Chu Zhao wasn’t surprised. Compared to the border commanderies’ crisis, Prince Zhongshan was the greater danger. That’s why the court ordered garrison forces everywhere not to leave—because if Prince Zhongshan suddenly rebelled, it wouldn’t be the border commanderies in danger, but the capital.
This was also why she’d stopped to await news and readjust her route. It wasn’t fear of the Xi Liang war, but concern about Prince Zhongshan’s interception and assassination attempts.
Of course, she couldn’t explain all this to the soldiers here, or it would cause panic. Chu Zhao thanked the officer again. “I understand. I’ll consider it carefully.”
The officer said no more and galloped off.
Watching the officer ride away, Ding Dachui, standing before a nearby tent, also breathed a sigh of relief, though his posture remained tense.
“This is interesting,” someone beside him muttered. “We’re actually staying in a military camp.”
Ding Dachui turned to look at this person—it was Ge Laosan, another bandit leader. Their eyes met, both feeling awkward.
Of Luoying Mountain’s three bandit strongholds, Chang Laizi had sought his own death and been killed. Ge Laosan, like him, had been beaten into submission.
Now they were grasshoppers tied to the same string, so despite the awkwardness, Ge Laosan gave him a meaningful look and walked off first.
When Ding Dachui came over, only Ge Laosan was in the tent. Everyone else had been sent to guard outside.
Ge Laosan was staring at a map.
“Can you even read that? You can’t recognize a single character,” Ding Dachui said.
Ge Laosan flipped the map face-down on the table. “Can’t read words but I’ve got ears, don’t I? Skip the nonsense—let’s talk about what to do now.”
He looked at Ding Dachui.
“Are we really going to be her guards?”
At the time, they’d descended the mountain with the girl posing as kindhearted hunters, and the soldiers had arrived.
Seeing the soldiers had truly startled them.
What startled them even more was that the girl hadn’t introduced these mountain hunters to the soldiers, but directly said they were all her guards.
This statement was even more shocking because it clearly showed the girl had seen through their false hunter identities.
If she’d really said they were hunters, when the local soldiers investigated—
Their portraits were still posted in the city awaiting bounties.
When the girl said they were guards, the soldiers didn’t give them a second glance. Even if they noticed something amiss, they tactfully kept quiet.
These past days, they’d seen even more clearly that this girl’s identity was indeed extraordinary. The proper-looking officers in the military camp rushed to bow to her first when they saw her.
This girl’s fortune was truly big business, but this was business they couldn’t do!
“She wants to go to Yunzhong Commandery, where Xi Liang has already attacked. Going there is suicide,” Ge Laosan said in a low voice. “Even if her family is wealthy and powerful in Yunzhong Commandery, when Xi Liang troops pass through like locusts, nothing will remain.”
Ding Dachui had naturally thought of this too, and after a moment’s silence said, “So what?”
“Of course we leave,” Ge Laosan said in a low voice. “Leave this place, find another mountain to occupy. That way, no more guards, no more new boss—”
His words cut off at the sound of a cough.
The cough was gentle, but to their ears it was like thunder.
In an instant their breathing froze, unable to move or turn around, just standing rigid in place.
“Haven’t seen you in a few days—missing me already?”
A woman’s voice asked, and she slowly walked over, bringing a gust of wind.
The people outside—how could there be no warning at all?
Their most trusted brothers had surrounded the entire tent.
How was there not even a warning cough—
Ge Laosan and Ding Dachui swayed, as if blown over by the wind she brought, and sat down with a thud. They turned their heads stiffly to look at the woman now standing before them.
The woman wore a gray cloth dress, her hair pinned up and wrapped in a kerchief, with no veiled hat or hanging veil—but a cloth wrapped around her face.
They finally saw her appearance, though only her eyes.
The woman’s eyes were like autumn waters—Ding Dachui didn’t know where this phrase came from, nor did he even know what autumn waters looked like.
“B-Boss,” Ge Laosan stammered, his voice stuttering but his movements nimble as he pulled out the stool from under his bottom. “You sit.”
The woman’s steps were light as she sat down, half-leaning against the desk, looking at the two men without speaking. But her eyes said everything—meaningful, reproachful, warning, chiding, murderous.
Chiding—Ding Dachui shuddered at his own imagination, his mind already in chaos.
Before this woman, they had no ability to resist at all—not just her gaze, but her real skill.
“Once you acknowledge a boss, that boss is yours for life.” Ding Dachui gritted his teeth and said, “We had disloyal thoughts. Kill us or flay us as you wish.”
Ge Laosan swallowed and wanted to say something pleading or explanatory, but facing merely a pair of gentle eyes, he couldn’t speak a single word.
The woman said, “There’s no such thing as ‘once you acknowledge a boss, that boss is yours for life.’ Whether I can be boss is my own business and has nothing to do with you. You not wanting to acknowledge me as boss is the right thing.”
Huh? Both Ding Dachui and Ge Laosan were stunned. What did this mean? They looked at her, trying to detect mockery, threat, or something else, but found nothing.
Looking at this woman’s eyes, they just felt she was right and very sincere. Forget raising their guard—they didn’t even want to think—
“Following me is dangerous. In one night you lost half your men,” the woman continued, her fingers lightly tapping the table. “Going forward will be even more dangerous. I’m using you as disposable blades. There’s really no way to survive.”
You’re quite clear about it yourself, Ding Dachui thought.
“But then, you were things without a way to survive to begin with.” The woman looked at them and spread her hands.
This was an insult? How could an insult sound so—pleasant? Ding Dachui didn’t feel angry at all, and looking at Ge Laosan beside him, he was practically nodding along.
“You’re bandits who couldn’t even beat other bandits—no way to survive. You’re hunters, but the authorities give you no way to survive.”
“You need to see yourselves clearly. You either had nowhere else to turn, or you were lazy gluttons who chose this dead-end path.”
“It’s all death anyway—why are you being picky?”
With each reasoning sentence from the woman, Ge Laosan couldn’t help nodding along. Ding Dachui also smiled bitterly. “You’re right.” He clasped his fists. “We’re willing to be your blades, ready to die anytime, anywhere.”
The woman nodded, her eyes full of smiling intent.
“However, when you truly become good blades, you won’t die,” she said softly. “The person holding the blade may die, but the blade won’t. At that time, the blade can find a new master and be respectfully held by that master, treated as a divine weapon—for protection, for guarding the home, passed down through generations. If that happens—”
Ge Laosan, either entranced or deranged, blurted out, “Then we won’t have to die?”
The woman looked at him and shook her head. “You’ll still die.” She smiled again. “We’ll all die. Living is just waiting to die. The only difference is the waiting process.”
Ge Laosan stood dumbfounded again.
Ding Dachui cleared his head and said to the woman, “Boss, I understand everything you mean. You truly are someone who does big business, with great vision and great ambition. Ding Dachui is willing to follow you through this process of waiting to die.”
Though he didn’t fully understand, at this critical moment between life and death, Ge Laosan quickly nodded. “Me too.”
The woman looked at them, smiled, nodded, then sighed softly. “What great vision and ambition—to put it plainly, I’m just doing business to make a living.”
Those with great vision and ambition are all modest, Ding Dachui thought. Chang Laizi merely occupied one more mountain than him and Ge Laosan and thought himself invincible, and ended up dead.
“But don’t worry—along this road, it won’t just be you,” the woman added. “Our family business isn’t that large, but we have many family members.”
Now it was “our family,” Ding Dachui thought. This woman could be boss not just because of her man-killing whip. Thinking about this string of words since she came in—one stick, one sweet date—who could withstand that?
“That young lady—” he thought for a moment and began.
Just as he opened his mouth, someone outside sneezed forcefully—
With that sneeze, the seated woman suddenly stood up. At the same time, a clear, bright female voice came from outside.
The voice carried curiosity and laughter. “Hey, is sneezing also a kind of signal? That’s a good method! A’Le, write this down—we’ll use it too from now on.”
That young lady!
Ding Dachui cursed inwardly. As the old saying goes—speak of someone and they appear. Today he’d truly seen a ghost.