Chapter 17: The Time Is Ripe
Lamps were lit in various courtyards, casting a glow over the Shi Residence as night fell.
Xiao Yi planned to use Shi Deyu’s alarm to startle the soldiers outside the gate, observe the situation, and create an opportunity to escape.
This time, he wasn’t asking for an audience; he was barging in directly.
“The Young Master is resting; he’s seeing no one.” Liu San, guarding the courtyard gate, grumbled, “You really think you’re an insider…”
“Scram.”
“How dare you…”
“Bang!”
Without another word, Xiao Yi punched Liu San in the face, swiftly ascended the steps, and without calling out, pushed open the room door.
“Who is it?!”
From behind the screen, Shi Deyu shot up, startled, while his concubine shrieked.
Xiao Yi said, “Outside the mansion…”
“Xiao Yi? You are too presumptuous!”
“The armored soldiers have sealed the mansion’s exits, and the Marshal has not yet returned.”
Xiao Yi raised his voice to drown out Shi Deyu’s words. He wasn’t angry, remaining calm, and spoke what he needed to say without haste.
“I believe the Emperor has made a move against the Shi Residence. It’s not a plan; it’s happening. We are surrounded.”
The room fell silent, except for the rustling sound of the concubine dressing behind the screen.
Liu San rushed to the room door, shouting, “Young Master, he hit…”
“Scram!”
Shi Deyu cursed, put on his clothes, and shuffled into his shoes before walking up to Xiao Yi.
“Don’t talk alarmist talk. Perhaps… perhaps Father has increased the guard?”
He had dealt with people all day, his eyes were bloodshot, lacking their usual luster, and his voice was hoarse.
Xiao Yi’s gaze, however, was firm.
Since Shi Deyu didn’t know the details, he was even more convinced of his judgment.
“Why would you gamble on luck, Young Master? If you truly felt nothing was wrong, you would have slapped me by now for barging in. Right now, we need to break out as soon as possible.”
“Break… break out?”
“Of course, Young Master has always had great ambitions. Haven’t you prepared for a rebellion?”
Hearing this, Shi Deyu blinked in surprise, as if “rebellion” were a distant concept.
“Father… he… Father…”
“Wake up.”
Seeing the normally strategic Shi Deyu suddenly so useless, Xiao Yi raised his voice and rebuked, “If you’re just hoping for a rebellion from the Marshal, what ambition do you have? The situation has changed. You need to pull yourself together.”
Only then did Shi Deyu truly wake up and shuffled out in his slippers.
Xiao Yi quickly followed and asked, “Someone from the palace visited the Marshal today. Who was it?”
“Let me think. It should be, it should be Nie Wenjin.”
Xiao Yi recalled the intelligence he had seen and asked, “The Commander of the Right Wing of the Imperial Bodyguard?”
“Yes, he’s a general from the Imperial Guard that Father planted beside the Emperor.”
“What did he want with the Marshal?”
“It seems the Emperor did something inappropriate. Father and the esteemed officials then entered the palace to teach him a lesson… to admonish the Emperor directly.”
“They entered the palace?”
Xiao Yi’s heart sank, and his steps faltered.
He didn’t believe Shi Hongzhao could survive entering the palace without any precautions.
Although it seemed like an opportunity to save the Shi family today, in reality, there was none.
The Shi family was finished; they brought it upon themselves.
This was Xiao Yi’s judgment. He decided to leave immediately. If Shi Hongzhao wasn’t dead and later wanted to execute him as a runaway slave, he would accept the consequences.
Out of consideration for having done his best, he gave Shi Deyu one last reminder.
“I don’t trust Liu Zhu. Be careful of him.”
“Liu Zhu?”
Shi Deyu murmured, then suddenly thought of something. His body trembled, and he turned in another direction, ordering, “Go tell Xie Hui to gather the guards and wait for me in the Main Hall!”
Xiao Yi glanced in the direction Shi Deyu was heading – it was Shi Hongzhao’s study.
Let everyone fend for themselves in times of great crisis.
He hurried to the west courtyard. Xie Hui and Zhao Chong were still drinking. Seeing him return, they asked with a grin, “Little chick, didn’t you give Chun Tao a good time?”
“Haha, what can a coward like him do?”
Tonight, Xiao Yi indulged their crude jokes and said calmly, “The Young Master has ordered Commander Xie to gather the guards in the Main Hall.”
“What happened?”
“You’ll know when you go.”
“Damn it.” Xie Hui cursed and got up. After a few steps, he turned back to Xiao Yi and asked, “Aren’t you going?”
“I’m not one of the guards.”
Zhao Chong pointed his hand and said, “I’ll deal with you when you get back.”
Xiao Yi chuckled lightly. Watching them leave, he slung his luggage over his shoulder and headed for the stable.
The Shi Residence was as peaceful as usual; most people hadn’t yet realized the imminent disaster.
The stable was in the southeast corner, a bit far. He walked briskly but without panic, passing through several gates, finally seeing the mountain of hay.
Suddenly.
“Stop, I’ve caught you.”
Xiao Yi turned around and saw Shi Deyuan standing there, holding a club, panting, and looking at him with a triumphant gaze.
“Second Young Master? What is it?”
“I’ve been chasing you for a long time, I’m exhausted! You’re such a scoundrel. You promised to report important matters to me, but you didn’t tell me about the eldest’s malicious scheme to make me marry a general’s daughter! He’s definitely trying to kill me! You scared me to death… Where are you going? I’m not finished yet, stop!”
“I have an urgent matter. We’ll talk later.”
“You want to go meet Chun Tao and steal her peaches, don’t you? That’s right, I know everything. Fine, the eldest told Chun Tao to sleep with you, and you got hard. Don’t you think about whose club is harder, mine or your head… Still leaving? Stop him!”
Shi Deyuan pointed his hand, and eight old nuns immediately stepped forward, surrounding Xiao Yi, chanting aloud.
At this critical moment, Xiao Yi had no time for this fool’s nonsense. He kept walking and kicked away an old nun who was shaking a bell incessantly in his face.
“Tsk, this demon has become more powerful! Chant him to death…”
Before Shi Deyuan could finish speaking, his swinging whistle stick was suddenly in Xiao Yi’s hand. He stared in shock and turned to run.
Xiao Yi wielded the whistle stick, driving away the old nuns, letting them scatter in a panic.
However, a ear-splitting shout pierced the night.
“Zhang Mantun!”
Shi Deyuan shouted as he ran.
“I can’t hold him! The rascal has gone mad again, hurry!”
“Zhang Mantun, he’s trying to kill me, hurry and finish him!”
“Someone, save me…”
Xiao Yi, who had intended to go his own way, frowned upon hearing this, realizing it would be troublesome if he were entangled by that loyal, powerful, tower-like man of the Shi family.
He dropped his luggage and quickly rushed towards Shi Deyuan.
“Stop shouting.”
“Zhang Mantun! Zhang…”
“Bang!”
The shouting abruptly stopped.
The whistle stick, with a whistling sound, hit Shi Deyuan hard on the head.
The blow was fierce, showing no mercy.
Shi Deyuan’s plump body fell to the ground, the fear and excitement in his eyes gradually fading.
Thick blood slowly flowed from his forehead, staining the white snow, like the old plum tree with its gnarled branches that Xiao Yi had seen when they first met.
In the profound mystery of fate, the words “When the time is ripe, I will knock on you” seemed to have become a cold prophecy.
Xiao Yi looked down, murmured, “Curtain call.”
He bent down, reached out, not to close the eyes that would never close again, but seeing a jade pendant of extraordinary quality hanging from Shi Deyuan’s belt. Recalling that Chun Tao had said it was a gift from Zen Master Wen Yan, he tore it off.
“Second Young Master?”
Zhang Mantun’s voice came from not far away, a little muffled, as if he still had food in his mouth.
“Second Young Master, did you subdue him? I’m here!”
Xiao Yi quickly put the jade pendant in his pocket, picked up his luggage, and left.
Soon, thunderous roars echoed from behind him.
“Second Young Master?! Ahhh… I’ll kill you!”
Xiao Yi immediately ran through the courtyard gate; the stable was ahead, but if Zhang Mantun caught up, there wouldn’t be enough time to saddle a horse.
He casually stuffed his luggage under a pile of hay, circled around, and shouted from a distance to Zhang Mantun, who had already entered the stable, “Brother Mantun, you’ve misunderstood. The Shi Residence has been surrounded.”
“Traitorous slave! Don’t run…”
The two chased and fled, quickly running through the front courtyard.
Xiao Yi remembered a side room with a door ajar on his way in. He ran towards it, out the corridor, across the snow-covered ground to the opposite side, then stepped back on his own footprints and hid in the side room.
The door was barely closed when Zhang Mantun’s heavy footsteps and panting breaths were already outside the door.
Xiao Yi waited for him to move away, then returned to the stable, called the resting stableman, and directly pressed a piece of broken silver into his hand.
“Saddle a fine horse and do it immediately. The Marshal has an urgent matter for me to attend to.”
The stableman took the silver and felt strange, but money makes the world go round. He swallowed his questions and carried the saddle to prepare the horse.
Xiao Yi finally caught his breath.
He listened carefully to the sounds from the front courtyard, planning to break out when Shi Deyu clashed with the soldiers outside. If the horse was fast enough, he might have a chance to gallop across the Kaifeng Street, report to the Guo family, and hide.
The horse was ready, his luggage was hung, and after waiting for a long time, the front courtyard remained silent. Xiao Yi’s patience was wearing thin, and he wondered in his heart what was making Shi Deyu so slow.
Suddenly, there was movement from the side door in the distance.
Xiao Yi tiptoed to the corner of the wall and peeked out.
In the darkness, there was no firelight, only the crunching sound of dense footsteps on the accumulated snow.
Then, came a cold and faint command.
“You few, secure the stable first.”
“It’s surrounded like an iron barrel; you can’t escape even on horseback.”
“Are you afraid he’ll escape? Don’t injure our people.”
“Yes.”
The side door was definitely not an escape route, so Xiao Yi decisively abandoned his plan to flee on horseback.
Although he had made many preparations, the situation changed rapidly, and he couldn’t be dragged down by sunk costs.
He reorganized his luggage, discarding heavy items like clothes, felt blankets, silk, an iron pot, and copper coins. He took out a candle and lit it in the horse stall.
Passing by the hay pile, he casually tossed the candle.
The flame “whooshed” up, quickly turning into a raging fire that illuminated the southeast corner of the Shi Residence.
It also disrupted the rhythm of the officers and soldiers entering the mansion.
Xiao Yi disappeared into the darkness without looking back…
