The Longest Day in Chang’an: A Race Against Time - Chapter 81

Zhang Xiaojing ignored the captain who was rolling on the ground, sniffed at the green liquid on his sleeve and identified it as copperas oil, which was a material used by Taoist alchemists to make pills. It corroded paper, wood and skin very quickly. Many assassins had sleeve bags hidden in their sleeves, which contained copperas oil that could be of great use in an emergency.

‘Who’s this guy going by the name of Fishgut exactly…’ Zhang Xiaojing was secretly startled, the look on his face concerned in the extreme.

He had exhausted his ability and finally found a faint gleam of hope under such difficult circumstances, but eventually he still failed to stop Fishgut from escaping. Fishgut wouldn’t be tricked for a second time, which meant that the last trail went cold.

With the disappearance of hope, huge pressure instantly came at him from all sides. As firm and persistent as Zhang Xiaojing was, he was still exhausted both mentally and physically. He began to suspect that maybe this was divine will. Just like that gory fight happened the year before, he did everything he could but still couldn’t save the situation single-handed, and neither could he save the life of his comrade-in-arms. One person was no match for an organization, not by any means.

Besides, currently, he was under attack from two powerful forces at the same time, the Imperial Court of Tang Dynasty and Kailu Hodo, from both the front and the rear.

All his efforts were doomed to be in vain at the very moment they were made. Elder Ge’s words repeated themselves in his mind again and again, as if some demon inside him was talking to him, ‘You care about Tang Dynasty, but does Tang Dynasty care about you?’

Zhang Xiaojing managed to open his only eye. His vision had begun to blur. Soldiers hastily rushed into the alley wielding their chains and iron rulers, planning to catch him like catch a rat in the hole. All Shouzhuo mercenaries carried their captain and retreated. Elder Ge had also quietly left. In no circumstances would they help him.

He was in a genuinely hopeless situation, both inside and outside.

“Runeng, I’m sorry, but I won’t be able to keep my promise of hanging in there.” Zhang Xiaojing’s shoulders dejectedly drooped. Leaning against the cob wall, he seemed to have been aged considerably in an instant.

Suddenly, with a twitch of his ears, he hurriedly raised his head and saw that the black figure leaped down from a roof not far away heading squarely his way. Having never expected that this guy would come back, Zhang Xiaojing shot out his elbow backwards at him out of force of habit. Surprisingly, the black figure failed to parry the blow and was elbowed right on the nose. With a pained groan, he fell to the ground.

Finding that the voice was not right, Zhang Xiaojing fixed his gaze on the figure only to discover that it was Es who had been missing for a long time. Ever since this guy wandered off on Rosefinch Street, he had never shown himself again. Zhang Xiaojing had thought that they had got rid of him. Unexpectedly, he materialized at this place. His eyes, which looked like those of a Persian cat, brimmed with tears due to the pain.

“Say no more. Follow me!” Too anxious to explain, Es turned around and started climbing up the wall.

Zhang Xiaojing discovered that those dents, heads of rafters, edges of tiles and cracks seemed to be out of order, but under Es’ feet, they were like an invisible ladder, which could be easily climbed if one made use of those footholds in the right order. Remarkably, he followed suit and soon climbed to the top of the wall without much difficulty.

Leading Zhang Xiaojing, Es dexterously progressed across one roof after another by climbing over beams and eaves. It seemed as if he was walking on level ground. Soon, they jumped into a deserted, secluded courtyard, leaving those pursuers far away behind them.

Before Zhang Xiaojing could ask, Es started spilling words out.

It turned out that he didn’t wander off on Rosefinch Street. It was just that he competitively wanted to render meritorious service before Zhang Xiaojing, so Es climbed over the wall and got into Pingkangli first with his grotto-running skills. Unexpectedly, though he had excellent lightness skills, his sense of direction was poor. He mistakenly entered a brothel and wasted a lot of time. When he got rid of those people in the brothel and returned to the street, as luck would have it, he witnessed Fishgut’s raid on the carriage in which Seventeen Liu was escorted.

Astounded, Es hurriedly followed him in a covert manner. Remarkably, with his grotto-running skills, he neither lost the target nor got exposed. Stalking Fishgut, he arrived at the bookstore located at the end of the alley.

And then there were several twists and turns which happened so quick that Es was unable to react. He wanted to pursue Fishgut when he saw him fleeing, but then he observed that Zhang Xiaojing was about to be caught by those soldiers. He had to make a choice between the two. Eventually, Es clenched his teeth and chose to save Zhang Xiaojing.

“What a pity! What a pity!” Es regretfully scratched his head.

Zhang Xiaojing made no redundant remarks. He directly asked, “You’d been stalking him for quite a long time. Did you find any clues to his identity? – Cut to the chase!”

“Er… This guy is definitely from the Western Regions. At least he stayed in the Western Regions for quite some time. His grotto-running skills are on a par with mine,” Es observed in a very modest manner.

“What about his whereabouts? Does he have any dens?”

“No. He’d been moving around like a swift cat on rooftops in Pingkang Fang all along. But I got this… ” Es fumbled in his clothes and then fished out a small stuff.

It was half a bamboo chip, about the size of a nail, shaped like a aniseed.

Es said that, in order to facilitate jumping, Fishgut wore a pair of customized fishbone shoes, which had a lot of fishbone-like ridges on the soles. This half a bamboo chip used to be fixed between two ridges. Sharp-eyed Es observed that something dropped from the sole of Fishgut’s shoe when he was taking a leap on a rooftop, so he conveniently picked it up.

“I told you so. Nothing in Chang’an escapes my notice.”

Zhang Xiaojing took the bamboo chip and scrutinized it but didn’t find anything suspicious. A gleam of hope had just flared up inside him when it turned out to be another mere illusion. He shook his head and said to Es dejectedly, “Thank you, but there’s no way we can stop the Kailu Hodo now. You’d better go back to the temple and tell your fellow monks to leave the city and find shelter.”

Es was taken aback. “Isn’t this a clue?”

“It’s just a ubiquitous bamboo chip. What do you think we can deduce from it?” Zhang Xiaojing answered, dispirited.

Es moved his face closer to him and said unhappily, “Ubiquitous? Are you questioning my discernment? If it’s really just a ubiquitous bamboo chip, you think I’d specially picked it up? You see. Somebody must have meticulously carved it into this octagon, and there’s also an indentation in the middle. This thing is not ubiquitous in Chang’an… ”

As he heard Es’ remarks, Zhang Xiaojing’s despondent face faintly brightened, as if having been injected with a trace of vigor.

He was right, the way this bamboo chip had been carved was very rare – not because few craftsmen were good enough to do this but because it was uneconomical. Making this thing required fine workmanship and was very time-consuming, and nobody would spend so much time carving a bamboo chip of so little value, unless it was part of a larger component of something.

The look in Zhang Xiaojing’s eyes gradually grew serious. He abruptly recalled something.

After the explosion in Changming Fang, some staff members of Jing’an Department had collected a lot of fragments at the scene and taken them back for research. He had once carefully checked them and found Cao Poyan’s necklace. Now he recalled that there seemed to be a lot of pieces of bamboo among them, and Xu Bin had once compained that those things pricked his hands.

But back then he had only given a careless glimpse at those pieces, so he didn’t remember many details, and neither did he know whether there was any connection between those pieces of bamboo and this bamboo chip in his hand. Zhang Xiaojing thought that he would have to go back to Jing’an Department if he wanted to figure this out – but those proofs probably had already been burnt.

Thinking about this, he felt another twinge of disappointment. At this moment, Es suddenly held Zhang Xiaojing’s hand, stuffed the cross he wore into his palm and said urgently, “Commandant Zhang, perseverance means victory. It’s still too early to give up. You see. Even I still have my fight.”

His innocent, gemstone-like eyes seemed to possess some kind of mysterious power. Zhang Xiaojing couldn’t help giving a smile, and with that his spirits became slightly higher. “Actually this matter doesn’t concern you. Why do you care about it so much?”

Es said with a solemn look, “Whether Persian Temple can regain its rightful Nestorian name solely depends on commandant, so I naturally should try my level best.”

Zhang Xiaojing pulled a wry face and said, “Currently I cannot even be sure of my own safety. I’m afraid you’ll be disappointed.” But Es said, “Nestorian doctrin stresses that as long as one prays to God with persistence, retains hope for delight and endures hardship with a strong will, he or she will surely be rewarded. Commandant Zhang has a unique temperament and can concentrate your mind on one cause. I’m sure you’ll be somebody in the future and you’ll no doubt be of great help to Nestorianism.”

Zhang Xiaojing said in surprise, “If it were for money and fame, I can understand. But it’s just a name, is it really worth taking such a risk?”

“It is. Without the right name, people might not take our words seriously,” Es answered earnestly, as if it was the most important thing in the world. Seeing the faintly unconvinced look on Zhang Xiaojing’s face, he pointed at his own eyes and said, “Does Commandant Zhang know any details about my pretty eyes?”

“Persia?”

“Only legitimate Persian royal members have such crystal clear green eyes.” Es’ tone of voice was full of pride, but with that he sighed, “Unfortunately, in the reign of Emperor Taizong and Emperor Gaozong, Arab Empire invaded Persia and subjugated it. Under orders from our emperor Beiluss, all our people migrated to the territory of Tang, where Beiluss was appointed Right Weiwei General. All royal members lived in various cities in the Western Regions. I was born a people of a conquered nation and had been suffering from discrimination for many years. If it weren’t for God, I probably would have died and been buried in the desert long ago.”

Zhang Xiaojing grunted, “Um.” No wonder he sometimes claimed that he was a prince of Persia. Zhang Xiaojing had thought that he was joking. Unexpectedly, it was true.

Es suddenly raised his head and crossed himself. “My identity had witnessed vicissitudes and the cycle of nations. Neither power nor wealth endures. Serving God is the only way to eternity. The rectification of his name is the very thing I’ll be pursuing for the rest of my life, and I will not hesitate to lay down my life if need be!”

His eyes twinkled with enthusiasm. Finding that there was no way he could decline, Zhang Xiaojing had no choice but to say, “Okay, okay. I’ll figure out a way to get back to Jin’an Department and see what I can find out about this bamboo chip – it’s a shot in the dark, but it’s the only thing we can do.”

He had just finished the last word when lanterns on watchtowers on all sides started flashing on and off constantly at the same time. Zhang Xiaojing furrowed his brow, raised his eyes and discovered that this was the most urgent communication situation where all watchtowers would keep sending the same message repeatedly until the next order was given. He soon decoded the message. It came from the big watchtower, and its contents were repetitions of four words.

Do not come back. Do not come back. Do not come back.