Chapter 23: The Man Beneath the Official Robes
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The cabin door closed, shutting out farewells and the damp river mist.
All along the journey north, Xu Qi kept thinking about the heartbreaking case in Ganhua Village.
After finishing his official business, Tan Jiuding came in, set down his saber, glanced at her dark and troubled expression, poured a cup of tea, and pushed it toward her.
“You cannot take everything to heart. If you worry about every single person, your hands will be tied when investigating a case. Save your strength for the women we may still be able to find.”
Xu Qi set down Gui Niang’s list and stared blankly at the tea. “The first girl was ‘married off’ a year and a half ago... Can we really find her?” Without realizing it, the face of that woman she had never met had begun to overlap in her mind with A Chun’s smiling face as she hanged herself.
“Why not consider why they insisted on choosing so many women skilled at needlework?”
“Do you think it has something to do with the Five-Colored Brocade?” Xu Qi asked cautiously in a low voice. “Could they have been looking for women to mend the Five-Colored Brocade? After trying several times and discovering that their skills were inadequate, did they finally set their sights on someone as accomplished as Zhiwei?”
“Perhaps. But if that was the case, would Granny Chun truly have known nothing when questioned? Since she knew about the Five-Colored Brocade, why did those people keep it secret from her?”
“That is true... She knew more about Zhiwei’s whereabouts than the village girls did, which is rather strange. If they had kept it from her at first, they should have kept it secret to the end. Why, when it came to Zhiwei, did they feel safe leaving the girl in her care?”
“Enough.” Tan Jiuding stretched lazily, tossed aside his winged gauze hat, and sprawled crookedly across the narrow couch. “Stop thinking about it. There will be plenty of time once we find more clues.”
Xu Qi shot him an annoyed look, reproaching him for his lack of decorum.
The man snorted. “You’ll get used to it if you watch me long enough.”
“Who wants to get used to it?” Xu Qi found his words oddly suggestive, though she could not identify anything improper in them. All she could do was blush faintly.
From the corner of her eye, she noticed the goose-feather saber lying on the table. Its scabbard was bound in sharkskin and fitted with gilt bronze, its surface engraved with cloud-and-dragon designs of striking beauty. At a glance, one could tell it was a superior weapon bestowed by the emperor.
Any imperial censor permitted to carry a saber was surely a meritorious official.
Only then did Xu Qi recall what her cousin had said while taunting her. Unable to restrain herself, she asked the man pretending to sleep on the couch, “Before you redeemed your status, were you from a military household? Were you with the frontier army in Liaodong?”
“Yes.” The reply came as a light hum, as though he were already drifting off.
Xu Qi nodded. “I see.”
He narrowed one eye and cast her a puzzled glance.
“Your hands.” Xu Qi pointed to the back of her own hand as she explained, “The scars are quite distinctive. In that case, they were probably not burns, but frostbite, weren’t they?”
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“The frontier of Liaodong is bitterly cold. One bout of frostbite had barely healed before you suffered another, and that is how your hands came to look as they do now? You must have endured a great deal.”
After speaking, Xu Qi slowly sipped her tea. It was not until she had emptied the cup that she realized Tan Jiuding had been watching her with a smile.
Displeased, she asked, “What are you laughing at?”
“Hmph. I find it curious.” The man sat up without ceremony, crossing his legs and bracing an arm against his knee as he looked at her. “Everyone is curious about my origins as a convict-register household. You are the first to wonder whether I suffered.”
“Who was worrying about you? I was merely doing the sums. You must have been young back then, at just the age when...” She faltered. “Never mind. Pretend I said nothing.”
The more she tried to explain, the worse it sounded.
She forcibly steered the conversation back to the case. “So Wang Cheng and Huang Zhang also served on the Liaodong frontier. Did you know them?”
“The Liaodong Regional Military Commission oversees nine garrisons and more than a hundred battalions. It would be impossible to know every man there.”
“But Wang Cheng said he knew you.”
“Nothing but flattery. You believed him?”
Xu Qi did not think Wang Cheng had been lying. Even her cousin Xu Yan, a pampered official’s daughter living far away in Jiangnan, had heard of Tan Jiuding. Her cousin might have mentioned him merely to mock her, but Tan Jiuding had indeed accomplished something. That he was unwilling to tell her more was certain.
She also thought of her father’s letter, in which he had instructed her to keep watch on him. Xu Qi had long sensed that there was more to this man than his careless, irreverent exterior suggested. Perhaps that outward appearance was nothing more than a disguise.
She wanted to know the truth, but there was no need to hurry.
As long as she remained at his side, sooner or later she would uncover it.
Xu Qi was musing idly on this when a gate soldier’s shout pierced the morning mist.
“Open the lock! Official business!”
The station boat carrying them plowed through the white waves, passing the Xushu, Wangting, and Beniu locks and forcing a passage through the crowded, congested canal during the autumn grain transport.
Whenever the lock officials saw the red inspection banner flying from the boat, they ordered the water gates raised in advance. Even when they encountered a jam of grain barges, they were delayed by no more than half a day before pushing ahead and passing through.
The boat traveled like an arrow. It arrived well ahead of schedule, reaching the foot of Shaobo Lock by dusk on the eleventh day of the tenth month.
This time, Tan Jiuding did not choose to wait. Instead, he changed into plain clothes and pulled Xu Qi ashore.
“Why are we getting off here? Aren’t we continuing to Huai’an?” It was the season of autumn grain transport, and the area was more crowded and raucous than a lantern fair at its height. Xu Qi had to shout to make herself heard. “This place is even noisier than a market during a festival!”
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She lifted her head. A massive stone silhouette cleaved the dusk and pressed across the Grand Canal. In the distance, the din beyond the lock surged toward them, with restaurants and roadside inns standing row upon row.
Tan Jiuding did not answer. Instead, he pointed toward one of the riverside restaurants, indicating that they would rest there.
They went all the way to an upper room. When Xu Qi pushed open the lattice window, she saw a forest of masts rising straight into the dim yellow sky—a magnificent scene of prosperity and grandeur.
Unfortunately, Xu Qi had no heart for admiring the view or composing verses. Still perplexed, she kept her eyes on the man as he leisurely ordered wine and dishes, then ate and drank at his ease.
A large bowl of mutton soup was brought to the table. Tan Jiuding ladled out a bowl and placed it before her.
“Once winter begins, you should drink soup to warm yourself. You caught a chill some days ago, did you not? Have more.”
For a moment, Xu Qi nearly thought he had seen the prescription Physician Qiao had written for her. Otherwise, how could he have spoken exactly like her family?
But the smell alone was enough to put her off. She pushed the bowl back at once. “You still haven’t told me why we got off the boat. We have disembarked at locks before, but usually only to eat a decent meal before returning. This time is different. I am not foolish enough to think we brought all our baggage with us merely for the sake of exercise.”
“You’ll find out soon enough.”
Tan Jiuding was entirely unapologetic. He simply took her bowl and slurped down every drop, wasting not a thing.
Puzzled, Xu Qi waited. Sure enough, before even a quarter hour had passed, someone knocked on the door. The innkeeper entered with an ingratiating smile and presented them with a gilt-edged invitation.
“Lord Liu, the Assistant Prefect of Yangzhou, has heard that an honored guest is staying here. He has specially arranged a banquet aboard a pleasure boat on Slender West Lake...”
Tan Jiuding picked up a chopstickful of pickled vegetables without even lifting his eyes. “I have caught a slight chill and fear passing it on. Please convey my thanks for Lord Liu’s kindness.”
The invitation was accepted only to be set aside carelessly on the greasy corner of the table.
“Er, my lord...”
“Must I say it a second time?”
Tan Jiuding once more assumed the haughty bearing of an official, his cold face and colder voice thoroughly intimidating.
The innkeeper withdrew in disgrace.
Now Xu Qi understood why Tan Jiuding had left the boat. “You intend to disguise ourselves and take another route through Yangzhou?”
“The Huai’an region is a tangle of dragons and snakes.” Tan Jiuding unfastened his jade tablet bearing the mythical guardian beast and pushed it deep into his travel bag. With a cold laugh, he continued, “How long has it been since we disembarked? And already the gilt-edged invitation has arrived. Someone is watching our every move.”
“If we want to find Huang Zhang, we must find a way to change our identities.”
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