Wang Daqiu didn’t remember how he escaped from the pirates’ hands, because when he was on the lifeboat, his father’s advisor held him in his arms the entire time. All around were gunshots and arrow sounds – people were hit by arrows, people fell into the river water.

The advisor was struck by several arrows and collapsed in the boat cabin, pressing Wang Daqiu beneath him. Before dying, he instructed him not to make a sound.

Wang Daqiu was very obedient. His father had told him not to cry, that crying would let the bad people find him, so he didn’t cry.

The advisor told him not to make a sound, so even though he was so scared he wet himself, he still didn’t make a peep.

Later, when the pirates saw that everyone on the lifeboat was dead, Wang Daqiu was small and hadn’t cried, so the pirates didn’t know there was still a child on the boat. They had originally planned to catch up and overturn the boat to destroy evidence, but the pirate leader on the ship behind ordered them to hurry to the official ship to move things since it was about to sink, so they gave up and let the small boat drift in the river.

No one knew how long it drifted. The small boat was pushed to shore, and Wang Daqiu crawled out of the cabin. He met a passerby and begged for help. The passerby was no good person – seeing that the child wore fine fur clothing, he had evil thoughts. He followed him to the shore to find the corpse boat, wanting to find better things from the bodies, but the small boat had already been washed away by the river again.

The passerby deceived Wang Daqiu, using the excuse of going to the city to report to officials to kidnap him and sell him to human traffickers.

The traffickers saw he was handsome with good bone structure and sold him to a theater troupe. Wang Daqiu originally wanted to run away, but hearing the troupe was going to the capital to perform, he temporarily stayed there.

New people entering theater troupes all had to go through beatings and training to brainwash the children, making them forget the past and believe only the troupe was good to them.

Having been kidnapped and sold by the passerby, Wang Daqiu gained wisdom from the experience and kept his guard up. He lied, claiming he had been taken by child snatchers and didn’t remember his family, willing to make a living with the theater troupe.

If Wang Daqiu had revealed his true background, he would probably have been murdered by the traffickers and theater troupe to avoid trouble.

Wang Daqiu endured the hardships of travel and had to do odd jobs for the theater troupe. At such a young age, he suffered greatly. When nearly reaching the capital, Wang Daqiu caught a cold with a swollen, painful throat that hurt even when drinking water. His voice became so hoarse he couldn’t speak. The troupe leader, seeing his voice was ruined at such a young age, wanted to sell him off, so he secretly ran away, became a vagrant, and entered the city with a group of beggars.

He was too young when he left the capital and didn’t remember the specific location of home, but Wang Qianhu had always told him not to forget his roots – the Wang family lived on Sweet Water Lane, Gulou West Diagonal Street in the northern district.

His throat was hoarse and he couldn’t speak, but having started his education, he could write a few characters. He used charcoal to write “Sweet Water Lane” on his arm and asked kind-looking passersby for directions to his home. Walking along, he encountered the Northern District Military Command capturing vagrants.

Just when he was at his wit’s end, he saw a familiar face – the female neighbor next door. His father had said the female neighbor was now his sister-in-law and had personally taught him to write the character “嫂” (sister-in-law).

Fortunately, his sister-in-law recognized him.

Wang Daqiu could no longer hold on. His vision went black and he collapsed. Wei Caiwei felt the child’s body – he was burning with fever. She quickly borrowed horses from the Northern District Military Command and took Wang Daqiu home.

At Wang Manor.

The head chef in the kitchen had prepared a table of dishes that would be served to guests at the wedding for Commander Mu and groom Wang Daxia to taste.

This was already the fifth time testing dishes. The chef thought: If the young master is picky again, I quit. With the wedding approaching, the menu still isn’t set and ingredients haven’t been bought – even a god would be troubled.

Wang Daxia tasted a lion’s head meatball. “Mm, not bad, but a bit bland. Our guests are basically military officials who practice martial arts daily and prefer strong flavors. Add more salt to this.”

He picked up a chopstick of dried shrimp with tender cucumber. “The taste is just right, but these cucumbers are all from greenhouses now, more expensive than bird’s nest and shark fin. A flowing banquet needs at least a hundred tables – the gift money we’ll receive isn’t enough to buy a hundred plates of cucumber. We’ll lose big. Change this cold dish to something cheaper.”

The chef said, “How about kelp strips?”

Wang Daxia shook his head. “No, that’s too shabby.”

The chef said, “Then stir-fry some yellow chives. Yellow chives grown in cellar hothouses are also an expensive dish, but not as costly as cucumber.”

Wang Daxia still shook his head. “No, chives have too strong a smell. It’s winter with doors and windows closed, plus braziers and heated floors – when the hot air steams it, the whole room will smell of chives. How embarrassing.”

Hearing this, the chef was so angry he wanted to remove his apron. Commander Mu finally spoke: “I think there’s no need to change it – just go with this. The lion’s head meatballs have just the right saltiness. If made too salty, guests will get thirsty and want tea and wine. Don’t tea leaves cost money? Don’t ten-year aged Huadiao wine cost money? How can you not calculate properly, child?”

“And this dried shrimp with cucumber – if cucumber is too expensive, halve the cucumber amount and add some crystal-clear jellyfish to mix together. It looks good, tastes good, and appears respectable when served.”

He continued: “Counting the days, your father should return home in the next day or two. If he sees you haven’t even finalized the wedding banquet, won’t he again blame you for incompetence?”

Wang Qianhu was his tight-hoop spell. Wang Daxia immediately agreed.

Having set the wedding banquet, Wang Daxia went to check the new room’s arrangement. After marriage, they would move to the new house at Shichahai to live separately, but for the first three days after the wedding, they’d still stay at Wang Manor.

Although this room would only be lived in for three nights, and he and Wei Caiwei had already experienced their “wedding night” half a year early, knowing each other’s bodies intimately, he still pursued perfection in the ceremony.

The steward ran over in panic, losing a shoe in the process. “Not… not good! Young… Young Master he—”

Before finishing his words, Wei Caiwei rode a horse directly into the back courtyard, carrying a small beggar dirty all over except for his face into Wang Daxia’s bedroom.

Seeing that familiar face, Commander Mu’s head buzzed – this boded ill.

Wei Caiwei dissolved ready-made medicine pills, but no matter how she tried to pour them in, they wouldn’t go down. Only when she used chopsticks to press down Wang Daqiu’s tongue and saw his red, swollen, festering throat did she understand the reason.

Wang Daqiu had a high fever that wouldn’t break and remained unconscious – very dangerous. With not a single person by his side, one could guess that Wang Qianhu had met with misfortune.

Wang Daxia immediately spurred his horse to the Five Military Commissions to find Grand Commander Zhu Xizhong.

Zhu Xizhong immediately sent people to investigate along the route. “Your father requested two months’ leave and would return to Jiangxi after spring – I approved the leave. An official ship can’t just disappear without any local news. Go home first to care for your brother. When he wakes up, we’ll know what happened.”

Wang Daxia was anxious as fire, but he didn’t go home. Thinking that he didn’t understand medicine and would just wait uselessly at home, he might as well do something that could help, so he went directly to the Embroidered Uniform Guard office to find Lu Ying.

Lu Ying had granted him wedding leave – he didn’t need to report for duty until after the fifteenth of the first month, with full salary. Seeing Wang Daxia arrive at the office in such a lost state, her first reaction was: “The bride disappeared? Who’s playing tricks?”

“Not her – it’s my father…” Wang Daxia explained about his brother appearing on the street as a beggar. “…Father loved this youngest son most, treasured him like a jewel, spending far more time with Daqiu these past few years than the eighteen years he spent with me. He would never abandon his youngest son – he must have met with disaster.”

Lu Ying had never seen Wang Daxia so panicked and helpless.

Although Wang Daxia always complained that his father was biased, suspicious, and rigid, always finding reasons to suppress him, humiliate him in public, and used to perform public father-teaching-son scenes in the northern district, chasing him and whipping him, Wang Daxia had never truly resented his father or imagined his father would leave him forever.

Seeing younger brother Wang Daqiu’s miserable state, father was probably in grave danger.

In front of his fiancée Wei Caiwei, Wang Daxia tried to appear as a composed man – nothing could break him.

But in front of his superior Lu Ying, all pretense of strength instantly crumbled, leaving only a boy afraid of losing his father.

Father promised to come to my wedding. I prepared for half a year – can’t he come now?

Wang Daxia couldn’t accept this outcome.

In front of Zhu Xizhong, he had to show the composure befitting an eldest legitimate son. No matter how panicked inside, he had to appear as the Wang family’s pillar, not letting outsiders look down on them.

Only in front of Lu Ying did Wang Daxia dare show all his weaknesses, like a shell-less snail trembling in wind and rain.

She forcibly pressed Wang Daxia into a chair and poured him hot tea. “I’ve lost my father – I understand your feelings. When the sky is falling, all words of comfort are pale, and you don’t want to hear them now, so I won’t say them. I’ll fully assist you in searching for traces of your father and his companions. A large official ship can’t disappear for no reason – we’ll definitely find something.”

The tea was still scalding, but Wang Daxia drank it all without feeling anything. His whole body was numb – he didn’t even want to cry.

Lu Ying immediately summoned her trusted subordinates, explained about Wang Daxia’s father and brother, and everyone brainstormed, expressing “We won’t celebrate New Year – we must find Uncle Wang and the others.”

Especially Officer Wu, who had also lost his father – in three years, he’d been promoted from junior officer to company commander. When his father Wu Mask’s body was fished from the moat and sent home, he had exactly the same expression as Wang Daxia now.

Officer Wu said, “I’ll take some brothers to Jiangxi immediately to investigate from the source. Any news will be sent to the capital by express courier.”

Officer Wu departed immediately.

Seeing his comrades give up New Year celebrations to help him, Wang Daxia felt warmth in his heart.

At Wang Manor, Wang Daqiu’s high fever persisted. Due to his swollen throat, most of the medicine was vomited up, making treatment very difficult.

Commander Mu went to the Wang family ancestral hall to offer incense to the Wang ancestors, praying for Wang Qianhu to overcome danger and for Wang Daqiu’s swift recovery.

Three days later, Wang Daqiu’s throat improved somewhat and he could swallow some liquid food, but the fever left him somewhat delirious, especially at night when he would scream for father and mother.

With father still missing, Wang Daxia had people bring his brother’s birth mother, Lady Chen, to care for him.

Perhaps due to the connection between mother and child, after Lady Chen took over, Wang Daqiu was much quieter at night. Whenever her son screamed with eyes closed and hands clawing wildly, Lady Chen would hold him in her arms, stroking his back like when she used to pat his milk burps as a baby, humming lullabies from his infancy.

Urgent letters came from Jiangxi saying that after Wang Qianhu boarded ship in Nanchang, it had been peaceful except for a small group of roving pirates unsuccessfully attacking Jiujiang County before retreating and dispersing. No other major incidents occurred, and no accidents involving Wang Qianhu’s official ship were heard of.

They praised how, thanks to Wang Qianhu’s three years of diligent military training, the garrison soldiers had gained some fighting ability and repelled the pirate attacks.

Otherwise, the pirates would likely have broken into Jiujiang County, just like three years ago when pirates roamed and committed crimes in Jiangxi – seven pirates could take an entire county, looting their fill before leaving.

On the day the letter arrived, Wang Daqiu finally broke his fever. His voice was still hoarse, but he could barely express his meaning and tell what happened that day.

Hearing his brother say the ship was sinking with limited lifeboats and father volunteered first to stay on the official ship, Wang Daxia’s heart sank into an abyss, endlessly falling: encountering vicious pirates, father had no possibility of survival.

Author’s Note: This chapter’s title comes from Game of Thrones. When “The Rains of Castamere” music plays, a joyous wedding instantly becomes a massacre.