Guanshan Muyu

chapter 35

On Qi Yan’s eighth birthday, his parents were beheaded at the execution ground.

He and his elder brother were locked up in prison and knew nothing of their parents’ death.

Ten days later, they learned about it from a new prisoner.

His brother broke down in tears, and Qi Yan kept tugging at his sleeve, not knowing what to do.

His brother was only two years older than him, and like him, he was just a child.

The two of them could not understand what “beheaded” mean.

Qi Yan wondered:

“Is it that Father and Mother have lost their heads? Mother is so beautiful, but now she doesn’t have a head either?”

His brother dried his tears, reached his hand that was not much bigger than Qi Yan’s and clenched his fingers.

“Don’t be afraid and don’t be sad, we will soon be reunited with Father and Mother.”

Qi Yan asked him: “Are we going to die too?”

His brother nodded and said to him: “Father and Mother are gone, and we are their sons, so how can we possibly live? Soon someone will come to kill us.”

There was no fear of death in Qi Yan’s heart, only the anticipation of seeing his parents again.

A few days later, in the early hours of the morning, someone did appear outside their cell.

Qi Yan was awakened by the visitor and rose sleepily to his feet, asking through the bars: “Are you here to kill us?”

Without speaking, the man raised his hand and split the chain on the cell door.

His brother also woke up and stepped in front of Qi Yan, shivering. “You… start with me first! You better move fast! We’re still young and we’re afraid of pain!”

The man said nothing, picked up the two children, took them out of the cell and put them into a carriage.

The carriage didn’t stop for a moment; the man kept whipping the horses until they were outside the city. In the darkness of the night, they galloped for fifty miles and stopped in a small town on the outskirts of the capital.

The man who had rescued them let the two children out and said to them:

“I can only send you so far. The favour I owe Lord Qi has been repaid, in future you can go wherever you want, to the north or the south, but in any case leave the Central Plains and do not return to the capital.”

Saying these words, he left swiftly in the carriage, never to be seen again.

His words sounded good, but for two penniless children, trying to travel to a distant land could be considered impossible.

Qi Yan and his brother had to hide in an abandoned storehouse in the town for the time being, barely surviving by collecting other people’s leftovers.

It did not take long for news of their escape to reach the emperor.

The emperor then was still the previous emperor, who was more ruthless and venomous than his son, and as soon as he heard that the two children had run away, he immediately ordered a city-wide search for them.

Officials and soldiers searched every inch of the capital, but found no trace of them.

The old emperor was furious and ordered a wider search.

The town where Qi Yan and his brother were hiding soon became the focus of the investigation.

When they saw the sudden increase in the number of troops on the streets, his brother immediately realised that these men were here to find them.