Deception Begins at Home
Winter was deepening. But in Nanchang, nestled in the south-central reaches of the continent, the cold never quite turned brutal — from time to time, fat snowflakes drifted past the window and dissolved against the glass.
Ouyang Qiangang made his way to the detached quarters where Sangguan Wan'er was staying, having received word through her messenger. She had fully recovered, it said, and her business plans were complete.
"How are you feeling now, my lady? Has your strength returned?"
"Thanks to you, my lord, entirely."
Every trace of sickness had vanished from her face, and her eyes burned once more with that clear, penetrating intelligence.
"I'm truly glad to hear you've made a full recovery. I imagine you'll be departing for Lanzhou soon, where your main house is. The journey is long and perilous — you'll want to prepare thoroughly."
At his words, Sangguan Wan'er shook her head and smiled gently.
"No, my lord. Lanzhou is not our destination."
"Not Lanzhou? Then where...?"
A flicker of puzzlement crossed Ouyang Qiangang's eyes.
Sangguan Wan'er answered, her voice quickening with fervor.
"My lord, the Yang Dragon Elixir and the Yin Dragon Elixir are not goods to be sold for pocket change in some frontier backwater like Lanzhou. They must be offered to those who can recognize a miracle for what it is — and pay a price worthy of its value."
Ouyang Qiangang saw through her intent in an instant.
"...You mean to go to the Imperial Capital."
"I do."
Sangguan Wan'er held out a bound volume of some thirty pages.
"Before we discuss business, my lord, there is something I'd like you to see first."
The volume contained everything she had labored over since signing her contract with him — a market analysis of the Imperial Capital and a full launch strategy for the elixirs.
Ouyang Qiangang took the book without a word and turned to the first page.
Akasha, start a full scan and prepare a core summary.
Understood, Doctor. Converting text and diagram data into visual information and transmitting it directly to your brain.
To Yeom Pung and Sangguan Wan'er, a bizarre spectacle was unfolding before their eyes.
Rustle, rustle, rustle—
Ouyang Qiangang was not reading the book. His pupils shimmered faintly with light, and his hand turned the pages at the metronomic pace of a machine. By the time he closed the final page and set the volume down on the table, barely enough time had passed for two breaths.
A brief confusion — and beneath it, a faint sting of disappointment — crossed Sangguan Wan'er's beautiful face.
"My lord, I poured my heart into this. Please, don't dismiss it with a glance."
She hadn't meant to let the hurt slip into her voice, but it was there all the same.
Yet Ouyang Qiangang only smiled softly.
"How could I fail to grasp the depth of your labor, or the wisdom woven into every page?"
He tapped the cover of the closed volume lightly with one finger as he spoke.
"Your analysis of the intricate relationships among the seven powerful families of the capital's eastern trade district was fascinating reading — truly. But it seems to me that targeting the Chancellor's Office first is too heavy a gamble for the early stage, when our supply is limited. Would it not be safer and more effective to approach the retired civil officials from the south instead — men of standing who value honor, yet keep their distance from the throne? They could serve as the wellspring of the rumor itself."
"...!"
Sangguan Wan'er found herself speechless.
There was not a trace of pretense or bluff in Ouyang Qiangang's eyes. He had absorbed every word of the book in that fleeting span of time — and then, on top of it, offered a refinement to her core strategy.
She forced an awkward smile, then caught herself and smoothed her expression. This frail, sickly-seeming young boy was something far beyond what she had imagined. A genius — no, a monster of talent.
Composing herself, she turned to the matter at hand.
"I will reflect deeply on your counsel, my lord. But I want to prove the value of this elixir before the great ministers and the mighty powers of the world gathered in the Imperial Capital. Once they experience its effects with their own bodies, the ripples will shake all under heaven."
At her words, worry clouded Yeom Pung's face. He had known that she'd finished drawing up her sales plan, but not the details.
"Wan'er, isn't this plan of yours far too dangerous? The Imperial Capital might as well be the front courtyard of Gold Mountain Tower — the greatest merchant syndicate under heaven, mightier even than Myriad Gold Mountain Manor. Trying to sell something this extraordinary there is like sticking your head into a tiger's mouth."
Even at Yeom Pung's warning, Sangguan Wan'er's gaze did not waver from Ouyang Qiangang. She was waiting for the answer of the man who held the single most important key to the whole plan.
Ouyang Qiangang was silent for a moment, watching the elder. Then a faint smile touched his lips.
"Elder Yeom's concern is only natural. But I trust Lady Sangguan's judgment — and her nerve."
His eyes turned back to Sangguan Wan'er.
"The most dangerous ground, after all, makes the finest stage for striking where the enemy least expects it. Weaving a new game from the very heart of Gold Mountain Tower suits me fine."
A radiant smile bloomed across Sangguan Wan'er's face.
"As expected of you, my lord. We think exactly alike."
She continued in the tone of one addressing a full partner now, in every sense.
"Then our roles are settled. The Ouyang Clan will ensure a stable supply of the elixirs — and I will open the road to the Imperial Capital."
"Let it be so."
Ouyang Qiangang nodded.
He sensed that Sangguan Wan'er's passion and ambition stretched far beyond the elixir trade alone. A question stirred in his mind, but he did not ask it. Ambition in a woman of such business genius was nothing to frown at — and a woman like that as a partner? He would have raised both hands in welcome.
When the talk wound down, an air of resignation settled over Yeom Pung's face. He drew from his breast a small, exquisitely crafted jade case and spoke in a grave voice.
"My lord, you are no longer merely Wan'er's business partner — you are the very heart of this entire enterprise. Your safety and hers are one and the same now."
He studied Ouyang Qiangang's face for a long moment before continuing.
"And that face of yours — the kind a man sees once and never forgets — will be no easy thing to hide when you walk the rivers and lakes."
Yeom Pung opened the lid of the case. Inside lay several thin, intricate masks of human skin, rendered with a texture indistinguishable from flesh itself.
"These were commissioned at great expense from Thousand Faces, a master craftsman of the martial world. Even the sharpest eye under heaven would find it near impossible to detect the forgery. The day will surely come when these serve you well on your travels. I ask you to accept them."
He held the case out to Ouyang Qiangang.
Ouyang Qiangang took it and pressed one of the skin masks between his fingers. The moment he felt its light, silken touch, Akasha's analysis flowed into his mind.
Doctor, this mask is astonishing. It's made of a bio-organic polymer compound matching human skin tissue to ninety-nine point nine percent. This is camouflage technology that even twenty-first-century science would struggle to replicate.
Ouyang Qiangang did not decline. He slipped the jade case into his sleeve.
"I am grateful for your thoughtfulness, Elder Yeom, and I accept with thanks. They will be a great help — of that I have no doubt."
Yeom Pung smiled with satisfaction at his answer.
The next day, Sangguan Wan'er and Yeom Pung departed for the Imperial Capital, carrying the Yang and Yin Dragon Elixirs produced so far.
After Sangguan Wan'er's party set out for the Imperial Capital, Ouyang Qiangang turned his full attention to rebuilding his family's martial strength.
The Poyang Du Clan Manor is a disowned branch family, and their location is certain — I'll have plenty of time to bring them around. But hunting down the ledger bearer of the Heaven and Earth Single Ledger, whose whereabouts are a mystery, could take forever. Handle the hard part first.
He resolved to find the ledger bearer before anything else, and to use that leverage to summon back the old retainers scattered to the winds.
But there was a problem. The watchers of Gold Pagoda Mountain Manor had spun a web around the Ouyang Clan Manor like spiders. The moment he left the estate openly, a tiresome tail would fasten itself to his back.
After long deliberation, he hit upon a daring plan.
That evening, Ouyang Qiangang sought out his father's study.
"What is it?"
"Father, to find the ledger bearer and bring the Du Clan back under our banner, I intend to leave the estate for a time. But I'll need a way to slip past the watchers' eyes."
Gu-yang Baek studied his son's serene face and asked, "...You already have a scheme in mind, don't you. What is it?"
"We feed my grandfather carefully fabricated intelligence."
"Hmm..."
Ouyang Qiangang continued in a level, unhurried voice.
"Word is to spread that my Nine Yin Severed Meridians have worsened again, and that I am hovering between life and death. Afterward I will withdraw into seclusion — and even if I slip away from the estate in secret, my grandfather will not question my absence. He is utterly convinced that the meridians will kill me one day. I intend to turn that certainty against him."
Gu-yang Baek's face darkened like a gathering storm. His son's plan was brilliant beyond reproach — and at the same time, cruel. For it to succeed, it required the sacrifice and cooperation of one particular person.
He spoke in a low, grave voice.
"...I don't know that your mother will allow it."
"She loves Father and us children truly, and she wants this family rebuilt more than anyone. As far as I know her, she will make the right choice for our sake. She will agree — I'm certain of it."
To his son's confident answer, Gu-yang Baek could say nothing more.
I know what her heart has endured in this house for the past decade and more. And I am to ask her — to drive a knife into her own father's back? But this is the only way. For Gang-a's sake, I must play the villain myself.
If it was for his son and his family, then he had no choice but to become the villain who drove an iron nail into his wife's heart.
He made his decision.
"So be it. Summon your mother here."
Father and son had Hwang Nodae bring Dong Yeon-hwa to the study in secret. Bewildered, she looked from her husband to her stepson with uneasy eyes.
Gu-yang Baek opened his mouth with difficulty and laid out the entire scheme. It was a brutal request — that she become a double agent, deceiving her own father to deceive him for the sake of the clan.
For a long while, she said nothing. Complex emotions churned across her face. It was a matter that demanded careful thought, and so Ouyang Qiangang and Gu-yang Baek simply waited.
After a time, she lifted her head — and it was not to her husband that she turned, but to Ouyang Qiangang. Her voice, when it came, was astonishingly calm.
"Gang-a. So you had thought this all through, all along — for your little brother Cheon-gi, and for this family."
Dew gathered at the corners of her eyes, yet a faint smile played on her lips.
"Yes. I'll do it. After all, it's a snare my own father wove — there's no shame in cutting it loose with these two hands myself. Let me... blindfold his eyes and stopper his ears. So you must fulfill your purpose, and you must come home safely. Promise me."
The moment her consent was given, the whole of the Ouyang Clan Manor became a stage, and a grand theater began.