Chapter 277 — Enveloping the Heavens

The arrival of Xia Lian and his men left no room for doubt: the perilous situation had swung sharply in their favor. Of the seven who had stormed into Yizhi Hall, two were dead, and the rest—

Yan Che's face could have frozen a man to death.

Once he saw that Dou Yan was unharmed, he at once asked to borrow her woodshed. "...There is something strange about this affair, and I fear delay will breed further trouble. I beg the Madam's permission to interrogate the thieves immediately."

Dou Yan, too, thought it best to settle matters quickly. She had Lu Yi's wife lead Master Yan, Xia Lian, and the others to the woodshed, while she herself directed the serving women in clearing the courtyard.

From the woodshed came a few wretched screams, which then seemed to be smothered by something, and fell silent.

Lu Yi's wife emerged from the corner passage leading to the small kitchen, her face pale, her expression one of terror.

Dou Yan felt a chill of alarm and whispered to Suxin, "If this ends in a death, who will ever dare take a turn at the stove again!"

Suxin said, "Then let me go remind Master Yan!"

Dou Yan nodded.

A young maid came in to announce, "Madam, Steward Lü is here."

The people of the Yingzhen Ducal House had seen the flames at Yizhi Hall as well, but to them the fire in the outer courtyard mattered more than Yizhi Hall. So when Lü Zheng—left in charge of the Ducal House's affairs in Tao Jun's absence—saw the guards of Yizhi Hall abandon the half-demolished wing rooms and rush en masse toward Yizhi Hall, he thought it over and decided to come see how things stood and offer his condolences.

Dou Yan happened to want to know whether the Yingzhen Ducal House had anything to do with this affair.

She received Lü Zheng in the main hall.

Lü Zheng, who had come with only two young servants, first saw two unfamiliar corpses on the walkway before Yizhi Hall, and then, in the main courtyard, a heap of firewood soaked with water. He was a shrewd man—otherwise he would never have become one of Song Cen's trusted confidants—and he quickly realized that someone had taken advantage of the chaos to attack Yizhi Hall, and that Dou Yan and her people had had no choice but to hold out while setting fires to signal for help.

Only, he did not know who had come up with the idea.

Not merely clever—quick-witted in a crisis.

But where on earth had these thieves come from? And how had they gotten into Yizhi Hall? Was there a traitor working with them from within? Had Yizhi Hall caught them all? If only a few had been taken, where were the rest now?

At these thoughts, Lü Zheng felt a chill run down his spine.

With such a grave matter in the house, the Heir would surely hurry back before long.

If the Heir suspected that this affair had something to do with the Duke, and flew into a rage—with the Duke away from home, who could stop him, and who would dare?

.

But he had already entered Yizhi Hall, so he had no choice but to feign ignorance, steel himself, and ask Dou Yan with a show of astonishment, "Madam, what on earth has happened?"

I would like to ask you what on earth has happened, and here you are turning it back on me.

Dou Yan grumbled inwardly, and told Lü Zheng the course of events, though she glossed over who had proposed setting the fires and pouring boiling water, without going into detail.

Lü Zheng listened until sweat poured down like rain, then dropped to his knees before Dou Zhiwei with a thud and said urgently, "Madam, I never imagined such a disaster could occur—it is all the fault of we petty men! We had eyes only for fighting the fire, and let the thieves slip in. I only wonder what Master Yan has gotten out of those thieves? Have they said how many there were in all? What I fear is that some are still hiding in the shadows, waiting to strike when we let down our guard..."

These thieves had clearly entered through the Yingzhen Ducal House, and Tao Jun was absent. For the time being, the responsibility could only fall on him, the steward.

Dou Yan saw that though his face showed surprise, a flicker of terror passed through his eyes, and her suspicions deepened all the more—so her tone grew all the gentler. "There is no word from Master Yan yet. As for the household's affairs, I fear we must trouble Master Tao and Steward Lü."

Since Lü Zheng put it that way, then whether or not Song Cen had a hand in this, let them worry over everything beyond Yizhi Hall's walls.

As the two were speaking, Tao Jun returned, having borrowed men from the Five Wards Command to help fight the fire. He had heard that a fire had broken out at Yizhi Hall for no apparent reason, that Master Yan and the others had all rushed there, and that the eastern servants' quarters had caught fire as well—and that the women living there, thinking of their children and their belongings, had no heart left for firefighting, and slipped home from time to time to see to their young, throwing the Yingzhen Ducal House into utter chaos. His face changed drastically; he hastily gave a few instructions to the deputy commander who had come to help, and then took his attendants to Yizhi Hall.

Everyone knew that the Duke and the Heir did not get along. With the Heir away from home, if anything were to happen to the Heir's wife, the world would likely suspect that this affair had something to do with the Duke. Though the Duke disliked the Heir, he would not do something so certain to invite censure. And then they would be like mud smeared on a man's trousers—whether or not it was shit, it would look like shit.

On the way, a trusted retainer who had stayed behind at the house told Tao Jun what had happened at Yizhi Hall.

Tao Jun groaned inwardly.

When he reached Yizhi Hall, Yan Che happened to be coming to see Dou Yan as well, and he seized Yan Che by the arm as though clutching at a lifeline. "Brother Yan, Brother Yan, what on earth has happened here?"

Yan Che did not slow his steps, heading for the principal chamber as he said, "I was just on my way to report to the Madam. You may as well come and listen."

Tao Jun's heart gave a violent lurch, and his face turned faintly green as he followed Yan Che into the hall.

"Madam, they are a band of roving bandits from Cangzhou, who could no longer stay there and came to the capital to lie low," Yan Che said—even he had not expected matters to unfold this way. "They saw that your dowry included a chest of silver drafts, and set their sights on it. They colluded with several idle gangs in the capital, spent money to hire two wandering swordsmen, and plotted the jailbreak and the fire in the stables..."

Dou Yan was struck dumb.

Lü Zheng, however, let out a breath of relief.

It was the Heir's wife's dowry that had brought this trouble—so now at last it had nothing to do with them!

But his relief had scarcely eased when he heard Yan Che say, "According to their confessions, twenty-six men slipped in this time. So far we have only found seven. The whereabouts of the others are unknown. I fear this matter will require Master Tao's judgment—what do you think best?"

Tao Jun did not regret it.

If he had known it would come to this, he should have listened to Yan Che, sacrificed the pawns to save the king, and simply torn down two wing rooms of the eastern servants' quarters to check the spread of the flames... The stables—well, if they burned, they burned; they could be rebuilt. Now look at the state of things: thieves had actually gotten in. The blame for this would fall entirely on him. And nineteen men were still unaccounted for...

He felt like an ant stranded on a hot pan.