Chapter 259 — Intimidation

Everything unfolded exactly as Tao Jun had anticipated.

His attendant struck without warning, felling the burly man bringing up the rear with a single blow that sent him crumpling unconscious to the ground.

The man in front heard the commotion and turned; a fist caught him square in the face, and with a muffled grunt he too went down.

The attendant hoisted Tao Jun onto his back and bolted.

Outside, the sky was a vast field of stars.

Tears welled in Tao Jun's eyes.

"Sir," the attendant said, his voice urgent and low, "I think we're in the rear garden of some great household!"

"It must be the Dou mansion!" Tao Jun twisted around to look back at the room where he had been held.

It was a pair of small stone huts.

They stood alone in a corner of the courtyard like some neglected storeroom for odds and ends, grey and grimy, thoroughly unremarkable.

"Clever, really clever!" he could not help muttering under his breath. "The safest place is always the one everyone takes for granted, the one they look right past!" He turned to the attendant. "Hurry, get us to the nearest guard station!"

"Yes, sir," the attendant answered, and set off at a jog with Tao Jun on his back, cutting across a withered flower bed.

Behind them rose a commotion.

"Quick! Stop them!"

The attendant's body went rigid, and he ran all the faster.

Seven or eight figures came pouring after them in noisy pursuit.

From the woods behind the stone huts emerged two men.

One tall, one short; one powerfully built, one lean and spare.

"Isn't that rather a lot of pursuers?" said the lean one.

Moonlight fell across their faces. One had clear, bright eyes and a vigorous, scholarly air—none other than Chen Yanzhou, the very man the burly fellow had said would return by morning. The other was nimble and hard-muscled, eyes blazing with spirit—who else but Duan Bing?

Duan Bing gave a low chuckle. "Rest easy, sir. I gave the orders long ago. Anyone who actually catches the man loses a month's pay. Anyone who doesn't put his back into the chase also loses a month's pay."

Chen Yanzhou did not know whether to laugh or scold. "So are they supposed to catch him or not?"

Duan Bing grinned. "That's for them to work out on their own!"

Chen Yanzhou could only shake his head.

Dou Zhiwei's marriage had come about so suddenly that they had never imagined a trip to the capital would end with them settling there for good. There had been so many matters left unaddressed, so many arrangements left unmade. After seeing Dou Yan off to her wedding, Chen Yanzhou, Duan Bing, and the others had set out for Zhending.

Perhaps because they lacked Tao Jun's urgency, they had left the capital one after the other and yet ended up trailing behind him.

Word reached them on the road that someone had been making inquiries about Dou Yan, and when the man's appearance was described to them—

His plan had been this: first set watchers on Tao Jun, and once they themselves were back, invite Tao Jun over for a dose of threats and inducements, to teach him just how formidable Dou Zhiwei was. Tao Jun might never throw in his lot with Dou Yan or Song Yan, but he would at least learn to think twice about Dou Yan from then on—no longer daring to drop poison in the Duke of Ying's ear at every turn, clearing a few obstacles from Dou Yan's path toward taking charge of the household affairs of the Ying Estate as soon as possible.

But before he could discuss the matter properly with Duan Bing, Duan Bing was already spurring his horse on in righteous fury: "If the tiger doesn't show its teeth, they take us for sick cats. I'll ride back to Zhending right now, find a way to hold that fellow Tao in place, and wait for your return before deciding anything."

With Duan Bing on the job, what was there to worry about?

Little did he know...

At the thought, Chen Yanzhou could not help but sigh.

It was his own fault for failing to say one extra word at the time. Duan Bing had come back and given Tao Jun a knockout blow from behind, then staged a whole charade to frighten him... But what was done was done—was he supposed to apologize to the man now?

He consoled himself so.

Perhaps it was just as well! As the saying went, when a scholar meets a soldier, no amount of reason will serve. Perhaps Duan Bing's cudgel had done more good than all his own eloquence.

Still, it went against Chen Yanzhou's nature, and he could not help but sigh once more.

The two hulking men who were supposed to be lying unconscious in the stone hut came out—one clutching his head, the other his face.

"Guard Duan, Elder Chen," they said, grinning through their teeth as they bowed to Duan Bing and Chen Yanzhou.

Duan Bing and Chen Yanzhou nodded.

The pursuers trickled back one after another.

After the greetings, someone spoke up: "What if we just send a man to shadow him from a distance? If this fellow Tao gets frightened and runs back to his hometown, then what?"

One of the hulking men cuffed him on the head. "And this is why the Fourth Miss always sends Uncle Duan for anything important! With brains like yours, no wonder you're useless. After the scare we gave him, won't he be afraid of being silenced on the road? Of course he'll look for somewhere safe to hide. And where's safer than a guard station? He's only a secretary—without the Duke of Ying's name behind him, who at the guard station would know him? The moment he turns up there, those fellows will trip over themselves to curry favor with the Duke of Ying and report the whole business straight to him. Where could he possibly run?" He turned to Chen Yanzhou. "Elder Chen, am I right?"

Chen Yanzhou laughed heartily. "Quite right, quite right!"

The man who had asked the question gave a sheepish laugh.

But the hulking fellow leaned in close to Chen Yanzhou and Duan Bing, grinning broadly. "Elder Chen, Uncle Duan, I hear the Fourth Miss is taking some people to the capital. Do you think I'd be a good fit?"

Chen Yanzhou and Duan Bing were somewhat taken aback. The two exchanged a glance, then turned to look at the burly man in unison.

The burly man instinctively straightened his chest, as though submitting himself for inspection.

Chen Yanzhou and Duan Bing could not help laughing.

"Think it through carefully," Chen Yanzhou said. "Once you go, you will likely be settling down in the capital for good. At the very least, you will have to stay five or six years."

"I thought it through long ago," the burly man said. "My wife's aunt on her mother's side comes from the same village as the wife of Tian Fugui, who followed the Fourth Miss to the capital. And look at Tian Fugui now—not only did he buy fifty mu of fine farmland back in his home village, he even put up a big house of blue brick and tile... The moment I heard the Fourth Miss was taking people to the capital, I told my family: if Old Chen and Uncle Duan will have me, I will not say another word—I will grab my bundle and go."

The others, hearing this, chimed in one after another: "Old Chen, Uncle Duan, we want to go to the capital too."

Chen Yanzhou swept his gaze over them and saw that most of those who spoke were young men without families of their own.

He could not help smiling faintly.

Song Yan's position was still unsteady; what he needed now was exactly this sort of hot-blooded young man, bold as a newborn calf.

"Fine then!" Chen Yanzhou said with a smile. "Whoever wants to go, tell Guard Duan. When the time comes, Guard Duan and I will work out the details together."

The crowd surged toward Duan Bing.

The man assigned to tail Tao Jun returned.

"Old Chen, Uncle Duan, that fellow surnamed Tao has run into the Zhending Guard."

Tao Jun and Duan Bing could not help exchanging a smile.

A young servant came running up, panting for breath.

"Old Chen, Old Chen," he said, waving a letter in his hand, "Mr. Yan in the capital has sent you a letter by six-hundred-li express courier."