Between the dirt roads and low houses, Old Wu walked ahead in a grey cloth shirt, with Chen Ji following behind, his bamboo hat pulled low.

Old Wu was very alert. After every two streets, he would find an empty alley and wait for a moment. Only after confirming that no one was following him did he lower his head and continue on his way.

At that moment, the long-sounding bell in Guyuan City rang out again.

Old Wu stopped on a long street and looked up. Chen Ji also stopped, and all the pedestrians on the street paused, looking in the direction from which the bell sound came.

Guyuan’s bell sound was unlike the gentle, lingering tones of a temple bell.

The heavy bell toll broke through the thin morning mist, as if dark clouds were surging and pressing down from overhead, making it difficult to breathe.

Everyone waited for the bell to stop, but it continued to toll endlessly.

Only after thirty-six tolls did the lingering echoes reverberate towards the city’s edge.

A pedestrian whispered, “Thirty-six tolls of the long-sounding bell mean a curfew starts tonight, and alcohol is forbidden.”

“Guyuan hasn’t had a curfew in six years.”

Old Wu stood stunned on the street for a long time. Only when armored border soldiers patrolled towards him did he snap out of it, quickly stepping into a street-side antique shop and pretending to examine a bronze artifact.

After the border soldiers passed, he left the shop and resumed his journey.

Chen Ji watched from a distance at the street corner, thinking to himself that Old Wu’s actions were indeed at odds with the border army, to the point where even comrades couldn’t acknowledge each other. He wondered how many others like Old Wu were in the border army, and what exactly these people intended to do.

He followed Old Wu for a few more streets, but after turning a corner, he suddenly lost sight of him.

People on the street were queuing for porridge, but Old Wu wasn’t in the line. The long street was visible to its end, yet the other man seemed to have vanished into thin air.

Chen Ji’s gaze swept over the shop signs one by one. Old Wu must have entered one of the shops along the street… Had he hidden himself after spotting Chen Ji, or was one of these shops his original destination?

Wait.

His gaze stopped: on the sign of a shop facing the street, four large gilt characters read “Yang’s Furs”.

Chen Ji pulled over a passerby, offered two copper coins, and asked, “Excuse me, is this Luoshenfang Duohun Street?”

The passerby looked at him with surprise, pocketed the coins, and replied, “Yes, this is Luoshenfang Duohun Street. Why do you ask?”

“Nothing,” Chen Ji said, letting go and allowing the passerby to leave.

He stared at the gilt sign, a heavy feeling in his heart. Xiao Wu had once said that the young assistant at the glass shop in Nanluofang, and the shopkeeper of Yang’s Furs on Luoshenfang Duohun Street, were both spies for the Jing Dynasty.

Chen Ji slowly retreated, blending into the crowd queuing for porridge, approaching Yang’s Furs unhurriedly.

From beneath the brim of his hat, he cast a quick glance, seeing Old Wu standing at the counter, speaking quietly with the shopkeeper.

From Chen Ji’s angle, he could only see Old Wu’s back in his grey cloth shirt, and the shopkeeper with a tightly furrowed brow, seemingly arguing with Old Wu about something.

Just then, an old man queuing behind Chen Ji tapped him on the shoulder and kindly reminded him, “Young man, why didn’t you bring a bowl? The soldiers said you need to bring your own bowl to get porridge. No bowl, no porridge.”

Chen Ji thought, “Damn it!”

He abruptly turned his head to look at the main hall of Yang’s Furs. Old Wu was already running towards the shop’s backyard without looking back.

There was no hesitation.

Chen Ji lunged towards Yang’s Furs. The shopkeeper pulled a short dagger from under the counter, leaped over it, and fiercely lunged at him.

The next moment, Chen Ji snatched the bamboo hat from his head and flung it forcefully at the shopkeeper. The hat spun rapidly in the air, like a curved saber unsheathed.

As the hat flew closer, it obscured the shopkeeper’s view of Chen Ji.

The shopkeeper instinctively raised a hand to bat the hat away. As the hat shattered and scattered, Chen Ji was already close, striking with a hand-knife between the carpal bones and radius of his wrist.

The shopkeeper felt a sudden numbness in his wrist, forcing him to involuntarily release his grip.

The short dagger fell towards the ground, but was caught mid-air by a slender hand and firmly embedded in his chest between his third and fourth ribs.

It was a single, fluid motion, without hesitation.

The shopkeeper gasped in the cold winter air, making a gurgling sound, and slowly slid down to the ground, leaning against the counter. He turned his head in disbelief, but Chen Ji didn’t spare him another glance, already rushing towards the backyard.

Old Wu scrambled onto the rooftop, leaping and bounding across the flat, earthen roofs.

He looked back, and though there was no one behind him, he dared not pause. He could sense that his pursuer was very close.

Extremely close.

Old Wu looked back again, and a figure flashed past in the alley behind him.

The dense earthen houses were like golden wild grass growing on a plain, and a tiger was running through the grass, its breath and footsteps completely silent.

You could only occasionally glimpse its fleeting brown stripes through the gaps in the wild grass. Only when it was near would you realize that all your struggles had been futile.

Old Wu leaped across an alley. He saw a figure swiftly appearing in the alley below. “Oh no!”

“Come down!”

Chen Ji used the wall to push off, launching himself into the air with a powerful kick.

Mid-air, Old Wu twisted his body and delivered a whip kick towards Chen Ji’s head as he lunged. Chen Ji raised his arm, taking the full force of the kick with his elbow. He then seized Old Wu’s calf, pulling him down to the ground together.

With a thud, both men fell heavily to the ground, kicking up a cloud of dust.

In the dust, a flash of blade appeared. Old Wu drew a short dagger from his boot and stabbed at Chen Ji, who was holding his leg.

Chen Ji turned his face to avoid the blade, released Old Wu’s calf, gripped his wrist, and twisted his arm behind his back, pressing him firmly to the ground, burying Old Wu’s face in the dust.

Chen Ji silently scanned the alley ahead and behind, ensuring no one had been drawn by the scuffle. Then he leaned down and asked, “Are you doing these things to avenge Prince Jing?”

Old Wu gasped, “What are you talking about? I don’t understand.”

Chen Ji slightly loosened his grip on Old Wu’s twisted arms and said in a softer voice, “I have a close relationship with Zhu Yunxi, the heir to Prince Jing’s estate. It was also thanks to Prince Jing’s recommendation that I became a personal disciple of Master Wang. If you are seeking to avenge Prince Jing, I can help you.”

Old Wu lifted his head, spat out the dirt mixed with saliva onto the ground, and declared firmly, “Avenge Prince Jing? I’ve never even met Prince Jing, why would I avenge him? Don’t try to trick me, young man. Since I’m in your hands, do as you please, whether you kill me or skin me.”

Chen Ji pondered for a moment, then slowly released Old Wu’s hands, leaning against the wall and saying slowly, “The padded hand warmers your border army received before the New Year, those were acquired in exchange for me.”

Old Wu looked confused: “What do you mean, in exchange for you?”

Chen Ji thought for a moment and said, “The Chen family made a deal with Prince Jing: if Prince Jing was willing to recommend me to Master Wang, they would allocate that money to the border army.”

Old Wu pushed himself up with his hands and sat upright, no longer attempting to flee. “You’re willing to avenge Prince Jing?”

Chen Ji didn’t pick up on that, but instead suddenly asked, “You burned the granary. What do you plan to do next?”

Old Wu rubbed his wrist and scoffed, “Young Master Chen, do you think I’ll tell you the plan after a few words from you? I stopped running because I knew I couldn’t escape, not because I believe you.”

Chen Ji calmly said, “You colluded with the Jing Dynasty to besiege Guyuan City. Do you intend to let the Jing Dynasty cross the pass and destroy the Ning Dynasty? But if you do, many people will die because of you.”

Old Wu scoffed, “What do I care? When have they ever cared about our lives or deaths? And who has ever counted how many people survived over the years because of us?”

Saying this, Old Wu shifted his body, leaned against the earthen wall opposite Chen Ji, and looked up, speaking: “I joined the border army in the sixth year of Jianing. I started as an infantryman, then became a scout. I fought seven battles, and it was tough to even get a set of rattan armor to wear. At the time, I was a bit disgruntled, but Old Zhou promised me that once I was promoted to deputy general, he’d get me a full set of iron armor. But after I became a deputy general, I found out that Zhou bastard was a liar; there were only two sets of iron armor left in all of Guyuan—one for him, and one for General Hu.”

Chen Ji didn’t know why Old Wu was saying all this. Was he trying to buy time for reinforcements, or did he have another plan?

Old Wu shifted into a more comfortable position and continued, “When one *shi* of grain was collected by the court from Yuzhou and Jiangnan, only ninety percent remained. When it was transported to Guyuan, passing through Luocheng, Yuncheng, Weinan, Tongchuan, and Qingyang, officials and merchants conspired along the way, replacing new rice and new wheat with old grain, wheat, and corn. By the time it reached us, the food was moldy. If the border army hadn’t been guided by an expert to turn this frontier garrison town into a place for merchants, our border soldiers wouldn’t have known what to eat.”

Chen Ji subtly asked, “Who was this expert?”

Old Wu smiled without answering, and continued on his own, “You tell me, what’s the point of us defending Guyuan, eating moldy corn and wheat every day?”

Chen Ji asked, puzzled, “Since Prince Jing was looking after things, how could the grain still be secretly swapped?”

Old Wu laughed heartily, “Prince Jing was powerless to change it. Thousands, even tens of thousands of people deceiving their superiors and subordinates – he’s not a god.”

Chen Ji was even more perplexed. “Isn’t the border army part of the Jin faction? Doesn’t Grand Secretary Hu care? People need to live, after all.”

Old Wu sneered, “To the officials in the ministries and the Grand Secretaries, the border army is just a bargaining chip. Guyuan hasn’t fallen in hundreds of years, so naturally, they have no worries. Don’t they know the border army’s situation? They’re just pretending not to see it.”

Chen Ji had never delved deeply into history, but he knew that border army issues had always been a catalyst for dynastic collapse. The problem with the border army wasn’t the army itself, but the corruption of the system and the crisis in the national treasury.

It had been so in every dynasty, and the Ning Dynasty would be no exception.

He stared at Old Wu and asked, “So you intend to hand Guyuan over to the Jing Dynasty?”

Old Wu remained silent, lost in thought.

After a long while, he picked up a handful of yellow earth from the ground and sighed deeply, “But even so, we still have to keep defending it. Young Master Chen, you’ve guessed wrong, completely wrong. I advise you not to investigate further. You won’t figure this out. Perhaps even before you uncover the truth, it will reveal itself.”

Chen Ji was taken aback. What did that mean?

He thought for a moment and said, “Old Wu, I won’t make things difficult for you, but this matter is far-reaching. I must take you into custody first. If you are innocent, I will certainly clear your name.”

However, at that moment, Old Wu smiled. “Young Master Chen, you are a good person. Truly worthy of being Master Wang’s personal disciple—righteous and benevolent!”

At this point, Old Wu suddenly said, “Young Master Chen, thank you.”

Chen Ji was puzzled: “Thank me for what?”

Old Wu grinned. “Thank you for the padded hand warmers. Old Wu has never worn such warm hand warmers in his life.”

Chen Ji suddenly realized something was wrong!

But before he could react, fierce white flames spontaneously ignited behind Old Wu. The fire appeared so suddenly that within a few breaths, it completely engulfed him.

Chen Ji was startled. He rushed forward, scooped up yellow earth, and tried to pat out the flames on Old Wu, but the fire on his body refused to be extinguished.

Old Wu grit his teeth and said, “Don’t bother, that person said this fire cannot be put out!”

Who was that person? And where did this fire come from?

Chen Ji felt as if his head would explode. Before Old Wu died, he quickly asked, “Why did you poison all thirty-four members of the Chen family?”

Old Wu cried out in pain, “I didn’t!”

Chen Ji’s pupils constricted: “Then why did you go to the Guyuan Post Station that afternoon?”

Old Wu was writhing in a ball on the ground from the fire, struggling to say, “I went to the post station to instruct the postman to prepare red snail charcoal for you!”

Chen Ji’s pupils constricted further. So Old Wu had gone to Guyuan Post Station that day for this reason. In his dying moments, amidst such pain, it was impossible for him to concoct such a plausible answer on the spot.

This answer must be true!

Then who was the true mastermind behind the poisoning of the thirty-four members of the Chen family?

Ignoring the flames, Chen Ji picked up the short dagger that had fallen to the ground and cut open the back of Old Wu’s clothes. He saw a yellow paper talisman with cinnabar writing pasted on his back, now burned to just a corner.

At this moment, Old Wu, his body curled up and his right hand trembling, used his last strength to scoop up a handful of yellow earth from the ground and press it to his forehead, murmuring, “Guyuan, oh Guyuan…”

Old Wu fell silent, and gradually, even his bones were reduced to ashes.