Chapter 28: The Showdown

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However, after the lesson he had learned last time, Xiao Zhi knew that when it came to discussing time travel, he had to think carefully about what could and could not be said.

What if he let something slip about missiles, rockets, or nuclear weapons, and the emperor ordered him to build one by hand?

More importantly, the more recklessly Xiao Zhi spoke, the more wary the emperor would become of him. When the right moment came, he might even decide to eliminate him.

Princess Changping had Tongyuan put everything away and brew a pot of tea. Then she and Xiao Zhi sat in the little pavilion, chatting.

The princess asked him many questions, and Xiao Zhi answered quite a few, though he carefully picked and chose what to reveal. Before they realized it, evening had fallen.

“In that world you call the modern world, are princesses like me?”

Xiao Zhi replied, “In that world, every girl is a princess.”

It was getting late. Xiao Zhi rose to take his leave, but Princess Changping was still reluctant to end their conversation.

She wanted to visit the world Xiao Zhi had described.

All was silent. Even the capital was not as bustling and prosperous as one might imagine; there was no spectacular sea of lights shining from ten thousand homes.

Xiao Zhi walked along the empty streets, beneath a moonless sky scattered with only a few faint stars, and returned home. Jiang Zhu and Jiang Yun had already ordered the servants to prepare dinner. The meal was sumptuous, and there was even a pot of wine.

As he ate, Xiao Zhi said calmly, “His Majesty has ordered me to guard the frontier. I may not return until autumn, or perhaps not until after the snow falls.”

“You aren’t taking us with you, Young Master?” Jiang Yun asked anxiously.

Xiao Zhi smiled but did not continue. Instead, he waved away the servants.

“Sit down and have a few cups with me.”

The two women sat on either side of him and filled their cups.

Xiao Zhi said, “You know where your contracts of servitude are kept. Take them and go somewhere no one knows you. Live quiet, ordinary lives.”

At these words, the two women visibly panicked. They immediately fell to their knees, their faces turning ashen.

“Young Master, you have shown us such great kindness,” Jiang Zhu sobbed. “We are willing to serve you as slaves for the rest of our lives.”

Jiang Yun seized Xiao Zhi’s sleeve. “Young Master, are you abandoning us? What have we done wrong?”

“I originally intended to keep you here as part of the act. Since I am leaving the capital for a while, there is no need for us to keep pretending.”

“Jiang Huaiyuan does indeed have two daughters, but you are not them.”

At once, Jiang Zhu collapsed onto the floor.

“Young Master, how did you find out?”

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Xiao Zhi smiled. “I knew from the very first day I met you that Song Qi had ulterior motives when he sent you to me.”

The two women had left far too many clues.

When Xiao Zhi had them purchase servants, he had also arranged for agents of the Imperial City Office to become involved. At least two of the servants around him were informants from the office.

There was the question of why the daughter of a fourth-rank honorary official could play ballad music so skillfully, how pigeon feathers had somehow appeared in the household, and all of Song Qi’s other suspicious behavior.

Then there was the cup of wine Xiao Zhi had just drunk.

If the informant had not replaced it, the wine would have contained an ingredient meant to arouse the passions. Seeing that Xiao Zhi remained unmoved by their beauty, the two women had prepared to take the initiative.

They thought they were watching Xiao Zhi. In reality, he had been turning their scheme against them.

Xiao Zhi had originally intended to cast a long line and land a bigger fish, but the floods in Shandong and Jiangsu had disrupted his plans.

Now that he was leaving the capital, the two women had become irrelevant pieces on the board. They no longer mattered to either Song Qi or Xiao Zhi.

“Young Master, please don’t send us away,” Jiang Zhu begged, her face filled with terror as she repeatedly knocked her head against the floor. “We will work like oxen and horses to repay you.”

Xiao Zhi had seen through them long ago, and he no longer wished to keep them. Even so, he had not entertained the thought of killing them. He had even intended to give them their contracts of servitude.

“Get up first. We can talk this through slowly.”

Xiao Zhi still was not used to people kneeling at the slightest provocation. It made him deeply uncomfortable.

The two women sat down and wiped away their tears.

“We are purchased singing girls whom Lord Song keeps in Jiangnan,” Jiang Zhu said.

This was exactly what Xiao Zhi had expected.

“Even if we take our contracts, we cannot escape our lowborn status. Lord Song will never let us go. But if we return, he will simply send us to someone else.”

Jiang Yun, sitting beside her, said, “Not everyone is as kindhearted as you, Young Master. My sister and I saw it with our own eyes… We saw one of our sisters abused to death.”

“You think I would keep two hidden agents beside me?” Xiao Zhi could not help laughing in exasperation at their wild imagination.

“No, no! From now on, we will be loyal only to you, Young Master!” Jiang Zhu and Jiang Yun hurriedly declared.

Xiao Zhi thought it over. If the two women were willing to betray Song Qi, it was not impossible to keep them. He would simply have to remain vigilant and guard against them.

“You contacted Song Qi by carrier pigeon? Where did the pigeon come from?”

Carrier pigeons were raised in fixed locations. One could not simply tell a pigeon where to fly; it was only a bird.

A message was tied to its leg, and once released, the pigeon would return to its home loft on its own.

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“Three-Blade Tang brought it,” they replied.

After they explained everything, Xiao Zhi learned about the swordsman named Tang Sanjian.

A man who used a saber, yet was called Three-Blade Tang.

“Are you truly willing to follow me for the rest of your lives?”

Xiao Zhi scrutinized them. If they stayed, he had no intention of freeing them from their lowborn status. Otherwise, they would be difficult to control.

The two women were naturally willing. At the very least, Xiao Zhi treated them as human beings.

In Xiao Zhi’s household, they were practically mistresses of the home.

Even if Xiao Zhi eventually married a principal wife, they would still hold the status of concubines—far better than serving countless men with their beauty and being at the mercy of some pervert, unable even to determine whether they lived or died.

“Then I will judge you by your actions from now on.”

Over the next dozen or so days, Xiao Zhi rarely left his home.

He painted in his study, busied himself in the kitchen creating new dishes, and went to Princess Changping’s residence to “beg forgiveness.” As for his duties with the Imperial City Office, Mu Weihu brought the Commanders of a Thousand to Xiao Zhi’s home to discuss them.

“My lord, everything you ordered has been prepared,” Mu Weihu reported.

He wore a black outfit suited for vigorous movement. A pouch was slung diagonally from one shoulder to the opposite side of his ribs, and a backpack rested on his back.

Xiao Zhi had designed the outfit based on his experience. It was lighter and more convenient than the complicated attire previously used by the Imperial City Office, making it especially suitable for forced marches. The cross-body pouch and backpack in particular could hold a considerable amount of equipment.

The pouch was naturally meant to carry the hand grenades, which hung from it one by one for easy access.

Unlike the earlier hand grenades, which required a fire starter to ignite, Xiao Zhi had finally produced a relatively stable friction-pull fuse.

It sounded impressive, but the principle was actually very simple. The materials were the head of a match and the black striking surface from a matchbox. Pulling it hard was essentially the same as striking a match. There was no advanced technology involved.

During those days, Xiao Zhi had also found time to spend half a day at a blacksmith’s forge. Unfortunately, making a gun barrel was not so easy.

If he used the lost-wax casting method, the barrel would not be smooth enough.

Xiao Zhi shook his head helplessly. He truly was useless. The time-traveling heroes who had come before him could build red-coated cannons with their bare hands, yet he could not even make a section of iron tubing.

With no other option, Xiao Zhi went to Geng Wenshi, Minister of Works. After promising him certain benefits, he asked whether the department’s skilled craftsmen could attempt to produce one.

Great Chu had iron, and good iron at that. It was merely somewhat expensive. This time, Xiao Zhi had not been held back by a lack of materials, but by the limitations of the manufacturing process.

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