Thousand Miles of Bright Moonlight

Chapter 70: Escape

    At nighttime, she stayed back, not leaving. The sound of talking came from outside the tent, and the Eldest Prince and Bemutai came into the tent one after the other.

    The Eldest Prince looked at Yaoying, did not pay her any mind, and turned his head to talk to Bemutai.

    Yaoying’s eyes were cast downward, her posture docile and submissive.

    Bemutai’s light yellow eyes stared at her for a while, and then a wicked smile appeared at the corner of his lips. He said a few words in Hu language to the Eldest Prince.

    The Eldest Prince listened and looked at Yaoying with a lewd expression. He also replied in the Hu language.

    Yaoying was motionless.

    But Tali beside her turned pale and trembled.

    The Eldest Prince raised his leg and kicked at Tali, shouting, “Lowly slave! Why do you not repeat my words to the princess?”

    Tali shrank twice and hid behind Yaoying, not daring to squeak.

    The Eldest Prince looked at Yaoying’s hand, which was trembling slightly from fear, laughed loudly, and turned to leave the tent.

    Bemutai also followed him out.

    Before he turned around, he suddenly turned back. His eyes were like electricity as it circled Yaoying’s body.

    Yaoying turned her back on him and bowed her head to comfort Tali, her palms densely covered in sweat.

    Not long after, the tent door closed gently. Bemutai had left.

    Yaoying asked Tali in a low voice: “What did the Eldest Prince say just now?”

    Tali whispered, “The Eldest Prince said some vulgar and disrespectful words.”

    The Eldest Prince said that he would tear off the Princess’s clothes in front of all the Wei empire’s soldiers. She did not dare to translate it to the Princess.

    Yaoying was silent for half a day. Tears falling, she crouched by Yelu Khan’s couch, sobbing quietly.

    “You do not say but I can still guess… These barbaric people from beyond the Great Wall… what nice things can they say?

    “I hate Li Xuanzhen! He is so cruel! I am a princess of Great Wei, a golden branch and jade leaves. I am here in this land outside of the Wall, associating with these barbarians… Khan will not live long… What will I do in the future… “

    She cried for a long time.

    Tali was at a loss. She wrung handkerchiefs for Yaoying to wipe her tears, and persuaded with warm words, before she slowly stopped weeping.

    The biting northwest wind was blowing, and people’s shadows were swaying against the tent.

    Yaoying bowed her head and wiped her tears. The rim of her eyes were red from crying, but her pupils were clear and calm.

    The next few days, Yaoying kept watch for Yelu Khan every day. The Eldest Prince and Bemutai occasionally brought the clan elder to take a look.

    Yelu Khan’s health was getting worse by the day. After ten days, he finally breathed his last.

    Xie Qing told Yaoying that on that day, after the Khan died, Bemutai left the camp with a few attendants in the middle of the night. He did not know where he went.

    Her speculation was confirmed. Yaoying’s heart beat wildly.

    Bemutai was indeed not an ordinary person.

    According to the customs of the Yelu tribe, the clansmen had to hold a cremation for the dead Khan: wrapping him in white cloth, carrying him on a raised platform and burning him in a blazing fire so that his soul could return to the Sun God’s embrace.

    The next day, as night fell, the men and women of the tribe gathered in the square to see the remains of Yelu Khan and to bid him farewell.

    Under the cold moonlight, the tribesmen sang a sorrowful mourning song.

    The Eldest Prince, impatient with listening, barged into Yaoying’s tent with a big grin, reaching out to tear her clothes: “From today, I am the new Khan. Tonight is my wedding with the princess, no one is allowed to interrupt!”

    Xie Qing immediately drew his sword and inserted himself in front of Yaoying.

    The Eldest Prince hugged emptiness. He frowned and laughed nastily: “What, the princess is not willing?”

    Yaoying, dressed in the Yelu tribe’s clothes for a married woman, sincerely bowed towards the Eldest Prince, “Please forgive me, Eldest Prince. Tonight is the funeral ceremony of the old Khan. Please allow me to see the old Khan off for the last time. Otherwise I will truly be uneasy in my heart and cannot serve the Eldest Prince wholeheartedly.”

    She lowered her voice, her tone soft and gentle. Half of her neck, exposed between her pleated robe, was as soft and white as jade, “By tomorrow, the Eldest Prince will be my Khan.”

    This delicate and mellow tone was used, and the Eldest Prince’s body immediately went half soft. He hesitated for a moment, then said: “So be it! You go ahead!”

    Yaoying stood up and stepped out of the tent without looking back, and came to the square where the crowd had gathered.

    The fire was burning, and people were kneeling in front of the bonfire. Some were sobbing, some howling loudly, some sitting in twos and threes drinking together to warm themselves from the cold, and some gazing numbly at the old Khan’s corpse turning into smoke and ashes in the fire.

    Yaoying crossed the crowd and walked step by step to the forefront of the earthen platform.

    Her hair was combed into a braid. In a flower crown, braid decorated with pearls and jade, beads in her necklace drooping low, a colored fabric around her face, she wore the small-sleeved embroidered robe that only the Khanum could wear. Walking under the moon, she was like the legendary goddess.

    The crowd stopped crying one by one and looked up at her simultaneously.

    Yaoying stood on the earthen platform, facing the crowd, feeling that at that moment, there were hundreds of strange eyes staring at her.

    Tali stood beside her and cleared her throat.

    Yaoying gestured with her hand, took one look around, and slowly said, “When alive, the Khan told me that the Yelu tribe is the descendant of the divine wolves, and the blood of the divine wolves surges in the body of every Yelu warrior.”

    The Yelu men and women off the stage looked at her in astonishment.

    The princess’ diction was clear and she spoke in a melodious voice, not in the Chinese language they did not understand, but clearly in their Yelu tribe’s language!

    Tali also looked at Yaoying with disbelief: The princess could actually speak Hu!

    Yaoying looked at the strange clansmen in front of the fire with a calm face: “My husband, Yelu Hazhu, was a brave warrior. He left his parents at the age of twelve with his tribe’s soldiers to fight for territory. He led you to defeat many self-proclaimed unbeatable enemies, found you rich lands, captured countless cattle and sheep. He protected you, raised you. He was the son of the divine wolves, a valiant father, a wise khan.”

    She glanced off into the distance, where the Eldest Prince and his followers had not yet noticed this way.

    “And you all…” Yaoying’s tone became abruptly sarcastic. Her eyes swept over the faces of each of the numb tribal warriors, “are unexpectedly so cowardly! The Eldest Prince Fuman mercilessly killed his brothers, betrayed his father, and slaughtered your clansmen, yet you all hide like meek lambs, not concerned in the least. You have tarnished the bloodline of the divine wolves and brought shame to the Khan’s spirit in heaven!”

    A silence like still water descended on the dark mass of a crowd.

    The young and old, men and women, of the Yelu tribe did not move a muscle, staring dumbly at Yaoying.

    The attendant of the Eldest Prince was furious and turned back to the tent, preparing to report to the Eldest Prince, but was stopped by the others.

    Yaoying stood in front of the bonfire, under the silvery moonlight and met the silent gaze of the crowd. Speeding up her words, she said loudly: “The Khan’s spirit in heaven is watching us! I, Princess Wenzhao of Great Wei, Khanum of Yelu, will personally take revenge for the khan and sacrifice the blood of the traitor to the khan’s soul!”

    She immediately turned around and jumped off the earthen platform. Xie Qing, who was hiding in the crowd, leaped up, picked her up and dodged the followers’ pursuit with a few leaps.

    “Catch her!”

    More and more warriors of the Yelu tribe came after her.

    Xie Qing held Yaoying and ran as fast as he could. Yaoying pulled out a whistle from her sleeve and blew into it.

    The sharp whistle sounded out in the camp. The silent camp suddenly rang with several shrill sounds that pierced through the air as several silver streaks suddenly flashed across the dark night sky, like meteors crossing. Emitting a heart-stopping, eerie, whistling sound, they smashed into the camp.

    The Yelu tribesmen had never seen such a horrific spectacle, and they all were stupefied, staring at the falling meteors.

    The silent hill seemed to be split in two by a pair of invisible hands. One after another, bright silver lights whizzed down.

    Immediately afterwards, fires started.

    A tent suddenly burst into flames of its own; bright yellow flames soaring high into the sky in clusters.

    The warriors pursuing Yaoying stopped with frightened faces.

    Mournful cries rang out from the dumbfounded crowd: “Divine punishment! Divine punishment! This is the divine punishment sent down by the Khan’s spirit in heaven!”

    The Yelu tribesmen, their souls flying away, got up and tried to run away, but their feet were too weak to move.

    “Divine Wolf’s protection! Sun God above!”

    “I am not Fuman’s man!”

    They fell to their knees, howling, shivering, and begging for mercy.

    The whole camp was in chaos.

    The Eldest Prince, who was drinking in his tent, finally realized that something was wrong and rushed out of the tent. Seeing the flashing bright spot in the sky, his eyes widened, and a hint of fear swept across his eyes.

    “Divine punishment! Eldest Prince, this is divine punishment!”

    “The Khan has revealed himself!”

    The Eldest Prince, with a grim face, hid his fear, drew his sword, and slashed several followers who turned to flee, saying angrily, “Don’t be afraid. This is sorcery!”

    He rushed to the square with his bloodstained sword. As he walked, he cut down the followers who attempted to run away, a bloodthirsty cold gleam in his eyes.

    The clansmen became more and more frightened, not daring to follow him anymore, and scattered in all directions.

    And on the river at the east side of the camp, Yaoying climbed onto her Wusun horse, pressed the horse’s belly, and galloped off in the direction of the Central Plains, escorted by Xie Qing and other soldiers.

    Behind her, the fire in the camp was still raging.