Tome of Troubled Times

Chapter 60: Yangyang's Crisis

The rain continued to pour as Cui Yuanyang covered her head and ran with Zhao Changhe around the mountain. As if he was intimately familiar with this mountain, he easily found a cave for them to rest in, gathered up some dry vegetation, and lit a fire with his firestarter.

Soon, the whole place became a warm little nest.

They swapped locations not only because of the corpses, but more importantly, to avoid meeting more people wanting to take shelter from the rain. After witnessing Cui Yuanyang’s attempted assassination, Zhao Changhe needed to be more cautious. No one would be able to find them if they stayed in this cave in the middle of a desolate mountain. Probably.

Cui Yuanyang hugged her knees as she sat beside the fire. She reached out with her hand and dried her damp clothes, not daring to take them off.

She only wore a small dudou on the inside. One that had mandarin ducks playing in the water embroidered on it.

Zhao Changhe did not concern himself so much with her and took off his outerwear, drying his clothes while shirtless.

Cui Yuanyang did not dare look at his well-built body, tilted her head, and muttered, “Bandit.”

Zhao Changhe could not be bothered responding to her. You’ve already peeked at me while I was training in the morning. It’s not like you’ve never seen me shirtless before. Why are you pretending to be so shy? It’s not like I’m pinning you to the ground like a beast.

Cui Yuanyang could not curse Zhao Changhe so she passed the blame to heaven. “What’s with this damn weather? It’s so annoying.”

“It’s normal for there to be continuous rain in spring. Without this spring rain, your family wouldn’t have their autumn harvests.” Zhao Changhe sighed as he dried his clothes. “I say, shouldn’t you be squeezing every ounce of brain juice you have to figure out just who on earth wants to kill you? Have you offended anyone in the past?”

Cui Yuanyang shook her head, lost in thought. From a young age, the whole world had revolved around her. Just as Zhao Change told her not that long ago, she was someone that everyone liked the moment they met her. How could she have offended anyone? Of course, it did not need to be said that, occasionally, she would reprimand some of her subordinates. However, none of them would ever take it to heart. Would something so minor lead them to hire an assassin?

This is too complicated...

Zhao Changhe also felt incomparably bewildered. Just who could this young lady have offended? Is this part of a power struggle? But she’s not tied down to any power.

It’s normal for a family like the Cui Clan to have enemy clans. However, is there any point for them to target a little girl? If you told me they wanted to capture and ravage her in eighteen different positions, I could understand. But to simply kill her? Are they simply taking out their anger on her?

Of course, even if someone was doing this just to vent their anger, it wouldn’t be strange. There are all sorts of people in the world... But if that’s the case, then there’s no way we can figure out who’s behind this.

No...wait.

Zhao Changhe’s heart suddenly quivered. “How many people know you’ve run away to find me?”

Cui Yuanyang was at a loss. “Everyone in the family should have already found out... As for outsiders, I’m not sure...”

“Correct.” Zhao Changhe snapped his fingers. “Even if your family urgently sent someone to find you, it hasn’t been that long since you ran away. Outsiders should have only just received this information, but an assassin was already on his way! Considering this short time, it’s not really possible for the assassin to have been hired by an outsider.”

Cui Yuanyang quivered and could not believe what she was hearing. “Are you telling me it’s someone from the clan? Someone from my own family wants to kill me?”

“Not only are they from your family, it’s someone who knows you ran away specifically to find me. That’s the only way they could have located you so quickly.” Zhao Changhe had a blank expression on his face. “Do you think it might be Cui Yuanyong? He’s the one who best suits this description.”

Cui Yuanyang shouted, “Impossible!”

Zhao Changhe shook his head. He also felt that it made no sense. If Cui Yuanyong wanted to kill his little sister, then he should have long since been able to lead this idiot to her death in one hundred different ways. Why wait until now? Even if he waited until they were both separated to rid himself of the responsibility of looking after her, there was no actual way of getting rid of this responsibility. Everyone knew that she accompanied her brother to experience the outside world. How could he possibly shirk himself of the responsibility of looking after her? If she actually died, he would still be held accountable.

The one that was most worried about Cui Yuanyang right now was Cui Yuanyong.

“It’s not Cui Yuanyong, but it could be someone who wants Cui Yuanyong to be held responsible for not looking after his little sister and letting her die.” Zhao Changhe chuckled. “Maybe a son of a concubine wishes to take the place of the son of the first wife? Is Cui Yuanyong the only one from your generation of the Cui Clan to have made it on the Ranking of Hidden Dragons? What about the rest?”

Cui Yuanyang bit her lower lip and did not utter a word.

Not being on the Ranking of Hidden Dragons did not necessarily mean that other people were not as outstanding as Cui Yuanyong. After all, the Tome of Troubled Times looked at one’s achievements in battle. Other people could well be just as strong as him, even though they did not have the achievements to show for it.

Furthermore, not all powerful families chose their family head based on strength. Being the eldest son of the first wife of the current family head was more important. As long as one’s character and strength were not lacking enough for the whole clan to raise objections, there was no way anyone could shake the position of the eldest son of the first wife.

Cui Yuanyong and Cui Yuanyang were both children of the first wife. Cui Yuanyong was not the eldest son of the Cui Clan; he had an older brother, but this older brother was the son of a concubine. In other words, even though Cui Yuanyang called Cui Yuanyong her second brother, Cui Yuanyong was actually the eldest son of the first wife.

He had a good background, he was the Third Hidden Dragon, and he was well-known. He was basically destined to become the next head of the Cui Clan. There was no way anyone else could compete with him for the position.

But what if he had an...accident?

Was it enough for him to let his sister die? It was not clear, but it would be pretty damning for him.

At the very least, other than Cui Yuanyong, Cui Yuanyang had other brothers born from the first wife. If the eldest son from a concubine was not behind all this, there was still the second son of the first wife. Whether other branches of the family were watching the whole thing unfold like how a tiger watches its prey—nobody could be certain.

This generation of the Cui Clan was full of sons.

However, taking this line of reasoning to its logical conclusion, the most likely candidate was the second son of the first wife, born from the same father and mother as Cui Yuanyang—Cui Yuancheng.

The possibility made Cui Yuanyang feel numb, and she did not speak for a while.

Zhao Changhe said, “Why aren’t you saying anything? I don’t have much of an understanding of your clan’s internal affairs. I need you to say something about your family’s current situation to make a proper analysis.”

Cui Yuanyang stayed with her mouth open for a while before finally stuttering as she gave him a rough rundown of her clan’s state of affairs.

Zhao Changhe’s face twitched. Main family, branch family, eldest son of the first wife, second son of the first wife—listening to all this gave him a huge headache. Only after thinking for some time did he understand everything. Big clans really have a lot of problems.

He rubbed his head. “Well, you don’t need to act like the sky has fallen. It might not actually be your brothers. It could be someone else. I’m concerned with a more pressing problem—I might not be a match for the next person that comes for you.”

Cui Yuanyang had also considered this.

If the one to put a reward on her head was a son of the Cui Clan, then the amount was probably way more ridiculous than the one thousand gold pieces on Zhao Changhe’s head. Not only those at the third and fourth layer of the Profound Gate coveted such riches.

In fact, Zhao Changhe’s own bounty could attract even more terrifying enemies. That was why he needed to cover up his tracks.

Until now, he had bumped into very few strong people. He was not that unlucky. How could there just happen to be a strong bounty hunter interested in my bounty nearby? And even if they were nearby? What are the chances they’d bump into us?

I have no idea how Han Wubing found us from so far away. That assassin probably came to the temple just like us, to take shelter from the rain, and just happened to bump into us. We all happened to meet at the temple because we all wanted to take shelter, not because the other people were tracking us with radars.

With that said...there’s bound to be stronger people coming for us. It’s just that we haven’t met them yet. With my trivial third layer cultivation, will I be able to deal with them?

If it was just Zhao Changhe by himself, then this would all be very simple. Nobody would be able to predict where he would go. As long as he refrained from trying to be a hero and exposing his name like what he had done at that martial arts school, then after a month had passed, who would know where he was? Everything would be fine in a short while.

However, Cui Yuanyang needed to get home, and Qinghe was not going to move anywhere. Other people did not need to come find them. They only needed to send people to guard the roads leading to Qinghe and wait for the rabbit to fall in their trap. How would the two of them escape then?

“We can only see what the Cui Clan does about this. Will they send elite troops to every road to support us?” As Zhao Changhe said this, he very quickly refuted himself. “Doesn’t seem too realistic. How would they know someone wants to assassinate you? They probably only think you’ve run away with some lover and do not make any of this public.”

Cui Yuanyang lowered her head. The rabbit ears on her hat looked about to drop off.

For a short while, she had enjoyed her time away from her home. But who had expected that things would become this troublesome? Right now, she felt that Zhao Changhe had been entirely right when he had scolded her. She was an idiot.

“I have a suggestion.” Zhao Changhe rubbed his chin. “But your reputation might be completely ruined.”

Cui Yuanyang asked curiously, “What suggestion?”

“We don’t go to Qinghe and head somewhere else, for example, to see the mist at Jiangnan, or to see the sights of Mobei. If even I don’t know where we’re headed, how could anyone else? It’s not like they’ve opened their Heavenly Eye. By the time your family finds out about your whereabouts, it’ll be half a year or even a whole year. They might even have a name ready for their new grandchild. People all around the world would also probably find out by then...”

Cui Yuanyang’s jaw dropped. She had no idea how to respond.

Zhao Changhe leaned against the wall of the cave and closed his eyes to rest. “Well, I have another plan, and that one’s more straightforward. We travel day and night and make haste to Qinghe. The bounty on your head has only just been posted. Not many people know of it yet. There’s no way anyone could set up an impenetrable net to catch you in this short time. That is to say, if you want to return, then we must move fast. By the time the people who want to claim that bounty begin to act, you’ll already be in Qinghe.”