Inside the small tavern room, a single candlelight flickered in the middle of the table, casting dancing shadows across the two figures. Cao Yanmei sat opposite Yongzheng, her eyes fixed on him, scrutinizing the clean-shaven Taoist who was so different yet carried the familiar scent of danger.
Yongzheng leaned forward slightly, his voice a low, intense appeal. "Cao guniang, are you willing to help me?"
Cao Yanmei sighed, her expression conflicted. "It's not that I don't want to help you," she admitted, her voice dropping. "If the person arrested wasn't Rao Zhengsheng, then I might be able to. But as we all know, the feud between the Rao family and the Cao family has a long history, and it was initiated by them. They stole my father's 'Red Thread Needles Manual'."
Yongzheng countered the old grievance with the immediate horror of the present. "Your father killed everyone in the Rao family, and he also killed Rao-xiong's shifu and shimu."
Cao Yanmei felt the weight of her loyalties instantly. "If I help you, I will betray my family. I can't face my father and my brother." She leaned her head on the table, lost in deep, agonizing thought.
Yongzheng pressed the advantage, offering a compromise that eased her conscience. "You don't need to release them yourself. Find me a way to rescue them, I will do it myself." He looked intently at her, still not looking up from the table. "Help me this time... treat it as a payback for saving your life."
Cao Yanmei finally raised her face, her eyes questioning. "You are not close to them, and you have nothing to do with them. Why do you want to help them?"
Yongzheng's answer was firm, based on an unbreakable promise. "I promised Xue qianbei that I will protect Horan from harm."
"I won't help," Cao Yanmei said angrily, dismissing the pledge.
Yongzheng made one last, desperate appeal to her sense of morality. "Your father killed his parents. Maybe if you help save their only child... they might forgive your father for killing them."
Cao Yanmei listened, a conflict raging within her. She knew that Cao Fengge had his own ruthless way of dealing with enemies, and she disagreed with many of the methods he used. For more than a year, she had witnessed the merciless treatment he dispensed. She also knew that Cao Fengge would not hurt others unless they hurt him first. The other party must have done something that greatly offended him to receive such treatments.
Cao Yanmei thought for a long moment, the candlelight illuminating the conflict on her face. Her head slowly lifted from the table, a resolution now hardening her gaze. She had found the moral loophole.
"Alright," she conceded, meeting Yongzheng's eyes. "I will not betray my father, but I will not allow needless cruelty either." She leaned forward, lowering her voice so that it wouldn't carry past the small table. "If I only give you the information you need, and don't actually participate in the rescue of the prisoners, then I'm not betraying my own family. I'm simply evening the scales of justice."
She paused, ensuring he understood the gravity of what she was about to disclose.
"I can tell you where they'll be held at the Beixing Sect, and the most secure way for a person like you to get in."
She leaned in conspiratorially. "But the rescue cannot be now since they are too heavily guarded. In the meantime, don't try to implement any of your rescue plans into action. It'd be a waste of time and effort." Her voice became deadly serious. "Every guard around my da ge has a poisonous crossbow. Before you can reach them or my da ge, you will be shot dead."
Yongzheng frowned, concerned by the delay. "When they reach Beixing Sect, it will be even more difficult to rescue them."
"Says who?" Cao Yanmei replied, a genuine smile playing on her lips. "Do you still have the name tag I gave you?"
Yongzheng reached inside his inner robe, retrieved the white jade name tag, and placed it on the table. Cao Yanmei grabbed it, examined it quickly, then pushed it back to him.
"This is your access key to walk unimpeded in Beixing Sect," she explained, her smile deepening. She stared at the newly cleaned Taoist. "I didn't know that you could be this handsome. When you clean up and dress like an ordinary person, you actually look pretty good."
Yongzheng picked up the name tag and stood up, anxious to leave. "Cao guniang… please keep an eye on them."
"Why do you always call me Cao guniang? It sounds too distant," she retorted, glaring at him playfully. "What name do you call the man with Rao Zhengsheng?"
"Horan," Yongzheng answered simply.
"Horan? You call him Horan, but you call me Cao guniang? Call me Yanmei, otherwise forget about the whole rescue thing."
Yongzheng conceded the point, the urgency of his mission overriding his formality. "Yanmei, please keep an eye on them. Thank you."
He didn't wait for another reply. He jumped out of the window and disappeared into the night.
Cao Yanmei walked out of the room and into the tavern kitchen. She quickly grabbed some leftover food from the stove and then walked out to where Rao Zhengsheng and Xue Horan were tied together. She placed a pot of hot tea and a plate holding four buns on the ground between the two prisoners.
Rao Zhengsheng looked up at her, suspicion heavy in his bruised eyes. "You siblings are so strange. What are you planning to do now?" He paused, a cynical edge to his voice. "As soon as we reach for the buns, you're going to kick them away?"
Cao Yanmei deliberately touched the ends of her hair, refusing to meet his hostile gaze. "Think whatever you want to think. Don't think that I did this because I pity you. If it weren't for the smelly Taoist, I would never bring this to you." She turned and walked away, her mission completed.
"Thank you, Cao guniang," Xue Horan said softly.
Cao Yanmei shouted back without turning around, "The person you should thank is not me."
It took them three grueling days to reach the Beixing Sect. As soon as they entered the sect's walls, Rao Zhengsheng and Xue Horan were immediately separated and dragged into the prison cells. Rao Zhengsheng was taken away to be severely tortured under the supervision of Cao Wenyan.
Xue Horan was placed not in a cell, but in a beautifully decorated large room. Suddenly, the door opened, and Cao Yanmei walked in. She sat opposite Xue Horan and stared intently at him.
Cao Yanmei wasted no time with pleasantries. "My ge has fed Rao Zhengsheng 'age under the sun' poison and 'seven colors pill' poison. As we speak, Rao Zhengsheng is being tortured by my brother." She sighed, the severity of the situation heavy in her tone. "If this continues, Rao Zhengsheng will die in the next three or four days. Unless I figure out a way to rescue him, he won't be able to hold up under the torture any longer. Unless..."
Xue Horan's heart pounded. "Unless what?"
Cao Yanmei's proposition was shocking. "Unless you die in his place."
Xue Horan stared blankly. "What do you mean by that?"
Cao Yanmei placed a tiny black pill on the table. "This is called the 'seven colors pill' poison. People who are poisoned by this pill will slowly rot from the inside out and die within seven days if there is no antidote."
"How will taking this poison help my da shixiong?" Xue Horan asked, confused.
Cao Yanmei explained the deadly gamble. "Yan yisheng of Li village can cure 'age under the sun' poison, but he can't cure 'seven colors pill'. This is a gamble; I'm not certain if this will work or not." She then looked directly at Xue Horan. "You may have heard many people say that you look like Mu Dishi?"
"Yes, I have heard," Xue Horan confirmed.
"My ge likes this Mu Dishi very much. It will be the anniversary of Mu Dishi's death in two days. I will go and have a good talk with my brother and see if he can be persuaded to give you the antidote." Cao Yanmei detailed the perilous plan. "When you get the antidote, put it in your mouth, but don't swallow it. I will find a way to bring you to Rao Zhengsheng, and you can give him the antidote. When we rescue you two, I will try to steal another antidote for you, but if I fail, then you die." She looked at Xue Horan, placing the full weight of the decision on him. "It's your choice."
Xue Horan asked the question still nagging at him. "Cao guniang, Cao Fengge is your father, why do you want to help us?"
"I did this because Yongzheng asked me," she admitted. "I disagree with many things that my father and my elder brother did. I used this as an apology." She pushed the pill toward him. "This is the only way out for Rao Zhengsheng right now."
Xue Horan did not hesitate. He picked up the pill, put it into his mouth, and swallowed.
Cao Yanmei stood up. "I'm going to find Yongzheng and your shijie."
"Cao guniang, thank you," Xue Horan said.
"Forget it," she replied, and closed the door behind her.
After laying out the perilous plan to Xue Horan, Cao Yanmei quickly walked out of the Beixing Sect and headed towards the back mountain, where Yongzheng and Dong Lanying were hiding.
Her horse clip-clopped slowly down a single, winding path. As she approached the area of the Cao Family cemetery, she guided her horse straight toward a single, isolated old house. She dismounted, tied the horse securely to the fence, walked to the door, and gently gave it three knocks.
The door swung open instantly, and standing before her was Yongzheng.
She entered the house, closed the door behind her, and as she turned, she saw Dong Lanying standing beside a small table. She walked to the table and sat down.
"How are my da shixiong and Horan?" Dong Lanying asked, her voice taut with anxiety.
Cao Yanmei gave a cautious report. "They are fine."
Yongzheng cut straight to the chase. "What is your plan?"
Cao Yanmei explained the opportunity. "It will be the anniversary of Mu Dishi's death in two days. Judging by how my da ge is acting, he misses Mu Dishi very much. He is going to hold an offering for Mu Dishi in the back bamboo forest where Mu Dishi once stayed. We will take this opportunity to rescue them."
Dong Lanying pressed her. "Why another two days? Why can't it be today?"
Cao Yanmei's gaze was sharp. "Right now, my da ge's thinking is still clear. Do as I said. If you fail to rescue them this time, you can prepare a coffin for Rao Zhengsheng."
Yongzheng's worry intensified. "Cao guniang, is Rao-xiong's condition that bad?"
"Very bad. He is about to die," she confirmed grimly. "After we save him, take him straight to Li Village to find Yan Yisheng. Tell him that Rao Zhengsheng is poisoned with 'age under the sun'."
"I will prepare everything," Dong Lanying vowed immediately.
"See you in two days," Cao Yanmei said. She stood up and walked away, leaving the two with the terrifyingly tight timeline of the plan.