“Can’t you just ask the underlings? Little Ben didn’t come back alone—why are you fixated on him? With the boss’s caution, how could he not have sent people to escort him all the way back!”

……

The other heads of the gang also came over, offering words of persuasion. The young Little Ben was someone they had picked up from a pile of corpses last year, with a wound the size of a bowl on the back of his head, so deep the bone was visible. At a glance, it was clear he’d been struck by a Khitan warrior’s iron mace. Everyone thought he wouldn’t survive, but the second-in-command, Brian Scott, insisted on finding a doctor for the boy, hoping to do a good deed for the group’s karma.

In the end, Little Ben’s life was saved, but he was left with a troublesome hidden ailment. Not only did he act and speak in a dazed, clumsy way, showing none of the cleverness typical of a youth, but his memory became extremely poor—he was always forgetting things. He couldn’t even remember his own surname or given name, or where his home was. Whenever anyone asked, he just looked blank and confused.

Of course, the anger in the fifth-in-command Frank Thompson’s belly today wasn’t entirely because of that flying axe from Little Ben. But seeing everyone speak up for the boy, he suddenly felt he couldn’t back down. Frowning, he gritted his teeth and said, “Always protecting him, you’re always protecting him! Go ahead, keep protecting him! Sooner or later, you’ll all die at his hands! Just look at him—does he really not remember? He’s clearly pretending to be dumb, so we won’t keep asking about his background!”

Everyone was startled by his words and couldn’t help but quickly turn to look. But when they saw Little Ben’s slightly childish face and reddened eyes, their suspicions vanished without a trace. “Enough, Fifth, you’re being paranoid again. Little Ben hasn’t just been with us for a day or two. Even if he’s a good actor, how could he not slip up at all? Besides, look at his age—he’s only about fifteen or sixteen. What kind of kid at that age could fool people in their forties and fifties so completely?”

“Yeah, what would they gain by tricking us? What do we have that’s worth deceiving us for?”

“Fifth, it’s not like you haven’t tested him! When he first woke up, you tried every trick to probe him! If he really had anything hidden, you would’ve dug it out by now!”

……

“Kids can be sly! Who knows what tricks he’s hiding in his belly?” The fifth-in-command Frank Thompson couldn’t win the argument, but refused to let it go. “Even if he really has lost his memory, do you think someone who looks like him could come from an ordinary family? And that jade pendant on his neck—what if it’s connected to that person who was captured by the Khitans? Tell me, what good end could we possibly meet?”

This really hit the key point. Everyone instantly fell silent.

Little Ben was far too fair-skinned and delicate. After half a year in the mountains, exposed to wind and sun with the rest of them, his complexion hadn’t darkened at all. Standing among the bandit underlings, he was like a white crane among chickens. Even without a close look, it was obvious he was not one of them.

In these chaotic times, for someone to reach fifteen or sixteen and stand over eight feet tall, with such fair and tender skin, he must have come from a wealthy and noble family. Last year, when the Khitans invaded, Du Chongwei, who was ordered to lead troops against the invaders, betrayed his country and defected. The cavalry, led by Zhang Yanze, willingly became the Khitans’ vanguard, turned their blades, and led their troops into Bianliang. Overnight, countless noble families fell from the clouds to the dust.

If they had accidentally picked up a young master from a noble family among the corpses, it wouldn’t necessarily be a bad thing. If they could contact Little Ben’s surviving relatives, they might be able to exchange him for a hefty reward for the stronghold. But what truly puzzled everyone was that, among all the great families who suffered disaster, not a single one had a surname matching the “Zheng” character on the jade pendant around Little Ben’s neck. And since the fall of Bianliang, there had been no news of any prominent family, publicly or privately, searching for a missing young master.

Even if Little Ben was extremely unfortunate and all his immediate family had died at the hands of the marauding soldiers, surely there would still be some poor relatives left. People in the Central Plains have always valued blood ties—after the chaos in Bianliang, how could the friends and relatives of Little Ben’s parents ignore the possible survival of their kin?

When all these doubts couldn’t be explained, only one answer remained. This was what the fifth-in-command Frank Thompson suspected most, and what everyone feared most. That jade pendant wasn’t a surname, but had another meaning. It was said that the emperor who was captured by the Khitans had been granted the title King of Zheng before ascending the throne. If this guess turned out to be true, then no matter how vast the world, the only road left for them would be death! (Note 2)