Chapter 27 - 2#
“That’s good then. I’ll call them all out right away!”
“Very well.”
“Men, everyone come here!”
At Boss Wei’s command, the crew members put down what they were doing and came forward, standing in a line.
“This is everyone on the ship. My surname is Wei.”
The two officials exchanged a discreet look, said nothing, and simply lowered their heads to record two characters on paper.
—Thousands of miles away, in the Taiji Hall.
Xiao Cuan sat at the desk when his brow suddenly twitched.
—At the southern ferry, on the cargo boat.
Boss Wei introduced them one by one: “This is Xiao Chen.”
“This is A-Si, Liu A-Si.”
“This is A-Ping, Lin A-Ping.”
The hand of the official writing trembled slightly, but he quickly regained his composure and looked up at all the crew members.
An eighteen-year-old young master, small in stature, with a fair face and traveling with a black dog.
No, he wasn’t there.
Not among this group.
—In the Taiji Hall.
Xiao Cuan opened his eyes, his gaze cold and dark.
—On the cargo boat.
The official cleared his throat and asked: “Is there anyone else on the ship?”
“No…” Boss Wei swallowed hard. “No one else.”
“Can we go inside and take a look?”
“Of course, of course you can. This way, please, Officers.”
Boss Wei reached out a hand and stepped aside to let them board.
The officials first walked around the deck, then entered the cabin, inspecting room by room.
As they looked, they chatted with Boss Wei: “The year is ending; is business still good?”
“Not at all,” Boss Wei said. “I’d just taken a boatload of melons and fruit to the north when the heavy snow hit. I didn’t dare stay, sold them to the shops, and came right back. I didn’t load much for the return; I lost quite a bit on this trip.”
“If you refitted this ship, it could carry passengers, couldn’t it?”
“Oh, listen to you, Officer. Who’d be running south in the middle of the New Year?”
The officials pushed open the doors of the first two cargo cabins and glanced inside.
They were indeed empty, with nothing in them.
The officials walked to the very last cargo cabin. Boss Wei swallowed hard several more times, appearing very nervous.
The official glanced at him and tried to push the door, but it didn’t budge: “Why is this door locked?”
“Oh, right.” Boss Wei realized and pulled a key from his chest. “Officer.”
The official took the key and aligned it with the keyhole of the copper lock.
In the Taiji Hall—
A messenger ran quickly up the stone steps: “Your Majesty! Your Majesty! Reporting to Your Majesty! News has come from Huai Commandery!”
Xiao Cuan’s throat tightened, and he instinctively gripped the crack in the desk, sitting up and leaning forward slightly: “Is it Yanzhi?”
On the cargo boat—
With a kacha, the copper lock opened.
The official reached out and pushed open the door of the last cargo cabin.
Boss Wei instinctively retreated two steps, standing with his crew behind him.
The moment the door opened, dust billowed out.
In the next instant, separated by thousands of miles and several days, a single voice echoed simultaneously in the Taiji Hall and on the cargo boat—
“Nothing.”
—“There is no one in this cabin.”
The official waved his hand to disperse the dust: “Cough, cough… This cabin is filthy; you don’t use it often, do you?”
Boss Wei smiled apologetically: “That’s right; this cabin is kept as a spare. It’s been too long since I was last here; forgive the unsightly state, Officers.”
“By the way, why do you keep swallowing?”
“Hehe, reporting to you, Officer, my mouth is dry.”
—“Reporting to Your Majesty, no trace of Young Master Yanzhi was found.”
The messenger knelt on one knee in the hall, head lowered: “Reporting to Your Majesty, Huai Commandery found the Boss Wei, A-Si, A-Ping, and the others Your Majesty mentioned, but… no trace of Young Master Yanzhi was found.”
“Apart from the owner Boss Wei and the five crew members, there was no one else on the ship!”
Xiao Cuan stood up abruptly, in disbelief: “An eighteen-year-old young master?”
“Reporting to Your Majesty, no.”
“The black dog?”
“Reporting to Your Majesty, none either.”
“The donkey?”
“Reporting to Your Majesty…” the soldier paused, his voice growing even lower, “still none.”
None—how could there be none?
In an instant, Xiao Cuan seemed to lose all his strength, falling back onto the cushions in a daze.
This was already the third time.
The first, at Xie Yi’s estate.
The second, near Yanqi Village.
The third, in Huai Commandery… on the ship…
On a ship, on a river, in a completely enclosed place with no way to escape, and yet he still managed to let Yanzhi slip away?
What was happening? What on earth was going on?!
Xiao Cuan sat with his head lowered, his face dark. With one hand he gripped the intact corner of the desk, and with the other, he waved for the messenger to withdraw.
“Yes, your servant withdraws…”
The messenger bowed and withdrew, just as he reached the threshold.
Suddenly, with a loud kuang.
Xiao Cuan snapped off the remaining corner of the desk, suddenly erupted in fury, and delivered a kick that flipped the entire imperial desk over.
With a heavy crash, the desk flipped and rolled down the jade steps.
Memorials, inkstones, and brushes all tumbled off!
A brush happened to roll right in front of the messenger, stopped by the threshold.
The messenger didn’t dare look, hurrying away.
Xiao Cuan, having flipped the desk and still feeling unsatisfied, rushed down the jade steps, kicked over the candle stands in the hall, and slammed the hall doors shut with a heavy bang.
The hall was a mess; there was nothing left for him to smash.
Xiao Cuan stood alone in the hall, looking around.
Where was Yanzhi? Where was he?!
Where the hell had Yanzhi gone?!
Xiao Cuan’s heart pounded like a drum, and his ears were as noisy as a crowded marketplace; he couldn’t calm down at all.
The scenery before him spun, almost making him dizzy.
No, that’s not right!
Xiao Cuan struggled to stand firm, then skillfully raised his right fist and delivered a punch to his own face.
Calm down! Don’t go mad! Think carefully!
There must be a trick; there must be a problem!
Still unable to calm down, Xiao Cuan raised his left hand and punched the other side of his face.
Yanzhi couldn’t swim; he was even afraid of water.
Furthermore, it was winter; he couldn’t have disappeared from the ship for no reason.
Was he hidden in the floorboards of the cargo ship? Had he used makeup to disguise himself as someone else?
Or had he gotten off the ship halfway?
Xiao Cuan turned his head sharply toward the favorability panel that had been open these past few days, his gaze sharp.
Yanzhi’s favorability for Boss Wei and the others hadn’t risen at all since ten days ago.
When he had first noticed this, he had been secretly pleased, thinking Yanzhi’s favorability for them was only so-so, peaking at sixty-something.
But looking at it now…
This was clearly because Yanzhi had left the ship ten days ago.
Yanzhi had gotten off the ship mid-journey, ten days ago!
“Ha!”
Xiao Cuan looked at the favorability panel, his face contorted, the corners of his mouth twitching as he instead let out a laugh.
He looked up at the golden ceiling of the Taiji Hall, laughing with increasing excitement and volume, his laughter even echoing faintly in the hall.
“Ha! Hahahaha!”
Good! Very good!
Xiao Cuan laughed toward the heavens, clapping his hands.
Yanzhi, clever!
Yanzhi, as expected of someone who had accompanied him for ten years, knew him too well!
What he would do, where he would go, what he would investigate.
Yanzhi, thousands of miles away, had guessed his heart and hit the mark every time.
Guessed correctly every time, escaped every time.
Clever and quick-witted, brave and resilient.
How was Yanzhi an idiot? How was he a fool? How could his wisdom be a mere forty-nine?
He was the idiot; he was the fool.
He, Xiao Cuan, was the idiot! He, Xiao Cuan, was a complete and utter idiot!
Xiao Cuan laughed until he backed up to the edge of the jade steps and sat down without concern.
He opened both palms and looked down.
Xiao Cuan’s hands were large, with rough calluses. The tiny wound from the splinter a few days ago had already healed, but it had left a small pit.
His hands could draw a hundred-stone bow, swing a bronze halberd, and rein in a giant warhorse.
His hands had cut down enemy states and armies and held all the power in the world.
The world was in his palm.
But Yanzhi, that little swallow—where was he in his hand anymore?
The Yanzhi who had been gathered in his palm, pinched in his hand, and held at his fingertips—where was he now? Where was any sign of him?
It was he, Xiao Cuan, who was in Yanzhi’s hand! It was he who was being played by Yanzhi!
He was being held in Yanzhi’s hand and played with over and over again!
*
Yes, Xiao Cuan’s guess was correct.
Yanzhi had left the ship early and escaped halfway.
When the cargo ship docked and Boss Wei asked if he wanted to go ashore for a stroll, he had run.
The whip in the mountain forest and the sudden cold wind had made him uneasy.
He had always trusted the feelings in his heart; he felt this was an omen from his mother in heaven. So he told Boss Wei, packed his things, and got off the ship early.
Boss Wei, feeling bad for not taking him all the way to Huai Commandery, had even refunded him two taels of silver.
Before leaving, he had specifically instructed Boss Wei not to say he had been on his boat, and Boss Wei had agreed.
So now—
Yanzhi, carrying bags and packages, arrived at a small town called “Shiyan” (Stone Goose).
Yanzhi got off the boat and didn’t ask for directions, just wandered aimlessly.
Passing through here, he happened to hear the town’s name and felt it was fate, so he stayed.
Only later, seeing the stone tablet at the entrance of the town, did he realize it was “Goose” (Yan)—the “Goose” of “Wild Goose,” the “Goose” of “Northern Geese Returning South.”
It wasn’t his “Swallow” (Yan).
But it didn’t matter; they were both birds. So Yanzhi intended to settle down here.
Today the weather was good, and the sun was high.
Yanzhi, carrying his bundle and leading Tanggao, followed the town’s only middleman to look at houses.
“Young Master, how about this one? This originally belonged to a tofu lady. Her business has grown, and she’s planning to open a shop in the city, so she asked me to sell the house.”
“There’s a small patch of field in the yard where you can grow vegetables, and there’s a well. There are only three rooms, but it’s surely enough for one person.”