Chapter 7#
Escape (Post-Edit)#
Behind Helan Feng’s yurt, Ruan Buqi was walking with a bundle of dry grass. This was fodder for the two horses of the Helan family, not heavy, but she walked very slowly.
On the young girl’s fair face, there was a calm and composed expression. She bent slightly, her steps extremely light, not more pronounced than the rustle stirred by wind brushing the tips of the grass.
Inside the yurt, Helan Jinying and Helan Feng were still talking.
“…He will die?” Helan Feng asked, bewildered. “Why?”
“The Pingzhou Alliance is destroyed, Jin Yue is now worthless. The Northern Rong Celestial Lord originally intended to kill him.” Helan Jinying no longer concealed the truth. “The deaths of Jin Mingzhao and his son are enough to make the Dayu army completely despair of the imperial court and lose their will to fight.”
Helan Feng’s face turned pale. “Why did he change his mind?”
“The reason is something you do not need to know.” Helan Jinying finally grabbed the map into his hand. “In short, deliver the map to the Celestial Lord, and your new friend’s life can be saved.”
Helan Feng: “Why does the Celestial Lord want the map of Liangjing?”
Helan Jinying was already somewhat annoyed, but he still answered patiently: “The alliance between Northern Rong and Jin Qiang to attack Dayu at White Sparrow Pass is both the plan and the reality. But Jin Mingzhao’s death was completely beyond our expectations. The Celestial Lord merely took advantage of this unexpected development. Now, the Northwest Border Defense Army has lost its commander and the Mangyun Cavalry. They will certainly have to transfer generals from the Northern Border Defense Army. This is the best opportunity for Northern Rong to infiltrate Dayu.”
He turned and placed a hand on Helan Feng’s shoulder.
“Remember, Jin Yue remains in Yetai not because of the Celestial Lord’s mercy, but only because he still has some use.” Helan Jinying said. “Keeping Jin Yue alive is precisely to extract the paths of Liangjing and the Imperial Palace from his mouth.”
Helan Feng did not answer immediately.
If what his brother said was true, then imprisoning Jin Yue in the Northern Capital would have been the best method. The interrogation methods of the Northern Capital Patrol Commission were enough to make Jin Yue suffer between life and death, and sufficient to dig out everything the Celestial Lord wanted.
A thought stirred in Helan Feng’s heart: “…Brother, what did you say to the Celestial Lord?”
Helan Jinying did not answer, instead changing the subject: “I know he wants to return to Dayu. But as a slave, it is utterly impossible for him to escape the Chasing Winds Plains on his own. Helan Feng, I warn you not to do something foolish. Today, I am departing with General Hu for Pingzhou, and I won’t be back for three to five months. You must not, for the sake of some misplaced loyalty, doom both me and Zhuozhuo.”
Helan Feng only bit his lip and did not answer.
“Do you understand!” Helan Jinying shouted loudly.
After a long while, he finally received a “I understand” from Helan Feng.
When Ruan Buqi found Jin Yue, the bear-hunting party was already assembled and ready to depart.
Leading the team was Akula, his hair entirely gray and white. He always frowned when looking at people, his eyebrows and eyes creased, his nose constantly twitching. It was said his sense of smell was keen, able to sniff out whether a person was good or bad, kind or malicious.
Jin Yue had no dealings with Akula. Occasionally, while feeding horses or fetching ice, he would see the old man wandering around the camp. A curved sword always hung at his waist, but Jin Yue had never seen him use it.
Jin Yue was talking to Hundar, wearing his usual gentle and amiable expression, a proper smile on his face. From afar, Akula saw them and twitched his nose again.
Hundar was very pleased with Jin Yue’s friendliness, waving his riding crop excitedly, talking so fast and with such fervor that saliva flew, white puffs of breath rolling out.
Helan Feng ran over from a distance, bow and arrows strapped to his back. Seeing Jin Yue there, he involuntarily slowed his steps. Hundar spoke first: “Jin Yue, have you ever seen a big bear? I’ll bring back a bear’s ear for you. You can pin it to your hat, and everyone in Yetai will know you’re my, Hundar’s, friend, and no one will bully you.”
Helan Feng ignored him completely, pulling Jin Yue aside directly: “Take care of Zhuozhuo. I have something to tell you when I get back.”
He untied the small dagger from his waist and stuffed it into Jin Yue’s chest. Jin Yue was about to refuse, but Helan Feng had already swung onto his black Gaoxin horse like a gust of wind and galloped off first.
The group of men shouting and hollering disappeared into the vast, snowy expanse of the Chasing Winds Plains.
Ruan Buqi tugged at Jin Yue’s hand, and only then did he withdraw his gaze: “What’s wrong?”
The young girl couldn’t speak, her hands gesturing wildly. Seeing that Jin Yue still didn’t understand, she grabbed his hand to write. Suddenly, the clear, clashing sound of armor carried over on the wind. Jin Yue hurriedly led her, crouching low, and climbed up a nearby snowy slope.
A column of three to four hundred men was marching out of the Yetai camp in perfect formation. They crossed the snowfield, heading straight south.
Thick, heavy snow clouds advanced from the distant mountains, like the giant hand of a deity, pressing down upon the mortal world.
General Hu and Helan Jinying had taken away a company of brave soldiers from Yetai, and the young men were out hunting bears on the Chasing Winds Plains. Only a handful of patrol soldiers remained in the camp.
“Buqi,” he whispered to Ruan Buqi, “this is our only chance. Go immediately to Helan Feng’s yurt and take Helan Jinying’s spare sword. Don’t let Zhuozhuo get suspicious. Hundar just promised to lend me a horse to practice riding.”
Ruan Buqi’s eyes widened, filled with doubt and surprise. Jin Yue carefully placed the small dagger Helan Feng had left for him into his inner pocket.
“We’ll meet right below this slope…” His eyes flashed, full of irrepressible excitement. “Depart, return to Dayu!”
Jin Yue was currently a joke in Yetai: none of the Yetai men or women, not even Zhuozhuo, who was much younger than him, didn’t know how to ride a horse, but he couldn’t even tame the most docile horse.
When he arrived at Hundar’s stable, he met no resistance. Hundar had several servants at home, and seeing Jin Yue approach, they began joking in Northern Rong dialect. Jin Yue didn’t choose the short horse he usually rode, but instead pointed to a very tall, sturdy Northern Rong steed.
The servants laughed even more raucously. They watched Jin Yue trembling as he led the horse, speaking rapidly in Northern Rong with a Yetai accent that Jin Yue could barely make out. But this was completely unimportant now. He gripped the reins tightly, feigning some fear, and led the horse step by step outward.
Once out of sight of Hundar’s guards, Jin Yue immediately quickened his pace. The dark clouds were gradually pressing over. People in the Yetai camp were pulling sheep and leading horses, and seeing Jin Yue seemingly heading out, they hurriedly pointed at the sky to dissuade him. Jin Yue only said he was practicing riding on the Chasing Winds Plains and didn’t pay much more attention.
He waited for Ruan Buqi for a long time. Ruan Buqi arrived with the sword, gesturing that she had just coaxed Zhuozhuo to sleep.
The wind already carried a cold, biting chill, making ears and noses stiff. Jin Yue pulled a hat from his bundle and placed it on Ruan Buqi’s head. Ruan Buqi recognized it as the woolen hat Helan Feng had mysteriously lost not long ago. The bundle held many other things, mostly food and cold-weather gear. How long Jin Yue had been plotting this escape was unclear.
He helped Ruan Buqi onto the horse, whispering for her not to be afraid, then leaped onto the horse’s back himself, his movements fluid and graceful. Ruan Buqi sat very steadily. Jin Yue shielded her in front of him, never having felt such tension and composure at the same time as he did now.
The horse sensed the youth on its back was a skilled rider. Jin Yue stroked its mane and neck, and it snorted in response.
Jin Yue squeezed his legs against the horse’s flanks, and the horse broke into a canter.
Light snow had begun to fall slowly from the sky. The two finally circled the high slope and galloped south.
Half an hour later, the snow grew heavier, and the horse’s speed had to be reduced.
Jin Yue asked Ruan Buqi if she was cold, if she was afraid, but Ruan Buqi seemed not to hear, gripping Jin Yue’s arm tightly, writing character after character swiftly in his palm.
She knew quite a few characters. A flicker of surprise passed through Jin Yue’s mind, but his face was already frozen stiff, unable to even form a smile, so he could only hold Ruan Buqi close in his embrace.
Ruan Buqi wasn’t afraid of horses, and she knew how to write… she was not an ordinary girl. Jin Yue silently made a decision: once they returned to Dayu, he would definitely help Ruan Buqi find her family.
While he was lost in thought, Ruan Buqi had finished writing everything she wanted to say and squeezed his palm once.
“…I know,” Jin Yue whispered. “I know he wanted me to draw the map of Liangjing for a purpose.”
As soon as these words left his lips, a trace of sharp, bitter sorrow welled up in his heart.
The hat Ruan Buqi wore was embroidered with a long-horned deer. This was Helan Feng’s hat, and the Gaoxin people revered the deer as divine. Embroidering the deer god on children’s clothing, shoes, and hats was a form of blessing, praying for the child’s safe survival in the harsh and barren northern lands.
The embroidery technique used for this deer was the cross-stitch that all Dayu women knew. But the stitches were not fine or neat; it looked like the work of a beginner.
Jin Yue realized this was likely the sheepskin hat made for Helan Feng by his blind mother.
A sudden wave of regret surged in his heart, and he had to clench his teeth.
His time in Northern Rong had not been long. Apart from Helan Feng and Zhuozhuo, he dared not claim to know anyone else here.
To “know” someone was a form of understanding. Jin Yue would not easily allow himself to be trapped in the illusion of understanding—but Helan Feng and Zhuozhuo were different.
Zhuozhuo was young, acting purely on joy or anger, and could even get along playing with Hundar. But Helan Feng was a child, just as Bai Ni had said, “exceptionally difficult.”
Jin Yue didn’t dislike spending time with Helan Feng, but he wasn’t used to the way Helan Feng looked at him. Those wolf-like pupils, hiding a trace of dark green, seemed to be watching prey, trying to discern deeper information from Jin Yue. Northern Rong people often looked at Dayu people this way—with novelty, confusion, and a hint of timidity—but whenever these emotions appeared in Helan Feng’s eyes, they carried a different kind of meaning.
Jin Yue didn’t dare meet Helan Feng’s gaze. He feared the thoughts in his heart would be thoroughly pecked apart by those eyes.
His hand was grabbed tightly by Ruan Buqi again. Jin Yue realized Ruan Buqi was not as fragile as she appeared; her grip was quite strong, making his palm ache faintly.
“Don’t worry,” Jin Yue said softly. “What I gave him is a fake map.”
No sooner had he finished speaking than a fierce gust of wind blasted straight into their faces, causing both man and horse to stagger. Jin Yue hurriedly held Ruan Buqi tighter and pulled the reins taut. The horse reared up on its front legs, neighing loudly.
Ahead, snow surged in massive waves, blotting out the sky and sun, making it impossible to see anything. Jin Yue thought, “This is bad, the blizzard came too fast.” He quickly loosened the reins and looked left and right, searching for shelter.
Ruan Buqi, however, turned her head to look at a snowy mountain to the side. It was a gentle, sloping hill, but the fierce wind continuously blew snow from its peak, the tumbling masses accompanied by rumbling crashes.
Following her gaze, Jin Yue saw nothing.
“What’s there—”
Before he could finish the question, the ground suddenly vanished beneath them—ahead was a ravine, and the horse plunged straight down.
Jin Yue threw his arms around Ruan Buqi, shielding her as they tumbled into the ravine, landing in thick, deep snow. For some reason, when they landed, it was Ruan Buqi who was beneath Jin Yue, absorbing all the impact. Jin Yue’s head spun dizzily. He scrambled up with difficulty, using both hands and knees to dig Ruan Buqi out of the snow.
Ruan Buqi’s arm was dislocated, her eyes red, but she turned her head to look at the horse that had also fallen down, her eyes filled with frustration.
The horse struggled to its feet, seeming to finally realize the rider was not its master. It immediately spread its hooves and galloped away along the ravine in a flash.
Jin Yue: “No! Come back! Don’t run!!!”
After shouting these words, he was so dizzy he couldn’t stand. Just as he struggled to his feet, he immediately collapsed backward into the snow again.
The vast snow blurred the boundaries of heaven and earth. Without a horse, they could not leave Northern Rong, let alone return to Yetai.
His hands and feet were gradually growing cold. Jin Yue knew he must have injured something, but the pain was numb, and he couldn’t pinpoint where.
“I’m sorry…” he whispered to Ruan Buqi. “I shouldn’t have brought you out…” Ruan Buqi bent down and hugged him, patting his shoulder as if to comfort him.
In the last moment before losing consciousness, Jin Yue finally saw that the snowy slope Ruan Buqi had been looking at did indeed have something unusual.
A giant deer with branching antlers stood atop the slope, gazing down from afar.
Upon its back sat an immortal in red robes, a blazing flame amidst the swirling snow and wind.