Neither Gyatso nor Seven were stubborn; they would not shed crocodile tears over a n.o.body. In a story world, their future was ambiguous, therefore they had no time to feel sorry for anyone else.

Just when they were all dressed and were about to get out, they heard voices from the village entrance.

Su Bai stood against the wall, Seven knelt on one knee, and Gyatso watched from the window paper[1]. They were not scared; no matter what came, they would figure out how to deal with it. However, it would be best to avoid fights and save some energy. He who laughs last laughs best. According to their experiences through so many story worlds, those who stood out at the beginning might not always have a happy ending.

"A dozen people without braids." Gyatso said in a low voice.

No braids?

That was interesting.

Everyone knew that after Dorgon[2] entered the capital city, a policy was carried out forcing everyone to shave their hair. At the beginning, people revolted everywhere and were suppressed cruelly. It was not until the Revolution of 1911 did they start to cut off their braids.

But according to that scout team they saw, it didn’t look like the Revolution of 1911 at all; besides, the village looked rather crude, apparently not under the impact of the industrial revolution. Those who had no braids were distinguishable: rebels against Qing government.

Su Bai pulled down a chili from a string of chilis hanging on a wall in a corner of the room, chewed it and spit it out: "Red Flower[3] members?" But he was just joking. Immediately after that, he became serious again. "Are they still here?"

"They’re gone. They just took a quick look at the entrance of the village, didn’t even come in," Gyatso said.

"So they must be after those Qing soldiers heading to the hot spring," Su Bai said. "They must have cut their hair before rising in rebellion in order to show their determination. Success or death. Impressive."

Even rebels against their government would probably keep their braids, otherwise they might catch too much attention. Since these guys had no braids, they must have cut off all their means of retreat.

"Let’s tail them." Seven stood up and dusted his pants.

Every story world had a main plot; if the audiences didn’t follow that, they would end up tragically. Now that the main plot was clear, the three of them had to return to the hilltop, heading right towards the danger.

The all sped up. There must be something going on up the hill. Before they arrived, they found two dead bodies lying by the road. Both were in Qing armors, killed instantly with an arrow to the neck.

Seven pulled out one of the arrows and smelt it: "Poisoned." Then he pulled out the other and threw it to Gyatso: "Use this. It’s better than nothing."

In fact, none of them would consider those Qing soldiers or those men without braids as dangerous. They knew that the real threats must be the zombies that would show up any minute.

If they were to fight with ordinary people, even if those people were good at martial arts, it wouldn’t be a problem as long as they were not ambushed or overwhelmed by numbers.

Walking towards the hilltop, there were more and more corpses. Some were Qing soldiers, some were those men in black. Apparently, they had a heavy fight here; the Qing soldiers kept retreating, while the men in black kept moving forward.

"Those re

bels have a lot of arrows, and are of top cla.s.s as cold weapons for now. Those Qing soldiers are strong, and I a.s.sume they are martial artists, but they won’t make it through the night."

Seven had been counting the bodies along the way. There should be only seven or eight Qing soldiers left, but only seven or so men in black were killed. The men in black were dominating in both number and weapons. Those Qing soldiers were hopeless.

Soon, the cabin by the hot spring came into their sights once again. By its gate, there was a carriage; around it lay six dead Qing Soldiers. There must have been a really intense fight in order to protect the carnage.

The curtain of the carriage was broken; they could seen from outside that there was no one inside.

Gyatso frowned, closed his eyes and felt it. "This doesn’t make sense. Those men must have gone inside, but there isn’t any scent of life in the cabin."

"All dead?" Su Bai asked. "Let’s find out."

Su Bai walked in the front. He pushed the door open; it was neat and clean, just as it had been when the three of them had left, with no trace of battle. They kept going and saw someone by the hot spring pond; he seemed to be a general in the Qing army, but his head was missing.

He was still grasping at a sword in his hand.

The water in the pond was no longer fresh and clean; instead, it had got a slight smell of blood.

Seven crouched down by the pond and asked, "Who was in that carriage? Besides, where are those men in black? Apparently, they won the battle and got what they want, but where are they? There’s only one way in and out, and only one cabin on this hilltop."

Gyatso also crouched down beside Seven, stretched his hand and stirred the water. It felt greasy.

Surprised, Gyatso pointed to the pond. Seven understood what he meant, frowned and turned solemn.

"What were those soldiers protecting? Can’t be some normal n.o.bles," Seven said. "I’ll go check it out."

Then, without taking off his clothes, Seven walked into the pond and then dived in. In fact, it wasn’t a deep pond, only one meter deep or even less in the outer-ring and two meters in the center.

Soon Seven emerged from the water, wiped the water off his face and took a deep breath. "You guys should see this."

Gyatso and Su Bai went into the water. Actually, Su Bai was quite good at swimming, and the water was no longer hot. He didn’t feel much resistance from the warm water while squatting down to see clearly underneath.

Su Bai was shocked. He saw dozens of men in black kneeling at the bottom of the pond as if they were confessing their sins. Among them, there was a dead woman lying there in a formal, royal dress; even her hair was still nicely coiled under water.

The weirdest part was that these bodies stayed underneath and didn’t float up the water.

Gyatso patted on Su Bai’s shoulder, indicating that he was going up.

Su Bai nodded and pointed to the front, saying that he was going to take a closer look.

Gyatso shook his head: it was too dangerous.

Su Bai pointed to Gyatso and then upwards, telling him to get prepared with Seven up there. He would be counting on them if anything happened.

Gyatso hesitated and finally nodded. But he didn’t go up; instead, he went forward beside Su Bai.

The two of them approached the bodies. Gyatso went to examine those men in black first, looking for the reason why they died and why they didn’t float up. At last, Gyatso was shocked when he found that their bodies were very cold. It seemed that they weren’t killed just now, but had been dead for such a long time that rigor mortis[4] had set in.

Su Bai approached the dead woman. She was plain, or could even be called ugly, but she looked extravagant in those complex clothes.

He searched her. Having no interest in dead women, he was merely looking for something special. As the old saying goes, fortune rests in danger. In the old days when warlord Sun Dianying[3] robbed Queen Cixi’s tomb, he didn’t skip anything, even the jade object in her a.n.u.s. Now Su Bai wanted to see if he would get lucky. It would be great if he could find some instrument or precious item.

The story had been going on for quite a while, and it was about time their major enemy showed himself. It was the most dangerous moment, but also the best chance for unexpected acquisitions. Cowards would starve while only the bold would get all the resources; that was what Su Bai had in mind.

Somehow, Su Bai touched a b.u.t.ton on the woman’s clothes; her dress unfolded, got loose and floated up. Then, her underwear was stripped off too.

She became totally naked.

Gyatso watched with astonishment. Then he looked at Su Bai with a complicated look.

Su Bai felt so absurd. But he could not explain this since they couldn’t talk under water. However, the next moment, he stopped what he was doing when he saw a dramatic open wound in the dead woman’s belly. It looked as if a sharp knife had cut through. And there were obvious stretch marks on her skin. But now, her belly was empty.

This woman had been pregnant.

But now…

Where was the baby?

FOOTNOTES:

[1] Window paper: In the past, Chinese people used to paste paper onto their windows before gla.s.s was applied.

[2] Dorgon: Aisin Gioro Dorgon, an excellent politician and militarist in Qing Dynasty, the 14th son of Emperor Nurhacthi, the founder of Qing.

[3] Red Flower Society: A group of people against Qing Dynasty created by the famous writer Jin Yong in some of his kung fu novels. It doesn’t actually exist in history.

[4] Rigor mortis: In a dead body, when rigor mortis sets in, the joints and muscles become very stiff.