Strangely enough, he felt as though he recognized the woman, yet he could not recall where he had seen her before.
The girl made frantic gestures. Obstructed by the trees, Li Zhao squinted for a good while before realizing she was desperately pointing in one direction.
Over there?
Li Zhao looked back and saw a wall of floodwater rushing in from the distance, its towering, muddy crests surging forward like a host of ten thousand stampeding steeds.
"The flood is here! Run!"
His playmates shrieked and scrambled toward the bank. But the Li brothers were standing right in the middle of the river, where the water reached past their navels; wading back was far too slow!
Before they could even draw near the shore, the violent torrent swept them away.
Water surged above, below, and on every side, forcing its way straight into Li Zhao's mouth and nose along with grass roots, silt, and broken twigs. Whenever he was thrust above the surface, he could hear the horrified cries of people on the riverbank.
He thrashed desperately until his hands abruptly grabbed hold of a tree root.
It was a piece of deadwood that had drifted in the river for years.
This life-saving root was far sturdier than a straw. Li Zhao clung to it with everything he had. An instant later, his elder brother washed past and seized his leg.
Both boys' lives now hung by that single piece of deadwood.
Up on the bank, the Li family's servants were frantically trying to figure out how to rescue the two young masters.
After swallowing several mouthfuls of water, Li Zhao realized in sheer terror that the root could not withstand the force of the current. It was beginning to bend outward.
It was about to snap.
*Rrrrip!* A thick strip of bark tore away along with the root.
The two boys screamed in terror.
The bark still clung to the trunk, but it was already hanging by a thread.
Li Zhao turned toward his elder brother and screamed, "Brother, the root is going to snap!"
Yet his usually clever brother would not listen at all, screaming only, "Pull me up! Pull me up, hurry!"
He yanked violently at Li Zhao's leg. With every jerk, the bark tore a little further.
If this went on, both of them would die.
Li Zhao looked at the peeling bark, then turned his head to look at his brother. Suddenly, he lashed out and kicked his brother's hands.
The older boy shrieked, "What are you doing?! Save me!"
He clung stubbornly to Li Zhao's leg, but Li Zhao kicked with mounting fury, landing his final blow squarely on his brother's forehead. Dazed by the strike, his brother choked down a few mouthfuls of water, and his grip slipped loose.
The torrent swept him away.
Weeping loudly, Li Zhao clawed at the bark and hauled himself up toward the driftwood.
Yet before he had crawled even two feet, a heavy weight dragged at his waist, as if someone had grabbed him and was yanking back with terrifying force.
He turned his head, only to see his brother drifting in the raging current, fiercely clutching his belt.
His brother's face and body were swollen and pale, his eyeballs bulging out of their sockets, and he was grinning right at him.
"I miss you every day. I couldn't bear to leave you behind. I'm taking you with me!"
Li Zhao was paralyzed with horror. Looking down, he saw that the belt his brother had once gifted him had turned into a water snake flicking its tongue. Before he could react, the snake sank its fangs straight into his waist.
Li Zhao cried out in agony and let go.
A crest of the surging tide slammed into him, dragging him directly beneath the surface.
He tried to fight it, but his brother locked him in a fierce embrace, dragging him down toward the bottom of the river.
He had no idea how many mouthfuls of waterweeds he swallowed. The last sight he beheld was his brother's bloated, hideous, smiling face.
"I've finally waited long enough for you. We'll be together forever. Aren't you happy?"
***
At the crack of dawn, the bed-warming maid groggily heard a raspy, rattling sound coming from Old Master Li's throat. She thought nothing of it at first; old men made all kinds of strange noises in their sleep, didn't they?
Yet the noise abruptly worsened. The old man's mouth gaped wide, but he could not draw a single breath, gasping like a fish out of water.
"Oh dear, the old master is choking on phlegm again."
The two bed-warming maids played a round of finger-guessing. The loser curled her lip, dawdled for a long time, and finally leaned over to suck the phlegm out of Old Master Li's throat.
It did not help.
Before long, the entire Li estate descended into chaos. The sons watched their father's face swell into a bruised, purplish liver color, yet none of their frantic efforts had any effect. Before a physician could even be summoned, Old Master Li straightened his legs and passed away.
He died swift and clean.
Later, the Li family specially engaged a coroner from the yamen to examine the corpse. The man dug a wad of green leafy vegetable from the very back of the old master's throat.
"The old master choked to death?" The Li family refused to believe it. Li Zhao's sharp-eyed sixth grandson suddenly noticed something unusual about the bed curtains.
"The evil-warding medallions are cracked!"
The crowd pressed forward to look. Sure enough, both bronze medallions bore a hairline fissure. Though the cracks were faint, the medallions' warding power had vanished.
"But these two lovebirds are still alive. Weren't evil spirits supposed to devour the birds first?" The two lovebirds hopped up and down inside their cage, full of energy.
Just then, Old Master Li's eldest son, Li Zhi, reached up to the bed canopy to take down a sachet. A single glance drained the color from his face.
He dumped the contents onto the table.
The yellow talisman paper had been soaked into mush, its cinnabar writing smeared into an illegible blotch.
Put simply, this protective talisman had also lost its power.
"This was a warding talisman personally crafted by Master Zhang, the Peak Chief of Luxiu Peak from Chuanyun Pavilion!" Li Zhi ground his teeth. "No evil spirit could come near! Someone must have poured water inside and chiseled the bronze medallions!"
Every pair of eyes instantly snapped toward the two bed-warming maids. A nearby maidservant fell to her knees at once. "Last night before turning in, the old master inspected both of them himself. They were intact!"
Old Master Li was a cautious man who prized his life dearly; he had indeed checked both lines of defense every night before going to bed. Li Zhi looked toward the pageboy standing nearby, who nodded like a pestle grinding grain. "It's true, it's true! I saw with my own eyes that the old master inspected them before going to bed!"
"Clearly, someone sabotaged the talismans and worked dark sorcery!" Veins bulged on Li Zhi's forehead. "Investigate! Investigate this at once!"
"Could it be the Zhan clan?" Fury blazed in the eyes of the second son, Li Rong. "They've always had a grudge against us, and lately they've been cursing up a storm over the rock-bottom buyout prices—as vile as could be. I heard Zhan Lao Qi cursing the old master with my own ears, and it was pure venom! Besides, one of the Zhan clan's youngsters became a sorcerer and learned some supernatural arts. He's more than capable of plotting against the old master!"
The rest of the Li family turned their grief into rage, shouting one after another, "That's right! Drag the Zhans here and make them pay with their lives!"
Li Rong, however, hesitated. "Hold on. If we want to lay blame, we need evidence."
"Where would we find evidence?! They used dark sorcery precisely so no one could catch them with evidence!" Li Zhi snapped. "Then what do you propose we do?"
Li Rong lacked quick wit. His mind was in utter turmoil, and he stammered, unable to form an argument. His most valued sixth son happened to be away from Dunyu today, leaving him without anyone to confer with.
Someone else chimed in, "Half the Zhan clan has already fled the city! If we don't pursue them now, it'll be too late!"
The Zhans had already begun moving their households out yesterday.
They had no intention of living in the same city as the Lis any longer. Striking a lethal blow right before leaving to vent the resentment they had bottled up for years made perfect sense.
The Li family's fury reached a fever pitch, their shouts demanding "blood for blood."
Li Rong had originally felt this course of action was ill-advised and wanted to urge everyone to stay calm, but Li Zhi cast a sideways sneer at him. "Father was cursed to death, and you tell us to stay calm? Are you the only sober man in a room full of drunks?"
Li Rong was struck dumb. Li Zhi pointed at him and hurled a few more rebukes, firing up the kinsmen's blood until they all roared in agreement.
Seeing Li Zhi raise his arm and command the crowd—with even his own retainers turning to follow his brother—Li Rong had no choice but to shift his stance.
Neither of them possessed the ability to hold down the fort alone, nor did they carry Old Master Li's prestige. If either dared drag his feet or show hesitation at such a moment, let alone block the clan from taking revenge, merely uttering the word "calm" one more time would guarantee defeat in the upcoming struggle for power.
Each brother sought to outdo the other in radical zeal.
Before the assembled clan, tears and snot streamed down both Li Zhi's and Li Rong's faces as each tried to appear more heartbroken and impassioned than the other. Words stoked words, emotions fed emotions, until at last, amidst the thunderous wailing of the Li clan, they rallied the estate's private guards.
Such a massive commotion naturally drew the attention of the authorities and the city's populace.
By the time they arrived, the Li family's private guards had already stormed the Zhan estate in the southern part of the city. They rounded up women and children, brutally beat the men, and left the sprawling residence in utter shambles.
Opportunists fished in troubled waters, rummaging through chests and cupboards to plunder whatever valuables they could find.
The Zhan clan was, after all, a prominent aristocratic family of Dunyu with immense wealth. Any trinket the Li clan's private soldiers pocketed could later be sold off for private gain.
A detachment of the Li private guards had even split off to ride south in pursuit of the fleeing Zhan kinsmen.
Because the new Governor-General had yet to arrive, the affairs of the Governor's Mansion were temporarily overseen by the Assistant Officer of Headquarters and the Mounted Escort. When the two officials arrived and saw the scene, their scalps went numb, and they frantically ordered the yamen runners to step in and stop it.
The Lis were long accustomed to swaggering through Dunyu, and now, blinded by fury, they refused to listen to reason.
The Zhans had guards of their own, but two fists were no match for four.
An inexperienced bailiff stepped forward to pull people apart, only to take a punch squarely on the nose from Li Zhi, sending blood pouring down his face. Having only recently taken up the post and being quite young, the bailiff did not recognize Li Zhi and struck back without hesitation.
Seeing Li Zhi hit, the Li private guards swarmed forward, raining heavy blows down upon the bailiff's head.
Those fighting, those trying to break it up, and those beating the peacemakers—the entire southern district of Dunyu descended into a boiling cauldron of chaos.
The surrounding populace crowded three layers deep, craning their necks to watch the spectacle.
These were the Li and Zhan clans, usually perched high and mighty above everyone else. When had they ever rolled around in the mud beating each other senseless like this?
For all their aristocratic standing, when it came to a fight to the death, they were no better than dogs tearing at each other's throats.
"Where is Peng Ju'an?" With the situation spiraling out of control, the Assistant Officer of Headquarters desperately searched for him. "With something like this happening, where has that Military Section Officer crawled off to hide?!"
A subordinate kindly reminded him, "Lord Peng seems to be resting at home today."
"Go to Qingping Township and drag him back!" Despite the freezing cold, the Assistant Officer of Headquarters broke into a hot sweat. "And his thousand-odd men—have them all brought back immediately to suppress the riot!"
Xiazhou maintained a garrison of one thousand six hundred soldiers, all of whom remained under the command of the Military Section Officer until the new Governor-General arrived.
The subordinate took the order and hurried off.
Yet half a day passed, and he did not return.
Qingping Township was barely ten-odd li from Dunyu. Even on foot without horses, that was more than enough time to make several round trips.
The Assistant Officer's heart grew increasingly uneasy.
Peng Ju'an had not come, and the subordinate sent after him had not returned. Could Qingping Township have suffered an enemy raid?
It was not the first or second time that Nian Zanli's small raiding parties had slipped behind enemy lines to harass border towns. Although Qingping Township was somewhat far from the northern front, the possibility could not be ruled out.
The enemy cavalry possessed formidable mobility.
Taking advantage of this lull, the Li private guards beat the Zhans black and blue, leaving several collapsed on the ground, barely able to move.
Inside the Zhan residence, the women and children wept together in wretched despair.
Chapter 215