Chapter 81: After the New Year (Part One)

As the newly fallen snow on the mountain had only half-melted, several constables, led by their chief, shoveled away the remaining white crust covering the ground. Beneath the earth, in a shallow pit they had opened up, they found yet another corpse.

Chief Niu ignored the stench of decay and examined the body. From certain identifying marks, he determined that this man was one of the villagers who had gone missing months ago. With the father dead and no one left to care for them, his children had long since been sold to the Mani sect.

After inspecting the wounds on these bodies, he found that each had died in the same way: their throats were cut by a sharp blade, and they bled to death.

He already had a rough idea of the culprit. The scant, incomplete evidence, together with the choice of victims, matched the pattern of children being seized in the capital. And since the orphans whose parents had died were all taken in by the Mani sect, it was likely they were behind it. Tonight would be a sleepless one.

That night, Chief Niu and more than a dozen constables lay in ambush beneath the small wooden bridge by Creekside Village outside the capital. Across the bridge stood the widow Zhang’s home. With two cattle in the household, and with the help of a big landowner’s fields, they could make a decent living. In addition, they had reclaimed an acre of land for their own rice, so they lacked neither food nor clothing.

But recently, for some unknown reason, one of their cattle had died. Chief Niu had examined the beast and found it had died of poisoning. He had also advised them not to eat it, but to bury it.

Looking up at the thick blackness overhead, and listening to the ceaseless rush of the creek, Chief Niu felt his mind growing uneasy. Years of martial training had given him a steady temperament, yet tonight was different.

He forced down the restlessness in his heart and gradually returned to calm. His long blade, which had accompanied him for many years, rested against him as he slowly exhaled warm breath. After waiting so long, it was about time. Those bandits who delighted in stirring up chaos would never pass up a household with children. The imperial constables could not reach the lonely villages and isolated homes outside the capital; if justice was to be done, it would have to be by their hands.

He steadied himself and waited. The cold gnawed ceaselessly at the constables crouched against the frozen earth of the creekbank. Many had already begun to tremble from the biting chill.

"Zheng Kaiyi, bring over the ginger water. Let the brothers take a few sips; it should ease the cold somewhat," Chief Niu said quietly to his assistant at his side.

Zheng Kaiyi had followed Chief Niu for more than ten years and was an excellent constable. At the command, he brought out several jars of ginger water he had prepared and passed them around to the men, including one for Chief Niu.

"Boss Niu, they probably won't come, will they? The brothers are freezing to death. Why not withdraw for tonight?" Zheng Kaiyi said, leaning close and pulling out a cold sesame cake, offering it to Niu Zhan.

Chief Niu took the sesame cake without hesitation, bit into it, and ate slowly. "Tonight, the Mani sect will definitely come. I can feel it. They won't miss this chance, and they certainly won't pass up this family."

"Mm," Zheng Kaiyi said carelessly, taking a bite of his flatbread. "The Mani sect has done nothing but evil and has always gotten away with it. If they come tonight, we'll catch them all and take them back to be dealt with properly. Then we'll root out every last one of them in the capital. That would count as ridding the people of a scourge. All that merit will belong to our boss, won't it?"

"Yes!"

"Ha ha..."

"Shh! Keep your voices down. What's so funny? Be serious, you lot. Honestly," Chief Niu said, using the flatbread to smack Zheng Kaiyi several times in a rough, affectionate manner. Yet the corner of his mouth still lifted almost imperceptibly in satisfaction. These men had all been brought up under his hand. Every single one of them was a towering, upright fellow, not one a coward, not one without scars. When they fought evildoers, none lagged behind; all of them charged in like a pack of wolves. The wicked were ferocious, and so were they. The wicked were ruthless, and so were they.

To deal with clowns in the dark, one must become the darkness itself.

Hmph. If the brothers from Xiang County were here, that little dragon king of the Han River would have become an obedient shrimp long ago.

He lifted the jar and took a big swig, then frowned. The ginger water had been salted. It had never been salted before.

"Zheng Kaiyi, you put salt in this ginger water. It tastes different from before. Strange."

Zheng Kaiyi’s grin stiffened for an instant, though he quickly covered it. "Drinking that tasteless ginger water all the time gets old. I thought adding something would be better, give it more flavor."

"You brat, always full of tricks. You even know how to look after people and think of our feelings," Chief Niu said, not suspecting a thing. His ears strained for any movement nearby, even the sound of mice in that household came through clearly. After finishing the ginger water, he handed the jar back to Zheng Kaiyi and fixed his deep gaze on the darkness ahead.

About half an hour later, drowsiness crept over Chief Niu, and his thoughts began to blur. What was going on? His head was already swaying. He gathered his qi and forcibly suppressed the onset of faintness. Turning to the side, he discovered that the brothers around him had all fallen asleep on the frozen earth.

Coo, coo-croo!

Bird calls. So close!

Chief Niu sprang to his feet with sudden alertness and looked at Zheng Kaiyi. The sound had come from Zheng Kaiyi’s belly, and Zheng Kaiyi too had risen. He looked different from usual, cold and sinister, as though ice had formed on the cliff of his heart. Bewildered, Chief Niu asked, "What’s wrong with you? Why am I so dizzy?"

"Boss, don’t you remember? There was a full liang of sleeping powder in the ginger water you just drank. I was afraid you’d taste it, so I added salt!" Zheng Kaiyi’s face twisted little by little into something ferocious, every line of skin trembling. "I’ve been a believer in the Mani sect for more than ten years. Hardly anyone knows that, so it’s only natural you didn’t. But today I’m afraid I can’t keep playing brother to you all anymore. I have to go back!"

Chief Niu stepped back several paces. Sleepiness spread through him like creeping vines. His thighs trembled as he forced himself to marshal all his strength and suppress the drug’s power, trying his utmost not to let his consciousness slip away. He heard Zheng Kaiyi’s words, yet no matter what, he could not believe that the man he had raised with his own hands was a hidden agent of the Mani sect.

"So that means..."

Madness blazing in his eyes, Zheng Kaiyi drew his cleaver and swung at the Chief Niu he had once been closest to, landing a solid blow on his shoulder. Because of the man’s martial training and armor, the blade did not split him in two. Instead, it lodged in Chief Niu’s shoulder. Bright blood sprayed into Zheng Kaiyi’s eyes, and he squinted involuntarily at the sting.

Chief Niu awoke from the pain. The figure before him was no brother, but an enemy. An evildoer.

"Ha!"

He drove a fist out, striking Zheng Kaiyi in the chest and sending him flying several zhang away. Chief Niu was somewhat surprised that his other arm had not risen in time, and only then did he finally understand that he had been cut in the shoulder.

From the darkness, two more figures surged out, attacking from left and right, two blades and a spear coming straight at him.

Hearing the rapid footfalls, Chief Niu leaned backward and turned, trying to evade the slashes and thrusts. He avoided the curved blade, but the spear hung in the air for a heartbeat before crashing down onto his chest. The force drove in bone-deep, and Chief Niu could not hold back a mouthful of blood. That blow had injured his lungs and heart.

Rolling across the ground, he fell toward the creek. He yanked the long blade from his body and fought back with one hand, struggling fiercely against the assault. In the end, the blade snapped, and he himself was swept into the torrent of the deep creek.

"What now? Chief Cao?" asked the Mani sect’s grand master, Tuo Man Shan, gripping his twin curved blades stained with blood. He looked unwillingly at the rushing water, just a breath away from killing the man.

With a splash and no hesitation, Chief Cao jumped into the pool. He soon hauled himself back to shore, shivering violently, soaked through and through. It was too cold.

"Follow the bank! Dead or alive, we must see the body!"

Chief Cao’s voice was tight with urgency. It was clear he found Chief Niu’s plunge into the creek hard to accept. Why was the current here so fierce, and the water so deep? He had personally confirmed it; there was no way anyone could hide beneath it.

A long while passed. At last, a heavy gray light gathered on the horizon. Then the frozen water’s surface suddenly split with a harsh crack, and a bedraggled figure burst out. His hair, tangled with frost, hung over his head like strands of seaweed.

Chief Niu’s shoulder had frozen enough to stop the bleeding. He walked with a lurching, uneven gait like a mindless corpse and came to the blood-stained creekbank. In his reddened eyes flashed boundless hatred.

He was still alive.

Even he found it astonishing. At the bottom of the pool there had been a rocky hollow just large enough for his body to squeeze into. Though the place was pitch-black, he had endured. He had not remained submerged, and in the unbearable cold he had even torn apart and eaten a four-legged creature he found in that narrow, dim cave.

Staggering step by step, Chief Niu, who had survived by a hair, made his way toward the capital.