Chapter 40: Karmic Debt
The scout reached out and handed the letter to Rong Si.
The letters were all intact.
The scout didn't dare open the envelope. After all, it was from the Prefect of Long'an to Yu Wanyin, and Yu Wanyin was now his master. He couldn't possibly bypass his two masters and open the letter without permission.
Rong Si took it but didn't open it.
Instead, he went straight back and sat down in front of Yu Wanyin.
He placed the letter beside her with an ambiguous expression, and said quietly, "Your letter has returned."
Yu Wanyin pursed her lips and looked at the wax seal and postmark on the letter.
The wax seal was printed with the character "陇".
She didn't speak for a moment.
Rong Si leaned against the wall and asked, seemingly casually, "Are you acquainted with the Prefect of Long'an?"
"Not familiar with it."
“I’m not familiar with his letter to you.” Rong Si gestured, “Why don’t you open it and take a look?”
Yu Wanyin took a deep breath and didn't make any move for a moment.
Seeing that she didn't move, Rong Si leaned closer and asked, "Last time I took you down the mountain, did you deliver the letter to him on the way?"
When he entered the study, Yu Wanyin had paper and pen in her hands and was writing something.
At that time, the guards from Long'an walked out with a letter in their hands.
Once they were outside, she started asking him why he wasn't afraid she would run away.
It's hard not to connect these two things.
Yu Wanyin honestly hummed in agreement.
Rong Si continued, "What did you write to him?"
"You can tell him, but not me?"
He reminded him again, "Open it and see what he replied to you."
Yu Wanyin then looked at him, "Aren't you going to take it apart?"
Why should I open his reply?
Rong Si had never opened other people's mail, nor did he have a hobby of prying into other people's secrets. If he wanted to know something, he would just ask directly, like now.
He didn't open the letter, but instead directly asked Yu Wanyin to tell him.
The result was no different.
Yu Wanyin had no choice but to take it, break the wax seal, and open the letter in front of him.
Inside were not only the reply from the Prefect of Long'an, but also the letter she had sent to the Prefect.
Yu Wanyin glanced at the letter briefly and then gave it to him directly.
When Rong Si saw that she offered it to him, he did not refuse.
The first thing he read was Yu Wanyin's letter to the Prefect of Long'an.
The letter was brief: “With war imminent, Long’an is in dire need of military supplies. I have heard that the prefect is indomitable and has the ambition to restore order to the world. I have learned of the whereabouts of a hero who may be able to help the prefect in his time of need. The prefect may send someone to invite him.”
Below is the location at the foot of the mountain; Rong Si and his men would have anything they bought delivered there.
The reply was also very concise.
"I am deeply grateful for your guidance, young lady. I will soon send my subordinates to visit you and extend my heartfelt thanks."
Rong Si remained silent for a long while, then frowned and turned the letter over and over, not quite believing its contents. "You wrote to him because you wanted him to come and invite me?"
"It's not that I wanted him to come and invite you, it's just that I feel that if Long'an can't be defended, Jiangling will be next. Although you don't say it, you are all probably worried."
“After all, I’m in the village now. I’m in the same boat as you. I’m worried that if the enemy is at the gates, you probably are too.”
"You all feel that no one can be trusted, so you might as well just stand by and watch."
“But what if there’s someone trustworthy? Would you like to give it a try?” Yu Wanyin replied. “I’m not asking you to make any decisions. I just want to give the village some initiative so we don’t end up in a passive position like when Daizhou and Beichi enter. So I wrote that he should come and invite you. You can decide for yourselves whether to agree or not.”
"If you feel it's not suitable, you can still refuse when the other person arrives."
Rong Si hesitated for a moment, "You..."
Yu Wanyin didn't let him finish speaking, and chided him playfully, "You don't believe me."
Rong Si denied it firmly, "No."
"Now you know what it is?" Yu Wanyin easily switched from defense to offense. "But what am I doing, communicating with others behind your back?"
Rong Si didn't dare utter a sound.
"It was like I was being interrogated. Anyone who didn't know better would think I'd done something terribly wrong," Yu Wanyin said as she got up and turned to go back to her room.
Rong Si's voice was deep and somber, "That's not what I meant, Yao Yao..."
Yu Wanyin ignored him.
Rong Si casually slapped the letter onto the spy's chest.
The scout, holding the letter, was at a loss for what to do.
This letter is so unexciting.
The newly captured queen kept silent as she corresponded with a man outside the palace; who could have known that they were talking about this kind of thing?
Yu Wanyin pressed the door-closing mechanism as soon as she entered the room.
With a loud bang, the man was blocked outside the door. "Yaoyao."
No one answered him from inside the house.
Yu Wanyin walked to the table and sat down.
She paused for a moment, then took out another letter she had written from the locked box.
It's true that he was right to be suspicious of her.
Because she wanted to send the message to someone else.
They contacted their aunt and elder sister.
Leave here.
This letter was nothing short of a smokescreen.
She needs to first disarm their wariness of her so that she can seamlessly send out the letter she truly wants to send.
That's why Rong Si was suspicious from the very beginning.
She did it all on purpose.
In addition, Yu Wanyin did not just randomly find an excuse to send a letter to the prefect of Long'an County.
She did want to give him some initiative in the chaotic world.
Regardless of how many times Rong Si had saved her life, she owed him a favor to some extent.
These things partially offset his forced marriage to her, but he still felt something was missing when she left without a second thought.
She also wanted to repay this debt of gratitude.
Leaving here would be perfectly justified, natural, and without either party owing the other anything.
Of course, it wasn't entirely to help him.
Yu Wanyin thought that with the urgent report from the border, even a small change could have far-reaching consequences.
She now relies on the village for her livelihood, so it's only natural that she should consider the village's future survival.
*
The prefect of Long'an arrived quickly, reaching the foot of the mountain the next day.
However, he didn't bring many followers with him; only he and his strategist went up the mountain.
It's rare to see someone storm a bandit camp alone like this.
Zong Cheng pondered, "Perhaps they don't know this is a bandit camp."
Rong Si's voice was deep and resonant. "Impossible."
Although they didn't make a big fuss about having a bandit camp in Jiangling.
However, everyone within a hundred miles knew that there was a bandit stronghold here.
Officials generally know this as well.
They just turn a blind eye because they can't beat them.
When the Prefect of Long'an received Yu Wanyin's letter, he probably already knew who she was talking about.
And they went straight up the mountain like that.
Yu Wanyin walked to the back gate of the main camp.
The bandit guarding the back gate said respectfully, "Your Majesty, the lord is waiting for guests at the front."
"It's alright, I'll wait for him behind."
Yu Wanyin didn't ask the bandits to report before entering the house.
The main room is divided into two rooms, front and back, with a partition in the middle. The back room is similar to a study or rest area.
Rong Si's study was quite different from that of ordinary people.
The shelves were filled with various blueprints.
At first glance, Yu Wanyin saw that most of the materials were blueprints for military equipment, books for craftsmen, and divination techniques for manufacturing military equipment, mainly consisting of knives, spears, clubs, swords, mechanisms, and hidden weapons.
Then there are some newsletters, maps, and scrolls containing information about the current state of the world.
They are all quite practical items.
Impractical but also symbolic of status, the various carved animal bones hang on the walls and wooden shelves.
It resembles a decorated cabinet, possessing a peculiar and menacing aesthetic.
Yu Wanyin sat in one place.
Hearing them discussing in front, one wondered, "Does this mean that the Prefect of Long'an County is truly desperate?"
"To put it bluntly, is this prefect really someone we can control today?"
There was no response from the enemy forces ahead for a long time.
I don't know what she's thinking.
After the fence was cut off, Yu Wanyin poured herself a cup of tea, leaned back, and arranged her books.
She doesn't care about any of that.
Just try to get him a chance.
She didn't know much about the specific plans and arrangements for the battle, or about the affairs of the village.
I just came to join in the fun.
Let's see how he seizes this opportunity.
And the situation she might face in the future.
Yu Wanyin spent her time today using the history books she had bought a couple of days ago.
This history book covers several hundred years of the Dali Dynasty and was compiled twenty years ago.
That was during the final period of prosperity before the end of the Dali River.
His words were grand and ambitious, and even the author of this book probably never imagined that in just twenty years, Dali would fall apart to such an extent.
Yu Wanyin selected historical chapters from various prefectures and kingdoms.
I came here specifically to see Daizhou.
In retrospect, their conspiracy was also due to some historical connections.
The territory of Daizhou is home to many nomadic peoples and is not far from the border with the Northern Chi tribes.
Over the years, intermarriage and integration among various ethnic groups have resulted in half of the population sharing a bloodline with the Northern Chi people.
I only read two pages.
The guards outside quickly came to report, "The Prefect of Long'an has arrived."
The Prefect of Long'an County performed the gentlemanly courtesy, saying, "I am He, and I have troubled you all."
It sounded like a somewhat hoarse and weathered voice.
Yu Wanyin lowered her eyes and put down the book.
Outside, Zong Cheng and the prefect were mostly exchanging words, while Rong Si spoke occasionally.
His years of experience on the edge of a knife and his ruthless nature give him an air of pressure whenever he speaks.
It doesn't actually sound like he's not talking.
Rather, the prefect of Long'an was too afraid to speak to him, so he kept talking to Zong Cheng.
The prefect of Long'an's voice grew hoarse as he spoke, sounding as if he had been suffering some torment lately. "Our Long'an borders Yanzhou, and Yanzhou has been in constant turmoil ever since it was attacked and captured by Daizhou. I've heard that Yanzhou is now like a living hell."
"Two days ago, the troops from Daizhou inexplicably patrolled into the territory of Long'an."
"The garrison soldiers negotiated with them, but those incompetent ones were unwilling to fight and gave in."
"Seeing that Long'an was easy to bully, Daizhou intensified its efforts and began to gather troops around the border."
“I mobilized all the troops I could, but…”
Rong Si looked at him and asked, "So you've come here this time to take our troops?"
“No, not entirely.” The Prefect of Long’an County did not mince words. “I had heard of your business many years ago, especially your skill in winning with few, but I never dared to bother you. It was a young lady I met that day who gave me some advice, and since I was at my wit’s end, I had no choice but to come.”
But he can't afford it now.
So they want to reach some kind of deal.
It wasn't even a transaction; it was asking him for help, with the terms up to him.
"Now that Yingzhou has abandoned Long'an, I will grant you anything I can within Long'an."
“Even the positions of prefect or military commander are easy to negotiate.”
"All I want is for the people of Long'an to be safe and sound."
Yu Wanyin listened to the gist of it.
He sighed softly.
She didn't listen carefully to what came after that, but it was still a discussion that was pretty much the same.
The villager negotiated terms, and the prefect of Long'an accepted them all.
Yu Wanyin's gaze fell on the book.
Turn the page.
The ethnic groups in Daizhou did not originate in the Central Plains, but were from the Northern Xianbei and shared the same origin as the Northern Chi people.
However, after their integration with the Central Plains, their appearance became somewhat more gentle than that of the Northern Chi people.
Their territory has never been very suitable for habitation since ancient times.
There are few women, and therefore few offspring.
Therefore, he was warlike and belligerent, conquering all directions to find a good place to survive and to seize women.
Women are extremely precious to them.
Even a woman's entire family is her husband.
They don't distinguish between brothers, or even between father and son.
Anyone who can give birth to her offspring will be considered a continuation of the family line.
Yu Wanyin was terrified just looking at it. This kind of thing, where brothers share a wife, or even father and son share a wife, was too absurd.
She turned another page.
It speaks of the traditions of the leaders of this ethnic group.
A woman who marries into the royal family, once married to a king, when that king dies, a new king will take his place.
Regardless of whether the new king is her former husband's brother, stepson, or her husband's murderer.
You must marry her if you are not related to her by blood; that's the rule.
Even the way men and women in this ethnic group get married is very primitive.
It means that after taking a fancy to a woman, he would fight with other men until they were dead and bloodied.
The winner will marry her and make her a daughter-in-law for the whole family.
The more this is the case.
The more physically demanding the women of this ethnic group are, the harder it is for them to survive.
The fewer women there are, the more serious their bad habits become.
After seeing that this group had set their sights on women from the Central Plains, Yu Wanyin gently bit her knuckle.
Then turn the page.
Fortunately, although they had ambitions to conquer the world, they were defeated by their ancestors after they fought their way into the Central Plains.
The area to the north later became known as Beichi.
The group in the west, seeing the opportunity, submitted to the ancestors of Dali and were enfeoffed as the subordinate Daizhou.
Unfortunately, they were still assigned to the fringes of the territory, which made them very dissatisfied.
Even royalty and nobles were unwilling to go to such places; they were usually sent there when prisoners were exiled.
Therefore, each generation of people becomes more barbaric than the last.
The woman's body couldn't take it.
Secondly, many of them, unable to bear the humiliation, ran away.
The problem of more men than women in Daizhou has not improved, and the Central Plains does not allow polyandry.
This made things even harder for them.
As a result, rebellions and riots occurred frequently, and some people even went to other states and counties to steal girls.
Some men even pretend to be respectable and arrange marriages with women from other places, luring them home.
She discovered that on her wedding night, not only her lover awaited her, but also his brother.
Even her lover's uncle or father.
The emperor was far away and the country was high up, so he had carried out several reforms in earlier years.
It has never been able to be eradicated.
After the emperor fell seriously ill for many years, Daizhou openly revived the outdated practice of having one wife and her entire family as husbands.
Yu Wanyin read to the end, her face tense and her brows furrowed. She sighed, "Barbarians, stubborn and unyielding."
It's hard to imagine what would happen if such a group invaded the Central Plains.
The prefect of Long'an had already been seen off in the front room.
The sound of a man's steady, powerful footsteps came from inside the house.
Hearing that he seemed to be coming over, Yu Wanyin got up, packed up her books, and left the room.
Rong Si knew she had been listening the whole time.
He heard her footsteps almost as soon as she entered.
She hasn't spoken to him all day.
This negotiation left him so anxious and restless that he wished he could go and find the person.
After seeing off the Prefect of Long'an, he lifted the curtain and went to the back.
What came into view was an empty room, with only half a cup of tea that she had used.
Rong Si clicked his tongue lightly.
He lingered in the house for a moment, but couldn't resist going to their marital home to find her.
However, Yu Wanyin did not return to her room immediately, but instead went to Su Fang, who had escorted her, to inquire about the situation.
Su Fang truthfully said, "That prefect is only in his thirties, but he looks like he's over fifty."
“We agreed with him to defend Long’an, but how to allocate and use the weapons is up to us.”
In other words, the forces of Long'an and Jiangling are now converging, and the main focus will be on the location of the weapons.
Upon hearing this, Yu Wanyin asked, "Does that mean we'll be setting off for Long'an soon?"
"right."
Su Fang sighed, "I didn't expect things to go so smoothly today. The Prefect of Long'an has it tough. He has three daughters, the eldest of whom is only fourteen. His whole family lives in Long'an, while his ancestral home is in Jiangling. His ancestors have lived here for generations."
Yu Wanyin paused in her steps, about to leave. "Three daughters?"
"Um."
Yu Wanyin hesitated, "No wonder."
"What's so strange?"
Yu Wanyin didn't want to tell Su Fang, so she said, "It's nothing."
But the prefect of Long'an must know about the situation in Daizhou.
With three young daughters in the family, it's no wonder they were afraid to go up the mountain to beg the bandits.
It was also equivalent to giving some military power to the mountain bandits.
When Yu Wanyin returned to her room, she was still absent-minded.
But I found that the room, which I hadn't had time to tidy up before I left, was now clean and tidy.
The mattress was replaced with a new one.
The floor has been cleaned.
Rong Si suddenly produced a small bunch of flowers and started replacing the flowers in the little hole in the wall.
He didn't say anything and just kept working.
Yu Wanyin didn't say anything and went into the house as if she hadn't seen anything.
The two did not exchange words, but each was secretly aware of the other's presence.
Yu Wanyin went inside and discovered that her clothes, which she had changed out of, had been placed in a bamboo basket.
A clean nightgown was placed on the bed, neatly folded together with the bedding.
The newly changed bedding exuded a faint floral fragrance.
Yu Wanyin guessed that he had washed it with the floral dew powder he had bought that day.
It does smell rather nice.
Yu Wanyin put down the book.
Turning to look at Rong Si arranging the flowers, I guessed that his hand was too hot, because the bunch of wildflowers he held soon drooped down.
Yu Wanyin couldn't stand it any longer and stepped forward, saying, "That's not how it's done."
She pried his hands off, but he unexpectedly grabbed hers and held them back.
Yu Wanyin was pulled forward a step, and her field of vision suddenly narrowed, making his Adam's apple, which moved up and down as he spoke, appear larger in front of her.
"You're finally talking to me?"
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