"Naturally."
Xu Buling nodded. "But don't go giving me away. If anything comes up, just pin it all on Xiao Ting—it's not as though they'd dare march into the Chancellor's estate to check."
Zhu Manzhi nodded like a chick pecking at rice, hooked the bronze badge back onto her belt, and grinned.
"Once I'm in the Son of Heaven's Camp, I can get into the Records Vault and go through the case files. And when I find out what became of my father, I'll quit being a constable and be Young Master Xu's bodyguard full time."
Xu Buling raised an eyebrow. "Miss Zhu, are you sure you want to be my bodyguard, and not just find yourself a backer?"
By now Zhu Manzhi counted as an old acquaintance of his. She answered with a smile: "You've done me such a huge favor, Young Master Xu—I have to repay it somehow, don't I? You've got estates in twelve provinces and no use for silver, so a bodyguard's all I can offer. Just don't turn your nose up at it..."
Xu Buling shook his head with a soft laugh. "None of that nonsense. Have you gotten into the Records Vault yet?"
Zhu Manzhi turned a little more serious, and a shade downcast. "I got in. The Records Vault is enormous—the shelves that hold the files are several zhang tall, hundreds of them crammed in together... My parents left me behind and ran off last year. There was some kind of trouble around the Fen River at the time—a few gang leaders were killed. I found the case record in the Vault, but it still hasn't been solved, and there's no finding who the killer was..."
Xu Buling frowned. "Then wasn't it all a waste of effort?"
Zhu Manzhi nodded listlessly. "That road's a dead end, so all I can do is look for martial artists about my father's age. I don't know how skilled my father was. The Vault records over a hundred masters surnamed Zhu—who knows how long it'll take to go through them all."
"Don't be in a hurry. The Investigation Bureau keeps watch over the jianghu; practically every well-known figure anywhere in Great Yue ends up in the Bureau's informant network. Keep at it and you'll find him sooner or later."
Xu Buling offered a few words of comfort.
Zhu Manzhi nodded and murmured an "Mm," then thought for a moment and added, "Oh—Young Master Xu, I also went out of my way to dig up anything on the Dragon-Locking Gu. But the Dragon-Locking Gu vanished over ten years ago. The Vault only has records of cases involving it—nothing on where it came from or how to cure it..."
Xu Buling's brows lifted slightly, and there was a note of surprise in his voice. "You really did put your mind to it... You're sure you've looked through all of it?"
Zhu Manzhi shook her head, a little embarrassed. "The Records Vault keeps the private secrets of the princely and noble houses—not every part of it can be viewed. There's a small archive inside the Vault, kept specially for important case files, and several senior officials sit watch in there year-round. If a case touches on something in there, Commander Zhang takes men in to look it over. No one's allowed in alone."
Xu Buling considered that for a moment. "Slip in on the sly?"
Zhu Manzhi clasped her hands behind her back and kicked at the pebbles on the ground, rather listless.
"Of course I'd like to sneak in and have a look. But Commander Zhang is in there—if I'm caught creeping in, that's a disaster."
Xu Buling gave a light laugh. "That's simple enough. I'll call Zhang Xiang out and keep him occupied. You find a chance to get in and go through the files—and while you're at it, see whether there's any record of the Dragon-Locking Gu."
Zhu Manzhi pressed her lips together and hesitated. "Young Master Xu, barging into the Records Vault is a grave crime. It could cost me my head... I... I'm a coward..."
Xu Buling shook his head. "I'm the legitimate eldest son of Prince Su. If it really comes to light, you just say you're close to me and that you only barged in rashly to look for news of your father. With me behind you, no one will touch you."
Zhu Manzhi mulled that over, then broke into a grin. "All right. I trust Young Master Xu..."
"A gentleman's word once given—not even a team of four horses can catch it."
Elsewhere, at the stone quarry outside Chang'an.
Chang'an's towering halls and buildings stood in unbroken ranks, so its consumption of stone was bound to be enormous. Great Yue had no rail lines to speak of, and shipping stone by merchant boat was far too extravagant, so stone was generally quarried on the spot.
Without explosives or the like to help, quarrying was no light work. In the depths of winter, countless conscript laborers in single-layer clothes stood out in the open below the cliff face, breaking apart huge blocks of raw stone with iron chisels and hammers. Most of them were skin and bone, and the slightest slacking brought an overseer over with a whip and a stream of curses.
In a small house at the edge of the quarry, the room that had just been converted into a study still smelled of fresh paint.
A carved couch with soft cushions had been set below the window, where a glance out took in the conscripts toiling away.
Li Tianlu, dressed in plain cotton, sat on the couch toying with a paper knife in his hand, undisguised fury and gloom in his eyes. The servants stayed outside, not daring to make a sound.
The sentence had been that Li Tianlu come here and do conscript labor, but the Li family's standing in Chang'an was hardly low. Riding over dutifully in a prison cart was nothing but a show, to keep from provoking the court officials and the emperor. But for the legitimate heir of the Li family to actually go and eat and live alongside a pack of conscripts—anyone could tell that was impossible.
He had been here two days, and the quarry's petty clerks had already tidied the house up neatly.
Li Tianlu waited a while on the couch; then a carriage came to a stop inside the quarry grounds, the Imperial Guard clearing the way ahead, and Li Baoyi, Marquis of Loyalty and Valor, in everyday clothes, walked briskly into the room and pulled the door shut behind him.
"Father!"
Li Tianlu rose, somewhat reining in the anger on his face, and asked quietly:
"Father, when can I go back to Chang'an?"
Li Baoyi walked up to him with his hands clasped behind his back and said mildly:
"Don't even think about it for the next couple of months. This is the height of the storm. If anyone gets a handle on us now, we'll be throwing ourselves right onto the blade."
Li Tianlu understood the reasoning well enough. He could only wait for the talk to die down, for the court officials and the common folk to forget the whole business, before he had any chance of slipping quietly back and going on being the young master of the Li family.
The Li family of Kuishou Street, no less—they had sweated and scraped to build an operation at White Horse Manor that raked in gold by the day, and now the authorities had shut it down. Naturally, Li Tianlu was seething.
"This Xiao Ting. I always treated him like an elder brother, and to think he'd be so ungrateful..."
Li Baoyi shook his head. "We can't afford to offend the Xiao clan of Huainan. But that woman constable must not be let off. The Wolf Guards gave no warning beforehand—it has to be that she acted on her own, or else was bewitched by the Xiao family, to dare tweak the tiger's whiskers like that."
A chill came into Li Tianlu's eyes. "Then I'll send men now—"
"Not so fast!" Li Baoyi raised a hand to cut him off. "Hold your temper. White Horse Manor has only just had trouble. If that constable turned up dead right now, even a fool would know the Li family had a hand in it. Get the men in place first. In a few days, once the noise about White Horse Manor dies down, do it cleanly and leave no future trouble."
Li Tianlu could not press the fire in his chest down, but he knew revenge at this moment would be far too conspicuous. He could only give a cold snort:
"Killing her is too easy on her. If she ever fell into my hands..."
"Hmph... anyone who crosses the Li family is already a dead woman..."