Chapter 971 — The Commission at the Foot of the Mountain

CHAPTER 971

The Commission at the Foot of the Mountain

On the fourth morning in Lianxia, someone knocked on the furnace room door while the furnace was still warm.

Shi Feng had spent the first three days doing what he’d told Ye Wanqiu he’d do. He’d waited and worked. The furnace room was better than it had any right to be, with a good cold-vein floor and a chimney that drew evenly, and he’d refined two batches of northern frost-herb pills in it just to see what it could do.

“Guest Elder,” Kang Yi said through the door. “The chief disciple of the Serene Jade has come down. She has a steward of the outer hall with her. She says it’s sect business.”

Shi Feng banked the fire and went out.

Shen Yaoqing was standing in the pavilion’s front hall in her white robe, with snow on her boots. Beside her stood a grey-haired outer hall steward holding a folded sheet of red paper in both hands. Red paper on the Serene Jade meant formal notice. Kang Yi’s clerks had all found work to do at the far end of the counter.

“The outer hall has received word from the boundary stone,” Shen Yaoqing said. “As your host, I’ve brought it down myself. Read it to him.”

The steward bowed and unfolded the red sheet.

“To the honoured guest of the Lotus Gate,” the steward read. “At dawn today the Imperial commission of inquiry named in the guest’s summons arrived at the southern boundary stone of the Serene Jade lands. It is led by Commissioner Situ Mingzhao of the Censorate, with Deputy Commander Pang Yue of the Lantern Guard. It has made camp beyond the stone, since no Imperial officer may enter Serene Jade ground. The commissioner sends his respects to the guest and asks whether it would be convenient to meet him there.”

The steward folded the paper again and bowed.

Shi Feng counted. The summons had named the eighth day of next month, at Shuoyang. That was still fifteen days away, and Shuoyang was three days south of the stone.

“They’re early,” Shi Feng said.

“Twelve days early,” Shen Yaoqing said. “And at the wrong place.”

“Those who come don’t come with good intentions, and those with good intentions don’t come,” Kang Yi muttered behind the counter, and then looked very busy with his abacus.

Shi Feng looked at Shen Yaoqing.

“What does the sect want, Chief Disciple Shen?” Shi Feng asked.

“The Serene Jade doesn’t shelter guests from the Empire’s law,” Shen Yaoqing said coldly. “It also won’t be used by it. That’s what the sect wants. Those are the Grand Elder’s words, and this disciple was told to repeat them exactly.”

Shi Feng was irritated. They’d arrived early to force a decision on the sect before the appointed hearing. He understood why Shen Yaoqing had brought the notice herself.

A commission camped at the boundary stone was a question put to the whole mountain. If he stayed in Lianxia and waited for the eighth day, the commissioner could sit outside the stone for twelve days, and every caravan on the north road would carry the story south: the Serene Jade was hiding a man the Empire had come to hear. If the sect asked him to go out, then the Serene Jade had handed its guest to the Censorate. Either way, somebody in Tianjing would have a story about the Serene Jade to tell at court.

Whoever had sent the commission early had known that.

“I’ll go to the stone today,” Shi Feng said. “Tell the Grand Elder it’s my decision. The sect hasn’t hidden me or handed me over. I’m answering the commission myself, and I’ll make sure the commissioner hears that.”

Shen Yaoqing looked at him for a moment. Her face didn’t change.

“That’s the answer the Grand Elder expected,” Shen Yaoqing said. “He’s already given the order.”

“What order?” Shi Feng asked.

“The standing order for guests of the outer hall who leave sect ground,” Shen Yaoqing said. “A guest’s belongings are carried to the boundary by the outer hall, so that nobody can say the Serene Jade sent a guest away with his own chest on his back. Your herb chest left Snowpine Court an hour after the notice came.”

Right then, there was noise in the street outside.

Shi Feng went to the door. Four outer hall stewards in grey were coming down Lianxia’s main street with his herb chest slung between two poles on their shoulders. They walked in step, slowly and carefully, and the whole street stopped to watch them. The chest was black iron-wood with brass corners, and it held about 1.85 million worth of herbs. The stewards carried it with the full rites the outer hall used for its own treasures.

“That’s the 6 Mark’s chest!”

“The outer hall is carrying it for him? Down the mountain?”

“They say the commission from the capital is at the boundary stone. He must be going to meet them!”

“Going to meet them? Or being sent?”

“Look at how they’re carrying it, you fool. Nobody carries a man’s chest like that when he’s being sent.”

“…”

The stewards set the chest down in front of the pavilion door and bowed to him all together.

Qin Wuyan was already standing beside it. Shi Feng hadn’t heard him come down the stairs. The old guardian had his travelling cloak on and his hands in his sleeves, and he was clearly ready to leave at once.

“Ready,” Qin Wuyan said.

“You heard already, Senior Qin?” Shi Feng asked, relieved by the old guardian’s readiness. He went inside and put out the furnace properly. Kang Yi met him at the counter with the house book already open.

“Three days and a half of the furnace room, Guest Elder,” Kang Yi said. “And the room upstairs. Shall I hold it?”

“Hold it,” Shi Feng said, and paid. “I don’t know how long Shuoyang will take. If anybody asks where I’ve gone, tell them the truth.”

“And if Her Highness’s house asks?” Kang Yi asked carefully.

“Tell them the commission came twelve days early,” Shi Feng said. “And that I went to meet it at the stone, not at Shuoyang. They’ll know what that means.”

Kang Yi wrote it down word for word.

When Shi Feng came out again, Shen Yaoqing was standing beside the chest with her sword at her hip and her hands folded. The four stewards had lifted the poles back onto their shoulders.

“By sect rule, the host walks the guest to the boundary,” Shen Yaoqing said. “Not one step past it. Let’s go.”