Screams, shouts, roars...
A chaotic jumble of noise came spilling out of the underground palace.
Outside the rockery at White Horse Manor, Gongsun Lu came charging into the estate on a big horse at the head of a company of Imperial Guard, rapidly closing on the rockery where the commotion had broken out.
The day before, when Li Tianlu learned that someone had taken an "interest" in White Horse Manor, he had summoned the two academy heads of Hutai Street overnight, just in case, and called in crossbow-armed Imperial Guard to stand ready outside.
For bootlicking work like this, the Gongsun father and son were always first in line; Gongsun Lu had come over personally with the Imperial Guard.
Hearing that there really was a disturbance in the manor, Gongsun Lu—itching to claim credit with the Li family—hurried to the rockery, had the Imperial Guard draw swords and level their crossbows, and announced in a ringing voice:
"Bold thieves! Surrender at once..."
"Don't shoot! I'm with the Investigation Bureau!"
From inside the stone tunnel of the rockery, a woman's voice called out.
With a thud-thud-thud of footsteps, Xu Buling, masked and dressed in black, burst out of the rockery carrying Zhu Manzhi, and pulled up short at the mouth of the cave.
Zhu Manzhi clutched a bundle to her chest and waved her token in the air, terrified that the moment they stepped out the Imperial Guard would loose a volley of arrows.
From the tunnel behind them, a saber-armed guard howled at the top of his lungs:
"Sir! Grab those two thieves! They've killed young Master Li Tianyu and they're trying to cut their way out!"
Gongsun Lu's heart lurched. He had not expected the Li family's young master to be killed—this was serious business. After a moment's thought, he raised a hand and said:
"Seize them! Kill anyone who resists!"
"Yes, sir!"
Torch in one hand and official saber in the other, the Imperial Guard moved in to make the arrest.
Zhu Manzhi's eyes went wide with disbelief. She recognized Gongsun Lu well enough—they had met once before—and perhaps because the scene felt familiar, for a long moment she had no idea what to say.
Xu Buling's eyes were shot with blood, and the poison in his chest had spread—his forehead was already mottled purple. If he revealed his identity, Zhu Manzhi would inevitably come to the Investigation Bureau's notice, and the rest of the plan would be ruined. He hesitated a moment, then made ready to raise his blade and hack his way out by force.
Luckily, the commotion in the manor had been loud enough to rouse a good many people.
Xiao Ting, who had been living it up in style, heard that someone had died outside and knew at once that Xu Buling must be making trouble; he came running in a panic.
Spotting Xu Buling soaked in blood from a distance scared Xiao Ting half out of his wits. If he had come out here alongside Xu Buling and Xu Buling ended up dead, he would probably be sent back to Huainan to stare at a wall in penitence for the rest of his life—of course he was afraid.
Xiao Ting dashed up to the rockery and, leaping into the air, fetched Gongsun Lu a slap across the back of the head.
Smack—
It was not a hard blow, but caught off guard, Gongsun Lu was struck silly; he clapped a hand to his waist saber and whipped his head around in a fury:
"Who the hell is so... dashing... Oh, it's Young Master Xiao! Forgive my manners, forgive my manners."
Gongsun Lu's expression changed entirely; he raised his hands in fearful deference.
Xiao Ting looked at the Imperial Guard with their drawn swords and leveled crossbows and cursed:
"Have you all turned rebel? Do you have any idea who he is?"
Xu Buling's heart sank, and he hastily pinched Zhu Manzhi at the waist.
Zhu Manzhi jolted and hurried to pick up the thread: "Young Master Xiao, I came to investigate White Horse Manor on your orders, and there really is a case down there big enough to shake the court and the realm."
Xiao Ting blinked, recalling what Xu Buling had told him—that Madame Lu must not find out—and coughed once, putting on a cold face:
"He's my bodyguard. I've long suspected this White Horse Manor of harboring filth and sheltering iniquity. Today I brought a Wolf Guard along to investigate, and sure enough, just as I thought..."
Xu Buling raised an eyebrow. He had not expected Xiao Ting to be so quick on the uptake—the fellow was spouting officialese in perfect, polished strings.
Gongsun Lu knew perfectly well that White Horse Manor was a nest of filth. But set against the Xiao clan of Huainan, the Li family was not worth a pinky finger, so how would he dare show favoritism now? He took up the line: "I see! Young Master Xiao sees through everything, as expected." Then he turned and barked at the Imperial Guard: "Well? Get in there and find out what's happened!"
The Imperial Guard acknowledged the order and poured into the underground palace beneath the rockery.
Xu Buling leaned close to Zhu Manzhi's ear and murmured a few words, then took the bundle from her arms and turned to walk out of White Horse Manor.
With Xiao Ting shielding him, Gongsun Lu naturally did not dare stop the masked bodyguard for questioning; he simply pretended not to see, and bending low beside Xiao Ting, said:
"Young Master Xiao, White Horse Manor is Li family property. I was only carrying out orders—none of this has anything to do with me..."
Hands clasped behind his back in the manner of a prime minister, Xiao Ting frowned at the stone tunnel beneath the rockery:
"What's hidden down there?"
Gongsun Lu shook his head earnestly. "I hear it's just a small holding. This lowly one doesn't know the details either. Hmm... Young Master Li of Kuishou Street is very particular about this place. Coming here today and killing Li Tianlu's cousin outright, I'm afraid..."
Hearing this, Zhu Manzhi trotted up and raised her hands in salute. "Young Master Xiao, the Li family has been feeding men to a tiger here at White Horse Manor—an outrage Heaven itself will not tolerate. His Majesty loves the people as his own children and will be furious when he learns of it. If you had not brought me here to investigate today, who knows how many more innocent commoners would have met a violent end."
With His Majesty invoked, Gongsun Lu naturally did not dare run his mouth any further. He shot Zhu Manzhi a glance and found her vaguely familiar, but she was dressed in an ordinary girl's padded jacket and skirt, and for the moment he could not place her.
At the words "feeding men to a tiger," Xiao Ting's expression turned genuinely stern; he knitted his brows and said:
"Feeding living people to a tiger? Can't the Li family afford meat?"
Zhu Manzhi nodded angrily. "One look below and you will understand, Young Master."
Xiao Ting had seen Xu Buling drenched in blood; he knew the place below must be littered with corpses, and there was no chance he was going down there.
After a short wait, the Imperial Guard captain came running out, face ashen, bent double and nearly retching; it was a long while before he could steady himself enough to report:
"Sir, there's an underground palace below. A number of wealthy men are collapsed in there from fright. There must have been a fight just now—there are five bodies on the ground, none of them whole. One was mauled to pieces by a tiger... The scene is too horrible for words..."
Xiao Ting's wiring might be a little off, but he was by no means incapable of telling right from wrong. Doing such a thing right under the emperor's nose—if word got out, it would shake the court and the realm. Xu Buling was handing him a reputation this big on a platter; of course he had to take it.
Having heard the report, Xiao Ting flew into a rage and flung out his sleeve:
"Just as I suspected! To commit such an outrage against Heaven and decency right under the emperor's nose—the Li family truly knows no law. Men! Seal off White Horse Manor."
With Li Tianyu dead, there was not a single person left in the manor with any authority, so naturally no one came running up to beg for leniency.
Fearing he would be charged with connivance and sheltering criminals, Gongsun Lu had no choice but to denounce the Li family's utter depravity in righteous, indignant tones, and then took his Imperial Guard and sealed the mouth of the rockery tunnel so tightly that no one could come out.
There were plenty of noble sons and young lords down in the underground palace too, every one of them from a distinguished house—but no house was as distinguished as the Xiao clan of Huainan, and whoever came out to plead would get nowhere.
Xiao Ting was, after all, a proper son of a great clan. With a matter this big exposed, he would earn himself a fine name for unshakable integrity; but if private interest moved him to let even one or two of them go, he would not only carry the stain for the rest of his life—his political enemies would seize on it, and might even use the chance to drag his father down from the chancellorship. There was no way he would dare bend the law for anyone.
So the Imperial Guard stood in a ring around the place, and once Chang'an got word and the main force of Heaven Camp Wolf Guards and the chief of the Court of Judicial Review arrived, the affair at White Horse Manor would be impossible to keep under wraps—even if the Son of Heaven himself were standing right there...