These sons of wealthy families were like untethered wild horses. Normally their families kept them under strict control—they bore the reputation of being dandies but hadn’t actually done anything bad.
Speaking of it, they were quite pitiful. Whenever there was any incident of bullying men or dominating women, the county magistrate of Wannian County dared to drag them out from their homes for public humiliation. Moreover, these lower-level officials seemed particularly fond of this—they didn’t have the guts to deal with those who held titles, but they never showed mercy to title heirs.
The sons of officials in the provinces could still swagger through the streets, but the dandies in Chang’an City—if they wanted to show off their power even a little, a righteous official would immediately appear, bearing unprecedented pressure, insisting on handling matters officially.
The princess’s family merely erected a few more water wheels on the river to open a mill, yet someone like Wei Zheng, that pillar of justice, appeared. He dismantled the mill, arrested the evil servants, and in the end the princess still had to be punished—not a shred of human consideration.
Family law was much harsher than national law. The situation during their school days was so miserable they didn’t dare think about it. The wound on Chai Lingwu’s buttocks still hadn’t healed, but when he heard his brothers were going to play in the Qinling Mountains with not a single elder present, he immediately declared he would crawl there even if he had to.
Hide and seek? Before Yun Ye could react, a cloth strip was tied over his eyes. He had to count from one to a hundred before he could remove it. He didn’t know how many years it had been since he’d played this, but seeing Li Ke’s eager expression, he could only go with the flow and play.
Cheng Chumo, Li Huairen, and Zhangsun Chong—these three guys didn’t need searching. These three had practiced concealment and stealth techniques. According to Cheng Chumo himself, once he hid, even he didn’t know where he’d hidden.
His vocabulary was limited, so he survived on these grammatically incorrect sentences. He kicked the eldest son of Zhang Gongjin’s family in the rear—this bastard was looking down on him too much. Covering his head with a tree branch counted as hiding well?
He looked up at the large tree beside him and said, “This tree is called a maple. The sap it secretes is sweet, and a type of black caterpillar especially loves it. Of course, caterpillars aren’t scary, but I have to tell you, if this kind of caterpillar falls down your neck, you’ll be worse off than Li Yuanzhang. Don’t blame me later for not explaining clearly.”
As soon as he finished speaking, three people fell from the tree.
“Chai Lingwu, don’t even think about it. Think about how your father and the others caught Xie Li. You don’t want to be bitten to death by rats, do you? Maybe this is a snake den. Climb out yourself, quickly.”
Chai Lingwu poked his head out from the cave and asked, “Brother Ye, how did you know I was hiding here?”
“Next time before you hide in a cave, clean up the entrance. Your footprints are still there.”
Chai Lingwu heavily slapped his own forehead and crawled out from the cave dejectedly, hopping on his feet. “This time you win, but you definitely won’t find where my cousin is hiding.”
Yun Ye found some firewood, placed it at the cave entrance and lit it, then fanned it with the hem of his robe. Before long, violent coughing sounds came from inside the cave. Zhangsun Chong burst out all at once, his eyes and nose streaming from the smoke. He slapped Chai Lingwu on the back of the head: “Would you die if you didn’t talk so much? Yun Ye is as cunning as a fox—you exposed me as soon as you spoke.”
It would be strange if Li Ke, with his cleanliness obsession, was willing to hide in the wilderness. Looking in his tent, no one was there, and the large trunk for storing clothes had also disappeared. At some point, someone had partially filled in the firebreak ditch outside the tent, and a bamboo tube was even inserted in it. Standing beside the bamboo tube and listening to the panting sounds coming from inside, he pulled out a coptis pill from his chest. This was a good thing for clearing heat—it could be described in one word: ‘bitter’. Sun Simiao insisted on not putting honey in the coptis pills, saying it would reduce the medicinal properties and the gain wouldn’t be worth the loss.
As soon as the coptis pill was put into the bamboo tube, a series of coughs came from underground. The guards nearby quickly dug the trunk out of the soil, swept off the dust, then opened the trunk and helped out Li Ke, who was choking with a red face and ears. Although he didn’t know what he had inhaled, from the bitter taste in his mouth, he judged it wasn’t anything good.
“Ye Zi, what did I just swallow?” Li Ke asked Yun Ye, who had a mischievous smile on his face, with concern.
“I haven’t bathed today and my whole body was itchy, so I scratched myself…” Li Ke’s face was already ashen as he vomited violently, his whole body convulsing. “Later I found there wasn’t much dirt, so I took a coptis pill and put it in.”
Li Ke collapsed softly to the ground, pulled out a snow-white handkerchief to wipe the corner of his mouth, and asked with lingering fear, “You’re sure it’s a coptis pill, not something else?”
Li Huairen and Cheng Chumo couldn’t be found, so Yun Ye didn’t plan to search anymore. The beggar’s chicken in the fire pit was already cooked—if they didn’t eat it soon, it would burn to charcoal.
Seeing Yun Ye pull a mud ball from the fire pit and kick it along the ground with his foot, the other dandies weren’t fools either. They immediately started pulling things from the fire pits. There were over a dozen fire pits—all the pheasants from the mountain were here, more than enough to eat.
Stark naked Cheng Chumo jumped out from the water pond, hopping barefoot on the ground, squatted by the fire pit and began looking for mud balls, using a small wooden stick to pick left and right until he found a relatively large one, then he stopped.
“Chumo, can’t you at least put on shorts? We know you’re the Bird King, we all acknowledge it, but it’s dragging on the ground now and getting dusty—that’s not good, right?”
“Who cares about all that? We’re all men, who doesn’t have one? Let you all broaden your horizons.”
“Chumo, you’re wrong about this. That thing isn’t for showing to men. You need to show it to those who are different from men to have威慑力.” Zhangsun Chong peeled his mud ball, looked back at Cheng Chumo, and kindly advised him.
The dandies eating was quite interesting. Without prior agreement, they all tore their beggar’s chicken in half, giving one half to the guards beside them to taste, then eating the remaining half themselves. Even Li Ke, the prince, did the same.
He didn’t know how over a dozen big men would divide half a chicken, but seeing the grateful expressions on those guards’ faces, he knew this was one of the required courses for nobility—winning people’s hearts.
The Yun family didn’t have this custom. Even when eating chicken, it was one per person. Whatever the Yun family master ate, those below ate the same—except for Old Madam and Na Rimu who was nursing the child. Besides, Liu Jinbao and the others already knew how to make beggar’s chicken and had long reserved the fatty ones for themselves. Yun Ye didn’t need to be pretentious.
Wild pheasants in the mountains were actually quite dry with no oil, and when roasted came out rather shriveled. Yun Ye tore off a chicken leg and gave the rest to bare-bottomed Cheng Chumo. This guy’s appetite had always been huge. According to his own words: “A military general without an appetite for a bushel of rice and ten pounds of meat—can he even be called a military general?” Cheng Chumo never refused food Yun Ye sent over, sweeping it clean like a whirlwind.
After everyone quieted down, they discovered Li Huairen still hadn’t appeared, which finally made them worried. No one knew where Li Huairen was hiding, but thinking of this guy’s skills, Yun Ye didn’t believe he would be in any danger.
Sure enough, Li Huairen hurried over from behind the forest. He didn’t accept the mud ball Yun Ye offered, but instead said excitedly, “I’ve discovered traces of Daoist Sun and the others. Right behind here. I looked carefully—no mistake. It’s a temporary shelter that can accommodate six people to rest.”
Yun Ye threw down the mud ball in his hand and followed Li Huairen to the back. A crude bamboo shelter was situated there, filled with dead branches and leaves. He reached out to touch the fire pit and found the ashes ice cold. Yun Ye’s face showed undisguisable disappointment.
Regarding Sun Simiao, Yun Ye really didn’t know how to express it. Experiments had proven that smallpox’s incubation period in the human body was at most twenty days, but for safety’s sake, this respected elder would rather lead five people to wander in the Qinling Mountains than approach places with people. The Qinling Mountains weren’t desolate. The Li family’s ancestral temple Louguan Terrace was nearby. If Sun Simiao went there, he would receive the best care. He didn’t go.
Bailu Plain was in the middle of the valley. There were always households there year-round. When he collected herbs in the Qinling Mountains, he had been to Bailu Plain more than once. When he arrived there, the villagers would give him the warmest welcome. He still didn’t go.
Even if he went to the Buddhist sanctuary Caotang Temple with the most malicious intentions, he would still be respected. This Taoist priest still didn’t go. Two months of wind and rain, sleeping rough and eating in the open—who knew what this sage had been tormented into?
Yun Ye threw down the ashes in his hand and asked Li Huairen, “Judge for me—how many days has Daoist Sun been gone?”
“Ye Zi, in my view, a full half month.” Li Huairen’s judgment was certainly accurate. Perhaps this place was still too close to people—Sun Simiao still wasn’t at ease and was planning to go deeper.
Yun Ye looked up at Mount Taibai shrouded in clouds and mist, and said through gritted teeth, “Brothers, our objective has changed. We’re no longer here to play. Let’s search for Daoist Sun together. As long as we bring Daoist Sun back, it will definitely be a great achievement.”
The dandies who had been idle with nothing to do heard of such a good opportunity and all agreed with a roar. They sent several household guards to rush back and tell the adults at home that they had discovered traces of Daoist Sun and were planning to go deeper into the Qinling Mountains to bring Daoist Sun back.
The hunting dogs they brought sniffed around the shelter, but no new targets appeared. They just circled around their masters’ legs and feet. Yun Ye knew the time had been too long. Moreover, it had been raining constantly recently—even if there were traces, the heavy rain had washed them away without a drop remaining.
Daoist Sun always said the Qinling Mountains were a treasure trove, and moreover divided the yin and yang of the earth’s veins. Since ancient times, they had been considered the most important of the three dragon veins of China.
Furthermore, eight rivers encircled Chang’an, seven came from the Qinling Mountains. Among Chang’an’s one hundred and eight wards, thirty-eight wards had lakes. One had to say that the Qinling Mountains protected Chang’an and also nurtured Chang’an.
Daoist Sun loved water and mountains. He was a wise man and also a benevolent one. Yun Ye didn’t feel that adding the most beautiful words to his name was flattery. On the contrary, he thought these words, compared to his actions, were so pale and powerless.
He must find this respectable person. What was the point of suffering alone? Why should one person have to shoulder all the suffering? Those people now hiding in Chang’an, ready to tear at each other at any moment—by what right did they deserve his protection?