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If he had known Zhao Su’s true identity, perhaps he would have even coughed up three mouthfuls of blood.
After Zhao Su understood his own circumstances, he used the shortest time possible to calm himself down and then began to size up the person in front of him.
“Could I ask your name?”
The person didn’t answer.
“Where am I? Where is my pageboy?”
Another moment of silence.
The two of them stared at each other.
He Zizhong suddenly said: “Willow Pavilion.”
Zhao Su was perplexed: “???”
He Zizhong repeated coldly: “Beijing Suburbs, Willow Pavilion.”
After being in a daze for a long while, he finally understood what the other person was talking about. Zhao Su looked at him and suddenly remembered.
“You’re that beggar?”
Luckily he had a great memory, and could actually recall something that had happened two years ago when he was seeing Yuan Shu out of the Capital. At that moment, he had bumped into a weird beggar outside of Willow Pavilion, and had even given him a few coins1.
He Zizhong nodded and then walked over to untie him, and with a harsh tone he warned: “Don’t run, you won’t be able to escape.”
Zhao Su moved his wrists: “I still don’t know your name.”
“He Zizhong.” He pursed his lips, and then explained the situation at hand, his words were concise, cherishing his words as if it were bars of gold2.
Zhao Su only understood at this point that He Zizhong was the second in command of this bandit’s stronghold.
“Did you wander off from the Capital all the way to here?” He calculated the distance and was taken aback.
“I haven’t studied before, I can’t enter the city.”
He wanted to ask again, but He Zizhong spoke again: “Li Zi-De wants to see you, come with me.”
Zhao Su understood that this person was the second in command, but had not shown an ounce of respect to his leader.
The two of them left the house walking one in front, one in back, He Zizhong didn’t seem to be worried in the slightest that he might take this opportunity to make a run for it so he didn’t even bother turning around. Zhao Su also decided that he would make plans after seeing the da-dangjia3, Li Zi-De, so he did not say anything else.
Up on the mountain, there were simple and crude houses scattered randomly around, it seemed like this mountain stronghold was in the initial stages of its construction, and it was still a relatively small operation.
Zhao Su did a quick survey of the surroundings, seamlessly sizing up each and everyone present without being detected. He discovered that this mountain stronghold had quite a few bandits, but they did not all look cruel and savage like normal bandits, the majority of them just looked like ordinary villagers.
This meant that he was at least safe for now? Zhao Su thought that he was really unlucky, he was just going back home and managed to bump into bandits. He and his servant did not look particularly wealthy so why had he been targeted.
Li Zi-De had the appearance of a scholar, he didn’t look like a bandit at all, it was just that when he looked down, he looked somewhat treacherous.
He watched as Zhao Su followed He Zizhong inside, and his face immediately lit up with a smile: “Gongzi has travelled a long distance to get here, excuse me for not going out to meet you!”
Zhao Su had not yet grasped the other’s motive, so he smiled back: “Li Zhaizhu4 is too courteous, it’s just that I possess nothing but the bare necessities, the two of us have our sleeves blowing in the breeze5, so why have we been invited here?” He purposefully stressed on the word ‘invite’.
Li Zi-De acted like he didn’t know what Zhao Su was talking about, and asked him to take a seat, and then glanced over at He Zizhong, but the latter had no intention of leaving, and acted as if he had not understood the meaning of that glance, and took a seat next to Zhao Su.
Li Zi-De told himself to ignore the other’s actions, and then turned again to Zhao Su to say: “Gongzi is mistaken, I heard from the village chief that you are a scholar so I had something to ask of you.”
Zhao Su angrily flung out his sleeves: “I am but a poor student, and not at all worthy of Li Zhaizhu’s attention!”
Li Zi-De laughed heartily: “Zhao gongzi is too modest, according to your pageboy, you are both from the Capital. I am a country bumpkin, never having set foot in the Capital, I just wanted to ask you what is fun to do over there!”
“……” I’m not afraid of my opponent but I’m afraid that my teammates are like pigs6. Since the other had said this, it meant that Zhao Ji had not revealed his true identity.
“That’s all you want? Well, when you’re done asking, are you going to let me off the mountain?” He stared at Li Zi-De.
Li Zi-De did not respond, but instead picked up a cloth bundle and put it in front of him, before opening it up. It was filled with lustrous silver ingots, it looked like there were over ten taels of silver.
“These are what I wish to offer Zhao gongzi for your inconvenience. Gongzi does not need to worry, although we are bandits in name, we only ever rob the rich to aid the poor, and would never do anything immoral or against good faith!”
Zhao Su nodded: ‘I have also heard about this, the villagers look to Li Zhaizhu as their saviour.”
He praised him highly whilst making a sideward glance towards the silver ingots, as well as exposing a more relaxed expression on his face. Li Zi-De seeing this was pleased: “So Zhao gongzi must believe me, I just want to be friends with you.”
“What do you want to know?”
“Is the Capital very lively?”
“Naturally.”
Li Zi-De sighed: “I heard that the Capital is littered with gold and silver, one can turn over a stone and find a treasure at any moment!”
Zhao Su smiled and said: “That’s a little excessive, but there are merchants and travellers from all over the country, it’s bustling with activity, and can be considered the top city under heaven…..”
The two of them continued to chat for another half a shichen, until Zhao Su was showing signs of exhaustion, so Li Zi-De asked He Zizhong to take him back to rest. Not long after they left, the hanging screen behind the back door was lifted up and someone entered.
“Da-ge, do you believe this person to be reliable?”
“Let’s observe him for a little longer, he is from the Capital and has seen the outside world. He doesn’t look super wealthy, the money there was enough to provoke a reaction from him. I just found out that this person does not have any scholarly honour, he is a wandering scholar unaffiliated with a school.”
That guy sneered: “You didn’t see him just now, his two eyes glowed seeing the silver. What scholar, in front of money, it’s all just bullsh*t!”
Li Zi-De said with sorrow: “If it wasn’t for our members running off to the North, why would we have to pull in new hands to help. These kinds of low-lifes who are only after money, if the old Sect Leader was alive, he’d never have accepted it…… But if we continue like this, I don’t know when we’ll be able to pull in some real money, I really can’t place my hope on these people right now, pff!”
“Da-ge mustn’t worry, how about we send some people over to the surrounding villages to search?”
“There’s no need to search, the people in the surrounding ten li7 have already joined our cause. For the most part, they are just ignorant villagers, they can be fooled with just a tiny auspicious sign from the heavens and become completely obedient. What I need is someone who can come up with fresh ideas…..”
Meanwhile, Zhao Su had followed He Zizhong back to the house. The latter didn’t seem to want to tie him up again and only repeated: “Don’t run” and then turned around and left.
Zhao Su thought that this person was too weird, because he didn’t seem to be too invested here, and he even completely disregarded Li Zi-De. However, Li Zi-De had unexpectedly not said anything to him either. After a short moment, He Zizhong came back holding a bowl.
“Eat.”
Zhao Su took a look at it and saw it was a cabbage congee.
He disregarded all formality, said thank you and then dug into the food. At this moment, He Zizhong began to stare at him again without blinking, but he didn’t seem to have any nefarious intentions. Zhao Su noticed that the way he looked at people and the way he looked at dead things was the same, meaning that in his eyes, things and objects did not have much difference.
“…… What are you looking at?”
“If you want to leave, I can help you.”
Zhao Su frowned, was this a test?
“Why do you say that?”
He Zizhong said coldly: “That person told me to repay others for their kindness. You once helped me, I will repay your kindness.”
“Who is that person?”
“Wang Huan.”
Who is Wang Huan? Zhao Su’s head was full of black lines, he discovered that this question and answer situation could loop indefinitely, he decided to stop and changed the topic.
“If you let me go, what will you do?”
“We’ll leave together.”
“Aren’t you the second in command in this place?”
“I don’t like it, Li Zi-De made me do it. I didn’t know where else to go so I decided to just stay here.” He Zizhong explained.
Zhao Su thought it over for a while: “I need to continue down south, do you want to follow me there?”
“Yes.” He Zizhong looked straight at him, his pitch-black pupils reflecting Zhao Su’s image.
Zhao Su weighed up the pros and cons and finally agreed: “Then could He-xiong please first save my pageboy.”
He Zizhong nodded: “Wait here.” He then turned and left.
Not long after, he came back, with a youth following behind him.
As soon as Zhao Ji saw Zhao Su, he ran over and threw himself on him, almost crying. “Shaoye, shaoye, are you ok!”
Zhao Su patted him on the head, and then purposefully put a solemn expression on his face: “It was you who told them that we came from the Capital?”
Zhao Ji stammered, then hung his head in shame.
“Let’s go.” He Zizhong cut them off and said coldly.
“Now?” Zhao Su was stunned, “Don’t we have to wait until nightfall?”
“Why would we wait for the evening?” The other replied.
“…… It’s harder to be discovered.”
“They can’t stop me.” He Zizhong said fiercely.
“…..” Zhao Su could easily converse with the officials of the Imperial Court, but in front of such a person, he was rendered speechless.
They began to descend the mountain with He Zizhong walking out in front. There were many people who recognised him, so they went relatively unimpeded, finally perhaps having been dispatched by Li Zi-De, there were some people who had come to stop them, but were disposed of quite easily by He Zizhong. Zhao Su only then realised that the other was actually very skilled, ordinary men were no match for him.
Zhao Su asked himself whether this person had been on the battlefield before and had even killed people, but he didn’t have such an air about him. Only someone who had crawled out of their own grave would have such a strong murderous aura within his actions.
In the end, Li Zi-De came personally. He looked at He Zizhong with a dark expression on his face: “You would betray me for someone you have just met?”
He Zizhong was completely indifferent: “I stayed because I had nowhere to go. This person has previously done me a kindness, I want to follow him.”
Li Zi-De wanted to laugh but didn’t: “Lao-di is a real loyalist, you even know what it means to repay someone for their kindness.”
He Zizhong nodded: “I saved you, you owe me a favour, if you let us leave now, then you have repaid the favour.”
Li Zi-De was furious, he didn’t even care about Zhao Su, who in his eyes was just a poor scholar, but at the moment, he really didn’t have many men to put to use, so he had to reluctantly choose anyone to take up the mountain, trying to entice him into joining their group but who knew that now even He Zizhong wanted to leave.
“Is it because da-ge has not treated you well? Over the last year, I have never treated you unfairly!”
He Zizhong only repeated the words: “I want to leave.”
A stubbornness that could not be moved by persuasion.
Li Zi-De’s face twitched, almost crushing his own teeth.
Because of He Zizhong’s fighting capabilities, he looked very kindly upon this person, even if this person never showed him any respect on a day to day basis, Li Zi-De would just ignore not but it turned out that today it was all for nothing.
In this moment, there was no one who could stop him, even if everyone there worked together, it wouldn’t be enough to hold He Zizhong. This kind of person, if given the opportunity, could become a great General! Li Zi-De looked on helplessly as the three people left, he was truly furious but knew that there was nothing he could do.
If he had known Zhao Su’s true identity, perhaps he would have even coughed up three mouthfuls of blood.
Zhao Su and the others finally reached the foot of the mountain, and He Zizhong showed no signs of stopping.
“Do you seriously want to leave with me?”
He Zizhong nodded, his face still rigid and expressionless, but his eyes seemed to show an unexpected glow in the darkness.
“Shaoye, he……” Zhao Ji nervously opened his mouth to speak.
Zhao Su gestured with his hand to cut him off: “Ok let’s go, these villages all seem to be working for Li Zi-De. After we pass these villages, and reach the next city, let’s rest.”
The three of them hurriedly walked on, passing through the villages without stopping, until it was dark outside, they finally reached the city.
He Zizhong was truly too tough, even though Li Zi-De had been so angry that he almost gnashed his own teeth, he couldn’t do anything about them leaving. Although his mountain stronghold was small, he still had men, but he did not send anyone to chase after them.
Zhao Su found an inn and took three rooms. He was truly exhausted, and couldn’t even worry about anything else, he ate some stuff, quickly washed up and then went to lie down and ended up sleeping until the next morning.
When he opened his eyes, it seemed that there was something that was blocking the light from entering, he groaned lightly in his groggy state, kneaded his forehead and then suddenly jumped from fright.
He Zizhong was standing at his bedside staring at him, if it hadn’t been the light of day, Zhao Su might have really thought it had been a ghost.
“Why are you here, where is Zhao Ji?”
“He went downstairs to get some breakfast, I came to ask when we were leaving.” He replied only to the questions and nothing more.
Zhao Su thought that he must have a good chat with him, it seemed inappropriate just to keep a stranger like that by his side, he should at least find out a little bit about his background.
“He-xiong, do you have a courtesy name?”
“No.”
“Where are your parents?”
“They’re dead.”
“…..” Zhao Su’s mouth twitched and decided to get right to the point.
“He-xiong, where are you from? Why did you come all the way here from the Capital?”
He Zizhong seemed a little perplexed and thought for a long while before slowly saying: “My mother is Han Chinese, my father is Tartar.”