Chapter 966 — Statements from the Salt Road

CHAPTER 966

Statements from the Salt Road

“Two bolts of white fox fur, from the Zhangsun house. Four jars of thirty-year snow wine, from the Zhangsun house. One spear-rack of black iron, also from the Zhangsun house…”

Shu Wan stood in the middle of Snowpine Court with a long list in her hands, reading it aloud. The gifts around her covered half the yard. The Zhangsun had sent theirs up the steps yesterday afternoon, and the Chunyu had sent theirs an hour later. Neither house had wanted to be the one that remembered the guest second.

“A spear-rack,” Shi Feng said from the doorway, with a cup of tea in his hand. “I don’t use a spear.”

“Young Master Zhangsun Lie sent a note with it,” Shu Wan said, and turned the list over to read the back. “‘For when you learn one.’”

Qin Wuyan sat on the step below the door with his hands on his knees. He looked at the spear-rack for a long moment and said nothing.

Outer disciples kept finding reasons to walk past the courtyard gate. Every one of them slowed down when they saw the chests.

“That’s the Chunyu crane on the red chest!”

“The Zhangsun and the Chunyu on the same day? Those two houses haven’t agreed on anything in forty years!”

“The Grand Elder gave him a seat in the outer hall yesterday. Of course they’re sending gifts. When the water rises, the boat rises with it.”

“…Keep walking. The guardian’s looking at us.”

They kept walking.

Shu Wan had reached the Chunyu list when a man in Pavilion grey came through the gate behind her. He had the badge of the Lianxia tower on his chest and snow on his boots up to the knee. He stopped at the foot of the steps and bowed to Shi Feng with both hands raised.

“Guest Elder,” the courier said. “A letter from Her Highness the Fourth Princess’s house in Tianjing. Manager Kang Yi sent me up with it as soon as it reached the pavilion.”

“That was quick,” Shi Feng said, putting down his cup.

“It came up the fast relay, Guest Elder,” the courier said. “Her Highness’s house paid for a fresh horse at every second post from the capital. Nine days instead of fourteen.”

Shi Feng took the letter. It was sealed in plain wax with no crest, the same as the last one. He thanked the courier, gave him a silver for the climb, and broke the seal standing on the step.

Long Caili’s hand was as small and straight as ever.

The inquiry is formally convened. A commission of the Censorate and the Lantern Guard, under Long law.

Hao Dafu’s drivers were heard. They told the truth, loudly. The clerk asked them twice to lower their voices.

The Censorate has found a new witness. He says my guest struck first.

My elder brother holds the line. The hearing will sit at a northern circuit seat, so answering it is not turning around.

Your receipt was received. The drivers are under my name.

There was no signature.

Shi Feng read it twice. The inquiry had moved forward, but someone was still trying to frame him. Long Caili had also protected Hao Dafu’s drivers. He paused at that last line. She knew he’d be worried about them.

He thought about the third line for a while.

At Grey Goose Pass the fight had happened in the yard, between the wagons, in the dark. The only people who’d seen the first cut were the men lying under those wagons, and they were all Hao Dafu’s drivers. The waystation’s keeper and his hands had barred their door when the lamps went out and hadn’t opened it until morning. Anyone else who claimed to have seen it had either been asleep or had been somewhere else entirely.

At the Lotus Gate, Inspector Ruan Heng had told him that the Censorate had sent men to Grey Goose to look for new witnesses. They’d found one very quickly.

“Senior Qin,” Shi Feng said, and held the letter down where the old man could see it. “The Censorate has found a man who says I struck first at Grey Goose.”

“Did you?” Qin Wuyan asked, without looking at the page.

“No,” Shi Feng said. “He came out of the dark at me. Then he stepped into his own rift.”

“Then he didn’t see the attack,” Qin Wuyan said, his expression hardening.

“Or he was paid to see it differently,” Shi Feng said. “And if he was paid, then Hao Dafu’s drivers are the only thing in this inquiry standing between him and the truth. Somebody will have noticed that.”

Qin Wuyan said nothing. He looked at the snow on the courtyard wall.

That was why she’d put the drivers under her name. A salt train under contract to the Fourth Princess’s pavilions couldn’t lose its licence, and its drivers couldn’t vanish on the road without the whole capital asking whose drivers they’d been. She’d done it before his letter reached her. The receipt had only told her he’d thought of it too.

Shi Feng was angry now. Those drivers had only tried to survive the ambush, and someone might target them for telling the truth. He went inside and wrote his reply at the low table, using the same form as before.

Received: one letter, by fast relay.

Noted: one witness from Grey Goose. Nobody saw the first cut but the men under the wagons.

The drivers: entered as a debt. Mine, not yours.

I’ll answer wherever the court sits.

He read it over once, sealed it and came back out. Shu Wan was still standing in the middle of the gifts with her list.

“Could you take this down to Manager Kang Yi, Sister Shu?” Shi Feng asked, holding it out. “Pavilion courier, the fast relay. I’ll pay for the horses.”

“Of course, Guest Elder,” Shu Wan said, and tucked it carefully into her sleeve. “What about the rest of the list?”

“Read me the Chunyu part tonight,” Shi Feng said. “Unless there’s another spear-rack.”

Shu Wan smiled and hurried off toward the gate. Before she reached it, a gate disciple ran in from the path outside, red-faced from the climb, and the two of them almost collided.

The gate disciple bent and whispered to her. Shu Wan’s face changed, and she turned back at once.

“Guest Elder!” Shu Wan said, pointing down the mountain. “Gate Elder Qiu sends word. A rider with an Imperial pennant has stopped at the boundary stone, and he’s asked for you by name.”