Chapter 58: Chapter 58
Shen Xiuhan reached the third floor. To the left of the corridor were two rooms.
One had its door thrown wide open — empty, not a soul inside.
The other sat at the far end of the hallway, its wooden door left ajar; the faint sound of turning pages drifted out.
He walked up and knocked.
“Rap, rap.”
“Enter.”
A clear, ringing voice came from within.
Shen Xiuhan pushed the door open; the view before him suddenly opened wide.
A cross-draft brushed his face.
Through the latticed window, the water’s surface glittered like scattered shards of silver — a view beyond reproach.
And there, in a chair by the window, sat a young man reading a book.
The young man looked barely past the age of capping — features refined, still carrying a touch of boyishness.
His outfit, however, clashed sharply with his age and temperament.
He wore a beast-hide coat, grey-white fur wrapping his shoulders, and tall boots on his feet.
On the desk beside him lay, horizontally, an ancient-looking black longsword.
This was the garrison commander of Yunyi Island?
So young…
Surprise stirred in Shen Xiuhan’s heart, but nothing showed on his face. He stood with back straight and cupped his fists:
“Greetings to the garrison commander. This one is Shen Xiuhan — here to take up my posting by order.”
The young man in beast-hide finally raised his head, lifting his gaze from the pages to Shen Xiuhan. His voice carried no readable emotion:
“Do you have credentials?”
“I do.”
Shen Xiuhan produced the letter of introduction the Ji servant had delivered the day before, along with the waist-token Ji Zhong had given him, and handed both over.
The young man in beast-hide took the letter. When he read its contents, surprise clearly crossed his face; his gaze settled on Shen Xiuhan once more:
“Patrol Envoy… you’re a Manifest Strength martial artist?”
Shen Xiuhan, neither overly humble nor overly bold: “I am.”
“Well, well…”
The young man’s brow lifted slightly. He lowered his head back to the letter, reading on with growing astonishment:
“Hmm — Mei Hall’s… Jiang Qinghong’s junior brother, no less… Oh! Sensed qi-blood in sixteen days. No wonder my father told me to look out for you.”
The young man in beast-hide casually folded the letter shut. Seeing Shen Xiuhan’s puzzlement, he smiled and explained:
“My name is Ji Ning. My father is Ji Zhong — the Ji clan steward who gave you that waist-token.”
At those words, Shen Xiuhan’s eyes narrowed sharply.
Ji Ning…
Ji Zhong’s son!
Shen Xiuhan had not forgotten what Luo Zhan had revealed at the retainer posting meeting — the bloody affair at Yunyi Island.
Ji Guannan, the Ji clan’s own direct-line prodigy, had been hunted and killed right here on Yunyi Island.
For Ji Zhong to send his own flesh-and-blood son here to serve as garrison commander…
No wonder the man had been given the main family’s surname — no wonder he could come and go freely in the Ji clan’s Scripture Library.
A man of this kind of loyalty: if the Ji clan did not place him in a position of trust, then who would they?
Understanding dawned in Shen Xiuhan’s heart.
Ji Ning seemed to read his thoughts, and smiled it off with unconcern: “You’re clear on the rules and the monthly pay?”
Shen Xiuhan tamped down his shock: “Steward Ji has laid it all out.”
Ji Ning nodded, his expression turning serious:
“Since my father asked me to look after you, let me give you the full picture on a few things.”
“At present, Yunyi Island has a total garrison of twenty-five.”
Ji Ning pointed a finger downward through the floorboards:
“The main pavilion is held by me and the men under my personal command. The remaining twenty are split among four Patrol Envoys and sixteen patrol guards, rotating around the clock on patrol through designated waters.”
“Rules on the island aren’t strict. As long as you finish your sweep of the waters you’ve been assigned, and nothing goes wrong, the rest of your time is your own. Whether you want to lock the door and drill your arts, or take to the lake and catch fish — nobody interferes.”
Shen Xiuhan cupped his fists with gravity: “Many thanks for the heads-up, Garrison Commander.”
“Mm. The island’s short-handed right now, and time’s wasting — you’ll start your first shift tonight.”
That said, Ji Ning reached over and gave a light tug on a thin cord dangling from the window frame.
From below came a crisp jingle of shaking copper bells — “ting, ting, ting.”
In no more than a moment, heavy footsteps sounded from below, climbing upward.
The door pushed open, and the genial-faced man who had given Shen Xiuhan directions earlier strode in.
“Garrison Commander, sir!”
Ji Ning stood by the window, hands clasped behind his back, and gave his orders:
“Deng Shan, take Patrol Envoy Shen to Squad C. From now on, he’ll be responsible for the river section formerly under Zheng Bao’s charge… And take him by the supply room on the way — issue him one set of house colors and a set of signal rockets. Oh, and allocate a black-canopied boat from the berths for Patrol Envoy Shen.”
At those words, Deng Shan’s mouth fell slightly open. In disbelief, he turned to look at Shen Xiuhan, standing off to one side — his tongue nearly knotting itself:
“Shen — Patro… Patrol Envoy?”
“What, is there a problem?”
Ji Ning’s brow rose: “Brother Xiuhan has genuine Blood Tempering cultivation. You didn’t take one look at how young he is and mistake him for an ordinary patrol guard, did you?”
“I, uh… well, this…”
Ji Ning might have let it pass unsaid, but saying it out loud at once turned Deng Shan’s face a burning red; for a good while he couldn’t form a word.
“Brother Deng, if you would.”
Shen Xiuhan cupped his fists at the right moment, smoothing over the man’s embarrassment.
“Wouldn’t dream of it…” Deng Shan hastily bent at the waist. “Patrol Envoy, please follow me.”
The two went downstairs one behind the other.
In the main hall, the three remaining patrol guards had already cleared the wine-and-food mess from the table. At the sound of approaching footsteps, one of them spoke up at once:
“Old Deng, what were the Garrison Commander’s orders…”
The words died in his throat.
For there was Deng Shan, back bowed in deference, walking ahead with one hand extended in a guiding gesture: “Patrol Envoy, watch your step — this way, please.”
Patrol Envoy?
The three men gaped at one another. Where had this Patrol Envoy come from?
Then they saw Shen Xiuhan come down the stairs at an unhurried pace.
In a flash!
The color drained from all three faces at once; their spines snapped straight, and in a reflex as if drilled, they dropped to one knee in unison, fists cupped, and barked in chorus:
“We greet Patrol Envoy, sir!”
“Ah… no need for such ceremony. Up you get.”
Shen Xiuhan was briefly taken aback by the display. He waved a hand and followed Deng Shan toward the supply room off to the side.
Walking along the gravel-paved path, Shen Xiuhan felt a touch of puzzlement.
Blood Tempering martial artists in Changyun County were hardly as common as cattle hair, but they were no scarce breed either.
Why had these men — who made their living on the knife’s edge — shown such an almost fawning attitude toward a newcomer at Blood Tempering?
So he asked Deng Shan.
Deng Shan gave a bitter smile:
“The Patrol Envoy may not know — though the likes of us have picked up a few rough fighting tricks, we’ve never entered the qi-blood threshold. In the end, we’re nothing more than farmyard scrapping that can’t be put on any serious stage. Every one of the island’s Patrol Envoys, at minimum, is a Blood Tempering martial artist.”
He raised his head, his gaze drifting toward the mist-shrouded lake in the distance, and sighed:
“Yunyi Island sits at a vital junction of the waterways, close to Chenjian Wu. The water bandits on that island spend their lives raiding merchant ships — every last one of them a blood-handed, cold-hearted desperado.”
Deng Shan dropped his voice, a note of the small man’s particular bitterness threading through his tone:
“The family’s short on manpower. Those of us stationed here are mostly scouts, runners, and route-keepers for the clan’s fleet — there’s no intention of going head-to-head with Chenjian Wu.”
“But the other side doesn’t see it that way!”
“Every now and then they send a chief over with a pack of men to stir things up, collect a few lives, just to flex their muscle. And none of us knows whether one of these days they’ll come in force — the way they did two and a half years ago.”
“The lowly patrol guards among us can only keep our manners respectful day to day, and pray that if Chenjian Wu comes storming the island — in that desperate hour — the Patrol Envoys might show us a bit of mercy, and like Lord Guannan before them, lend a hand to save our worthless hides.”
“……”
After hearing all this, a thread of doubt flashed through Shen Xiuhan’s mind, and he ventured a probe:
“Guannan? Ji Guannan? I’ve heard he was one of the Five Great Prodigies of Changyun, and that he fell here some years ago…”