The next morning, Hu Li is still sitting on her bed. She hear there is sound outside the boudoir. He must be awake. She hear soft mumbles and she smile. She close her eyes and count the numbers in her breath. The heart is still beating outside. Is he deciding to wait for her to walk out of her bedroom? She continue to count slowly as per beat that she hear. She sense that he have a mix emotion in him. Was it a dream that he saw last night or is it real? She hear sound of him putting his feet on the ground. For along time there is no sound but only his heartbeating. She hear the maids walking in. They are surprise to see him siting in the couch in the open boudoir. Hu Li can hear they are walking near her bedroom. She hurry to lay down and pretend to be asleep. While she hear that Wang Cao is standing up and walk away.
In an afternoon, she said she is bored and leave the palace in her carriage. She goes to a high end opera house and booked a room. She ask to be leave alone and no one to enter. After twenty minutes, she morph into a cat and leap out through the window, She look below and see her carriage is parked at the back alley but there are people watching it. She recognise that it is Wang Cao's men. Walking on the hot tiles, she walk pass them. She leap to the ground and walk away into the other alley. Without anyone around, she morph into Yu Bing and walk out the alley into the busy streets. It's time to go to the Yamen and meet Du Wei. Maybe Wang Cao as well.
Inside the Yamen is busy. Everyone is walking around with things to do. Either a criminal is arrested or weapons confiscated or rushing out to attend a complaint from public. She look at Officer Zhou's office, now it is still vacant. Not sure who is going to be taking over his post but his team needs a leader and they better deploy one soon. She see Du Wei walking out she wave to him and he smile. Walk to Yu Bing, he bow.
"Officer Yu Bing, come. Follow me. I show you the map we found."
"Anyone follow you after returning to the Yamen?"
"Yes there are a few men outside for days. I did not go home. So they can't do anything to me."
"Did anyone go find out their identity?"
"They seems to be foreigners. They must be those from one of the ships at the harbour."
"Ask the patrol team at the harbour to help. Since they walk there daily, they must know something."
"I asked, those men all said that those are new faces. They are not sure who they are."
"What about those men, we knock down?"
"You mean 'you' knock down. They are recovering in a special cell i have put them in. They said they know nothing but to follow you."
"Me?"
"Yes you. Their boss is interested in you. I asked them why, they said they did not know why and never ask question."
The two boys reach a room. Outside stands two men. They nod their head when they see Du Wei and open the door. Inside is rather dark there is no windows and only candles are lit at each corner of the room. The air smell rather musky. Hu Li look up and the beams are built higher than the usual height. The top part is rather dark and most people cannot see the end of it however hu LI can see, she see an unknown object is hanging from the top because its dusty she cannot tell what it is. She watch Du Wei walk to the side to pick up a candle, he lit it up with a burnt candle and walk. There is a huge table in front and he carefully put down the candle on the holder. Du Wei takes out the map form his shirt and lay it on the table.
"The person who design this map is rather very smart."
"Why?"
"It's a map of a carriage. It is showing us that each part of the carriage needs a key to open it. Inside whatever the map is showing is something we might need."
She stare at the nonsensical map.
"The key?"
"The key is a design by the west. There is a rumour that there is race of people who are unlike us. They are tall, muscular and design keys that only they can unlock if the buyer accidentally lost the spare key."
"So does it means that the buyer have to be rich."
"Yes if so how can they come up with this crazy design?! Look at it, every part needs a key to get to what they need. I believe this carriage can be dismantle and become something else."
"So why did Tian You come with this design? They are not that rich. What are they planning to do?"
"Yu Bing, how did you know about the envoy in the first place? What makes you suspicious of them?"
"Never mind about that. Now we need to find this carriage and take it away."
They stare at the map and wonder where is the carriage and how did it look like.
"There is so many carriages around the city. How are we going to find it?"
"Start from the envoy team and later spread out to the rest."
"Yu Bing what are you ..."
"Me? I am going to dig more information."
After an hour inside, they are perspiring. Du Wei and Hu Li walk out after extinguish the fire on the candle. The door once open the bright light attached the sight. Both of them stand there for awhile and rub their faces. Why she open her eyes, she see Wang Cao standing a distance looking at her. She bow and he wave to ask her to come to him. Du Wei look at Hu Li and bow. She watch him walk the opposite direction and she walks towards Wang Cao.
"I haven't see you for a long time, Yu Bing. What are you working on?"
"Your highness, nothing much."
Wang Cao move near. He take a whiff and Yu Bing does smell like the current sister in the palace. He look at the height of Yu Bing, they are almost the same while his sister is half a head taller. How it the imposter did that, he does not understand. Wang Cao walks around Hu Li in a circle. He is thinking and staring at Yu Bing who is not moving at all. Hu Li understand that Wang Cao is analysing his own thoughts. She look around to see some fruit flies. She smile and look at Wang Cao.