He Yue retreated swiftly, snapping in anger, "Commandant Nian, please show some decency!"
Nian Songyu not only lacked decency, he reached out to snatch the boy over.
He Yue went deathly pale with fright.
Fortunately, someone dashed out from the flank and hurled a fist straight at Nian Songyu's face!
This heavy punch whipped up a fierce gale; if it landed, Nian Songyu would fly at least a zhang and end up bruised and battered.
Yet he reacted quickly. Tucking his body slightly, he met fist with fist while whipping a kick toward the other party's chest with tremendous force, clearly enraged.
Doing so, however, forced him to let go of He Yue.
That punch had actually been a feint; the real lethal move was the short blade in his left hand, thrusting silently toward Nian Songyu's ribs.
Once Nian Songyu noticed, the newcomer also fell back two steps, presciently dodging the incoming kick.
Only then did He Yue's shout arrive: "Stop! Don't fight!"
The newcomer was none other than He Lingchuan.
Without waiting for Nian Songyu to speak, he cocked his head with an expression of astonishment. "Commandant Nian, what are you doing here?"
"I thought some shameless lecher had crept inside, trying to ruin my little brother's purity," He Lingchuan wondered aloud. "Commandant Nian, what are you doing standing in front of his outhouse?"
"I'm unaccustomed to unfamiliar beds and couldn't sleep tonight, so I went for a stroll. Running into Second Young Master He, I thought we'd have a heart-to-heart." Nian Songyu patted his sleeves. "The Great Capital is a true mix of dragons and snakes. Coming from the countryside, you people will need someone to look after you all the more."
He flashed a gentle smile at He Yue. "Second Young Master He, it's rare to find such rapport. How about I join you for drinks again tomorrow evening?"
He Yue's face was ashen, and he kept silent.
"Sounds great! My brother and I will be sure to keep you company then—no leaving until we're drunk!" He Lingchuan cut in smoothly. "Just keep in mind that I get a little boisterous when I drink and play, so you'll have to bear with me, Commandant Nian."
Nian Songyu gave two dry chuckles, finding the fellow's manner somewhat sleazy and having no desire to engage him further.
He Lingchuan added, "By the way, have you found out who leaked the news about my severe injuries? Must be a mole inside!"
The smile slowly vanished from Nian Songyu's face. "Not yet." With that, he turned and strolled leisurely away.
The moment he disappeared, He Yue dashed over to the pool to wash his hands, as fast as a rabbit shot in the tail.
He Lingchuan heard him utter a rare curse and saw how pale his face was, scrubbing his hands over and over as if wishing to scour off a layer of skin. "Elder Brother, thank goodness you were here."
After all, he was only fourteen; no matter how mature for his age, at a time like this he still had to rely on his older brother to back him up.
"Seeing how punchable he looked made my fists itch too," He Lingchuan consoled him. "Still, even if I weren't around, he wouldn't actually have laid hands on you today."
"He was faking?" He Yue frowned. "I looked into Nian Songyu. He seems to genuinely have such inclinations."
Several successive Emperors of Yuan favored male companionship, which had become a fashion in the Great Capital, where upper-class nobles commonly kept handsome men. A youth of delicate and refined features like He Yue was precisely the sort of prey certain people fancied.
"Whether he's faking or not, who knows?" He Lingchuan chuckled. "But by intimidating you, our family has no choice but to speed things up for the sake of your purity. Dangling bait in the afternoon, intimidating by night—it's a two-pronged attack."
He pinched his younger brother's cheek hard. "Look at this tender skin and soft flesh. No wonder people harbor foul designs. I told you long ago to practice martial arts with me, but you refused."
He Yue slapped his hand away with a smack. "They're already impatient. Is it because changes are imminent in the Panlong Desert?"
"Perhaps." He Lingchuan turned and walked out. "Go to bed early. I'm going to find something to eat."
"The low cabinet in the main kitchen often hides pastries."
"What's in there today?"
"A basin of walnut cakes." He Yue coughed. "Though only half is left."
"Not candied apple crisps?" He Lingchuan had an epiphany. "I wondered why I couldn't find them sometimes—turns out you were the one secretly eating them!"
Only after reaching a secluded, quiet spot did he violently shake his left fist.
"Hiss, that hurts." He looked at his reddened knuckles; the skin wasn't broken, but they were slightly swollen. "That rascal Nian Songyu actually has some real skill."
His fists had been tempered year-round with iron sand and flint, capable of easily snapping bowl-thick ironwood. Yet the force rebounding from the punch against Nian Songyu had sent a sharp ache through the bones of his fingers.
***
Early the next morning, the two guests were invited to the main hall, where He Chunhua personally shared the good news with them.
"The entire leopard carcass has been recovered." Governor He had worked late into the night and slept for only a single shichen, yet he was glowing with vitality, even more energized than his two sons. "However, I imagine the two of you only want this leopard fang."
He opened his palm, revealing the leopard fang.
Nian Songyu leaned in impatiently. "Let me see!"
Nobody cared how the leopard corpse had been retrieved. It was merely a polite fiction, understood by all.
He Chunhua sighed, however. "I had thought some adversary struck from the shadows—after all, Blackwater City sits right on the frontier with foreign enemies lurking on every side. Little did I expect there were so many hidden complexities. To have delayed the National Preceptor's great undertaking, I beg the two of you to forgive me."
What else could National Preceptor Sun say? He could only show magnanimity. "No matter. Those who do not know are not to be blamed, not to mention that Young Master He was seriously wounded as well."
With that, He Chunhua took out the leopard fang and emptied its contents onto a brocade tray. "Everything is here. National Preceptor, please take a look—which one is the token?"
The crowd gathered around to look, while Sun Fuping asked for a cup of water and dropped a grass seed into it.
With just a couple of swirls, the grass seed began to take root and sprout, growing at a speed visible to the naked eye.
In barely a dozen breaths, it grew into a flowering plant that bore only a single downy white blossom—six-petaled and no larger than a fingernail.
Sun Fuping picked up the items from the brocade tray and brought them near the little flower one by one.
The blossom showed no reaction until—
Until He Lingchuan brought the broken half-comb close. The white blossom suddenly withered, its stem and leaves wilting along with it, before finally turning to powder and dispersing across the water.
"This must be it." Just as Sun Fuping reached out, He Chunhua took the comb a step ahead of him, examining it closely. "Over a century has passed, yet the attached resentment remains so intense."
Nian Songyu remarked in wonder, "The token of the formidable Commander of Panlong City is actually a comb?"
He Lingchuan shrugged. "He once had a wife and daughter too."
He Yue followed up with a question: "There is one thing I don't understand. Back then, after the Xianyou Kingdom finally breached Panlong City with great difficulty, why didn't they take the Dafang Pot? They suffered plenty at its hands; they should have known its value."
"According to the official history of the Xianyou Kingdom, their army massacred the city after breaching it. On the third day, the river and wells dried up, and even the moat's water vanished overnight. On the fifth day, vegetation blackened and rotted; crops and dry grass alike perished. On the seventh day, all livestock dropped dead. Seeing how deeply ill-omened this place was, the Xianyou army had no choice but to evacuate as quickly as possible—especially since, without water or food, men could not hold out either. Furthermore, that army was immediately redeployed to fight in the north, and they never deployed the Dafang Pot." National Preceptor Sun took a sip of tea. "Not only that, but I have combed through Xianyou historical texts and never found any battle suspected of involving heart-confusing bugs. A supreme treasure like this—if the Xianyou Kingdom had obtained it, why would they not deploy it on the battlefield?"
Chapter 16