Chapter 1580 – Cutting Down Nie Liang, Attacking Yang Tao, Sword Pointing to the World (118)
“Hey, look at you, feeling pretty good today! Did you sleep well last night?”
As dawn broke and the light was still dim, a maidservant coming to take over her shift noticed her companion looking splendid and couldn’t help but ask.
“Yesterday was so leisurely; I snuck in a little extra sleep!”
The maidservant who kept watch last night yawned, still showing signs of fatigue, but you could tell her sleep quality from last night was decent.
“Eh? That’s strange. Those two crazy women didn’t make a fuss at midnight? Why did I miss such a good time?” The maidservant taking over was extremely astonished. Last night, during her watch, those crazy women demanded food and drinks every little while, refusing to let her sleep at all.
The yawning maidservant froze in place, suspiciously saying, “Yeah, how could those crazy women not cause a ruckus? Could something have happened?”
Another maidservant sneered, “In my opinion, it’d be better if those two nuisances were dead.”
While saying that, they still went inside to take a look, even too lazy to make an announcement, showing just how much they despised and neglected the matter.
They walked around a bit and found the room empty; not even the usual cries of a baby could be heard.
They searched high and low in both the inner and outer quarters, growing more anxious with every moment.
“Ah—”
Suddenly, a sharp and terrified voice reached the ears of the group. Following the sound, they saw a maidservant collapse in panic.
“What happened?”
With a trembling finger, the maidservant pointed at a corner box, stuttering, “D-dead people!”
One fat and one thin corpse had been jammed into a small box, contorted limbs twisted at unnatural angles, their distorted faces facing everyone. Despite the two corpses showing ugly bruises, bleeding from every orifice, and their eyes nearly popping out, the group still recognized them—weren’t these the two cleaning women who snuck out to eat the crazy women’s leftover food last night?
“N-no way!” The maidservant who had kept watch last night exclaimed in panic, “No way! I saw them carrying the food box out last night!”
Those two cleaning women even chatted with her; they looked normal, sounded normal, and were definitely not dead!
Besides, they hadn’t returned after going out—how could they possibly have died inside?
This news quickly reached the ears of the responsible party, but instead of reporting that Yan Shuyao and her companion had escaped, they concocted a terrifying ghost story about a vengeful spirit killing and eating people. With the night-watch maidservant’s testimony, it was clear that Yan Shuyao had never left the house; instead, it was the cleaning women who had been beaten and hadn’t returned after taking the meal. The next day, their corpses were found stuffed into the small box.
“Nonsense! Do spirits and ghosts even exist in this world? Much less a vengeful spirit killing people!”
Yan Shuyao and her companions’ disappearance caused the responsible party to panic and rage. Even if Yang Tao didn’t care about the lives of his wife and sister, their value had diminished, yet they could still serve as sacrificial offerings for a military campaign. If they were to execute Yang Tao’s wife and children before his banner, it would surely boost the morale of the troops and diminish the enemy’s spirits. How could these fools not keep track of old, weak women and children with so many eyes watching?
“All useless! How could you not even keep an eye on two women and two children?”
The responsible party summoned all the maidservants who had kept watch last night for questioning, but the results were surprising.
They all spoke in unison, claiming they hadn’t seen Yan Shuyao and her companions, but they had indeed seen the two cleaning women leave.
Even the responsible party hesitated, asking, “Are you certain it was those two women who left?”
“It was definitely them; their voices and appearances were unmistakable.” The gatekeeper maidservant nodded emphatically, “It has to be them!”
Seeing the confidence of the maidservants, the responsible party grew uncertain, feeling a chill in his heart.
It wasn’t that he hadn’t considered the possibility that the two cleaning women were actually Yan Shuyao and her companion, but they were noble girls, so different in height, build, voice, and appearance from the cleaning women. Even in the dark, the maidservants wouldn’t be blind or deaf enough to confuse them.
Unless they knew some transformation technique?
Going around in circles just led back to the possibility of ghosts and gods.
Regardless of whether it was a vengeful spirit or not, the disappearance of Yan Shuyao and her companions couldn’t be hidden and would have to be reported upward.
At the same time, the responsible party ordered the guards to watch out for any suspicious women carrying infants.
In this era, it was common to see widows with babies everywhere; they couldn’t treat every single one as a suspicious target, could they?
The responsible party listed a few conditions: for instance, the infants should be under a year old, the women should be exceptionally beautiful in appearance, and should not have worked in the fields…
With a series of conditions laid out, they managed to detain a few suspicious individuals, but none were the ones they were looking for.
“Could it really be—ghosts at work?”
The responsible party desperately suppressed his creeping dread.
At this moment, Yan Shuyao and Yang Roujia had already ridden several miles out with the children. For convenience, and to protect themselves, Yang Roujia had disguised herself as a male wanderer, while Yan Shuyao disguised herself as an ordinary peasant woman. Together, they looked like a family of four with two children on the road.
This disguise allowed them to avoid many dangers as they hurried over mountains and valleys to reach the place where Yang Tao was trapped.
Yang Roujia stepped forward, voice stern, and shouted at the blocking soldiers, “Step aside! The Young Master and Mistress are here! Who dares to be rude!”
A few soldiers were momentarily stunned; once they revealed their identities, whether true or false, they couldn’t afford to be disrespectful.
One soldier hurried off to inform Qian Su about the situation.
Upon hearing, Qian Su was shocked, grabbing the soldier to ask, “Did they really say that?”
The soldier nodded, and Qian Su rushed over without delay.
“You—”
Qian Su looked at the unfamiliar man and woman, feeling a mix of indignation as if she had been tricked.
At that moment, Yan Shuyao returned to her original voice.
“Where is the Young Master?”
Qian Su stared at Yan Shuyao in a daze; the voice was clearly that of the Mistress, but the appearance was not—
Upon a closer look, Qian Su noticed both of their faces looked unnatural; if they had stared longer, she would have thought they were wearing a layer of fake skin.
Once they revealed their disguises, Qian Su’s expression froze completely.
Yan Shuyao said apologetically, “To ensure the safety of mother and child, we had no choice but to disguise ourselves like this.”
They briefly recounted their escape, and Qian Su was left dumbfounded, stunned by Yan Lin’s meticulous planning as well.
Yan Lin dared to scheme for anything; Yang Tao dared to believe everything; and what about their wives? They dared to do anything.
As for how these two families operated, she simply couldn’t comprehend.
After nearly a month apart, seeing his wife, children, and sister again, Yang Tao, the Big Man, nearly shed tears on the spot.
Even without laying eyes on what happened, just imagining their harrowing escape made him realize the risks they faced—the slightest error could lead to their doom!
With his family safe, Yang Tao also shook off concerns and began to think about the path ahead.
Going head-to-head would likely mean throwing eggs at rocks, sacrificing the last remnants of over twenty thousand soldiers for nothing.
Surrender was out of the question; otherwise, Yang Tao wouldn’t have chosen Yan Lin’s suggestion for his wife to take the risk to escape.
Surrendering—now that was a fine art.
It required preserving one’s home and life while protecting Shaoyang, without letting his soldiers die in vain, and avoiding any gains for the rebel army of Nan Sheng!
After much deliberation, it seemed there was only one option.
