Chapter 7

Chapter 7

We had arranged to hunt rabbits in the outskirts of the city, but we ran into Yang Wenxu and his group by the river, where they were composing poetry and admiring the scenery.

I truly didn’t like Yang Wenxu. He always had those slanted, upturned eyes and a superior air about him.

He would huddle with those other young masters from noble families, making snide, sarcastic remarks about how I reeked of banditry, and saying my father was a toad trying to eat swan meat.

They even said I barely knew a handful of characters and only knew how to fight and cause trouble, claiming that Lord Ye’s reputation had been tarnished by me.

They called us a bunch of playboys and brutes, saying that instead of discussing poetry and literature, we only talked about women, wine, and meat-that we were utterly vulgar.

They even wrote doggerel and drew ugly caricatures to mock me.

I didn’t want to start a conflict. I didn’t want my mother to have any dealings with his father, nor did I want to bully a bunch of weak scholars who couldn’t even catch a chicken.

But this time, they went too far. They said the attendants I brought with me were missing limbs or limping, calling them an eyesore and an embarrassment.

That, I could not tolerate.

I crossed my arms and walked up to Yang Wenxu, who was leading the group.

Several of them quickly crowded together and shouted rebukes at me.

“What, are you going to hit someone just because you don’t like what you hear?”

“A brute is truly a brute.”

“As expected of a bandit’s son. Besides hitting people, what else can you do?”

I stood my ground and asked him mockingly, “Young Master Yang, have you ever wondered whose contribution it is that allows you to play with ink and brushes here in the capital?”

“You stand here smugly showing off that you can recite a few sour poems and mocking us as brutes. But have you ever considered that while you were ten years old in a schoolhouse reciting classics, there were ten-year-old children on the border fighting bloody battles against the enemy?”

Their eyes widened, clearly disbelieving.

“Wh-what kind of joke is that? Going to the battlefield at ten? Do you think war is child’s play?”

They didn’t believe me; they even laughed loudly.

It was as if the louder they laughed, the more confident they felt.

Xiao Yu and the others silently stepped forward, staring coldly at the arrogant young masters who were laughing so wildly.

The bloodlust and murderous aura of those who had been on a battlefield caused their laughter to gradually fade away.

“Didn’t you just mock me for always bringing ‘broken and incomplete’ attendants, calling them an eyesore?”

I pointed to Xiao Yu. “He is fifteen this year. In one battle, he lost four fingers and his left ear.”

I pointed to Xiao Hu. “He is seventeen. He went to the battlefield at eleven. Two years ago, while raiding the enemy’s grain supplies, one of his arms was hacked off.”

I pointed to Xiao Gang. “He is fifteen. To cover his comrades, he took three blade wounds to his leg, and the bone was snapped…”

“You see, we are clearly about the same age, yet we are worlds apart.”

“The most tragic part is that these are clearly marks of their courage and fearless service to the country and its people. Yet now, they are the reason you-people who have lived in luxury since birth-mock and trample upon them. Are you even worthy?”

“Pah.” I spat in his face. Ignoring their humiliated expressions, I turned back toward my horse. “Mount up!”

“Yes!”

The men flipped onto their horses in perfect unison.

“Let’s go. We don’t play with a bunch of weaklings.”

These men were brothers to whom I had promised a place to belong. We had faced life and death together; I would not allow anyone to say a single bad word about them.