Unveil: Jadewind

With a high nose, deep-set eyes, curly hair, and a thick beard, his large belly protruding as he sat with a beaming smile—this was none other than Kang Su-mi, the Sart of the Zoroastrian temple in Buzheng Ward, who had been taking shelter from the rain while idling in the reception hall of Purple Void Monastery. It had been months since they last met.

As soon as Li Yuangui and his servant entered the hall, the old Hu merchant hastily rose to greet them, clasping his hands and cheerfully inquiring, "May Your Highness enjoy boundless blessings." They exchanged pleasantries in his heavily accented Shu dialect of Chinese. It turned out Kang Su-mi had also recently returned from the western regions of Shu and Long, only to learn upon arriving in the capital that the steward An San and his son—whom he had left behind—along with that Tuyuhun boy had stirred up major trouble. He had been scrambling to cover up the mess and absolve them of blame through old friends like Chai Shao, leaving him just as harried as Li Yuangui.

The Taoist nun Jing Xuan, who was hosting the guests, instructed servants to fetch towels and hot water for their comfort. With no outsiders present, Li Yuangui didn’t hold back and immediately asked Kang Su-mi, "Just what is your nephew Sang Sai’s true identity?" The old Hu merchant threw up his hands in exaggerated distress, exclaiming, "It’s all because my brother in Fuqi City couldn’t keep his mouth shut!"

The Kang family had many siblings, and as adults, they had married and pursued their own livelihoods. Among them, Kang Su-mi maintained closer ties with a younger brother who was often stationed in Fuqi City, the royal capital of Tuyuhun. That merchant was also the Sart of the local Zoroastrian temple. When Sang Sai arrived in Chang’an from the northwest and sought refuge with Kang Su-mi, he had brought a letter from this brother, claiming the youth was the son of one of their sisters. Merchant families had their own channels and coded language for internal correspondence, so Kang Su-mi, seeing the letter, accepted it without suspicion and acknowledged Sang Sai as his nephew, allowing him to stay. Later, though he noticed the boy’s arrogance and boldness—and the fact that subordinates kept arriving from the northwest to join him—he didn’t grow overly suspicious, merely assuming his sister had married a tribal noble.

It wasn’t until late winter, nearing spring, that Kang Su-mi discovered Sang Sai had conspired with An Yan-na to lead his men into the forbidden garden and burn down the Temple of Common Vocation. Only then did he realize things were about to spiral out of control. At the time, he had ordered An San to give his son a severe flogging and lock him up, while also reprimanding Sang Sai. But Sang Sai refused to submit meekly—instead, he scaled the wall of the Office of the Protectorate General in the dead of night, where he happened to run into Li Yuangui and his servant…

"Hold on, hold on," Li Yuangui interrupted the old Hu merchant’s rambling, pausing to think. "First, answer me two things. One: Why did Sang Sai have An Yan-na lead them to burn down the Temple of Common Vocation? Two: Yang Da and I encountered Sang Sai outside Yang Zhengdao’s residence—why was he sneaking into the grandson of Yang Guang’s home in the middle of the night?"

He strongly suspected Kang Su-mi and Sang Sai had been colluding from the start with the intent to overthrow the Tang court. Both matters vaguely pertained to the current Son of Heaven’s legitimacy, and he wondered what exactly they were plotting. Earlier, when he had agreed to join Sang Sai in assassinating the Supreme Emperor, he had asked the boy the same questions, but Sang Sai had refused to answer. If Kang Su-mi also remained tight-lipped, mutual trust would be impossible, and there’d be no point in further discussion.

The old Hu merchant chuckled for a while before composing himself and answering solemnly:

"Fourteenth Young Master is a clever man. Given the serious trouble we’re both in now, it wouldn’t be honorable for Old Kang to keep hiding things from you. As for burning the temple—that started when the fool asked me, ‘I heard the Heavenly Khan is protected by divine spirits—how can we break that?’ So I teased him, saying, ‘The Central Plains has many experts; even the palaces and buildings are designed with purpose. Take the imperial palace—to the west, there’s first a Buddhist temple, then a Taoist monastery. Both are heretical forces that summon Ahriman into the world, resisting divine power…’ Who’d have thought Sang Sai would take it seriously and bribe people to sneak out and burn the temple?"This explanation was likely seventy to eighty percent true. Li Yuangui recalled that after the fire at the Temple of Common Vocation, he, Chai Yingluo, and others had indeed discovered the arsonists had also been active near the Purple Void Monastery. It was entirely possible they had originally planned to burn down both the nearby Taoist and Buddhist sites. However, he couldn't shake the suspicion that Kang Su-mi had glossed over Sang Sai's inquiry about "how to break the Heavenly Khan's divine protection." The original conversation between the two had probably been far more direct—most likely centered on "how to assassinate Emperor Li Shimin of Tang."

Kang Su-mi insisted he hadn't known Sang Sai was the young prince of Tuyuhun, but Li Yuangui didn't believe him. Sang Sai might have arrived with a letter of introduction from Kang Su-mi's brother, but after staying at the Kang residence for so long and scheming to bribe people for his plot, how could the shrewd old Hu merchant not have known?

As a Western Regions merchant, Kang Su-mi owed no loyalty to any state or court—his sole concern was maximizing profit. During the Tang-Tuyuhun conflict, secretly harboring—or detaining—the Tuyuhun prince was likely just his way of hedging his bets while waiting to see which way the wind blew.

"As for running off to the Empress's residence, that was just the youngsters acting recklessly," Kang Su-mi continued, answering his second question. "Even Fourteenth Young Master knows that back in the Turkic lands, old Kang was quite familiar with that Yang family woman and her grandson. Just casual talk and storytelling, and Sang Sai probably remembered that some 'Empress' lived across the street. When I questioned him later, he didn't even know which dynasty's Empress she was—just assumed she was like their tribal Khatun, living independently and calling the shots. So the brat got it into his head to sneak over and kidnap her..."

In short, the Tuyuhun youth had come solely to stir up trouble, while Kang Su-mi had feigned ignorance and turned a blind eye, merely trying to control his actions to avoid drawing fire. But soon enough, Kang Su-mi had to leave the capital to tend to his business, and the person he entrusted in Chang'an proved unreliable—now he was left to deal with the mess.

After explaining the past, the old Hu merchant repeatedly apologized to Li Yuangui—first for dragging Prince Wu into the affair, and second in hopes that Li Yuangui might put in a good word for him when the time came. From his words, it seemed that since returning to Tang from the Turks in the fourth year of Zhenguan, Kang Su-mi had secured numerous contracts with various imperial offices, supplying the royal household with fine horses, jewelry, gold and silverware, spices, and other goods in large quantities—naturally reaping substantial profits. If this incident cost him his status as a royal merchant, Kang Su-mi would likely be writhing in agony.

In the past, Li Yuangui would never have involved himself in such troublesome matters. But now...

But now, he thought, if he needed to raise fifty thousand bolts of silk in a short time, Kang Su-mi was his only hope.

Such a vast sum couldn't possibly be a gift. Drawing up a loan agreement to repay it over a set period would be more reasonable. But how to broach such a subject?

His tongue circled his mouth several times before he finally mustered the humility to say, "Yuangui has a favor to ask." When the old merchant pressed for details, he still couldn't bring himself to utter the words "borrow money," his face burning as if the inner fire within him had already dried the rain he'd been drenched in earlier.

At a loss, he turned to Yang Xinzhi, signaling with his eyes for him to speak on his behalf. Yang Xinzhi looked reluctant—before entering the monastery, he had been vehemently opposing Li Yuangui's plan to raise fifty thousand bolts of silk for Cheng Yaojin.Unable to resist the repeated urging of his lord, the tall and sturdy guard coughed and broached the matter of borrowing money with Kang Su-mi on his behalf. At the mere mention of "needing money," Old Hu Kang's expression remained relatively calm. But upon hearing the staggering sum of fifty thousand bolts of silk, his jaw dropped in exaggerated shock, his face contorting almost to the level of the wrathful temple guardians.

When the Buddhas first came from the west and their images were enshrined in the Central Plains, the craftsmen must have been of Hu descent or at least deeply familiar with their features, Li Yuangui mused. The exaggeratedly high brow, deep-set eyes, towering nose bridge, and gaping mouth that seemed capable of swallowing the earth—truly, it was identical to the temple statues... The wrathful visage of the Immovable Wisdom King was meant to subdue demons and malevolent spirits. What was Old Hu Kang trying to intimidate with such an expression?

"It's just a loan—I will repay it," Li Yuangui assured Kang Su-mi. "If words alone aren't enough, I can sign a written agreement. Though my brothers and I may not have much income now, once we are enfeoffed with lands in various regions—public fields and hereditary estates—our finances will greatly improve."

Seeing his earnest attitude, with no hint of jest or testing, the old Hu merchant finally dropped the act and began seriously inquiring about the details: "What do you need such a large sum for?" "When do you need it?" "Do you want gold, silver, or silk?" "When do you plan to repay?" and "How will you repay?"—revealing his true bargaining nature as a merchant.