The Tu Gate - 2
"I hear the Tu Gate has told the executives of Hubei Province to gather in ten days."
With that glad news winging in from the Gi Gate, Lady Ha Yeon and I hurried off to sit down with the Gi Gate Hyangju.
"Gather, you say?"
Lady Ha Yeon was, officially speaking, lying low under the Gi Gate's protection. Perhaps because word from the Tu Gate reached us only by way of the Gi Gate, she seemed every bit as blindsided as I was.
"As I understand it, a rite is performed when the Tu Gate installs a new Hyangju. They are most likely assembling for that ceremony."
"Don't tell me there's something else we have to do now."
She's already played the righteous thief. Sent advance notices, done the phantom-thief routine, shaken corrupt officials down to their very souls. And there's still more?
"It is a formal ceremony for presenting the new Hyangju to the Tu Gate's members, or so I am told. I make no claim to know Tu Gate customs, but I hear that in the Ma Gate, the new Hyangju seats the outgoing one in a carriage and takes her on a full lap of Wuhan."
"So it's something like a coronation."
Figures. A festival thrown by thieves, for thieves.
"That is the right way to see it. And once the ceremony concludes, she becomes Hyangju."
"It's... confirmed?"
she asked, the uncertainty plain in her voice.
How famous would one have to become as the Shadowless Divine Thief before the Tu Gate acknowledged her as Hyangju? For days on end we had stewed in frustration — planning without rest, scaling wall after wall, and still not a single word of contact ever came.
It felt like trudging through a cave with no exit in sight, agonizing over whether it was safe to pin one's hopes on a light glimpsed far in the distance.
"You have both worked hard."
The Gi Gate Hyangju commended the two of us with a look of warm approval.
Was this real? Lady Ha Yeon was truly going to become the Tu Gate Hyangju?
"Finally! Lady Ha Yeon! It's all over now!"
Grinning from ear to ear, I seized her by the shoulders.
"You... truly... we really did it..."
Don't cry. Lady Ha Yeon must have found it hard to believe herself; tears were gathering at the corners of her eyes.
"Hoooo. Rejoicing is premature. A problem yet remains."
Like a bucket of cold water dumped over the warming mood, the Gi Gate Hyangju spoke through a curl of pipe smoke.
Right. As if there would ever be no problem.
"The Do Gate?"
"The rumor that a new Hyangju will be chosen has already spread far and wide. The Do Gate Hyangju is certain to know of it."
"And he'll know the Shadowless Divine Thief's true identity is Lady Ha Yeon."
"He will not be certain of it."
"Pardon? Didn't the Tu Gate announce it publicly?"
Back when our company president advertised his imminent inauguration, wasn't a full résumé the bare minimum of the announcement?
"If thieves did not keep one another's secrets, why would they share a sect at all?"
She had a point. Having your identity splashed across the Jianghu would amount to sabotaging your own business, after all.
"So the Do Gate still hasn't gotten a precise fix on the new Tu Gate Hyangju?"
"The only thing that is confirmed is the news that Wuhan's phantom thief, the Shadowless Divine Thief, is being raised to Hyangju."
"Then if we simply endure as we are, everything will be over."
Just ten days. I half wanted to tell the Do Gate Hyangju that we would be back after a mere ten nights' sleep, so he had best sit still and wait like a good boy.
The trouble was that the Do Gate Hyangju was not a man built for sitting still.
"A gathering of the Hyangju of Hubei's Haomen is to be held. Eight days from now. Two days before the Tu Gate's installation ceremony."
As expected, one final obstacle stood in our way.
"A Hyangju gathering, you say?"
To settle a mood that had drifted skyward for a moment, I took a sip of the tea the courtesan had poured and asked.
"It is a gathering held when the selection of a new Hyangju is all but settled. An occasion to honor the retiring Hyangju and to celebrate the birth of the new one."
"Must Lady Ha Yeon attend in person?"
Don't tell me this is one of those new-hire welcome parties where the entire staff is required to show up.
"That is precisely what the gathering is for."
Right. Of course it is.
"Can't we simply put it off on the grounds that we're busy? Once Lady Ha Yeon is Hyangju, she can meet everyone then, can't she?"
What era do these people think they're living in, strong-arming the whole company into a mandatory dinner?
Let's do it by team, people. By team. The Tu Gate team convenes on its own — Wungi Inn, my treat. Anyone who only wants round one can head home after round one. I'll even cover the carriage fare as a special courtesy. If a new era has arrived, then the company dinner ought to arrive with it.
"Even when I had to crush the previous Gi Gate Hyangju's skull with these hands and rebuild the entire Gi Gate of Hubei Province from the rubble, this was an occasion I was required to attend."
"So there are truly no exceptions."
"Is that not what ritual is? One follows it precisely because it is absurd."
So Haomen was a black company, huh. No wonder people say you join an orthodox sect if you actually want decent benefits.
"With three Hyangju present, surely the three of you could manufacture a new absurdity of your own?"
"I have already raised the matter of postponing the date. The Do Gate Hyangju would not hear of it."
"You all hold equal authority, though — surely one Hyangju's objection can't simply..."
Three executives against one. You can steamroll a single dissenting board member's opinion, can't you?
"The Do Gate's outside warriors are already moving on Wuhan."
News I could have done without.
"Internal conflict?"
"There is no fathoming what that mad foal might set in motion. We must assume he already has his guess as to who the Shadowless Divine Thief is."
The Do Gate Hyangju could not be fully certain that Lady Ha Yeon was the new Tu Gate Hyangju. But apparently he was not the lazy sort to sit idle merely because he lacked certainty.
"If Lady Ha Yeon shows herself at the gathering, he'll move at once."
He would try to seize her even by force, and every scrap of work we had poured in until now would dissolve into foam.
"And it is no different if she does not appear. That would amount to us being the ones who acknowledged her."
If the new Tu Gate Hyangju were anyone but Lady Ha Yeon, there would be no reason whatsoever to refuse the gathering.
So attend or stay away — either way, checkmate.
"If I set foot in that gathering hall, he will try to take me into custody by any means necessary, won't he."
Lady Ha Yeon, evidently grasping how the situation was unrolling, pulled a troubled face.
"Should things go awry, blood will be spilled in the end. So long as sixty percent of Hubei's Haomen stands behind the Do Gate, you must steel your hearts."
At a glance it looked like a lopsided three-against-one struggle between factions, but in truth the Do Gate Hyangju alone held enough strength to overwhelm the other three combined.
Wonderful. Just wonderful.
We had finally reached the point where the marathon's finish line was in sight, and now it felt like watching a lunatic vault the barricades and charge straight at the lead runner.
Do Gate Hyangju, you bastard. You've burned through every trick under the sun — isn't it about time you accepted it and gave up? You even ran the fake Shadowless Divine Thief gambit. Just quit while... Huh? Hold on a moment.
"What about a fake Shadowless Divine Thief?"
The thought had flashed through my mind that very instant, and I offered it up to the Gi Gate Hyangju.
"A fake Shadowless Divine Thief?"
"To be precise, we put forward a proxy of the Shadowless Divine Thief. There would be no outsiders at a Hyangju gathering. If the three of you play along and feign ignorance, we can slip one past the Do Gate Hyangju."
Three men make a tiger, as the old saying goes. If all three Hyangju together called the impostor the Shadowless Divine Thief, duping the Do Gate Hyangju would be no trouble at all.
"It is a fine notion, but the Tu Gate people attending alongside you will object. This is an occasion for presenting the Tu Gate's Hyangju, is it not?"
So it wasn't to be a gathering of Hyangju alone, then.
Give up, then? No. This was a good plan the Gi Gate Hyangju herself had endorsed. All that remained was to clear a single obstacle: some way to override the Tu Gate people's objections. What could it be?
Aha.
"What if it were the will of the Tu Gate Hyangju herself?"
There was, in fact, a way to trample the Tu Gate's opinion.
"And what might that mean?"
"I will attend. As Lady Ha Yeon's proxy."
I said, drawing a black coin from my breast.
Proof that I was the Shadowless Divine Thief's sworn brother — the Black Money, in other words.
"You? You mean to stand in as that child's proxy?"
"You intend to step forward yourself?"
I nodded to the two astonished faces.
"I am the sworn brother of the current Tu Gate Hyangju, the Shadowless Divine Thief. No one in Hubei speaks with greater authority for the Tu Gate Hyangju's will than I."
It would work. If anyone could pull it off, it was me.
The Tu Gate Hyangju has given her blessing. She told me to play the fake Shadowless Divine Thief for a single day, and that's all there is to it.
Proof, you ask? Daring to doubt her sworn brother amounts to ignoring the Tu Gate Hyangju's own word — you do understand that, yes? And who might you be, exactly? Your big brother here happens to be sworn brother to the retiring Hyangju and sweetheart to the incoming one.
"Intriguing... But the Black Money alone will not be enough for the Tu Gate to accept that you are the sworn brother."
The Hyangju would believe easily enough, knowing what they did of my relationship with Lady Ha Yeon, but the Tu Gate's own people were another matter entirely.
If I presented myself as the current Tu Gate Hyangju's sworn brother, winning them over would no doubt take a very long time.
That is, if there were no evidence the whole room could accept.
"I have mastered the Shadowless Body Art. An art that exists only for members of the family."
A family's martial arts are never taught to outsiders. And the Shadowless Body Art — the supreme discipline of ascension — could never be mastered by an outsider's hands.
Truly to learn it, one would have to be, at the very least, sworn brother to the Shadowless Divine Thief.
"You have learned the Shadowless Body Art? Is that the truth of it?"
Apparently even the Gi Gate Hyangju had not expected me to be training in the Shadowless Body Art. She dropped the long pipe clean out of her mouth.
"Yes. I've been at it for quite a while now. Having begun back in Yichang, it should be enough to convince the Tu Gate's people."
"Across the whole of the Central Plains, the arts that could stand beside your father's lightfoot skill could be counted on one hand. And you taught the family's martial art to a man. So you had resolved to set up a household with him long, long ago."
"That's... well..."
Beneath the Gi Gate Hyangju's look of sheer incredulity, Lady Ha Yeon could not lift her reddened face.
"Nor would it be a complete lie to call me the Shadowless Divine Thief. When you get down to it, I'm the Shadowless Divine Thief too. Lady Ha Yeon may be the one scaling walls in the dead of night, but I am the architect of every last one of those plans."
"Yes. That's right."
Lady Ha Yeon nodded along, backing me to the hilt.
In terms of shares in the Shadowless Divine Thief, I figure I'm entitled to at least thirty percent. When we settle the equity later, if I'm granted the right of first pick, I could probably lay claim to a couple of Lady Ha Yeon's choice assets — one above, one below.
Then again, thirty percent might not stretch far enough to claim ownership in full.
"The both of you, Shadowless Divine Thief..."
"In truth, the Shadowless Divine Thief only exists when the two of us combine. Wouldn't you say so, Lady Ha Yeon?"
To reassure the Gi Gate Hyangju, who was still wrestling with the idea, I turned to Lady Ha Yeon and asked once more.
"C-c-combine?! Wh-what nonsense are you spouting in front of the Gi Gate Hyangju, you—!"
"Ow!"
A backhand chop, thick with embarrassment, came crashing down on me.
That's not what I meant. You don't know what 'combine' means? It's when two become one. ...Wait, no. Come to think of it, with no combining robots in this world, 'combine' really does only carry that one meaning, doesn't it.
"Save the lovers' quarrel for home."
"Haha. My sincere apologies."
"I'm sorry."
We bowed our heads in unison beneath the Gi Gate Hyangju's frosty stare.
"By the decree of the former Hyangju, the Hyangju's sworn brother — being at once the new Hyangju's lover and her right hand — attends the gathering in her stead... With a pretext and evidence to match, it is an absurdity that just might pass."
As Lady Ha Yeon stroked my back with a contrite look that seemed to ask why on earth I'd said something so strange, the Gi Gate Hyangju nodded, apparently persuaded.
"Then..."
"A problem remains. How will you fool the Do Gate Hyangju? He may well know your face."
"Since when has it been a crime for a thief to wear a disguise?"
Just slap a mask on and call it a day.
"Too thorough a disguise will rouse suspicion instead."
"We don't need to fool him completely. We only need to sow confusion."
This business did not call for perfection.
"Confusion alone will suffice?"
"From here on, it is a race against time. Two days after the Hyangju gathering concludes — no, if the gathering runs past midnight, then half a day to a day after that — Lady Ha Yeon becomes the Tu Gate Hyangju."
"So even if he grows suspicious, all you need is to string him along long enough."
I nodded at the Gi Gate Hyangju's summary.
"Exactly. The Do Gate Hyangju will have no choice but to think. Is the real Tu Gate Hyangju Lim Hayeon? Or is it some new figure entirely? Can I talk that Hyangju over to my side? What should I do? With someone wholly unexpected stepping onto the stage, time will keep slipping past even as the Do Gate Hyangju wracks his brains."
Only a handful of people alive knew that I was the Shadowless Divine Thief's sworn brother. If a man like that appeared declaring himself the Shadowless Divine Thief, verifying the claim could not help but eat up time.
"Two days. All we must do is deceive him for two days."
"And should the moon rise twice more beyond that..."
I said, looking up at the moon hanging bright and clear beyond the window of the pleasure house.
"Then that child becomes Hyangju."
"Yes. Lady Ha Yeon's runaway-courtesan problem, the Do Gate Hyangju's schemes — it all comes to an end."
The Gi Gate Hyangju and I gazed upon the future Tu Gate Hyangju.
The bitter winter of the new year, when I had first met Lady Ha Yeon, had passed; spring had come and gone, and now, before anyone had noticed, the summer heat too was melting away.
Only ten days. After all those long days, only ten remained.
It was ample time — for me, for Lady Ha Yeon, and for the Hyangju — to muster one final burst of strength.