Gucheng County.

Li Diudiu had found the temple, but no matter how hard he searched in the spot Wang Heita had described, he could not find the banknotes. Searching at night was inconvenient, and he didn’t dare keep a torch burning for long, so he decided to delay a day and look more carefully in daylight — after all, not many people came to this place.

But he searched for an entire day, turning over everything that could be turned over, and found nothing.

By the time Li Diudiu was so exhausted he could barely straighten his back and had collapsed on the ground gasping for breath, he felt that this world was truly absurd.

The number of people who knew Wang Heita had hidden money here must have been very small, so the only way the money could be gone was if someone close to Wang Heita had taken it.

On one hand, hundreds of brothers had gone to their deaths together. On the other hand, someone had stolen his money.

It was absurd enough to make the world feel unreal.

Li Diudiu braced himself against a half-collapsed wall and stood up, glanced at the sun sinking toward the horizon, and in the end could only give up. At least he still had the thousand-plus taels of banknotes Wang Heita had given him. He consoled himself — it’s fine, it’s fine, think of it as having made a wasted trip to Gucheng County.

Just as he was about to leave and return to the inn, a long blade suddenly thrust out from behind a crumbling wall. Li Diudiu had not noticed anything at all — he was genuinely exhausted and hungry — and had it not been for the dying sun reflecting off the blade, he might have been wounded.

The instant the blade appeared he dodged aside, crouching low like a hunting leopard as all four limbs fired at once and he shot forward in a sudden burst.

The long blade did not pursue him. Clearly, the person who had ambushed Li Diudiu was not particularly skilled — at the very least, their lightness techniques were nothing to speak of. Or perhaps this person had no real killing intent at all.

Li Diudiu darted out a distance, then turned back. He saw a middle-aged man with a face twisted into an expression of extreme ugliness staring at him with eyes full of hatred.

But this man was someone Li Diudiu did not recognize at all, not even a trace of recollection — yet the hatred in the man’s eyes gave Li Diudiu the strange impression that he himself must have committed some great wrong.

“You were sent by that bastard Wang Heita, weren’t you.”

The middle-aged man clambered over the short wall, carrying the blade. Li Diudiu could see that the man’s movements were somewhat clumsy — his martial skill was genuinely mediocre.

That thrust just now had caused more fright than it had actual danger.

Li Diudiu did not answer but turned the question back: “Who are you?”

The man didn’t answer either. He looked Li Diudiu up and down a few times, then sneered: “Looks like even after Wang Heita entered Jizhou City and became someone’s dog under all those so-called powerful figures, he didn’t manage it very well — turns out his underlings are just a half-grown child like you.”

He raised the blade and pointed it at Li Diudiu: “This is a matter between me and Wang Heita — it’s none of your business, and I don’t want to kill anyone else. Go back and tell Wang Heita that I took all the money. He owed it to me. If he wants it back, he can come himself.”

He paused for a moment, then added: “I’ll wait here for a while. There needs to be a reckoning between him and me. Deliver my words exactly as I’ve said them, then scram!”

Li Diudiu looked at this ferocious-faced middle-aged man, and in that instant it suddenly dawned on him — he had guessed who this person was.

“I would very much like to deliver your words exactly as you’ve said them to Wang Heita, but I can’t.”

Li Diudiu said: “He’s dead.”

The man whose face had been twisted with fury went rigid at those three words. Quickly the expression on his face changed too. He strode forward in large steps, but then for some reason suddenly stopped, raised the long blade again to point at Li Diudiu — only the blade was not at all steady now, trembling and shaking like an old man in the final flickering of his years.

“What did you say?”

The red veins in the middle-aged man’s eyes seemed to surge up in an instant. He pointed the blade at Li Diudiu, screaming: “How could he possibly be dead?! You must be lying to me — that bastard threw his lot in with the officials, how could he be dead!”

Li Diudiu was silent for a moment, then answered: “I’m not Big Brother Wang’s man. After he foresaw that something would happen to him, he entrusted me to come here, retrieve the banknotes, and deliver them to his family. I left Jizhou City after learning of his death… He — he died because of internal infighting among the officials.”

The middle-aged man froze. A moment later he began to laugh wildly, laughing so hard he swayed back and forth. The long blade slipped from his grip and hit the ground with a clang. It was the first time Li Diudiu had ever seen someone laugh as though their heart were being torn apart.

After laughing for a long time, the man crouched on the ground, buried his face in his hands, and wept — also as though his heart were being torn apart.

After a very long time, the man stopped crying. He murmured two words to himself.

“Karma.”

Li Diudiu watched him, not knowing what to say.

In that moment he had guessed who this person was. This could only be Wang Heita’s sworn brother Song Feng. The two of them had pledged brotherhood and launched an uprising together, had survived countless brushes with life and death — yet had parted ways over money.

“He deserved to die.”

Song Feng coughed a few times and said: “A treacherous, faithless villain who then ran off to be someone’s dog for the officials — this was his end. Nothing worth grieving.”

Li Diudiu said: “But you’re grieving.”

“I am not!”

Song Feng bellowed, and his face instantly reverted to its former ferocity.

He tried to bend down and pick up the blade, but as he bent over he seemed to lose control of himself and pitched forward to the ground. The man lying there in that moment looked like a child who had only just learned to walk — fallen and unable to rise, his eyes full of helplessness.

Li Diudiu went over and gave him a hand up. Song Feng glared ferociously up at Li Diudiu: “You dare come near me? You’re not afraid I’ll kill you?”

Li Diudiu shook his head: “You can’t kill me. You don’t have the ability.”

Song Feng seemed to fly into a rage, struggling to his feet to fight Li Diudiu. Li Diudiu gave a casual pull and a trip, and Song Feng fell hard to the ground again.

Compared to Wang Heita, Song Feng’s martial skill was truly beneath notice when measured against Li Diudiu.

“Let’s talk for a bit.”

Li Diudiu looked at Song Feng, who lay there in a daze, and said: “I was entrusted with a task, and I intend to see it through. Big Brother Wang asked me to bring the money to his family. If you’re the one who took the banknotes, please return them to me — I still have business to finish.”

Song Feng sat up and leaned against the low wall. He stared at Li Diudiu as though looking at something strange and said: “Someone so treacherous and faithless, someone so cold-blooded and ruthless — and you’re still willing to risk yourself to do something for him?!”

Li Diudiu answered: “I saw Big Brother Wang’s sworn brothers. Not one of them was willing to leave him to save themselves. In the most dangerous moment, every single one of them chose to stay — until death. Hundreds of them, dying together. If Big Brother Wang were truly as treacherous and cold-blooded as you say, why would hundreds of brothers die alongside him?”

Song Feng opened his mouth, but not a single word came out.

“I don’t care what grievance was between you, or how close you once were.”

Li Diudiu said seriously: “But since I gave my word to Big Brother Wang, I won’t abandon it halfway. I’ll ask you one more time — did you take the money?”

“Yes!”

Song Feng answered with one word, biting it out between his teeth.

Li Diudiu extended his hand: “Then please give it to me.”

Song Feng didn’t hand it over. After a very long silence he suddenly asked: “Did he… die badly?”

Li Diudiu answered: “More than twenty stab wounds. I didn’t see it myself, but I heard.”

“More than twenty stab wounds…”

Song Feng let out a desolate laugh, murmuring as if to himself: “He once took blades for me. Three times…”

He looked at Li Diudiu, hesitated, then gestured: “Could you sit down and talk with me for a while? I want to know what his life was like in Jizhou City.”

After Li Diudiu sat down beside Song Feng, he said: “Never mind what his life was like in Jizhou City for now — your own life after you parted from him must not have been good.”

Song Feng nodded: “After he left, in a fit of rage I ordered my men to go to Jizhou City and kill him — but no one was willing. In that moment I finally understood: my men respected him far more than they respected me.”

He paused, then continued: “But at that time I still hadn’t come to my senses about how wrong I had been. I cut down one of the men who wouldn’t listen to me, and the rest of the brothers looked at me the way you look at an enemy. One by one they left, saying I had changed…”

Song Feng raised a hand and rubbed his face hard — so hard his face appeared to distort.

“The group fell apart. I became a man alone… But then I grew calm. I thought to myself, he threw his lot in with the officials — his end surely wouldn’t be good. The officials of this Dachu court — are they even human? They’re not. They’re all wolves dressed in human skin.”

“So I waited to watch. I wanted to see how badly he would die. And I wanted revenge. When he and I had discussed hiding the money, it was I who suggested this place. He took my money, so I took his.”

Song Feng let out a long breath, and when his eyes turned toward Li Diudiu, they were full of grief.

“We were brothers — how did it come to this? Taking his money brought me no joy. And I didn’t leave either. I only thought that if he had nowhere else to turn, he would surely come here to retrieve the money, and then I could take revenge — could mock him viciously. When you came here yesterday, I saw you. Once I realized it wasn’t him who came in person, I probably, probably… had a vague sense that he was no longer in this world.”

Song Feng let out another long breath, then looked at Li Diudiu: “I know that someone like me no longer deserves anyone’s trust — but I still want to ask you. Tell me where his wife and children are staying. We once swore an oath: if I died, he would care for my family; if he died, I would care for his.”

Li Diudiu shook his head.

Song Feng smiled bitterly. He got up, went behind the low wall, and came back carrying a cloth bundle, which he handed to Li Diudiu: “This is the banknotes he hid here, along with all the money I have left. Take it all.”

Li Diudiu asked: “And you? What about your family?”

“I… have no family left.”

Song Feng’s tears fell again — this time without hysterical sobs. The tears flowed silently, and the grief felt heavier for it than anything that tears apart the heart.

There is no real pain without that kind of weeping.

“The group broke apart, loyalty was lost — only my family was still with me. But not long afterward we ran into a rebel force attacking Tang County. We were resting along the road, and I had only gone to the riverbank to fetch some water for the child. When I came back… they were all dead.”

In that moment, Li Diudiu saw death itself in Song Feng’s eyes.

“All dead.”

Song Feng said, trembling: “I wanted to take revenge, but halfway there I suddenly realized — what those people had done, wasn’t it the same thing I had been doing for the past two years? My wife and child were killed. And how many wives and children had I killed? All karma.”

He looked at Li Diudiu and begged: “If… if Heita’s wife asks about me and Heita, please don’t tell her we had a falling-out. Just say I died with him. People who are still living — there ought to be at least a little good left in their hearts.”

After saying this, he bowed deeply toward Li Diudiu: “Thank you.”

Li Diudiu was silent for a long time, then asked: “Actually — you know where his wife and children are, don’t you? You simply don’t dare go yourself. Since it was you who suggested hiding the money here, and Big Brother Wang trusted you so completely back then, there’s no way he wouldn’t have told you where he sent his family.”

Song Feng’s shoulders suddenly gave a violent shudder.

“Yes… I know. Back then I was the one who helped him figure out where to hide his family — in Laihu County. You’re right… I just don’t dare go. Just now when I asked you — I only wanted to hear you say you’d come with me. If I heard that, I might have had a little courage to face them…”

Song Feng shook his head: “But I don’t deserve that.”

Li Diudiu said: “You were mumbling and I didn’t hear you clearly. Just now — you said you wanted to hear what?”

Song Feng said: “I wanted to hear you say — let’s go together… I can’t go alone…”

Li Diudiu said: “Alright. Let’s go together.”

……

……

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