Chapter 90 The Bandit is Wounded
Just two clappers struck at the hour of Chou (1-3 AM), and in the still of the night, a loud crash suddenly broke the silence, as if something heavy had struck the ground.
Lin Yao, who was still fast asleep, was suddenly awakened. Before she could react, a commotion broke out outside. Cries, shouts, curses, the sound of breaking objects, and chaotic footsteps mingled together, like a pot of boiling water being overturned, instantly turning the entire town into chaos.
"Ayao! Get up quickly!" Lin Cheng's voice rang out urgently from outside the door, trembling noticeably. "It's bandits! They've entered the town!"
Before she could finish speaking, a loud crash came from outside the courtyard gate, as if a wall had been knocked down. Lin Yao's hand trembled, and she almost dropped the tinder she was using for lighting. Without even putting on her shoes, she rushed outside barefoot.
As soon as the door opened, they saw Lin Cheng moving the eight-immortal table towards the entrance. Veins bulged on Lin Cheng's forehead, and sweat streamed down his face. Lin Yao rushed over, and the two of them worked together to firmly push the table behind the door. They then pushed over benches and cabinets, piling them up to block the doorway, and even nailed thick wooden boards to seal the window cracks.
"Are there any soldiers?" Lin Yao's voice was strained, her ears filled with the wailing outside.
"I can't see anything, it's pitch black outside!" Lin Cheng held on tightly to the cabinet, while Lin Song trembled with fear, clinging tightly to his brother's legs, too scared to even cry out.
Suddenly, some bandits pounded on their door, shouting rudely, "Open the door! If you don't open the door, I'll burn this wrecked house down!" A knife tip pierced through the crack in the door, and Lin Yao's pupils shrank. She quickly pulled Lin Cheng back.
Lin Cheng grabbed a machete from the corner of the wall. "Don't panic! They can't break it open!" But his hand holding the machete trembled uncontrollably.
Just then, a series of orderly shouts came from the street corner, as if a large group of people were rushing in, followed by the crisp sound of clashing weapons. The shouts and curses of the bandits outside the door suddenly turned into panic: "It's government troops! How the hell did they get here so fast?" The force of ramming the door suddenly stopped, and the footsteps outside became chaotic.
Lin Yao pressed her ear against the door, listening intently, her heart pounding wildly.
Within a quarter of an hour, the cries and shouts outside subsided, and the bandits' clamor ceased. A sudden stillness descended. This silence was so abrupt, it created an eerie rift from the previous uproar.
Only the sound of burning houses in the distance continued, the firelight casting flickering light on the window paper, and the increasingly strong smell of burning filled the air.
Lin Cheng released his grip on the cabinet, almost completely exhausted. He turned to look at Lin Yao, his lips moved, but no sound came out.
No one can be sure whether this sudden silence is true safety or an even more suffocating harbinger of the storm.
Lin Song suddenly burst into tears, as if he could no longer contain his fear.
Lin Cheng quickly pulled him into his arms and patted his back: "It's okay, it's okay..." But he knew that these words couldn't even comfort himself.
Just as Lin Yao was about to check the situation outside the gate, a dark shadow, like a night owl, slid over the wall and landed in the courtyard, stirring up a cloud of dust.
"Who?!" Lin Yao was so shocked that she took a half step back, her heart leaping into her throat. She instinctively reached for the axe that Lin Cheng had just put down.
Lin Cheng reacted quickly, grabbing the wooden stick from the corner of the wall and swinging it at the dark figure. Unexpectedly, the figure easily dodged it, and the stick slammed heavily to the ground, making Lin Cheng's hands go numb.
The dark figure took a step back, reached into his robes and pulled out a tinderbox. A bright orange flame suddenly ignited, illuminating a handsome face covered in dust, with a fresh bloodstain on his forehead. "It's me." Xu Zhiheng's voice was unsteady, clearly from a hasty journey. He put away the tinderbox, his gaze quickly sweeping over the table and chairs blocking the door, then turning to Lin Yao and the others. "Are you alright?"
Lin Yao finally recognized him, and her tense nerves instantly relaxed, her legs almost giving way. Lin Cheng was also stunned, "Young Master Xu? What are you doing here?"
“I need to stay here for a while,” Xu Zhiheng did not answer the question directly. He sat down on the ground, took out a bottle of wound medicine from his pocket, and skillfully sprinkled it on the wound on his arm.
Lin Yao then noticed that he was injured. The wound was not shallow, and blood was trickling down his arm, leaving a dark stain on his clothes. She quickly turned around and rushed into the house, where she found several pieces of newly cut soft cotton cloth.
"Clean the wound first." Lin Yao squatted down, poured the strong liquor onto the soft cotton cloth, and looked up at Xu Zhiheng with concern in her eyes.
Xu Zhiheng initially intended to handle it himself, but then changed his mind and nodded slightly, raising his arm to cooperate as she used a cloth soaked in alcohol to wipe the blood and grime around the wound. When the strong liquor touched the wound, he gasped sharply, his brows furrowing, and a fine layer of cold sweat appeared on his forehead, as if he were in excruciating pain.
Lin Yao was startled by his reaction, and unconsciously softened her movements. "I'll be gentler."
Xu Zhiheng's Adam's apple bobbed, and he lowered his head to hide the smile in his eyes, revealing only the top of his head, as if he was forcing himself to endure the pain: "It's alright...you can continue."
Seeing this, Lin Yao cleaned his wound while gently blowing on it, trying to ease his pain. "Bear with it, it will be fine soon."
"Mmm." Xu Zhiheng responded, his voice low and hoarse, tinged with a hint of grievance. If Jin Yu were here, he would surely accuse him of putting on airs.
As Lin Yao bandaged his wound, her mind wandered. She had always found him calm and reliable, never panicking even in trouble; she hadn't expected him to be so afraid of pain. Her movements became even gentler, and she softly comforted him, "It'll be alright soon. Bandaging it tightly will prevent infection; it'll be fine in a few days."
Xu Zhiheng looked down at her focused profile, a faint smile curving his lips before disappearing, leaving only her expression of enduring pain.
Lin Cheng stood to the side, holding Lin Song, and looked at the crisscrossing old scars and new wounds on Xu Zhiheng's arm. He was secretly astonished; this young master Xu looked quite young, yet he was covered in scars. He put Lin Song down and turned to walk towards the kitchen: "I'll go boil some water."
After treating her wounds, Lin Yao breathed a sigh of relief and asked about the children at the martial arts school.
“The martial arts school received the news early, so I had the children hide in the cellar and took a few brothers with me to hurry over here. The fire is raging on the west side of the town, and the bandits were chased eastward by the government troops. You are safe here for the time being.” He paused, his gaze falling on Lin Yao’s still tense face, and said almost unconsciously, “Don’t worry, we were the ones who instigated the bandits’ entry into the town today. They only smashed a few shops and didn’t have time to do anything before our men subdued them. The people were frightened, but there were no casualties. The government will allocate funds for repairs tomorrow.”
Lin Yao's worried expression hadn't faded when she heard this, and it was now tinged with surprise: "You guys pushed for this?"
Xu Zhiheng nodded, glancing towards the still-burning embers outside the courtyard. He lowered his voice slightly: "Brother Lü has infiltrated that bandit group. They came from Lizhou, committing arson, murder, and robbery along the way, doing all sorts of atrocities. We received information that they've been entrenched in the nearby mountains recently, probably eyeing the town's wealth for a while now. Rather than waiting for them to choose a more difficult time to launch a surprise attack, it's better for us to lead them into our trap."
Lin Cheng, who was listening from the side, was confused and couldn't help but interject: "But it was so chaotic outside just now, some shops were even burned down."
“The shops that were burned down were old shops that had been emptied long ago,” Xu Zhiheng explained. “We sent word in advance that the people in the western part of the area had all gone to stay with relatives and friends elsewhere last night. Most of the houses that were destroyed were empty, so it only looked dangerous.”
He didn't tell Lin Yao that all of this was for the real people hiding in the shadows, and that saying too much would only put her in danger.
This group of bandits had intricate connections with bandits near the capital, and it was unknown which powerful figure was protecting them. The purpose of deliberately allowing the bandits into the town was twofold: first, to eliminate this particular bandit group; and second, to see who would step forward to "appease" them afterward, obstruct the investigation, and urge the county government to downplay the matter, and who would use the pretext of repairs to line their own pockets.
Lin Yao felt a chill run down her spine. She had initially thought it was a bolt from the blue, but it turned out to be a hidden power struggle, and they, ordinary people, were merely pawns in this game. They were fortunate to have encountered a good official who treated them like human beings; had they encountered unscrupulous or profit-driven officials, they probably wouldn't even know how they died.
After a brief period of sadness, Lin Yao quickly rallied. Since she couldn't choose the era she lived in, she could only strive to carve out a way to survive.
"Would you like a bowl of noodles?" Lin Yao stood up, dusted herself off, and her tone returned to normal.
Xu Zhiheng looked up at her and saw that her expression had returned to normal. The corners of his mouth unconsciously curved up: "Okay, I'm a little hungry." He got up and moved his arm, but he hissed and gasped. The pain he deliberately showed was even greater than when he was treating his wound.
Lin Yao, a modern woman who had never seen much fighting, was taken aback by him and turned around to help him walk towards the kitchen: "What's wrong? Did you aggravate your wound?"
"It's nothing." Xu Zhiheng waved his hand, but deliberately slowed down his movements. "Perhaps I ran too fast just now, and that's why it hurts so much now."
Lin Yao originally thought he was just going to the kitchen to warm up, after all, he had lost so much blood, and she wondered if he would be particularly sensitive to the cold.
As she was scooping water to heat the pot, she heard a slight noise behind her. Turning around, she saw Xu Zhiheng adding firewood to the stove. The firelight illuminated the outline of his profile, making him look exceptionally pleasing to the eye.
"Let me do it, you sit and rest." Lin Yao tried to take the fire tongs, but he avoided her.
“I can manage this little bit of work.” He added a piece of dry firewood. “You can knead the dough; it’ll be faster if we divide the work.”
Lin Yao couldn't refuse him, so she took out some flour and started kneading. The dough gradually became smooth in her palms, and as she watched the rising steam, she slowly felt at ease. Whether it was a chess piece or something else, being alive, and having a hot meal on a night like this, was already a blessing.
Xu Zhiheng appeared behind her at some point, handing her a bowl of warm water: "Take a break, the water won't boil for a while." His gaze fell on her hands as she kneaded dough, "Were you frightened just now?"
Lin Yao took the water and drank a sip. "It's alright, I have my brother here, and then you came, so I'm not afraid anymore."
Xu Zhiheng's smile deepened. He was about to ask her why she wasn't afraid when he arrived when he was interrupted by hurried footsteps. Lin Song burst into the kitchen like a little cannonball, full of energy, a far cry from her earlier wailing: "Sister! It smells so good! What is it?"
He looked up at the stove with longing eyes. Lin Yao smiled and pinched his cheek: "It's plain noodles, I'll make you a big egg later."
"Two I want!" Lin Song held up two fingers, bargaining. Lin Yao readily agreed.
Soon, four steaming bowls of plain noodles were served. Scallions floated in the clear broth, and each bowl was topped with a golden poached egg. A sip of the broth dispelled the fatigue and fear of the night.
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Author's Note: Xu Zhiheng: She feels sorry for me [covers face and peeks]
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