Li Kong’er shrank her neck, wishing Qiu Jing and the others had turned blind, forgetting her existence.
——This was obviously a delusion.
Qiu Jing soon recovered, her expression extremely grim, her entire aura weighed down.
Her eyes looked very much like Qiu Si’s, which made Li Kong’er even more terrified.
“Take her back.” Qiu Jing ordered her subordinates.
Li Kong’er leapt up in shock. Before she could escape, an invisible force struck the back of her knees. Her legs gave way, and she collapsed onto the ground.
“I did not do these things, General Cheng, save me.” Li Kong’er hastily called out to Cheng Jingchuan for help. Even as she was dragged away, her posture and the angle of her turned face were extremely appealing.
Cheng Jingchuan acted as if he did not hear. Li Kong’er gritted her teeth, then cried pitiably: “Master Meng, I knew a secret, a scheme left behind by Mr. Qiu. It concerned you, it concerned Doctor Mo, everything I said was true…”
One sentence drew everyone’s attention.
Qiu Jing slightly frowned, and a strange look appeared in Cheng Jingchuan’s eyes.
“It involved classified matters, I could only tell the National Master alone.” Li Kong’er struggled as she shouted.
Meng Qi neither agreed nor disagreed, seeming neither willing to listen nor caring if Li Kong’er shouted for all to hear.
Qiu Jing suddenly realized something, but the others did not know and all revealed vigilant expressions.
Li Kong’er stared fixedly at Meng Qi, as if certain that he would rescue her because of that secret, since that secret could not see the light of day.
——She absolutely could not be taken away by Fengxing Pavilion. On one hand, she knew Qiu Si’s true attitude toward Qiu Jing; beneath the façade of kinship lay only exploitation. Now that the façade had been mercilessly exposed, as Qiu Si’s subordinate, she would never have a good end at Qiu Jing’s hands. On the other hand, Kongkong Sect was notorious in the Jianghu. Many things Li Kong’er had not done were all attributed to “Master Thief Li Kong’er.” Even if Qiu Jing let her off generously and handed her to those who had suffered at her hands, Fengxing Pavilion would earn a good reputation, but Li Kong’er could not return what she stole. Those victims might kill her to vent their anger.
To maintain the “Master Thief” reputation, the things “Li Kong’er” targeted were either priceless treasures or personal items of renowned heroes.
Li Kong’er’s master had once stolen the ancestral founder’s sword from a certain sect. The sword was worthless, yet such an act was no different from a slap in the face, infuriating the entire sect, who wished they could eat that thief alive. Losing their founder’s artifact turned them into laughingstocks, nearly costing them their face in the Jianghu.
“It… it was discovered by Mr. Qiu, regarding Master Meng and Doctor Mo… between them…”
Li Kong’er’s voice grew quieter and quieter, until the last two words were almost breathed out silently.
Cheng Jingchuan’s men did not hear clearly at all.
The people from Fengxing Pavilion, however, remained very calm. They were Qiu Jing’s trusted followers. They had long known about this matter Li Kong’er mentioned. Although they were not entirely certain, none of them were blind. After interacting during that trip to Yuzhou, who would not have suspicions in their heart?
Li Kong’er furtively observed everyone’s reactions. Only Cheng Jingchuan’s men showed the response she expected. Everyone else seemed to have suddenly turned deaf and stupid. They neither had ears nor brains that worked.
As for Cheng Jingchuan… why did he look disappointed?
Li Kong’er was confused. Next, she looked on in horror as Meng Qi strode away without even glancing at her.
“Wait!”
Li Kong’er struggled and shouted, but then her voice stopped abruptly.
Qiu Jing raised her hand to rub her forehead and nodded approvingly to her subordinate, “Good gagging!”
“Many thanks to General Cheng.” Qiu Jing casually offered polite words.
Although Cheng Jingchuan did not fight for the right to interrogate Li Kong’er in order to avoid suspicion and show he knew nothing of the conspiracy behind the collapsed city wall, Ningtai had suffered such a serious upheaval that the pressure on Cheng Jingchuan was immense. At least Li Kong’er could serve as a scapegoat to appease those noble clans.
Qiu Jing accepted this favor. At that moment, intermittent shouts came from afar. She looked over and saw several Jianghu sect members demanding to see Qiu Jing, who were forcibly blocked.
“After you, Chief Qiu.” Cheng Jingchuan waved his hand.
“…Farewell.”
Qiu Jing swallowed what she was about to say and simply turned away to leave.
There were too many matters that needed discussion: how to stabilize the situation and reinforce Ningtai’s defenses, how to deal with the Heavenly Bestowed King, and so forth. But this was not a good place to talk, and they had no time for slow deliberations. The grand edifice was on the verge of collapse; crisis loomed.
Perhaps in a month, or maybe tomorrow, the Heavenly Bestowed King’s army would invade Jingzhou.
King Jing had already been assassinated, now terrified to the core, ordering troops to hold the city to the death. Those commoners who did not live within the city would be left helplessly exposed under the enemy’s hooves.
Fengxing Pavilion had to resolve and unify its internal divisions as quickly as possible, then rush to Jingzhou to help their controlled network retreat, connect with and support Jianghu sects in Jingzhou, and do their part to resist the Heavenly Bestowed King’s army.
Cheng Jingchuan had even less time than Qiu Jing.
The troops originally assembled to attack Jingzhou or wage distant wars in Jiangbei would now have to fight to protect their homeland. This sudden shift in mentality was hard for even a nameless soldier to adapt to. They would be muddled as they went to war and, in confusion, might lose their lives.
The collapsed city wall was a trigger. King Jing’s defeat would be the last straw to break the camel’s back.
Once Jingzhou fell, morale would plummet. From aristocrats to commoners, all would want to flee rather than fight. Even a general who came from a family of generals and had studied military strategy, like Cheng Jingchuan, could not lead soldiers filled with thoughts of escape to defeat the Heavenly Bestowed King.
One could say how long Jingzhou could withstand the rebel army indirectly decided the fate of Ningtai and even all of Jiangnan.
Now the fog had cleared, and many could clearly see the situation. Yet… precisely because they understood, that was the problem.
King Ning had died, Qiu Si had disappeared, and all sides were ready to stir up trouble. Ningtai had not completely descended into chaos because everyone was unsure of what was happening, so they had kept still. Now that this only delaying advantage was lost,
The heavy burden came crashing down. Cheng Jingchuan could even taste the blood in his mouth. This was from biting too hard while restraining his anger.
Clearing the rubble, repairing the city wall, stabilizing the populace… Cheng Jingchuan issued orders one by one. Finally, he departed even more urgently than Qiu Jing. Before the battle in Jingzhou began, he had to form an alliance with King Wu. With external support, those timid aristocrats might barely remain calm. With King Wu’s backing, it would be easier to prevent them from abandoning Ningtai and fleeing to Qiantang Prefecture.
In the blink of an eye, the area near the city wall emptied.
The wounded were also carried out one after another, and the mutilated limbs were horrifying to behold.
Meng Qi had not gone far when he saw Mo Li among the crowd.
“I’m not dead, I’m not dead!”
The man who had been lying on the ground coughed violently. His mouth and nose seemed blocked by ashen stone, making his face barely recognizable. He clutched at the ground as if he still believed he was trapped under the rubble, struggling desperately.
“Doctor, please look at my child…”
A woman, her hands covered in blood and her face caked in dust, clutched Mo Li’s arm, pleading repeatedly.
Yet the child in her arms had a head wound and bleeding, the neck twisted to one side, already without any breath.
“Please, I beg you!”
The woman had personally seen Mo Li save the person just dug out from under the ruins, which gave her hope. Perhaps her child’s mouth and nose were also blocked by sand and stone. She dared not slap hard. Tears streaked through the dust on her face, carving out two clear tracks.
She opened her mouth in pain, gasping urgently, and the blood on her fingers stained Mo Li’s clothes with blotches.
Mo Li could not stop his work to comfort her, because there was still another injured person in front of him. That person’s arm had been smashed and broken. A sharp bone end protruded through muscle and skin, grimly exposed, blood streaming down. The injured person had already fainted from pain. If the wound was not treated quickly, within a few hours he would die from infection and persistent high fever.
Someone went to support the woman, but more people wanted to push her aside to fight for a chance of survival for themselves and their injured relatives.
Seeing the situation turn bad, Mo Li quickly turned back and made room, so the woman holding the child’s corpse did not fall to the ground.
Meng Qi also arrived just then. No one saw him make any obvious moves, but everyone felt a sudden resistance in the air, preventing them from moving forward.
“Your injuries are not serious. Go to the pharmacy three streets away and let the doctor have a look.”
Mo Li seized this opportunity and quickly took pulses and diagnosed people one by one.
Some people had lost quite a bit of blood and looked frightening, but their lives were not at risk.
The truly dangerous ones were those with injured internal organs. They looked fine now, only feeling slight pain and discomfort. But by tomorrow, they could lose their lives.
Even after being diagnosed, those injured still lingered around Mo Li, unwilling to leave, because seeing a doctor at the pharmacy cost money.
“There are no medicinal herbs here, nor paper and brush to write prescriptions.” Meng Qi reminded them quietly. Only then did everyone disperse in an uproar, rushing off to the pharmacy for fear that the herbs would run out if others got there first.
Some people still sat there in a daze. Their houses were already ruins, impossible to dig out, and they had no money on them.
All that reached their ears were cries. The dead had not suffered too long, but the living were the ones in pain.
Meng Qi silently assisted Mo Li, and in a daze, it seemed like he returned to Yongzhou shortly after they first met, at a wild gathering place of refugees. Almost everyone there was wounded, and the house was crowded with people coming and going nonstop.
Now the conditions were worse. There was no roof to shield the wind, no stove or hot water, everything was dusty and gray.
The people then were also different from those now. The refugees at the wild gathering had almost nothing, yet there was still hope in their eyes. Though they wore ragged clothes, they murmured about trivial things. The people here had suddenly lost everything. Rather than grief, they were more confused, hoping this was only a nightmare they had not awakened from.
Fortunately, Qiu Jing and Cheng Jingchuan did not forget to send people over. About a quarter of an hour later, the surroundings gradually changed from chaos to order. On a cleared space, they set up a large pot, using damaged furniture as firewood.
The Patrol Yamen brought a few doctors who were military medics used to treating external injuries.
Only then did Mo Li breathe a sigh of relief. When he looked up, he saw that the woman was still sitting by the roadside with the child’s corpse in her arms, giggling foolishly and humming a tune.
She was oblivious to everything around her, even when Mo Li gently pried open her hands and cleaned and bandaged her wounded fingers.
“My precious, have you seen my precious?” The woman stared blankly, giggling foolishly. Her gaze did not rest on the child’s corpse caught by Meng Qi.
She felt no pain. She staggered to her feet, smiling as she walked forward, and tried to stop everyone she saw to ask if they had seen her child.
No one answered. Instead, it caused another wave of weeping.
——Not for the pain of a stranger, but because it reminded them of themselves.
Yet all these disasters had only just begun and were far from over.
***
Taijing, Northern Censorate of the Embroidered Guard.
“What?” Commander of the Jinyiwei, Gong Jun, suddenly stood up, his expression grim.
The tiger-striped tabby cat that had been lying on his knee leaped up with a displeased cry.
This was Emperor Yongchen’s beloved “Li Nu” cat. It always appeared to “harass” when Commander Gong was on duty. Everyone at the Northern Censorate was used to it. Anyway, it never caused trouble, it just liked lying on the roof ridge, on the commander’s shoulder, knee, head… Strangely, it ignored everyone else.
Recently, the weather had been too hot, and even the Li Nu cat seldom went out. At least there was an ice basin inside.
For some reason, among the imperial city of Taijing, the Jinyiwei prison was the coolest place, eerily cold, often rumored to be haunted.
It was a sultry afternoon that made people drowsy, but a piece of urgent news delivered by fast horse alarmed the entire Northern Censorate.
“Xuanchuan Pass fell, and the entire Ning family died in battle?”
Gong Jun’s hands trembled slightly as he opened the urgent report. The Ning family was the Empress Dowager’s clan. They had guarded the border since the Chu Dynasty. Although they later moved to the southwestern Xuanchuan Pass to guard Qi’s southwestern border, they had never made a mistake in decades.
“Report, the Heavenly Bestowed King’s army prepared to advance on Jingzhou.”
Jingzhou was separated from Qi territory by only one river. Recently, Jingzhou’s navy had been confronting Qi’s navy across the river.
Gong Jun had previously received intelligence that King Ning was restless and intended to provoke war.
Thanks to Meng Qi, they even discovered remnants of Xiliang forces once again.
“What about King Ning?” Gong Jun rubbed his forehead. News from the south took several days to arrive, and even so, the Jinyiwei had the fastest channels.
His subordinate gave Gong Jun an unexpected answer, “King Ning had passed away, King Jing was assassinated.”
“What?” Gong Jun was shocked a second time. He could not help but think, wherever the National Master Meng Qi went, the emperors and vassal kings of that place died.
If this time the Heavenly Bestowed King really marched into Jiangnan, that meant he would run headlong into Meng Qi, so perhaps the Heavenly Bestowed King would not live long either?
This idea was not bad, Gong Jun bitterly amused himself. He scooped up Ah Hu from the ground and sighed, “Follow me to the palace to see His Majesty. Someone must report the Ning family’s tragedy… Wait, better summon the Head Imperial Physician first. His Majesty must not have any mishap.”
“Shall we invite Prince Chen and Prince Zhou to attend as well?”
These two were Emperor Yongchen’s younger brothers, formerly the Third and Sixth Princes.
“Call them along.” Gong Jun said with a grim face, “the Heavenly Bestowed King’s forces are strong. Now it’s not just about the Jiangnan war. Let’s see what His Majesty orders.”
Author’s note:
Li Kong’er: There was something improper between Meng Qi and Mo Li.
Cheng Jingchuan felt disappointed. He thought Li Kong’er knew Meng Qi was a monster. [No]
————
Gong Jun: I had a way to resolve the crisis
Gong Jun: Anyway, wherever the National Master Meng Qi went, death followed, so the Heavenly Bestowed King is doomed.
I know it was a sad moment but the “My precious” thing caught me off guard lmao. Crying thru the tears.