“It is,” Hong Fei replied. “You should head back to the estate while the spell on your arm lasts.”
The xiàowèi bristled, evidenced by the way his shoulders rose and the tang of metal qi in the air thickened. He didn’t argue against the suggestion, however, and said, “I’ll send a squad to question the people remaining, and they’ll retrieve anything of value.”
“Then I’ll stay to make sure no one escapes or interferes,” Hong Fei said. “Take Cai Shi with you; I won’t need him.”
“Sun Han is upstairs?” Chen Wenbin asked.
“Protecting the list we found,” Hong Fei replied. “It was carved into a series of slats under a bed, not something to carry away in one’s pouch.”
“We’ll need a wagon anyway for all this furniture…” Chen Wenbin said.
“Seek treatment first,” Hong Fei said interrupting. “Give a wound time, and it’ll offer complications in return.” He dropped his voice to a whisper. “Xiàowèi, don’t let pride delay you.”
“Words are easier than actions,” Chen Wenbin replied cooly.
Hong Fei nodded. “They are, but they can be as true.”
“Or deceiving,” Chen Wenbin remarked.
“That, also.” Hong Fei bent to pick up the arm on the ground, then gave it to the xiàowèi to carry. “There may be something we can do later to reattach it.”
Chen Wenbin’s mask cracked and a hint of his bitterness to showed. “With the House of Yu as fallen as it is?”
“Even so,” Hong Fei replied. “As long as one is alive, the possibility exists.” He turned away to deal with the people hiding on the second floor, then cast a look back at Chen Wenbin before departing. “And the same is true for a house. As long as a single member survives, it may rise again.”
###
On the second floor, Hong Fei found Sun Han squatting next to the body of the guard who the scholar had stabbed. Red 3 was sitting upright and had scooted herself back against the wall, as if trying to distance herself from Sun Han as much as possible.
“Anything?” Hong Fei asked.
“He was just an ordinary man,” Sun Han replied. “Barely into the Body Forged realm.”
“And did any of the people hiding cause trouble?”
“A door cracked open, then slammed shut.” Sun Han answered. “It’s been quiet since, except… well, for the fighting downstairs.” The scholar scanned him with his eyes. “You’re uninjured.”
“Unfortunately, the same can’t be said for our xiàowèi,” Hong Fei said.
“Our xiàowèi?” Sun Han questioned.
“He lost an arm in the fighting,” Hong Fei replied, as if it answered the scholar’s question.
“Hmm,” was Sun Han’s response. Just that.
Hong Fei knelt to remove the gag from Red 3. “Your boss is dead, as are most of your comrades. Assuming you don’t want to join them on the journey to the underworld, you’ll do exactly as I say. Is that clear?”
The fear on her face shifted to anger. A moment later, it was replaced by resignation, and she nodded.
“What’s your name?” Hong Fei asked.
“Yellow’s Ugly Dog,” she answered, and when Hong Fei frowned, she shrugged, explaining: “It’s what people call me. Yellow-Toothed Lu was my father. He’s dead, crushed by a falling slab, and people remember him through me.”
“You’re a fighter,” Hong Fei observed.
She tilted her head in confusion, the question clearly not been what she’d expected. “I had to be if I didn’t want a slab falling on me too. The quarries are a dead end for folks. Most are just too stupid to see it.”
“And you’re smarter than that.”
The narrative has been taken without permission. Report any sightings.
Yellow’s Ugly Dog blanched. “I wouldn’t dare say it.”
“But you’d think it,” Hong Fei pressed.
“Not even that,” she answered, a hint of anger returning. “Look at me. Being a guard is just as dangerous. I just… I just had to find a different way, something to make a lot more money.”
“So you joined the Rock Knives?”
Yellow’s Ugly Dog sighed, then nodded.
“To pay for medicine for Rock Head’s father?”
She nodded again, then startled as she realized the question’s strangeness. “You know Rock Head?” she asked.
“I’m acquainted with him,” Hong Fei replied, satisfied that he’d been right about the potential for a marriage match.
“But how?” she asked, confused again.
“I’m the one asking the question,” Hong Fei reminded her.
“He’s not in trouble, is he?” Her eyes firmed. “If you’ve done anything to him, I’ll…”
“What?” Hong Fei taunted. “Pester me as a ghost?”
“If I have to,” she replied grimly.
Hong Fei felt his lips turn up. He liked the spirit of this one, and an idea came to him. “Do you know a Stinky Old Hu?”
“What about him?” she replied warily. “Do you know where he is? The fool’s been missing for half a year now.”
He ignored her questions and asked another: “What about Beauty’s First and Second Daughters?”
Ugly Dog shook her head. “The first died in an accident, and the second’s not to be touched. The orders came down not long ago.”
It was Hong Fei’s turn to tilt his head in confusion. “Why is that?”
“Because she joined the Yu family estate as a servant,” Ugly Dog answered. “Lucky her. Boss Big Ox was hot to add her to his collection.”
Hong Fei’s heart jumped in his chest, but he forced himself to speak mildly. “The first daughter, did she fall under a stone-carrying wagon by chance?”
Yellow’s Ugly Dog nodded. “I heard about it from a neighborhood auntie. The word was that her family was new to the low city and didn’t know any better.”
“Are the family’s proper names perhaps Kang Lian, Kang Shao, and Kang Ruyun?” he asked.
Ugly Dog blinked at him. “I don’t know. Could be.” Her expression turned strange. “You know a lot of low-city folks, but I don’t recognize you.”
Hong Fei ignored the implied question. He took a breath to calm himself, then asked, “Your orders were to ignore the second daughter?”
“Aye, and her mother, too. The both of them work for the Yus now. Though…” she hesitated.
“What is it?” he demanded.
“Being stymied never sat well with Boss Big Ox,” she said. “A woman knows when a man’s got the urge to do something bad in him, and I could tell he never gave up on the idea.”
“Who gave him his orders?” Hong Fei asked.
“Don’t know,” she replied. “I never saw the boss’s boss. None of us regular guards did, only the special ones.”
“Special?” Hong Fei leapt at the word. “How were they special?”
“They went away and came back treated different, like they were warm soup on a cold day.” Ugly Dog tsked as if they’d left a bad taste in her mouth.
“You didn’t envy them?” Hong Fei asked, pursuing the lead.
“Not once,” she replied, looking into his eyes. “They got the bad jobs, those people. The jobs an honest woman wouldn’t dare do.”
Hong Fei sat back in surprise and had to ask, “You consider yourself an honest woman?”
Her chin jutted as she spit out, “I won’t let anyone say otherwise. No one’s been harmed by my hands unless they deserved it.”
“Just what do you think the Rock Knives do?” Hong Fei asked.
“There aren’t rocks in my head; I know they… we’re a bad bunch, but life forces a hand. Not everyone gets to live on beef and noodles up in those high houses.”
“If you could get away from the Rock Knives, would you?”
Ugly Dog shook her head and laughed with regret. “I will be, won’t I? They can’t follow me to the underworld.” Her eyes shimmered with unshed tears. “No rocks in my head, remember? You’re not wearing Yu colors, but who else would dare raid the Dreaming Ox? I know I’m not long for breathing. When you’re done with your questions, I’m as dead as poor Four Fingers over there, the bastard.”
Hong Fei glanced behind him, and the dead guard did in fact have only four fingers on each hand. The man appeared to have been born that way.
“We’re allowed to visit the residents,” Ugly Dog offered, “but have to pay like everyone else. He didn’t want to, so I stepped in.”
Sun Han had seemed content to listen to the interrogation. At this insight, however, he blurted, “The bruise on his chest.”
“Aye, that was me,” Ugly Dog admitted. “I couldn’t hit him in the face, or the boss would’ve noticed.”
“You defended a prostitute,” Hong Fei said.
“That was my job, wasn’t it?”
“Job, not duty?” Hong Fei observed.
Ugly Dog shook her head. “The girls and boys of the house might’ve deserved something like duty, but not the bosses.”
A sigh moved through Hong Fei as he considered the Rock Knife before him. His idea from earlier had detoured momentarily, but was now returned. “If I gave you list of people from the low city, would you know them?”
“Maybe, maybe not. Probably some.” She gazed up in thought, then added: “If not directly, then I’d know who would. Us low-city folks look after each other, except when we’re stabbing each other in the back.”
“It’s a lively place,” Hong Fei commented.
Ugly Dog chuckled. “Not a way I’d describe it, but sure.” She took a long breath and asked, “You won’t hurt the people on that list?”
“No. If anything, we might be saving them from hurt.”
She nodded, as if coming to a decision. “Then I’ll look at it. Before you send me on my way.” The fear, the anger, and the resignation had disappeared from her face, leaving a pure openness. “If you could, in exchange for my help, send what I’ve saved to Rock Head. I’ll tell you where it’s hidden. You’ll see that it’s not much to one such as you, but his father’s poorly, and he needs it.”
“You face death without regrets?” Hong Fei asked in wonder.
“Who’d be so stupid as to do that?” she answered, not realizing the enlightened state she was in.
“Stupid, not wise?”
Ugly Dog shook her head. “You’ve got to have regrets, or else you’ve not really lived.” A breath later, she hiccupped. Her eyes opened in surprise. “Oh. Oh, I’ve risen in tier.”
Hong Fei smiled. “Where are you now?”
“I made it to the third tier,” she replied. “I did it; I actually did it.” Her eyes brightened, and she settled back against the wall.
Hong Fei untied the restraints on her arms and legs. “You should meditate to solidify the foundation you’re creating.”
“Now why would I do that when I’m not long for breathing?”
“Because I’m hiring you,” Hong Fei said. “You’re joining the Yu family as my servant.”
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Scholar Sun Han, a summons
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Big Ox, a Rock Knife boss, responsible for the gang's brothels
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Chen Wenbin, the xiàowèi of the Yu's soldiers
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Cai Shi, a shízhǎng of the Yu family
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Kang Lian, mother of Little Ruyun and Kang Shao
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Kang Shao, daughter of Kang Lian, deceased
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Little Ruyun, daughter of Kang Lian
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Red 3, a Rock Knife guard with a Red 3 above her head
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Rock Head, a resident of the low city with a Red 3