15. Better
As the fight ensued some of the other passengers joined in. With the other travellers now confident enough to join, the robbers realised that they were losing and made a run for it.
The travellers cheered and helped some of the injured persons to get up on their feet.
They were only a few kilometers away from entering the gates of the capital when the robbers threatened the coachman to stop. Luckily, none was seriously injured due to the timely intervention of the three guys.
All the passengers thanked the young heroes and soon enough they had reached their destinations. Some of them alighted along the way including two of the young heroes.
Only a few of them were still in the wagon by the time they arrived at the station. The rest got out of the vehicle and headed towards their individual destinations.
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"You seem to know how to throw a few punches. Are you from around here?", a hem named Yu Changlin asked the Prince. They were both going in the same direction.
The crown may, Prince Benyou turned to look behind him and saw that the speaker was the guy that had started the face off with those robbers.
"You weren't bad yourself, and no, I am not from here." he smiled.
"I see. So what brings you here at this time?", Yu Changlin asked.
"To see my brother.", Benyou lied.
"OK. It's really late now, and it can be very dangerous for you to walk alone at this time. Let me walk with you to be sure that you arrive safely.", Yu Changlin offered.
"No need. My brother is meeting me along the way. He will not be happy to find me in the company of a hem.", Benyou said.
"Oh, okay. I understand. Then why don't you stop by whenever you come around. You can ask for me at the blacksmith's, just across the next two junctions on your left.
My name is Yu Changlin, can I make your acquaintance?" He said and stretched out his right hand for a hand shake.
"I'm Benyou.", Prince Benyou said with only a slight bow.
"Ah, where is my manners? I'm sorry about that.", Yu Changlin said with a bow. For a moment there he had forgotten about the customs. A hem and a may cannot just make skinship like that.
"I have to go now", Benyou said with urgency. He was running late. His eunuch will be in trouble his he was discovered. He needed to go back to his palace faster.
"Sure. I'll see you around, Benyou?", Changlin shouted out to the already running may as his silhouette disappeared into the darkness. He too turned and went his way.
Benyou saw his eunuch standing at the end of the secret entrance that he uses to go out the palace usually in disguise.
As soon as he got to him, his eunuch dragged him all the way to the Eastern Palace where he resides without saying a word.
************************************
Two Weeks Later
It's been two weeks now since Chen Yan was transferred to recuperate at Li Zicheng's house. Just as planned one physician and two nurses that run shifts were hired.
Zicheng takes care of him only in the night when the physician and nurses have all gone to their homes. Lately the kicking and the biting has minimised. He even eats the food that Zicheng serves him without much fuss now.
Li Zicheng would occasionally read him some books whenever he could because though he was on leave, he still had some important things to sort out here too.
The withdrawn Chen Yan seems to like books with illustrations, so Li Zicheng has paid a book shop owner some money to try and get him more of such books.
As usual, Zicheng sits beside Chen Yan's bed and positioned the story book such that Chen Yan could see the pictures as he reads them to him. This causes him to get his attention.
Tonight he was going reading a story title "The Wise Lazy Hem, Ananse". It was a local folklore story which went...
"Once upon a time, in a village called Yulo lived a cunning young hem named Ananse. Ananse thought himself to be very wise and smarter than anyone in the whole village.
But his family knew him to be a very lazy person. Since he was young he would come up with every excuse possible just to avoid doing any chores or farm work.
He remained like this even after he had married and had four children with his moon called Okonore. His may would be the one that goes into other people's farm to work for a small pay otherwise his family would starve.
Okonore died from illness one day and left his family. With him gone, Ananse and his kids were usually hungry. He had been sending his children to the houses of his other relatives to ask them for food for them to eat but soon they chose to ignore them.
Having no other option, Ananse hatched a plan. His plan was to steal the food crops that the farmers have yet to harvest.
So one late night after all had gone to sleep, Ananse woke all his four children up and took them to his youngest brother's farm.
He stationed each of his sons at the four corners of the farm and said to them "I want you all to watch out for anyone coming this way and quietly come and inform me. I, myself will gather some crops fast and we will leave soon."
As he was gathering the crops, his youngest son who seemed to be bothered by something went and asked him, "But Dada, so who will watch here?"
"Where?"
"Here.", the little child said, pointing to the space up in the sky.
Ananse became ashamed by his son's innocent question. 'Of course, that being up there is seeing all these. How did I even think that I could outwit everyone. He sees everything, oh foolish me.', Ananse thought.
Ananse stopped all that he had planned and went home with his children that night empty handed. From there onwards he decided to work hard and live an honest life as a proud father.
He never wants his children to feel ashamed of him as he did feel of himself that night. He became a wise father from that day on. The end.", Li Zicheng read out to Chen Yan.
He saw that he was sleepy but was trying hard to stay awake by opening his unfocused eyes wider like saucers. He smiled and put the book down.
He then tucked him in bed and rubbed his head. He left the room after Chen Yan had fallen asleep and went to his own room to sleep.