“Isn’t this plan a bit too bold, even for you?”
Song Xinqi narrows her eyes as she examines her makeup in a small mirror. “Are you having doubts? Don’t I look the part?”
Ming Du, one of her Twilight Pavilion underlings, shifts uneasily. “No, and I am sure you do, but do you think you can convince them?”
“I can’t imagine they’ll actually expect me to sing or play music,” she rebukes with a consternated grumble. “Much less recite poetry…”
She stuffs the mirror into Ming Du’s chest hard enough to make him grunt. Despite adopting attire suitable for a Geji, a woman of the performing arts — and one often associated with more personal performances, Xinqi has no intention of playing the role. She can dance rather well, and even sing passably if needed, but nothing at a level that’d convince someone she is the real deal.
Fortunately, she doesn’t need to be authentic for her plan to work, just convincing enough to fool some underpaid, overworked gate guards.
“You’re rather prickly,” Ming Du retorts. “You’ll need to act like a sweet and proper lady for once.”
“For once?”
He averts his attention and focuses on anything but his boss.
“Just wait here in case I need back up, and if I do, storm the place or something,” Xinqi peers out of the alley they are hiding in and stares daggers at the Du clan’s guards. “They look weak enough. They’re barely even awake!”
Ming Du sighs. “We should have brought more people…”
“Stop worrying. That’s just a worst-case scenario anyway. They’ll never see through my disguise.”
“Good luck, lady Song,” Ming Du bows as she departs.
‘Just watch my masterful performance from back there, Ming Du!’
Xinqi barely draws the attention of the guards as she approaches, and only once she curtsies in front of them do they start to acknowledge her. They are not alarmed, and barely even curious. If anything, they are preparing to give her directions to wherever she needs to be.
“Good afternoon, gentlemen.”
“Can I help you, miss?”
“I was requested by Liang Cao, a friend of mine. Would you be so kind as to escort me to him?”
The guards exchange nigh-annoyed looks, as if silently determining whose responsibility this would be. “No one informed us that he was expecting a visitor.”
“Really? How disappointing! I’m sure it isn’t the first time something like that has happened, though,” she leans in towards the guard and holds her hand up to whisper conspicuously. “Your bosses wouldn’t be the first ones who failed to notify their hard-working men.”
They chuckle.
‘Some things never change.’
“I’ll go and check real quick,” the guard offers, but Xinqi grabs at his sleeve before he can get away.
“My clients… appreciate discretion,” she casts her gaze to the ground and forces a shy blush. “Would it be so bad to take me to Mister Liang without letting everyone know?”
She steps closer and presses up against his arm. The impact of her soft, feminine charm is immediate, and the guard bashfully stammers some excuse. However, his comrade is quick to butt in. His jealousy strikes before his better judgement has a chance to intervene.
“If you won’t do it, then I’ll take her.”
“O-of course I can!”
‘Too easy,’ Xinqi muses while they scrap.
The other guard rolls his eyes. “Then stop standing around and flirting while on duty.”
“Fine,” the bashful man opens the gate just enough that they can pass through. “Come along. I’ll take you to Mister Liang.”
“Thank you!” Xinqi chirps and follows close behind. “Will Mister Liang be staying with you for long? I may need to free up my schedule.”
Her words elicit a choked cough from the man. “Uhm, he’s a guest of sorts, so he’ll be here for a while. I’m not sure about the specifics, though.”
She places her fingers to her lips and giggles. “Hopefully he isn’t in trouble!”
The man hesitates. “Something like that. I wouldn’t worry about it, though. He’s safe here.”
“Safe?” she gasps. “He does have a way of getting himself in trouble.”
“He’s in a lot of it right now, but it’ll blow over.”
Xinqi eyes the suspiciously forthright guard with mild concern. It never ceases to amaze her how readily people will divulge things they probably shouldn’t when properly prompted. The enamored guard’s mind is more focused on her than doing his job or keeping secrets. Besides, what harm could a pretty girl like her cause?
‘It seems that Liang Cao is less a guest and more of a prisoner. It may not be a cell, but he is not a free man.’
After a short walk through the compound she’s been staking out for the better part of a month, they arrive at a door with a single guard. He gives them a suspicious glance and brief examination, but it is obvious he knows her escort.
“Who’s she?”
“A guest of Mister Liang.”
The guard bristles somewhat. “No one told me about any visitors.”
“Does the boss tell you everything? Certainly doesn’t tell me half of what I need to do my job properly!”
The second guard hangs his head. “Yeah, fine. Go on in. He’ll probably be happy to have a visitor.”
Xinqi isn’t pleased with the way he emphasizes the final word, but smiles and nods like a good-natured and demure young lady. She curtsies as a means of expressing her gratitude and then slips inside the door he holds open for her.
‘So far, so good. Now… let’s see what we can learn.’
Liang Cao is seated at a table in the center of the room drafting up a document or filling out a journal of some sort. Either way, Xinqi is eager to discover what a man like Liang Cao has to write about.
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He looks up, curious about the intrusion, and his eyes light up immediately. “You! I thought I was seeing things the other day.”
Xinqi saunters in a few steps from the door. “You were not. It’s a pleasure to meet you, Mister Liang.”
“I am sorry, but I do not know your name,” he replies while rising from his seat.
She holds out her arm as he approaches so that he can guide her to a seat at the table. “Call me Lady Bai.”
“Lady Bai? Those Bai?’
Xinqi groans internally. ‘Should have picked a different name… Let’s see if I can steer him along anyway.’
She smiles pleasantly. “Not quite...”
“Ah, a shame. I heard we finally gained the support of some big names in Tiansheng, so I just assumed...”
She curses internally at the mention of the capital and decides to take a gamble by casting a wider net. “I’m from further east, so I admit I am a bit out of my depth here in Fuzhou.”
He nods and hums in response. That he doesn’t question her origin immediately is telling. “I’ve met people from all across the empire these last few years. Where are you from, Lady Bai?”
‘They’re in Fuzhou, have support in Tiansheng, and clearly have more supporters in the eastern provinces… this isn’t good.’
“We can get to the small talk later. We have some important details to take care of beforehand.”
“Oh, right!” he clears his throat and straightens out his robes to look a little more professional. “I was told to expect someone soon, but I didn’t figure it’d be you. I thought it’d be someone local. Anyway, what can I tell you? I’m not sure I’ll be of much use.”
‘Really? It can’t be this easy!’
“We’ll start simple. What did you tell the prince and his entourage?”
“Nothing of use. Just went over the attack and that was about it. I think they planned to interrogate me more later, though.”
Xinqi takes a deep, dramatic breath. “Nothing?”
Liang Cao tenses up. “I swear it! By the spirits, I told them knowing of worth.”
“Very well. I’ll take your word for it. You were in charge of the encampment?”
“Yes, though I had my aides, I was the commander of the base.”
“And what were your duties?”
He stalls for a moment. “You don’t know?”
“Every camp is a little different,” she counters with confidence. “I can make assumptions, but this isn’t the time for assumptions.”
If Liang Cao harbored any doubts, they were put aside just as swiftly as she answered. He talks quickly and keeps his points brief and methodical, trying to act as professional as he can despite his humble origins. His duties entailed everything she’d expect: recruitment, general management, requisition of supplies, but most notable among them was his contact with other camps across the region.
Liang Cao was in charge of distributing goods from the Du clan’s forges across the empire. The destruction of his camp may have major implications for whatever the Red Dawn has in mind as their supply lines from Fuzhou are disrupted.
“I’m going to need names and ways to contact them,” Xinqi reaches out and places her fingertips on a sheet of blank paper. “Please, create a list.”
He eyes her hand and bristles with suspicion. “A list? Why?”
“You didn’t tell them anything, but can you say with complete certainty that they didn’t find anything when they raided your camp? Part of my responsibility is to ensure the safety of the Red Dawn. I need to warn the others of a potential threat. It doesn’t seem like they plan to let you out anytime soon, so this falls to me.”
The shift in his posture and the way his eyes react to her words suggests she hit the mark. He is confident he didn’t divulge anything of use, but the moment she brought up the raid on his camp, his confidence evaporated like water in the desert sun. He has no way to guarantee it to her, much less himself.
He picks up his brush and begins writing.
Xinqi smirks.
Some minutes later he hands over a list of nearly two dozen names and how to get in contact with them. She looks it over to ensure that everything is legible and once she is satisfied, Xinqi folds it up and deposits it into her robe.
“This will be very helpful, Mister Liang.”
“I feel terrible knowing my failure could jeopardize the rest of the movement. It’s just a handful of camps, but everything we sent out was distributed further, and without these supplies it’ll slow everything down.”
‘Handful? Further distribution? Just how wide-spread is this?’
He sighs, overcome with worry.
“One final question. What part does Governor Chen play in all of this?”
“He supplies funding for everything…”
Liang Cao finally catches on. Perhaps it is the question she asked, or something in the way she reacted to the answer that gave her away, but her act reaches its conclusion. Unfortunately for Liang Cao, he realizes too late. Xinqi’s hair falls about her shoulders as the needle holding the bulk of it in place pierces his jugular, permanently silencing him in just a few seconds.
She draws the needle from his throat and wipes it on his robes while dwelling on whether or not it’d have been better to leave him alive. Liang Cao may have had more information, but getting it out of him later on would have been difficult, and by then, less useful. The Du clan might have prioritized taking him out of the city and then he’d be gone. His death will suffice.
Xinqi ruffles her clothes a bit and smudges her make up ever-so-slightly before exiting the room. She smiles at the guard who gives her a curious look and pins her hair up again.
“He’s going to need to rest a bit.”
The guard’s expression changes several times when she gives him a coy smile but he doesn’t question her as she wanders off. She needs to report back right away. The prince will need to act immediately to make the most of what she’s learned.
Xinqi returns to Administrator Hua’s estate and is directed towards his daughter’s training room. Ever since she departed, the facilities were effectively abandoned, so Prince Fengxian had taken to using it for his own exercises. When not dwelling on matters of state or the investigation into the Red Dawn, he turns his attention towards refining his martial skills.
Something Hua Xuan said to him completely changed his whole outlook.
It drove him mad for a while, but that faded some time ago.
Xinqi fought her, too. They all did. Had it been a real battle it might have resulted in a complete, one-sided slaughter. The young lady possesses a degree of skill that martial artists can only dream of, and if rumors were true, she learned it all on her own. A prodigy like that is a rare and valuable find, so it is no wonder a daoist sect scooped her up.
To say it had no effect on her would be a lie.
She is jealous. Jealous of that degree of mastery, and jealous of how powerfully it impacted her prince. She is a foolish and petty woman; Xinqi knows that. She is self-aware enough to know she desires his attention. She wants to be noticed, appreciated, and valued. Xinqi is also aware of the truth: she is valued and appreciated.
It just doesn’t have the same effect it once did. She has to work that much harder for the same feeling. Xin Fengxian, though young, was wise and perceptive enough to pluck her from a simple life as a serving girl, or an aid to some well-off lady in the lower courts, and made her into who she is today. She is the master of the Twilight Pavilion because he chose her out of all other candidates.
It should feel good, but she is numb to it now.
She pauses just inside the door and observes her prince. Xin Fengxian, shirtless and glistening with sweat, is locked in a fierce battle with General Dong. His lean muscles ripple and flex with each movement he makes resulting in a truly tantalizing display. Any woman will find such a handsome and capable man like Xin Fengxian compelling. His current display of skill and masculine refinement can easily drive a weak or foolish woman into a love-struck frenzy.
Not Song Xinqi.
He belongs to Bai Xiyun…
There is no love here, at least not like that; familial, perhaps. They are close, she knows that much. Perhaps there is an attraction. He is nice to look at, after all. Nevertheless, it feels like a fleeting thing. A curiosity. It is not a lingering desire. It, too, is numb.
She sighs.
“Report!” Song Xinqi slams her fist into her palm and bows. “Song Xinqi bears an immediate and pressing report for his highness!”
The bout between men ends immediately.
“Lady Song?”
“General,” Xinqi bows to Peishao and then to Fengxian. “I have finally confirmed a number of our suspicions, but it is far worse than we imagined.”
She fishes the list Liang Cao made out of her robe and hands it to the general.
“That is a list of contacts Liang Cao had in this so-called Red Dawn movement and methods to contact them. He was supplying weapons and supplies from the Du clan all across the region. That list confirms almost two-dozen separate camps.”
Fengxian receives the list from Peishao, and once he has reviewed it, his concern heightens considerably. “We’ll need to take advantage of this immediately. Unfortunately, we do not have the manpower to target all of these at once.”
“There’s more… Liang Cao suggested that the Red Dawn has contacts in the imperial court, and as far as I can tell, the movement extends to one or more eastern provinces.”
Fengxian folds the list up and hands it back to her. “Dispatch some of your people to keep an eye on these camps. We’ll have to target one or two at a time, and they may begin moving or mobilizing once we get started. Knowing their plans before they do will help immensely.”
“One more thing,” Xinqi saved the best for last. “Liang Cao confirmed one other suspicion: Governor Chen has been funding this entire operation and he may even be the mastermind behind all of it.”
“I’m not surprised,” Peishao mutters with barely contained fury.
Fengxian sighs heavily. “Well, it is settled then. General, gather the men and work with local authorities to arrest the Du clan. Ensure they are given the opportunity to surrender, but they have chosen to betray their emperor, so if they put up a fight — give them one.”
General Dong rises to his full height and salutes. “It shall be done!”
“Lady Song. You’ve done well,” Fengxian commends her with a smile. “You never fail to impress. Once you’ve dispatched your spies you may aid General Dong in his endeavor. It is easy enough to arrest the Du clan, but dealing with the governor will be a tricky matter. I need time to think.”
“Understood. We will get to work immediately.”
Fengxian’s most trusted servants depart and leave him alone with his thoughts. His fears are coming true: discontent has grown to such a level that they’re willing to rebel. So many people, so irate and frustrated, is no small concern. That they went unnoticed for so long and were able to grow into such a large movement baffles him.
He pulls his Azure robe over his shoulders and stares at the ceiling. “We have to be missing something…”
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