County Magistrate Tian nodded again and again. “Yes, yes, leave it to this lowly official.”

He genuinely felt relieved. At last, this special envoy had assigned him something easy, something that did not put him on the spot or make his life miserable, even if the request itself was a little strange.

With the instructions delivered, He Lingchuan turned to leave. Then a thought struck him. The leg he had already stepped out with drew back in. “Oh, right. Two more things.”

“T-two more—” County Magistrate Tian almost blurted out what he was thinking, but he forced it down and bowed instead. “Of course!”

“Here’s a bounty notice. Have your men make several dozen copies and post them in prominent places around the city as soon as possible.” He Lingchuan took out a wanted notice for Mr. Mai issued by Zhitian Township and handed it over. “The public has sharp eyes. We need to leverage their strength.”

County Magistrate Tian took one look. “Understood. I’ll do it at once.”

“When will they be up?”

“Uh, tomorrow morning—” County Magistrate Tian saw He Lingchuan’s brow crease and immediately corrected himself. “By evening! By this evening, they’ll all be posted!”

He Lingchuan gave him an approving smile. “Also, where did you get word of Zhongsun Mou arriving in Baishajue?”

“This lowly official heard it mentioned among other prominent people. More than one or two.”

“And where did they hear it?”

“Uh...” Rumors traveled fast among the elite. By the time County Magistrate Tian heard it, the story had already changed hands who knew how many times.

“I want you to trace the source.” He Lingchuan’s expression turned serious. “Find out who leaked the news in the first place. This matter is of great importance. You must verify it quickly!”

“Oh, yes, yes.” Rumors were wind and shadows; they were notoriously difficult to hold anyone accountable for. However, County Magistrate Tian had his own method. He would start with the women of the top households.

* * *

Amid Baishajue’s various hidden schemes and calculations, three days flew by. At last, the date arrived: the twenty-ninth day of the seventh month.

Chao Lake Tower was the area’s signature attraction. On a normal day, visitors climbed it by the thousands. There would be six to seven thousand during peak periods, and still two to three thousand even on quieter days. It was always bustling.

Today, however, the guests who came were in for disappointment.

Before dawn, people had already arrived to put up scaffolding. After that came craftsmen carrying tools and equipment, and soon they began construction work on the fourth and fifth floors.

Clang, bang, clang!

Stone was being chiseled, metal was striking rock. The noise never stopped for a moment.

Workers also rushed up and down the stairs, hauling materials. Mud slurry, sand, stones, and assorted debris lay everywhere.

People came to Chao Lake Tower to savor the scenery and solitude. The point, after all, was the quiet. Even on crowded days, you could sit in the teahouse on the fourth floor, sip tea, gaze into the distance, and feel that life was not half bad.

But right now, a pack of boorish craftsmen had smashed that quiet atmosphere to pieces. Even the water birds found it unbearable and refused to come near, halving the pleasure of birdwatching.

So most visitors reached the fourth floor, took in the chaos, listened to the racket, and left with a disappointed shake of the head.

Some, having already come all this way, could not bear to give up without climbing, but the hammering on the fourth floor was deafening. Each strike felt like it landed directly on your nerves. In the end, they could only glance at the view in a perfunctory rush and then head back down. You could not even exchange a few words with your companions as the noise was simply too loud.

The Chao Lake Teahouse on the fourth floor had ten tables. Ordinarily, it was packed to the doors, with at least three to four groups queued for every table.

Today? It was a rare sight of emptiness.

“And even like this, they’ve got three tables occupied,” the Soul-Stealing Mirror muttered from He Lingchuan’s chest, clicking its tongue. “These people really aren’t afraid of noise.”

A thirty percent seating rate.

If you insisted on sitting at one of those three tables, you probably had a reason you could not walk away from, something that forced you to endure the shrieking clamor.

“Suspicious!” the mirror cried. “The time’s almost here. They’re all suspicious.”

He Lingchuan was not among them.

He was positioned where he could monitor everyone moving through the tower without drawing attention to himself.

“Which tables are suspicious, exactly?”

“Look at the table on the left!” The mirror’s tone sharpened. “That table has only one male guest. He’s around forty-something and dark-skinned.”

“And?”

“He came in, ordered a single cup of tea, and just sat there without moving. Doesn’t that look like someone waiting for a meeting?”

“He’s waiting, sure, but not necessarily for Mr. Mai.”

The mirror asked at once, “Because he looks too rustic? Too low-class?”

He Lingchuan answered without hesitation, “That man’s a laborer. He ordered the cheapest tea.”

The mirror refused to concede. “I saw his hands. He’s got rough skin and thick knuckles. He’s definitely someone who does heavy work. But what if that’s camouflage? What if the person behind the scenes won’t come in person and just sends someone random to test the waters?”

“If they were sending anyone, they wouldn’t send him.”

“Why?”

“He keeps his left hand tucked into his sleeve, but he’s brought it out a few times—his hand trembles.”

“So?”

“Either he’s an alcoholic, or he’s sick. Would you entrust something this important to a drunk or a man with a condition?”

The mirror choked on that, then swung its attention to the second table. “Then what about the three women? Are you saying the contact can’t be a woman?”

At that table sat three female guests. One was a woman in her early thirties, another was close to fifty, and the last was a young girl just coming into her teens.

The girl was sitting upright, and her small face was carefully made up. Her face was fair and rosy, with a delicate prettiness that still carried a hint of childish softness. The younger woman’s eyebrows were drawn with impatience, while the older woman sipped her tea at an unhurried pace, occasionally soothing the other two, “Soon, he’ll be here soon.”

The younger woman could not take it anymore and snapped, “It’s too noisy. Why don’t we do this another day?”

The older woman replied, “If we change the day again, the date won’t be as auspicious.”

Hearing that, He Lingchuan laughed quietly. “This table’s unlikely too. That old woman is a matchmaker.”

“Huh?”

“This is a matchmaking meeting.” He Lingchuan’s eyes flicked over them. “The girl even wore new shoes and new clothes. Her mother didn’t.”

As he spoke, someone came up the stairs. It was a married couple with a teenage boy, and they sat down at that very table.

Both sides began exchanging greetings, polite smiles carefully balanced with unavoidable awkwardness.

The mirror made a disgusted sound. “So it really is. The most boring activity your humans ever invented.”

He Lingchuan ignored the comment.

The mirror huffed. “Fine, then only the last table remains. That old man is either a merchant or a steward. Let’s see what fault you can possibly find with him.”

At the final table sat a man in his fifties. His clothing was made of decent fabric, and there was a certain composure in the way he drank his tea. He really did look like someone with some status and some money.

Some, but not much.

The easy authority of a true superior was not something ordinary people could cultivate overnight.

“Look, he keeps glancing toward the staircase. He’s obviously waiting for someone, and he’s getting impatient.”

“No argument there.” He Lingchuan’s gaze sharpened. “I can’t rule him out. And yes, he’s waiting for someone.”

On the man’s table sat a teapot and two cups. One cup was still empty. He had clearly arranged to meet someone.

“We can keep an eye on him.”

It was midsummer. Even though Chao Lake Tower was cooler than outside, hot tea still made you sweat. The old man dabbed at his forehead twice with a handkerchief. Then, as if he had made up his mind, he tossed down money for the tea and stood up before hurrying downstairs.

The mirror hissed, urgent. “He’s slipping away! Follow him!”

He Lingchuan did not move an inch. “It’s not him. The time hasn’t arrived.”

“What if he sensed something wrong and ran early?”

“If he’d already come, why would he leave before the time? It’s only fifteen minutes until the second quarter hour of the hour of the sheep[1].”

Before his words had even fully settled, the old man returned, coming back up the stairs again.

And this time, someone followed behind him.

They both sat down at the original table and began speaking.

Because the chiseling and hammering were so loud, they had to raise their voices. Occasionally, the clanging would abruptly stop, and in that instant, whatever someone said would echo across the entire fourth floor.

From the matchmaking table: “I’m telling you, no one in this city asks for a bride price that high!”

From the old man’s table: “So when is my son getting released? You have to give me a definite answer!”

From the laborer’s table: “...”

A strange, uncomfortable silence swept through the entire fourth floor.

He Lingchuan, unruffled, grabbed a plank and started hammering nails again.

Yes. At this very moment, he was wearing rough homespun clothes, working among the repair crew, doing grunt labor while also securing the best possible vantage point for observation.

Back when he served as a patrol guard in Panlong City, he had often helped repair houses and carts. He had learned carpentry from Doorboard. He did not have that man’s craftsmanship, but as a basic laborer, he could more or less pass.

The noise resumed. The fourth floor returned to “normal.”

The Soul-Stealing Mirror could not understand. “If none of the three tables are it, then wasn’t this whole setup pointless?”

He Lingchuan had specifically instructed the Baishajue magistrate to bring in an outside repair team and begin renovations on Chao Lake Tower starting yesterday, the twenty-eighth.

He had chosen an outside team because he did not want locals catching wind of things in advance.

At first, the Soul-Stealing Mirror had thought it understood his purpose. Chao Lake Tower usually drew such massive crowds that Mr. Mai’s contact could easily vanish in the sea of faces. But once construction began, the visitor count would plummet, especially on the fourth floor. Anyone who could tolerate the screeching racket and still sit in the teahouse likely had business that truly mattered.

Such people would be easier to observe, easier to pick apart.

But now all three tables had been ruled out. Either the contact never came at all, or they came up, took one look around, and left.

After all, visitors were still trickling through. Small groups were climbing up, peering at the view, then going back down.

Had He Lingchuan gone through all this trouble for nothing? Wasted effort? Wasted a valuable lead?

He Lingchuan lifted his head and glanced at the water clock in the teahouse. “It’s almost the second quarter hour of the hour of the sheep. The timing is about right.”

“About right for what?” the mirror snapped. “Spit it out.”

He Lingchuan gave a soft, humorless chuckle. “Answer me this. If you were the contact, and you arrived to find that Chao Lake Tower just happened to start a massive renovation exactly at the time you’d agreed to meet Mr. Mai, what would you think?”

The mirror did not even pause. “That something changed, and the deal should be canceled. If there’s any movement at all, rats go to ground first.”

“But what if they still haven’t found Mr. Mai? If they miss today, they miss Mr. Mai entirely.”

The mirror asked curiously, “Is Mr. Mai really that important?”

“I already told Zhongsun Mou that Mr. Mai’s subordinate, Wan Song, spilled a lot of secrets. If you were the one behind the curtain, wouldn’t that worry you?” He Lingchuan lowered his voice and added, “And more importantly, if they don’t show up, and Mr. Mai does show up as agreed, then we can arrest him. Wouldn’t they want to make sure that doesn’t happen?”

“Then silence him?”

He Lingchuan gave the smallest nod. “Exactly, so they shouldn’t let this opportunity pass.”

“They can’t dare to keep the appointment, but they also can’t dare to skip it. A real dilemma.”

“It’s not that hard,” He Lingchuan said, smiling faintly. “People always cling to luck. Baishajue has been repairing scenic sites nonstop lately, more than a dozen places already, one after another. Maybe Chao Lake Tower really is just another coincidence.”

1. The hour of the sheep is 1–3 P.M., and the second quarter hour of that should be 1:30 P.M. ☜