Chapter 24
Once Yu Qin and his party returned from the Qingyi Gang’s stronghold, Wei Zhili, the magistrate of Yunzhou, warmly invited them to stay in his residence.
Baili Xing led a physician to Yu Qin’s room. He had not come out since they arrived. Recalling the heavy scent of blood on Yu Qin that morning, Baili Xing decided it would be best to have the lord commander see a doctor immediately. He knocked on the door for a long time, but there was no response.
Worried about Yu Qin’s injuries, Baili Xing breached protocol and pushed the door open. There was not a soul in the room, only used gauze and wound medicine on the table. The flying fish robe lay on the floor in a crumpled heap, shredded and forgotten. He knew how disrespectful it was to treat an item granted by the empress dowager this way.
Baili Xing hurriedly retreated, nearly knocking over the physician behind him. He slammed the door shut and turned to the physician with a forced smile. “The lord commander is not in his room. I’m afraid I’ll have to trouble you to come back later.”
After the physician left, Baili Xing had mixed feelings as he pondered where Yu Qin could possibly have gone. If he had simply departed through the main gate, there was no way the servants wouldn’t know. It seemed Yu Qin had indeed left in secret.
The other members of the Embroidered Uniform Guard had returned to the capital first. Baili Xing was one of the deputy officers responsible for suppressing the bandits, so he remained behind. He had followed Yu Qin’s prior instructions to lead the other guards to Kaiping and wait for orders. As for why Yu Qin had abandoned them to travel alone with Yan Yunhe from the capital to Yunzhou, it was likely part of his plan.
Baili Xing stood outside the room with a rough guess about Yu Qin’s methods. To kill a man, you first break his spirit. Lord Yan must have trusted Yu Qin deeply, or he wouldn’t have been pushed off the cliff without any resistance. No matter how much experience he gained on the battlefield, this young master raised in a marquis’ household was no match for Yu Qin, who had managed to survive and climb to a high position in a place as treacherous as the capital. At the end of the day, Yan Yunhe was simply too naive.
Completely unaware that he was a naive young master in Baili Xing’s eyes, Yan Yunhe gripped the vine Chen Qing had lowered for him to climb up the cliff.
Chen Qing was extremely uneasy. All his brothers had been arrested by Yu Qin, and he feared that Yan Yunhe’s assurances from yesterday no longer held true. But now that he had placed all his hopes on Yan Yunhe, he could only follow this path to the bitter end.
Chen Qing’s expression alone was enough for Yan Yunhe to guess the Qingyi Gang’s current predicament. He clapped the man on the shoulder. “Cheer up. As long as you follow my lead, and your men avoid conflict with the soldiers, there won’t be any problems.”
Watching the entire arrest operation unfold from his hiding spot was like a knife stabbing Chen Qing’s heart. He even considered joining his brothers in captivity, so as not to drag out an ignoble existence.
Yan Yunhe continued to placate him, “Didn’t I tell you? Once we get to the bottom of this smuggling case, I’ll petition His Majesty to grant amnesty to the Qingyi Gang. When that time comes, I’ll personally make arrangements for those of you who wish to join the capital’s garrison troops. As for those who don’t want to serve in the army, I’ll have my people escort them back to Yunzhou.”
Chen Qing thought his words were nice to hear, but whether they would come to fruition was another matter entirely. “Now that they’re all locked up, what if someone secretly harms them? What then?!”
Yan Yunhe hadn’t intended to say much, but considering that Chen Qin’s persistent anxiety might ruin everything, he had no choice but to let him in on his arrangements. “I already had a letter sent to Vice Commander Wen Feng of Kaiping. He’ll look after your brothers; he won’t let anyone harm them without cause.”
Yunzhou and Kaiping were close to each other, so Chen Qing had also heard of Wen Feng. The man was well-regarded by the public for his sense of justice. He had repeatedly stood up for the common people, even at the cost of offending his superiors. This had stalled his promotion, to the extent that despite his meritorious service and prestige, he remained an assistant commander.
Chen Qing let out a sigh of relief. Yan Yunhe kicked the vine he’d used to pull himself up over the cliff’s edge, and after verifying over and over that no traces of it remained, he asked, “Did you bring my horse? Let’s get out of here before someone comes.”
Hearing this, Chen Qing instantly grew wary. “They wouldn’t come back to check if you’re dead, would they?”
Yan Yunhe felt a headache coming on. This fellow had no tact. Dead? How inauspicious! Wouldn’t it be better to say “if you’re alive”?
He clutched the reins. “Who knows? Yu Qin is meticulous. He might actually come to check.”
With that, he let Chen Qing lead the way down the mountain through a secret path.
In less than the time it takes to finish a cup of tea, another figure appeared. Yu Qin, clad in a fur-lined coat, rode his horse to the edge of the cliff. He covered his lips and coughed lightly a few times, his gaze sweeping slowly across the surroundings.
After a long, careful examination, he found none of the traces he sought, and his eyes darkened slightly. Just as he was about to channel his internal energy to descend and investigate further, an intense constricting sensation came over his chest. Forcing his internal energy only resulted in a mouthful of blood splattering onto the rocks.
Yu Qin’s expression remained unchanged as he wiped the corner of his mouth with a handkerchief. But when he noticed a few specks of blood on the hem of his robe, he furrowed his brow. Following the line of the hem, Yu Qin suddenly spotted a green smudge on a nearby rock. It was still clammy to the touch, not yet fully dry—a trace left by a vine.
Yu Qin coughed once again. After his breathing steadied, he carefully folded the handkerchief in his hand to reveal a clean side, and wiped away the green stain.
Baili Xing arrived at the foot of the mountain on horseback and spotted Yu Qin from afar, halfway up the mountainside.
He really did come here. It seemed that Yu Qin had second thoughts after rejecting his suggestion this morning and came back to look for Yan Yunhe’s body.
As Baili Xing approached, he took notice of Yu Qin’s fur coat. The fur was a dull gray and full of coarse, stray hairs—low-quality trash no matter how you looked at it, unsuitable for someone like Yu Qin.
“Your Excellency,” Baili Xing called out, but just as he was about to speak further, Yu Qin’s icy gaze swept over him.
Evidently, Yu Qin was quite displeased with Baili Xing for showing up here, spying on his movements. Baili Xing quickly explained, “I summoned a physician to treat Your Excellency’s injuries, but you weren’t in your chambers. I suspected Your Excellency might have come to the mountain, so I came to check on you.”
Yu Qin rode his horse past him. Baili Xing mustered his courage and asked, “Your Excellency, did you find anything?”
The horse’s hooves crunched over stone, the bell’s tinkle crisp and melodious. Yu Qin’s indifferent voice reached Baili Xing’s ears. “Nothing.”
Baili Xing turned to look back at the mountain range, yet in the end, he spurred his horse to catch up with Yu Qin.
In the woods not far away, Yan Yunhe and Chen Qing were hiding on a slope.
Only after the two riders had left the foot of the mountain did Chen Qing exhale in relief. Rather impressed, he turned to Yan Yunhe and said, “Your guess was spot on. He really did return to check.”
“Tsk, tsk, tsk. The pretty ones are the most heartless. Back at Yuanlai Inn, you two were so passionate even the bed collapsed, but now…”
Chen Qing didn’t get to finish that sentence; his words died in his throat under Yan Yunhe’s piercing glare.
Yan Yunhe then watched Yu Qin’s retreating figure. His lips curled up, yet there was no smile in his eyes. “Who could argue with that? Once he turns on you, there’s no one more heartless.”
Chen Qing added, “Actually, he’s not even that pretty. Too effeminate for a grown man…”
“Shut up,” Yan Yunhe cut him off harshly, fixing his eyes on Chen Qing’s weathered face. “Mind your own business.”
“...”
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