Chapter 938: Running Away from Home

A merchant caravan from Yan, loaded to the brim with goods, left Fengxin City early in the morning. After traveling west for an entire day, it finally stopped.

According to Prince Pingxi Residence’s regulations, every merchant caravan traveling through eastern Jin had to submit to identity checks upon entering the territory, have its goods counted and taxed when entering and leaving, and camp overnight only at the nearest relay station or fortified post.

Even in extreme weather such as heavy rain or violent winds, temporary camping was permitted only if someone was sent to notify the nearest fortification.

Otherwise, the entire caravan would be treated as spies.

The caravan master personally went to the fort to register with the lieutenant in command, while his men began putting up tents and preparing the evening meal.

Merchant caravans hated eastern Jin because there were endless rules to follow here.

Merchant caravans also loved eastern Jin because everyone here had to follow the rules.

As for the hired hands traveling with them, their most comfortable nights were always the ones spent inside eastern Jin.

Rest meant rest.

Sleep meant sleep.

There was no need to worry about safety.

Once they left eastern Jin, however, they would have to take turns sleeping on night watch, and even then nobody ever felt truly secure.

“Old Lu, the boss wants you.”

“Oh. All right.”

At that moment... the lid of a wooden chest on a nearby wagon slowly lifted.

A little girl peeked outside furtively, then climbed out of the chest.

Immediately afterward, a little boy with a red mole between his brows climbed out as well.

The girl was exquisitely adorable, delicate as a porcelain doll.

A long cloth-wrapped bundle was strapped across her back, somewhat out of proportion with her small body.

The boy’s expression was much more aloof.

There was little of the fresh innocence one expected from a child his age.

Instead, he gave off a faintly cold, gloomy air.

“Little Brother, hurry and eat.”

The girl jumped down from the wagon.

A small pot of food was simmering over the campfire.

She stirred it with a ladle, filled a bowl, and discovered potatoes stewed with meat.

“Little Brother, here. You must be hungry. Hurry and eat.”

She handed the first bowl to her younger brother.

The boy looked somewhat helpless.

Still, he accepted the bowl and chopsticks.

The girl immediately filled another bowl for herself and sat down.

She really was starving.

She began eating at once.

The boy watched his elder sister wolf down her food and shook his head helplessly.

Then he turned sideways and half-crouched.

He kept his back toward his sister and faced the direction from which someone might approach.

Even while eating, he did not look down at the bowl in his hands.

The man who had been preparing supper there earlier returned before the two children had eaten for long.

The girl puffed out her cheeks and stared reluctantly at the food still left in her bowl.

The boy, meanwhile, shifted his body sideways while still holding his bowl and chopsticks.

His sleeve slid back, revealing a small mechanical launching device strapped around his wrist.

The instant Old Lu turned the corner and came into view... a silver needle shot out.

It struck the back of Old Lu’s neck.

Old Lu felt the world spin.

His eyes rolled back.

He collapsed unconscious.

The boy caught him with one hand, lowered him gently into a sitting position, then walked back to the campfire, picked up the ladle, and added another spoonful to his sister’s bowl.

“Hehe.”

The girl grinned at her little brother and continued eating.

The boy returned to the place where Old Lu had first turned the corner and continued watching outside.

At last, the girl ate her fill.

Drowsiness immediately struck her.

“Little Brother, let’s go back and sleep.”

The boy said nothing.

The girl climbed back into the wagon on her own and crawled into the chest.

The boy washed his own bowl and chopsticks using the water from Old Lu’s waterskin.

He placed his sister’s bowl and chopsticks beside Old Lu, poured the remaining water from the man’s waterskin into his own, then untied the wineskin hanging from Old Lu’s waist.

He pulled the stopper and sniffed it.

It was erguotou produced in Fengxin City...

The boy frowned.

Someone had taught him before that when it came to drinking wine, one should prefer to go without rather than settle for something inferior.

If all you had was cheap liquor meant merely to make up the numbers, it was better to endure the craving and preserve the sensitivity of your tongue.

Wine was like life.

Never settle.

The boy poured some of Old Lu’s liquor over the man’s neck and soaked his clothes.

Then he tucked the wineskin into Old Lu’s arms and pressed one of the man’s hands over it.

Only after finishing all of that did he return to the chest inside the wagon.

The girl, full and comfortable, was already asleep with her head resting upon the long cloth-wrapped bundle.

The boy placed the waterskin beside her and leaned back against the opposite corner.

“Running away from home...”

He looked helplessly at the elder sister who had dragged him into running away from home and was now sleeping this soundly.

He genuinely did not understand why he had agreed to come with her.

She had said she wanted to take him outside and show him the free, carefree world beyond home.

And he... probably really had been worried that this elder sister of his, who had a sweet smile and no common sense anywhere else, would get eaten by wild dogs outside.

The boy closed his eyes.

Then sighed.

“Ah...”

...

Old Lu remained unconscious until the next morning.

The ache of hunger in his stomach made him mistake the discomfort for the aftermath of a drunken blackout.

Then he looked at the wineskin still clutched in his hand and smelled the alcohol on his clothes.

He sighed helplessly.

“Blacked out again last night.”

The caravan continued onward.

During the day, the little girl and boy remained hidden inside the chest almost all the time.

Only at night did they come out to eat.

The boy gradually mapped out the routines of the entire caravan.

After all, they could not keep tormenting only Old Lu.

The silver needles possessed an extremely powerful anesthetic effect.

But if they kept shooting the same man every night, he probably would not survive many rounds.

So almost every night, a different unlucky soul was selected to “drink himself into a blackout.”

At last... the caravan reached the Wang River.

The little girl and boy left the caravan.

Under cover of night, they slipped into a dockyard.

Eastern Jin’s external trade grew larger every year.

As a result, nearly every dock along the Wang River now operated without pause through both day and night.

Even after dark, the entire waterfront remained brightly lit.

Laborers hurried back and forth moving cargo.

Tax officials busily counted manifests and checked accounts.

Farther out, in the center of the river, a Great Yan naval warship lay at anchor on patrol.

Cavalry units also moved constantly along the banks, harshly suppressing smuggling.

When the two children slipped into the docks, they saw that the highest flagpole carried not only Great Yan’s Black Dragon Banner and Prince Pingxi Residence’s Double-Headed Eagle Banner... but also a string of severed heads.

They belonged to a smuggling group captured nearby.

In eastern Jin, smuggling was a serious crime.

Most offenders received the death penalty.

The two children chose a small cargo vessel that had already finished loading.

The ship would probably not depart until the following day.

The laborers had already moved on to load the next vessel, so nobody remained aboard this one for the moment.

The girl sat down on the deck and held her stomach.

She was hungry again.

The boy placed a bag in front of them.

Inside was food he had collected over the previous days, all of it chosen because it would not spoil easily.

He also pulled the stopper from their waterskin and set it beside the girl.

“Hehe. Little Brother is so clever. Come here. Let Big Sister give you a kiss.”

The girl grabbed the boy and hugged him.

Even though he clearly resisted this kind of intimacy, she still managed to kiss him on the cheek.

Afterward... the girl began eating.

The boy kept wiping his face.

Only after she had eaten her fill did the girl suddenly remember to ask:

“Oh! Little Brother, is this ship going to Chu or just crossing to the opposite bank?”

“It’s heading downriver to Chu. If it were only crossing the river, they wouldn’t need to load it through the night. They could put down a pontoon bridge during the day or just use a larger ship to ferry everything across.”

“Oh, so that means if we stay aboard this ship, we can follow the Wang River south all the way into Chu and go see Eldest Uncle. I remember that’s how it was drawn on the sand table in Dad’s Signing Office.”

Zheng Lin shook his head.

“We still have to pass Uncle Gou’s territory.”

“Ah. Do you think Dad already sent word telling Uncle Gou to wait there and catch us?”

Hearing that question, Zheng Lin turned his gaze toward a dark stretch somewhere along the shore.

He could not actually see anything there.

But he did not believe for one second that the darkness was truly empty.

Unless something had gone very wrong... one of his godfathers was probably standing there at this very moment, watching the two of them.

Dad Li was terrible at hiding, and far too large besides.

Dad Liang was commanding troops in the army camps and had no time to come play house with children.

Father had gone out on inspection and had taken Demon Child with him.

Mother and Blind Dad had to manage Fengxin City’s accounts, and this year they were obviously far busier than usual.

Count it all up... and it was probably either Dad Ming or Third Dad hiding in the shadows, watching the two of them sneak and scurry around without saying a word.

Of course, to be safe... whichever one of Dad Ming and Third Dad was here might also have Master standing beside him.

“Little Brother, we’re amazing! We already ran so far away from home. Even the moon outside looks so round!”

Zheng Lin pointed at the long cloth-wrapped bundle in his sister’s arms.

“You brought that with you. Dad’s people can find us very easily.”

“They won’t. Longyuan is very obedient. I already whispered to it and told it to hide its aura carefully.”

“All right.”

That was not perfunctory.

If his sister said so, Zheng Lin believed her.

Ever since he could remember, his sister and Longyuan had been inseparable.

Sometimes, Longyuan could even carry his sister into the air.

Never for very long, though.

At that age, his sister could not provide the sword with enough sword qi, so Longyuan had to rely entirely on the qi of Heaven and Earth it absorbed on its own to store energy.

After flying for a short while, it would run dry.

Zheng Lin remembered one time when his sister insisted that Longyuan carry both of them together.

They made it as high as the rooftop before both children came crashing down.

When they hit the ground, Zheng Lin had been the one holding his sister.

He was not afraid of falling.

But he worried his sister might get hurt.

Not because he feared the pain she might feel.

He feared her face getting damaged.

Their father had always treasured his elder sister beyond measure.

If Dad saw her face injured, he would definitely assume Zheng Lin had been naughty, dragged his innocent and obedient sister into playing recklessly, and gotten her hurt.

Then Dad would beat him half to death.

As for Mother... not only would she refuse to help.

Based on past experience, she would most likely join Dad for a mixed-doubles beating.

His sister had always maintained the image of an obedient, sensible good girl.

As for Zheng Lin... exactly the opposite.

“When we reach Eldest Uncle, we’ll be able to eat lots of delicious things every day, and we won’t have to attend lessons anymore.” Big Girl hugged Longyuan and murmured, “Eldest Uncle will definitely be very happy when he sees us.”

Every New Year and festival, Eldest Uncle sent people carrying piles of delicious food and fun toys.

To a child, a distant maternal uncle like that was practically the most wonderful fantasy imaginable.

Zheng Lin said:

“Eldest Uncle will be happy when he sees you.”

Big Girl corrected him.

“He’ll definitely be even happier when he sees you came too.”

Zheng Lin nodded.

“Yes. He’ll be so happy he goes insane.”

The two children spent the night hidden in the cabin.

The following morning, the cargo vessel left the docks and began sailing south.

What followed was a long life on the river.

Boring.

Tedious.

Stale air.

Cramped quarters.

Fortunately, both children could endure things ordinary children never could.

They persisted.

Eventually, they heard the sailors say they would reach Hengfeng Water Fort the following morning, and that Fan City lay another two days beyond that.

That night, Big Girl suddenly took Zheng Lin by the hand and led him onto the deck.

“Little Brother, we need to get off the ship,” Big Girl said.

“All right.”

Big Girl and Zheng Lin entered the water together.

Big Girl hugged Longyuan and floated toward shore.

Zheng Lin swam on his own.

Once they reached land, the two found a stony beach and stopped there.

Zheng Lin gathered piles of dry grass and dead branches.

Big Girl found a rock and struck Longyuan against it.

Clang! Clang!

Two impacts produced sparks.

The grass caught fire, then the dry branches began burning as well.

The two children stripped off their clothes and began drying them beside the flames.

“Little Brother, are you hungry?”

Ever since leaving Fengxin City, finding “food” had become the most important task of every day.

“Little Brother, how about Big Sister roasts fish for you?”

“All right.”

Zheng Lin agreed, stood up, walked to the river, and jumped in again.

A little while later, he came ashore carrying two fish.

Big Girl used Longyuan to scrape off the scales.

A divine sword sharp enough to slice through iron as though it were mud was extremely convenient at a moment like this.

Once the scales were removed, Big Girl skewered both fish on Longyuan and laid the sword over the fire to roast them.

Zheng Lin silently sorted their dried clothes.

He gathered his sister’s first and draped them over her shoulders.

His own did not matter much.

He was not afraid of cold.

From birth until now, he had never once been sick.

The fish finished roasting.

The two children began eating.

As she ate, Big Girl said:

“This tastes awful, Little Brother. Big Sister is sorry.”

“Mm.”

The fish really was terrible.

They had not cleaned the insides at all, and they had no seasoning.

“Whenever Dad barbecues, he brings so many little bottles and jars. I used to think they were such a burden. Now I really miss all those bottles and jars,” Big Girl continued.

“Mm.”

After forcing down their terrible roasted fish, the two children lay together against the ground and looked up at the stars.

“Little Brother, do you regret coming out with Big Sister?”

Zheng Lin shook his head.

“No.”

“Little Brother, you’re so good.”

Big Girl reached out and tried to pat her younger brother’s head.

Zheng Lin turned aside to dodge.

Big Girl insisted.

After a long stalemate, she finally caught him and happily ruffled his hair.

“My little brother is the most obedient.”

Zheng Lin lay there without speaking.

“Little Brother, let’s go home,” Big Girl suddenly said.

“Why?”

Zheng Lin could not understand.

They had suffered so much and endured so many hardships.

They had finally reached this point.

He assumed his sister had simply forgotten the route ahead and reminded her:

“If we follow the western side of Mount Meng and keep heading south, we can bypass Uncle Gou’s Fan City and enter Chu territory.”

Big Girl pouted.

“I don’t want to find Eldest Uncle anymore.”

“Why?”

Zheng Lin truly could not understand the way his sister’s mind worked.

At this age, Zheng Lin was still very innocent.

Once he grew older, he might eventually discover that the thought processes of every breathtakingly beautiful woman seemed equally impossible to understand.

“Before, Eldest Uncle felt very far away, so I missed him. Now he feels very close, so I don’t miss him that much anymore.”

Big Girl suddenly began crying.

“Waaah... Little Brother, I miss Dad. I miss Mother too.”

Zheng Lin looked helplessly at his elder sister, who had suddenly started crying.

Big Girl tugged his hand.

Zheng Lin did not react.

She tugged again.

Still nothing.

So Big Girl pinched his arm while sobbing.

Even though Zheng Lin had possessed extraordinarily tough bones and sinews from birth, the girl used a clever grip on a patch of soft flesh.

It hurt enough to make him grimace.

He had no choice but to reach out and hug his sister.

His sister immediately patted him on the back.

“Little Brother, don’t cry. Big Sister is here. Don’t cry, Little Brother. Big Sister is right here.”

“...” Zheng Lin.

Nothing happened through the night.

The next morning, both children gradually woke.

Big Girl looked at the extinguished campfire, then toward the river ahead.

“Little Brother, Big Sister thinks you probably don’t want roasted fish again.”

“No. I don’t.”

“Little Brother, Big Sister thinks you probably want rice now. Something like egg fried rice.”

“Yes. I want egg fried rice.”

Big Girl beamed.

“See? Big Sister guessed perfectly.”

“Yes. Big Sister is amazing.”

“Then I’ll take Longyuan and go steal bird eggs!”

“Good. I’ll go plant rice right now.”

“It’s decided!”

Big Girl hugged Longyuan and headed toward the cliffs and ravine ahead.

Zheng Lin scratched his head.

He did not actually go plant rice.

Once Big Girl disappeared from view, Zheng Lin turned toward the surrounding wilderness and shouted three times:

“Egg fried rice!”

“Egg fried rice!”

“Egg fried rice!”

Afterward... he ran after Big Girl.

The ravine held plenty of bird nests.

Big Girl had Longyuan.

No matter how diligently the birds built their nests upon sheer cliffs and difficult ledges, none could escape the cruelty of fate.

Zheng Lin hid nearby and watched his elder sister diligently commit her “sins.”

He did not trust leaving her alone.

He was afraid his foolish elder sister might somehow fall and kill herself.

Ordinary children had difficulty falling to their deaths because only wealthy households possessed tall pavilions.

His sister was different.

Longyuan could fly.

So her chances of falling to her death were much higher.

Sure enough... an accident still happened.

Greedy Big Girl fell.

Zheng Lin immediately rushed out.

But as she dropped, Longyuan caught her again and delivered her safely into Zheng Lin’s arms.

Unfortunately, the bag of bird eggs hanging from Longyuan smashed against the rocks and shattered completely.

Big Girl started crying.

She shouted:

“Little Brother, we can’t make egg fried rice anymore! Did your rice finish growing?”

Zheng Lin looked at the smashed eggs and silently mourned for the mother birds.

Then he nodded.

“It should be ready.”

“Then Big Sister will still make fried rice for you. No eggs, though. Oh, right, what about oil? Fried rice without oil tastes terrible. It just turns into burnt rice crust.”

“Don’t worry. I planted rapeseed too.”

“Little Brother, you really think of everything.”

“Mm.”

Zheng Lin accompanied his elder sister, whose eyes still carried traces of tears, back to the stony beach where they had slept the previous night.

Beside the extinguished campfire stood several neatly stacked piles of firewood.

There was also a cooking pot.

Bowls and spoons rested inside it.

Nearby lay a sack of rice... and a stack of eggs.

As though someone had gone out of their way to explain where those eggs came from, an old hen had even been tied beside them.

“Ha!”

Big Girl ran over in delight.

Zheng Lin walked over as well.

Then he noticed several small cloth bags beside the supplies.

Scallions.

Ginger.

Garlic.

Pepper powder.

Chili powder.

Corn kernels.

A whole line of side ingredients and seasonings.

Only after seeing those things did Zheng Lin finally understand exactly who had been following them through the shadows and protecting them all this time.

It was not merely one of his godfathers.

Nor Master.

Or rather... it was not only them.

Because there was only one person who deliberately carried this many seasonings whenever he left home.

Only one person who pursued the details of a refined life with this much obsessive care.

In Dad Li’s words... that person was called... a pain in the ass.

There was another name for him too.

His biological father.

[End of Chapter 938]