"They tried to run away, but I caught them. And him—he wanted to run away too."
The sharp-faced boy pointed at Gu Shenwei.
The bandits who had heard the commotion rushed in with torches, but when they saw that Xue Niang had already brought the situation under control, they stayed out of it.
Gu Shenwei had once sworn to himself that he would stop at nothing to take revenge. But now, he didn't even know what "stopping at nothing" meant.
So when the sharp-faced boy made his false accusation, Gu Shenwei hesitated for a moment but didn't deny it, showing that he didn't want to betray the brothers.
Xue Niang snorted without asking a thing. She tossed the brothers in her hands into the air, then struck both of them in the back at once. The two boys fell onto the straw mats without a sound, their lives uncertain.
The sharp-faced boy's eyes gleamed. Even when he wasn't the one meting out punishment, watching someone else get punished always thrilled him.
Xue Niang took two steps toward Gu Shenwei and, without asking a word, jabbed two fingers into his shoulders with lightning speed.
Gu Shenwei had been sitting on a straw mat, but now he toppled backward. Pain stabbed through his bones, and both arms immediately went limp. Beads of sweat welled on his forehead. A cry of pain escaped him, but he forced himself to stifle it.
The sharp-faced boy was so excited his cheeks flushed. He almost cheered aloud.
Xue Niang walked over to him. The sharp-faced boy knelt on the straw mat, expectant, and said urgently:
"Xue Niang, don't worry, I..."
She raised her arm and slapped him. The blow was so powerful that the sharp-faced boy flipped head over heels and crashed to the ground. He, too, lay motionless, his life uncertain.
"Little bastard of a snitch."
Xue Niang left those words behind and turned to go. Though she hated informers, she still assigned a minion to guard the tent.
The brothers and the sharp-faced boy were all still alive. They woke in the early hours of the morning. Gu Shenwei's shoulders still hurt, but the pain no longer kept him from moving.
The other boys tried not to go near the four of them, or even look at them. They didn't know what had happened and wanted no part of it.
A clear handprint remained on the sharp-faced boy's face. He held his cheek, looking puzzled. When he saw the brothers and Gu Shenwei walking toward him, he scrambled upright.
"Hey, I was trying to help you. You couldn't have escaped. You'd only have been caught and killed."
"I had no choice. We were bought as slaves, and it's our duty to be loyal to our master. You could've reported me too."
The brothers exchanged a few words in their own language. The sharp-faced boy's expression shifted from pale to flushed as he replied. Just then, Xue Niang came in again.
They had all learned how dangerous this gaunt woman was. No one dared act up in front of her, and they retreated to their places.
All morning, the ten boys scrubbed incense burners of every size outside the tent. Near noon, something happened that made Gu Shenwei almost forget how much he hated the sharp-faced boy.
No one knew when Great Head God had returned. He strode into his daughter's tent, his face livid—the look he wore only when he had to kill someone.
The ban on men seeing his daughter naturally didn't apply to him.
Everyone felt the tension of a storm about to break. They scrubbed the bronze vessels even harder, ears pricked to catch what was being said inside. It was only that day—the sixth day since they had become part of the dowry—that the boys heard the young lady's voice for the first time.
"No! I won't marry him!"
Her voice was remarkably clear, like the first sip of ice water on a scorching summer day. Nothing like her rough-hewn father, it was firm and fierce—a tone no one else would ever dare use in Great Head God's presence.
Great Head God's voice, by contrast, dropped low, as if he were trying desperately to persuade her. His efforts only drew an even angrier declaration from his daughter:
"I won't marry a cripple! Father, break off the engagement."
Great Head God's voice was nearly inaudible. The young lady must have said something else, because a beastlike roar suddenly erupted from the tent. The bandit chief, with his abnormally huge frame, had finally exploded and shown his true nature.
"You'll marry him whether you want to or not! Even if you have to die, you'll marry him! Damn it!"
His threat was answered by his daughter's resentful sobbing.
Great Head God ducked out of the tent and stood at the entrance, roaring at the sky again. Then he headed toward the main tent, every step seeming to leave a hole in the ground. Everyone along the way—officers great and small, minions and servants alike—kept their distance. Not one dared step forward to calm him down.
Great Head God carried his iron spear, looking for someone to vent his rage on. But there wasn't a soul in sight, so he held the spear across his chest and roared, "Shangguan Fa, damn you! You killed the wrong man? Then kill again! Why'd you cut off my son-in-law's hand? I—I..."
Even a bandit chief who ruled the Western Regions could only threaten the Unrivaled King with words. In truth, he had no choice.
"Who's Gu Shenwei? Drag that little brat here! I'll punch a hundred holes through him!"
Great Head God's eyes were so red they looked ready to bleed.
Gu Shenwei suddenly heard his own name. Shock and fear surged through him, heat rushing to his head until he nearly fainted. In that instant, he knew who his enemy was.
Flying Eagle had been right. It was Golden Peng Fortress that had wiped out the Gu Family, and the man who had done it was Great Head God's future son-in-law!
The Vast Sky had eyes, and the Divine Will had protected him, bringing him to Great Head God. He would follow his enemy's fiancée close to his enemy.
In the end, Great Head God never found a chance to kill someone and vent his rage. But the fury of father and daughter filled the entire camp, leaving everyone on edge. The first to suffer was a young slave girl who had been bought.
Great Head God's surname was Luo, so naturally the young lady was a Luo too. Her name was unusual: Ningcha. Great Head God forbade any man from even looking at his daughter, but he didn't mind people using her name. The bandits often said it aloud, and he paid no attention.
But Miss Luo Ningcha herself did mind, especially when she was angry.
The young slave girl had gotten into trouble over that very name. She was from the mountains, and no one could understand her dialect. She struggled to adapt to her new surroundings and worked hard to learn the common tongue. "Ningcha" was among the first words she picked up. Unfortunately, she never understood what the word meant, much less that it was the young lady's name.
On the day after the father and daughter quarreled, the girl softly repeated the few phrases in Central Plains speech she had learned. When she reached the word "Ningcha" for the umpteenth time, she sighed for no apparent reason. The young lady heard her.
Few people knew exactly what happened next. Like the other boys, Gu Shenwei was working outside the tent when he heard the screams within.
The screams went on and on. After a while, the punished girl was carried out. Her face was covered in blood, and her features were almost impossible to make out.
Her eyes and tongue were gone.
Gu Shenwei didn't know what the others thought, but he was filled with righteous indignation. Miss Luo Ningcha was vicious—no different from her father, who slaughtered the innocent without a second thought.
But that indignation went no further. Even without the grudge against his family, even if he were still the young master of the Gu Family, Gu Shenwei wouldn't have had the courage to stand up for the little girl.
The girl didn't die. Just two days later, she returned to the young lady's tent. Unable to speak or see, with only her hearing left, she still had to serve her cruel mistress.
Only Luo Ningcha herself knew why she had kept the little slave girl.
Whenever Gu Shenwei saw the blind, tongueless girl groping her way in and out of the tent, a chill spread from deep within him to every hair on his body. He felt both pity and fear, and believed the other boys felt the same.
Perhaps the girl's tragic fate had reminded them that they needed to stick together. On the third day after the incident, the sharp-faced boy actually made the first move toward reconciliation, trying to make peace with Gu Shenwei and the brothers who had tried to escape.
"I've come to apologize. I hope you can forgive me for what I did that night. We live in the same tent, eat the same food, and serve the same master. We should support one another, like real brothers."
As he spoke, the sharp-faced boy touched the fading handprint on his cheek, his expression sincere. He had a knack for changing faces at any moment, so quickly you'd think he was two different people.
He apologized in both languages. Gu Shenwei and the brothers exchanged glances, then nodded together, accepting his apology for reporting them.
They all had more important secrets, and the sharp-faced boy's little schemes didn't matter much to them.
But making peace wasn't the only trick up the sharp-faced boy's sleeve. That evening, when all ten boys had returned to the tent to rest, he cleared his throat and began to speak in a very formal tone.
He started in two different Western Regions languages and finished in Central Plains speech:
"Since everyone agrees, let's formally swear brotherhood, though we have different surnames. From now on, we'll share our blessings and bear our hardships together."
He swept his gaze over them with affected authority. When no one objected, he continued in all three languages:
"I, Lin Yang, will treat everyone in this tent like my own brothers from this day on. If I have food, I won't let them go hungry. If I have clothes, I won't let them go cold. And if I rise to fame and fortune, I'll make sure all my brothers rise with me."
No one objected. It wasn't that they had truly come to feel like brothers; they couldn't understand one another's languages and had no idea what the others thought. No one dared stick their neck out, either. Besides, this was Great Head God's camp, where father and daughter were both in a temper and could seize any excuse to kill. No one wanted to start a quarrel at such a time.
The tent fell silent for a while. Then one boy spoke first, stumbling through a declaration in his own language. It was probably a pledge, because the sharp-faced boy, Lin Yang, looked satisfied.
The boys took turns making their pledges. Some did so reluctantly, others enthusiastically. Even the brothers Lin Yang had betrayed made their pledges, though their words were brief and didn't sound very sincere.
The eight boys spoke in Western Regions languages, not a word of which Gu Shenwei understood. He couldn't even make out their names. When his turn came, he hesitated, then said coldly:
"I, Yang Huan, swear brotherhood with you all. Whoever plots against the others behind their backs will be struck down by the heavens."
It was hardly a sincere oath. Gu Shenwei hadn't even used his real name.
A few days earlier, the young master of the Gu Family would have joined the swearing-in ceremony eagerly, taking everyone at their word. Now he swore with a lie, knowing full well that not one of the ten boys' pledges was true.
Lin Yang knew it too, but he was satisfied. You couldn't rush things; the road had to be walked one step at a time. Once they entered Golden Peng Fortress, he would gradually tighten his grip on the little group. The young lady might be their nominal mistress, but he intended to be their true leader.
Five days after the ten boys swore brotherhood, Miss Luo Ningcha finally gave in to her father's wishes. Dressed in her finest, she prepared to marry into Golden Peng Fortress. That was also the first time Gu Shenwei saw his family's enemy, Shangguan Nu.
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