Lin Yue carried the child and ran for a short while, rested a bit, then continued running.
Ahead on the road, dozens of people were searching a wide area on the mountain. Their martial arts seemed better than those of the masked men from before.
Lin Yue ran into the side of the mountain forest, circumventing their search and escaping the encirclement.
Lin Yue stepped onto a branch, which bent slightly under her weight. She leveraged the momentum to stride forward, lightly tapping her toes before leaping up again.
As they constantly rose and fell, the imbalance made Chen Zhiyi's body stiffen. He was terrified and pale-faced, but he gritted his teeth and made no sound.
Lin Yue stopped on a tree, holding her breath and focusing her mind, the dense branches and leaves concealing her figure.
Not far below, every so often, two people would be stationed. They scanned the surroundings, searching the dense thickets for the figure.
One man came to the base of the tree, glancing left and right, then suddenly looked up and swept his gaze over the tree. He seemed to have noticed something unusual. He tightened his grip on his weapon, wary of the dense branches. His companions, seeing this, drew their blades and surrounded the tree.
Suddenly, a certain spot on the branch swayed, rustling. Several people adopted a defensive stance.
As the branches swayed, a green snake poked its head out, flicking its tongue as it quickly slithered along the branch to the other side of the trunk, then leapt to another tree.
The people below breathed a sigh of relief. They circled the tree a few times but couldn't see anything hidden in the branches. One person picked up a stone and threw it up. The stone ascended through the foliage and then fell back down.
"Let's go," a companion said.
The person who threw the stone frowned. He picked up another and threw it, but the stone once again passed through the foliage and fell back down.
It didn't hit anything.
"Come on, others are already ahead. If we're late and they see us, we'll all be punished."
His companion saw that he hadn't hit anything and quickly pulled him to catch up with the main group, telling him not to break the encirclement; as low-ranking individuals, they should just do their part and not always act conceited.
Lin Yue breathed a sigh of relief. The stone had indeed been thrown towards her. She caught it and immediately tossed it back out.
The bright moon hung in the sky, and the forest gorge was serene.
In a small cave covered by hay and blocked by a large rock, Lin Yue tended to her wounds by the light filtering through a crack.
While climbing the tree, she had startled a snake, and her arm was bitten by a green snake. This was a mildly venomous green snake, commonly called a Treewatcher, with a triangular head. After a bite, the wound would swell and burn, bearing some resemblance to the bamboo vipers of her previous life.
It was common in the mountains, and she had been bitten before; it would heal on its own in a few days.
That was why she hadn't alerted the enemy; luckily, they had left.
After tending to her wound, Lin Yue leaned against the stone wall. The warmth of the sun baked her body through the stone, making her feel cozy. The child squatted close by, tightly tugging her sleeve, not making a sound.
Early the next morning, Chen Zhiyi rubbed his eyes open to complete darkness. The next moment, he frantically reached to his side; it was empty. The darkness and helplessness terrified him, and he didn't dare to cry loudly, so he could only pout and sob softly.
Just as he whimpered a few times, a rustling sound came from the cave entrance. He closed his mouth, nervously watching the stone at the entrance move, allowing light to seep in.
Seeing Lin Yue at the entrance, he fearfully scrambled to his feet and ran towards her. Just as he was about to pounce on her, Lin Yue deftly lifted him to the side.
She took out the bird eggs she had collected on the way and shared them for breakfast.
The bird eggs had a stronger fishy taste than any she had eaten in her previous life, but in this world, there weren't many seasonings, and many foods had strong flavors. Most people wouldn't mind, or rather, they were used to it and didn't notice; having something to eat was good enough.
Only after everything was settled did Lin Yue leave with him.
The carriage's direction and the three women's original direction were both towards the capital city.
Taking him out as he was now would make him easily recognizable, so she needed a good disguise.
Passing a village, Lin Yue went in to borrow some clothes. She changed into men's attire, dressed Chen Zhiyi in new clothes, tied two red braided strings in his hair, and cut bangs, transforming him into an adorable little girl. His appearance was starkly different from his previous boyish look; even his own mother would likely not be able to tell.
The child had an exquisite jade pendant and a hundred taels of silver notes on him. The jade, carved with a lotus bud, had no special markings, making it difficult to identify which family it belonged to.
"Who gave you this?"
"Mother."
Seeing Chen Zhiyi reach out, Lin Yue returned the jade pendant to him, guessing it was a token of identity.
"Your new name is Lin Yanhong, and you're a girl."
"I'm Lin Ze gege. When I call you Hong'er, you must respond, understand?"
Chen Zhiyi hummed in response and timidly nodded.
He behaved weakly and dependent on his mother the whole way, likely often bullied at home.
"Hong'er, let's go."
Lin Yue asked various questions along the way, essentially doing a background check. A small child didn't understand conversational tricks and couldn't lie, so Lin Yue managed to extract all the information she could about his family situation.
His paternal grandfather was a local civil official, his father a military general who had fought in wars for years, his paternal uncle was a juren, and his paternal aunt had married into a family in the capital city.
His father's concubine's father worked under his paternal grandfather, also as a civil official. Chen Zhiyi's mother's family was wealthy but didn't have much status, being merchants. Because of this background, his paternal grandparents favored his father's concubine and her son.
Chen Zhiyi and his mother were going to the capital city to visit his paternal aunt, who had married far away and given birth, when they encountered an ambush on the road.
The child didn't understand much about the rights and wrongs of adults; he only knew his mother. The mother and son had suffered this calamity, perhaps because someone in the family had offended someone.
Choosing a location near Wangsu Stream was likely an attempt to pin the blame on the wanted criminals there.
"I'll take you home."
With relatives at home, it should be safe. Lin Yue planned to make a detour to Guangyun Prefecture, drop him off, and then leave. However, Chen Zhiyi shook his head.
"Find Aunt," he said softly.
"Your mother didn't want you to go back?" Lin Yue grew thoughtful.
Chen Zhiyi chewed his coarse grain flatbread with difficulty and nodded.
With officials in the family, returning home would be the best option if the enemy was external. So, was the trouble coming from within the family?
Even a tiger doesn't eat its cubs, so it shouldn't be his paternal grandparents. It was likely the concubine or some other reason.
After pondering for a moment, Lin Yue decided to take him to the capital city to find his paternal aunt.
The two arrived at a town, then took a carriage from the town to the county seat. They changed into cotton clothes, and Lin Yue bought a sword and a horse to pose as a knight-errant. After an emergency fifteen-minute training session in horsemanship, she roughly mastered mounting, dismounting, riding posture, and handling techniques, then rode straight towards the capital city.
She had already deviated from her original path; going to the capital city from here would take an extra half a month.
Traveling with a child wasn't suitable for long periods of strenuous travel, so she paused frequently. Along the way, she also encountered several groups of martial artists heading to the capital city to participate in the martial arts convention.
Those on foot, those in carriages, those galloping on horseback—their social standing was evident from their attire and mode of travel. Those on horseback disdained the crudeness of those in coarse brown clothes, while those in coarse brown clothes disliked the haughtiness of those on horseback. Most of those in carriages were wealthy young masters who generally wouldn't expose themselves to wind and sun.
Lin Yue, riding on horseback, was also inexplicably scorned by some. Other martial artists came to greet her and invite her to travel together, but Lin Yue brushed them off, citing the inconvenience of having a child with her, except for a brother and sister duo she couldn't shake off.
"What a pretty little girl! Let Big Sister pinch your cheeks!"
The woman in plain clothes reached out and pinched Chen Zhiyi's little face. With a pinch, a blush immediately spread across his cheeks, like ripe apples, making the woman giggle with amusement.
"This brother is bright and dashing, with a distinguished bearing. May I ask where you hail from?"
As if he hadn't noticed her cold expression, he continued, "I am Fang Heng, and this is my younger sister, Fang Yu. We are from Yizhou Kaiyang."
"This child is truly adorable. Little brother, may I hold her?"
Before Lin Yue could answer, Chen Zhiyi warily shrank back, clutching Lin Yue's sleeve tightly.
Fang Heng said, "You've frightened the little girl."
"My apologies!" Fang Yu smiled apologetically. "Don't be scared, little sister, Big Sister didn't mean to."
"Big Sister has some braided strings for you, do you want them?"
Fang Yu took out four braided strings and offered them to the child. Chen Zhiyi pouted and tilted his head back, not taking them.
"How can we just accept a young lady's things? Young lady, please take them back," Lin Yue said, seeing the situation.
"Just a few braided strings, they're not worth much."
Fang Yu insisted on giving the braided strings, so Lin Yue reluctantly gave them to Chen Zhiyi, saying, "Hong'er, aren't you going to thank Big Sister?"
Chen Zhiyi softly said, "Thank you, Big Sister."
"Ah, truly adorable..."
Lin Yue rode her horse for over half a month until two main roads converged. Continuing straight along this path would lead to the capital city. There were many martial artists on the road, but she hadn't seen Hong Mei and the others.
Ahead, they passed a prefecture city. Lin Yue and the Fang siblings led their horses in to resupply. Today was the Mid-Autumn Festival, and the streets were bustling with activity, filled with all sorts of mooncakes, fruits, flower lanterns depicting birds and beasts, osmanthus cakes, and wine. Carriages and horses filled the streets.
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