The Investigation Bureau stood in Chongren Ward, on the east side of the Imperial City. Since the great ones of the palace had gone out of the city, most of the office's manpower was already out on the streets standing by, and the compound, which ran the length of the whole street, looked rather empty.
The Records Vault behind the office covered a large stretch of ground. A tall building at its heart was patrolled day and night by Wolf Guards, and to get inside a man needed a Heaven Camp Wolf Guard's bronze badge and a written permit from the officer in charge.
In the early morning, Zhu Manzhi took an assignment from the officer in charge and headed for the Records Vault. She had been bounced from the City Patrol Office down to the Arrest Office, under Tianwei Camp; but Ning Qingye had killed four Tianwei Camp Wolf Guards last time and left a hole in the roster, so she had no squadmates of her own yet and was still lumped in with her two old partners.
Liu Hou'er and Wang Dazhuang had walked a beat half their lives without ever clawing their way into Heaven Camp. They were born slackers of the Investigation Bureau, and with a powerful patron right there in front of them, of course they had to cling to it. The two trailed after Zhu Manzhi like paid attendants, earnestly lecturing her:
"Manzhi, you've only just got into the Son of Heaven's Camp, so don't go getting above yourself. Wolf Guard work means licking blood off a blade. The two of us have been at this for years and our experience runs deep — there's plenty we could teach you. With the relationship we have, of course we'd hold nothing back and answer anything you ask..."
Zhu Manzhi walked toward the Records Vault with a hand on her saber and gave a light sniff. "Give me my silver back, and I'll go on treating you two as brothers."
Back when she was patrolling streets, she had scraped for merit by splitting every reward the office paid out among the two old hands before they would put the kills down under her name; now she wanted that silver back very badly.
Liu Hou'er's face filled with sorrow at this. "Manzhi, talking about silver does a friendship such harm. When you came to Chang'an, if the two of us hadn't been looking after you, would you have sailed into Heaven Camp so smooth and easy...?"
Amid this chatter Zhu Manzhi arrived outside the gate of the Records Vault, where two clerks sat at their desks drinking tea and gossiping.
She had taken from the office an old, never-solved case, the theft of an imperial horse. Handing her permit slip and bronze badge to the clerk for inspection, she unbuckled her signal firecrackers, her tinder, and the like, and went into the Records Vault alone.
With the main force drawn out of the city today, there were not many Wolf Guards posted outside the Vault.
Zhu Manzhi entered calmly. Row upon row of tall shelves filled the broad hall; the windows were sealed and no open flame was permitted, so the light was dim. Seven or eight Wolf Guards were going through the case files, all of them Heaven Camp experts with names of their own — men Zhu Manzhi would ordinarily have struggled even to catch a glimpse of, and meeting them now, she had to nod in salute.
The Vault was utterly quiet, even a little oppressive. At the end of the central aisle stood the Inner Archive, originally the officer in charge's office; today Zhang Xiang had gone to Qujiang Pool, leaving only his deputy, Liu Yunlin, holding the fort inside.
After a casual glance around, Zhu Manzhi began searching among the mountainlike stacks of files, all the while waiting for the chance she and Xu Buling had agreed on...
Snow and wind swept down, and the carriage train drew a thin line across the snowfields outside Chang'an. Qujiang Pool lay just southeast of the city, not far off, and they arrived before noon.
The Empress Dowager's carriage had already come, and she had gone to the Martyrs' Mound beside Qujiang Pool to make offerings, with the consorts, the titled ladies, and the rest following after. Formal occasions are bound to be weighed down with ceremony, and the whole round could not possibly be done in under an hour or two, so Madame Lu told Xu Buling to wait by the pool and join her later when it was time to enjoy the outing.
In front of the waterside pavilion on the bank, Xu Buling, in his white fox-fur coat, held a fishing rod out over Qujiang Pool.
That flock of painted, perfumed ladies vanished into the bamboo grove under Imperial Guard escort, leaving behind in the halls and gazebos along the pool only the maids and servants of the various households, busily laying out all manner of things to make their mistresses comfortable when they came to play; the wealthier families had even hauled several painted pleasure boats up to the shore.
Wolf Guards stood sentry every five paces and prowled the bank with care; at any suspicious movement they would step up to inspect and question. The place was guarded tight, one might say.
But this waterside pavilion on the bank was a spot Xu Buling had bought for himself to fish from, and with him sitting there, naturally no idlers dared come and disturb him.
After waiting a while and making sure no one was watching, Xu Buling tapped twice lightly on the pavilion floor.
Thump, thump—
A rustling came from the room behind him, and Ning Qingye slipped out on quiet feet, then pressed herself against the corner of the building and warily took a look around.
Xu Buling turned his head. "This is as far as I can help you. I've left you a way out. Remember to do only what you can handle, and don't get bogged down in a drawn-out fight."
After a short spell of rest and recovery, Ning Qingye's color had improved a good deal. Sword in hand, she gave a slight nod of thanks. "Thanks. Until fate brings us together again." With that she did not linger; head down, she walked quickly out of the pavilion and went to wait on the only road out of Qujiang Pool.
Xu Buling sat on the pavilion's terrace with his rod in his hand. Being the man behind the curtain, he had nothing to do but wait for the outcome.
It was still early. Snowflakes scattered over the shores of Qujiang Pool; the water lay flat as a mirror, heaven and earth were silent, and the whole scene was like a painting in ink and wash. Now and then countless golden carp leapt from the surface, as if trying to catch the grains of snow falling from the sky.
The party offering sacrifice to the martyrs had not come back, and no fish had taken the hook. Just when Xu Buling was bored to death, footsteps came from behind him again.
The steps were light, and by Xu Buling's hearing it was a woman. He thought Ning Qingye had found no opening and come running back, but turning his head he saw Song Yufu, whom he had not seen for days, sneaking toward him.
Because the snow was coming down hard, Song Yufu had a red cape over her padded skirt, its hood covering her hair so completely that only a young, guileless face showed — and even that was flushed red with cold, and every so often she put her hands to her mouth and blew on them.
Xu Buling frowned. To be honest, he was none too fond of this junior schoolmate of his who was forever making trouble for him, so he turned his head back and went on watching the lake:
"Miss Song, you come without being invited. Is there something urgent?"
Song Yufu tiptoed up onto the terrace and first made a little curtsy. Her conscience being uneasy, there was a touch of awkwardness in her brow, and she said softly, "Heir Xu, there's something I don't know whether I ought to bring up..."
"Then don't." Xu Buling's reply was ice cold.
"Oh..."
The resolve to confess that Song Yufu had worked so hard to muster was flattened out of her in an instant. She bit her lower lip and hesitated a while, but in the end she did not take her leave; she walked to the edge of the terrace and sat down. Her purpose, of course, was to get on good terms with the great Heir Xu ahead of time, so that once the business about the poems came out, he would not come looking to settle accounts with her.
Xu Buling had no idea what was in Song Yufu's head. Seeing her suddenly sit down beside him, lips pressed together in a silly smile, he naturally got the wrong idea.
He edged sideways to keep his distance and raised an eyebrow. "Miss Song, don't tell me you really do want to be the Princess Consort? Last time I used a ferule on you — I never laid a hand on you. If you mean to fasten yourself onto me, I'm not owning up to it."
Song Yufu blinked. Rather than take offense, she said earnestly:
"Don't joke, Heir Xu. Last time the misunderstanding was my fault to begin with, and I brought trouble down on you, so it was only right that you struck me. Mmm... I admire Heir Xu's literary talent and his character. I only want to be friends with you."
Say what you like, that's a real straight-guy way of putting it.
Xu Buling opened his mouth, thought it over a moment:
"Boyfriend?"
"Boyfriend... mmm... that's a strange word..."
Song Yufu hesitated a moment, then answered seriously. "Like-minded people are true friends. I can't get along with those young ladies of official families at all, but I do admire Heir Xu's learning and depth of mind, so I think of Heir Xu as... mmm... my boyfriend!"
"Hold on!"
The more Xu Buling heard, the more wrong it sounded, and he found it funny. He raised an eyebrow. "Miss Song, I never agreed. And you're just going to call me your boyfriend?"
Song Yufu nodded slightly. "It's I who think of you as a bosom friend — why would I need your agreement? And if you think of me as a friend too, that would be just perfect..."
"And what makes you think I'd treat you as my girlfriend?"
"Girlfriend..."
Song Yufu looked puzzled, but she did not trouble herself over it. Her face fell, and she looked a little aggrieved:
"So I don't measure up, is that it?"
Xu Buling looked her up and down and hooked up one corner of his mouth. "As long as you're good and obedient and don't stir up any trouble for me, I suppose I could bring myself to treat you as my girlfriend."
Song Yufu nodded hurriedly. "I'll be obedient, then. But no one is a sage, and no one is free of fault; there's no greater good than knowing your error and mending it. As my boyfriend, you can't just turn on me at the drop of a hat; you must, like a gentleman, convince people with reason and win people over with virtue..."
"I've always won people over with virtue. Martial virtue!"
"To still the spears is what the character wu means. Only when benevolence and righteousness are one's calling does it count as martial virtue. Heir Xu has got it wrong..."
Song Yufu had one lofty principle after another, and half a day went by without her repeating herself.
Xu Buling was bored in any case, and not in the least put off, so he listened attentively while his girlfriend, who was trying to reform him by moral suasion, chattered on and on...