Chapter 146 — Heavy Rain

This Guard Wen was a man of about thirty-five or thirty-six, a bearded fellow with a curling mustache, never married, living alone in the row of quarters on the east side of the Duke of Britain's residence.

In the afternoon, Wuyi still had not found Guard Wen.

Zeng Wu came over holding an umbrella, escorting a tall, powerfully built man.

He introduced him to the man: "There are only three people in this courtyard. One is an old man, a scholar down on his luck, a close friend of Mr. Yan's, taken in by the heir and lodged here. The other two are young servants who wait on the scholar. One is called Wuyi—he used to sweep the study in Yizhi Hall; the other is called Songluo—he used to tend the flowers and plants in Yizhi Hall, and was later transferred here to look after the courtyard. They've been handy enough at bringing this Scholar Chen his meals and hot water and the like." He turned and called to Chen Yanzhou: "Hey, you. Come here. Pay your respects to Guard Chang. From now on he'll be the guard of Yizhi Hall. You'd all better keep your eyes open."

Chen Yanzhou was thrown into alarm.

While Song Ke was away, Yizhi Hall was to have its guard changed?

What on earth had happened?

Chen Yanzhou dared not betray a shred of it. He hurried forward and made his bow to Guard Chang.

Guard Chang Lengheng gave him a cold glance and made a circuit of the room.

Chen Yanzhou's heart was shaken.

The man's hands were like palm-leaf fans, rough and powerful, and on his thumb he wore a jade archer's ring.

He had seen men like this before, under the Duke of Dingguo's command.

They were all master archers.

Guard Chang went out the door, and with Zeng Wu holding the umbrella for him, wandered about the courtyard.

Every place he paused was a vital point of the compound.

If crossbows were set up there, the whole courtyard would fall within their range.

Chen Yanzhou broke out in a cold sweat, and only by main force kept his face from showing anything unusual.

But the moment Guard Chang and Zeng Wu were gone, he at once called Wuyi over and said, "How many guards did the heir leave behind? Do you know what they've been doing these past few days?"

Wuyi sensed something was wrong as well.

Changing the guard at Yizhi Hall—how could that be done without the heir's approval?

He did not know Chen Yanzhou's origins, but he did know that Chen Yanzhou was being held here under guard.

To be held in such regard by the heir apparent, he must be no simple man.

Out of caution, he did not tell Chen Yanzhou how many men Song Yan had left behind; he only said, "I haven't caught sight of a single one of those guards."

Song Yan had gone to Liaodong, Yan Che, Song Zhi's chief advisor, had gone to Hao Province, and Xu Qing, the most skilled fighter of them all, had stayed with the Jiang family. Yizhi Hall stood hollow of defenders, Chen Tao was locked up, and the other guards had vanished without a trace... By the time Song Yan returned, Yizhi Hall would long since have fallen into another's hands...

Lure the tiger from the mountain; pull the firewood from beneath the cauldron.

It was the trick the Emperor habitually used against the great generals guarding the frontier passes.

Then who was it that was moving against Song Zhi?

A figure rose dimly in Chen Yanzhou's mind, yet he could not bring himself to believe it.

Why would that person do such a thing?

What reason could that person possibly have?

Chen Yanzhou suddenly felt as though his head had stopped working properly.

He could not help saying to Wu Yi, "I want to write a letter back to Zhending. Can you get it out for me?"

Chen Yanzhou often wrote letters to Zhending; it was always Wu Yi who helped him send them through the post stations.

Wu Yi answered, "All right."

Ever since the heir apparent had given Chen Yanzhou permission to send letters home whenever he wished, those letters had all been read over by Master Yan.

This time Master Yan was absent, so he could look them over in his stead.

What Chen Yanzhou wrote was all idle household chatter: the flowers in the courtyard had bloomed, new guards had come to the Duke of Dingguo's household today whose faces were strange and would take some time to learn, and so on and so forth.

But Yizhi Hall was under lockdown, and the letter never went out. Wu Yi was interrogated again and again; if not for his quick wits, he would barely have made it back alive.

Chen Yanzhou drew a sharp breath.

If something happened to Song Yan, and he himself was living in Song Zhi's Yizhi Hall, might he drag Miss Dou the Fourth into it?

She was only a girl, and her lot had never been easy. If she lost the favor of the Dou elders because of this, what would become of her?

Chen Yanzhou gritted his teeth and gave Songluo low instructions: "From my experience, this rain will stop by midnight at the latest. Can you slip out of the mansion under cover of the rain? When the lady died, didn't they send word to the heir apparent? He's sure to enter the city by the Anding Gate. Wait outside the Anding Gate and find a way to intercept him—tell him everything that has happened in this house!"

Songluo's face went taut, and she nodded hard.

But a clamor came from outside.

"The heir apparent is back! The heir apparent is back!"

The sound spread through the Duke of Ying's and Duke of Dingguo's household in waves, striking Chen Yanzhou and draining the color from his face; he dropped into the grand master's chair.

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Sisters, brothers, I have revised this draft more times than I can count, and I have done my utmost. I do not know whether I have managed to convey the sense of tension.

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A glance at the clock: it is already April Fool's Day.

Happy April Fool's Day to everyone!

And thank you all for the pink votes you have cast for me.

Much appreciated!

o(n_n)o haha~

Also, I must explain to everyone the matter of updates.

I still owe you the extra chapter and the regular update for March 31; I can only make them up tomorrow. As you have all seen, after two months of extra updates in a row, I am thoroughly exhausted in both body and spirit. I plan to rest a little in April and then deal with some personal matters of my own. From the 1st to the 7th I can only post a single chapter a day; after the 7th I will readjust and strive, like with The Daughter of a Concubine's Strategy, to post extra chapters on weekends when I rest.

Sisters, brothers, let us press on together!

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