Chapter 36: Lu Bin

Lu Bin was the youngest of the Lu brothers in Old Temple Village — a square-headed, powerfully built man. Liu Chengzong had met him before.

Last time, outside the wooden palisade checkpoint at Old Temple Village, Lu Bin had worn a white headscarf and a sheepskin jacket, sat astride a horse with a bow on his back and a wooden spear in hand — his voice booming, full of spirit and vigor.

Liu Chengzong had chatted with him a few times. He hadn't managed to get any information about Old Temple Village, but he'd wheedled out pretty much the whole story of the Ding Family Station.

Yet just half a month later, when Liu Chengzong saw this man in his thirties again at the clan ancestral hall, sudden calamity had drastically altered his appearance.

The moment he stepped into the hall's square courtyard, Liu Chengzong noticed the figure sitting on the ground in the corner. The filthy white headscarf lay cast aside; Lu Bin's hair hung loose and disheveled, his body caked with grime of mingled blood and mud. He looked over like a startled rabbit, making to rise.

"It's you?"

His mouth moved very little, his voice very low. A blood-seeping white cloth covered the left side of his face. He looked extraordinarily uneasy, his hand groping beside him, desperately trying to grab hold of something for self-defense.

"Liu Chengzong. We met at your village half a month ago."

As Liu Chengzong spoke, he had already walked forward, casually pulling over a long bench used for clan council meetings. Raising an eyebrow, he asked, "What happened to your face?"

"Arrow hit it. Lost two teeth."

The answer left Liu Chengzong unsure whether to call Lu Bin lucky or unlucky. Unlucky, of course, that an arrow had punched through his face; lucky that it had only pierced his cheek.

A wound can reveal a great deal of information.

For instance, he could imagine exactly how Lu Bin had taken that arrow — probably turning his head to look back at pursuers when a stray shaft struck him.

"You came on horseback. Just you? Where are the others?"

Lu Bin nodded. Whether it was his ordeal or his injury, he seemed utterly deflated, as if all his spirit and energy had been drained away. He slowly shook his head. "I... I don't know."

"The Ding family led the bandits into the stockade. The villagers scattered. A few brothers and I led them away, fleeing all the way... All scattered."

Since Lu Bin had a horse, the bandits must have had horses too. Liu Chengzong finally asked the question burning in his mind: "I heard from my da that those bandits were Wang Zuogua's men. How do you know that?"

It seemed similar questions had already been put to Lu Bin more than once, making him somewhat impatient. He answered with a slight frown: "They said so themselves. Said Zuogua led them to a defeat against government troops in Yao Prefecture. Thousands dead, the rest scattered. They were just one band."

Having answered, Lu Bin grew agitated, speaking and gesturing at once: "Soldier, you've seen me, you know I'm from Old Temple Village, not a bandit. Can you have them let me go? Hiss—!"

Some overly large movement must have pulled at something — his back, it seemed — the pain cutting off his words. But after only a moment's pause, he pressed on: "Give me back my horse and bow. I have to go back."

Liu Chengzong stood and walked to his side. Lu Bin was sitting against the wall; he hadn't noticed before, but now he saw a large tear in the back of the sheepskin jacket. Brown bloodstains remained on the coat, but the gash beneath was wrapped in white cloth — presumably treated and bandaged by a medic when he'd fled to Xingping Hamlet the day before.

"Go back? If the bandits are still at Old Temple Village, what can you do by going back?"

"I have to find my family. My brother, my sister-in-law, my nephew. My wife and children. All eleven in my family can't be gone, leaving just me. If there's no one... I... I at least have to avenge them."

Liu Chengzong said nothing. He moved to sit back on the bench, but just as he sat down, he rose again. "You've got a wound on your back. You can't even draw a bow. Go back and take revenge with what?"

"It'd still take two able-bodied men just to watch you. Count yourself lucky. Settle your mind, stay here and recover. Someone will feed you every day. What a fine deal."

As he spoke, Liu Chengzong himself chuckled. Truth be told, if not for the tragedy at Old Temple Village, being in a place like Xingping Hamlet with meals provided was something countless people outside, in these famine years, could only dream of.

After all, this was no occasion for laughter. Liu Chengzong reined in his smile, thought for a moment, then stepped forward and patted Lu Bin on the shoulder. "I'll head north in the next couple of days. If I happen to run into your brother, I'll bring him here. Settle your heart and stay put. Don't cause trouble in my family's ancestral hall."

"I'll go out and ask if we can find you another place to stay."

With that, ignoring Lu Bin's shouts behind him, Liu Chengzong walked out of the ancestral hall without looking back.

Standing beneath the high lintel and eaves of the hall's porch, he raised his head to the brilliant blue sky and sighed.

In less than two months since leaving Yuhe Fort, more people had died around him than in the past nineteen years combined.

He should have known those eight wolves at Ding Family Station were no lambs. They'd even killed a tax collector. Even without bandits, the slightest trouble would have sent them to rob others; with bandits coercing them, it was a match made in an instant.

The more he thought about it, the more Liu Chengzong felt he had to set out and take a look north.

If Lu Bin's brothers and family were still alive, he probably wouldn't find them.

Unless they were dead — then he might perhaps catch sight of a corpse.

Otherwise, if he could find them, the bandits could too. Without some skill at hiding, they surely couldn't have survived.

And if they did have hiding skills, the barren hills and bald ridges stretching for ten li in every direction could conceal hundreds of people without discovery, let alone a handful.

"Just got back from Ansai, and where are you off to now?"

Madam Cai, having finished distributing seed grain to the tenant farmers, returned home. Just entering the gate, she saw a pile of horse dung left right in the middle of the courtyard entrance. Looking further in, she spotted Liu Chengzong in the stable, a bedroll on his back, placing a saddle onto Hongqi's back. She couldn't help saying, "It's so chaotic out there!"

"Mother, you're back. Some bandits hit the village to the north. I'm going to scout over there."

Seeing his mother return, Liu Chengzong removed the saddle and temporarily hung the bedroll from his back inside the stable. He walked out, smiling. "It's fine. That Lu Bin locked in the ancestral hall wants to find his family too. If he goes out and runs into bandits, he's dead. I'll go take a look for him."

"The main roads out there don't hide anyone. You think you can go search the mountains for people?"

Madam Cai was so anxious she could only complain, but she had no other recourse. "You can't even find anyone, so why go north? Listen to your mother. Stay at home. Stop running off outside."

"How can I not go? A village just seven or eight li away, gone in a flash. I have to go see which way the bandits went. If they're still around, we prepare early; if they've gone elsewhere, our family can sleep soundly at night, right? Mother, don't worry."

Liu Chengzong raised a hand to wipe the sweat from readying his warhorse, casually rapping his knuckles against the frontier-army concealed armor he wore. "Inside are palm-sized armor plates. I'll ride two horses. If I run into bandits, I can still flee. They won't touch me."

"So capable, you and your armor plates. A whole village of people couldn't escape their murderous hands — what use is a suit of armor plates on you?"

Scolding aside, Madam Cai knew in her heart she couldn't stop her son. She could only frown and say, "Your brother went to find Squad Leader Cao; he should be back early afternoon. Eat something first, and when he returns, the two of you can go together and watch each other's backs... Whose horse is that?"

"Fine, I'll wait for him to get back. With more people at home, I'll feel easier leaving too."

Liu Chengzong figured his elder brother had probably heard about the bandits to the north, felt unsafe, and gone to bring Cao Yao and his group back. With fifty frontier soldiers at home, even if the bandits came, there'd be nothing to fear.

Thinking of this, he felt much more at ease. He pointed toward the stable and said, "That's the horse Squad Leader Cao from Houyao left for sister-in-law. I just borrowed it. Even if I wanted to leave in a hurry, I couldn't — its shoe is loose. It needs a new shoe before it can hit the road."