Chapter 117

Chapter 117: Avoiding the Enemy By All Means (12)

Translator: wuxiasociety

Yang Guo said, “Even I can’t beat them, there is no need for you worry about it your Honour. Quickly order your attendants to give us some clothes to change into.” He said this casually but there was a stern tone within his voice.

Yelu Jin ordered his attendants to bring some clothes for them to change into. Yang Guo and Lu Wushuang went to another room to change. Lu Wushuang got a mirror and examined herself, the person in the mirror was dressed in bright clothes, their eyes sparkled; it looked like a handsome Mongolian general. She felt that this was going to be interesting. They left early next morning. Lu Wushuang and Yang Guo were in a sedan chair lifted by attendants, Yelu Jin was still on horseback, before noon they heard the faint sounds of a ringing bell, from afar it came near, and it brushed past the crowd of people.

Lu Wushuang was delighted and thought, “Comfortably sitting here in the sedan chair resting my wound is an ideal situation. Sha Dan’s mad idea has its good points. I’ll let them carry me to Jiangnan.”

They traveled like this for two days and didn’t hear the bell sounds of Li Mochou again. Li Mochou must have gone straight ahead without turning back. There were also no traces of the beggars and Taoists that were looking for Lu Wushuang. By the third day they arrived at the Colt Dragon Stockade. This was an important trafficking point, many towns and cities flourished around here. After supper, Yelu Jin entered Yang Guo’s room and asked for martial arts advice. Words of flattery were said to Yang Guo, praising him highly. Yang Guo gave one or two pointers to him. Just as Yelu Jin was about to listen intently an attendant rushed in and said, “Your honour, our master has sent a letter here.”

Yelu Jin was delighted and said, “Fine, I’ll come now.” He was about to stand up and say goodbye to Yang Guo when he had a thought, “If I open the letter in front of him and show that I don’t treat him as an outsider, he’ll definitely teach me with all his efforts.” He then said to the attendant, “Send the messenger in.”

The attendant had a look of surprise on his face and said, “That …that…”

Yelu Jin waved his hand and said, “Don’t delay, and tell him to enter.”

The attendant said, “Its master himself.”

Yelu Jin’s face fell and he said, “Why are you still wasting time, quickly go” before he finished someone laughed from outside and entered, and said, “Jin’er, you couldn’t have guessed that it was me.”

Yelu Jin was shocked and pleased, he quickly dashed forward. He said, “Father, why are you…” That man laughed and said, “Yes! I’ve come here in person.” That person was Yelu Jin’s father, the Mongolian Prime Minister Yelu Chucai.

Yang Guo heard Yelu Jin call that man father, but didn’t know how powerful that person was. He was under one person but above millions; the person with the most power in court, the Prime Minister. He saw that he wasn’t very old, his face elegant, within his air of authority was an air of peace; he couldn’t stop himself from respecting this person.

As soon as that person sat down on a chair, two other people entered, they greeted Yelu Jin and called him ‘Big Brother’. It was one male and one female. The male was around twenty-three or four years of age, the female was about the same age as Yang Guo. Yelu Jin was pleased and said, “Brother, sister, you are here as well.” He said to his father, “Father, I didn’t have a clue that you had left the court.”

Yelu Chucai nodded and said, “Yes, there is some important business that must be attended to; if I didn’t do it myself I wouldn’t be able to relax.” He looked at Yang Guo and the rest of the attendants, indicating that he wants them to leave.

Yelu Jin was in a dilemma, he should tell his attendants to leave but Yang Guo was a person you couldn’t mess around with, his face had an expression of being unsure of what to do. Yang Guo knew what he was thinking; he laughed and exited the room by himself. Yelu Chucai was aware of Yang Guo, when he entered by himself all the other attendants greeted and bowed to him except for one, the person did as he pleased and had a proud air, he couldn’t stop himself from being wary and asked, “Who is that?”

Yelu Jin was a high official, if he said who Yang Guo was in front of his brother and sister he will have lost face, he answered ambiguously, “He is a friend that I made along the way. Father has made the trip to Henan personally, what is this about?”

Yelu Chucai sighed; his face looked troubled and slowly explained everything. When Genghis Khan died, his third son Wo Kuo Tai (Ogedai) succeeded him. Wo Kuo Tai was the Khan for about thirty years before he too died, his son Gui You (Guyuk) succeeded. Gui You lost himself in drink and died just after three years of being the Khan, his queen (Oghul Ghamish) took over the affairs of state. The queen trusted very few, the first generals and ministers caused chaos in the court. Yelu Chucai was a senior member of the court, and was one of the people who founded the state; whenever the queen made a wrong decision he would speak up truthfully. The queen saw that he opposed her orders, and of course was angry, but because he was a powerful minister and what he said was right, the queen could not take action lightly. Yelu Chucai knew that once he offended the queen the hundred or so lives of his family would be in danger and so he thought of a plan. He said that Henan in the south was not under control; a minister was needed to go down there and sort it out and he nominated himself. The queen was delighted, thinking the further this person goes the better and she can avoid getting angry everyday. So she agreed to the order. So Yelu Chucai took his second son Yelu Qi and daughter Yelu Yan to Henan. Officially he was down here to dissipate the unrest, but unofficially he was down here to avoid a disaster.

Yang Guo went into another room and chatted and joked with Lu Wushuang but Lu Wushuang turned away and ignored him. After getting no reply, Yang Guo crossed his knees, sat down and meditated. Lu Wushuang wasn’t interested. She saw that he closed his eyes and didn’t move for half a day and said, “Hey, Sha Dan, why are you meditating now?” Yang Guo didn’t reply. Lu Wushuang angrily said, “There is no need to rush your kung fu, are you going to chat with me?” As she was about to move him with her hand, Yang Guo suddenly leapt up and quietly said, “There’s someone on the roof!”+

Lu Wushuang didn’t hear anything, she raised her head and look up at the roof, she said, “Are you lying again?”

Yang Gu said, “No, they’re on the roof two buildings over.”

Lu Wushuang didn’t believe him. She laughed and quietly scolded him, “Sha Dan.” She assumed that he was playing dumb.

Yang Guo tugged her sleeve and quietly said, “Let’s hide before your Master finds us.”

When Lu Wushuang heard the word ‘Master’ and her back broke out in a cold sweat and she followed him to the window. Yang Guo lifted his head to the west, Lu Wushuang also lifted her head, and indeed, she saw someone in black on the roof of the building two rooms over. It was now the middle of the night, there was no light from the moon and stars; if one didn’t carefully examine the roof, it would be hard to spot anything. She admired him secretly, “How did Sha Dan detect this?” She knew that her Master held herself very highly, when she moved at night she would still wear her apricot yellow gown, she would never wear black. She bent over to Yang Guo’s ear and whispered, “It’s not Master.”