Chapter 23: Wind-Shaken Oriole
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The fifteen-year-old girl, Cheng Linwan, though somewhat playful like ordinary girls, was worthy of being called a young lady from a distinguished family.
Under her grandfather’s teachings, she was not only well-versed in poetry, books, and feminine virtues, but also understood propriety, appearance, speech, and accomplishments. Though still naive about worldly affairs, she understood one principle.
Killing someone meant paying with one’s life.
“Grandfather, Xu Yan killed someone! He’s in league with those bandits!”
When her first statement received no response, Cheng Linwan shouted again from inside the carriage. The old man in front of the cart twitched his eyebrows slightly.
Neigh!
The mountain road was uneven, and the horse stumbled, causing the carriage to crash to the ground with a thunderous sound. The horse, having lost too much blood, stared with bulging eyes, struggling weakly but unable to get up.
The old man, thrown to the roadside, quickly got up and rushed over, pulling all the women out of the cart one by one. Seeing that only his wife’s face was scraped while everyone else was unharmed, Cheng Yu finally breathed a sigh of relief.
“Xu Yan did not kill anyone.”
The old man looked at his granddaughter and spoke these strange words, leaving Cheng Linwan stunned.
“I saw it with my own eyes—he killed Uncle Zhao!”
The girl frowned, completely bewildered as she contradicted the old man. If it had been hearsay, she wouldn’t have been so insistent, but what had just happened was something she had witnessed firsthand.
“Child, come and look.”
Cheng Yu stopped explaining and instead pointed to the steel blade in the horse’s rump, saying, “The blade went in one foot deep, into the fatty flesh of the rump, without injuring tendons or touching bone. Do you think such a strike was accidental or intentional?”
Grandfather’s question made the girl even more confused. In front of this stern yet kind elder, she dared not lie and could only shake her head.
“You’ve been to Old Grave Mountain too, haven’t you?”
Cheng Yu’s words made the girl’s heart skip a beat. Cheng Linwan clutched her clothes and answered quietly, “Yes, just once.”
Grandfather had forbidden her from entering the mountains for her safety, but youthful curiosity had led the girl to secretly visit Old Grave Mountain with a group of companions, though she hadn’t dared go a second time.
“You’ve seen Xu Yan’s stone throwing, haven’t you? He’s quite accurate, isn’t he?” Cheng Yu asked again.
“Very accurate.” Cheng Linwan thought of Xu Yan’s stone throwing, temporarily forgetting the earlier scene of killing, and said with blinking eyes, “Once I saw an oriole in a tree and asked Xu Yan to bring it down without hurting the bird. He really did bring it down, and the bird was still lively and jumping around. I kept it for many days.”
“Grandfather remembers that oriole.” Cheng Yu smiled and said, “Do you know why the bird fell from the tree but remained completely unharmed?”
Without waiting for the girl to answer this final question, the old man slowly began to explain: “It was because of the wind. A flying stone passed in front of the oriole’s eyes at extreme speed, creating a fierce gust that stung the oriole’s eyes. When a bird closes its eyes, it cannot fly. Unable to maintain its balance, it could only fall from the tree.”
Looking at his granddaughter, who was gaping with disbelief, Cheng Yu smiled and said, “That oriole was shaken down by the wind, not knocked down by the stone. Do you think this blade strike was intentional or accidental?”
The old man was no longer pointing at the steel blade in the horse’s body. His question seemed to refer both to the blade that pierced the horse’s rump and to the one that had stabbed the servant’s chest.
“Intentional…”
As if suddenly understanding something, the little girl covered her mouth, her eyes showing both fear and tears.
“Yes, intentional. They were doing their utmost to help this old man’s family escape from danger.”
The old man’s calm gaze flickered with sharp light as he murmured in a voice like talking to himself, “How could a disciple of Xu Daoyuan be an ordinary person…”
“Then, then Xu Yan was captured by the bandits—will he die?”
Cheng Linwan’s tears were about to fall. When she truly learned the truth of the matter, she felt deeply guilty about her previous coldness. That seemingly foolish little Taoist priest hadn’t been cowardly after all, but had been using all his strength to fight for a chance of survival for her family.
He had succeeded in the end, but he was also now trapped in the bandit’s den.
The old man didn’t answer his granddaughter’s question because he couldn’t see Xu Yan’s fate either. However, such a child who seemed foolish but was actually extremely clever should be able to survive even in a bandit stronghold.
Beside the cart shaft, the old woman who had retrieved some personal belongings looked at the grandfather and granddaughter with a bitter smile. She knew that in this world, some truths could be seen through, while others could not.
Having lost their carriage, the family soon climbed a low mountain. In the distance stretched a vast plain.
Charge!
Rumble!
From the mountainside came the thunderous sound of iron hooves. A hundred cavalry guards, each in iron armor and steel helmets, with horses beneath them and spears in their hands, approached with imposing presence.
The commotion of the war horses startled the Cheng family once again. When they saw clearly the attire of the approaching riders, Cheng Yu’s heart finally settled, and he led his family down the low mountain to meet the cavalry.
The hundred iron cavalry, led by a man who pulled his reins ten zhang away from the old man, caused his tall war horse to rear up with a neigh. The hundred riders behind him moved in perfect unison—one moment they were charging forward, the next they were completely still.
“Father!”
The man in heavy armor rushed to Cheng Yu’s side, supporting the old man and looking him up and down.
“Why did you leave Linshan Town early? Where’s the carriage? Why are you walking? Mother!” Seeing the scrape on the old woman’s face, the man exclaimed, “You’re injured! Did you encounter bandits?”
“Don’t worry, my son. Your mother and father are fine.” The old woman beamed with joy at seeing her third son.
“Third Uncle!” Cheng Linwan tapped the newcomer’s iron armor, looking curious and amazed. This was the first time she had seen her third uncle in armor—he looked very imposing.
The newcomer was named Cheng Yu, Cheng Yu’s third son and Cheng Linwan’s actual third uncle.
“We encountered some bandits, but it’s all fine now.” Cheng Yu glanced at his son, then looked toward the hundred cavalry still standing at attention in the distance, a rare trace of approval appearing in his eyes.
‘These were elite troops from the Great Pu border army. If all of Pu Kingdom’s armies had such spirit and strength, that would be wonderful.’
As the old man thought this, his son was not pleased. Cheng Yu’s thick eyebrows furrowed as he said angrily, “Who dares to rob our Cheng family? Father, what’s their background? Let your son avenge this insult!”
Cheng Yu, who had guarded the frontier for years, carried the rough air of a soldier. Normally he wouldn’t dare speak to the old man in such a tone, but hearing that his family had encountered mountain bandits, he was immediately furious.
“Yuan Mountain Stronghold.”
Cheng Yu frowned and said, “The frontier is of utmost importance. Border troops can only be mobilized with a general’s order. Cheng Yu, you must consider the bigger picture.”
The old man’s implication was warning Cheng Yu not to deploy troops without authorization, because his third son was only a deputy general of the Western Pacification Army. Moving border troops without the commander’s orders would be tantamount to rebellion. Cheng Yu bringing a hundred cavalry to meet them was already overstepping his military authority.
“Don’t worry, Father. If I get the chance, I’ll obtain the proper orders. I will personally destroy that Yuan Mountain Stronghold.” Cheng Yu said coldly.
Cheng Yu nodded, then suddenly remembered something. His expression became serious as he said, “Remember this: if you see a little Taoist priest named Xu Yan in Yuan Mountain Stronghold, you must not harm him. We were able to escape with our lives entirely thanks to that little Taoist priest. He is your father’s savior.”
“Xu Yan?” Cheng Yu was stunned for a moment, then said, “I’ll remember, Father. Yuan Mountain Stronghold is nothing to worry about. Right now, Father’s journey to the capital is more important. I have military orders and cannot stray far from Qi Yuan Gorge, so these hundred cavalry will escort Father to the capital.”
“Frontier cavalry must not leave their posts except in wartime—this is an iron rule.” Cheng Yu’s face darkened, his tone heavy: “Take them back. Just leave me a few horses. Yongning Town isn’t too far, and once we reach the post station, there will naturally be people to escort me to the capital.”
“What use are those good-for-nothings at the post stations!” Cheng Yu immediately became anxious: “The closer we get to the capital, the stronger the Taiqing Sect’s influence becomes. That old bastard of a National Teacher…”
“Shut up!” Cheng Yu’s face darkened as he scolded, “You’re not a court official—don’t speak carelessly about important ministers. Just guard your frontier properly.”
With a sweep of his robes, the old man led his family forward. In the distance, some of the hundred cavalry had already freed up several war horses.
Faced with his stubborn father, Cheng Yu was helpless. After a moment’s thought, his eyes lit up, and he shouted to his subordinates, “Hey, whoever still has family leave, use it all up!”
When the general spoke, his subordinates immediately understood. More than half of the hundred cavalry dismounted and removed their armor, loudly declaring that they hadn’t used their family leave yet and were taking it now to go home. In Great Pu, soldiers had a fixed half-month of family leave each year, and if they returned late, they would face military punishment.
Half a month was about enough time to escort Cheng Yu to the capital, though when they returned, these forty or fifty soldiers would all get a beating.
The elite of the Western Pacification Army weren’t afraid of getting beaten. The group of soldiers, carrying only their personal swords, approached the old man with grins, one of them saying, “Old master, you’re going to the capital? What a coincidence—we’re also going to the capital to visit family. You go ahead, we’ll follow behind. Same route, hehe, same route.”
Cheng Yu glared at his son and snorted, but this time said nothing else.
He wasn’t a rigid person. His third son seemed rash, but this move of using a pretext showed he had grasped the essence of political maneuvering.
Watching the old man walk away and his niece waving goodbye to him, Cheng Yu gritted his teeth and muttered, “They dared to rob even my father. Yuan Mountain Stronghold, hmph! Once this battle between the two armies is over, I’ll grind you all to dust!”
“Same route?” Deep in the mountain stronghold, Xu Yan clutched his stomach and said helplessly to the bandit beside him, “I’m going to the latrine, benefactor. You call this the same route too?”
