Meng Jianqing cut away the strips of skin hanging from Fang Guohao’s face, applied wound medicine, and watched as Meihong busily bandaged his wounds while occasionally casting reproachful glances his way. Fang Guohao also looked him up and down with barely concealed hostility. Meng Jianqing pondered silently, stepped slightly aside, and said, “Elder Fang, what other people do you have over there? Please give a brief account.”
Fang Guohao explained one by one that the nine accomplices were all mountain bandits and river pirates from the Fujian-Zhejiang area, with the most formidable and cunning being the great bandit of Wuyi Mountain, Tian Sanxun, known as “Iron Wire Snake.” Among these nine men, at least three were skilled enough swimmers to reach this ship underwater, including Iron Wire Snake Tian Sanxun.
After speaking so much in one breath, Fang Guohao felt unable to continue. Though Meihong had much she wanted to say to him, she could only let him fall into a deep sleep.
Meng Jianqing looked outside the cabin. Uncle Yanfu was supervising his men, using a winch to hoist the iron chests one by one onto the ship and transport them to the hold for storage. Only the last two remained.
Meihong gazed at the thick dusk outside, “Those mountain bandits and river pirates will surely grow suspicious when they see my uncle hasn’t returned. Let’s set sail quickly.”
She felt uneasy, as if ships were already approaching through the twilight.
Meng Jianqing listened intently for a moment and said, “They’re already here. Extinguish the lights and hide—don’t make a sound!”
He took down a horn bow and a quiver of white-feathered arrows hanging on the cabin wall.
Since the seas were treacherous with frequent pirates, every ship carried weapons and hired escorts. Though the bow was soft and arrows short for Meng Jianqing’s purposes, it was better than nothing.
Hearing the alarm, Uncle Yanfu ordered his men to quickly lower ropes to hoist their companion from the bamboo rafts while deploying hands to weigh anchor and raise sails, preparing to depart.
The ship that suddenly appeared in the twilight was ghostlike and alarming. Crouched on the rear cabin roof, Meng Jianqing had a commanding view. Though this ship wasn’t large, it was extremely fast, maneuvering freely among clusters of hidden reefs—clearly its helmsman was no ordinary sailor.
Their ship finally started moving before the pirate vessel closed in. With strong northwest winds filling their raised sails, they quickly left the island behind. But the pirate ship was swift and agile, much faster than their treasure-laden two-deck vessel. In less than half an hour, it had caught up. The pirate ship suddenly shot out a volley of arrows that ignited in the wind, burning as they flew straight toward their sails. Seeing trouble, Meng Jianqing leaped up with a long rope and knocked the fire arrows into the sea, though his figure was fully exposed in the firelight.
At that moment, the pirate ship rammed into theirs. Several grappling hooks caught hold, and while two pirates shot arrows to block defenders, several others quickly climbed aboard. Uncle Yanfu, crouched inside the rear cabin door, gave a great shout and swung his great axe. A pirate who’d just climbed onto the deck was caught off guard and had his left arm severed, but fearless of pain, he howled and slashed horizontally at Uncle Yanfu’s legs. Another pirate behind him seized the opportunity to leap past both of them and engage Fang Fourteen and Fang Seventeen, attacking from the other side. With this brief delay, the other accomplices immediately rushed onto the deck.
Meng Jianqing assessed from the cabin roof and saw that Uncle Yanfu and his men could temporarily hold off the pirates who’d boarded, so he didn’t rush to join the deck battle. Instead, he cast out his long rope, lassoed the pirate ship’s mast, and leaped across to the enemy vessel. Two pirates left guarding the ship were about to climb over and join the fight when they saw him coming and immediately retreated. Meng Jianqing pounced from above. Seeing his momentum, the two pirates didn’t dare meet him head-on and rolled aside. But Meng Jianqing didn’t tangle with them, plunging straight into the cabin.
The two pirates followed closely, much to Meng Jianqing’s surprise. He’d only wanted to check this pirate ship as a precaution. According to Fang Guohao, there were only nine men total on this ship, so the cabin should be empty now. What were these two so nervous about?
The cabin was dark with only faint starlight filtering through the windows.
The moment Meng Jianqing stepped into the cabin, he sensed someone’s rapid breathing in the darkness.
The two pirates attacked from behind, one left and one right.
Meng Jianqing suddenly twisted his waist. The left-side blade thrust past his back while his right-hand short blade slashed diagonally, severing the right pirate’s wrist artery. An iron writing brush clattered to the floor. Without stopping his blade’s momentum, Meng Jianqing backhand-flicked upward, nearly slicing off the man’s entire jaw, forcing him to scream and fall backward in the doorway, clutching his face. The other man’s thrust missed and, knowing he was in trouble, immediately twisted his wrist, changing from a straight stab to a side strike. His blade carved a long, bloody line across Meng Jianqing’s back, but Meng Jianqing had already stepped aside and back, his short blade reverse-stabbing into the man’s abdomen before quickly withdrawing. He leaped aside as the pirate crashed down, blood from his belly splattering the cabin ceiling.
Meng Jianqing flicked away a short wooden bed in the corner with his blade.
Curled beneath the bed was a middle-aged man, completely bound with cloth stuffed in his mouth, staring wide-eyed at Meng Jianqing. Though the cabin was dark, by the faint starlight, he could roughly make out the Imperial Guard uniform. The middle-aged man’s face showed fear and alarm. When Meng Jianqing removed the gag, he immediately cried, “My lord, my lord, this has nothing to do with me—they kidnapped me!”
Meng Jianqing stared at him, “Who are you?”
The middle-aged man said tearfully, “My name is Fang Guohao! My lord, my lord, heaven and earth bear witness—I never thought of escaping from Qingjiang Guard. They forced me to come!”
Meng Jianqing’s heart leaped.
The other party didn’t know Meihong’s relationship to Fang Guohao, so there was no need to impersonate him at this point. He should know that Fang Guozhen’s former subordinates, relocated to various places and enrolled in military registers, faced death if they fled privately. This man probably thought Meng Jianqing had come to arrest him.
If this man were the real Fang Guohao, then who was the person beside Meihong?
Meng Jianqing was alarmed. He slashed through the ropes binding the self-proclaimed Fang Guohao, “Stay in this cabin. Don’t make a sound or show yourself until I call you!”
He turned and rushed out.
Meihong was quietly hiding in the cabin when she suddenly heard Meng Jianqing calling, “Meihong, bring me some wound medicine!”
Meihong was startled—was Meng Jianqing injured?
But she immediately sensed something strange. Didn’t Meng Jianqing carry wound medicine himself?
As she thought this, Fang Guohao on the bed beside her thought the same thing, understanding that Meng Jianqing just wanted an excuse to call Meihong out. He quickly reached out to grab her. Though Meihong felt something wasn’t quite right about Meng Jianqing’s words, her body had already moved involuntarily upon hearing he needed medicine. Fang Guohao’s grab caught empty air as Meihong became alert and quickly retreated toward the cabin door. Fang Guohao shouted and grabbed the oil lamp from the small table, hurling it at her. Meihong couldn’t dodge in time, but fortunately, Meng Jianqing suddenly reached in to pull her out while striking back with his blade flat, hitting the lamp back to strike Fang Guohao square in the face. Fang Guohao groaned and lost consciousness.
Meihong said in amazement, “You’d already determined he was an impostor?”
Meng Jianqing asked in return, “You’d already suspected he was an impostor?”
Meihong said softly, “He didn’t recognize me—Uncle Yanfu and the others all say I look exactly like my mother when she was young!”
Yet Meihong had still performed flawlessly, acting as if nothing was wrong while waiting for this impostor to reveal his true nature.
Meng Jianqing couldn’t help but smile slightly.
Only then did Meihong notice the bloody gash on Meng Jianqing’s back and cried out, “You are injured!”
Meng Jianqing sat down wearily, “These mountain bandits and river pirates are indeed fierce—but the real Fang Guohao should be safe now.”
The wound on Meng Jianqing’s back was bloody and frightening. As Meihong applied wound medicine, she couldn’t help feeling waves of sympathetic pain. She suddenly realized that the saying “feeling another’s pain as your own” was truly real. When she heard about the real Fang Guohao, she felt somewhat ashamed that she should have been concerned about her uncle’s whereabouts first.