The Sixth Year of Shenchu
Old Courtyard
“What? Killed by Sun Mingyi’s remnants? Uncle Dong was also killed by their hands?” Ah Xun just woke up from a coma when she heard the news of Alai and Xiaoshi’s death. Her forehead was wrapped in thick gauze and was still bleeding. The bowl of soup in her hand was knocked over on the bed, splashing the bedsheet with medicine. “Why would Sun Mingyi’s remnants kill them? They were just servants of the Xie family!”
“I, I don’t know either,” her maid couldn’t answer her question. “I only heard Master Xie and others mention it… Miss! Miss! Where are you going? The doctor ordered you to rest in bed!”
Ah Xun didn’t care about all of this. She lifted the blanket, put on her shoes, grabbed a jacket at random, and rushed out.
“Although there are risks, the only thing we can rely on now is her face,” Xie Taihang stood with his hands behind his back in front of the desk, the worries between his eyebrows never eased after he came back. “But this slave has a stubborn temperament, afraid it will cause trouble.”
Lord Yunmeng, sitting beside the desk, said, “I have observed this slave for some time. Although she is difficult to tame, she is loyal and trustworthy. As long as we keep an eye on Xiaoshi, she will comply.”
Xie Taihang: “Has Xiaoshi’s bleeding stopped?”
Lord Yunmeng looked at him with a scrutinizing gaze.
“If she dies, wouldn’t it be a waste of a great opportunity and all our previous efforts?” Xie Taihang added.
Ever since Lord Yunmeng revealed the plan to assassinate Wei Zizhuo, Xie Taihang always felt a bit overshadowed by him, led around by the nose. Although he was the one who pulled strings for the Xie family from that influential figure’s hand, Xie Taihang always felt uneasy.
“Don’t worry, Xiaoshi is unharmed. Lord Wang has already…” Lord Yunmeng was in the middle of speaking when suddenly the study’s door was pushed open. Ah Xun rushed in between a few servants and immediately asked about Alai and Xiaoshi.
Xie Taihang, seeing Ah Xun rush in angrily, said with great anger, “What’s there to say about the death of those worthless slaves? Look at you, all disheveled!”
“Father!”
Xie Taihang turned to Lord Yunmeng, who was sitting beside him, and said, “In that case, let’s proceed according to what we discussed earlier.”
“Yes.” Lord Yunmeng bowed and left. Ah Xun asked,
“Father, don’t you find this situation strange? Uncle Dong died in our Xie Mansion, how did Sun Mingyi’s remnants manage to kill him without leaving a trace? If that’s really the case, wouldn’t everyone in our Xie Mansion be in danger? And do you really just consider Alai and the others as mere servants? After all, Alai…”
“Shut up! As the father, I will only take care of dealing with Sun Mingyi’s remnants. You don’t need to ask any further!”
Xie Taihang’s strong attitude confused Ah Xun, but he quickly changed his tone and sighed, “I didn’t expect this situation either. I never thought that Sun Mingyi, a village man, would gather a group of skilled individuals from Jianghu to cause trouble and harm lives. I am still investigating where the Xie family’s weakness lies. Your brother, in his eagerness to capture the slaves, unexpectedly fell off his horse and got injured, unable to deliver the New Year’s gift to Dongchun. And the issue of the refugees is being resisted by the major clans of Suichuan, with nowhere to settle. Unfortunately, all these problems have arisen just before the end of the year, causing me great distress.”
Ah Xun comforted him, “Father, don’t worry, I will go and ask Chengyu. Maybe he can find some clues. As for the New Year’s gift… I remember Uncle Dong used to have a fellow villager who delivered goods by carriage to and from Dongchun. It would only take four days at most, and he had excellent driving skills. I will inquire about it, perhaps we can invite him at a high price.”
Xie Taihang nodded slightly, and Ah Xun asked again, “Father, where are the bodies of Alai and Xiaoshi now? I understand that you have been busy with affairs recently and may not have had time to attend to their funeral. I will take care of it as the daughter.”
“Their bodies have already fallen off the cliff along with the carriage and cannot be found.”
“This…”
“Alright, you may go.”
Ah Xun came out of Xie Taihang’s study and happened to see the heavy snowfall.
Despite it being a harsh winter in a year of famine, the flower branches and grass in the garden were still neatly trimmed, most of which were done by Alai.
Ah Xun paused in the garden, feeling a sense of melancholy.
Never did she expect that Alai and the others would die like this, with even their bodies unable to be found. When spring comes next year and the branches and leaves flourish, who will trim the flower branches for the Xie Mansion?
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……
Alai woke up as usual on the lonely boat.
Without any iron chains binding her, her reclining boat was connected to a slightly larger boat in the front. The rugged-mouthed man was standing at the bow, singing loudly while holding a long pole.
Alai remembered fainting when the iron fork was forcefully pulled out of her shoulder. Now, as she woke up, the two banks of the river were narrowing, and the river seemed to be approaching its destination.
Her wounds were roughly covered with a hemostatic ointment, but the pain was still unbearable. The pain from her fractured ribs continued to torment her.
The rugged-mouthed man threw the long pole and jumped directly into the icy cold water, which engulfed his knees. He seemed oblivious to the cold. He then dragged both boats to a rudimentary dock made of a few wooden planks, lifted Alai and threw her onto it.
Without saying a word, the rugged-mouthed man left on his own. The two small boats had no attachments and floated on the surface of the river.
Alai was in pain and cold, curled up on the deserted snow-covered dock.
She woke up several times, wanting to find a warm and sheltered place, but she had no strength to move.
In a daze, she felt like she was being embraced by her mother, with rough hands gently stroking her hair. In the simple backyard of the Xie family, she was taught to read, understand, and explain the teachings of Laozi.
The Dao that can be spoken is not the eternal Dao; the name that can be named is not the eternal name.
The nameless is the beginning of heaven and earth; the named is the mother of all things.
Therefore, always be without desire, so you can observe its wonders; always have desire, so you can see its manifestations.
……
“Mother…”
Alai held herself tightly, and the swirling, sparkling hexagons quickly covered her small body.
Tears slid from the corners of her eyes and froze into ice.
Several times, she felt warmth in her hallucinations. That warmth was on the other side of the river. She happily wanted to cross over, feeling hungry and longing to dig out a roasted sweet potato to eat.
Halfway through running, Alai suddenly stopped. She saw her mother standing on the other side of the river, waving at her.
“Go back.”
Unable to hear her mother’s voice, Alai could only tell what she was saying from her lip movements.
“Go back, your life should not end here.”
In the midst of confusion, three fingers fell before Alai’s eyes, shocking her greatly, and she couldn’t help but shout.
This shout woke her up, but she was still struggling in the icy snow.
Pain wakes people up, piercing through the heart. She understands that continuing like this will only lead to a dead end.
“Is anyone there…”
She can’t die here, she still has many things left undone.
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“Is anyone there! Save me…”
The continuous shouts make her throat feel as if it’s being harshly scraped by rough stones. When she can no longer utter a word, she finally hears some different movements.
A carriage came through the wind and snow, and Alai didn’t know who lifted her onto it, or who poured her a large bowl of water. She only knew that this bowl of water saved her life.
Before falling asleep again in the warm carriage, a thought floated in her mind:
It must be the people of Xie Taihang and Lord Yunmeng.
Since they went to great lengths to make me hide beside Wei Zizhuo, they definitely won’t let me die. All the torment is just to make me taste bitterness and obediently listen.
These beasts.
Knowing that she wouldn’t die, Alai quickly entered into a deep sleep. When she woke up again, she found herself lying on a hard board bed, covered with a torn blanket. Her blood-stained clothes had been changed into loose linen clothes.
There were no curtains at the corners of the bed, and there were no furnishings in the room. There was only a crude bed and a charcoal fire in the corner of the wall.
Her wounds had been carefully treated, and the large wound on her shoulder was stitched together with black thread. Alai was slightly surprised, remembering that her mother had told her about this stitching technique. It was said that different stitching techniques should be used for different types of wounds, and after stitching, the wounds would heal quickly. Only a handful of divine doctors in the world could perform this technique.
Alai tried to sit up, although the pain in her ribs and shoulders was still unbearable, she could at least walk freely. She pushed open the door of the small house and outside was a messy courtyard filled with fallen leaves. There were no elegant landscapes in the courtyard, only an old man with a thin and pale appearance standing in the middle of the courtyard. His thin robe was tightly pressed against his body by the cold wind, and his sparse hair on top of his head was even less than his messy beard. From a distance, this person looked like a skeleton without any flesh. He held a bamboo scroll in his hand, studying it carefully, seemingly unaware that someone was watching him from behind.
Alai found him quite amusing, standing in the cold wind dressed like that and reading, as if he was under a spell. Without reminding him, she sat in her original place and observed him, wondering if he was the divine doctor who could perform the stitching technique.
After half an hour, the old man finished reading the entire scroll and raised his head to sing:
“…Ah, youngster, listen to my plan, so you won’t regret it. The heavens are difficult, and the country is in mourning. Let me give you an analogy, the heavens never err. Return and cultivate virtue, so the people may prosper.”
Alai listened to him singing the lines from the poem 《Da Ya. Dang Zhi Shen》 and found it rebellious and unconventional. She thought he must be a frustrated Confucian scholar in the officialdom.
The old man held the bamboo scroll in his hand, as if he had already noticed Alai, and asked, “Can you read?”
This bald donkey must be in cahoots with Lord Yunmeng. Alai lazily ignored him, resting her chin on her hand.
He returned to the room and brought out a pile of bamboo scrolls, throwing them in front of Alai.
“These are all the information about Zhen Wenjun. You need to memorize every word and I will ask you tomorrow.”
“Did you make them up yourselves?”
The old man didn’t even look at her and didn’t say anything more, he went straight back to the room.
Alai looked inside through the broken and drafty window, and saw him continuing to read, sighing and lamenting non-stop.
The next day, the old man indeed came to find Alai and asked her to recite.
Alai opened her mouth and began speaking. She said that the Zhen family was originally a prominent clan in Pingcang, but they were inadvertently involved in a violent conflict. In order to survive, her parents took her and fled into the mountains, and she was also born in the mountains. Her mother passed away when she was two years old, and she grew up relying on her father…
These details about Zhen Wenjun’s background didn’t seem like they were made up out of thin air. In order to deceive Wei Zizhuo and Xie Taihang, they would need some solid evidence in their hands. Most likely, they had visited the old place and found some clues that Wei Zizhuo would probably be aware of.
After Alai finished speaking, the old man asked her to recite it again. Alai spoke again, but she made several mistakes. The old man angrily slammed a bamboo scroll down:
“You got these few lines wrong. How can you deceive the eyes of the Wei family!”
Alai was beaten and cried out in pain, resentfully saying, “Whoever said that telling the truth would be met with defenses to ensure not a single word is missed? Only memorized lies can be spoken exactly the same!”
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The old man was momentarily stunned by her words, standing in place for a long time. Suddenly, he rapidly questioned her on her knowledge of classics. The questions he asked about principles and ethics were all things Alai’s mother had tested her on before she turned ten. Naturally, Alai calmly responded fluently and even turned the tables.
Being refuted by a young child left the old man speechless. He seemed to age another ten years in an instant, unable to speak and trembling all over, he left on his own.
Two days later, the old man was nowhere to be found. On the third day at dusk, a carriage arrived with a man and a woman.
The man appeared to be no older than forty, with dark skin and a face as rugged as a boulder. He wore a black lightweight short robe and had a slender figure. Below his right eye, there was a long scar that extended to the corner of his mouth. This person exuded an unapproachable coldness all over his body and walked silently.
The woman, on the other hand, was completely opposite to him. Even before entering the courtyard, her laughter could be heard. Her long dress was colorful and vibrant like a peacock, and under her exquisite and exaggerated makeup, her true age couldn’t be discerned. From a distance, she came quickly, carrying her long dress and calling out the name “Zhen Wenjun.”
“Duke Wang said that he couldn’t teach you, so we can skip studying the classics and start learning Yin strategies and seduction techniques directly. I thought you were some kind of genius, but you’re just a little brat.” The woman lifted Alai’s chin and used the handkerchief she carried to wipe away the dirt on her face. She carefully observed her appearance and said, “Lord Yunmeng truly has a pair of poisonous eyes. This face is so beautiful. As long as I train you with my own hands, no man in the world will be able to resist you with just one glance.”
“Seduction techniques?” Alai heard these two words that had nothing to do with herself and immediately felt something was wrong. Her face turned slightly red, and she pushed the woman’s hand away. “Alai doesn’t need to learn any seduction techniques.”
The woman’s face darkened, and the man who had been standing silently behind her all this time had somehow sneaked up behind Alai and grabbed her neck with one hand. Alai felt a tingling sensation all over her body, and her legs gave way, causing her to kneel on the ground.
This man was incredibly powerful. He moved silently, and his presence couldn’t be detected.
The woman lazily sat on the stone steps and tapped Alai’s head. “What Alai? You need to remember that you are now Zhen Wenjun, Wei Zizhuo’s savior, Zhen Wenjun. Do you understand? From today onwards, I am your foster mother, Lady Yue, and he is your foster father, Jiang Daochang. After your biological father’s death, you came down the mountain to make a living on your own and have been living with us. The person known as ‘Alai’ has already been killed by Sun Mingyi’s remnants along with her mother, Xiaoshi. From now on, there will be no more Alai in this world.”
