Linyang County lay on the outskirts of Yongzhou Prefecture, close to the Great Qing River, and produced abundant rice and grain.
The county was home to many nobles and was close to the meeting point of three rivers, so it was considerably larger than Qingxi County.
That afternoon, two swift horses came galloping down the official road and stopped beside a willow on the bank of the Great Qing River.
Luo Xuanqing swung down from her horse and gazed at the distant county seat. The Inspection Bureau's main force had only just arrived and was beginning to seal off the city, dispersing to search for and capture their quarry.
"Good thing we weren't late..."
Luo Xuanqing secretly breathed a sigh of relief and turned to the white horse beside her.
The white horse was exceptionally well cared for, with a coat like brocade. It stood obediently beneath the willow to escape the heat, gently swishing its tail but otherwise keeping still so as not to disturb its master.
The young man on its back wore a gray robe and held a cultivation manual in his hand. His bamboo hat was tipped low, his eyes were closed, and he had already entered a state of "comprehending the Dao in a dream."
His eyelashes even twitched slightly. It was hard to say whether he was practicing Sleeping Arhat Fist in his dream...
"Sigh..."
Luo Xuanqing planted her hands on her hips, her skirt fluttering in the breeze. Her gaze was like that of a schoolmistress who had caught a pupil sleeping in class.
But remembering that Ye Xingge had been on the move all night without sleeping, she didn't scold him. After glancing back at the city, she gave him a gentle poke with her riding crop.
"Hey, hey~"
"Hm?"
Ye Xingge sprang upright at once and looked around. Then he looked down at the black-clad heroine beside his horse, and his expression stiffened slightly.
"Huh? How did I fall asleep...?"
Luo Xuanqing narrowed her eyes, a hint of iciness in her gaze.
"Reading a cultivation manual isn't nearly as interesting as looking at a girl, is it? If you're not allowed to sneak peeks, it's only natural you'd fall asleep."
Ye Xingge had just been caught red-handed and was indeed a little embarrassed.
"Sigh, I really was just taking a casual glance, wondering what Sister Luo was doing..."
"Hmph~"
Luo Xuanqing took two weapons wrapped in black cloth from the side of her horse and tossed one to Ye Xingge.
"All right, considering the merit you earned last night, I won't punish you. But if you dare slack off and sleep while studying a technique again, don't blame me for showing no leniency."
"Understood. It won't happen again."
Seeing that Ruan Jinyu's men had already entered the city, Ye Xingge came fully awake. He took the saber and followed behind her.
"Let's get into the city early too. We should try to find him before Commander Ruan does."
Luo Xuanqing looked up and studied the situation in the distance, then shook her head.
"Now that his whereabouts have leaked, Yang Tuyan can't still be at the Imperial Uncle's residence. Ruan Jinyu is having his men search house by house, so he probably doesn't know the exact location either. He's planted himself on the city wall right now; if we go over, we're sure to be spotted. Let's wait."
From Great Beauty's intelligence, Ye Xingge had learned that the Eight Pillars Hall's contact point in Linyang was the Linyang Escort Agency.
Its proprietor, Chen Yi'an, often ran errands for the Imperial Uncle's residence and was fairly familiar with the people there. The Eight Pillars Hall had originally wanted to use that connection to plant someone inside.
For that reason, there was an eighty or ninety percent chance Yang Tuyan was hiding at the escort agency now.
But Ruan Jinyu had caused such a stir that he might well have beaten the grass and startled the snake, prompting Yang Tuyan to move...
Ye Xingge pondered in silence as he waited for a chance to enter the city.
Luo Xuanqing stood on the grass watching. Perhaps a little bored, she warmed up by circling her hips three times to the left and three times to the right. Looking at her from behind, with that astonishing waist-to-hip ratio, she shouldn't have been called the Flower Judge, but the "Soul-Twisting Hips."
With his weapon in hand, Ye Xingge certainly couldn't keep admiring her.
Great Beauty, who had been eavesdropping all along, saw that he was awake and began muttering in his ear again.
"This cat is really fat. It must weigh over ten jin."
"Meow~?"
Ye Xingge inwardly stumbled and thought:
Why are you teasing that cat?
Aren't you afraid you'll be discovered?
Unfortunately, with the great beauty Luo doing calisthenics in front of him, he couldn't speak. All he could do was silently pray that the kitty was a little dim and wouldn't notice anything amiss...
Meanwhile, on the official road dozens of li away.
A carriage raced along at full speed, with four swift horses close beside it. The riders were all dressed like guards from a merchant household.
Inside the carriage, An Yurou sat beside the window with a booklet in her hand. As she looked at the intelligence deciphered on its pages, her eyes, lovely as peach and apricot blossoms, still held a trace of shock and doubt.
"Just what sort of expert came up with this? To think there's a way to decipher it like this..."
The four attendants outside the carriage all looked as though they had lost the will to live.
Today, they had mobilized more than ten spies, but none could decipher the clues, forcing them to resort to trying every possibility.
There were more than nine thousand combinations. They divided the work of sorting through them, then filtered out meaningful words and finally settled on the message "Linyang escort."
It contained the name of a place in Yongzhou Prefecture and an approximate location, making it highly plausible.
But they had been unable to find any way to work backward and verify it.
After all, the arrangement was roughly like this:
The lord seeks peach and plum afar, "approaching" the riverbank...
Clouds rise far above the "sun," wind rests in the woodland's corner...
On distant roads, mighty travelers guard the "escort" over mountain passes...
The third layer of encryption was clearly a "character-skipping method." The three characters were one, two, and five places away from "plum," "cloud," and "road," respectively.
They had tried all sorts of ways to work backward, but no matter what they did, they couldn't derive the numbers "one, two, five" from the blank sheet.
In the end, when they had run out of options, the family head had a sudden inspiration. She took out a ruler and measured the distances between four seemingly meaningless pinholes, only to discover that their spacing was in the ratio of one to two to five!
It all matched perfectly, but what respectable spy would transmit information in such a bizarre way?
What if a hand slipped and poked a hole just a little out of place?
And first picking out characters through holes, then picking them out horizontally and vertically, and then using a character-skipping method, with spacing standing in for numbers on top of that-was it really necessary to put four or five layers of encryption on one lousy message?
He felt that the intelligence wasn't meant for their own people at all, but had been deliberately left by the Eight Pillars Hall to mislead them and buy time.
But as the carriage approached Linyang County seat, they suddenly noticed embroidered-robed officers stationed at the city gate. People were allowed in but not out; the city had clearly been sealed shut.
One young embroidered-robed officer among them was passing on orders.
"Whoa~"
The black-robed steward immediately reined in his horse, his gaze growing grave.
"People from the Inspection Bureau. Ruan Jinyu should be here too. How did they find this place?"
An Yurou also frowned deeply and lifted the carriage curtain to look.
"According to the intelligence, Yang Tuyan and the Eight Pillars Hall's people are most likely in the city. I reckon they exposed themselves somehow and were discovered by the Inspection Bureau's scouts."
The black-robed steward asked, "Then what do we do now? Leave, or...?"
An Yurou thought for a moment. "The Inspection Bureau is still searching, which means they don't know Yang Tuyan's exact location. We have precise intelligence, so our chances of finding him are better. Let's go take a look first."
Seeing this, the black-robed chief steward said no more. After making sure there was nothing amiss with the party, he put on the appearance of an ordinary wealthy household and headed toward the city...
Before long, the sky began to darken.
Countless household lamps gradually lit up within the city, and constables could be seen rushing about everywhere in the streets.
In a dark alley off the street, Ye Xingge walked along in a bamboo hat, looking from side to side. Not far ahead of him was that swaying, graceful three-foot-one.
But now that they were in the city, Ye Xingge was no longer in the mood to let his eyes wander. Instead, he carefully sounded Luo Xuanqing out and steered her thinking.
"If the Eight Pillars Hall wanted to frame Imperial Uncle Cao before, their contact would need to be able to plant someone in the Imperial Uncle's residence. Someone like that wouldn't be a nobody in Linyang, and they should have longstanding dealings with the residence. Sister Luo, what sort of position do you think the contact would hold?"
Luo Xuanqing carried her weapon and looked around.
"To get someone into the Imperial Uncle's residence, they'd either have to be an acquaintance making a recommendation, or come from an agency, a carriage and horse firm, or somewhere else that regularly supplies the residence with labor and materials."
Ye Xingge nodded. "There are too many possible acquaintances to narrow it down. As for the agency... I know where it is. Why don't we go take a look there first?"
Luo Xuanqing naturally said nothing against it. She let Ye Xingge lead the way, and they headed east together.
Ye Xingge was very familiar with the Four Counties of Hexi, but he didn't go there directly. Instead, he made a show of avoiding the embroidered-robed officers and wound through the streets and alleys. After traveling no more than two blocks, they came upon a small street.
The street was rather out of the way. In its center stood a large compound with a plaque reading "Escort Agency" above the entrance. Several empty carts were parked to either side, and lanterns hung by the open doors. A few escorts and laborers were busy inside.
As Luo Xuanqing passed, she naturally glanced inside.
Ye Xingge's aim was to bring her here. Seeing her glance over, he took the opportunity to stop and examine the place closely.
"The proprietor of the Linyang Escort Agency seems to be called Chen Yi'an. He's got a bit of a reputation in Linyang County, and he must have plenty of opportunities to deal with the Imperial Uncle's residence..."
Luo Xuanqing had no definite target to begin with, so she naturally turned toward the agency.
"Since we're already here, let's investigate it first."
As she spoke, Luo Xuanqing carried her weapon toward the alley beside the escort agency. Once she saw that no one was watching, she tapped her toes lightly against the ground.
Whoosh~
The night breeze stirred, and her figure vanished into the alley.
?!
Ye Xingge followed behind her, but before he could react, the "three-foot-one" in front of him was gone. His eyes filled with bewilderment.
He looked around and only then discovered that the great beauty Luo was already crouching atop the three-meter-high bluestone wall. Her waist and hips resembled a black full moon that blotted out the sky and sun, and she was looking down at him.
Holy shit?
What incredible lightness skill...
Ye Xingge thought this face-sitting view was a little outrageous and immediately planned to dash forward and climb up.
But seeing this, Luo Xuanqing raised a hand to stop him.
"If you don't know lightness skill, forget it. Don't beat the grass and startle the snake. Wait here."
Ye Xingge certainly had to follow, but the great beauty Luo had a point. After a moment's thought, he replied:
"All right, then. If there's any commotion, I'll go in and help you right away, Sister Luo."
"Hmph~"
Luo Xuanqing clearly meant that she didn't need help. She turned to look at the sprawling escort agency, and the black full moon disappeared from above him.
After watching her go, Ye Xingge worried that standing in the alley might arouse the suspicions of passersby. Seeing several stacks of woven bamboo baskets nearby, he hid in the gap between them and pondered to himself.
According to Great Beauty's intelligence, Yang Tuyan is very likely hiding at the escort agency. If the great beauty Luo finds him and deals with him on her own, it'll be awkward for me to ask for the wrist guard. To be safe, I still need to make a contribution.
For example, when I hear a commotion, I can charge in, cut down a few small fry, and take a slight injury. Then I'll have every right to ask for protective gear...
But with the great beauty Luo protecting me, how am I supposed to get hurt?
Ye Xingge frowned deeply, feeling that this was a major problem.
Before long, though, he no longer had to worry about how to get hurt.
After all, what he needed to worry about next was how to stay alive...