“You don’t want to leave?”
The woman in black appraised Chen Ji.
This was the first time in years she had looked him over so closely — just a step away.
Beneath the young man’s bamboo hat were a pair of calm eyes, brows like drawn blades.
His nostrils were thin, the bridge of his nose high and straight.
The sleeves were rolled up, revealing wrists and the backs of hands where the veins stood out.
He was no longer the child who used to trail behind her.
The visitor was Lady Lu.
When Chen Ji turned to look at her, she moved her gaze away and, without a trace of emotion in her voice, said, “The Jiefan Guard and the Secret Espionage Bureau have sent over a hundred men. Tonight they’ll turn Changping County inside out. They’ll start searching from the north of the city; before dawn they’ll finish this not-too-large Changping town.”
“There’s a garrison of Jiefan troops five li out. If they don’t find you tonight, they’ll call in those five hundred soldiers and search again tomorrow.”
“If they don’t find you on the second sweep, they’ll press the local headmen and gentry — the kind of local snakes who know the ground — to search a third time. If the third sweep still turns up nothing, they’ll pretend to withdraw, then scatter people around the markets and watch closely, until a month has passed.”