The scar on Vice General Zhong’s face twitched several times, his eyes flashing. Finally, he spat heavily.
The city gate guards breathed a sigh of relief and invited Vice General Zhong into the city.
Vice General Zhong said coldly: “I’m not entering the city. I’ve finished my business and I’m heading back now.”
The city gate guards didn’t dare ask more questions and immediately took their leave. The flow in and out of the city gate resumed.
A’Jiu patted Zhang Gu’s shoulder and asked curiously: “Did you hear? What did that man mean by saying General Chu is a great celestial immortal in the eyes of bandits?”
What could it mean? Wasn’t it just bringing up the old matter of Chu Ling secretly releasing bandits years ago? Zhang Gu knocked his hand away and scolded: “Don’t be a busybody!”
Vice General Zhong turned around, his face dark as he glanced at them. Zhang Gu and the others quickly forced smiles: “Vice General Zhong, please go about your business.”
Vice General Zhong said nothing and turned to leave, but A’Jiu squeezed forward, as if courteously handing him the reins. As he got close, he said in a low voice: “Someone across the way is watching you.”
Vice General Zhong was startled but didn’t immediately turn his head. He only glanced over with the corner of his eye. The people there were thronging, with all sorts of characters, and quite a few were looking this way.
His expression was grim, and he had no friendly look for A’Jiu’s warning.
“Plenty of people watch me,” he said, snatching the reins from A’Jiu’s hand and mounting his horse. “Do I fear their watching?”
He turned the horse’s head and cracked the whip. The people quickly cleared a path and watched as this group of troops galloped away.
A’Jiu watched their retreating backs, curled his lips, and scoffed: “You can tell he’s not popular with people.”
Zhang Gu scolded him: “Stop being a busybody. It’s none of our business.”
A’Jiu laughed: “I know it’s none of our business. Just watching the excitement. The more excitement, the better.”
Zhang Gu stuffed a pair of rush sandals into his hands: “Hold your token of appreciation and stop talking.”
Token of appreciation. A’Jiu held the rush sandals and shook them, snorting. Rush sandals—what did that mean? That he should be as resilient as rush grass?
Really, stop worrying unnecessarily. By the looks of it, both father and daughter had offended quite a few people. Take care of yourselves!
He slung the rush sandals over his shoulder, and from the corner of his eye glanced across the way, seeing a seventeen- or eighteen-year-old peddler carrying a pinwheel pole turn and head outside the city gate—
None of his concern.
A’Jiu draped his arms over two postal soldiers’ shoulders and asked animatedly: “What other fun things are there in the city? Is there cockfighting, dog fighting, cricket fighting?”
“Settle down,” Zhang Gu scolded. “If you gamble yourself away, we’re not ransoming you.”
The group chatted and laughed as they blended into the crowd and headed into the city.
The market inside the city was lively, but the roadside outside the city wasn’t quiet either. Tea stalls, food stands, and livestock vendors crowded the roadside, with many carriages and horses parked in disarray.
The peddler carrying the pinwheel walked in one breath to a carriage parked at the very back.
“I’m dying of thirst,” he said, looking at the young lady sitting on the carriage swinging her legs and playing with a grasshopper woven from dry grass. “Xiao Man, quick, give me water.”
The young lady called Xiao Man didn’t even lift her eyelids: “There isn’t any.”
The peddler was angry. Before he could say anything, a hand from inside the carriage reached out with a water flask.
“Drink,” a woman’s voice said softly.
The peddler quickly reached for it, but Xiao Man had already taken it first.
“Auntie,” she complained. “Why are you indulging him? Third Brother is like this—ask him to do anything and he just bosses people around.”
The hand withdrew, and the woman’s voice came gently from behind the curtain: “That’s as it should be.”
Xiao Man pouted and shoved the water flask at the peddler, glaring as she asked: “How did things go?”
The peddler took a drink of water first, then wiped his mouth.
“I saw Vice General Zhong,” he said quietly. “But Miss Ah Zhao wasn’t with him.”
Xiao Man stopped weaving the grasshopper in her hands: “This is the commandery city’s annual grand market. She’s come every year in the past.”
Behind the carriage curtain came a stretch of silence.
This silence seemed to make everything around them quiet as well.
Xiao Man stopped talking. The peddler also stopped his gulping and looked at the curtain.
After a moment, the woman’s voice came from behind the curtain: “Let’s go back.”