The Road to Glory

Chapter 36

"Brother Xiao, where will you go from now on?..."

Xiao Li sprinted back to the courtyard, nearly colliding with someone as he pushed open the gate but didn't stop to apologize. He hurried toward the side room where Xiao Huiniang lived.

"Mother!" He burst through the door shouting, but the room was empty.

He turned and rushed out, grabbing the arm of a passing servant: "Have you seen my mother?"

Too many people had died in the West Side Courtyard today. The newly assigned servants weren't familiar with him and didn't know who his mother was. They all shook their heads before hurrying off to their duties.

Anxious and restless, Xiao Li was heading toward the Memorial Hall when he heard someone calling from behind: "Martyr Xiao, Martyr Xiao—"

Xiao Li turned to see Fu Bo, the Zhou residence steward, and urgently asked: "I'm looking for my mother. Do you know where she is?"

The steward replied with grief-stricken expression: "Martyr Xiao, please come with me to see the young master. He has words he wishes to speak to you personally."

Zhou Sui, being a frail scholar, had remained unconscious after Xing Lie's whip-kick. When he awoke, his entire shoulder and neck were swollen. Though the residence physician had administered acupuncture, his neck remained immobile.

When Xiao Li entered, he saw Zhou Sui half-reclining on the bed, propped up by pillows, his face ghostly pale. A servant was feeding him medicine, but due to his neck injury, he could only manage small, difficult swallows.

Seeing Xiao Li enter, he waved for the maid to withdraw.

Before Xiao Li could ask "Where's my mother?", Zhou Sui's tears already flowed. Struggling to get out of bed, he was helped by the old steward but still knelt before Xiao Li in his undergarments, eyes bloodshot as he rasped: "I have failed Brother Xiao..."

The words fell like a mountain, crushing Xiao Li's chest until he could barely breathe.

What little reason remained made him reach to support Zhou Sui's elbow: "Young master, please rise and speak. Xiao Li doesn't deserve such courtesy from you."

Zhou Sui refused to rise, weeping bitterly: "Auntie... Auntie and the servants in the courtyard... they all died tragically under Xing Lie's blade while protecting my mother... and I... I couldn't even protect their bodies..."

Xiao Li felt as if his head had been struck by a heavy hammer. His breathing trembled slightly as he asked: "What do you mean?"

Zhou Sui wept so violently that his neck injury was agitated, leaving him too hoarse to speak. The steward supported him and answered gravely: "When the young master failed to kill Xing Lie and was knocked unconscious by his kick, this old servant went to fetch the residence physician. Upon returning, I found the bodies in the courtyard had disappeared. Upon inquiry... I learned they had been thrown into the mass grave by Pei Song's men!"

At this point, even the steward couldn't help wiping tears with his sleeve.

The mass grave lay outside the city. In such severe cold, mountain wolves struggled to hunt. Any bodies dumped there would likely be dragged away by wolves quickly.

Dizziness washed over Xiao Li. His hands gripping Zhou Sui's arms unconsciously tightened, the pressure nearly crushing the bones. As if unwilling to believe, he forced a laugh and muttered to himself: "My mother... maybe she wasn't in the residence at that time? What if... what if she went to my godmothers' place?"

He started to rise: "I'll go check my godmothers' homes. She mentioned several days ago she needed to bring shoe soles to my godmothers.""Brother Xiao!" Zhou Sui called out hoarsely to him, his voice strained as he said, "Auntie... is truly gone. When I rushed to the West side courtyard, I saw her lying in a pool of blood with my own eyes, a blade wound stretching across her entire back..."

Xiao Li stood with his back to him, his tall frame nearly blocking all the daylight from the doorway, leaving only a sliver to fall upon his shoulders. It seemed as if the bleak twilight sky outside was pressing down entirely on his back.

Without another word, he strode out of the room and headed straight for the stables.

Twilight crept in inch by inch, the cold wind whipping snowflakes like flying sand and rolling stones.

As the army entered the city, the townspeople shut their doors tightly, leaving the streets unusually deserted. Xiao Li whipped his horse relentlessly, finally managing to exit the city just before the gates closed.

The mass grave was located on a burial slope thirty li outside the city. By the time he arrived, the twilight had deepened, but fortunately, a cold, bright full moon hung in the snowy sky, providing enough light to see in the wilderness.

Xiao Li tumbled off his horse and began searching through the piles of corpses covered in thin snow. Some of the bodies had died with their eyes wide open, their eyelids and eyeballs frozen solid. Xiao Li tried several times to close them with his palm, but to no avail. Others had been gnawed by wild animals beyond recognition, with pinkish bones dangling shreds of crimson flesh.

The nearby wolves had feasted well tonight, their howls echoing one after another from the distant mountains and forests.

Xiao Li breathed tremblingly in the icy air, continuing to dig deeper into the corpses. His frozen fingers were torn by rough grass roots and sharp stones, leaving them bloodstained and battered.

After searching the entire mass grave without finding Xiao Huiniang, he only discovered a bloodstained, tattered jacket. Xiao Li couldn't control the choked sob that escaped his throat—the embroidery on the front of that jacket was the pattern Wen Yu had once taught his mother to sew.

She had been wearing it when he left home this morning.

Clutching the torn jacket, he knelt helplessly there as the blizzard and the swift winds sweeping through the mountains drowned out his agonized sobs.

A clear moon hung at the zenith, casting its light upon the world where snowflakes drifted like floss.

Tong City.

The night was deep, and Wen Yu sat in the posthouse room, propping her elbow on the table, but she felt no trace of sleepiness.

In the afternoon, several guards had specifically gone into the city to gather information, but they hadn't brought back anything useful.

Yet intuition told Wen Yu that Pei Song's actions were somehow connected to these major aristocratic families, the Pei family, and even the imperial household.

The other party, though young, was deeply scheming, capable of enduring what ordinary people could not, and his methods were formidable. Wen Yu hated him to the bone, but she also knew he was an opponent who must never be underestimated. Her father and brother had been defeated step by step by him, ultimately meeting tragic deaths at his hands, all because he had seized every advantage.

Fifteen years ago, after Emperor Mingcheng passed away, the Empress Dowager began to rule from behind the curtain with the late emperor, whom she had raised since childhood, and imperial authority had since declined. At court, only the Party of Ao, the maternal relatives, held dominant power.

The late emperor had been born with a weak constitution, making it difficult for him to father children and leaving him incapable of handling state affairs. All matters, great and small, in the court were controlled by Grand Commandant Ao.

The Imperial Academy students had even mocked this, saying that in Luoyang City, even the most insignificant official knew only of Grand Commandant Ao and no longer recognized the emperor.

It was during that time that the Yu family, which had produced three generations of Imperial Tutors, secretly approached her father.

The late emperor, raised under the Empress Dowager's care since childhood, was physically weak and of timid character. The Purist faction, led by Grand Tutor Yu, saw no hope of revitalizing the court in the late emperor and thus focused on carefully nurturing the next crown prince.However, the direct imperial lineage had no heirs. After repeatedly screening the collateral branches of the Wen family, Grand Tutor Yu secretly designated her father. To make the Empress Dowager Ao and the Party of Ao agree to establish her father as the crown prince, Grand Tutor Yu initially strongly recommended another collateral branch.

Suspecting that he had already won over that branch of the Wen family, the Empress Dowager Ao and the Party of Ao vehemently rejected the proposal. Only then did other court officials from the Purist faction recommend her father.

Unable to directly refuse again, the Empress Dowager Ao and Grand Commandant Ao proposed that her father come to the capital, where all civil and military officials would observe him for a period before making a decision.

During that time, following Grand Tutor Yu's advice, her father concealed all his ambitions and talents. Throughout his months in Luodu, he remained respectful and filial, winning the Empress Dowager's favor while avoiding close associations with the Purist faction. This ultimately led the Party of Ao to agree to his appointment as crown prince.

In the following years, Grand Tutor Yu became her elder brother's tutor, while her father began to challenge the Party of Ao, striving to save the crumbling Liang dynasty.

It was at this time that Pei Song emerged under Grand Commandant Ao's command. Unlike other aristocratic descendants in the Party of Ao who still cared about their family's reputation, Pei Song came from humble origins. He was nothing but a vicious dog under Grand Commandant Ao's command, biting wherever directed.

Wen Yu even heard that whenever he encountered Grand Commandant Ao's carriage, he would personally step forward, kneel, and use his back as a step, allowing the Grand Commandant to tread on him while dismounting.

Several reform proposals put forward by her father and brother were all destroyed by this lackey of the Party of Ao.

Grand Commandant Ao increasingly valued him, even granting him military power. But no one expected that this seemingly obedient dog of the Ao family would eventually bare its fangs, catching everyone off guard after the late emperor's death.

If he had been biding his time from the very beginning when approaching the Party of Ao, then this man's resilience must be terrifyingly strong.

Moreover, since Grand Commandant Ao trusted him enough to reuse him, he must have secretly investigated his family background...

The candle flame on the table flickered with a soft "crackle."

As Wen Yu recalled his subsequent extermination of the Party of Ao, her gaze gradually hardened under the candlelight. There was only one possibility—Pei Song was an assumed identity.

So... who exactly was the executioner who killed her parents, brother, and nephew?

While deep in thought, a slender bamboo tube silently pierced the window screen, about to blow narcotic smoke inside. Suddenly, a karate chop struck the outsider's neck, causing them to collapse softly to the ground. The bamboo tube fell with a clatter.

Wen Yu put on her veil and demanded sternly, "Who's there?"

The guard captain pushed the door open and dragged in the servant who had been releasing the smoke. "My lady, it's me. I noticed the post station servants acting strangely tonight and kept watch in the shadows, indeed discovering something amiss. This place isn't safe. I've already ordered the carriage to be prepared. Please come with us immediately."

Wen Yu wrapped herself in her cape and followed the guard captain out. After a few steps, she suddenly exclaimed, "Wait!"

The guard captain turned back and asked, "What is it, my lady?"

Wen Yu scanned the entire post station and said, "This post station is established by the local government. Those working here should be government servants."

After entering the city, fearing trouble at unscrupulous inns, she had specifically instructed the guard captain to spend extra silver to stay at this government-established post station.

Considering the current political situation, she immediately realized, "We've likely been lured into a trap. Cause some commotion to alert all the merchant groups staying here. With more people, our chances of breaking through are greater."No wonder so many merchant caravans had gathered here due to the collapsed official road—it seemed the Tongcheng authorities had deliberately caused this to extort wealth from passing merchants.

Just as a government servant charged around the corner with a raised blade, the chief bodyguard kicked him hard enough to shatter the railing, sending him tumbling downstairs. He roared, "Government servants are killing for profit!"

Wen Yu tightened her cape and followed the chief bodyguard. The guard who had been sent to harness the horses rushed back from the rear courtyard, panting heavily: "Boss, all the horses in the stables were secretly fed croton beans. None can stand now."

The chief bodyguard cursed under his breath. Wen Yu decisively ordered: "Abandon the large luggage. Take only valuables and flee Tongcheng immediately."

Other merchant teams staying at the posthouse now realized the grave situation, entangled in fights with government servants attempting to release smoke bombs. Chaos erupted throughout the building.

When Wen Yu's group reached the posthouse lobby, they encountered the Feng family guards who also lodged there. These two groups were the quickest to react in the posthouse. Wen Yu noticed Lady Feng, surrounded by servants, holding a young child in her arms.

As if sensing the gaze, Lady Feng looked up and met Wen Yu's eyes. After a brief exchanged glance, both hurried outward.

But upon exiting the posthouse, they found the streets illuminated by torches. Hundreds of soldiers who had been ambushed outside to blockade the streets now emerged.

Merchants fleeing later panicked: "Why so many soldiers?"

"We're doomed... There's no escape..."

The portly county magistrate emerged from behind the soldiers, berating the postmaster: "How could you bungle this? Our prey nearly slipped away!"

The postmaster bowed obsequiously: "My subordinates were incompetent. I'll discipline them later..."

The magistrate snorted and ordered his troops: "Seize them all!"

Guards employed by the merchants and hired bodyguards drew swords to form a front line, but they were vastly outnumbered by the surrounding soldiers.

A pragmatic merchant immediately pleaded: "We're but small traders passing through. We'll gladly offer tribute if you spare our lives!"

The magistrate narrowed his eyes at the speaker, smiling benignly: "Agreed. However, the Feng family offended Minister Situ. Lady Feng must stay. Capture her for me, and I'll take your riches without further trouble."

The previously unified merchants wavered, their collective gaze shifting toward the Feng family.

The Feng guards quickly encircled Lady Feng, turning blades against the restless guards from other caravans.

Clutching her child, Lady Feng looked utterly desolate.

Wen Yu suddenly spoke: "Don't fall for this divide-and-conquer tactic."

All eyes turned to her, but her veil and the broad cape hood obscured her face. People could only observe her tall, slender figure, speculating about her identity.

Her cool voice cut through the night: "Consider this: on your way to Tongcheng, did you hear rumors about local authorities leading robberies?"

Whispered discussions immediately rippled through the crowd.The county magistrate narrowed his eyes and cast a warning glance at Wen Yu, addressing the wavering merchants: "You begged me for a way out, and I granted it. If you listen to the provocations of this evasive individual, do not blame me for showing no mercy."

Wen Yu lifted her gaze coldly, retorting, "Is what you offered truly a way out? You merely intended to sow discord among us, having us capture Lady Feng for you first, only for you to round us all up afterward. Since you rely on plundering merchant caravans for wealth, how could you possibly let us leave and risk the news spreading?"

Her voice grew faint yet piercing as she delivered the final blow: "I suspect the reason we’ve heard no rumors is that all the merchants who previously passed through here have fallen beneath your blade."

The merchants, shrewd as they were, had heard Wen Yu lay out the stakes so clearly that none dared gamble on the magistrate sparing them even if they fully cooperated.

Once again, they united against the common enemy.

Lady Feng, however, stood clutching her child, staring blankly in Wen Yu’s direction.

The magistrate’s scheme unraveled by Wen Yu’s few words, his expression turning grim. A cold smile twisted his plump face as he declared, "Since you choose to seek death, I shall not stand in your way. Seize them!"

Guards and government soldiers clashed in chaos, while the elite escorts shielded their masters in a desperate breakout.

Without horses or carriages, relying solely on their feet to flee, they struggled to outdistance the Tongzhou troops, who held a numerical advantage.

The guards accompanying Wen Yu had been meticulously selected by Zhou Jing’an from the household troops, far surpassing those of the other merchants. Alongside Lady Feng’s retinue, they were the first to break through.

Seeing Lady Feng on the verge of escape, the magistrate shouted urgently, "After them! Ensure Lady Feng is captured!"

Mounted soldiers swiftly closed in, drawing bows and releasing arrows into the fleeing crowd.

Guards and servants fell one after another.

Outnumbered and realizing the futility of resistance, the two groups of guards tacitly joined forces without their masters’ orders, holding off the pursuing soldiers to buy time for their leaders to escape toward the city gate.

Having escaped countless times from human traffickers after being separated from her personal guards, Wen Yu, though her chest burned with each breath of icy wind, never fell behind.

As they neared the gate, Lady Feng stumbled and fell, her child tumbling to the ground wailing. Tears welled in her eyes, filled with helplessness and despair.

With pursuers closing in relentlessly and guards still battling the gatekeepers to force the gate open ahead, Wen Yu, hearing the infant’s cries and recalling her nephew who had been brutally killed, stepped forward to pick up the child and help Lady Feng to her feet.

But Lady Feng, weeping, asked her, "You are Princess Hanyang, aren’t you?"

As Wen Yu hesitated, unsure whether to confirm her identity, Lady Feng suddenly shoved her hard, crying out, "Watch out!"

Staggering back with the swaddled infant, Wen Yu watched as an arrow pierced Lady Feng’s heart. Another arrow grazed Wen Yu’s ear, snapping the delicate chain of her veil and causing her cape’s hood to fall back.

Her veil drifted down, dark hair flowing in the wind, eyes brimming with compassion—like a lotus blooming under the moon in the snowy night.

Seeing her face clearly, Lady Feng, now certain of her identity, whispered through her tears, "I beg you, Princess... take my daughter out of the city..."

The last of the Feng family guards rushed forward to block the advancing soldiers.A large patch of blood had soaked through the front of her garment, clearly beyond saving.

Wen Yu glanced at the infant in her arms whose cries were gradually weakening, nodded, and asked, "Do you know why Pei Song wanted to exterminate your entire Feng clan?"

Blood trickled from the corner of Lady Feng's mouth as she spoke with difficulty in broken phrases: "He is... Qin... Qin..."

Behind them, government soldiers beheaded the Feng family guards, shouting, "Don't let them escape!"

At that moment, the city gate emitted a heavy creak. Several guards strained with all their might to pry open a gap barely two feet wide, gritting their teeth as they shouted to Wen Yu, "Your Highness, go!"

Wen Yu had no more time to ask questions. She could only say to Lady Feng, "I will find a good family to adopt your daughter."

With that, she picked up the infant and sprinted toward the city gate.

Lady Feng watched Wen Yu's retreating figure, a single clear tear falling from her eye before she slowly closed them for the last time.

The guard captain had seized several horses with his men. As Wen Yu rushed over, a female guard on horseback reached out to her. Wen Yu took her hand and mounted the horse, and with a kick to the horse's flank, they charged out of the city gate, the others close behind.

Once outside the city, they didn't pause for a moment, whipping their horses furiously as they raced down the official road.

When the county magistrate arrived at the city gate, dragging his obese frame, and learned that a group had escaped, he angrily kicked the guarding soldiers several times: "What are you good for! After all these years, you can't even stop a bunch of merchants' guards?"

The registrar, after examining the corpses on the ground, obsequiously said, "Don't be angry, Your Honor. At least Lady Feng didn't manage to escape."

The magistrate felt somewhat relieved. But when he walked to the corpse and didn't see the child Lady Feng had been holding in swaddling clothes, his face darkened again: "Where is the infant she was carrying?"

The registrar had no idea either. Seeing the magistrate about to erupt in anger again, he noticed a Feng family maid trembling in a corner, terrified. He quickly signaled the soldiers to drag her over.

The maid fell to her knees, already frightened out of her wits by the corpses everywhere, her words incoherent: "Don't kill me, don't kill me..."

The registrar demanded, "Where is your young mistress?"

The maid stammered, "The mistress gave her to the princess to take away..."

The registrar's tone shifted sharply, his voice shrill: "Princess?"

The magistrate's face also showed astonishment. His obese body shoved the registrar aside, his narrow eyes widening like copper bells in the firelight: "What did you say? Princess? Which princess?"

The maid was too terrified to do anything but cry, babbling incoherently: "I don't know, I don't know... I only heard the mistress ask if the other was Princess Hanyang..."

The registrar and the magistrate exchanged glances, then let out eerie, simultaneous laughter in the night.

The magistrate was ecstatic: "Quickly! Send more men after them! And draft a letter to the Minister of War, saying we've discovered traces of Princess Hanyang. With such a great achievement, my rise to power is imminent!"

Yongzhou.

It was another gloomy, dismal day. The Zhou manor had suffered repeated blows, and the Manor Guards felt just as bleak and lost as the weather.

But the young master had given orders, so the streets still had to be patrolled.

While passing through the morning market to buy breakfast at a bun shop, one guard overheard someone eating wontons nearby say, "When I entered the city earlier, I heard that the wild wolves near the mass grave howled all night last night. A hunter went up the mountain this morning to check his traps and found wolf corpses everywhere..."

The guard, biting into his bun as he walked back, wondered aloud, "Who would have nothing better to do than go up the mountain to kill wolves in the middle of the night?"No sooner had the words been spoken than, while passing through a dark alley, he was abruptly dragged inside.

The figure was tall and imposing. Even shrouded in the chill of ice and snow, a faint scent of blood could still be vaguely detected. Just as the Manor Guard was about to retaliate, his hands were effortlessly twisted behind his back and pinned against the wall. A deep, hoarse voice came from behind: "Xiao Lu, it's me."

The Manor Guard heaved a sigh of relief and called out, "Brother Xiao!"

The person behind him released his hands.

He muttered, "Brother Xiao, where did you go last night? You didn't come back the whole night, and why aren't you wearing your guard uniform?"

The bamboo hat obscured most of Xiao Li's face. Dressed in the common martial attire of a jianghu practitioner, he simply said, "I won't be working at the manor anymore. Please convey my farewell to the young master on my behalf."

The Manor Guard roughly understood it was related to Xiao Huiniang's matter and felt somewhat sorry for him. He hastily asked, "Then where will you go from here, Brother Xiao?"

Xiao Li didn't respond, adjusting his bamboo hat before leaving with only these words: "Aside from the young master, don't tell anyone you saw me today."

The Manor Guard grew even more puzzled. When he followed Xiao Li out of the alley, the man had already vanished without a trace.

He muttered in bewilderment, "Hey, where'd he go?"

Other Manor Guards who had been waiting for him came searching and shouted, "What are you dawdling for here? Everyone's waiting for you!"

The Manor Guard hurriedly replied, "Coming!"

He quickly finished his steamed bun and jogged over to join them.

—

At dusk, when Zhou Sui learned from this Manor Guard about Xiao Li's secret farewell, another piece of news exploded throughout the manor—Xing Lie was dead.

His head had been severed and was nowhere to be found.

Upon hearing this news, the Manor Guard's face changed just like Zhou Sui's.

Zhou Sui rasped, "Quick! Gather all the brothers who patrolled the streets with you yesterday."

The Manor Guard nodded anxiously and rushed off.

Soon, several Manor Guards assembled in Zhou Sui's room, with the old steward personally keeping watch outside.

Zhou Sui looked at them, coughing as he spoke, "You were all carefully selected by my father to remain here, and I trust your loyalty. Xing Lie is dead—I don't know if Xiao Li did it—but Pei Song will certainly not let this rest. You've all witnessed his methods; he won't hesitate to slaughter entire families. For the sake of Zhou Manor and all of you, remember this: Xiao Li and the Manor Guards stationed at the West side courtyard 'died' at Xing Lie's hands yesterday, and their bodies were discarded in the mass grave. Is that clear?"

The Manor Guards broke out in a cold sweat and hurriedly affirmed, "We will remember, sir!"

—

Meanwhile, in Zhou Manor's study.

Pei Song slammed his palm heavily on the huanghuali wood desk, his expression dark. "Several fierce generals under Changlian Wang failed to take Xing Lie's head, yet here in Yongzhou—a place without a single renowned commander—he gets beheaded. What a profound disgrace!"

He lifted his gaze to the soldier who had brought the news and demanded, "Was he killed by a trap?"

The soldier knelt on one knee and shook his head. "When the coroner examined the bodies, he found that General Xing's guards were all killed with a single strike. General Xing's bones were shattered, and his internal organs showed signs of hemorrhage. It's clear the opponent incapacitated him completely before... before decapitating him."

Furious, Pei Song swept all the scrolls off his desk, veins bulging at his temples. His tone was icy as he said, "Excellent. This Yongzhou truly hides dragons and crouches tigers!"

Yesterday, he had ordered Xing Lie to receive twenty military cane strikes, but that was merely a slap on the wrist. Since they couldn't procure medicinal herbs or levy grain supplies within Yongzhou City, he had specifically tasked Xing Lie to take over a dozen men out of the city today to investigate nearby towns.

Who could have anticipated such a disaster?

He coldly raised his eyes. "Summon Zhou Sui to me!"

But before the order could be carried out, another soldier hurried into the study and reported, "My lord, urgent news from Dingzhou!"

At this, not only Pei Song, but even the frowning chief secretary looked up.

Dingzhou was the first battleground between Pei Song and the Marquis of Shuobian, Wei Qishan. Before coming to Yongzhou, they had made meticulous preparations. Dingzhou had ample supplies and military strength—Wei Qishan's forces shouldn't have been able to shake it in such a short time.What kind of incident could possibly happen over there?

Author's Note: Merry Christmas Eve! Red envelopes continue to drop in the comments section~

Special thanks to the little angels who supported me with their votes or nutrient solutions between 2023-12-23 03:22:33 and 2023-12-24 23:28:22~

Thanks to the little angels who threw landmines: Qing Shan Bu Gai (2), Xiao Xiao (1);

Thanks to the little angels who provided nutrient solutions: Hui Zhi, Watermelon Head (10 bottles); Ren (9 bottles); 50286165 (5 bottles); Stella, Olive Leaf Island, San Tong, Yun Zhao, Mint Aroma, JenniferCA, Ji Ji, Crying Pitifully, Yun Dong Ya, kfpy_L, 67029664, Fat Fox, testtest, Koi Belus, Jing, Su Nian Chu Meng (1 bottle each);

Thank you all very much for your support. I will continue to work hard!