The Sun family had suffered a great catastrophe. Word went around that in the night, violent bandits had broken in to rob them — somehow finding their way into Master Sun’s study — and both Master Sun and his only son Sun Rugong had been killed.

When the Sun family released this news, it caused only a small ripple of reaction. Compared to the massive operations of Jizhou Prefecture, the Sun family’s affair was like a single wave — quickly swallowed and gone without a trace.

With Jizhou Prefecture mobilizing large numbers of garrison troops overnight to make arrests, the Sun family’s incident seemed utterly insignificant by comparison.

A carriage left the Sun estate. No one noticed it, and no one paid it any attention.

The driver kept his head bowed the entire time, unwilling to make eye contact with anyone on the road. The Sun family seemed to have lost all ability to hold their heads up overnight.

Inside the carriage, a woman who appeared to be in her thirties held a child of eleven or twelve in her arms. The child had a large lump on his head, his eyes were bloodshot, and his breathing was very faint.

“Child — hold on. Mother is taking you out of Jizhou.”

The woman kept speaking in a low voice, her expression terrible. She was genuinely afraid that her child would slip away from her like water — that he would drain through her fingers before she could hold him. She didn’t want to care about anything else, and couldn’t care about anything else. She cared only for her child.

Every mother is the same. They never believe their own child can be truly wicked.

Sun Rugong was not dead — because he truly was not an ordinary child. When Jinzu had spoken those words to him, he had judged that Jinzu would certainly kill him, not spare him as Jinzu had claimed.

So he had been on guard the entire time — even wetting himself had been deliberate.

Many people underestimate a child. But Sun Rugong was simply a different kind of creature. His mind was at least seven or eight years ahead of other children his age. While other children were playing in the mud at age six or seven, he had already been thinking about how high an office he wished to reach. While other children only knew how to seek comfort in their mothers’ arms, he had already been impatiently learning from his father how to control others rather than be controlled.

In the Four Page Academy’s small grove, when Zhang Xiaolin and Li Diudiu had exchanged blows, he had already known he was no match for Li Diudiu — so in their direct confrontation afterward, he had chosen to appear weak.

He might not be able to beat Li Diudiu in a fight, but certainly not by much. A person like him had been memorizing a lesson his father taught him from the age of eight or nine: never let others see through your real strength until you have absolute certainty.

That was why he was still alive.

In the few breaths before Jinzu struck, Sun Rugong was still calculating how the man would kill him.

At that moment, Jinzu had killed his father using old Xiao’s short blade. The blade was still lodged in his father’s throat and had not been pulled out — so Sun Rugong immediately judged that if Jinzu wanted to kill him, he would use his fists.

The reason was simple: he was a child. That man called Jinzu looked down on him, had not put him in his eyes at all. For a fighter of that caliber, punching a child to death was nothing at all.

When killing with fists, the most direct strike is to the temple.

Having thought this through, Sun Rugong feigned being too frightened to raise his eyes and look at Jinzu — while in truth keeping his gaze fixed on Jinzu’s right fist the entire time, having also observed that Jinzu had used his right hand when killing his father.

So in the instant Jinzu threw the punch, he lowered his head slightly — only slightly, but it seemed to be enough.

The fist did not land squarely on his temple. He was still sent flying, but Jinzu assumed he was certainly dead and did not even bother to check.

The carriage arrived at the gates of Jizhou City. The garrison troops conducting inspections opened the carriage door to look inside, saw a woman holding a child who appeared to have no breath in him, and asked no further questions.

After all, though the Sun family had suffered a great misfortune, the family insignia on their carriage still carried weight.

After the carriage left Jizhou, the driver was somewhat at a loss — the mistress had only told him to drive, without saying where.

“Mistress — where are we headed?”

“To Daizhou.”

The mistress spoke from within the carriage: “Back to my family home.”

Daizhou lay roughly four hundred li to the northwest of Jizhou. It had once been under Jizhou’s jurisdiction, but some years ago, when Youzhou was elevated to a major prefecture, Daizhou had been transferred to Youzhou’s administration.

To the north of Daizhou were the Yan Mountains, and beyond the Yan Mountains lay the grasslands — so Daizhou had always been a strategically vital military region, with over ten thousand border troops garrisoned there.

The mistress’s family had considerable standing in Daizhou. Her father was a fourth-rank general in the Daizhou border army, the primary military official there, nominally under the command of Youzhou General Luo Geng.

“Mistress, getting to Daizhou will take quite a long time. The young master, he…”

The driver asked with some worry.

“If he survives, I will make him into a truly powerful man in Daizhou, and one day he will return to Jizhou to take his revenge. If he cannot hold on until we reach Daizhou…” The mistress bit her lip until blood welled up. “…then I will bury him in Daizhou rather than Jizhou. He and I — neither of us will be interred in the Sun family burial grounds.”

On that very same day, certain events unfolded in Daizhou. The various officials of Daizhou Prefecture were also being given a lesson — though compared to that wild night in Jizhou, Daizhou’s affairs were minor enough that they could suppress and conceal the matter entirely without reporting it.

Several people had gone missing from the Daizhou prison — one adult and one child. How they had disappeared was, in truth, something everyone knew perfectly well. A place as heavily guarded as that prison — if people were going to get out, someone had to let them.

In the preceding days, a number of Daizhou merchants had gathered to discuss matters and, pooling contributions from each household, had put together a total of three thousand taels of silver. They passed this sum to the Daizhou prison’s judicial officer.

So that one adult and one child were quietly released in the night. Three thousand taels of silver had bought a life.

In a roadside pavilion fifteen li outside Daizhou City, a group of merchants who had gathered there to wait saw a carriage approaching and all rose to their feet.

The carriage stopped outside the pavilion. An old man and a young one climbed down — the older one appeared to be in his mid-thirties, gaunt and haggard, clearly having been badly treated in prison, barely looking like a human being anymore. The younger one looked to be twelve or thirteen, and was still in rather good spirits. He had already surpassed his father’s shoulder in height, and despite his young age, he carried the bearing of a wolf or an ape.

“Master Tang!”

When those merchants saw them descend from the carriage they hurried over, bowing in greeting. The man called Master Tang returned the courtesy hastily, visibly moved.

One of the merchants had a subordinate bring over a box and handed it across, then hesitated before advising: “Master Tang, please accept this travel money. For now, do not return to Daizhou.”

Another merchant said: “Master Tang has looked after our businesses for so many years. This is all we are able to do.”

The first merchant said: “Master Tang established a martial arts hall, teaching the children of local families to practice martial arts and strengthen their bodies, never charging a fee. Whenever any of us merchants ran into difficulties, Master Tang always extended a helping hand. We have always been grateful for your kindness and generosity.”

Another added: “Yes indeed — the year before last, my family’s caravan was intercepted by bandits on the road. It was Master Tang who led the people from the martial arts hall to intervene. Not only did he recover all our goods, he also negotiated with the men of the outlaw paths so that they would no longer prey on merchants from our region of Daizhou.”

The man called Master Tang quickly said: “I only had those few means — and could only help the local people. Fortunately, I have come to know many people in the jianghu over the years, so I was able to be of some use…”

“Master Tang — after you leave this time, please stay out of jianghu affairs.”

One of the merchants said: “Those outlaw men were arrested, but you had nothing to do with it. The prefecture officials simply saw that you had good relationships with people and tried to extort money from you, so they had your whole family arrested.”

Master Tang let out a long sigh, unable to find words for a moment.

“Master Tang, do you have a plan?”

“I… I had thought to go to Jizhou, but while my son was studying at the Four Page Academy in Jizhou, he was also implicated because of me. Now I cannot go to Jizhou either. However, in Tang County — less than a hundred li from Jizhou — I have a disciple there. I will go and stay with him for a while.”

“That is well. Once matters quiet down here in Daizhou, we will send someone to inform you, Master Tang. You will be returning eventually.”

“Very good, very good — thank you all.”

Master Tang looked at his only son and said: “Pidi — bow your head to these benefactors!”

“Yes!”

The half-grown boy already carried himself with heroic spirit. Without a second word he dropped to his knees and kowtowed with great sincerity, pressing his forehead to the ground until the skin broke.

The merchants rushed to help him up. “Take good care of your father and do not let him suffer any more hardship.”

The young man clasped his hands in salute and said: “The lifesaving kindness of these benefactors is something Pidi will never forget for as long as he lives. I vow to repay it with my very life!”

Four or five days later, on the main road.

A carriage heading south and a carriage heading north encountered each other. Tang Pidi, sitting outside on the carriage board, glanced at the other vehicle — its window was open, and a child with a strangely shaped head sat looking out, one side of his skull seeming to bulge outward.

Their eyes met. The child seemed to curse at him — apparently annoyed by Tang Pidi’s curious gaze. Tang Pidi didn’t think much of it and didn’t look longer; his eyes moved away from that carriage.

“Father.”

Tang Pidi turned back to speak into the carriage: “A few more days of travel and we’ll reach Tang County. I wonder if Senior Brother has moved — if we come all this way for nothing, where else could we go?”

From inside the carriage, his father was quiet for a moment, then said: “Your senior brothers are all dependable people — you must believe that. He sent word before saying we were welcome at any time, so he will certainly be waiting in Tang County. Besides, we are only staying for a while; we will be returning to Daizhou sooner or later. They occupied our family’s property and livelihood — that breath of indignation, your father cannot swallow.”

Tang Pidi made a sound of acknowledgment and said no more.

His father had considerable standing in Daizhou. Though not a government official, he was deeply beloved by the common people. His father had a strong reputation in the jianghu — city merchants often relied on his father’s protection, and when merchants ran into trouble on the road, they would seek his father’s help. His father had a righteous temperament, and over time the common people had taken to calling him Tang Bodhisattva.

Yet what no one had anticipated was that the prefecture officials had long harbored resentment toward his father. One year the Daizhou officials asked his father to contribute some silver for repairs to the government office. His father had said only two words: *no money.*

From that point on, Daizhou’s officials came to make trouble intermittently. This time they had been particularly vicious — arresting a number of men from the outlaw paths and subjecting them to severe interrogation, trying to force those men to implicate his father. But those brave men would rather die than surrender; not a single one gave in.

Unable to get what they wanted, the Daizhou officials knocked them unconscious and pressed their hands against confessions, leaving their handprints on the documents.

They then arrested his father on charges of organizing a conspiracy to rebel — a crime that carried the punishment of exterminating nine familial lines.

So Tang Pidi, who had been studying at the Four Page Academy, was dragged back as well.

Fortunately, the judicial officer of the Daizhou prison had been greedy for money. Three thousand taels of silver had saved both their lives.

“We will go back.”

Tang Pidi’s gaze fixed on the road ahead. There was a faint, quiet killing intent in his eyes.

At his age, he should not have had such murderous air.

—