“Song’er!” Song Xingjian wept tears of joy.
Only after coughing for a good while did Song Song manage to throw up the water he had swallowed earlier, his chest and throat burning with searing pain.
His entire body throbbed with agony, as if crushed by a giant boulder.
Having come back to life, the memories previously suppressed by his instinct for survival slowly returned.
It had been an ordinary day as they traveled along the imperial highway in the hired carriage.
Halfway through the journey, however, the driver claimed that the road ahead had issues and was difficult to travel on, offering to take them through a side path that would be faster—one that could shave off at least half the time to reach the provincial capital.
Although he harbored doubts about the driver’s words at the time, seeing that the man appeared honest and simple, and frequently traveled this route, he took a chance and trusted what the driver said.
The result of placing that trust was that midway down the side path, while they were all reading inside the cabin, the driver suddenly claimed he had hit someone.
The driver then vanished without a trace, abandoning them right where they were.
Inside the carriage, Song Song had felt no jolt that would suggest hitting a person; he guessed immediately that they were undoubtedly being extorted.
Those burly men insisted that their carriage had hit someone and broken their brother’s leg, demanding that they pay a heavy price.
Deaf to their explanations, the men raised their fists and delivered a brutal beating to the three of them.
After the beating, they locked the unconscious boys in a pitch-black place where not a single ray of light could penetrate.
On the second day, his eldest brother, Song Donglin, was released under the pretext of going back to fetch the silver.
The moment Song Donglin left, those men gave them another thrashing.
They were given no food, provided only a little water each day to keep them barely alive.
In that dark cave where day and night blurred together, they had no idea what was happening, nor did they know whom they had offended to bring such a disaster upon themselves out of nowhere.
Even when they declared that they held the status of *xiucai* scholars and that these men could not handle them so roughly with impunity, those people remained completely indifferent and brazenly arrogant.
At first, Song Song merely thought these men were after money.
However, what those men did tonight changed Song Song’s view entirely.
They weren’t after money—they were after their lives!
Having had nothing to eat for several days, they were forced to drink sour, astringent water before receiving another severe beating, right until every last one of them was knocked unconscious.
Nor did it end there; after passing out, they were stuffed into burlap sacks and thrown into the water. Shocked awake by the cold water only to find themselves bound inside sacks unable to struggle—that suffocating terror was something they would never forget for the rest of their lives.
In the water, Song Song thought he was bound to die this time.
Before dying, his only thoughts were that if he died, he had no idea how heartbroken his parents at home would be, nor whether his eldest brother could take good care of them. He could only hope they wouldn’t grieve for too long.
Gradually, he lost consciousness.
Who would have thought that in his dazed, semiconscious state, he would actually hear his father’s voice?
He had never heard his father speak with a tearful, choked voice before; this was the very first time.
And it was precisely those tear-choked words that successfully aroused him from his stupor.
The moment he saw his father, Song Song even thought he was dreaming.
Only after fully regaining clarity did he realize that everything before his eyes was real.
“Father, how come you are here?”
By rights, his father and the others should have gone to deliver the money to the other group.
Presumably believing the boys were dead for sure, those men had discussed their plan to deal with them without hiding it, talking about it in plain daylight.
Releasing Song Donglin to fetch the money was merely a trick to lure Song Xingjian out so they could kill him.
They seemed to know his household situation extremely well, knowing that if something happened to him, his father would definitely come to rescue him.
The plan was that once his father brought the ransom money, they would take the silver and directly kill whoever came to deliver it, leaving everything an unsolved case.
Listening to his son’s feeble voice, Song Xingjian felt a burning urge to kill those men on the spot.
Yet now was hardly a suitable time for revenge.
“Don’t ask so much for now. Can you walk?”
“Those men said earlier that there are wolves in the mountain. I’m worried that if we stay too long, the scent of living humans will draw the wolves over.”
He was even more worried that those men might return to confirm whether they were dead. With their current lack of manpower and carrying three injured boys, they were no match for those people.
Song Xingjian was also worried about the clansmen on the other side, unsure whether those people would let them go after getting the money.
If they intended to murder them for their wealth…
Song Xingjian dared not think any further down that path.
The pressing matter at hand was still to get down the mountain as quickly as possible and search for their clansmen; everything else would have to wait until they were safe.
“Father, I can’t move.”
Song Song’s tone was bitter.
He had always considered himself the primary pillar of his household; even if he failed to advance further in the civil service examinations, holding a scholar’s title was enough to make him the pride of the clan.
Now, finding himself in a state where even moving a finger was difficult brought him immense humiliation.
Song Xingjian simply patted his shoulder, saying nothing. He directly signaled Song Fagui beside him to lend a hand, helping hoist Song Song onto his back, and carried him away directly.
The other two juniors were carried by the remaining men.
Going down the mountain was far more difficult than coming up, let alone carrying three injured people.
Yet not a single person uttered a word of complaint along the way; everyone held their breath, keeping their heads down as they marched down the mountain.
Before this operation, Song Xingjian had agreed on a meeting point with the clansmen in the other team—a dilapidated Taoist temple.
By the time they hurried over to the agreed location with all their might, a single glance revealed that forget about people, there wasn’t even a living soul in sight.
“We’re finished… Fourth Brother and the others couldn’t have met with an accident, could they?”
A dire suspicion formed in Song Fagui’s mind.
“You two youngest ones stay behind and take care of the three of them here.”
“Old Seven and I will go rescue them. If we haven’t returned before daybreak, you two go report it to the authorities.”
“Listen to me, both of you—no arguing.”
The two assigned to stay behind were reluctant, wanting to follow along to help rescue the others, but a single sentence from Song Xingjian silenced them completely.
Before leaving, Song Xingjian turned back to look at Song Song, who was on the verge of tears.
In the end, he said nothing more, turned his head, and departed.
Those left behind moved to a spot suitable for hiding, concealing themselves as they waited anxiously.
Seeing the dawn break as light returned to the earth once more, the faces of the group bore no hope brought on by the daylight.
Instead, they were consumed by despair and deathly silence.
Song Song lay on the ground, his heart as icy as the cold dirt beneath him.
He regretted listening to the driver’s words; he regretted not selfishly keeping his father behind; he even began to regret choosing this very time to take the civil service examination—could he not have waited a bit longer?
Regret, remorse, and the panic of losing his loved ones tightly enveloped Song Song.
The others felt no less miserable in their hearts than he did.
The two left behind to care for them stood up. One of them wiped his face and said, “I’ll go report it to the authorities. You stay here and watch over the three of them.”
Yet even after he spoke, the person facing him showed no reaction, staring intently at the space behind him instead.
He turned his head around to see everyone supporting one another as they stumbled into the Taoist temple.
“Third Uncle!”
“Fourth Uncle!”
Neither of the two could bother with the three on the ground anymore, rushing frantically to the village chief and the others.
Every single one of them carried injuries, the most severe belonging to those who had originally been sent to deliver the ransom money.
“How did you all get hurt so severely?!”
Hearing his father’s voice, Song Song struggled to turn his head toward the entrance.
Song Fagui spoke with lingering fear, “Don’t even mention it! If we hadn’t arrived in the nick of time, we would never have seen Fourth Brother and the others again!”
The Fourth Uncle they spoke of was the most severely injured of all, being dragged back supported by two men.
“We must report this to the authorities and catch every last one of those men!”
“A bunch of beasts! Taking the money wasn’t enough—they even wanted to kill!”
The speaker’s movement was a bit too large, tugging at his wounds and making him grimace in pain.
“Third Uncle, can the two of us first go find a doctor to treat everyone’s injuries, and then go report to the authorities?”
At this moment, the only two who remained uninjured became everyone’s sole reliance.