The Grass has been Beaten, Just Waiting for the Snake
The mottled wall corners were overgrown with moss, emitting an unpleasant odor.
Figures crept along the base of the wall and slipped out.
Due to the stifling weather, every household had laid out mats and lounge chairs in their courtyards to sleep, leaving the houses empty.
“The Meng family is a well-known herbal merchant nearby. Their ancestral home is in Taijing. When the Chu Dynasty fell, they fled here. One-third of the herbs smuggled from the south pass through the Meng family’s shop. The Meng family has two warehouses in Run County. This is the public account book.”
The attendant from Sweet Spring Bathhouse was very capable. He rattled off a long list for Meng Qi and, late at night, navigated as if he were returning to his own home, heading straight for the account room and warehouses without detours. This herbal merchant happened to share the same surname as Meng Qi, though Mo Li and Meng Qi both knew they had no kin. Their surnames were conveniently chosen; even if you traced back five hundred or a thousand years, there would be no “family connection.” But the attendant from Sweet Spring Bathhouse didn’t know that.
These days, people with the same surname in the Jianghu would still clasp hands and say they were family from five hundred years ago.
It was generally a polite fiction. Disciples from major sects looked down on low-ranking Jianghu wanderers, while those surnamed Wang or Li found someone using this excuse to get close everywhere they went, and it had long been tiresome.
But an ancestral home in Taijing and a surname of Meng…
Mo Li glanced at the attendant, who smiled back, seemingly unaware of the connection here.
Whether it was a coincidence or another test from Fengxing Pavilion, it made no difference to Meng Qi, who directly pulled out the account book and casually flipped through it.
“The numbers don’t match; there’s a hidden ledger.”
Meng Qi spoke up after a while.
In those days, account books were made for family use. As long as the family knew where the money and goods went, there was no need to balance the books perfectly.
Meng Qi couldn’t understand the codes and markings in their bookkeeping, but the numbers were clear. A quick flip through a few pages revealed that some perishable herbs hadn’t been sold, yet there was no loss on the books.
No need to search for the hidden ledger; Meng Qi directly pointed it out to Mo Li.
“These few items aren’t it. Lingzhi might be for gifts, while safflower, danpi, and aconite… these might be for inducing abortions.”
The former didn’t need an explanation, while the latter’s buyers were likely from brothels; otherwise, where would there be such a consistent, large demand?
Mo Li flipped through a dozen pages but found no definite issues.
The herbs bought in small quantities were mostly tonics like ginseng, deer antler, and tiger bone. The rest were sold according to prescriptions. Mo Li could tell their purposes at a glance, and only occasionally did a local pharmacy request some non-prescription herbs.
Everything seemed normal.
Mo Li knew exactly which herbs were used up quickly, what diseases were common in which areas, and what the usual herb consumption was.
Holding this account book, Mo Li saw no problems. The Meng family seemed like ordinary herbal merchants, selling a small portion locally and transporting the majority to the north.
“Check the Chen family, Sun family, and this Cian Hall.”
If those places also had corresponding entries, then the Meng family was likely clean.
“And the hidden ledger?”
“No time to look for it slowly.”
They had already captured the swordsman and dug up the graveyard.
Why worry about alarming the snake when the grass was almost all pulled out, and the snake would soon appear?
“Confirm where the herbs are going before dawn.”
The attendant clicked his tongue. He had gathered information many times, but this urgency was a first.
And these two had a different way of finding clues than Fengxing Pavilion. The second place they visited was the Sun Trading Company, which specialized in buying and selling, not selling herbs locally, nor had a house in Run County. The trading company sold coarse cloth and rough rice, goods collected from the villages in large quantities and cheaply. The company was located on the widest street in Run County, with five connected storefronts. Even now, someone was squatting inside, keeping watch.
Meng Qi scattered a handful of small stones, and soon even those who weren’t dozing off were rendered unconscious by acupoint strikes.
There was no sign of any account books in the shop.
The attendant from Sweet Spring Bathhouse was about to pry open the warehouse door when Meng Qi reached out and twisted the large iron lock until it broke.
The attendant clicked his tongue, astonished at the twisted lock.
It was solid cast iron, a real piece of work.
“Why did you come to this place first?” Meng Qi asked curiously.
“Instinct.”
Mo Li didn’t mention that from the Fengxing Pavilion’s information, the Sun family had the least suspicion among the remaining three. After all, the Sun family didn’t sell herbs locally, only transshipping goods through this place.
Meng Qi pushed open the warehouse door, finding it almost empty except for some cloth bags piled in the corner.
“Beans, bran, old rice…”
Mo Li checked the contents of the bags one by one while Meng Qi paced around the warehouse.
He inspected the corners, brick seams, and the floor for anything unusual.
It was pitch dark and stuffy in the warehouse. The attendant couldn’t see anything and was murmuring in his heart when suddenly he heard Meng Qi stop, as if he had discovered something.
“Doctor!” Meng Qi picked up a short, thin, dry twig from a crack, its color yellowed.
The attendant could barely see Meng Qi holding something, making it difficult to discern as it was so small, less than the length of a fingernail.
Mo Li took it steadily.
First, he sniffed it lightly at his nose, then broke it open to smell it closely.
The Sun family dealt in herbs, so finding something scattered on the warehouse floor wasn’t surprising, but this warehouse was too shabby. Herbs needed to be stored in dark, dry places. While this place initially seemed to meet those standards, in autumn or winter it might have been fine, but now anyone entering would sense something off.
It was airtight, shabby, and poor.
Even for transshipping, it couldn’t be precious herbs.
Yet the Sun family’s business seemed large. Leaving aside the shop, the Meng family’s account book showed that the Sun family often bought common herbs from them, each time starting at 300 jin.
Meng Qi turned to the attendant from Sweet Spring Bathhouse and asked, “What’s the background of the Sun family?”
“They’re from the north, not from Taijing or Yongzhou, but even further north, it’s said.”
“Said?”
“The Sun family claims their steward is from a collateral branch and usually doesn’t even report their names, yet they seem to have some connections. Such families are either making money for a noble family or secretly running a business behind their clan’s back. The workers are hired outsiders, so they know little about the main family, making it hard to probe.”
Mo Li rubbed the dried twig between his fingers and frowned, “Is it the accent of Yanzhou, Jizhou, or even Youzhou?”
The attendant was startled, looking at Mo Li in surprise, almost thinking he had discovered something else.
“Yes, the people overseeing the carriages and selling goods, even the steward, all have that accent. The caravans are also full of Qiang people from Xiliang and Dangxiang!”
During the height of the Chu Dynasty, it was common to see foreigners in Taijing, some there for business, others brought as tribal slaves by merchants. Decades later, the aristocrats of Qi Dynasty and Jiangnan still kept foreign concubines, with salt merchants liking to carry a Kunlun slave or two to show off.
However, after the fall of Xiliang, the Dangxiang Qiang people flowed into the interior in large numbers. After two or three generations, apart from some physical differences, they were similar to the Han people. They had no land and couldn’t farm, so they often worked in courier services, horse breeding, and as teamsters in merchant caravans.
This situation was very common among merchants from the north.
“When did the Sun family’s last shipment pass through Run County?”
“That… about half a month ago.”
The attendant hesitated, trying hard to recall.
Although Fengxing Pavilion gathered intelligence, not every detail was noted, as manpower was limited.
The attendant’s face turned a bit sour, feeling that he had tarnished Fengxing Pavilion’s reputation. With time running out, he couldn’t recall the exact date and could only explain dryly, “It’s definitely been less than a month. Our Sweet Spring Bathhouse is quite famous in Run County. Every time those caravans pass by, the steward always visits Sweet Spring Bathhouse. The Sun family’s caravans don’t appear in winter, but they come more often in spring and autumn, like other northern caravans.”
“Is that so? I see these grains were just recently collected,” Meng Qi raised an eyebrow.
“These are gathered by their local hands, doing other businesses when idle, collected from the villages…”
The attendant’s voice trailed off, clearly realizing something, as cold sweat began to pour down.
Mo Li said slowly, “Your Fengxing Pavilion’s Sweet Spring Bathhouse was originally a good place for gathering information. But if someone figured it out, the Sun family could control who shows up each time, going to Sweet Spring Bathhouse regularly to make you think their caravan arrived that day. Do you have people watching outside the county, keeping an eye on the gate at all times? Could you have mixed up the Sun family’s local grain collecting caravans with those coming from the north?”
The attendant opened his mouth but couldn’t say a word.
He initially wanted to say that the Sun family’s northern coachmen were easy to recognize as they were all Qiang people, but what if even that feature was deliberately left by others?
“Why did you suspect Youzhou, Yanzhou?” Meng Qi asked, staring at the dried twig in Mo Li’s hand.
“Just a coincidence. This herb grows abundantly in the north.”
Mo Li also looked down at the twig, his expression inscrutable.
“What is it?”
“Ephedra, a common herb in prescriptions. It can treat colds, induce sweating, and open lung qi, depending on the formula,” Mo Li said in a deep voice. “The one Brother Meng found hasn’t absorbed moisture, having fallen into the crack no more than three to five days ago. The warehouse is pungent; they should have cleaned it, but the smell is faint. I saw in Meng family’s account book that the Sun family frequently purchased ephedra. It’s cheap and abundant in the north, not profitable for reselling. The Sun family shouldn’t need so much ephedra.”
“So, this is the herb added to the opium?”
“Not just this, but it’s probably the most important ingredient.”
***
That night was destined to be restless.
Fengxing Pavilion mobilized all its people. Besides those gathering information, many more retreated in all directions under the cover of night.
The manager of Sweet Spring Bathhouse, a lean, pockmarked man, couldn’t help but express his concern to Qiu Jing, “Pavilion Master, are we really just going to leave like this? Those assassins may not find us so quickly, and their leader is already in Master Meng’s hands, isn’t he?”
“What kind of leader is that?” Qiu Jing snapped his folding fan shut coldly. “He’s just a slightly more expensive pawn. Haven’t you realized that by now? Initially, I wanted to extract some clues from him, but now do you see me still interested in him?”
The manager almost blurted out that it was because the swordsman was stubborn and unyielding, making it impossible to get any information from him.
His subordinate tried to smooth things over, “Pavilion Master, please don’t be angry. Uncle Tian is distressed. We have never found Piaoping Pavilion’s sub-branch hidden nearby, only caught onto the Si family rice shop’s lead. Now, after finally uncovering some clues, we have to abandon our painstakingly managed sub-branch, it’s really…”
“A losing proposition, is that what you all think?” Qiu Jing raised an eyebrow, tapping his palm with the folded fan.
The manager didn’t dare answer.
Qiu Jing sighed, looking out into the courtyard.
Several furnaces were set up in the courtyard, soaking and stuffing unreadable booklets into the furnaces after soaking them. Black smoke billowed out, while someone used internal energy to fan away the smoke.
Truly important information was never written down. Even the intelligence related to Meng Qi was destroyed three days after being copied, so there wasn’t much that needed to be destroyed now. Everything would be taken care of before dawn.
Qiu Jing’s order to abandon Sweet Spring Bathhouse meant that this Fengxing Pavilion sub-branch was to be completely given up.
This wasn’t like a bookstore in a brothel area, where no thought was given beyond secret passages and hidden rooms. Building this bathhouse alone took over a year, and in winter, the business was so good that the manager didn’t even want to sell information. Now, abandoning it was heart-wrenching for the manager.
Everyone has a bit of selfishness.
Even though the manager had heard of the terrifying properties of the opium from the southern border and knew that Piaoping Pavilion would definitely come looking once they discovered the swordsman was captured, and even though he understood that Qiu Jing’s order to evacuate everyone was correct, he still felt a bit resentful. If Qiu Jing and Mo Li had interrogated the swordsman in the wilderness, maybe this disaster wouldn’t have happened.
Qiu Jing said unhurriedly, “You could say this is my fault.”
The manager was startled by these words, his expression betraying his thoughts.
The Fengxing Pavilion experts following Qiu Jing narrowed their eyes, already having murderous intentions.
Qiu Jing acted as if unaware and sighed, “I only thought that many merchants pass through this place every year. Brothels and pleasure houses are too conspicuous, and tea houses and inns have to compete for business, which led to the idea of opening this bathhouse. I didn’t expect this place to be good, but we arrived too late; Piaoping Pavilion had already targeted it. They know about us, but we don’t know where they are.”
When Meng Qi mentioned to Mo Li that he had discovered the family temple and graveyard were Piaoping Pavilion’s strongholds, and the assassins misled Meng Qi into thinking Sweet Spring Bathhouse belonged to Piaoping Pavilion, Qiu Jing and others were eavesdropping through copper pipes in the adjacent courtyard.
Everyone was stunned at that moment.
Not only because Piaoping Pavilion’s sub-branch was so close, but also because the assassins already knew the details of Sweet Spring Bathhouse.
The manager immediately broke out in a sweat. He had been stationed there for years without noticing anything amiss, and now he couldn’t escape the charge of negligence. He relied on his seniority in Fengxing Pavilion to avoid Qiu Jing’s blame, but his reluctance to abandon the prosperous business of Sweet Spring Bathhouse, which Qiu Jing had ordered to be constructed and arranged, showed his lack of understanding of the bigger picture.
Realizing that Qiu Jing subtly hinted at his dissatisfaction with him, the manager understood that the Pavilion Master was displeased.
“It’s my fault for losing my head and not doing my job properly.”
As the manager wiped his sweat, trying hard to make amends, he suddenly heard the sound of rushing wind.
“Swish, swish.”
Several arrows flew in, their heads on fire.
The courtyard descended into chaos, everyone dodging the arrows.
Qiu Jing’s face turned cold as she stared at the wall, while her attendants hurriedly deflected the arrows.
“Retreat completely, do not put out the fire.”
“It’s Piaoping Pavilion, be careful! Watch for ambushes outside the wall!”
Author’s Note:
Dear readers, you should all know what opium is. The author picked a random herb to make it more potent and dangerous. Please don’t take it too seriously or discuss it; it’s just for the story.
