Heavy snow fell like goose feathers, blurring the boundaries between gray, white, and black in the world around. A long trail of footprints stretched across the snow as Lu Chang struggled forward. The scenery seemed familiar, yet he couldn’t place where he was.
After walking aimlessly for a while, he suddenly heard a clear voice calling from behind.
“Elder Brother Lu…”
He turned to see a red figure running towards him through the snow.
It was a little girl wrapped in a scarlet cloak, about nine years old. She followed his footsteps, trying hard to catch up. As she approached, her appearance gradually changed, growing from nine to ten, then to fifteen years old…
Her calls changed with her growth.
“Big Brother… Brother… Lu Chang…”
“Lu Chang!”
Lu Chang stood still, watching her run up to him and leap into his arms. They fell together into the snow. Her hood fell back, revealing a radiant, charming face.
“Lu Chang, will you marry me?” She lay on his chest, her face beaming with a proud smile.
“Yes…” He embraced her, thinking how wonderful it was that she was still here.
She was overjoyed. “Then I’ll wait for you to pass the imperial exams! Will you come?”
“I will.” Lu Chang lay in the snow, his back cold and soft, his chest warm and fragrant. It felt unreal, like a dream.
She smiled, her eyes curving. “Good, it’s a promise then.” She extended her pinky, hooking it with his. “I’ll wait for you in Jiangning. You must come.”
Jiangning?
Wait for him in Jiangning?
A sudden pain stabbed his chest.
Jiangning… No, no, she couldn’t stay in Jiangning…
“Ming Shu, come with me. Don’t stay in Jiangning!” He held her tightly, gripped by an inexplicable fear.
She looked confused. “I can’t go with you. My father, my home is in Jiangning. I can’t leave, I have to stay…”
“No! You can’t stay. You must come with me!” Lu Chang grew increasingly frightened, his arms tightening around her.
“I can’t… I must stay in Jiangning… with my father… Lu Chang, again…” Her voice suddenly grew distant.
His arms were suddenly empty. The vibrant girl turned into a snow figure, crumbling in his embrace.
Her voice disappeared with the flying snow.
“Ming Shu—” Lu Chang’s eyes snapped open.
The snowy scene vanished, replaced by a dimly lit room.
“Ah Chang.” His mother’s anxious voice sounded beside him.
His foggy mind gradually cleared as the familiar surroundings came into focus. His mother Zeng’s worried face, the familiar room, his heavy head… He propped himself up, looked around, and asked hoarsely, “Mother, where’s Ming Shu?”
Madam Zeng’s eyes reddened. She took a letter from the table and handed it to Lu Chang. “That child… read it yourself…”
Lu Chang’s head was still heavy, but he forced himself to focus on the letter. Moments later, he felt as if the snow from his dream had been stuffed down his collar, chilling him to the bone. He suddenly remembered what had happened earlier.
The letter crumpled in his clenched fist. He sat emotionless on the bed for a long while before asking, “Mother, what time is it?”
“The hour of Hai (9-11 PM).”
The hour of Hai…
She had been gone for four or five hours, long since left the city…
Lu Chang sat motionless for a moment, then suddenly threw off his covers. Outside, the sky was pitch black. He had no idea where Ming Shu was now. The journey to Jiangning was long and perilous. Forget about revenge; if she encountered danger on the road… Lu Chang dared not think further. His heart felt as if it were suspended over a fire, hanging in midair.
He splashed the icy water from the basin onto his face, soaking his hair and collar. Only then did he calm slightly. He put on his clothes and said, “Mother, I’m going to see Uncle Wei,” before striding out of the room.
The sleepless night dragged on endlessly.
As the morning light faintly illuminated the streets and the city gates of Bianjing slowly opened, the sound of urgent hoofbeats echoed from a distant alley.
A chestnut stallion, carrying its rider, galloped out with the first ray of dawn.
August 13th, Lin’an. With the autumn equinox approaching, the air had cooled. The scent of osmanthus wafted through the air, heralding the upcoming Mid-Autumn Festival.
The journey from Bianjing to Lin’an was similar in distance to that from Bianjing to Jiangning.
Compared to Bianjing, Lin’an was equally prosperous and bustling. If Bianjing was an elegant, noble young master, then Lin’an was a graceful, charming lady.
Wealthy areas attracted merchants, and with numerous businesses, the need for armed escorts to transport goods and money grew. This led to a thriving escort agency business. Among Lin’an’s top three escort agencies, Weishun held a prominent position.
The agency occupied a square, three-courtyard compound. Besides the chief escort’s family, many young escorts lived there. Every morning, the rhythmic sounds of their training echoed over the walls. Curious children often peeked through cracks in the door or peered over the wall, watching the strong escorts practicing shirtless beneath the large “Escort” character on the wall. When the supervising senior escort noticed these onlookers, he would sternly shoo them away.
“Go on, get out of here! What’s there to see? Children shouldn’t be watching such things!” the senior escort would say, his thin, tall frame belying his formidable nickname “Mountain Shaker.”
Today was no different. The senior escort noticed someone peering in and irritably went to chase them away.
As the door creaked open, he found a young woman standing outside. She wore simple clothes and, instead of ornate hairpins, only three small white pearls adorned her hair. Her pretty face showed no fear as she smiled at the fierce-looking escort.
“Sir, I’m looking for someone,” she said in a pleasant voice.
The senior escort couldn’t help softening his tone. “Who are you looking for?”
“Is Chief Escort Zhao Tingyun here?” she asked, still smiling.
The escort was taken aback. “A young lady like you, what business do you have with our chief?”
“I want to hire him for an escort job.”
“An escort job? You can discuss that with me. How much silver’s worth of goods do you want to transport?” the senior escort asked casually, not taking her seriously.
The young woman kept smiling. “Not much. I want to transport silver. Thirty thousand taels.”
“How much?” The senior escort thought he had misheard.
The young woman tucked a strand of hair behind her ear, revealing a gold bracelet on her wrist.
“Thirty thousand taels of silver.”
————
August 15th, Jiangning County.
The Mid-Autumn Festival had arrived. Families gathered for reunion dinners, wine shops sold out, and the sound of music drifted over walls and through alleyways…
It was a lively day, but Qingchu Mountain on the outskirts of town was eerily quiet. The mountain was dotted with graves of various sizes, presenting a chilling sight in the darkness. Lu Chang had been waiting in a thatched hut at the foot of the mountain for seven days. He had pursued Ming Shu from Bianjing, riding hard and searching along the way to Jiangning. He thought that even if Ming Shu was cunning enough to evade him on the road, he could catch her if he reached Jiangning first and waited.
If she returned to Jiangning, she would surely come here first.
This mountain held the graves of her father and thirty-six other members of the Jian family.
She would certainly come to pay her respects.
But after waiting for seven days, he hadn’t seen her. He had also posted people at places in town where she might appear, but still no news.
Lu Chang stood outside the hut, looking up at the sky where only a bright, full moon shone.
Ming Shu, Ming Shu—her name meant “bright moon,” and she called herself the Jian family’s little moon. That brightness had illuminated his heart as well.
He rubbed his face, chilled by the mountain wind, his mind full of thoughts of his little moon.
Where had she gone?
Had something happened to her on the way? No, no—she was too clever, having even deceived him. She must have been fully prepared when leaving Bianjing and wouldn’t have met with misfortune on the road…
Had he guessed wrong? Had she not come to Jiangning?
But if not Jiangning, where else could she have gone?
He furrowed his brow in frustration. The longer he waited, the more unfocused he became.
Suddenly, he recalled Ming Shu holding a dagger that night—when even the moon lost its light. That night, Ming Shu was like a moon without radiance, resembling Tang Li.
Tang Li?
Tang Li…
Lu Chang froze, his hand still on his brow, as a terrifying thought dawned on him.
Could she become a second Tang Li?
Lu Chang noticed his hands trembling slightly.
Ming Shu surely knew better than anyone that she stood no chance against Cao Hai alone. So if her purpose in leaving Bianjing wasn’t Cao Hai, then…?
Lin’an. She had gone to Lin’an.
August 16th, the day after the Mid-Autumn Festival. Weishun Escort Agency accepted a major job.
Thirty thousand taels of silver in ten large chests. Chief Escort Zhao Tingyun personally led the convoy out of the city.
A carriage accompanied the escort, its occupant hidden from view. Apart from Zhao Tingyun, no one knew the client’s identity.
The heavy chests left deep tracks in the muddy road.
After two days, they reached a remote mountain area. Zhao Tingyun ordered a rest stop.
As dusk fell, silence enveloped them, broken only by insect chirps and occasional bird calls. The wind picked up, rustling leaves and hinting at impending rain. Zhao Tingyun observed the forest briefly before whispering something to the carriage occupant. He nodded at the response and stepped back.
As night descended, the undergrowth rustled with approaching movement.
Weishun’s men seemed prepared, quickly forming a protective circle around the carriage. Suddenly, blade flashes appeared, and in an instant, the carriage and escorts were surrounded by figures emerging from the woods.
The attackers were bandits, numbering over a hundred.
With only a dozen or so escorts, Weishun was outmatched. Zhao Tingyun gritted his teeth and called out their escort signal, but the opposition ignored it. A cold voice demanded, “Leave the goods and go if you want to live.”
Wiping sweat from his brow, Zhao Tingyun asked, “Might you be Master Jiao Chunlu?”
The man responded with surprise, “How did you know?”
Zhao Tingyun bowed slightly but said nothing, merely waving his men away from the convoy. Their apparent readiness to abandon the goods puzzled Jiao Chunlu.
Were they not even going to put up a token resistance?
He signaled his men to check the goods while approaching the heavily veiled carriage. As he cautiously lifted the curtain with his sword, he heard a loud crash behind him.
“Boss… these are… stones!”
Jiao Chunlu turned in shock, ordering, “Open them all!”
Each chest was filled with stones.
Jiao Chunlu and his bandits were dumbfounded. They had expected at least tens of thousands of taels of silver, not boxes of rocks.
No wonder they didn’t resist.
Enraged, Jiao Chunlu shouted, “You’re toying with me?!”
As he raised his sword to give orders, a delicate voice called from the carriage.
“Please don’t be angry, Master Jiao.”
Jiao Chunlu turned to see a slender, fair hand parting the carriage curtain. A gold bracelet with tinkling bells adorned the wrist, and a dressed figure emerged.
“I have a major deal to discuss with you. This was merely a way to arrange our meeting. Please don’t take offense.”
With these words, Ming Shu lightly jumped down from the carriage.
The appearance of such a beautiful young woman in this wild setting stunned not only the bandits but Jiao Chunlu himself.
“Who are you?”
“My surname is Jian, daughter of the Jian family from Jiangning. Surely you remember that night, Master Jiao. You were there, weren’t you?”
Her words left Jiao Chunlu speechless.
Ming Shu smiled. “Don’t worry, I know where the blame truly lies. I’ve come to propose a deal worth thirty thousand taels… of gold. Are you interested?”
“Thirty thousand taels of gold? That’s quite a claim! Your entire Jian family was massacred, all possessions looted. Where would you get so much gold?” Jiao Chunlu scoffed after his initial shock.
“What you looted was probably the eighty thousand taels of silver and some jewels from our family vault. But what business was my family in? We dealt in gold, and we hid gold.” As she spoke, she removed her two intricate gold bracelets. Twisting one, she revealed a hidden mechanism and extracted a small key. “Look closely. This is the key to the gold vault! No one but me knows where this gold is hidden.”
Her smile grew wider.
Revenge, after all, is about an eye for an eye.
She would make Cao Hai experience the same bone-deep agony her family had suffered.