No one else could see Xingyuan, but although Aisley knew Xingyuan couldn’t possibly be so passive, his slightly faster-beating heart gave him a premonition that this matter had a great deal to do with bandits.
Aisley said nothing more. He knitted his brows and quickly left Fred behind. He circled the entire camp swiftly, but the young boy seemed to have vanished out of thin air.
“Damn it…” Aisley licked his cracked lips, standing there with his hand on his waist.
Fred finally caught up with him. He puzzled over Aisley’s expression and asked in a low, probing voice, “You didn’t really lose some treasure, did you?”
Aisley sneered coldly, his eyelids pressing down, his gaze sharp. His hand pressed against the hilt of the knife at his waist, and then he strode quickly toward the stables. “Gather the men, today I’ll wipe them out with my own hands!”
Xingyuan sat in the bandits’ carriage. The road was full of stones, and the carriage swayed and shook. Xingyuan suffered badly from motion sickness. And yet, though his face should have been full of pain, at this moment both his hands gripped the edge of the carriage. The discomfort clearly made him furrow his brows, but his eyes were much brighter than usual.
Xingyuan stared straight at the scenery around them, his mind quickly memorizing it. At the same time, his mood was elated.
He wanted to praise himself for staying calm in the face of danger today, for adapting quickly to the situation. The rice worm that the man had raised had finally, one day, proven useful.
He memorized the route firmly, and could even guarantee that if he saw the same scenery again in the future, he could quickly draw out the entire map.
Xingyuan narrowed his eyes, his expression relaxed and content. He had specifically come along to help the man guard his treasure, and now he could set the man’s mind at ease.
Xingyuan followed the bandits into the hidden mountains. He watched with his own eyes as the bandits entered their room and hid the stolen goods beneath the bed. He nodded, and was about to leave when his brows furrowed.
There were too many uncertainties about hiding them under the bed, and who knew when the cosmic passage would open? What if, by the time he came back, the stolen goods had already been moved? Xingyuan lowered his eyelids, then raised his eyes and studied the two men’s faces for a long while. Only after these two faces were firmly engraved in his mind did Xingyuan withdraw his gaze.
He followed behind the bandits, and when he saw them open a door, he followed them out. He had originally intended to retrace his memory and return, but his subconscious made him keep following the bandits.
The group hadn’t walked long before the scene grew lively. The noise grew louder and louder—clearly a large number of bandits were gathered here.
Xingyuan looked up, and what lay before his eyes made him stand still for a long time. Emaciated people, covered in wounds, were being shouted at and driven about by a group of bandits. The crack of whips and the people’s cries of anguish reached his ears. Fresh bloodstains on the ground—whether from people or animals, he couldn’t tell. The bandits were raising cups in wild revelry, with numb-eyed women beneath them. Xingyuan looked off into the distance, and saw a gaunt, dark-skinned man hanging, strung up on a withered tree. A large pot of water was boiling; he couldn’t tell what was being cooked inside, but Xingyuan felt nauseated.
He crouched down, covering his chest, but his head never lowered. His deep blue pupils reflected the chaotic scene, yet his gaze never once fled from it.
****
Peioufuah and Bandet themselves didn’t know what was going on—hadn’t they just stolen two meat cakes? Yet the army had sent out so many men, and from the look of it, they meant to kill them. The two of them knelt trembling on the ground, holding up with both hands the meat cake they had taken two bites of, offering it to the tall officer before them, whose mood was unreadable.
The officer lifted the meat cake with two fingers and let out a low chuckle. The officer seemed very kind. He patted their shoulders and asked them warmly whether they had ever killed anyone. Although the two relaxed somewhat, they still didn’t dare let their guard down; their eyes remained full of caution.
Aisley chuckled lightly. He tugged his gloves up at the wrist, his manner very casual. “Feel free to speak honestly. I won’t blame you, and I won’t do anything to you.”
The two half-believed him, but the officer’s words before them also kindled some hope. Judging by how the soldiers had acted earlier, they had thought they were surely going to die; perhaps if they confessed honestly this time, they might yet find a way to survive.
The two exchanged a glance, and one of them said timidly, “We… we have killed.”
“How many people have you killed?”
The other one chimed in as well. “The two of us together have killed 9 people.”
Aisley nodded, placing his gloved hands on their shoulders. Then, before they could react, two soft crunching sounds were heard, and in the final second, the two men’s eyes were left with a look of stunned shock.
Aisley lowered his eyes and smiled, then raised them again—his gaze now holding nothing but ruthless cruelty. He raised his hand, and the two corpses fell. He removed his blood-spattered gloves, and surrounded by his soldiers, walked away without looking back.
Only a sigh remained in the air. “And people actually believe what a dog says?” Clearly, he had long known what his subordinates called him behind his back, and moreover, he didn’t seem to mind.
Xingyuan stood at the bandit den, quietly watching all of this. His initial shock gradually turned to numbness, and his gaze slowly grew deeper and more profound amid the bandits’ various acts.
After standing so long his legs went numb, so he found a rock and sat down. When sitting made his legs numb again, he stood, and he hadn’t eaten at all. Not until the sun gradually sank toward dusk did a squad of soldiers suddenly burst in and surround the place.
Xingyuan heard a familiar voice, its tone flat and calm—yet beneath that flat tone, Xingyuan could sense no small amount of ferocity. “Kill them where they stand.”
The first spray of fresh blood spattered out, and a sturdy figure happened to walk right in front of him, blocking his view.
Eh?
Xingyuan blinked, then peered around Aisley’s body and walked out from behind him. When he saw countless bandits’ blood spattering on the spot, Xingyuan smiled, his eyes curving into crescents.
When Aisley entered this chaotic bandit den and saw the pure, innocent boy sitting not far from the filthy scene, he was so exasperated he laughed. In three or two swift motions he strode in front of the boy, dealing with the scene with brisk efficiency, all while carefully shielding the boy, trying his best to keep the shadows of this place from lingering in the boy’s heart.
However, he hadn’t expected it. The boy actually slipped out from behind him, and upon seeing this scene, even smiled. He had no idea where the child had scrounged up a piece of flatbread from, but there the boy sat, cradling the bread, smiling contentedly as he watched this bloody scene, eating with even greater relish.
Aisley: … Goosebumps rose on his skin.
Not until the army finally withdrew did Xingyuan look down at the mess left behind, and say, in a voice only he himself could hear. “If it were left to me to judge you, your fate would have been the same.”
Afterward, Xingyuan looked at his bedding, now soiled with footprints, and sighed. Still, the bedding had been used for so long that it was time to wash it anyway.
Every time the army searched for a campsite, they relied on being near a river, so Xingyuan carried the bedding to the riverside, preparing to give it a good wash. The young master was, in the end, still a young master—accustomed to fine clothes and delicate food—and washing bedding proved to be quite a challenge for him.
Xingyuan blankly scrubbed the quilt back and forth, but the filthy footprints showed not the slightest sign of fading. Xingyuan was at a loss. In truth, he knew that even scrubbing clothes by hand was already no easy task for him—after all, who in the interstellar era did their own laundry? Xingyuan had barely even seen a stain before, let alone dealt with one.
Xingyuan raised his head and looked at the river across from him. Perhaps because today was a rest day, everyone had taken out their clothes and quilts—washing what needed washing, airing out what needed airing. Several soldiers nearby were also washing clothes. Seeing this, Xingyuan tried to imitate the movements of their hands, but somehow something still wasn’t right—the footprints on the bedding remained unchanged.
Today several soldiers had broken military regulations by sneaking out to buy some fried tofu, and Aisley had caught them red-handed. Aisley confiscated the fried tofu and told them to go report themselves for punishment.
He held the bowl of fried tofu in his hands, and as he did, he spotted the boy by the riverside, vexed over washing his bedding. Aisley’s eyelids twitched slightly, and then he returned to his tent and brought out a basin of clothing as well.
Xingyuan was busy washing his bedding when, out of the corner of his eye, he saw Aisley also carrying clothing over to the riverside. Xingyuan felt a surge of warmth and familiarity, and hurriedly carried his basin over to Aisley’s side.
“You’re washing clothes too?” Xingyuan asked, knowing full well the other man couldn’t possibly answer, but asking anyway. Sure enough, Aisley kept his attention fixed on the clothing and paid him no mind at all.
Xingyuan didn’t mind in the least. He looked at Aisley with a beaming smile and said, “You don’t even know there’s always someone right beside you. But then, you probably have no interest in someone like me, and wouldn’t bother paying me much attention anyway.” Having said this, Xingyuan turned his head back to fretting over the basin of clothes.
After a while, feeling somewhat hungry, he was drawn in by the fragrant smell of food. He followed the scent to search for it, and discovered that the delicious-smelling bowl was right by his own feet.
From the looks of it, this bowl of fried tofu must have been the one Aisley had brought. Xingyuan swallowed, and kept up the pretense of continuing to wash clothes. But how would a young master know how to wash clothes! After washing for so long, the bedding had only gotten dirtier.
Xingyuan: …
Having labored for so long, Xingyuan felt hungrier and hungrier. He turned his round, deer-like eyes to steal a glance at Aisley, pursing his lips. “Sorry, I won’t even try to defend my actions—just consider it that my conscience has gone bad.”
Having said that, Xingyuan quietly picked up the bowl, turned his back to Aisley, and took a bite.
“Mmm…” Xingyuan’s expression turned to one of blissful contentment. Aisley flinched forward slightly, barely managing to hold back a laugh.
This kind of food was rare, and Xingyuan thought to himself that this bowl of fried tofu must have been hard to come by. He truly felt too embarrassed to eat it in front of its rightful owner, so he lowered his head, thought for a moment, and then soaked the bedding in the water. He’d heard that doing this could also help make the fabric a bit cleaner.
Once he’d done all this, Xingyuan felt a bit guilty, but he still carried the bowl off and walked some distance away.
Aisley’s hands, which had been washing clothes, stopped. Not just the corners of his mouth but even the depths of his eyes were full of laughter. He wore a helpless expression as he turned his head to look at the basin identical to his own, took a deep breath, and pulled the basin over.
Having spent so much time with the boy, he had gotten just the right measure of how much force to use. He gripped in his hands the bedding that carried the boy’s scent. Aisley paused for a moment, then, his expression unchanged, began to wash it.
Xingyuan carried the bowl and walked some distance away. He saw several soldiers, sweat covering their heads, sitting together with worried, gloomy faces, discussing something. Gossip was human instinct, and Xingyuan considered himself a “little soldier,” so making the effort to fit in with the group was only proper. So he found an unoccupied rock and sat down, and he too listened in on what this group was chatting about.
“Lord Aisley is truly too much! Food we finally managed to sneak out and buy, and it just got snatched away like that! I’d been longing for it for so long, I was practically starving for it, and I didn’t get to eat a single bite!” Once that person finished speaking, the others chimed in in agreement as well.
As they talked, they started recounting Aisley’s inhuman deeds, each of them growing more righteously indignant.
Xingyuan, too, empathized easily. He furrowed his brows and nodded solemnly. “This person really is too wicked, too much of a cur! How could he snatch away food that someone had been longing for for so long?”
As he said this, he picked up a piece of fried tofu from the bowl and popped it into his mouth, shaking his head as he sighed over how corrupted people’s hearts had become these days, while secretly marveling at just how delicious this bowl of fried tofu was.