Chapter Thirty-Six: Rubin

Lu Bin was the youngest of the Lu brothers from Old Temple Village, with a square head and a sturdy build. Liu Chengzong had seen him before.

Last time, outside the wooden barricade checkpoint at Old Temple Village, Lu Bin had a white cloth tied around his head, wore a sheepskin jacket, and sat astride his horse with a bow and arrow on his back and a wooden spear in hand, his voice loud and spirited.

Liu Chengzong had exchanged a few words with him then, though he hadn't learned much about Old Temple Village, he had managed to glean quite a bit about Ding Family Station.

Now, only half a month later, Liu Chengzong encountered this man in his thirties again in the clan ancestral hall. Sudden misfortune had changed his appearance greatly.

As soon as Liu Chengzong stepped into the four-sided courtyard of the ancestral hall, he noticed the figure sitting on the ground in the corner. The filthy white headcloth had been tossed aside; Lu Bin's hair was in disarray, his body stained with a mixture of blood and mud. He looked over like a startled rabbit, trying to get up.

"Is that you?"

His mouth barely moved and his voice was low. A blood-soaked white cloth covered his left cheek, his expression visibly anxious, his hands fumbling at his side as if searching desperately for something to defend himself.

"Liu Chengzong, we met at your village half a month ago."

Liu Chengzong spoke as he stepped forward, pulling over a long bench used for clan meetings, raising his eyebrows and asking, "What happened to your face?"

"Hit by an arrow, lost two teeth."

The answer left Liu Chengzong uncertain whether to call Lu Bin lucky or unlucky—unlucky to have his face pierced by an arrow, lucky that it was only his cheek.

The wound revealed much. Liu Chengzong could imagine how Lu Bin was struck, probably wounded by a stray arrow while looking back at his pursuers.

"You came on horseback, just you? Where are the others?"

Lu Bin nodded. Perhaps it was the ordeal or his injuries, but he seemed short of breath, as if all his vitality had been drained, and he slowly shook his head. "I—I don't know."

"The Ding family led bandits into the village, the villagers scattered, I and a few brothers drew them away, fled all the way... everyone scattered."

Since Lu Bin had a horse, the bandits must have had horses too. Liu Chengzong finally asked the question weighing on his mind: "I heard from my father that those bandits are under Wang Zuo's command. How do you know?"

It seemed Lu Bin had already been asked similar questions many times. He replied impatiently, his brow slightly furrowed, "They said it themselves. Said Zuo's men suffered defeat against the government troops in Yaozhou, thousands dead or scattered, and they are just one group among them."

Lu Bin finished, gesturing urgently as he spoke, "Sir, you've seen me, you know I'm from Old Temple Village, not a bandit. Couldn't you let someone release me, please!"

Some movement seemed to pull at his injury, perhaps his back, and he stopped, gritting his teeth, but after a brief pause, he continued, "Return my horse and bow, I need to go back."

Liu Chengzong walked to his side. Lu Bin was sitting against the wall; Liu had not noticed earlier, but now saw the sheepskin jacket torn open at the back, with brown blood stains on it. Inside the tear, white cloth was wrapped around the wound, likely dressed by a healer when he escaped to Xingping yesterday.

"Go back? If the bandits are still at Old Temple Village, what can you do?"

"I have to find my family. My brother, sister-in-law, nephew, my wife and children, my whole family—eleven people. Surely I'm not the only one left. If there's no one... I have to avenge them."

Liu Chengzong said nothing, intending to sit back down, but after just settling on the bench, he stood again. "Your back is wounded, you can't even draw a bow—how will you avenge them?"

"And we have to assign two militia men to keep watch over you. Be content. Just stay here and recover; you'll get food every day, it's a good arrangement."

Liu Chengzong couldn't help but smile at his own words. Truth be told, if not for Old Temple Village's misfortune, having someone provide meals in a place like Xingping was something countless people outside would long for in these disaster years.

Since the situation didn't call for laughter, Liu Chengzong composed himself, thought for a moment, and patted Lu Bin's shoulder. "I'll be heading north in the next couple of days. If I chance upon your brother, I'll bring him here. Stay calm and don't cause trouble in my family's ancestral hall."

"I'll go see if they can move you somewhere else to stay."

With that, Liu Chengzong walked out of the ancestral hall, ignoring Lu Bin's shouts behind him.

Standing beneath the lofty eaves at the entrance, he looked up at the blue sky and sighed.

In less than two months since leaving Yuhe Fortress, more people had died around him than in the previous nineteen years.

He should've known those eight wolves at Ding Family Station weren't to be trifled with—having killed even tax officials, and when things didn't go their way, they'd rob others, with bandits among them, all the more willing.

The more he considered it, the more Liu Chengzong felt compelled to head north.

If Lu Bin's family and brothers were still alive, there was little hope of finding them.

Unless they were already dead, and perhaps he might find their bodies.

Otherwise, if he could find them, so could the bandits. Without some skill in hiding, survival was impossible.

If they did have the ability to hide, the barren hills within ten miles could easily conceal hundreds, let alone a few people.

"Just returned from Ansai, and you're off again?"

Madam Cai, having distributed seed grain to the tenant farmers, came home and saw a pile of horse dung in the middle of the courtyard entrance. Looking further in, she saw Liu Chengzong in the stable, packing bedding and tack onto Red Flag's back, and exclaimed, "It's chaos out there!"

"Mother, you're back. The northern villages were raided, so I'm going to check it out."

Seeing his mother, Liu Chengzong unloaded the tack, hung his bedding temporarily in the stable, and came out smiling, "It's nothing. Lu Bin in the ancestral hall wants to find his family. If he went out and met the bandits, he'd surely die, so I'll look for them in his stead."

"The main roads are watched, how will you search the hills for people?"

Madam Cai was anxious and complained, but there was nothing she could do. "You won't find anyone, so why go north at all? Listen to your mother and stay home; don't go out again."

"I have to. Villages seven or eight miles away disappeared overnight. I need to see where the bandits went. If they're still there, we must prepare early; if they've gone elsewhere, we can sleep peacefully at night, can't we? Don't worry, mother."

Liu Chengzong wiped the sweat from preparing his warhorse, knocked on the border guard's armor he wore, "It's all palm-sized plates inside. I'll ride two horses; if I run into bandits, I can escape. They can't hurt me."

"You and your armor—an entire village couldn't escape, what good will armor do you?"

Despite her words, Madam Cai knew she couldn't stop her son. She frowned and said, "Your brother went to find Commander Cao; he should return by noon. Eat something first, wait for him, and you two can look out for each other... Whose horse is that?"

"Fine, I'll wait for him. With more family at home, I'm at ease going out."

Liu Chengzong guessed his elder brother, upon hearing of the northern bandit trouble, went to fetch Cao Yao and his men. With fifty border guards at home, even if bandits came, there was nothing to fear.

With this thought, he felt much more at ease and pointed to the stable. "That's the horse Commander Cao left for sister-in-law. I just borrowed it; I can't leave yet anyway, the horseshoe is loose and needs to be reset before it can travel."