Chapter 48: Ah Qing

Human strength is certainly no match for mechanical contraptions.

Unless one is considering a monster like Lord Wang Xinzhi, whose physical might rivals that of the Hegemon-King of Chu.

Therefore, even though it was merely a matter of some silken threads, Zhu Wen had no intention of clashing with them head-on.

He scooped Lan Suting up by her slender waist, retreated into the courtyard, and let the driving rain lash down upon them.

His saber swept horizontally, the blade-glow carrying dozens of raindrops to strike the incoming silken threads. The moment the threads met water, they instantly went limp and hung down.

A light, giggling laugh came from inside the main hall: "What a fine young man, to have discovered the flaw in this mechanism in just a short moment."

Then, she sighed regretfully: "If it were a clear and sunny day, the mechanism could cover the entire courtyard, and anyone who dared to trespass would be sliced into countless pieces."

Zhu Wen calmly replied: "Were it not for the torrential rain, this humble person would not have been forced to commit the rudeness of breaking into this place."

"You little rascal, you even know that trespassing into a private residence is extremely impolite?" the female voice inside teased.

"Not only impolite, but also a violation of the law and regulations." Zhu Wen expertly recited the legal statutes of the Great Tang: "Anyone who enters another's household at night without cause... if the master kills them on the spot, no charges shall be brought."

"So if you die here tonight, you have nothing to feel wronged about."

"However, in times of chaos, desperate circumstances call for expedient measures." Zhu Wen continued: "It is not yet too late, yet the entire manor is pitch black. This humble person knocked on the door for a long time, but received no response at all. Coupled with the fact that this estate is situated in such a desolate place, it appears the master is avoiding enemies."

"And this humble person is merely seeking a place to escape the rain for my younger sister; obviously, I cannot be an assassin sent by your enemies, Madam."

"Who knows?" The voice in the darkness carried a hint of languor: "Do you think these few words are enough to win my trust?"

Zhu Wen said coldly: "If I wanted to leave right now, Madam would not be able to stop me."

"It's a pity your younger sister has already caught a chill. If you take her outside to be drenched in the rain now, her life will likely be forfeit."

"Since you know this, Madam, why not accumulate some karmic virtue? All we ask for is a place to shelter from the wind and rain. If we were scoundrels harboring malicious intentions, how could we be traveling with a sick patient?"

While speaking, Zhu Wen tried his utmost with his arms to shield Lan Suting from the rain blown sideways by the strong gale.

The two of them were now drenched to the skin by the rain, and they truly needed a place to escape the wind and warm themselves by a fire.

"But what if this humble woman is merely an ordinary, weak female? How can you guarantee you won't harbor malicious intentions when you carry a sharp weapon?"

Lan Suting raised her head with difficulty in Zhu Wen's embrace: "Older brother, let's leave. We can always find somewhere outside to hide from the rain... Breaking into a private residence is our lack of etiquette to begin with."

She was someone who attached great importance to rules and propriety.

"I won't." Zhu Wen spoke in a tone that brooked no argument, using his hand to wipe the cold rain from Lan Suting's face, his gaze carrying an air of arrogance.

"Then, young man, let me ask you, what is your name?" The voice inside the door suddenly turned gentle.

"Qin Yan." Zhu Wen directly gave the name of his new friend in Wang Xinzhi's army.

Although after slaying Yan Jingming, it remained an open question whether Qin Yan still regarded him as a friend.

The woman chuckled: "How can this concubine trust a person who is not honest?"

Zhu Wen's expression did not change: "Where is the dishonesty?"

"In this concubine's view, your surname is Zhu, and your given name is Wen. And you have no younger sister."

As the woman spoke, a sudden flash of startling lightning pierced the sky, illuminating the interior of the doorway. It revealed a slender beauty in green robes, standing gracefully with numerous thread ends held in her palms.

She was clearly no longer young, but she remained an exceedingly attractive woman, her pair of peach-blossom eyes brilliantly striking.

Yet her voice possessed the lingering, winding charm of ripples on water.

The lightning faded, and the woman uttered her next sentence: "And this concubine is called A'qing, the wife of Commander Qi of the Taining Army—or rather, his kept mistress."

The lamps within the hall suddenly blazed with brilliant light, illuminating the entire courtyard as bright as day.

"Young man, do you still dare to enter?" The woman put down the silken threads connected to the mechanism, covered her mouth with a delicate hand, and smiled charmingly.

"Why wouldn't I dare?"

Clasping Lan Suting, Zhu Wen strode inside, the rain dripping from his entire body onto the exquisite woolen rug of the hall.

He did not know how the other party had discovered his identity, but such a formation was far inferior to the time he faced Huang Chao when he first joined the rebel peasant army.

There were a dozen maids and servants inside the hall, all clad in armor and standing with swords and sabers. Their expressions were cold and stern, their eyes filled with vigilance.

Yet Zhu Wen understood that the other party harbored no intent to kill; otherwise, there would have been no need to reveal her true identity to him.

"Many thanks to Madam for your gracious hospitality." Zhu Wen placed Lan Suting upon a beauty couch in the hall, then bowed with clasped hands in gratitude.

"Do you know why I don't want to kill you?" A'qing said slowly, her autumn-water gaze suddenly tinged with a trace of melancholy.

"This junior does not know."

"Because you killed Kou Qianzhi, and I am very happy. Commander Qi might want to kill you to avenge Kou Qianzhi, but compared to Commander Qi's political enemies, I loathe Kou Qianzhi far more."

As A'qing spoke, her tone had already grown somewhat icy.

"Why?"

Zhu Wen could not help but be utterly bewildered.

Just at that moment, a boy of about ten years old suddenly ran over hastily. He was as fair and lovely as carved jade, his eyebrows and eyes bearing a distinct resemblance to the woman.

Seeing Lan Suting lying drenched and weak upon the couch, the boy immediately revealed a sympathetic expression. He ran to A'qing's side, tugged at the hem of her skirt, and said, "Mother, do not harm this older sister; she must be a good person."

He pointed at Zhu Wen and added, "This older brother is too."

Then he said, "Mother, this child misses Father again."

A'qing sighed: "Look at this child; you ought to understand a little now."

With Zhu Wen's cleverness, a guess naturally formed in his mind instantly.

He knew that Commander Qi Kelang's first wife had perished at the hands of the Tubo people while accompanying Qi Kelang to garrison Shanzhou in Xiliang.

However, he had never heard any news of Qi Kelang taking a second wife.

Accompanied by A'qing's sigh, her expression abruptly turned solemn, and her voice lost every trace of charm: "I was raised by the parents of Lady A'xue. Though nominally mistress and servant, we were truly like sisters."

"After Lady A'xue passed away from this world, because the two of them had only a single daughter, many people came to persuade Commander Qi to take me as his secondary wife, so that the child would not be left without a mother."

"The elder head of the family held the exact same view, and even said to Commander Qi that replacing the old brother-in-law with a new brother-in-law, and having the elder sister's husband become the younger sister's husband, was originally a fine tale of romance."

Lan Suting coughed heavily again upon the couch, covering her mouth and asking softly: "Was it then that Commander Kou said something?"

Looking dazed, she had not expected to understand the gist of A'qing's meaning just like that.

A'qing slightly nodded her delicate chin: "Indeed. Kou Qianzhi—that knight-errant who clearly came from a prominent background but initially refused to become an official, traveling all the way to Xiliang to befriend Commander Qi—jumped out at that moment to sow discord by exploiting affection over distance. He proclaimed that the older brother and sister-in-law shared a bond as deep as the seas, and even though separated by life and death, how could one bear to commit an act of betrayal?"

"Kou Qianzhi also stated that if one worried about the continuation of the family line, a son-in-law could simply be adopted into the niece's household in the future."

Hearing this, Zhu Wen could not help asking, "And then?"

A'qing said desolately: "I forced the issue with my death and finally married into the Qi family, yet I became nothing more than a kept mistress without official standing. Commander Qi has only visited a total of a few times over these past years, and even then, merely to continue the family lineage and go through the motions of duty."

Pointing at the young boy with resentment filling her eyes, she murmured, "This child is Kelang's only offspring."

"Yet Commander Qi fears he might snatch away the paternal love rightfully belonging to his daughter, and thus hides him here in the desolate wilderness of Hebei, making it so he cannot catch a single glimpse of his father for years on end."

"If he grows up, his father will grant him the connections due to the son of a Military Governor. But right now, he is merely a pitiful child hidden in the darkness, receiving not a shred of paternal affection."

Hearing this, Lan Suting could not refrain from speaking: "I have long heard that Commander Qi is a hero of this generation, but he is far too cold-hearted toward his own wife and child."

A'qing stated decisively: "Of course he is cold-hearted; when a man loves one woman too deeply, he has nothing but coldness for all other women."

"Yet if not for the fact that he was so good to Sister A'xue, how could I ever have fallen for this man..."

As she reminisced about the past, a trace of tears actually glistened at the corners of her eyes.

Lan Suting nodded, seeming to understand.

Zhu Wen remarked: "There are no bad people in the Taining Army, and you, Madam A'qing, do not truly hate Commander Kou."

Hearing these words, A'qing suddenly burst into loud laughter, her form trembling like blooming flowers shaking in the wind.

After laughing for a good while, she finally stopped.

"Indeed, there are no bad people, only fools."

"Take Kou Qianzhi, for instance. Because of his loose tongue, he forced me to become merely a kept mistress; yet what other choice was there? It was entirely my own choice to begin with—Commander Qi never truly wanted to marry me in his heart."

"And that fool Kou Qianzhi—not only did he refuse to remarry after his wife passed away, but when a famine struck Luzhou, he would rather let his own children eat coarse barley meal than spare any money to save the children of the common people! As a high-ranking official, he did not have a single maid or servant in his household, nor did he possess many silk garments."

"Yet when he went outside, he always dressed brightly and meticulously, because he did not want outsiders to know what he had done."

Hearing these words, Zhu Wen felt a wave of intense, suffocating tightness in his chest.

Only then did he realize what a truly great man he had slain.

He suddenly discovered how utterly laughable his harsh denunciations of Kou Qianzhi had been.

Such a saintly figure had no business existing within the corrupt officialdom of the present day.

"You say I do not hate him, but that is false. Not only did he live a life of hardship, but he also brought endless trouble to those around him," A'qing sighed. "Yet when I reflect that as a kept mistress, I lead a life far more comfortable than his, I sometimes cannot help but pity him—why must he torture himself to such a state?"

"I can understand men like Commander Kou; they are like Buddhas, treating the mortal world as a spiritual trial," Zhu Wen said. "If Commander Kou harbored bitterness in his heart, it could only be because the corruption of the imperial court and the hardships of the common people filled him with confusion. As for the suffering of his own physical body, he would gladly embrace it as sweet."

By now, he was certain that his encounter with Madam A'qing was entirely a matter of pure coincidence.

The other party had bottled up far too many words in her heart over the years and truly needed someone to talk to.

"Wen has one more thing he does not understand: how did Madam guess my identity?"

A'qing's expression abruptly took on a teasing tint, her fair hand covering her mouth as she smiled: "If I said I practiced spirit-communication arts and could see Kou Qianzhi's wandering ghost following right behind you, drenched in blood, would you believe it?"

"Tales of ghosts and spirits may be listened to, but need not be believed," Zhu Wen replied. "Since Madam says so, this junior can only take responsibility for the deeds I have committed."

Though he said this, A'qing's explanation clearly failed to convince Zhu Wen.

Zhu Wen surmised that he had recently struck down Kou Qianzhi, and Kou Qianzhi's advice had drastically altered A'qing's destiny. Consequently, A'qing undoubtedly paid some attention to him.

Precisely because he had slain Kou Qianzhi, he dared not pass through the territory of the Taining Commandery when heading to Puluo. If it had been Meng楷 (Meng Kai) tasked with this mission, he might have risked passing straight through Taining.

Zhu Wen also knew that young men as handsome, clever, and courageous as himself were rare indeed.

If A'qing first assumed that this uninvited guest who broke in was Zhu Wen, and then worked backward from there—connecting it with the fact that the Puluo Military Governor Song Wei was now severely wounded and the Puluo Commandery had plunged into chaos—the answer to why Zhu Wen was traveling through Hebei became quite clear.

Yet Zhu Wen's decision to silently accept her conjecture upon hearing it also had his own calculations.

Only the members of the peasant rebel army would never harm the family of Qi Kelang. For a Taining Army that still retained its full strength, doing so would bring no substantial harm to them; instead, it would drive Qi Kelang into a fury, causing him to hunt down the rebel army with all his might.

The fact that Qi Kelang hid A'qing and her child in this desolate estate in Hebei clearly showed that he was only guarding against those political enemies harboring malicious intent.