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"...if the assassin outlasts the spies I'm lending you, I'll be impressed," Feng Xiao said, voice unusually serious.
It was, perhaps, a bit unusual for the Second Commander of the Jiejian Bureau to share such hard-won information, or the use of his personnel quite so freely with anyone—much less his counterpart at the Zuoyue Bureau—but at the moment, Feng Xiao didn't much care, so long as it got him what he wanted. Zhangsun Bodhi blinked, then nodded.
"You know your Commander fits the target profile," Feng Xiao added. "People associated, however loosely, with Liuli Palace."
"I'll stay by his side," Zhangsun promised.
"No," Feng Xiao said, with all the force of a demonic sect leader, of an uncannily handsome man with unmatched martial arts who was rarely denied his way. "He can order you away."
Zhangsun sighed, seeming to already know what was coming next, but he only shrugged.
"He'll be intolerable," he warned. "You know how much the Commander hates being protected."
Feng Xiao smiled, sunny and brilliant and entirely false.
"Business as usual, then," he replied. "Bring him here. None of our staff are affiliated with Liuli Palace, so we're not on the assassin's list. Besides," he added. "Anyone with half a brain will think twice before assaulting the Jiejian Bureau, even in search of such a prize as Cui Buqu."
Zhangsun's expression didn't so much as flicker, but Feng Xiao got the impression the man was amused. Or perhaps pained. It was so hard to tell, with these monk types.
"Now get lost," Feng Xiao said, gesturing toward the door with his cup of tea, with a languid gesture.
Pei Jingzhe made an appalled face. He hastily escorted Zhangsun out of the room, leading him away through the series of courtyards that made up the heart of the Jiejian Bureau.
Feng Xiao opted not to listen to their whispering as they left. It would surely only be Pei Jingzhe awkwardly apologizing for his Second Commander's manners. Instead he began reviewing what he knew of this assassin. It was shockingly little, for someone who had been in the capital for several days already. From what Zhangsun had said, it appeared the man had been trying much harder to avoid the attention of the Zuoyue Bureau, and had succeeded in that endeavor. That singular focus may have been the only reason Ming Yue's Jiejian Bureau spies and informants had managed to catch sight of him. As a consequence, he had been able to catch the tail ends of rumors that all added up to one thing: Cui Buqu was in danger.
Probably other people in the city were in danger too, but that wasn't Feng Xiao's concern: the Zuoyue Bureau could inform them, or not, as they saw fit.
And perhaps Cui Buqu's time studying with Fan Yun—who had himself been only loosely affiliated with Liuli Palace—would not be a close enough link to draw the attention of this assassin, but Feng Xiao found himself unwilling to make such a gamble when Cui Buqu was still recovering from his near-death experiences in the maze under the city.
The remaining vigor of the Jade of Heaven's Lake might have done more than save his life; perhaps it had extended his lifespan; perhaps it had even changed his wretched fate for the better. But Feng Xiao had seen no such evidence in the intervening weeks. Cui Buqu had attended court again far sooner than anyone had expected, looking pale and wraith-like in his fur-edged cloak. He had accepted the Emperor and Empress's thanks with perfectly appropriate deference. Then he had sat at his table, deathly still, drinking hot water rather than tea or wine, and had ignored the jockeying of the various people of the court with an absolute, icy derision that had made Feng Xiao want to go over and bother him, just to force any expression at all onto that calm face.
But none of that meant that Cui Buqu was well again: with Qiao Xian sent away, there was no one in the Zuoyue Bureau who would stand up to their Commander for his own good, and Feng Xiao had seen the man endure unimaginable pain without so much as a blink of discomfort.
So really, Feng Xiao thought, it was for the best to have Cui Buqu under his protection for the next few days, until the Zuoyue Bureau could smoke out the assassin, and after doing so, make him someone else's problem.
Zhangsun Bodhi had already been advised to alert Xuandu Mountain's senior disciple, Gu Hengbo, about the activity of the assassin. Feng Xiao had guessed, based on an offhand comment from Sect Leader Yan a week or so past, that Sect Leader Shen's shimei would be concerned for the safety of at least one prominent member of Liuli Palace. And alerting her to a potential threat while she was at Xuandu Temple in the former capital city was easily enough done.
Zhangsun had looked shocked, whether by Feng Xiao's suggestion itself or by his having a suggestion at all in such matters. And, yes, the jianghu might be Cui Buqu's domain, the particular focus of the Zuoyue Bureau, but that didn't mean Feng Xiao turned his brain off whenever the topic came up. Besides, if it turned out the assassin could stand up to a disciple of Qi Fengge, he might be worth Feng Xiao's time in a fight after all.
Feng Xiao called for more tea to be delivered in half a shichen, laid out a weiqi board, and settled in to wait for Cui Buqu. After a moment, he called for some of the paperwork that Ming Yue had been badgering him to take a look at for several weeks, and started in on that instead. It wouldn't do to look like he was too eager for Cui Buqu's company.
* * *
Cui Buqu arrived after the tea had gone coldt. Where Feng Xiao had half expected him to be shepherded by Zhangsun, or accompanied by a bevy of worried Zuoyue guards, he instead strode into the Jiejian Bureau alone, brushed away the Jiejian guards who attempted to help him with a curt, but perfectly audible word, and headed straight for Feng Xiao's office.
Feng Xiao looked up from a requisition form that he was sure Ming Yue had only given him as punishment for slacking.
"Ququ," he said, faux-delighted. "What brings you here?"
"Don't." Cui Buqu bit out.
He settled his cloak around himself more tightly, despite the warmth of the room, and settled across from Feng Xiao with no visible discomfort. Feng Xiao wished he'd thought to call for a brazier with hot coals, but perhaps that would have been too obvious.
Cui Buqu looked like he was in a truly dreadful mood, so Feng Xiao toned down his affect, just a little bit.
"Is that any way to thank me for alerting your bureau to a threat related to the jianghu? And lending you personnel to smoke him out? What an odd way you have of thanking me."
Cui Buqu glared. Feng Xiao counted that a victory: a silent acknowledgment of the tipping of the scales between them in his favor, in the eternal balance that he doubted they would ever stop calculating.
"I'm here, aren't I," Cui Buqu bit out. "As requested."
His glare said that the balance had better tip back for that.
Only Cui Buqu, Feng Xiao thought, could turn being protected from a cutthroat assassin into him doing his protector a favor. Only Cui Buqu, in this whole wide world.
He smiled, wide and entirely unfeigned, and rang for more tea, and, when the servant arrived, a brazier of coals.
"You are here," Feng Xiao allowed, once the servant had departed with the cold tea. He pushed aside the paperwork with a careless hand, and gave an exaggerated leer. "Now, how on earth shall we occupy ourselves?"
Cui Buqu sighed, low and weary, but his posture loosened just slightly.
"You can finish your paperwork," he said. "While I go talk to Ming Yue. He's the only person around here with any sense."
Feng Xiao pouted.
"And deprive me of your presence, when you have so recently arrived?" he demanded. "Call him here."
Cui Buqu sighed again, and made no move to do so, merely folded his hands in his lap, and waited. Probably he was reviewing records or making plans, Feng Xiao thought, with that impossible memory of his. He went back to his paperwork with a will, and finished it all before the tea and brazier were delivered.
Ming Yue came in with the tea, and made a face at the pile of completed paperwork.
"Was that so bad?" he demanded.
"Dreadful," Feng Xiao told him, with a sunny smile, and shoved the scrolls into his arms. "Absolutely dreadful."
Ming Yue shook his head, and handed the scrolls to a servant to take care of.
"Commander," he greeted Cui Buqu. "You're looking better."
Cui Buqu nodded. He had unfolded his hands onto his knees now that the brazier was next to him, the closest Feng Xiao had seen to him warming his hands at a fire like a normal person.
"Second Commander," he said to Feng Xiao. "A reply from Gu Hengbo."
Feng Xiao gestured at him to continue.
"She thanks Sect Leader Feng for the information, and requests he tell Commander Cui of the Zuoyue Bureau that she will handle this swiftly, and regards it as a personal matter."
A deft answer, Feng Xiao thought: by thanking him as a sect leader of the jianghu, she avoided being drawn into the web of favors that encircled the Jiejian Bureau. By telling Cui Buqu that she was handling it as a personal matter, she likewise escaped the nets of the Zuoyue Bureau.
"That old fox," Feng Xiao groused, seeing Yan Wushi's style of cleverness in this reply. "He's been training Sect Leader Shen's shimei in politics. Who does he think he is?"
Cui Buqu gave a small smile.
"The number one martial artist on Liuli Palace's list, I imagine," he said, and leaned over to pour tea for Ming Yue and himself, ignoring Feng Xiao's cup.
Feng Xiao sputtered, and Cui Buqu smiled into his teacup, small and genuine.
"You're staying here until she makes good on her promise," Feng Xiao grumbled. "The younger generation are all talk, you know that."
Ming Yue made a sound that he managed to turn into a cough, at that, so Feng Xiao graciously ignored him.
"Oh," Cui Buqu inquired, tone light. "Is Second Commander Feng admitting his age?"
Feng Xiao glared at him, and Cui Buqu just smiled.
You invited me, his expression said. I'd be happy to leave at any time, just say the word.
"I'm surrounded by ingrates," Feng Xiao said. "No one appreciates what a blessing it is to be in my company."
"I'm sure we could get you a mirror," Cui Buqu said mildly, hands wrapped around his teacup, and Feng Xiao felt something inside himself settle as they continued to trade gentle barbs, as Cui Buqu—by his presence alone—tacitly allowed himself to be protected.