"What?!" The young man abruptly sat up on the bed and stared at his companion, eyes widened in utter disbelief that bordered on shock. "Ah, you're joking", he purred after a few moments as his body relaxed visibly, and his face once again settled into the charming pout the older man at his side adored so much. Jin nudged him in gentle reproof. "Say that you're only making fun of me!" Wei Cheng, the companion in question, didn't even open an eye, he just growled complacently in the afterglow of what they had shared before, and slowly shook his head — once, twice. The young man frowned slightly, cocked his head and gazed at the limp form, brushed back his hair while he tried to grasp the meaning of what had been said, or — in this case — grunted.

"I am not joking", Wei Cheng, savvy courtier and esteemed member of the High Board of Medicine at the Imperial Academy of Chang'an, finally remarked with a lazy, condescending wave of his hand. "I have spoken in your favour for as long as it deemed sensible, but the concubine's complaints have been registered." "But you said that nothing—" "I know what I have said." Wei Cheng waved it off with an elegant gesture that maddened his fiery companion. "It is …" the shrewd courtier paused for a moment, shrugged and continued with deliberate bluntness, "not wise to be associated with you any longer." A cold shiver ran down Jin's spine.

This one sentence made it clear how deep he had fallen already. By now Wei Cheng didn't even consider him worth a politely veiled truth, which he could have delivered without any effort since it was the common language at court. The fact that Wei Cheng had chosen the blunt way made Jin's skin crawl. It was an alarming signal in the intricate ways of the royal palace. The young doctor swallowed several times and his hands closed around the silken sheet that was enticingly wrapped around his sleek body.

Slowly Jin rose from the bed, fighting hard to keep up his pretence of indifferent elegance and detached calm. "Just tell me this", he finally managed in a surprisingly composed voice. "Would it be wise to … continue my studies at home as long as the weather is so unpleasant outside?" The courtier's eyes opened ever so slightly, and there was something in them that bordered on regret as his gaze travelled over Jin's naked body, and he sighed. "I have heard the weather in Samarkand is lovely in late summer and autumn. If you set off within the next days you will arrive there in time to enjoy it."

Jin's composure gave way as he stared at the man with pleading eyes. "Within the next days you say? Is it that urgent? I will then have to bribe the officials for the travelling documents. And it takes more time to prepare for such a journey!" Wei Cheng propped himself up on his elbows and frowned in irritation at the young man's slowness. "There are times when it is best to just drop out of sight. As I have said, questions are being asked just as we speak." "I can answer all questions in truth", the young doctor flared up. "You know that I can! It was not my fault!" "Maybe", the courtier shrugged, and again his eyes wandered over the slender, flawless body of the most promising graduate the Academy had had for years, and sighed in open regret. "Be as it might, it is out of my hands now. Shi Bai is in charge of the affair."

As soon as the name had left the older man's lips Jin knew that his case was lost. Shi Bai had been Wei Cheng's rival for as long as he could think, and neither of them had ever missed an opportunity to lash out at the other. It explained why his companion was so eager to get rid of him as soon as possible. Jin realised that if he stayed in Chang'an, the affair of the barbarian's death would take on a political aspect it didn't deserve; and he also realised that if he simply disappeared, preferably without leaving a trace, Shi's incentive to pursue the case would disappear along with him. Everything was ruined now, only because he had allowed himself to be charmed by a certain Persian concubine's undeniably beautiful appearance into selling him a small portion of cantharis.

"I will arrange for your departure", he heard the older man say after he had called out for the servants. Jin dressed in thoughtful silence, only dimly aware of the servants who fussed over them and filled the chamber like a busy swarm of bees, so that he completely missed the order Wei Cheng issued to one of them.

"Send for Liang Fu, and make haste!"