Boss Lu climbed out of the water, dripping wet all over, and grinned at He Chunhua. "Live and let live?"
He Chunhua gave a slow nod. "Live and let live."
Now that the pretense had been stripped away, neither side bothered to keep up appearances. The two men established a boundary along the central axis running from the boat dock to the village chief's house: the eastern half was allotted to the soldiers, while the western half went to the bandits, with the threshing ground and granaries divided equally.
Within a quarter of an hour, everyone had to return to their designated side of the line.
From this moment on, as long as neither side crossed the boundary, they could coexist peacefully until morning.
The bandits waded back into the water to haul up the massive fish. Boss Lu had them carry it into the eastern sector and called out to He Chunhua, "This beast is fresh and lively, and damn good eating. Take it as a gift to calm your nerves, Governor He!" With a wave of his hand, the bandits withdrew.
In the blink of an eye, the bandits on the open ground at the village entrance had cleared out completely.
He Chunhua watched their retreating backs, his expression grave. "These bandits aren't your run-of-the-mill brigands."
He Yue said with embarrassment, "I was reckless, forcing Vice General Zeng to act."
"Youthful arrogance! You didn't even know the first thing about this Lu fellow's background, yet you dared to strike?" He Chunhua glared at him, a trace of disappointment in his voice. "Now you've alerted the snake by beating the grass, and he's on guard. The bandits had better mean what they say about peaceful coexistence, or tonight will be a bloodbath!"
He Yue pressed his lips together and lowered his head.
The boy had even lost a large corner of his robes in the melee. Madam Ying raised a hand to wipe the blood from his brow, aching for him. "Husband, Yue'er only wanted to help..." Her husband rarely spoke so harshly to their son.
"Enough!" He Chunhua raised a hand to cut her off. "Let's head back first and consider our options carefully."
***
Meanwhile, He Lingchuan pointed at Zhu-shi and said to the fat man on the ground, "You two really have zero coordination as husband and wife. She said the Water Spirit's memorial tablet snapped, yet you weren't surprised in the least."
The villagers spent the day working outdoors and only returned home at dusk. A major omen like the Water Spirit's tablet snapping—how could the people of Xianling Village, whose livelihood depended on the water, take that so casually? Even if Zhu-shi hadn't given He Lingchuan a heads-up beforehand, this detail alone would have tipped him off that something was wrong with Fat Wang.
He Lingchuan finally gestured to Zhu-shi. "Speak. What is all this about?"
Keeping her voice low, Zhu-shi said in a hurried rush, "This evening, these ruthless bandits came in and slaughtered the village. Little did they expect your party to arrive out of the blue. So they stayed behind to pose as villagers and took everyone's children hostage, forcing us to cooperate."
He Lingchuan sighed.
Truth be told, before seeing Zhu-shi's blood-written note, he had at most suspected that he had stumbled into a den of cutthroats—a rogue village where the inhabitants had committed so much slaughter that their bodies reeked of blood.
Just as there were black inns, there were black villages. Both ran the same racket: offering shelter to travelers on the surface, but murdering them for their wealth in reality. Such things usually happened in remote mountain hamlets—as the saying went, treacherous waters and barren hills breed unruly folk.
Of course, Xianling Village was cradled by mountains and saw few caravans or wayfarers, fitting the profile perfectly.
Yet he had never expected his opponents would turn out to be a band of bandits!
This was truly strange.
Having dealt with sand bandits on the Red Cliff Trade Route for years, he knew well that such rogues were vicious and savage toward commoners and merchants, yet obedient as lambs before regular troops, thoroughly understanding the golden rule that common folk shouldn't tangle with officials.
Had these village-slaughtering brigands lost their minds? Upon hearing that government troops were entering the mountains, they hadn't fled; instead, they stayed behind to pose as villagers!
"What are they planning to do?" This was the very reason he had risked coming to Zhu-shi.
Zhu-shi shook her head. "They didn't say."
"Have bandits always run rampant in your area?"
Zhu-shi nodded. "Over the past three years, bandits have entered the village at least nine times, but they always took valuables and left. Last time, they only injured two people. Nothing like this group today—they butchered over a hundred villagers, even killing the master of this house."
He Lingchuan was slightly taken aback. "Your husband is dead too?"
Her expression was far too calm, hardly looking like a woman who had just lost the pillar of her household. For an ordinary peasant woman, her husband's death was as good as the sky collapsing.
"Yes. He stole a skiff and tried to row out onto the lake, but he'd barely gone a dozen zhang when the boat capsized. It seemed like something dragged him to the bottom of the lake." Zhu-shi spoke in a flat tone, as if recounting someone else's misfortune, someone else's husband.
"My condolences." Since she wasn't grieving, He Lingchuan saw no need to offer comforting words. "Do you know where they're keeping the children?"
Zhu-shi shook her head. "The children aren't in the village, which actually makes them safer. You would do better to think of how to counterattack. These bandits are not easy to deal with."
He Lingchuan studied her carefully and couldn't help asking, "You confided everything in me—aren't you afraid they'll kill your child?"
This woman seemed stranger the more he looked at her.
Zhu-shi didn't even bat an eyelid. "Once these murderous monsters finish off the soldiers, they won't spare us either. If I say nothing, everyone dies; if I speak, perhaps there is still a slim ray of hope."
Her logic was sound enough, but what was truly remarkable was that she could analyze the situation so calmly while trapped in the enemy's clutches.
People were naturally prone to clutching at straws. Once taken prisoner, they would cling to a captor's promises like a lifeline, indulging in the fantasy that they might actually be spared.
After all, to the desperate, harsh reality was far harder to swallow.
To say nothing of the fact that children were involved—as a mother, remaining cool and collected was doubly difficult.
He Lingchuan slowly sat back down, his right hand unconsciously resting against the hilt of the broken saber.
He had already caught the scent of danger. The cool touch of the broken saber seemed to help clear his mind of stray thoughts and let him think in peace.
Come to think of it, after fighting fiercely in that dream for four hours last time, he had felt an even closer affinity with the broken saber upon waking.
In other words, their compatibility had grown deeper.
The only plan now was to pry more intelligence out of the enemy.
After a moment's thought, He Lingchuan rolled the fat man face up, drew a dagger, and pressed it to his throat. "I have questions for you. Cry out, and you die. Understood?"
The fat man nodded hurriedly.
He Lingchuan removed the flatbread gagging his mouth and asked, "How many of you are there?"
"Over... over two hundred," the fat man said, indeed keeping his voice down.
"Be specific."
"Two hundred..." The fat man seemed to be counting. "...thirty-five men!"
He rushed to add, "We bear no ill will toward the troops! We only want to live and let live tonight, and tomorrow morning we can go our separate ways, minding our own business!"
He Lingchuan tilted his head, watching him. "Is that your idea, or Boss Lu's?"
"Boss Lu's!" Fat Wang blurted out. "I heard him say it with his own mouth, I swear!"
Zhu-shi suddenly spoke up. "Are you sure you counted right?"
Fat Wang stared at her. "It's always been the same bunch of us coming and going—how could I get it wrong?"
Zhu-shi sneered. "And yet, when I was locked up in the Water Spirit Shrine earlier, I overheard your companions talking outside. It sounded like you took over the nearby town as well."
They had even taken a town? The look on He Lingchuan's face darkened with gravity.
Usually, when bandits came down from the mountains, they simply broke into houses to loot goods, or at most indulged in a bit of lust; they rarely went so far as mass murder. Even simple bumpkins understood that leeks would grow back after each cutting; slaughtering all the villagers was tantamount to digging up the roots. Who would be left to reap next time?
Chapter 106