Yun Ye discovered that the Empress not only showed no signs of panic or fear, but actually seemed quite pleased. Now over a hundred people were trapped on the isolated main peak of Yushan, cut off from the world, yet she didn’t seem to care at all.
“There’s no good solution. We can only stay on the mountain and wait for people at the mountain base to rescue us. Perhaps His Majesty already knows by now and will immediately organize all of Chang’an to dig snow and rescue us. The fuel can only last two days. If we can’t get down in two days, just wait to turn into popsicles.”
Hou Lian’er’s crying grew louder. She was truly afraid of death. A pampered young lady had never encountered such difficulties before. Even an idiot would know that millions of pounds of snow could not possibly be cleared in two days’ time, not to mention the heavy snow still falling from the sky. Everyone’s situation was very worrying.
“Then what about Your Majesty? Your Majesty cannot have anything happen to her.” Hou Lian’er sobbed and raised her head, grabbing Yun Ye and asking urgently.
“Empress Dowager certainly won’t have anything happen to her. This is the peak of Yushan. Eagle’s Beak Cliff is on the leeward side. The academy has a room there with parachutes inside. As long as we strap one on Your Majesty properly and she jumps off Eagle’s Beak Cliff, she’ll quickly return to the academy. Hou Shi, this treatment is for Your Majesty—there’s no share for you or me.”
Unexpectedly, after hearing Yun Ye’s nonsense, Hou Lian’er actually calmed down. Wiping away her tears, she said: “As long as Your Majesty is fine, we’re young—freezing for a couple extra days doesn’t matter.”
This flattery was solid, choking Yun Ye so he couldn’t speak. He could only give Hou Lian’er a thumbs up in praise. There was a reason this woman was liked by everyone in the imperial palace.
Empress Zhangsun shook out her sleeves, donned her cloak, and walked out of the warm pavilion. She saw those guards and palace maids huddled together in the ground pit, looking quite unseemly. Several high-ranking guards went over and gave them a round of kicks, rousing everyone. Liu Jinbao was holding two palace maids in his arms, grinning widely. Seeing the Empress come out, he quickly released the maids and pretended to add firewood to the heating duct.
Empress Zhangsun only instructed the palace maids to all go into the tent. The time they’d have to wait was very long—they couldn’t endure until that moment. After the palace maids went in, Yun Ye had to come out. Liu Jinbao found a good sheltered spot for the Marquis. The two of them, covered with blankets and nestled in an earth shelter, warmed themselves by the fire. The mutton soup was already fragrant. The people from the Yun family were fine, but those guards and palace maids were starving. Smelling the mutton soup, everyone swallowed hard.
Yun Ye took out the flatbread he carried, tore it into pieces and put them in a bamboo tube. He also added hot water-soaked vermicelli, poured hot mutton soup over it twice, then poured the soup back into the large pot. Finally, he ladled some more mutton soup and refilled the bamboo tube. He tore the mutton into small strips, grabbed some garlic shoots from another bamboo tube and put them in, poured a little chili oil sparingly, and a fragrant bowl of mutton paomo was complete. It was only a pity this was outdoors—Yun family people only used bamboo tubes for eating utensils when outdoors. Otherwise, such a bowl of paomo would be worthy of serving at a banquet.
Empress Zhangsun liked it very much. Taking the bamboo tube, she looked at Yun Ye questioningly to see if others had some. Seeing Yun Ye nod, she felt relieved and ate and drank. She didn’t ask Yun Ye what to do next. From the fact that Yun Ye still had the mind to make delicious food, she could see that this minor crisis wasn’t taken seriously by Yun Ye. Hou Shi also had some, though not as refined as the Empress’s bowl—only some dry bread and mutton bones. But she wasn’t picky either, happily holding the bamboo tube and eating with relish. The others would have to wait—Yun Ye hadn’t brought up that many utensils.
Hearing they’d have to stay on the mountain for a while, the guard captain instructed the guards to spread out and search everywhere for firewood. If there were any frozen pheasants or rabbits, they should pick those up too. With many people and insufficient food, they needed to think of other solutions.
After everyone had eaten their fill, Yun Ye looked down the cliff and said to those guards: “There’s a parachute here. Find someone to strap it on and jump down from here, go to the academy and report. Tell them we’re trapped on the mountain and have them prepare to set up a cable system. I’m telling you, I don’t know if the person wearing the parachute will be killed by the fall or not. Volunteers only—this Marquis won’t designate anyone by name.”
Facts proved there were many guards willing to die for the Empress. After endless arguing, a big-bearded guard grabbed the task. Yun Ye didn’t pick and choose. He retrieved the parachute from that stone house and strapped it on him. After checking it once, he told him he could jump. The parachute cord was already tied—as soon as he jumped down, the parachute would open by itself.
The big-bearded guard solemnly accepted his brothers’ blessings. The guard captain was there with red eyes saying: “From now on, your parents are my parents, your children are my children.”
Growing very impatient with the wait, Yun Ye interjected: “Have you taken a fancy to his wife? So eager for him to die. Who said he’ll definitely die? Can’t you hope for something good for him? Out of ten thousand people who parachute, only one or two die. This is probability from mathematics. The possibility of an accident is about the same as you breaking your neck falling from a horse. Every time he rides a horse, are you going to bless him?”
Yun Ye’s vicious tongue drew a large wave of disdain. The big-bearded man turned to Yun Ye and said: “Brothers are like limbs, a wife is like clothing. If Brother Peng fancies my wife, there’s no need to get me killed—just take her.”
Then without even looking at Yun Ye, he walked quickly two steps and suddenly rushed off the cliff. A rope followed him off the cliff and immediately pulled open the parachute. The updraft in the mountain valley instantly swept him up into midair, then he slowly descended. Everyone watched him spiral through the white snow, all very delighted. The big-bearded man’s laughter also echoed in the mountain valley, which again triggered some small avalanches.
Yun Ye checked the direction. This fellow would definitely land in the academy. Only then did he plan to go back and continue warming by the fire. After standing outside for a while, his feet were frozen numb. Turning around, he saw Empress Zhangsun also standing at the cliff looking down, her face full of worry.
“Didn’t you say the parachute was for Your Majesty to use? Why did you let someone else go down?” Hou Shi asked hurriedly.
“Did you see whether that thing is something Your Majesty could use?” Yun Ye walked toward the warm pavilion while explaining to Hou Shi. In no time at all, his head and fur coat were covered with heavy snow.
“I just checked. We only have two sheep, four rabbits, and nine pheasants. Over a hundred thirty people can’t last three days. Your Majesty says in such cold weather, food cannot be cut off. If it’s cut off, people will die.”
“Alright, I won’t tease you anymore. That guard went down, and the academy will soon start erecting the cable system. We’ll go down along the cable—what’s the big deal? Now cook all the sheep and those rabbits and pheasants. The cable being set up will be tomorrow’s business. Tonight is what’s hard to endure. What’s more, on this not-very-large mountaintop, it seems we’re not the only ones here.”
Seeing Yun Ye’s sly smile, Empress Zhangsun smiled gracefully and said: “Who else is on the mountaintop? This Palace is very curious. Have the guards capture them. I think their people definitely aren’t as many as ours.”
“Can’t find them, but I dare guarantee they’re definitely on the mountain. Originally I planned to seal off the mountain after Your Majesty went down. Now it’s convenient. Tomorrow after the cable is set up, we’ll slide down along the cable. No matter who’s on the mountain, we’ll just collect their corpses in spring. No need to worry about those idle concerns. No matter how good her shadow-concealing stealth skills are, they’re useless before the might of heaven.”
Yun Ye was being ruthless. To not give others the slightest opportunity, throughout the entire night, all the guards didn’t sleep at all. Each person had a fire pit in front of them, surrounding the warm pavilion tightly. Yun Ye made a round everywhere every half hour, checking for any loopholes. At the mountain base, the clamor of people and lights didn’t cease all night.
The enemy didn’t appear—not even a ghost’s shadow appeared. The guard captain wanted to say Yun Ye was worrying unnecessarily, but seeing Yun Ye lying on the snow continuously searching for minute traces, he also lay down, learning Yun Ye’s manner and bit by bit inspecting that small path outside the pavilion. When they searched to where the blue fog was thick, Yun Ye refused to go forward. He crawled back in reverse, pulled out a section of bamboo tube from his bosom, lit the fuse on it, and threw it far away.
A thunderous boom immediately exploded in the mountain valley. The accumulated snow on pine tree crowns was all shaken off. The snow piles stored on the sunny slope once again slid downward. This time the momentum was much greater than the previous two times. Yun Ye watched the heavy snow bury the mountain ridge and bury quite a few large trees before he satisfactorily clapped his hands and stood up. Those people wanting to hide could only hide in the avalanche zone.
When doing things, either don’t do them or simply do them completely. Even if the avalanche couldn’t kill those lingering divine beings, trapping them on the mountain was still feasible. This time everyone was doing things very casually. Empress Zhangsun casually went up Yushan. Yun Ye, too late to prepare, followed up. Those fellows following Yun Ye would presumably also follow up.
Two months of lurking—Wu She had discovered traces several times, but unfortunately they always escaped. Whenever Yun Ye went out, he always felt someone following behind. This feeling almost drove Yun Ye mad. The bastards just wanted to use this psychology of Yun Ye’s to drive him insane. Once he started becoming crazy, he would expose a weakness and be struck by them in one blow.
Three times—in these two months, Yun Ye had almost encountered three strange incidents. After Wang Cai returned from going out for a stroll, he always had to rub his big head in Yun Ye’s arms a few times before feeling comfortable. This time Wang Cai was the same. Just as Yun Ye was about to rub Wang Cai’s big head, Wu She stopped him. From Wang Cai’s jowls, he carefully extracted a brown thorn. Finding a chicken, he pricked it with the thorn. Very quickly that chicken turned completely black all over and stopped moving. Yun Ye estimated that if he’d been pricked, his fate would be about the same as that chicken’s.
Wu She had only seen an old woman touch Wang Cai once, with cold light between her fingers. When he went to pursue, the person had disappeared. Fortunately he returned in time—otherwise they’d be collecting Yun Ye’s corpse.
Going out the door, he’d almost been killed by icicles on the gate. Arm-thick ice cones said they’d break and broke—no hesitation. Going to the academy, he’d encounter boulders sliding down from the mountain. Damn it, not a single stone could be found on that mountain—all earth mountains. Fortunately, the one pulling the cart was Wang Cai, who could use his rear end to brace against the cart shaft and walk backward. Watching the boulder roar past in front of them, both man and horse would have become meat paste.
In fact, Yun Ye rarely went out these past few months. Whenever he went out, there would be trouble. Now was the only opportunity Yun Ye could grasp. He just didn’t know if they would take the bait.