Casting

"Over the past eight months, more than two hundred new households moved into Blackwater City. Most are refugees from the northwest, though a few came from outside our borders." On the northwestern front, Dong Haoming's rebels and the Yuan army were locked in fierce combat; unwilling to suffer as collateral damage, ordinary folk had no choice but to abandon their homes. "The criteria you gave were foreigners from beyond the borders, a group of seven or eight or more, bought a residence in town without registering for local citizenship, and seemingly idle yet by no means short on coin." The parameters He Lingchuan had provided were remarkably specific. "And the result?" "There actually is a bunch that fits the bill to a tee." Situ Han popped a wonton into his mouth. "Those ten or so people really did arrive nearly eight months ago. They spoke with an unfamiliar accent from who-knows-where and stayed at the Boxi Inn for five or six days, throwing around money quite generously. I was on patrol duty a few times back then, so I remembered them. Later, they bought a large mansion in Blackwater City and settled down, claiming to the public that they came here to do business. They even took over an inn with wagon-and-horse stalls, but their business is run half-heartedly at best—they never bother soliciting customers. Any honest merchant operating like that would have starved to death long ago." "What else do they do on ordinary days?" "They mostly stay inside the manor, rarely interacting with outsiders. They do pay their biannual taxes on time, never falling behind. Their leader is surnamed Zhang, called Zhang Lianhai. Arrogant as can be, always looking down his nose at people, and whenever he goes out, he's flanked by at least three or four attendants." Situ Han added, "The brothers on the city gate guard mentioned they often see them going in and out through the north gate." "The north gate?" He Lingchuan mused. "Heading north?" "Yes. Whenever they leave, they're gone for days before coming back," Situ Han said. "North lies the Red Cliff Road." He Lingchuan smiled. "North lies the Panlong Desert. Since the strange anomalies began appearing in the Panlong Desert, have their trips become more frequent?" "Right you are! They only came back two days ago!" Situ Han winked. "Young Master, guess which property they bought?" "Where?" Seeing him grin so wide his eyes vanished, He Lingchuan felt a sudden foreboding. "Damn it, don't tell me..." "Spot on! Your late residence!" Seeing He Lingchuan glare, he hurriedly spat to ward off bad luck and corrected himself: "Bah, bah, bah! What am I babbling? Old residence! Your former residence, I mean!" He Lingchuan let out a long breath, somewhat exasperated. So those fellows had taken over his old nest. Back when the He family relocated to Xiazhou, they never intended to return, entrusting an agent with the sale of their local properties. Still, this did prove from another angle that those people had decent taste. After all, the layout and landscaping of the He clan mansion had been designed by Madam Ying herself, making it a rare, exquisite estate in Blackwater City. He Lingchuan inquired about other details. Situ Han answered every one. He was half a local tyrant along the Red Cliff Road and within Blackwater City, moving easily in both legitimate and underworld circles. If anything stirred in the city, before ordinary folks could even sense it, he was already in the know. "By the way, there were originally a dozen or so of them, but at some point, quite a few new faces showed up." He Lingchuan's eyes narrowed slightly. "Reinforcements?" "That I can't say for sure. The boys and I have been out on business a lot lately." Situ Han had his own official duties to attend to and could not keep watch on that bunch every waking hour. Having reached this point, he glanced left and right, then lowered his voice. "Young Master, what you instructed me to do has been taken care of." "Nobody noticed?" "How could anyone notice?" Situ Han laughed. "When have rumors ever been traced back to their root? Besides, odd happenings keep cropping up in the Panlong Desert anyway. It's not like we're fabricating tall tales out of thin air—we just repeated a few extra words wherever crowds gathered." He deserved fair credit for how swiftly word of the Panlong Desert's bizarre phenomena had spread. He Lingchuan patted him on the shoulder with satisfaction and slipped him a silver banknote. "Well done! Give the brothers their hard-earned pay for me." Having finished his wontons as well as the large bowl of broad noodles ordered afterward, Situ Han wiped his mouth. "I'm heading back to work. If you need anything, Young Master, just say the word!" With that, he sprang up, hurried to settle the bill, and took his leave. As soon as He Lingchuan walked back into his inn, the soul-snatching mirror asked its master, "Writing to that Situ fellow... just who did you want him to investigate?" "People from the Heavenly Palace." "Huh?" The mirror never expected to hear that phrase in a remote border town of the Yuan Kingdom. "The Heavenly Palace?! We have to deal with the Heavenly Palace here, too?" "Indeed." He Lingchuan poked fun at it. "What are you scared of? We're on the Yuan Kingdom's soil. Emissaries of the Heavenly Palace have no home-field advantage here." Though bearing the name of the Heavenly Palace, in this place they were merely foreign guests; they could never lord it over others as they did in Lingxu City. Had this foolish mirror been frightened out of its wits by them back at Mount Xu? The mirror talked tough: "Afraid, my ass! I just don't understand what they came here for!" "They've been here all along." Upon entering the room, He Lingchuan set up a boundary ward, then shone the mirror around the room to inspect it. "At the ruins of Thousand Stars City and at Baishaqu, I caused the Tianluo Star to flare bright, and I even snatched the pot lid from Mount Xu. Which of those didn't involve the Dafang Pot? The celestial gods have long known the Dafang Pot is hidden in the Panlong Desert. Of course they would send people over to inspect the area, and they won't be pulling them out anytime soon." Being unable to take the Dafang Pot away did not stop the Heavenly Palace from stationing people here to keep watch. "So that's why you set the timeframe to eight months?" The soul-snatching mirror pondered for a moment. "Hey, how did you know they'd definitely buy a mansion here?" "Could you stomach staying in an inn for months on end?" As a local, how could He Lingchuan not know what caliber the inns in Blackwater City were? *I could.* It was just a mirror that could only go where its bearer went; a place to stay was just a place to stay, so what was there to complain about? As if hearing its internal grumbling, He Lingchuan tapped the mirror and said, "I've dealt with people from the Heavenly Palace quite a bit. They consider themselves superior to others and never skimp on food, clothing, shelter, or transport. We both saw the lavish display Bai Ziqi put on when traveling back to Lingxu City from Baishaqu—even Fu Shanyue couldn't hold a candle to him. In Blackwater City, how could these emissaries from the Heavenly Palace endure a cramped, dingy inn?" Since they needed to monitor the Panlong Desert over the long haul, they would certainly find a comfortable place to settle down. The Heavenly Palace allocated ample funds, so how could emissaries sent abroad ever lack money? Thus, their front of doing business was half-hearted at best, something a local boss could see through at a single glance. That was why He Lingchuan, even before setting foot in the city himself, had been able to direct Situ Han from afar and ferret out the Heavenly Palace's agents, simply by relying on what little familiarity he possessed from dealing with them before. The mirror found it bizarre. "What are you looking for Heavenly Palace people for?" Anyone else doing something like this would steer as clear of the Heavenly Palace as possible, wouldn't they? "The stage is already set," He Lingchuan said placidly. "How could this performance go on without their roles?" *** The following day, He Lingchuan led Qiu Hu and the others as they switched to riding camels, rode out through the north gate, and set foot onto the Red Cliff Road. Since the purpose of this expedition was to "assess the Red Cliff Trade Route," the actual work still had to be done. He Lingchuan needed to take Hu Qin and the others across the Red Cliff Road first for an on-site inspection, before returning to Blackwater City to audit the historical tax revenues.