The Prisoner of Beauty - Chapter 16

Chapter 16: The Wrath of the Marquis of Yan (Part II)

The remaining fire at the Grand Administrator’s estate was not yet extinguished, so it could not be occupied for the time being. All the wounded were settled inside the Six Ministries Government Office in the east of the city.

 

The soldiers carried torches for illumination. Wei Shao walked all the way. Except for the direction of the Grand Administrator’s estate behind him where fire light was still leaping, the streets were pitch black from head to tail. The doors and windows of the citizen households on both sides were tightly closed, just like an empty city with no people. When passing in front of one household, the crying sound of a small child suddenly came out. Before it even finished one cry, it was immediately suppressed down, presumably forced shut by a terrified adult covering the mouth or covering them inside the blankets. At the gate of the office, several dozen large and small subordinate officials of Shiyi, including the city chancellor, the chief secretary, and the imperial post inspector, were all gathered in front of the railed room at this moment. Soldiers and armor faced them with angry glares. The subordinate officials were all dressed untidily, their faces the color of dirt, some sitting on the ground staring blankly, some hugging each other and weeping. Suddenly, hearing a soldier shout "The Lord Marquis arrives," and performing military salutes, they turned their heads together. They saw a man clad in armor and covered in blood quickly stepping up the entrance stairs. His appearance was heroic and majestic, quite young, appearing to be only about twenty years old or so. Knowing that this person was the Wei Shao whose name moved the north, every single one of them trembled, not daring to make any more noise, only stealing glances at him.

 

Wei Shao also paid no attention to these subordinate officials of Shiyi. Arriving inside, he removed his armor, wiped the bloodstains from his face, and went to console and reward the generals and soldiers who were injured tonight while attacking the city.

 

This battle of attacking the city was truly tragic. Although Shiyi's twenty thousand defending troops were completely wiped out, Wei Shao's side also suffered no light losses. Not counting those killed in battle, just this place alone was filled with wounded people. Several dozen doctors threaded between them, busy treating the injuries of the wounded soldiers, looking extremely occupied.

 

Seeing that their master did not celebrate the victory first upon just capturing the city, but instead came to visit them, the wounded soldiers were all deeply grateful.

 

After Wei Shao finished consoling the soldiers, he went separately to visit Wei Liang.

 

Because Wei Liang harbored guilt in his heart, he had fought regardless of his own life when attacking the city. He had unfortunately been hit by several flaming arrows, but fortunately they did not hit vital areas. The military doctor had already finished treating his injuries, and at this moment he was lying on a bed with his eyes closed to rest. Seeing Wei Shao come to visit, he struggled to get up to go to the floor, but Wei Shao pressed him down with one hand.

 

Wei Liang had been infected by the fire poison, and his injuries were truly not light. His face was already like golden paper, but he still talked and laughed as normal, and his spirit looked to be quite good.

 

Wei Shao asked him about the detailed process of the incident at Qiuji that day. Wei Liang repeated it from beginning to end, and finally said with gritted teeth: "Hateful Chen Rui thief, accustomed to using plots, actually took advantage of my lack of preparation to use a trick to abduct the lady! That fellow truly deserves to die! Next time I find him, I must cut him into eight pieces to alleviate the hatred in my heart!"

 

Wei Shao asked: "You are saying that the lady was first abducted by someone inside the relay post, and subsequently someone sent a passerby to report the news to you, saying she had fallen into Chen Rui's hands? Do you know what background that person had?"

 

Wei Liang shook his head blankly: "This I do not know. It should be that it happened to fall into someone's eyes, hence they came to report the news."

 

While Wei Shao was contemplating, the captain from before came hurriedly to report, saying that soldiers had discovered Chen Rui several li outside the west gate of the city. A military horse had been snatched by him, and it appeared he was heading toward the direction of Leping. They were pursuing with full strength.

 

Wei Liang was furious, sitting up and wanting to turn over to get out of bed, which aggravated the wounds on his body, causing his face to show pain.

 

Wei Shao’s expression was as normal, but a shadow flashed through his eyes. He pressed down on Wei Liang's shoulder, telling him to rest and heal with an easy mind, and ordered the military doctor to treat him with full care, not allowing any mistakes to happen. Only then did he rise to come out, leaped onto his horse, and went straight out of the west gate.

 

……

Chen Rui climbed over that wall of the latrine at the Grand Administrator’s estate, taking advantage of the chaos to escape out of the west gate in one breath. However, seeing clusters of torches and moving figures of Wei Shao's soldiers behind him, he knew they were looking for him. He was terrified like a stray dog. After fleeing for a stretch of road, seeing a patch of wild brambles growing in the open field, disregarding the thorns piercing his body, he dove straight inside to hide his body, wanting to dodge this wave of pursuit and wait until dawn to find a way to escape. He did not expect his luck to be rotten, actually disturbing a nest of wild badgers that had made their home in the brambles. The badger pack fled in all directions, making noises that drew the soldiers over, who thrust their spears wildly into the brambles. Chen Rui initially endured it, but he did not expect a soldier to happen to stab his butt with a spear. With an "Ouch" sound, he violently burst out, fiercely knocked down that soldier, snatched a horse, straddled it, and fled toward the west.

 

He ran for his life frantically. The pursuing soldiers behind him were finally gradually left far behind by him. Only then did he breathe a sigh of relief. Seeing the horse beneath him gradually breathing heavily and its pace turning slow, he estimated it was exhausted. Fearing he would run the horse to death and truly be left without legs, and plus he himself was truly exhausted, he came down and sat on the ground to pant. Before he could even pant twice, he noticed that on the road he came from behind him, it actually seemed like someone was pursuing again.

 

Tonight the moon was bright and stars were sparse, and the four fields were open and empty, so it could be faintly discerned that this group had at least a dozen people. Chen Rui instantly broke out into a cold sweat again. He rolled up from the ground, flipped onto the horse's back, and ran frantically once more. He did not expect that in his panic of losing his way, he finally ran into a large piece of a wild graveyard. Seeing the people pursuing him behind getting closer and closer, he could even already hear the sound of horse hooves striking the ground.

 

Chen Rui knew that Wei Shao must hate him to the bone right now. If he fell into his hands, it would be worse than death. Continuing to run like this left him with no path of escape. Making a firm resolution, he simply took a gamble, rolled down from the horse's back, kicked the horse's butt fiercely to urge the horse to continue forward, while he himself crawled and scrambled into the wild graves. He hit against a wild grave, and on the shaded side, a pitch black hole was exposed, appearing able to accommodate a body. Disregarding any taboos, he dove headfirst inside, desperately curling up his body. After hiding well, he pulled a piece of stone to block the hole.

 

……

Wei Shao personally led his men to pursue several dozen li outside the city walls. Passing the graveyard, in a moment they caught up to that horse. Seeing the horse's back was empty and Chen Rui was nowhere to be found, he stopped and ordered the soldiers to search nearby, but they did not see that fellow. Remembering that there was a patch of wild graveyard by the roadside just now, he ordered the soldiers to go search it again.

 

The soldiers came back one by one, reporting that they had looked everywhere, but did not see Chen Rui.

 

Wei Shao contemplated for a moment, looking back at the city walls, thinking that the soldiers had marched urgently on the road for consecutive days and had also attacked the city for half the night, already exhausted. And Shiyi had just been captured, with a thousand threads of affairs in the city. Although there was Gongsun Yang sitting in command on his behalf, it was also not good for him to leave for too long. He hesitated for a moment, and finally cast a look at that piece of wild graveyard whose end could not be seen with one glance not far from his side, and gave the order to pack up the team and return to the city.

 

……

Chen Rui curled inside the pitch black grave hole, unable to see his own five fingers upon opening his eyes. He did not dare to move even a bit, only erecting his ears to listen to the movements outside. At first, there seemed to be the sound of footsteps passing nearby. Fortunately, the other party did not notice the anomaly at this shaded place and walked past. After a long time, there was no other noise outside. Chen Rui deduced that Wei Shao and his group should have already left, and finally let out a long sigh of relief. Only now did he smell that his breath was entirely full of the stench of decayed earth, almost making him vomit. Muttering "unlucky," just as he pushed away the stone to crawl out, the corner of his clothing behind him suddenly seemed to be firmly grabbed by someone, actually unable to be released.

 

In front of Chen Rui’s eyes, the image of a resentful ghost instantly flashed out. Although ordinarily he slaughtered people like hemp and did not fear ghosts and gods, at a moment like this, in the middle of the night inside a grave hole, the surroundings black enough that one could not see their own hand, the corner of his clothing firmly grabbed behind him, and it also seemed a cold wind suddenly rose, blowing sissingly past the back of his neck—even though he was ordinarily bold, at this moment the hairs all over his body stood on end. He lay flat on the ground not daring to move anymore, closing his eyes and endlessly praying and bowing in his mouth. After a while, seeing that there seemed to be no other strange anomaly behind him, he finally plucked up his courage to slowly stretch his hand behind to touch it. Only then did he find out it was nothing more than the corner of his clothing being hooked by a patch of wild brambles that had grown out behind him. With a forceful tug, he broke free, and using both hands and feet, crawled out of the grave hole. He sat on the ground panting heavily. When his mind settled slightly, he also did not dare to stay here long, scrambling up to look around the four fields. Seeing a vast expanse, he finally barely discerned the direction, and hurriedly fled toward the direction of Bingzhou.

 

……

When Wei Shao returned to the city, it was already past the fourth watch.

 

Chen Pang had previously stored more than a dozen water-pumps. The soldiers used the water-pumps to suppress the fire. The fire was finally put out by this time. Although the Grand Administrator’s estate was mostly burned and the granary was also slightly affected, it only damaged a few hundred shi of stored grain. The rest was safe and sound, and the fire did not affect the civilian houses nearby.

 

Gongsun Yang was directing the cleanup of the aftermath near the fire scene. Suddenly seeing Wei Shao arrive, he hurriedly went up to report to him.

 

He had also not closed his eyes for a day and a night, but his spirit was still very good, even able to be described as excited. After finishing a brief summary, he smiled and said: "Congratulations to Master, smoothly conquering Shiyi today and occupying the gateway. Capturing Jinyang is just around the corner."

 

Wei Shao smiled slightly and said: "Mister has expended care for a night, and the sky is also about to brighten. The remaining matters can be ordered down, Mister go rest first."

 

Gongsun Yang agreed, and after thinking for a moment, said: "This fire at the Grand Administrator’s estate came quite timely, it can be said to have lent a helping hand to attacking the city. It's just that the fire started a bit strangely. Just now, I took it upon myself to accompany the military doctor to visit the lady. Sure enough, it was set by the lady herself in order to escape."

 

He recounted the process, and finally praised: "Could not tell, the lady appears delicate and weak, yet she could actually endure the pain to inflict such a hand on herself, and afterwards borrowed the fire to escape, which can also be called not falling into chaos in the face of danger, having order in her heart. I saw that both her wrists were truly scorched not lightly by the fire, covered in large and small blisters, a pitiful condition, even I could not bear to see it. When the military doctor treated her, she actually did not complain a single bit, but instead comforted me, saying she was fine. It truly made me look at her with new eyes."

 

……

Although this Chen Rui had a male body with a female face, he possessed a body of brute strength. Xiao Qiao was captured by him like a small chick back then, with her hands tied behind her back and placed on the bed. After he left, thinking that Wei Shao had already come to attack the city and the two sides were fighting, in the chaotic army, no matter which side won the wall battle in the end, if she kept being locked here like meat on a chopping board, she would absolutely have no good end. In her anxiety, she suddenly thought of the two wedding candles lit in the room. She got off the bed and hopped to the front of the candle fire. After pushing up her sleeves, with her back facing the candle fire, she endured the intense pain of being scorched, burning and stopping, and finally scorched through the rope on her wrists. When it was finally scorched through, a patch of skin on her originally white and flawless wrists was burned with large and small blisters on the spot. The pain made cold sweat pour endlessly, and her eyes turned black, almost making her faint. When she recovered her senses, she untied the rope on her feet, used the candle fire to ignite the curtains in the room, took a handkerchief dipped in tea water to cover her nose and mouth, and then draped a quilt to hide behind the door. When the fire in the room burned larger and larger, alarming the servant woman outside to open the door, because the smoke was swirling, that servant woman also could not see clearly what it was like inside, running away in panic to call people, so she took advantage of the gap to escape out. Fortunately, with the great battle on the city wall, no figures were seen in the Grand Administrator’s estate, plus the cover of the dark night, she finally found a remote empty stable on the upwind side and temporarily hid herself.

 

……

Most of the Grand Administrator’s estate was affected by the fire, with only a few rows of rooms on the upwind side remaining intact. Xiao Qiao was settled inside an inner room at this moment, fully equipped with a bed and couch, and also very clean. Before Gongsun Yang left, he ordered two servant women of the Grand Administrator’s estate to attend outside, and also left a squad of soldiers to guard the pathways and the front and rear entrances all night.

 

Xiao Qiao knew she was finally safe.

 

In these past few days, she had not closed her eyes for a single moment. After being brought here by Chen Rui, with a colored hungry wolf crouching by her side staring greedily at her, she was even more trembling with fear, neither daring to be too unyielding to anger him, nor able to let him feel she was easy to get hands on. In order to deal with Chen Rui and make him not come near her body, it could be said she exhausted her mind, and her entire body, even down to a strand of hair, was tightly coiled.

 

Now that she was safe, the bursts of pain coming from her wrists that still felt like being burned by fire tormented her so much that she could not sleep at all, only wishing she could strip off that piece of skin on her wrists.

 

Just now when Gongsun Yang and the military doctor were still there, she had been forcefully enduring, not wanting to show it. Now that there was no one in front of her and the surroundings had also quieted down, it hurt so much that she could not help but drop tears. She silently dropped her golden beans for a while. Not knowing whether the medicine applied by the military doctor had taken effect, or whether her heart felt a bit more comfortable after crying, the pain on her wrists gradually seemed to lighten a bit. With residual tears on her face, she finally leaned against the head of the bed, and fell into a daze of sleep.