“Yes, Mistress, Qing Zhu will keep this in mind!”
“Of course, when you come out in the future and run into these kind of situations, you must fully understand the situations first. Don’t kill the innocent inadvertently nor let a bad person go because of a wrong decision!”
“Yes, Mistress!”
“You are still young. You will experience more and more in the future!”
During the master and servant conversation, the noises from the courtyard died down and they could hear footsteps approaching them.
Bighead Chi appeared before them shortly followed by a few more men. They were still tied by jade vines; it was obvious that Yuteng hadn’t paid them any attention yet.
“Mistress!” said Bighead Chi respectfully.
The six men behind him walked up, knelt in front of Cheng Xiao Xiao but none made a sound.
Cheng Xiao Xiao casted a glance at them and raised her brows before looking at Bighead Chi. She trusted that he had something to tell her.
“Mistress, none of them became bandits willingly. Dayong and Zhang Ping were ordinary hunters. But they were very good with their arrows so under part temptation and part threats by Flower Monk, they finally joined the group of bandits.
“Lin Tang, Wang Li, Dao, and San were teachers in their town. But they had inadvertently hurt the bad official’s son so there were warrants out on them. When they were trying to run away they ran into Flower Monk who were robbing the peasants. They only joined the bandits partly because they were threatened and partly because they didn’t have a lot of other options. Mistress, I guarantee you that they have good men. Every time Flower Monk ordered us to kill everyone, they have always tried everything they could to save the people!”
Cheng Xiao Xiao was surprised. She thought perhaps Bighead Chi saved a few of the ones that he was closer to; she didn’t expect the ones saved were the ones with good hearts.
“Young Mistress, we know what we have done. Even though we didn’t have a lot of choice, but after all, we had killed a lot of innocents. We will own up to that. If you want to kill us, I don’t have any defense for myself!” said Lin Tang with his neck straight.
Wang Li said after him, “We knew it’s a matter of time before we were killed the day we became bandits. So whatever happened today, it’d be fine. We have survived long enough!”
“We will leave it up to young mistress. What Bighead Chi said was true, and we were prepared to be killed. If only we had the courage to commit suicide, we really should have taken our own lives a long time ago!”
The rest didn’t say anything but all nodded in agreement.
Cheng Xiao Xiao was surprised again by their words. She didn’t think much of them before, but now she couldn’t help but started thinking about keeping them around.
“Young Mistress, they are all telling the truth!”
Little Yuteng provided her with a definitive answer.
The few in front of her were all around 20 – 30 years of age, none too old. All of them just at their prime; it would be quite worthy to retain them.
She waved her right hand and the vines that had been binding them all disappeared. She said, “Okay, get up, all of you!”
The six exchanged looks and stood up one by one. Cheng Xiao Xiao waved her right hand again and a dagger appeared in each of their hands!
“You had all said you don’t want to live any more, now it’s your chance to end your own lives. I trust there aren’t a lot more that you couldn’t leave behind, right?”
They all laughed and looked at the gleaming daggers in their hands, each of them gripping onto the dagger tightly. Dayong smiled and said, “All my good brothers, we are not real brothers, neither have we ever sworn into brotherhood during our times at bandits, but we have fought along side each others for years. Today we are lucky to be able to die together and have each others’ company us on our way to hell, we should be happy about that!”