The two pushed open the door and left, turning left and right through this maze-like residential district, walking faster and faster. Sun Lang's steps grew ever lighter, until he even began to skip and hop.
"Having fun?" Zhang Yinluo asked grimly from behind.
Sun Lang didn't look back, only waved a hand. "But didn't we dig up a crucial lead? It's not often I get out to play, so don't fuss over so much..."
The head constable's voice rose an octave. "Play?"
"This is called mixing business with pleasure! Doing the job easy and happy!" Sun Lang turned back and said with weighty sincerity, "Not a shred of humor in you. Which goes to show how oppressive the daily work environment is at your precinct. Let me tell you, you state-enterprise — ah, government-department — folk, you've really got some learning to do..."
"And then you keep making fun of me, making me play the black-faced villain, while you brazenly cast yourself as the red-faced hero, plagiarizing my lines and dressing yourself up as a good man?"
Sun Lang shrugged. "If you're not happy with it, you play the red face next time and I'll be the villain?"
Zhang Yinluo considered the consequences of letting Sun Lang play the black face... She thought of Xiuchun Hall bombed into a reeking ruin, of that pack of pitiful, frenzied people, of Zhang Jianyuan bamboozled into a stupor and actually believing Sun Lang a good man — and couldn't help shuddering. If even playing the red face turned out like this, then him playing the black face would leave — damn it, no one else would get out alive!
She heaved a long sigh. "You've all but driven me to death by anger... I'd half a mind to beat you up first and worry about the rest later, but..."
The head constable glanced at the whistling Sun Lang and smiled. "Just now you finally said one sensible thing... Qin Yu's affair really isn't simple. We may truly be facing a powerful foe. If you've come to regret it, I'll give you one chance to pull out — return the Startled Swan Sword and leave. Otherwise, by then there may really be no road back."
The errant shook his head vigorously. "When I say a thing, it always counts. You underestimate me far too much."
"I hope you're not just talking pretty..." Zhang Yinluo shook her head and smiled. "Base and shameless as you are, you at least keep your word — once you've promised a thing, you fear neither mountains of blades nor seas of fire, nor danger heaped on danger? Hmph. Grudgingly, that's a tiny redeeming point."
Sun Lang put on a you-really-do-understand-me warm smile.
Damn — once I'm out to have fun, I certainly can't come out the loser, and the bigger the fun the better, so how could there be any quitting halfway?
He waved a hand. "On to the next leg of the mission, then... target: Qin Yu's residence."
Zhang Yinluo nodded, then suddenly thought of something. "Wait... those two cursed cans of yours — you didn't bring them along, did you? You don't want them?"
"The canned herring and the Grand Cosmic Galaxy drink?" Sun Lang said. "I left them on purpose. A little gift to comfort him."
"...What's he going to do with that stuff? Use it to torture and interrogate people?"
Sun Lang ignored Zhang Yinluo's sarcasm. "To eat and drink, of course... The two of them are a bit strong in flavor, but as foods, they're perfectly serviceable."
"I don't think anyone could get that stuff down..."
"Well, that's no concern of mine."
Bickering all the while, the two of them walked off into the distance.
***
Zhang Jianyuan watched the two push open the door and leave, walking farther and farther, faint snatches of their talk drifting back. He raised a hand and only then realized with a start that his palm was soaked through, and his back had long since gone damp with cold sweat. He looked around; wave after wave of warmth washed over him. The weather plainly wasn't cold — so why had he just kept feeling that bone-deep chill? As if a terrible expert had been fixing him the whole time with an unbroken killing intent... It was precisely that life-threatened sense of crisis that had made him panic again and again, his mental defenses dropping lower and lower, until a few gentle words from Master Sun had him pouring out the truth and spilling his secrets.
He thought a moment, then gave a bitter laugh. Master Sun's sincere, mild face and that ferocious woman's cold figure wove together in his mind, and he thought: he had his answer.
It must have been that terrible woman... To think she was so fearsome an expert — able to batter at his heart, soundlessly, with a killing intent she wielded at will, leaving him at a total loss, blundering again and again, and never letting him notice anything amiss at the time. That control, that command of momentum, was truly terrifying. This woman must be a top-tier expert hard to find in all the world, one who'd charged and broken the enemy ten times over on the battlefield. Had Master Sun not held her back, Xiuchun Hall would surely have been cut down in swathes, corpses strewn across the ground. Master Sun was truly benevolent and righteous.
An expert, eh — no wonder she dressed like that, no wonder her temper was so foul. It's only natural for an expert to have a few odd quirks...
But this was for the best too...
Master Sun was open and aboveboard, upright and generous — a great chivalrous man, to be sure. But true heroes and good men are easily dragged down by this world, leaned on by the mediocre, schemed against by the wicked, envied by the vulgar. With this cold, tyrannical expert — temper and means both — standing at his side, surely such a good man could live on to a ripe old age... though this woman was indeed a bit too ferocious.
Ah, Master Sun, you have it hard...
He recalled Sun Lang and Zhang Yinluo's earlier exchanges and manner, and couldn't help showing the ambiguous smile all men understand... Truly, very nice.
Zhang Jianyuan smiled a while, then slowly rose and patted the dust off himself. Suddenly he noticed the two cans Master Sun had set on the ground hadn't been taken away. The head incense-master narrowed his eyes, gazing at the two cylinders that seemed to be giving off a suspicious smell. He hesitated a little... Master Sun said these were canned fish and a drink. A man like him surely wouldn't deign to lie.
But the juice splashed on him still gave off that indescribable mysterious smell, ceaselessly assaulting his nose. Zhang Jianyuan shivered despite himself — yet, thinking of Master Sun's kindly face, he gritted his teeth and, as if moved by some unseen force, reached out, hooked the pull-ring, and bit by bit opened the first can of herring.
"..." Naturally, a sky-high stench assaulted his nose at once — but perhaps because he'd grown used to it, Zhang Jianyuan only frowned, without losing his composure. The can did hold fish: amid a broth of most suspicious color, several snow-white pieces of fish floated quietly, with no sign of rot and no little worms grown in it. It looked... like it really could be eaten.
He didn't know how long he stared at the fish inside; his throat gave an involuntary gulp as he swallowed... Maybe it really can be eaten. Master Sun's such an upright man — why would he play this kind of joke on me? It surely won't kill anyone, and maybe it tastes unexpectedly good. It already reeks like this anyway, and I'm covered in it — a bit more smell is really nothing...
As if possessed, he hypnotized himself a little, then drew a deep breath, shot out a hand lightning-quick, scooped out a piece of fish, shut his eyes, steeled his heart, and put it in his mouth.
Chew, chew.
...Huh.
He opened his eyes in surprise... The taste was unexpectedly not bad — fresh and tender, with no revolting flavor; just a bit salty.
No matter — it could be eaten with flatbread and steamed buns, add some scallion and garlic, and it'd surely be excellent...
It really is a bit salty, but this is fine after all. I knew it — an upright man like Master Sun, how would he joke with me...
His spirits soared, and his gaze turned to the other iron can. Master Sun said this was some kind of medicinal broth, so it must be even safer. So the head incense-master picked up the can of tonic, opened it, and sniffed gently — there was indeed an herbal smell, but compared to the canned herring it was better by who-knew-how-much. So, full of anticipation, he took a light sip...
...Holy crap!
It was like... thorned piss!
Though a thousand words churned in his heart, summed up it came to just that one feeling. Zhang Jianyuan's eyes went wide, and he reflexively wanted to fling the tonic away — but somehow, after that sour, strange-flavored liquid went down his gullet, it gave him a peculiar sensation, as if the tonic and the canned herring had set off a wondrous chemical reaction, making him feel, making him feel...
If you accepted this flavor, it actually seemed to have a kick to it!
It's come to this anyway... Zhang Jianyuan steeled his heart, grabbed another piece of herring and tossed it into his mouth, chewed twice, then gulped a big mouthful of tonic.
Mmgh, mmgh, mmgh! The more he chewed, the better it got! He simply couldn't stop!
So Zhang Jianyuan fished out a third piece of fish. He chewed a bite of fish, sipped a mouthful of tonic — as if sitting in a courtyard on a midsummer night, sipping Zhuangyuanhong wine, eating peanuts, whiling away the hours, savoring the quiet and the calm — so much so that he didn't hear the footsteps and shouts coming from outside at all.
The door of this abandoned courtyard was flung open with a crash, and Xiuchun Hall's thugs, frantic, searched everywhere for their carried-off head incense-master and the bastard who'd publicly thrown crap.
And then they saw a scene that all but broke them.
The smell, the setting, the figure, the act, the motion.
This horrifying tableau simply could not be described in words.
Clang, clang, clang — every weapon in their hands clattered to the ground.
A moment later, a voice full of grief and terror cried out: "Head incense-master! What did they do to you!"
Zhang Jianyuan came to and lifted his head. "Eh?"