Chapter 130: The Pull of Fate

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The night sky after the rain was exceptionally bright. The twinkling stars resembled Sister Zhao’s eyes. Little Pig gazed dreamily into the heavens and let out a long sigh.

After a while, he lowered his head. If he truly encountered Sister Zhao, would he have the courage to face those beautiful eyes?

In those days, Goldenwater Town had suffered a great calamity. Doctor Lu of the medical hall, who was soon to marry Sister Zhao, had been stabbed to death in his own home, while his son, Lu Liaoliao, had vanished without a trace. Within a few days, word spread that the bandits of Heaven’s Gate Stronghold had colluded with a female bandit, murdering Doctor Lu for his wealth and abducting his son, Lu Liaoliao.

While Little Pig was still bewildered, he was arrested as the female bandit’s accomplice and exiled to Fanyang to serve in the army.

From beginning to end, Little Pig had not offered a single word in his own defense, because he believed he deserved his punishment. When that beautiful young woman had stepped forward and berated Lu Liaoliao and the others for helping her, he had recognized her at a glance. She was the very girl who had once left a tiny silver coin in his bowl.

Little Pig was merely a penniless beggar, but for the sake of protecting Sister Zhao—who often gave him food and was as beautiful and kind as the Bodhisattva of Mercy—he had always remained watchful.

Yet he had never imagined that, in repaying a kindness and standing by his sense of justice, his refusal to identify that young woman would lead to so many families being torn apart. Whenever he fought the barbarian tribes in the Fanyang army, Little Pig charged at the forefront with the resolve to die. Within a few years, the fierce and fearless warrior was chosen as one of Lord An Lushan’s hundred household retainers.

He adjusted his armor, gripped his horizontal saber tightly, and stood silently with the other household retainers and personal guards before Lord An Lushan’s great tent, awaiting news from the front.

Lord An Lushan had led sixty thousand soldiers from the three circuits under his command on an expedition against the Khitans, using two thousand Xi cavalrymen as guides. After the army had crossed more than a thousand li beyond Pinglu—present-day Chaoyang in Liaoning—they reached the Tuhuzhen River, now known as the Laoha River in Inner Mongolia, where they encountered torrential rain. Lord An ordered the army to march day and night for more than three hundred li until they reached the Khitan royal encampment.

The Khitans were utterly horrified at the sight of the Tang troops. After a brief discussion with his subordinates, the Khitan king was already preparing to send an envoy to surrender.

Because the rain had continued without pause, the sinews and glue of the bows and crossbows had become soaked and slack. Not long before, the great general He Side had entered the tent to see An Lushan and said, “Although our army is large, we have traveled far and are exhausted. We are in no condition to fight. It would be better to hold our arms and rest while we await them. In no more than three days, the enemy will certainly surrender.”

An Lushan flew into a rage and wanted to have him executed, but He Side begged to lead the van and prove himself in battle.

“An Lushan is dead! An Lushan is dead!”

Suddenly, flames soared into the sky ahead, accompanied by the chaotic cries of mutinous soldiers.

An Lushan remained calm in the face of danger. He mounted his horse and shouted to the soldiers beside him, “An Lushan is here! Follow me and cut down the enemy!”

The two thousand Xi horsemen suddenly rebelled. One highly skilled mounted archer drew his bow and nocked an arrow, taking aim at the conspicuous figure of An Lushan on horseback.

With a sharp hiss, the arrow struck An Lushan’s saddle. He toppled from his horse, breaking his crown and losing one of his long boots.

Little Pig rushed forward, hoisted the portly An Lushan onto his back, and turned to flee. A group of household retainers and personal guards shielded them as they fought their way backward.

With great effort, they helped An Lushan onto a horse seized by one of the retainers. An Lushan burst into tears, drew his battle saber, and was about to charge back into the fray, intent on meeting his death.

“My lord! Any of us may die, but you alone must not!” Little Pig clung desperately to An Lushan’s reins.

An Lushan glared at him with bloodshot eyes for a long while. At last, he turned his horse around and, protected by more than twenty household retainers, fled through the night toward Shizhou.

In the eighth month of the tenth year of Tianbao, An Lushan, military governor of the three northern circuits, suffered a crushing defeat at the hands of the Khitans.

The moon in the eighth month was exceptionally round and luminous. Lu Liaoliao pushed open the window, and pure white moonlight poured into the room like liquid silver, spreading a radiant sheen across the floor.

The moonlight was like water, and an intense longing rose involuntarily in his heart. Tang Xiaoqi had only recently given birth to their daughter, Yueya, while Wang Liuli was nearing childbirth. Yet he had left them behind and, bearing his uncle-master Li Linfu’s solemn commission, secretly set out for Southern Zhao.

He wondered how that tiny, awkward little creature was faring now. Lu Liaoliao sighed softly. While he had been at home, he had felt little; but after only a few days away, he had begun to miss his daughter beyond endurance.

The wind in Lizhou was astonishingly strong, roaring against the windows until they rattled loudly.

Lu Liaoliao closed the window and glanced at Vanilla, who was still curled up on the bed like a cat. His emotions somewhat tangled, he slowly lay down beside her without removing his clothes.

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Vanilla’s body gave an almost imperceptible tremor, and she edged a little farther toward the corner of the bed. A wry smile appeared on Lu Liaoliao’s face, and he shook his head helplessly.

They had slept in the same bed several times now, yet Vanilla had still not lowered her guard.

He closed his eyes slightly and lay perfectly still, while his mind continued turning things over and over, as though he were already asleep.

Cautiously, Vanilla turned onto her side. Her bright eyes secretly watched Lu Liaoliao for a long time.

“Do you despise me because my body is dirty? Is that why you have never touched me—not even once?”

In the moonlight, Vanilla’s face was deathly pale, and her voice was soft and sorrowful.

Lu Liaoliao was stunned for a moment. Then he reached out and gently drew her into his arms. He felt her body begin to tremble again. As he stroked her slender, smooth back, a strange emotion rose within him: tenderness mingled with pity.

“I am the husband who will remain by your side for the rest of your life. I will cherish you, so how could I despise you? Do not let your thoughts run away with you.”

Only after a long while did Vanilla stop trembling and gradually relax.

The road to Shu was difficult, more difficult than ascending to the heavens. Yet the hardships of Lu Liaoliao’s journey were harder still.

After passing through Mianzhou, they entered the territory of Xilu County. The mountains were high, the forests wild, and the roads narrow and treacherous, forcing the entire party to proceed with even greater caution. Although daylight still remained, the caravan disguised as a merchant convoy had no choice but to stop beside a stream.

“Uncle Seven, it is still so early. Why have you ordered everyone to make camp already?” Lu Liaoliao asked their guide, Wang Seven, with a smile and great courtesy.

Wang Seven had once been defeated by Lu Liaoliao and had been so enraged that he vomited blood. But later, Lu Liaoliao had strangely become the husband of the Wang family’s Ninth Miss, and the small grievance between them had naturally faded away.

“The most dangerous thing on this merchant road to Southern Zhao is neither the soldiers who inspect travelers and extort money along the way, nor the bandits who come howling out of nowhere. It is the miasma that appears mysteriously at dawn and dusk. If we stumble into it carelessly, every one of us will be finished.”

“Everyone envies the wealth of the Wang family,” Lu Liaoliao said with a glance at the towering mountains and deep gorges. “But that wealth was purchased with the lives of men like you, Uncle Seven.”

Wang Seven felt a warm current in his heart. The last trace of resentment he held toward Lu Liaoliao vanished without a trace.

Zang Four wore an expressionless face as he led a packhorse wagon into position, preparing, at Zhou Six’s instruction, to arrange the wagons in a circular formation. Lu Liaoliao glanced at him and at Zhuge Fengxian standing before another wagon. After a moment’s hesitation, he walked behind Zang Four.

“Once we have dealt with the matter in Southern Zhao, I will give you the antidote and set you free.”

Zang Four looked at Lu Liaoliao with a complicated expression, then shook his head woodenly.

“We escaped alive from the death-row camp in the first place. To survive, have our crimes pardoned, and become guards for the military governor’s son was already a great blessing. Now that the young master has met with trouble, do you think we can simply go back?”

Lu Liaoliao fell silent for a while. As he watched Zang Four lead the wagon past him, a sudden feeling of desolation welled up in his heart.

He returned to Vanilla’s carriage with a heavy heart, only to find Li Three Years, seated on the driver’s bench, dozing with his eyes half closed.

For this journey to Southern Zhao, Li Linfu had sent not only twenty highly skilled and experienced covert agents, but even Li Three Years—who was usually always at his side—to accompany Lu Liaoliao.

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Seeing how sweetly Li Three Years slept, Lu Liaoliao could not help sighing.

“Boy, put your mind completely at ease. With me, Li Three Years, here, no one will be able to harm the woman in your carriage in the slightest.”

Li Three Years did not open his eyes at all, speaking as though he were muttering in a dream.

Lu Liaoliao gave an awkward laugh. “I know perfectly well that Uncle Li is a man of extraordinary skill. It is only that I cannot see a single guard around you, and that worries me.”

“Heh heh! If you could discover these guards so easily, could they still be called covert agents? I trained every one of those boys myself. They are a hundred times more capable than those miscellaneous personal guards of yours.”

Li Three Years laughed proudly. It was clear that he had complete faith in his covert agents.

“General! General!”

Zhuge Fengxian came running toward Lu Liaoliao, a flattering smile on his face.

“What is it?” Lu Liaoliao turned to look at him.

“General, take a look. This is a wilderness of barren hills, and aside from your wife, there is not another woman anywhere nearby. But just now, when a gust of wind blew past, I smelled the fragrance of quite a few women. Don’t you find that strange?”

As he spoke, Zhuge Fengxian sniffed vigorously at the air.

Lu Liaoliao instinctively sniffed as well, but detected nothing. His expression immediately darkened, and he cursed Zhuge Fengxian irritably.

“Is your nose sharper than a hunting dog’s, that you can smell a woman’s scent from so far away?”

“Actually, my nose is unusually gifted—more sensitive even than that lecherous scoundrel Nangong Miao’s. It is only that he likes to show off, while I prefer to keep a low profile.”

Zhuge Fengxian bent deeply at the waist, appearing utterly obsequious.

“Heh.” Lu Liaoliao gave a cold laugh. “Are you afraid that once we reach Southern Zhao, we will conveniently kill you as well? So you are telling me about your talents in hopes that I will spare your life?”

“General, you are broad-minded and merciful. Surely you would not trouble yourself over a lowly soldier like me. But, General, I truly did smell the scent of many women—no fewer than twenty or thirty.”

Zhuge Fengxian continued flattering Lu Liaoliao while stubbornly insisting that his nose had not deceived him.

Lu Liaoliao rubbed his chin. His brows drew together slightly, and his expression suddenly changed.

“Stay alert. We are surrounded. If I am not mistaken, the people coming are from the Five Poisons Sect.”

Hidden among the dense forest and undergrowth, Fang Gege gazed mournfully toward her husband, Su Lichen, stealing glances at him from time to time.

She had married the senior disciple she had yearned for day and night several years ago, but he had never touched her even once.

After finally getting what she had always wanted, Fang Gege suddenly discovered that marrying her senior brother, Su Lichen, brought none of the happiness she had imagined. He was like an elder brother, even like a father—but never like a lover.

Only after she had grown up did she understand, from the look in her senior brother’s eyes, that his heart belonged entirely to the leader of the Five Poisons Sect, Jade Rakshasa Ailuo. Though Jade Rakshasa Ailuo always appeared to be no more than thirteen or fourteen years old, no one in the Five Poisons Sect dared challenge her authority in the slightest.

Her husband loved not her, but the sect leader who had been both mother and teacher to her. The thought often filled her with despair.

Soon they would charge toward the merchant caravan surrounded beside the stream. Would she die there today?

A strange feeling suddenly rose in Fang Gege’s heart.