(4) Fourth Sister in Danger

With all three young men recovered, hair and beard entirely intact, without so much as a scratch on them, the enormous weight pressing on Cao Jibin's heart finally lifted. Though the perpetrator's identity still remained unknown, the matter no longer felt quite so urgent—it could be pursued more patiently now, since, after all, when lives were at stake and the Emperor himself was watching closely, bringing the young men home safely was what mattered above all else.

According to all three young men's accounts, each had described their attendants apparently being offered tea to drink, after which they had driven their carriages, as if in a daze, straight toward Yun Xiang Garden, seemingly following some unspoken command whispered in their ears, moving like puppets entirely under someone else's control. Since it was hardly unusual for a considerate host to offer refreshments to a guest's attendants, none of the servants had suspected anything amiss, and after drinking the tea, unable to control their own minds any longer, they had driven the carriages toward Yun Xiang Garden in a confused, muddled stupor. This left both Zuixian Tower and Cui Shi's friend Xun Zhe under suspicion, and Cao Jibin ordered Zuixian Tower's manager, Madam Feng, along with Xun Zhe and everyone else connected to them, brought in and questioned separately—yet, to everyone's surprise, every one of them insisted, without exception, on their own innocence. Madam Feng had already received word from her own staff that, on the day in question, a distinguished guest had used the pretense of visiting the privy to strike up conversation with the two young masters' attendants, and someone had witnessed this man handing each servant a string of coins; though no one knew exactly what had been said between them, the man's behavior had struck them as suspicious, carrying an unmistakably strange air about him. As for Xun Zhe and his household, though questioned at length, and even subjected to caning, they still swore up and down, with hands raised to heaven, that they had done nothing wrong at all.

No sooner had his fever broken than Cao Jibin hurried back to the county office to take charge of the situation once more. He had someone bring out the sketch drawn from the stable boy's description at Yun Xiang Garden and showed it to Madam Feng, asking whether this was indeed the man who had excused himself under the pretext of visiting the privy that day. The moment Madam Feng saw the sketch, she nodded so vigorously in shock it looked like a woodpecker striking a tree, utterly certain, since the man's clothing had strongly resembled Hu-style dress, and his heavy beard had left a distinct, memorable impression on her. Cao Jibin then had the sketch shown once more to all three households' servants during renewed questioning, and, upon searching them, found a string of coins hidden on each of them, confirming that Madam Feng's account had been entirely truthful. Fearing punishment, the servants had lied under questioning; in reality, they had been bribed, told that Yun Xiang Garden wished to invite their young masters to grace the establishment with their presence, to listen to a few songs, perhaps join in a drinking game, all so that Yun Xiang Garden could build up a bit of good reputation for itself, adding to its own glory. At the time, none of them had thought much of it—this sort of thing happened often enough, after all; young men of prominent families were exactly the sort of guests every house in Pingkang Ward competed to win over, and with money involved, the servants had readily agreed—never imagining it would lead to a result quite like this. Terrified of being punished by their masters, or even thrown out of the household entirely, they had secretly agreed among themselves beforehand on the story about the tea leaving them dazed and confused, hoping to escape any blame that way—but a single sketch, and the coins found hidden on their own persons, thoroughly shattered their lie.

Under Magistrate Cao's questioning, Madam Feng honestly admitted that the mysterious stranger had left Zuixian Tower shortly after Pei Yun and Huang En themselves departed. The man had claimed only to be a merchant from the Western Regions surnamed Jian; since he was an unfamiliar face to her, she knew almost nothing else about him at all, and had it not been for everything that followed, she would hardly even have remembered that he'd ever mentioned his surname was Jian in the first place.

Once the interrogation concluded, all three young men were collected by their families. Though the servants had been bribed by the wrongdoer, since the three young men themselves had eaten and drunk well throughout their ordeal, suffering no real, substantive harm, all the money they had received from the mysterious stranger was confiscated in full, and each of them was given ten strokes of the rod before being sent home—likely to face yet another round of punishment once back under their own family's roof, a case, one might well say, of losing on both fronts entirely.

With this matter now settled, Cao Jibin decided to request support from both the Chang'an County office and the Metropolitan Governor of Jingzhao, joining forces to hunt down and apprehend the mysterious stranger together. Meanwhile, at home, his wife Lady Liu, worried about her husband carrying on his investigations while still recovering from illness, once again went to Anguo Temple to burn incense, accompanied by Guo Huilian—partly to fulfill a vow of thanks now that the three young men had returned home safely, and partly to pray once more to the bodhisattvas for her husband's continued good health and a swift, successful resolution to the case. But no sooner had the two of them stepped down the stone steps, preparing to climb into their carriage and head home, than several black-clad men with covered faces suddenly appeared, blocking their path. The young servant boy who had been driving the carriage had already been dragged down and now stood frozen in terror, while one of the masked men in black had already taken up position at the reins, holding them steady, awaiting the signal to depart.

"Please, ladies, get into the carriage," one of the masked men said.

"Who are you? Where do you intend to take us?" Lady Liu, though frightened, was, after all, the Magistrate's own wife, and Guo Huilian's own sister-in-law besides; she summoned her courage and spoke up.

"There's no need for the lady to ask questions. Just come along with us. Magistrate Cao really is quite capable—probably the most accomplished Magistrate of Wannian in recent memory."

"How dare you—you know full well I am the Magistrate's wife, and yet you'd still abduct us in broad daylight, right here on the street?"

"No need for further chatter. You can climb into the carriage yourselves, or we can knock you unconscious and carry you in instead—the choice is yours. Don't bother trying to call out for help either; our people are stationed everywhere, seen and unseen alike, and no one here can save you. Our master merely wishes to have the pleasure of your company as guests—there's no ill intent involved at all. If you would please step this way, into the carriage." The masked man in black spoke in an even, measured tone, and yet it carried an unmistakable undertone of menace. With two defenseless women facing them now, what hope did they have of putting up any real resistance? If the outcome was inescapable either way, surely it was better to remain fully conscious, at least, and understand clearly what was actually happening to them. And so, though their hearts were filled with genuine terror, the two women exchanged a single glance, reaching a silent understanding, and climbed obediently into the carriage. The personal maids who had accompanied them were held back and left standing where they were, allowed to go on their own way.

The carriage sped forward at once, several masked men in black riding alongside it on horseback. Lady Liu lifted the window curtain to look outside, trying to make out which streets the carriage was passing through, but she had only lived in Chang'an for about half a year now, and remained largely unfamiliar with the city. Guo Huilian, having lived in Chang'an for twelve years, was hardly a stranger to its streets, particularly those east of Vermilion Bird Bridge, and she noticed something rather odd—the carriage seemed to be taking a deliberately roundabout route, circling back and forth repeatedly near the Eastern Market in particular, before finally speeding off toward Pingkang Ward.

As for a place like Pingkang Ward, a quarter devoted to pleasures of the flesh, Guo Huilian found herself just as unfamiliar with it as Lady Liu. That world of song and dance, of wine and indulgence, was utterly beyond the imagination of respectable young women such as themselves. To them, this place was nothing short of a den of sin and temptation, one they dared not even glance toward directly out of sheer instinct. In the end, they simply let the curtain fall, sat up straight, nerves stretched taut as though sitting on a bed of needles, until at last, as though entirely at the mercy of fate, they found themselves blindfolded and led into some unknown place—though it, too, proved surprisingly peaceful, with no sign of any singing girls or courtesans, nor any patrons out seeking pleasure, seeming instead like some hidden, tranquil paradise tucked away, elegant and untouched, right in the heart of Pingkang Ward itself.

For several days running, the two sisters-in-law found themselves confined to an unfamiliar small courtyard, with no shortage of food or drink. At first, fearing the meals and tea might be poisoned, they didn't dare touch any of it—but after two or three days, growing weak with hunger and thirst, their bodies drained of strength and their vision swimming, they finally decided against starving to death as ghosts with empty stomachs; even if it meant risking poison, they resolved to eat their fill first, if only to make sure they'd have the strength left to cry out in protest, should they ever find themselves standing before the King of Hell himself.

Even stranger still, this so-called "master" of theirs never once made an appearance over all these days. Aside from several masked men in black standing guard around the courtyard, no one else ever showed themselves at all; they had eaten and drunk more meals than either of them could count by now, and yet their captor still hadn't revealed what he actually wanted from them. It was genuinely baffling. What was more, over these past several days, the faint sounds of fighting had drifted down again and again from the rooftops nearby, near and far—the clash of blades, the thud of bodies grappling—and when the commotion grew loud enough, it would even jolt them awake from restless sleep, though in truth neither of them had ever managed to sleep soundly to begin with, mostly just sitting propped against one another, drifting in and out of shallow rest. Lady Liu found the sounds from the rooftop genuinely terrifying, but Guo Huilian, being somewhat bolder by nature, found herself thinking it through instead: once news of her own disappearance reached Yueyue Manor, they would surely spare no effort to come rescue her. Never mind anything else—there was, after all, that bird-and-flower hairpin Tian Xu had personally fastened into her hair with his own hands, with its promise that seeing the hairpin was as good as seeing the Manor Lord himself; and Tenth Brother had always been a man whose word carried the weight of gold—three years ago, he had traveled a thousand li just to keep a single promise made to her. Now that something had happened to her, there was simply no way Yueyue Manor would ever stand by and do nothing; these sounds of fighting overhead might well be Yueyue Manor's own hidden guards in Chang'an, already come to rescue her. With this thought in mind, Guo Huilian found herself, as if given some reassuring pill to settle her nerves, growing rather calm about the whole ordeal—though she didn't dare say any of this aloud, since whose household, after all, would openly admit to keeping such a considerable number of hidden guards stationed throughout Chang'an? Speaking of it might well bring unnecessary trouble down on Yueyue Manor itself. And yet she still couldn't quite work out what exactly their captor was actually after—showing neither hide nor tail the entire time, simply leaving the two of them stranded in this small courtyard, was, in itself, a genuine torment to endure.

After several more days, the sounds of fighting on the rooftops seemed to grow steadily more intense, and Guo Huilian herself began to feel a rising sense of urgency. Once she'd done what she could to reassure Lady Liu, she opened the door and stepped out into the courtyard to see for herself what was going on. The four masked men in black stationed in the courtyard immediately grew wary at the sight of her, closing in around Guo Huilian from every side.

"Please return to your room, Guo Fourth Sister," they warned her.

"Who are you people? Is this what you call hospitality?"

The masked men in black were about to say something further when a figure in pale blue suddenly appeared, floating gracefully in from beyond the two walls, as though some immortal descending gracefully from the heavens themselves, landing with effortless elegance before gently flicking open a jade-boned folding fan in his hand. Guo Huilian froze, utterly unable to collect herself for a long moment. The man before her looked for all the world like an exquisitely carved statue of Guanyin, his beauty set off all the more brilliantly by the jade-boned fan in his hand; those old poetic lines describing a great beauty—"hands like tender reeds, skin like congealed cream"—seemed to have taken flesh and blood, standing right there in front of her. Every gesture, every movement he made seemed to shimmer with an almost radiant light, beauty beyond description, leaving her breathless without quite realizing it, utterly unable to tear her eyes away. There was an alluring quality to him, yet nothing lascivious in it; a striking beauty, yet nothing overwrought—an air entirely different from Tian Xu's own natural, spirited brightness. It was only when one of the masked men in black spoke up—"Young Master, why have you come here?"—that it finally pulled the dazed Guo Huilian back to reality.

"A pack of useless fools, leaving this young master unable to eat or sleep in peace—and you still have the nerve to ask?" The moment the man in pale blue opened his mouth, his displeasure was plain for all to see, and the four masked men in black immediately lowered their heads and offered apologetic bows.

"Please don't be angry, young master. This Cao Jibin has proven unexpectedly difficult to deal with. Where on earth did he find such help? Those aren't ordinary county archers—the archers and county sheriffs we know don't have that kind of skill. If they did, how could every previous Magistrate of Wannian have met such miserable ends, one after another, leaving the position to fall to this obscure nobody, Cao Jibin, in the first place?"

Overhearing this exchange between them, Guo Huilian realized at once that this man in pale blue must be the very "mastermind" behind their abduction. However striking his appearance might be, doing something like this left her genuinely furious, and she fired off three questions in a row. "Who are you? Why did you abduct us? What exactly is it you're after?"

Hearing this, the man in pale blue turned and glanced her way, saying coolly, "Is this the Cao family's lady?"

"Reporting to the young master: this is Guo Fourth Sister, not the Cao family's lady—she's the Magistrate's cousin," one of the masked men in black answered respectfully.