Chapter 1

There was happy news in Apricot Blossom Stockade lately.
The second chief’s daughter, Miss Xixi, was getting married.
Miss Xixi’s surname was Xiao. She was seventeen this year. She had learned martial arts from her father since childhood and wielded a fine battle-axe. She was one of the most famous people in the stockade.
The man she was to marry was Ge Qingsong, son of the Ge family—the stockade’s well-known wealthy household and only heir.
The two families had been close for years. This marriage had been arranged long ago.
The wedding day was set for the ninth day of the third month—a grand auspicious day for marriage.
War raged everywhere and the times were unsettled. The stockade had not seen a celebration in a long while. At last there would be bustle again. Everyone was delighted. On the ninth, they rose early and crowded toward the Ge home to join the fun.
Apricot Blossom Stockade was a great mountain fort in the deep ranges of Thousand-Layer Ridge—terrain dangerous, easy to defend and hard to attack—a refuge for those fleeing disaster. For hundreds of years it had sheltered bandits, deserters, and fugitives.
But most who lived there now were ordinary folk who had fled into the mountains when they could no longer survive outside.
The Xiao family was among them.
They had once run an escort agency in the city. Five years ago Xixi’s elder brother, on a convoy, had stood up for justice and offended a powerful bully. The bully nursed hatred and colluded with the county magistrate to persecute her father and brother.
To save their lives, Xixi’s father Xiao Ding had no choice but to kill the bully and flee into the mountains with his whole family.
As the world grew more chaotic, more and more people entered the mountains. Xiao Ding and several sworn brothers gathered them, led them to destroy the vicious band of mountain robbers who had held the place, seized the stockade, and settled everyone there.
Five years on, the stockade had grown strong. Now over a hundred households lived there—nearly nine hundred people in all.
The Ge family sat at the east end of Apricot Blossom Stockade—high ground, new buildings, a sizable courtyard.
Such conditions meant little in the outside world, but in the deep mountains where goods were scarce and the ground uneven, it counted as luxury.
“Old Ge—congratulations, congratulations!”
“Thank you, thank you—come in, come in!”
At the courtyard gate hung with great red wedding silk, Ge Qingsong’s father Ge Jincai greeted guests beaming, grinning so wide his teeth showed.
He was very satisfied with this match.
The Xiao family had good character. Xiao Ding and his wife were upright, capable people. Their children each had their own skills. The only daughter Xixi in particular had uncanny talent for martial arts—few in the stockade could best her.
The girl’s nature was fine too—bright and open, warm and chivalrous. Just looking at her lifted the heart.
In times like these, to gain such in-laws was a dream. Ge Jincai was so happy he had been up before dawn making arrangements.
“Where’s the groom? Don’t tell me he’s shy—hiding in his room, too embarrassed to come out?”
“Yes—the auspicious hour is almost here. Where is the bridegroom? Bring him out—we should go fetch the bride!”
Guests laughed and teased. Ge Jincai looked around—indeed no sign of his son—and sent his younger daughter, who had just run up, to fetch him.
But the little girl said in a panic: “Father—Brother’s gone! Cousin Suyan—Cousin Suyan’s gone too!”
“What did you say??!!”
Ge Jincai turned pale. He rushed back through the courtyard checking room after room. Sure enough—no son, no Lin Suyan, his wife’s niece from her family.
“Stop looking. Song’er left with Suyan last night. This is the letter he left.”
His wife Mrs. Lin appeared behind him. Ge Jincai turned and read. All his joy became disbelief and rage. “That faithless wretch—he dared to elope with his cousin on the eve of the wedding?! How—how can I face Second Brother? How can I face Xixi?!”
“This is your fault! You knew Song’er loved Suyan, yet you forced him to marry Xiao Xixi. I said long ago let Song’er marry Suyan—that would be fine too. I told you to break the engagement with the Xiao family. You wouldn’t listen. You called me ungrateful. Now look—our son is gone! And my poor niece Suyan—she just lost her brother and sister-in-law and came to us for shelter. She hadn’t settled in yet and already she must wander again…”
Mrs. Lin wept and scolded.
Unlike her husband, who was set on tying with the Xiao family, Mrs. Lin had never liked this match. Her ancestors were a scholarly clan; her father had been a xiucai. She looked down on the Xiao family’s rough martial household and disliked Xiao Xixi—that girl who mixed with men all day without propriety.
Only because her husband insisted, and because the Xiao family had truly done them kindness, had she persuaded herself to accept.
“Men! Search! Search everywhere! When I find that monster I’ll beat him to death!”
On what should have been a fine day, the Ge household fell into chaos.
**
When word reached the Xiao home, Xixi had just put on the wedding dress her mother had sewn stitch by stitch. Her cousin Lu Zhining was pressing her before the bronze mirror to apply rouge.
“This stuff—does it really matter? I’ve known Ge Qingsong for years. It’s not like he doesn’t know what I look like…”
Facing this cousin who muttered unwillingly and fidgeted without rest, Lu Zhining was helpless. “It’s your wedding day. Don’t make me take out my silver needles. Sit still. No more moving.”
Xixi feared nothing under heaven except her cousin’s needles. She sat properly and let Lu Zhining paint and powder her face.
“Done.”
Lu Zhining’s family practiced medicine. The hands that often applied medicine to patients were skilled with cosmetics too. Before long the mirror showed a heavily made-up, strikingly vivid face.
“Not bad—almost too good. Doesn’t quite look like me.” Xixi peered at herself, unaccustomed, and made a face in the mirror.
Lu Zhining looked at this cousin who still acted like a child though she was about to marry, wanting to laugh yet uneasy.
“That orphan cousin newly arrived at the Ge home—I don’t think she’s simple. After you marry in, watch yourself. Don’t let her trick you. And Ge Qingsong—if he wrongs you…”
“I’ll twist his head off and kick it like a ball.” Xixi joked without much care. “As for Lin Suyan—she’s Ge Qingsong’s cousin. He’s the one who should watch out. If he can’t manage his cousin and she provokes me, I’ll take it out on him.”
Lu Zhining: “……”
She had almost forgotten—this girl never let herself lose.
Fine. She could rest easier.
Just as she thought that, noise rose outside. Someone ran in: Ge Qingsong had eloped with his cousin Lin Suyan. The Ge family was searching the whole mountain.
Lu Zhining: “……”
Lu Zhining looked at Xixi in disbelief. “Don’t rush—there may be some misunderstanding…”
“No misunderstanding stops me from killing that dog!”
Shocked and furious, Xixi slapped the table, tore off the wedding dress her mother had sewn with such labor, changed into coarse hemp clothes, and ran out.
She was bright and spirited by nature. Heavy makeup sharpened her features and made her presence fiercer still.
Mrs. Lin, who had come with her husband to apologize and explain because their son could not be found, saw her and shrank behind her husband, heart guilty.
“Girl Xixi—Uncle Ge—Uncle Ge has wronged you!” Ge Jincai was not afraid. He was full of remorse and apologized again and again to the Xiao family.
“Sorry is useless! If I’d known your family could do such a thing, I’d rather have beaten my daughter to death than betroth her to your son!”
The woman who drove them out with a broom was shrewd and pretty yet kindly—Xixi’s mother Feng Yunxiang. She had borne three sons and only this one daughter, cherished like a treasure. How could she tolerate the Ge family’s insult?
After driving the couple from the courtyard, she threw down the broom and said coldly to a young nephew: “Little Five—fetch your sister’s betrothal contract from my room! To hell with this marriage. It ends today. Our two families need never deal again!”
Young Xiao Yuanhe did as told at once.
“This won’t do—Second Sister-in-law—calm your anger!”
Dodging, Ge Jincai fell awkwardly to the ground. Feng Yunxiang’s face was still full of fury; she would not look at him. He could only turn a tearful face to Xiao Ding behind her, who had not spoken. “Second Brother—persuade your wife. Our families have been close for years…”
“Because our families have been close for years—because you and I are sworn brothers—I have not laid hands on you.”
Xiao Ding was a rugged, tall, imposing middle-aged man—steady and stern. His face dark as he stared at Ge Jincai. He did not shout. He only said coldly: “I will settle accounts with your son. You may go.”
“You—what will you do to our Song’er?!” Mrs. Lin, dragged here by force, finally panicked. “He was wrong, but he is young and foolish—not on purpose—”
“Shut your mouth!” Ge Jincai slapped her. “A doting mother spoils the son! That wretch was ruined by you—otherwise how could he do something so faithless!”
A crowd watched. Mrs. Lin lost face and clung to him wailing.
Ge Jincai’s head throbbed. He nearly fainted from anger.
Xixi watched and the boiling anger in her chest eased a little.
Just then her cousin brought the betrothal contract. Xixi stepped forward, stopped her mother, and tore the contract to shreds before everyone.
“From today I have nothing to do with your Ge family.”
Ge Jincai looked at the scattered pieces and wailed from the heart.
What sin! Such a fine match—how had it come to this!
**
Though Ge Qingsong had behaved abominably, after tearing the contract Xixi took her long axe and joined the search anyway.
The marriage was off—but the foulness in her chest was not. That man still owed her an explanation.
Her third brother Xiao Yuanfeng had already gone after Ge Qingsong, murder in his step, before Ge Jincai reached the Xiao home. Xixi chased in his direction.
They searched for half a day. At last, in a dense thicket lush with grass, Xixi found Ge Qingsong and Lin Suyan nearly taken by wolves.