Haojin woke to fog and soldiers.
They slipped in at dawn, hooves muffled, cloaks plain. Only the arm-bands betrayed them: a strip of rough cloth inked with the character for "Order" in strokes that pretended not to copy Zhang's personal sigil.
Lin Chang saw them first from her warehouse eave. "Trouble," she said simply, jerking her head toward the river.
Shuye was already awake, coaxing the first fire from a sulking brazier. Sun Wei stepped out of the inner room shrugging into his coat, hair still sleep-tangled.
"How many?" he asked.
"Enough to make honest men nervous and thieves cautious," Lin Chang said. "Too few for a full shakedown. Too many for a polite visit."
He belted his knife. Habit, not hope.
They watched from the warehouse doorway as the soldiers took up positions: two at each ferry ramp, four at the central square, the rest drifting in twos and threes through the streets like ink stains.
Their leader was slim, hard-eyed, his armor plain but well-tended. He carried a folded banner under one arm.
"Locals call him Captain Du," Lin Chang murmured. "Zhang's man, but smart enough to pretend he's still Qi's."
He stopped in the middle of the square and let the banner unfurl. It bore no dragon. Only a single character, drawn in that sharp, unmistakable hand: "Order."
A few merchants spat. Quietly.
Sun Wei's jaw clenched. "He's early," he muttered.
Shuye blinked. "You were expecting him?"
"I was expecting someone," Sun Wei said. "Zhang's letters have many legs."
Captain Du turned slowly, taking in the town: docks, warehouses, the makeshift shrine to the river god, the shabby inn, the new tablet nailed to Lin Chang's pillar with the sparrow carved above it.
His gaze lingered on the tablet.
He walked toward it.
Sun Wei stepped out to meet him.
"Morning," he said. His voice felt strange, coming out calm. "Looking for fair weights or unfair excuses?"
Du eyed him. "You are…?"
"A man who carries sacks," Sun Wei said. "And hears complaints. We trade grain, weigh fish, and keep people from killing each other over blankets."
A flicker of amusement ghosted over Du's mouth. "Yong'an's law-house," he said. "I've heard of you."
"Flattered," Shuye said lightly from behind Sun Wei. "We haven't had time to embroider brochures."
Du ignored him. His fingers brushed the tablet, tracing the carved characters.
"No soldier shall seize food or shelter within this hall without witness and record," he read aloud. "Any who do shall repay double, in kind or in labor."
His eyes flicked to Sun Wei. "You carved this."
"No," Sun Wei said. "A scribe with better handwriting did. I just nail them up."
Du's gaze dropped to his hands. Scarred. Strong.
"You sound like a captain," Du said.
"Used to be," Sun Wei replied. "Now I carry sacks."
Du stepped back, letting his gaze wander. Men and women peered from doorways. Children hovered behind barrels.
"You are," he said slowly, pitching his voice for them as much as for the Road-men, "aware that the Regent of Qi has declared such unauthorized law-houses… seditious."
A ripple of unease.
Lin Chang snorted. "Seditious is a big word for a place that spends most of its time weighing fish," she said.
Du's eyes slid to her. "You host them," he said. "That makes you seditious too."
She set her jaw. "I host paying tenants," she said. "If you plan to charge me treason tax, bring a ledger."
Shuye elbowed her lightly. "Careful," he murmured. "Some jokes cost extra."
Du's hand dropped to the hilt at his hip, more habit than threat.
Sun Wei stepped between, not quite blocking, just… present.
"Captain," he said. "You've seen the tablet. It binds us more than it binds you. No soldier seizes food in this hall without witness. That includes your men. We don't ask your captain's name for that. We ask theirs."
Du studied him.
"You were Third Eastern Banner," he said suddenly. "Sun Wei."
The name hung in the fog like a ghost.
"You read faster than you look," Sun Wei said.
"We lost a lot of good officers," Du replied. "I try to remember which ones didn't die. The Regent wants those lists."
"And?" Sun Wei asked.
"And he wants to know," Du went on, "why one of them is down here, weighing fish under outlaw tablets instead of holding a wall under proper banners."
Sun Wei thought of Ji Lu's face, twice removed. He thought of Ziyan's voice in the square of Yong'an. He thought of thirty days of sacks and the boy with the missing tooth calling him captain.
"I got tired of dying on maps," he said. "Here, I only die under sacks. It's honest work."
Some of the watching crowd laughed nervously. Even Du's lip twitched.
"You disappoint him," Du said. "The Regent."
"I have disappointed better men," Sun Wei replied.
Du took a step closer, lowering his voice. "He sent another letter last week," he said. "Not to me. Above my seal. I saw the courier's route. It pointed this way."
"You read other people's maps," Sun Wei said. "That's dangerous."
"I like to know which places I might be ordered to burn," Du said bluntly.
Their eyes met.
Around them, the town held its breath.
"Here is my problem," Du said, still quiet. "I have orders to keep this crossing 'clean'. That was before your sparrows nailed law to Lin Chang's wall. Now there are two orders. One with ink. One with clay. Both claim men's behavior."
"Which do you prefer?" Sun Wei asked.
"Clay breaks," Du said. "Ink burns. The men in the hall argue about which is cheaper. I am a simple man. I prefer not to push anyone off the ferry unless the river god personally asks."
"You could leave this hall alone," Shuye put in. "Let us weigh fish, settle quarrels, pay your tolls. Tell your masters Haojin is quiet and boring."
Du's gaze slid to him. "Are you quiet and boring?" he asked.
Shuye grinned. "I snore," he said. "That's a start."
A few of Du's soldiers cracked unintended smiles.
Du exhaled. "You are not just weighing fish," he said. "You are testing how far Yong'an's law can walk. Zhang will notice. He keeps ears even out here."
"Zhang notices everything eventually," Lin Chang said. "He's like mold. We still eat."
"Careful," Shuye murmured again.
Du looked back at the tablet. His hand tightened on his hilt and then fell away.
"Here are my terms," he said, raising his voice.
The crowd stiffened.
"You keep your tablets inside this hall," he said. "You carve whatever you like on them. You settle disputes between those who choose to walk through this door. You do not nail them elsewhere. You do not try to make them stand in the square. You do not tell my men what they may seize outside this threshold."
A murmur. Chen Rui's jaw clenched.
"And in return?" Sun Wei asked.
"In return," Du said, "I tell my superiors that Haojin is… quiet. That its people are too busy arguing over fish to think about rebellion. That the 'Road law-house' amounts to nothing more than a merchant's trick to keep blades sheathed indoors."
Lin Chang snorted. "Which is mostly true," she said.
Du's gaze sharpened. "Mostly," he said.
Shuye and Sun Wei exchanged a look.
"Inside the door," Shuye murmured. "Law that belongs to those who choose it. Outside… different weather."
"Better than ash," Sun Wei said under his breath.
He turned back to Du. "And if we refuse your terms?" he asked.
Du's voice cooled. "Then the next time I come," he said, "I will not come with twenty men and a rolled banner. I will come with three companies and a writ that says 'assistance to Xia against rebels'. And whatever law you carved on your pillars will be dust under their boots."
Silence stretched.