Chapter 145 — A Visitor from Moon Lake

CHAPTER 145

A Visitor from Moon Lake

Sima Lan arrived while Shi Feng was cleaning his furnace.

Kang Liu announced the Moon Lake candidate from the stairs with obvious relief. He had begun treating the upper corridor as though every visitor might carry a national dispute in a wooden box.

Shi Feng set the brush down and opened the door.

Sima Lan stood with her hands folded beneath her sleeves. No attendant waited behind her. The crescent guard of her short sword showed beneath the edge of her blue robe.

“You receive a great many royal visits,” Sima Lan said.

“More than I asked for,” Shi Feng replied.

“May I add one?” Sima Lan asked.

He stepped aside. She took the chair without inspecting the room as though its cheap furniture offered a useful judgment of him.

Shi Feng returned to the table. He left the furnace lid off so the remaining damp could dry.

“Your brother was here,” Shi Feng said.

“I expected that,” Sima Lan replied.

“Did you come to improve his offer?” Shi Feng asked.

“No,” Sima Lan said. “I came because he won't fight honestly if he begins losing.”

Sima Lan placed a finger against her own left wrist.

“The jade ornament under his sleeve contains a refined artifact,” Sima Lan said. “Three narrow darts. He can guide the first openly and send the other two from lower angles.”

Shi Feng noted the placement.

“Poison?” Shi Feng asked.

“Not in the practice version I saw,” Sima Lan replied. “The darts return through the same wrist channel. Breaking the return will make them difficult to recall.”

“Is it forbidden?” Shi Feng asked.

“No,” Sima Lan said. “The officials allow declared personal artifacts. He declares the ornament, then lets people think it's defensive.”

A hidden use wasn't the same as an illegal weapon. Shi Feng stored the distinction. He wouldn't rely on an official to stop something the rules permitted.

Sima Lan rested her hand in her lap.

“There's also a burst pill,” Sima Lan said. “The royal house keeps a small number for emergencies. The qi change is violent. Someone at late Foundation Establishment can briefly show something like early Golden Core force.”

“Briefly,” Shi Feng repeated.

“And badly,” Sima Lan said. “It isn't a Golden Core. It drives what he already has until the channels can't keep up.”

Shi Feng looked at her. She spoke with the ease of someone who had listened carefully when adults thought she was merely standing nearby.

“Those pills are forbidden here,” Shi Feng said.

“Yes,” Sima Lan replied. “He heard the announcement too.”

The furnace gave a soft click as its metal cooled. Sima Lan glanced at it, then at the ink on Shi Feng's thumb.

“You were working after he left,” Sima Lan said.

“Yes,” Shi Feng replied.

“He would've found that insulting,” Sima Lan said.

“I didn't invite him to stay and supervise,” Shi Feng replied.

She smiled faintly. It was the first expression that looked her age rather than like a carefully chosen court response.

Then it disappeared.

“You don't seem surprised by the pill,” Sima Lan said.

“People who send assassins don't become fair because a crowd watches,” Shi Feng replied.

The princess's gaze held his for a moment.

“No,” Sima Lan said. “They usually become more careful about witnesses.”

Shi Feng sat back. There were several questions he could ask about her departure from Great Liang, her standing in Moon Lake, and why she wanted her brother exposed. Asking them wouldn't guarantee truthful answers.

He chose the useful one.

“Why tell me?” Shi Feng asked.

“I'm not helping you,” Sima Lan said. “I'm watching what you do with it.”

“That sounds inconvenient for your brother,” Shi Feng replied.

“He has survived inconvenience before,” Sima Lan said.

She didn't claim to be kind or ask him to trust her. Shi Feng appreciated the absence of a performance while remaining aware that information could still serve a purpose she hadn't named.

“Anything else?” Shi Feng asked.

“He touches his belt before using the darts,” Sima Lan replied. “Not because he has to. Because he likes feeling ready.”

Sima Lan stood and adjusted her sword strap.

“Don't mistake a habit for certainty,” Sima Lan said. “He knows people watch his hands.”

“I won't,” Shi Feng replied.

She reached the door, then paused.

“Did he offer the Ling family's obligations?” Sima Lan asked.

“Yes,” Shi Feng said.

“My brother never wanted her. The court wanted her for him,” Sima Lan said.

Shi Feng looked at her.

“The Ling match?” Shi Feng asked.

“The consort's household and the court elders,” Sima Lan replied. “He was content to let them arrange a useful favour. Until you answered his guests at the banquet and affirmed the marriage in front of them.”

“And his answer was murder,” Shi Feng said.

“His pride doesn't improve when it's embarrassed,” Sima Lan replied. “Don't mistake that for affection.”

Shi Feng had no intention of doing so. A different motive didn't make the men sent to kill him less dead or the orders less deliberate.

“That was a large box for such small promises,” Sima Lan added.

She went down the stairs without explaining further.

Shi Feng didn't follow. He remained at the open doorway until her steps faded, then returned to the furnace.

The artifact was useful information. The burst pill explained the prince's likely answer to public defeat. Neither changed the difference in their actual strength.

A false early Golden Core burst sat comfortably within what Shi Feng could dominate. It might astonish the crowd. It wouldn't force him to reveal his full reserves.

The officials' barrier mattered more.

He recalled where the pale light had risen, how it joined the platform stones, and Lu Yong's warning about striking through a halt. If Sima Yu broke the rules, the officials would take control of the platform.

Shi Feng couldn't pretend he hadn't heard that part.

Below, Sima Lan stopped in the courtyard to let a maid carry a water bucket past. Kang Liu waited beside the gate, politely resisting the urge to ask which important person would visit next.

“The inn is comfortable?” Sima Lan asked.

“For those who like quiet,” Kang Liu replied.

Sima Lan looked up at the second-floor window.

“Then perhaps stop announcing every visitor quite so loudly,” Sima Lan said.

The innkeeper looked embarrassed. She left before he could make a promise he'd probably forget at the next royal arrival.

Upstairs, Shi Feng replaced the furnace lid and put the notes away. There would be no more medicine practice tonight.

He drew the sword once, tested the edge against the light, and sheathed it. The grip sat firmly beneath his hand.

Tomorrow, he would watch Sima Yu's left wrist.

He would also watch the people who could keep the prince alive.