How To Survive as a Villain

Chapter 177: These Green Hills Have The Honor To Bury The Bones Of The Loyal¹.

After seeing that Xie Chungui’s face was unnatural, the man knew that he had said something that he shouldn’t have. So, he tried to give him some advice: “You… hey, don’t be like this. It’s been three years. Look at the bright side, although our country’s name is now ‘Yan’, the taxes aren’t heavy, and there are no domineering corrupt officials. Our people have enough food to eat, enough clothes to wear, and we can even have spare money. Isn’t it that good enough? As the saying goes, ‘the most important thing, is that people won’t have to worry about food’….. hey, where are you going?”

While the man was still talking, Xie Chungui suddenly threw him aside, staggering away as he held his head with one hand.

Xie Chungui couldn’t hear the shouts of the passersby around him, and he couldn’t see the strange gazes directed at him. As he stumbled across the street, he turned left, and a mansion appeared in front of him.

The plaque of the house was broken, pitifully smashed on the ground. The two stone lions in front of the door had disappeared, and there was a thick layer of dust on the ground, leaving behind a noticeable footprint once you stepped on it.

Xie Chungui stood bewildered in front of the mansion, almost out of breath, and a dull pain coming from his chest. As he walked forward step by step, he slowly reached out his hand to open the gates that had been closed for three years.

The strong smell of dust slapped him in the face. As he walked further inside, the once clean front yard was now covered with overgrown weeds, and broken walls. As Xie Chungui took a few steps, he suddenly kicked a stone, which rolled away revealing an object underneath.

That object was hidden under the weeds, and it was hard to find if you don’t look carefully. As Xie Chungui leaned over to pick it up, he found that it was an old, yellowed invitation. The words above were barely legible, and he could merely read a few words: ‘Congratulations to Li Wuding…. Great General….’

Xie Chungui seemed to have suddenly woken up from a heavy sleep. As he straightened his back, he slowly held his head and squatted down, fiercely pinching his scalp with his fingers, biting his lips to the point of almost bleeding.

‘Wake up.’

‘It’s time to wake up.’

‘Not only I’m Xie Chungui, the second son of the Xie family, but I’m also the General of the Northern Kingdom! My military mission is to fight the enemy, and protect the country!’

It was as if he was back to three years ago, on that snowy night, when he delivered the rations accompanied by a song. The smoke from the fire was in front of them, and behind them, there were the ox carts filled with the rations that hadn’t been delivered in time.

The Deputy General in that city fell on his knees and howled. Every word he said was soaked in blood, and his voice pierced through Xie Chungui’s heart, as if it was sharper than any sword in the world: “General Xie, Deputy General Nie was beheaded by Yan HeQing! He cut his throat! General Nie soldiers broke through the siege and fled back to tell us that General Li and his men went to seize the rations, but they were trapped in the enemy’s barracks. They ended up being burned to death by Yan HeQing! All of them!”

That day, the Deputy General’s desperate cries still echoed clearly in his ears. Xie Chungui pinched himself fiercely, and squeezed his arm until he left behind black and purple bruises. Only then was he able to slightly control his emotions. Then he stood up and walked step by step towards the main hall of the Xie Mansion. With every step, he carried the determination he had that day when he tried his best to kill Yan HeQing, when he resisted the Southern Yan Kingdom from stepping inside the Northern Kingdom’s territory.

But in the end, he was still defeated, and he was unable to protect the Northern Kingdom after all.

When Xie Chungui slowly stepped into the main hall of the Xie Mansion, which has become a funeral hall, he saw that there were more than 20 tablets placed neatly. Behind the hall, there were several coffins covered with dust.

When Xie Chungui heard that day that he’ll have to go to the battlefield, his mother had said to him: “Son, do you remember the Xie family motto?”

Xie Chungui replied: “Mother, don’t worry, your son remembers it by heart.”

His mother nodded her head, and said: “Our Xie family has been loyal for generations. Your father and your brother died on the battlefield. They don’t have any regrets for their loyalty, you must not disgrace them.”

Xie Chungui: “Mother, you can rest assured, if the enemy wants to step into the Northern Kingdom, they’ll have to step over my corpse.”

As his mother gently stroked his hair, she said softly: “If that day were to come, don’t worry. You won’t be alone on the road to the Yellow Springs.”

At dusk, the sunset looked like blood in the sky. At this moment, Xie Chungui knelt in front of the 20 or so tablets.

His mother’s words of advice were intertwined with the words of advice that man gave him today, about how the people had enough to eat. Even though both pieces of advice were clearly different from each other, neither was wrong.

Xie Chungui kowtowed three times, and as soon as he raised his eyes, he saw his tablet placed in the funeral hall. Then, he stood up and stroked the words engraved on the tablet, and walked into the back hall.

There were more than 20 coffins disorderly piled inside the back hall, and such a scene was very shocking to see. The relatives laying inside the coffins had long turned into white bones. As Xie Chungui looked at every single one of them, he finally found the coffin that had his name engraved on it. When he tried to open it with all his might, he saw that the tattered family motto was quietly lying inside.

Xie Chungui picked up the family motto with trembling hands, and opened the first page. Inside, there was only one sentence written on it: “The Xie family’s descendants will share life and death with the Northern Kingdom!”

At this, Xie Chungui couldn’t help crying from the bottom of his heart. He slowly climbed into the coffin as he held the old invitation and his family motto, curled up, and almost choked to the point of losing his breath.

There was a wind blowing through the hall, and the sound of sobbing was sad and powerless.

Hhhhhhhh it hurts (TдT) do you hear that? That’s my heart breaking 💔💔

Footnotes

1. 青山有幸埋忠骨 qīng shān yǒu xìng mái zhōng gǔ; It’s a sentence engraved in General Yue Fei’s tomb. (岳飞 yuè fēi) Yue Fei [1103-1142], was a major General in the early Southern Song Dynasty [1127-1279] who fought against the Jin army. However, he was framed by two Ministers over ‘false charges’, and was sentenced to death for rebelling against the Court. After he was killed, his body was carried by a prison guard over the city wall, and was buried next to the Jiqiu Ancestral Temple. Two years later, Emperor Xiaozong ([1127-1194] Second Emperor of the Southern Song Dynasty, who reigned from 1162 to 1189) ordered Yue Fei’s vindication, and offered a reward for his remains, which were moved with a great ceremony to the foot of Qixia Mountain.

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