Stealing Shoes (1/2)
In a quiet camp tent, Ma tribe’s young tribe leader Ma Ying Jie sits over a pile of documents, handling the alliance army’s administrative matters for his father. Ma tribe wiped out Fei tribe in a sneak attack, removing its greatest rival at the heroes assembly. It then suppressed Cheng tribe at Tian Chuan to become alliance leader, and its army grew to six hundred thousand under the poison vow. Pushing southwest from Tian Chuan and absorbing beast groups and defeated tribes along the way kept its momentum climbing. The army reached Mirror Lake and met an equal, Song tribe’s alliance. It began building its first line of defense there. ch. 520
An investigative Gu Master changes his shoes before entering, so as not to dirty the carpet. He reports important information about Yu Tian. After roughly fifteen minutes of questions from Ma Ying Jie, he leaves. Ma Ying Jie’s heart grows slightly heavy: Hei tribe has won its first battle against Dong Fang tribe. Absorbing Dong Fang tribe’s recipes, resources and captives stands to raise Hei tribe army’s battle strength by five times. In every past Imperial Court contest, the outcome of the first fight has almost always decided who survives it. Ma tribe and Song tribe remain locked in stalemate, while Hei tribe has already claimed that advantage. ch. 520
Fei Cai, the servant who manages the shoes left outside Ma Ying Jie’s tent, slips in quietly. Chosen as Ma Ying Jie’s personal servant after Fei tribe’s destruction spared him his tribesmen’s fate, he is normally tasked only with washing worn shoes and replacing them. This time is different: he hesitates, then hides a second pair inside his shirt and walks out unnoticed. At the water pond he meets Zhao Lian Yun. ch. 520
She had talked Zhao tribe’s leader into defection using her ‘tiger-wolf-sheep’ analogy. After some hurdles Zhao tribe reached Ma tribe’s camp without casualties, was welcomed by Ma tribe’s leader, and joined the army to warm regard from Ma tribe’s higher-ups. She is the only friend he has made since old servants shut him out and his father was killed. ch. 520
He shows her the hidden shoes, hoping for her praise. She is unimpressed at first. Then he explains: the pair could be sold on the black market for the primeval stones she said she lacked. She notes that her daily pocket money already runs ten times the shoes’ worth, telling him to sell them for himself instead. She is surprised, assuming he thought up the scheme himself; he admits he did not, and explains that the old servants routinely skim shoes this way because Ma Ying Jie, a clean freak, cycles through so many pairs. Zhao Lian Yun had cultivated Fei Cai’s friendship for exactly this kind of access: his closeness to Ma Ying Jie makes him one of the first in camp to hear anything, and she wants intelligence for Zhao tribe. ch. 520
A commotion breaks out as old servants search the camp shouting that Fei Cai has stolen the young tribe leader’s own shoes. Fei Cai, alarmed, urges Zhao Lian Yun to leave so she is not implicated, and resolves to beg forgiveness. She refuses. ch. 520
Certain he has been deliberately framed, she pulls him into a narrow alley, where three of the four exits turn out to be blocked. Privately furious, she reasons that jealous old servants, tired of an outsider replacing them as the best source of intelligence, have set this trap to remove him, and she resolves not to let her informant be destroyed over it. While the searchers’ voices draw closer, she takes out high grade silk she had bought for her own clothes, hands it to Fei Cai and gives him instructions. A dozen breaths later he steps out and lets the servants find him. Then he throws himself into a wild, fist swinging resistance as they close in around him, shouting that they dare lay hands on him. ch. 520
