Mergen waved this aside. “Haven’t you realized Xie Yu’s true intentions by now? He’s trying to use us to get rid of the obstacles he can’t overcome on his own.”
Seeing the alarm in Hongjun’s eyes, Qiu Yongsi explained, “Don’t worry, Hongjun. The chief planned for this. Let’s appoint an interim leader first… How about you, you big idiot?”
“You’re taller than me,” Mergen retorted. “So who’s the bigger idiot?!”
Everyone stared, exasperated. Usually, when Li Jinglong was present, the members of the Department of Exorcism followed his orders. When he was absent, they were accustomed to listening to Mergen. They seemed to have established some strange chain of command based on the order of their arrival at the dilapidated Department of Exorcism that first day. Of course, everyone tacitly agreed to skip over Hongjun.
“I…” Mergen glanced around. He began pairing them off in his head, only to find that he didn’t trust Lu Xu with anyone. “Ashina Adarvan and I will go and keep an eye on the Yang Estate.”
Ashina Adarvan hummed an affirmative, and Mergen turned to Qiu Yongsi and Lu Xu. “You two head over to the barracks where An Lushan’s troops are quartered and gather intel. Do not alert them to your presence under any circumstances.”
Qiu Yongsi acknowledged his orders as well. He glanced at Lu Xu, and the two moved out together.
“Hongjun and I will go to Xingqing Palace,” A-Tai said to Mergen.
Mergen shot A-Tai a look—they had to keep a close eye on Hongjun. A-Tai nodded. Hongjun was frantic with worry, but he finally breathed a sigh of relief upon seeing his companions, usually so easygoing, become unexpectedly reliable under the circumstances.
After nightfall, Hongjun slung his pack with the carp yao over his back and snuck toward the outer wall of Xingqing Palace’s rear hall with A-Tai. It was only half a year ago that the Department of Exorcism had carried out its first mission here, during which Li Jinglong had drawn his bow and shot that little fox from several hundred paces away.
“Second-in-Command’s been so busy catching yao, only to be caught himself,” the carp yao piped up from behind Hongjun. “How does that make any sense?”
“Huang Yong said he was framed.”
Hongjun was inexplicably anxious. He scaled the wall, then reached down to pull A-Tai up behind him. The two of them quietly jumped down on the other side.
“Does that mean you guys are next?” the carp yao asked.
“Whoever framed the chief,” A-Tai said, “they’ve made their position clear—they don’t plan to act themselves. They can just wait for us to make our move, and they’ll get exactly what they want.”
Whoever had laid this trap was extremely shrewd. The Department of Exorcism obeyed only Li Jinglong. With him detained, any action taken against the other exorcists would no doubt end poorly. Attempts to capture or imprison them would be useless, as they could escape anytime they wished. They might listen to the Court of Judicial Review for the time being, but Cheng Xiao had no way to control them; it would be too easy for the exorcists to use their investigation as an opportunity to turn the tables. The safest course of action was to leave them be and wait for Hongjun to grow impatient enough to attempt to free Li Jinglong. This would make Li Longji even more furious; after that, it would be impossible for Li Jinglong to clear his name.
Hongjun was stricken upon hearing A-Tai’s explanation.
“We just have to be careful,” A-Tai consoled him. “Now—let’s go.”
They crept through the gardens of Xingqing Palace. Three palace maids were playing with a parrot beneath the eaves of the open-air corridor. A-Tai plucked his barbat from where it was strapped to his back and motioned for Hongjun to cover his ears. With a few gentle strums, a melody floated over the garden. The palace maids slumped against the corridor railing, asleep in the spring night.
As the pair tiptoed through the corridor, A-Tai continued his explanation: “The chief suspected that if Xie Yu was really in Chang’an, he’d be bound to make a move against you. After all, the demon seed in your body is the thing he wants most.”
At this, a chill stole over Hongjun’s heart. A-Tai said comfortingly, “Don’t worry. As long as we’re here, Xie Yu can’t touch you.”
Hongjun couldn’t help but feel warmed by these words. “You’re right.”
“So then, if you were Xie Yu, how would you go about removing pesky obstacles like us?” A-Tai scanned their surroundings to ensure they were alone before continuing in a hushed voice. “Naturally, you would deal with the chief first. If the Department of Exorcism loses the emperor’s trust, Xie Yu can chip away at us one at a time. That’s what we all suspected when the incidents at the imperial mausoleums began. Now that Xie Yu has the chief under his control, he thinks he can negotiate terms with us. If everything goes the way we expect, he’ll seek out Mergen of his own accord. As for us, all we have to do is make sure the chief is safe and sound.”
“When do you guys discuss this stuff?” Hongjun asked as he followed A-Tai, sneaking through the darkness. “The chief never spoke a word of any of this to me.”
“He didn’t want you to worry,” A-Tai said with a gentle smile. “He wants you to be happy and not be troubled by these things.”
Hongjun wasn’t sure how to respond.
A-Tai’s footsteps came to a sudden halt as they approached the imperial study. In the inky darkness, a tendril of black smoke twisted over the imperial garden walls. The palace guards outside the imperial study failed to notice this strange intrusion; they collapsed without a sound as the black smoke curled into the garden. It seethed like a swarm of insects as it slowly molded itself into a stocky, bipedal form. Immediately, Hongjun and A-Tai recognized the yaoguai they had encountered in the imperial mausoleums.
The creature lurched toward the study, presently occupied by Li Longji.
Alarmed, Hongjun turned to A-Tai, who yanked him behind a pillar.
The yaoguai continued to solidify, its hunched body filling out with venomous insects as it grew a pair of arms that hung down to its feet. It had been difficult to see in the darkness of the mausoleums, but now, as the yaoguai’s knuckles brushed the ground, they could see clearly that it had the body of a great ape.
The sight stirred something in the back of Hongjun’s mind. He promptly reached into his pack for the carp yao. Setting the fish down, he whispered, “Zhao Zilong, look—is that an ape?”
“It’s a poisonous gu4 ape!” the carp yao yelped. “Hongjun! Stay away from that thing!”
A-Tai was struck dumb. They had only come to find Li Jinglong—to think they would run into this yaoguai again here. A second later, in a shocking transformation, the gu ape shifted into a completely different figure, this one dressed in regal robes and a twelve-chained crown.
Hongjun clutched his throwing knives with shaking hands. “Who is that?”
“An emperor…” A-Tai began. “I’m not sure which one—Li Zhi or Li Xian? Don’t attack it, Hongjun! Let’s see what it does!”
Hongjun barely held himself in check. The carp yao whispered, “This bastard’s extremely difficult to deal with. It’ll be no easy feat to kill him with your throwing knives, Hongjun. You need to be careful!”
The emperor the gu ape was impersonating was a middle-aged man with a lean face and refined features. He raised a hand toward the entrance of the imperial study, and the door flew open with a sharp bang.
The gu ape stepped inside, and Li Longji’s terrified shout rang out from within. “What the hell are you?! Guards—!”
A-Tai tugged at Hongjun, and the two of them rounded the pillar. They could only guess at what was happening in the imperial study. They heard an explosion, and a cloud of venomous insects shot back out, swarming over the walls of the imperial garden and streaking toward the horizon.
Hongjun stared after them.
“Check on His Majesty!” A-Tai shouted.
In the brightly lit imperial study, they found Li Longji slumped motionless in his seat. Hissing an oath under his breath, Hongjun hurried forward to put a finger under his nose, then felt for his pulse. He breathed a sigh of relief upon realizing Li Longji had merely fainted from fright.
Shouts sounded outside.
“Assassins!”
“Protect His Majesty!”
“They’re coming to catch you!” the carp yao hollered. “Get out of there!”
Hongjun pried Li Longji’s lips apart and shoved a reviving pill into his mouth before turning tail and sprinting out behind A-Tai. The carp yao had already found himself a bolt-hole, leaving Hongjun and A-Tai to dash through the imperial garden.
“Assassins! There they are!”
“Where did these clumsy oafs come from?”
Livid at the insult, A-Tai was about to turn and give a guard a vicious slap when Hongjun called from a few paces ahead, “Forget it! We don’t have time!”
He darted through a door, and A-Tai squeezed in behind him. It took them only a moment to realize they were hiding behind a folding screen in Gold Blossom’s Fall. A flick of A-Tai’s fan extinguished the lights, plunging the place into darkness just as a guard pounded on the door. “An assassin ran in here just now!”
“They’re long gone.” The low timbre of a man’s voice was accompanied by the languid thrum of strings.
Hongjun and A-Tai stared at each other in dismay. There was someone else inside Gold Blossom’s Fall.
“They came in through the front door and exited through the back. They were running toward the Hall of Supreme Harmony,” the man continued.
Outside, a guard called out, “Thank you, Master Li Guinian!”
The man awaiting them inside Gold Blossom’s Fall was indeed that famous pipa player. After strumming the strings a few more times, he said, “You can come out now.”