By the time people started dying, most of the people in the Su household were still troubled by the aftermath of what had happened the previous evening. As the heavy rain came down, everyone continued discussing the matter in the houses and under the corridors of every courtyard, men and women, young and old, with hardly an exception. They talked about the countermeasures of the Second and Third Branches, speculated on how Su Yu would react, and gossiped about the family’s various entanglements—and of course, they could not avoid discussing Ning Yi’s attitude toward the whole affair. Most of it, naturally, was indignation and cursing, though some had also heard that Su Tan’er had brought the woman involved back to the house that day to confront her face to face, and each speculated on the matter with either meaningful looks or a certain schadenfreude.
Some even suggested banding together to go humiliate the woman a little—under the pretense of an apology, but really to say some unpleasant things to her—but such thoughts, once they crossed people’s minds, were dismissed as a joke. Even setting aside how Ning Yi might react, no one could really stomach the thought of Su Tan’er’s temper flaring at them.
It was into this atmosphere of idle after-dinner talk and household politics that the killing crept in, unnoticed.
The bandits who had come to Jiangning from Liangshan this time—aside from the handful of chieftains presently at Liangshan Marsh—were all elite soldiers from among Liangshan’s forces, thoroughly practiced and skilled in the violent clashes and looting raids of the jianghu underworld. Jiangning, by contrast, had known a century of peace; over the years, the various disturbances, large and small, had essentially never touched this place. The Su family did have retainers and guards, but they were utterly unprepared for something like this on short notice. When these men, guided by Xi Junyu, took advantage of the curtain of rain to strike, it took only moments for the gatehouse, stablehands, retainers, and maidservants near one of the Su residence’s side gates to be wiped out entirely. From there, the attackers pushed inward from the outer perimeter toward the interior.
The timing was just before the evening meal, and the heavy rain had further clustered people together indoors. The Liangshan men, working in groups of five to seven, would first scout the situation from outside a courtyard wall before suddenly bursting in. The Su family members gathered in each courtyard barely had time to react before they found themselves staring, dumbstruck, as black-clad figures rushed at them out of the pouring rain, cutting down everyone nearby with a single stroke each. In that instant, many of them couldn’t even process what was happening. Some children who had been chasing each other and playing under the eaves simply stood frozen, toys still in hand, as the black-clad men closed in without warning. Some, out of pure reflex, even called out “Uncle” as the men approached—and then their small bodies were sent flying through the air…
Not until three courtyards in a row had been wiped out did a retainer finally cry out loud enough to be heard, and only then did the Su household begin to react at all. By that point, the more than twenty men Xi Junyu had stationed on the outer perimeter had already begun encircling from outside, cutting off the escape routes for the people of the Su household.
From the moment the first scream rang out, Ning Yi and Su Tan’er had already been on alert—but even the most careful person can be caught off guard by someone with malicious intent, and the asymmetry of information was, in the end, one of the greatest problems. When the commotion started, Ning Yi immediately armed himself with blade and firearm, though in weather like this the matchlock would be highly vulnerable to getting soaked—but it might still prove useful at first. By the time they rushed out the door, shouts of armed men storming the city were already carrying over from that direction.
What kind of bandits would come rob the city of Jiangning? Told as a story, hardly anyone would believe it. And yet the sounds of slaughter from that direction were unmistakably real—Ning Yi had spent enough time in Hangzhou to have developed some ability to judge such things. The Su family did have a fair number of retainers and guards, but not many who could actually take part in real life-and-death combat with blade in hand, and it was now clear they had run into exactly that kind of situation. Judging by the sounds carrying over, the Su family’s guards were being steadily overwhelmed by the force bearing down on them, and mixed in with that came the cries and fleeing footsteps of the Su family’s people. It sounded, in fact, remarkably like the moment Hangzhou had fallen back then—except this time, the affected area seemed confined only to the Su residence.
Supporting Su Tan’er as they came out the door, he heard Juan’er calling from a second-floor room: “Xiao Chan, Xiao Chan, hurry and bring the young master over here…” Ning Yi, hearing the sound of fighting closing in from the other side, called out, “Juan’er, don’t let Xiao Chan come over, we’ll go to you… Can you see anything from up there?”
“No. I can’t make anything out…” Juan’er came flying down from upstairs. “Young Master, could this be some kind of vendetta from the jianghu?”
“Would anyone dare do it this openly…” Ning Yi answered, though it wasn’t really a denial—in his own mind he couldn’t come up with any idea of what exactly they’d run into. He found himself remembering the business a few days earlier, when he’d told Wenren Buer about being followed. At the time he’d assumed it was remnants of Fang La’s forces coming to make trouble for him, but for them to track him all the way to Jiangning, and to do it in such a blatant, showy way—that would take a truly deep and bitter grudge. He didn’t think he’d wronged anyone quite that badly.
Even as he spoke, Juan’er had already run down and taken hold of Su Tan’er, grabbing two umbrellas as well. The three of them—master and two servants—were just about to head outside when, from the other side of the courtyard wall, two soft thuds sounded in quick succession, and two black-clad men climbed over the wall one after another. Both were solidly built and muscular; the moment they spotted the three people under the eaves, they quickened their pace, sprinting past the pavilion in the middle of the small courtyard and heading straight for the courtyard gate. Ning Yi shielded Su Tan’er and Juan’er behind him, and the three of them moved sideways along the eaves, watching the two men warily. The two men watched them back, then slowed their pace; the two groups walked along parallel to each other. The one in front had vicious eyes behind his cloth mask, fixed on Ning Yi; when Ning Yi’s group stopped, the two men stopped as well. The lead man took a step forward, rainwater splashing off his entire body, then tilted his neck sharply with a crack.
The black-clad man behind him looked the courtyard over, then said something. The one in front gave a cold laugh: “So you’re that shameless pair, Ning Yi and Su Tan’er.”
Ning Yi still had his blade and firearm tucked in his robe at this point; his hands hung loosely at his sides, and he gave his wrists a light turn. “Who are you people?”
The black-clad man didn’t answer. “Since it’s really you two, then I’m going to have myself a proper slaughter—” He gave a great shout, drew a golden melon mace from behind his back, and charged straight at them. Ning Yi stood there empty-handed, watching the man’s figure crash through the curtain of rain, mud and water splashing up as the distance closed. As the black-clad man drew near, he suddenly put on a burst of speed and leapt into the air, aiming the golden melon mace at Ning Yi’s upper body and bringing it down with a roar.
There was a heavy thud, and in the rain, the black-clad man’s body suddenly convulsed like a hedgehog with its spines splayed out—his legs kicked in midair, his back arched and twisted, and his whole body seemed to hang suspended for a second or two under the force of the massive upward impact. In that same instant, Ning Yi had driven a full-power punch into his stomach, stopping his momentum dead in the air. Blood sprayed from his mouth and immediately began soaking through the cloth over his face. Only then did the black-clad man’s body drop, and the moment his legs touched the ground, Ning Yi grabbed his arm and threw him over his shoulder in a brutal shoulder throw.
The man had charged in from beyond the eaves railing, and in an instant his body crashed heavily into the windowsill of the room behind them—the entire window shattered outward. His back slammed into the sharp corner of the sill; whether or not it broke his spine was unclear, but he ended up hanging there head-down over the broken windowsill. Ning Yi picked up the golden melon mace from the ground and slammed it into the black-clad man’s body seven or eight times in quick succession, then gave the man’s head a vicious kick for good measure, splattering blood everywhere. He turned, pointing the mace at the other black-clad man still standing in the rain, stepped over the railing, and walked toward him, gesturing for Su Tan’er and her maid to get ready to leave.
“Who are you people?”
The remaining black-clad man had been frightened into stepping back twice. Though his side had some information about Ning Yi, they naturally hadn’t expected this scholar to strike with such vicious, savage force. He gripped his long saber tightly, and hearing the sounds of battle drawing closer from the distance, finally shouted, “We are heroes of Liangshan—all our brothers have arrived here today. If you know what’s good for you, you’ll drop your weapons at once and await judgment—perhaps you and your wife will be spared…”
He had no way of knowing that Ning Yi was, at that moment, burning with rage and resentment inside. He had no way to vent it on Su Tan’er or Nie Yunzhu, but a person could always find somewhere else to direct that anger. Expressionless, he closed the distance through the pouring rain and said in a low voice, “So Xi Junyu’s actually managed to make a name for himself.”
“Brother Xi, Brother Xi, he—”
Before the man could finish speaking, Ning Yi had already closed the distance and lunged at him. The black-clad man swung his saber twice in response—there was a soft thump as the blade tore through a leather pouch, and lime powder came showering down over the man’s entire body. In the pouring rain, a hissing sound rose almost instantly along with billowing white smoke. Since he was fully clothed and masked, the lime powder couldn’t easily burn through to his skin right away, but even the small amount that got into his eyes and nose was more than enough to torment him. He screamed and slashed wildly with his saber, and then, without warning, took a savage blow from the mace to the head. He collapsed to the ground, and Ning Yi struck him once more; after that, he stopped moving entirely. Ning Yi delivered one more blow for good measure before finally tossing the mace aside.
“Now I know who’s behind this…” Ning Yi turned and said to his wife and her maid.
Outside the courtyard gate, a number of people were already running and shouting—all of them familiar faces from the Su household. Ning Yi led Su Tan’er out, and at the far end of the path, he saw Steward Geng leading a group of capable guards locked in combat with a group of black-clad men, covering the others as they fled this way; every so often, a black-clad man would try to break through from the side into the crowd. Xiao Chan, wearing a straw rain cape, came running out from another courtyard carrying the child, waving and calling out toward them. Su Wending and Su Wenfang came running over as well at that moment. Ning Yi drew his blade and said to Su Tan’er, “Go with the others and find Grandfather and the rest. I’ll go lend a hand.”
“He’s here to kill you, he’s here to kill you…” Su Tan’er cried out, grabbing hold of Ning Yi’s hand, but seeing the look on his face, she finally hesitated and gave up trying to persuade him otherwise. “You… you should go find Miss Nie… she might not have gotten out yet…”
Ning Yi looked toward the fighting up ahead and took a breath. “There’s no time to worry about that now.” Su Tan’er let go of his hand, and he charged forward with everything he had. A black-clad man came at him from the side; they met face to face, and Ning Yi cut him down with a single stroke. At that same moment, Xi Junyu appeared with several men on a rooftop off to the side, scanning the area—and then his eyes landed on Ning Yi. He pointed this way and called out, “Brothers, that’s him—”
The group of men leapt down from the rooftop one after another and charged toward him. Seeing this, Ning Yi understood at once that the men closing in were quite possibly members of the hundred and eight heroes of the Water Margin themselves. He cursed silently under his breath, unwilling to drag the fight toward Steward Geng and the others, who were already struggling as it was, and turned to flee in a different direction instead…