Martial World Full of Disguises

28: Settling Personal Grudges

When A-Fu and Xing Guang returned with the physician, they found Fu Peibai sitting by the bedside, looking listless and dejected.

A-Fu was startled and hurried forward with concern. "Little Bai, what's wrong? Are you feeling unwell somewhere?"

Hearing the voice, Fu Peibai raised her head, her expression somewhat dazed. "I'm fine."

"Young brother, you rest for now. Let me first examine the young lady on the bed," the physician said. He extended his hand, reached through the bed curtains, and placed his fingers on Lu Yanran's wrist.

After a moment, he withdrew his hand. "This young lady's pulse is deep and stagnant, her blood and qi are not flowing smoothly. This unconsciousness doesn't seem to be caused by inhaling thick smoke. Rather, it appears she inhaled some kind of potent sedative drug."

Fu Peibai shot to her feet, but her injured right foot gave way beneath her. She nearly fell, fortunately caught by Xing Guang's quick hand.

"Sedative? You mean someone snuck into the inn and blew sedative powder into the Peak Master's room? Then deliberately set the fire?"

Her manner was overly agitated. The physician said awkwardly, "I didn't say that exactly. I only said it's possible. Young brother, please calm down."

How could Fu Peibai calm down? Her mind raced chaotically. She thought of the three men they had clashed with at the wine shop that evening. Then she recalled how, throughout the journey, the Peak Master had been sleeping poorly, so she would light a calming incense each night to help her rest. It was very likely that those three men had taken advantage of the Peak Master's slumber to blow sedative smoke into her room. The thought made her immediately agitated. "It was them! It had to be them! They held a grudge and deliberately set the fire to take revenge. It must have been them!" As she spoke, Fu Peibai pulled away from Xing Guang's hand and tried to leave.

"Little Bai, what are you doing?!" A-Fu took several steps to block her path.

"I'm going to settle the score with them!"

A-Fu said sharply, "Settle what score? With your leg in this condition, you'd just go there to get beaten up by them? Besides, we have no evidence right now. How can we conclude it was them? We came down the mountain for serious business. Getting entangled with the authorities would only delay our journey. If the Peak Master were awake right now, she wouldn't approve of you acting so rashly either!"

Fu Peibai gritted her teeth, her face filled with unwillingness and rage. "They almost, they nearly killed the Peak Master!"

A-Fu was about to persuade her further when Xing Guang walked over and said in a deep voice, "Going there now won't help anything. Wait until the Peak Master wakes up, then we'll discuss it."

Fu Peibai's entire body lost its strength. She lowered her head and eyes, and softly said, "I understand."

"This young lady is in no serious danger. Once the drug's effects wear off somewhat, she will regain consciousness," the physician said after finishing his assessment of Lu Yanran. He walked over to Fu Peibai and asked, "Now then, young brother, where are you injured?"

A-Fu pointed to her foot. "Physician, his foot seems to be injured from the fall. Please take a look."

"Certainly. Remove the shoe and let me see."

Fu Peibai was helped to sit at the table by A-Fu. She then removed her right shoe. The ankle was already swollen high and red.

The physician pressed on it with moderate pressure, causing her to let out a soft hiss.

"The bone isn't injured. It's just a minor sprain. I'll go back and prepare some medicine. Apply it after a hot compress each day. You should see improvement in two or three days."

"Thank you, physician. I'll come with you to the medical hall to get the medicine," A-Fu said, then left the room with the physician.

The room fell quiet again. Xing Guang glanced at the silently brooding Fu Peibai and said, "Go back to your room and rest. When A-Fu returns, she will naturally look after the Peak Master."

Fu Peibai shook her head. "I'm fine."

"You and I are both men. It is inappropriate to share a room with the Peak Master."

Since Xing Guang had put it that way, even though she was reluctant, she could only slowly rise and leave the room with him.

"I will stand guard here. You can rest."

"Alright. If the Peak Master wakes up, will you tell me immediately?"

Xing Guang nodded. Only then did Fu Peibai make her way back to the adjacent room, supporting herself against the wall. After lying down on the bed, her mind was still somewhat dizzy. Tonight's events had been too sudden, just like the day her family had suffered that catastrophe.

She closed her eyes. The exhaustion and pain in her body slowly overtook her, and before long, she fell into deep sleep.

When she awoke, the morning sun was rising in the eastern sky. She stared blankly at the bright room for a moment, then abruptly rose from the bed. But she forgot about her injured foot. The moment it touched the ground, pain shot through her ankle, causing her to fall to the floor.

Her fall made quite a commotion.

Soon, knocking came from outside. "Are you alright?" It was Xing Guang's voice.

Fu Peibai's expression was somewhat twisted from the pain. She gritted her teeth and pulled herself up by the edge of the bed, said "I'm fine," then hopped on one foot to open the door. She urgently asked Xing Guang outside, "Is the Peak Master awake?"

"She is."

Hearing this, she immediately hopped toward the adjacent room. When she entered, she saw Lu Yanran propped against the bed rail, being fed congee in small spoonfuls by A-Fu.

The heart that had been suspended all night finally settled down. She hopped to stand by the bedside, looking at Lu Yanran's pale, haggard face. Her heart ached as she called out softly, "Peak Master..."

Lu Yanran also raised her eyes to look at her. The person before her was disheveled, her face still smeared with black ash that she hadn't even washed off yet. Her mouth was pressed thin, but her eyes were still bright.

Her gaze slowly moved over Fu Peibai's body, then landed on that slightly raised right foot.

"Your foot?"

"It's nothing. A small injury."

After waking, Lu Yanran had already heard from A-Fu the general account of what happened last night. She didn't need to ask in detail to know that Fu Peibai had been injured saving her. She lowered her gaze, her tone as calm and plain as water. "Go wash up first and tend to your injury."

Fu Peibai nodded repeatedly. As long as the Peak Master was fine, that was all that mattered. So she hopped back to her room, changed into clean clothes, went downstairs to wash up, and finally applied medicine to her ankle.

The ointment was cool and soothing. After applying it, much of the pain faded. She finished putting on her shoes in a rush, then limped back upstairs and knocked firmly on Lu Yanran's door.

"Come in."

She pushed open the door and saw that A-Fu had already left. Only Lu Yanran remained, sitting propped up in bed. She walked to the bedside and asked softly, "Peak Master, are you feeling any discomfort anywhere?"

"No." After saying this, Lu Yanran tilted her head slightly and looked steadily at Fu Peibai. "And you?"

"Me? I'm fine."

"When you charged in to save me, did it never occur to you that you might perish in the flames?" Lu Yanran raised her voice slightly, her expression stern.

Fu Peibai thought back to the situation at the time. There hadn't been time to think about it so much. Looking at Lu Yanran's clearly displeased expression, she said blankly, "I... I couldn't think about that. I couldn't abandon the Peak Master."

Lu Yanran's brows drew together tightly, her tone growing even more severe. "When you jumped out the window holding me without taking any protective measures, did you think about yourself at all? Right now you were lucky and only injured a foot. If you had injured your head, or broken your leg, how would you live in the future?!"

Fu Peibai was stunned by the scolding. She touched the tip of her nose, trying to brush past it. "It's fine. When I was young, I used to climb trees to get bird eggs with the other kids in the village. I've long since become thick-skinned from falls. That height wouldn't have killed me."

Lu Yanran exhaled heavily and said sternly, "There will not be a next time. If you sacrifice yourself to save me like this, I won't feel grateful. I will only think you are foolish, utterly foolish."

The smile on Fu Peibai's face froze. The curve of her lips gradually faded. She hadn't expected Lu Yanran to be grateful to her, because she felt it was simply what she ought to do. But being scolded so coldly by the other person now inevitably made her feel somewhat bad. However, she didn't regret doing it. When it came to people she cared about, what was there to fear in sacrificing her life? If it happened again, if it happened ten thousand times, she would still do the same. Just like when she was young and Jiaxu had been completely submerged in the rushing river, she had also jumped in without the slightest hesitation.

The light in Fu Peibai's eyes dimmed. She said quietly, "Peak Master, please rest. I'll leave now."

She turned to leave, her back hunched over, looking somewhat desolate.

Lu Yanran opened her mouth, but in the end said nothing.

Because of this incident, they were forced to delay in Langzhong City for several days to recover. It wasn't until the fourth day that Fu Peibai's foot injury had mostly healed. During these days, she mostly stayed cooped up in her room. Since her leg couldn't move, she sat in a chair and practiced her fist techniques by swinging her arms.

After dinner that day, she practiced her forms in her room as usual. After completing one set, she had sweated quite a bit, but it felt satisfying and exhilarating.

Her punching speed had increased considerably. She was just about to change into clean clothes when someone knocked on her door. She opened it to find Xing Guang. He was dressed entirely in black, wearing a bamboo hat, with a black cloth covering his face, leaving only his eyes visible.

"Brother Xing, what is this?"

Xing Guang slipped into the room and pulled down the face cloth. He said, "I have found out that the accident the other night was indeed caused by those three men. That night, they bribed a beggar from the east of the city to sneak into the inn and use prepared sedative drugs to knock out the Peak Master. Their original intention was to abduct her, but midway something went wrong and the fire started. Afterwards, they fled in panic. The Peak Master ordered me to teach those three a lesson. Do you want to come along?"

Fu Peibai's eyes lit up. "Go? Of course I'm going. Let's go right now."

Xing Guang pulled out a set of black clothes from the pack on his back and tossed it to Fu Peibai. "Put this on." Then he left the room to wait outside.

Fu Peibai quickly changed into the clothes and left the inn with Xing Guang, disappearing into the night.

Since she didn't know qinggong yet, Xing Guang could only lead her through the alleyways. By now the night was deep, and there was no one to be seen in the city. They smoothly arrived outside the Marquis of Weiyuan's residence.

Two guards stood at the entrance, drowsy. Fu Peibai and Xing Guang exchanged a glance. They tacitly crept to a corner of the wall outside the guards' line of sight, then cooperated to climb over.

The rear of the marquis residence was silent. There were many rooms, and they had no idea which one belonged to the heir.

Xing Guang made a hand signal for Fu Peibai to stay where she was. Then he climbed up a tree trunk, agilely leaped onto the roof, and moved almost without making a sound the entire time. Fu Peibai was amazed.

He lifted roof tiles one by one to scout out each room, finally finding the heir's room. Then he returned the way he came, landing lightly in front of Fu Peibai.

"Such impressive qinggong!"

Facing the praise, Xing Guang still had no reaction. He hunched down, kept close to the wall, and the two soon arrived in front of the heir's room.

Fu Peibai stood guard outside while Xing Guang slipped into the room. A moment later, he emerged carrying the heir's limp body.

Fu Peibai was somewhat confused. She had thought they were just coming to beat these three men to vent their anger. It seemed now that wasn't the case. "Brother Xing, what are we doing?"

Xing Guang didn't offer much explanation. "Let's go first. I'll explain later."

The two returned by the original route. They tossed the precious heir over the wall like a bundle, then repeated the method to abduct the other two men. They came to the shadow of a large tree beside the city wall.

Xing Guang said in a low voice, "Strip them of their clothes first."

Fu Peibai looked at the three unconscious men, then at the high city wall. She suddenly understood something. But she didn't want to let these three off so easily. She rolled up her sleeves and gave the three a thorough beating with punches and kicks until Xing Guang called her to stop.

"Enough. If you keep hitting them, they'll die. The Peak Master strictly ordered that there must be no loss of life."

Fu Peibai panted slightly. She still felt unsatisfied. Finally, she gave each of the three one more kick before crouching down to strip off their clothes. Soon the three were naked, wearing nothing but undergarments. Their bodies were covered in bruises large and small from Fu Peibai's beating.

Xing Guang took out two brushes soaked in ink from his clothing and handed one to Fu Peibai.

The two began writing characters on the three men's bare bellies.

Xing Guang wrote: "Beasts in human clothing, no better than dogs or pigs."

Fu Peibai was much more direct. She wrote: "I am not human, I am a beast, I am worse than pigs and dogs, I am guilty of ten evils, I deserve to die, I have sinned, I should be spat upon by all, I am ashamed before heaven and earth, ashamed before my parents, ashamed before my ancestors, I am unworthy of being called human..." She wrote a long screed. When the front wasn't enough space, she turned them over and wrote quite a bit more on their backs.

Finally, when the brush ran out of ink, she stopped. She looked with satisfaction at her "masterpiece" before her.

Xing Guang tore the clothes they had stripped from the three men into three strips of cloth and tightly gagged their mouths. Then he looked at the city wall and said quietly, "The guards on the wall are changing shifts. Now is the time."

He carried two men, and Fu Peibai dragged one. They soon arrived at the base of the city wall. There were soldiers stationed at the city gate, so naturally they couldn't openly climb the stone steps to the tower. Instead, Xing Guang threw a grappling hook up onto the wall. After he climbed up, he lowered a rope and hauled the three unconscious men up, bound together.

Fu Peibai looked up, feeling somewhat nervous. Soon, she saw the three men hanging by their bound hands and feet from the city gate. Then Xing Guang smoothly slid down the grappling hook.

She stared at the three naked men hanging from the city gate in the night, smiled with deep satisfaction, and clapped her hands. "Let's go."