The snow stopped.

The moment Shen Luoyan steered the small boat off the pier, Xu Ziling arrived at the Fei Yun [lit. flying cloud] Bridge, which was smaller in scale compared to the Yue Ma Bridge. Looking south, over two river bends, was precisely the Yue Ma Bridge.

Xu Ziling had a déjà vu of that day in Luoyang; he felt as if everything before his eyes had happened before, but everything also felt strangely unfamiliar.

Shen Luoyan lifted the oar to let the current brought the boat to gently bump into the bridge pier. She curled up her knees and wrapped her lily-white hands around them, and then she lowered her forehead and propped her head between her knees. Her bright and beautiful, yet carrying a bit of vicissitudes – eyes, under the new moon’s slanting beam, which had just reappeared from behind the black cloud, were fixed on Xu Ziling with full interest, but she did not say anything.

Being at the receiving end of her stare, Xu Ziling felt awkward, but at the bottom of his heart he still admitted that Shen Luoyan’s posture and appearance were extremely moving. Smiling slightly, he said, “Tonight Shen Junshi were asking me to come here, I wonder what instruction you would like to bestow?”

Shen Luoyan gently shrugged her shoulders, “Nothing,” she replied, “I just wanted to see you! How old are you this year? I shouldn’t be too much older than you are, my guess is probably two or three years older. This year you ought to be twenty-two or twenty-three, only after your birthday will you be considered one year older.”

Smiling ruefully, Xu Ziling said, “Shen Xiaojie seems to forget that she is now another man’s wife. As friends, seeing each other should not be a problem, but if like right now, in the depth of the night, on a small boat under the bridge, it could provoke other people’s misunderstanding.”

Laughing softly, Shen Luoyan said, “Are you saying that it should be no problem to reserve a table at the Fu Ju Lou, to see you under ten thousand of staring eyes?”

Xu Ziling was at a loss for words.

Shen Luoyan stopped her smile; lowering her voice, she said, “What I am about to tell you is very important, you have to listen carefully.”

Xu Ziling shivered greatly in his heart. He slightly nodded.

Shen Luoyan spoke heavily, “Last night, very late at night, Qin Wang summoned Shiji. When he came back, Shiji told me that we are going to leave Chang’an on the second day of Lunar New Year. The original plan was that we are going to come with Qin Wang to participate in the spring hunting on Mount Zhongnan.”

Without needing her to continue, Xu Ziling could guess what happened.

Because Li Shiji was the commanding officer of the remnant of Li Mi’s troops, it could be said that he was the only high-ranking military officer within Guanzhong with massive military force. Without the trouble of mobilizing the entire army division, he could easily make effective interception of Kou Zhong transporting the treasure away.

Under the multitude-of-enemies, few-friends [idiom from Mencius] situation, plus being weighted down by the wealth, goods and treasure, even if he and Kou Zhong were more formidable than the ‘Demonic King’ Shi Zhixuan, they would be helpless to do anything, and would only become fish and meat to the opposite side.

The most brilliant part of this plan was that it would absolutely not alert either Li Jiancheng or Li Yuanji’s side.

Shen Luoyan said, “At first I thought Qin Wang was preparing to attack Luoyang, but unexpectedly Shiji did not want to divulge anything about the inside story of this mission to me at all, so that I am more sure than ever that the person he wanted to deal with is you.”

Xu Ziling did not know what to feel. Just now Li Shimin wanted them to call each other ‘Xiong’ and ‘Di’ [elder and younger brother, respectively], yet beneath the surface he was making arrangement to deal with them. However, it was also difficult to blame him, because if he only made his move when they were leaving Chang’an, he did not break their agreement. It’s just that in his heart, Xu Ziling did not feel too comfortable.

With his thought wandering, Xu Ziling casually asked, “Why didn’t you tell Kou Zhong directly this morning?”

Sketching it in light shade, Shen Luoyan replied, “Because I wanted Xu Ziling to know that for his safety, Shen Luoyan is willing to betray her husband.”

“What?” Xu Ziling blurted out.

Shen Luoyan sat her tender body up straight, while covering her mouth as she said with a laugh, “I was just teasing you! Don’t take it too seriously. No one dares to say that you and Kou Zhong are fools, but I am very clear that you two are extremely muddleheaded; sometimes you got yourselves into the tip of the horn of a bull. I wonder if you have ever given any thought on the transportation issue, about how you are going to take the treasure out?”

With that pointer, Xu Ziling understood immediately. His tiger body slightly shook.

Since arriving in Chang’an, all along they were in distress on how to find the treasure’s location, but they had neither the time nor the mood to think about this aspect, while in fact, transporting the treasure was equally important to finding the treasure. If there was no detailed plan, they might fall into a no-room-to-advance-or-to-retreat, at-a-loss-to-know-what-to-do situation.

Gao Zhandao and the others might have a plan, but it was no more than how to stealthily transport a large quantity of weapons and treasure out of Chang’an via the waterway, yet there was no ingenious plan. Under the current situation, where there was an enemy soldier on every tree or bush, where every sound of the wind was a reflection of the crane, their plan absolutely would not work. Based on Li Shimin’s shrewdness, surely they would find out Gao Zhandao and the others’ relationship with the two boys.

Shen Luoyan said, “The way of the military expert is nothing more than using empty in place of real, and using real in place of empty. In term of strength, you guys are weak; you must not have direct confrontation with the enemy, only use the strategy of deploying troops to mislead the enemy. With your, Xu Ziling’s intelligence and wisdom, without anybody telling you, you ought to know what to do?”

Xu Ziling sincerely said, “Thank you very much for the directions!”

Shen Luoyan went on, “This morning Pang Yu found an excuse to come to pay a New Year call to us, he and Shiji talked in the study room behind closed door for the entire sichen, you know what kind of role Pang Yu is playing within the Heavenly Policy Mansion? It’s precisely what I have been doing for Mi Gong [Duke Mi] in the past.”

Xu Ziling recalled that at the Heavenly Policy Mansion earlier, Pang Yu was the only one he did not see; turned out he was in charge of intelligence, investigation, infiltration, and other similar military duties, just like Shen Luoyan. If he was cooperating with Li Shiji, plus this place was his territory, and on top of that, Xu Ziling and Kou Zhong’s identity had been exposed, with clear distinction which one in the open and which one in the dark, his and Kou Zhong’s transporting-treasure troops might be heavily besieged by Li Shiji. He started to understand the gravity of this matter.

Revealing a grave expression, Shen Luoyan spoke in low voice, “I’ve heard rumors on the grapevine; do you want to hear it?”

Smiling bitterly, Xu Ziling said, “With so many bad news, what’s the harm in hearing one more?”

Shen Luoyan said, “After acquiring the treasure, are you going to split way and scattering the goods [i.e. goods sent under the protection of an armed escort]?”

Xu Ziling’s heart tightened; he could no longer a