The further south they traveled, the more severe the damp cold became. By nightfall, a torrential cold rain began to pour down.

Xiao Li had taken Wen Yu dozens of li when they found an inn in the rain. The inn was already packed to capacity—even the ground floor hall was filled with makeshift bedding, all occupied by people taking shelter from the rain and making do for the night.

The moment the inn attendant saw them enter, he waved his hands repeatedly: “We’re full, we’re full! The hall and woodshed are both crammed full. You’ll have to find lodging elsewhere!”

Wen Yu’s cold had not yet healed, and with the rain this heavy and the next town still over ten li away, Xiao Li dared not take her traveling further. He pressed a broken piece of silver into the attendant’s hand, saying, “Please do us a favor, young brother. We just need a place to shelter from the rain.”

The attendant took the silver and said somewhat awkwardly, “The inn truly has no room left. However, the stable can keep out the rain. If you don’t mind, you could make do there for the night?”

Xiao Li didn’t fear filth or stench, but worried Wen Yu might not be able to bear the smell of the stable. He hesitated and looked toward her.

Wen Yu had covered her hair with a shawl, which also served as a windbreak face covering, concealing the lower half of her face. On her head she wore the conical hat Xiao Li had given her, her entire person wrapped up tightly.

The inn attendant could only discern from her clothing style that she was female. Seeing Xiao Li look toward her, he also glanced over, hearing an especially hoarse word emerge from beneath the hat: “Acceptable.”

The inn attendant happily tucked the silver into his sleeve and led them toward the back courtyard: “Excellent! Please follow me, honored guests!”

Tonight’s rain was heavy. The inn was full of people, and the stable was also full of tethered horses. Fortunately, the partition where fodder was stored still had room to settle.

The inn attendant carried some hay dampened by slanting rain spray and tossed it into the adjacent manger, saying to them, “This is it. Though the smell is a bit unpleasant, it’s certainly more peaceful than squeezing together on the ground floor hall! With so many guests tonight, we’re quite overwhelmed. If there’s any lack in our service, please forgive us.”

Xiao Li only said it didn’t matter.

After the inn attendant left, Wen Yu removed her hat and coughed behind her raised hand.

Xiao Li piled the dry hay further inside, telling her to make do lying down, and asked with furrowed brow, “Did getting rained on worsen your cold?”

Wen Yu had the hat for protection—only her hem and shoes and socks were badly soaked. But Xiao Li had been completely drenched by the cold rain, water droplets still falling from the tips of his hair.

She shook her head, looking at the person whose wet clothing outlined firm, robust musculature, and said, “I’m fine. Why don’t you borrow some dry clothes from the inn attendant? Getting rained on and then wearing wet clothes all over—accumulating cold easily leads to illness.”

Xiao Li said, “My skin is thick and hardy. I won’t fall ill.”

The sound of rain was cacophonous, water dripping continuously from the eaves.

He wrung out his sleeve and looked outside: “This rain will probably last all night. Your shoes and socks are wet—they may not be dry even by tomorrow.”

He turned to Wen Yu and said, “I’ll go get a brazier to dry them for you, and warm your medicine while I’m at it.”

Before Wen Yu could say “wear the hat,” he had already left the stable in the rain.

Wen Yu thought of their afternoon dispute, her lowered eyes passing over many complex thoughts.

—

Outside the inn, a troop of soldiers wearing conical hats and rain capes came galloping through the rain and reined their horses to a stop.

The twenty-some riders at the front wore no armor, all dressed in black cloaks.

The leader said, “This is it. If the Wen woman took this road, within a radius of over ten li, this is the only inn where one can rest. Tonight’s heavy rain is truly Heaven’s favor.”

The inn’s tightly closed door was kicked open. The people sleeping in the hall all rose in alarm. Seeing the soldiers enter with blades in hand, they shrieked in terror.

The person in the black cloak swept his cold blade once, and the shrieking person already lay in a pool of blood.

He said coldly, “Too noisy. Anyone else who wails will meet the same end.”

Everyone in the hall trembled with fear, but all covered their mouths, not daring to make another sound.

That person slightly raised his chin toward those behind him, and the soldiers following him all surged into the inn, beginning to search everywhere.

Those remaining in the hall held up a portrait, grabbing the hair of female guests in the hall one by one, comparing their appearances carefully against the portrait.

With cold blades pressed before their eyes, tears brimming in those women’s eyes, even when their necks and behind their ears were roughly rubbed and kneaded, they dared not cry out.

A soldier dragged out an inn attendant hiding beneath the counter and brought him before that person, saying respectfully, “Thirteenth Captain, we’ve caught an inn worker.”

The inn attendant kowtowed repeatedly in fright: “Officer, this humble one is just a menial worker who has always been law-abiding in daily life, never committing crimes. I beg you to spare my life, officer!”

“Lift your head.”

The inn attendant raised his tear-and-snot-streaked face and saw the other unfold a scroll in his hand, asking coldly, “Have you seen the woman in this portrait?”

—

As Xiao Li passed through the inn’s back courtyard from the stable toward the kitchen, through the curtain of rain he heard commotion and screams from the inn’s main hall, though it immediately fell silent.

His steps halted. Realizing something was wrong, he concealed himself behind a locust tree in the courtyard under cover of darkness.

Disorderly footsteps rushed this way.

The lanterns hanging in the inn’s back hall swayed left and right in the strong wind. In the dim yellow halo, cold rain poured down. The soldiers’ long boots splashed through puddles on the ground. The squad leader searching this area shouted, “A few of you search the kitchen, a few of you search the stable, the rest follow me to the woodshed!”

The torrential rain concealed many sounds.

Xiao Li silently took down the three soldiers going to search the stable. Just as he was about to rush back to find Wen Yu, he suddenly heard horses neighing from the stable area.

His expression turned stern. He quickly increased his speed heading toward the stable.

Arriving at the location, he saw the hay pile was in complete disarray. The back courtyard door stood wide open, and one horse from the stable was missing. It looked as though Wen Yu had left in haste.

Commotion came again from the front courtyard, and faintly from outside the inn came the sound of pursuing horses.

Xiao Li thought Wen Yu had, to avoid dragging him down, heard the disturbance in the inn’s main hall and ridden away alone. His expression darkened. He kicked open the door of an adjacent horse stall, startling the horse inside into neighing.

Xiao Li grabbed the reins and shouted coldly, “Out!”

He led the reddish-brown horse into the rain curtain. Just as he mounted and was about to give chase, he heard a clear, slightly hoarse voice behind him: “Xiao Li?”

Xiao Li’s expression jolted. He reined in and turned his head, seeing the bamboo basket full of dry hay in that empty stall move. Wen Yu emerged from inside, a few stalks of dry hay stuck in her hair, saying somewhat awkwardly, “I’m here!”

A heart seized and held high, then brutally smashed to the ground—this was probably how Xiao Li felt at this moment.

Lightning tore through the dark, heavy sky. He sat on the horse’s back, his entire body soaked through by the violent rain, water droplets streaming down his jaw as he stared at the person emerging from the hay basket: “You didn’t leave?”

Wen Yu, heedless of getting wet, ran to his horse and said, “I heard the hoofbeats outside the inn and the commotion from the hall. I guessed the pursuing soldiers must have arrived. I tied some dry hay to a horse’s back, covered it with the hat and cloak, learned from your method last time, and whipped the horse’s hindquarters to send it running and draw them away.”

She handed him the bundle: “In a moment, we won’t be the only ones leaving on horseback. When the soldiers discover the ruse and chase back, the more people leaving the inn on horses, the more their forces will be dispersed, and the greater our chances of escaping!”

Xiao Li took the bundle and hung it on the saddle. Looking at that slender, pale hand extended toward him through the rain curtain, he gripped it firmly and pulled. Wen Yu landed steadily before him on the horse.

The moment he squeezed the horse’s flanks and urged it to run, Wen Yu felt the hand around her waist—there to prevent her from falling—suddenly tighten.

Her back collided solidly with his chest. She was practically held in a tight embrace, completely drawn into his arms.

Wen Yu looked back at him somewhat bewildered. But Xiao Li had already raised the arm around her waist, repositioning it in front of her to shield her from some of the cold wind and rain, as if that earlier embrace with force enough to break her waist had been merely an unintentional act in the urgency of the moment.

—

Lightning flashed across the sky, illuminating everything between heaven and earth in stark white.

The panicked horse carrying a back full of dry hay was intercepted. Captain Pei the Thirteenth yanked off the cloak tied to the fodder and saddle. Everyone’s expressions were extremely grim.

He threw the cloak forcefully to the ground and shouted wrathfully, “An area of over ten li has been sealed off. They cannot escape tonight! Chase back!”

—

In the rainy night all sounds were muted, making the sudden hoofbeats on the main road exceptionally clear.

Xiao Li rode the horse, not knowing how long they’d been running. When another bolt of lightning streaked across the sky, it illuminated the cold gleam of arrows in the distant tree shadows and grass.

“Ambush!”

Realizing the danger, almost the instant he cried out, he grabbed Wen Yu and rolled off the horse.

Without hearing the sound of releasing bowstrings, only the “whoosh whoosh” of arrows speeding past, the horse fell after being struck. Those locust-like arrows seemed to have eyes, following Xiao Li’s path and nailing in rows into the muddy ground where he and Wen Yu had rolled.

Wen Yu’s heartbeat had nearly stopped. After Xiao Li rolled with her into the roadside grass, with reed grass nearly a person’s height providing cover, the flying arrows finally ceased.

Having narrowly escaped death, both her and Xiao Li’s breathing was especially unsteady.

She was protected by Xiao Li beneath the tangled reeds. Water droplets from his soaked hair fell onto her neck. Her chest rose and fell violently as she said in a low voice, “The main road is sealed. I fear we’ve been locked within their search perimeter.”

Xiao Li looked down at her. Through the icy moisture, their breaths could nearly be felt by the other.

Who knew how many people were lying in ambush in this rain curtain. The enemy had also set up crossbows in the darkness. If they dared show themselves on the main road, they would absolutely be shot full of holes like sieves.

Escaping tonight would be harder than ascending to heaven.

Chaotic footsteps in the rain curtain drew closer. Grass on the side rustled as it was parted. Xiao Li’s Miao blade left its sheath. Two soldiers fell, blood flowing from their throats.

He sheathed his blade and turned, his single arm clasping Wen Yu’s slender waist. Lifting her, he retreated rapidly into deeper reeds: “I told you, even if it’s a dead end, I will carve out a path for you.”

The soldiers who rushed over upon hearing the commotion only found the corpses of two comrades.

The rainy night became their best mutual concealment. The urgent rain beating leaves covered the extremely faint sounds of grass being parted and footsteps.

Blood dripped from Xiao Li’s Miao blade. Along this path he was practically cutting down anyone in his way, god or Buddha alike.

The subtle sound of feet stepping on withered, dried reeds came from ahead. His Miao blade swung horizontally, blocking two steel blades cleaving down through the violent rain. As he kicked one soldier away, the arm clasping Wen Yu’s waist swung backward. Wen Yu’s entire body was lifted into the air by the powerful force of his arm, her foot kicking another soldier’s jaw.

Xiao Li switched to his right arm to firmly clasp her waist, his left arm holding the blade, once more vanishing into the reed thicket concealed by night rain.

On the main road, after the officer dismounted to examine the corpses of dozens of subordinates killed by a single throat slash, his expression was ugly: “There’s a master with that Wen woman. Just keep them surrounded here. Don’t pursue too closely. Wait for Thirteenth Captain and the others to come and capture them!”