Chapter 152 — Counterattack

Guard Chang watched, and suddenly the thought crept into his mind that perhaps he had backed the wrong master.

Fortunately, after venting his rage, Song Cen regained a measure of reason. He ordered his guards, "Ready a carriage and horses for me. I'll go find Gu Yu myself."

The guard fled as though his backside were on fire.

Another maid, unaware of what had happened, came in to report, "My Lord, the eldest master, the third master, the fourth master, and the two young masters have all arrived. They have been waiting in the flower hall for two hours already..."

Song Cen hurled a teacup at her. The maid stood stunned, not daring to move a muscle, until Song Cen came close; only then did tears well up in her eyes, and she hurried off to inform Song Maochun and the others waiting in the flower hall.

Song Fengchun quickly shooed all the maids attending them out of the room, then leaned close to Song Maochun and whispered, "Eldest Brother, what do you make of this—has something gone wrong?"

Song Maochun glanced at his two sons, Song Qin and Song Duo.

The elder wore a stony face; the younger's brow had not relaxed once.

He knew what Song Cen meant to do.

The grounds for expelling Song Yan from the Song family were utterly insufficient. The night before, Song Cen had summoned them not to consult them, but to ensure they would speak with one voice when the ancestral hall was opened, so that no flaw might mar the proceedings. The children of the third and fourth branches were still too young to qualify for such matters; only his own two sons were of age. His responsibility weighed heavily indeed—he had to keep his sons from saying anything rash. Yet no sooner had he recounted the whole affair than both sons opposed it vehemently. The elder's view was that they ought never to involve themselves in such a business: "...I don't know why Uncle wants this done, but he must have his reasons. Still, Tianci has done nothing wrong. We cannot go about blackening a man's name with bare-faced lies." The younger was even more blunt: "Uncle is in the wrong here. You should have talked him out of it at the time!" In the end, only after endless coaxing and finally invoking his authority as their father had he managed to beat Song Qin and Song Duo into submission—yet he had not the slightest confidence that the two brothers would support Song Cen as he wished when the ancestral hall was opened.

Hearing that Song Cen had rushed out of the residence, he could not help but breathe a sigh of relief, and his tone as he answered Song Fengchun carried none of the other man's nervousness.

"Most likely something has gone awry with Tianci's affair," he said in a low voice. "We had best send someone to find out."

Just as Song Maochun said this, Song Tongchun drew near; hearing the words, he at once offered, "Eldest Brother, let me go and see."

Being the youngest, and sharing a grandfather with Song Cen, Song Tongchun always fancied himself closer to Song Cen than the others were, and carried himself with a certain carelessness about the Yingzhen Garrison Manor.

That someone was willing to volunteer for such a thankless errand was naturally a welcome sight to Song Maochun and Song Fengchun.

None of them dared leave. They waited anxiously in the flower hall for news.

A clamor arose from beyond the door.

In such circumstances, the slightest stir set nerves on edge—and this clamor only grew louder, as though heading straight for the principal courtyard.

Song Maochun and Song Fengchun exchanged a look, then, as if by common accord, dashed out of the flower hall.

They saw Song Yan, pale as snow, his expression grim and cold, leading a band of men dressed like guards across the main courtyard and through the hanging-flower gate.

"Tianci!" Song Maochun's face went even paler than Song Yan's. "Didn't the Lord say Tianci had been bound?" His expression was ashen.

"What's happened?" asked Song Fengchun, his face full of alarm.

Song Qin and Song Duo, close behind, looked grave as well; Song Duo even said, "Could Tianci be going to settle scores with Uncle?"

At that, Song Qin grew anxious. "I'll go take a look—we can't let Tianci clash with Uncle, or a single charge of filial impiety will be enough to cast him out of the family!"

Song Duo nodded again and again. "Eldest Brother, I'll go with you."

"Is this any business of yours?" Song Maochun hurried forward to block them, but his two sons had already bolted for the hanging-flower gate.

Song Maochun stamped his foot and followed.

Song Fengchun thought for a moment, then followed as well.

They were all stopped before the hanging-flower gate.

"The heir has spoken—thieves have come into the house," said the four burly men who had entered with Song Chuqi, standing guard at the gate with blades drawn. "To keep the innocent from harm, no one may pass through the hanging-flower gate."

In times of peace, under the bright clear sky, at the very foot of the imperial city—thieves had come to rob the hereditary First-Rank Yingzhen Garrison Manor? Who on earth would believe it?

It was as flimsy a tale as the claim that Song Yan had tried to ravish a maid.

The faces of Song Maochun and the others turned strange.

From the principal courtyard came the harsh clash of weapons, mingled with screams and panicked shouts: "Who are you people? You dare come into the inner courtyards of the Yingzhen Garrison Manor to kill..."

Kill!

It had come to killing!

Song Maochun and the others felt their legs go weak, and wondered in terror whether they ought to flee this den of trouble at once—when a voice, coarse as thunder, burst beside their ears: "You bastard, I was just about to ask who you are, and here you are asking me! Then listen well, you: I am a guard under the heir of the Yingzhen Garrison Manor, sent by the heir to seize the thieves! You say you're a guard of the Yingzhen Garrison Manor—then why doesn't our heir know you? You dare impersonate a guard of the Duke of Ying—surrender at once!"

As the voice died away, Song Maochun saw one of the guards at the hanging-flower gate grin soundlessly.

He shuddered, seized his two sons, and made for the outside. "This is none of our affair, none of our affair! We're going back—hurry, back!"

Song Qin and Song Duo no longer had the courage to stand their ground against their father; stumbling, they were dragged by Song Maochun away from the hanging-flower gate.

Song Fengchun and Song Tongchun dared not linger either, and fled in panic with Song Maochun and his sons out of the Yingzhen Garrison Manor.

And by now, within the hanging-flower gate, all was panic.

In secluded corners, in the hollows of rockeries, beneath the beauty seats... serving women cowered, trembling. Of the guards Song Cen had left behind, apart from a few of exceptional skill still resisting stubbornly and trying to break through the encirclement, the rest were either kneeling with their sabers held high and crying "Spare us!" or, bewildered and terrified as though they had no notion what was happening, shouting "We're no thieves, we truly are guards of the Yingzhen Garrison Manor!" Guard Xie, still locked in combat with Song Yan's men, cried out in horror, "Who are you, really?! Why do you wield Mandarin Duck blades?"

The Mandarin Duck blade had been devised by the Duke of Ding specifically to deal with the Japanese pirates who raided ashore.

The men besieging Guard Xie chuckled darkly and struck all the harder.

Song Yan ignored the turmoil around him and walked straight, with Chen He close behind, into the easternmost room of the rear quarters of the upper courtyard.

Xia Lian hurriedly bowed and stepped aside.

At once the two of them saw the corpse in the middle of the room, beaten beyond recognition.

Chen Tao...

Song Yan's eyes moistened at once, and he faltered in his step.

Chen He had already darted past Song Yan in a single bound.

"Brother!" He flung himself down upon Chen Tao and wailed.