The Officer always kept her word — if she said she’d buy meat, she absolutely would.
Fenghua and the others were delighted and nodded enthusiastically. They exchanged a flurry of warm words with Chen Baoxiang, and only when the drums sounded for each unit did they reluctantly return to their separate positions.
Being among the escort guard meant being physically close to important figures, but the actual work was no different from doing odd jobs — either helping someone put up a tent or fetching spring water for someone else.
Chen Baoxiang was not one to sit idle and wait. She wandered around and asked questions, and discovered that the patrol unit was short on hands for their mountain sweep.
She immediately volunteered and was assigned over.
With Lu Shouhuai dead, the post of patrol commander seemed to have fallen to someone ineffectual — not a single old officer had been replaced, and those now leading detachments on duty were still the men Lu Shouhuai had left behind.
They walked along, calling back to the soldiers behind them. “You all know this area of Tianningshan? Mountain bandits once made it their stronghold — at their peak, there were more than five thousand of them. Fortunately General Cheng was of unmatched valor, and with only five hundred men he wiped out those five thousand bandits. Otherwise, patrolling this mountain now would be sending yourselves to your deaths.”
The patrol soldiers all chimed in with praise.
Chen Baoxiang walked at the very back of the formation, thinking to herself that Cheng Huaili had truly managed to make a boast stick — at the time, there had been nothing close to five thousand bandits on that mountain. Three hundred would have been the upper limit.
“Keep up back there.” The records official continued to call out. “The terrain in these mountains is treacherous. Those unfamiliar with it could end up trapped and dying in the wild undergrowth, or falling into a trap — even the gods couldn’t save you.”
Scarcely had the words landed when the soldier walking ahead of Chen Baoxiang stepped off into a concealed ground fissure.
Chen Baoxiang moved with lightning reflexes, seizing his arm and hauling him back up. Grass, earth, and stones tumbled together into the half-zhang-wide crack, and no sound of impact came back for a long while.
The soldier was terrified and sat on the ground for some time, unable to rise.
The records official was impatient, and unleashed a torrent of abuse. “What’s wrong with you — can’t even walk properly. A pig would be more useful than you.”
Chen Baoxiang offered a mild reminder. “There are many of these fissures in this area.”
“What do you know — are you talking back to me?” The official lifted his foot to kick. “Looks to me like you’re tired of living!”
Most of the men under Lu Shouhuai’s command had little education, and their tempers were stubborn. They liked to establish dominance through beating and berating — Chen Baoxiang understood this pattern very well.
She stepped to the side to avoid taking the blow undeserved.
What she hadn’t expected was that the records official’s kick had overextended. He failed to pull it back in time, stepped through the branches and leaves nearby, and tumbled with a crash into another ground fissure.
A gaping chasm, a zhang wide, opened up like the jaws of a devouring beast.
The records official plummeted in without warning. His screams rang out across the entire abyss — deep and bottomless — growing ever more distant, ever more faint, until there was nothing left.
The soldiers nearby went pale with terror. They wanted to reach out to save him but had no time. They looked around in all directions, fear flooding their eyes.
“I said there are many fissures in this area.” Chen Baoxiang was unperturbed, and merely muttered, “Truly, kind words cannot save a man determined to meet his end.”
With that, she took a wide step forward and kept walking.
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