Volume II, Big Summer Dynasty Chapter 9: Jing Family Extermination
by Xiao Xiang Dong'Er Translated and Arranged by Angel Chua
Edited by Angel Chua 01 June 2019
Chu Qiao carried Xiao Qi back to the backyard. She quickly laid the child down in their room and tended to her injuries, cleaning and dressing the wound. She applied the medicine Yan Xun had given her. It was easy to use and not only effective in stopping the bleeding but also contained a mild sleep-inducing powder, which caused the poor Xiao Qi to fall asleep.
Xiao Ba barely stirred in her bed and appeared sick. She suddenly woke up, but no words came from her. Chu Qiao glanced at her coldly as she busied herself outside, boiling water to care for Xiao Qi, all while Xiao Ba remained silent, like a fool.
As the afternoon wore on, Chu Qiao continued caring for her own injuries. She rubbed the sweat off the wound, stimulating the pain, but it was now bearable, unlike yesterday. This was her way of gauging her recovery and whether her body was healing on its own. She leaned against the wall, listening to Xiao Qi sleep, a slight pain in her heart as though someone had squeezed it. She decided to go outside, tossing ice stones across the thin layer of snow, as winter was approaching. Chu Qiao closed her eyes, and once again, the image of a pure-faced boy echoed in her mind. He had whispered to her that they would protect their own boys, but she had witnessed his brutal death in the cannibal garden of the Zhuge household. His face and head were so badly beaten that he was unrecognizable.
Tears slowly fell from her closed eyes, sliding down her sharp chin and dripping onto her coarse fabric shoes.
Suddenly, a distressed voice broke through the quiet. Chu Qiao was startled and opened the door to find a twelve-year-old girl named Zhang standing in the yard. Zhang, who Chu Qiao had previously met, was holding ropes in her hand and took a few steps towards her, crying like a river. She said, "The Jingjia children and Zhi Xiang were taken by people sent by Zhu Shun's housekeeper to Zhuge Huai's Jile Pavilion."
Chu Qiao smirked upon hearing this and coldly asked, "Taken? When did this happen, and why?"
"This morning. I asked Ling Xi to go find them and plead with the fourth young master, but he has been with him all day and there's no news. How can we find him?"
"Is there anything more to say?" Chu Qiao pressed.
The girl wiped her tears and cried again. "Yes, Ling Xi has been sent to the foreign old house of the Zhuge household."
"What?" Chu Qiao exclaimed, the girl's words striking her like a thunderclap. Chu Qiao muttered, "If a child listens to those animal-like rumors, it's like a tornado sweeping through my mind." Zhang's face turned pale with fear at Chu Qiao's fierce expression.
Xiao Ba, the nearly seven-year-old child, stood at the door. She stepped forward, pulling Chu Qiao's clothes, her small voice trembling like that of an injured little animal. "Sister, is Zhi Xiang and Xiao Qi with them? Where are they?"
Chu Qiao ignored her and walked away.
"Girl! Come back!" Zhang called, but Chu Qiao was resolute. An ominous premonition gripped her heart. She wasn't sure if it was already too late or if there was still a chance to save the children and find Ling Xi. All she could do was move forward as fast as she could, without pausing.
Behind the Aoyama (meaning "Castle Peak") courtyard were the stables, the back garden, and then the Court of the Five Corridors. Just as Chu Qiao was about to move forward, she heard rapid footsteps and stopped cautiously.
"Yue'er?" A small voice sounded behind her. Startled, Chu Qiao turned and saw Xiao Ba standing there in a large blouse, looking pitiful and blank, with no shoes on her feet. "Where is Zhi Xiang and Xiao Qi?" Xiao Ba asked again.
Chu Qiao pulled Xiao Ba aside to squat by some large flower pots. It was already winter, and the flowers had long since withered. Fortunately, in the sparse evening light, they were well hidden.
The footsteps grew closer. Four people appeared, pushing a cart together. One man pushed, and three others flanked the sides. Chu Qiao had taken this route before when there were fewer people around. She signaled Xiao Ba to remain quiet behind the flower pots.
Two of the men stopped suddenly in front of Xiao Ba, who was trembling and clutching Chu Qiao's clothes tightly. She was too frightened to move. One of the men called out, "Brother, take a break. It's been a long walk. Let me have a smoke."
The others laughed, one saying, "Old Liu can't go without his smoke."
Chu Qiao's heart was racing. The cold wind blew harder, and Xiao Ba's thin clothes shook even more. Suddenly, a gust of wind lifted the mat covering the cart, revealing the bodies beneath. Straw flew into the air, and dead bodies tumbled out, wrapped in a yellow grass mat stained with dark red blood.
Chu Qiao and Xiao Ba looked at the cart. In a flash of lightning, Chu Qiao covered Xiao Ba's mouth tightly to stifle her scream of shock.
Pale moonlight shone through the clouds, illuminating the bodies. The cart was stacked with the small bodies of children, lifeless as if they were mere radishes. Zhi Xiang's naked body lay on top, her eyes wide open, her lower body bruised and bloodied. Her hands were still tied to her knees in a grotesque pose.
Chu Qiao held Xiao Ba tightly, but the child seemed to have lost her mind, desperately pushing to escape. Big, hot tears fell onto Chu Qiao's arm as Xiao Ba bit down hard in her panic, drawing blood. The blood dripped slowly from Chu Qiao's wrist onto the dark soil beneath them. The moonlight cast a mottled glow through the sparse trees, flickering over the two children like frost.
When the cart finally moved away, the silence was deafening. Chu Qiao slowly released her grip on Xiao Ba, whose wrist was red and raw from the struggle. Xiao Ba appeared dazed, in shock, unable to speak. Chu Qiao reached out and wiped her face as Xiao Ba's hoarse voice began to cry, soft but broken.
The cold wind howled through the dead wood, filling the night with a desolate quiet. The faint sound of bamboo and wood echoed eerily, as if from another world.
"Kill them…" Xiao Ba suddenly murmured, her eyes wide and blank. "Go, go, kill them."
Chu Qiao paused, startled.
Xiao Ba, her eyes red with anger, began searching frantically for something. She grabbed a stone from the flowers and stood up, ready to rush out. Chu Qiao was quicker, catching the child and pulling her into her arms.
"Kill them! Kill them!" Xiao Ba screamed, her face twisted with hatred and despair. Tears streamed down her cheeks as she nearly collapsed in Chu Qiao's arms.
Chu Qiao's heart felt as though it had been pierced by countless blades. She held the child tightly as her own tears finally began to fall.
These beasts, even in death, could never atone for their heinous crimes against innocent souls.
From that moment on, Chu Qiao had never felt such hatred, never been so consumed by the urge to kill. The children had been taught nothing but hatred towards this evil world. They hated their own weakness, their powerlessness, and, in the end, they hated themselves for being unable to do anything about it. Chu Qiao almost collapsed under the weight of her emotions. If a machine gun had been in her hands, she would have charged into the Zhuge household without hesitation.
But alas, Chu Qiao no longer had her past life. When time had opened its door for her to travel, she had entered her fate with nothing—no money, no power, no martial arts skills, no advanced weaponry. She was trapped in the small, tough body of a child, with only the knowledge of the future to guide her. At that moment, all she could do was crouch behind the flowers, careful not to let even a flicker of courage show on her face.
Chu Qiao raised her chin to the night sky. The cold moonlight shone on her face as she swore to herself that she would no longer be powerless. Even if she lived today, a part of her died tonight. They would never be able to kill her soul, and she would defend others with all her strength. Her past self was gone, and her future was now tied to this child, Jing Yu'er.
The cold moon cast its light over the massive Zhuge household, where two weak, lowly slaves crouched in the back garden among the flowers, like two cringing puppies, tightly holding onto each other with hearts full of anger—enough to destroy the world of evil.
Back to their room at the backyard, it was already late at night, at the courtyard, she found that the gates were opened. Chu Qiao's heart back to its normal state let go of the Xiao Ba's hands, stepped, ran and saw the room was a mess. The Kang bed and the mattress full of blood, the ground revealed adult footprints, but Xiao Qi is of no trace nor its shadow.
"Come out, we are back!"
Before the girl came out from the corner of the firewood, she drilled out, Chu Qiao hastily approached and pulled her, asked: "Xiao Qi where is she?"
The girl cried and said: "Zhu Shun's steward together with other people broke her hand and said she cannot work later, the Zhu Shun's steward greeted her and they said to throw Xiao Qi into the JilePpavillion lake and fed to the crocodiles.
Chu Qiao eyes went darker, almost fainted, her heart almost impossible to load between the moment, where is she has no sense of the present time anymore, she clutched the girl's skirt tightly, a hoarse voice she asked: "How long, how she has been gone?"
"About an hour"
Chu Qiao turned her head to look at the door where Xiao Ba was. The child flushed with her eyes and looked up at her. The eyes of the two welled on tears but no one cried out loud.
"I have to go back," the girl said, you should be careful too. Then before she left, Chu Qiao told her: "At their dressing room, I heard Zhu Shun housekeeper said he was deliberately against you, did you do anything to offend him?"
The room is in silence, the wide yard looks empty and pale white, where two children quietly standing without a word in the longest night of their life.
Three more knocks were heard but seem all Jingjia family children gone, the two children were already smart to guess Zhu Shun's move, they decided not to take anything but each other and quietly headed through the Bluestone Forest, then passed by Zhuge Huai household somewhat near the Pavillion and Blue Lake. Cold winds dazed, bamboo swaying and the pathway became like a maze, found Tinghu (means west) like a dead end but they looked more peaceful in this place. Tonight is like a never-ending run and the two children maybe safe but felt it like no different.
Chu Qiao kneeling on a high slope, on the other side Xiao Ba said: "Kneel down, let's bow our heads and pay our respect to our departed brother and sisters."
Xiao Ba less than seven years old and her innocence debuted to violence, at an early age she lost her childhood life. She quietly knelt beside Chu Qiao, toward the direction of the Jile Pavillion and Blue Lake bowed their heads three times and one day vowed to destroy this place.
"Do you hate this place?"
Xiao Ba nodded her head, Chu Qiao voice was calm, then a touch of light in her eyes she continued: "Then do you want to leave?"
The child Xiao Ba said: "I am thinking."
Chu Qiao closed her eyes, her ears pick up the sound waves but on slightest fluctuations, there were no distractions heard. She slightly opened her narrowed eyes, brow gently wrinkled and turned to her sister slowly said: "sisters and brother will promise you, we will come back and will take you away. Right now we have something to do, and after everything is done, we will leave here."
The child quietly nodded, bowed her head in the ground one more time and a word of sound Xiao Ba said: "Zhi Xiang sister, you always ask God to bless the Buddha, but I do not know if God may have been blind this night, you take my brother and sister we will walk and leave now. Wait and see for me and Jing Yu'er sister to avenge you all one day.
Cold wind raging, dark night, high fields and forests on the slope, the two little mortals rely on each other tightly held their hands.
ACs Afterthoughts
Jingjia kids really suffered a lot in the hands of Zhuge Huai household. I am not sure if Ling Xi survived after or on his way to his master Zhuge Yue's household. Ling Xi the brother of Jing Yu'er serves under the fourth young Master Zhuge Yue. In the novel, Ling Xi sneaks in to feed Chu Qiao where the provision came from Zhuge Yue's household. It was the only string of hope she held on to survive her horrible condition brought by the royal hunting game.
The cunning Zhu Shun's from the beginning is against Jing Yu'er and maybe found out that Ling Xi helped her. So Zhu Shun may have killed him along but it was never mentioned in the novel. Chu Qiao also started to take care of others when she saw this Xiao Ba but were helpless to help the other kids as they took her before she can even rescue her. I have thought that Zhuge Yue household always have a grip of all things even if they do not directly interact with their daily routines.
Towards the end of the chapter, we can read that the two little children casting their eulogy and vowed to come back and take them away.
In Chinese funeral tradition, living until 80 years of age is considered a celebration of longevity not really to mourn. In this case, the children died untimely and their family was not able to mourn for their loved ones, were not able to hold proper burial rites like offering incense, candlesticks and some fruits, coins, burn paper monies for their safe journey to the afterlife.
As sad it may seem, the two children bowed their heads and pray for their safe departure. At the place where their brother and sisters life ended. Maybe in time, these two can go back to the place where their family died, carry their bones, and leave this unfortunate place. Then to settle and appease their souls, the living have the responsibility to put them at the proper resting place.