Chapter 5
Chapter 5
The study of the Minister of Justice.
Jiang Han held a secret letter in his hand. He skimmed through it at a glance, then fed it to the flames. A moment later, he cast a look into empty air.
A Shadow Guard appeared silently in the room and dropped to one knee.
“My lord, what are your orders?”
“Send all our people out. Find the Star Maiden.”
“My lord, didn’t the Star Maiden die three years ago when the Noble Consort passed from a difficult labor?”
“That was merely a smokescreen set up by that person. His Highness’s men have already uncovered some clues. The Star Maiden is not dead. The last place she appeared was on the outskirts of the capital. Have everyone search inch by inch. We must find the Star Maiden.”
“Your subordinate obeys.”
“One more thing. Take the three notorious bandits out of death row and change their sentences to exile to the Northern Frontier. Tell the bailiffs that they must have those men interact with the Xiao Family as much as possible. Someone does not wish to see Xiao Che reach the Northern Frontier alive.”
“Yes.”
————
Ten-Mile Pavilion.
“Enough. Time’s up. Get moving. If you miss the next relay station, you’ll all be sleeping in the wilderness and getting torn apart by wolves.”
The bailiff cracked his long whip viciously. The Xiao Family members reluctantly parted from their loved ones and set out on an unknown road.
The people of the Marquis’s Mansion had nothing to pack. Their hands were empty.
Once the officers gave the order, Xiao Che was pushed onward by Xiao Jingxing.
Since someone wanted the lives of everyone in the Marquis’s Mansion, the news that his legs had fully recovered could not be allowed to leak.
Xiao Jingmo carried Jin Bao. Pei Wanqing and Nanny Chen supported Old Madam Xiao, while Xiao Jinghao teased Jin Bao along the way.
Jin Bao had never felt so happy before. She had been an orphan in both lives. She had never expected to suddenly gain so many relatives all at once: a father and mother, older brothers who adored her, and even a grandmother.
By noon, everyone’s strength had long since been spent. Under the blazing sun, they were drenched in sweat and unbearably thirsty.
The other Xiao Family members all had water skins and food. Only the Marquis’s Mansion was too poor to afford anything. If they wanted water, they had to buy it from the officers. If they wanted food, that cost money too.
Meals were supposed to be provided on the road to exile, one black-flour cornbread per meal. But these bailiffs seemed to have received special instructions. They clearly intended to starve the people of the Marquis’s Mansion to death. Free rations had become paid rations, and the price was far from low.
A black-flour steamed bun usually cost one copper coin for two, yet now it was fifty copper coins for one. The price had increased a hundredfold.
Was this eating buns, or eating money?
Jin Bao’s little face was flushed red, her lips cracked and dry. She looked listless.
Since entering the Marquis’s Mansion yesterday, she had only hurriedly eaten a few pastries. She did not even have proper clothes, and she was still barefoot.
She had not had breakfast either. Her little belly had long since gone flat from hunger.
Jin Bao had grown up in a village and was best at searching the mountains and fields for things to eat. That was also the main reason she had survived in the tigress’s home.
At the moment, they were resting in a small grove. There was shade here, making it somewhat cooler.
All of a sudden, an image appeared before Jin Bao’s eyes.
A middle-aged man dressed in fine clothes, covered in blood, stumbled into the forest.
Behind him was a group of bandits carrying large sabers.
The bandit at the front was terrifying. A long scar ran across his face, from his left brow bone to his lower right jaw. One could imagine that if the cut back then had been any stronger, it could have split his head diagonally in two.
Scarface seemed to be deliberately toying with the well-dressed man.
He drove him forward slowly from behind, one step at a time. The saber in his hand gleamed coldly, and every so often he slashed at the trees they passed, frightening the fleeing man until his face turned deathly pale.
In the end, the man staggered and rolled down a slope.
With his last breath, he took a brocade pouch from his robes and stuffed it under a rock, then covered it with fallen leaves.
“Run, why don’t you? Why aren’t you running anymore? Your entire caravan belongs to me now. Where do you think you can run? I’ll send you on your way and give you a quick death.”
As soon as Scarface finished speaking, he chopped through the man’s neck with one stroke. Then he led his men howling out of the forest. On the official road outside, a line of carriages stood in plain sight, all loaded with fine furs transported back from the Northern Frontier.
Jin Bao reached out and tugged at Xiao Jingmo.
“Second Brother, there’s an uncle. Over there. And a pretty bag. Let’s go.”
Jin Bao pulled at Xiao Jingmo with all her might, trying to get him to follow her into the woods.
Xiao Jingmo did not understand. He glanced at the officers and saw that they were busy selling food and water, with no time to pay attention to them.
He had learned from his mother that this younger sister of his was somewhat special, but he did not know the specifics. Just like now, how did she know there was someone over there? And what did she mean by all those things she said?
From her scattered words, Xiao Jingmo silently pieced together a picture in his mind.
He suppressed the questions in his heart and planned to confirm his guess shortly.
“Little Sister, you don’t have shoes. Second Brother will carry you. You point the way for Second Brother.”
Jin Bao obediently stood in place and let Xiao Jingmo pick her up.
Second Brother had a pleasant scent on him, one Jin Bao had never smelled before. It made her feel very comfortable.
Jin Bao rested her little head on Xiao Jingmo’s shoulder and took a hard sniff.
Xiao Jingmo saw that the little girl liked him and could not help curving his lips. But the weight in his arms made his heart sink.
Mother had said his little sister was already three years old, yet she weighed about the same as a small wildcat, light as a feather. It was clear what inhuman abuse she must have suffered before.
“Second Brother, that way. At the bottom of the slope.”
Following the scene she had seen, Jin Bao guided Xiao Jingmo all the way to the foot of the slope.
A skeleton abruptly came into view.
Xiao Jingmo instinctively covered his sister’s eyes, only for the little girl to pull his hand away.
Jin Bao was not afraid of dead people at all. In her previous life, she herself had been a zombie, wandering among piles of corpses for years. She had seen the brains of her own kind blown open every day. She had long since grown numb to it.
Xiao Jingmo was surprised to see that Jin Bao did not look the least bit afraid. At the same time, his heart ached for her even more. He did not know what Jin Bao had been through, but he was certain it had not been anything good.
The way Jin Bao looked at the skeleton was utterly calm, without a trace of panic or fright. It reminded him of his father’s eyes, the eyes of a man who had seen mountains of corpses and seas of blood.
Xiao Jingmo suppressed the doubts in his heart and carried Jin Bao down the slope.
Jin Bao skipped right past the skeleton and pointed at a pile of dead leaves not far away.
“Second Brother, pretty pouch. Under the rock.”
Xiao Jingmo went around the body and crouched down. Following the spot Jin Bao pointed to, he dug and indeed unearthed a pouch.
It was a treated brocade pouch, waterproofed, and everything inside was as good as new.
Xiao Jingmo opened the pouch. The first things he saw were a few pieces of broken silver and an excellent-quality jade pendant carved with a flame emblem. At the very bottom lay a five-hundred-tael banknote, a bottle of wound medicine, and a family letter.
Xiao Jingmo unfolded the letter and skimmed it quickly.
So this skeleton was actually the head of the Qi Family of the Northern Frontier.
Xiao Jingmo had a broad knowledge and a good memory, and he had heard of the Qi Family before.
They often traveled between the Northern Frontier and the capital, mainly dealing in furs. The Qi Family even had shops in the capital. Only, a few years ago, the Qi Family had suddenly seemed to vanish. Their shops changed hands, and their merchant caravan disappeared without a trace. So it turned out they had been attacked here in the wilderness.
Xiao Jingmo bowed to the skeleton.
“Master Qi, since I have taken your money and belongings, I will be sure to deliver your family letter to your kin. We are pressed for time and I cannot bury your remains. Please forgive me.”
Xiao Jingmo tucked the pouch into his robes, picked Jin Bao up, and hurried out of the woods.
“Why are two people missing from your family? Did they run off?”
The bailiff was counting heads. When he discovered two members of the Xiao Family were missing, he raised his whip and lashed it toward Xiao Che.
Xiao Jingxing threw himself forward and took the blow on his own back for Xiao Che.
A bloody welt appeared across Xiao Jingxing’s back at once. He only gave a muffled grunt, his hands clenching the armrests of the wheelchair as he held back any cry of pain.
“Xing’er!”
By the time Pei Wanqing rushed over, it was already too late. Looking at the bloody mark on her eldest son’s back, her heart clenched sharply.
“Sir, my second son took my daughter into the woods to relieve herself. Please show mercy and spare my son.”
As Pei Wanqing spoke, she moved to kneel.
“Mother, I’m fine. Don’t kneel.”
Cold sweat streamed down Xiao Jingxing’s face. He shook his head gently at Pei Wanqing, two flames burning fiercely in his eyes.
“Mother, Little Sister is done.”
Xiao Jingmo’s voice sounded at just the right moment. He had happened to hear the lie his mother had made up and quickly walked out.
The bailiff glanced at Xiao Jingmo and Jin Bao, snorted coldly, put away his whip, and left.
“Big Brother, Baby will blow on it. It won’t hurt.”
Jin Bao immediately spotted the wound on Xiao Jingxing’s back, and her little face filled with anger.
If Xiao Jingmo had not been holding her, she would definitely have pounced on the bailiff’s leg and bitten him by now.
Jin Bao loved protecting her family most. Small as she was, she was fiercely defensive of her own.
Xiao Jingxing forced out a smile.
“Little Sister, Big Brother is fine. This little scratch is nothing.”
Xiao Jingmo secretly took out the brocade pouch he had just found and handed it to Xiao Che.
“Father, Little Sister led me to this just now. There is a bottle of wound medicine inside that can be used for Big Brother. In weather this hot, we’ll be drenched in sweat after walking for a while. If Big Brother’s wound isn’t treated, it could easily fester.”
In this kind of weather, an untreated external wound really could kill a person.
Nanny Chen stepped forward and took Jin Bao.
“Second Young Master, leave Miss to this old servant. You should tend to the Heir Apparent’s wound.”
Xiao Che looked at Jin Bao with a complicated expression, then said to everyone in a low voice, “Not a single word about Jin Bao’s matter is to be leaked.”
“Father, don’t worry. We all understand the stakes.”
If people found out Jin Bao had such an ability, who knew what kind of disaster it would bring?
While Xiao Jingmo was tending to Xiao Jingxing’s wound, Xiao Yan came over with his wife, Madam Chen.
“Sister-in-law, surely you haven’t eaten yet, have you?”
If not for the triumphant look on Madam Chen’s face, everyone might really have thought she was concerned about the Main Branch.
The moment Pei Wanqing saw Madam Chen, her expression chilled.
When the Marquis’s Mansion had been prosperous, Madam Chen had often come to mooch benefits from them. Back then, she had called Pei Wanqing “sister-in-law” so sweetly and affectionately.
Pei Wanqing felt that if they had given Madam Chen enough benefits, she would even have been willing to call her grandmother.
Now Madam Chen finally had the chance to hold her head high.
Back when she had shamelessly gone to the Marquis’s Mansion to ask for favors, Pei Wanqing had always treated her with that cool, indifferent attitude, practically making her grovel.
Well, things were different now. Fortune changed with time, and now it was Pei Wanqing’s turn to beg her. At long last, Madam Chen no longer had to press her warm face against the cold backside of the Main Branch.
“Sister-in-law, as long as you kneel down and lick my shoe clean, I’ll give you one cornbread. If you kowtow to me too, I’ll give you another. How about it?”
“The road ahead is still long. You don’t have a single coin on you. You won’t last long, will you?”
“I’m in a good mood today. Miss this chance, and you won’t get another.”
As Madam Chen spoke, she toyed with a coarse black cornbread in her hand. She was certain Pei Wanqing would agree for the sake of food. After all, the Main Branch had nothing at all. Even if Pei Wanqing did not eat, she could not possibly let the children starve, could she?
Madam Chen had noticed that this whole family treasured that little beggar girl.