Gao Yiyi did not raise her voice, yet the pressure in it was unmistakable.
"Speak. Who sent you? And what exactly were you trying to steal?"
Mi Qianhu lifted his head despite the bruises blooming across his face. His lips curled in disdain.
"Hmph. You underestimate me. I am a Jinyiwei thousand-household commander. Do I look like some petty thief sneaking around for scraps?"
That gave everyone pause.
"A Jinyiwei thousand-household commander?"
The atmosphere shifted at once. What had felt like an industrial security incident suddenly carried the weight of imperial authority.
Mi Qianhu seized the moment. He jabbed a finger toward Zhu Yujian, who still wore his bamboo hat.
"You. The one in the bamboo hat. You abducted the imperial fugitive Zhu Yujian from Henan. Where have you hidden him? Hand him over now, and perhaps you will be allowed a clean death. Continue shielding that traitor, that renegade guilty of high treason, and His Majesty will see that you die without a whole corpse. Your entire clan will be wiped from the earth."
He was bound. He had just been thoroughly "educated" with essential balm. And yet, the moment he regained enough breath to speak, he roared like a tiger that refused to admit it was in a cage.
Zhu Yujian blinked.
"Huh? What?"
For a few seconds, confusion ruled his face. Then realization struck.
Ah.
Of course.
When Zhu Cunji rescued him before, he had been dressed exactly like this. Bamboo hat. Same cut of clothes. Same silhouette. To the Jinyiwei who had only glimpsed him from a distance, he and his rescuer must have looked identical.
So in their minds, the man in the bamboo hat had kidnapped Zhu Yujian.
And now they had been tracking him ever since.
Which meant they had technically followed him… to him.
Zhu Yujian let out a long sigh and turned toward Gao Yiyi, Qi Cheng, and Bin Sheng.
"I owe you three an apology. This mess is mine. They weren't after your factory at all. They were after me."
The moment he spoke clearly, Mi Qianhu froze.
"A Henan accent?"
The others stiffened.
Wait.
The man who rescued Zhu Yujian had spoken with a Shaanxi accent.
This one… did not.
They were seasoned investigators. The confusion lasted only a heartbeat.
Then their eyes widened.
"You… you are Zhu Yujian!"
"The bamboo-hatted man rescued you, then disguised you as another bamboo-hatted man!"
"You're planning a rebellion!"
The words burst out together, as if they had been corked too long.
Zhu Yujian immediately began waving both hands in panic.
"No. I'm not. I didn't. Absolutely not."
Mi Qianhu barked a harsh laugh.
"You are plotting rebellion. You, Zhu Yujian, have harbored treasonous ambitions for years. Setting up a massive factory in Shaanxi to produce weapons. Do you think we are blind? His Majesty was right to strip your title and reduce you to a commoner. You are an arch-rebel!"
"I'm not!" Zhu Yujian protested, voice cracking. "I truly am not!"
Mi Qianhu's eyes blazed.
"Confound it! If I were not bound here like a dog, I would fight you to the death myself, traitor!"
At that moment, he clearly understood his situation. Once he had exposed what he believed to be Zhu Yujian's treason, survival was unlikely. Even if these people did not kill him, he would never leave quietly.
So he poured everything into curses.
"There are more Jinyiwei than just us. Others will track you down. Someone will report your wicked rebellion. I will wait in the underworld and watch you be dragged to execution like a dog before His Majesty!"
He ranted with astonishing stamina.
Meanwhile, Gao Yiyi, Qi Cheng, and Bin Sheng exchanged glances.
"So… they weren't trying to steal industrial secrets?"
Qi Cheng rubbed his forehead. "If that idiot had just explained himself earlier, we wouldn't have needed to baptize him in essential balm."
Bin Sheng sighed. "I thought he was from Wuzhen Chaoha. Turns out he's just Jinyiwei. All that chaos for nothing."
Gao Yiyi tilted her head thoughtfully.
"So what do we do now? Arresting a prince inside Dao Xuan Tianzun's liberated territory… does that even count as a crime? Do these Jinyiwei require labor reform?"
The three of them looked upward at the sky almost in unison.
They genuinely did not know whether Dao Xuan Tianzun would be amused or irritated by this farce.
High above, Li Daoxuan was indeed amused.
He laughed. Properly laughed.
Once he finished, he considered the matter seriously.
Strictly speaking, these Jinyiwei had committed no grave crimes. No theft. No murder. No arson. No fraud. They had stormed into the Chang'an Automobile Factory in an official capacity and made an enormous blunder.
Death was excessive.
Severe injury was unnecessary.
Several years of labor reform would be disproportionate.
A few days of labor reform would be meaningless.
Temporary detention seemed reasonable. Yet if released, they would report Zhu Yujian's "rebellion" to the capital. And Li Daoxuan did not want flames of civil war consuming the realm. His aim was transformation, not catastrophe.
After only a few seconds of thought, he synchronized with the golden embroidered image of Dao Xuan Tianzun on Gao Yiyi's chest.
"Hand them over to the Jinyiwei in Xi'an."
The Jinyiwei in Xi'an had once served under Shi Kefa. Since Shi Kefa had long ago become a devoted follower of Dao Xuan Tianzun, the Xi'an Jinyiwei had effectively joined the Daoist sect as well. Each bore an embroidered image of Dao Xuan Tianzun on their uniform.
When the message came, they arrived swiftly at the factory.
They took one look at the two dozen capital Jinyiwei, bruised, tied, and deeply humiliated, and could not help shaking their heads.
"You traveled all this way and did not even contact us first? Investigating on someone else's turf without coordination? You brought this on yourselves."
Mi Qianhu's expression darkened further.
"You saw Zhu Yujian and did not arrest him? Have you joined the rebellion too?"
The Xi'an Jinyiwei spread their hands.
"There is no point debating that now. Come with us."
They did not untie them. Bound hand and foot, Mi Qianhu and his men were escorted away.
And just like that, peace returned to the Chang'an Automobile Factory.
Zhu Yujian stood there looking painfully awkward.
"Now that you all know who I am… you won't report me, will you?"
Everyone burst into laughter.
"The ones who wanted to report you are already being handled by the Xi'an Jinyiwei. Who else would report you? Relax. Continue enjoying your visit."
Someone chuckled.
"What a spectacle. Thunder at the beginning, drizzle at the end."
"Exactly. A grand explosion that fizzled into nothing. Like a comedy that forgot its own punchline."
The crowd began dispersing.
Almost.
Yanzi turned slowly toward her husband, Bin Sheng. Her eyes were sharp.
"My dear husband. It seems you have hidden quite a bit from me. With those martial skills of yours, you cannot possibly be just some refugee from the Northeast. Who are you, really?"
Bin Sheng looked as if he were about to be executed.
"My wife… if I tell you, promise you won't hit me."
"Speak."
He swallowed.
"I used to be an elite soldier of the Later Jin."
Yanzi inhaled.
Then she screamed.
It was not a small scream. It was the kind that shook rafters.
Everyone who had just started walking away turned back instantly.
"Oh?"
"So the grand farce did not end after all."
"Looks like the real drama is starting now."
Bin Sheng flailed his hands.
"Yanzi, I didn't mean to hide it from you."
"I don't want to hear it!"
"I was wrong!"
"I said I don't want to hear it!"
And thus, what had begun with accusations of imperial treason ended with a domestic battlefield far more terrifying than anything the Jinyiwei could have staged.
Bang at the start.
Whimper at the finish.
Or perhaps… not quite yet.