Ashes to Crown

Chapter 9: Chapter 9: The Human World

Deng Yi and his party rested at the posthouse for a night. Once they had arranged for a carrier pigeon to be sent to the King of Zhongshan, they set off again.

The King of Zhongshan would help intercept them, but they couldn’t very well have him escort them all the way to the Capital City. They still had to press on to rendezvous with him.

As the party receded into the distance, wind swirled with sand and dust. The Posthouse Minister stood outside the station, squinting, his hand falling to his waist to touch his empty coin purse.

The events of the past few days felt like a distant dream.

”My lord,” a posthouse soldier sidled up. ”That Ah Fu turned out to be General Chu Wei’s daughter! That little girl is a terrifyingly good liar. Most people trick you with a few words, but she brings out the gongs, drums, and an entire opera troupe for her performance.”

The Posthouse Minister scoffed. ”A liar? You’re selling her short. What she did wasn’t just lying. She’s practically a bandit!”

Throwing money around so extravagantly, one scheme linking into the next, playing everyone for a fool... That’s the brazen air of a bandit, plain and simple.

The Posthouse Minister thought of Ah Fu. ’She was always keeping her head down, only occasionally looking up to glance at someone. But when she did, her eyes were actually quite fierce and wild.’

’At the time, I didn’t think anything of it. She was just a little girl, after all.’

’Hmm... that posthouse soldier, Ah Jiu, was so thorough with his questions back then. Did he sense something was amiss?’

The Posthouse Minister shook his head again. ’But so what? In the end, Ah Jiu still took her with them. The story was just too perfect. Who would have ever guessed that a little girl had paid a troupe to stage the whole thing?’

’Still, it’s bizarre. To think that Chu Ling’s daughter would be like this.’

’Then again, maybe it wasn’t so bizarre. The things Chu Ling himself did back in the day were far more shocking than a little girl’s deception.’

”My lord,” the posthouse soldier asked curiously, ”what’s the story with General Chu Wei? He sounds like a nobody, since his rank is so low, but at the same time, he’s famous. Everyone seems to know his name.”

The Posthouse Minister glanced at him. The young posthouse soldier was only seventeen or eighteen. When Chu Ling was at the height of his fame, this boy was probably still nursing.

”When General Chu Ling was about your age,” he said, ”he had already made a name for himself.”

”As for how he first won the Emperor’s favor, I’m not entirely sure. The popular rumor is that His Majesty was visiting a military camp in disguise when Chu Ling, thinking he was a spy, knocked him right off his horse. I don’t know if it’s true, but if it is, it just goes to show that Chu Ling was a wild and unruly kid from the very start.”

”Later, he left the Capital City for the Border County to serve as a low-ranking officer. He was an incredibly skilled and valiant warrior. He single-handedly turned the tide against Western Liang, who had been treating the Border County like their own backyard. He didn’t stop there—he beat the King of Western Liang so soundly that the king sent a letter of surrender to the Emperor, begging to be treated as a sworn brother.”

”Chu Ling was promoted again and again, soaring through the ranks to become General Wei. It seemed only a matter of time before he became Great General.”

”The Emperor showered him with exceptional favor. He was even allowed to correspond directly with His Majesty, bypassing the Weiwei Mansion and the Minister’s Mansion entirely.”

”Posthouses were assigned dedicated posthouse soldiers just to deliver his letters.”

Such favor was unheard of. The posthouse soldier was stunned. But then he grew confused. ”So why did he end up as just a General Wei? And why was he always in the Border County? I heard he hasn’t left in over a decade.”

The Border County was no paradise. Generals came and went. The only people who stayed there that long were convicts in exile, weren’t they?

The Posthouse Minister chuckled. ”As the old saying goes, fortune and misfortune are two sides of the same coin. Too much favor can be a bad thing. This Chu Ling was young and reckless, arrogant and conceited. He was spoiled until he became utterly lawless and ended up offending His Majesty. If not for his extensive military achievements, he wouldn’t just have lost his rank as General Wei—he would have lost his life.”

This roller-coaster of a story only made the posthouse soldier more curious. ”What did he do wrong?”

The Posthouse Minister paused for a moment, collecting his thoughts. ”It all started with a bandit-suppression campaign. In a place like the Border County, Western Liang was running rampant and the people’s lives were miserable. Horse thieves and bandits were everywhere. In addition to fending off Western Liang, Chu Ling was also ordered to suppress these bandits. But during one such operation, he secretly let the bandits go. He was impeached by the local officials, and when His Majesty questioned him, Chu Ling accused the Emperor to his face—he said the bandit problem was a direct result of His Majesty’s incompetent governance—”

The posthouse soldier’s jaw dropped. ”That... that’s... unbelievably bold!”

The Posthouse Minister adopted the air of one who had seen it all. ”It’s not surprising. Once Military Generals win the emperor’s favor, they often end up like this. They start quoting things like ’a general in the field is not bound by his sovereign’s command,’ saying outrageous things, acting arrogantly, and ultimately destroying their own careers.”

The posthouse soldier shook his head. ”His Majesty would have been justified in beheading him. To let him remain a General Wei... that’s incredibly merciful.”

The Posthouse Minister tucked his hands into his sleeves and gazed in the direction of the Border County. ”From that day forward, Chu Ling was cast aside by the Emperor, left to languish in the Border County and fade into obscurity.”

The posthouse soldier sneered. ”Serves him right. And with a disgraced official for a father, how dare Miss Chu be so audacious? She really doesn’t know her place.”

’Is Miss Chu audacious?’ The Posthouse Minister rubbed his plump belly. ’Based on her appearance... well, never mind. I’m hardly qualified to pass judgment on Miss Chu. After all, I was one of the people she fooled.’

’This whole affair was a lot of work for nothing, and I’ve come away empty-handed. I nearly lost my post over it. I’d best steer clear of Chu Ling, and his daughter, Miss Chu, is not to be trifled with either.’

”Alright, alright, back to work.”

”Everyone, keep your eyes peeled!”

”And tuck away those bleeding hearts!”

...

...

The farther north they traveled, the more bitter the wind grew. As night fell, they took shelter from the wind and lit a bonfire, their frozen bodies slowly thawing in its warmth.

Zhang Gu unwrapped his scarf, exhaled a cloud of white, and slapped the companion beside him. ”Got any rations left? Let me have a bite, quick.”

Before his companion could answer, someone nearby handed him half a piece of dried rabbit meat.

”Mr. Zhang, please roast this and eat,” a timid female voice said.

Zhang Gu turned to see the girl, a round bundle wrapped in a headscarf. ”Ah Fu, this rabbit meat... isn’t this from a few days ago? Why do you still—”

”I cured it with herbs, Mr. Zhang. Don’t worry, it hasn’t gone bad,” Ah Fu explained hastily, wiping the meat with her hand. ”That’s not dirt, it’s just leftover herbs.”

Zhang Gu laughed. ”Ah Fu, I’m not turning my nose up at it. I was just going to say, this was for you. Why haven’t you finished it?”

Ah Fu shook her head. ”I don’t eat much, so I couldn’t finish it. You’ve had a hard journey, Mr. Zhang. You should have it.”

”You silly girl.” Zhang Gu pushed the rabbit meat back to her. ”We’re all on the same hard road now. No one’s having it tougher than anyone else. If anything, it’s harder on your small, thin frame. Now eat up!”

”Mr. Zhang, you’re truly a kind man,” Ah Fu said, her large, visible eyes brimming with gratitude.

A hand shot out from the side and snatched the rabbit meat away.

”It’s not good for someone with a small frame to eat too much,” he said. ”A weak body can’t handle rich food.”

Ah Fu said nothing. Zhang Gu sounded exasperated. ”Ah Jiu, stop teasing a child.”

Ah Jiu sat down beside him. ”What child? Brother Zhang, I’m only a few years older than her. I’m practically a child myself.”

He even gestured between himself and Ah Fu for comparison.

With his long arms and legs, he was nearly as tall sitting down as Ah Fu was standing.

”See? We’re about the same,” he said with a laugh.

Zhang Gu shot him a glare. When he looked back at Ah Fu, she had already retreated to sit quietly by the edge of the bonfire, where her sister was roasting some rations over the flames.

Ah Jiu waved the rabbit meat over the fire a couple of times before tearing into it hungrily.

”Brother Zhang, have a taste. It’s actually pretty good,” he said.

Zhang Gu huffed, ”I’m a grown-up. I’m not about to fight children for food.”

Ah Jiu roared with laughter.

The other posthouse soldiers started laughing too, pulling out their own rations and some wine. The mood grew lively as they ate and drank. They couldn’t drink much of the wine—it was just to drive away the cold, so a sip or two for each person was plenty.

”Hey, Ah Fu, and... Ah... what’s-her-name. You two want a drink?” Ah Jiu asked, deliberately being provocative.

Everyone remembered the name Ah Fu, but her sister was another story. She had been silent for the entire journey, sticking to Ah Fu’s side like a shadow, and no one had yet managed to remember her name.

”Thank you, sir,” Ah Fu replied. ”My sister and I will just have hot water.”

Ah Fu’s sister had a small clay pot suspended over the bonfire, filled with water she had collected earlier. Once the water was hot, she poured some onto a cotton cloth, took Ah Fu’s hand, and began to gently massage it.

After cleaning Ah Fu’s hands, she took out a ceramic cup and poured more hot water into it. This cup was for drinking.

While Ah Fu held the ceramic cup and drank, her sister took her other hand and began applying a salve. A faint, medicinal fragrance drifted through the air.

Traveling in the dead of winter was harsh, and frostbite was a constant threat to their hands and faces. Ah Fu’s sister had prepared the salve to soothe her younger sister’s skin.

”As the saying goes, ’an eldest sister is like a mother,’” Zhang Gu murmured, having noticed the scene. ”It’s a wonderful thing to have an older sister.”

Ah Jiu took the wineskin that was passed to him, tilted his head back for a swig, and said, ”You don’t need a sister for that. A handmaiden does the same thing. My handmaiden is just as meticulous—no matter the season, she always remembers to carefully apply my scented balms.”

’This kid!’ Mr. Zhang’s eyes widened for a second before he shook his head. ’Never mind.’ ’This boy grew up coddled in wealth and luxury; what could he possibly know of the world’s suffering?’