Wang Dashi had just left Yang Ge’s house when he vaulted over the courtyard wall and leaped into the neighboring yard.
A wall’s distance away.
Yang Ge’s home was filled with the festive atmosphere of slaughtering chickens and ducks and the aromatic celebration of stewing and frying meat.
But in this courtyard, what filled the air was the scent of ingot-shaped candles...
A beautify lady, dressed in simple white and wrapped in a sable fur coat, sat alone in the snow-covered courtyard, holding a hand warmer. The pure winter sunlight fell upon her, reflecting a ghastly pale halo around her.
She opened a pair of eyes devoid of light and looked faintly at Wang Dashi as he climbed over the wall.
"Are you satisfied?"
She asked quietly, neither joy nor anger in her voice.
"Not quite satisfied!"
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Wang Dashi answered, not directly to her question, as he strode up and sat down next to the lovely woman, "Although this fellow has some tricks up his sleeve, he lacks grand ambition and just scrapes by. He is not someone destined to make a mark."
The lovely woman turned, her eyes filled with scorn as she looked at him, "You’ve only met him for a brief moment and you can already declare he won’t make it big?"
Wang Dashi responded succinctly, "His courtyard, too comfortable..."
The lovely woman was silent.
Wang Dashi continued, "If this were in the past, and someone dared to bring such a man to propose to you, I would not hesitate to break his five legs. But now... he is quite the match for you!"
The lovely woman let out a faint "Huh" with a scornful tone, "Did you ever consider whether I am worthy of him?"
Wang Dashi also "huh"ed, but with an indescribable air of authority, "The daughter of the Xie Family is a match for anyone; to marry her is to marry down!"
The lovely woman turned to look at him and slowly smiled. In her dim eyes, however, a hysterical undercurrent was surging, "The Xie Family? Which Xie Family? Is there even a Xie Family left?"
Wang Dashi remained unmoved, as solid and defiant as the name he had chosen for himself, "As long as I am here, the Xie Family exists!"
The lovely woman seemed to have an epiphany, "Oh, I see, you resent our beheadings for not being swift enough, and now you crave an end by being torn apart by horses or death by a thousand cuts, is that it?"
Finally, a ripple appeared in Wang Dashi’s firm gaze.
He was silent for a long time, then spoke softly, "Little sister, our family’s situation is not what you think!"
Smiling, the lovely woman said, "You’re not about to tell me now that you didn’t commit treason and conspire with enemies, fostering traitors for self-protection, are you?"
Wang Dashi slowly turned his head toward her and stretched out his rough hand, gently wiping away the tears at the corner of her eyes, "What if I tell you that I was neither aware of Uncle Shen conspiring and selling out the country, nor involved in any of that, would you believe it?"
Stubbornly, the lovely woman turned her head away, "Does it matter whether I believe it or not?"
Wang Dashi withdrew his hand, placed his hands on his knees, leaned forward, and spoke slowly, "Don’t blame them, they actually had no choice."
"The Zhao Family has had four emperors, some wise, some mediocre, but none of them were pushovers!"
"The title of the twenty-four founding dukes sounds impressive!"
"The honor of sharing the nation’s fate looks splendid indeed."
"Yet where are the Shi Family, the Li Family, and the Liu Family of the past today?"
"What about the Zheng family, the Guo Family, and the Geng Family now?"
"Uncle Shen did wrong, but they just wanted to protect us, to protect our family…"
The delicate woman held up her chin with one hand, her smile gentle, yet tears fell like a string of pearls severed, steadily dripping: "You men always manage to find countless righteous, noble reasons for your ambitions and desires."
Wang Dashi was silent for a moment, then slowly began to unbutton his shirt, revealing a muscular chest… a chest covered in scars.
He counted the scars: "This cut, this one, was from the eighteenth year of Jian Ning, when I was fifteen in the south of the Northern Desert, chopped by the Tatar cavalry. I hid under the blankets in my tent, weeping, until my third uncle found me. He dragged me out and slapped me in front of everyone, saying that as a man of the Xie Family, even if my head were to fall, I could only bleed, not shed tears."
"This arrow wound was from the First Year of Xi Ping at Guan Gorge, when the Tatars made a night raid, and I was struck by their arrows while defending the pass with my third uncle. At the moment, I didn’t even feel the pain. I broke the shaft and killed three Tatars trying to storm the pass. It was later, during the removal of the arrowhead, that the pain nearly drove me to cut the military doctor retrieving it."
"And this arrow wound, from the seventh year of Xi Ping, when the three armies marched far into the Northern Desert. I led the troops to clear the path for the central army, and during battle with an offshoot Tatar force, I was shot. Look how close it is to my heart... Don’t laugh, but I even thought about my last letter, knowing I wouldn’t see you married off, nor would I be able to discipline your husband..."
The delicate woman couldn’t maintain her previous indifference. With tears streaming, her trembling, gentle hand reached out to lightly trace the scars across her brother’s body... one after another, overlapping and crisscrossing.
Wang Dashi, however, was quite calm. After briefly counting over a dozen scars on his body, he carelessly pulled on his clothes, concealing his riddled flesh.
"Your second brother is telling you this not to show you how hard or miserable these years have been for him."
He wiped away the tears from his little sister’s face and softly said, "Second brother just wants to tell you, indeed our family has done many wrong things, but when it came to fulfilling our duties, we have never been unclear about them."
"As for my second uncle and the others, colluding with the Tatars and fostering enemies for power."
"I admit it!"
"But if anyone says the Xie Family sought glory through betraying their country or their lords."
"I don’t accept that!"
"What our family owes is to the soldiers on the border, not to the Zhao Family people!"
"Our family has already repaid some..."
"The rest, your second brother will continue to repay!"
"So don’t carry such a heavy burden in your heart. Our family is just a loser under the political struggles of the court, not some unforgivably vile creatures..."
At this point, he couldn’t help but sneer, "If it’s about losing conscience, the sins committed by our family across five generations can’t even compare to the officials profiteering from one grain shortage. If they can sit upright and well-fed under the pretense of integrity, why must our family be wiped out?"
The delicate woman did not reply, just tightly held her brother’s large hand.
She was educated and understood what was right and wrong.
Seeing that his consolation was to no avail, Wang Dashi changed the subject: "The boy next door, though a bit slothful, is decent in character and heart. If you were to marry him, it wouldn’t be a bad match!"
While speaking, he suddenly laughed: "Don’t think that you will bring him down. Shen is craftier than a monkey with his sticking hairs. If he’s willing to take a risk to get you here, he’s certain that you two together would be beneficial for everyone."
The delicate woman just shook her head, still silent.
Wang Dashi had no choice but to continue: "If you really aren’t interested, second brother won’t concern himself with him anymore. He’s caused such big trouble this time, and Shen alone can’t protect him."
"I heard on my way here, Huainan the Li Family has already offered a hefty reward for the bandit Zhang Mazi. His little tricks won’t fool those old river rats..."
The delicate woman remained unmoved.
Wang Dashi stared at her intently for a long while, finally letting out a long sigh...
Execution of the entire family, execution of the entire family.
Those who died, died without an intact corpse.
Those who lived were like wandering, solitary ghosts.
In this world, one truly cannot afford to do wrong...