146 The long wait

 Second Master knew Zhang would take his time. He had many traits of their shared father, all of which Second Master had come across as he had grown up. That arrogance, that self assuredness, that temper. He wondered whether Zhang would even entertain an audience, but in his heart he knew his curiosity would be sufficient to draw the two men together.

First, however, was that face to face with father. If he was still oblivious to his wrong doing, then it was time to make sure he understood the magnitude of his stupidity. Bracing himself, he stepped out of the boarding house and headed to the villa his father had been occupying all this time.

 

I sat by the camp fire, watching as everyone prepared meals for those who were awake, checking perimeters for unusual activity, collecting vegetation for the nights meal. We had a small amount of rice remaining, so had made congee. This would stretch it as far as we could. Adding fruit, vegetables, and the occasssional meat, made more than enough for all of us to eat. Xin and her pack had already scouted out places to obtain extra supplies. I didn't ask. She was a street dweller after all and knew all the ways to appropriate food without paying.

At the moment she was busy preparing for another night of exploits. Happy to work during moonlit nights, she and her pack would appear and then disappear, creating unease in the communities. Things would move, disappear, people suddenly die, all choreographed to look like maliceous ghosts had invaded Chenxi. Her laughter would ring out in the darker nights when the moon was on the wax or wane, a low and quite unsettling laugh resembling the ghosts they played. She had perfected the sounds of cats howling and it would set off the dogs, so the people would be disturbed from their sleep. She loved it and came back each morning with such a mischievous grin.

That was her game, not mine. I liked those three nights when it was as dark as possible. I liked to move in silence and kill without ceremony. I liked to cover ground and get to the destination before people realised I had left. I had trained one pack in this way and whenever I was working, I would take them. They understood my ways and we had become intuitive extensions of each other.

I checked with Two and the others. They were busy sharpening knives, mending the small round nets, cleaning their bundles, checking the silent boots and preparing to take off with me at a moment's notice. As always, they worked in silence, using a type of sign language to communicate.

One more night and then.....they sensed it too. It was almost time to take off and find out about the forge and Yiran.

 

 Second Master reached the villa and was greeted at the door by the head attendant.

"Good to see you Sir. Come to visit your father? He is quite lucid today, so you have picked a good one to come." He bowed toward Second Master and, standing to one side, invited him to proceed into the courtyard. "Your father is on the veranda at the side of the villa. It's in the sun and he is enjoying some warmth before the winter draws in. Please, go ahead and I will bring tea presently."

Second Master walked toward his father. He took a final intake of exasperated breath and girded himself for a very uncomfortable meeting. 

"Father." It was all he could say.

"Oh, Yongle, so nice to see you. How are you? How is the war going? Have you run those Mu dogs into the ground yet?" His father became more animated as he spoke, "I hope they are all wiped out and they are reduced to....."

"Yes, father. But the war is over and we are escorting the prisoners home."

"Prisoners? Why? They should all be killed! We take no prisoners! They are nothing but dogs! Kill them all!"

Second Master took another exasperated breath. This was why the relations between the two terriotories had decended into this. He held up his hand, "Stop!"

His father continued but Second Master cut him off, "I said STOP! They are not dogs, father, they are people, just like us and they deserve more respect than you have ever given them."

He sat down and glared at his father. 

Tea arrived and the attendant, sensing something was wrong, hurried off quickly. 

Second Master poured tea for the two of them and being a filial son, offered the first cup to his father. 

Second Master exhalled loudly, then, leaning forward he began to recant the story.

"A young man and his friends were celebrating the night before he was due to collect his bride. They got very drunk and he, being a man about to become a married man, started bedding the women. He bedded one of the prostitutes in the Pleasure palace, and still not satisfied, staggered out of the room, making his way to the next woman. Without much balance or sense, this young man managed to stagger outside the Palace and fall into a boarding house next door, where he proceeded to rape a young lady who was asleep in her chambers. Her screams were muffled by his ardent mouth and her struggles held down by his superior strength and weight. After he had had his fill of her, he left the same way he came in and ended up, somehow, back in the Palace where he continued to visit the various ladies and have fun."

His father nodded with a smile on his face. "Sounds to me like this young man was having his last fling. Good for him, good for him." He took another swig of tea and leant forward so Second Master could refill his cup.

Second Master continued, "The young man collected his bride and went home, but unknown to him, he had deflowered a young bride who was being escorted to her husband. She was distraught and begged her maid and the trusted Sergeant at Arms to come up with a plan to cover this up."

"Go on," his father said, "did they succeed?" He was chuckling under his breath. Second Master could tell he was enjoying this little yarn.

"The young bride managed to cover everything and shortly after her wedding night, it was reported the lady of the house had fallen pregnant."

His father nodded, "good, good, so all was alright then. No harm done." He leant back in his chair with a smug look on his face.

"No. It wasn't alright, father. Far from alright. You see, there is a birth mark all Zhang children have and this one didn't. The child was lucky, it was given to wet nurses who brought it up, albeit savagely, whilst the girl was sent to a convent to repent her sins. The Sergeant at Arms was tortured until the truth was revealed. Finally he was beheaded."

"Bit of a to do then." His father kept drinking his tea, with a smirk playing on his face. There wasn't one modicum of recognition in the situation.

"Yes, father, you could say that. The lineage of the child was eventually traced back. The woman who was deflowered was the only daughter of the Mu family and she had been raped by a Chen man who had come to collect his Shipao bride. From this very villa actually." 

His father sprayed his mouthful of tea and looked at his son.

"Yes, father, you are that young drunkard. You are the man who raped the young, innocent Mu lady and you, father, are the cause of all this unrest and eventul war. You are the very reason the Chen territories are over run with Mu soldiers. You are the reason why half the Chen army died on the Zhang borders and you are the very reason we are having to fight to get back the lands which should be ours."

His father went quiet. Second Master sat back in his seat waiting for the explosion. He didn't have to wait long.

"It isn't my problem. They should have let this go. After all is was just once and I was drunk."

The tirade continued. He was innocent. He couldn't be held accountable. He wouldn't be held accountable. It went on and on until Second Master stood up.

"I have requested a meeting with my elder half brother, father. The sins of our father has to be resolved, not for you, but for the peace in the region.' he paused for a moment, the continued in a flat, no emotional voice. "I don't even know if my wife is alive, my children, but I do know most of the women in Chenxi and around have been captured and sold off as slaves, prostitutes or worse, raped until they took their own lives. All because of you, father. All because you were so drunk, you staggered next door and took an innocent young woman's virginity. So don't give me all these protestations it hasn't anything to do with you, this all sits firmly at your door!" he paused as he watched his father take some of this in, then he continued. "If mum had known what you had done, how would she have reacted? Would she have said, oh, let's forget it? No, she would have been humiliated and mortified. If she had been taken by a young drunkard the night before you collected her, would you have said, oh, a bit of a to do?" He sat and watched as realisation began to form, "You have caused so many deaths. Mother must look at you with disgust. I think you should go to the Ancestral hall and kneel before her. You have alot of penance to perform."

With that, Second Master turned on his heels. At the door he turned back one more time, "This is the last time I will see you. As a father I disown your actions. I cannot disown you but I do not have to see you. I would suggest you stay at this villa and not return to Chen land even in death," and with that he took his leave.

His father remained silent. His lucidity had given him a truth he couldn't imagine, but he could hear his beloved wife's voice and the words she spoke were not of loving devotion. He dropped his head in his hands and wept. Not for Zhang, not for the Mu lady, not for the countless deaths who's blood sat on his hands. No. He wept for himself and the loss of his wife.