Fish Meat – Chapter 229

The Second Year of Shunde

Jointly Chasing The Lost Deer (25)

Ah Xiang fought back the urge to run into the woods right then and there to bury the secret letter. She waited until dawn, confirming that Zhen Wenjun was still asleep, then used the excuse of catching wild game for the General to slip out again. Only then did she bury the secret letter in the same spot.

            

“The matter is settled. Wei Tingxu travels west alone. It’s the perfect chance for an assassination.”

Soon, this letter reached Cao Fei. Cao Fei decoded it and handed it to Yao Zhaoyi.

The Yao family army mobilized immediately, planning to execute Wei Tingxu at Guangming Mountain​¹.

            

Ah Xiang, meanwhile, continued to stay by Zhen Wenjun’s side, having Zhen Wenjun take her along towards Julu​².

With Wei Tingxu gone, no one could threaten Ah Xiang’s position. Completely winning over Zhen Wenjun was just a matter of time.

Zhen Wenjun’s main army marched rapidly for a full day before making camp at nightfall to rest.

            

Ah Xiang, concerned about Zhen Wenjun, brought fine wine and food to accompany her. After eating, she wanted to sleep together with her.

Zhen Wenjun readily agreed, enjoying the food and wine heartily. However, though she let Ah Xiang stay, she didn’t actually share her bed.

“General, I’m cold.”

            

Zhen Wenjun brought over a thick blanket and covered her well.

Ah Xiang could only give up the idea.

In the dead of night, once Zhen Wenjun’s breathing was even, Ah Xiang quietly got up. She slid a small dagger from her sleeve and crept towards Zhen Wenjun. A glint of cold light flashed as she thrust towards Zhen Wenjun.

            

Just as the blade was about to pierce Zhen Wenjun’s throat, she abruptly stopped.

She remembered Zhen Wenjun’s blindingly fast movements, her incredible skills.

Zhen Wenjun was a top-tier expert; even asleep, she maintained a high level of alertness. If she were startled awake, all previous effort might be wasted.

            

She retracted the dagger.

Now wasn’t the best time to kill Zhen Wenjun. Once the battle of Julu began, she could provide even more intelligence to the Yao family, becoming their most valuable spy. By then, not only her older sister, but even her father would see her in a new light.

Don’t rush, don’t be anxious, Ah Xiang told herself. Everything is under control.

            

Ah Xiang lay back down and tried hard to sleep.

She didn’t know how long she slept, but she vaguely smelled a peculiar incense fragrance. She wanted to open her eyes to see where the scent came from, but a lazy sense of comfort pinned her firmly to the bed, making her utterly unwilling to get up.

That night, she slept incredibly soundly, incredibly comfortably. From the moment she smelled that incense, she entered a happy dream.

            

In the dream, she and Yao Zhaoyi were playing, completely carried away, in the familiar woods back home in Fengxi​³. There was warm sunshine and sweet stream water, and it felt like they were the only two people in the whole world…

Trapped in this strange dream, Ah Xiang didn’t know how long she slept. When she woke, she felt groggy. The tent was cool and empty; she was alone.

Where was her sister?

            

No… she was deep within the enemy camp, there was no sister here. She was with Zhen Wenjun.

At this thought, she immediately looked towards Zhen Wenjun’s bed. It was empty.

Ah Xiang climbed down from the bed, her legs weak, a faint unease growing in her heart.

            

Where was Zhen Wenjun?

She lifted the tent flap and walked outside. Golden light filled the area outside the tent; the sun had just appeared behind the mountains, not yet fully revealed. It must be early morning. Where could Zhen Wenjun have gone so early?

Today’s morning sun seemed particularly blinding, forcing Ah Xiang to squint and raise an arm to shield her eyes.

            

Walking forward, scattered people passed by her. She didn’t see a single soldier wearing armor and holding weapons​⁴; they were all logistics​⁵ staff cooking and tidying up, along with some recuperating wounded soldiers.

Too strange.

A drum beat wildly in Ah Xiang’s chest. She grabbed an old woman who was cooking and asked her where General Zhen had gone. The old woman looked at her as if she were a monster, said nothing, shook her off, and hurried away.

            

She asked everyone she met the same question, but she was like a ghost wandering the mortal realm; no one answered her.

Until she saw Bu Jie up ahead, just about to step onto a horse carriage.

Ah Xiang immediately lunged forward and grabbed Bu Jie, nearly ripping his clothes right off him.

            

The soldiers beside him instantly rushed over and pinned Ah Xiang to the ground. Ah Xiang screamed like a madwoman, “General Zhen! Where did General Zhen go! Tell me! Bu Jie!”

Her shrieks were beside him, but Bu Jie seemed not to hear, slowly mounting the carriage. Only after he was seated did he say, “The General naturally went where she wanted to go.”

Only then did Ah Xiang realize that it was already dusk. She had slept for an entire day!

            

“The General left… why didn’t she tell me…”

Bu Jie sat in the carriage, frowning as he lowered the curtain:

“Where the General goes, why should she tell you?”

            

Ah Xiang’s face was pressed into the ground, smeared with dirt.

The soldiers holding her down showed no mercy; they were using their full strength.

“You treat me like this… just wait until the General returns…”

            

Before Ah Xiang could finish her roar, she heard Bu Jie’s cold laugh.

She lost the courage to continue her mad outburst.

Bu Jie’s knowledge of everything, his tone and attitude, mixed with the scent of the incense—Ah Xiang’s eyes widened as she recalled everything that had happened over the past hundred-odd days.

            

Could it be… could it be…

“Why be so rough with an unarmed young lady? Let her go.”

Ah Xiang heard a strange woman speak from behind her. Who was this?

            

The soldiers actually released her.

Ah Xiang, her hair a mess, staggered to her feet and looked back.

The soldiers gathered around a peculiar woman. The woman knelt on a straw mat in front of a tent, carefully arranging scattered wooden blocks and iron axles on a small table before her.

            

Ah Xiang glanced around wildly. The woman, still fiddling with the objects, asked:

“Young Lady, are you perhaps looking for them?”

Several heads were tossed out by the soldiers, rolling to Ah Xiang’s feet. She looked down and clearly recognized them as the hidden guards Yao Zhaoyi had sent to protect her in secret. The heads had already discolored; they had clearly been dead for many days.

            

“Who… are you?” Ah Xiang asked her.

“I​⁶ am surnamed Zhangsun, given name Ran. You can also call me Ah Liao.”

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Cao Fei had considered that Wei Tingxu, traveling alone, would certainly be cautious. The terrain of Guangming Mountain was complex; if they weren’t careful, it was highly possible Wei Tingxu could turn the tables on them. Before setting out, he and Yao Zhaoyi had already agreed to split their forces into two branches: one overt, moving through the mountains and fields, and one covert, ready to flank from both sides as a contingency.

            

They had even planned how to escape should they fall into danger.

In over three months, Yao Zhaoyi had completed the final stages of research on the “Xiangyue Sheng”​⁷ and built a functional version. If they encountered peril, they could escape using the Xiangyue Sheng, which would be absolutely foolproof​⁸.

Cao Fei and Yao Zhaoyi advanced towards Guangming Mountain with considerable caution. The main army was commanded by Cao Fei. The vanguard reported that the Wei family army was already about two li​⁹ away and would soon enter the mountain pass.

            

Cao Fei, not skilled in riding, sat in a sedan chair, observing from the mountaintop. Falling rocks and arrows were all prepared, waiting to see how the Wei forces would walk into the trap.

Yao Zhaoyi had again found a hidden spot with a view of the entire situation, her arrow nocked, ready to draw at any moment.

Dust rose; the Wei army was coming.

            

Cao Fei looked down from the mountain, seeing only galloping horses kicking up an unexpectedly large amount of dust. He couldn’t even clearly make out how many men and horses there were; he only saw the Wei family’s black banners unfurling in the wind and heard the thundering sound of hooves on the mountain path.

“Strategist!” A Yao family general, seeing the Wei forces enter the attack range while Cao Fei still hadn’t given the order, broke out in anxious sweat. The Wei army was about to pass through the mountains; this was the best chance to ambush them. Why, after waiting so long, was the Strategist hesitating at the crucial moment!

Can’t see.

            

The fan that Cao Fei waved year-round now froze in mid-air.

He couldn’t see the true face of the Wei army. Or rather, he couldn’t see any Wei people at all, only a cloud of dust.

“Strategist!” The general urged him again. Cao Fei felt a growing unease in his heart. He raised his hand and said:

            

“The time is not right. We mustn’t alert the enemy​¹⁰.”

In the end, they couldn’t launch the attack as planned. The Yao general’s face turned crimson with frustration.

Yao Zhaoyi watched, quite surprised, as the Wei carriages and horses passed through the ambushed mountain road completely unharmed​¹¹. She steadied herself against a rock and peered into the distance.

            

The dust kicked up by the hooves rose nearly one zhang​¹², which was highly abnormal. Yao Zhaoyi figured that Lord Cao must have noticed this anomaly and halted the attack. She feared there were likely no Wei people in that dust cloud at all—just a ruse to draw them out! Once Cao Fei attacked, Wei Tingxu would launch a surprise attack from another route. What a resounding scheme​¹³. But unfortunately for Wei Tingxu, while she had indeed been diligently studying the art of war since the Battle of Yanxing, and this attempt to cross the sea under camouflage​¹⁴ showed some improvement, it was still lacking compared to the experienced Lord Cao.

The dust slowly settled, revealing the heads of the lead horses.

A fine horse leaped forward, landing first on the gravel path, leaving the dust behind. On its back was unexpectedly a person holding a long saber, pointing towards the mountain:

            

“Old thief Cao! Stop being a coward​¹⁵! If you have any guts, come down and face my saber, your grandpa​¹⁶!”

There were actually people on the horses! It was a Wei family general!

Cao Fei leaped up from his sedan chair.

            

Not just the vanguard horses—a long procession of troops and carriages emerged from the dust cloud like a snake shedding its skin, revealing their true forms. There were people on all the horses! And Wei Tingxu herself was among them.

By now, the Wei army had already passed the range of the falling rocks and arrows. Hurting them was no longer possible.

Wei Tingxu wore narrow sleeves, nomad-style trousers, and soft leather armor, riding a white horse with a golden helmet. Seeing Cao Fei was powerless against her, she raised a hand and removed her helmet, her long hair flying free.

            

Even covered in a layer of dust, she didn’t look grimy at all, radiating an air of complete confidence, as if everything was under control.

All the Wei forces had been hidden within that dust cloud. Wei Tingxu had precisely calculated Cao Fei’s caution and used this diversionary tactic​¹⁷ to easily evade the Yao family’s ambush. Cao Fei was a renowned scholar of his time, a strategist famed throughout the land, yet Wei Tingxu had the audacity to exploit his intelligence and caution, slipping right through his fingers.

Cao Fei, accustomed to holding others in the palm of his hand​¹⁸, had never been played like this before. He was so angry he laughed instead.

            

Wei Zizhuo, ah Wei Zizhuo, I ultimately underestimated you. But you’re getting too carried away by success. When you wanted to show off to your enemy, did you consider that removing your helmet exposed you to the most dangerous place?

The Yao family’s fatal weapon wasn’t just Cao Fei’s ambush.

Having escaped Cao Fei’s ambush, she was now closer to Yao Zhaoyi’s arrow.

            

Yao Zhaoyi drew her bow fully, all her focus concentrated on the arrow.

Wei Tingxu was within her range. She was confident she could pierce Wei Tingxu’s head with one shot.

Just as she was about to release, immense force clamped down on her entire body. Her recently healed ribs snapped again on the spot.

            

The intense pain made Yao Zhaoyi cry out involuntarily. A familiar voice spoke beside her ear, “The same trick, just slightly changed, and you fell for it again?”

Yao Zhaoyi was shocked; it was Zhen Wenjun’s voice.

Zhen Wenjun showed no mercy, slamming her onto the ground.

            

The impact nearly shattered Yao Zhaoyi’s soul. The back of her head struck heavily against a rock, her vision whitening as the world rapidly receded from her consciousness. She clenched her teeth, struggling to regain focus. Zhen Wenjun kicked her bow off the cliff and grabbed her by the back of her collar, about to toss her down as well.

With half of Yao Zhaoyi’s body dangling over the precipice, Zhen Wenjun suddenly felt a sharp pain on the back of her hand, cut by the dagger Yao Zhaoyi had drawn from her boot.

Wincing from the pain, Zhen Wenjun’s grip loosened slightly. Yao Zhaoyi pushed off the cliff edge with one hand, kicked her feet up, flipping herself into a handstand, and then brought a leg down hard onto Zhen Wenjun’s shoulder. Zhen Wenjun hadn’t expected her to have the strength to counterattack after such a heavy blow and raised her elbow to block.

            

After the sickening thud of flesh hitting flesh, Yao Zhaoyi saved herself from the dangerous edge. But that impact had already shattered the bones in her foot. Zhen Wenjun merely shook her arm, seemingly unharmed.

Yao Zhaoyi stared at her, trying hard not to look too surprised. The double fractures in her ribs and foot made her unsteady on her feet. On the precarious cliff edge, this was extremely disadvantageous for her, especially against an opponent like Zhen Wenjun.

“You must be wondering why I’m here.” Zhen Wenjun spun the Golden Cicada Knife deftly between her fingers. “And you must be curious why I didn’t just kill you with one stroke just now. I clearly could have used this blade to slit your throat.”

            

Yao Zhaoyi’s heart pounded. Thump, thump.

“You must be thinking, is Ah Xiang already dead?” Zhen Wenjun said. “I can tell you, she was still alive when Zizhuo and I finished putting on our final act, casting the long line to hook you fat fish out of the water. But I imagine soon, you’ll meet again on the road to the underworld.”

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