Cheng Yao’s eyes suddenly turned cold, and her voice was sharp as ice. “You call the hero who risked his life to save more than eighty members of our entire clan from a pack of wild boars a servant?”
Feng Xianxian felt a little guilty and shrank back. “They were only protecting Big Brother. They acted on instinct, and it was simply their duty. Hardly enough to call them heroes.”
“Are you blind? We weren’t in the temple then. They could have stayed out of it entirely. And as for your claim that they aren’t heroes? Ha…”
The smile in Cheng Yao’s eyes grew even colder. “While they charged into battle in full armor, you were admiring plum blossoms in a warm pavilion. While their blood stained the battlefield, you slept soundly beneath your brocade quilt! If those ‘servants’ you speak of hadn’t paved the way to peace with their bones, where would you get the nerve to stand here and make such callous remarks? Their loyalty is the sincerity that keeps our mountains and rivers safe; their courage is the backbone that protects the common people! If they aren’t heroes, then who is? A wretch like you, who hides in a comfortable nest and slanders heroes?”
Her words rang out like a hammer, shaking everyone to the core.
Feng Xianxian’s face alternated between white and red. Her clenched knuckles had gone pale.
She retreated several steps, her voice breaking with tears and her eyes reddening. “Sister-in-law, why are you being so harsh? I—I only said it casually. I didn’t mean to belittle or slander them. I—I’ve simply never heard the details of what happened, so I spoke without thinking…”
She raised a hand to dab at the corner of her eye, but tears slipped through her fingers and rolled down her cheeks. She looked as though she had suffered some terrible injustice, yet she still secretly glanced around at everyone’s expressions, hoping someone would speak up for her.
Cheng Yao felt sick at the sight of her feigned innocence. “You only said it casually? Soldiers who fight and bleed on the battlefield aren’t there for you to slander at will! The ignorant may be forgiven, but they had just risked their lives for everyone. You watched it happen and still chose to mock them. Did you leave your conscience to be eaten by dogs?”
Feng Xianxian was terrified by her aggressive tone and intimidating expression. She kept backing away.
But Cheng Yao had no intention of letting her off so easily. Her voice was cold and heavy. “When you sat in the warm pavilion listening to opera, did you ever think about who was guarding the border and keeping the northern barbarians from invading? When you ate delicacies, did you ever remember who was chewing frozen, rock-hard rations on the battlefield?
“I’m telling you this not to make things difficult for you, but to make sure you remember this—every person must possess the most basic sense of reverence. We must respect Heaven and Earth, life, and our heroes. There is no room for even the slightest disrespect!”
She couldn’t help thinking of that military green from the world she had once known.
That green was a boundary marker standing firm through wind and rain, a backbone holding against the floods, a spark of light kept warm atop snow-covered mountains. It wrapped around worn shoulder insignia, frost-rimed caps, and sweat-soaked backs, yet pressed the word “protection” straight and firm into every fold. She had seen them charge into gunfire, carry children to safety, and kneel in the mud to save lives.
They were the strongest support in countless hearts, the faith people revered most deeply.
When the mountains and rivers of later generations shattered and living creatures suffered, it was they who carved flesh from their own bodies and shed their final drops of blood to protect millions of common people!
At the thought, Cheng Yao’s voice grew choked with emotion. “They were not born invincible. It was only after they stepped onto the battlefield that they engraved protection and loyalty into their very bones.”
The eyes of the three hidden guards turned scarlet, and they instinctively straightened. It was as though the hardships in their hearts and the wounds and pain on their bodies had all been soothed by her words.
The entire scene fell so silent that even the faint rustle of wind through the flower branches could be heard.
Everyone was filled with reverence for the soldiers. Several people who had once prayed for their sons to return safely from the border even had tears quietly welling in their eyes.
The way everyone looked at Feng Xianxian was filled with disdain and anger.
“Sister-in-law is right. You really deserve to die!”
Feng Xianxian knew she had once again enraged everyone and was at a loss for what to do.
Zhan Jinmo adjusted his sleeves and stepped forward, inclining slightly toward Cheng Yao. His voice held a note of solemn respect. “Sister-in-law is absolutely right. The integrity of our fallen heroes cannot tolerate the slightest disrespect.”
As he spoke, he couldn’t help glaring at Feng Xianxian as well.
Compared with her manufactured pitifulness, those brave men who protected their homeland and country were far more deserving of sympathy and respect.
“If you spout such nonsense again, get out of the group.”
Feng Xianxian looked around and saw that everyone was siding with Cheng Yao. Her fists clenched tighter and tighter, but she no longer dared to offer even a single word of protest. She lowered her head and retreated.
“If I hear you speak contemptuously of soldiers again, you can forget about keeping that filthy mouth of yours,” Cheng Yao warned, her voice as cold as ice.
Feng Xianxian felt the back of her neck tighten beneath Cheng Yao’s sharp gaze. She lowered her head timidly, not even daring to meet her eyes.
The overwhelming authority Cheng Yao carried left no one else at the scene daring to say another word.
In the shadows, the hidden guards were deeply stirred. Their eyes brimmed with tears, and one after another they sniffed and wiped them away with their sleeves.
They say that those who live near vermilion become red, and those who live near ink become black. Their iron-willed madam was becoming more and more like their master.
Amid the silence, a frail young girl with eyes as red as a rabbit spoke timidly. “Are we really just going to wait here to die?”
She nervously twisted the corner of her clothing. “My mother is barely hanging on… Big Sister-in-law, is there truly no other way?”
She was choking so badly on her sobs that she could barely finish speaking.
Cheng Yao frowned. She did not know the girl.
Lady Zhan stepped forward and quietly explained the situation to her.
The girl was Zhan Haoting’s twelfth uncle’s daughter, Zhan Liqing. Her father had died years ago, leaving only her and her mother to depend on each other. Now that her mother was so severely injured, she would likely soon be leaving her as well.
Seeing the girl’s grief, then looking at the wounded, frightened, cold, and hungry people scattered across the ground, Cheng Yao’s heart grew heavy.
She took a deep breath. “Child, I already went nearby to look for herbs that could stop bleeding, but unfortunately… there was nothing to be found in these barren mountains. I’m not a physician, nor do I possess any miraculous medicine. I used some crude methods my grandmother taught me, along with the last of my wound medicine, to treat those brave men just now. There is nothing left in my bundle.”
Everyone looked toward her bundle. It was indeed limp and empty, with hardly anything inside.
She had given the hidden guards only a small porcelain bottle, and the medicine in it had probably been used up treating the three of them.
They could understand her predicament.
Still, they couldn’t help feeling disappointed.
If even she had no medicine, where could they possibly get any?
They could only wait to die.
“However…” Cheng Yao changed her tone and swept her gaze over the crowd, raising her voice. “We may not have medicine, but we can’t simply sit here and wait!”
She pointed toward a patch of wild ginger nearby. “Go dig up some ginger. Then find something we can use as a container and boil some water. Make ginger soup for everyone! After suffering such a fright and being exposed to the cold, drinking some hot ginger soup will help greatly. As for the injured, do your best to wash their wounds with boiled water that has been cooled to a warm temperature. It’s still better than letting dirt and filth contaminate them!”
Her words gave the despairing crowd a direction—something they could actually do.
But the moment ginger soup was mentioned, everyone instinctively began relying on her.
“Could you make it for us?”
The soup she made really did seem capable of curing illness and treating injuries.
“If I had to make this much ginger soup every day, I’d work myself to death,” Cheng Yao said with an exasperated laugh. “Make it yourselves. I’ll search outside for medicinal herbs. If I find any, I’ll give them to you.”
“That would be wonderful.”
“Thank you, Hao Ting’s wife.”
As long as she was willing to give them medicine, everything would be fine.
Zhang Yunpeng and the other young men forced themselves to keep going, struggling to dig up ginger, while the women began searching for anything they could use as containers for water and gathering firewood.
Watching the prisoners bustling about, Zhang Dapeng felt increasingly irritated.
Since when did their group have to take orders from a mere woman? Did they think the constables were dead?
