Chapter 286: Longyan Battle Record (9)

A fair, pale arm reached out and pulled Guan Gong into the room — it was none other than Master Lin's beautiful concubine, Biyu.

Biyu's maiden family name was Chen; she was the daughter of a landlord household in Zhangzhou Prefecture. From a very young age, Biyu had already revealed a superior appearance, commonly known as: a beauty in the making. So her father hardened his heart and invested in two skills for Biyu: literacy with accounting, and foot-binding.

This investment ultimately paid off: after Chen Biyu came of age, her family began arranging to marry her as the principal wife to the young master of a minor official's household — in that case, those accounting skills would have come in perfectly handy.

Just as Chen Biyu was dreaming of the future, she instead stepped onto the bridal boat heading for the mountains — everything was illusory; only silver was the most real.

From principal wife reduced to concubine, from Zhangzhou City "banished" to the Ningyang mountain region, from "inner-third-ring resources" turned into a country bumpkin — Chen Biyu was naturally extremely unwilling to accept this. Yet what power did a weak girl of only seventeen have to resist? This was feudal society; the parents' command and the matchmaker's word were absolute truth.

After arriving at Lin Family Fortress, Chen Biyu's days were not hard at first: Lin Sanmen, who had spent a large sum of silver, doted greatly on this beautiful, bound-foot concubine who could recite a few lines of poetry. Apart from the First Wife, who hated her to the bone, everyone else in the fortress was also quite amiable.

Fortunately, this was a remote countryside place without so many rules: a concubine did not need to go pay morning respects and observe formalities at the principal wife's quarters; the two sides did not even live in the same tulou and normally did not need to see each other.

Under these circumstances, Biyu's originally resentful, restless, capital-city heart could only be slowly suppressed by life.

A year after she arrived at the Lin household, things slowly began to change: Lin Sanmen was no longer capable.

Incapable in what way? That thing down there.

Probably because he had been frequently intimate with maidservants since his youth — at least that was what the physician said: engaging in carnal matters too early, therefore harming the kidneys. So in the past two years, Master Lin had suddenly become useless in the bedchamber.

Accompanying this uselessness was Master Lin's increasingly portly figure and aging appearance.

Poor Biyu naturally had no way of knowing that Master Lin's condition had a classification in later generations: erectile dysfunction caused by type 2 diabetes.

And so Biyu's misfortune began.

From the second year after marrying into the Lin household, whenever the master, incapable of performing, came to spend the night, he began tormenting her with implements like the "Horn Gentleman" and "Burmese Bells."

Although these implements were all standard equipment in brothels, the same sort of goods as those sold in later-generation adult shops, the problem was that Master Lin was no longer capable. What were originally aids to spice things up became the main event, and this subjected Biyu — who had only received a traditional education and had never been steeped in the sexual philosophies of a madam or later generations — to both mental and physical torment.

That year, Biyu was just nineteen, the very moment a ripe peach reaches perfection, yet Master Lin's perverted, false-phoenix-style torment plunged Biyu's days into nightmare mode.

The consequences of the nightmare did not stop there: Master Lin's body was failing, so what would become of the concubine Biyu, who had no son or daughter to rely on, when the master kicked the bucket — how would the principal wife, who had borne two legitimate sons, deal with her?

Let's put it this way: if she could escape from that mountain valley back to her maiden home with her life, it would already be an immense stroke of luck.

The emptiness and hunger after being tormented, the hatred for this dark life — all of this reignited Biyu's originally suppressed capital-city heart. She had seen the world, read books, and once dreamed of being the matriarch of a great household, managing hundreds and thousands of servants, so she would not submit to fate.

And so, the plan began.

On the way back from a trip to the county seat to watch a play, Biyu offered a few small favors and very easily captured the heart of Guan Gong, the coachman who drove her carriage — when a woman pursues a man, it's only a layer of paper between them, let alone when the man was a strapping, elite soldier in his twenties who had no money to take a wife.

That very night, Guan Gong, climbing through the window for the first time to be intimate, let Biyu experience the prowess of the Second Master Guan — drowning seven armies. Even when Master Lin's body had been in good health, he had never come close to reaching such heights.

From then on, days of deep passion and affection became utterly unrestrained. And after this kind of united-and-tense, serious-yet-lively life went on for over a year, today it finally reached its endpoint: Biyu was going to lay her cards on the table.

"I'm with child."

After the clouds had gathered and the rain had ceased, Biyu, panting heavily and revealing a bare chest, lay on the bed at that moment, staring blankly at the roof and uttering that line indispensable to all those soap operas of later generations.

"With child? What thing do you have?" the red-faced Guan Gong asked, lying on his side. At this moment, Guan Gong was likewise bare-chested; his youthful, muscular chest and biceps were covered in sweat.

"There's a child in my belly." Biyu's eyes remained blank, staring fixedly at the roof.

"A child?" "Ah! Whose? Mine?" Guan Gong stood stunned for a long while before reacting; it was only thanks to his ever-present vigilance that he habitually kept his voice low and did not shout out.

Biyu replied woodenly: "The old wretch hasn't been intimate with me for two years — if it's not yours, whose is it?"

"Ah! What is to be done about this?" Guan Gong was a man of normal intelligence, so he very quickly realized the consequences of this matter.

Biyu still lay there and said woodenly: "Morning sickness means it's been three months; in about two or three more months, my belly won't be concealable anymore. By then, even the blind Granny Wu who does the laundry will be able to tell."

Having said this, Biyu abruptly flipped over. By the moonlight shining through the window, she stared fixedly into Guan Gong's eyes and slowly asked: "I don't want to ride the wooden donkey — are you willing to be drowned in a pig cage?"

At this moment, Guan Gong was still drenched in sweat, but now it was cold sweat. The sudden barrage of information left him utterly bewildered, and he muttered: "Don't want to, don't want to. Don't be afraid, don't be afraid. There must be a way, there must be a way."

"There is a way. Tomorrow, you go to the county seat and get a dose of fierce medicine to bring back for me to drink."

Biyu gave a bitter smile and then continued: "If I can pull through, then the child will simply be gone. Also, I probably won't be able to conceive again in the future. If I can't pull through… ah, just pretend I never existed. The two of us are ill-fated lovers from a past life."

Hearing this, Guan Gong could not help but fly into a great rage: "How can that be? How can that be? This child is the sole heir of my Guan family, and you mustn't ruin your own body like this either. Didn't we promise to be husband and wife for a lifetime? We're supposed to have a whole brood of children together."

"This won't do, that won't do — what do you propose then?" Having said this, Biyu turned over, facing away from the bed.

Guan Gong did not answer. He draped a coat over himself, flipped off the bed, and by the moonlight felt his way to the copper water canteen by the bedside, where he drank several large mouthfuls of water, then washed his face with cold water.

After this, he paced back and forth barefoot in the room without stopping. As time passed and Guan Gong gradually calmed down, a trace of ferocity slowly surfaced on his face.

He suddenly crouched down, face to face with Biyu, and said: "Tomorrow you pack your things and go to the county seat to watch a play. We'll just run away."

"But if we do that, we'll have two days at most — I'm afraid we won't get far."

At this, that trace of ferocity surfaced on Guan Gong's face again: "Since we're going to do it, let's go all the way. In the next few days, when the old wretch comes to spend the night, after he falls asleep, you lower a rope. I'll come up and smother him, and then, taking advantage of the chaos in the fortress, we'll find our chance to leave."

"But if we do that, I'm afraid you'll have a hard time explaining things to the First Wife. Hmm, we'll need to think of a better excuse…"

Seeing the man sunk deep in thought, Biyu's eyebrows bloomed with smiles at this moment. With a "slap," Biyu reached a hand out from under the quilt and smacked Guan Gong's chest, then, her eyes shining, she pulled the man back onto the bed: "You fool, forget those clumsy methods."

The next moment, when the two were pressed together under the quilt and their eyes met, Biyu finally said in a low voice: "I just wanted to see if you had the guts to go all out."

"You must have a plan already?" Having been with her for so long, how could Guan Gong not know that this woman before him was a schemer? So, understanding dawning, he immediately asked excitedly.

"Hmph, if the two of us run away, can those two old folks of yours possibly meet a good end?"

Hearing this, Guan Gong nodded repeatedly: "Yes, yes, I knew you'd have a plan."

"Originally, I was planning to have them leave first. There's still enough time — I started unbinding my feet three months ago. However…" Biyu revealed a smile at this point: "Listen carefully. I have a letter here. Tomorrow, you request leave, then go to the Rear Palace outside Longyan County seat. There are Official Army soldiers wearing green coats there; you just hand the letter to the officer inside."

"Ah? What letter? What officer? What use is doing something like this?"

"Hey, don't be hasty. Just listen while I explain slowly."

Biyu began to recount to Guan Gong the contents of the meeting she had overheard that afternoon.

"So, as things stand, the fortress is already on the brink of a great calamity?" After understanding the full cause and effect, Guan Gong also caught on: "If Great Lord Lin at Duima Ridge really gets wiped out, then won't the Lin Family be finished in an instant? Who in these ten villages doesn't know that Lin Shiwan is kept by the Lin Family!"

"The Lin Family cannot escape the great crime of harboring bandits!" Biyu nodded.

"It's just that the Official Army has never been able to do anything about Duima Ridge…" After a couple of excited remarks, Guan Gong suddenly realized where the problem lay.

"What's coming this time isn't the Official Army — it's a great gang from the Edo carrying out a Fire Merge!"

Biyu began to analyze for the man: "Those green-coated Official Army soldiers are the strong army that pacified those great sea bosses of Zhangquan! I'm from Zhangzhou — how could I not know how formidable they are? Hmph, those country bumpkins like Lin Shiwan have no idea how powerful those sea lords are. With sky-high amounts of silver, they could just smash them to death."

"Just rest assured, as long as the Green Coats don't fall for the Lin Family's schemes this time, Lin Shiwan is certain to come to no good!" Having said this, Biyu gave a cold laugh: "The Chen Family of Longyan County had their fortress broken by these very people. When you go, you might as well scout around first; if there's no mistake, then it won't be too late to go inform on them."

"Mm, we'll do it just like that." Guan Gong was thoroughly convinced by Biyu's schemes: from the day the two of them had started their affair, every detail of their comings and goings had been decided by Biyu; Guan Gong could only nod along.

"One more thing — before you enter, remember to keep your face covered." Biyu added this final warning: "There are bound to be Wang Zhubao's spies near the Rear Palace. You must wait until nightfall to go and deliver the report."

"Mm, mm!" Guan Gong agreed without a moment's hesitation.

The next moment, the two rose. Guan Gong began dressing, while Biyu pulled a letter from a crack at the foot of the bed and handed it to him.

Finally, just as Guan Gong took the letter and turned to slip out the window, Biyu grabbed his arm and held him back: "Stay sharp in all things. Do not forget the child in my belly!"

"Rest assured — even if I must throw this life away, I will see you and the child safe!"

With those words, Guan Gong climbed down the rope.