Chapter 503 — Each Reveals Their Own

"Who else could it be but the Prince of Liao?" Dou Yan said coldly, though her hand had clenched into a fist against her will.

"The Prince of Liao?!" Duan Bing gaped. "No—that can't be. Would he dare offend the heir apparent? And a vassal prince is forbidden to consort with court officials. If he carried you and the young master off, what would that even mean? How would he ever clean up the aftermath?" As he spoke, his face paled. "They don't care whether the second young master lives or dies... Could these men be plotting to murder you and the young master?"

Chen Lanxu's face went ashen as he listened. "We've all gone inside. If they really mean to—all they need do is set one fire..."

And with those heavy crossbows surrounding them from without, they would have only death to look forward to!

Dou Yan's expression shifted drastically. "Can we find some way to get word to the heir apparent?"

Once Song Yan learned of this, he would surely find a way to save them.

The people in the room looked at one another.

Staying here was dangerous enough, but to break out and carry word—facing fifty crossbows, the odds of coming back alive were even slighter.

Duan Bing laughed. "Then let me go. I'll see if I can find a chance to slip out."

"No," Chen Lanxu said, catching hold of him. "Among us all, your skill is the finest and your experience the deepest. If you leave, what becomes of the madam and the young master? I'll go!"

At this the guards all began to clamor: "Master Duan, let me go! My lightness skill is the best!"

"Let me go instead! I'm small—I won't be easily spotted."

"Enough, all of you—let me go! There are three sons in my family and I'm the second. I've no wife, no household..."

The room fell silent.

"We go nowhere!" An old woman's voice suddenly rang in everyone's ears. "We stay here. If we live, we live together; if we die, we die together."

"Old Madam!"

"Grandmother!"

Every eye turned to Grandmother.

She was gently patting the sleeping Yuanheng. Though her hands and feet trembled slightly, her expression was firm. "I may be a village woman who's seen little of the world, but hearing you all talk, I understand a thing or two. They must have come in secret. Dawn is only two or three hours off—surely they can't keep us surrounded forever! We need only hold out those two or three hours. No one is to be sent to his death! Every one of you was born to a mother and a father!" The last words were directed at Dou Yan.

Dou Yan gave a bitter smile.

Could she really bear to watch others throw their lives away?

Yet if they all stayed trapped here, it might well be a road to death.

The thought flashed through her mind, and something stirred in her heart.

Why hadn't she thought of it herself?

Her eyes lit up. She turned to Duan Bing. "Is it possible that all they want is to carry off Yuanheng and me?"

If they meant to take them alive, they wouldn't harm her or Yuanheng. That meant they could not resort to such extremes as setting a fire.

At these words the guards' spirits lifted.

If that were so, they need only hold out until dawn to escape their plight.

Duan Bing said at once, "Let me try!"

Dou Yan nodded.

Keeping carefully to the door, Duan Bing called out loudly, "I am a guard at Lady Dou's side. I have a few questions for you!"

The other party answered in a soft, mild voice, yet politely: "Lady Jiang may ask freely."

Duan Bing exchanged a glance with Dou Yan, then said, "Our madam says that if she and the young master go with you, will you let the old madam go?"

Grandmother made to speak at once, but Dou Yan shot her a look, and Grandmother forced herself to keep silent.

"We have done the madam and the young master no harm at all. That is the old madam's meaning," the other replied without a moment's thought. "But we cannot send the old madam back to the city straightaway. The old madam and the madam's guards must be troubled to stay here a few days."

In other words, the other side believed that within a few days' time, the matter of seizing the mother and child would resolve itself.

Dou Yan was shaken to the core. "No—" she cried out in a low voice.

Everyone in the room turned to look. Duan Bing even forgot he was still speaking with the other side, and all held their breath and strained their ears.

"It's the Prince of Liao!" A flicker of terror passed through Dou Yan's eyes. "He's made his move... He means to take Yuanheng and me hostage and use us to threaten the heir apparent... because it will take only a few hours. Perhaps not even days—the outcome could be decided..."

And by then, once he ascended the throne as emperor, all obstacles would cease to be obstacles.

Whether the old madam lived or died, whether Song Yan lived or died—to the Prince of Liao, none of it would matter anymore.

That was why the other side had agreed so readily to Duan Bing's terms.

"How could I be so foolish!" Dou Yan was seized with regret and self-loathing, and could not help murmuring to herself. "So much has changed in this life—how could I still be blinded by the things of my last life, unable to tell what is fact and what is memory..."

She could not help stamping her foot.

Duan Bing, however, did not understand.

But he had no intention of understanding it, either.

He had been in the capital two or three years now, and the capital's tangles were not something a petty fighting man like him could steer. Better to do well whatever lay right before his eyes.

"My lady," he said, "what are we to do now?"

Dou Yan felt as though the evening drum and morning bell had sounded in her ears, and her mind came awake.

What use was talk now? The pressing matter was to reach Song Yan, not only because they needed him to bring back reinforcements to save them, but because word of what was happening here had to be got to him so that he might have a countermeasure ready. Her fear was that something had changed in the palace too, and that Song Yan could not even save himself.

At that thought she could not help drawing a sharp, cold breath.

If things truly were as she suspected, then they could only save themselves.

Dou Yan paced several turns about the room before her heart and spirit steadied.

She stood before the kang and swept her gaze over the faces of the guards who had followed her from Zhending to the capital, one by one.

The guards all straightened without meaning to, their expressions turning grave.

Only if they clung together now might they force their way through this pass.

People all have their private motives, and this decision might well leave her in danger, but it might also give her the means to fight with her back to the river.

Dou Chiyou turned and glanced at Yuanheng and Grandmother.

Grandmother did not know what she meant to do, but in her plain wisdom she understood that matters had come to a crucial turn.

She gave Dou Yan a firm nod.

Dou Chiyou smiled, then turned back, straightened her spine, and said, "There is something the heir and I have kept from you all."

She told the people in the room, in measured tones, of the strange portents concerning the Prince of Liao.

Duan Bing and Chen Lanxu had sensed something of it and merely kept silent, but the others all showed fear on their faces, and only after a long while did they come back to themselves; and as they did, they understood Dou Zhiwei's purpose.

Everyone was silent for a moment. Then one said, "My lady, no pie ever drops from the sky. Since we have cast our lot with you to make our fortunes, there is no reason we should reap without sowing. When the master is shamed, the servant dies. We are at your command."

The others grew heated as well.

"My lady, whatever you want us to do, just say the word!"

"That's right! Since there's no way to patch things up now, what is there left to fear? If you and the young master are in danger, do you think the likes of us can slip away? If not for you just now, my lady, we would already be dead under the crossbows!"