Chapter 107: A Promise Worth a Thousand Gold
If Feng Gao were alone, the mere city walls would be no obstacle to him.
The Director of the Eastern Depot, with his exceptional lightness skill, could vault over walls and run up walls, leaving no trace on the snow.
But he had Cai Qingyao by his side, and relatives of Elder Sister like Zhu Xifeng and Hua Lian. These people needed him to protect them. He couldn’t leave. Nor could he possibly leave.
He channeled all his internal energy towards the city gate.
The city gate swayed twice but did not open.
From behind, Zheng Tai’s voice rang out, “The South City Gate of Yangzhou, weathered by a thousand years of wind and rain, is as strong as can be. How could it be so easily breached? Director Feng, it’s been a few days, are you well? Where are you headed? Tell me, perhaps I can lend a hand.”
Feng Gao turned around.
Behind Zheng Tai, a throng of people followed.
Zheng Tai smiled, “They say cats have nine lives, but I think Director Feng is no less. However, you’ve toyed with Elder Sister and my Zheng Family multiple times. Do you think the Zheng Family is easy to bully? Tonight, I want to see whose life is greater, Director Feng’s or the Zheng Residence’s blades.”
Feng Gao secretly calculated the number of men Zheng Tai had brought, calculating his chances of escape.
“With this rabble under your command, do you think you can truly kill me? The thousand Brocade Guards that the last Director’s order brought to Yangzhou are also arriving soon,” Feng Gao curled his lips and said coldly.
This imposing aura startled Zheng Tai.
Zheng Tai knew Feng Gao’s martial arts were formidable. He also knew that after the death of the former Commander of the Brocade Guards, Mu Lin, Feng Gao had completely revamped the Brocade Guards, appointing only his trusted confidantes. Although, on the surface, Feng Gao was dead and no longer the Director of the Eastern Depot, those lackeys in their flying fish robes might not have been loyal to the title of “Director” but to Feng Gao himself.
Fear began to stir in Zheng Tai’s heart.
In the end, he only wanted Feng Gao’s life, not to perish together with him.
He cherished his prosperity, and even more so, his life.
Zheng Tai waved his hand and said, “Bring Zhu Sangyu here!”
Several house guards pushed Ning Yue forward.
Tonight, Ning Yue was dressed in a moon-white cloud brocade gown, her belly round, her hair in a simple bun, without makeup. Her face was clean, exactly like Sang Yu’s.
Zhu Xifeng thought Sang Yu hadn’t escaped and had been captured by Zheng Tai, and quickly shouted, “Elder Sister!”
Even Hua Lian anxiously said, “Owner!”
She couldn’t care about anything else and rushed forward.
Feng Gao grabbed her.
Seeing their reactions, Zheng Tai was pleased and deliberately kicked Ning Yue hard.
Feng Gao looked at the bound woman. Her eyes were like a country morning in early summer, a thin, gauze-like milky white mist gently rippling over the tips of the wheat stalks. When he looked at her, that milky white mist turned into tears.
“What do you want?” Feng Gao averted his gaze and asked Zheng Tai.
Zheng Tai said word by word, “Come here and exchange her.”
“Alright,” Feng Gao nodded.
Just one word, and Ning Yue’s tears surged, as if they would never stop. Those tears flowed towards the small house on Plum Blossom Ridge, towards the scars all over her body, towards her plea, “Director, do you forget you called me Elder Sister at the Lord Maternal Uncle’s residence? You called me so intimately, so carefully. No one has ever called me that in this life. Call me again.”
She shook her head at Feng Gao.
Her mouth was gagged, so she could only convey her message this way. To tell him, I am not Zhu Sangyu. Don’t risk your life for me, it’s not worth it.
Feng Gao ignored her shaking head and said to Zheng Tai, “Untie her and let her come over. If it’s an exchange, the Lord Maternal Uncle must show sincerity.”
Zheng Tai narrowed his eyes, thought for a moment, and agreed. Ning Yue had always been submissive in the Zheng Residence; he assumed she would obey.
“Then, Director Feng must be tied up.”
“Agreed. Let your men do it,” Feng Gao said expressionlessly.
The house guards of the Zheng Residence timidly stepped forward and tightly bound Feng Gao’s hands.
The ropes on Ning Yue were untied, and the cloth strip in her mouth was loosened. She was about to shout something when Feng Gao’s deep voice fell, “What Feng has promised, he will keep. Rest assured.”
Everyone thought this was said to Zheng Tai. Only Ning Yue knew it was said to her.
On Plum Blossom Ridge, she had begged him, “Director, I have no home, but do you believe me? I consider many places in this human world my home. By the stove of a street vendor roasting sweet potatoes, in a thatched hut amidst the spring rain, in a tavern at dusk, as long as I leave this cage, anywhere can be my home. I only want freedom. Director, I only want freedom.” He had said, “I promise you, I will help you leave the Zheng Residence.”
He had promised.
A promise worth a thousand pieces of gold.
So, he didn’t need her reminder; he had already discovered she was an imposter.
He was exchanging himself for Ning Yue. Not for Zhu Sangyu.
In the musical troupe, across the north and south, for many years, in many places, she had met many who professed to admire her. But the world is fickle, human hearts are cruel, and flowers fall as dusk arrives. No one had ever been sincere with her. Their admiration was only for her face, her body. She was disappointed time and again, her heart growing calloused.
Ning Yue smiled, the dimples at the corners of her mouth gently blooming. Having lived half her life in hardship, finally, there was a man willing to risk his life for her.
So this was what it felt like to be protected.
Feng Gao’s handsome figure and his cool, peach-blossom face were a fleeting vision in Ning Yue’s heart.
“Sing of Dongchang, a city wall of nine *li* and a half, four gates and four guardhouses, Dongchang is a good place. Almonds, rice, and yellow cauliflower, shipped out every year to Suzhou and Hangzhou. Elder Sister sees her beloved off at the boat, my dear boy, the night is full of jackals and wolves, wealth and fame are hard to attain. If you are injured, return home early, Elder Sister will wait for you to return home and enter the bridal chamber…” Ning Yue’s song echoed under the full moon.
She smiled and said, “Last time, I only sang half of this song. Now I’ve finished it.”
Feng Gao approached step by step.
With less than thirty feet left, he was about to be captured by Zheng Tai.
Ning Yue suddenly turned and swiftly embraced Zheng Tai.
The people of the Zheng Residence didn’t find this action unusual. She was, after all, the ninth concubine of the Lord Maternal Uncle’s residence. Being intimate with the Lord Maternal Uncle was common.
No one noticed the thin blade hidden in her sleeve, slicing towards Zheng Tai’s neck.
The blade she had hidden long ago, the blade she had mustered the courage to kill Zheng Tai with countless times but dared not. She knew that as a weak woman, assassinating Zheng Tai was uncertain. If she did it, she could no longer live in the human world. The people of the Zheng Residence would not let her go. She was afraid. She hesitated. She wanted to live and leave the Zheng Residence. But now, she dared. She no longer hesitated.
Whether she succeeded or failed, she was willing to gamble for the Director.
She no longer expected to leave the Zheng Residence alive. She had already tasted what it was like to have someone protect her with their life. What more could she ask for? Her body was covered in filth, she couldn’t have the spring rain, she couldn’t have the twilight sunset, she couldn’t have benevolence and righteousness with good men. Tonight, she had received it all.
Anything more would truly be a luxury.
Zheng Tai’s scream made the fifteenth moon appear terrifying.
“Kill this ungrateful woman!” Zheng Tai shoved her away fiercely.
Several cold blades pierced her chest, her internal organs.
It was so cold.
The twelfth lunar month in Jiangnan was truly cold.
The weapons were so cold.
Zheng Tai was severely wounded, blood pooling on the ground.
The people of the Zheng Residence descended into chaos.
He was Consort Zheng’s own brother, the sole heir of the Zheng Residence, the current Lord Maternal Uncle. If anything were to happen to him, let alone the Maternal Grandfather of the Emperor not letting the people present tonight off the hook, even Consort Zheng’s methods would surely bury them all alive.
The house guards scrambled to carry him, to fetch a doctor, in a frenzy.
It was at this moment that the One-Eyed Dragon, with his brothers, struggled to scale the city walls and arrived.
Hope suddenly ignited in Feng Gao’s heart.
The thousand Brocade Guards he had mentioned to Zheng Tai were actually a lie, a ruse. The movement of the Brocade Guards could not be hidden from His Majesty. If he intended to retire from this point on, he would not use the Brocade Guards. Those Brocade Guards, appearing and disappearing like dragons, had already returned to the capital to report.
The One-Eyed Dragon rushed over.
Escape tonight seemed possible.
Zheng Tai had brought a large number of men. Some reacted and immediately engaged in combat. Hua Lian, who knew some martial arts, quickly came to help.
Feng Gao broke free from his ropes. While cradling the neglected, dying Ning Yue lying on the ground, he parried the attackers from the Zheng Residence.
Ning Yue’s face was pale, whiter than the moon.
She weakly said, “Director, run quickly.”
Feng Gao said sternly, “Don’t make a sound. I will save you. Do you know who I am?”
On Plum Blossom Ridge, he had asked her the same question, “Do you know who I am?”
Ning Yue smiled and said the same words as on Plum Blossom Ridge, “You are the current Director of the Directorate of Ceremonial, the Inner Court Commander, the Director of the Eastern Depot, His Majesty’s confidant, Feng Gao, who strikes fear into the hearts of officials in the imperial court. Your nickname is Black Impermanence. You have countless lives on your hands.”
She seemed to be desperately trying to remember these titles.
She feared that if she became a ghost, she wouldn’t be able to find him.
Feng Gao said, “Since you know, you should believe that what I say, I can accomplish.”
“I believe you…” Ning Yue’s consciousness grew increasingly scattered, her words intermittent. “But since childhood, fortune tellers have said my fate is bitter and thin. Perhaps the luckiest thing in my life is having a face exactly like the one your heart desires…”
A medical clinic.
The closest medical clinic to here.
Feng Gao ran with her in his arms, the wind whistling past his ears, each sound a farewell.
“No need to find a doctor, you know, it’s useless…”
“If I say it’s useful, then it’s useful!” Feng Gao ran quickly, stepping on rubble.
“If anyone shows me the slightest kindness, I become restless, thinking of repaying it immediately. I never owe anyone. But, well, no one has ever been kind to me. Only the Director has been kind to me. Therefore, I cannot owe you.”
“You don’t owe me!” Feng Gao shouted.
Ning Yue extended her hand with all her might and touched Feng Gao’s face. “Mm, I don’t owe you, except for my body. I should give the Director the best pleasure in bed. The Director deserves it.”
The full moon was as large as a suddenly fallen tear.
Ning Yue’s complexion suddenly flushed, like a final burst of energy.
She mustered all her courage and asked, “Director, for even a moment, did you ever have feelings for me?”
After saying this, she added nervously, “For a moment, a little bit, did you?”
A moment.
A little bit.
Feng Gao remained silent for a long time.
It was so long that Ning Yue had given up hope of getting an answer.
He said one word: “Yes.”
“Is it because of this face that looks so much like Zhu Sangyu?” she opened her eyes wide.
“No. It’s because the snow on Plum Blossom Ridge was too cold.”
Feng Gao told the moon in the sky the biggest lie of his life. This lie was too real. So real that he himself almost believed it. So real that Ning Yue forgot the scars of her life.
Ning Yue seemed to see the snow on Plum Blossom Ridge, falling softly and densely.
Her eyelids grew heavy, unable to bear the burden. Finally, she closed them.
Feng Gao felt for her breath and slumped desolately onto the rooftop.
A large group of people in military uniforms were rushing towards the South City Gate.
The military system of the Great Ming, following the Sui and Tang dynasties, established garrisons from the capital to the counties, all under the jurisdiction of the Commanderies, and internally under the Five Chief Military Commissions.
Someone had actually mobilized the garrison troops from nearby.
Who was it?
What was their intention?
