Chapter 25 Zhai Ji lived in a chicken coop in the bandit stronghold, while she slept in a pigsty.
A high wall rose between the two mountain peaks, complete with crenellations and corner towers. Lookouts stood guard, and men with spears walked back and forth, making it resemble a small city.
From spring to midsummer, when she took down the first bandit stronghold, the mountains and forests were just sprouting new green leaves, but now they are lush and verdant, with branches and leaves spreading out to block out the sun. Chen Liangyu looked around and occasionally caught glimpses of figures peeking out from the high mountains and forests or behind the rocks on the cliffs, a fleeting glimpse of trouser legs, or half a head.
In military camps, these people are called sentries. Once someone of unknown origin approaches the mountain stronghold, they have nowhere to hide.
The place was hidden and hard to find. The female bandit, who had been carried all the way, was so shaken on the horse that her internal organs felt like they were about to shift, before they finally brought her to the gate of the stronghold.
The female bandit's hands were still bound behind her back with vines, and her head and feet were dangling, clearly in great discomfort.
With a jerky tilt of the head and a sudden jerk, the person landed on the ground.
With a clang, a sword was placed against her neck from behind, forcing her forward.
The gate to the village was tightly closed, but in the next moment, it was pulled open by several people working together.
Then silence fell.
No one came out to greet her, nor did anyone come out to kill her.
Everyone only looked at her when her horse galloped in, and after the gates opened, they went about their business, completely ignoring their comrades who were being held hostage and whose lives were hanging by a thread below the city walls.
Are you inviting me into this trap?
The door is open for you, let's see if you have the guts to come in! Whether she has the guts or not is no longer up to her. Even if it's a den of tigers and wolves inside, she has to go and rescue that burden, Zhai Ji.
They had marked the way here, so it wouldn't be difficult for the imperial forces to find this place. However, with hostages in hand on both sides, neither dared to make any rash moves.
Besides the one she brought to guide them, several others survived and were left in the hands of the soldiers who were suppressing the bandits.
After passing through the gate, Chen Liangyu expected to see a gloomy and terrifying bandit camp shrouded in mist, with skulls and various knives and ironware hanging on the walls, rotting and stinking, filled with rough and frightening bandits.
But that's not the case.
We've been tricked!
Her heart sank.
The guard posts at the gate were just a smokescreen; there was nothing inside the walls. This was not the bandits' main base.
Lin Jianshu sat in a rattan chair in the middle of the open space, seemingly waiting for her for a long time.
His demeanor was unlike that of a bandit; he was tall and slender, with an air of composure and dignity. However, a terrifying and hideous scar ran from under his eye to the other side of his face.
This reminded her of the armless beggar who asked her for money during the Lantern Festival.
I don't know why I thought of him. Although Lin Jianshu has a large scar on his face, he is still a whole person.
"Release A-Yin." He raised his chin, signaling Chen Liangyu to release the female bandit in his hands.
Where are my men?
"When did the prince of Bei Yong become your man?"
Chen Liangyu simply used a concise and easy-to-communicate grammar: 'A Yin' is your person, so what you have in your hands is 'my person'.
When the other party became insistent, she changed her question, "Where is the person I asked for?"
Lin Jianshu gave a look to the two burly men with thick beards behind him, and the two bandits, who looked like door gods, stepped forward. "They'll take you there."
Chen Liangyu gripped the hilt of his sword, turned it around, and with a nimble flick of his wrist, the vines that had left bloody marks suddenly loosened. A Yin sighed and rubbed his hands.
Blindfolded, they were crammed onto an oxcart and bumped along, their destination unknown.
They dared not remove Chen Liangyu's armor. Lin Jianshu, a general during the Ying Tong era, knew the significance of the sword in Chen Liangyu's hand—it was an imperial sword, a symbol of imperial power. If they took this sword, the court would immediately launch a genuine purge of Xiling.
That's different from the bandit den that Chen Liangyu destroyed. One of them dealt with the people who robbed and blocked the road, affecting public order. They arrested the people and sent them to labor camps for reform and education, or promised them on the spot that they would break up and go back to be law-abiding citizens. That was considered destroying the bandit den.
But to seize the imperial sword bestowed upon the nation as a founding treasure would be treason! Throughout history, those convicted of treason have never been spared.
In this sense, Chen Liangyu could almost conclude that Lin Jianshu had no intention of killing her.
What was the purpose of going through all that trouble to lure her here?
After a long, bumpy ride, I could initially feel the light filtering through my eyelids, but soon I was plunged into nothingness and couldn't even see the darkness anymore.
After the oxcart bumped against the rocks and swayed violently for a while, some human voices could be heard.
The voices grew closer, and she seemed to be taken to a mountain village, where she could hear the crowing of roosters, the barking of dogs, and the innocent, bell-like chatter of children.
As they passed by, people exchanged pleasantries, and one of the two door gods chuckled, straightening his back and showing off:
"We'll catch two big ones today."
Clearly, she is one of the "two elders," and the other is most likely the unfortunate second prince of Beiyong, Zhai Ji.
The oxcart finally stopped, and the black cloth covering the eyes was pulled off, revealing what appeared to be the backyard of a farm, where chickens, ducks, poultry, cattle, sheep, pigs, and horses were kept.
In the center, a giant, hand-woven chicken coop stands out, and upon closer inspection, it becomes even more conspicuous. Inside the coop is a person, with their back turned, head in their hands, and face covered by their sleeve, seemingly ashamed to be seen.
Chen Liangyu took a closer look at the person in the chicken coop, and her mood instantly improved. She stepped forward to greet him warmly, "Oh, Second Prince."
Smiling.
The chicken coop was tall enough for an eight-foot-tall adult man to stand inside, but it was too narrow to even turn around. The person inside sat with their knees bent, with a large amount of space overhead.
Seeing that burying one's head in the sand wasn't working, Zhai Ji stopped covering his face with his sleeve and said, "Can you stop smiling so smugly?"
The men of Beiyong revered braided hair, adorning their braids with jewels strung on silk threads, displaying a wild and untamed spirit. Zhai Ji was such a man, with slender shoulders and a narrow waist, who usually tied his hair with rubies and sapphires, exuding arrogance and willfulness. However, after arriving in Yongdu, he replaced his usual rubies and sapphires with inexpensive beads to show his humility and subservience as a hostage.
Zhai Ji was in a terrible state. His armor had been stripped off, leaving him only in his mid-shirt. The beads in his braid had also been pulled out, leaving his braid loose, and a tuft of chicken feathers stuck to the top of his head.
"You sold me out, but you didn't get anything good in return," Chen Liangyu sneered.
Lin Jianshu knew her identity after only one encounter with her, and she realized that someone had already told him who the bandits were. The Yin-Yang Formation was only to test the truth of her identity. If they really fought to the death, the casualties would be much greater.
"When can I take the person with me?" Chen Liangyu asked.
One doorkeeper unloaded the oxcart, drove the ox into the cowshed, and added some hay, while the other stood silently by their side, listening to their conversation.
The man adding fodder said, "The boss didn't say anything, but you two won't be able to leave tonight anyway, so just stay here for now."
Well, since we're here, we might as well make the best of it.
Where do I live?
As she asked, she glanced sideways at Zhai Ji out of the corner of her eye. It couldn't be any more sloppy than a chicken coop.
"Look!" The person who had been standing behind her nodded, took two steps to the side, and pointed.
"pig……"
"……lock up!"
Pigsty? Pigsty!
Zhai Ji's shoulders were shrugging; without even looking, you could tell he was already doubled over with laughter, hugging his knees. At first, he tried to keep quiet, but eventually, he couldn't hold it in any longer and gave up pretending, bursting into unrestrained laughter.
"When in Rome, do as the Romans do," the man said.
"Is it your custom to sleep in a pigsty?"
"We changed the custom just yesterday because of your visit. It's much more spacious than that chicken coop."
"Is this how you treat your guests?" Chen Liangyu asked angrily, his eyes wide.
"Big sister, have you forgotten why you came here? You were sent by the imperial court to kill us, and you expect to be treated like an honored guest? Do you think you're here as a guest?"
That makes sense.
However, these two doormen looked to be at least in their thirties, so calling them "elder sister" was really hard to accept.
Chen Liangyu immediately fell silent, while Zhai Ji laughed even louder, only to have the doorman who was adding fodder hit him hard with a stick used for herding pigs.
"Look how happy you are! You're so proud of yourself!"
Squatting under the low wall made of mud bricks, surrounded by the sounds of chickens crowing and pigs grunting, Chen Liangyu shooed away mosquitoes and flies in frustration.
Fortunately, the mountain breeze is cool on summer evenings, but it also carries a pungent smell.
Two guardians stood watch over her and Zhai Ji respectively; the one who added fodder watched over Zhai Ji, while the somewhat dull-witted bandit watched over Chen Liangyu. Chen Liangyu didn't close her eyes, and he didn't sleep either; the two began a battle of attrition, like hawks keeping each other awake.
She stayed up until the wee hours of the morning, still full of energy, but the person guarding her winked and turned to leave.
"Where are you going?" Chen Liangyu shouted at him.
The taciturn bandit was puzzled, but still answered her question, "Going to the toilet."
"No one is allowed to leave their post without authorization!"
"I'll be right back."
“If you abandon your post, I’ll run away,” she said, pointing towards the chicken coop. “Take him with you. There’s only one of you left, you can’t stop the two of us. Think about how you’re going to explain this to your boss.”
The dull-witted bandit had no choice but to sit down again, and as time went on, his face grew increasingly pained.
He took two steps away, but was immediately stopped again: "Stop! Stand still! Stay here and watch me, don't go anywhere!"
Since things are going badly, let's all just suffer together.
The taciturn bandit's face was all scrunched up, and he kept complaining.
A soft laugh came from inside the chicken coop. Zhai Ji, playing the good guy, said, "Why are you making things difficult for an honest man? Go on, go on, we won't run away."
The man guarding Zhai Ji was leaning against the chicken coop with his eyes closed, snoring softly. Having received the promise not to run away, the taciturn bandit, his face full of gratitude, trotted out with small, quick steps.
Seeing that Chen Liangyu didn't respond, he couldn't hold back any longer and asked, "Why don't you ask me?"
In his mind, Chen Liangyu would definitely glare at him with fury and grab his neck, asking why he had caused her trouble. At the very least, she would ask him how he fell into the hands of the mountain bandits and ridicule him mercilessly.
But no, she didn't ask a single question.
"What do I want to ask you? Why did you ask His Majesty to send you here with me to suppress the bandits? Or why did you deliberately fall into their hands and betray me?"
These can actually be considered the same question because the answers are the same.
"You want to seize my Great River Military Strategy and the Yin-Yang Three Scrolls in Lin Jianshu's possession."
Chen Liangyu said, "I originally thought you were just trying to annoy me, but then I thought, how could someone as calculating as you, even more so than a shrewd businessman, put yourself in danger just to annoy me? But I couldn't think of a more reasonable explanation until I guessed Lin Jianshu's identity and saw through your intentions. You had already found out that the Yin-Yang Three Scrolls were very likely in the Xiling area of my Dalian, which is also your real purpose for coming to Yongdu as a hostage."
"You knew Lin Jianshu was at odds with the court, so you wanted to add fuel to the fire, sow discord, and amplify his dissatisfaction with the court, hoping to persuade him to pass on his military strategies to you. Unfortunately, not only did your plan fail, but you also ended up in this mess." She continued, her tone turning sarcastic. "He's a general of Dahe. How could he possibly pass on his military strategies to someone who wields a sword and slaughters the people of Dahe?"
Zhai Ji narrowed his eyes. "Why not? He's the leader of Bo Gong Village now, not General Lin!"
The two men raised their voices higher and higher. The sleeping bandit grunted irritably, slapped a mosquito that was flying at his face, and then fell back into a deep sleep.
"Please use your brain and think about it. If he harbored hatred for Daqing, why did he choose to become a mountain king instead of seeking refuge with your Beiyong?"
Zhai Ji was speechless for a moment.
As Chen Liangyu spoke, he rubbed the soil he had scraped off the low wall with his hand; inside the soil was a small stone.
Zhai Ji also fumbled around, and soon he had a stone in his hand. This was a mountainous area, where there was no shortage of gravel.
When the man who had just left returned in a daze, and turned his back to close the door, the two men simultaneously threw the stones in their hands, knocking out the two bandits guarding them.
She wasn't going to be foolish enough to wait for the bandits to do as they pleased and then take them both away in an oxcart.
Chen Liangyu cleaved open the chicken coop with a single sword stroke, and Zhai Ji squeezed out.
"run!"
Author's note: Thank you for reading this far!
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