Chapter 4

“What are you doing, mountain bandit girl! Let go of my master!” Sui He, still bound, bounced over shouting.
“Says who? Your master’s a grown man—what could I do to him?”
While she spoke Xixi saw the wound on Feng’s leg—bloody, bruised purple and red, shocking on cold white skin.
She pulled medicine from her robe and sprinkled it carefully.
Outside the cart Sui He still fussed: “Even so—his leg! How can a girl look and touch! Men and women must keep distance—let go, let me tend my master!”
“I’ll take responsibility for your master.” Xixi grinned, tore cloth from Feng’s robe and bound the wound simply. “I happen to need a husband. Your master isn’t married. We’re a match made in heaven.”
Sui He gaped: “Dream on!”
Xixi ignored him. Satisfied with the bandage, her eyes drifted to Feng’s face again. “That boy outside told me everything. You’ve nowhere to go—come home with me?”
Feng was in foul humor and wished to speak to no one.
Xixi asked again. Only then did he force down killing intent and look at her coldly. “No need.”
He was ice carved like jade. His voice was cold enough to chill the heart. But Xixi was drunk on beauty and felt no chill—only fire in her chest, liking she had never known.
She stared at his face hungrily. “Fate brought us together—don’t stand on ceremony. Out here in the wild, hurt like this—if you don’t come with me, where will you go?”
“No trouble.” Feng would not speak more. He tried to sit up. Xixi pressed a hand to his chest.
“I’ll be plain. I’ve taken a fancy to you.”
She decided directness was best. Blinking, a little shy yet bold: “I need a man to marry. You’re so handsome—I like you very much. Today whether you agree or not, I’m taking you back.”
For an instant Feng was stunned—then anger lifted his brows and he shoved her away: “In your dreams!”
Handsome but too cold—silent, like winter frost—people admired from afar and dared not approach. Angry, that chill faded and he came alive.
Xixi’s eyes brightened more.
Whatever it took—bring him back first, coax later.
She jumped from the cart and hauled Sui He up too.
Sui He struggled in panic: “What are you doing—let go—”
“Xixi?” Yuanfeng came over, having cleared the field. “What are you doing?”
“Third Brother.” Xixi pointed at Feng behind Sui He and smiled. “This is Xie Guiyuan. I’ve taken a liking to him. I’m bringing him home to marry!”
Yuanfeng: “……”
First he was stunned by Feng’s face. Then: “You can’t be serious. You just met him—you don’t even know his background—”
“I asked already.” Xixi did not care. “What I don’t know I can learn later. Love at first sight—I like him. I’m taking him back to marry.”
“…What love at first sight—I say you’re lusting at first sight! My master is talented and fair, a figure like an immortal—how could a coarse mountain girl be worthy!” Sui He raged from the cart.
Yuanfeng had thought it improper—but those words displeased him.
His sister had skill and character and was good-looking. How was she not worthy?
Feng’s leg was badly hurt. In this wilderness they could not abandon him. Yuanfeng agreed to bring both back to the stockade.
Xixi was delighted. She wanted a few more words with Feng—found he had fainted again.
“Master! Master! Wake up, Master!” Sui He wailed in his harsh voice.
The noise hurt Xixi’s ears. She twitched her lips and threatened with the axe: “Wail again and I’ll butcher you.”
Sui He: “……wu.”
**
The trip down the mountain was full harvest.
Yesterday’s gloom swept away. Xixi’s mood soared.
On the way home she drove the cart humming a little tune, face lively.
Her companions, seeing her happy, sang whatever songs they knew. Talk and laughter—very lively.
Sui He in the cart rolled his eyes. They said he was loud—yet they were loudest.
After who knows how long, Feng woke in the jolting cart.
Sui He met his cold dark gaze and did not know what to say.
He was not truly Feng’s man. Feng’s father had sent him to watch Feng. He had been at Feng’s side only three days and did not know his temper well.
But he knew much of the Xie family’s seventh young master.
His mother was only a lowly concubine. Born in the streets, raised in the streets—only at six did he return to the Xie house. For years he was bullied in the clan. His father did not favor him— even despised him—and for so-called greater design had made him a pawn, sent to Apricot Blossom Stockade for a “beauty trap.”
Three days ago when Sui He first met this seventh young master, Feng had been drugged by those around him—forced to drink a bowl of strong drug and swallow slow poison.
Thinking how he had nearly been violated by Pan, how his leg was broken, pity turned to sympathy.
The seventh young master had it hard.
But Sui He had no bond with him. He was here only to repay the master’s life-saving grace and for his frail sister at home. However he regretted this jade-like man, he would complete the master’s orders and not let the seventh young master ruin the plan.
Seeing Feng’s face grow darker, wanting to rise but powerless, Sui He finally whispered: “Young master, don’t struggle. We’re already in the mountains. Even if you had strength to leave the cart, we could not go far.”
Feng’s gaze shot at him cold as arrows.
Sui He’s hair stood on end but he pressed on: “And the master… the master told me to say—the poison in your body has an antidote. The antidote is in his hand. Complete the task he set and the antidote will come on time. And the eldest young master—the master’s men have found Divine Physician Wang. Obey and soon you may drink with the eldest again.”
Drink together? Feng found it absurd. He never drank with anyone.
That father of his did not understand him at all.
Nothing more to say. Feng could only suppress killing intent, close his eyes, and wait for the drug to fade.
**
The stockade sat on the mountain—roads rough and hard. The cart was too large to ascend. They stripped the body and left it in a shed below.
Outside the shed a wall of whole stone blocks—flanked by mountain on both sides, two zhang high—with battlements and watch holes above, guards posted—the first pass into Apricot Blossom Stockade and the only entrance.
Higher up, several watch platforms hidden in woods and brush—then the gate, then the stockade.
Some stretches allowed horses; some only leading horses on foot. One place was extremely dangerous—a misstep meant the cliff.
Feng’s leg could not bear weight. Where he could ride, he sat while someone led the horse. Where he could not, he was carried on someone’s back.
The carrier was Yuanfeng—originally Xixi’s job. But when Xixi tried to carry Feng from the cart she stared at his face and missed her footing, nearly falling on her back. Yuanfeng sent his sister aside.
They went on stop and start until they reached the stockade.
Dusk was near. Feng fainted again from exhaustion.
Sui He was still lively—cursed and fussed on the road until Xixi, fed up, stuffed a cloth in his mouth.
“Sister! Third Brother! You’re back!” Little Fifth Xiao Yuanhe, playing at the gate with friends, ran over happily.
Seeing Feng on Yuanfeng’s back and Sui He led on a rope, hands and feet bound, mouth stuffed: “Eh—who are they? Why is that one tied and gagged?”
Little Fifth’s full name was Xiao Yuanhe—second uncle’s youngest son, the youngest in the Xiao family.
Second uncle and wife were gone. That branch had only second son Yuanhai and Little Fifth Yuanhe.
Xixi had two aunts. Eldest aunt married nearby—the family fled into the mountains in the troubles. Youngest aunt married far—no contact in years.
Lu Zhining was eldest aunt’s daughter. She had a younger brother, nine like Yuanhe.
On her father’s side, no other kin.
Her mother’s side was smaller—grandparents and one uncle’s family still in Jiangling City fifty li away.
Jiangling held the Xie clan—century-old house and founding merit. The current head was Minister of Revenue, weight in court. With them holding Jiangling, the city had not yet fallen to chaos.
“This? Your brother-in-law. That’s his servant.” Xixi grinned at her cousin. “But his leg’s hurt—run to Uncle Lu and bring him to our house.”
Stocky dark Yuanhe stared at Feng’s immortal face: “Brother-in-law? But wasn’t he Ge—”
“Ge nothing—he’s dead to me.” Xixi waved him off. “Go.”