Chapter 55
"Aren't you going to ask me?"
He didn't even light a lamp before pulling open the door and leaving.
A cold wind carrying the scent of rain rushed in, sending a chill down Wen Yu's arms. She stared blankly at the doorway.
A nightmare?
Xiao Li went down to the courtyard and scooped rainwater from the jar, splashing it haphazardly on his face. The icy flow finally subdued some of the restless turmoil in his heart.
Leaning both hands on the edge of the jar, his long lashes dripping water, he stared at his dark reflection in the jar, rippling with each falling raindrop.
On that pale, youthful face, pain and hidden resentment intertwined.
The violently churning emotions in his heart were tearing him apart, yet his mind remained exceptionally clear even as he teetered on the edge of losing control.
He understood.
She repeatedly drove him away because, to her, he would always be an outsider.
And because he wasn't strong enough.
If he were King Chen or Wei Qishan, she probably wouldn't have pushed him away time and again.
Xiao Li closed his eyes in humiliation, remaining frozen in that position in the curtain of rain for a long time.
Two days later.
At a refugee gathering spot in the city, a group of ragged people wearing bamboo hats clustered under a simple, leaky shelter.
A guard who had fetched a bowl of porridge from the government relief station handed it to a thin, middle-aged man coughing incessantly in the shelter: "Sir, we haven't managed to get any medicine yet. Please drink this porridge to soothe your throat first."
A burly man standing beside the thin man took the bowl and, noticing the few grains of rice settled at the bottom, flared up: "Is this even porridge? It's more like dishwater!"
The sickly-looking middle-aged man coughed and said, "Enough, enough, Brother Fan. At a time like this, why be picky?"
The burly man cursed: "In previous years, if relief porridge was cooked like this, all the officials in Xinzhou's government wouldn't have enough heads to chop!"
The middle-aged man's expression darkened, saying only: "You know that was before. Compared to Luodu and Fengyang back then, the south is still better off. Xinzhou just rebelled, and the neighboring prefectures followed suit. They're keeping each other in check, so the common people can still find a way to survive in the cracks..."
He took a sip of the watery porridge that tasted more of mold than rice, immediately spat it out, but was still choked by the taste into a fit of violent coughing.
The guard beside him quickly patted his back.
The burly man said: "Drink slowly, what's the rush?"
Li Xun waved his hand repeatedly, saying: "It's made from moldy rice."
The burly man's eyes widened. He picked up the bowl and sniffed it, indeed detecting a moldy smell. Furious, he immediately smashed the bowl, cursing: "Those damned bastards in Xinzhou!"
Li Xun's eyes were already red: "Who knows how the Princess managed to travel all the way to Xinzhou..."
He asked the burly man: "Have our people found out about Tongcheng's conscription news?"
Fan Yuan sat down on a stool, hands on his knees, and shook his head dejectedly: "The Xinzhou authorities are arresting people everywhere. Everyone's hiding deep."He then spoke with some bewilderment: "But hasn't Tongcheng become Pei Song's lackey? Why does the Princess seem to have close ties with Tongcheng? When I inquired among the refugees about Tongcheng's conscription, they all spoke highly of that Tongcheng army. I heard the Xinzhou authorities started distributing porridge precisely because that Tongcheng army provided food and porridge to the common people during conscription, which made the refugees quite dissatisfied with the Xinzhou officials, forcing them to open their granaries and distribute porridge as well."
He looked at Li Xun: "Do you think there might be some hidden circumstances behind Tongcheng's surrender to Pei Song?"
Li Xun coughed and said: "We can only ask the Princess after we find her."
As they were speaking, they suddenly saw a man wearing a bamboo hat that covered most of his face and dressed in black archer-sleeved robes approaching them. The beardless man appeared quite young. He looked up at them under the shelter: "May I trouble you for directions?"
When he raised his head, he revealed a rather handsome face.
Both Li Xun and Fan Yuan watched the young man warily. Fan Yuan particularly scanned his arms, waist, and legs, immediately recognizing him as a skilled martial artist.
The guards in the shelter also quietly gripped their concealed weapons, ready to apprehend him at the first sign of trouble.
Li Xun said: "Young brother, feel free to ask."
Xiao Li said: "They say the landscape's beauty feels intimate with people. I'm looking for a place where a single cup can contain the shimmering waters and verdant mountains."
Upon hearing this, Li Xun couldn't conceal his excitement and repeatedly said: "Easy to find, easy to find. Where misty waves stretch far and sandpipers sleep is the place."
The response matched exactly what Wen Yu had told him.
Xiao Li clasped his hands and said: "Thank you, but I don't know the way. Could I trouble the elder to take me there?"
Li Xun nodded repeatedly: "This old man will take you there right away."
Fan Yuan quietly grabbed Li Xun's arm and asked in a low voice: "Old Li, what's the meaning of this?"
Li Xun patted his arm and only said: "Bring one more person and come with me to guide this young brother."
Fan Yuan was a military man who had come specifically to find Wen Yu and escort her safely to Pingzhou. Not as quick-witted as Li Xun, he found these words utterly confusing.
But he realized the young man who had suddenly appeared was probably no ordinary person, so he selected one more person to accompany them and ordered the others to remain where they were.
Soon Fan Yuan realized it was less like Li Xun guiding the young man and more like the young man leading them.
The group wound through alleyways, turning this way and that, before finally emerging onto another main street and entering a tavern.
Xiao Li said: "There were too many eyes among the refugees. To avoid being followed, I had to lead you on this roundabout route."
Li Xun said: "The young brother's considerations are thorough."
Xiao Li pushed open the private room door: "My master has been awaiting you two for some time."
Upon hearing this, Fan and Li hurriedly looked into the room.
The woman standing with her back to the window turned around at the sound of movement. Removing her veil hat, she softly called: "Uncle Li."
Li Xun's eyes reddened. His lips moved several times as he tried to speak, but his throat was too choked with emotion. Finally, he managed to call out with a sob: "Princess?"
Wen Yu's eyes were also slightly red as she nodded: "It's me."
Li Xun looked Wen Yu up and down, his voice choked: "The Princess has suffered..."
Then he bowed deeply: "We have failed you, arriving so late and allowing the Princess to endure such hardship and displacement along the way..."Wen Yu stepped forward quickly to support Li Xun by the arm: "Uncle Li, please rise quickly. It was I who deliberately spread false information to cover my tracks and confuse the enemy. Your escape from Fengyang was difficult enough—why blame yourself?"
After being helped up, Li Xun still couldn't stop his choked sobs.
Fan Yuan hadn't expected that while they had been searching everywhere for the Tongcheng Army and failing to obtain news of Wen Yu, she had actually found them first.
This was likely no coincidence. She must have been observing them covertly for some time, and only after being ninety percent certain of their identities did she send someone to meet them today.
A chill ran down his spine.
With such meticulous planning, no wonder Pei Song's tightly woven net had failed to trap her.
When he looked at Wen Yu again, he didn't dare gaze too long at her breathtaking beauty, instead bowing respectfully with clasped fists: "This humble general Fan Yuan pays respects to the Princess."
Li Xun, who had once been a strategist under Wen Yu's father and was close to the royal household, knew that Wen Yu wouldn't recognize Fan Yuan and introduced him: "General Fan was stationed in Pingzhou under Lord Chen. When Lord Chen learned you might be in Xinzhou, he specifically sent General Fan to accompany me in searching for you."
The Lord Chen he referred to was Chen Wei, Governor of Pingzhou, who had been one of the most trusted aides under Wen Yu's father.
Wen Yu said, "Lord Chen is most thoughtful."
She invited everyone to sit and discuss matters in detail.
When Li Xun learned she had been separated from her trusted followers during an assassination attempt before reaching Yongcheng, and had only continued southward thanks to Zhou Jing'an providing fresh carriages and guards, he wept again upon hearing of Zhou Jing'an's martyrdom, as they had been old friends.
When Wen Yu asked about the situation in Fengyang that day, he choked up even more: "On the day Fengyang fell, the Prince died fighting at the city gates, his body... his body was riddled with so many arrows it resembled a sieve..."
Wen Yu's breath trembled, her hands hidden in her sleeves nearly drawing blood from her palms, yet she remained silent, quietly listening to Li Xun recount the horrors of Fengyang that day.
"The Crown Prince... after being severely captured by Pei Song, begged him to spare the lives of the household advisors. Pei Song declared that for every finger the Crown Prince severed, he would spare one person. For our sake... for our sake... the Crown Prince cut off all twenty-plus digits from his hands and feet!"
At this point, Li Xun was weeping bitterly: "That day, I intended to follow the Prince and Crown Prince in death, but the Crown Prince told me: 'The Wen clan is gone, the Changlian Palace is gone, but the common people remain. Since we vowed to serve all under heaven, how can we seek death just because the Great Liang has fallen, when the people still suffer?'"
He cried mournfully: "That was the young lord personally taught by Grand Tutor Yu!"
"This life of mine was bought with one of the young lord's fingers. I dare not speak lightly of death again, yet I refuse to be a slave to the Pei clan! When we saw the Princess's poems and writings denouncing Pei Song, learned you were continuing to Southern Chen for the marriage alliance, and summoning us to Pingzhou, we rushed there immediately, hoping we might still be of some service to the Princess."
When Wen Yu heard how her brother had severed twenty fingers to plead for the advisors, blood was already trickling from her palms. She said: "Since heaven has allowed me to reach here alive, I will make Pei Song pay for every single blood debt—the loss of Luodu, the pain of Fengyang, each and every one!"
The room was heavy with suppressed emotions.
Xiao Li, standing beside Wen Yu, suddenly glanced down at her hands.Fan Yuan said, "We will certainly seek vengeance from Pei Song for the blood debt. However, now that we have found Your Highness, our priority should be escorting you to Pingzhou, as that place is safer."
Just as Wen Yu was about to speak, Xiao Li suddenly handed her a handkerchief.
Both Li Xun and Fan Yuan, assuming he was merely Wen Yu's personal guard, noticed nothing unusual.
The moment Wen Yu's palm touched the handkerchief, she felt a slight chill and guessed it must be coated with a mild pain-relieving ointment.
She was momentarily taken aback.
Since that night, Xiao Li had become exceptionally silent, speaking very little to her.
Their relationship had developed a subtly distant quality. Apart from carrying out tasks she assigned, he hardly engaged in any other communication with her.
Now, suddenly handing her a medicated handkerchief, Wen Yu—amidst her overwhelming pain and hatred—felt a brief moment of respite.
Her fingers curled slightly around the handkerchief, though her expression revealed nothing. She asked, "How many troops have you brought with you, General?"
Fan Yuan replied, "Over twenty entered the city, about a hundred are stationed outside for support, and another hundred are gathering intelligence in neighboring counties. I can recall them once I send word."
Thinking Wen Yu was concerned about safety during the journey, he added, "Your Highness need not worry. This general would stake his life to ensure your safety."
But Wen Yu said, "Returning to Pingzhou can wait. I still have some scattered forces under my command. I would like to trouble the General to lead your troops to Tongcheng."
Fan Yuan's expression shifted slightly. "Your Highness wants me to relieve the siege of Tongcheng?"
He spoke with great difficulty, "The forces Pei sent to attack Tongcheng number at least five thousand. My two hundred soldiers can do little even if we rush there."
Li Xun, assuming Wen Yu had deep ties to Tongcheng, also advised, "Your Highness, this is unwise. Even if Tongcheng's surrender to Pei Song was under duress and the city is full of loyalists, its fall is already inevitable. It cannot be saved. If General Fan goes recklessly, he will only lose what troops he has."
Wen Yu lifted her eyes in confusion. "When did I say I wanted to save Tongcheng?"
Fan Yuan and Li Xun exchanged puzzled glances.
Fan Yuan asked, "Then why does Your Highness want me to go to Tongcheng?"
Wen Yu explained, "When I passed through Tongcheng, I was schemed against by the vermin in the local yamen. Under the pretense of recruiting talents for me, they were actually working for Pei Song. Countless wealthy merchants passing through were also swindled and killed by them. In Xinzhou, I borrowed Tongcheng's name to recruit soldiers and spread the false news of Pei Song's death, which threw the southern region into chaos. Enraged, Pei Song decided to make an example of Tongcheng. That rat of a county magistrate won't just wait for death—he'll surely flee south with all his wealth."
Her gaze grew profound. "Rather than letting him use that fortune to seek refuge in another prefecture, it would be better to bring it back to Pingzhou."
Fan Yuan seized a key point from Wen Yu's words. "Your Highness never had dealings with Tongcheng? You merely used their name to recruit troops?"
Then, as if fully grasping the situation, he slapped the table and exclaimed, "Brilliant! This plan is brilliant!"
Li Xun was also stunned, taking a moment to find his words. "Was it Your Highness who resolved Pingzhou's crisis?"He was nearly weeping with joy: "When Xinzhou rebelled, Lord Chen surmised that Pei Song would surely target Pingzhou and was so worried he couldn't sleep for days. He gathered us to discuss countermeasures for a long time. Yet after days of strict defense, the neighboring prefectures bordering Xinzhou fell into chaos too—they started fighting among themselves first! It was a false alarm! Lord Chen said it must be heaven protecting Pingzhou, but how could it be heaven? It was you, My Lady, who protected Pingzhou!"
Wen Yu said, "A just cause gains abundant support while an unjust one finds little. Pei Song's cruelty and inhumanity have led to this situation."
She changed the subject: "I've received news that Xinzhou's lockdown will be lifted in a couple of days. Once it's lifted, General, you can disguise yourselves as refugees with my men and intercept people on the main route to Tongcheng. When you meet the Tongcheng magistrate, just say you heard on the road that Tongcheng is recruiting soldiers and transporting provisions, so you've come to join. He must be short-handed now and will keep you to escort him. Then just 'escort' him to Pingzhou."
Pei Song's dispatch of troops to Tongcheng was meant to kill a chicken to scare the monkeys—to intimidate those self-proclaimed kings in the prefectures.
But those prefectures, having decided to rebel, had burned their bridges from the start. Only by expanding their forces while Pei Song's main army is still entangled with Wei Qishan in Dingzhou can they hope to fight with their backs to the river in the future.
The Prefect of Xinzhou must also see this clearly. Since Pei Song has already sent troops to Tongcheng, those recruiting in Xinzhou—whether from Tongcheng or not—can no longer cause trouble. The priority now is competing with neighboring prefectures for territory, so he will certainly not continue blocking the official roads.
And what she schemes for is not just surviving this chaos unscathed, but also that piece of fat meat everyone wants to snatch!
Fan Yuan laughed heartily: "Excellent plan! But Xinzhou isn't safe. Once the lockdown is lifted, I'll first send men to escort My Lady to a border county of Pingzhou. My Lady and Lord Li can wait there for my good news!"
Li Xun nodded in agreement: "My Lady's safety is paramount. I also believe this is more appropriate."
After some thought, Wen Yu said: "Then let it be as you both say. But may I trouble General Fan to take someone along?"
Wen Yu glanced sideways, signaling Xiao Li to step forward.
Xiao Li looked up in surprise.
—Before coming, Wen Yu hadn't discussed this with him.
But with both men's scrutinizing gazes upon him, he still stepped forward.
Li Xun and Fan Yuan had already sensed this young man was unusual, but since Wen Yu hadn't introduced him, they couldn't speculate about his identity.
Wen Yu said: "This is my benefactor, Xiao Li the Martyr. From when I got separated from my retinue and fell into hardship in Yongcheng, all the way until reaching Xinzhou, it was thanks to him that we repeatedly turned danger into safety. He's been dealing with those undisciplined troops I gathered since they were recruited. Having him along can help the General manage them somewhat."
Fan Yuan quickly said: "I'm not very familiar with the troops under My Lady's command. Having Martyr Xiao here will save me much trouble. I thank My Lady in advance!"
Wen Yu then looked at Xiao Li: "Those ragtag soldiers aren't very presentable. When you have time, learn from General Fan and impose stricter discipline on them."
Xiao Li nodded in agreement, then said to Fan Yuan: "I'll be troubling General Fan from now on."
Fan Yuan waved his hand and laughed heartily: "We both serve My Lady, so we should be like brothers. But since you're My Lady's benefactor, you're our benefactor too. In the future, just give Fan your orders whenever needed."Having spoken to this extent, Wen Yu kept them for a meal before their departure. To avoid attracting unwanted attention, Li Xun and Fan Yuan left first with their guards.
With no one else left in the private room, Wen Yu intended to give Xiao Li further instructions, but he silently took her hand—the one whose palm had been pierced by her own fingernails—reapplied medicinal powder, and bandaged it with the silk handkerchief she held.
The gesture was somewhat overly familiar and intimate.
Yet compared to the boundaries between men and women they had broken during their escape for survival, it seemed insignificant.
So after a brief moment of surprise, Wen Yu tacitly allowed it.
She watched the man who, despite crouching to tend to her wound, still loomed imposingly due to his tall stature. "Aren’t you going to ask? I didn’t even discuss it with you before having you accompany me to Tongcheng."
Xiao Li finished tying the bandage in silence, then lifted his sharp eyes and said only, "I’ll bring back all the silver you need."
Author’s Note:
To all the dear readers who’ve been waiting—my sincerest apologies! I’ve finally sorted out the plot after this long delay. So sorry for keeping you all waiting! Sending virtual hugs and red envelopes in the comments section as a token of my gratitude!
The loyal dog is transforming into a wolf, gathering strength...
Special thanks to the little angels who supported me with their votes and nutrient solutions between 2024-01-17 21:45:37 and 2024-01-20 19:10:02!
Thanks to herrlich for the hand grenade!
Thanks to Qian Shan Du Xing and Fu Ruo for the landmines!
Gratitude to the following for the nutrient solutions:
57862741 (18 bottles), Du Ruo & Xue Li Shi Dong (10 bottles each), Cong Wu Cao, 39874609, 52538158, 61325583 (5 bottles each), Lao Zi Shuai Lie Cang Qiong & Nan Ye De Mao (3 bottles each), Ni Ni (2 bottles), and Sui Sui Tao Yan Sui Sui, Mu Zi Shuo Shu, Zhong Xiao Xiao Xi Yi Shui Han, 51716275, Qing Ni Chi Sheng Cai, Bo He Xiang Qi, Sheng Yu Pian, Jing, Chi Fan Shui Jiao, tutu, Ji Ji, Stella, 59790477, kfpy_L, Ping An Xi Le, 65140677, Xian Hua Luo Di (1 bottle each)!
Thank you all for your support—I’ll keep working hard!
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