Late that night, in the cave, Ning Chen and Feng Qizheng slept propped against the wall.

The mountains were far colder at night than the country outside… but they had not lit a fire.

Gao Ziping and Chen Chong were not there. They were outside on watch.

The four of them took the watch two at a time, in turns.

Yang Yongwang’s people had scattered and been lost.

They had gone looking that afternoon and had not found them.

The mountains here were high and the woods thick, and there was no telling where the men had gone.

It did not much matter. With the book of evidence taken from Qiu Mingde, Yang Yongwang’s people were no longer of much use.

In the second half of the night Gao Ziping and Chen Chong came back to the cave.

The footsteps woke Ning Chen and Feng Qizheng. They had not been sleeping deeply.

Gao Ziping said, “The Ghost-Shadow men are back.”

Ning Chen wasted no words. He said one. “Move.”

The four of them came out of the cave, and instead of going to meet Yuan Zishi they hid.

Only Chen Chong went off quickly along a side track.

After a while there were footsteps.

Yuan Zishi and his men came up to the mouth of the cave.

Ning Chen put his head out quietly and watched in the hazy moonlight. Yuan Zishi was carrying something wrapped in black cloth. It looked like a head.

Yuan Zishi left the others at the cave mouth and went in himself.

He was out again in no time.

There was nobody in the cave.

“Younger Brother Ning. Younger Brother Ning…”

Yuan Zishi called several times and got no answer.

“That’s odd. Where have they gone?”

“Elder Brother, has Younger Brother Ning left?”

Yuan Zishi sighed. “There’s been no fire lit in the cave. It does look as though Younger Brother Ning has gone… It seems he still doesn’t trust us.”

“Elder Brother, what do we do now?”

Yuan Zishi thought about it. “We wait and see. If Younger Brother Ning still isn’t back by daylight, we leave.”

Ning Chen and the other two lay hidden in the dark and watched them without a sound.

About an hour later Chen Chong came quietly back.

Ning Chen asked, “Well?”

Chen Chong said, “Nobody else.”

Chen Chong had gone out to scout. If Yuan Zishi had a body of Prince Duan’s men behind him, they would not have had so much as a chance to run.

Ning Chen beckoned them.

The four of them drew quietly back, went around in a circle and came in again, making some noise on purpose.

“Elder Brother, somebody’s there!”

Yuan Zishi crouched down and looked toward where the sound came from, and made out several figures dimly.

“Careful, all of you!”

Then he called out into the distance, “Is that Younger Brother Ning?”

“Elder Brother Yuan?”

Ning Chen’s voice came back, and Yuan Zishi and his men relaxed.

The four of them came jogging up to the cave.

“Younger Brother Ning, where did you go?”

Ning Chen smiled bitterly. “We went after the people you frightened off in the daytime.”

Yuan Zishi remembered. When they had crossed blades with Ning Chen that day, a crowd of them had indeed run.

“Who were they?”

Ning Chen said, “Common people from around here. They couldn’t live, and they were driven to turning bandit.”

“Did you find them?”

Ning Chen shook his head.

Yuan Zishi looked a little guilty. “I’m sorry.”

“It doesn’t matter.” As Ning Chen said it his eyes went to the thing in Yuan Zishi’s hand. “Elder Brother Yuan, what’s that?”

Yuan Zishi gave the black cloth a shake and a head dropped straight out of it and rolled to Ning Chen’s feet. His voice was hard. “Gao Xiuming’s head.”

Ning Chen took several steps back.

He looked down and studied the head on the ground, then suddenly narrowed his eyes and turned to Yuan Zishi. “This isn’t Gao Xiuming.”

Yuan Zishi stared at him, taken aback.

Ning Chen said, “I only learned the name of the prince’s steward just now, but I saw him once at a distance back in the city of Xiuzhou. He doesn’t look like this.”

Yuan Zishi looked more blank than ever. “But this is Gao Xiuming. I’m certain of it… Has Younger Brother Ning made a mistake?”

Gao Ziping and the others said nothing.

They knew Ning Chen was testing him.

Ning Chen took his eyes off Yuan Zishi’s face and looked down at the head on the ground, play-acting. “Elder Brother Yuan is certain this is Gao Xiuming?”

Yuan Zishi nodded. “I’m certain, there’s no mistake… And even if I had it wrong, Eldest Brother would not.”

“Eldest Brother?”

“The eldest brother of our Ghost-Shadow Sect, and the man in charge of our Xiuzhou branch… We were careless. This Gao Xiuming was first-rate himself. Luckily we went and saw Eldest Brother first when we got back. If Eldest Brother hadn’t been there, I think we’d have come off badly.”

As Yuan Zishi said it, he put a hand to his chest.

Ning Chen frowned. “Elder Brother Yuan is hurt?”

“I was careless. I never expected Gao Xiuming to be first-rate. I took a palm strike from him. Don’t worry, it’s nothing… And another thing. When you reach Xiuzhou, Eldest Brother would like to meet you.”

Ning Chen made a sound of agreement and kicked Gao Xiuming’s head away. “It seems I had the wrong man last time. The one I saw wasn’t Gao Xiuming.”

“Come on, let’s talk inside.”

He was willing to trust Yuan Zishi for the present.

They went into the cave, built a fire and sat around it.

“Elder Brother Yuan, you’re sure that wound is all right?”

Yuan Zishi shook his head.

“Elder Brother Yuan, how do things stand in the city of Xiuzhou now?”

Yuan Zishi said, “Xiuzhou has suddenly gone under martial law, and they’ve started a curfew. The patrols in the streets are heavier, and the searches going in and out of the city are stricter still.”

“And Eldest Brother said you’d certainly find a use for these.”

Ning Chen took the things out of Yuan Zishi’s hand. “Registration papers? These are no good to us… not unless we can change our faces.”

Yuan Zishi smiled. “Has Younger Brother Ning forgotten? Our Ghost-Shadow Sect is very good at the art of face-changing too.”

Ning Chen’s eyes lit up all at once. Of course. How had he forgotten that?

The next day, early in the morning.

Ning Chen and the others came out of the cave.

The four of them looked at one another, and all at once they were laughing.

The four of them had changed their appearance completely.

Ning Chen’s face, which had been all clean angles before, was ordinary now—the kind you could throw into a crowd and nobody would notice.

Chen Chong grinned wickedly. “Old Feng, I never noticed your face was this big. It’s almost as big as a girl’s backside at the courtesans’ quarter.”

Feng Qizheng had worn a full beard before. Shaved clean, his face looked bigger than ever.

“Bah… You think you look good? Stop laughing. That is a truly disgusting leer.”

Feng Qizheng said it, then looked at Ning Chen and laughed. “Ning Chen, you really have changed your whole look… If you’d looked like this to begin with, and Miss Yudie had still been willing to go with you, I’d take your surname.”

Ning Chen swore at him, laughing. “Get lost! You’re the one who looks like something out of a latrine… Yudie isn’t as shallow as you.”

Ning Chen felt at his own face. It was an education. The Ghost-Shadow Sect’s art of face-changing was extraordinary.

“Elder Brother Yuan, these aren’t really human-skin masks on our faces, are they?”

Ning Chen asked it out of curiosity.

They all wore a thin layer over the face, not unlike a beauty mask, and then a whole course of painting on top of it, and the man’s whole appearance was altered.

And it held through every expression without a flaw.

Yuan Zishi shook his head, smiling. “No. They’re made by certain particular methods… When you get a chance to come back to the school, you’ll find out.”

Ning Chen asked, curious, “Then could you turn me completely into somebody else… into you, say?”

Yuan Zishi shook his head. “No. Even taking a full impression of a man’s face, the mask made from it can’t reproduce him exactly… You can only get six or seven parts in ten.”

(End of Chapter 312)