What answered him was Feng Xiao's innocent look.
"All forms are hollow yet all who see in forms are hollow1. Master Cui, you've lost yourself." Feng Xiao tapped those drawings with his fan, "On the surface, it looks like an erotic painting, but in reality, they are not just any erotic paintings."
After the soon-to-be-dead suicide warrior listened to this, he couldn't help descending into deep thinking: If they are not just any erotic paintings, then could it be that these positions contained some peerless martial art techniques? If he could have found these drawings earlier, could he have escaped the fate of a suicide warrior and walk the path of grandmasters?
Feng Xiao didn't know that a few words he babbled would drive the suicide warrior into a deep episode of reflecting his own life. But, in contrast to the suicide warrior and Rong Qing who was rendered speechless, Cui Buqu certainly lived up to his name. He wasn't led astray by Feng Xiao, and after a moment of silence, Cui Buqu had an inkling regarding the erotic paintings.
All the faces of the man, with no exceptions, were drawn from the very same model.
"Is this Li Yan commissioning someone to paint his mistress and himself having intercourse?"
"Clever!" A slap of the fan on a palm was heard, then Feng Xiao said, "I said it, didn't I? They're not just any erotic paintings!"
It's a custom-made erotica of painting oneself on it, a romantic gesture not many under the sky would know. Li Yan looked like a proper person on the surface, it was difficult to guess he was such an open-minded person behind closed doors.
Cui Buqu asked: "Did you see from where they brought out these scrolls?"
Feng Xiao smiled. "It seems you have already realized the point. These paintings were placed in a box, and that box was hidden under the steps of the bed, beneath a brick. There were quite a number of small and large boxes on the brick, gold and silver all inside of them. Li Yan's salary taken into account, even with another two decades, it's impossible for him to accumulate such wealth."
Cui Buqu pondered over it for a moment. "Although these paintings are illegal, they are hardly worth anything. He chose to hide these worthless paintings in the most secretive place, yet puts out these invaluable treasures for all to see. It's strange."
Feng Xiao: "Not bad. I even waited until after Li Yan woke up before leaving. Guess, what was the first thing he did after he woke up?"
Cui Buqu raised his eyes to look at him.
When Cui Buqu was focusing on someone, there was a unique look in his gaze.
Emotionless yet sentimental, an autumn spring beneath a sheet of ice.
Feng Xiao stole a glance as he thought, yet couldn't help himself taking two more glances, or three.
Up until Cui Buqu's suspicious gaze turned back at him, and he coughed lightly.
"After Li Yan woke up, he didn't check on the gold and silver scattered all over the ground, nor did he run after the servants asking them how much valuables they had taken. He had instead gone looking for those erotic paintings. In the end, Madam He even thought he'd still be missing those erotic paintings. Furious, she chased him while threatening to beat him. You didn't see the scene taking place, tsk, tsk, how entertaining!"
"Accounts." Cui Buqu skipped Feng Xiao's delightful tone in someone else's misfortune, and immediately said, "These paintings must have been the accounts we are searching for."
...
"Someone has taken those accounts!"
Wu Yi watched Li Yan's swollen nose and leaking mucus, and couldn't help looking sideways. He tossed a napkin over, disgusted. "Use it!"
Yet how would Li Yan pay attention to cleaning his nose? All he felt in his mind was fear of the item he lost.
"I asked around, those servants denied that it was their doing! Speak for yourself, those are paintings that don't worth anything. They couldn't be sold even if they were taken, so why take them?"
Wu Yi snorted. "Who let you hide such an important thing in Spring Palace Portraits? To hide them even more covertly than gold and silver, isn't this blatantly telling someone that something is off about them?"
Li Yan cried his face raw. "How would I know Madam He would bring people there? When common thieves find their way there, even they cannot find them! What should we do now? You were the one who suggested keeping those accounts to use against Yang Yun. But before something happens to Yang Yun, harm comes to us first!"
"Look at yourself!" Wu Yi sneered coldly, "Even if they could find the accounts and their corresponding places, the Governor has taken care of everything. They've paid Qixia Villa a visit, and look at how it ended up? Even if the Zuoyue Bureau is backing Rong Qing from behind, so what? A powerful dragon cannot crush a snake in its old haunts; as long as the Governor doesn't want them to find it, they wouldn't find it!"
Li Yan was stunned. His look, accompanied by two eyes with blue-black frames, he looked extremely comical. However, he paid it no attention and instead said immediately: "Do you know something? Yang Yun, no, the Governor, has he told you something?"
"Before you came, I paid the Governor a visit. He told us to be at peace." Perhaps his mood was quite good, even if he's disgraced by this Li Yan who is both cowardly yet ambitious. Wu Yi poured him a cup of tea in person, "In a few days, all will come to an end."
The more Li Yan listened to it, the more confused he was. "An end? To what end? Even if they fail to find the rations, isn't Huang Lue's death unusual? The Governor says he wants to push all the blame onto them, but who can do as they please? It would still depend on His Majesty, and whether or not the Imperial Court thinks they're believable!"
Wu Yi darkly said: "Then what if, all of them are dead?"
An inspiration hit Li Yan.
Both his eyes were so swollen he couldn't open them. Even if he opened them as wide as possible, it would just be two lines.
Wu Yi, in these two lines, smiled quite devilishly.
"What do you want to do?"
With a bit of boldness, what can one do? Huang Lue at least had the courage for an undercover, yet this fellow surnamed Li behaved like the sky was falling just because his accounts were stolen and attempted suicide, how worthless! Wu Yi scolded him inwardly, his expression calm, pushing the cup of wine towards the other.
"It's not me who wants to do something, but the Governor."
"What does that mean?" Li Yan asked suspiciously.
"Rong Qing still thinks of delivering an edict, but that edict will never be on its way. As for the Zuoyue Bureau, even if Cui Buqu filed a suit, there would be people in the capital to take care of arrangements. Although Cui Buqu is deeply trusted by the Empress, the Governor is a member of the Yang family. Moreover, if not for having no one in the capital, could we have sailed such a smooth journey? This time, it's mostly because of Cui Buqu's continuous interference. If Rong Qing had come alone, everything would have been settled earlier on." Wu Yi spoke with reassurance, "As for the members of the Zuoyue Bureau, there's no need for us to worry. The Governor has plans to shut their mouths for eternity. When a person dies all things would come to rest, and after that, nothing is set in stone; wouldn't it be up to the onlookers to gloss it up?"
Li Yan watched the confidence and unhurried expression on Wu Yi, and for a while, he said nothing.
He still remembered that two days ago, the other was different. Wu Yi was similar to himself: agitated and restless, fearing that everything would fail and they would be exposed, fearing that they would be pushed out by Yang Yun to be scapegoats. However, Wu Yi's behaviour suddenly took a sharp turn, and this proved that the other knew much more than he himself did.
Cui Buqu was the Empress' most trusted subordinate. The Zuoyue Bureau are the jaws and claws of the Empress. But from the way Wu Yi worded it, Yang Yun did not even take them seriously. Li Yan thought that since the Zuoyue Commander came in person this time, he had surely brought a good number of grandmasters of the martial arts with him. Although Yang Yun usually managed to conceal all his deeds in Guangqian Prefecture, now he might not have enough juice to gather troops and capture grandmasters, annihilating Cui Buqu and all his men at once, unless—
Unless an even greater power is backing Yang Yun, someone powerful with a complicated amount of strength even he himself could not think of.
Li Yan suddenly felt a chill surge through his body.
He suddenly grabbed that cup of wine and drank it all, as if he could calm himself down with this. Yet when the wine reached his throat, his heart only beat faster.
"Did the Governor say when will everything be settled?"
Wu Yi raised two fingers.
Li Yan was tongue-tied with his jaws opened. "Within two days?"
Wu Yi smiled once, his meanings unknown.
...
"There are no hidden layers in these paintings."
"Nothing is hidden in the scrolls either."
"Then the mystery should be inside the painting."
If someone pushed open the door at this moment, they would have thought they mistakenly entered some pleasure quarters of a brothel.
On the table, the ground, the wall, were all kinds of Spring Palace Secret Play Paintings.
Yet there were no women within the room, only two men.
Both men were sitting opposite of each other, their expressions strict, inspecting them closely.
To put it specifically, Cui Buqu was the only one looking serious. Feng Xiao could neither sit properly nor lie down properly. He was leaning against soft cushions with a leg propped up, admiring these erotic paintings from Li Yan's residence.
"Truth be told, if I was Li Yan, I definitely could not have thought about an idea like hiding these accounts in things like Spring Palace Secret Play Paintings."
"So for the time being, you will not be chased around by a tigress." Cui Buqu didn't even raise his head.
Feng Xiao chuckled and replied in ridicule: "I also couldn't have thought that Master Cui loves these things so much that he refuses to put them down. If I knew early on that you like these sort of things, I would have given you a bunch of them, guaranteeing that you'll look at them until you're satisfied."
Cui Buqu shot a mockery back at him: "If the one in the painting is you, not only would I like it, I would even give everyone in the Zuoyue Bureau a copy, guaranteeing that everyone on sight will have one in their hands."
Feng Xiao nodded his head: "Then how would it be if the other one in the picture is drawn as you?"
Cui Buqu gave him a "Do you want to die straight or bent?" kind of look. He coldly said: "I found where the accounts are hidden."
Feng Xiao rose up in keen interest, ignoring the urge to bicker. "Where?"
"This piece." Cui Buqu pointed at the piece in front of him, "It's signed Kaihuang Third Year, Twelfth Month, Twenty-First day. This date has not come yet. Why did Li Yan want to sign one that will take place two months later? Looking back at the painting, these two people are having copulation in the wild, far away from uneven terrains. There is also a villa that sits halfway up the mountains. Isn't that the Qixia Villa we visited before?"
Feng Xiao practically laughed out loud when he said: "copulation in the wild" with a straight face. In order to avoid Commander Cui seething at him, he suppressed his laughter and gave the painting a serious look.
"Do you mean that the signature is the figure of the number of rations embezzled during the calamity?"
"It is at least one of the figures. Because we have been to Qixia Villa before, it's easy to tell from the painting by using the causes to deduct the means. As for the rest," Cui Buqu turned to look into the direction of the house, "Presently, I could only tell three places. They are the Stormy Tavern in the city, the Zhao Family's Teahouse, and a villa under the Ding Family's name. As for the others, we would need old veterans here who knew their way around Guangqian County and all its buildings and residences to tell. However, we don't have much time left. The third location is located at the outskirts South of the city. Now, it's already flooded, so we can exclude that. Only the Stormy Tavern and the Zhao Family's Teahouse are left."
Feng Xiao asked curiously: "How were you able to tell these two places?"
A long index finger tapped on his head. Cui Buqu said: "Before I came, I have already seen the map of Guangqian Prefecture and vaguely memorized all the locations within the city. After arriving here, we've taken a saunter around the city, and still, these two are the only ones I could recall."
Having only seen the map once, Cui Buqu could match the corresponding locations and names, engraving them to memory. Let alone two locations, if he could remember one of them, it's already quite the trumpet to blow. Because other people, including Feng Xiao, would not have paid attention to even one of them.
The Zuoyue Bureau truly did not need anyone else. With only Cui buqu, it's enough.
In reality, Feng Xiao watched Cui Buqu do this a few times before. However, with each time it happened again he'd still been surprised, going so far to even feel admiration. Because Cui Buqu would always pay attention to details that others would never have noticed. These details looked inconsequential, but sometimes they could be brought onto the game, an asset that determines the victory and loser.
"Pick one: the Stormy Tavern or the Zhao Family's Teahouse." Cui Buqu said.
Feng Xiao was displeased. "Why does it have to be me? This old man is dead tired from playing Li Shisi and the grandson for so many days, and he even fought a battle with Xiao Lu at Qixia Villa, and now I still need to run errands for you?"
Cui Buqu calmly acknowledged him with an "Oh." then adds, "Should I go then? I am absolutely fine with it, but I'm afraid even if I don't tire myself out on the way, I will not even be able to take a hit from the enemy when I arrive."
Feng Xiao sneered through his nose. "Stop using this on me! Ask your Qiao Xian to go."
Cui Buqu: "Qiao Xian is wounded."
Feng Xiao: "It's just a wound, not broken limbs. She can still fight after mustering a breath. If she can't win, she can run. Your heart aches for your beloved subjects and cherished subordinates, but you're not even willing to spare half of that for me?"
As he finished speaking, he leaned in close, his breath practically brushing the other's face. Cui Buqu was caught unprepared, but just as he stepped backwards, it was as if the other could anticipate his actions, Feng Xiao reached out to press the back of his head, couldn't wait to look the other into the eye.
As they stared at each other, Cui Buqu slowly, gently, blinked once. His Adam's apple was rolling in his throat, so slight that it could be missed.
Feng Xiao suddenly laughed out loud, taking a step back before the other could be provoked.
"Cui Buqu, you're blushing!"
Cui Buqu kept a poker-face: "It's the heat."
Feng Xiao gave a face full of uncertainty: "You truly fell for my beauty and acted the part!"
Cui Buqu: "It's the heat. You pick one location, and as for the other, I will send Guan Shanhai."
"You would rather let the heavily wounded Guan Shanhai make the trip, but you are not willing to let Qiao Xian go. Is it really because your heart aches for her, or—" Feng Xiao dragged on the tone, hinting something between the lines, "You suspect her?"
Cui Buqu said nothing.
Feng Xiao slapped his fan. "Every time you give this damn little unfathomable look, I know I nailed it right. I even thought that you would never suspect her. Since when did it happen?"
Cui Buqu's memory was dragged back to the time before they left the capital.
During that time, he entered the palace to beg an audience with Empress Dugu, so he could relay the details of his investigation of the Thirteen Pavilions of Yunhai to her. Empress Dugu asked him what help he would need, and so he asked for one person.
Everyone thought that he was forced to accept Guan Shanhai by Empress Dugu as an indication that the Empress no longer trusted him, and thus using Guan Shanhai to spy on Cui Buqu. But no one could have known that it was Cui Buqu who asked for Guan Shanhai himself.
When faced with a misunderstanding such as this, he hadn't explained himself to Guan Shanhai, because they needed this misunderstanding from society.
Feng Xiao had thought the same before, but he discarded this thought very quickly. Because taking Empress Dugu's character and methods into consideration, as well as her trust on Cui Buqu, she wouldn't have used such a childish method to manipulate her own subject and officials nor her trusted aides.
Guan Shanhai wasn't meant to spy on Cui Buqu, he was meant to spy on Qiao Xian.
====
[1] 色即是空,空即是色: 色 can either refer to worldly forms or lust. A monk would not see all things in forms nor would they give in to lust because they have achieved a certain understanding, and for those who hadn't, they would understand nothing.