I traveled back to the Southern Song Dynasty and was actually outmaneuvered by Yue Fei.

He didn't tell Xiao Jinluo.

As dawn broke, Xiao Jinluo woke up.

She sat up from the haystack, rubbed her eyes, and the first thing she did was check if her brother was still there. She breathed a sigh of relief when she saw him sitting on the doorstep.

"Brother, where are we going today?"

"The osmanthus cake shop at the corner of Imperial Street."

Xiao Jinluo was stunned. "Brother, those people last night—"

"They're chasing us," Xiao Bieli said. "So we can't go back to the inn, but we can go to the osmanthus cake shop. We made a promise, and we can't break it."

Xiao Jinluo understood what he meant.

He wasn't really going to buy osmanthus cake; he wanted to use that shop as a point of contact.

This was a rule they established while in exile: if they got separated or something happened, they would meet at the nearest "agreed location".

In Lin'an, the agreed meeting place was the osmanthus cake shop.

But this time they didn't get separated.

Xiao Jinluo was silent for a moment, then stood up and patted the straw. "Let's go."

She has calmed down after last night's ordeal.

She walked ahead of her brother, carrying a plush rabbit, her steps light and quick, looking just like a little girl going out shopping with her brother.

The osmanthus cake shop at the corner of Yujie Street is called "Shen Family Cake Shop". The storefront is very small, and a row of freshly steamed osmanthus cakes are displayed in the window. The aroma wafts across half the street in the cold wind.

The proprietress was a woman in her forties, wearing a gray apron, adding water to the steamer.

Xiao Jinluo walked to the window and stood on tiptoe to look inside.

"Auntie, how much is a piece of osmanthus cake?"

"Three coins." The proprietress didn't even look up.

Xiao Jinluo reached into her sleeve and counted the copper coins one by one. After she finished counting, she pulled her hand back and looked up at Xiao Bieli.

"Brother, I have three coins. But I've counted them, and it's not enough."

Xiao Bieli took out a copper coin from his pocket and placed it in her palm.

That's enough.

When he placed the copper coin in her palm, he also slipped a note into it. Xiao Jinluo didn't look down; she simply pulled her hand back into her sleeve.

She bought four pieces of osmanthus cake, wrapped them in oil paper, and carefully held them in her arms.

"Brother, where are we going now?"

Xiao Bieli did not answer; his gaze remained fixed on the teahouse across the street.

The teahouse had just opened, and a waiter was removing the door panels. He recognized the waiter; he was the backup contact for the deputy commander of the Imperial Guard, and had previously worked for Manager Wang in Xiuzhou.

"I'm going to get a bowl of tea across the street," Xiao Bieli said. "You wait for me here."

Xiao Jinluo nodded, sat down on the steps at the entrance of the shop, opened the oil paper package, and carefully took a bite of the osmanthus cake.

Xiao Bieli walked through the Imperial Street and into the teahouse. The waiter looked up at him and paused for a moment while holding the door panel.

How many guests are there?

"One," Xiao Bieli said, sitting down at the innermost table. "A bowl of coarse tea, please."

When the waiter brought the tea over, he said something in a low voice.

"Last night, someone was captured at the city gate. He was the deputy commander of the Imperial Guard, one of Qin Hui's men. Your portrait was already at the Imperial City Guard this morning—Xiao Bieli, the vanguard commander of Yue Fei's army, a Jin spy."

Xiao Bieli held the teacup but didn't drink it.

"I want to see Prince Puan."

The waiter's fingers paused on the tea tray for a moment. "His Highness is not someone anyone can see just because they want to."

"I have something for him." Xiao Bieli took the roll of names from his pocket and placed it on the table.

He only put one page on the list—hunter Wang Da, dock porter Chen Laosi, and outlaw Zhao Tieqiang who lived in the mountains of southern Zhejiang. But these names were meaningless to the tea shop waiter.

But Xiao Bieli turned to the last page, where the last line read: "The above sixty-one former subordinates are willing to fight to the death, awaiting only one command."

The waiter's gaze swept over the line of text, and he remained silent for a few moments.

"Someone will pick you up this afternoon at the old site of Shunhe Teahouse in Wazi Lane." He placed the teapot on the table. "Don't bring your sister."

Xiao Bieli remained silent.

"Xiao Xianfeng," the waiter said with his back to him as he walked out, "you've been carrying this for so long, it's time to find someone to lend a hand."

Xiao Bieli sat in the teahouse for a long time.

The tea got cold and was refilled, but it got cold again. He was thinking about a very simple thing: should he send Xiao Jinluo to a safe place first?

The conclusion is: there is no safe place.

Qin Hui has already torn a hole in the net of Lin'an City.

With the deputy commander of the Imperial Guard arrested and the distribution point of Shunhe Tea Shop shut down, the Imperial City Guard will now comb through the entire city like a comb.

You can't stay at the inn, you can't linger at the local temple, and the owner of the osmanthus cake shop might kindly take you in for one night, but if the Imperial City Guard finds out about this place, she'll be in trouble too.

He kept Xiao Jinluo by his side because he had no other choice.

But there was another reason he didn't say: he didn't dare put his sister where he couldn't see her.

Afternoon, Wazi Lane.

This alley was originally the liveliest place in Lin'an, where all sorts of people, acrobats, storytellers, teahouses and taverns crowded together.

But ever since Shunhe Tea Shop was shut down by the Imperial City Guard, the whole alley has become much quieter. The tea shop's door panel is covered with a seal, and the paste on the seal is not yet dry, with one corner curled up by the wind.

Xiao Bieli settled Xiao Jinluo in a dessert shop that was still open at the alley entrance, bought her a bowl of brown sugar mochi, and told her, "Eat here and don't go anywhere else."

Then one person walked into the alley.

The back door of Shunhe Tea Shop was open, and someone unlocked it from the inside.

Xiao Bieli pushed open the door and saw someone.

The man stood in the storeroom filled with old tea boxes, his back to the door, holding a tinderbox and lighting the oil lamp on the wall.

When the light came on, it revealed a very young face, a boy of sixteen or seventeen, dressed in a plain robe with a jade sword hanging at his waist.

The boy's eyes were bright, and there was a calmness in them that was beyond his years.

"Xiao Bieli," the young man spoke first, "I am Zhao Bocong."

Xiao Bieli paused for a moment, then knelt on one knee and clasped his hands in a salute.

He never knelt before officials or nobles, but he knelt before the wronged soul of Yue Fei. He knew that the young man before him was the person behind the eight words the Empress Dowager spoke in the Imperial Ancestral Temple.

"Your Highness, I am a man who deserves to die. Think this through before you use anyone."

This was the first thing he said to Zhao Bocong. He didn't express his loyalty or offer any pledge of allegiance; instead, he revealed his true intentions.

Zhao Bozong did not answer immediately. He walked up to Xiao Bieli, gestured for him to stand up, and then took a new oil lamp from the bookshelf beside him and replaced the old lamp on the wall.

The firelight flickered across his face.

"Xiao Xianfeng, how long have you been in the Jin camp?"

"Six months."

"What have you done in the past six months?"

"Teach the Jin soldiers how to counter the Song army's battle formations."

Why?

"So that my sister and I could survive."

Zhao Bozong nodded, blew out the flame of the old oil lamp, and asked, "Is there anything else?"

Xiao Bieli fell silent.

"Yes." Then he continued, "I recorded a training procedure and equipment configuration for the Jin cavalry in the Jin camp. Over the course of six months, I recorded seventy-six variations, and I still have this document with me."

After saying that, he took out another roll of paper from his pocket.

He spent half a year in the Jin camp, taking the opportunity to teach the Jin soldiers, and memorized it bit by bit.

"Is this intelligence worth my life?" Xiao Bieli asked.