Chapter 21
Chapter 21: Rescue
Anger could wait.
The bandit struggled to rise, one hand fumbling for the whistle hanging at his neck.
Jin Sui scrambled forward, body screaming, and threw herself on top of him.
She clamped the sleeping-powder cloth over his mouth and nose.
Her strength wasn’t enough.
The bandit bucked hard, nearly throwing her off.
Gu Chang Xiao was too far away to help – but Jin An burst from hiding and slammed down on the bandit’s arms, helping Jin Sui pin him.
Together, they held him.
The bandit thrashed a few more times, then went limp, eyes rolling as the drug took him.
Gu Chang Xiao approached and glanced from the unconscious bandit to the cloth in Jin Sui’s hand.
One brow rose.
“Little Daoist… that sleeping powder wasn’t meant for me, was it?”
Grandpa Ling rushed in, voice sharp as a blade.
“Enough. Now is not the time. Go!”
Gu Chang Xiao wiped his short blade on his sleeve with neat, practiced care – then stepped forward and ended the unconscious bandit with one clean strike.
Jin Sui wanted to ask why he bothered wiping the blade when it was about to be bloody again, but Grandpa Ling was already pushing them onward.
Jin An snatched one of the bandits’ sabers off the ground.
Gu Chang Xiao bent down and spoke to Grandpa Ling. “Daoist Master, get on. I’ll carry you.”
Grandpa Ling didn’t hesitate.
He climbed onto Gu Chang Xiao’s back at once.
Jin Sui couldn’t help thinking Gu Chang Xiao was doing it to keep a hostage between himself and her sleeping powder.
But Jin An couldn’t carry Grandpa, and Gu Chang Xiao couldn’t carry all of them.
So she swallowed it and took the torch.
Less than half an hour later, they heard water.
They emerged into a forest thick with shadow.
A waterfall hissed somewhere ahead, its roar swallowing the night.
The rain had stopped, but there was no moon and no stars.
The torchlight was thinning fast.
Jin Sui hissed, “Where do we go now?”
Gu Chang Xiao answered flatly, “I don’t know. Wherever there’s a path, we take it.”
Jin Sui nearly exploded.
“That’s your plan? ‘Wherever there’s a path’? Are you trying to deliver us to the yamen in person?”
Grandpa Ling pulled out three copper coins.
“Let this old Daoist cast a reading.”
Jin Sui and Jin An waited out of habit.
Gu Chang Xiao, deeply unimpressed, tried to pry at the shackle lock with his short blade.
It didn’t budge.
Grandpa Ling finished quickly and pointed north.
“The living gate is north. Go north.”
Gu Chang Xiao didn’t argue.
He carried Grandpa Ling again and moved.
Jin Sui held the torch in one hand and the chain in the other.
Only now, with the rush draining out of her, did she realize how heavy the chain truly was.
Every step made her ankle throb, as if a stone hammer struck it from the inside.
Rain-soaked ground turned the mountain path to slick mud.
Jin Sui slipped and fell into a shallow pit.
The chain snapped tight – Gu Chang Xiao yanked her back before she could slide toward a cliff edge.
Jin An caught her arm and whispered, breath shaking, “Brother… can we trust him?”
Jin Sui shook her head.
“Trust or not, we don’t have a choice. Escape first.”
Then she added, low and urgent, “Call him Brother Gu. His hearing is too good.”
Behind them, shouting rose.
Metal clanged.
Footsteps pounded, relentless.
They’d found the route.
Jin Sui glanced back and saw a swarm of torchlight at the cave mouth.
She immediately smothered their torch.
Darkness swallowed them whole.
Only then did she realize the sky had begun to pale.
Dawn was coming.
Gu Chang Xiao shouted from ahead, “Faster!”
They ran.
But they were burdened: old, young, injured, chained.
The pursuers were strong and fast.
An arrow whistled through the wind.
Jin Sui tackled Jin An without thinking.
The arrow cut past them – aimed straight for Grandpa Ling’s back.
Jin Sui’s voice tore raw. “Grandpa!”
Gu Chang Xiao twisted sharply, turning his body.
The arrow skimmed above Grandpa Ling’s head and sank into Gu Chang Xiao’s shoulder.
Gu Chang Xiao grunted.
Grandpa Ling slid off his back and grabbed him, hands shaking.
“Sui Sui! Medicine – quick!”
Gu Chang Xiao’s voice was tight with pain. “Don’t stop. Run.”
They were chained together.
No one could abandon anyone.
Seeing Gu Chang Xiao take that arrow for Grandpa Ling snapped something in Jin Sui.
The fury from earlier dulled, leaving a hard, stunned quiet.
“Are you okay?” she asked, urgent. “Do you need me to bandage -”
“—No.” Gu Chang Xiao snapped the arrow shaft off, jaw clenched. “Safe first.”
They pushed forward, but the sound behind them grew closer.
Then Jin Sui saw a black-clad constable leap from behind, long saber flashing as he aimed straight for Jin An, who had fallen behind.
Jin Sui screamed, “Jin An!”
She turned – too slow.
Gu Chang Xiao lunged instead, grabbed Jin An, and rolled.
The saber came down in a flurry, striking again and again.
Jin Sui was dragged down by the chain and hit the ground hard.
The blade was about to catch Jin An.
Gu Chang Xiao shoved Jin An away and took the blow across his own back.
Then he roared at Jin Sui, “Pull the chain!”
Jin Sui understood instantly.
She yanked.
The constable staggered, thrown off-balance, slowed for a heartbeat.
Gu Chang Xiao lunged and turned the constable’s saber toward his throat – but he was injured.
His strength faltered.
The constable twisted, pinned Gu Chang Xiao down, and forced the blade toward his neck.
Jin Sui crawled along the chain, grabbed Jin An’s dropped saber, and raised it.
Her mind went blank.
She forgot she had once healed people.
Forgot she had once lived in peace.
There was only one thought.
Kill him, or they all die.
She drove the saber into the constable’s back with everything she had.
Blood sprayed from the man’s mouth.
He collapsed, heavy and slack, on top of Gu Chang Xiao.
Gu Chang Xiao shoved the body away and struggled up.
Jin Sui stared at her hands, shaking.
Her face drained of color.
“I… I killed someone.”
Gu Chang Xiao stepped close and gripped her shoulders.
His voice softened – almost gentle.
“It’s fine. After you kill enough, you get used to it.”
Jin Sui almost laughed in disbelief at that terrible comfort.
Then Gu Chang Xiao’s eyes rolled back, and he collapsed into her arms.
Jin An sobbed, clutching Jin Sui’s sleeve. “Brother… he’s a good person. We can’t leave him.”
If Gu Chang Xiao hadn’t blocked the arrow for Grandpa Ling and taken the saber for Jin An, Jin Sui could have abandoned him.
But now?
She feared owing people.
A debt of kindness was the hardest chain of all.