Setting Out

"What's wrong?" Seeing that Fang Shuwen had fallen silent after speaking, Zhou Qingmei could not help asking. Fang Shuwen shook his head slightly. "Nothing. "How good is that flower thief's martial arts?" "...I couldn't tell." Zhou Qingmei's voice carried a note of shame. "We traded only three or five moves. His internal skill should be no weaker than mine, but he seemed to have no stomach for the fight. "Once I had snatched the person back, he fled." "In that case, this whole business is strange in the extreme!" "How so?" Zhou Qingmei merely felt that the disaster at the Zhou estate might have begun with this affair. But it was only a suspicion... She had no idea where Fang Shuwen's certainty that it was strange had come from. Fang Shuwen gave her a look. "Does the Eldest Young Miss of the Zhou family not care much for looking in the mirror?" "What do you mean?" Naturally Zhou Qingmei looked in mirrors. She was a girl, and even a swordswoman of the jianghu treasures her looks. Fang Shuwen said with a smile, "The Eldest Young Miss is a beauty to overthrow a kingdom. Even I can't look at you without a covetous thought stirring, let alone a lecher." "..." Zhou Qingmei felt her face grow warm at that, and remembering that it was Fang Shuwen who had bandaged her injuries, she could not help asking, "Last night... how much did you see?" "What?" Fang Shuwen was still turning the matter over in his mind, and her sudden question left him at a loss. He looked at her, and only then understood. Amused at how her thoughts skipped about, he said offhandedly, "Everything I should have seen and everything I shouldn't. With injuries like yours... there was no bandaging you otherwise." "Then... did you have a covetous thought?" Zhou Qingmei gritted her teeth. Fang Shuwen waved a hand. "Hardly. Hardly." "...I suppose you count as a gentleman." Zhou Qingmei folded her arms and gave a soft sniff. Fang Shuwen laughed. "Blood everywhere. I'm not sick in the head, so why would any such thought arise? "Now, if you had been all clean and neat, that might be another matter..." "Stop talking this instant!" Zhou Qingmei felt he was growing more outrageous by the word, and already regretted asking. Now she was thoroughly embarrassed, while the fellow before her looked smug. What did he have to be smug about? Pfah! "It's not as though I wanted to say it... Never mind. Back to what we were discussing." Fang Shuwen's expression changed in an instant. "Think about it. A flower thief steals women because lust stirs at the sight of beauty. "And a woman as lovely as you—he takes one look and runs. "If his martial arts were poor, that would make sense... but you tell me the man is no weakling. "Since he's not weak, then even if he can't match you, I'd guess he's not far off. "So what reason would he have not to fight it out, and instead flee for his life?" Zhou Qingmei knew well enough that her looks were uncommon, but from the start she had never considered the matter from that angle. Now that Fang Shuwen put it this way, she felt the clouds part and the sun break through. "Put that way, the business really is strange." She thought it over carefully before going on. "He was so eager to get away. Could he be wary of me? "Or wary of the Zhujige Pavilion behind me? "But I never declared my sect or my origins while we fought. How would he know?" "Either he recognized your Zhujige's unique arts, or he had seen your face at some point and knew who you were. "Or else he is one of Zhujige's own. "And afraid you would discover his identity, he wanted to silence you." Fang Shuwen spoke casually. "The first two, perhaps. The last... impossible," Zhou Qingmei said. "Zhujige is, after all, a reputable orthodox sect. How could it do such a base thing?" "Then think carefully. Did his build, his footwork, his martial arts feel at all familiar?" "No." Zhou Qingmei shook her head decisively. Fang Shuwen thought for a moment. "From what that black-robed man said last night, this isn't over. I can protect you for a while, but not for the rest of your life. "If we don't find the root of the trouble, I'm afraid you'll never know peace." Most importantly, if this business was not settled, his task would not count as complete. And the reward would never reach his hands. Fang Shuwen was beginning to regret taking the task at all. It was a scalding hot potato in his hands. "My experience of the jianghu is still too shallow after all." Fang Shuwen warned himself that the next time something like this came along, he had better weigh it properly, and never be so rash again. There was a stubborn streak in his nature. If he had never accepted the task, that would have been one thing; but now that he had, giving it up halfway would weigh on his conscience on one hand, and on the other leave him truly unwilling. Unless it could not be done at all, he did not intend to give up. "You're right. As things stand, there are two things to be done," Zhou Qingmei said. "First, I'll write to my sect and ask them to step in and help me investigate and mediate. "Second... I'm setting out for Guangning City. "If our guess just now is right, we may find something in Guangning City." "Guangning City?" Fang Shuwen mused briefly. "I'll go with you." "You really don't have to get yourself involved." Zhou Qingmei's look as she regarded him was somewhat complicated. "A guard martial instructor's monthly wage isn't much. Why risk your life with me?" "I've been entrusted with a matter and will see it through, that's all." Fang Shuwen waved a hand. "Enough. My mind is made up. Say no more." Zhou Qingmei cupped her hands and bowed gravely. "Thank you." Once the two had agreed, they wasted no more time. They left the Zhou estate, packed their belongings, and made ready to slip away quietly. Before leaving, Zhou Qingmei wrote a letter and entrusted it to an escort agency to be delivered to Zhujige. Fang Shuwen did not go to the Four Seas Martial Hall to find Zheng Sihai, nor did he notify his eldest senior brother Mo Beidou. The waters here ran deep, and he did not want to drag the martial hall in. Once everything was settled, he would come back and report that he was safe. It was only that Fang Shuwen had assumed the two of them would race along the road like other heroes of the jianghu. To his surprise, Zhou Qingmei led out two horses from somewhere. Fang Shuwen looked at the animal with some dismay. Given the life he had led, he had never been in any position to ride; he simply did not know how. Fortunately, riding was not so very difficult. Becoming an expert in the saddle in a short time would be asking too much of anyone, but in his present condition, learning was easy enough. His caution lasted only a little while. Soon he was spurring the horse to a gallop. Thus they traveled for half a day. When the sun had passed its zenith, they swung down from the horses to eat some dry rations. Then he turned his head, and there, among the trees not far off, a corpse lay propped against a trunk.