Xie Lian didn’t even need to check his pulse to know that he must have been ill for some time now and that it was serious. The suffocating, musty air of sickness permeated the entire room. Recalling that the queen had said one of his symptoms was “coughing up blood,” he raised his voice in distress.
“What’s going on here?!”
The king steeled his expression. “What’s with that tone?”
The queen and Feng Xin entered the room as well.
“Who cares what tone I’m using?! Why didn’t you say something sooner if you’re sick?” Xie Lian admonished.
“Are you lecturing your king?” he angrily replied. “What your king does and does not say at any given time is not for you to dictate!”
He was still carrying on with that tough posturing, even now. Xie Lian was in disbelief.
“You’re unbelievable! Are you still throwing your title’s weight around at a time like this?”
The king was outraged. “Get the hell out! Now!”
The queen and Feng Xin immediately dragged Xie Lian out of the room, and the queen begged, “My son! Don’t be like this. He’s your father, and he’s ill. Take a step back.”
First on the run, and now there was an illness to manage—it was like adding ice to snow. Xie Lian buried his face in his hands.
“Mother! Why didn’t either of you say anything sooner? If you had, the illness wouldn’t have progressed to coughing up blood! Do you know how hard that is to cure?”
In their current situation, it was impossible!
The queen’s reply was both dismayed and aggrieved. “We…we didn’t know that it’d worsen like this.”
“Yeah. Besides, we’ve been dodging Yong’an pursuit this entire way. There was no time to stop,” Feng Xin added.
Xie Lian pulled his face from his hands. “I’ll take him to a doctor in the city right now.”
“No need!” the king shouted from within the room.
Xie Lian looked back and was just about to rebuke him with, “I’m the one who makes the decisions right now,” but Feng Xin responded first. “Your Highness, you’ll be noticed for sure if you take His Majesty to a doctor in the city.”
Xie Lian instantly froze.
The queen spoke up. “That’s what we were afraid of, which is why we didn’t say anything over the past few days. My son, why don’t you just…think of a way to bring back some medicine?”
The king started coughing violently again, and the queen went into the back to look after him. Xie Lian was dazed for a good moment, then he turned and went into another room.
“Your Highness! What will you do?” Feng Xin called out.
Xie Lian didn’t answer, just started rummaging through all the shelves and chests in the cottage.
“What are you looking for?” Feng Xin asked.
Xie Lian didn’t respond. A moment later, he dug out something from the bottom of a chest—an ancient sword.
When he saw what Xie Lian had retrieved, Feng Xin asked, “What are you doing with Hongjing?”
Xie Lian was quiet for a long moment before he replied, “I’m going to pawn it.”
“You can’t!” Feng Xin cried in shock.
Xie Lian slammed the chest shut heavily. “I’ve already pawned so many swords. This is just one more.”
By this point, he had pawned over half of his beloved sword collection to make enough money for the carriages and bribes at checkpoints they’d needed for their journey. And since they couldn’t go inside the large, bustling pawn shops, they’d sometimes wind up blackmailed by shady merchants who had determined their identities, and they were forced to sell at a painful bargain.
“It’s not the same!” Feng Xin exclaimed. “Don’t you really like that sword? Otherwise, why wouldn’t you have pawned it already instead of stuffing it in the bottom of a chest? And the Emperor gave it to you—it won’t sound good if word gets out!”
“No matter how much I like it, it’s still not as important as a life,” Xie Lian said wearily. “Let’s just go.”
The two made their way to the city with the sword, both looking downtrodden. When they arrived at the pawn shop, Xie Lian stopped and glanced at Hongjing in his hand.
Feng Xin peered at him. “Why don’t we forget about pawning it? Let’s try…let’s try to think of another way…”
Xie Lian shook his head. “It’s too late. Besides, we don’t know if there is any other way that will get us enough money.”
No mortal would be a match for them if they stole, snatched, or employed other such trickery, and money would pour in much faster. But things were so difficult precisely because they had to uphold their moral compasses and adhere to the ethics of mortals, earning their money honestly.
Having made up his mind, Xie Lian said, “This has to be pawned. Once it’s done, we’ll go buy medicine.”
Despite his words, his feet still didn’t move.
Feng Xin knew he was reluctant to let go—this was Xie Lian’s last sword. So he said, “Let’s look around some more.”
Suddenly, a clamor erupted on one end of the street; there was shouting and yelling, and someone cried out.
“Who’s causing trouble?!”
“The audacity!”
“Catch him! Catch him!”
The two were both startled, and Xie Lian instantly ducked to the side of the road in alarm. “Who?!”
Feng Xin cautiously went over to check, returning only after he was sure of their safety. “It’s nothing! Don’t worry! It has nothing to do with us. It’s not Yong’an soldiers or anyone else who’s looking for us.”
Only then did Xie Lian’s tension ease. “What’s going on?”
“I’m not sure,” Feng Xin said. “It looks like a fight between some irate servants. Want to go see?”
“Let’s go,” Xie Lian said. “Hopefully it’s not some local tyrant.”
The two went over to watch. They saw two men brawling at the center of a crowd of onlookers, and the audience was cheering.
Feng Xin tapped the shoulder of a passerby who was enjoying the show. “Hey, buddy, what’s going on here?”
The passerby chuckled. “You don’t know? This is too exciting! The servant is beating the master!”
What an affair! Xie Lian was speechless. “How come? And why the cheering?”
“Of course we’re going to cheer!” the passerby said. “That master is no good! His servant followed him since he was young and was very loyal, but the master only knew how to exploit him! He paid him badly and worked him to the bone, pushing him around all day. The servant couldn’t take it anymore, and so you see, you see! Now they’re fighting!”
Sure enough, the one throwing all the punches was cursing as he did, yelling accusations and declarations alike. “I’ve had it with you for ages! Why don’t you think about what you’ve really given me?! My family’s so poor that we can barely eat, but you still lord over me, acting all high and mighty! From today onward, I ain’t your dog no more!” The master was hugging his head and screaming as he was beaten, all while the crowd cheered.
Their shouts made Xie Lian’s heart lurch in waves, and chills shook his body. He unconsciously stole a glance at Feng Xin.
Feng Xin didn’t notice his strange behavior at all, and when he heard those terrible deeds, he commented offhandedly, “I see, then that master really is no good. No wonder the servant is rebelling.”
He didn’t mean anything by it, but Xie Lian’s heart dropped, and he gripped Hongjing tighter.
After much headache, Hongjing was pawned and the two finally had money. They immediately went to find a doctor and purchased dozens of different medicinal herbs to take back.
Medicinal herbs used to treat illnesses that made one cough up blood were expensive and needed to be bought in large quantities. It wasn’t a matter of one or two doses over a couple of days, and they would need to keep a close watch on how his father responded to the treatment.
That evening, Feng Xin unwrapped a few packets of herbs and started boiling down the medicine outside the cottage, fanning wildly at the flames with a torn cattail leaf fan. As for Xie Lian, he was once again rummaging through the shelves and chests all over the house. After a while, he finally fumbled out a soft, shimmering golden belt.
