Chapter Fifty-Eight: Encounter with Bandits on the Yellow Earth at Dusk

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On a moonlit night, the moon was hazy, like a beautiful maiden draped in gauze and shrouded in mist. In a remote ravine far from the city of Anhua, the shadowy mountains separated the mundane world from this secluded place.

Inside the tent, Lu Jiu’s face flickered uncertainly in the light of the dancing flames.

“Are you sure the poison in your body is no trouble?”

Lu Liao lay prostrate on a mat; the wound on his backside had already been stitched by the caravan’s physician, so it was not a serious matter.

“Haven’t you already looked into my background? Don’t forget, I’ve spent over a year with the Five Venoms Sect; these poisons aren’t enough to kill me. We did leave Anhua City overnight, but after all, three lives were lost—won’t this bring trouble?” Lu Liao, for reasons unknown, kept seeing the cold, indifferent face of that child beggar assassin.

“It was just a bunch of assassins who live in the shadows; with a few excuses and enough silver, any problem can be smoothed over,” Lu Jiu replied, as if discussing something trivial.

“How is Emil? When I beheaded that child beggar, she fainted outright,” Lu Liao asked apologetically.

“I was only away for a short while, and you managed to cause such a disaster!” Lu Jiu ignored the question, glaring at him indignantly.

“Heh! I thought Emil was just your latest favorite’s maid; who would’ve guessed she’d be targeted for assassination!” Lu Liao decided to feign ignorance.

“Enough! Lu Liao, stop acting in front of me,” Lu Jiu snapped.

“Wang Liuli! You dragged me onto your pirate ship and told me nothing—don’t you think that’s going too far?” Lu Liao dropped the pretense.

“I kept you in the dark for your own good, so you wouldn’t be clueless about your own death when it came,” Lu Jiu said, full of resentment.

“Well, since you won’t say, let me guess. Emil, this foreign princess, is no ordinary concubine. She’s most likely a spy planted beside that Lord Yang by his political enemy, isn’t she?” Lu Liao smiled slyly at Lu Jiu, who turned away, refusing to meet his gaze.

“Let’s see who Lord Yang’s enemies are. Logically, his greatest rival should be the all-powerful Chief Minister, Li Linfu. But Li, supported by generals like An Lushan and Gao Xianzhi, commands a host of foreign-born military men, each with great power and military prowess. He also has clever and capable civil officials like Wang Hong. Even the emperor is wary of him, so he probably doesn’t see Lord Yang, who rose through his sister’s favor, as any real threat.

The emperor promoted Lord Yang to counterbalance Li Linfu’s power. With Li being so formidable, Yang dared not provoke him directly and instead set his sights on the military governor of Fanyang, accusing him of treason on dubious grounds.

Treason is a grave charge. Naturally, Lord An could not sit idly by, uncertain what other tricks the emperor-favored Lord Yang might have up his sleeve. So he placed a spy like Emil at Yang’s side—only someone of his standing could so easily arrange a foreign princess for such a role.

Everyone knows that all this fierce rivalry in court is just for show before the emperor, who fancies himself wise and strong. Behind the scenes, everyone goes about their business, making their fortunes and holding their offices. So for years, there’s been peace; Emil has uncovered nothing earth-shattering.

But her sudden and mysterious disappearance now means she’s discovered something that could upend this balance. Your Wang family is said to be as wealthy as a nation itself—aren’t you afraid that by getting involved, you’ll bring disaster and ruin upon your house?”

Lu Liao finished, half-smiling as he looked at Lu Jiu.

Lu Jiu pulled out a folding fan and smacked it hard against Lu Liao’s wounded backside. “Do you think you’re the only clever one in the world? Lord An Lushan used to be a broker in the western markets, and he and my father were the closest of friends. My eighth sister, Wang Shanhui, was even promised as a concubine to Lord An’s son, An Qingxu, from childhood. How could my family not help him?”

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“What’s more, the ties among the nobles and magnates in the capital are so tangled, there’s no way to unravel them. My Wang family couldn’t withdraw even if we wanted to,” he said.

“Wang Liuli! You’re truly vicious, a woman who would dare strike my injury—and right on the wound!” Lu Liao nearly leapt up in anger.

“That’s a lesson for you,” Lu Jiu replied, grinning smugly.

“Laugh all you want. You do realize the road ahead won’t be so easy,” Lu Liao grumbled.

“If it were so easy, why would I need you?” Lu Jiu retorted and, without waiting for a response, drifted away.

“I told you before, you lack experience in the martial world. Playing the hero before a beauty without calling me along—how did it feel getting stabbed and poisoned? When we get back, I’ll tell the big sister everything, detail for detail.”

Not long after Lu Jiu left, Ningjiao and the others entered the tent.

“Alas,” sighed Hu Laoda, “a hundred taels of silver for one trip with the caravan, but after a few more outings like this, I’ll lose my shirt. Should we tell the young madam about the young master’s injuries?”

“Are you here to check on my wounds or to threaten me?” Lu Liao glared at the three of them.

“I didn’t say a word,” said Zhou Liuzi, raising his hands in surrender.

Lu Liao gave Hu Laoda a fierce look, and Hu Laoda lowered his head.

“Ningjiao, how about I tell Lan’er you were led to a brothel by Hu Laoda on the road? What do you think she’d say?” Lu Liao smiled darkly.

Ningjiao scoffed. “Lan’er wouldn’t believe your slander. Besides, not everyone is as afraid of their wife as you.”

The caravan crossed the Yellow River. Gone was the lush greenery; before them stretched a vast, empty expanse. The basin had vanished, replaced by mounds of yellow earth. The loess grew deeper, piling higher and higher, forming knolls, ridges, and great, breathtaking plateaus—all a striking, desolate yellow.

Wherever the caravan traveled, horses’ hooves and wagon wheels sent up clouds of yellow dust, swirling and drifting, shrouding the entire caravan in a mist of ochre.

“Travel the main road, not the byways; on the main road, people abound, hire work to ease your mind. Stay in big inns, not the small; small inns are full of young thieves, worry they’ll rob you. Sleep in the middle, not at the edge; beware the wall-diggers, who might dig up beside you. Drink from running streams, not springs; in springs, snakes flick their tails, beware of drinking poison. In the woods, beware the brigands, and sleeping powder too…”

From afar, a hoarse and sorrowful voice sang this old northwest traveler’s ballad.

Aside from the dull sound of hooves and the monotonous creak of wheels, few spoke in the caravan. Everyone felt heavy-hearted, as if weighed down by a stone.

By a patch of sparse woodland, the caravan stopped early to make camp, following Lu Liao’s advice. These nights, they always formed a ring with the wagons, keeping everyone and every beast within the circle. After some days, the caravan had grown accustomed to this way of camping.

At dusk, the loess plains and the secretive moon peeking out seemed to turn yellow as well.

Dry branches crackled on the fire, the bright flames driving away the surrounding chill. Emil sat apart by the fire, tossing a twig into the flames and watching it burn fiercely. The firelight painted her face a bewitching red, her beauty almost impossible to look at directly.

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Lu Liao, now clad in a tight-fitting guard’s uniform with his longsword Qiushui at his waist, surveyed the circle of wagons before murmuring a few words with Lu Jiu. Then he quietly sat down beside Emil.

“The sacred flames can purify all filth in the world, including the body and soul. I wonder if, after I die, I too can be cleansed by the sacred fire,” Emil said, gazing into the fire as if talking to herself.

“You’re alive and well, why talk about life and death?” Lu Liao muttered.

“People all die, don’t they?” Emil replied softly.

“But we should try our best to live, shouldn’t we? There are so many things yet to experience, so many sights yet to behold. It’s only when one dies with no regrets that one can be at peace.” Lu Liao watched as a twig turned to ash, speaking quietly.

“But living is so exhausting. How many people are as lucky as you describe?” Emil stared at the leaping flames, her eyes lifeless.

“There’s a monk who’s been freeloading at my house. Seeing me sighing and complaining about being tired all day, he told me a Buddhist story. A middle-aged man once went to see a monk and told him that life was truly weary. The old monk said nothing but handed him a basket and sent him into an illusion, telling him to collect anything he liked. In the end, the man never made it out.

What I understood from that story is that we’re born with nothing, light as a feather. As we grow, the more we desire, the more burdens we bear—how can it not be tiring?

But I hit that monk’s bald head and told him, if life is so short and you don’t even look at the things you love, what joy is there? Even if it makes us tired, the moment we grasp what we love, isn’t that happiness and contentment?”

Lu Liao glanced in the direction of Chang’an and smiled faintly.

Hearing how Lu Liao smacked the monk, Emil smiled too, then let out a long sigh.

“That monk was wrong about one thing. We’re born already limited. There’s no such thing as being unburdened. If you’re a farmer’s son, you’re bound to the farmer’s life, you have to till the land. Your birth determines your life and your burdens.”

“At least our hearts are still free. Emil, don’t you ever yearn for something more?” Lu Liao asked.

“Blue skies, white clouds, endless grasslands. If I could ride free in my dreamland and sing at the top of my lungs, even if I turned to ash like this twig, I’d die content,” Emil whispered, gazing into the distant sky.

A sudden thunder of hooves rumbled, the ground shaking faintly. The sentry perched in a tree by the camp blew a shrill alarm, slid quickly to the ground, and rushed into the circle of wagons.

The caravan guard captain, a battle-hardened veteran, showed no sign of panic, calmly ordering the guards to ready their crossbows. The teamsters and strongmen raised long wooden poles tipped with sharp iron spears.

Hu Laoda, standing among the spearmen, was shaking uncontrollably. Lu Liao dashed over and kicked him hard on his backside. “You’re a disgrace to river pirates! If you keep this up, I’ll throw you out to them!”

Nearly two hundred ragtag horse bandits thundered to a halt about fifty paces from the caravan.

“Which one of you from the Inner Pass is in charge here? Do you not know this is the Sihai Merchants’ caravan?” Wang Shiyi shouted loudly.