The old man raised the goblet and mumbled, feeling that he should drink a toast to his good future life.

Its nostrils flaring, a scout dog was sniffing all around at those broken tiles in the ruins of Changming Fang. Yao Runeng was holding the leash, occasionally looking in the direction of the outside, uneasy and preoccupied.

Loud sounds of people dancing to music accompanied by bursts of cheers kept coming from the other side of the wall. Those waves of sounds alone were tempting enough. If he climbed to the top of the wall, he could surely see scenes several times more exciting than the sounds.

But Yao Runeng was too concerned to think about that. At this moment, he was full of anxiety. Firstly he hadn't found anything during this search yet, which meant he failed Commandant Zhang, and secondly, he had no idea how the investigation conducted by the Jing'an Department was going. As long as the rest of those Turks were still at large, residents of Chang'an would never be safe.

All of a sudden, the scout dog raised it head and started barking loudly.

With a wry smile, Yao Runeng crouched down and rubbed its fluffy neck. This was the third time that it had barked at that well. Lubi soldiers had long ago noticed the rock blocking the opening of the well when they were searching this site. They had removed the rock, looked inside but found nothing. After Yao Runeng arrived here with the dog, he had also checked the well several times but also hadn't found anything unusual.

'Why is this dog so obsessed with that well? It's just as stubborn as Commandant Zhang.'

As this disrespectful thought popped into his mind, Yao Runeng giggled in amus.e.m.e.nt, thinking that he couldn't let Commandant Zhang know about this, and then he stood up and brushed the dirt off his clothes. Since this search didn't come to much, he believed that he might as well go back. Hopefully, Commandant Zhang had already found some new clues. Yao Runeng didn't want to miss it.

But due to this momentary lapse of concentration, the dog abruptly jerked the leash off his hand and rapidly ran to the edge of the well like a swis.h.i.+ng arrow. Rather resigned, Yao Runeng walked over and intended to dragged it away, but the moment he approached it, he suddenly discovered that there seemed to be something between the dog's jaws. Frowning, Yao Runeng stretched out his hand, extracted that thing and found that it was a small piece of cloth.

That was a thin, long strip of sackcloth which could be seen everywhere, dull-black in color. It had been ripped off from something caught by the cracked edge of the well.

Yao Runeng looked at the color of the cloth and then cast a glance at the pitch-dark bottom of the well. An idea suddenly struck him. He summoned a nearby member of the Indecent, had him girded his waist with a rope the other end of which was tied to a pavilion post, and then started climbing down into the well by stepping on the dents in the wall.

It was almost dark, and he had just descended a few steps when it became pitch-black. Yao Runeng asked a member of the Indecent to light a lantern and slowly send it down with a rope. Meanwhile, he himself kept going down. He missed his footing several times and it was because of the rope that he didn't fall off. Finally, he managed to reach the bottom. Yao Runeng stretched out his hand, drew the lantern over, took a look and was instantly taken aback.

The bottom of the well was covered by a layer of dull-black sackcloth, and a human-shaped hump could be distinctly seen. In addition to this layer of black sackcloth, it was almost dark outside. No wonder they failed to find anything unusual in this well from above. These Turks really knew how to hide people!

Yao Runeng removed the sackcloth to reveal an unconscious female. He stooped down, stretched out one hand to her nostrils to check her breathing and laid another hand on her shoulder. Unexpectedly, the moment he touched her, she came around and immediately grabbed a stone to hit his head. Yao Runeng was blindsided and got hit on the brow, grimacing in pain.

Fortunately, the female's strength was not great enough to knock people out with one blow. Yao Runeng gripped her wrist, explaining aloud, "We work for the Jing'an Department. You're safe now." Then he hastily revealed his waist-seal fastened to his belt.

The female was stunned. Yao Runeng forced a smile in suppressed pain. "That's right. We're civil servants."

The female let out a cry and burst into tears, shooting her arms around Yao Runeng to hold him tight. Droplets of cold sweat started welling up on Yao Runeng's forehead. If someone from the w.a.n.g Family saw this, he would probably be incriminated. But she was so scared that she wouldn't let go of him no matter how hard he tried to comfort her. Yao Runeng had no choice but to let her. He asked people at the opening to drop another rope to drag the two of them out of the well.

People above labored quite a while and finally managed to get the two people up to the ground. Seeing that she was just petrified and that there was no obvious wounds in her, Yao Runeng was relieved.

"Lady w.a.n.g Yunxiu, please come with us to the Jing'an Department," Yao Runeng said respectfully.

The female raised her head with a blank expression on her face, as if still at a loss what had just happened. It was not until Yao Runeng repeated his words that she reacted, as if wakening from a dream, and hurriedly said, "Ah? There must be some kind of mistake. I'm not Lady w.a.n.g. My name is Wen Ran."

Yao Runeng paled visibly on hearing this.

Zhang Xiaojing and Tanqi were greeted by overwhelming noises the moment they walked out of Guangde Fang.

This was an area near the West Market and there were numerous luxurious commercial houses here. In order to publicize their stores, business owners spared no expense in competing with each other. This store hung a banner ten meters long, the one beside immediately got one eleven meters in length. A store erected a post with lanterns formed up into the shape of a dragon coiling around it, another store soon erected a post with a phoenix formed of lanterns. A firm in the east hung brocade curtains in ten different colors, another firm in the west hurriedly installed a curtain made of five strings of gold and silver pendants at the storefront, making the store look like an immortal's abode. The lantern compet.i.tion in this area was the intensest in Chang'an every year, and it was also the place where the most residents congregated during the festival.

At this moment, along the fang walls on the sides of the broad road between Guangde Fang and the West Market, there were countless giant bamboo frameworks in the shape of wheels, trees or hills, all of which were laden with lanterns and flags with companies' names on them. The two lines of lanterns stretched for miles. Flames of several hundred thousand ivory candles were flickering in mid-air, lighting everywhere, which was an exciting and dazzling sight.

All these candles were about two feet in length and a child's arm in width. They were placed in octahedral windproof paper cages and could last a whole night. The materials that the candles were made of contained spices, and there was also balm in the beds, so at the spot where the most lanterns were, the air was filled with a strong oily fragrance. Carried by night breezes, it wafted through the whole city.

Numerous residents crowded below those frameworks decorated with lanterns, raising their heads to enjoy the beauty of lanterns smelling the fragrance. There was also a grain of coa.r.s.e salt beneath everybody's tongue, which was an old custom in Chang'an: salt meant extension(The two Chinese characters are h.o.m.onyms), and candles symbolized longevity. People believed that if the total amount of fragrance they inhaled reached the amount of fragrance that a whole candle could emit, their lives would be prolonged by one year, which would be an auspicious start to the new year. And this act was called "inhaling candles' lives".

Because of this tradition, the lantern show site in Chang'an wasn't very crowded at the beginning. Most people stayed below those lanterns to "inhale candles' lives" for a while before strolling around - 'There's no need to hurry. This is going to be a long, amazing night,' everybody present at the show thought so.

Zhang Xiaojing knew this custom, so he urged Tanqi to take advantage of this opportunity and speed up, since they might get stranded if they didn't hurry.

Tanqi's horsemans.h.i.+p was pretty good. She flicked a provocative glance at Zhang Xiaojing and said, "You have no authority over me." And with that she spurred the horse which then took a flying leap to dexterously go through the narrow pa.s.sage between two mule-drawn carts and galloped away.

Zhang Xiaojing was not annoyed. He jogged the reins and pursued her hotly, followed closely by some Lubi soldiers.

To travel from Guangde Fang to Yining Fang, they had to ride northwards past three intersections, then turn west and go past another two intersections. All places this journey went through were prosperous ones. The road was crowded with people, horses and carriages. They barely had any room to turn around. After a time-consuming, stop-start travel, they finally reached Yining Fang.

Yining Fang was near the Kaiyuan Gate in the west. Most foreign merchants who were unable to enter the West Market chose to stay in this place, so there were more foreigners here than in the West Market. In this fang, temples of various religions in their respective unique styles stood in great numbers, which counted as a scenery spot of Chang'an. The one with a flame-shaped top and cinnabar walls was a Zoroastrian temple; the one with two long flagpoles on the ridge of the roof was a Manichean temple; and in the northwest corner of the Eastern Tenth Street, the one with a cross on its circular top made of bricks was a Nestorian temple.

Houses in Yining Fang were also decorated with lanterns and streamers, and the atmosphere was very uproarious. While there was a upsurge of residents going outdoors to enjoy the lantern show, all temples opened their middle gates to hand out food and preach. Visitors also took advantage of this opportunity to go into these temples to enjoy exotic scenes that they couldn't see on ordinary days.

Zhang Xiaojing and the others arrived at the gateway of the Nestorian temple. A dozen smiling Nestorian monks in white robes were handing out small wooden crosses and little handwritten sutra scrolls to pa.s.sers-by.

Zhang Xiaojing secretly bade a couple of subordinates find out how many entrances this temple had, and also ordered that each entrance be guarded by at least two men.

Tanqi asked him, "Shall we find the archbishop and check monks' certificates?" She had done some research before coming here and knew that the one in charge of Nestorian temples in Chang'an was called archbishop, who was a counterpart with a Zoroastrian Grand Sabao(The head of all Zoroastrian temples in a particular country). But Zhang Xiaojing shook his head, "This is different from the matter of Zoroastrianism. We don't know Yousha's ident.i.ty. If we recklessly go there to check certificates, he might be alarmed. I have another plan, but I need you to cooperate with me."

Tanqi was just about to ask what his plan was when a Nestorian monk in white robe walked up to them. He fished out two crosses on chains and said, "Benefactors, would you like to wear these crosses and listen to a sermon?"

He had a prominent nose and hollow eyes. They could tell at first sight that he was not a native of the Central Plains, and his Chinese was not very fluent either. Zhang Xiaojing took a cross, casually tied it around Tanqi's neck and smiled, "Last night, my wife had a dream. An immortal, who wore gold armor with a cross on the chest and stood on a lotus flower, told her that an eminent monk she was destined to be indentured to had arrived in Chang'an. He also bade us serve that monk respectfully. So, today we came to this Persian Temple to find our master."

Tanqi was taken aback, 'Why is this wastrel taking nonsense again?' But she couldn't expose his lie in front of the monk, so she just stood on the spot, the color of her face alternating between red and white. At this moment, Zhang Xiaojing took her hand and raised it, saying, "Darling, the cross has always been blessing you. This time, you must devoutly express your grat.i.tude." Tanqi noticed that there was no flirtatiousness in Zhang Xiaojing's eyes, only a cold look.

It abruptly dawned on her that he was not flirting with her but carrying out the plan. She hurriedly withdrew her annoyed look and gave a pleasant smile at the Nestorian monk.

The Nestorian monk was delighted. Devout believers among Tang residents were very rare. He believed that this man must have been influenced by his wife who was of Western-Regions blood, which was even rarer than donating a couple of Pi(1. Pi is a unit of length used in feudal China. A Pi is roughly equivalent to 13 meters.) of cloth or a couple of gold items. He gladly asked, "Do you have the name of that eminent monk?"

This time, Tanqi quickly came into her own without Zhang Xiaojing's help. "That immortal wearing gold armor said that this eminent monk was not a native of the Central Plains, that he arrived in Chang'an on one day of the past few months."

They had discussed this with Li Bi and knew that by no means had a dignitary like Yousha been hiding in Chang'an for a long time. If he had disguised himself as a Nestorian monk and been staying in this temple, the duration probably had been no longer than three months.

With a frown on his face, the Nestorian monk said that their disciples came from a wide variety of countries and areas, including Grand Qin, Zhan Kingdom, Persia and even the Western Regions and the prairie in the north, so the clue "not a native of the Central Plains" was far from specific enough. Tanqi hurriedly added, "Or maybe he's a Sogdian?"

It was by disguising himself as a Sogdian merchant that Cao Poyan infiltrated into Chang'an, which was a very convenient method. Dignitary Yousha had no reason to refuse to adopt it.

The Nestorian monk thought for a while and then said with an apologetic look, "There are too many monks in our temple. It won't be easy to find him in a short time. You might as well follow me into the temple. I'll ask my fellow monks and see what I can find out."

Having been expecting this, Zhang Xiaojing and Tanqi followed the Nestorian monk into the temple, walking side by side.

When they entered the temple they were greeted by an octahedral stone Sutra Pillar more than ten meters high, on every side of which was carved a pattern of a cross, and its pedestal was in the shape of a lotus flower. This was probably the "cross and lotus flower" that Cao Poyan had mentioned. Behind the stone Sutra Pillar was a square not very large, which was paved with bluestone and spotlessly clean. On each of the two sides of the square was a row of Persian-style stone statues, and at the end of the square stood an olde, quaint main hall with a protruding front and a pointy top on which there was a cross.

Compared with temples of central mainland, buildings here were slightly bleak and plain. There weren't even any bell towers and drum towers on the sides of them. Leading the way, the Nestorian monk had walked a certain length of distance forward before he saw someone walking towards him head-on. He couldn't help yelled, "Deacon Ea.s.s, here!"

That man was about the same age of Li Bi's and had typical Persian look - green eyes, purple whiskers and curly hair, only that his features were fairly gentle and rather feminine. There was a long epaulet in the shape of an olive branch pinned on the left shoulder of his white robe, which indicated that his rank was probably higher than this Nestorian monk.

What was noteworthy were his eyes - his pupils were big, round and pure green, like two mounted gemstones.

"This is Deacon Ea.s.s. He's the one in charge of general affairs of our temple. You can ask him about all kinds of matters, both big ones and small ones." The Nestorian monk warmly introduced that man to them. Though Ea.s.s was a foreigner, his Mandarin was very standard. With a smile, he expressed his Lantern-Festival greetings to this couple in a mellow voice and courteous manner, giving them a favorable impression.

After Tanqi repeated their story of coming here to look for an eminent monk, Ea.s.s clapped his hand and smiled, "Speaking of this, there's indeed an elder from the Western Regions here who arrived not long ago, which fits madam's account of the dream well."

His Mandarin was very fluent, but his wording was somewhat unduly formal. He probably had learned those words from some sutras or ancient books.

Zhang Xiaojing and Tanqi exchanged eye contact and asked in unison, "We crave knowledge of Nestorianism. Would you please be so kind as to introduce this eminent monk to us?" Ea.s.s crossed himself and smiled mildly, "That would be my honor - but this place is called Grand Qin Temple, not Persian Temple."

Then the Nestorian monk returned to the gate, and Ea.s.s himself led this couple towards the main hall.