's sleeve and said, "Forget it, forget it. Someone's backing her. Let's go."

"Let's go."

Meng Zhou crouched down again and used a long bamboo pole to fish for the strip of cloth in the water. It looked as though it had been torn from the clothes he had worn when he fell into the lake.

A Hu, the shadow guard who had brought Meng Zhou fish before, crouched down. "My lord, let me help."

"Why haven't you hidden yourself again?" Meng Zhou asked. "Don't worry. I'll pretend I never saw either of you today."

A Hu had previously staked his wife fund on "Meng Zhou becoming the prince's consort." The loss had battered him so badly that he could only afford vegetables for the next two years.

A Hu flashed a row of white teeth. "How about this, my lord? Treat me as a passerby. I'll fish it out for you, and you give me one copper coin. How does that sound?"

Chu Huaiyin actually has such poor, cheap labor working for him. He's even poorer than I am. Sympathy colored Meng Zhou's voice. "Doesn't your master pay you?"

"He does." A Hu hastily nodded. But I lost it all.

After hearing him out, Meng Zhou patted A Hu's shoulder, at a loss for words. "You really did back the wrong horse."

He could no longer muster any sympathy.

A Hu worked at it for quite a while, but the cloth was caught on something and would not come free. "Is there some secret to this strip of cloth?"

"Nothing. I just wanted a look." This place was so far from the pleasure boat where he had changed that the cloth could hardly have drifted here. He could more or less guess that the person fished out had been Wang Junyang. After murdering Wang Junyang, the three killers had changed him into ordinary clothes and sunk him in the lake. Who could have known he would happen to be mistaken for Meng Zhou?

A Hu tossed aside the bamboo pole. "My lord, two copper coins."

With that, he gripped the wooden planks with both hands and swung underneath like a monkey, gradually making his way out over the water. Hanging upside down, he reached for the cloth.

The cloth was wedged inside something. A Hu gave it a hard tug, and a wooden board fitted against the lakeside wall actually fell away, revealing a pair of iron doors.

There was even a lock on them.

"Lord Guan!" A Hu exclaimed.

Meng Zhou bent down to look. Above the water stood a stage that had fallen out of use because of the lake closure order. The iron doors looked as though they led to the theater's rear courtyard.

"This stage was built less than two months ago, wasn't it? What was here before?"

"A small wharf, specifically for passing cargo boats to moor overnight. Later, someone said the view here was good and bought it to build a theater."

"Good. Go back and inform His Majesty at once." There was very likely Lake Tai stone hidden underwater here.

Most of Qianyang Lake's bed was flat. Wang Junyang's corpse had taken ten days to float up, so something must have trapped it. It might have been a loosely layered pile of Lake Tai stones. Chu Huaiyin had reportedly found scraps of cloth in a crocodile's mouth, so Meng Zhou suspected that a crocodile had dragged the corpse to the lake bed and hidden it as food. Some evidence might remain where it had been hidden.

A Hu remained where he was. "Ying Jiu hasn't returned yet. I can't leave you. There seems to be someone inside the theater."

Meng Zhou glanced at the theater, with no intention of heading toward it. "There are only the two of us here. Better not take the risk. Since you can't leave your post, let's go back first."

Well, strictly speaking, there are three. Meng Zhou supported his lower back.

"If you want to take a look, that's fine too. I can protect you, Lord Guan." This was his first time being solely responsible for Meng Zhou's safety, yet he had all the fearlessness of a newborn calf.

"And if I don't want to look?" Meng Zhou asked in return. "I heard that crocodiles appeared in Qianyang Lake after Lord Meng fell into the water. Someone guarding the Liu Residence released crocodiles without authorization. Has His Majesty caught that traitor?"

A Hu's expression changed, and his palm quietly settled on his saber hilt.

Meng Zhou suddenly smiled. "It seems I have no choice but to go today."

A Hu fell silent, his gaze gradually darkening. Meng Zhou met his eyes calmly.

"You're as clever as ever, Lord Guan." After a long while, A Hu's voice abruptly turned dark and sharp. His outward appearance remained the same, yet it was as though he had been possessed.

He looked at Meng Zhou with contempt. "I know you're a good fighter, Lord Guan. But first, my master doesn't want a fight here that would draw suspicion to the theater. And second, Lord Meng wouldn't want to get hurt and make His Majesty's heart ache, would he?"

Meng Zhou stepped back toward the lake. "Who is your master? Does he want me dead, or does he want me as a hostage?"

"Kill Guan Jiasheng, capture Meng Zhou!" Seeing that he intended to repeat his old trick and escape into the lake, A Hu abruptly drew his blade. Its polished surface reflected Qianyang's mountains and waters, and Meng Zhou's rapidly dilating pupils.

"Un-"

A Dragon-Slaying Sword thrust in from the side and knocked the blade away. Sparks flew as the weapons clashed with a ringing clang that made their scalps prickle.

The web of A Hu's hand went numb, and his blade dropped to the ground. He stumbled back more than ten meters before steadying himself, his soles scraping a gray-white streak across the ground.

"H-help," Meng Zhou weakly finished. At the sight, he tilted his head, then darted out nimbly to pick up the fallen blade. He touched its edge with a fingertip. It was still hot.

Jiang Yi sounded helpless. "Can't you stay properly hidden behind me, Lord Guan?"

"Your martial skills are formidable, Grand General, but I need a weapon too." Meng Zhou tried a couple of flourishes and nearly lost his grip.

Jiang Yi laughed aloud. Ashamed, Meng Zhou lowered the blade's tip. Ahem. It's been a while since I practiced.

Blood rose in A Hu's throat as he stared at Jiang Yi in disbelief. He had assumed Jiang Yi had stopped following them after Meng Zhou took him into the medicine shop. In fact, he had merely switched from following openly to following in secret, and A Hu had not noticed a thing.

Of course. Chu Huaiyin treasured Meng Zhou so much. How could he possibly have left only the two of them to follow him? A Hu simply had not expected Jiang Yi's martial skills to have reached such heights...

"Knock him out! He's going to kill himself!" Meng Zhou hurled his blade. It swept across A Hu's chin, dislocating his jaw just as he was about to take poison.

Meng Zhou clapped his hands, feeling rather regretful. He had always liked anyone who brought him fish.

Jiang Yi could not help reassessing Guan Jiasheng. There were no flashy moves, but he did have some rudimentary martial skills. Jiang Yi went over and added a kick, knocking A Hu out completely.

"Let's look inside the courtyard." Meng Zhou was eager to try.

"No." Grand General Jiang refused flatly. "My duty is to ensure your safety. We'll wait until His Majesty arrives."

"Then we should at least keep watch so no one gets away," Meng Zhou suggested sincerely. "We can't see anything from here."

"They've already fled," Jiang Yi said. The moment he appeared, the person inside the theater had seen which way the wind was blowing and escaped over the wall. Unable to be in two places at once, he could only watch him flee.

"Then why can't we go in?" Meng Zhou felt he had held things back and needed to uncover some major clue to make up for it.

Jiang Yi kept his words to a minimum. "No."

Weren't you quite good at applying what you learned when you were following me before? Why are you so inflexible now? Meng Zhou thought.

When Chu Huaiyin arrived, his first priority was to take hold of Meng Zhou and check him all over for injuries.

Once he took his hand, he refused to let go.

Meng Zhou had no choice but to let him hold it. There were not many people around anyway.

Except... his uncle.

"From now on, you are not to take a single step near Qianyang Lake," Chu Huaiyin ordered imperiously. He even wanted to order the lake filled in like a foolish emperor. Why did nothing good ever happen when Meng Zhou encountered Qianyang Lake?

"This time, trouble came looking for me," Meng Zhou hastily declared. I wasn't the one looking for trouble.

Chu Huaiyin gave him a chilly glance. "Did Qianyang Lake grow legs and run up to you?"

I investigated this case on your orders and even rooted out a traitor for you. I deserve a handsome reward: a thousand taels of gold and silver, and ten Snow Spots.

Don't think I can't win an argument with you just because you've become emperor.

Meng Zhou clamped his mouth shut.

I'm simply choosing not to speak.

Learning that A Hu was a traitor had terrified Chu Huaiyin. If A Hu had attacked Meng Zhou during this time, he would have placed Meng Zhou in danger for a second time. Even ten thousand deaths could not have absolved him.

"I've had a fright," Chu Huaiyin said. "My beloved subject, return to the palace with me tonight. I have important matters to discuss."

Wasn't I the one who had a fright? Upright and unyielding, Meng Zhou tried to dispel Chu Huaiyin's unrealistic ideas with his righteous bearing. "I would like to interrogate A Hu tonight, strike while the iron is hot, and force him to reveal the rebels' whereabouts. I haven't inspected the theater yet either. By the time all that is done, it will probably already be the first night watch."

It'll be so late, there won't be time for anything!

Even if he strips off my disguise, he'll only manage one sleeve.

"Do I need to issue an imperial edict?" Chu Huaiyin asked.

"I... obey. Then let's go to the theater first." Even in the face of immense danger, I remain a conscientious, hardworking official.

Jiang Yi stared incredulously at Meng Zhou and Chu Huaiyin's tightly clasped hands.

Wasn't theirs a pure relationship between sovereign and subject?

Jiang Yi was confused.

He asked, "What did that line, 'Kill Guan Jiasheng, capture Meng Zhou,' mean?"

Author's note:

Jiang Yi: Heh. Using public resources for private purposes.

Chu Huaiyin: ...

Jiang Yi: ...Fuck. He's my nephew.