The moment Qi Yanxuan opened her door, she saw Shen Yanqing stepping out of his room, apparently having also heard the knocking at the gate.
Shen Yanqing opened the courtyard gate to find the village chief of Kaoshan Village, Shen Fuqing, standing there with an anxious look on his face.
“Village Chief, what’s the matter?” Shen Yanqing asked in confusion.
“Yanqing, where’s your father?”
Just as he finished speaking, Old Man Shen came out of the house.
“Village Chief, what’s wrong? Has something happened? Why the rush?”
“Yanshan, last night Zhao Village was raided by bandits,” the village chief said grimly.
“Zhao Village? That’s only a few dozen li from here. Then our village is in danger too,” Old Man Shen (that is, Shen Yanshan) said worriedly.
“Exactly. Last night a villager got up in the night and saw firelight coming from the direction of Zhao Village. He thought it was a wildfire from the drought and came to tell me. I took a few strong men to go see what was going on, and we found that it was Zhao Village burning. The fire had been burning for a while the whole village was ablaze, and there were villagers lying dead on the roads, cut down by the bandits.” The village chief’s face was full of terror as he finished.
“Then we need to be on guard too. There’s no telling whether the bandits will come to our village,” Shen Yanshan said thoughtfully.
“That’s right. We were too scared to sleep last night, and as soon as it got light we started going door to door to warn everyone to stay alert. If anything happens, bang on a basin anyone who hears it should bang theirs too and spread the word. I still have more houses to notify, so I’ll be off.” The village chief turned to leave.
Shen Yanshan hurriedly called after him, “Village Chief, wait. I’m afraid that won’t be enough. If the bandits sneak in and kill people, there won’t be time to warn the neighboring houses.”
“Then what do we do?” The village chief panicked at once.
Shen Yanshan reassured him, “How about this: every household in the village sends one man, twenty men to a team, and we take turns keeping watch at night. Everyone on watch carries a hatchet and a gong or an iron basin if they don’t have a gong and patrols the village. If the bandits come, sound the gong. The old folks, women, and children hide, and the men grab their weapons and fight the bandits to the death.”
“That’s all we can do. I’ll go inform everyone right now. The men on watch should gather under the big camphor tree at the village entrance to be sorted into teams. With famine everywhere, bandits are all over the place these days, how are ordinary folk supposed to survive?” With a sigh, the village chief left.
“Father, I’ll go for our family,” Shen Yanqing said, looking at Shen Yanshan.
“All right. Just be careful.” Shen Yanshan patted his son’s shoulder. They were both hunters by blood, used to facing wild beasts there was no need to worry about his skills.
At a quarter past the hour of You, Shen Yanqing headed toward the village entrance. Less than the time it takes to brew a cup of tea had passed when he sensed someone behind him. He stopped and said, a little helplessly, “Come on out.”
Qi Yanxuan had done it on purpose if she wasn’t discovered, how was she supposed to tag along? She’d finally found a man she liked. If he got killed by bandits, who was she supposed to complain to?
“Brother Shen, I came to bring you a weapon.” With that, she pulled a short blade from her waist and handed it to Shen Yanqing.
Shen Yanqing took the blade and drew it, revealing a razor-sharp edge. The material was unlike anything he had ever seen, but he asked no questions.
“Good, I’ve received the weapon. You can go back now.”
At that, Qi Yanxuan pulled out an identical short blade from her waist and smiled at Shen Yanqing. “Brother Shen, since I’m already here, why not come along?”
Shen Yanqing knew he would definitely follow. “Stay close to me.”
“Got it!” Qi Yanxuan grinned, looking triumphant.
Under the big camphor tree at the village entrance, people had already gathered. The village chief, standing in the middle of the crowd, saw that Shen Yanqing had brought the young man from that morning and stepped forward to ask, “Yanqing, who is this?”
Qi Yanxuan, ever the social butterfly, stepped up and introduced himself. “Hello, Village Chief. I’m Yanqing’s cousin, Qi Yanxuan. Just call me Yanxuan.”
“Good. Then you’ll be on Yanqing’s team later.” With that, the village chief began addressing the crowd.
“Is everyone here? Time to divide into teams!” the chief called out loudly.
“Shuanzi, Zhuangzi, Dasheng… you’re Team One.”
“Yougen, Youqing, Dahai… you’re Team Two.”
“Yanqing, Yanqing’s cousin, Dashan… you’re Team Three.”
“Wenxiang, Wenlai, Wenxuan… you’re Team Four.”
“Dafu, Erfu, Fugui… you’re Team Five.”
“Fugui, Goudan, Heiwa… you’re Team Six.”
“Two teams per group for night watch, rotating every three days. Tonight, Teams One and Two start. Understood?”
“Understood!” everyone shouted in unison.
Night soon fell, and the first night passed without incident.
On the second night, it was Qi Yanxuan and Shen Yanqing’s turn to go out. With short knives tucked at their waists, the two grabbed a copper gong and headed out.
Village Entrance
Once everyone had arrived, the three Shen brothers organized the patrol. “When it gets dark, Team Three will patrol from the village head to the village tail, and Team Four from the village tail to the village head. Crossing paths like this means someone’s always keeping watch it’s safer.”
With that, he led Team Four to the village tail.
Night fell, and everyone patrolled the village. Fortunately, this night also passed without incident.
***
Two Days Later
On the third night, it was once again the turn of Qi Yanxuan and Shen Yanqing’s Team Three to keep watch.
Team Three was walking toward the village tail. Just as they were approaching it, Qi Yanxuan heard the sound of footsteps.