TIPS – Chapter 143

The main house of the Shen family was suddenly struck by loud knocks. The little black dog at the door barked furiously, waking the whole family from their sleep.

Song Jingwei groggily opened her eyes and nudged the young man beside her. “Get up quickly, go see what’s going on.”

“Mm.” Shen Junxi got up. Song Jingwei, feeling uneasy, also got up to check.

The two of them went out together to open the door and saw a familiar-looking young man — a member of the patrol team. He was still quite young and inexperienced, and appeared flustered. The moment he saw Song Jingwei, he spoke urgently, “There are strangers on the mountain — what should we do?”

“Hm? Do the others on duty today know about this?” Song Jingwei asked. Having strangers come up the mountain at this hour was suspicious.

“They know. When we saw how aggressive those people looked, we didn’t dare show ourselves. We came back to inform you first…” The young man spoke, sounding increasingly ashamed — they were, after all, still afraid of getting into trouble.

“They’re not soldiers?” Song Jingwei asked.

“They don’t look like it,” the young man scratched his head and said. “More like bandits.”

“Alright, take me to see them,” Song Jingwei said without hesitation.

“…” Shen Junxi grabbed him and shook his head.

If there was real danger ahead, how could he let Song Jingwei go? He gestured: “Let me go check.”

Seeing how anxious he was, Song Jingwei patted his hand and said, “Don’t worry, it might be someone we know.” This place was hard to find — only those who were familiar with it knew people lived here.

The young man was momentarily stunned. He couldn’t understand how someone like Song Jingwei could possibly be acquainted with people who looked like bandits.

As they stepped out, the patrol team had already encountered the so-called bandits.

These “bandits” were actually Yuan Guanlin and four or five boatmen he had brought with him. When he saw several peasant men in front of him blocking the way with hoes, he stopped and asked gruffly, “Who are you guys? Do you know a guy surnamed Song from Chashan Village?”

The patrol team men did recognize someone surnamed Song — he was their leader now. One of them responded, “And who are you? What are you doing on our mountain?”

“My old man is up there. What do you think I’m doing here?” Yuan Guanlin placed one foot on a stone by the roadside and continued, “Quick, send someone to tell that Song guy I’m here, or you’ll be saying I don’t know the rules.” If he really wanted to force his way in, those few men with hoes wouldn’t stand a chance.

The patrol team also realized that while they looked strong, the men in front of them were clearly experienced fighters — they wouldn’t be able to win a fight.

“We’ve already sent someone to get him. Wait here for a moment,” they said.

Before long, the young man returned, leading Song Jingwei and Shen Junxi with him.

From a distance, Yuan Guanlin saw them and spat, “If I hadn’t come, you think your few hoes could kill a single enemy?”

Song Jingwei greeted the local men and explained that those people who looked like bandits were actually his friends. The men were shocked — how could someone like Song Jingwei be friends with bandits?

“Come on, we’ll talk on the way up,” Song Jingwei waved and led them up the mountain.

“How’s the old man?” Yuan Guanlin caught up in a few quick steps and asked.

“He’s eating and sleeping well. Doing fine,” Song Jingwei replied.

“That’s good,” Yuan Guanlin scratched his head. “I wanted to come for New Year’s Eve, but things outside were a mess — I couldn’t get away.”

“Mm, how are things outside now?” Song Jingwei turned back to ask.

“Not good.” Yuan Guanlin suddenly fell silent. Seeing Song Jingwei stop and fix his gaze on him, he stammered, “My cousin told me to hurry over and stay here — probably because the defenses are about to fall. He…”

“What happened to him?” Song Jingwei held his breath.

“Nothing too serious. He’s injured, that’s all. Actually, it might be a blessing — now he doesn’t have to go back to the battlefield. It’s just death waiting there anyway.” Yuan Guanlin kicked a tree beside the path hard and said, “The court’s a damn joke. Even at a time like this, they’re still fighting amongst themselves. Do they have any conscience at all?”

“…” Song Jingwei stayed quiet for a moment, then kept walking. He didn’t know much about the court, and couldn’t manage anything at that level. What mattered most was ending the war quickly. “Where’s your cousin now?”

“At the military camp,” Yuan Guanlin muttered.

“Don’t overthink it. Let’s go see the old man first. He’ll be happy you’re here,” Song Jingwei patted his shoulder and picked up the pace.

As expected, Old Master Yuan was overjoyed to see Yuan Guanlin, his mischievous grandson. He held onto him, asking all sorts of questions.

Yuan Guanlin and Song Jingwei tacitly avoided mentioning that Yuan Qingsui had been injured — they simply said everything was fine.

But in truth, things were far from fine. Starting today, they needed to seriously discuss how to defend themselves against possible invasion by enemy troops.

The number of patrols per day was increased to ten, and any sign of disturbance had to be reported immediately. More traps and devices were also being set up at the front. If the enemy dared to come, they’d be greeted with a deadly barrage of arrows.

They also sent people down the mountain every day to gather news and see if there was any unusual activity in the village.

On the day of the Lantern Festival, everyone was feeling much more relaxed, thinking they could go home early to make dumplings and tangyuan to celebrate the holiday.

The young man sent down the mountain to gather news today had the same thought. He crouched near the village, already feeling a little hungry, eager to return early to eat the dumplings and tangyuan his parents had made. Just as he was hesitating about whether to leave now, something suddenly stirred in the village.

His eyes widened in fear as he saw a group of soldiers in enemy armor approaching. He quickly ducked into a hidden spot, not daring to even breathe loudly.

Peeking through a crack, he saw those soldiers breaking into every house, seemingly searching for something.

When he saw some of the soldiers coming out while cursing, he more or less understood—they must be looking for valuables or food.

The young man covered his mouth to stop himself from laughing out loud. Every household in the village had already taken away all their valuables and food. How could they have left anything behind?

And before leaving, Song Jingwei had even specifically told them not to lock their doors, so they wouldn’t have to buy new locks when they returned later. If someone really did come to the village, they’d just force the locks open anyway, so why bother locking them? Just let them go in and have a look.

It seemed that after searching many homes and still finding nothing valuable—not even a single grain of food—the soldiers were getting angry.

They spoke in a foreign dialect the young man couldn’t understand. A bunch of them chattered away for a while, then turned their eyes toward what seemed to be the largest house in the distance.

The young man glanced at the place they were pointing to and cursed silently in his heart, These damned bastards…

What the enemy soldiers were saying, if translated, would go something like this: “They’ve all run off. Nothing left behind.”

One soldier looked at the traces inside a house and said, “They’ve been gone for quite a few days. Ran pretty fast too.”

They were puzzled. “People in the city didn’t flee, but everyone in the village did?”

The leading soldier paused before saying, “Keep searching! We were ordered to massacre the village. If we don’t even find a single chicken…”

The soldiers’ expressions turned grim, and they immediately sprang into action.

They searched every corner of Chashan Village, but couldn’t find a single person—or even a single chicken.

“This doesn’t make sense! They can’t have taken even the chickens, ducks, and dogs with them! They must be hiding nearby!”

The houses were completely cleaned out—was that even possible for people escaping in a rush?

Some villagers were so stingy they hadn’t even left behind a broken chair, so many houses were completely bare. That was just too strange.

“Exactly! They must be hiding nearby. Let’s go search again!”

The young man was snickering quietly nearby when he suddenly stepped on a ceramic jar, which rolled down and stopped at the feet of a soldier.

“…”

The soldier stared silently at the jar, then at the direction it had come from. He grinned wickedly at his companion.

Gripping his spear, the soldier crept toward the hiding spot…

By now, it was getting late. Normally, those who went down the mountain to scout would have returned by this time. But today, Liu Dazhen’s second son still hadn’t come back. Anxious, she hurried to the Shen family’s main house to ask for news.

“He’s not back yet?” Song Jingwei was surprised when she heard this and asked.

“That’s right. By this time, he’s usually home. But my second boy still isn’t back,” Liu Dazhen said anxiously.

“He went alone? Didn’t I say that at least two people must go when heading down the mountain?” Song Jingwei asked with a frown.

“I’m not sure about that… I think the third son from the Daquan family had a stomachache and returned at noon.”

Hearing this, Liu Dazhen grew even more worried. Her second son was the only one down the mountain now. If something happened, there wouldn’t even be anyone to help!

“Auntie, don’t worry. I’ll send people down the mountain to look for him right away,” Song Jingwei comforted her and immediately went to find Yuan Guanlin, asking him to take a few men to look for Liu Dazhen’s second son.

“That sharp and sneaky kid?” Yuan Guanlin asked. He remembered Second Baozi quite well—a clever teenager, which was exactly why he was chosen to scout.

“Yes. He hasn’t come back yet. Go see if you can find him. Hopefully, it’s nothing serious,” Song Jingwei said, though he wasn’t very confident. Before they went down the mountain, he had reminded every single one of them: Don’t get close. Just observe from a distance, and if anything seems off, run back to the mountain immediately.

“Alright, I’ll go now.” Yuan Guanlin saw him frown and patted his shoulder. “That kid’s smart—he’ll be fine.”

“Be careful yourself too,” Song Jingwei said, lifting his eyes as he watched them head down the mountain.

Back to Second Baozi—he had accidentally kicked a ceramic jar that revealed his hiding place. Just as the enemy soldier crept closer, Second Baozi slipped into a cellar, leaving behind only an empty corner of a wall.

“Did you find anything?”

“…Nothing.” The soldier scratched his head in confusion and turned back to reply, “There’s nothing here.”

Er Baozi waited anxiously in the cellar for a long time. When he heard that it seemed quiet outside, he carefully climbed up and lifted a bit of the thatched cover. Seeing that it was still and silent all around with no one in sight, he stared for a while to confirm that there was really no one nearby before finally crawling out.

“Good grief, that scared Baozi half to death,” he muttered, patting his chest to calm himself before continuing to walk through the village.

Seeing that it was already getting late, he headed toward Xiaoliang Mountain. As he approached the edge of the fields, he saw a group of soldiers up ahead walking in lines toward the large house of the Shen family.

“Pah! Shameless bastards!” Er Baozi cursed, quickly taking a small path into the mountains to report to the others that a pack of hungry wolves had entered the village.

The soldier who had been tricked by Er Baozi still believed someone from the village was involved. He kept glancing back, and sure enough, he spotted Er Baozi’s figure.

“There’s someone! After him!” he shouted, pointing in Er Baozi’s direction.

The leading soldier gave him a skeptical glance but still led the others in pursuit.

Er Baozi wasn’t running particularly fast and only noticed after a while that those bastards were actually catching up. With a crooked grin, he thought, Let’s lead them into the traps!

So he paused briefly and shouted loudly at the soldiers, “Come on, come on! You bastard grandsons, come catch me!” After taunting them, he turned and bolted.

Many pits had been dug in the mountains, and people like Er Baozi, who often walked around outside, knew exactly where they were. He looked back and saw the soldiers falling into the traps one after another, yelping “Ouch! Ouch!” and he laughed so hard he could barely breathe.

“You little bastards, chasing your grandpa? Let’s see if you don’t break your necks!” he jeered, leading the remaining untrapped soldiers further along.

“Stop chasing him!” the enemy soldier leading the group finally panted and called out, stopping his companions from continuing forward.

“Why stop now?” the others asked, confused. They were almost at the hideout, where there would surely be treasure, grain, maybe even young women.

Just the thought made their eyes glimmer with desire.

“We’re too few. We’ll come back another day,” the leader said, thinking the same as the rest—that they had likely found the villagers’ hideout, full of valuable goods.

“Heh, just don’t bring too many people next time—there won’t be enough women to go around.”

“Hehehehe…”

The enemy soldiers laughed lewdly, then rescued their comrades from the pits and returned to camp the way they came.

“That big house…”

“If there’s a hideout, wouldn’t the house have stuff too?”

And so, the large Shen family house narrowly escaped disaster.

Er Baozi kept running. After a while, he noticed that no one was chasing him anymore. He stopped and waited for a bit but still saw no one.

“Did they all fall into the pits?” he wondered aloud.

Scratching his head, Er Baozi didn’t dare go back to check. He was afraid it might be a trick by those villains, so he kept moving, thinking it was about time to head home.

Yuan Guanlin and the others had hurried down the mountainside when they saw Er Baozi coming up casually, humming a tune with a blade of grass in his mouth, swaying from side to side.

Yuan Guanlin breathed a sigh of relief and waited for him to come up. He scolded with a mix of frustration and helplessness, “You little brat, where the hell did you go?”

Er Baozi had long admired Yuan Guanlin like an idol. Surprised to see him, he ran over and asked, “Where are you guys going? Are you leaving?”

“Leave my ass!” Yuan Guanlin smacked the back of his head and snapped, “It’s already dark, why haven’t you gone home yet?”

Er Baozi froze, then chuckled sheepishly. He realized Yuan Guanlin must’ve come looking for him because he hadn’t returned on time and his grandma probably went crying for help. Yuan Guanlin was here to fetch him.

He quickly said, “It’s not my fault! Come on, let’s walk and talk.”

“Something happened?” Yuan Guanlin raised an eyebrow and walked ahead of him.

“Yeah!” Er Baozi nodded vigorously and then vividly recounted everything that had happened earlier. At the end, he said proudly, “I tricked several of those little bastards. Bet they took a nasty fall! Too bad they disappeared afterward, maybe they ran off.”

“This is bad!” Yuan Guanlin said. “They didn’t run off—they’re going back for reinforcements! You’re in big trouble now!”

“Huh?” Er Baozi was dumbfounded. He’d just been feeling proud of himself—how did it turn into causing trouble?

“You exposed our hiding place. They’ll definitely be back,” Yuan Guanlin pointed out.

“…” Now that it was put that way, he had made a huge mess. Er Baozi scratched his head in a panic, not knowing what to do. He pulled a long face and said, “I-I didn’t mean to…” He hadn’t thought that far ahead at the time.

“All right, let’s head back up the mountain first,” Yuan Guanlin said.

“…” Er Baozi wanted to explain himself, but he didn’t dare speak. Whatever he said wouldn’t change the fact that he’d caused trouble, so he followed behind Yuan Guanlin with his head down, looking thoroughly dejected.