Chapter 13
When dawn broke, the tears on my face had yet to dry.
After a night of terror, I was finally met by two bandits who grabbed me and dragged me outside.
A heavy scent of blood clung to them; the knives in their hands were stained with blood, already dried.
Dragged along, I refused to move, sobbing incessantly.
The fierce Scarface, his features twisted, pressed his blade to my neck: “Everyone in your town is dead. Do you want to die too?”
“If the stronghold weren’t short of women, I’d have killed you already!”
Birds scattered through the mountain forest as I was hauled forward, held captive.
I don’t know how long we walked. Suddenly, a shadow flickered through the woods, sunlight glinting off a sword-blinding, gone in an instant.
“Who goes there?” Scarface called out warily.
As his voice fell, a figure stepped out ahead. Looking closely, it was Chao Jianan.
Tall and lean, his familiar brows and eyes frosted with cold, lips pressed in a silent line, the face that was always languid now suffused with murderous intent. His dark eyes glinted with ruthlessness, tinged with a thin red.
He was wounded; blood soaked the fabric at his abdomen, splattered across his face, highlighting his sharp features. The sword in his hand scraped the ground, like an asura emerging blood-soaked from a slaughterhouse.
“Chao San? You’re still alive?” Scarface was shocked.
But it was only a moment’s surprise. Chao Jianan, as always, spoke little. He spun his sword in one hand and, with the speed of thunder, struck out, slicing Scarface in two within moments.
The other bandit soon fell to his sword as well.
At last, he used his bloodied hand to untie my ropes and removed the rag from my mouth.
“Chao San, Chao San, even you’re hurt? What happened in town?”
I cried as I asked, my throat thick with a metallic taste, choking on the words.
He was silent, saying nothing.
When I turned thirteen, on my birthday, Qingshi Town was massacred; most of the people died.
It was the height of chaos in the Capital. Rumor had it the Fourth Prince had killed his father and brothers, seized power in a palace coup.
Prince Ping of Yanshan Prefecture was the first to rise in rebellion. Across the land, rebel armies and marauders took advantage of the turmoil, forming countless bands.
The bandits from Heiling in Kaizhou raided Qingshi Town by night, but gained little in the end.
Yet they colluded with the Guodao Army, rebels from Jiangxi. While the county troops and Chao San’s men fought the bandits, the Guodao Army swooped in, pillaging and slaughtering within the city.
They wanted to enter the Capital, to claim a share of power.
But they had no money and desperately needed supplies.
The rebels entered the city; the townsfolk fled in terror. So, under the guise of bandits, they slaughtered and plundered Qingshi Town.