Chapter 972
Not Delaying Walking
Zhao Rong lowered his head and repeatedly said "Yes, yes," then ran away as soon as he left the government office without even looking back.
It was almost dark when Agu and China were released.
The two came out of the side door of the government office and saw Zheng Yi standing outside the door, with Helian, Wuchen, Chiya and more than a dozen people from the three departments behind him.
When Agu saw Zheng Yi, his lips trembled, his legs went weak, and he knelt down.
“Young Master Zheng…I was wrong.”
China also knelt down, head down, shoulders heaving, crying like a child.
Zheng Yi did not help them up.
He stood there, looking down at the two of them, and remained silent for a long time.
“Get up,” he said.
Agu didn't move.
"I told you to get up."
China stood up first and tugged at Agu. Agu staggered to his feet, his face covered in tears and ash, looking as wretched as a young animal crawling out of a snowdrift.
Zheng Yi looked at them, his tone not harsh, but every word seemed to pierce their ears like nails.
“Hitting someone is wrong. Regardless of who started it or what the other party said, it is wrong. Because in Beining City, we are the guests and they are the hosts. If the guests hit the hosts, even if the guests are right, the guests are still in the wrong.”
Agu bit her lip, and tears fell again.
“But,” Zheng Yi’s voice softened slightly, “I don’t blame you.”
Agu suddenly raised his head.
“Because if it were me, I might have resorted to violence too.” Zheng Yi looked into his eyes. “But this is the principle of ‘humanity,’ not the principle of ‘city.’ In the North, if you resort to violence, it’s over after the fight. In Beining City, if you resort to violence, people will follow the rules. You’ve been locked up for a whole day today because you don’t understand this difference.”
Agu nodded so hard his neck almost broke.
“When you get back, Chief Helian will punish you. Once he’s punished, the matter will be over,” Zheng Yi said. “But there’s one thing you need to remember—what got you out of here today wasn’t money, or my words, but that guy surnamed Zhao’s guilty conscience. If he’s not guilty and doesn’t withdraw his complaint, you’ll be locked up for at least three more days.”
Agu was stunned.
"You don't understand?" Zheng Yi looked at him. "Why did Zhao Rong withdraw the petition? It wasn't because he had a change of heart, but because people outside were talking about him. They said he humiliated his woman in the street, that he was abusing his power, that he was even worse than a barbarian. The Zhao family had to save face, so he withdrew the petition."
Agu's eyes slowly brightened.
"So...it's those who said that about him..."
“It’s the mouth,” Zheng Yi said. “The mouth can kill. You don’t have to use your fists.”
Agu nodded as if he understood but not quite.
Chi Na wiped the tears from her face and suddenly spoke, her voice hoarse.
“Young Master Zheng, I didn’t… I wasn’t staring at that woman. I was just… I was just passing by when I heard that person cursing at her, cursing her horribly. I just glanced at her. Then that person started cursing at me.”
He paused, then said something that silenced everyone present.
"She was crying horribly. Her face was swollen. And that person was still cursing at her."
Zheng Yi remained silent for a long time before reaching out and patting Chi Na on the shoulder.
"You did nothing wrong."
Chi Na's tears welled up again, and this time she couldn't hold back, crying so hard that her whole body was shaking.
Helian remained silent.
He only spoke after Agu and China had calmed down a bit.
"After you go back, you two will be banned from hunting for three months. Every morning, you'll get up early and clean everyone's leather boots in the department. This is your punishment."
Agu and China kept their heads down, offering no explanation.
Helian paused for a moment, then added another sentence.
"But what you did today wasn't entirely wrong."
Agu raised his head, his eyes still glistening with tears, but the corners of his mouth twitched slightly, as if he dared not laugh out loud.
Chiya stood at the back of the crowd, not saying a word from beginning to end, but he kept watching and listening.
He suddenly remembered something Zheng Yi had said when he first went to Beining City with Zheng Yi: "Being noticed isn't all bad."
He didn't understand at the time.
Now he seems to understand a little bit.
Being conspicuous isn't all bad. The bad thing is not knowing how to use being conspicuous to protect yourself.
That evening, Zheng Yi asked Boss Sun to add a few more dishes to the inn's courtyard.
Agu and China sat in the corner, not daring to move closer to the center, holding their bowls with their heads down, eating cautiously. Helian personally served them food without saying anything else, but that gesture alone brought tears to their eyes again.
The old woman sat next to Zheng Yi, slowly drinking a bowl of hot soup.
“That trick you used today was pretty underhanded,” the Bone Granny suddenly said.
Zheng Yi, holding his bowl, didn't look up: "Which move?"
“Spread those words.” The Bone Woman glanced at him. “You don’t seem like the type to do such a thing.”
Zheng Yi was silent for a moment, then said, "I didn't know that before. But the North taught me something."
"what's up?"
“In the North, if you try to reason with a wild beast, it will bite you. You have to let it know that biting you comes at a price.”
The old woman snorted, it was hard to tell whether it was a laugh or a sigh.
"That kid Zhao Rong, from now on he'll probably avoid people from the North."
“That’s enough,” Zheng Yi said. “I don’t need him to be afraid of us. I just need him to know that we are not easy to bully.”
The old woman didn't say anything more and lowered her head to drink her soup.
The firelight reflected on her face, etched with the lines of time, and in her cloudy old eyes, there was something indescribable.
It felt like a mixture of relief and heartache.
Chiya, carrying a bowl of soup, sidled up next to Agu and China and sat down.
The three of them ate in silence for a while. Suddenly, Chi Ya said in a low voice, "I've also been called a 'barbarian' before."
Agu looked up at him.
“In Qing Shi Town,” Chi Ya said. “I wanted to make a move back then, but Young Master Zheng wouldn’t let me.
"And then?" China asked.
"I held back later." Chi Ya took a sip of soup. "Looking back now, it was a good thing I held back."
Agu lowered his head, remained silent for a long time, and then whispered, "Next time... I'll hold back too."
Chiya patted him on the shoulder without saying a word.
The three of them continued eating in silence.
A few days later, early one morning, before dawn, a wind picked up on the official road outside the east gate of Beining City.
Zheng Yi was awakened by a commotion. People were running in the courtyard of the inn, their footsteps hurried and chaotic, the wooden planks clattering under their feet. When he opened his eyes, it was still gray outside the window, with only a few torches shining from the distant city wall.
He put on an outer robe and pushed open the door, only to see He Liang running from the courtyard toward the main gate, looking rather unwell.
"what happened?"
He Liang glanced back at him and said in a low voice, "Outside the East Gate, someone has brought back a woman."
"What woman?"
“I don’t know. That kid from the Hanling tribe named Agu went out to practice archery with Chief Helian early this morning and we ran into him on that low hill outside the East Gate.” He Liang swallowed. “He said he was covered in blood, lying unconscious in the grass.”
Zheng Yi frowned and quickly followed.
Seven or eight people had already gathered in the inn's lobby. Agu stood in the middle, his hands covered in dried, blackened blood, his face as white as paper, and he trembled like an autumn leaf. Chi Na stood beside him, also looking terrified, his lips trembling as he couldn't utter a complete sentence.
Helian stood behind Agu, one hand on his shoulder, his face grim.
Boss Sun came out of the back room carrying an oil lamp, shone it on the ground, and gasped when he saw the blood on Agu's hands.
"This is... murder?"
"I didn't kill her!" Agu shook his head violently, his voice shrill and hoarse. "I didn't kill her! I picked her up! She was always like this!"
Boss Sun held up the lamp and moved closer, looking Agu up and down to make sure he wasn't injured. He then breathed a sigh of relief and patted his chest, saying, "You scared me to death! I thought you'd gotten into big trouble outside."
When Wu Chen came downstairs, he was still clutching the iron dagger in his hand. Seeing the scene in the lobby, he paused. He glanced at Zheng Yi, who shook his head slightly at him. He put the dagger away and stood at the top of the stairs without moving.
Chiya was the last to come down. His hair was sticking up, and his eyes were still closed. He asked groggily, "Is there a fight?"
No one cares about him.
Zheng Yi walked up to Agu and asked him to sit down first. Agu initially refused to sit, his legs stiff as iron rods. Zheng Yi pressed him down a couple of times before he finally managed to sit down on the bench, his hands trembling on his knees.
"Tell me slowly. Where did you find it?"
“Outside the East Gate…that little hill.” Agu’s voice was broken. “It’s…the slope where we practiced archery that day. This morning, Chief Helian told me and China to go up first and set up the targets. We walked halfway up the slope, and China saw it first.”
Chi Na nodded frantically beside him and continued, "There was a dark, lumpy thing in the grass. I thought it was a dead dog. But when I got closer, it was a person. He was lying face down, his clothes were covered in blood, and his hair was covered in mud and leaves."
"Did you turn it over to look at it?" Zheng Yi asked.
Chi Na nodded: "It was turned over. Agu turned it over. When I looked over... it was a woman. Her face was covered in injuries, her mouth was swollen, and her eyes were closed. I thought she was dead. But Agu said she was still breathing, and her chest was still moving." His voice trailed off as he spoke, as if he was still a little scared when he thought about it.
Agu took over and said, "So I carried her on my back. She woke up briefly on the way, cried out, and then fainted again."
"What are you shouting?"
Agu frowned and thought for a moment: "I didn't understand. It's not our language, nor is it the language of the south. Anyway, I can't understand it."
Zheng Yi turned and glanced at He Liang. He Liang shook his head, indicating that he couldn't guess either.
Helian then spoke, his voice not loud, but the hall fell silent.
"The person is in the woodshed at the back. Boss Sun asked us to vacate it, but it hasn't been moved to the guest room yet."
"Are you badly injured?" Zheng Yi asked.
Helian paused for a moment, then nodded.
Zheng Yi didn't ask any more questions and turned to walk towards the backyard. Wu Chen followed for two steps, but Zheng Yi glanced back at him, and Wu Chen stopped and retreated to stand at the top of the stairs. Chi Ya wanted to follow, but He Liang grabbed his sleeve.
"Don't go and cause trouble," He Liang said in a low voice.
Chiya opened his mouth, but ultimately did not follow.
The backyard wasn't large, with a stack of firewood taller than a person piled against the wall. Next to it was a small woodshed partitioned off with wooden planks, where pine needles and wood scraps for kindling were usually stored. The door to the woodshed was half-open, and an oil lamp was lit inside. The dim yellow light leaked out from the crack in the door, falling on the ground like a thin ribbon.
Boss Sun's wife was squatting at the door of the woodshed, holding a half-full basin of water that had turned a pale reddish color. When she saw Zheng Yi approaching, she stood up, moved aside, and whispered, "She's inside, don't frighten her."
Zheng Yi bent over and entered the woodshed.
The woodshed was small, with a layer of dry grass on the floor. On top of the grass was a folded old fur robe, and on the robe lay a woman.
She was described as a woman, but it wasn't really obvious. Her face was covered in injuries; the left side of her face was swollen badly, and there was a cut at the corner of her mouth with dried blood that had formed a dark red scab on her chin. A strip of cloth was wrapped around her forehead, torn from Boss Sun's old jacket, and it was soaked with blood. Her eyes were closed, and her eyelashes didn't move.
Her clothes were so faded that their original color was unrecognizable. It should have been a light blue dress, but now it was covered in mud, grass sap, and dried blood. The hem of the dress was torn in several places, revealing a section of her calf, which also had injuries—not knife wounds, but abrasions, as if she had rolled down some slope.
The most striking thing was the bracelet on her right hand. It was silver, not thick, with very fine carvings on it, gleaming softly in the dim light. The bracelet was too big, slipping and sliding on her slender wrist as if it might fall off at any moment.
This was the only clean thing on his entire body.
The old woman squatted beside her, applying a grayish-black ointment to the wounds on her face. The old woman's touch was very light, but with each application, the woman's brow would furrow, as if she were in great pain, or as if she were having a bad dream.
The old woman didn't even look up, but she knew it was Zheng Yi who had come in.
“You’ve come at the right time.” Her voice was lower than usual. “Hold her shoulders down for me. She might struggle again in a bit.”
Zheng Yi squatted down and gently placed his hand on the woman's shoulder. Her shoulders were extremely narrow, and through the tattered clothes, Zheng Yi could feel the shape of her shoulder blades and her body temperature—not too cold, but not normal either.
"How is it?" he asked.
The old woman put down the ointment she was holding, replaced it with a bowl of hot salt water, and used a clean linen cloth to begin cleaning the scabs from the corners of her mouth. The scabs were stuck very tightly, so the old woman slowly moistened them with the salt water, waited a moment, and then gently wiped them away bit by bit.
“Lots of external injuries. My face, arms, and legs are covered in abrasions and bruises.” The old woman said, wiping her face as she spoke, her voice low and flat. “I have a broken rib on the left side. It feels like it’s cracked, but not completely broken. I also have a few injuries on my legs, but they don’t stop me from walking.”
"What about internal injuries?"
The old woman shook her head: "It's hard to say. Her pulse is weak, but not erratic. It doesn't look like internal bleeding. It's mainly from hunger, thirst, and exhaustion. These injuries look frightening, but what's truly life-threatening is that she hasn't eaten for several days." (End of Chapter)