A Single Tie Of Long Hair Seals A Lifelong Commitment - Chapter 25

A high wall, complete with battlements and corner towers, rose between two mountain peaks. Sentries stood watch, and men carrying upright spears patrolled back and forth, presenting the appearance of a small-scale city.

From spring to high summer, the forests that were just starting to bud when she took down the first bandit den were now lush and verdant, their branches and leaves spreading out to block out the sky. Chen Liangyu scanned her surroundings, occasionally catching a glimpse of a figure revealed from the high mountain forest or behind the boulders on the cliffs—a fleeting flash of a trouser cuff, or half a head.

In a military camp, such people are called scouts. Once a person of unknown origin approached the stronghold, they would have nowhere to hide.

The location was hidden and hard to find. The female bandit, who had carried her all the way, was so jostled on horseback that her internal organs felt displaced by the time they reached the gate of the stronghold.

The female bandit’s hands were still bound behind her back with vines, and her head and feet hung down, making her clearly miserable.

Her body lurched up and then dropped, landing her on the ground.

With a zheng sound, a sword was immediately placed at her neck from behind, forcing her to walk forward as a hostage.

The stronghold gate was tightly closed, but the next moment, several people pulled it open together.

Then, silence descended.

No one came out to welcome her, nor did anyone come out to execute her.

Everyone had looked at her in unison when her horse’s hooves arrived, but after the gate opened, they simply returned to what they were doing, completely ignoring their comrade being held hostage and at death’s door right outside the walls.

Inviting the lord into the jar?

The gate has been opened for you; let’s see if you have the guts to enter! Whether she had the courage or not was no longer her choice. Even if the place was a tiger’s lair or a wolf’s den, she had to venture in to retrieve that burden, Zhai Ji.

She had made marks on the road when they came, so it would not be difficult for the imperial forces to find this place. However, with both sides now holding hostages, neither dared to act rashly.

Aside from the one she brought to guide the way, there were still a few living bandits left in the hands of the imperial soldiers who were tasked with the suppression.

Once past the gate, Chen Liangyu expected to see a misty, gloomy, and terrifying bandit camp, with skulls and bones and various knives and iron tools hanging on the walls, rotting and stinking—the usual scene of savage and terrifying horse bandits.

But the reality was quite different.

She had been fooled!

Her anxious heart sank.

The stronghold gate and its sentries were merely a distraction; there was nothing inside the walls. The main camp of these bandits was not located here.

Lin Jianshu sat on a rattan chair in the middle of the empty space, as if he had been waiting for her for a long time.

His demeanor did not look like that of a mountain bandit in any way; he was graceful and poised, self-possessed and dignified. However, a hideous, savage scar stretched across his face, starting below one eye socket and extending all the way to the other side.

This made her recall the beggar with severed arms who had asked her for money during the Lantern Festival.

She wasn’t sure why she connected the two; although Lin Jianshu had a major scar on his face, he was otherwise whole.

“Release A-Yin,” he ordered, raising his chin to signal Chen Liangyu to let go of the female bandit she held.

“Where is my person?”

“Since when has a Northern Yong prince become ‘your person’?”

Chen Liangyu had merely used a concise, easy-to-communicate linguistic form: ‘A-Yin’ is your person, so the corresponding person in your hands is ‘my person.’

Since he was splitting hairs, she changed her question: “Where is the person I want?”

Lin Jianshu gave a look to the two burly, bearded men behind him, and the two bandits, who resembled divine door guards, stepped forward. “They will take you.”

Chen Liangyu gripped her sword hilt, deftly switched directions, and gave a light flourish, and the vines that had left bloody marks on A-Yin suddenly loosened. A-Yin sighed and rubbed her hands.

Her eyes were covered with a blindfold, and she was forced onto an ox cart, which rattled and jolted as it took her to an unknown location.

They did not dare to remove Chen Liangyu’s armor. Lin Jianshu was a general during the Yingtong reign; he knew the significance of the sword in Chen Liangyu’s hand. It was an imperial gift, a symbol of royal authority. If that sword were taken, the imperial court would immediately launch a genuine, full-scale military cleanup of the Western Ridge.

That would be different from the bandit dens Chen Liangyu had previously cleared, which involved dealing with people who committed robbery and blocked roads—individuals who merely affected local order. She had either arrested them for labor reform and re-education or made them promise on the spot to disband and return to being law-abiding commoners; in such cases, the dens were considered taken down.

But to seize the imperial-bestowed founding treasure sword—that was an act of high treason! Historically, the punishment for treason has always been total eradication, leaving no survivors.

In this sense, Chen Liangyu could almost certainly conclude that Lin Jianshu had no intention of killing her.

Then what exactly was the purpose of luring her here with such effort?

The cart jolted for a long time. At first, she could feel light seeping through under her eyelids, but soon she was plunged into absolute nothingness, unable to even perceive darkness.

The ox cart hit a patch of loose stones, swaying violently for a moment, after which she began to hear human voices.

The voices grew closer. She seemed to have been taken to a mountain village, where she could hear roosters crowing, dogs barking, and the silver-bell-like innocent clamor of children chasing one another.

As they passed through, someone exchanged greetings, and one of the two “door guard” bandits gave a heh-heh chuckle, straightening his back to show off:

“Today we caught two big ones.”

Clearly, she was one of the “two big ones,” and the other was, in all likelihood, the ill-fated Second Prince of Northern Yong, Zhai Ji.

The ox cart finally stopped. The black cloth covering her eyes was torn away, and she saw what appeared to be the backyard of a farm, where chickens, ducks, and other poultry were raised, as well as cows, sheep, pigs, and horses.

A giant, hand-woven chicken coop in the center was particularly conspicuous. Looking closer, it became even more so. A person was locked inside the coop, sitting with their back turned, clutching their head, and covering their face with a sleeve, seemingly ashamed to be seen.

Chen Liangyu observed the person in the coop closely, and her mood instantly improved. She enthusiastically stepped forward to greet him. “Oh, Your Highness the Second Prince.”

She was all smiles.

The height of the chicken coop was enough for an adult man eight chi tall to stand up inside, but the width was quite restricted, making it difficult even to turn around. The person inside was sitting with their knees bent, leaving a large space overhead.

Seeing that his ‘burying one’s head in the sand’ tactic had failed, Zhai Ji stopped covering his face with his sleeve. “Can you stop smiling so obnoxiously?”

The young men of Northern Yong favored braided hair, adorning the plaits with gems threaded on silk, giving them a wild and unrestrained look. Zhai Ji was such a man, with slender shoulders and a narrow waist, normally tying his hair with red and blue gemstones, looking arrogant and willful. However, after coming to Yongdu as a hostage, he had replaced the everyday red and blue gemstones with cheaper beads to show the humility and obedience of a captive.

The Zhai Ji of today was as miserable as could be. His armor had been stripped off, leaving him only in his undergarment. The beads in his braids had been pulled out, his plaits were loose, and a tuft of chicken feathers clung to the hair on his head.

“You sold me out, and yet you didn’t manage to gain anything good yourself,” Chen Liangyu sneered.

Lin Jianshu had known her identity after only a single exchange, which made her realize that someone had informed him in advance who the person coming to suppress the bandits was. The yin-yang formation was merely to test the truth of her identity; if a real fight to the death had occurred, the casualties would certainly have been much greater.

“When can I take my person away?” Chen Liangyu asked.

One of the “door guard” bandits unloaded the ox cart, drove the ox into the shed, and added some fodder, while the other stood stolidly watching them, listening to their conversation.

The one adding fodder said, “The Great Chieftain didn’t say. In any case, neither of you is leaving tonight, so you’ll stay here for now.”

Fine. Since she had come, she would make the best of the situation.

“Where is my accommodation?”

As she asked, she didn’t forget to glance sideways at Zhai Ji out of the corner of her eye. Surely it couldn’t be more crude than a chicken coop.

“There!” The person who had been standing behind her jutted his lips, took two steps to the side, and pointed.

“A pig…”

“…pen!”

A pigpen? A pigpen!

Zhai Ji’s shoulders were shaking. Without looking, she knew he was doubled over with laughter, hugging his knees. At first, he tried to suppress the sound, but finally, finding the effort too difficult, he gave up the pretense and burst into uninhibited laughter.

“When in Rome, do as the Romans do,” the man said.

“Is it your custom here to sleep in a pigpen?”

“We just changed the custom yesterday, for your arrival. It’s much more spacious than that chicken coop.”

“This is your way of treating guests?” Chen Liangyu’s eyes widened, and she questioned him angrily.

“Elder sister, have you forgotten what you came here for? You were sent by the imperial court to kill us. Do you expect to be treated like an honored guest? Do you think you’re here on a visit?”

He had a point.

It was just that both “door guard” bandits looked to be at least thirty years old, and being called “Elder sister” was truly difficult to accept.

Chen Liangyu immediately quieted down. Zhai Ji laughed even louder, but the “door guard” who had been adding fodder picked up a pig-driving stick and gave him a solid thwack.

“Look how delighted you are! You must be so proud!”

Crouching beside a low wall made of mud bricks, surrounded by either the crowing of chickens or the grunting of pigs, Chen Liangyu distractedly swat at mosquitoes and flies.

Fortunately, the evening breeze in the mountains during summer was cool, but when the wind blew, it carried with it a foul, reeking smell.

The two “door guard” bandits guarded her and Zhai Ji separately. The one who added fodder guarded Zhai Ji, and the slightly duller bandit guarded Chen Liangyu. If Chen Liangyu didn’t close her eyes, he wouldn’t sleep either, and the two began a contest of endurance like ‘taming a hawk.’

The contest dragged on until after midnight. Chen Liangyu was still energetic, but the man guarding her frowned, twitched his eyebrows, and turned to leave.

“Where are you going?” Chen Liangyu called out, stopping him.

The dull bandit looked bewildered but still answered her question. “To relieve myself.”

“You are not allowed to abandon your post!”

“I’ll be right back.”

“If you abandon your post, I’ll escape,” she said, pointing toward the chicken coop. “I’ll take him with me. You’ll only have one man left, and he can’t stop the two of us. You should think about how you’ll explain that to your Great Chieftain.”

The dull bandit had no choice but to sit back down, and as time passed, his face grew increasingly pained.

He shuffled his feet two steps outward, but was immediately shouted at again: “Stop! Stand still! Watch me right here, and don’t you dare go anywhere!”

Since she was miserable, they might as well all be miserable together.

The dull bandit’s face crumpled up in a ball, and he groaned miserably.

A light chuckle came from the chicken coop, and Zhai Ji played the benevolent one. “Why are you making trouble for an honest man? Go on, go on, we won’t run.”

The man guarding Zhai Ji was already leaning against the coop with his eyes closed, snoring lightly. After receiving the promise not to run, the dull bandit, full of gratitude, trotted out with small, rapid steps.

Seeing that Chen Liangyu did not speak to him, Zhai Ji could not restrain himself. “Why don’t you ask me?”

According to his plan, Chen Liangyu would surely have looked furious, grabbing him by the neck and demanding to know why he had caused her trouble. Failing that, she would at least ask how he fell into the bandits’ hands so she could thoroughly mock and ridicule him.

But no, she hadn’t asked a single word.

“Ask you what? Ask why you requested His Majesty to let you come with me to suppress the bandits here? Or ask why you deliberately fell into their hands and sold me out?”

These could actually be considered the same question, because the answers were all the same.

“You want to acquire the military strategy of my Great Lin Dynasty: the Three Volumes of Yin-Yang in Lin Jianshu’s possession.”

Chen Liangyu said, “I originally thought you just wanted to disgust me, but then I considered that a person as calculating as you—more so than a cynical merchant—would never put yourself in danger just to cause me a little annoyance. Yet, I couldn’t think of a more plausible explanation, until I guessed Lin Jianshu’s identity. Only then did I see through your intention. You had long since ascertained that the Three Volumes of Yin-Yang were likely to be found in the Western Ridge of my Great Lin Dynasty, and that is the true purpose of your coming to Yongdu as a hostage.”

“You knew Lin Jianshu was at odds with the imperial court, so you wanted to add fuel to the fire, sow discord, magnify his dissatisfaction with the court, and persuade him to teach you the military strategy. Unfortunately, not only did your plan fail, but you also ended up in this wretched state,” she continued, her narrative tone turning sarcastic. “He was a general of the Great Lin Dynasty. How could he possibly pass on military strategy to someone who would wield a blade to slaughter the citizens of Great Lin?”

Zhai Ji narrowed his eyes. “Why wouldn’t he? He is the Great Chieftain of the Bo Gong Stronghold now, not General Lin!”

The two of them raised their voices further. The sleeping bandit made an irritated grunt, then smacked a mosquito that flew onto his face, and fell back into a deep sleep.

“Kindly use your brain and consider: if he truly hated the Great Lin Dynasty, why did he choose to become a bandit chieftain instead of defecting to your Northern Yong in the first place?”

Zhai Ji was speechless for a moment.

As Chen Liangyu spoke, her hand rubbed the dirt she had scraped from the low wall. The dirt concealed a small stone.

Zhai Ji also searched around, and before long, he clenched a stone in his hand as well. They were in a mountainous area, where small stones were the least scarce thing.

When the man who had gone out returned groggily, just as he turned his back to close the door, the two of them simultaneously threw the stones in their hands, knocking out both bandits who were guarding them.

She wasn’t about to foolishly wait for the bandits to keep their word and then politely escort the two of them out in an ox cart.

Chen Liangyu cleaved the chicken coop open with one swing of her sword, and Zhai Ji squeezed out.

“Run!”