Chapter 29: Harvest

Yang Qinghe looked at the expression on Shen Yizhu's face and smiled. "Elder Shen, can you tell me now?"

Shen Yizhu's body was trembling non-stop.

"I... I don't know your wife." It was the same answer. His voice was hoarse and unpleasant, yet it carried an unwavering determination.

Yang Qinghe's smile stiffened for a moment, but quickly recovered. "Good. Very good."

He slowly stood up and walked over to Shen Yizhu. "Have you never wondered how I knew the Shen family helped Mei Ruoying?"

Shen Yizhu's pupils shrank abruptly. He had certainly thought about this question carefully; not only had he thought about it, but he also knew the exact reason. However, he couldn't show it right now. Instead, he had to feign astonishment.

Looking at Shen Yizhu's ashen face, Yang Qinghe lifted his chin. "Your good son leaked the news. Unfortunately... he doesn't know much."

Shen Yizhu's expression instantly darkened. He slowly turned his head to look at the cowering figure on the ground.

Shen Zheng did not look up. He merely buried his face even lower, his ten fingers digging so desperately into the cracks of the gray bricks that his nails had broken off.

Yang Qinghe stared at Shen Yizhu. "I'll ask one last time. Tell me, where is my wife!?"

However, the only response was silence.

Yang Qinghe waited for a long time until he completely lost his patience. "You old fool. I gave you face, but you refused it." He turned and walked out the door, leaving only his voice drifting back. "I'm too lazy to ask now. Just wait for death."

Yang Fu followed behind him, as silent as a shadow on the ground. The main hall plunged back into silence.

***

As Yang Qinghe stepped out of the Shen family's gate, he suddenly stopped.

Next to his carriage stood a middle-aged man who had appeared at some unknown time. The man wore a washed-out, dark green cloth gown and had a long saber hanging at his waist. When Yang Qinghe saw him, the impatience on his face slowly receded.

"It seems Mr. Yang did not get what he wanted," the middle-aged man said softly.

"I already guessed as much." Yang Qinghe said coldly, "That Shen Yizhu is as stubborn as a mule."

"The Xiao Family has prepared everything. We can strike at any time," the middle-aged man said smoothly, not addressing the complaint.

Yang Qinghe looked up at the sunset glow on the horizon. "Leave the rest of the Shen family alive."

"Hmm?" The middle-aged man looked puzzled.

"Then find a crowded, bustling place and string Shen Yizhu up. Hang him there for a few days, but don't let him die."

"Understood."

The middle-aged man left the carriage, blended into the crowd, and vanished in the blink of an eye into the deepening twilight.

***

The next day.

Before the sky was fully bright, Lin Yan woke up. He got up to get some food for Old Niu. They still had a long way to go today, and he couldn't mistreat the one doing the real work.

Zhou Wanqing had already washed up by the stream. When she walked back, Mei Ruoying was leaning against a tree trunk, staring blankly at somewhere in the woods, lost in thought. After Lin Yan went to rest last night, Zhou Wanqing had restored Mei Ruoying's face back to its original sallow appearance.

"How are your injuries?"

"They're fine now."

"That's good." Zhou Wanqing stood up and looked at Lin Yan, who was feeding the ox. "Let's get ready to head back to the city. There's a whole pile of things waiting for us there."

Lin Yan naturally wouldn't disagree. However, Old Niu hadn't finished eating yet, and he couldn't rush the beast, so he had to ask Zhou Wanqing and Mei Ruoying to wait.

The two women watched Old Niu leisurely chewing on the forage. Although they were anxious, they couldn't bring themselves to hurry it along. They waited until the sun was high in the sky before the ox cart finally started moving again.

The mountain road was exceptionally quiet. Occasionally, unidentified birds chirped on the branches before taking flight with a FLUTTER of wings. After traveling for about two hours, the crowd on the official road gradually grew. There were peddlers carrying goods on shoulder poles, farmers driving donkey carts, and traveling merchants in twos and threes.

By the time they entered the city gates, the streets were already bustling with activity.

Zhou Wanqing let out a long breath. "We're finally back."

Sitting inside the cart canopy, Mei Ruoying also nodded. She was still caught in a tangle of complex emotions and appeared rather downcast.

Just as Lin Yan was about to suggest grabbing something to eat, he suddenly heard a discussion coming from the side of the street. Two porters were sitting at a tea stall, gossiping back and forth.

"Did you hear? Mr. Shen from the Shen family... he was strung up on the city gate tower last night."

"Which Shen family?"

"Which other Shen family is there? That Shen family!"

"Good heavens... Mr. Shen has always been an upright and charitable man. To think he would suffer such a terrible ordeal in his old age."

"Exactly. Good deeds go unrewarded. This world is becoming more and more outrageous," the other porter shook his head and sighed.

The two women in the cart canopy also heard this, and both of their faces turned pale.

"He's here! That bastard really chased me down!"

Aside from when she first arrived in Qing Province, Mei Ruoying had basically no contact with the Shen family, so she had no idea what had happened on their end. Coupled with the fact that for the past month or so, she had been busy dealing with the plague alongside Zhou Wanqing and rarely came into the city, it was even more impossible for her to know.

"What's wrong?" Lin Yan turned around.

"This isn't the place to talk. Let's head back first," Zhou Wanqing said in a low voice.

Lin Yan nodded in agreement. After all, he was still waiting to claim his reward.

A moment later, they arrived in front of a small courtyard residence in South City. Lin Yan stopped the ox cart, but he did not follow the two women inside.

[Guard System Task Completed]

[Task Objective: Safely escort the target person (Zhou Wanqing, 2-Star) to Viper Hollow and bring her back safely—Completed.]

[Task Reward: Issuing Nine Diagrams and Six Seated Postures...]

A rush of heat rose from his Dantian and traveled rapidly along his meridians. It did not flow through the twelve standard meridians, but rather through some extremely obscure and minute pathways. He had never been able to feel those pathways before, but now they were being forced open one by one by the heat flow, as if someone were lighting lamps inside his body one after another.

The heat flow surged into his feet first.

His Yongquan acupoints violently throbbed. The fascia on the soles of his feet felt as if they were being squeezed and released by an invisible hand, over and over. Every contraction brought a piercing ache.

Next, his Weizhong acupoints suddenly heated up, and the tendons in both legs vibrated at an extremely high frequency. The tremor was so minute that it was completely invisible to the naked eye. But Lin Yan could feel it. It felt as if two clumps of gunpowder had been stuffed into his knees, ready to explode at any moment.

Then came his waist and hips.

His Huantiao acupoints abruptly contracted and released. The main tendons felt like fully drawn bowstrings, stretched to their absolute limits—one more inch, and they would snap.

The heat flowed up his spine, blasting open the Mingmen, Jiaji, and Dazhui acupoints, before finally stopping at the Fengfu acupoint.

At that moment, Lin Yan felt as if someone had pressed a red-hot branding iron against the back of his head. Fortunately, the pain lasted for an extremely short time and was quickly replaced by an unprecedented wave of refreshing coolness.

Nine Diagrams and Six Seated Postures.

The vibration of every acupoint corresponded to a diagram. Those diagrams had now been deeply branded into his body.