Ning Fu thought to himself: Have I caused some terrible disaster?
He scrambled to his feet and lunged for the door. Yet the instant his hand touched the latch, a sharp voice stopped him.
“Wait,” said the Crown Prince.
Ning Fu turned around. The Crown Prince lowered his hands and braced himself against the washstand, breathing heavily several times before saying, “It is nothing. Commander Ning, did you bring any Reviving Life Powder?”
Ning Fu immediately replied, “I do not have Reviving Life Powder. It is far too expensive. But I do have Seven Li Powder. It can stop bleeding and ease pain, though it lacks the effects of clearing the mind and reviving the senses.”
He pulled a small porcelain medicine bottle from an inner stitched pocket in his robes, then searched the room for a bowl, ladled in some water, and respectfully handed both to the Crown Prince.
Only after bustling about did he suddenly react. Hesitating, he looked at the Crown Prince and asked, “Your Highness… have you remembered?”
The Crown Prince swallowed the medicine. Gradually, the tension in his body eased, but he gave no answer. He merely cast Ning Fu a cool glance, casually set down the bowl, and strode quickly outside.
Ning Fu inwardly cursed himself for asking such a foolish question. His Highness truly had an extraordinary memory to remember even someone he had met only twice.
He hurried after him.
The door had already been opened. Naturally, he changed his form of address back to “Sir”.
“Sir, please remain here and rest. The physician will arrive shortly. You need not worry about the rescue…”
Chao Yan took Ning Fu’s horse from one of the men, mounted it in a single motion, and said, “Enough nonsense. The two of you ride together and follow me.”
Ning Fu stepped in front of the horse. “My lord, how can you place yourself in danger? Besides the local gentry, there are still the prefectural troops. San-lang has already gone to seek out the Assistant Prefect of Nanling Prefecture and request soldiers!”
Chao Yan tightened the reins. “Move aside.”
Ning Fu dropped to his knees. “Please, sir, place the greater cause first!”
Another man immediately knelt beside him. “Please, sir, place the greater cause first!”
Chao Yan’s expression darkened. Lowering his eyes, he silently regarded them.
After a long while, he said, “Save whoever else you can. But there is one person who must be saved. I gave him my word.”
Ning Fu asked, “Sir, who is it?”
To avoid unnecessary complications, Chancellor Meng had never informed Ning Fu or Meng Zhao of Gu Yun’s existence. Their sole task had been to bring the Crown Prince back safely.
Chao Yan said, “I married among the common folk. He is my wife.”
Ning Fu froze briefly, then immediately bowed his head to the ground. “Sir, leave one man to remain at your side. I still have fifteen men with me. I can lead them to rescue Madam.”
Chao Yan asked, “When will San-lang arrive?”
Ning Fu replied, “In roughly half the time it takes to drink a cup of tea.
“San-lang travelled several li further on and found an express courier station. He acquired messenger pigeons there and used them to contact the Assistant Prefect of Nanling in order to mobilise troops.
“Disregarding the horses’ condition and changing mounts at every courier station, the first wave of soldiers drawn from the garrison troops and the capital drill troops stationed locally should arrive within a quarter of an hour.
“That is already the fastest possible speed. It cannot be any quicker.
“Before parting from me, San-lang feared the enemy might prove too fierce, since we did not yet know the precise situation within the county. Thus he also sent men to contact the officers stationed along the border and request reinforcements. Those troops will arrive somewhat later, roughly within the hour.”
Zhuyang County lay only two counties away from the border.
Hearing this, Chao Yan looked towards the county town, where the night sky glowed faintly orange-red from the firelight.
He dismounted and said, “Take your men there. He should be in the residence behind the county yamen. I want to see him alive.”
Ning Fu asked, “What does Madam look like?”
“Tall and slender, dressed in blue robes. One glance is enough to leave you astonished. That will be him.”
…
The first time Gu Yun killed someone was at Fengyun Mountain.
At the time, attendants under Magistrate Wang Gong of Yanlin County, together with several nimble constables, had escorted him into the mountains in search of the White Python Army’s stronghold. Gu Yun had lied to Magistrate Wang. He had claimed he knew where the White Python Army’s base was located.
From afar, Fengyun Mountain looked extraordinarily tall. Across the entire northern region, peaks of such height were rare. He did not know the exact altitude.
But after entering the mountains, drawing upon what he had learnt in secondary school together with his own observations, he estimated that the terrain was extremely complex, with vegetation coverage as high as 86.1 per cent.
He led them deep into the mountains on foot, following a shallow stream.
The mountains were cold and damp. The paths were rugged, and from time to time someone would slip and fall flat on their face. After two consecutive days of walking, everyone was utterly exhausted. Some were bitten by poisonous insects. One man’s forehead swelled with a lump the size of a fist, and not long afterwards, he died.
That very night, after burying the corpse, those men beat and kicked Gu Yun, demanding to know whether he had been deceiving them.
He assured them that they would reach the destination by tomorrow afternoon at the latest. Only then did they finally spare him.
He lay on the ground pretending to be half-dead. Fearing he might truly die, they even gave him a bowl of sugar water to drink. It tasted sweet, and they had not bound his hands or feet.
He waited until the dead of night before secretly climbing up and running away.
Adrenaline surged through him, and he ran faster than he ever had in his life.
But before long, they discovered his escape. Furious, they immediately gave chase.
Yet Heaven favoured him. Just as he was about to collapse from exhaustion, heavy rain suddenly began to pour, while mist spread all around. Though only a short distance away from catching him, the two pursuers lost track of him.
Gu Yun hid behind a tree and secretly watched them. Realising he had no chance of slipping away, he remembered the cliff not far off and suddenly formed a plan.
He picked up a stone and lured them towards the cliff edge. Then he softened his footsteps, and the moment they became distracted, he lunged forward and shoved them—
It was only a light push.
At least, in his memory, it had been a very light push.
He sent the two men tumbling off the cliff. Hearing the tremendous crash echo back up from below, he immediately turned and fled. Halfway through, he heard footsteps, though he could not tell whether they belonged to people or something else. He simply kept moving forward, or perhaps merely what he thought was forward. By then he had completely lost his sense of direction. Stumbling blindly onward, he eventually discovered a hollow tree and crawled inside…
The darkness passed, and dawn arrived—
Gu Yun’s breathing was rough as he opened his eyes. The first thing he saw was a large sabre, rust-spotted in several places yet still frighteningly sharp. The man holding it was the very thug he had earlier knocked unconscious with a brick.
He had actually been rendered unconscious by the smoke without noticing at all that the thug had returned and found him.
The entire process had lasted barely ten minutes.
Blood rushed violently to his head. Startled beyond measure, Gu Yun instinctively let out a piercing scream, like some broken toy suddenly activated.
The thug’s ears rang violently from the sound, causing him to freeze for an instant.
In that moment, the entire world before Gu Yun’s eyes became incomparably clear. His mind cooled with astonishing speed. Exerting all his strength, he rolled sharply to the left, narrowly avoiding the sabre that the thug brought slashing down the instant he regained his senses.
“You bitch, still daring to move?!”
Gu Yun braced a hand against the ground and scrambled to run.
The thug chased after him with sabre in hand.
The buildings within the county yamen had already become a carnival of flames. From time to time, burning debris crashed down or sections of the structure collapsed altogether.
Gu Yun dared not enter the buildings. Instead, he circled through the courtyard while evading pursuit. Only now did he notice that some of the thugs had already left, either forced back by the flames or perhaps satisfied after enough killing.
Gu Yun’s physical condition was far worse than before, and the courtyard now contained even more obstacles. Before long, he could barely run any further.
The thug’s sabre hacked down again.
Gu Yun raised his kitchen knife to block it, but the impact numbed both his palm and wrist with pain. He could no longer hold the knife.
The kitchen knife clattered to the ground. The thug grinned viciously and swung his sabre down once more.
Gu Yun dodged left, only to trip over something. Twisting his head around, he discovered it was the mangled corpse of another thug. Beside the body lay a bloodstained sabre.
Without hesitation, Gu Yun seized the sabre and kicked viciously at the man’s groin.
The thug clutched himself and howled in agony.
Gu Yun scrambled up and stamped hard into the back of the man’s knee, forcing him heavily onto his knees.
Then he raised the sabre and hacked at the back of the man’s neck.
Damn this blade. It was not sharp enough!
The strike failed to sever the man’s neck. It only bit as far as the neck bone.
Wracked with pain and blazing with fury, the thug momentarily forgot his injuries altogether. He leapt back up and attacked again with his sabre.
Gu Yun could not defeat him head-on, so he hurriedly dodged while using his sabre to parry.
Unable to quickly subdue him, the thug immediately began shouting for his companions to come and surround him.
Gu Yun’s heart completely turned cold. He thought: I’m dead for certain now.
That bastard Lin Yue had broken his promise. He had never come back to save him at all.
Gu Yun assumed the other man must already have escaped safely. The mere fact that he had broken through that rain of arrows proved he possessed martial skill, and not a low level of it either. Someone like that would not die even if pursued.
Once Gu Yun reached that conclusion, resentment rose within him.
But immediately afterwards, his emotions sank again.
Resentment?
What was he to Lin Yue? What right did he have to resent him?
If the other man broke his promise, all he would lose was a little swindler who had already drunk his blood.
Gu Yun bit down hard on his lip, so hard that several cuts split open across it and bright blood streamed down freely.
The thug’s companions had already come up behind him. The flash of blades stung Gu Yun’s eyes. The thug’s accomplice struck him across the back with his blade.
Gu Yun let out a muffled groan of pain. The strength in his hands slackened, and the thug’s blade pressed down several inches further.
He held on for a few moments longer, but in the end could not keep it up. Perhaps part of it was because his spirit had broken as well. He loosened his bitten lips and watched the knife tumble from his hand, rolling once across the ground.
All the sounds in the world vanished from his ears. Gu Yun waited for death.
Just then, the sounds of fighting erupted outside the residence.
The thug and his accomplice both froze. Gu Yun snapped violently back to himself. Gathering every ounce of strength, he broke free from their encirclement, pricked up his ears, and discerned that the fighting was coming from the rear gate. Gritting his teeth, he immediately bolted towards it.
He ran too quickly. Before the thugs had even processed the fact that reinforcements had arrived, he had already reached the back gate.
Several men gave chase. He darted out like a startled hare.
Several feathered arrows flew towards him, but none struck him. Gu Yun clearly saw people outside fighting both the archers guarding the rear gate and a group of thugs retreating from the county yamen.
The scene was utter chaos. Only a handful of archers noticed him slipping out and loosed arrows in his direction.
But with combat raging everywhere and bodies constantly jostling into them, their aim was thrown off. Not a single arrow hit Gu Yun.
Gu Yun had no time to see whether Lin Yue was amongst the rescuers. Before the archers could fire a second volley, he relied on instinct born from past experience, turned, and sprinted away, darting into an alleyway and continuing to run.
The city gates were unattended. Gu Yun ran out of the county town in one breath. Only afterwards did he realise that his knees hurt as though they had been torn apart.
His back throbbed in waves of agony as well. Hunching over, he sat down and looked around. All was pitch-black and silent.
There was no joy at having escaped death.
Instead, it felt as though some malevolent ghost had sunk its teeth into him, dragging him slowly into darkness, filling him with confusion.
So… he had really just run away?
Could Lin Yue be amongst the rescuers? What if the other man did not know he had escaped and insisted on going back inside, only to meet with disaster…
No. He would not come back. He had already escaped alone.
Suppressing the pain, Gu Yun forced himself to his feet and slowly began moving back towards the city gates.
Perhaps he should go back and look. After two steps, he stopped again.
What could he even do if he went back? Become a burden to others? At his current pace, by the time he made it back, Lin Yue would probably already be dead. The rescuers themselves might even be dead.
Besides, Lin Yue might not have gone to save him at all.
Gu Yun did not know whether he was rationally analysing the situation or merely finding excuses to retreat and preserve his own miserable life.
In any case, he could not keep walking.
Near the city gates he found a patch of woodland, then within it a narrow ditch amongst the hills, and curled himself up inside.
An unprecedented sense of safety enveloped him.
At last he dared to relax every muscle in his body. He removed his inner garment, folded it twice over, and hastily wrapped it around the wound on his back. Then he put his outer robe back on and leaned against the damp earthen wall of the ditch, breathing in the smell of wet soil and rotting leaves while lowering his head to rub his aching knees.
Suddenly, a drop of liquid fell.
Was it raining? But it was warm.
Gu Yun could not deceive himself. Those were his tears.
At last he could no longer endure it. Burying his head against his knees, he began sobbing quietly.
He cried until his eyes hurt. Groping around, he found three branches of differing thicknesses and snapped them to equal length. Wiping away tears as he choked out his words, he said:
“Lin Yue, if you’re alive, then live well. I won’t blame you for failing to keep your promise.”
“If you’re dead, don’t come looking for me. I wasn’t the one who killed you. Debts have their debtors and wrongs have their wrongdoers.”
“Don’t worry. Once you reach the Underworld, when I find work, I’ll burn lots and lots of money for you. Gold ingots too.”
“I’ll find you a paper effigy craftsman with truly exceptional skill. I’ll burn you servants, a great mansion, and a beautiful wife.”
At this point, Gu Yun’s tears fell even harder. His eyes felt as though someone had thrown a whole scoop of sand into them. They hurt unbearably.
“If there’s anything else you want, come to me in a dream… but whatever you do, don’t come looking for me in person. I’m begging you…”
