61. The Dread Bandit Hanguang-Jun

Ying’er and a squad of only four Nie planned to leave under the cloak of darkness, in the dead of night.

“I cannot provide any more aid than that, Sect Leader Wei,” Nie Meitong said with genuine regret. “My orders are to get this caravan safely to Tangshan, and meddling in the politics of the Jin would not contribute to my success in that goal.”

It was a polite way of saying “this is your problem, not mine,” but Yanli respected his point. Even giving them four soldiers was more than she had intended to ask for, although she suspected that was due to Nie Huaisang efforts on their behalf.

“Any more than that and we’d make a spectacle of ourselves,” Ying’er grumbled, chewing on his thumbnail while looking over a map of the region laid out on a table.

“Which is to be avoided at all costs,” A’Yao said sharply. Ying’er heard him and nodded but did not pull his eyes away from the map.

“Agreed,” Nie Meitong said with a sigh. “Young Master Wei Ying visibly traveling southwest into Lanling would be a give-away to the kidnappers, who might decide to hide their prisoners if they thought rescuers were on their way. It’s what I would do.”

Unsaid, but understood, was the fact that it was also possible there was another Wen squad out there, watching the caravan. Hanguang-jun taking out one did not mean there weren’t others, and as A’Yao stressed, Wen Ruohan had the people to spare.

It made sense, but that did not mean Yanli liked the situation at all. Both of her brothers would be far away from her, and there would be little she could do to help them.

“Circle this range here, closer to the coast,” A’Yao instructed, pointing at the mountain range directly south of them.

“That’s the long way around,” Ying’er complained.

“Yes, and it puts you into Gusu, which is solidly under Wen control, at least for now. Whomever has captured A’Cheng and Lan Wangji will not be expecting anyone to chase after them from that direction. They will be looking at the roads from the north.” He tapped a few which were much more convenient routes into Lanling.

Yanli nodded, seeing the situation unfold across the map. “I know you want to get to them as quickly as possible, Ying’er, but they are valuable hostages. Their lives are not in danger at this point, and any information you can get about the Wen occupation of Gusu will be important to pass on to Sect Leader Nie.” And Lan Xichen, she thought, if only they could find a way to pass word to “Hanguang-Jun.”

“I wonder how anyone could travel with a jade of Lan as hostage. If Lan Wangji is wearing the white and blue of his sect, he will stand out. Even the Jin would not be so bold,” Nie Meitong said with a frown.

“Perhaps not, but the Jin would certainly be happy to take advantage of the situation,” A’Yao replied. “What bothers me is that Wei Cheng himself is not a valuable hostage. The only reason to keep him alive is if one was informed of his part in the Battle of Crows, and knows both that he’s Wei Ying’s brother and what Wei Ying did at that battle. Wen Ruohan is looking for you,” he said, turning to Wei Ying, who had a murderous expression. “He’s looking for you and will stop at nothing to possess you and your powers.”

“They’re not my—”

“So you must take care.” A’Yao talked over him. “Whether Sect Leader Jin is a part of this scheme or not, in the end, it will be something he can leverage to his advantage,” A’Yao said with a shake of his head.

Nie Huaisang fanned himself thoughtfully. “Jin Guangshan is more the type to send out a small army to capture you and claim it was for your own protection.”

Nie Meitong looked pained, but did not disagree, while A’Yao nodded.

Yanli pursed her lips. “I do not like walking into political waters we do not understand, but the best we can do right now is set the sails to stabilize our ship.” She turned to Ying’er. “If you can, try to find out why A’Cheng and Lan Wangji were captured, but that is not as important as freeing them and all of you returning to me safely as quickly as possible.”

Ying’er nodded firmly, and the conversation turned to routes and supplies, and eventually broke up so that Ying’er and the Nie going with him could take naps. As he left the command tent, though, Yanli pulled him along after her. A’Yao glanced over and she shook her head. This was something she needed to say to Ying’er privately. A’Yao nodded and went to join Nie Huaisang for dinner. She was glad the two of them got along, but she also wondered what they talked about.

“JieJie?” Ying’er asked when it became clear she was leading him to the edge of the caravan’s camp for the night, in sight of the carriages and wagons but far away from the bustle. She stopped and turned him to look at her, her hands wrapped around his upper arms. She marveled at how small her hands looked, now that he was nearly a full grown man, even if she suspected he had another growth spurt coming in the years ahead. She had to tip her head back to look up at him, even so.

“I do not want you to go.”

“JieJie—” He started, looking pained.

“I know you must. As your sect leader, I am sending you on this mission, fully aware that no one else can go. Nie Meitong cannot spare a full company to rescue anyone, and no one else here is as qualified as you are to succeed. A’Yao is sidelined for the foreseeable future. But that does not mean I want you to go.” She took a deep breath, holding back her tears. He stood there, frozen as he always was, in the face of her grief.

“You are my younger brother. You are going to go save our younger brother, and possibly your own betrothed. War rages, even if Jin Guangshan wants to play both sides against each other in hopes of coming out unscathed. There is danger all around us, and I don’t want you to go.” She took another deep breath. “Please be cautious*. Please* stay as safe as you can. Please, Ying’er, please come back to me.” She could not stop the tears at that point, and he gave in, pulling her into a hug. She rested her head on his shoulder.

“I will. I promise! I will come back and I will bring A’Cheng and Lan Zhan with me, and we will all run away and never look back. We’ll steal Xiao Niao and disappear. Maybe we’ll all go live in the Burial Mounds! Yao’ge and I can clear it up, I know we can. We’ll be farmers and no one will ever find us and we’ll…we’ll be happy forever!” He clutched at her, his voice betraying his own tears. “This isn’t goodbye, I swear it to you, JieJie. I’ll save everyone and bring them home.”

They stood sobbing on each other for an embarrassing length of time, but Yanli refused to feel any shame. When they managed to pull apart and compose themselves, she sent him to the boys’ carriage to nap in peace.

She tried to stay awake long enough to see him off, but in the early dawn she woke up on a cot she did not remember lying down in. Meng Shi was sitting next to her with Xiao Niao on her lap, drowsy from his first feeding.

Ying’er was gone.

The next few days shuffled along as slowly as the caravan itself, trundling over roads at speeds Yanli thought she could outpace on foot. A’Yao coddled her when he could, and Nie Huaisang tried to entertain her with new verses to his now-epic song, “The Lonely Bandit Hanguang-Jun.”

In the meantime, she and Meng Shi took turns caring for Xiao Niao. The nanny stayed in the carriage with the baby at all times during the day, but Yanli and Meng Shi often switched off, one of them riding in the forward carriage with A’Yao and Nie Huaisang when they needed a break. Yanli had always known, in a distant sort of way, that babies were a lot of work, but she was stunned by the reality of it. She vaguely remembered just how tired her own mother was after A’Cheng was born, and she had been the madam of a rich sect who could afford a veritable army to help her and allow her to sleep through the night.

In comparison, both she and Meng Shi took to sleeping in the carriage at night so as to tend to Xiao Niao at any hour he demanded it, which meant that her own sleep was broken and shallow. When she expressed this frustration to the wet nurse, she got a sympathetic but resigned look in return, and only then remembered that the woman was nursing the fifth of her own children in addition to Xiao Niao. She bowed in apology and got a pat on the head like she was a toddler again, which she did not tear up over.

Hanguang-jun seemed to be circling closer, a dangerous game with Nie Meitong who had, with regret, stated that he could not be lenient for any thief, even if they turned out to be “someone of esteem.” After a long argument with Nie Huaisang and A’Yao, however, he agreed that if captured, Hanguang-jun would only be held prisoner and not punished until Nie Mingjue himself could serve as judge. Nie Meitong actually looked relieved by the compromise, likely fearing the fallout of being the man who chopped off Lan Xichen’s sword hand.

Due to all the delays along the way, though, the trip was going to take a full month. By the end of the third week, instead of skirting around Tangshan to head to the Nie manor just northeast of the city on the coast as originally planned, they were days out. Yanli was sick of road food and carriages and crying babies and dirty clothes, and perhaps was not hiding her displeasure as well as she should since Nie Huaisang walked up as she climbed out of the carriage for lunch, flapped one of her own fans in her face, and declared that she needed a break and he, gracious host that he was, would force her to take one if necessary. Meng Shi laughed and went to grab a nap while the nanny bounced Xiao Niao on her hip and nodded fervently at them.

Which was how she found herself with Nie Huaisang, two of her Jiang personal guard, and two Nie soldiers at a small inn in a small town nestled up against a small, pretty hillside, eating a princely amount of freshly cooked food. The inn keeper and his wife were delighted to be serving “such honored cultivators!” especially given all the “honored cultivator” coins Nie Huaisang was dropping on the table.

She and Nie Huaisang were not even talking much, enjoying the local delicacies filled with fresh meat and plenty of herbs and spices. Yanli felt a little like a barbarian with the relish she felt tearing into a sweet-glazed chicken thigh, but not enough to stop. Her mother would have been horrified.

What did stop her, though, was the door flying open and a whirlwind of a human being running in and throwing multiple talismans at their guards in rapid succession. Nie Huaisang screamed and ducked under the table, then reached out and yanked Yanli down with him.

The fight was over ludicrously quickly, and when quiet settled over them, Yanli shook off Nie Huaisang and peeked over the edge of the table to see Hanguang-jun, who was busy tying up the stunned cultivators. It would not hold them for long, she knew, but she also assumed that Hanguang-Jun was not actually there to rob them. She stood up, and the noise alerted him to her. He glanced her way, but his mask shaded his eyes.

“Lan Xichen,” she said, then stopped, unsure of how to follow that. Next to her, Nie Huaisang was slowly crawling to his feet.

Hanguang-jun stood with his back to her, his shoulders slumping minutely. He was dressed in dark, rough-hewn robes, and his sword was very obviously a stolen Wen blade, but not a spiritual weapon. He had defeated four skilled cultivators with a few talismans and little else other than talent and training. And no golden core.

“Lan Xichen, why are you here? How can we help you?” She finally asked.

He reached up and untied the mask, letting it fall into his hand. He squared his shoulders and turned around.

“Where is Wei Ying?”

Nie Huaisang gasped and Yanli covered her mouth in shock.

For the man standing in front of them was not Lan Xichen at all, but Lan Wangji, the Second Jade of Lan.