The Longest Day in Chang’an: A Race Against Time - Chapter 71

A carriage was lying on its side on the street, half-wrecked.

It had crashed into a giant lantern holder and overturned. Originally, there had been a lot of teenage girls singing and dancing beside the lantern wheel, but this carriage suddenly went out of control, hurled over and knocked these poor girls down to the ground, screeches and pained groans filling the air, garlands and capes everywhere. The whole scene was a mess.

Nearby audience of the lantern show gathered around in sympathy, believing that a driver who drank too much during the lantern show was the cause of this accident.

A soldier crawled out of the carriage in an undignified manner and then dragged the assassin named Seventeen Liu out of it, but the latter had been killed, a bloody slit in his throat.

Just now, when the ox-drawn carriage was passing the intersection between Xuanyang Fang and Changxing Fang, a black figure suddenly leaped over the top of the carriage at an extremely fast speed. First he killed the driver, overturned the carriage and then took advantage of the chaos and ran into the carriage. This guy’s sabermanship was amazingly accurate. The moment he ran into the carriage, he slit Seventeen Liu’s throat with his short saber in a precise way. The guard hadn’t even unsheathed his saber yet when the black figure got out, swiftly jumped off the carriage, leaped onto the lantern holder, climbed over the Fang wall and disappeared.

“No. I saw two black figures. One in the front and the other in the rear.” This was the last thought of the soldier before he passed out.

Yuan Zai headed for the drugstore near Cibei Temple which had both raw medicinal materials and ready-made drugs for sale. He was very happy, and even his pace became leisurely.

He had no reason not to be happy. Everything was going in the direction he was most satisfied with – no, it was even more satisfying than what he had expected.

Originally, he was merely requested to issue a transfer writ. After discovering that Feng Dalun mistakenly abducted Wang Yunxiu, Yuan Zai, on his own account, forwarded a second proposal with which he could kill two birds with one stone. Then he directly went to Censor Department where Ji Wen, an acquaintance of his, happened to be on duty. They had just finished exchanging usual pleasantries when Ji Wen suddenly received a secret letter from Prime Minister Li telling him to go and seize the post of Sicheng of Jing’an Department immediately.

Uncertain about it, Ji Wen consulted Yuan Zai. On hearing it, Yuan Zai, who was always discontented with his lot, started pondering and soon spotted a golden opportunity in this situation. For the third time, he altered his plan.

And then, in the name of “providing assistance”, he came to Cibei Temple accompanying Ji Wen and announced that Zhang Xiaojing was the chief plotter who was responsible for the attack on Jing’an Department as well as the abduction of Wang Yunxiu.

This was such a simple decision and it was also such a brilliant arrangement. Prince Yong would be very grateful to him, because all soldiers in the city would never stop hunting down Zhang Xiaojing unless he was dead. Feng Dalun would also be very grateful to him, because somebody else took the blame for abducting Wang Yunxiu; Wang Zhongsi and Wang Yunxiu would be very grateful to him as well, because Yuan Zai was the one who “rescued” her all by himself. Ji Wen and his backer Li Linfu would also pay special regard to him, because he helped Ji Wen take over Jing’an Department quickly, which was a huge humiliation for the Crown Prince.

At first, it was just a petty transaction concerning a transfer writ, but after putting some efforts into it, Yuan Zai managed to evolve it into a big plan involving multiple sides each of which owed him a favor. If it weren’t for that most part of this plan had to stay secret, Yuan Zai would have started writing an article in honor of the wisdom he’d displayed during the process.

Just now, Yuan Zai read a report and found that Wen Ran had been found. It abruptly occurred to him that Feng Dalun had once disclosed Prince Yong seemed to be pretty interested in Wen Ran. If he handed her to Prince Yong, that would be another big favor!

As a result, after repeatedly weighing up the pros and cons, Yuan Zai decided to go and catch Wen Ran himself in honor of this historic occasion in his life. But he didn’t underestimate the opponent. Before approaching the drugstore, he ordered members of the Indecent to set up blockades around the store first. Yuan Zai always preferred to make a watertight plan before taking action, and he always took precautions against all peccadillos, no matter how minor they were.

Yuan Zai even secretly assigned someone to spy on Yao Runeng, who would immediately come to report him once Yao Runeng talked to anybody in whispers or stealthily sent anybody a note. The arrangements were absolutely watertight!

Everything was ready. Yuan Zai slowly walked to the gateway of the drugstore selling both raw medicinal materials and ready-made drugs. He sympathetically stared at these poor people who were unaware of what was going to happen, raised his right hand and was about to heavily swing it down, finishing the last stroke of this masterpiece with a highly symbolic gesture.

But his arm abruptly stopped halfway through the gesticulation.

With a loud boom, a horse broke the door of a room and dashed out of the drugstore. Its momentum was so fierce that several members of the Indecent standing nearby were sent flying. Not daring to approach, the others standing around the drugstore yelled. The horse didn’t leave right away but turned around several times in front of the drugstore. It was not until this moment that members of the In Indecent saw that there were a male and a female sitting prostrate on the horse.

Yuan Zai, who retained his composure in the face of this emergency, yelled on the spot, “Hold your ground!”

He saw that this horse merely made a terrifying boom when it broke out of the room, that even the rider himself wasn’t sure where he should go. As long as they blockaded the roads, the two people wouldn’t make it out of this place. Members of the Indecent also collected themselves, whipped out their iron rulers and gained ground on the horse from three directions, so that no matter how ferocious that mount was, at least one team of attackers would be able to launch an attack on its side which was the most vulnerable part.

The rider also realized this crisis. He looked around, flapped the reins and galloped in the only direction where no enemies was in the way.

With a wry smile on his face, Yuan Zai watched the cornered target making a final desperate attempt to flee.

The rider was riding towards the only gap of the encirclement ring, which happened to be beside the front gate of Jing’an Department. At this moment, the main hall was still aflame and the fire showed no signs of abating.

This was the very reason why Yuan Zai didn’t set up blockades at this place, since anybody fled in this direction would be stopped by fire. It was a dead end.

But the smile on Yuan Zai’s face suddenly froze.

The front gate of Jing’an Department was very narrow and a horse could not get through, but in order to prevent the fire from spreading, firefighters had demolished nearby walls and and made an isolation strip. That rider rode his mount and easily leaped over those broken walls. Soon, the horse and the two people disappeared into fierce flames.

What were they doing? They were at the end of their ropes and wanted to commit suicide?

No!

Yuan Zai’s mind worked extremely fast for a while and then he yelled at members of the Indecent, “Hurry! Go to the Fang wall between Jinzhao Office and the back garden!”

Having done some research into the layout of Jing’an Department, Yuan Zai knew that there were wide gaps between buildings inside the compound. If one was determined and fast enough, he or she could narrowly make it to the back garden or the side gate of Jinzhao Office through the path between the main hall and two side-halls all three of which were ablaze.

Up until this moment, Yuan Zai was still not anxious. ‘Going into Jing’an Department was a smart move. But what next?’

Both the back garden and Jinzhao Office still had walls erect, which meant the rider had to abandon the horse and climb over the wall. How far away could a man and a woman possibly walk while so many people were hunting them?

Under rigorous orders from their superior, members of the Indecent split into several teams. One team went into Jinzhao Office to block the side-gate; another team detoured to the area outside the Fang wall of the back garden. They even controlled the water channel. There was also a team of them who wore fireproof capes and ventured into the scene of the fire.

Soon, two teams sent reports back saying that they didn’t see the targets. After a while, the third team awkwardly came back from the scene of the fire. They had only seen the horse abandoned in the courtyard. The two targets were nowhere to be found.

Yuan Zai was infuriated. Where could they possibly have gone? Surely they didn’t fly into the sky?! He pressed his palm down and ordered members of the Indecent to carefully search the department again. He was determined to find Wen Ran, since he wanted this amazing night to be flawless. A member of the Indecent awkwardly said that there might be casualties if they risked going in there again. Watching that man, Yuan Zai said, “If you don’t go inside, there will be casualties right now.”

Ashen-faced, the man had no choice but to summon his men to enter the scene of the fire for a second time. Unexpectedly, at this moment, Yuan Zai said, “Wait.”

He raised his head and saw that there was a towering building behind the main hall. A possibility suddenly struck him.

The big watchtower!

The big watchtower was right inside the back garden. If they abandoned the horse to flee, their only choice was to climb up the ladder to the top floor of the tower, hide there and climb down after they left. ‘Yes, isn’t that bastard named Yao Runeng repairing the big watchtower?’

The look on Yuan Zai’s face went cold as he thought of this. ‘How dare this petty official of Jing’an Department use this kind of small trick on me?’ He ordered all members of the Indecent to fall in, planning to lead the team himself to go after this easy prey.

You could go up there, but it wouldn’t be easy go down!

In order to repair the big watchtower, rescuers had managed to make a relatively safe path leading to the tower. Repairers didn’t have to venture through the three halls aflame. They had torn a hole in the wall of Jinzhao Office, through which they could enter the prison of Jing’an Department. After that they could cross the little garden in front of the prison, climb over the wall and enter the back garden.

This was the very path along which Yuan Zai led his men into the back garden. He took the lead and quickly climbed up to the top floor along a wooden ladder in one breath.

The top floor of the big watchtower was very spacious. It was a broad platform measuring about forty meters by forty meters, with a layer of thick felt blanket on the floor, railings all around and a wing-like pavilion roof supported by pillars in the middle to provide shelter from wind and rain.

At this moment, eight bodies of scouts were lying on the floor this way and that. Signal equipments such as lizard-skin drums, five-color flags and purple lanterns were here and there. There were also articles of daily use like a wok, water sacks, a stove, capes tossed all around. Crouched, Yao Runeng and two servants were examining the tower. Apart from them, there was nobody else.

Yao Runeng was greatly surprised by Yuan Zai who suddenly climbed up with an air of ferocity about him. Yuan Zai looked around and found that nobody could have been hiding here, so he yelled at Yao Runeng, “Where are you hiding Wen Ran? Who was that man?”

Yao Runeng answered with an innocent look, “I immediately came here to repair the big watchtower after you gave the order. Isn’t this what you requested me to do? How could I have found the time to hide anybody?”

Yuan Zai leaned forward until his broad forehead almost touched Yao Runeng’s face. “If you didn’t send a secret message to them, how come they suddenly fled the drugstore?” He turned his head aside and yelled at a servant, “You! Did you see them?”

This servant was the spy planted by him. Upon seeing that his superior got angry, the man answered in jitters, “Consultant, I’ve been staying with Yao Runeng all along. He… He indeed never sent any messages to anybody.”

“Impossible! You just failed to see it. Tell me who he talked to and what he did. I want every detail!” Yuan Zai rubbed his fingers irritably. Scarcely could he believe that he had let Wen Ran flee in front of his very eyes. The servant had a good memory. First Yao Runeng had talked to a couple of curators about the materials and people he needed to repair the tower. He had also requisitioned a large number of lanterns overhanging the front gate of Cibei Temple. Then he had had some firefighters clear a passage, then taken the batch of materials to the top floor of the big watchtower to assess the damage.

The servant vividly remembered every detail of who Yao Runeng had talked to and what he had done, and there was no questionable point at all. Unconvinced, Yuan Zai asked him where those lanterns were. The servant pointed in the direction of the lanterns hanging from the outer edge of the pavilion roof of the big watchtower. They had done this to remind people on nearby watchtowers that this tower malfunctioned and was currently under repair.

Yuan Zai rested his hands on the edge of the railings, craned his neck and stretched out his hand to touch those lanterns. There were several occasions when he nearly fell off the tower. But to his disappointment, apart from decorative patterns of “卍”, there was no other words on those lanterns. Yuan Zai retracted his upper body and looked down at Jing’an Department down below, which was pitch-dark.

This time he really couldn’t figure out where could Wen Ran and that mysterious man have been hiding.

“Get this thing working as soon as possible or else severe punishment will be meted out on you!”