The safety of the household was a nearly unsolvable problem. After much deliberation, Yun Ye decided to boldly step out of the family gates himself to scout the way for the women and children at home. This was the duty of the household’s only male. A nearly tragic emotion welled up in his heart. The old veterans hid in the darkness, all holding crossbows and similar weapons, ready at any moment to resolve hidden crises.
Grandmother thought Yun Ye was just routinely going to the academy to teach. Auntie and Aunt also paid no attention. Xiao Ya clamored to go along. The soft armor under his robes was Yun Ye’s last bit of protection. Smiling, he bid farewell to his unknowing family members and arduously stepped out from home.
The only one who could sense Yun Ye’s unease was Xinyue. Her usually all-capable husband’s smile was so strained. Clearly knowing her husband might very well never return, Yun Ye’s instructions constantly echoed in her ears: “Take good care of Grandmother and the younger sisters. Even if something happens to me, you must not panic. Do what you should do. Right now crises abound everywhere. The Yun family has no reason to guard against thieves for a thousand days. This trip must be made.”
Great families all had enemies. No family would gamble with the family head’s life like the Yun family. They all first sent some collateral relatives to test the waters, and only at the end would the family’s important figures appear. This was common sense.
This wouldn’t work in the Yun family. Using Grandmother and the younger sisters to probe—Yun Ye believed he might as well go himself. Something happening to him would be much quicker than something happening to them. Just one blade strike—a moment of pain and it would be over.
Wang Cai, who hadn’t shown his face for many days, emerged from who knows where, anxiously pawing with his hooves. The groom stepped forward to pull him back and received another kick. Livestock were far more sensitive than people. Resting his head on Yun Ye’s shoulder, they went out the gate together.
People came and went in the marketplace. Every merchant clasped their fists in salute to Yun Ye, greeting him with smiling faces. Wang Cai wouldn’t even drink his usual favorite rice wine—after one sniff, he turned his head away, searching all around for something.
Walking from one end to the other, he had traversed the entire one-li-long marketplace. There was no danger at all. Had all the assassins been eliminated? Had that super assassin, just as the old veterans said, fled a thousand li after one failed strike?
Holding up a large cluster of agate-like cherries, Yun Ye simply opened his heart and strolled through the market. He didn’t wash the cherries—tossing one into his own mouth, stuffing a handful into Wang Cai’s mouth. The two brothers chewed cherries, then spit the pits skyward. Cherries were wretched things—little flesh, lots of pits, and rock hard. Yun Ye naturally spit far without spitting on people. Wang Cai didn’t care—learning from Yun Ye to spit things. Livestock didn’t have this function. Sputtering from his mouth along with saliva, cherry pits mixed with flesh splattered everywhere, making the tenant farmers in the marketplace dodge all around.
A wastrel should be exactly like this. How could the foremost of Chang’an’s Three Scourges be called a villain without doing bad things? Perhaps some fellow with an overflowing sense of justice would emerge to rid the people of this menace. Hadn’t the old veterans said? Super assassins would have super rules. If he himself broke rules and did bad things, perhaps he would meet their conditions for taking action. The marketplace had no outstandingly beautiful commoner women, otherwise molesting one would really enhance the atmosphere.
To be honest, being a wastrel and molesting commoner women in the street had always been Yun Ye’s wish. Unfortunately, he had never seen a woman who could arouse his impulse to molest. Beautiful women in small households were wealth, in large households they were treasures. Who would let them out of the house, let alone a single, beautiful woman going out alone? If there were no family accompaniment, before a lecher like Yun Ye could take action, she would be arrested by the authorities. Fifteen strokes of the board couldn’t be escaped. The laws of the Great Tang stipulated this. To this day, Yun Ye still didn’t know the reason.
The youth selling pork watched as Yun Ye had already passed by back and forth three times, yet hadn’t seen that young girl in the flowered shirt come over. Looking down again at the pig intestines on the counter, he moved to tie up the pig intestines with straw rope, came before Yun Ye, held up the pig intestines before him and said: “Are you looking for intestines? Here they are. Why didn’t your sister come?”
Raising his eyes to look at this youth who was at most fifteen years old, Yun Ye threw a punch right at this fellow’s nose. Too shameless! Just sell your pig intestines properly—how dare you have designs on my sister! He deserved a beating.
The youth’s head tilted slightly, and Yun Ye’s fist struck empty air. He stepped forward, draped Yun Ye’s arm over his own shoulder and asked again: “What if I give you all my future pig intestines—how about betrothing your sister to me?”
Yun Ye nearly vomited blood. His left hand, however, made a gesture not to act rashly. He wanted to see what this strange youth was really up to. “You’re a pig butcher, I’m a marquis. Is my sister someone you can match?”
“What’s wrong with that? My father is a great general, my mother is a princess. Tell me what about me doesn’t match your sister?” The youth said softly in Yun Ye’s ear, without the slightest hint of joking.
“Nonsense. There’s not a great general in the court I don’t know. Of the six princesses who married out, I also know the prince consorts. I just don’t know they would have a son like you. You’d be better suited to being a bandit.”
The two people entangled together looked very much like two good friends conversing. People came and went in the marketplace—no one paid attention. The youth looked around, especially at the places where the old veterans were staying, then said again: “You’ve spoken correctly again. My ancestor was a bandit. My grandfather was, my father was too. Only later he wanted to be a great general, so he stopped being a bandit. I don’t want to be a bandit either, so I sell pork. How about it? I guarantee I’ll treat your sister well. This lifetime I’ll only marry her. If there are other women, let your sister hack that woman to death. How about it? Men should speak straightforwardly.”
“Your sister!” Yun Ye was nearly mad with anger. Where did this lunatic spring from—wanting to trade for Daya with one string of pig intestines? I’ll kick you into a eunuch and see if you still have wild thoughts. Thinking this, he raised his foot and kicked toward this fellow’s crotch.
The youth didn’t even look. His knees clamped and caught Yun Ye’s foot. Yun Ye only felt his foot lose all sensation, as if clamped by a vise, unable to move at all. Wang Cai used his head to butt the youth, but the youth didn’t budge. Anxious, Wang Cai kept calling out.
The old veterans leapt out from all around, not moving their weapons, afraid to provoke the youth. The youth released Yun Ye, with one arm knocked Wang Cai’s large head aside, placed the pig intestines in Yun Ye’s hands and said: “Consider this the betrothal gift. My parents died early. I have no elders to act as matchmakers, so I can only come myself. Tonight I’ll go find your sister to discuss this matter in detail. Oh right, brother-in-law, my name is Dan Ying. I come from Erxian Village.”
Finishing speaking, amid the old veterans’ encirclement, with a few twists and turns like a snake, he slipped out of the surrounding circle. As he left, he still clasped his fists to Yun Ye and said: “Feel free to lay traps—let brother-in-law see his future brother-in-law’s skills too.”
Yun Ye stood like he’d been struck by lightning in the middle of the road, unable to say a word. This fellow must be that vicious assassin. But why didn’t he kill me? With his methods, killing me would only take an instant. Erxian Village? Why was this place so familiar?
He stopped the old veterans from continuing their pursuit and ordered everyone to return home to prepare for this fellow’s nighttime raid. This type of person—Yun Ye was seeing one for the first time, also dealing with one for the first time. Xi Tong was considered an expert, but compared to this fellow, still fell far short. This was already the same category of person as the legendary Kong Kong’er and Jing Jing’er. This fellow said he would come tonight—if he said it, he would definitely come.
“Boy! Tonight I’ll wait with Daya in the academy’s maze. As long as you can break through the maze, everything will be up to you.” Yun Ye suddenly shouted loudly toward the sky.
A voice faintly transmitted over: “Good! Straightforward! A gentleman’s word—four horses cannot catch it. If I fail, do with me as you will.”
“Hehe…” Yun Ye laughed. Boy, so what if your skills are good? Don’t you still have to drink foot-washing water before this old man? That maze had been modified into a complete mess these past days by Li Er, who loved strange and unusual killing methods. Even Gongshu Mu praised it endlessly.
Yun Ye reckoned he himself couldn’t walk past ten zhang. He didn’t believe this fellow could break through? The shadow wall’s password—whether Li Er deliberately forgot or truly forgot, in any case, no one knew now. No, this fellow was too strange. Better to get some drugs from Master Sun to arrange in the maze to be safe…
Returning home, just entering his own bedroom, Xinyue cried until she was a complete mess, hugging Yun Ye and refusing to let go, as if once she loosened her grip, Yun Ye would disappear. Letting her hold him, Yun Ye stroked her back to comfort her. He himself also felt like he had made a circuit through hell. Now thinking back, he discovered his actions were really too reckless.
He recounted the course of events to Xinyue. Xinyue’s pretty little mouth gaped wide open. She glanced at that string of pig intestines on the table, then looked at herself, then thought of Daya, who at such a young age already displayed a gentle and virtuous nature. This thirteen-year-old little girl had such magic power? Making a villain who killed like hemp willing to lay down his butcher’s knife and voluntarily drill into her husband’s trap?
But Yun Ye was recalling the place name Erxian Village, and couldn’t help but sing in a low voice a passage of Qin opera: “Brother, I observe your writings are good, the Eight Trigrams are efficacious. I command you to move to before Erxian Village. You say at Erxian Village one mustn’t stand long. Build a Xianxia Manor where elder brother can settle. This July twenty-seventh is Mother Qin’s birthday feast. We brothers together pay respects at the banquet before Jiajia Tower.”
Xinyue listened in bewilderment to Yun Ye singing strange tunes. She had never heard her husband sing before. How was it that at this time today he suddenly had the mood to sing? The voice was strange, the tune unpleasant, yet there was a vigorous flavor within it.
Everything became clear. There really was this damned place called Erxian Village. This boy named Dan Ying was actually truly Dan Xiongxin’s son. His father had been defeated by Yuchi Gong in the fourth year of Wude and ultimately killed. His household troops were also buried by Niu Jinda in a mass grave. Cavalry galloped for two days, trampling it flat. When Old Cheng spoke of these past events, he sighed endlessly. He himself had been on excellent terms with Dan Xiongxin, yet in the end could only watch helplessly as he was beheaded, powerless to rescue him. This was the most painful matter of his life. Niu Jinda also lost sleep night after night over this matter, only saying he still left Dan Xiongxin one root. Who would have thought this root had now grown into a poisonous wild vine that might very well take lives?
A boy fallen from the sky—could he be planning to perform a perfect revenge drama? This matter still needed to be covered up. Since this bastard didn’t kill me today, it meant he bore no enmity toward the Yun family. As for assassinating Li Er, Yun Ye always believed this was deserved. With blood debts of millions of lives under his hands, having one or two people who wanted to eliminate him jumping out was not strange at all.
This matter required caution. Since Li Er hadn’t killed Dan Xiongxin’s entire family back then, now as long as he didn’t know this fellow had attempted to assassinate him, he might also spare Dan Ying.
He needed to prepare two courses of action. If Dan Ying still planned to complete his great revenge undertaking, tonight should be his last night. If there was still room to salvage the situation, he should quickly throw him to the Cheng and Niu families to handle. He himself wouldn’t touch this karmic consequence.