The Third Scholar of the Song Dynasty

Chapter 19

Wang Rou grabbed her shoulder with one hand and continued to press the sword against her throat with the other, shouting into the arena, "All of you, stop right now!"

Upon hearing Wang Rou's voice, the men in black immediately stopped their attack and stood beside her. Prince Xin and Zhan Zhao had already overheard Li Yuxuan's mutterings nearby, fearing that her words might sway the robbers and lead to this situation, yet they were powerless to stop her.

As expected, she put herself in danger again in order to save them.

Seeing that the robbers had captured Li Yuxuan, Li Xinyun immediately rushed to Wang Rou's side, tears welling up in her eyes. Unable to speak, she could only point at Wang Rou and yell, "Bullying the weak, bullying someone who doesn't know kung fu! You're not heroes!"

Wang Rou coldly said to Prince Xin, "Let us go!"

Prince Xin's back was clearly injured, and blood was dripping continuously from his purple brocade robe to the ground. He stared at Li Yuxuan's face for a while, then whispered, "Let them go!"

The guards silently made way, but the archers on all sides stirred. A guard rushed out of the crowd and urgently reported to Prince Xin, "A large group of people are rushing towards the place where the tax money is."

Unexpected disaster

Zhan Zhao's expression changed: "Protecting Prince Xin is of utmost importance; no one is allowed to leave their post without authorization!"

No sooner had he finished speaking than another guard rushed in, reporting, "Your Highness, a large group of people is coming this way! Our arrows can't hold them off!" Then a clear whistle rang out from the sky, followed by faint shouts approaching. More archers and guards surrounded them.

Li Yuxuan saw a glint of joy in Wang Rou's eyes, and heard her whisper, "Go!" With that, her longsword flashed before Li Yuxuan's eyes, moving to Xu Qingzhi's neck. Li Yuxuan cried out in alarm, "No!" but Wang Rou pushed him, causing him to fall forward.

The five men, holding Xu Qingzhi hostage, slowly retreated. Just as they were about to escape the guards' encirclement, the guards in front screamed and retreated towards the tent as if they had seen a ghost: "A ghost—!"

Li Yuxuan felt a chill run down his spine. Had the Corpse Child really arrived? He saw a small white shadow land on all fours, a long tail trailing behind it. With a few leaps, it pounced towards him, its green eyes gleaming with a ghostly light, just like a kitten's eyes in the night. Hundreds of guards stood frozen, forgetting to intercept it.

Li Xinyun let out a strange cry, grabbed Li Yuxuan's hand, and ran behind Zhan Zhao. Zhan Zhao and Prince Xin stood still, gripping their sword hilts tightly.

The monster entered the crowd as if it were nothing, seemingly oblivious to the presence of anyone else. It went straight for the five men in black, who were terrified by its sudden appearance. They all drew their swords and stabbed at the monster, but it neither dodged nor evaded, and even when stabbed, it didn't bleed. With a sweep of its tail, its small body lunged at Wang Rou. Li Yuxuan recognized the monster's build and clothing as those of the child she had seen during the day.

Wang Rou's sword was still pressed against Xu Qingzhi's neck. She must have seen the corpse doll's face when she let out a blood-curdling scream. At that moment, a man in black behind her shoved Wang Rou aside and used his chest to block the monster's two outstretched claws.

Wang Rou was knocked aside, and Xu Qingzhi's neck was slashed open by the sword, blood flowing freely. Wang Rou withdrew her sword and lunged at the corpse child, shouting, "Brother Da Gang—"

A man in black shouted, "Shameless!" and casually thrust his sword at Xu Qingzhi.

Li Yuxuan was heartbroken and lunged towards Xu Qingzhi, crying out, "No—" No!

The Corpse Child, probably smelling the blood on Xu Qingzhi, released Da Gang and lunged at Xu Qingzhi, only to be stabbed by the man in black. The Corpse Child's long tail swept across, and the man in black let out a strange cry and fell to the ground. Wang Rou missed the Corpse Child with her sword and turned to help Da Gang up.

Xu Qingzhi rolled away from the black-clad man's control, and the guards rushed forward to pull him up.

Seeing that the situation was not good, the men in black assumed that the Corpse Child was a killing move that Prince Xin and Zhan Zhao had deliberately kept hidden. One of the men in black let out a clear whistle, and then another clear whistle came from outside. The five men helped up Da Gang and another man in black and ran quickly towards the direction of the whistle.

Seeing the man in black leave, Corpse Child, ignoring Xu Qingzhi, let out a strange cry and pounced on Wang Rou from behind. Fortunately, Wang Rou was skilled in light-footed martial arts and managed to catch up with Corpse Child by supporting Da Gang and running away quickly.

Li Yuxuan rushed to Xu Qingzhi's side: "Big brother, are you alright!"

Xu Qingzhi's face was deathly pale, and blood was streaming from his neck, but he smiled and shook his head: "It's nothing, just a flesh wound. Are you alright?"

Li Yuxuan felt a lump in her throat and covered his wound with her hand: "I'm fine!"

Seeing the robbers escape, the guards made a move to give chase, but Zhan Zhao said in a deep voice, "Don't chase them. They've been targeted by the Corpse Child, they can't escape now."

The guards, remembering the monster's ferocity, remained silent.

Zhan Zhao continued, "You all go protect Sui Yin. Where's the medic? Quickly call the medic over!"

Upon hearing this, the guards all shouted "Yes!" and ran to the back of the tent. Li Yuxuan hadn't seen where the annual silver was when he entered the camp. Could it be in the back tent? But the back tent is so small—strange!

But the shouts of battle coming from over there were definitely real.

Prince Xin was helped out by Zhan Zhao. This tent was destroyed, so they had to move to the one next to it. Li Yuxuan and Li Xinyun helped Xu Qingzhi up, and together they walked towards the tent on the left. Xu Qingzhi had lost a lot of blood, but the wound wasn't large; thankfully, it hadn't hit his carotid artery, only severed a small artery on the outside of his neck. Li Yuxuan pressed hard against his wound, noticing that his hand was even paler than Xu's face.

The campfire in the tent was blazing because of the soldiers who had arrived earlier. After Xu Qingzhi was seated, the army doctor came over to bandage his wounds. Li Yuxuan then noticed that Prince Xin's complexion was no better than Xu Qingzhi's. His lips were tightly closed, as if he was enduring great pain.

Zhan Zhao saw him in and then immediately left.

Li Yuxuan couldn't bear it. He took a deep breath and walked behind him. Just then, the military doctor untied Prince Xin's robe. The robe had been neatly cut open with a knife, and the edges were stained with blood on the wound. Blood was flowing freely from the wound, which was four or five centimeters long with clean edges, making it difficult to tell how deep it was. The military doctor took out a dark-colored medicine to remove the blood clots from the wound. Then he took out a large handful of tea leaves, told a soldier next to him to crush them, steep them in boiling water, and use the tea leaves mixed with cotton cloth to clean the wound.

Li Yuxuan took the robe that the army doctor had taken off Prince Xin. Looking at the red muscle inside his wound that had been wiped with tea, he felt pain just thinking about it and couldn't help but ask, "Is it cleaned like this? Shouldn't we use some kind of anesthetic like Mafeisan?"

The military doctor replied respectfully, "His Highness has never used these things when he was injured before."

"But such a long wound needs stitches, are we really going to just sew it up like this?" That would be too tragic, wouldn't it? We're not Guan Yu (a legendary general).

A slight smile appeared on Prince Xin's lips as he reached out to Li Yuxuan: "Come here."

Li Yuxuan took his hand, walked over to him, and squatted down. This hand was so cold.

Seeing the worry on her face, Prince Xin suddenly smiled, revealing his teeth: "You brat, I'm fine. This little injury is nothing."

Li Yuxuan knew that he and Xu Qingzhi were two very different men, but both were responsible and true men who would never show their pain in front of people who cared about them. He choked up and said, "I know."

Li Xinyun also showed them admiration. Seeing Li Yuxuan's sad expression, she laughed and said, "You brat, what's a little injury? The men of our grasslands are all true heroes like this. I'll take you to see them sometime. But you're just like a girl."

“I—” Li Yuxuan choked up, speechless, as if frost had fallen in June.

Prince Xin tightened his grip on Li Yuxuan's hand, about to speak, when two masked men suddenly flew in from nowhere in front of the tent. In a few swift movements, they killed the four soldiers guarding the tent, rushed straight for Li Yuxuan, and without a word, picked him up and flew swiftly out of the tent roof. By the time the soldiers outside realized they had been caught and rushed in, they could only see black figures speeding northward into the night.

So the tent was really flimsy; a simple knife slash would leave a hole. Tears streamed down Li Yuxuan's face, and his cry of surprise was quickly blown away by the mountain wind—how could this person's martial arts be so high? Using him against her, what a waste…

Prince Xin, who was healing his wounds in the tent, was caught off guard. He only felt his hand slip, and before he could grab it, Li Yuxuan had disappeared.

Li Xinyun reacted the fastest, shouting as she chased after him.

As Prince Xin tried to stand up, the military doctor beside him quickly pressed down on his shoulder and exclaimed, "Your Highness! You have lost too much blood, you cannot exert yourself any longer."

Prince Xin shook off his hand, grabbed the sword beside him, and chased after him, shouting, "Zhan Zhao—" Outside the tent, there was no sign of Li Yuxuan and Li Xinyun. Only the bandits who had robbed the silver taels were retreating into the darkness.

He gritted his teeth, about to give chase, when someone grabbed his shoulder. Overwhelmed with grief and rage, he swung his sword, but it was caught by someone—Zhan Zhao.

Zhan Zhao looked into the distance and shook his head: "Your Highness, this group is not the same as the previous one. Judging from their weapons and martial arts techniques, they don't seem to be from the Song Dynasty. I suspect they have another purpose in robbing the silver. They just happened to join forces with the previous group and caught us off guard. Fortunately, we were prepared."

Seeing that Prince Xin's eyes were still fixed ahead, Zhan Zhao patted his shoulder reassuringly: "Your Highness, don't worry, I've already sent people to follow them. We'll have an answer by tomorrow morning. At worst, they'll take Lord Li hostage again, and we can just exchange him for him. Your Highness, you should go inside and treat your wounds first. If anything happens to you, we'll all lose our heads too."

Prince Xin remained silent for a long time, then sighed softly, "I shouldn't have let her come along. I knew the risks involved on this journey."

"Sigh!" Zhan Zhao sighed as well: "Who told her to offend the Princess of Wei? She'd rather be a proper prince consort than be so stubborn and aloof." He helped Prince Xin up: "Let's go inside and talk first."

~~

Li Yuxuan was carried on someone's shoulder again, seemingly floating on clouds for an unknown amount of time. She knew she had been captured again, and amidst a clear and peaceful scene, surrounded by numerous skilled guards, and right next to Prince Xin, she was once again spectacularly abducted.

What are those imperial guards doing? Are they just there to eat or to look cool? They can't even hold onto two people—good heavens, why is it always her who gets captured? Is she less attractive than them?

There were people shouting and cursing behind me. I recognized the voice as Li Xinyun. Had she been arrested as well?

She heard them talking, babbling incoherently, but she couldn't understand a word. All she knew was that more and more people were around her, most of them on horseback. Someone pulled over a horse, and she was immediately bound hand and foot, laid across the horse, and the person who grabbed her leaped onto the horse. The whole caravan galloped forward.

After an unknown amount of time, dawn slowly rose from the horizon, from a thin red line to a sky full of rosy clouds and then to the sun overhead. Just when Li Yuxuan was being carried so hard that her internal organs felt like they were about to shift, they finally abandoned her on a desolate wasteland.

It should be described as a desolate grassland.

Li Xinyun was also thrown down with them.

She finally managed to stop feeling dizzy and saw that the other side was starting a fire and cooking. Looking at their numbers, good heavens, there were probably several hundred people! Every single one of them was a young man, dressed identically, moving in unison, even their eyes were almost identical. And there were horses not far away, all lined up neatly.

This is definitely not a band of mountain robbers. Even a well-organized group like Wang Rou's doesn't have such synchronized movements.

This formation clearly indicates... an army? Yes, only an army could have such unity. Looking at the faces of those men, most of them have high-bridged noses and deep-set eyes; they are definitely not from the Central Plains.

She looked at Li Xinyun: "These people, are they from Western Xia?"

Li Xinyun mumbled a curse, probably in Xixia language, and seeing that no one around him reacted, replied to Li Yuxuan, "No!"

Confused

That's really strange.

She moved closer to Li Xinyun and whispered, "Looking at their faces, don't you think they look a lot like your Western Xia people? They're definitely not from the Central Plains."

Those people probably saw that Li Xinyun was a woman, so they didn't tie her up. They just pressed her pressure points, making her unable to move. However, this made her seem even worse off than Li Yuxuan, whose hands and feet were tied up. She could only lie on her back on the grass in the way they threw her. Apart from moving her eyes and speaking, she couldn't do anything.

Seeing Li Yuxuan move closer, a hint of joy flashed in her eyes. Li Yuxuan, however, was lost in thought, wondering who his kidnappers were. They were already camped in Gansu, near the border of Western Xia. After half a day and a night of galloping on horseback, if they weren't Western Xia people, where were they?

Li Xinyun gritted his teeth and said, "Khitans!"

It turns out that the Khitan Liao Dynasty and the Western Xia Dynasty had always been at war, and Li Xinyun was also very familiar with the Khitan people.

Li Yuxuan nodded. The Liao Kingdom had seized the annual tribute, causing discord between the Song Dynasty and Western Xia, allowing them to reap the benefits. She knew that the Liao Kingdom had never gained an advantage in their wars with Western Xia over the years. Surely Prince Xin and the others would see through this tactic of framing someone else?

A man came over and tossed them two steamed buns. Li Yuxuan cried out, "I want water!" Not just water, but, "How am I supposed to eat with my hands tied?"

The man ignored her and walked up to another young man, who spoke in a string of gibberish. The man was probably the leader of the group. He nodded at Li Yuxuan and Li Xinyun, and then about ten men surrounded them. One of them came up and untied the rope from Li Yuxuan's hands.

Another person brought over a bowl of water. Li Yuxuan pointed at Li Xinyun: "Where is she?"

The man shook his head, meaning Li Xinyun couldn't release the pressure points. Li Yuxuan picked up the steamed bun that had fallen to the ground; it turned out she had benefited from not knowing martial arts this time.

An expert's touch reveals all; they saw right through her frail frame. Is it true that an expert can tell a man from a woman with a single touch?

She looked at the man who had kidnapped her yesterday, the young leader, who was eating roasted meat with gusto. He seemed like a rough and unrefined man, not an expert in matters of love and sex.

She picked up Li Xinyun, helped her sit up, and let her head rest on her shoulder. She started feeding her water. After she finished drinking the water, she crumbled some steamed buns and put them in her mouth. After feeding Li Xinyun, the man over there finished eating his roast meat. At his command, everyone climbed onto their horses as quickly as possible. He walked over, picked up Li Yuxuan, threw him onto the horse, and then mounted his own horse. The group then galloped away.

Li Yuxuan clutched the last steamed bun tightly in her hand, her eyes red, but she couldn't bring herself to put it in her mouth on the bumpy horse. Tears streamed down her face as she clung to the bun, pleading, "Can't I just put this bun in my mouth first?"

Life is full of regrets, like water flowing eastward forever—oh no, we're so hungry!

They galloped on for miles until sunset, finally arriving at a small desert town. The caravan stopped in front of a small inn. Li Yuxuan was pulled off his horse and thrown to someone nearby: "Tie him up and throw him in the woodshed."

Two burly men stepped forward, tied her up tightly with hemp rope, and threw away the steamed buns she had been clutching all the way. They picked her up and went into the backyard, where they saw a shed with firewood and threw her inside.

Her bones felt like they were about to break from the jolting, her whole body ached, and she had no strength left. She was so dizzy from being lifted and thrown around that she didn't come to her senses for a long time. She was still dazed on the ground when something else was thrown in next to her. When she heard the cry of "Oh dear," she knew that Li Xinyun had also been thrown in.

She had thought that as a prisoner, she wouldn't be so lucky to have white steamed buns to eat every day. She gritted her teeth and carried the bun all the way here, only to have it stolen by those heartless people. Was she really doomed this time? The language barrier was a terrible problem. Otherwise, with her silver tongue, she would at least have had a glimmer of hope.

She felt Li Xinyun crawl over and touch her shoulder. This girl, who had also been deeply in love with her, had come to rescue her all by herself, only to be captured by the Khitans and suffer such injustice.

She forced herself to turn around to face Li Xinyun. Her small face was covered in dust, her hair was messy, her clothes were torn in many places, and her big eyes were filled with tears, as if they were about to burst at any moment.

She noticed that their hands and feet were also bound, probably to prevent them from escaping at night.

When she saw Li Yuxuan looking over, tears immediately streamed down her face: "Are you alright?"

Li Yuxuan felt a warmth in his heart, and his stiff lips moved slightly as he smiled gently: "Silly child, why are you crying? You won't die. I should be thanking you for risking your life to save me."

Seeing Li Yuxuan smile, Li Xinyun also wanted to stop her tears, but both of their hands were tied. She could only move over and put her head on Li Yuxuan's shoulder, whispering, "You didn't eat lunch."

Li Yuxuan sighed, "Compared to you saving me, what is a meal?"