BANDITS: LEGEND OF FEI (Book 1, Chapter 14)

Book 1: Wanderings of Youth / Chapter 14 – Backed Into A Corner

Human life was worth barely anything at all…less than millet, or rice, or horses and carriages, or even cloth. So if you valued your life more than friendship…well, at least this meant that your life was worth more than something.

Huarong City was in its third day of curfew. 

Mr Bai stepped respectfully back, as he said to Xie Yun: “I’m done.”

He was evidently a master at disguises, taking only a few minutes to transform Xie Yun into one of Ming Chen’s bodyguards, who was creatively named ‘Jia Chen’ (Jia sounds like ‘fake’ in Chinese).  As long as the two didn’t stand side by side, it would be near impossible to tell them apart. 

Ming Chen said jovially to his bodyguard: “Sorry to trouble you, Jia Chen.  You can leave now.  Remember not to go outside today.”

Jia Chen bowed silently and left, his footsteps equally soundless. 

Xie Yun heaved an internal sigh.  He knew that besides protecting their master from all harm, these highly skilled fighters were also to function as decoys.  Under the skilful hand of Mr Bai, all of their faces could become ‘spares’ for their master. If he were ever in a life-threatening situation, they would be called upon to act as his decoys, sacrificing their lives for him. 

Seeing these men reminded Xie Yun of what they were called upon to do, and he couldn’t help but be a little discomfited.  But it was not his place to comment on this, so he simply said to Mr Bai: “Thank you for your help.  Let’s leave now.”

Shortly after that, Mr Bai and ‘Jia Chen’ departed the house, blending seamlessly into the crowds of people milling on the street. 

The black-clad men who had been scouring the city over the past few days all seemed to have gathered in front of the local government office.  Chou Tianji himself was there as well, standing imposingly in front of his men.  It seemed like something big was about to happen.

Mr Bai whispered to Xie Yun: “Quite a few of the Big Dipper’s men were killed recently, unsettling them.  Apparently there’s been some discord between Dubhe and Phecda over this.”

“Shen Tianshu wouldn’t be looking so hard for someone from the 48 Zhai,” Xie Yun mused.  “So they are probably looking for someone from General Wu’s family.  The thing they are after is probably on that young Miss Wu, or her little brother.  One of those two children must still be alive, and is being protected by a highly-skilled person, which Shen Tianshu hadn’t expected.”

As he said this, Xie Yun suddenly felt faint hope rising within him – if Zhang Chenfei had been able to send away one of their own together with the Wu children, he would most likely have chosen the youngest amongst them.

Then…might Zhou Fei still be alive?

While they were speaking, they had already reached the entrance to the local government office, joining the crowd of peasants that had gathered there.  They heard Shen Tianshu intone monotonously: “…turning from the dark to embrace the light, and doing a great service to the nation, he is hereby highly commended, and awarded three hundred gold ingots.”

Shen Tianshu looked like he had just been forced to fart in public.  Finishing his proclamation, he ignored the crowd and swiftly turned on his heel, striding to the side and sitting right down. 

A black-clad man stepped forward, bearing a large platter laden with the gold ingots.  The weight of three hundred gold ingots was nothing to be sniffed at, yet the man effortlessly held the platter up with several fingers, as if it bore a flimsy piece of paper rather than a small mountain of gold.  The peasants watching had probably only seen a handful of silver ingots in their entire lifetimes.  Seeing this dazzling heap of precious metal, the crowd instantly burst into an uproar of amazement. 

Chou Tianji’s gaze swept across the crowd, a corner of his mouth twitching upwards, and he gestured to the person behind him: “Please step forward!”

He didn’t seem to be shouting, or deliberately raising his voice.  Yet the sound of his voice was carried far and wide, such that even those at the furthest corners of the crowd could still hear his words perfectly.  His voice was uncomfortably piercing, like a thousand pins were being jabbed in one’s ear.  Xie Yun’s ears rang with the sound, as did the ears of the people around him, and they instinctively clapped their hands to their ears.  The weaker ones even swayed unsteadily.

Seeing the frail-looking man who was standing behind Chou Tianji, Xie Yun shut his eyes in dread – he too recognised him.  Just a few days ago, that man had even greeted him, and warmly treated them to a hearty meal.  He was the head of the 48 Zhai’s secret post here!

Xie Yun couldn’t help but wonder: Does Zhou Fei know this?

Chou Tianji stood with his hands behind his back, speaking again in that extraordinarily sonorous voice: “I am sure that the good folk here still recall that a few days ago, a band of mutinous thieves which passed through this area was eliminated…”

Phecda’s voice rang out across the entire city, prompting storeowners and merchants to gather round, and people in the surrounding houses to open their windows to see what was going on.  In the governor’s mansion, the servants were gathering in their various cliques to discuss what they were hearing…and in that little secluded courtyard, Zhou Fei’s hand tightened around the hilt of her sabre.

“This band of marauders came here from the Shu Mountains, and have been harassing this area for a long time.  They did not spare a single traveller that passed them by, taking all their money and horses.  They had no regard for human life, and committed the most heinous of crimes!  On our way here, we saw village after village that did not escape their ruthless pillaging, emptied of all their possessions.  Afraid that these men might come and harass them again, villagers shut their doors in the day, and spent their nights in fear! These men are despicable! If left on this earth, they will be a plague on all humanity! The people will not be appeased unless such men are flayed alive!”

The black-clad men shouted in unison: “Flay them alive! Flay them alive!”

Their shouts travelled all across the city, echoed through the buildings and courtyards of the governor’s mansion, and wormed their way right into Zhou Fei’s ears.

The mad woman’s courtyard was tucked far within the governor’s mansion, undisturbed by the hustle and bustle of the surrounding streets.  Since Zhou Fei could still hear those angry shouts, one could only imagine how many people had joined in.  These shouts must have been deafening for the people in the neighbouring streets.  Zhou Fei knew that numerous peasants who had been harassed by Mu Xiaoqiao’s men must have sought shelter in Huarong City. At Phecda’s words, they would have ignorantly assumed that the corpses carried out from the inn that day were responsible for their sorry plights.

How could the crowd not be stirred, and echo their approval?

Zhou Fei thrust the tip of her sabre’s unsheathed blade into the ground. She gripped its hilt so tightly that her veins on her hand bulged.

“And the family of that traitor Wu Fei – instead of repenting from their mistakes, they were even in cahoots with these scoundrels! Criminal Wu Fanshi, the wife of the traitor Wu Fei, ran off and associated with this group of felons, spending day and night in their company.  What a loose woman…”

The scabbard in Zhou Fei’s other hand scraped across the floor hard, making a sharp, screeching noise. 

But Wu Chuchu seemed to have gone completely numb.  She didn’t cry at this, nor did she laugh.  Her mother had been of noble birth, and was well-educated and virtuous.  She had dutifully served her husband and children her whole life, and had always behaved with decorum. Now, not only had she not received a proper burial, her name was being dragged through the mud by these men’s stinking mouths.

General Wu Fei might have been grateful that he had managed to protect his wife and children while he was alive.  He had unfortunately failed to do so after his death.

Suddenly, the sound of a woman singing rang out across the courtyard, drowning out Phecda’s words.  That incredibly high-pitched female voice soared over the little space.  While the words were impossible to make out, a whole bunch of garbled and nonsensical ‘Eeee’s and ‘Ahhh’s, they filled one with a deep melancholy.  Zhou Fei peered outside through a crack in the door.  The mad woman was now standing barefoot in the middle of the courtyard.  She had wrapped herself from head to toe in the colourful cloths, and treating the space as her personal stage, had started to perform to an audience of none.

Ever since the man delivering food had been chased out by this woman’s servant several days ago, he didn’t dare to provoke them again, simply depositing their cold box of food by the door.  As Zhou Fei felt that it was only polite to thank their hosts, even if they had no idea that the two girls were staying there, she would grab some extra food each time she sneaked into the kitchen, and secretly place it in the woman’s box of food.    

When this mad woman wasn’t idling in the house, she would sit in the courtyard, staring blankly ahead.  Zhou Fei hadn’t really paid much attention to her, other than leaving her some food during mealtimes.  Looking at her singing and dancing through the crack in the door, Zhou Fei couldn’t help but wonder: Could a regular person’s voice easily overwhelm that of the Big Dipper’s like this? Was she putting on an act, or was she truly mad? Who exactly was she?

While what Chou Tianji was saying made Zhou Fei see red, she also hoped that he would let slip some important information – such as when the Big Dipper’s men would be leaving, or if that traitorous secret post would send out a false message in Zhang Chenfei’s name to trick Old Madam Wang, or if he would even do something to harm the 48 Zhai?

But that mad woman was going on and on, and Zhou Fei wished she could just run out there and shove a cloth into her mouth to shut her up.  Just then, the woman’s servant rushed out of the house, a bucket of water in her hands.  Setting the bucket down by the door, she exclaimed: “My goodness, why are you out here again!”

The mad woman continued prancing around, singing: “Scattering in the mud…”

“Mud, yes, mud.”  The servant wiped her wet hands on her clothes, then ran over to drag the woman back in, sighing: “Why would you go out without your shoes when you know there’s mud on the ground!”

When those two women had left, Wu Chuchu said softly: “When things scatter in the mud and become dirt, their fragrance does not linger on.”    

Zhou Fei looked down at her in surprise.

Wu Chuchu continued: “My mother once told me that the common folk are born in the mud, having to toil endlessly their whole lives.  So they love to hear stories of ‘great men being immoral, faithful women engaging in adultery, saints with secret sins, and the pure getting their hands dirty’.  They never tire of such tales, relishing every little scandalous detail. Why would they care about preserving a woman’s virtue?”

Grief and indignation had been building up inside Zhou Fei for days.  Hearing Wu Chuchu’s words, anger surged in her again, and she said menacingly: “I’ll kill whoever dares malign them.”

Wu Chuchu was timid by nature.  She tended to agree with whatever others said, and seldom voiced her true opinions.  But having spent the last few harrowing days with Zhou Fei for company, she had started to think of her as family, and wasn’t as guarded around her anymore.  She said gently: “No, Fei.  My mother said that others only insult you because they are certain that you are as wicked as them.  If you really were to kill everyone who offends you, over time you will become a person who is easily angered, unable to tolerate even the slightest criticism.  Then wouldn’t you end up as wicked as they made you out to be at first?”

Zhou Fei scoffed at this, thinking: What kind of ridiculous principle is this? She must have gone loony from reading too many books. So what if one was easily angered? That was still better than being an ant which gets trampled underfoot for no good reason. 

But she felt sure that if she said her thoughts out loud, Wu Chuchu would certainly start crying, so she kept her mouth shut.  Zhou Fei pressed her fingers so tightly around her scabbard that it left an indentation on her skin.  She could think of nothing else but charging out with her sabre, and cutting off the tongues of all those people who dared speak ill of the dead.  Yet she knew, with painful clarity, that given her current abilities, the only thing she could do was squat in this dark little shed together with Wu Chuchu and curse at them.  Even if there were two of her, she wouldn’t have a fighting chance against all those men.  

And acknowledging this harsh reality filled her with despair. 

Without the interference of that mad woman’s singing, Chou Tianji’s voice continued to filter over.  He was now singing the praises of the Northern Emperor and his men, exalting their great deeds – how they had vanquished the bandits, decimated the rebels that had harassed the people, infiltrated their secret post, and persuaded them to abandon their old ways with reason and kindness….

“Good folk of Huarong City! How much blood is on the hands of these thugs? Letting them die so easily is not punishment enough!”

And then, someone in the crowd shouted: “Flog their corpses!”

Xie Yun started in shock, and turned in the direction of the voice, but he couldn’t see who had said it.

Hearing this, Chou Tianji’s hawk-like features relaxed into a satisfied smile, and he waved his hand dismissively: “Indeed, it takes only an instant to kill a man, and it is all over.”

The crowds around him had been stirred into a violent frenzy at his incendiary words, and the more they heard him say that things were ‘over’, they more they bayed for blood.

Chou Tianji laughed heartily, and said: “Alright then, I will listen to the people! We shall publicly flog the corpses of these thugs!”

Xie Yun almost charged forward, but was held back just in time by Mr Bai. 

Xie Yun strained against Mr Bai’s hands.

Mr Bai whispered urgently in his ear: “Please remain calm, Third Master.  I am no match for both Dubhe and Phecda at the same time.  The dead are no more.  When we eventually crush this false dynasty, we will take our revenge in one fell swoop. There is no need to do so right now!”

Xie Yun’s jaw was clenched tightly, and you could almost see the veins bulging at his temple through the thin layer of prosthetics on his face.  After a good long while, he spoke, almost inaudibly: “Mr Bai, the Huo Clan is just a martial arts sect.  Even if they had gathered the various small sects and clans in the region under their banner, they would not have amounted to much.  How did they have the guts to start garrisoning troops and rearing horses, and amassing large amounts of funds? Who exactly did Huo Liantao think was backing him?”

Mr Bai froze.

Xie Yun turned to look at him, his eyes boring into Mr Bai’s. 

Mr Bai quickly said: “Third Master, my master has only been here for a short while.  Although he has indeed been in contact with the Master of the Huo Clan, it is only because they share the goal of toppling that thief Cao Zhongkun. Huo Jia Bao also has plenty of people in their sect, and my master wouldn’t know who exactly all these people are and what they have been doing.  This…”

Xie Yun chuckled softly, interrupting him: “You don’t have to explain all this to me. Who doesn’t have a few ‘less than decent’ friends in the martial arts world? As long as you’re clear who these innocent corpses are shouldering the blame for.”

Mr Bai didn’t know how to respond, and just stood there in silence.

Chou Tianji ordered his men to carry the charred corpses out from the inn, and lay them in rows on the street. As they were doing so, Shen Tianshu, who had been sitting by the side, stood up abruptly and left without a word. His men quickly followed after him, and the numbers of black-clad men were halved in a few moments.

Chou Tianji looked darkly at Shen Tianshu’s retreating figure, then raised his hand.

His men swiftly moved to the sides, leaving an empty space in the middle. No one dared to make a move at first. Then, an old man walked shakily up, and kicked the corpse closest to him. His face contorting with hatred, he started viciously trampling and kicking the corpse, like one possessed….

Chou Tianji lifted his hands to the sky. A falcon screeched as it landed on his forearm, and flapped its wings menacingly. He intoned loudly: “Some of these scoundrels are still roaming the city! If anyone finds them, they will also be rewarded with 300 gold ingots!”

Once someone had made the first move, everyone else was quick to jump on the bandwagon. Some of the peasants that rushed forward had suffered at the hands of Mu Xiaoqiao and his men, knew of family and friends that had, or simply felt a sense of injustice on behalf of those who had; some simply wanted to join in the fun; while others were after the 300 gold ingots…all of them now bore down on the corpses on the ground, their shouts and curses filling the air.

Mr Bai stretched out a hand to tug at Xie Yun, who was rooted to the spot: “Third Master, let’s go.”

Xie Yun didn’t budge.

Mr Bai: “Third…”

“Wait,” Xie Yun ground out with much difficulty, “My…my friend might still be in this city, and I’m afraid that she might do something reckless.”

He forced himself to stand there, watching the entire thing from beginning to end. As the sun began to set, the frenzied crowds had finally gotten their fill of revenge and began to disperse gradually, leaving a vomit-inducing heap of pulverized burnt flesh on the floor. By the time all of them had left, the sky was dark. But the black-clad men who had been keenly observing the scene for the entire day still didn’t dare to disperse, awaiting Chou Tianji’s orders.

Chou Tianji stroked the neck of his falcon contemplatively. The ‘fish’ that he had hoped to catch hadn’t taken the bait after all. Stormclouds gathered on his face. One of his men approached him for their orders, asking meekly: “My Lord?”

Chou Tianji hadn’t actually been on the same mission as Shen Tianshu and Tong Kaiyang, as he had been after the Wu family specifically.  When he first heard that they had secretly contacted the 48 Zhai for help, Chou Tianji had braced himself for a major challenge – after all, the 48 Zhai was ensconced in the mountains, with many highly-skilled pugilists within.  It was like a spine-covered porcupine that resisted all attempts at infiltration.  Once the Wu family managed to get inside, it would have been near-impossible to extract them.  But after going to such great lengths to set all of this up, eventually managing to trap them in the inn, he realised that there weren’t actually any highly-skilled pugilists amongst them.  Their leader was a young man that had barely entered adulthood, and they were nothing more than a bunch of kids being led by a slightly older kid.

Huarong City was now being heavily patrolled both inside and out – even a fly wouldn’t have been able to escape.  Chou Tianji was sure that the person he was after was still in this city, and had therefore thought up this nasty plan to force the person out of hiding – after all, most youths couldn’t endure humiliation, or grievances, or any kind of insults to their tender pride.  Yet despite having put on an elaborate show for the entire day, the person had not deigned to show up at all.  It was akin to them ‘winking flirtatiously at a blind man’, leaving them thoroughly embarrassed.

“I’d thought that Li Jinrong sent a bunch of kids because she wasn’t aware of ‘that thing’s’ existence.  But I must have underestimated her.  She actually managed to let it escape from right under my nose.” Contemplating what had transpired, he concluding that the person in the shadows was definitely a expert pugilist who was ‘ruthless and scheming’.  He snickered, saying, “I was right after all, why else would this feeble widow and her children be able to commandeer the mighty 48 Zhai?  That witch Li Jinrong really doesn’t let slip any opportunity to get the good stuff…but that’s alright. As long as this person is still in the city, we have a fighting chance.  Retreat.”

At his command, the men in charge of patrolling the area stayed on, while the rest departed together with Chou Tianji.  Mr Bai finally heaved a sigh of relief – all this while, he had been thinking that should Xie Yun’s friends decide to foolishly appear, serving themselves up to Chou Tianji on a silver platter, Xie Yun certainly wouldn’t have been able to just stand and watch.

And he knew that given his Third Master’s skills, or lack thereof, his friends probably weren’t highly-skilled pugilists either.  It would already have been a tall order for Mr Bai himself to escape when surrounded by so many of the Big Dipper’s men.  If he also had to look out for Xie Yun’s friends, he would certainly have perished that day.

Mr Bai thanked his lucky stars that that friend of Third Master Xie’s hadn’t been a complete fool.

But beside him, Xie Yun’s heart was slowly sinking.

Mr Bai tugged at him, signalling with his eyes that they should leave.

Xie Yun stayed silent for a few moments, then nodded slightly.  The two of them departed just as they had come, one in front of the other.

It couldn’t have been Zhou Fei, Xie Yun thought rationally.  Given Zhou Fei’s temper, there was no way she could have tolerated such humiliation.

He continued walking listlessly ahead, and then his footsteps stopped.

If the person that the Big Dipper had been pursuing all over the city wasn’t Zhou Fei, then she…she must have been right in front of him just now.

One of those corpses that had been burnt and shrivelled to a crisp, trampled on by numerous people, and reduced to a mess of mangled flesh.

In that instant, he felt like an incredibly long and sharp needle had pierced right through his chest and into his lungs.  Xie Yun coughed violently, feeling like all the air had been knocked out of his lungs.  That girl who didn’t smile much, but whose large eyes would curve charmingly upwards whenever she did, making her look almost sly…

That girl, who in a dim stone cell had thrust a whole bundle of bottles towards him, telling him with utmost seriousness that “being accountable was more important” -how could she possibly be reduced to a heap of ruined flesh just like that? How could she be roughly bundled up and flung like trash in a mass grave outside the city?

Xie Yun’s mind had thus far been preoccupied, as he tried hard to discern the reasons for the Big Dipper’s actions.  Only now did realisation seem to strike him – those comrades who he had gone through thick and thin with, who he had laughed and chatted with under a sky full of stars, were gone forever.  And that slender young girl, slouching lazily against a tree beside him, not caring to wash her dirt-covered face, and threatening to tell on her shixiong for sneaking out to listen to songstresses…

Seeing that he had stopped, Mr Bai turned and gave him a quizzical look.  Third Master Xie was staring woodenly at the ground, as if his soul had left his body.  Then, like one bewitched, he turned sharply around to leave.

Fearful of what he might do, Mr Bai lunged forward and clamped a hand on his shoulder: “Third Master…where are you going?”

Mr Bai was a top pugilist of his time.  With his hand pressed down on Xie Yun’s shoulder, Xie Yun was unable to move forward even an inch.  At Mr Bai’s question, Xie Yun’s soul seemed to come alive in his body again.  His gaze sharpened.

Yes, where was he going? To bury the dead?

Chou Tianji’s men would surely be watching the mass graves outside of the city, lying in wait for him to fall into their well-laid trap.  He swallowed painfully, and was finally forced to admit to himself that there was nothing he could do.

Xie Yun stood there in silence for a while more, but eventually turned back to Mr Bai, saying: “Nowhere.  Let’s go back.”

Mr Bai lowered his voice: “When all this is over, and those monsters are gone, we can go outside the city and give your friends a proper burial.”

Xie Yun merely said, without emotion: “They would’ve been pecked clean by wild animals by then.  There’s no need for that.  Thank you.”

Mr Bai was accustomed to loss and death, having experienced his fair share of it over the years.  He was not a sentimental man.  The most he would do was sigh for a bit, and after a few days had passed, if no one else brought it up again, he wouldn’t dwell on it any longer.

Death would come to everyone, if not today, then perhaps tomorrow.  While you might weep over someone’s tombstone today, you yourself might die the very next day without even the dignity of a grave. Death was so commonplace, so unremarkable…but hearing Xie Yun’s brusque words, he had the sudden urge to turn back and look at the square where people were slowly dispersing, at the soldiers starting to clean up what was left of the corpses, and an inexplicable bleakness came over him. 

Human life was worth barely anything at all…less than millet, or rice, or horses and carriages, or even cloth.  So if you valued your life more than friendship…well, at least this meant that your life was worth more than something.