THE REVELATION that Cui Buqu was the nephew of the king of Kucha had only marginally dampened the fat man's arrogance. Now the thin man joined him in casting the group suspicious glances.
This was Qiemo after all, far from the eyes of the emperor; they barely took Gao Yi's status as an official of Great Sui seriously. The king of Kucha wasn't about to send an army to collect his nephew. As they said, even a dragon couldn't kill a snake in its own garden. Cui Buqu was a mere nephew, but even if he were the king of Kucha himself, Duan Qihu and Xing Mao had hundreds of masterful ways to entrap him here forever.
The two corpses were at the morgue. Gao Yi refused to enter for fear of bad luck, so he had someone cart the corpses to the front courtyard instead.
It was a cool day, and though the bodies had been lying there since last night, there was no stench. Both men had burned to death, and their corpses were scorched black. It was hard to imagine any clues remained.
Let's see how you'll conduct an autopsy on this, the fat one's face seemed to say.
Cui Buqu walked once around the bodies, then waved Feng Xiao over. "A-Feng, isn't this what you're best at? Come take a look!"
Feng Xiao said nothing. The scent of char assailed his nose, and his mouth twitched. "My lord, your wife's lovely fingernails were freshly stained yesterday. Why don't you carry out the examination while I do the talking?"
Cui Buqu was bizarrely agreeable. His lips curved in a small smile. "Of course."
With no regard for the filth, he placed a hand on the first corpse and began to examine it, feeling upward from the stomach. The corpse's garments had been burned to flaking ash, and the pieces remained stuck to the skin. Touching it couldn't have been pleasant. The observers felt their hair stand on end; the fat-and-skinny duo covered their mouths and noses, and even Gao Yi had backed up to the doorway. Yet Cui Buqu remained unperturbed, as though what he touched was the jade-like skin of a beautiful woman and not a cracking corpse charred past the point of recognition.
Feng Xiao was an unrivaled martial artist, and when it came to intellect, he was first to rank himself among the sharpest minds. Still, that didn't mean he knew anything about autopsies. Since Cui Buqu had described his supposed generations of expertise, he had no choice but to play along. He watched Cui Buqu palpate the corpse and asked, "How's the torso?"
"His chest is uninjured. As for his back…"
Cui Buqu flipped the corpse over. With a crack, an arm fell to the floor.
Everyone stared.
"I didn't use much strength," Cui Buqu said innocently. "A-Feng, pass me his arm."
Qiao Xian quickly turned aside, lest Gao Yi and the others see the malicious glee dancing in her eyes.
Feng Xiao pressed a hand to his forehead. "Ah, I'm suddenly a bit dizzy. My lord, your wife just remembered: the doctor said our child is still small, so I oughtn't touch anything with too much negative yin energy. Of course we must listen to the doctor—your lordship wouldn't want his child to be born with any defects?"
Cui Buqu didn't answer. He glared at Feng Xiao's stomach, then looked away, face blank, and returned to examining the corpse. "The spine is uninjured." He turned the body over a few more times.
The fat one asked, "You still haven't found anything?"
The skinny one asked, "Aren't you just wasting our time?"
"There's definitely something odd about Li Fei's death," groused the fat man. "Magistrate, detain these four and interrogate them carefully. If you ask me, you should send someone to Kucha to inquire whether the king really has such a nephew. If not, they must be the culprits—someone secretly sent them to kill Li Fei!"
"What do you mean by someone?" The skinny man frowned. "Speak plainly, if you have the guts!"
"What? I didn't say any name!"
As the two prepared to rip into each other again, Gao Yi readied himself to mediate out of habit. Cui Buqu had shown the golden seal to prove his identity, but in all honesty, Gao Yi had no mind to meddle even if this "nephew" turned out to be a fraudster from the jianghu.
Ever since he'd arrived in Qiemo and discovered Duan Qihu and Xing Mao had already divided the city between them, Gao Yi had extinguished his once-fiery ambition of climbing the ranks. After enduring for so many years, he'd have accepted a mediocre position if it meant he could leave. Even a tiny county on the border would be better than staying in Qiemo. Though he received a considerable number of kickbacks from Duan Qihu and Xing Mao every year, he was caught between them like a rock and a hard place.
Cui Buqu's slow drawl came from beside him. "Neither of them has injuries on their chests or backs, however—they were both murdered before they were burned."
All three observers froze. The fat-and-skinny duo forgot their quarrel long enough for one of them to exclaim, "Ridiculous! On what do you base these sensational claims!"
"Look at his mouth," said Cui Buqu.
He pried open the mouth of one of the corpses. Too curious to resist, Gao Yi came forward to look. The fat-and-skinny duo, behind him, had no choice but to swallow their nausea and lean forward as well.
"If they'd burned to death, ash and dust would have entered their mouths and noses as they breathed. Their mouths are clean, which indicates they were burned after they were killed."
Until this moment, Gao Yi had wanted to wrap up the case without any fuss. When he heard they'd perished in the fire, he hadn't doubted the claim. But now he had to ask, "Can you tell how they died?"
Touching the back of the corpse's neck, Cui Buqu paused. "A-Feng, come take a look."
"My lord, you can tell me from there." Feng Xiao was certain Cui Buqu was setting him up. He refused to come a step closer even on pain of death.
Cui Buqu smiled at him. "Human life is precious. We can only avenge the lives of these deceased by uncovering the truth." He spoke gently, "A-Feng, I know you've been despondent since we lost our child. You feel the babe is still in your womb. But that's why we need to perform more good deeds, for the sake of our child. Isn't that so?"
Feng Xiao's mouth twitched. Fine. You win this time, you lunatic.
Cui Buqu arched a brow. Who asked you to tell such brazen lies? I'm merely helping you polish them. Get over here before I show you my next trick; I assure you, you'll like it even less.
The two locked eyes. Finally, Feng Xiao took a reluctant step forward. He stood beside Cui Buqu, suppressed his disgust, and groped along the back of the corpse's neck. "There's a crack along his cervical vertebrae. The killer was skilled; perhaps someone with extensive training. The bones are cracked but not displaced. Without a careful examination, it would never be discovered."
Gao Yi called the coroner over to perform his own examination. It was exactly as Cui Buqu and Feng Xiao had said.
"I knew someone murdered Li Fei!" the fat man shouted. "He spends all day managing the pawnshop and rarely goes anywhere else. Who could have such a strong personal grudge against him? Someone is trying to hinder my lord by picking off his subordinates!"
"If you have the balls then name names!" the skinny man shot back. "Enough with your vague insinuations!"
"Who's scared of naming names? Everyone in Qiemo knows Duan Qihu's Vajra finger technique can shatter metal and stone!"
"If my lord wanted to kill someone, would he dirty his own hands?" the skinny man sniped. "Is there a brain in that head of yours?!"
Gao Yi's temples throbbed from the noise. "Shut up, both of you!"
It seemed there was a limit to even this duo's impudence. They resentfully closed their mouths.
"The truth of this case is yet unclear," Gao Yi said. "There's no sense in arguing. I will send someone to conduct a full investigation and keep both of you informed of any results."
After a few more words of persuasion, he at last managed to send the two away.
Observing Gao Yi's relieved expression, the shadow of a smile crept over Cui Buqu's face. "Magistrate Gao should be the authority in this city. How have you ended up at the mercy of their whims?"
Gao Yi had an easy nature—he took no offense at the question and even cracked a wry smile. "Perhaps Duke Shang doesn't know. This city is controlled by Xing Mao and Duan Qihu, and has been for a long time. The court appointed me, but I lack the ability to overcome their influence."
"My uncle the king of Kucha sent me to travel the Central Plains. I journeyed through both Great Sui and Southern Chen, and found the north more prosperous and vibrant than the south. It's a matter of time before Great Sui unifies the Central Plains. When the day comes, how will Duan Qihu or Xing Mao resist the might of Great Sui's invincible army? Magistrate Gao should take heart."
The court has its hands full with the Göktürks. Where would they find the time for a small city like Qiemo? thought Gao Yi. But he was an official of Great Sui; he couldn't undermine his own nation before foreigners. He spoke some perfunctory words of agreement.
How could he know then that this sickly young man claiming to be the king of Kucha's nephew, along with his wife who squeaked all her words and acted like a madwoman, would accomplish what Gao Yi could not? With a wave of their hands, they would stabilize Qiemo, collapse three powers into one, and bring the city securely under Great Sui's rule. But Gao Yi knew nothing of these four's true identities, nor how terrifying they truly were.
"Duan Qihu started as a highwayman," Qiao Xian said. "How did he come to dominate Qiemo and amass so many followers?"
"I'm not sure myself," said Gao Yi. "They say he's charismatic and knows how to win people over. If he earned but a single copper coin, he'd split it among his men. That kind of attitude inspires loyalty. He's a talented man, no less formidable than any hero. Not only do a third of the city's businesses belong to him, it's said his martial arts are first rank."
In contrast, Xing Mao sat on the legacy of the previous kings of Shanshan—he had more troops, more horses, more money, and more supplies, yet he could barely maintain their current stalemate. Clearly, he wasn't quite Duan Qihu's match.
But this murder case lacked any logic or motive. Other than the fractures in the corpses' spines, they had no other leads. With so little to go on, Gao Yi had no interest in pursuing the case against Cui Buqu's group. He only requested they stay in Qiemo so they could be summoned for questioning should need arise.
Feng Xiao asked Gao Yi for a basin of clean water and scrubbed his hands with soap a dozen times but still felt there was a smell. He left, set on finding a cosmetics shop to purchase perfume sachets he could rub on his hands.
Qiao Xian couldn't resist taking a shot at him: "Do you really fancy yourself a woman?"
"Are you insulting yourself?" asked Feng Xiao. "Or Jinlian?"
Qiao Xian rolled her eyes, and Jinlian joked, "I might be a woman, but I'm nowhere near as fussy as you."
"Between making myself happy and pretending to be happy for the benefit of others, I prefer the first," Feng Xiao said.
Cui Buqu had grown bored of the inn and itched for a stroll outside. He sent Qiao Xian and Jinlian ahead first and went with Feng Xiao to purchase the sachets.
To save a little time, Cui Buqu and Feng Xiao took a shortcut through a narrow alley, just wide enough for two people to walk abreast. This seemingly minor decision led to an unexpected encounter.
Up ahead, a white silhouette glided toward them with great haste, about to turn the corner into the alley.
Who else could it be but their old acquaintance, Yuxiu? But this time he wasn't alone—another figure walked beside him. They were about to come face-to-face. It was too late to retreat, and with Yuxiu's sharp eyesight, who knew what suspicious details he might spot in their disguises.
Feng Xiao did nothing by halves. Without a moment's hesitation, he wrenched his collar open and yanked Cui Buqu hard against him, panting delicately. "Don't be so impatient, my lord; we're in broad daylight! Your wife will be too embarrassed to look anyone in the eye after this!"
Cui Buqu was rendered utterly speechless.