Chapter 93 | The Man Who Paid for the Fire

Near noon, Pan Ziming was arguing over cart space.

"You blocked the loading door." He tapped the freight slip with his index finger. "I don’t care what you paid yesterday. Today you either move the cart or pay for the space you’re wasting."

Across the counter, the carter threw up his hands. "The wheel isn’t even touching your door!"

"It doesn’t need to touch it to be in the way."

A clerk at the scales kept his head down.

Xu Tianlong entered through the south gate with Su Meilin and a city official. Su, in a clean deep-purple work robe with her sleeves tied back, slowed beside him. Her eyes moved from the cart to the freight slip, then to the stacked goods behind Pan.

"He charges for inconvenience before it becomes inconvenience," Su said under her breath.

Xu glanced at her. "Useful?"

"Profitable. Until someone notices."

By noon, Regeneration had finished the soreness left by the fallen rack. The raw scrape smoke had left in Xu’s throat was gone too. At 03:00, the private chime had sounded in his mind.

[Ding!]

[Daily Output Received]

[Lin Yueyao — Frost Essence +3]

[Xu Qing’er — Life Sap +2]

[Feng Lianzhu — Shadow Venom +2]

[Xiao Ruoxue — Lunar Veil +2]

The familiar currents had settled into the reserve at his lower dantian. By breakfast, Su had confirmed where Pan worked. Xu sent Feng after the silver instead of the man.

"Don’t prove Pan guilty," he’d told her at the Golden Crescent gate. "Find where the silver went."

Feng had glanced toward the warehouse streets. "Better question anyway."

Then she’d gone.

Pan noticed them.

His irritation vanished.

He was a broad-faced man in a brown merchant robe, sleeves rolled above his wrists. Ink stained the side of his hand. He looked like a man who had spent years standing between other people’s freight and money.

His gaze went to Su first.

Then the city official.

Then Xu.

It stayed there.

"Mistress Su." Pan set the freight slip down, then looked at Xu. "Young Master Xu. If this is about warehouse space, I can have someone clear a row."

"It isn’t," Su said.

The carter looked between them and suddenly found somewhere else to be. He seized his reins and started backing the cart out of the yard.

Pan watched him go. "Then what can I do for you?"

The city official moved past Xu’s left shoulder. He looked as though he’d rather be eating lunch.

"A man in holding gave us your name in a statement about the attack on Golden Crescent."

Pan’s fingers stopped on the freight slip.

"Shit."

The word slipped out low.

Then he recovered. "Men say all kinds of things when guards put them in a cell."

Su slipped a hand into the inner fold of her sleeve and drew out the scorched tally. She kept it on her side of the counter, turning only the surviving commission mark toward Pan.

Pan’s face changed.

Not much. A tightening beside the mouth. His eyes dropping to the mark and coming back too fast.

Su saw it too.

"Why did a warehouse commission need this returned after my branch burned?" she asked.

Pan looked at Xu before answering her.

"I handle a lot of commissions."

"That wasn’t the question."

"No." Pan swallowed. "It wasn’t."

The city official sighed. "Pan Ziming, come answer the rest at the holding office."

Pan’s jaw tightened. "Am I under arrest?"

"You’re coming with us to answer the statement. Make me argue about it in your yard and I’ll become less pleasant."

For a moment Pan looked toward the south gate.

2 city guards were already there.

He looked back at Xu.

Xu said, "Go."

Pan went.

The holding room smelled of old wood, dust, and boiled tea.

Pan sat on the north side of a plain table. Xu took the chair opposite him, the sword at his left hip never leaving its sheath. Su sat to Xu’s right. The city official stayed at the end of the table nearest the door.

The 2 guards remained outside.

The runner who had named Pan was nowhere in sight.

Su put the tally on the table between them, keeping 2 fingers on its edge.

Pan stared at it.

Xu let him.

The silence lasted until Pan shifted in his chair.

"I can explain the commission."

"Start with the rumors," Xu said.

Pan’s brows pulled together. "Rumors?"

Su leaned back. "You know exactly which rumors."

Pan shot her a look. "I paid people to talk. That’s not the same as inventing what they said."

"You paid them to hurt my branch," Su said. "Don’t hide behind the wording."

His mouth flattened.

"Fine." Pan’s eyes shifted back to Xu.

Xu waited.

Pan rubbed his thumb along a crack in the table. "I was paid to make Golden Crescent uncomfortable. Suppliers nervous. Customers uncertain. Market mouths are cheap, so I used them."

"Who paid you?" Xu asked.

"I’ll get there."

"Now."

Pan exhaled through his nose. "The money came through freight commissions on the Cangyun side."

"A name."

"I don’t have a name."

Su’s gaze sharpened. "You accepted silver without knowing the principal?"

"I knew the route. I knew the money was good. That’s enough for plenty of commission yards in this city. Don’t look at me like yours is holy."

Su’s smile was brief and cold. "Mine doesn’t pay men to trap workers in a burning warehouse."

Pan flinched.

Xu leaned back slightly. "You hired the men."

"I hired men to damage the branch."

"You hired them."

Pan’s eyes flicked to the city official, then returned to Xu. "Yes."

Su’s fingers went still on the tally.

Pan rushed on before anyone could speak. "I paid for broken stock, smashed doors, fear. Something visible. I didn’t tell them to butcher your people."

"And the fire?" Su asked.

Pan didn’t answer at once.

"Fire was part of it," he said at last. "They were supposed to keep it to the goods. Scare people. Ruin enough stock that merchants thought twice before dealing with the branch."

Su stared at him.

No teasing now. No merchant smile.

"You put flame in a working warehouse," she said. "And now you want me to care that you didn’t order anyone killed?"

Pan opened his mouth.

Nothing came out.

Xu didn’t rescue him from the silence.

Su pushed the tally a little closer without releasing it. "This. Why send it back?"

Pan’s gaze dropped.

"Completion mark."

"For what?"

"For the job."

"Whose side issued it?"

"Mine."

Su’s voice sharpened. "Your hand? Your clerk? Another commission desk?"

Pan glanced toward Xu.

"Answer her," Xu said.

"My side," Pan repeated, then grimaced at his own answer. "The mark came through my yard. The men carried it. If the branch burned and they finished what I paid them for, the tally came back. I cleared the rest of their silver after that."

Su turned the charred wood under her fingers.

"So the mark doesn’t identify your client."

"No."

"It identifies your work."

Pan looked away. "Yes."

Xu watched him for another breath. Sweat had gathered at Pan’s temples. His own commission mark sat in front of him, while a man he’d hired waited somewhere else in the building.

"How did the client reach you?" Xu asked.

Pan spread his hands, then seemed to remember where he was and put them back on the table. "Through freight business. Cangyun-linked commissions came in, payment moved with them, and I was told what kind of pressure was wanted."

"Who told you?"

"A message through the route."

"From whom?"

"No name I can give you. No face either."

Su studied him. "You never met the person paying for my branch?"

"Not face-to-face."

"And that didn’t bother you?"

Pan gave a humorless laugh. "I got paid. I didn’t need to shake a hand."

Su’s jaw tightened. "And that was enough for you."

His laugh died.

The city official shifted near the door. "Can you identify the freight account if we put the books in front of you?"

Pan hesitated longer this time. "I can identify the route I was paid through. I can identify my entries. Beyond that... if somebody above me wanted distance, they paid for distance."

Xu didn’t trust him. Pan had spent the whole questioning narrowing his own role. But every useful answer ended with the same Cangyun freight route and no person Pan could name above it. More pressure would only make him repeat himself.

Xu stood.

Pan blinked. "That’s it?"

"For now."

"Wait." Pan leaned forward. "I cooperated. That matters. Tell them that matters."

Xu looked at the city official.

The official’s tired expression didn’t move. "It’ll be written down. So will the rest."

Pan looked back to Xu as if there were another bargain available there.

There wasn’t.

Su picked up the tally and slipped it back inside her sleeve.

At the door, Pan called after her. "Mistress Su, wait. I didn’t want anyone dead."

Su stopped.

She didn’t turn around.

"You sent fire into a working warehouse," she said. "Don’t tell me what you wanted after it reached my people."

She walked out.

Xu followed.

They had barely reached the corridor when a guard outside raised a hand.

A Golden Crescent runner stood beyond him, breathing hard from the street. He stayed at the threshold when the city official opened the door.

"Young Master Xu, Mistress Su." The runner caught his breath. "Feng Lianzhu sent word."

Xu stopped. "Speak."

"She found silver moving toward the same pressure on Golden Crescent." The runner swallowed a breath. "It didn’t pass through Pan’s yard. She said she’s staying with the route until she knows where it goes."

Su’s eyes narrowed. "Did she send anything else?"

"No, Mistress. Just that. She told me to come straight here."

"Where is she now?" Xu asked.

The runner shook his head. "She didn’t say."

’Good.’ Feng wouldn’t send a location through a runner if she thought the trail mattered.

Xu glanced back through the open doorway. Pan remained inside at the table.

"Keep him here," Xu told the city official.

The official nodded. "He wasn’t leaving."

Xu turned to the Golden Crescent runner. "Go back. If Feng returns before I do, she waits for me."

"Yes, Young Master."

The runner hurried away.

Su watched the corridor where the runner disappeared. "Back to the branch?"

Xu listened to the holding-room door close behind them. "We wait for Feng."

Su gave a short nod and headed for the stairs. Xu went with her. Feng was still out, following silver that had bypassed Pan’s yard.