Chapter 118 Leaving Dunhuang
Sui Huaiquan carried mud bricks and walked towards the beacon tower with his head down. His bent back had a fixed arc, and the wooden stick hit his back, making the bones rattle.
"Sui Huaiquan?" the supervisor called out.
Sui Huaiquan shrank back, and he skillfully raised his hands to cover his head, fearing that the swinging stick would hit him on the head.
"Are you Sui Huaiquan?" the supervisor asked again impatiently.
“Yes, yes…”
"You have been freed from slavery. Go and call down all your people. Someone has freed you from slavery through military merit. You may return to your place of origin from today."
After these words were spoken, Sui Huaiquan froze. He slowly lowered his hands that were protecting his head and turned to look at the supervisor.
Those who were carrying bricks, hauling sand, building walls, and lifting wood on the city wall all stopped what they were doing and looked over. Their hungry and skinny faces were filled with numbness, and their lifeless eyes gradually ignited with fanatical flames. They were like lone wolves in the wilderness, wishing they could devour Sui Huaiquan and replace him.
"What are you looking at? Get to work." The supervisor was like a hunter with a bow. He waved his stick to intimidate, and the sound of the stick falling was bone-shattering.
The slave bent his spine, the fire in his eyes extinguished, and he continued with his previous actions.
Sui Huaiquan put the mud brick down and hurried to find his clansmen, shouting excitedly: "Xinlin, Jiemin, Gu brothers, we are free, we are no longer slaves. Where are Uncle Qingyu and my nephew? Where are they? We are no longer slaves!"
The slaves along the way turned their heads to look at him, watching them enviously as they ran down the city wall, fell to the ground and cried, and then ran quickly into the distance to look for their surviving children and grandchildren.
On the other side, the female manager of the brothel was receiving a clerk who came to deliver a message. She took the five bamboo slips and walked towards the kitchen with a complicated expression.
"Chun Nu, come out for a moment."
Aunt Chun responded quickly, covered the pot and walked out, smiling and asking, "Madam, do you want to add any dishes?"
"You are no longer a slave." The female steward handed over the bamboo slips in her hand and said, "This is the household registration of the five women in your clan. Take this and you can return to your original place of origin."
Before Aunt Chun could react, she had already taken the bamboo slips. What she held in her hand was not empty. She cried with joy, and salty and bitter tears flowed across her wrinkled cheeks and soaked into the dry wrinkles.
"What's going on? Are it just the five of us, or are my son and grandson released as well?" Aunt Chun asked anxiously after she realized what was going on.
"It seems your clan has been released as good citizens. Someone has freed you from slavery through military merit," the female steward explained. "Go back to your room now and pack up your belongings and take them out. Wait until the people from the fields return, then leave. Don't disturb anyone else."
Aunt Chun nodded quickly. She took the household registration and went to the front yard to pack clothes. They only had two sets of clothes, two sheepskins and a jar left by Sui Yu three years ago. The jar contained this year's newly woven straw sandals.
Walking out of the dilapidated gate that allowed men to enter and exit, Aunt Chun ran with her old legs lifted up, and ran to the river in one breath. She looked back at the house built of women's tears, and then looked at the way the camp prostitutes came back.
The camp girls only had two meals a day, leaving in the morning and returning in the evening. When the sun set, the exhausted camp girls would carry their farm tools and slowly walk back along the river.
"Ah Wu, come here." Aunt Chun saw them, "Where are Xiaotian and Hongxia? Come here quickly."
The prostitutes in the camp all looked over when they heard the sound. They saw Aunt Chun carrying a bundle and holding a sheepskin, with a pottery jar at her feet. Her face was filled with joy that could not be hidden. They began to guess what was going on and slowly stopped.
"Auntie, this is... us..." Sui Hongxia was afraid that her guess was just delusion, so she clenched her mud-covered fingers and looked over expectantly.
"We're no longer slaves." Aunt Chun pulled out a warm bamboo slip from her bosom and said, "Here, this is yours, this is Xiaotian's, Ah Wu, this is for you. We're no longer criminal slaves. This is Tong Huaer's. I wonder if she's gotten the news yet."
"Auntie, what about us?" a nearby prostitute asked in a shrill voice, "Is this an imperial amnesty? Can we leave too?"
The joy on Aunt Chun's face faded a little. She shook her head and said, "It wasn't an imperial amnesty. It was the men who freed us from slavery through their military exploits."
While waiting, Aunt Chun thought carefully. She knew that a war had occurred before and thought that the men on the battlefield were earning military merits.
"We should go," Aunt Chun said, picking up the jar. "Where should we go to find Huaiquan and the others? They just came down from the battlefield, and we don't know what's become of them."
The four of them left quickly, no one looking back, leaving the man-eating brothel camp far behind.
When it was completely dark, Aunt Chun led three other people to stand on the long street. There was no one walking on the street and all the shops were closed. Only the loud crying of a child could be heard from the alley behind the street.
"Where are we going?" Sui Hongxia asked, "To find Sui Yu?"
Aunt Chun shook her head. "I don't know where Sui Yu lives. Let's find a place to sleep for the night. When it gets light, we'll go look for her at the foot of the Great Wall."
By October, the nights in Dunhuang had become somewhat cold. Aunt Chun and her companions found a haystack, dug two holes in it, and the four of them huddled in the haystack to sleep all night. They tidied up the haystack before dawn and left.
At this time, nine men of the Sui clan, both young and old, also left the foot of the Great Wall. Six hunchbacked men, holding three skinny children, walked step by step towards the direction of the towering city.
They walked from dawn until pitch black, almost halfway through the journey. There was nothing to hide in the wilderness except piles of rocks and dirt. Neither side dared to sleep in the wilderness with the bleak autumn wind, so they had to continue their journey through the night.
The wheezing sounds disappeared in the night wind. The rabbits that had poked their heads out of their holes retreated at the sound of heavy footsteps. The birds that came out to hunt at night cried loudly, adding another layer of mystery to the desolate night.
Tong Ge'er coughed twice, and Sui Xinlin took off his own clothes and put them on him.
"Dad, I'm not cold. I have the vest that mom gave me. It's warm enough." Tong Ge'er handed the tattered singlet back to him, "Dad, put it on."
"Dad, after we find Mom, should we go back to our hometown?" Tong Ge'er asked, and then muttered, "Mom said she would make me a new pair of shoes this year."
"Brother Tong, have you seen your mother?" Sui Huaiquan asked.
Sui Xinlin covered Tong Ge'er's mouth, preventing him from speaking and answering, "Tong Hua'er found him during the spring planting."
Sui Huaiquan didn't think much about it. He also knew that during the spring planting season, the camp prostitutes and male slaves all went to the fields, but his two children did not meet their grandmother.
"What do you think? Was it Sui Wen'an who went to the battlefield to free us from slavery?" Sui Jiemin asked.
No one said anything. They all knew that only Sui Wen'an could go to the battlefield and earn military merit to save them from slavery.
The wind blew the voices to the southeast. Aunt Chun and the others were so frightened by the man's voice that they dared not move. In the wilderness, men were scarier than ghosts to them.
"Could it be my eldest brother and the others?" Sui Hongxia asked in a low voice.
"I'll go over and take a look." Aunt Chun walked in the direction where the voice came from. She was old and most men looked down on her, but she was not very afraid.
Sui Huaiquan and his men heard the footsteps, stopped and asked, "Who is it?"
"But Huaiquan?"
"It's my mother." Sui Huaiquan was overjoyed.
"It's Huaiquan and the others, come quickly." Aunt Chun turned around and shouted.
When the two groups met, Aunt Wu's husband was already dead, Sui Hongxia's elder brother and younger brother were also dead, only Tian Ersao's husband was still alive.
Aunt Chun hugged her eldest son and cried, crying for her second son and old man whose bodies were never found. She also hugged her two grandsons and cried, feeling lucky that they were still alive.
Aunt Wu and Sui Hongxia had no tears, as they had cried themselves dry long ago. They were lucky enough not to die, and if they died they would have enjoyed a happy life.
"Isn't my mother here?" asked Tong Ge'er.
"Tong Hua'er isn't with us. She left the brothel two years ago." Aunt Wu briefly recounted what had happened. "According to the date, the child is probably two years old now. We don't know where she lives. After leaving the brothel, we didn't look for her, so we came to you first."
Sui Huaiquan looked at Sui Xinlin and asked, "Are you still going to look for it?"
Sui Xinlin looked down at Tong Ge'er and said, "Go and see if she's willing to go with me."
Tong Ge'er was unable to react for a moment and murmured, "My mother didn't tell me."
As the group continued walking towards the city, Aunt Chun asked her son, "Huaiquan, are we going back to Yu County or staying in Dunhuang?"
Sui Huaiquan and the other six had already discussed whether to leave or stay last night. They planned to leave, but not return to Yu County. Instead, they wanted to go to a place where no one knew them and start a new life.
"Is there any place you want to go?" Sui Huaiquan asked.
No one spoke. These people had never thought about leaving before.
"How did we escape slavery?" Sui Hongxia asked. "We thought it was because you earned military merit on the battlefield."
"It should be Sui Wen'an, he escaped slavery long ago," Sui Huaiquan said. "We went to the battlefield and almost died on the way. Luckily, the Xiongnu escaped. If the war had started, none of the six of us would have returned alive. Not to mention earning military merit. Slaves are worse than cattle and horses. Even if we killed the enemy, the credit would have gone to our master."
"He is still responsible." Aunt Chun sighed.
Sui Xinlin laughed sarcastically, "If it weren't for his father, we wouldn't have ended up like this."
This was true and no one refuted him.
When the sky was about to brighten, a group of people walked out of the wilderness. Young and old sat on the ground to rest, squinting their eyes at the slightly warm sunlight shining on the earth. It was a new day.
After catching their breath, Sui Xinlin took Tong Ge'er's hand and stood up, saying, "Let's go find Tong Hua'er first. Where will we meet later?"
"Let's go to the city gate and ask if the government has arranged a place for us to stay," said Sui Huaiquan.
The others also stood up and planned to go into the city together.
Not far away, they saw a man with a cloth wrapped on his face walking towards them.
Sui Wen'an breathed a sigh of relief, thankfully he'd caught up with him. He removed the cloth covering his scar and said, "It's me."
Looking at his face, Sui Huaiquan and his men had complicated expressions. He became a criminal slave because of his father, but it was his credit that he was freed from slavery. They had both grievances and gratitude. They could not let go of the old grudges, nor could they express gratitude to him.
"Go away. We have nothing to do with each other from now on. I don't want to see you again." Sui Huaiquan said.
Sui Wen'an shared this sentiment, but he had another purpose in mind. He asked, "Are you planning to return to Yu County? Where are you going next? Or are you staying in Dunhuang?"
"This is none of your business." Sui Xinlin clenched his fists and stared at him angrily.
"There's a hidden agenda behind this matter. If something were to happen, we'd probably be forced back into slavery. So I plan to leave Dunhuang, head west, and settle down in a small kingdom." Sui Wen'an looked at them and said, "This is all I can do. The final decision is up to you. I only offer a suggestion: find a place beyond the reach of Han Dynasty law and start a new life."
"What's going on?" Sui Huaiquan was worried. He didn't want his son and nephew to become criminal slaves again.
Sui Wen'an refused, saying, "If you are willing to leave Dunhuang and head west, I can give you a ride and some money to stay. If not, we will be separated by mountains and rivers and will never see each other again."
Sui Huaiquan and his companions discussed it in low voices for a while and thought it was feasible. They had walked outside the Great Wall and seen herdsmen grazing there. There were few villages gathered there, and no one should have explored the past. It was just right for them.
"Okay." Sui Huaiquan said, "Just take us out of the Gobi Desert. I won't accompany you the rest of the way."
Sui Wen'an asked them to follow him, saying there was a small village outside the city where they could stay overnight. "You guys take care of yourselves first, and we'll leave after the New Year."
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