runexi

From this chapter onwards, main story continues.

The song finally came to an end, resulting in the attending guests to express their loud burst of appreciation once again. YuLan walked towards behind fluttering hanging white curtains where Ji LanBai was sitting. She whispered something into the latter's ears and pointed towards the purple wisteria tree in the distance. It was precisely where Ji SongLi was standing, still reveling in the moment of entrancement for the person he had been missing.

From where he stood, Ji SongLi could also see his sister. Ji LanBai, who had blossomed into a beautiful young maiden, widened her eyes as she quickly snapped her head to look at the direction YuLan was pointing at. Then her smile grew wider; she quickly stood and walked towards the pavilion's barrier, leaning her body forward. YuLan anxiously grabbed hold on to her robe, lest Ji LanBai would fall into the pond.

She waved her hands enthusiastically and shouted at the top of her lungs, "Li-ge~!!"

Ji SongLi grimaced as he gave a small wave back towards his sister. He had suddenly become the focal point of the whole Lian house: everyone was now looking at his direction.

*** *** ***

Approximately 400 li¹approx 200 km to the northwest of Ming.

There was an ox-pulled cart slowly making its way through a gravel road. A middle-aged man was on top of the cart, holding a single rein to keep the course of the beast pulling his transport. His head bobbed up and down in rhythm with his cart's movement, oblivious to his surrounding. 

Suddenly the ox stopped, jolting the man who was already falling half-asleep. He opened his eyes abruptly, immediately noticing a lone figure standing a feet away in front of his ox. The stranger's face was obscured by a mask that mainly covered his eyes. 

The person riding the ox-cart was a merchant. Inside his cart was only some matured bamboo, which he had collected over the past few weeks. With the influx of demand for bamboo up north, he was going to bring them to the northern territories. 

Ever since Zhang Empire applied some tax on wheat imports from the north, while also educating local merchants to harvest bamboo as an alternative means of trade to sustain business, this middle-aged person had been riding on the trade arrangement's success. He used to only have a small cattle farm, but there were wild groves of bamboo at the foot of the mountain where his farm was located. Initially he had only been using the bamboo for his own household's use and crafts, not really finding any other use for it. After all, in the parts of where he lived, bamboo was more weed than precious commodity. Yet lately, due to the new strategy now popular among the Zhang Empire's merchants, he could finally improve the livelihood of his family by selling the bamboo to the Northern Plains.

The trips were long, but the profits were worth it. He had taken the same route numerous times before, and the road could only be called boring at worst.

That day should have not been an exception; he was on his way to hopefully conduct another profitable trade to the north. Who knew, he was halted by this stranger now standing in front of his cart. 

This stranger was very sturdily built too. His body was tall; with the body-fitting garb he had on, it could not hide the well-defined explosion of his toned muscles and limbs. However, the mask the stranger wore was enough to cause the middle-aged merchant to start sweating in fear for his life. His ox was also seemingly nervous of the stranger, bellowing ragged breaths through its nostrils. He had never encountered a bandit in this route to the north before, but criminals used to be abound years ago. Perhaps the soldiers had missed a few and caused his rotten luck to finally catch up on him this day?

The merchant thought while sweating buckets, "If this strange man were a bandit, and when he finds out that I only have worthless bamboo in this cart... perhaps I'd be able to get away with my life?"

The middle-aged merchant was still deciding on what to say or do. The person was only by his lonesome; perhaps the merchant should try to ram him with his ox? Then again, albeit the weird garb, the person looked tidy and clean, unlike the general conception of rogue bandits.

While the merchant was still battling inside his mind, the stranger started to slowly uncover his mask.

Behind the mask, the stranger's face was finally fully revealed. He possessed deep-lidded eyes that were somewhat expressing melancholy, high nose bridge, thick full lips, fully chiseled jaws. His face looked like someone who was carrying the burden of the universe; his hooded eyes, although charming and lustrous, was deep and gave an impression of sadness. The features was definitely not common for the citizens of Zhang Empire, but the merchant could not say that the man was not good-looking.

The merchant blankly stared at the stranger, and only then he could gather his wits to fully observe the man. On closer look, the garb the stranger was wearing seemed to be some wild beast's fur, coiled around his shoulder. The body-fitting robe seemed to also been made of some animal hide. It was definitely not of Zhang Empire, but more commonly worn by the people of the Northern Plains.

The merchant started to breathe easier. If this good-looking but solemn man was a person of the Northern Plains, then there was nothing he should be afraid of. After all, Zhang Empire and the Northern Plains had been in harmonious relationship for the past years, due to the boost in well-being of the Northern Plains people under their newest tribal king. The new ruler managed to subdue the majority of the conflicting tribes in the Plains just over the course of the past decade. There was much less internal strife in the north because of this, and the new King had fully controlled the Northern Plains to keep away from the Zhang Empire's territories. Both territories finally even agreed and established trading relationship for their people.

The stranger slowly walked towards him and bowed his body slightly with his right arm across his chest, which the merchant recognized as a greeting normally common in the Northern Plains. From his sturdy build, he seemed to be a tribal warrior as well. A tribal warrior was well known to possess strength akin to Da Lang's upper tier of stronger martial artists. 

The merchant was fully relieved at this point; the stranger clearly did not have any ill intent towards him. He stepped off his ox-cart to greet the young man as well, cupping his fists in Da Lang' norms of greeting.

The young man straightened his body and spoke in his low detached-sounding voice, "Ming town."

It took a few seconds for the merchant to understand what the man meant: he was asking for a direction to town of Ming.

"Ah, hero is not far away." The middle-aged merchant politely smiled, "Just proceed south east from this point, and you will reach a small village by the name of Hong. The town of Ming is only a day horse ride worth east from Hong village." 

The merchant narrated in detail, ensuring nothing was missing from his direction. As a merchant, it was a given for him to know the topography of all trade points in the Empire. Ming town was one of the biggest and most profitable hubs for merchants, so there was hardly anyone who did not know where it was.

The melancholic-looking young man nodded his head in acknowledgment and bowed again towards the merchant in gratitude, before walking away. Then he jumped up a tree by the road-side and practically continued to travel by jumping on top of them, from one to another. Before the merchant could blink, the strange man had quickly disappeared into the distance.

The merchant watched in confusion before he could find his voice to yell,

"Hero! You are heading in the wrong direction!!" He tried to shout louder, but with the stranger's martial-art skill, the latter was already out of his reaching call, "That... is... west... . Ming town is south east... ."

Above him, an eagle emitted a high-pitched call, sounding anxious. The mighty looking bird hovered in circular movement a few times, before finally flying to follow the young man from the Northern Plains who had gone to the wrong direction.

The merchant scratched the back of his neck worriedly,

"This mighty looking Northern Plains' hero....... is he actually.... directionally challenged?"

The young man kept jumping from trees to trees, fully expending his martial art skills to move faster. He did not pay attention to the eagle above who seem to still be calling out to him in distress.

A few months ago, the same eagle had flown to him, reaching him at the canyon bordering the Northern Plains and the Zhang Empire territory. When the bird landed on his shoulder, there was a small letter tied to the beast's claw, a letter from his trusted subordinate, who was also his blood sworn brother;

[Master Jing Han, 

The young lady from Ji family seems to have a flower marking. 

She may be the person that Master has been looking for.

The source of this information is credible - from one of her maids from the same estate.

Head to Ming Town.

------Jing Mo]

Jing Han pursed his lips, anticipation in his eyes. He gripped the letter tightly in his palm.

Finally, perhaps finally, he could find that person that he had spent years to find.