The Eighth Year of Shenchu
A Mouthful of Old Blood
Without time to think, almost instinctively, Zhen Wenjun’s eyes flashed as she grabbed the wine jar beside her and fiercely smashed it towards the assassin’s face, forcefully pushed Wei Tingxu away from danger, and shouted:
“There’s an assassin! Protect sister!”
That woman didn’t expect Zhen Wenjun to turn against her and even attack her, the dagger in her hand flickered and aimed straight at Wei Tingxu’s neck. Zhen Wenjun wanted to flip the table to block it, but who knew that the other party saw through her move, stepping on the table while stabbing at Wei Tingxu, leaving Zhen Wenjun unable to flip it.
Wei Tingxu dodged sideways, narrowly avoiding the strike. The woman saw Xiaohua and Lingbi about to advance, her fingers like iron claws, grabbing the table and swinging it towards them, forcing them back. At the same time, she relentlessly flew forward, thrusting at Wei Tingxu. In a moment of desperation, Zhen Wenjun stepped forward and grabbed her dagger.
The woman was furious: “You!”
Zhen Wenjun’s palm was in intense pain, anger and pain surged her strength, she kicked fiercely, hitting the woman’s thigh. The woman staggered, almost falling, Xiaohua and Lingbi flew up, attacking from left and right, forcing her to abandon the dagger and retreat hastily.
Zhen Wenjun immediately inserted the dagger into her belt, taking advantage of the gap to try to lift Wei Tingxu onto the four-wheeled cart to find a place to hide. Unexpectedly, as soon as she reached into Wei Tingxu’s leg bend, she was held.
Looking up, Wei Tingxu’s eyes were clear, not a trace of drunkenness? Even the previously slightly red eyes were now tinged with a bit of coldness, and this already bright and beautiful face was now filled with dangerous killing intent.
“Sister, this place is dangerous, we should first avoid it!” Zhen Wenjun glanced around, puzzled, “Why don’t we see the shadow guards?”
Wei Tingxu pulled her injured hand to her chest, took out a silk handkerchief to carefully wipe the bloodstains, looked ahead slowly, her tone was quite gentle and leisurely:
“Just one or two assassins, hiding in this horse stables for nearly a year without finding an opportunity to meet me, let alone assassinate me. Today, I gave her this chance, and she couldn’t resist. Knowing it’s a trap and still jumping in, why bother with strict precautions against such a person? Xiaohua and Lingbi are enough.”
Zhen Wenjun looked at the assassin entangled with Xiaohua and Lingbi. Although she was pregnant, her movements were extremely agile and flexible. She didn’t know where she drew a pair of short knives from, defending left and right, and even finding opportunities to counterattack.
She could see that this female assassin’s martial arts were top-notch. If she weren’t pregnant, she might have found an opening in the still-recovering Lingbi and escaped.
In the end, two fists can’t beat four hands. As the fight dragged on, her flaws gradually appeared. Barely catching Xiaohua’s punch head-on, she was stabbed in the thigh by Lingbi’s sword. The woman, losing her balance, was pursued by Xiaohua’s heavy fist, which landed squarely on her face. Before she could utter a sound, she flipped over, blood gushing from her mouth and nose, falling to the ground.
Lingbi was about to strike her chest when she heard Wei Tingxu say to stop.
Zhen Wenjun’s heart skipped a beat. She knew that this trap was not only to lure the assassin out but also to test her again. She was certain that even if Xiaohua and Lingbi didn’t act, Wei Tingxu had the ability to protect herself and even kill the assassin in an instant.
So, she had to step in to save Wei Tingxu, as it was her only way to survive. But if she saved Wei Tingxu, the assassin would undoubtedly think she had betrayed her side. In this case, even without torture, the woman would first expose that she wasn’t the real Zhen Wenjun but an assassin trained meticulously by the Xie family.
Zhen Wenjun was in an internal conflict. She knew she couldn’t let the woman live; otherwise, even if she didn’t confess here, she would report her betrayal to the Xie family later. But this woman was pregnant, and in the first confrontation, she couldn’t bring herself to kill her, missing the opportunity. Now, leaving her alive and in Wei Tingxu’s hands, any further action would likely arouse suspicion.
Wei Tingxu said with concern, “Sister, your face doesn’t look good, and your hands are so cold.”
For a moment, Zhen Wenjun felt that Wei Tingxu was also waiting for her to confess everything. But if Wei Tingxu really knew she wasn’t the true lifesaver, no matter how capable or sincere she was, Wei Tingxu would still see her as a traitor, a spy deserving of death a thousand times. In this vast world full of talented people, Wei Tingxu wouldn’t care about having one more or one less insignificant person like her, easily manipulated.
Zhen Wenjun steadied her mind. It was not yet the point of utter despair, and she couldn’t lose her composure first.
Wei Tingxu looked at Lingbi and Xiaohua, who were waiting for her instructions, and pondered, “I remember this woman has a son?”
Lingbi called over the steward of the horse stables and asked, “Does this woman have a son?”
The steward quickly replied, “Yes, yes, he lives in the stables. Usually, this mother and son just feed the horses and clean the stables.”
Lingbi said, “Bring him here.”
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The steward acknowledged and was about to leave when Lingbi called him back and whispered, “Don’t make a fuss, just say the master has a reward.”
“Understood, understood! Miss, rest assured.”
Not long after, an eleven or twelve-year-old boy was brought over. Initially, his face was filled with joy, expecting to receive a reward. But upon seeing his mother on the ground, covered in blood, he immediately cried and rushed over, constantly calling for his mother to wake up.
Zhen Wenjun looked at the young boy as if she saw herself two years ago. On that lonely boat on the Yehan River, helplessly watching her mother have three fingers chopped off; the heart-rending pain when the iron fork pierced her shoulder blade; the freezing cold on the deserted dock where she almost perished, with no one to rescue her… The various torments inflicted on her and her mother by the Xie family felt like they happened yesterday. For a moment, she was filled with hatred and couldn’t help but feel for the young boy and his mother.
Xiaohua lifted Wei Tingxu and seated her on the four-wheeled cart, pushing it to within ten steps of the woman. Wei Tingxu propped her chin with one hand and looked at the now incapacitated woman, speaking coldly:
“I pitied that your husband died in battle, leaving you and your orphaned child without support, so I took you into the horse stables and gave you the easiest job. I never expected you to turn around and try to assassinate me. Truly, you have a heart of a wolf and lungs of a dog.”1
The woman’s jawbone had been shattered by Xiaohua’s punch, and now she could only glare with extremely angry eyes, unable to speak.
“Noble lady, I don’t know what my mother did to offend you, but she would never dare to assassinate you! I beg you, please show mercy and spare my mother! I am willing to take all the punishment on her behalf!” The young boy crawled and knelt in front of Wei Tingxu, trembling all over with fear but still forcing himself to speak, pleading and kowtowing at the same time.
Wei Tingxu suddenly asked Zhen Wenjun, whose hands were covered in blood, “Sister, what do you think I should do with them?”
The young boy immediately turned to look at Zhen Wenjun, his face full of hope and pleading, kowtowing so hard that his forehead became a bloody mess.
Wei Tingxu’s capture of the assassin today was a pretense, testing her was the real purpose. Even if she pleaded for this mother and child, she couldn’t save them, and it would only drag herself down with them. Zhen Wenjun felt a faint pain in her heart, averted her gaze, and obediently replied:
“Whatever sister did before, she should do the same today.”
Wei Tingxu nodded, reached for the dagger Zhen Wenjun had just placed at her lower back, carefully rubbed and examined it for a moment, and said with some regret, “It’s a good piece of material, but the person using it is incompetent. What a pity.” She then flipped the dagger in her hand and handed it to Zhen Wenjun.
“You kill them.”
Zhen Wenjun was stunned, and only after taking the dagger did she realize what Wei Tingxu wanted her to do.
A pregnant woman, a child. She wanted her to kill this pair of mother and child.
Zhen Wenjun’s gaze turned to the young boy, her hand uncontrollably trembling.
She could harden her heart to not save this mother and child, but to personally kill them, she knew she couldn’t do it.
However, she had no choice.
The dagger pointed at the young boy and the woman, she stepped closer, step by step. Seeing this, the young boy already understood what was about to happen. He hurriedly crawled in front of his mother, shouting:
“Lady, spare our lives! Lady, spare our lives! If you want to kill, kill me! Please, spare my mother! I beg you!”
Zhen Wenjun gripped the dagger tightly.
If she kills, she will become one of the same ilk as Xie Taihang and Wei Tingxu, and her heart will never find peace again.
If she doesn’t kill, she will just be another corpse lying in the horse stables today.
She couldn’t bear it, not because she couldn’t bear the loss of one or two lives, but because she couldn’t bear killing Alai, whom her mother loved.
She didn’t know what kind of person Zhen Wenjun was, but Alai, the Alai that her mother had carefully taught, would never harm children or women. However, she also couldn’t bear to give up. She had endured for two years, and just as she was about to make progress by Wei Tingxu’s side, if she gave up now, all her efforts would be in vain.
Her hand holding the dagger was trembling, her palm full of sweat.
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All of Zhen Wenjun’s thoughts lasted only a moment. The young boy who had been begging suddenly made a move, pulling a spike from the sole of his shoe and leaping up to stab Zhen Wenjun’s right eye.
Zhen Wenjun was greatly shocked and hurriedly dodged, immediately exposing Wei Tingxu behind her. The young boy’s real target was Wei Tingxu! He had calculated that in a dangerous moment, Zhen Wenjun, with little experience in dealing with such crises, would think of dodging first.
In an instant, the young boy, swift as the wind, had the spike reaching Wei Tingxu. Zhen Wenjun cried out in alarm, trying to intercept, but it was too late.
The young boy was ecstatic, believing he would succeed this time. His face twisted with excitement, he laughed wildly, but just as the spike was about to touch Wei Tingxu’s brow, his whole body trembled and he collapsed, powerless. Several arrows were embedded in his back, piercing his abdomen; the astonishment on his face had not yet faded.
A drop of blood appeared between Wei Tingxu’s brows, which she gently wiped away.
The four-wheeled cart moved forward, rolling over the young boy’s corpse.
As it was getting late, the cold air began to rise. Wei Tingxu’s voice also grew colder and harder: “Madam Hongye’s disguise and Mr. Golden Turtle’s juvenile bone-locking skill are things I’ve heard of for a long time. I once sent people to invite them. I thought they had refused me because they were high-minded hermits who had withdrawn from the world. But I didn’t expect they would still be involved in worldly affairs and die for these mundane people and matters. How sad, how sad.” She glanced at Mr. Golden Turtle, whose eyes were still open in death. “It’s a pity that with his death today, the juvenile bone-locking skill2 will never be seen in the world again.”
Wei Tingxu asked Lingbi for the soft sword, then stabbed it into Madam Hongye’s swollen belly, slowly cutting it open. Instead of blood and flesh, a large pile of straw and soft cloth was revealed. She chuckled softly: “What a full-term pregnant woman, turns out she was carrying a belly full of straw.”
She looked at the trembling steward, her gaze as if looking at a dead person: “This woman infiltrated the horse stables for nearly a year, and the steward knew nothing. If everyone were like this, how could the Wei family not fall?”
The horse stables steward quickly knelt down, kowtowing and begging for mercy.
“I’m tired. Let’s go back.” Wei Tingxu threw away the soft sword, slumping in the four-wheeled cart, seemingly exhausted. As Xiaohua came up to push the cart, she casually dropped a familiar command,
“Kill them.”
Lingbi responded, “Yes.”
Zhen Wenjun felt a chill in her heart, the Golden Cicada Knife instantly poised at her fingertips.
After Lingbi used the soft sword to finish off the steward and Madam Hongye, she came towards Zhen Wenjun. Zhen Wenjun’s whole body heated up, her blood surging backward, ready to fight Lingbi to the death, when Wei Tingxu suddenly stopped and softly, confusedly called out to her:
“Sister?”
Lingbi grabbed Zhen Wenjun’s hand and opened it, revealing a deep wound in her palm. Lingbi hissed and frowned, saying:
“Usually, you’re quite clever. How could you be so reckless at this moment? Do you not want your hand anymore?”
The Golden Cicada Knife was retracted suddenly, cutting her own finger instead. Zhen Wenjun smiled at them, the pain in her fingertips piercing deeply into her heart.
When they all got into the carriage, the day’s dramatic events and emotions finally reached an end. Beneath her calm exterior, the tension and sorrow she had endured for so long were finally released, transforming into a mouthful of thick blood she spat out.
Her chest burned with pain, and Zhen Wenjun gasped for breath, wiping away the blood stains at the corner of her mouth, forcing herself to follow…
On the return trip, Wei Tingxu and Zhen Wenjun shared a carriage, Xiaohua was driving outside, and Lingbi was attending to them.
Wei Tingxu’s carriage was spacious. She leaned against the soft couch, holding Zhen Wenjun’s finger with much concern, gently applying ointment to the wound.
“Look at this, how did you hurt your hand again?”
Zhen Wenjun said, “The dagger was too sharp; it was my own carelessness.”
“I was thoughtless, forgetting that my sister has always been afraid of such violent scenes, yet I asked you to end Madam Hongye’s life. Were you frightened, sister?”
Zhen Wenjun smiled faintly and shook her head, “It is my own incompetence. I always say I want to share my sister’s burdens, but I can’t help much. If something were to happen to you, I wouldn’t know what to do.” As she spoke, she drew out the dagger from behind her waist and handed it to Wei Tingxu, “This dagger, I return it to you, sister.”
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Wei Tingxu took the dagger and casually placed it on the small table beside her:
“Do you know who tried to assassinate me today?”
“I do not.”
Wei Tingxu said, “Those two were a couple. The man is known as Mr. Golden Turtle, possessing the juvenile bone-locking skill. You saw his appearance today as an eleven or twelve-year-old, but little did you know, he is well past forty. His wife is called Madam Hongye, and her skills in disguise and changing appearance are said to be unparalleled in the world. Do you remember Yue’s A Jiao? Although her skills in disguise have already reached mastery, she still can’t compare to half of Madam Hongye’s abilities. So, my regret just now was truly from the heart.”
“There are such wondrous skills in the world. I truly was ignorant.”
“I tell you this, Sister Wenjun, to let you know that all people and things in this world, their appearances are often the most deceptive. A child and a pregnant woman are enough to make people lower their guard and even feel compassion. The Xie family and others pride themselves on their integrity and high moral standards, but over the years, among those who tried to assassinate me, there have been no shortage of real women and children, including many twelve or thirteen-year-olds. You’ve been kind-hearted and soft since childhood, but in these troubled times, kindness alone is enough to ruin a person’s life.”
Zhen Wenjun looked at Wei Tingxu and smiled faintly.
Wei Tingxu wrapped her hands gently with soft silk: “Fortunately, I found you, sister. As long as I, Wei Tingxu, am around, I won’t let you be in danger. This dagger was meant for you. Please accept it. The dagger is small and easy to hide. In these chaotic times, it’s good to have a weapon that is hidden and hard to detect, right sister?”
Zhen Wenjun lowered her eyebrows and casually said, “Right, right.”
LP: It’s been really obvious since the beginning that Wei Tingxu knows Alai is a fake, wonder why she hadn’t done anything yet?
Footnotes
- Heart of a wolf and lungs of a dog (狼心狗肺): This is a Chinese idiom used to describe someone as extremely cruel and ungrateful. It is often used to indicate a betrayal or an act of severe ingratitude.
- Juvenile Bone-Locking Skill (锁骨还童功): This refers to a fictional martial arts technique that supposedly allows one to maintain youthful bones or reverse aging effects. Such skills are common tropes in Chinese wuxia (martial arts) literature.
