Wen Tian didn’t believe Chang Xi’s nonsense, but now that he was being held down and unable to fight or run away, he had no choice but to pretend to believe, and gradually stopped struggling.
Chang Xi saw that he was no longer struggling, so he relaxed his grip on him and shouted to the officers and soldiers below from a distance, asking them to exit the West Mountain Road.
The people sent by the government to negotiate asked them to release Wen Tian first.
“Negotiating the ransom is easy. As long as you release Young Master Wen, we will withdraw from West Mountain Road immediately.” The person in charge of the negotiations was a short, fat, middle-aged man. He was wearing bulky robes, standing at the front with his neck scrunched up to negotiate the terms with Chang Xi.
He was just a young master. This time, the two towns joined forces to suppress the bandits, and so the county magistrate sent him to suppress the situation. But everyone knew that the bandits of West Mountain were extremely tough and and wouldn’t be harmed even when confronted head-on. The county magistrate himself was unwilling to come forward for such a hard job and so only sent him over.
Before he set off, they had discussed that they would not fight if they could; it would be best if they could just spend money to get the person back. After all, no one wanted to die in vain. The kidnapped person was the Young Master of the Wen family, and if it weren’t for the rich and powerful Wen family’s constant pressure, they wouldn’t have been willing to come at all.
The master tried to talk and use threats and inducements, but Chang Xi was a fool and refused to accept his words at all. Before leaving, Chu Xiangtian told him not to laugh or say any more words.
Chang Xi, who neither smiled nor spoke, could frighten people out of their wits by exposing his fierce aura. He glanced at the master with a pitiless look, opened his mouth and recited the lines: “Get your people to quit. Young Master Wen is only staying as a guest in the fortress for a few days. Why do you guys need to make such a fuss?”
Frightened by his ferocious eyes, the master took a step back. He wiped the sweat from his forehead and almost couldn’t keep up the fake smile on his face. Staying as a guest? Stay for a few more days and I’m afraid I won’t be able to find where I’m buried!
The atmosphere on both sides was deadlocked again. Chang Xi took the time to bring Wen Tian down. As soon as he left, two mighty trebuchets were placed side by side at the entrance of the mountain pass. Two heavy stones had been placed on them, with the air of daring anyone to come up and have a battle.
Chang Xi took Wen Tian back to the village, and happened to meet Chu Xiangtian on the way. Chang Xi excitedly reported the progress to Chu Xiangtian and praised himself openly and secretly. Wen Tian, on the other hand, as if not seeing the person in front of him, walked around him and continued walking forward.
Chu Xiangtian: “…”
Leaving behind Chang Xi who was still pressing for credit, Chu Xiangtian stepped forward to catch up with Wen Tian and blocked him again.
Wen Tian ignored him and walked around to the left. Chu Xiangtian moved faster than him and moved a step to the left to block him. Wen Tian turned to the right, and he followed suit.
Wen Tian: “…………”
His cheeks turned red with anger, and he glared at Chu Xiangtian fiercely.
“You finally saw me.” Chu Xiangtian chuckled, “I thought I was transparent.”
Wen Tian was so angry that he wanted to kick him, but he didn’t dare to confront him head-on, so he could only viciously pooh-pooh him a hundred times in his heart, and then huffed and puffed and didn’t say anything.
The two people face-to-face were in a stalemate. Finally, Chu Xiangtian took the initiative to approach Wen Tian and untie the rope from his wrist. He was very close, and as soon as he lowered his head, he could smell the light fragrance of Wen Tian’s body. The scent was very light, smelling sweet as if mixed with honey. Chu Xiangtian moved closer unknowingly, almost burying himself in Wen Tian’s neck. His breath when he spoke spilled against Wen Tian’s ear. “What did you put on your body? It smells good.”
Wen Tian leaned away from him. When the rope on his hand was untied, he immediately pushed him hard and kicked him in the calf, cursed him for being an asshole and quickly ran away.
“He called me an asshole??” Chu Xiangtian touched his calf and looked at Chang Xi in disbelief.
Although Chang Xi was stupid, he was not blind. He said bluntly: “You were almost on your wife’s neck1.”
Chu Xiangtian: “…”
Glaring at Chang Xi, Chu Xiangtian tapped him with his hand. “You’re the one who talks too much.”
Wen Tian ran back to Xiao Qiao’s house panting, slammed the door, then leaned against the door and gasped for air. When Chu Xiangtian came closer, goosebumps appeared on his arms. The man was too aggressive, and Wen Tian couldn’t handle it at all. When they first met, he thought the other person was a murderous bandit leader. Later, when the other person gave him medicine, he changed his impression and thought that maybe he wasn’t that bad after all.
However, after today, Wen Tian felt that this person’s mind was too deep and capricious, and might turn against him at any time.
Wen Tian patted his chest to calm himself down. He had to find a way to escape. Chu Xiangtian’s promise may not be reliable.
At this time of the year, all the men in the fortress were patrolling the front mountain for defense, and the old and weak women and children were staying behind closed doors. Wen Tian thought about it carefully and felt that he could think of a way to do it from the back of the mountain.
He had visited all the fortress in the past few days. Except for the back of the mountain, there were people patrolling the other sides, so it was unlikely that he would be able to slip out from under the noses of these bandits.
The back of the mountain was connected to cultivated fields and a dense forest. As long as you walk through it, you would always be able to find a way down the mountain.
With this in mind, in the following two days, Wen Tian intentionally or unintentionally wandered toward the cultivated field. When no one was around, he even asked the weeds near the cultivated fields for information, but these plants were very timid. When they heard Wen Tian talking to them, they would all fall silent. Only one or two were brave enough to kindly tell Wen Tian some information.
For example, through the woods behind the farmland, there was a river not far away.
Wen Tian was a little surprised. There was only one river flowing through Qitian Ridge, and that was the Sihou River. The Sihou River connected Sifang Town and Lehe Town. As long as he walked along the river, he would be able to escape from this place.
On the afternoon of the day of the operation, Wen Tian pretended to have something to do with Chu Xiangtian and went to see Chang Xi for information. Chang Xi had no defense against him. When he asked, he immediately told him that Chu Xiangtian was not in the fortress tonight.
As for where he went, Chang Xi didn’t know.
Knowing that the threat was lessened, Wen Tian was secretly happy. He waited patiently until the latter part of the night, after everyone was asleep, then he opened the window and climbed out carefully.
Xiao Qiao was in the opposite room. He kept moving gently, closed the window as it was, and tiptoed in the dark towards the farmland.
It was dark in the fortress, but fortunately the moon was full and large, and the bright moonlight was just enough to illuminate the path under his feet.
After carefully leaving the area of the house, Wen Tian looked back to make sure that he would not attract anyone else, then quickly ran towards the farmland.
The field was newly plowed, and Wen Tian stepped on the soft soil one foot at a time, not caring about being covered in mud, running forward with clenched teeth.
Only when he couldn’t run anymore would he stop and rest for a while, and then continue forward.
After running and panting for who knows how long, Wen Tian finally approached the woods. As long as he walked through the woods and followed the river, he could go home.
Not caring about being tired, Wen Tian wiped the sweat from his face, tore off two pieces of his wide sleeves with his teeth and wrapped them around the soles of his feet – the soles of the shoes were too hard, he ran too fast, and the soles of his feet had already worn through the skin, causing a scorching pain.
Wrapping his feet with pieces of cloth, Wen Tian’s eyes shone brightly as he continued to move forward, not even caring about the fear of the dark woods.
The woods were much darker than the empty and unobstructed fields. Wen Tian uses the faint moonlight to determine the direction, and when he really couldn’t find his way, he would to ask for directions from the surrounding trees or plants. When he asked a few of them, there was always a bold one that would answer his question.
After groping his way through the woods, Wen Tian finally made it to the back of the mountain.
He took a breath, and his tense nerves relaxed a little. Then he felt a stinging pain on his cheek. He raised his hand and touched it, only to realize that there were several cuts on his face, which must have been accidentally scratched by branches. He was so nervous that he didn’t even notice.
Hissing and huffing twice, Wen Tian sniffed and continued to move forward. After leaving the woods, the road became particularly difficult to walk up on. The mountain road became steeper and steeper, and the ground covered with protruding rocks.
He carefully groped the rocks on his way down. When he was almost at the end, Wen Tian accidentally stepped on a stone. His body tilted and he rolled down uncontrollably.
He subconsciously protected his head, and the scattered gravel rolled down with him. Along the way, raised rocks hit his body painfully. After rolling a few times, he fell to the ground with a bang, stunned.
Feeling dizzy and in pain, he lay down for a while before he recovered. He managed to push himself up and limped forward. He could already hear the sound of gurgling water; the river should not be far away from him.
“What’s the sound?” Chu Xiangtian alertly raised his hand to pause the conversation and walked towards the cave and beyond.
The cave behind him was dimly lit, and the rocky mountain walls were covered with weapons. Zhou Chuanqing and two other sturdy men followed Chu Xiangtian out together. The back of the mountain was their hiding place. Even the people in the fortress did not know that there was such a cave, so who would come over in the middle of the night?
Chu Xiangtian’s eyebrows furrowed into a deep zigzag pattern, and he had a chilling aura that was not seen during the day. Following the sound of rolling stones, Chu Xiangtian looked at the sporadic dark blood stains on the gravel and narrowed his eyes slightly, “Someone came down.”
Following the footprints on the ground, Chu Xiangtian saw a slender figure limping towards the river from a distance.
He squinted his eyes to identify it carefully, and after a while he finally confirmed that the miserable man was actually Wen Tian.
===Author’s Notes===
Tiantian: Bastard! big liar! Pooh!
Grievance value +9999
I feel sorry for the unlucky Tiantian for a second =w=
===Translator’s Notes===
- The word he use here is 亲人 (qinren), which according to here can refer to your spouse, blood-related family or (metaphorically) someone you have close relationships or deep feelings for. I assumed from context that this is what Chang Xi would be referring to, considering ↩︎
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