Chapter 363 You Draw, I Guess

“Xiao Er, this is the Heir to Prince Ying^[1]!” San Tie bounced over on the little bald donkey.

The Heir Apparent!

Yan Yu thought to herself, Goodness, what a big shot!

Her eyes lit up at once.

Because she was excited, her voice shook a little too.

“My eldest uncle is the Household Registrar of Crouching Tiger City, his surname is Yan, given name Huaiwen, he’s a Xiucai^[2]. My dad is called Yan Huaian, my big brother is called Yan Xiangheng, they’re both studying at the Crouching Tiger County School. Right now they’re trapped in Crouching Tiger. When the Northern Rong came, I was in the city too. Big Brother Heir Apparent, if you want to ask anything, ask me, I know it all!”

The Heir to Prince Ying was quite surprised when he heard this.

“You say you were in Crouching Tiger at the time as well. Then how did you get out? What was the situation in Crouching Tiger then?”

Yan Yu quickly told him how she had ridden a donkey armored with Iron Sheeting to rush out and deliver the message, and what Crouching Tiger was like when she left.

As she spoke, she studied this Heir Apparent.

The helmet covered half his face, leaving only his eyes, nose, and mouth exposed, but if you looked carefully you could still tell this young man was quite good-looking. A few days ago he had just taken a bride and was still a brand new groom.

He had learned that the Northern Rong were besieging Crouching Tiger and had personally come, and he did not put on airs, willing to lower himself to talk with her. No wonder everyone in Guanzhou praised the Prince’s Manor without end. Just this one trait of being easy to approach already added many points.

Right, the trunk that had been stolen from his wife, the Consort of the Heir Apparent, was still sunk in the river beside them…

Hearing how this child had escaped from Crouching Tiger and then carried messages to both Yongning and Gufeng, the Heir to Prince Ying’s tone grew even gentler.

“What is your name?”

“My name is Yan Yu. I’m the second child at home, everyone calls me Xiao Er.”

“Xiao Er, may I call you that as well?”

“Heir Apparent, as you please.”

“Why aren’t you calling me big brother?”

“Can I? I just feel like that might not be proper…”

“It’s fine, just call me big brother.” The Heir to Prince Ying said with a smile.

“Big Brother Heir Apparent!” Yan Yu called crisply.

“Xiao Er, your village has rendered service by repairing the bridge, and you also did a meritorious job delivering the message. You should be rewarded. Is there anything you want?” The Heir to Prince Ying had the thought to tease her a little.

This Yan family’s little one was so clever it made people like her.

Right now Yan Yu’s eyes seemed to sparkle like stars, echoing the starlight in the night sky.

“Can it be paid in silver? There is reward silver for killing Northern Rong. Can we get silver for repairing the bridge and delivering the message too?”

The look of this little money-grubber really was amusing to see.

Smiling with his eyes, the Heir Apparent said, “Yes. I’ll explain to Magistrate Tian and have your merits reported. You just wait at home.”

“No no no!” Yan Yu hurriedly waved her hands. “Big Brother Heir Apparent, can the reward silver not be issued from Crouching Tiger? Our lord magistrate, and the Crouching Tiger Government Office, are really poor…”

If it was issued from Crouching Tiger, each head only earned one tael.

But what Yongning City gave was different, a solid two taels of silver per head. The difference was huge.

Her mental abacus^[3] was clacking away. She naturally knew very well from where it was most cost-effective to take this reward silver.

“That’s fine too.” The Heir Apparent nodded.

To him, there was not much difference.

As soon as she heard him agree, Yan Yu smiled so hard her eyes almost disappeared. Da Tie and the others beside her were the same, all beaming.

Since he had agreed to this matter, the Heir to Prince Ying thought for a moment and gave a few instructions to the people beside him.

Yan Yu edged a little closer without making it obvious, listening clearly.

The Heir Apparent ordered him to come here to handle this matter once Crouching Tiger was pacified, so the Prefectural Government Office would not need to send someone else to take it over…

She immediately shifted her gaze to the young man named Pengshu. Hearing that name, he was undoubtedly a servant at the Heir’s side.

Pengshu accepted the order, then looked at her.

Yan Yu responded with a big grin, fixing this God of Wealth-like young man’s face firmly in her memory…

The Heir to Prince Ying still had to catch up with the troops ahead, and in short order he led his men away.

“Xiao Er, we killed quite a lot of Northern Rong. At two taels a head, how much is that going to be!” Just thinking of all that silver made Da Tie’s breathing quicken.

Last time they killed Northern Rong, Uncle Yan Lao’er had specially gathered the whole village and explained that the orders in Yongning and Crouching Tiger were different. Crouching Tiger paid less, only one tael, Yongning paid more, two.

They had no objections. Yongning was the Prefectural City, and it cost ten taels of silver just to register your household there. Crouching Tiger did not cost anything, how could it be the same? Besides, Uncle Yan Lao’er had explained clearly that this silver was being held back from the Border Army, who had urgent use for it and spent it all on the frontier defenses.

They did not understand lofty principles, but they knew that money was being spent where it counted, and that was as it should be.

“The first batch of Northern Rong were all killed by us. The ones after that, the Gufeng city guards killed quite a few. We can’t steal their merit. Whatever the number is, it is. We have to make the head count clear, set theirs aside separately, and when they come back, let them haul them away.”

Yan Yu remembered clearly that none of those Gufeng city guards carried bows.

“The ones my eldest uncle shot also count as ours, don’t mix them up. Any heads with arrows in them, leave them all.”

As soon as she thought of the bounty per head jumping to two taels of silver, she could not sit still.

There was still quite a bit of silver in the mountains, waiting for her.

“I have other things to do, I’m off!”

Yan Yu took the donkey’s reins from San Tie.

The little bald donkey’s clip-clopping hoofbeats receded cheerfully into the distance.

…

Yan Lao’er himself did not know how he had managed to hold on.

At first, their actions went very smoothly. They moved swiftly along the rooftops, properly killing quite a few Northern Rong and saving quite a lot of people.

Later, more and more people from the Government Office joined them. The adults were fine, but no one could control the crying of small children, and in the end the Northern Rong discovered them.

The two sides clashed head on, with casualties on both sides.

Seeing that they could no longer stay at the Government Office, they took the people and ran.

He could no longer remember how many times the people around him had changed.

When the yamen runners died, the citizens of Crouching Tiger City would spontaneously step in. Relying on their familiarity with the streets, they twisted and turned through the city as they ran.

If it was a small group of Northern Rong, they killed them. If there were many, they ran.

People opened the way in front, people covered the rear behind, and all the elderly, weak, women, and children were in the middle.

He and Heng’er kept a tight hold on Magistrate Tian the whole way.

Running without stopping, running without stopping.

The plan they had made before had been so good, all about hiding and lying low, but now it had all been thrown out the window. All that was left was to run!

It was not that they could not find suitable hiding places, but that Magistrate Tian had left all such safe spots to the people in the city.

Yan Lao’er was convinced.

To be honest, even he, someone this afraid of death, did not know why he had kept dragging Magistrate Tian along the whole way. Probably because his hand had gotten too used to it. After running for so long, he had become accustomed to it…

“Eldest Nephew… let’s rest a bit!” Yan Lao’er panted heavily.

Yan Xiangheng was the same.

As soon as uncle and nephew stopped, the people around them also halted. Some seized the moment to rest, some spontaneously stood guard around them, and a few climbed up to higher spots to keep watch…

All of this was the result of Yan Lao’er’s constant drilling along the way.

He really had to keep talking. Without even a bit of sense of danger, they were running for their lives, how could they relax their guard like this!

Magistrate Tian’s face was white, his head and face dripping with sweat, his whole body trembling.

One look and you could tell he was exhausted to the extreme.

He had not spoken for a long time, relying entirely on his eyes and hand gestures.

For once, Yan Lao’er could guess, and he got more right than wrong, mostly on the mark.

Author Note:

I mentioned at the very beginning that Yan Lao’er had taken care of the elderly in two households. I wonder how many people still remember?

Heh heh~

This inspiration came from a classmate of mine. Our generation are all only children. Once when I was caring for my grandmother in the hospital and feeling really depressed, I was chatting in our classmates’ group. When they heard I was in the hospital, one classmate shared his story of single-handedly looking after four elderly people across two households. He said that whenever the season came when the old folks tended to fall ill, he would return to the hospital, his second home. He also said that things were much better now. His paternal grandparents had passed away a few years ago, so now there were only four. A few years back, there had been six…

I was floored. Amazing! The impression really stuck with me~

(End of chapter)