A Willing Mistake, My Lady – Chapter 24
by Little PandaApprehending the Vicious Thief
Tracking Li Qingmei
Having strolled the streets in plainclothes for two days, Shen Hetang unexpectedly saw the girl from next door laughing and talking with a tall, thin man as they climbed into a carriage.
Her torch-like gaze swept over the man’s feet; his steps were so light it was as if they didn’t touch the ground, inevitably making one marvel at the sight. Shen Hetang sensed that something was off. She took a couple of deliberate looks at him but didn’t dare follow too closely, afraid of tipping him off.
“Monkey, go find Head Bailiff Feng. Have him bring men on horseback and rush to the upper reaches of the Qingyuan River. Tell him a man suspected of being the vicious thief is heading toward the Qingyuan River. Tell him to keep a low profile; I will follow this person.” Looking in the direction of the carriage, the only road ahead led to the Qingyuan River.
“Wait, tell him to bring fishing nets.” This man likely had formidable qinggong1. If she couldn’t beat him, they could only swarm him. However, she was merely suspicious of this man. As to whether or not he was actually the flower-picking thief, she would have to see where Miss Li’s itinerary led today!
Watching the carriage pull away, Shen Hetang borrowed a horse and followed far behind, maintaining a distance where she wouldn’t lose track of it.
Like this, concealed by the shade of the trees, she followed for more than half a shichen2. Suddenly, the carriage ahead stopped moving. She abandoned her horse and quickly proceeded on foot to the front of the carriage. After peering around for a moment, she found it completely silent inside, without a stir.
Shen Hetang weighed her own martial skills and figured she could hold her ground. She quietly approached the front of the carriage and abruptly tore back the curtain. She was dumbfounded—there was no one inside at all. This startled Shen Hetang into a cold sweat; nine times out of ten, this man was the flower-picking thief.
Now she had to act fast, or Miss Li’s safety would be uncertain. She looked up and surveyed her surroundings. The trees here were dense, and not a single soul could be seen. She needed to hurry and rendezvous with Head Bailiff Feng to conduct a blanket search.
Li Qingmei had originally been immersed in the atmosphere of mutual romantic affection, but then she felt a sharp pain in her neck and knew nothing more. When she opened her eyes again, she found she could not move. Looking around, it seemed to be a cave. It was clearly the sweltering heat of summer, yet the place was inexplicably gloomy and cold.
“Zhou Lang, where are you? Don’t scare me, I’m so frightened!” Li Qingmei’s voice carried a crying tone, and her body trembled.
At that moment, the red candles behind her lit up one by one, illuminating the dim subterranean cave. A face that looked as if it were smeared with dead-white flour appeared before her eyes.
“Ah!!!” Li Qingmei shrieked in terror, her eyes wide with dread. No matter how foolish she was, she finally understood at this moment that this Zhou Lang was the recently notorious flower-picking thief everyone wanted dead. The ridiculous thing was that he had even told her himself that he was the flower-picking thief and had specifically come to pluck this flower of hers. At the time, she had only thought Zhou Lang was joking and had even blushed with a pounding heart. She had been so incredibly stupid.
“My little Lian’er, what are you crying for? Look how good I am to you. I’ve prepared so many interesting, wonderful things for you. How about I let you pick for yourself in a moment?” This Zhou Lang seemed to have changed his appearance. The corners of his eyes drooped, and deep wrinkles formed ugly ravines across his dead-white face. His voice had also become much shriller—there was no trace of the proper scholar left.
“Zhou Lang, let me go, I beg you. If you want my body, I’ll just give it to you. Why must you tie me up?” Li Qingmei pleaded tearfully, hoping to awaken the vicious thief’s conscience.
“But I don’t like it when you obey. I love watching the way you struggle, like chickens and ducks with their necks pinched, flapping wildly. Hahahahahaha.” The vicious thief laughed maniacally as if he’d lost his mind. He muttered things Li Qingmei couldn’t understand, his expression growing more and more hideous as he spoke.
Li Qingmei’s spirit completely collapsed. Seeing him pick up a thick red candle and walk toward her, she screamed even louder, “Don’t touch me! I’m ugly! My jiejie at home is the real great beauty. Go find her! All those girls you’ve taken put together aren’t as pretty as she is. Let me go, and I’ll trick her into coming out for you.”
“Don’t you know my habits? I only look for unmarried girls. That jiejie of yours is already married. I have no interest in her.”
“That’s because you haven’t seen her. If you saw her, you wouldn’t say that!”
“Enough nonsense. I’ve given you enough face. Don’t be ungrateful. Even if she possessed beauty capable of toppling a nation3, it wouldn’t delay my good time with you right now.” With that, his patience completely vanished, and he directly tore open Li Qingmei’s clothes.
Afterward, he looked her over as if selecting a spot, suddenly burst into laughter, and went to grab a branding iron4.
When Li Qingmei saw him heating the branding iron over the fire, she nearly fainted from terror. Biting her lip hard, she struggled desperately with her hands and feet.
Just as he raised the branding iron and arrived in front of Li Qingmei, a squad of men burst into the cave entrance. When enemies meet, their eyes blaze with hatred. Seeing that it was indeed the vicious flower-picking thief, Head Bailiff Feng directly brandished his broadsword and engaged the villain in combat. In the past, because they were out in the open, he hadn’t even been able to touch the hem of the thief’s clothes.
Now the vicious thief had been caught like a turtle in a jar5. Unable to escape, he could only fight. The two were inextricably engaged in battle. Shen Hetang and two bailiffs all saw Li Qingmei bound to the wooden bed, her clothes in disarray. Without a second’s hesitation, Shen Hetang tore down a red cloth draped in the cave and threw it over her.
It appeared she hadn’t yet suffered the final violation, but ultimately, they were still a step too late. For a sheltered young lady to have half her body seen by so many men was practically as bad as taking her life. At this moment, Shen Hetang felt a twinge of self-blame. If she had been just a step faster, would Miss Li’s situation be better than it was now?
Seeing so many men burst in, Li Qingmei was overcome with terror, shame, and indignation, and she fainted dead away!
Shen Hetang originally wanted to dress Miss Li properly, but the flower-picking thief over there really had some skill. Seeing that he couldn’t fully utilize his abilities in the cramped cave, he thrust a blade into the bailiff blocking the door. And because the bailiffs held back and did not strike to kill like the flower-picking thief, he exploited the opening and escaped!
Shen Hetang, who had wanted to dress Li Qingmei, immediately launched into a sprint in pursuit, not forgetting to tell Monkey to wrap Li Qingmei well in the cloth.
The entrance to the cave was narrow, and the interior was about twenty square meters. Their patrol squad consisted of only six men: two blocked the outside of the cave, while four rushed inside. The moment Head Bailiff Feng saw the vicious thief, he engaged him in a fight to the death. Shen Hetang and the other two simultaneously spotted the bound Li Qingmei and, caring about nothing else, immediately covered her up.
The vicious thief over there truly had formidable martial arts. While exchanging blows with Head Bailiff Feng, he also snatched Er Niu’s saber. Later, seeing that he was at a disadvantage due to being outnumbered, he recklessly stabbed Er Niu and charged out of the cave. Although the two men guarding the entrance wielded broadswords, their skills were inferior; the vicious thief knocked both of their broadswords aside in a single sweeping motion.
Fortunately, outside the cave was a crisscrossing dense forest, and the vicious thief was also injured. Just as he was about to gather his breath and execute his qinggong, Shen Hetang, who had chased him out, sent him tumbling to the ground with a flying kick to his back. However, he scrambled to his feet with quick reflexes and turned to glare venomously at Shen Hetang.
“You have nowhere left to run. Surrender without a fight!” Shen Hetang stared fixedly at the vicious thief, preparing to attack again.
“Hmph! If you want me to surrender, keep dreaming!” In the blink of an eye, the vicious thief unexpectedly didn’t flee. Instead, he swiftly lunged at Shen Hetang. He had thrown away the broadsword in his hand just a moment ago when trying to escape into the dense forest. Without a weapon, Shen Hetang naturally didn’t fear him.
Seeing him lunging toward her with a hideous expression, she executed a rapid dodge that made the vicious thief strike empty air. Following that, it was fist to flesh—she solidly landed several blows on the vicious thief. The vicious thief couldn’t believe that after dominating the flower-picking underworld for so many years, he was actually being beaten so badly by a pretty boy that he had no power to retaliate.
A kick to his waist felt as if it had shattered bone, causing him so much pain he couldn’t stand straight. Running away when he couldn’t win was his usual principle. He had originally thought this would be an easy target to handle, but he never expected to have misjudged so terribly.
If it weren’t for the need to capture him alive to quell the public’s outrage, Shen Hetang would have struck to kill long ago. Recalling the ruthless stab he had delivered to Er Niu, she had just landed another direct kick to the small of his back, even hearing a loud “crack” herself.
Seeing that he was no match for her, the vicious thief gritted his teeth and grabbed a tree branch, planning to slip away. He was as light as a swallow, ascending to a high branch in just two bounds. Shen Hetang realized that her martial arts, physical strength, and neili6 were all impeccable. The only thing she couldn’t do was leap high into the air by stepping on a mere twig like this vicious thief could. She could only use the lower trunks, leaping from one massive tree to the next, closely following right behind him.
Fortunately, the forest was vast, and the vicious thief couldn’t exit the dense woods immediately. With injuries on his body, he eventually lost the strength to fly and stopped on a tree. He shouted down at Shen Hetang, “Stop chasing! I’m exhausted! How much silver do you want? Your father will give it to you!”
“I want your dog life! Get down here!” With that, she forcefully delivered several rapid, vicious kicks to the tree he was leaning against.
The physically exhausted vicious thief fell headfirst, crashing down and ending up half-dead. At this time, Head Bailiff Feng also caught up from behind. Seeing the vicious thief apprehended, he was so thrilled he was on the verge of tears.
“Brother Shen, you truly are a youthful hero! This older brother admires you!” Feng Xin looked at Shen Hetang with gratitude.
“Head Bailiff Feng overpraises me. Let’s tie him up first.” Shen Hetang planted her foot on the vicious thief’s back, rendering him immobile.
“Ah, good, good, I’ll do it right now.”
“Use that net too. This man is full of tricks; a fishing net is safer.”
“Alright!”
Subsequently, the vicious thief had his hands and feet bound, was wrapped in the fishing net, and was carried onto the carriage from earlier by Feng Xin and Monkey. Over on the other side, Li Qingmei had just regained consciousness and dressed herself. However, deeply traumatized, she remained wrapped in the cloth sheet, hiding in a corner and trembling violently. Although she had narrowly escaped death, she felt as if living was worse than dying.
A moment ago, two bailiffs had tried to lead her away, but she absolutely refused to let them come near, screaming in a complete mental breakdown. Seeing her like this, the bailiffs were at a loss. She was a victim, not a criminal, and they couldn’t bear to add fuel to the fire.
“Brother-in-law…” Seeing Shen Hetang approach, Li Qingmei looked at him with a tear-stained face. Her gaze was pitiful, and her voice choked with sobs. The cosmetic powder she had applied that morning was completely ruined; her originally delicate and pretty face was now a total mess.
“The flower-picking thief has been apprehended by the authorities. Come on, get up. I’ll take you back!” She stepped closer and reached out to pull the young girl to her feet. In this era, when a girl was captured by a flower-picking thief, whether she had been violated or not was all the same in the eyes of others. Essentially, her life from this point on was ruined. Anything Shen Hetang said to comfort her would ring hollow and pale, so she opted to speak less and keep her mouth shut.
Li Qingmei gripped her brother-in-law’s hand as if she had caught hold of a lifesaving straw, holding on tightly and refusing to let go. But the vicious thief was still on the carriage, and it wouldn’t be appropriate to have her sit in the same carriage as him.
“Head Bailiff Feng, although this vicious thief is tied up, he does have some skills after all. I should hold him down!” She was truly afraid this man was too cunning and might use some trick to escape again.
“Mm, that works too. Then you sit inside the carriage and watch him!” Head Bailiff Feng yielded his spot to Shen Hetang and went to the front to drive the carriage.
“Will you sit in the carriage, or have a bailiff take you on horseback?” she turned her head and asked.
“I… I don’t want to sit with him… Brother-in-law, can’t you take me?” Li Qingmei was genuinely terrified, and she also genuinely didn’t want to be separated from Shen Hetang.
“How about this? You sit next to Head Bailiff Feng. That way, you won’t have to face the vicious thief!” Shen Hetang arranged for Li Qingmei to sit outside the carriage next to Head Bailiff Feng. Then, she had the others quickly lift the injured Er Niu into the carriage. That stab wound wasn’t light, but fortunately, it hadn’t hit any vital organs. Using Er Niu’s own clothes, she gave him a simple bandage, binding the wound tightly to stop the bleeding as much as possible.
Once everything was in order, the squad of men and horses dared not delay and hurried in the direction of the Yamen. The gloom that had shrouded everyone’s heads for days was finally blown away by the wind, and sunlight spilled down like fine sand!
Footnotes
- Qīnggōng, or lightness skill, is a martial arts technique that allows practitioners to move swiftly and leap great heights, appearing virtually weightless.
- A shíchen is a traditional Chinese unit of time equal to two hours. Half a shíchen is about one hour.
- A four-character idiom (chéngyǔ), literally 'toppling a nation and a city,' used to describe a woman of devastatingly matchless beauty.
- An iron tool heated in fire, used by the thief to brand the character for 'slave' (nú) into his victims' flesh.
- A common idiom meaning to be trapped with no possibility of escape, like a turtle caught in a jar.
- Nèilì, or internal energy, is a martial arts concept referring to cultivated inner force that enhances a practitioner's physical strength, speed, and endurance.
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