Chapter 33: Guest Expelled
The incense stick before the Buddha burned out.
By the window, Xiao Yi gazed for a long time at the Guo Residence, which was like a living hell, silent, like a Buddha’s shrine.
He only snapped back to reality when his sleeve was tugged, and he shook the snowflakes from his hair.
He lowered his head and saw Guo Zongyi’s pair of pitiful eyes.
“Young Master, what…what happened?”
Xiao Yi’s throat bobbed. In a worried tone, he said something relatively lighthearted: “The women and children of the Guo family have been captured.”
Guo Zongyi became even more worried, sobbing as he asked, “Then what should we do?”
“Go to Ye Du, tell your grandfather. He will save everyone.”
“Okay!”
Guo Zongyi nodded vigorously.
Perhaps Xiao Yi’s almost cruelly calm demeanor infected the child. He raised his small hand, wiped the tears from his face, and stopped crying.
“Yi Ge’er will listen to Young Master, not cry, not make a fuss.”
“Good child.”
Xiao Yi gently stroked Guo Zongyi’s head. Looking down, he saw Guo Xin had not yet woken, her eyelashes still holding tears, her brow furrowed.
He couldn’t bear to wake her and walked to another window, observing Kaifeng City.
Outside the temple walls, an old farmer selling vegetables squatted by the roadside, with withered winter fruits and vegetables in the basket by his feet.
Looking further away, Kaifeng City was like blue-gray silk crumpled by the snow, its streets and alleys spreading out along the veins of the Cai River and Bian River, not neatly arranged.
The people within the city seemed to be sealed off by the heavy snow and officers and soldiers.
Casually glancing at a street corner, a cart driver wrapped in a tattered jacket pulled an ox cart through more than ten refugees. In front of a shop with a “Soup Noodles” sign, an old carpenter helped repair the roof in exchange for a bowl of hot soup. Smoke curled from the gaps in the roof, bringing a sense of hearth and home.
The sound of the canal boat’s oars, the guard’s watchman’s drum, the refugees’ coughs, the sound of coal smoke from a stove, and the collapse of a thatched roof somewhere… the sounds blended together, forming a spark of life amidst the blue-gray and white.
Further in the distance, red flags were planted on the city walls, with a soldier standing every ten paces.
The morning bell had already rung, and the city gate remained closed today. Dozens of people were crowded below the gate tower; an old woman clutching a child cried and pleaded with a soldier, clearly anxious to leave the city to see her relatives.
In such a Kaifeng City, how could they leave?
“Fifth Aunt, you’re awake?” Guo Zongyi’s voice rang out. “Everyone at home has been taken. We need to find Grandfather to save them.”
Xiao Yi turned his head and saw Guo Xin’s once lively eyes had become vacant, as if her soul had been snatched away.
She also looked at him, parted her lips, and asked, “Mother and them… were captured? Is it true?”
“Yes.”
“Mother is alive? Don’t lie to me.”
“Yes.” Xiao Yi said with a firm voice, “You want to save your family. We must see Commander Guo as soon as possible.”
“Okay.”
Guo Xin tried to get up, but her limbs went weak, and she fell to the ground.
Xiao Yi extended a hand and helped her up, feeling her arms were cold and powerless.
Looking at her, she bit her lower lip fiercely until blood welled up.
“Don’t try to be strong. If you want to cry, have a good cry now. If we show any emotion once we leave this pavilion, we will have nowhere to be buried, and you will never see Commander Guo again.”
“Wuwu… wuwu…”
Only then did Guo Xin burst into tears, and Guo Zongyi couldn’t hold back either.
After a long while, Guo Xin’s unfocused gaze fixed on Xiao Yi, slowly regaining clarity.
“Are you better?”
“Yes.”
“Let’s go.”
The three of them slowly descended the steep, narrow stairs.
Suddenly, they heard hurried horse hooves and noisy shouts from a distance.
Xiao Yi rushed to the fifth-floor window and looked out. At the temple gate, a squadron of Imperial Guard cavalry in shining armor galloped in, roughly pushing aside the guest monks who tried to ask questions, surging into the Great Xiangguo Temple, heading straight for the Great Hero Hall.
“What’s wrong?”
“They’re here to catch us. You go down first.”
Xiao Yi’s gaze was steady as he observed the layout of the Great Xiangguo Temple.
The temple complex was vast, with surrounding corridors. To the north was the direction of the Guo Residence, and to the south was the main gate; neither could be used. To the east was a vast vegetable garden, bordering a branch of the Bian River, with dense residential houses on both sides. To the west was the Zisheng Gate, connecting to the temple’s market. It was said that the halls on both sides of the courtyard could accommodate ten thousand people, and it was currently the morning market, very lively.
He had a plan in mind. He went downstairs. From the fifth-floor window, Guo Zongyi was standing on a stool, leaning against the window lattice, looking out.
“Oh no! The Abbot seems to be selling us out.”
Looking again, in front of the Great Hero Hall, a plump old abbot in a red kasaya, surrounded by monks, came out to greet them, clasped his hands in greeting to the officers and soldiers, and then rebuked the guest monk incessantly.
The guest monk prostrated himself on the ground, shaking his head repeatedly. The old abbot took a monk’s staff and personally struck the guest monk’s back, then pointed towards the dormitories.
“They’re coming this way.”
Guo Xin raised her hand and pointed, saying, “Third Brother is over there.”
Xiao Yi turned his gaze back and saw Guo Xin had woken up and was standing in the courtyard, looking towards the Great Hero Hall, scratching his head in bewilderment from time to time.
“Zhan Zhao!”
“Zhan Zhao!”
Guo Xin heard the call, turned around, and looked everywhere, searching for the source of the voice.
“Where are you guys?”
“Run! Go out the west gate, to the market!”
“Huh?”
“Run!”
Guo Xin was stunned for a moment, then realized and bolted.
Soon, the officers and soldiers were chasing after him.
“There he is! Catch him!”
The three of them reached the third floor and looked out the window, seeing the old abbot pointing the way for the officers and soldiers, directing them to flank Guo Xin from the west.
Seeing this, Guo Xin couldn’t help but become enraged, cursing, “Dog monk! Mother gave so much money as alms, what kind of pure Buddhist land is this? Ungrateful, sycophantic wretch.”
Guo Zongyi was also filled with hatred and spat on the wall of Paiyun Pavilion.
“Ptooey!”
The three of them ran down the steep stairs and out of Paiyun Pavilion.
The previously closed courtyard gate had been opened. An old monk in a worn gray robe stood in the courtyard, holding a broom and sweeping the ground. His eyes were neither happy nor sad, as if he hadn’t seen them at all, just as he hadn’t from the beginning.
Xiao Yi’s ears still echoed with Guo Xin’s words, and he thought that a truly enlightened monk would not need so much alms.
In the blink of an eye, he had run out of the courtyard gate.
They intended to head west to find Guo Xin, but hurried footsteps were already closing in from the west. They had no choice but to change direction and flee eastward.
Passing by the dormitories, Xiao Yi remembered his luggage was still inside, especially the letter from Li Tao to Guo Wei and all the documents.
“You guys go ahead.”
He dashed into the dormitory a few steps, grabbed his luggage, and left.
“Whoosh!”
The sound of an arrow piercing the air rang out, embedding itself in the corridor pillar beside him. He didn’t stop, and soon caught up with Guo Xin and Guo Zongyi.
Seeing they were running slowly, Xiao Yi simply picked up Guo Zongyi with one arm and grabbed Guo Xin’s arm with the other, sprinting.
They ran through the intricate corridors, using corners and ancient trees for cover, ran across the spacious vegetable patch, and ruthlessly trampled the Chinese cabbage that had been painstakingly planted in the winter… finally, they reached the east wall of the temple.
Xiao Yi put down Guo Zongyi, took out a rope from his luggage, and threw it, hooking it onto the eaves.
“You go up first and pull Yi Ge’er up.”
He pushed Guo Xin onto the wall first. Xiao Yi looked back, and two officers and soldiers had already caught up.
These two were running the fastest. Because they were not armored, they wore dark blue official robes. They were likely constables from Kaifeng Prefecture. They also had no bows or crossbows, and as they ran, they showed greedy, sinister smiles.
Xiao Yi turned to meet them, drawing his personal sword.
“Kid, surrender obediently…”
The sword light flashed.
Just as the constables rushed in front of Xiao Yi, one quickly swung his saber down, and the other constable tacitly swept at Xiao Yi’s waist and abdomen.
Xiao Yi dodged to the side, the saber grazing his chest and then striking his thigh near the knee with residual force.
At the same time, he hooked with his right foot, tripping one constable by the ankle. The constable, unable to stop, lunged forward. Xiao Yi then used his left hand to twist the man’s arm and used his body as a shield.
“Thwack.”
“Thwack.”
The saber sweeping towards him struck the “human shield” on the back, eliciting a scream.
The long sword, however, pierced the throat of the other constable with even greater speed.
Xiao Yi kicked away the constable whose throat had been pierced, lifted the injured human shield with his left hand, and with a clean stroke of his sword, slit his throat.
“Slish—”
In the blink of an eye, two corpses fell heavily, kicking up snow spray.
Xiao Yi added a stab to each of them, and the snowfield was instantly stained red in two spots, the metallic scent filling the air.
“So strong!”
“Come quickly!”
On the wall, Guo Xin and Guo Zongyi stretched out their hands anxiously. Xiao Yi simply handed over his luggage, grabbed the hanging rope, and climbed over the wall in two swift moves.
“You two walk along the wall, try not to leave footprints.”
“I’ll help you.”
“No rush, I need to bandage first. I can’t leave any bloodstains.”
Xiao Yi had experience being pursued by Xie Hui and dared not be careless. He sat down in a corner and took strong liquor from his luggage to clean the wound.
The pain made the veins on his forehead throb.
Guo Xin nudged Guo Zongyi to go first, then anxiously asked Xiao Yi, “How can I help you?”
“Make a trail of footprints to the riverbank, then walk backward back here.”
“Okay.”
Xiao Yi gritted his teeth, applied trauma medicine, and wrapped a cloth wrap around himself.
Time was tight, and he moved extremely quickly, yet with an air of unhurried composure.
Soon, Guo Xin returned and helped him up.
The three of them walked close to the wall along the snow-free path under the eaves for a stretch, then turned into the densely packed residential houses.
The bell of the Great Xiangguo Temple echoed again, but now it sounded like a ruthless dismissal.
