Chapter 54 of 90
Ambush of the Mountain Bandits
At the entrance of Ling Snake Mountain, a different group had already been waiting.
Li Yutang. And beside him, two others. One of them was Xiaocui. The other was Ye Qiong.
"Lord Commander," Ye Qiong was saying, "I never expected the City Lord's husband to be the kind of man who would collude with demons."
"It's all Li Yuguo's fault!" Li Yutang's face was solemn. "He's my sworn cousin, but this time I have to put righteousness above family. He's been mixing with people like the Thief Emperor and the Poison Emperor!"
Ye Qiong laughed.
"Don't worry, Lord Commander. As soon as I learned the Poison Emperor had appeared, I gathered a good number of strong disciples from the True Yuan Sect. With my master's permission. We'll be able to bring this whole gang to justice!" His chin went up. "How could decent people like us allow demons and heretics to roam around here?"
Li Yutang laughed with him, and looked at him meaningfully.
The moment he had learned that Li Yuguo meant to enter Ling Snake Mountain, Li Yutang had made up his mind. He would get rid of Li Yuguo. Because the boy actually knew the Thief Emperor and the Poison Emperor, and to Li Yutang, those two men were like two mountains he could not see over.
But luckily, one of them was a poisoner and the other was a thief. In the eyes of the True Yuan Sect, there were not many good men among the Ten Emperors. All Li Yutang had needed to do was send word of where those two masters could be found. The True Yuan Sect had dispatched its disciples at once.
"Brother Ye," said Li Yutang, with a show of concern, "there's one thing I must say first. Don't harm Nalan Meng. She's the Ninth County Lord of the Third Prince's house."
Ye Qiong sneered.
"Don't worry. A gentleman doesn't steal what another man loves. I know you and Nalan Meng are a natural match. She's only been bewitched by that monster. Li Yuguo's no good—anyone can see that at a glance! That white-haired girl at his side, he's forcing her to stay with him." His hand was on his sword. "And I've broken through to Advanced Martial Teacher now. This time, I'll beat him for certain. Not to mention I've got my brothers with me!"
"Enough gossip," said one of the True Yuan Sect disciples. "Once we meet the Thief Emperor and the Poison Emperor, killing them will earn us a lot of fame in the sect."
The men and horses around them began moving slowly toward the mountain.
Li Yutang was very pleased with himself. He had sent word to the bandits of Ling Snake Mountain in advance. When the time came, no matter how strong Li Yuguo was, there would be only one road left for him, and it would end in death. All through Ling Snake Mountain, the bandits had laid traps.
"Thanks to you," said Li Yutang, glancing at Xiaocui beside him.
Xiaocui kept her head lowered.
"As long as the Lord Commander succeeds," she said quietly, "and doesn't forget what he promised this humble servant…"
Her face had gone hot and red as she said it. Not with shyness. With shame. She kept her right hand tucked into her left sleeve, and her fingers kept moving there, rubbing at the inside of her wrist, rubbing and rubbing, as if she could scrub something off.
Just two days ago, she had refused him.
When Li Yutang asked her to tell him what Nalan Meng was planning—where the County Lord meant to go, when, with whom, how many men—Xiaocui had refused. She had been slapped and shamed, and she hated her mistress for it. But Nalan Meng was still her mistress. She had dressed her hair since she was twelve. Betraying her felt like swallowing a stone.
So Li Yutang had changed his approach.
He had invited her to his study that evening with a jar of good plum wine, and been gentle, and sympathetic, and talked about her troubles. About the slap. About how unfairly she was treated. About how clever she was, and how wasted. He had kept filling her cup. And Xiaocui, who had never drunk anything stronger than watered rice wine at New Year, had drunk far too much.
When she woke, it was past midnight. She was slumped over the corner of his writing desk with her cheek on the wood, and her head was splitting, and Li Yutang was sitting across from her in the lamplight, calmly reading a sheet of paper.
He showed it to her.
It was in her own words. She could see that at once, even blurred—her own turns of phrase, her own little country sayings, written down in his clerk's neat hand. The County Lord's plans. Every one of them. The north road. The day. The men. The Poison Emperor's lodgings. Everything she knew, and some things she had not even known she knew. And at the bottom of the page, a red thumbprint, still glistening. Hers.
She looked down at her right hand. Her thumb was red with cinnabar to the first knuckle.
And on the inside of her wrist, where the skin was thinnest, there was a mark.
A small red plum blossom. Five petals. The private seal of Li Yutang's house—she had seen it a hundred times, stamped on his letters, carved into the jade on his belt. It had been pressed into her skin in seal-paste that had some kind of Qi worked into it, because it did not come off. She scrubbed at it with spit. She scrubbed at it with her sleeve until the skin was raw. It did not even fade.
"Now," Li Yutang had said pleasantly, putting the paper away inside his robe, "everyone who sees that will know whose you are. And if your mistress ever sees this—" he tapped his chest, where the paper was "—she'll know exactly what you did. So you'd better make sure she never does. Hm?"
She had not had any choice after that. None at all. She had told him the rest of it, sober, sitting very straight on the edge of the chair with her hands in her lap.
Thinking of it now, she glanced up at him sideways. And her face burned, and she looked away again, and went on rubbing her wrist.
Deep in Ling Snake Mountain, beside a pool, a fire was burning.
"Master, madam—try it!" Jun Xue held out two skewers of roasted meat, one in each hand. "I found out that if you use this green-scale snake, with the seasoning the master gave me—it's so delicious!"
"Of course it is." Li Yuguo took his skewer and laughed. "First you brush it with olive oil, then roast it over the fire, then sprinkle sesame on top. The taste is amazing!"
They had caught a good many low-grade monsters on the way in. Of course, monsters that low were good for nothing but food, and that was what they had become. The green-scale snake had been the best of them—enormously fat, its body as thick as a grown man's arm, and not venomous at all. It had naturally become a delicacy for everyone.
Nalan Meng was eating, but she kept looking at Li Yuguo.
"I've noticed lately," she said, "you like to tinker with strange things. First it was pepper powder. Then it was—what was it—soy sauce. And now it's this cumin powder."
"Maybe because all my friends are merchants these days," said Li Yuguo. "Honestly. I've learned a lot, chatting with Shi Dacheng and the others."
Nalan Meng looked at him for a moment longer.
She still had doubts. She had a great many doubts about this new Li Yuguo. But he was developing in a good direction, and that did not seem like a bad thing.
And besides—she had her own secrets now. She had sat on the Poison King's cock not two nights ago, naked, with her pussy spread around it, and he was sitting on the other side of this very fire right now, licking cumin off his fingers. And her brother-in-law, whose cock she had ground her ass against at table nine, was somewhere at the foot of this same mountain.
A woman like that was in no position to pry too hard into her husband's secrets. So she did not.
"Boy!" the Poison Emperor shouted from across the fire. "Your cumin powder! I want some to take home with me!"
Li Yuguo got up. "Lord Poison Emperor, I seem to recall you're here to repay my favor. How can you ask me for things?"
"What's the matter? With so many people running errands for you, you're still not satisfied?" The Poison Emperor rolled his eyes and snorted, and ate all the rest of the snake meat on his skewer at once.
Li Yuguo smiled wickedly. "You can have some. But my cumin powder is expensive. You can't be a white wolf with empty gloves, can you?"
The Poison Emperor was a man who loved to eat. He gritted his teeth, and made a decision.
"I see you don't have a weapon," he said. "So—this dagger, as an exchange."
He drew it from his sleeve and held it out across the fire. It was short and plain, black-bladed, with a hilt wrapped in gray snakeskin.
"This is this Emperor's unique poison. It's called the Three-Step Throat Seal. It means a man poisoned by it can only take three more steps." The Poison Emperor turned it so the firelight slid along the black edge. "But it can only be used once. Below Martial King, almost no one can resist it. And there's no antidote."
Li Yuguo's eyes lit up.
Now that's a good thing. A one-time item, but deadly beyond words. If he ever ran into a much stronger enemy—and he would—this might be what saved his life.
"Well," he said, "then I'll reluctantly accept!"
He took it. And the Poison Emperor took half a catty of cumin powder wrapped in oiled paper, and sniffed it, and his whole face went soft with bliss.
Then Li Yuguo came over to Nalan Meng, looking mysterious. He took a little bottle from his sleeve. Glass—clear as water, faceted, catching the firelight in a hundred sparks.
"For you," he said. "I never had the chance to give it to you before."
Nalan Meng turned her head away. "I'm not that extravagant. You should sell this glaze and use the money to keep up your farming plan."
But inside, she felt very warm.
She had never felt quite like this before. The old Li Yuguo had never bought her anything. Not once. The only times he had ever come looking for her were when he wanted money.
Li Yuguo sighed theatrically.
"You," he said. "Really. A dog biting Lü Dongbin—doesn't know a good man when it sees one. The bottle is worthless. It's what's inside that matters. A perfume. A special one, from the Western Regions." He shook his head. "Do you know how hard it was for me to get it?"
That last part was nonsense. Li Yuguo was very good at nonsense. He had bought it on Alimama for less than the cumin.
Nalan Meng was taken aback. She took the bottle, suspiciously, and unstoppered it, and brought it close to her nose.
"What kind of smell is this?" she said slowly. "It smells so good…"
"That's right," said Li Yuguo, laughing. "You're a woman, but you practice with swords and spears all day long. It's not very feminine! So if you've got nothing else to do, spray a little on yourself. Then everyone will know you're a woman."
Nalan Meng pretended to be angry. "And who are you saying isn't feminine?"
"I—I meant this big tree!" Li Yuguo said at once. Bad. Very bad. Nalan Meng was famous for her temper. He should not provoke her.
But to his surprise, she did not pursue it.
She opened the lid of the perfume again, and smelled it again, slowly. Then she put it carefully away in the space of her bracelet.
"If you'd always been like this," she murmured, "it would have been fine…"
"Huh?" Li Yuguo had not heard.
"I said—" Nalan Meng's face changed. "Next time you say I'm not feminine, I'll throw you in the river!"
And in one movement, she drew her bow to a full moon, and loosed, straight at Li Yuguo.
"Aiyaa—auntie!" Li Yuguo threw himself flat. "I was only teasing you, why are you—"
The arrow went over his head.
It went past him, past the fire, into the trees behind him. And from the trees came a scream, and a crash, and the thud of a body falling out of a branch.
"Enemy attack!"
The Poison Emperor's face had changed. He was on his feet.
All around the pool—in the trees, in the reeds, rising up out of the water itself—men were appearing. One after another after another. Dozens of them. Ragged, armed, grinning.
The bandits of Ling Snake Mountain.
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