NOVEL NEXT The hour copper had not even passed a quarter when noise suddenly came from outside the hall. With urgent footsteps, Yao Runeng helped Wen Ran walk inside. Wen Ran, wrapped up in a thin blanket and wary of this strange environment, let the man push her forward.
Most scribes raised their heads to look at her with a mixed look. ‘This must be Wang Zhongsi’s daughter. Finally, we found her!’ This woman was the very reason why they had been working overtime instead of enjoying the lantern show.
Yao Runeng brought Wen Ran to Li Bi. Before Li Bi spoke, Yao Runeng stepped forward and said in a low voice, “This lady is not Wang Yunxiu. Her name is Wen Ran.”
Li Bi was stunned. He had thought that finally this thing was over, but unexpectedly, a new problem cropped up. With a cold face, he asked, “Who’s Wen Ran?”
Yao Runeng said, “I’ve already found out on our way back. She’s the daughter of the owner of Wen’s Incense Store. According to her own account, she was attacked by Fires Gang and asked Wang Yunxiu for help. They were on a ride on a Hu-styled carriage when some ruffians attacked and abducted them to Changming Fang. So, maybe… uh, we made a mistake at the very beginning.”
This was a pathetic misunderstanding. It turned out that the one abducted by Wolf Guards had been Wen Ran all along.
“What about Wang Yunxiu?” Li Bi glared at her.
Feeling that this man was very fierce, Wen Ran quickly cowered behind Yao Runeng and shook her head. Since that carriage accident, everything that had happened to her was stranger than the last one. She didn’t even know what was going on, not to mention Wang Yunxiu’s whereabouts.
Li Bi lost interest in her and bade Yao Runeng to have her stay, question her, and let her go if there was nothing suspicious. Yao Runeng was just about to lead Wen Ran away when something struck Li Bi who promptly stopped them. “Do you know Zhang Xiaojing?”
A trace of delight gleamed in Wen Ran’s eyes as she heard this familiar name. “He saved my family.”
Light suddenly dawned on Li Bi. He twirled his horsetail whisk and smiled wryly at Xu Bin, “No wonder Zhang Xiaojing insisted on a second search. It turns out the one he wanted to find was not Wang Yunxiu, but this woman Wen Ran!”
A while ago, Zhang Xiaojing insisted that an extra search be carried out in Changming Fang, and Li Bi had been wondering about it. Seeing Wen Ran, Li Bi’s sharp mind immediately figured out the subtle connection between these two things. Looking back when Zhang Xiaojing asserted emphatically that the one who was abducted was Wang Yunxiu, Li Bi believed that Zhang Xiaojing probably had been deliberately misleading them from the very beginning.
Li Bi was both annoyed and disappointed. Yes, Zhang Xiaojing did risk his life and limb trying to stop those Turks, and this misleading act didn’t have any negative influence on the main operation, but this little trick ruined Li Bi’s unconditional trust in him. Was there anything else he was not telling him? Would he do such things again in the future? This incident sparked off a whole series of problems and uncertainties.
“Lock her up in the rear hall. Interrogate her and find out the relationship between her and Zhang Xiaojing!”
In a harsh voice Li Bi changed his order. Yao Runeng thought that he had just misheard. “Have her stay” and “lock her up” indicated completely different motivations.
Upon seeing Yao’s hesitation, Li Bi hammered the horsetail whisk onto the desk with a loud bang. Yao Runeng had no choice but to grab Wen Ran and drag her towards the rear hall with an apologetic air.
Perplexed, Wen Ran firmly held on to Yao Runeng’s arm. Among all the people in this hall, he was the only one that she felt reliable.
After they left, Li Bi closed his eyes and made up his mind to recall Zhang Xiaojing once any progress was made in that Nestorian temple in Yining Fang. He was not sure whether he could continue to trust that person in the next operation.
Xu Bin, who was standing on the side, had no idea there had been a subtle change in his superior’s attitude towards his partner. He concentrated all his attention on writing something.
Because the occasion he had been waiting for now arose.
Jing’an Department had two gates leading to the outside, a front gate and a corner gate, both of which were guarded by Lubi soldiers. Everybody going through these gates had to show their ID bamboo plates. Intruders without ID plates would be considered as committing the same crime as intruding into the royal palace, and soldiers were allowed to kill them on sight.
On this day, from Si Hour, large numbers of people had been going in and out of the department through these two gates, and all of them had extremely urgent business. The hustle and bustle lasted until Shen Hour when candles were lit. All soldiers were exhausted, so the ID check gradually became perfunctory.
An official with a long face walked out of the corner gate of Jing’an Department with an ID bamboo plate in his hand. A guard looked at his face and recognized him. He was Clerk Pang, who commuted between Jingzhao Office and Jing’an Department on a regular basis through this corner gate. He was responsible for delivering all kinds of official documents. During this day alone, he had come here over ten times. Disinclined to check his ID plate carefully, the soldier took it, cast a glance at it and then let him through with a wave of his hand.
Clerk Pang stepped over the threshold and entered Jinzhao Office. After looking around, he didn’t head straight for Personnel Division but took a turn and went into a horse-hoof passageway between the main hall and the wall. This passageway was very narrow and only allowed one horse to go through at a time, so it was called a horse-hoof passageway. A lot of sundries were stored here, and hardly anybody came here.
He walked to the middle of the Horse-hoof Passageway, stooped down and fished out a roll of paper from his inside pocket. All of a sudden, a gong went off and with that a row of lanterns appeared on the top of the wall, instantly lighting up the whole passageway. Xu Bin was standing on the other end of the passageway, staring at him with a sorry look on his face.
“Old Pang, I never expected that it would be you… ”
Clerk Pang said in panic, “I -I just came here to answer the call of nature.” Xu Bin shook his head with a wry smile, saying, “Alas… Stop lying to me. Aren’t there enough stalls in Jing’an Department?” He walked over, snatched the roll of paper from Clerk Pang’s hand and unfolded it. Surprisingly, it was just a list of food procurement.
With an obsequious smile, Clerk Pang said, “You know me, Old Xu. Toilets in Jing’an Department are too dirty, so I came here. It’s more comfortable to wipe with paper than toilet-slips (Small, disposable pieces of bamboo used for cleaning in toilets in feudal China). But because of the Paper-conservation Decree, I can’t let anybody know about it.”
The Imperial Court had issued a Paper-conservation Decree
, stipulating that all residents must respect paper and value words, and banned using paper with words as toilet paper. Clerk Pang tried to use a list of food procurement to wipe, so technically, he should be punished with caning.Xu Bin said, “Eh… you think too much, Old Pang. The law is strict, but law-executors have their senses. How could they arrest people just because of a mere piece of paper?” Then he returned the roll of paper to him. Clerk Pang was relieved. He was just about to pat Xu Bin on the shoulder to show gratitude when Xu Bin gently sidestepped, and looked serious now. “If they do, that would be because someone committed divul -divulgence of military intelligence.”
He was an honest man, and the brief stammering cost him all his dignity when he was saying these condemning words. The look on Clerk Pang’s face went dark as he heard this. “Old Xu, you can’t slander a colleague like this. Trying to use this as toilet paper was indeed my fault, but isn’t your accusation a little wild?”
Xu Bin briefly recoiled and then sighed heavily, realizing that he was never meant to be a mole-catcher. He took a step aside, revealing a person behind him. By candlelight, Clerk Pang took a look and saw that it was the guard on duty at the corner gate, whose hands had been tied up at the back, and he started trembling.
The passageway was quiet, contrasting starkly with the noises outside. Then Xu Bin’s spoke in a low voice:
“I knew there’s a mole in our department, but I had to wait for the occasion to arise. Just now, a woman returned to the hall, who was supposed to be Wang Yunxiu but was identified otherwise. I deliberately sent this message to all officials. It’s so important that the mole will surely pass it on as soon as possible, and the ones who leave their seat at this time… Er… are the most suspicious.”
Xu Bin explained the trap he had set in a sincere manner, as if worried that Clerk Pang might not understand.
“All this time, I’ve been wondering how the mole in Jing’an Department managed to go through the front gate or the corner, er… Er… And then I realized that I made a mistake. This person is not necessarily someone who goes through the gate. He also might be someone who… er… guards the gate.” After saying this, Xu Bin took a deep breath and his tone became more confident. “I saw it just now: you walked through the corner gate, passed the message to the guard while he was checking you ID plate, and then left without anything suspicious on you; the guard passed it to another person outside and then continue to perform his duty, also with nothing suspicious on him. That was a very clever method. If investigated separately, both of you would be innocent. Only by putting you two together can I find out your trick.”
Clerk Pang slumped down onto the ground in the passageway with a thud. Xu Bin bade a couple of members of the Indecent to arrest him. Clerk Pang quickly raised his head and implored, “I -I was working for Phoenix Pavilion…”
Phoenix Pavilion was the Secretariat. He admitted he was a subordinate of Prime Minister Li, hoping that Xu Bin would show mercy to him. However, as slow as Xu Bin was, he knew that there was no way Prime Minister Li would admit this, not to mention protecting him. Clerk Pang’s official career was over.
Clerk Pang also realized this. He grabbed Xu Bin’s sleeve, yelling, “I want an audience with Sicheng Li! I was just passing messages. I’ve never interfered with any of Jing’an Department’s affairs!”
On hearing this, Xu Bin was somewhat irritated, “Humph! You actually denied this. If it weren’t for the collusion between you and Phoenix Pavilion, you think there would still have been a fire in Far Fortune Trade? That Cui Qi would still have betrayed us?” On hearing this, Clerk Pang was astonished and yelled, “I did pass intelligence about Commandant Cui to Phoenix Pavilion, but I have nothing to do with the matter of Far Fortune Trade!”
“Hmm?”
“Working for Turks is punishable by death! Besides, there’s nothing I gain by doing that.” Clerk Pang sounded afire with righteous indignation.
Reminded of this, Xu Bin realized that the two leaks were actually of entirely different nature. The beneficiaries of the FarFortune Trade fire were those Turkish Wolf Guards who were trying to steal the map in Xifu, while the beneficiary of Cui Qi’s betrayal was Prime Minister Li.
No matter how shameless Clerk Pang was, he couldn’t have worked for both sides at the same time.
“Does this mean that… there are actually two moles?” Standing in the passageway, Xu Bin felt a cold shiver of fear run through him. Since when did Jing’an Department’s security become so vulnerable? Spies had infiltrated into it like dirt and sand went through a sifter.
He fixed his stare at Clerk Pang who felt chills shot down his spine. But Clerk Pang soon discovered that Xu Bin was nearsighted, that he was actually staring at the roll of blank paper that he had intended to use as toilet paper. With great caution, he passed it over, saying, “If you want this… ”
All of a sudden, Xu Bin jumped, turned around and ran outside the passageway. It was difficult for a middle-aged man like him to run so fast. Soon he disappeared at the end of the passageway. Clerk Pang, the guard and a couple of members of the Indecent escorting the former two looked at each other, at a loss what to do.
Xu Bin was gasping for air, but his mind ran extremely fast. It had suddenly struck him just now that there was a better channel of passing intelligence in Jing’an Department.