Chapter 129: Heaven-Cursed

Jiang Fan was caught completely off guard. Although this was the Susong County Office, the setting was still the familiar type — the safest place — so he had not the slightest precaution.

The rope bit savagely into his neck; his whole body was nearly immobilized, and the pain was so intense Jiang Fan could not even lift his hands.

As his neck took the force, Jiang Fan's body toppled backward, retreating together with the person behind him. Soon there was a jolt behind him, as if they had hit a wall, and a figure darted out from the side, pulling the Gate Leaf shut with a creak.

The Advisor lowered his voice and roared, "All of you, get on him — strangle him! Strangle him!"

That man scrambled around to face Jiang Fan, holding a Waist Saber, but then the Advisor added urgently, "Don't draw blood — too hard to clean up. Strangle him!"

Flustered, the man set the saber at his feet, but had no idea where to put his hands.

Jiang Fan's face was swollen crimson, his Adam's apple caught beneath the rope. When the throat is constricted, the first thing is that the air in the chest cannot be expelled. The hemp rope not only clamped down on the blood vessels and windpipe, it also violently stimulated the nerves in the neck; every movement Jiang Fan made was excruciatingly difficult.

He slowly raised his hands, barely able to touch the hemp rope, yet utterly unable to loosen it even a fraction. The man behind him was breathing in harsh gasps, as if straining with all his might. The man in front, not knowing where to strike, simply rained wild blows all over Jiang Fan's body.

The Advisor paced frantically back and forth, at a loss for what to do in the room.

Jiang Fan's mouth gaped wide, his gaze scattering, his awareness gradually dimming. His hands clawed at the rope a few times, then slowly began flailing at random, until his right hand suddenly brushed against a hard object at his waist.

Ever since Luzhou, Jiang Fan had taken to carrying two extra Short Blades on his person — one at his calf, one at his lower abdomen, where he could reach into his clothes and touch the hilt.

Jiang Fan seized the hilt with agonizing effort. His eyes suddenly focused. Enduring the searing pain in his throat, he mustered the last shred of his strength, yanked the Short Blade free, and stabbed savagely backward.

A miserable scream sounded behind him. Jiang Fan felt his neck loosen, and the air in his chest burst out in a rush.

The man behind him let out another low shout and tried to tighten the rope again. Jiang Fan knew this was a matter of life and death. Ignoring his still-labored breathing, he desperately shook the hilt with all his might, the blade churning wildly in the man's thigh. Unable to bear such excruciating pain, the man instinctively shoved Jiang Fan away with violent force. Jiang Fan's grip on the hilt was so tight that the blade pulled free of the man's thigh as he was pushed.

The man behind could not suppress another agonized scream. At that moment, Jiang Fan sucked in a breath with a rasping wheeze. Fresh air rushed in, and his mind instantly cleared considerably.

The situation in the room shifted in an instant. The man in front was clearly no veteran of violence. He had frozen for a moment at the sight of Jiang Fan drawing a blade and was just now picking up the Waist Saber, the blade only half-drawn, when Jiang Fan, using the momentum of the shove from behind, stabbed the knife into the man's waist. The man let out a miserable cry, and the two of them crashed to the floor together.

Jiang Fan paid no heed to anything else. He stabbed wildly at the other man with the Short Blade in a desperate frenzy. The man's saber was not yet drawn, and he had no means to resist. Blood sprayed everywhere.

There were three enemies in the room. Although Jiang Fan had a blade, he had been strangled to the point of total exhaustion and had no idea whether the man with the rope also had a blade. In that moment, he simply stabbed madly, clinging to the thought of taking one down with him. Had either of the other two simply slashed at him with a blade, he would certainly have died on the spot.

To his surprise, the Advisor let out a shriek of terror, yanked the door open, and fled.

Jiang Fan was powerless to stop him. His breathing was still extremely ragged, and the act of stabbing had nearly drained all his strength. Seeing the Advisor escape, he knew that if the man called in just a few more people, a flurry of blades would finish him.

The man beneath him kept screaming. Jiang Fan remembered that the person behind him earlier was only wounded. Abandoning this one, he lunged again at the man who had been behind him. That man was still writhing in agony, clutching his thigh.

Jiang Fan cared nothing for his suffering. He paid no mind to where he struck, stabbing at any spot he could reach. The Short Blade flailed, flinging droplets of blood, until Jiang Fan's strength gave out and the slaughter in the room ceased.

Jiang Fan lay sprawled in a pool of blood, gasping violently. From the moment the rope had loosened, he had been locked in a desperate struggle, and his strength had long since been overdrawn. After a moment, Jiang Fan's breathing gradually steadied, his gaze slowly refocused. His nose could smell the reek of blood that filled the room. Jiang Fan swept his eyes around. Blood covered the floor; he was practically sitting in a pool of it.

Jiang Fan forced himself to stand, shut the door, and slid down against the wall, a faint sense of safety returning to his heart. But he knew he was still just waiting to die. Once the Advisor gathered a group and charged in, this door would be utterly useless to stop them. That would be the moment of his death.

Yet what baffled him was that, in all the time since the Advisor had fled, he had heard neither shouting outside nor anyone charging in.

He looked down again at the two corpses on the floor. He had never met either man. Their resistance had not been fierce; clearly neither was a battle-hardened veteran. Even within the yamen, they were certainly not Runners — at most, ordinary Constables. Only the man behind him had been somewhat stronger.

Why had these two tried to kill him? And why, after fleeing, had the Advisor not summoned reinforcements? Jiang Fan had not the slightest clue. This was the county yamen — the so-called "foremost place of safety." No matter how wildly Jiang Fan's imagination ran, he had never imagined he would be attacked inside the county yamen. And it seemed the other party was unwilling to make a commotion.

Jiang Fan stood in the blood-reeking room, his eyes flickering unsteadily. After a long while, he abruptly straightened up. He examined himself: although there were bloodstains on his Constable Uniform, the fabric was dark blue, so the red did not show.

He bent down, wiped his face with the corpses' clothing, and rubbed his shoes vigorously against both bodies. Then he opened the door and strode out with an air of utter nonchalance.

The Corridor was silent and deserted. The county yamen's Guesthouse was normally for receiving officials; when there were no guests, few people ever came.

Jiang Fan concealed the blade in his sleeve and nervously crossed the Corridor. Every step felt like treading the edge of an abyss, as if a large group of Killers might emerge from the surroundings at any moment and hack him into mincemeat.

Turning out of the Corridor, he saw several people talking in the Second Hall. They glanced up at Jiang Fan, then paid him no further attention. They looked like Clerks from the yamen, discussing some matter outside the Second Hall.

Jiang Fan kept his head down, walking past them as normally as he could manage, heading from the side gate toward the Main Hall.

The moment he stepped out, Jiang Fan looked up and saw the Advisor, standing in the passageway to the left of the Main Hall. He was clearly waiting in the relative safety of the Main Hall to observe the Outcome.

Both men started. Seeing Jiang Fan walk out, the Advisor knew the other two were dead. Unconcealable panic showed in his eyes.

Jiang Fan's scalp went numb. He steadied his nerves, his eyes darting rapidly left and right. The hall showed no sign of anything unusual. Clearly, the Advisor had not called anyone at all — which meant he dared not make a commotion. Jiang Fan, having killed two men, was even less inclined to make one.

Their eyes probed and tested each other. Jiang Fan felt his mouth go dry. This county yamen seemed so bizarre.

Jiang Fan felt liquid trickling down the back of his hand — it must be the blood that had soaked into his sleeve, now gathering into drops and running down. If the blood dripped and drew attention, or if he stood motionless too long, someone would notice the faint bloodstains on him.

At this thought, Jiang Fan made his decision. He lifted his foot and walked straight toward the Advisor.

The distance shrank steadily. The Advisor's expression shifted constantly — now terrified, now gnashing his teeth — clearly racking his brain for a countermeasure.

Jiang Fan stared fixedly into his eyes, his hand inside his sleeve gripping the hilt tightly. If the Advisor shouted, he would kill this man first to take him down as a cushion.

When the distance closed to three paces, the Advisor could not withstand the pressure bearing down on him. He involuntarily stepped back, yielding the passageway. Jiang Fan maintained his pace. The Advisor retreated two more steps until his back pressed against the wall, his face a complex mix of emotions as he watched Jiang Fan.

Jiang Fan slowly passed by the Advisor. Their eyes met for an instant, and then they had crossed paths.

Neither fast nor slow, Jiang Fan walked out of the Main Hall, through the Corridor, and out the main gate.

Jiang Fan let out a long breath. His back was long since soaked with Sweat. He swept his eyes over the street. People were coming and going in front of the gate; that group of Auxiliaries and Green-Skins was still at the Eight-Character Wall.

He had never felt such a sense of kinship with Auxiliaries and Green-Skins before. After glancing left and right, Jiang Fan did not even bother to retrieve his horse from the inn. He left the city directly from the South Side.

Susong was not far from the Yangtze River. The road was lined everywhere with Tang Lakes and Polder Fields, and willows were planted thickly along the wayside.

Jiang Fan had no heart to admire the scenery. He dared not pause on the road, making several turns in succession and constantly looking back to check. Only after confirming that no one was following him did Jiang Fan finally drop down onto the roadside curb.

After sitting in a daze for a moment, Jiang Fan suddenly buried his face in his hands and wept bitterly.

He stopped only after a long while. Tilting his head back, he gasped for a long time, then stared at the gray sky and muttered a curse: "This heaven-cursed world!"

…

"You heaven-cursed idiot! I told you to give him silver, and now you've let him get away. This, this — the future troubles are endless!" Not far from the scene of the struggle, in the Study of the rear residence of the Susong County Office, a civil official in a sixth-rank mandarin square trembled uncontrollably as he pointed at the Advisor before him and roared in a low, furious voice.

The Advisor kept his head down and said urgently, "Even if we gave him a hundred taels of silver, it would still be leverage against us in the future. No amount of silver can ever fill the greed of those lowly underlings — that too would be endless trouble. This humble one was thinking of your lordship's long-term interests."

The civil official flailed his hand, hammering blows randomly on the Advisor's head, cursing as he struck: "Long-term interests! I'll give you interests! Let's see how you like these interests!"

His face was filled with shock and rage, his expression utterly ferocious. With his movements, even the egret embroidered on the rank badge of his official robe seemed ready to lunge out and bite someone.

The Advisor dared not resist, nor even block the blows. He shrank his head and let the civil official beat him. The more the civil official hit, the angrier he grew, and with a furious roar he brought his fist down with all his might.

"Aiya!"

The civil official's fist landed squarely on the Advisor's hard skull. He clutched his right hand and let out a miserable cry.

The Advisor's head swam with dizziness for a moment before he recovered. Seeing that his head had once again caused trouble, he had no idea what to do and could only say tearfully, "This humble one dared not use personnel from the yamen. I only used the Groom and the gatekeeper your lordship brought. I had secretly observed that man earlier from the hall; he did not seem particularly strong. I thought two men could certainly strangle him to death. Who knew he carried a small knife on him? What kind of mounted Runner carries a small knife?"

"The man came several hundred li from Tongcheng — wouldn't he carry a knife to guard against bandits?" The civil official raised his hand to strike again, but suddenly felt the pain still throbbing in his hand. He hastily lowered it, lifted his foot, and kicked the Advisor savagely.

The Advisor was kicked back two steps; he dared not come closer, so he stayed where he was.

The civil official cursed furiously, "You dog, you still dare to dodge? Stand before me!"

The Advisor edged over sideways, stammering and hesitant; the civil official kicked him again, and the Advisor took it in stifled silence.

After this bout of violent exertion, the civil official was left panting for breath. He braced himself on the table and returned to his seat, sat down gasping heavily, picked up his teacup to drink, but it was empty inside.

Beside himself with rage, he raised the cup and hurled it at the Advisor. The Advisor did not dodge; the teacup struck his body, and with a crack it fell to the floor and shattered into several pieces.

Hearing the crash, the civil official seemed to vent a little of the anger in his heart. He slumped back in his chair and for the moment stopped the beating and cursing.

This civil official was none other than Chen Ten Prefectures, Tongpan of Anqing Prefecture. After Yang Fangzao's term ended and he left his post, because the new County Magistrate had not yet arrived, Chen Ten Prefectures assumed the role of Acting Magistrate of Susong County.

After calming himself a moment, Chen Ten Prefectures stared at the Advisor and said through gritted teeth, "Word of the Roving Bandits' approach was sent only to me from Anqing Prefecture, and the messenger was my own trusted man. I sealed the information off completely — not a soul in Susong knew the Roving Bandits were coming. I had already told everyone in the office that today I was going to Anqing Prefecture to take charge of River Defense — a perfect excuse. After that, whether Susong fell or not would have nothing to do with me, because I never received the information at all; I just happened to go inspect River Defense. That trusted man is one of our own — give him some silver and send him far away, and the matter is beyond proof. A flawless plan with no risk of failure. How could some constable from Tongcheng suddenly appear out of nowhere to raise the alarm, and you still let him escape? If he got away, then I cannot get away! Tell me, what do we do now!"

"This humble one does not know." The Advisor was drenched in sweat; though it was early spring, he felt as if in high summer. "But Your Excellency should, in any case, leave first."

"How can I leave? Someone came to report the Roving Bandits' warning. I am the Acting Magistrate. Now that I have received the information, I bear the duty of Defending the Territory and protecting the people. If I leave now, it is Abandoning the City out of cowardice, and in the end it will be the West Market Execution." Chen Ten Prefectures slumped weakly against the back of his chair. After a moment of silence, two trails of tears actually streamed down his cheeks. He murmured, "Those heaven-cursed Roving Bandits, that heaven-cursed Tongcheng constable — you are forcing me to my death. I have no grievance nor grudge against you; why must you be so vicious!"

Seeing Chen Ten Prefectures weeping so bitterly, the Advisor dared not disturb him. After a while, estimating that Chen Ten Prefectures's mood had settled somewhat, he spoke again to urge him, "Your Excellency will surely turn calamity into blessing, but today you must decide your course of action soon."

Chen Ten Prefectures's eyes were lifeless. "They have blocked me at both ends. My path of retreat lies right here within this county office. What course of action is there left to decide?"

The Advisor said urgently, "Return to Anqing to save your life, Your Excellency! What that Tongcheng constable said must be true. The Roving Bandits have already reached Qianshan and could arrive in Susong at any moment. This place does not even have walls, let alone any question of holding it. When the Roving Bandits come, they never fail to kill the Hall Officer. Future troubles are always for later — first preserve your life, then we can speak of future troubles."

Chen Ten Prefectures wiped his tears, sat up, braced both hands on the desk, and brooded with a dark expression for a moment. "What you say is reasonable."

Having gained approval, the Advisor felt somewhat steadier in his heart, and his wits slowly returned. He spoke to Chen Ten Prefectures again, "When that constable fled, he dared not make a sound. Anyone who escapes death by a hair's breadth is scared out of his wits. Once out of the county office, he certainly would not dare stir up trouble — he must have slipped straight out of the city. The city still knows nothing. If Your Excellency leaves, you leave as one who never received the information — absolutely not as one Abandoning the City to flee the bandits."

"Then what of the two corpses lying dead in that room?"

"That room is not in the Main Hall; it is behind the Guesthouse. Lock the door and no one will go there. If the Roving Bandits arrive and slaughter until heads roll, the corpses in that room will naturally have been killed by the Roving Bandits."

Chen Ten Prefectures lay over the desk and said nothing for a long time. A scholar who had risen through the imperial examinations, when had he ever encountered this kind of struggle? The moment he heard the Tongcheng constable had escaped, he had immediately lost his composure. Now, at last, under the Advisor's guidance, he was recovering.

"Go. Go at once. We still say I am going to Anqing to take charge of River Defense." Chen Ten Prefectures stared hard at the Advisor. "No matter what, we stick to it to the death: no one from Anqing ever came, you and I never heard a word of the Roving Bandits' incursion. As for that Tongcheng constable just now — he never came to the county office. If someday he claims he did, we will both deny it. He has absolutely no proof."

The Advisor nodded. "Exactly. Only, the Chengfang Dianli in the county office also saw that constable…"

Chen Ten Prefectures gave a cold snort. "That will only matter if he still has his life. It would be best if the Susong County Office were slaughtered to the last by the Roving Bandits — once and for all, dead men tell no tales! We go!"