15: Chapter 15 Choice

When Shoushan stepped over the threshold of the Feng Family, there wasn't a breath of wind in the night.

There were no lights in the Feng Family courtyard; only a faint, yellowish glow hovered behind the window paper of the east room, so thin it seemed it could extinguish at any moment.

Shoushan did not move in a hurry.

He first stood on the threshold and listened for a while.

Someone inside the room was coughing—it was the long, hacking cough of an old person, stopping and then starting again.

Further in, there was the soft sound of a child turning over and kicking off the quilt in their sleep.

From the kitchen, there was a faint smell of medicine, the bitterness almost boiled away.

Listening to it, this courtyard felt even more like a poor household than it did during the day.

Shoushan's hand gripping the knife did not loosen in the slightest.

When Fifth Feng and Fourth Aunt Feng climbed into the Jiang Family courtyard, the matter had already been decided.

Leaving a survivor behind would only let them insist that the Jiang Family were the perpetrators, making the water muddier than it already was.

He lifted his foot and entered the courtyard, his steps so light they were almost soundless.

Shoushan stood in the room, looking down for a long time.

In the end, he didn't say a single word.

There were no screams in the night.

By the time Shoushan came back out of the Feng Family, that last bit of light in the courtyard had also been extinguished.

The door remained half-ajar, as if the family had simply fallen into a deep sleep and would wake up later tomorrow morning.

He carried the knife on his back and walked up the slope.

Along the way, the outer coat that Zhao Xing had draped over him fluttered gently in the wind.

When he returned to the backyard of Niubei Hollow, the small lamp by the well was still lit.

Zhao Xing was standing under the lamp.

She did not ask.

She only glanced at him as he entered, handing him the bowl of hot water she had been keeping warm.

"It's hot," she said in a low voice.

Shoushan gave a grunt of acknowledgment, and when he took it, he realized his fingers were somewhat stiff.

Several people in the room were still awake.

Jiang Chengning was lying on a long bench with a quilt propped behind his back; his face was pale, and the layer of frost at his temples had not yet fully dissipated.

The mouthful of Pseudo-Spring that had been mistakenly introduced into his body in Nuanshi Hollow was still pressing on his chest, like a cold thorn hidden within his Meridians; it didn't move usually, but whenever it did, it burrowed deeper.

Jiang Yuhe had been keeping watch by Jiang Chengning's side, her fingertips pressed against his chest, her Grain Rain Qi sinking in little by little, trying to drag that misdirected Qi back out.

After Shoushan entered the room, he first washed the knife and placed it behind the door, then said in a low voice: "There are no survivors left."

Jiang Chengning closed his eyes for a moment and nodded.

"That is good."

He said nothing else.

Having reached this point, there was no longer any meaning in distinguishing which strike was heavy or which was light.

When Fifth Feng and Fourth Aunt Feng climbed the wall, it was impossible for the Feng Family to remain.

After Shoushan sat down, Zhao Xing pulled his outer coat closer around him before stepping back.

The room remained quiet for a long time, until finally, Jiang Chengning spoke first: "Jiang Xingchuan, Jiang Yuhe."

Both of them looked up at the same time.

"Go down the mountain."

Jiang Xingchuan was stunned for a moment, then frowned: "Now?"

"Right now," Jiang Chengning said without a moment's hesitation. "While the Feng Family side hasn't caused a stir yet, and while the people from the Main Peak haven't arrived. Take the route through Shuangxi Ferry, go to that abandoned Earth Temple behind it, and hide for three months."

Jiang Xingchuan opened his mouth, first glancing at the blood on his mother's shoulder, then at Shoushan, and finally at Jiang Chengning.

"Then what about you?"

"We are not leaving," Lin Suwen answered for Jiang Chengning.

As she spoke, she rummaged out the small packet of medicine, some money, and a roll of cloth from beside the stove.

"The children cannot be carried, the elderly cannot be dragged along, and the women certainly cannot make it out of the mountains. If we all leave, the Jiang Family's spirit will truly dissipate. You leaving is to preserve the family line."

When she said this, she turned her head to look at Jiang Yuhe.

"Take the family genealogy with you."

The family genealogy on the corner of the table had been lying there quietly all this time.

Zhou Wang, curled up within the paper, felt his heart tremble; he actually developed a strange feeling of being protected as if he were their lifeline.

Jiang Yuhe did not ask any more questions, simply reaching out to hold the family genealogy in her arms.

Jiang Chengning explained the signal for their return in great detail.

"If the family stabilizes, I will go to that abandoned Earth Temple behind Shuangxi Ferry, insert three sections of green mulberry branches into the incense burner, and tie white hemp to the tips."

"Go check once at the beginning of the month. If you don't see anything for three consecutive months, don't wait any longer; head south, and go as far away as possible."

As he said these words, that mouthful of Pseudo-Spring in his chest fluctuated again, and by the end of his sentence, his lips had already turned white.

Jiang Yuhe's eyes turned slightly red, but she still nodded, memorizing every word.

Shoushan went to the backyard to retrieve the used knife, wrapped it layer by layer in a gray cloth, and handed it to Jiang Xingchuan.

"Take it down the mountain and dispose of it."

Jiang Xingchuan took the knife, slung it over his shoulder, and turned to leave.

Jiang Yuhe followed, holding the family genealogy.

When the door opened, the night wind rushed in, filling the whole room with cold air.

Neither of them looked back, and they soon disappeared into the night along the darkening mountain path down the slope.

Until the door closed again, the room felt as if two parts of it had suddenly emptied.

Lin Suwen leaned against the stove, exhaling softly after a long time.

"Shoushan," Jiang Chengning said in a low voice, "After daybreak, only admit to Fifth Feng and Fourth Aunt Feng. Anything else, admit to nothing."

Shoushan nodded.

Lin Suwen also nodded.

Fifth Feng and Fourth Aunt Feng died in the Jiang Family courtyard; this matter cannot be hidden.

But this blood debt of the Feng Family's extermination, even if the sky were to fall, cannot be admitted.

If we admit it, the Jiang Family will truly have no path to survival.

When the sky was just beginning to brighten, weeping indeed broke out from the bottom of the slope.

First came a woman's scream, then a child's crying, and following that, a chaotic sound of footsteps.

The sound of crying crept up the slope along with the damp wind; doors opened across Duansang Ridge, figures rushed down in waves, and the Feng Family's courtyard was soon surrounded by people.

Jiang Chengning did not pretend not to know.

He had Lin Suwen support him as he went out the door.

Shoushan walked on the other side, with no expression on his face at all.

Zhao Xing gathered Ah Shi and Zhao Zhi by the doorway, not letting them follow down to look.

The Feng Family courtyard was too quiet in death.

The old, the sick, the young—not one was left.

The kitchen, the east room, the west kang—all were filled with stiff bodies.

The Zhou Family arrived extremely quickly.

Accountant Zhou Chengli arrived first.

Behind him followed the mountain patrollers.

And further behind, even Zhou Boyan had come down the mountain.

Zhou Boyan was still wearing that dark gray cloak, and no change could be seen on his face.

After entering the courtyard, he first looked around, his gaze finally landing on Jiang Chengning's face.

"Was it your Jiang Family who killed Fifth Feng and Fourth Aunt Feng?"

"Yes," Jiang Chengning answered calmly. "They climbed over the wall into the courtyard, and while Jiang Yuhe and I went to Nuanshi Hollow, they came to kill my wife and damage my well. My family's Jiang Xingchuan and Shoushan struck in self-defense, and they died in my courtyard; this I admit."

Accountant Zhou Chengli raised his eyelids: "Then what about this whole courtyard of people?"

"It was not us."

"You say it wasn't, so it wasn't?"

Jiang Chengning looked up at him, his face deathly pale, yet his voice did not waver in the slightest.

"I do not know."

Zhou Boyan did not speak immediately.

He turned and entered the kitchen, then went to check the east room and the west room as well.

Finally, he stopped by the feet of Fifth Feng's mother, staring at the thin slit on her neck for a long time before turning back to look at Shoushan.

"You use a knife."

Shoushan lowered his eyes: "People in the mountains all use knives."

Zhou Boyan did not respond, only saying indifferently: "Arrest everyone from the Jiang Family."