The rock channel was narrower than it looked.
By the time Chen Xiuyuan crawled halfway in, the rocks on either side had wedged his shoulders tight. He had to turn sideways and drag his injured leg through, his clothes scraping softly against the stone.
A bowstring sounded behind him.
An arrow skimmed overhead and struck a bridge post. Chen Xiuyuan ducked his head. Only when no second arrow came did he dare move on. He knew Shi Lei was still watching that crooked pine, but he had no idea how long that cover could last.
The thick rope was right beside his hand.
He reached out and felt his fingers sink into wet, soft rope fibers. The outer layer had rotted, and the section hanging toward the stream was covered in moss. Fortunately, the stretch pinned beneath the crossbeam was dry and sturdy, and the spare length trailing into the grass was still intact.
Chen Xiuyuan felt his way inward along the rope, gradually gaining confidence.
It was the old handrail rope that had run along the side of the bridge. After the bridge collapsed, one end had been pinned under a fallen crossbeam, while the other remained tied to a wooden post on the near bank. To take it, he would have to cut both ends free.
He started with the end near the post. The blade bit in, but the back of his hand brushed against a cold, hard wooden splinter.
The crossbeam moved.
Chen Xiuyuan stopped at once. The timber leaned against the edge of the rock, supported below by only half a rotten post, with the rope stretched taut between them. If he cut this end first, the crossbeam, no longer held back, would very likely roll down the slope into the rock channel.
There was barely room to turn over here.
"Back out!" Shi Lei shouted behind him.
Chen Xiuyuan could not turn his head. He only raised one hand to let him know he was still conscious. Drawing the knife close, he felt around by his feet, found a loose shard of stone, and pushed it into the gap beneath the crossbeam.
The shard was too thin. The timber still rocked.
Curses came from the opposite bank, followed closely by two more twangs. An arrow shattered the bark beside the post, showering Chen Xiuyuan's face with splinters. He gritted his teeth and shoved another angular stone underneath.
At last, the crossbeam wedged fast.
Instead of cutting in the same place, he followed the rope toward the water and cut where the rotten section met the sound one. The wet rope was soft; one stroke severed most of it. The end dropped into the water. The crossbeam sank an inch or so, caught against the stones, and did not crash down.
Only then did Chen Xiuyuan return to the post and cut the other end.
The thick rope came loose.
He pushed it backward, but a loop snagged on grass roots. Just as he reached out again, a curved iron head poked in, hooked the loop, and dragged it back.
"Let go," Ge Ping said in a low voice. "I've got it."
Chen Xiuyuan released the rope and began backing out. His injured leg would not quite obey him; his knee went weak whenever it bent. He simply braced his other leg against the rock and inched back into the shadows.
Ge Ping did not focus only on dragging the rope. He turned the herb hoe crosswise for Chen Xiuyuan to grip its handle, then crouched behind the tree roots and pulled.
The two of them tumbled back behind the rock together, the thick rope weighing on their legs and smearing mud all over them.
Auntie Sang immediately checked Chen Xiuyuan's injured leg.
"It's fine. The wound hasn't opened." He raised a hand to stop her, but his eyes sought Shi Lei first.
Shi Lei still held his bow raised, the arrowhead moving slowly with the branches and leaves opposite. Fewer arrow fletchings protruded from his quiver than before.
"Got it?"
Ge Ping held up the rope for him to see, the corner of his mouth twitching. "Got it."
Shi Duo took the thick rope, cut away two blackened patches of outer fibers, and felt along its entire length. About thirty feet remained, enough length, though its strength still needed testing. He looped one end around a tree root, then gripped the other with Ge Ping and leaned his weight back twice.
The rope gouged a groove in the mud beside the root, but did not break.
"It'll get us down."
Ge Ping braced his hands on his knees and stood. Just as he was about to gather the rope, Auntie Sang suddenly caught his wrist.
"Don't wipe it on your clothes."
She pinched a little yellowish-brown substance from the rope's end, first holding it beneath her nose to sniff, then turning over the section Chen Xiuyuan had just dragged back.
A sour, rank smell seeped from the wet mud.
Chen Xiuyuan had smelled it while retrieving the rope and assumed it came from something rotting in the water. Only now, seeing Auntie Sang's expression, did he realize something was wrong.
"Beast lure," she said.
Ge Ping shrank aside. "We can't use the rope either?"
"Only this short section has it on it. Cut it off. Wash your hands."
Auntie Sang used the herb hoe to push the rope's end aside, then inspected the trail it had left as it was dragged over. A clump of broadleaf grass grew beside the bridge post. Beneath it, half a yellow leaf showed, folded into a neat square, its opening tied with thin vine.
She did not touch it, but pried it open with the hoe's tip.
Inside was powder of the same color.
Shi Duo came over, glanced at where the leaf packet lay, then looked toward the opposite bank.
"They left it at the bridgehead for someone to step on?"
"Or for beasts to come." Auntie Sang turned the leaf packet into the mud. "Whoever they're waiting for, we can't stay here much longer."
Chen Xiuyuan looked back the way they had come. They had heard no beast roars along the way, yet now he felt something might be hiding behind every clump of brush.
"What beasts will come?"
"Anything nearby that can smell it might come. Rain would dilute it, but it isn't raining now." Auntie Sang urged him to hold out his hands. "Don't start getting scared yet. Wash off what got on you."
Only half a waterskin remained. She poured out a little so the two men could rinse the mud from between their fingers, then used a damp cloth to wipe the yellow streak from the side of Chen Xiuyuan's shoe. Chen Xiuyuan also felt along the thin cord at his waist. Only after making sure none had gotten on it did he put it away again.
Shi Duo pressed the spoiled rope and leaf packet into a muddy hollow, then pushed a stone over them. Ge Ping watched his hands the whole time. Once the stone settled, he suddenly cursed under his breath.
"The bridge is already broken, and they still left this."
No one answered.
A moment ago, they had still been guessing whether the people opposite only wanted to block the road and seize their herbs. But those two arrows that had nearly struck them, and the packet hidden at the bridgehead, had left them no time to keep guessing.
Shi Lei called Shi Duo over to take the bow.
"Keep the crooked pine pinned down. I'll check the south end."
Using the rocks and roots for cover, he backed into the woods and soon vanished in the direction Auntie Sang had indicated. Shi Duo drew the bow, his long saber laid within reach, while Ge Ping coiled the tested rope and pushed it toward Chen Xiuyuan.
Chen Xiuyuan did not take it.
"Give it to Shi Duo. He'll have to tie it where we go down into the gully. I'm afraid I won't tie it securely."
Ge Ping nodded and took the rope back. Earlier, he had dared reach out with the herb hoe to help someone, but now that he no longer had to hurry, his hands trembled a little instead, and the loops refused to lie neatly. He gave up coiling it and simply hugged the whole bundle to his chest.
The sky darkened.
The patch of sunlight that had fallen on the bridge post vanished behind clouds, and the stream turned from bright white to gray. A dull roll of thunder sounded in the distance. Auntie Sang looked up at the sky without speaking, then wrapped another layer tightly around the remaining medicinal roots.
Chen Xiuyuan followed her gaze upward and suddenly spotted a string of white stones upstream in the ravine.
The water ran more gently there, and the woods on both banks drew close together.
"Can they cross up there?"
"A ford," Auntie Sang said. "Once across, they'd still have to circle through a stretch of woods."
"How long would it take?"
"With our carrying baskets, it would take us some time. Fighting men carrying nothing-I couldn't say."
Chen Xiuyuan looked toward Shi Duo. Shi Duo had heard too. He nudged the saber closer with his toe without turning his head.
They had already been trapped at the bridgehead for quite a while. Since the other side had lookouts, could they already have sent men upstream?
When Shi Lei backed out of the woods, Chen Xiuyuan told him about the ford.
"That's why we have to hurry." Shi Lei took back the bow. "We can get down at the south end. Thread the rope through a hole in the rock. There's a place below where we can stand, and we can follow the gully out. But there's no cover for those first few steps. We'll have to cross one at a time."
Shi Duo took the rope and glanced south.
"The one below the gray rock is watching it."
Shi Lei nodded. "If he moves a few steps sideways, he can shoot at the gully entrance. We either keep him pinned so he doesn't dare move, or lure him away."
"I'll show myself. When he shoots, I'll rush across."
"And after you rush across? Auntie Sang and the others will still be here."
Shi Duo fell silent.
Chen Xiuyuan looked toward the gray rock. The man lower down had not shown himself for a long time. His gray sleeve lay hidden in the grass, even his bow arm completely concealed. Shi Lei was only one man. Even if he pinned that archer down, he would still have to watch for arrows from the crooked pine.
"Over there!" Ge Ping suddenly pointed toward the woods.
Below the slope they had come down, a gray shape slipped through the brush. A little larger than a dog, its back arched, it stopped among the trees and lowered its head to sniff, then disappeared into the grass again. Chen Xiuyuan did not get a clear look at what it was. Shi Duo had already picked up his saber and stepped half a pace in that direction.
"It's still far off. Don't shout," Auntie Sang said.
Ge Ping shut his mouth, wiped his forehead, and asked Shi Lei, "If we give up all the herbs and throw them the baskets, will they let us go?"
"Don't try that."
Shi Lei's words were not harsh, but Ge Ping asked no more.
Chen Xiuyuan lowered his head and saw the thin cord beside his hand. Its other end was still tied to the small basket, which lay hidden beneath the tree roots. From across the stream, only a sliver of its rim was visible.
He followed the cord with his gaze toward the slanted rock to the north.
Their original route lay north; the rocky gully they could descend lay south. If they still wanted to retreat along their original route, they would first have to move the things hidden behind the trees northward. The archer below the gray rock had been watching that spot all along, waiting for them to expose themselves again.
"We can throw out one basket," Chen Xiuyuan said.
Ge Ping looked over.
"Not to him. Drag it toward the way we came, so he thinks we're still heading north."
Chen Xiuyuan spread the thin cord between the two men and pointed behind the slanted rock. "I'll go over and pull. First, let a little of the basket show from behind the tree, then move it slowly that way. If he wants to see who's carrying it, he'll have to stick his head out. If he wants to keep watching, he'll have to move out from behind the gray rock."
Shi Lei studied that stretch of open ground and was silent for a moment.
"He might not fall for it."
"Let's try once. If he doesn't move, I'll stop. The cord's long enough. I won't have to stay beside the basket."
"And once he moves?" Shi Duo asked.
Chen Xiuyuan looked toward Shi Lei. This was as far as he could think ahead. After that, it would depend on the man who had stood in front of them all this time.
Shi Lei nocked a fresh arrow.
"If he moves, I'll handle it."
Shi Duo slung the thick rope over his shoulder and went south first to find the hole in the rock. Auntie Sang and Ge Ping checked their belongings once more, then moved between two patches of cover to wait for the call from that side.
Chen Xiuyuan picked up the thin cord and retreated behind the slanted rock to the north. When he looked back one last time, he saw that Shi Lei had changed positions and was half-crouched beneath a fork in a tree, holding his bow very low.
The strip of sleeve behind the gray rock still had not moved.
Chen Xiuyuan lay low in the shade behind the slanted rock and slowly took up all the slack in the cord.