Shunan was a three-day journey from Anhe County. Fang Zichen took the remaining twenty imperial guards and thirty Qin family soldiers and rode toward Shunan.
Guaizai sat in front of him, holding a big steamed bun as large as his own face and munching away with relish.
"Father, are you sure you don't want one?"
Fang Zichen: "…I just ate three."
"Father, your appetite ain't so good!" Guaizai said with some concern.
Beside them, Shi Linjie couldn't take it anymore. He was one of the Qin soldiers, who had been stationed in Hezhou City before coming to Anhe County and then sent down to manage other villages. He didn't know Guaizai very well.
"Young Master, didn't you say you weren't hungry today?"
"That's right! Guaizai's going away on important business and won't see Daddy and his little brothers for days. Guaizai's sad." Guaizai took another big bite of his bun. "When Guaizai's sad, he doesn't have much of an appetite."
Shi Linjie's face contorted in disbelief: "But… but… you've already eaten three buns."
"Guaizai used to eat three buns and then two bowls of rice," said Guaizai.
Shi Linjie: "…"
How terrifying.
He looked at Fang Zichen with almost pity.
As they neared Shunan, Fang Zichen ordered the Qin family soldiers to drive the nine horse-drawn carts they had brought into the town in separate groups.
Shunan was considered relatively prosperous within Hezhou—at least the town here looked somewhat better than Anhe and Anping counties, and it had the fewest starvation deaths each year.
Most merchants in southern Hezhou took the Shunan official road to do business in places like Qinzhou, which made the whole town of Shunan somewhat "bustling."
Hezhou merchants weren't particularly wealthy; they mostly ran small-scale operations, earning two to three hundred taels a year. Normally when they escorted goods into town, they'd have eight or nine young servants as guards—one cart for goods, one for people. If a merchant could afford more than a dozen guards and two or three carts, they were considered a big merchant—and that was rare.
But these past few days had been different.
In Shunan county town, three big merchants had arrived one after another, each with several carts. The first two groups that came clearly looked loaded—their guards were all on horseback, and one of the merchant masters even had two big gold teeth. The last group appeared to be a father and son. Judging by their clothes, they didn't seem very wealthy, but looking at their build and stature—one simply could not have grown that big without having eaten hundreds of catties of pork in a lifetime. That kind of height could not come from eating vegetables alone. And that face—fair-skinned and handsome—was clearly not that of someone raised in an ordinary household.
The banditry around Longhu Mountain was rampant, so many merchants pretended to be poor. Because the bandits had grown rich and picky—they no longer bothered with small fry; they went after the big catches.
This father and son were probably trying to "play pretend" too. But with such good looks, wherever they went, people couldn't help but stare.
Right then, the father and son were seen stopping at a roadside stall to order two bowls of soup noodles. The little boy slurped down a few mouthfuls, then tried to raise the bowl to drink the broth—but accidentally spilled it all over his clothes.
"Ah! Father, it's so hot, so hot!" The little boy jumped up.
His father quickly pulled off his outer robe, but then, hearing gasps from the people around them, hurriedly put it back on the boy.
Earlier, everyone had thought the short little kid looked adorable, but something seemed off. He walked with his neck craned forward, hunched over, as if something heavy was hanging on him that made his little neck unable to straighten. Now they understood.
Of course it was heavy!
That little neck of his was thin and small, yet hanging from it were three longevity locks, each gleaming golden yellow—clearly made of pure gold, and probably not light at all!
The father and son had let their wealth show. They didn't even finish their soup noodles, hastily rushing back to the inn.
---
Longhu Mountain.
In the main hall, the bandit chief was sipping his wine. In the open space below, several young women, wearing only red bellybands, were dancing like shamans, while the underlings nearby stared lewdly at their exposed, slender waists.
The women twisted and turned their small waists left and right, stirring up heat in everyone's hearts. The chief beckoned to one of the women. She froze, trembling all over, then walked over. As she drew near, he grabbed her and pulled her into his lap, sniffing at her neck like a dog.
"Ah! So fragrant! Little beauty, you really twisted nicely just now! I'm all stirred up—let me give you some proper love, hahaha..."
The woman was pushed onto the table, her face pale as paper. Suddenly she felt the rough hand at her waist sliding upward along her curves. Her mind went blank. A suffocating terror, like a spider's web, closed in around her—and she struggled violently.
"No... no..."
She accidentally scratched the chief's neck, leaving a burning sting. He slapped her across the face.
She fell to the ground, ears ringing. Before she could even get up, another kick landed on her belly.
"Damned whore—you're given face but you don't want it! I've fucked you God knows how many times, and you're still playing the chaste martyr with me!"
He was about to kick her again when a young man ran in from outside.
"Chief."
"What is it? Why the panic?" The chief stood up. "Is that prefect sending people again? He didn't take the hint last time, did he? Good, let them come—my blade hasn't tasted blood in a while."
"No, not that. A big fish has come."
"Oh?" The chief brightened and sat back down. "Tell me in detail."
"Three wealthy masters have arrived in Shunan town. They're probably from out of town—looked extremely rich, with three full carts of goods. Two of them had all their guards on horseback. The last one was trying to act poor—but didn't escape my sharp eyes. His son had three large gold locks hanging around his neck. Two of them, from what I could tell, must be worth over a hundred taels each." This young man was also a bandit, but he usually spent his time "scouting" in town. He had a keen eye—ten finds, ten hits. If he said it was a big fish, it definitely was.
The chief grew excited, but he wasn't stupid. He asked more questions carefully, wiping his blade with a cloth, hesitating: "Isn't this a bit suspicious?"
Three wealthy merchants showing up all at once—there had to be something fishy about it.
Everyone knew there were plenty of roadblockers around Shunan. Small peddlers had no choice but to come this way, but big merchants with lots of goods would rather spend extra silver to take a detour. So why were three suddenly coming here?
"Shouldn't be a problem—they didn't arrive at the same time," the young man reported. "And I heard their accents—all different."
The chief still hesitated.
The young man felt a bit contemptuous inside. The chief was getting on in years and had lost all his former flair—now he was timid and overcautious.
"Chief," the young man urged, "you're overthinking it. Putting aside whether it's a trap—even if it is, so what? The whole of Hezhou only has some soldiers in Hezhou city. And you saw it yourself—the prefect sent people last time, and in the end, they couldn't handle us—we sent them running with their tails between their legs. I say Hezhou's troops are nothing special. Those two rich masters brought quite a few guards—they probably think that with guards, they don't have to fear us, which is why they came this way."
The chief thought about it—seemed reasonable. Why had he been such a coward just now?
Even if it was a trap, no big deal. He didn't even fear the prefect—what else was there to be afraid of? In Shunan, it was Yu Daniu who called the shots.
His underlings chimed in one after another, saying they should go for it.
The only ways out of Shunan were through Longhu Mountain, via West Mountain, or across the hilly terrain.
But the official road went through Longhu Mountain—the other two were narrow trails that required taking a longer detour.
The chief immediately sent word to his second and third brothers on the other two peaks. This was a big catch—better to strike and miss than to let it slip by.
---
Two days later, word came back from the undercover scouts in Shunan town: one of the rich masters had left town.
Yu Daniu hurriedly took his men down the mountain to set up an ambush. But they waited forever and didn't see a single soul. In the afternoon, someone came from the hilly area, saying the rich master had passed through there.
"Did you get the carts and horses? What goods were they carrying?"
The messenger said they hadn't managed to seize them.
When they tried to block the way, the merchant master and his two servants seemed terrified, desperately throwing things at them. It was the guards who reacted quickly—they fought back, holding them off so the carts could escape.
"Chief, those guards seemed trained—they fought really fiercely. Luckily, Third Brother saw things weren't going well and told the men to retreat, or we'd have had some badly injured by now."
Hearing this, the nagging unease in the chief's heart vanished instantly.
No wonder they dared to travel through their turf—they must have hired escort agencies from outside, which was why they weren't afraid.
But no matter how good they were, if they couldn't beat them, they could always run. Once they got into the mountains, the enemy wouldn't be able to find them anyway.
"It doesn't matter that we couldn't stop that one—we've still got two convoys left, don't we?"
Three big fish, one slipped away—keeping the other two would be enough.
The chief thought optimistically and didn't feel the loss. After all, they'd robbed plenty over the years, and with the tribute from the merchants below, their silver would last them half a lifetime.
But in the end, both of the remaining big fish slipped away too.
Their guards held them off, first protecting the carts, then mounting their horses and fleeing. How could two legs outrun four? They could only watch helplessly as the fat meat in their mouths flew away.
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