Unlike Xie Wan, who was delighted, A Zi knew almost the instant he saw these people that there was no hope for them.
Sure enough, when the people in the room heard Xie Wan, they remained as motionless as puppets.
Xie Wan refused to give up. "I know what you've been through, but life is so long. There's nothing we can't get past. We can't give up on ourselves because of these beasts. Girls, come with me."
A Zi stood guard outside with his arms folded, only to find that the thugs seemed to know these people would not flee either. Not a single one spared any attention to deal with the people here.
Xie Wan continued trying to persuade them for a long while. A Zi felt it was nearly time and said, "Miss Xie, we don't have much time."
At this, anxiety filled Xie Wan's gentle face. Her trembling lips and voice revealed how earnestly she wanted to take them away.
Without answering A Zi, Xie Wan saw that the people inside remained unmoved and drew her own indenture from inside her robe. A Zi had given it to her earlier.
She had intended to tear it up immediately, but for some reason had kept it. Perhaps it had been in preparation for this moment.
Xie Wan held the paper high, her eyes red, and cried out in a hoarse yet rousing voice, "This is my indenture. My father was framed by Lin Bian and imprisoned, and Lin Shuo threatened me into entering the Pleasant Breeze Courtyard. From my very first day here, I secretly swore that one day I would clear my father's name and free my sisters from this sea of suffering."
Her mournful voice was like a cuckoo crying blood, every word embedding itself in their hearts.
"For that, I did everything I could every day to learn those shameful things, to memorize those ways of serving others. Only then could I possibly be sold into a gathering of powerful people. Only then would I have even the slightest chance of exposing Lin Bian's crimes to the world!"
Laying bare her own wounds, she tore the yellow paper bearing her handprint into pieces, putting all her strength into every tear. Each new rent in the paper marked another measure of her rebirth!
"Don't you... want revenge? Don't you hate them?"
Didn't they want revenge?
Didn't they hate them?
No! They hated them to the core. Every night, every one of them dreamed of devouring the flesh and drinking the blood of those responsible!
How could they not hate them? They hated them utterly! They hated them to death!
Overwhelming hatred gradually gathered in those lifeless eyes. Xie Wan added another log to this fire called revenge.
"If you escape now, you can serve as witnesses against Lin Bian in the future. I want him to die a horrible death!"
Xie Wan's
final armful of kindling successfully ignited this fire, which held the hidden power to sweep across the plains.
"Yes!"
"I want him to die a horrible death!"
"A horrible death!"
At last, A Zi successfully led the final group out of the Pleasant Breeze Courtyard.
Chapter 33
What happened at the Pleasant Breeze Courtyard made Lin Bian fully realize that he had been caught in a trap and probably could not escape.
He ordered the servants to pack and told Zhang Dequan that he must take Lin Shuo away.
But Lin Shuo did not understand Lin Bian's painstaking intentions and clamored that he would not leave the prosperous lands of Jiangling.
Hearing the commotion, Lou Yun and Pei Qing went into the courtyard to look.
"Kree-"
A piercing cry rang out across the vast sky. The golden eagle spread its wings wide and circled overhead.
They're here.
Lou Yun and Pei Qing exchanged a glance and quietly withdrew into the room. It was inconvenient for her to show herself now, so she would temporarily disguise herself as the young man's subordinate.
Lin Bian was still busy berating his unruly son. "Get out! Get out of Jiangling! If it weren't for you, would I have ended up like this?"
"Father! How can you treat me this way? Ever since I was little, you've never praised me once. No matter what I do, all you do is scold me! If you didn't want me, why did you have me in the first place?" Lin Shuo's years of pent-up resentment erupted at that moment.
Lin Bian glared in fury, pointing a trembling finger at Lin Shuo's nose, unable to utter a single curse.
Beside them, Zhang Dequan earnestly tried to persuade the feuding father and son.
Suddenly, a guard rushed in, crying in alarm, "Disaster! Disaster, my lord! Outside! Troops have arrived outside!"
Lin Bian froze. He tilted his face toward the sky, clenched his teeth, and closed his eyes without a word, as though he had already foreseen what would follow.
A moment later, as though remembering something, he seized Zhang Dequan and said anxiously, "This is bad! Go, now! Old Zhang, take Shuo'er away!"
Lin Bian shoved Lin Shuo toward the exit, calling for his most trusted subordinate to take the son he cared about most away from this dangerous place.
Unfortunately, it was already too late. Pei Qing walked calmly through the chaos of the Lin residence, utterly at odds with his surroundings. He stepped into the path of the two men as Zhang Dequan dragged Lin Shuo away.
The situation was now clear. Lin Bian suddenly burst out laughing, his expression crazed. "Who would have thought? Who would have thought it? One of your own brought the wolf inside! Hahahaha!"
Zhang Dequan instinctively shielded Lin Shuo and called the household guards forward to surround Pei Qing.
The guards rushed him together. Just as one guard's staff was about to strike the young man's back, Lou Yun, who had finished disguising herself and emerged from the room, sent him flying with a kick.
"You dare lay a hand on one of mine?"
Lou Yun had changed into a man's black robes and wore a dark iron mask. Her high ponytail swung from side to side with her movements. The clothes were perhaps not quite the right fit, leaving a section exposed at her sleeves and above her shoes and socks. Pei Qing's face grew hot after just one glance.
Those clothes were clearly his. Fortunately, they were not too different in stature, and her more slender build allowed her to fit into his clothes.
It's just... Pei Qing paused, too embarrassed to pursue the thought, before silently finishing it in his mind. It's just a little too much.
Pei Qing averted his eyes in evasion and turned his head to call, "Fangyi."
They stood back-to-back, protecting each other's blind spots. Lou Yun seized a sword from a household guard to use. Pei Qing did not use the silver whip at his waist either, taking up a sword just as Lou Yun had.
Bearing the emperor's written order, Su Ren entered Jiangling without obstruction. A Zi had waited by the city gates for a long time. Holding up the Imperial Preceptor's token, he ran to the front of the army and explained the situation to Su Ren. "Greetings, Young General Su. I serve the Imperial Preceptor and have come to guide you. Sorry for the trouble, but I also need you to assign a squad of men for me to lead to rescue some people."
"Very well." Su Ren detached a small squad. A Zi had Xie Wan lead them away while he personally guided Su Ren.
Before long, Su Ren led his troops to surround the governor's residence. A Zi leaped to Pei Qing's side and handed him the evidence tucked inside his robe.
His beautiful foxlike eyes brimmed with a smile and reluctance to part. The young man's lips curved as he bade Pei Qing farewell. "Young master, until we meet again."
Then he gave Lou Yun a slight nod and silently said, Until we meet again.
This time, they truly did not know when they would meet again. The atmosphere around Pei Qing visibly grew heavier. Lou Yun discreetly rested her hand over the back of his to soothe him.
Seeing this, A Zi smiled, slipped into the crowd, and vanished without a trace.
Knowing he could no longer turn the tide, Lin Bian did not even order his household guards to resist. When Su Ren moved to arrest him, he snatched a sword from an attendant and slit his own throat.
"Father!" Lin Shuo broke free of Zhang Dequan and ran through the crowd toward Lin Bian. Just days before, the young master of the Lin family had still been held high on a pedestal, knowing nothing but pleasure-seeking. At this moment, he lost the sky that had sheltered him.
In the end, apart from Lin Bian, who had killed himself to escape punishment, everyone in the Lin family was escorted back to the capital, along with the thugs from the Pleasant Breeze Courtyard and Cui Hao.
After fully subduing everyone in the Lin residence, Su Ren dismounted and saluted Pei Qing with clasped hands. "Greetings, Imperial Preceptor."
Just then, Lin Shuo suddenly shook off the soldiers binding him, picked up a blade from the ground, and recklessly thrust it at Pei Qing.
Lou Yun had been watching the movements around the young man all along. She caught Lin Shuo's movement immediately and thrust her sword before his blade could touch Pei Qing.
"You're courting death."
Just as her sword point was about to sink into Lin Shuo's throat, Lou Yun turned the blade and struck him hard with its flat, sending him flying.
Still kneeling on one knee, Su Ren watched Lou Yun's sequence of moves and recalled the last assassination attempt on the road back to the capital. Her Highness seemed to have used just such a move. Then there was what his father had told him.
This... shouldn't Her Highness be investigating the case in the capital? Su Ren suppressed his suspicions, intending to ask later.
After two days of rest and reorganization, the party prepared to return to the capital. Pei Qing temporarily assigned the duties associated with the governorship of Jiangling to the old officials still holding office in the city, for them to oversee jointly.
They had arrived as two people on two horses. They departed in a vast procession.
"Do you truly not need me to prepare a carriage, Imperial Preceptor?"
Pei Qing, who had already refused three times, said, "...I truly don't."
Although Su Ren had heard of the Imperial Preceptor's reputation, the army was a place that judged people solely by their fists. Besides, he had grown up away from the capital. Seeing Pei Qing's delicate appearance, he assumed he was another pampered young master who could not endure hardship.
What was more, Su Ren's gaze swept over Lou Yun. If things really were as he suspected, his cousin had lived in the palace for years and presumably would not be accustomed to riding either.
He opened his mouth, preparing to persuade him for a fifth time. "Are you sure-"
Pei Qing cut him off mercilessly before he could get any further. "I'm sure."
To put this Young General Su's mind at ease, Pei Qing threatened, "If you insist, Young General, we will have no choice but to go on ahead."
Wanting to find out whether Lou Yun really was his cousin, Su Ren wisely shut his mouth.
Because they were traveling with the army, the two could not simply find an inn wherever they pleased as they had on the way there. They could only camp in the wilderness.
Pei Qing had never left the capital. Although well versed in military texts, he had never led troops, and he had absolutely no experience spending a night in the wilderness. As everyone else made preparations with practiced ease, the young man stood helpless and alone where he was, as though the world had abandoned him.
There were quite a few people curious about Pei Qing, especially these men who had spent years on the frontier hearing legends of Great Yan's Imperial Preceptor. Upon reaching the capital, they had found that the esteem in which everyone there held him was more than ten times greater. Now that they were seeing him in person, how could they not stare at Pei Qing for all they were worth?