Chapter Ninety: An Eye for an Eye

After a while, Wen Qing finally said gently, “A Ying, what did you say just now? Why did they leave?”

Lu Ying replied, “He asked me about last night’s bandit attack in the mountains. I said a few things, and somehow that general suddenly stood up and ordered everyone to leave at once.”

The moment Lu Ying finished speaking, a low murmur broke out all around them. The young men and women discussed it for a while, but reaching no conclusion, Wang Shang asked, “A Ying, why do you think they left so abruptly?”

Lu Ying thought about it and said, “Maybe they remembered something.”

She then looked up and said earnestly, “I think you should all stay on your guard tonight.”

By then, Lu Ying had gained considerable standing among the guards. As soon as she spoke, Eldest Brother Cheng rose at once and began arranging the watch rotation and setting traps to raise the alarm.

The Chen clan had been watching from the sidelines all along, and they had clearly never imagined that Lu Ying’s word carried so much weight. For a moment, Chen Shu and the others could only sit there with stiff, frozen smiles.

By now night had grown deep. While the guards busied themselves with their preparations, the youths had each returned to their own tents.

Chen Yan had also gone back to her own tent. She bit her lip and stared at her reflection in the tent cloth. After pondering for a while, she ground out, “Go and call Chang in here.”

The maid was startled and stepped forward to say in a low voice, “Young Lady, it’s so late. If someone sees—”

Before she could finish, Chen Yan snapped, “Then why don’t you be more careful and make sure no one sees?”

“Yes, yes.”

Not long after, the guard who had always stayed by Chen Yan’s side, watching over her with the greatest care, appeared outside the tent.

Chen Yan hurriedly had him called in. Fearing that someone outside might see their shadows, she even blew out the lamp.

Chang entered and bowed respectfully. “Young Lady, you called for me?”

In the moonlight, Chen Yan’s lovely face appeared faint and elusive. With the lamp extinguished, the tent was dim enough that no one need fear being noticed. Chang stared at her in a daze, unable to look away.

Biting her lip, Chen Yan sniffled with grievance and said in a low voice, “Chang, I can’t bear it anymore.” She looked up at him then, word by word, declared, “I want her dead! I want her dead right now!”

The person she meant, of course, was Lu Ying.

Chang was silent for a moment, then hesitantly said, “But Fourth Young Master said—”

“Don’t listen to him! He’s nothing but a coward!” Chen Yan cried sharply. But at once she subdued her voice. Swaying toward him, she lifted her slender white hand and softly brushed his collar, saying plaintively, “Chang, even you won’t help me?”

She leaned so close that the delicate scent of her body perfume wafted over his face and neck. Breathing in her fragrance at such close range, listening to her tender voice, Chang could not help feeling that even losing his life for her would be nothing much at all.

His throat bobbed. In a hoarse voice, he asked, “What would Young Lady have me do?”

He had agreed.

A trace of delight flashed through Chen Yan’s tearful eyes. She stepped away from him. After taking a few paces, she said, “Tonight, send someone to pose as bandits. What about abducting her?”

After a pause, Chen Yan continued, “I noticed her tent is pitched a little farther out. Once she’s asleep, use sleeping incense to knock her out. By the way, do you still have any of that incense left? If you don’t, I still have some here.”

She had always been especially fond of such things, so she kept them on hand at all times.

Chang considered this and felt it was quite feasible, so he nodded. “I’ll do as the Young Lady says.”

Chen Yan smiled in satisfaction. “That common-born wretch doesn’t even have a maid or servant. She’ll be easy enough to deal with. The key is not letting anyone know it was you who made the move. Oh, and think of a way to leave some traces behind. Didn’t she offend all those mountain bandits last night? Make everyone suspect it was them, then.”

Chang thought about it and said, “That will be easy.”

“Then go and prepare at once.”

“Yes.”

Watching Chang depart, Chen Yan sat down with graceful poise. Slowly, she clenched her fists. When her long nails dug into her palm, pain shot through it, and she whispered hatefully, “It’s one thing that you prevented me from marrying that man. I had long heard he was moody and ruthless, killing without hesitation and even taking up the knife against women without a second thought... But you should never, ever have lured the Left General away as well!”

At the same time,

in a mountain hollow five thousand paces away, a rider came hurrying on horseback. Soon he reached a luxurious carriage.

The road in this hollow was narrow and difficult to travel, yet the carriage parked here was elegant and refined, clearly belonging to someone who never forgot how to enjoy himself no matter where he happened to be.

The rider came to the side of the carriage, cupped his hands, and said, “My lord, we have found the target.”

From within came a deep, mellow, and languid voice. “Oh? Tell me.”

“Yes. After nightfall, they joined up with the group of youths heading to Chengdu, and the two parties set up camp together.”

There was a quiet pause inside the carriage. After what seemed a very long time, the deep voice sighed. “That little one is among the youths as well, is she not?”

“Yes. Last night, she used fire to drive off forty or fifty mountain bandits.”

The person in the carriage sighed. “This is the second time.”

The words were said in such a strange way that the rider outside clearly did not understand.

Amid the faint sigh, the mellow voice said slowly, “Never mind. Tell everyone to withdraw.”

“But, my lord—”

With a sigh in his voice, the mellow speaker said gently, “She’s among them as well. Tell me, why did that wretch have to go running there and then wind up in the middle of that crowd? Swords and spears have no eyes. How am I supposed to make a move? Forget it. Pull back.”

“Yes.”

As soon as the rider answered, another rider hurried over and dropped to one knee to report seriously, “My lord, the target has left. They have set up camp a thousand paces away from the youths.”

At those words, a low laugh came from inside the carriage. In that soft laughter, the mellow voice said, “That was the little one’s idea, wasn’t it? As expected, very good.”

After a brief pause, he smiled and said, “Withdraw. Let everyone rest well tonight. Tomorrow, I shall go meet her myself.”

He did not say whether the one he meant was Lu Ying or that young general. Of course, no one dared ask.

At once the crowd answered in unison. Soon the mountain hollow was bustling with activity.

Night deepened little by little.

Lu Ying slept soundly.

When she woke again, the moon had already drifted far to the west, and by her estimate, daybreak would come in another hour or so.

As she heard the surroundings grow quieter and quieter, with breathing and snoring gradually replacing voices, Lu Ying stood up.

She slipped soundlessly into the woods beside her.

Looking back at the clusters of campfires that had burned through the whole night and still sent up sparks, Lu Ying felt her heart pounding wildly in her chest.

How strange. She had gone to sleep perfectly well last night. Why, after waking so suddenly, was her heart racing like this? She had even set traps outside her tent. There was no need to worry about anyone coming near, so why did she still feel so uneasy?

After thinking it over, Lu Ying saw the moon gradually hidden behind dark clouds and heard nothing at all around her. She straightened her back and stepped lightly forward.

Just then, a black figure began edging toward her tent.

At that moment, the moonlight had vanished, and the only light between heaven and earth came from the scattered campfires. Lu Ying, who had been watching her own tent closely, took great effort to make out the shadow creeping toward it.

The figure was extremely nimble, moving closer and closer, closer and closer.

Ten paces. Nine. Eight... Four. Three. Two. One. Right on target!

The instant Lu Ying silently counted the final word, the shadow sneaking toward her tent suddenly stepped on something. A whistling sound split the air, and a heavy object sprang up with force, striking the figure squarely with a sharp crack.

The blow was no light one. What amazed Lu Ying was that the shadow had actually bitten down and endured it, not even crying out.

Because he did not scream, he did not alert anyone else. He simply curled up on the ground for a moment, then laboriously got back to his feet and left Lu Ying’s tent, inching away step by step.

Before going to sleep, when Eldest Brother Cheng and the others had set their traps, Lu Ying had watched the whole process, so she knew the layout here perfectly. The trap outside her own tent was actually very simple, the kind often used in the countryside to catch wild beasts and rabbits, and could be made with bamboo and rope alone. After quietly setting it up, she had instructed Eldest Brother Cheng not to mention it, and sure enough, they had caught a big rabbit.

The shadow staggered away. Lu Ying came out from beside her own tent, searched the ground for a while, found one of the things the shadow had dropped, and then followed after him silently.

Soon the shadow reached one of the Chen clan’s tents. From the darkness, a slight female voice came softly, “What happened?”

“There was, there was a trap. I was injured the moment I got close.” Not knowing whether there were other schemes in store, he did not dare startle the snake by striking the grass, so he gave up.

The female voice cursed in disgust through clenched teeth, “Useless thing.” But after that, her tone changed, and she said softly, “Don’t be angry. Come, let me bandage you.”

Just then, the moon in the sky slowly emerged from the clouds.

Lu Ying lowered her head and glanced at the thing in her hand. It was a bamboo tube with a small blowing hole. When she brought it closer and sniffed, she felt a wave of dizziness.

So it was sleeping incense.

A faint smile curved Lu Ying’s lips.

Listening to the breathing of the two people inside the tent, she moved forward on tiptoe in the moonlight.

After all, she had come from the countryside and was extremely agile. Before long, Lu Ying was close to the tent. Coming so near to the two people who intended to harm her, she felt no panic at all. Though she had come to the outside of someone else’s tent, the people inside were a man and a woman, and the man was injured besides. As long as she shouted once, the two of them would never be able to explain themselves.

Still, that was the worst possible course. What had happened during the day had not yet made her an enemy of the entire Chen clan. If she cried out now, then the hatred between them would become irreparable.

Slowly, Lu Ying came to the tent. She bent down, carefully opened the bamboo tube all the way, then placed it from the edge into the tent.

After that, she quietly stepped away.

After counting for a while in silence, Lu Ying picked up a stone from the ground and hurled it toward the other side of the tent.

With a soft thud, someone inside seemed to murmur a question in his sleep, yet the tent before her remained completely still.

It seemed the sleeping incense was working.

Lu Ying walked in.

Inside the tent, the faint shapes of a man and a woman lay sprawled separately. Lu Ying went to the woman, lifted her face to look at it, and then let out a silent, cold laugh.

Then she bent down and stripped them.

After undressing the two of them until they were stark naked, Lu Ying dragged them together, piled one on top of the other, and turned to leave.

She returned silently to her own tent. About half an hour later, Lu Ying suddenly picked up a stone and smashed it with a loud bang onto one of the traps Eldest Brother Cheng had set in front.

This particular trap was meant for warning. The instant the stone struck it, a dull drumlike boom sounded. Following a thunderous crash, another sharp sound rang out.

Then, suddenly, cries erupted everywhere, and along with them came shrill screams rising one after another: “Who’s there? Bandits! There are bandits!”

Amid the screams, flames burst up all around. Light flared in every tent one after another.

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