Zhu Jiu strode to the cold room. He turned off the freeze cycle and pulled open the door.
“You're back!” that damn kid – Guo Changcheng? – shouted.
The two SID members had removed their restraints, but Ye Huo was still tied up. Not in too good a condition, either. Zhu Jiu walked over and freed him.
“What are you doing?” Chu Shuzhi asked.
“Your car's in the back,” Zhu Jiu said. The keys burned in his pocket. He shouldered Ye Huo. “Let me show the way.”
The human nervously shuffled after him, looking at Chu Shuzhi for confirmation all the way. Chu Shuzhi was considerably warier and stared at Zhu Jiu with hostile intent.
Zhu Jiu squinted at the key fob and pressed buttons on it at random until the lights blinked and the doors unlocked. He bundled Ye Huo in and healed him with an amount of dark energy small enough the boss wouldn't notice. It wasn't much, but it would help.
“What changed your mind?” Chu Shuzhi asked. Zhu Jiu recalled that he was an ex-con who'd been doing time for murder before the Envoy brought him to the surface.
“Ya Qing freed the boss from the pillar. Turns out he wants to destroy the world. I did not sign up for that.”
“What did you sign up for, then?” the human asked.
“The revitalization of Dixing! Why should we be stuck in the darkness when Haixing has such a glut of resources?” Zhu Jiu took a deep breath and schooled his emotions away from the mental link his boss could feel. “The Treaty must go. Humans are nothing next to the greatness that is Dixingians, so we shall seize those resources by force if we must.”
“Why can't we all cooperate?” the human suggested, wide-eyed and stammering.
Chu Shuzhi scoffed. “Because wherever there are people, there will always be hierarchies. And if the people of Dixing were to come up, the people already here would do their best to ensure they would arrive to the very bottom of the hierarchy.”
“Here. Go,” Zhu Jiu said and handed the key to Chu Shuzhi.
“Perhaps,” Chu Shuzhi said, “you would like to accompany us to the SID. So that you could divulge what you know about this genocidal boss of yours.”
He'd told the boss he'd go check on the prisoners. He could teleport back at any time.
He shrugged. “Of course.”
The car ride was time-consuming and moderately unpleasant; Zhu Jiu was glad his power allowed him to avoid such things under normal circumstances. The company did little to elevate the trip.
“S-should we call Chief Zhao to tell him we're coming?” the human asked.
“Good idea. Call him,” Chu Shuzhi said.
“...my phone won't turn on,” the human said.
Zhu Jiu sighed. The cold did a number on batteries, but chances were the idiot human had just forgotten to charge it in the morning. “What's his number?”
Zhao Yunlan picked up promptly. “Hello. The SID is currently busy-”
“It's Zhu Jiu.”
The line went deathly silent. “Is that so.”
The connection was probably being tracked as they spoke. “Your minion wanted to speak to you. Take the phone, human,” he said to the human.
“Me?” The human's eyes were wide as saucers.
“Who else could it be, idiot?” Zhu Jiu scoffed. “How many humans do you think there are in this car?!”
The human squeaked something, but it was quiet and he took the phone, so Zhu Jiu could pretend he hadn't heard it.
A bit of chatter later, the human handed the phone back to Zhu Jiu. “Chief Zhao wants to speak to you.”
Zhu Jiu sighed and took the phone. “Yes?”
“This is an interesting new development,” Zhao Yunlan said. He had it on speakerphone, so the Envoy was probably listening in. “I am very curious as to what caused it.”
“Ya Qing brought the boss out of the pillar using some Yashou thing. He – when I was back in Dixing he gave me a mental link to him. Through that, I discovered that what he wants is not a renaissance for Dixing like he claims, but rather to destroy the world, Dixing included.”
There was a cut-off sound at the other end. The Envoy was definitely listening in. “How does the link work? Does he know what you're doing?”
“No,” Zhu Jiu said. “It's less strong in this direction, and I have experience limiting the flow of information.”
“Zhu Jiu, most dedicated evildoing employee of the year, cutting off his boss's information stream,” Chu Shuzhi deadpanned. “I suppose there truly is a time for everything.”
“Would you want your boss to know about every time you masturbate?” Zhu Jiu shot back.
Chu Shuzhi snorted in what might've been an amused fashion. “We're at the SID. Get ready.”
Zhu Jiu ended the call and mutely observed as Chu Shuzhi drove into the SID's garage. He let himself be marched into the main space. The shield didn't reject him, likely due to his escort.
In the main room, the Envoy and Zhao Yunlan were waiting. Zhao Yunlan gestured at the couch. “Please, sit.”
He'd expected worse, but Haixing was the lap of luxury. He sat on the couch.
“I must admit I find it intriguing to come face to face with my nemesis. Six months of cat and mouse, and now you walk into my hands under your own power.” Zhao Yunlan looked at him consideringly. “Who is this boss of yours, and how did he recruit you?”
“He is ... Ye Zun. He was the prisoner in the Sky Pillar until today. But you wouldn't know about that, would you?”
“In fact, I recently had the opportunity to visit Dixing,” Zhao Yunlan said. “It was most illuminating.”
Zhu Jiu pulled his lips back in a mockery of a smile. “Then you know why I followed him. Dixing is poor in resources, from light to food to water, and we're all told that we should gratefully accept it as our due because Haixing has it worse. But that's not true, isn't it? You live in a paradise.”
Zhao Yunlan was rubbing his thumb against his curled fingers. “So you were discontent. Why did you choose to make trouble in Haixing instead of reforming Dixing?”
“Don't you know what happens to people who disagree with the status quo?” Zhu Jiu pulled back his hair. “Has the Lord Envoy perhaps forgotten?”
The Envoy looked troubled for a moment, but recognition then flashed on his face. Everyone else erupted into an utter pandemonium – had they really not realized that the professor persona was just the Envoy roleplaying? – save Zhao Yunlan, who looked calculating.
“What did this boss of yours promise?” Zhao Yunlan asked. One could see the gears ticking in his head.
Zhu Jiu said, “He promised a better ending for Dixing and its people. He promised that we'd be allowed onto the surface unhindered.” He promised that I'd be a hero.
Zhao Yunlan nodded slowly. Zhu Jiu felt the uncomfortable sensation of being known. Zhao Yunlan started to say something, then changed tracks as he opened his mouth. “What does this Ye Zun look like? Could I identify him if I passed him on the street?”
“You could,” Zhu Jiu said, and let out the other reason he'd had fewer qualms turning coat than following the boss: “He looks exactly like the Envoy. Two of a kind, right down to the masks.” He swallowed. “Though dressed in white with a golden mask. And his hair is-”
ZHU JIU! WHERE ARE YOU? the mental link screamed. Zhu Jiu stuttered to a halt.
Then Ye Zun pulled, and the world turned into an inferno of blood-red agony.
Zhu Jiu woke up on to an unfamiliar ceiling on an unfamiliar couch. He felt like someone had run him over with a steamroller and then scrambled his brain for thoroughness.
He was at the SID. Because his boss wanted to destroy the world.
Someone slid a cup of tea over to him. “Thank you,” he said as he sat up and picked it up.
“Y-you're welcome,” Guo Changcheng said. “May I ask, why do you hate humans so much?”
Zhu Jiu scoffed. “It's because you-” He reached for the familiar well of hatred, only to fall into a void. “What-” It was gone. None of the disdain he'd held for humans or Yashou remained. The mental link was gone, too, and Zhu Jiu felt like he'd been going down a staircase only to find a step missing and fall eternally down towards his doom. He cried out, “What did you do to me?!”
“I took the liberty of removing the link,” the Envoy explained. “I didn't know what was involved in it, so I removed the more blatant instances of tampering. There are still indications of more subtle manipulation on some of your memories that I was unwilling to touch at this junction.”
Zhu Jiu raised a hand to his temple and reeled. Had his hatred of humans and Yashou truly been manufactured by a genocidal boss? How much had he placed on his ledger due to these false values? He felt sick to his stomach. “Oh, no.”
The Envoy frowned. “Is something wrong?”
He should be more suspicious of the Envoy, right? After all, he'd just admitted to scrubbing things away from his mind. Yet one of the places that had turned into an aching chasm was the disillusionment at the Envoy. The much older adoration was all that remained. Of course the Envoy would do no evil, the little voice at the back of Zhu Jiu's mind said. Even if it was hard to reconcile with the memories of the Envoy giving him his scar. Except that he'd just killed a man in front of the Envoy.
“There is more missing than just the link,” Zhu Jiu quietly said. He buried his face in his hands.
“I cannot return Ye Zun's alterations,” the Envoy said. “How serious is it?”
“I will survive, Lord Envoy,” Zhu Jiu said. Hopefully he'd identified all the major changes. That still left him wondering about the subtle manipulations the Envoy had mentioned. Had their encounter been fabricated by Ye Zun out of wholecloth?
Zhao Yunlan cleared his throat and leaned on the table. “I have a suggestion.”
“Apologies, Boss,” Zhu Jiu said while he knelt. “The Envoy was present when I went to check on the prisoners, and took advantage of my inattentiveness to bring me to the SID. I managed to escape, but the mental link suffered and it took me time to find you. Please forgive your minion for his failure.”
Ye Zun sighed and leaned onto that ostentatious cane of his. “Very well. Since you clawed your way out, I suppose I can still find use for you. Did you see the Hallows?”
“They weren't at the SID,” Zhu Jiu said. That much was even true. “They might be with a SID member?”
Ye Zun hummed in thought, then turned to him. “The two Hallows the SID has can wait.”
Zhu Jiu's heart hammered. “Have you found the locations of the Merit Brush or Guardian Lantern?”
“Nothing definite,” Ye Zun said, surprisingly coquettish in body language. “And we have more pressing concerns.”
“What would those be, Boss?” Zhu Jiu said, trying to sound enthusiastic.
“Destruction of the Black-Cloaked Envoy,” Ye Zun said, a manic smile on his face. “He has turned his back on Dixing, and for that crime we must burn everything he has on Haixing to ashes.”
“Of course!” Zhu Jiu said. “Where will we start? His relations with the SID, or elsewhere?”
“The University,” Ye Zun declared. “He has cast his back on all Dixing by pretending to be a human and building himself a successful life surrounded by humans who don't know his true nature. We shall make that erupt in a conflagration that will leave him no place to go but the darkness.”
“A fitting punishment,” Zhu Jiu said. The University had lots of possibilities for collateral damage, though it'd be easy to alert the SID. “Make him regret turning his back on Dixing to play human!”
Ye Zun turned and chuckled. He closed his eyes and – started sniffing the air or something. Zhu Jiu had no clue.
While the prisoner newly escaped from the Sky Pillar was distracted sniffing the flowers, Zhu Jiu pulled out his phone. He opened his messages and shot “Ah Qiao” a message: Going to Uni to go after prof's ID/rep. He then followed it up with You're cute and five different heart and kissing emojis. If anyone asked, Ah Qiao was his elusive girlfriend, certainly not the notorious SID Chief Zhao Yunlan.
“Let's go,” Ye Zun said.
“Just a moment, I want to check with the map,” Zhu Jiu said as a delaying tactic. Ya Qing would've called him out on his bullshit, but thankfully she wasn't here.
Ye Zun frowned. “Map?”
“Yes, the phone has a map app – can display a map on its screen,” Zhu Jiu explained. “See? We're here. The university is over there.”
“Hm.” Ye Zun squinted at the phone screen as if it were an explosive device. “Can you bring us there?”
“Yes,” Zhu Jiu said, then gave a helpful little speech on how the distance was short enough and there were no obstacles in particular to be wary of. When he ran out of words to say, he held out his hand. Ye Zun took it, and he portalled them over to a nook in an alley that was lit by a sunbeam.
Ye Zun looked around him curiously. “Where are we?”
“A few blocks away from the University,” Zhu Jiu explained. “I thought it best if we don't attract attention before we want to.”
“Excellent,” Ye Zun said. An evil smile spread on his lips and he stalked down the alley.
“Boss?” Zhu Jiu said. “The University is in the other direction.”
Ye Zun turned and let Zhu Jiu lead him to the University. If it was slow going due to Zhu Jiu turning back to check whether his boss still followed, well, he could be excused.
They walked down the corridors. It was lecture hours, so there weren't many students or staff walking about, everyone too immersed in lecturing, learning, or research. Soon they arrived at Professor Shen's office.
“Professor Shen?” a girl called. She had opened the door and was leaning into the dark room.
“You're lookinng for him?” Ye Zun asked.
The girl yelped and turned. Doubt flickered over her face – neither Zhu Jiu nor Ye Zun looked like they belonged here – but she cautiously answered, “I came to ask Professor Shen about re-enrollment. Would you know where he is?”
“Oh, we're looking for him as well.” Ye Zun leaned in unpleasantly close to her. “Do you know, your Shen Wei is quite an interesting character. He has some unpleasant secrets.”
Zhu Jiu recalled where he'd seen the face: it was the girl who'd had the Longevity Dial around her neck. Where were Zhao Yunlan and the rest of the SID? This had the potential to go very ugly very fast.
“Professor Shen is the best mentor I've ever had,” the girl said.
Ye Zun paused. “You're his responsibility?” He smiled his deranged smile and breathily said, “Oh, this'll be good.”
Zhu Jiu felt the dark energy gathering in Ye Zun's palm. “Run!” he shouted and pushed Ye Zun through the doorway. The dark energy burst cracked against the door frame.
“You... How dare you go against me!” Ye Zun snarled, flat on his back with Zhu Jiu atop him, and blasted him full on with dark energy.
“You want to destroy the world!” Zhu Jiu yelled back and dodged the next blast, coughing. “Who wouldn't stand against you?!”
Ye Zun snarled and went mad with rage. “You! You traitor! How dare you?!”
The phone vibrated twice in Zhu Jiu's pocket, signifying a text from Zhao Yunlan. As Zhu Jiu was busy dodging, he didn't check. Hopefully it was about their arrival – he didn't think he could sustain this for long.
One of Ye Zun's blasts of dark energy hit Zhu Jiu square in the shoulder and he clattered to the floor. He narrowly escaped death by rolling to the side. The desk was not so fortunate.
Zhu Jiu's arm ached as well where the bullet had hit him months ago. Ye Zun continued his deranged ranting and slung half-aimed blasts of dark energy at him. Zhu Jiu considered the villainous Envoy he'd been brainwashed to believe in, considered Ye Zun before him, and decided Ye Zun had created the bogeyman in his own image.
Another of Ye Zun's bolts hit the bookcase which came crashing down on Zhu Jiu. He felt things break, but he'd stay here just a while longer, just a while longer to keep Ye Zun contained until help came-
The air crackled with electricity and a familiar black-clad figure stepped through a portal. Ye Zun turned and hissed and said something, but Zhu Jiu could only gather his powers and follow the sunbeam out the window.
He fell onto concrete on his hands and knees and coughed up blood. Mesmerized, he watched the red darken the gray ground to a wet darkness.
“Zhu Jiu?” Zhao Yunlan called from a short distance away. Zhu Jiu fell into the dark.
It was neither light nor dark, and the room smelled of disinfectant. There was a rhythmic beeping. Footsteps bustled past some distance away, muted as if by a door.
Then Zhu Jiu opened his eyes and discovered that the Sun, low in the sky, was shining square onto his face. He made a noise and tried to squirm to the side, but found his limbs unwilling to attempt the Herculean task of moving his weight. The bullet wound ached and twinged.
“You're awake,” Zhao Yunlan said from his bedside.
“Yes,” Zhu Jiu croaked. “Is ... is this a hospital?”
“It is. The doctors want to keep you here for a few days more to see how your shoulder heals. It got banged up pretty bad.”
“They know about...?”
Zhao Yunlan shrugged. “It was rather obvious, what with the dark energy swarming around you. They were mostly curious about the accelerated healing mechanism.”
“I see.” Zhu Jiu had spent his surface life avoiding humans whenever possible and Dixing had been a well-kept secret for millennia, but here was the SID Chief, talking about breaking the secret without so much as a care in the world. Something to think about. “And the girl?”
“Li Qian is fine, albeit a bit shaken. She'll be glad to know you're awake.”
“And Ye Zun?”
Zhao Yunlan sighed. “Being dealt with.”
The danger was past, then. Ya Qing would want to investigate thoroughly before committing to anything. Zhu Jiu swallowed. “And me?”
“Indeed,” Zhao Yunlan sighed, and leaned back in his chair. “Indeed. Our purple-haired troublemaker needs a punishment fit for his crimes.” He leaned forward again, elbows on his knees. “From Haixing's point of view, it is unquestionable. The Treaty clearly states that Dixing's criminals should go to Dixing to be sentenced. In recent times, the Black-Cloaked Envoy has been in charge of the deportations.”
Zhu Jiu swallowed. He might have been under some sort of – influence – but he'd killed so many of his people that what passed for justice in Dixing-
“I hear he has a nice catch and release program,” Zhao Yunlan blithely continued.
“What?” Zhu Jiu croaked out.
For the first time during the conversation, Zhao Yunlan looked at him. “You wanted to be a hero of all Dixing. I'm giving you an opportunity.”
Zhu Jiu's mouth had suddenly gone dry. “Explain,” he very carefully said.
Zhao Yunlan looked away again. “Dixing's circumstances really aren't that great. There are things I can do on my end to help that – the Treaty is over ten thousand years old and past due for redrafting – but even small changes to Dixing could help. Shen Wei's been trying to get Dixing schools and hospitals, but he's been blocked at every turn.”
“You want me to take out the Regent.” Zhu Jiu boggled.
“Or reform him into a man who actually gives a fuck about other people, but that would be the harder option.”
“But ... why me?” Zhu Jiu asked, all his crimes weighing on his mind.
“Who else has practice running rings of dissidents?” Zhao Yunlan rose. “Think about it.”
“I-” Zhu Jiu had always wanted to be a hero. And truth be told, he'd considered the Regent a part of the unsavory power structures of Dixing that needed to be replaced. Had suggested that to Ye Zun. “I'll do it!”
Zhao Yunlan paused at the door. “Good. Rest, now.”
When he left, a woman in white came in to look at the beeping machines attached to him and draw some blood. Then she, too, left, and Zhu Jiu was left alone to plan his future.