Chapter 2: The Grass Is Rustling
The carriage rumbled forward, rolling over the fallen leaves on the road.
Yun Yuan sat submissively, her slender fingers clutching the indigo cloth bundle. Inside the carriage, a young girl, Qiu Tang, one of the two maids originally selected, huddled in a corner. She twisted her handkerchief the entire way, nearly tearing a hole in the indigo bundle.
After getting in the car, Aunt Lu scolded them a few more times, but the two of them just nodded in agreement. Unbeknownst to her, the matron had fallen into a deep sleep, now snoring with her neck tilted back and her mouth open.
Yun Yuan gently lifted a corner of the carriage curtain with her fingertips. The carriage had passed the bustling city and turned onto a deserted path on the outskirts of the city. Looking out into the distance, at the end of the desert, a lone building stood abruptly on the skyline.
The wheels finally stopped turning.
In the twilight, a gray guesthouse stood, its iron eaves rusted with rust, and the blue and white banners hanging overhead coughed out a muffled tune in the wind. Two rows of black-robed guards stood before the door, like stone sculptures, their curved swords gleaming in the setting sun.
"But have we arrived at the Feng family?" Qiutang came closer with a handkerchief clutched in her hand. The smell of jasmine powder mixed with cold sweat lingered on her.
Yun Yuan shook her head, her eyes darting to the half-open window of the second-floor east wing—a faded curtain hung there, fluttering even in the windless air. Aunt Lu's shrill voice pierced through the curtains: "Hurry up! Be careful if you're late!"
There were already twenty or so women standing in the courtyard of the guesthouse.
Yun Yuan frowned slightly. It looked like they would have to stay at a guesthouse tonight. While the journey to the Feng family was long, it would take at least a day. Could something have happened again?
Pushing open the door, the musty smell mixed with the whiff of newly laid straw hit me. At the far end of the bunk bed sat a round-faced woman, patting the coarse linen mattress. "My name is Chun Xing! Aunt Lu thought it was too vulgar, so she changed it to Yu Zhu." She spoke with a local accent, her cuffs polished to a shine. "With seven brothers and sisters-in-law waiting for food, I'm truly fortunate to be able to join the Feng family."
Qiutang was just about to show a look of sadness when Yuzhu smiled and tossed a salt-pickled plum into her mouth. "It's better than marrying the lame blacksmith at the village head, isn't it? I heard that Master Yuan isn't even an adult yet..." Before she finished speaking, two women from the neighboring Zuixianlou sneered. Yuzhu glanced over, then turned back to continue her conversation, pretending she hadn't heard.
The woman in plain clothes lying on the couch by the window kept her eyes closed and rested, her slender waist as straight as pine or cypress, revealing the uprightness tempered in her bones over the years.
As dusk deepened, candlelight cast the shadows of eight women against the mottled wall, like the opening of a shadow play. The girl in green sniffed, "The eldest son was at the dock last year..." Before she could finish, someone interrupted her, "It had to be the second son. Last month, he spent a fortune on Zuixianlou's top performer..."
Yun Yuan listened silently.
From the story of Young Master Feng Yanhao's bloody massacre of the Cao Gang to Second Young Master Feng Yanxuan's pigeon-blood stone-inlaid 麈尾 (麈尾) fan—the girls chewed on Feng family secrets as if they were sharing a plate of osmanthus cake. But no one could clearly describe Third Young Master Feng Yanyuan's appearance, or why he had new members every month, just as no one noticed the cinnabar hue between the maid's fingernails, or the indelible scorch marks beneath the newly pasted mulberry paper on the window frames.
Inside, candles flickered, the aroma of food wafted through the air, and the laughter of the young girls mingled, like a dizzying dream. Yun Yuan's fingertips traced the cracks in the window frame and peered out. The bronze bells on the eaves had gone silent at some point, and the Xuanyi Guards escorting them had vanished without a trace, as if swallowed by the night.
After feasting and drinking to their heart's content, they drifted off to their own couches, drifting off to sleep. By the time the clock struck midnight, the laughter in the room had faded into the ebb and flow of long, drawn-out breaths.
But at this moment, the woman in plain clothes who had been resting with her eyes closed in the evening suddenly jumped up from the couch, rushed to the door quickly, and pushed open a gap half a palm wide, and thick smoke rushed in like a poisonous snake.
"It's on fire!" she exclaimed.
At some point, the round-faced Yuzhu also got off the couch and observed the sleeping figures one by one. She sneered and said, "Mixing knockout drugs into food is just a cliché."
Before she could finish her words, the crackling sound of the roof beams fell, shrouded in a rain of fire, illuminating the furrows between her brows. A red snake's tongue had already darted out from the crack in the door. But the entire guesthouse slept like a grave amid the crackling sound, the whole room peacefully awaiting the flames' incineration.
"But are you here for the Feng family?"
"You're plotting against the Feng family with just this little trick? These are just low-ranking servants."
"Frame-up is easier than assassination—after all, the number of human lives lost is so high."
"They are just worthless. The Yu Feng family is just leaking some money through their fingers."
"Perhaps he sensed an assassin had infiltrated the area, so he simply burned this bunch of ants to ashes!"
"Not necessarily. This method seems more like..." Tongues of fire danced in Yuzhu's eyes, and her voice stopped abruptly when she caught a glimpse of Yun Yuan's slightly trembling eyelashes.
The woman in plain clothes had already made up her mind and had no time to speculate on the unfinished words. She suddenly jumped out of the window and disappeared into the night.
Yuzhu's embroidered shoes stopped three inches in front of Yunyuan's couch. The girl's collar was askew, revealing a slender neck—not the bulging veins of a martial artist, but rather the snowy skin of jade cream, year-round moisturizing. Her breathing was shallow and even, not unlike the sleepy girls around her, though her eyelashes fluttered slightly whenever the flames crackled.
Yuzhu flicked her fingertips, and the corner of her handkerchief passed through a tongue of flame, catching a single crimson spark between the embroidery threads. With a flick of her wrist, the crimson light, like a firefly, fell between Qiutang and Yunyuan, instantly igniting her scattered black hair.
laugh--
Before the smell of burning hair could spread, Yun Yuan's bare hand had already intercepted the flames. The moment her palm suppressed the sparks, a charred hole was burned in the gold-thread embroidered iris on her cuff.
"Tsk, a clay Buddha crossing the river..." Yuzhu chuckled against the window frame. In the flickering firelight, the calluses on her knuckles shone with a bronze luster.
"They are all poor people. What are you doing, sister?"
"I'm curious." Yuzhu stared at Yun Yuan's profile, illuminated by the firelight, and sneered, "Sister, you're so calm in this desperate situation. It's a pity that your pretending to be asleep isn't quite up to par."
Yun Yuan's eyes flickered with flames. "If this is a dead end, why are you still lingering here?"
"I want to ask you, a clever person, why don't you run away if you are awake?"
"Who is this incense supposed to bewilder, and who isn't? Sister, your mind is as clear as a mirror, and you're testing me." Yun Yuan smoothed her messy hair with her bare hands. "Since you fell into a deep sleep, you didn't notice the fire, so how could you escape?"
The one who was charmed was a maidservant, but the one who couldn't be charmed was a scheming assassin. The one who jumped out of the window thought he had escaped the sea of fire, but he was just walking into the trap carefully woven by the Feng family.
Yuzhu looked towards the open window. She had seen that the woman in plain clothes was an expert in martial arts and they had become sworn sisters. However, she had no idea that the woman was such a reckless person that she couldn't even figure out this secret.
Yuzhu turned around and looked at Yunyuan again.
As the shadows swung red, her breathing became so shallow that it was almost deliberate. Such a crude way of suppressing one's breath would be more appropriate for even the most insidious of thieves, let alone those steeped in martial arts. However, this woman, unaffected by the incense, remained unperturbed by the red tongue licking the window frame.
"Sister, you are very determined. I wonder where you came from or why you are going?"
Yun Yuan smiled lightly and said, "Yuan'er is a dancer at Baihua Tower. Didn't you ask me about that earlier?" She glanced at the calluses on Yuzhu's knuckles and suddenly said in a deep voice, "If you want to know why... perhaps it's because we all saw Third Young Master Feng top the Wuliang Ranking?"
Yuzhu was slightly startled.
Flames flickered outside the window, casting flickering shadows on the faces of the two men. Suddenly, there was a loud boom, and the burning door frame collapsed with a bang, sending a scorching wave of air rushing towards them.
Yuzhu leaped up, her vein-riddled hand gripping Yun Yuan's throat like an iron clamp. "Are you playing a trick?" She leaned close to Yun Yuan's ear and spoke in a cold voice, "Do you want me to send you to see the King of Hell right now, to add some excitement to this fire?"
Yun Yuan's throat crackled as she couldn't bear the weight, but a sly smile played across her flushed face. Her lips moved, and she uttered a whisper: "Listen..."
Yuzhu's knuckles stiffened, and suddenly she heard three light tremors, followed by a heavy one, from the floorboards—the Haofeng Guard's unique night patrol signal. She flung Yunyuan aside, slipping into the quilt like a swimming fish.
Yun Yuan turned over and faced the wall, trying hard to steady his breathing.
The footsteps grew closer, each one like a tread on her heart. The clash of scabbards and armor was particularly harsh in the dead silence of the house. She could even smell the lingering scent of blood on the guards' blades.
The footsteps suddenly stopped beside her.
A cold metallic stench assaulted his face. Suddenly, a sharp white light pierced his eyelids—even with his eyes tightly closed, the sharp edge pierced his pupils like a venomous snake, leaving a burning afterimage in the darkness.
Yun Yuan couldn't help but hold her breath: Could it be that she will...
"The steamed bun is mine..." Yuzhu suddenly uttered a sticky mumbling in her sleep, accompanied by smacking sounds.
The sword light paused slightly.
A sneer echoed from the darkness: "This idiot is snatching food in his dreams!"
"Alright," another voice said, "We've collected three, that's enough for the mission." The sound of a sword returning to its sheath rang out, "Put out the fire."
"What do we do with the one who was beaten half to death?"
"Throw it in a mass grave."
The footsteps faded, but Yun Yuan didn't dare relax. Only when she was sure the guards were gone did she realize her back was already drenched in cold sweat. In the darkness, she heard Yuzhu's barely audible hum, a hint of mockery.
A cold moon hangs over the wasteland.
The fire quickly went out. The guesthouse was dark, dark and alone, standing silently in the wind. The moon drifted westward, growing fainter and fainter. Then, a cockcrow crowed, bringing a single gust of light into the wing room.
At the end of the Yin and beginning of the Mao months, there was already the rustling sound of people changing clothes. The diamond-shaped windows were tightly closed, and the carved red lacquer on the doors looked as new, as if the burn marks from last night had been washed away by the morning dew.
Yun Yuan glanced at the charcoal-colored half crescent in the dark corner of the door - this tiny mark became the only evidence of the remnants of the sea of fire.
The sound of hairpins and rings jingled in the corridor, and the young girls were laughing and complaining about the three or four empty beds: "He must have packed up and run away in the middle of the night. He didn't realize that a wealthy master of a similar age and appearance like Master Yuan is hard to find even with a lantern." While they were chatting and laughing, a large group of people went downstairs and each received a steamed bun to fill their stomachs.
Yuzhu stayed on the empty bed waiting for Yunyuan to get dressed.
"The Feng family buys slaves year after year, but few ever emerge intact—this is a bottomless pit that swallows people. What are your plans, sister?"
"Sister, what advice do you have for me?" Yun Yuan inserted the jade hairpin.
"I dare not." Yuzhu walked closer and took Yunyuan's jade-like hand. "It's just that I want to split the immeasurable prize money with my sister in half."
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