“I am not short of women.” Ji Huan tossed out this remark, neither warm nor cold, then turned and left together with Song Chuyi.
Once outside, Song Chuyi mimicked his tone. “I am not short of women.”
Ji Huan’s face instantly flushed red.
“Hahaha.” Song Chuyi found his embarrassed expression increasingly amusing. Back in the State of Song, Song Chuyi already knew that Ji Huan had high standards and looked down on ordinary women. Unable to resist her curiosity, she stared at his crotch and said, “Tsk, don’t tell me your little brother is still a virgin bird that’s never tasted meat?”
Ji Huan was instantly both furious and embarrassed. “If you have the time, perhaps you should attend to some proper business.”
Song Chuyi smacked her lips but indeed did not press further. Ji Huan was different from Longgu Buwang – Longgu Buwang seemed hot-tempered, but he actually had a high tolerance, and after venting his anger he didn’t hold grudges. Ji Huan, however, had an extremely strong sense of pride, and there might truly be no room for recovery.
Song Chuyi had always been a good judge of character, including having long seen clearly what kind of person Min Chi was – it was just that back then she had naively believed that at the very least, he wouldn’t use her.
The two entered a tavern and found a quiet, secluded spot to sit down.
In current times, taverns and gaming houses were both excellent places to gather information. Comparatively speaking, the information from gaming houses was more accurate, but precisely because of that, Song Chuyi feared that if she appeared there too often, she would eventually be recognized. It was safer to stay in small taverns.
“Is Master Min really that kind of person?” Ji Huan asked.
“What do you think?” Song Chuyi took a sip of rice wine and leaned against the railing, lowering her eyes to watch for news from below.
Whatever kind of person Min Chi was, she would make him into that kind of person. In fact, when she learned from Ji Yu that Min Chi was an envoy to Qi and Chu, she had already taken precautions. Even if Min Chi didn’t smear her, she would smear Min Chi.
Guard against the unlikely – as for any past affection, it had long been severed cleanly on that city wall. Song Chuyi’s style had always been “if you’re unrighteous, I’ll be unrighteous in return.”
“Everyone…”
A middle-aged merchant stepped onto the stage, and the crowd stopped their conversations and turned to look.
“I am a merchant from the State of Han. Yesterday I had just finished a deal in the State of Qi and passed through here on my way. I have a piece of news that might interest you all,” the man said.
Everyone turned their attention to him, and someone said, “Brother, do tell.”
“Recently, the matter of Master Song has been causing quite a stir, but there is one thing I find very strange. I heard that the matter of the various states forming an alliance to attack Wei originally spread from the State of Zhao. The State of Qi borders Zhao. I traveled from Linzi, the capital of Qi, to Pingyi, which is only a few dozen li from Zhao, and then from Pingyi to Puyang. Along the entire route, I never once heard of this matter.”
The middle-aged merchant paused, then continued, “If it were truly as the rumors say -that Song Huaijin betrayed his master to seek fame – then given the formidable foundation of Qi, why did he not spread the news to Qi first, but instead send it back to Puyang first? I am merely a merchant and do not understand politics. I ask you all for an explanation.”
“Is that really so?” someone immediately questioned.
The merchant raised his hand and said, “If I have spoken a single word of falsehood, may I come to no good end.”
Most of the scholars in Puyang limited their activities to the vicinity of Puyang. Those who could transmit information were mostly merchants, a small number of traveling scholars, and also spies from various states.
Ji Huan finally heard a relatively favorable argument and was overjoyed. He turned to look at Song Chuyi, only to see the corners of her lips slightly curved, her fingers lightly tapping the railing, as if she were not surprised in the least.
Ji Huan leaned closer to her and lowered his voice. “Could this be your doing?”
No sooner had he spoken than he felt somewhat incredulous. Song Chuyi had been with him all these days, almost inseparable – she simply had no time to do such things.
“When the moon is full it wanes; when water is full it overflows – so it is with speech as well. What is there to be surprised about?” Song Chuyi said.
Ji Huan nodded. It seemed to make some sense, but no matter how he looked at it, he felt that Song Chuyi was in the know.
Someone downstairs suddenly spoke again, “Speaking of which, I also heard a piece of news – though I don’t know whether it’s true or false.”
“Go ahead and say it – we’ll listen,” another person said.
“I heard that when Master Min was persuading the Lord of Qi, he learned that this scheme originated from Master Song, and said that Master Song was a second Sunzi.” Having said this, the man smiled and added, “It’s all hearsay – I don’t know if it’s true or false, and I have no way to verify it.”
So Sun Bin had originally served Qi – only he passed away last year. Come to think of it, when the King of Qi said Song Huaijin was a second Sunzi, it might not have been merely praise for her strategic ability. Could it also have been a hint that he wanted to recruit her to Qi?
Hearing this, Song Chuyi paused for a moment as the cup reached her lips, and her smile grew even brighter. This news had come at just the right time. Song Chuyi tilted her head back and drained the cup, set it down, and stood up, saying, “Let’s go.”
“Where to?” Ji Huan immediately rose.
“Big news, big news…”
Just as Song Chuyi was about to speak, someone downstairs suddenly shouted, and the hall instantly fell silent.
A young scholar stood panting in the center of the main hall and announced loudly, “The King of Wei has sent envoys! I have learned that Wei’s army of one hundred fifty thousand has already marched to Guiling. The King of Wei demands that we hand over Master Song and Master Min and execute Commander Ji. Otherwise, he will raze the State of Wey to the ground!”
“We can’t hand them over!” Someone immediately stood up from the crowd. “And Commander Ji absolutely cannot be killed! Wei has few soldiers and a small army – if Commander Ji is killed, where will we find another capable military commander?”
As this person said, Wey’s troops were indeed pitifully few. In the Seven Warring States, the position of Commander would have been lost in the vast crowd and would hardly count for anything, but in Wey it was already a considerable military rank.
The crowd may not necessarily have heard of Ji Yu’s name, but anyone chosen to escort envoys was bound to be highly skilled in martial arts and exceptionally capable in battle. In fact, the main reason Ji Yu’s rank couldn’t be raised further was that Wey had few soldiers – above Commander was General, and several old generals had been campaigning for decades. As long as they didn’t step down, Ji Yu had no room for promotion.
“The truth is still unclear – how can we just hand people over? Let’s fight the King of Wei to the death!” someone shouted passionately.
But few people responded to his words. The King of Wei’s move was plainly aimed at obtaining the two strategists and, at the same time, eliminating Wey’s capable warrior. He had mobilized an army of one hundred fifty thousand – if Wey could not borrow troops, it would be swallowed up instantly, not even dregs left behind.
“Sir, save Commander Ji!” Ji Huan urged in a low, anxious voice.
Song Chuyi shook her head. “Calm down, rest assured. The lord will certainly want to extract information about me from Commander Ji. As long as I don’t appear, he won’t be in immediate danger of his life.”
He might suffer some hardship, but Song Chuyi believed Ji Yu could endure it.
Ji Huan thought about it – indeed, that was so. If Song Chuyi were found, Ji Yu might very well be killed immediately.
What kind of person the Marquis of Wey was, Song Chuyi knew clearly, and Ji Huan knew even better. To end wars, he would do anything.
This was also one of the reasons why all the talented people of Wey were unwilling to remain in their home state as officials.
No one blamed the Marquis of Wey. By doing so, he had quelled war after war, allowing the weak State of Wey to survive to this day and sparing the common people from slaughter – it could hardly be called a fault. If Wey resisted, it would merely be like an egg striking a stone.
Song Chuyi felt that the Marquis of Wey actually did have ambition – otherwise, if he were truly as timid as a mouse, he would never have agreed to Song Chuyi’s plan to travel among the states and form a vertical alliance against Wei. But by the time he ascended the throne, the state was already weak, and militarily it simply could not support his ambition.
Everyone in the tavern rushed outside to stop the Marquis of Wey from killing Ji Yu.
Song Chuyi and Ji Huan also mixed into the crowd and left the tavern. After following the street for a while, they slipped into a secluded alley.
“Sir, where are we going?” Ji Huan pondered for a moment, then said, “How about we go find Master Zhen Jun?”
On the way here, Ji Huan had noticed that they seemed to get along quite well, and Zhen Jun seemed to be a decent person.
“No.” At this critical moment, Song Chuyi would not trust someone she had only met once. “Let’s go back to that small courtyard.”
The two hurried back.
In the small courtyard, two identical-looking young girls were turning the soil with sharpened wooden sticks, apparently preparing to sow seeds.
One of the girls saw Ji Huan and, with a face full of delighted surprise, ran to tug at the other girl.
They dropped their sticks, dashed over to open the gate, and bent their bodies like shrimp as they invited Song Chuyi and Ji Huan into the courtyard.
The joyful expression on the girl’s face just now had revealed a touch of brightness, and Song Chuyi could not help but scrutinize the two of them.
The moment Ji Huan saw that expression on Song Chuyi’s face, he knew she was probably entertaining thoughts of recruiting people again, and immediately said, “Sir, we still have proper business to attend to.”
At that, Song Chuyi temporarily set the thought aside and said, “He and I will be staying here for a few more days. You two carry on with your work.”
The clatter of weaving came from inside the house. Song Chuyi sat on the veranda watching the two girls turn the soil.
Ji Huan paced back and forth in the courtyard.
Toward evening, the woman finally came out of the house. Seeing Ji Huan and Song Chuyi, she was overjoyed. “I’ll go cook.”
The setting sun was golden-red. Song Chuyi stood in the courtyard watching the wild geese migrating back across the sky. The air was full of the smell of earth, and her heart could not help but open up.
It seemed like many years ago, when she and her father lived at the foot of a mountain, the old man had also loved fussing over the soil in the courtyard. Every night he would watch the stars and spin tall tales to her, saying that on such-and-such a day there would surely be rain – but his skill was about the same as Song Chuyi’s now, with not the slightest accuracy. That patch of ground in the courtyard had never grown anything.
She remembered that year, not long after the beginning of winter, she and her father had already gone hungry for two days, and her father had caught a slight cold. That evening, just like the scene now, a young guest came to visit, and her father personally entrusted her to that person.
That was the last time she saw him. The old man’s tears flowed freely. As she left the courtyard, she heard the sound of him wailing.
Ji Huan was anxious, but when he saw Song Chuyi with her eyes closed and a faint smile on her face – as if happy, yet also sad – the golden-red sunlight gilded her, making her seem incomparably gentle.
At this moment Song Chuyi looked very beautiful, even though Ji Huan felt that this beauty had nothing whatsoever to do with whether she was a woman.
The two girls turned over all the soil in the courtyard, and the woman brought the food out to the stone table.
“Sir,” the woman called softly, “the meal is ready.”
Song Chuyi and Ji Yu sat down at the table. The woman opened the clay pot – inside was actually white rice.
The woman served rice to Song Chuyi and Ji Huan, then returned inside and called her two daughters to eat in the small shed.
Song Chuyi took two bites, then glanced back. With just a hurried glimpse, she could easily tell that what was in the woman’s bowl was bean rice, while the two girls’ bowls held white rice.
From time to time the two children would try to ladle some of their rice onto their mother’s bowl, but the woman said something in a low voice, and they stopped insisting.
Song Chuyi paused, then picked up her bowl and walked over to the woman, holding it out to her.
