Chapter 46, the Forty-Sixth Face of Life
Chen Yusheng's parents were both from prominent families with simple relationships and strict family traditions. Therefore, Chen Yusheng was exposed to this Confucian ideology of loyalty to the emperor from a young age. That year, he recited with his head swaying: "The gentleman's meanness lies in being timely and in accordance with the times; the petty man's meanness lies in being unscrupulous and reckless."
The sound of firecrackers outside was incessant, indicating that something happy had happened. Chen Yusheng, being young, couldn't sit still and asked the teacher what had happened.
The man stroked his beard and said with a smile, "I'll grant you half a day off. Go and take a look for yourself."
As soon as Chen Yusheng stepped out, he bumped into Zhang Wanchun, who had come to call him. The two held hands and weaved through the crowd of onlookers on the street. Unable to see clearly, they paid to go to a teahouse.
A vast army came from the city gate. Although the leader was a female general, the people lined the streets to welcome her, bringing food and flowers, just as much as those welcoming a male general, and showing no sign of slackness.
Zhang Wanchun was curious, but before he could pull a servant aside to ask, he heard the man at the next table say, "At first we didn't have high hopes for them, but look, we have to admit they're really capable. Why don't they kill that Jade-Faced Yama Fan Qi?"
"That's hard to say, they might even kill him in bed," another diner said with a low, enigmatic laugh.
Zhang Wanchun looked closely at the female general downstairs, and said in a childish voice, "You grown-ups are jealous of her abilities."
Chen Yusheng tugged at Zhang Wanchun's sleeve, signaling him to stop causing trouble. Zhang Wanchun ignored him and continued, "If you could really win by using beauty, wouldn't it be better to send a few beautiful women over? Are the officials dumber than you?"
Everyone chimed in, "Your insight is brilliant! A general who protects his country is truly capable! How can his own people have such despicable thoughts!"
The diners were embarrassed after being criticized by a child. But since everyone else agreed, they couldn't really make a scene, so they slunk away.
Zhang Wanchun and Chen Yusheng squeezed to the front. Chen Yusheng, who was a few years older, lifted Zhang Wanchun onto the railing and told him to hold on tight, saying, "Hold on tight." After receiving a positive reply, Zhang Wanchun also held onto the railing and looked down.
As he drew closer, he could see that the leader was indeed a woman, with a beautiful face but a strong, heroic air. Just then, a beautiful woman stepped forward to present him with flowers. Comparing the two, although he didn't understand the implied vulgarities of those adults, he also felt that it was impossible to win someone over with beauty alone.
After watching the excitement, the two went home. Zhang Wanchun was still young and in his early childhood education, so he leaned on the bench outside the window, waiting for Chen Yusheng to finish school.
Often after school, Zhang Wanchun would fall asleep. Chen Yusheng would always carry him to his room to keep him from catching a cold.
And so the years slipped by in their brief respite, and they got a new teacher. Zhang Wanchun was puzzled and asked, "The teacher is very good, why are you leaving?"
Chen Yusheng overheard his parents mention that the scholar, feeling he possessed exceptional talent but finding no use for it in the state of Sui, had gone to the state of Wu to take the imperial examinations. The young boy, hearing the shamelessness of betraying his country in his parents' disdainful tone, had no doubt about it.
If you don't even love your own country, how can you expect other countries to give you a place to live?
But when Chen Yusheng saw the soldiers rushing into Zhang's mansion and arresting everyone, his belief suddenly wavered. Zhang's father, a civil official, shouted when he was arrested: "We are here for the greater good of the world, and we will leave this world with an open heart..." What he said next was stuffed into his mouth by the soldiers with horse manure. His righteousness was mixed with the horse manure and swallowed down. No one listened to him anymore.
At that time, the Sui Kingdom did not prohibit snuff bottles, and many Sui people smoked them. Mentally disturbed drug addicts could often be seen on the streets, selling their wives and children, committing rape, murder, and robbery. Chen Yusheng had never been to the Wu Kingdom, but even a little thought told him that the situation there would only be worse than here.
When Zhang's father saw Chen Yusheng unharmed, the hatred in his eyes terrified him, and he immediately turned and ran home. That night, Chen Yusheng waited for his father to return home. With the purge of the rebels underway, officials in the court were all on edge, each busy as a bee. Chen's father rubbed his temples wearily and asked, "What is it?"
"The Zhang family..." Before he could finish speaking, Chen's father suddenly opened his eyes, frowned, glared at Chen Yusheng, and shouted angrily, "The Zhang family has brought this upon themselves. Stop making a fool of yourselves there. You must make a clear choice now, understand?"
In the past, Chen's father and Zhang's father had a good relationship, and they would invite each other to appreciate new calligraphy, paintings, and tea. But now, Chen Yusheng was asked to be extremely clear about the distinctions between political and private matters. How could he possibly distinguish between them?
It is not the behavior of a gentleman to abandon a friend in need.
The father and son had a big argument, and neither of them could truly explain the pros and cons of Zhu Yan. No one could truly say whether they should be loyal to the emperor or to the greater good.
The argument, which had no answers, ended with a heavy slap.
On the day of the execution, amidst the blood-red landscape, Chen Yusheng planned to live with the Zhang family members who had been pardoned, and start anew with them.
He looked around and finally saw the pardoned man in the iron cage on the high platform. Zhang Wanchun was being held by his brother. His grief and indignation turned into powerless anger the moment he saw Chen Yusheng. He tried to struggle down and rush over the guards to Chen Yusheng.
Chen Yusheng wanted to comfort Zhang Wanchun, but when he saw Zhang Wanchun's lip movements, his desperate gamble cooled down as his blood cooled, making him feel utterly worthless.
"traitor!"
His childhood best friend, the younger brother he protected as he grew up.
They called him a traitor.
One moment he wanted to start over with him, the next he raised his knife and splashed red ink, severing all their affection.
Perhaps due to youthful impetuosity, Chen Yusheng never returned. He followed the exiled group all the way, and fortunately, at the age of thirteen, he was not kidnapped. He worked along the way and barely managed to support himself.
One day, Chen Yusheng accidentally fell into a deep pit by the roadside where hunters were hunting. Because he hadn't eaten for a long time, he couldn't climb out. Zhang Wanchun saw him, but only glanced at him before disappearing into the pit's entrance amidst Chen Yusheng's expectant gaze.
It was cold, and the soil was frozen solid, like tofu. Chen Yusheng tried his best to dig, but he could only scrape off a little mud. He couldn't climb out at all; his hands were covered in mud mixed with blood. After falling several times, he couldn't pull himself up anymore and lay motionless at the bottom of the pit. When he was thirsty and hungry, Chen Yusheng would slowly scrape the mud off his hands. Blood dripped into his mouth, mixed with the rough, hard-to-swallow mud, but surprisingly, it warmed and filled him up. Faced with hunger, Chen Yusheng felt no remorse. He only felt that he still had many things to do, and he hadn't yet let Zhang Wanchun know that he was different from his father—that Zhang Wanchun agreed with the principles he upheld, and that he was not a treacherous person who betrayed his friends for personal gain.
As his consciousness slowly faded, Chen Yusheng curled himself up into a ball. He had carried Zhang Wanchun back inside to sleep so many times, and Zhang Wanchun should take him back once in a while, so he wouldn't catch a cold from being outside.
"Tsk, such a young child died here..." He didn't hear the rest of the words clearly. His body went limp, and Chen Yusheng lost consciousness completely.
Later, Chen Yusheng followed Zuo Qinghou. She threw away all the classical Chinese phrases he used and stuffed piles of martial arts manuals into his hands. Zuo Qinghou's response to the child's initial resistance was: "Practice it or not, next time you fall into a pit and die in it."
Zuo Qinghou had never told Chen Yusheng about her own affairs, but Chen Yusheng remembered Zuo Qinghou's face—the beautiful young girl who delivered flowers to the female general. He could guess what she wanted to do, so no matter what identity she became, Chen Yusheng stayed by her side, upholding righteousness together with her.
As he was being hung on the city wall, he caught a glimpse of Zuo Qinghou. She always said she didn't care, but the grief and indignation in her eyes were clear. This time, however, her grief and indignation was for the better, bringing him peace of mind. He wasn't her good disciple, nor her good subordinate, but in his dying moments, he had a clear conscience. To his lord, he died on the battlefield; to his friends, he gave his all; regarding righteousness, he couldn't see it, but he firmly believed she would continue on this path.
So he didn't experience much pain or struggle; he floated out of his body and followed Zuo Qinghou all the way.
Chen Yusheng saw the village elders exchanging glances, and he saw the hundreds of strong men lying in ambush inside the granary. He wanted to shake the drunken Zuo Qinghou awake, and he wanted to scold her awake, but his body passed right through hers, and he was not even as strong as the wind.
He watched helplessly as she walked through that door; he tried desperately to stop her, even hysterically, but to no avail.
Zuo Qinghou walked through the door to a large granary. The strong men behind her, armed with shovels and rakes, silently surrounded her. Jiang Linzhi didn't turn around, but smiled and asked the third brother, "I don't need so many people to help me move it. I could have found people to do it myself."
Zuo Qinghou didn't turn around, but he knew there were so many people here. The third brother was startled and quickly took a step back, ordering, "Kill her."
Dozens of farm tools separated Zuo Qinghou from the villagers. Rusty rakes and hoes instantly pierced Zuo Qinghou's body, forcing her back dozens of steps and pinning her to the granary door.
The strong men behind her continued to pass rakes forward, and the men in front stabbed these weapons into her body one by one, from her neck to her calves, leaving no empty space, like a hedgehog covered in nails.
With a slight struggle, Zuo Qinghou freed his left hand, which had been pinned to the door. The burly men in front of him were startled and their hands trembled so badly that they dropped their rakes to the ground.
They dared not approach to pick up the rake at a safe distance, but fortunately, they saw that Zuo Qinghou struggled a few times and could not reach the person at the front.
Seeing this, the third brother, who had just retreated to the back, raised his dagger and squeezed back to the front, standing where Zuo Qinghou couldn't reach him, and provocatively said, "Weren't you very arrogant just now? Why are you silent now?"
Zuo Qinghou looked at him as if he were a dead man.
The third brother laughed, "I forgot, your throat's been pierced, you can't speak anymore. Oh right, we've already put muscle relaxant in the food we sent you, something you can't detect with a silver needle. Make your soldiers apologize to our Shu soldiers." As he spoke, he slowly raised the dagger in his hand and cut open Zuo Qinghou's chest, revealing a large expanse of bloodied, snow-white chest. The eyes of the crowd, brimming with confidence, were filled with twisted excitement. The third brother continued, "Once you're dead, we'll strip you naked and hang you on the city wall for them to see. You wretch, how dare you insult General Fan, what bad luck!"
The dagger plunged into Zuo Qinghou's chest in an instant.
The hilt spun around a few times, strangling the heart.
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