QIAO XIAN HAD already prepared a meal for Cui Buqu, ready to eat the moment he woke. Over years of taking care of him, her culinary skills had grown by leaps and bounds. Whenever they were away from home, if at all possible, she would cook his meals personally.
The sweet aftertaste of bamboo and partridge soup lingered on Cui Buqu's tongue. He could tell at once it was her handiwork.
"Before any news, I'd like to ask Deputy Chief Feng a question." Cui Buqu finished his soup and set down the bowl.
Feng Xiao made as if to stand. "Too late now. I would have told you earlier, but you didn't want to hear it. Now you wish to speak, but my venerable self does not wish to listen. Good day."
"Dare I ask why I woke up sore all over, most especially in my right shoulder? It feels as if I took a heavy fall."
"You're asking me?" said Feng Xiao innocently. "How should I know? You were crawling around in that secret chamber for ages. It's not surprising you're injured."
Cui Buqu brought a hand to his head, his expression stormy. "Then why is there an extra bump on my head?"
Feng Xiao clicked his tongue. "After you fainted, a certain villainous character came and tried to kidnap you. My venerable self chased them off and carried you back with painstaking effort, all while you were soaked in filthy water and Duan Qihu's blood. You're lucky I didn't complain. If you feel no gratitude, fine, but now you're interrogating me?"
Cui Buqu was puzzled. Both Duan Qihu's and Xing Mao's factions should have been taken care of by that point. "What villainous character?"
"Bing Xian," said Feng Xiao.
Cui Buqu stared at him.
Feng Xiao smiled. "What's with the look? Is Daoist Master Cui taken with her?"
"Yes, I am." Cui Buqu's voice was cold. "So can Deputy Chief Feng bring her back for me?"
"That might be difficult," said Feng Xiao, fanning himself. "Yan Xuexing is a powerful martial artist, and he's handsome too. I'm sorry to say you may not be a match for him. I suggest you give up on the girl. I'll introduce you to that plump maid of Gao Yi's."
"Enough. What have you learned from Yuheng?" Cui Buqu rubbed at the lump on his head. He estimated it'd take at least two days for the swelling to subside. Whether or not Feng Xiao was the culprit, he likely still deserved the blame.
Feng Xiao held up one finger. "Let's start with the bad news. Yuheng committed suicide."
Cui Buqu blinked. He'd freshly woken, and this news was like a bolt from the blue. The corner of his eye twitched, but he squashed down his fury. "Deputy Chief Feng, is this your first day on the job? We finally caught a key member of the Thirteen Floors of Yunhai—we could have pried all kinds of information from his mouth. Did it not occur to you to keep an eye on him?!"
Feng Xiao shrugged. "I understand his importance. But remember, this is Qiemo. It's not the Jiejian Bureau, nor is it your Zuoyue Bureau. There are only the four of us on this trip. Other than locking him up, what else could I do? Surely I couldn't stay glued to him every second of the day?"
Cui Buqu knew Feng Xiao spoke the truth. The Zuoyue Bureau had the authority to detain people, though not to the same extent as the Ministry of Justice, which could lock prisoners away for as long as they pleased. Still, any case took time. A handful of days was enough to achieve many things—such as ensuring someone died under mysterious circumstances. There were countless ways to pull it off without leaving a trace.
He was silent a moment. "If he were going to kill himself, he would have done it the moment he was captured. There's no way it was suicide."
"You're right," said Feng Xiao. "But once he entered the prison, there were plenty of opportunities for someone to meddle. We might have been able to prevent one attempt, but not all of them. The people here in Qiemo are a mixed bag; plus, their security has always been lax. Gao Yi ordered Yuheng strictly supervised, but someone arrived claiming to be his friend and asked permission to visit. He offered the guard a hefty bribe to be allowed inside. After he left, Yuheng was found dead."
"We likely won't find any trace of that visitor either," mused Cui Buqu.
"Yes, he's long gone. Gao Yi was afraid I'd lay into him, so he had someone draw a portrait based on the guard's description of him and posted it all over the city. He's offering a reward for his arrest, but I doubt we'll see any result."
Cui Buqu's held his throbbing forehead. "I just woke up. Can't you say anything positive?"
Feng Xiao chuckled. "Didn't I say there was good news?"
"Oh," said Cui Buqu, then fell quiet.
"Aren't you going to ask what it is?"
"If I ask, Deputy Chief Feng will never tell me so easily. Perhaps he'll even demand something in exchange."
Things in Qiemo had settled for now, and despite the organization's ambitions, the Thirteen Floors of Yunhai behind Yuheng had little to do with the situation at hand. If Cui Buqu wished to pursue this lead, it had to be considered a separate case. He had a good grasp on Feng Xiao's character: he'd never tell Cui Buqu anything Yuheng had said for free.
Feng Xiao smiled. "How clever you are, Daoist Master Cui. So, have you decided what you'll offer in exchange?"
"I've heard Deputy Chief Feng is looking for a new zither," said Cui Buqu slowly. "You must be quite dissatisfied with your current one. Otherwise you would have brought it with you to Qiemo, correct?"
Few people in the jianghu used a zither as a weapon, but Feng Xiao was one of them. He not only used the music of his zither to disorient his opponents, he used the instrument itself as a blunt weapon at critical moments. The last time Cui Buqu had seen him smashing enemies with his zither, true qi channeled through it, the instrument had cracked. An ordinary zither couldn't withstand such abuse. Only one of special make could be used as a weapon.
"Even without a zither," said Feng Xiao arrogantly, "I can trounce any opponent."
"I know the whereabouts of Raoliang."
"The famous Raoliang of the Spring and Autumn period?"
"The very same."
Even among famous zithers, Raoliang was legendary. Rumor had it that someone once offered it to King Zhuang of Chu. The king of Chu became consumed with Raoliang's otherworldly sound and refused to attend court for seven straight days while he played the zither. At his queen's urging, he finally smashed it with an iron scepter.
Thus Raoliang's music had vanished from the world. When later generations told of it, they could only imagine the magnificence of the music that came from its strings.
"There was only one Raoliang," said Feng Xiao. "A second one doesn't exist."
"But it does," said Cui Buqu. "The zither was one of a paired set. The first was called Yuyin, the second Raoliang. Hua Yuan presented Raoliang to the King of Chu as a gift. Though Raoliang is no more, Yuyin still exists, hidden away to this day. I happen to know where it is. Raoliang was enough to drive the king of Chu to obsession; its music must have been extraordinary. A skilled martial artist wielding it would achieve double the results with half the effort. And there's more: from what I know, both Raoliang and Yuyin were crafted using rare stones from beyond the heavens. Even if you smash someone over the head with the thing, you needn't worry about breaking it."
"Where is it?" asked Feng Xiao.
"Tell me the good news."
Feng Xiao's mouth twitched. "Fine."
Cui Buqu gestured for him to speak. You first.
"Before Yuheng died," Feng Xiao began, "he told us everything he knew. But it wasn't much different from what Duan Qihu said. Each director only knows those before and after themselves. Feng Xiaolian is the thirteenth, Duan Qihu was the twelfth, and Yuheng was the eleventh. What we learned, however, is that the position above Yuheng is empty."
Cui Buqu frowned. "Was there no one suitable to take it?"
Feng Xiao nodded. "According to Yuheng, the Thirteen Floors of Yunhai search for talents from all across the land. They recruit them and rank each floor based on ability. Apparently, Duan Qihu was originally dissatisfied that he was only Shi'er-xiansheng—but once he heard the identity of the sixth director, he abandoned the idea of climbing the ranks."
"Who?"
"Far away in Goguryeo. The leader of Buyeo Sect, Go Un."
The same Go Un who'd sent Su Xing and Qin Miaoyu to lie low in the Central Plains for years, gathering intelligence and seeking opportunities to sow discord within the Central Plains. Su Xing had been the one to tell them that, in the beginning, their contact in the Central Plains had been a certain Yi-xiansheng.
Several disparate clues had unexpectedly fallen into place.
"Even Go Un only ranks sixth," Cui Buqu observed. "Then those above him must be quite terrifying."
Feng Xiao smiled and nodded.
"But if the Thirteen Floors of Yunhai are so secretive, how do they contact each other?" Cui Buqu asked.
"Messengers handle correspondence, but Yuheng couldn't identify them. Each time a messenger comes, their gender, appearance, and voice are all different."
"This doesn't make sense." Cui Buqu frowned in thought. "The Thirteen Floors of Yunhai recruit dragons and phoenixes to their cause. Yuheng was a powerful martial artist, but he was neither influential nor especially cunning. Why was his rank above Duan Qihu's?"
"He claimed to be no more than a small-time thug from Jiankang. A stranger took a liking to him, taught him martial arts and some basic social niceties, and had him ordained as a monk at Ronghua Temple in Southern Chen. He rose little by little to become the abbot, then joined the Thirteen Floors of Yunhai. It seems that was the stranger's goal from the start."
Something flickered in Cui Buqu's eyes. "Yuxiu?"
Feng Xiao shook his head. "I couldn't get an answer. If it really was him, he was careful. Yuheng wouldn't have known."
Yuxiu's background was mysterious, but he'd earned the trust of the Prince of Jin. If he really were Shi-xiansheng of the Thirteen Floors of Yunhai, one could imagine the storm that was brewing.
Cui Buqu remained silent and furrowed his brow.
By contrast, Feng Xiao appeared relaxed and peaceful. He sat with his legs crossed, one foot swaying. "A-Cui, there's a question I've wanted to ask for a while."
Cui Buqu didn't look up; he was still thinking. "Speak."
"Your health is poor, and you spend every day working yourself to the bone. When you wake up in the morning and comb your hair, do you find your hairline constantly receding?"
Shaken from his thoughts, Cui Buqu looked up, irritated. "I find nothing," he snapped. "I'm not Deputy Chief Feng, in love with his own reflection. If you lost a single hair, I'm sure you'd spend the entire day wailing and clutching your head, then find some flowering tree to bury the poor thing under!"
Feng Xiao burst into laughter. "Even when you're harsh, you do it so adorably!"
Cui Buqu stared at him coldly.
Wiping his eyes, Feng Xiao said, "Now, will you tell me where Yuyin is?"
"Anping. Cui family."
Anping, previously known as Boling. A group capable of keeping an ancient zither of such caliber in their collection? There could be no other.
The arch of a brow. "The Cui clan of Boling?"
"Correct," Cui Buqu said.
Feng Xiao was sharp; one wave of his fan and he'd connected the dots. "You're a Cui. Are you a member of the Cui clan of Boling?"
"I have neither father nor mother, courtesy name nor title, much less the airs of someone from a powerful family." Cui Buqu's tone was indifferent. "Do I look like a member of such a family to you?"
Feng Xiao nodded. "That's true." But before Cui Buqu could say anything further, he added, "In my opinion, a family of such mediocre talent as the Cui clan of Boling could never raise a man as capable as you."