Chapter 28

Chapter 28

Pei Wanqing slept with her arms around Jin Bao, but the little girl was tossing and turning on the kang as if her whole body had grown thorns, unable to settle down.

Pei Wanqing finally realized something was wrong with Jin Bao. She sat up and lifted the child into her arms.

“Good girl, what’s wrong? Are you feeling unwell somewhere?”

Pei Wanqing lowered her head and pressed her own forehead against her daughter’s to check. There was no fever. Then she ran her hands over the little girl’s body, but found nothing unusual.

“Mother, it feels bad. This place is beating so fast. It feels like it’s going to jump out of Baby’s mouth.”

Jin Bao pointed at her little chest and spoke in her soft, milky voice.

Pei Wanqing’s eyelids twitched. Could something be about to happen?

Since the exile began, they had been traveling for half a month now. Aside from the three exiled criminals who had joined the group at the start and tried to kill them both openly and in secret, nothing else had gone wrong these past few days.

Could those people finally be unable to hold back any longer and planning to strike tonight?

From the capital to the Heishui garrison in the Northern Frontier was a journey of more than three thousand li.

According to the bailiffs, the eight hundred li from the capital to Shanhai Pass were all flatlands, so the roads were easier to travel. These days, they had been pushing forward without much pause.

At best, they could barely cover fifty li in a day. Once they passed Shanhai Pass, the terrain would change, becoming steep and difficult. If they could manage thirty li a day then, it would already be considered good.

There was a saying: “Once you pass Shanhai Pass, your homeland has no more spring or autumn.”

Seeing as they would reach Shanhai Pass in another two days, were those people afraid they would run out of chances and could no longer wait?

Pei Wanqing did not know if she had been affected by her daughter, but now her own heart was thudding wildly as well.

She set Jin Bao down on the kang, leaned over, and patted Xiao Jingmo, who was lying not far away.

Xiao Jingmo had only just closed his eyes. Awakened by his mother, his gaze was clear and sharp, without the slightest trace of sleepiness.

“Mother, what is it?”

They were in a large communal sleeping room, with all the prisoners staying inside. Xiao Jingmo deliberately kept his voice low.

“Mo’er, something doesn’t feel right.”

Pei Wanqing and Jin Bao slept in the middle. Deepest inside were Madam Liu and her family of three, followed by Old Madam Xiao and Nanny Chen.

Pei Wanqing and Xiao Jinghao had Jin Bao between them, while Xiao Jingmo was beside Xiao Jinghao.

Xiao Jinghao was a heavy sleeper. The moment he touched the kang, he was out cold.

Xiao Jingmo reached out and carried Xiao Jinghao over, switching places with him.

Xiao Che was also awake now, his ears keenly keeping watch for mother and son. At the moment, he was playing the part of a cripple, so he could not move around carelessly.

“Mother, what happened? Don’t panic. Tell me slowly. Did Little Sister see another vision?”

Pei Wanqing shook her head. “No. Your little sister said her heart was beating very fast. I feel a bit uneasy right now too. Mo’er, do you think someone might come to kill us tonight? If Jin Bao could see a vision, we could at least prepare. But like this, I don’t know what we should do.”

Xiao Jingmo reached out and took Jin Bao from her.

Smelling Second Brother’s familiar scent, Jin Bao felt especially at ease. That panicked feeling slowly began to fade.

“Mother, we can’t rely on Little Sister for everything. Little Sister’s arrival is already a great blessing for our family. If she glimpses the secrets of Heaven, who knows if it might bring backlash upon her? Daoists say all things in this world require balance. For Little Sister to be like this, she must surely be sacrificing something.”

Pei Wanqing was startled by her son’s words. How had she not thought of that?

“Yes, yes. Mo’er is right. From now on, we can’t depend entirely on your little sister alone.”

Xiao Jingmo stroked Jin Bao’s little head again, then handed her back to Pei Wanqing.

“Mother, keep a close eye on Little Sister. I’ll go take a look.”

Because Xiao Jingmo was Zhu Laosan’s lifesaver, he had been specially permitted to have his leg shackles removed.

That made it much easier for him to move around.

The door to the communal room was locked from the outside, so getting out was impossible. Fortunately, this was a relay station in town, and every aspect of the conditions here was much better than the relay stations they had stayed at before. Even the windows were considerably larger.
But the windows had been fitted with wooden bars as thick as a wrist. The gaps between them were only wide enough for him to squeeze most of his head through. There was no way an adult could escape, and even if a child managed it, they would never survive without the grown-ups.

Xiao Jingmo stood beneath the window for a moment and tilted his head to listen.

This relay station sat on the main street, while their shared sleeping quarters were in the rear courtyard. Though the night was deep, the sounds from out front could still drift into the back.

Xiao Jingmo’s brows drew tight. He thought he could hear shouting and fighting out on the street.

He remembered how, when they had entered the relay station at dusk, more than a dozen burly men had been sitting at the stall across the street, all of them reeking of banditry. At the time, Xiao Jingmo had merely been suspicious. Thinking back now, could they have been scouts?

Xiao Jingmo immediately turned around.

“Father, I hear a lot of noise out on the street. There are hoofbeats and people crying out too. Could mountain bandits have come?”

Xiao Jingmo kept his voice low, but there was tension in it. If they really were mountain bandits, then weren’t they, locked inside this room, nothing but lambs waiting for slaughter?

Xiao Che sat up from the bed platform. He did not speak, only sank into thought.

All along the road, they had mostly traveled across flat plains. It was only after leaving the capital territory that mountains had begun to appear. Because they had still been close to the capital, public order had been decent, and they had not encountered any mountain bandits.

Now they were already six or seven hundred li from the capital and drawing close to Shanhai Pass. The terrain had also grown more treacherous. It would not be strange for mountain bandits to appear here.

But for mountain bandits to enter a town, they either had to have planned it in advance, have someone on the inside, or perhaps be acting under someone’s orders.

“Mo’er, wake our people up.”

Xiao Jingmo went one by one to rouse Madam Liu’s family, as well as Old Madam Xiao and Nanny Chen.

After listening to Xiao Jingmo briefly explain the situation in a low voice, everyone turned pale with fear.

“Mother, Baby needs to pee.”

Jin Bao suddenly lifted her little head and whispered.

Pei Wanqing quickly picked Jin Bao up and was about to take her to the chamber pot in the corner.

“Mother, Baby can do it herself.”

“No. You’re too small. You can’t sit on that chamber pot by yourself, and it’s filthy. Mother will hold you.”

“Mother, pot dirty. Baby wants to go outside to pee.”

Pei Wanqing found the scene oddly familiar and looked at Jin Bao with some suspicion.

“Baby, didn’t you just pee? Mother took you outside before bed.”

Seeing that her lie had been exposed, Jin Bao felt guilty. Her little face flushed red, and her two small hands twisted together uneasily. Then she looked toward Xiao Jingmo as if asking for help.

“Second Brother, Baby wants to go outside.”

Xiao Jingmo understood what Jin Bao meant almost instantly.

If someone could get out now and investigate the situation, it would indeed be very advantageous for them. But Jin Bao was too young. Even if she got out of this room, there were still high walls and a gate outside. She could not get out at all.

“Little Sister, this is a relay station, not the woods. Even if you can run fast, there’s limited space here. You’ll be caught, and it will be dangerous.”

“Second Brother, Baby can climb trees, and Baby can climb walls too. Baby won’t get caught.”

Jin Bao was getting anxious. She felt that if she did not go out, everyone here would die.

Just as everyone was growing increasingly agitated, Xiao Che suddenly got down from the bed platform.

Pei Wanqing let out a startled cry and quickly turned to look at the others on the platform. By the moonlight, she saw that they were all snoring thunderously and had not noticed Xiao Che.

Xiao Che walked to the window and gripped one of the wooden posts with both hands. Sinking his breath to his dantian, he gritted his teeth, his hands clamping down like iron pincers.

With a crack, the wooden post snapped in the middle.

“Mo’er, take your sister with you. Go quickly and come back quickly. You only need to confirm two things: whether the people outside are real mountain bandits, and whether their target is the entire town or us.”

Xiao Jingmo nodded, reached out to take Jin Bao in his arms, and the two of them soon disappeared from the room.