Chapter 284: Disaster Arrives (6)

The cold moon hung like a hook, bathing a large grassy meadow outside the county town of Dansui in half light, half shadow.

A gust of hot wind swept through, and the green grass rippled and bent backward.

A hungry sparrow fluttered down, about to peck at grass seeds, but was startled away by the breathing sounds coming from deep within the thicket.

Zhong Piaoping crawled on all fours like a wild animal, poking his head out of the wild grass.

In his mouth he held a freshly broken-off wild corn cob, with another gripped in his hand.

Though his face was smeared with bloodstains and mud, his eyes were exceptionally bright, gleaming with a strange, predatory intensity.

No one was around.

Only the sound of his horse chewing grass behind him.

The grass rustled, and he vanished into the thicket like a ghost.

In the center of the meadow, Zhong Piaoping used the ox-horn dagger he'd taken from A Shun to cut and trample down a small clearing.

He piled up the dry grass, still untouched by the night dew, as feed for the horse.

The horse, oblivious to the danger around it, simply buried its head in the grass, completely unaware of the three people lying on the open ground.

Yes, three people.

One was a miner covered in mud, lying on the cart with his neck twisted at an odd angle, already dead.

The second was the yamen runner A Shun, who had been stabbed and slashed four or five times. Fortunately, they were all flesh wounds, already bandaged by Zhong Piaoping, and he was not in immediate danger.

The third was a young man with terror-filled eyes.

His hands were bound behind his back with the rope used to hitch the cart, his feet tied tightly to the cart wheel, and a stone the size of an egg was wedged in his mouth.

Zhong Piaoping sat in front of the three, expressionless, staring at the ground while chewing on his corn.

The young man was fuming with rage: "Mmph!"

Zhong Piaoping picked up a green corn cob from the ground and held it out to him without expression: "Want some?"

The young man's face went pale: "Mmph!" Let me go!

Zhong Piaoping picked up the corn, walked over to him, grabbed his jaw, and squeezed repeatedly to help him spit out the stone.

The young man had been trying to push the stone out with his tongue, but his tongue wasn't strong enough and the stone was too large—he'd never been able to dislodge it.

His mouth freed, the lower half of his face throbbed with pain and numbness.

Ignoring the pain, he opened his mouth to scream, but just as he did, Zhong Piaoping shoved the thick end of the corn into his mouth, chopped the cob in midair with the edge of his hand, and swiftly jammed the larger half sideways into his mouth.

Before the young man could react, his mouth was completely stuffed.

Zhong Piaoping nodded with satisfaction: "Mm, this'll do."

The stone hadn't been big enough—it still let him make noise.

With the corn stuffed in his mouth, all he could do was bulge his eyes and gasp for breath. He couldn't make a sound anymore.

That way, Zhong Piaoping could think in peace about a way out.

"Don't act up," Zhong Piaoping said softly, gently. "I'm not quick. I need to figure something out."

"Don't make me kill you."

...

An hour and a half earlier.

Zhong Piaoping's horse had just finished a frantic gallop.

The miner, just pulled from the mud, had been strangled by A Shun in a sudden outburst.

A Shun, injured, crawled across the ground shouting "Murder!"

And the ox-horn dagger, dripping with warm blood, was in Zhong Piaoping's hand.

Zhong Piaoping stared blankly at the scene and thought: How convenient.

If anyone passed by and saw this, they would surely conclude that he was the guilty party.

So what should he do?

Unless he stabbed A Shun to death on the spot and abandoned the cart, the horse, and the two bodies here, once A Shun was allowed to live and report back, he would inevitably pin all the blame on Zhong Piaoping.

The story would practically write itself.

Even if Zhong Piaoping thought about it himself, he could craft a fairly complete tale in no time:

Because his horse had been conscripted by the authorities, Zhong Piaoping was angry and argued with A Shun, who was in charge of transporting the injured.

Soon, the argument escalated into a brawl.

Zhong Piaoping drew his ox-horn dagger and stabbed at A Shun, the blow missing a vital spot, but he believed he'd killed him.

In his panic, the rescued miner, jostled awake by the bumpy ride, witnessed the scene.

So Zhong Piaoping, in a surge of malice, strangled the still-breathing victim to silence him.

A Shun, jolted awake by the pain, bravely defended the victim, trying to stop his evil deeds, but was slashed several times by the frenzied Zhong Piaoping.

A Shun raised his arms to block, trying to protect his vitals, so his hands bore several cuts, and his thumb was nearly chopped off.

On the verge of death, A Shun summoned every ounce of survival instinct. Relying on his local knowledge of the terrain, he struggled and plunged into the waist-high wormwood thicket, cleverly evading the attacker Zhong Piaoping.

As luck would have it, Zhong Piaoping got lost in the thicket, while A Shun successfully lost his pursuer and made his way to the yamen to report the crime.

And when Zhong Piaoping's horse was conscripted, a government clerk had not only registered his travel permit but also seen his face.

In due time, wanted posters with his name and likeness would surely paper every street and alley.

Upon further investigation, it wouldn't be hard to discover that this murderous "Zhong Piaoping" was actually a subordinate of Left Assistant Censor-in-Chief Wen Ren.

What a perfect story of heaven's net being wide and unforgiving.

...So, as one of the protagonists in this story, what should Zhong Piaoping choose to do?

Thinking this, dagger in hand, he strode forward quickly.

A Shun was squirming on the ground for all he was worth when he heard shouting from behind, and immediately started hollering even louder.

It was almost like he was trying to get himself killed.

Zhong Piaoping had been a beggar once and had seen every kind of person.

He knew that when faced with life-and-death moments, everyone reacts different.

Some people get sharp-witted in a pinch, but others get hot-headed and do something stupid and provocative.

Zhong Piaoping closed in on him fast, slamming the blunt end of the ox-ear knife into the back of A Shun's skull.

...Finally, the world went quiet.

Expressionless, he hefted the blade in his hand, weighing whether to kill him, when he heard rustling in the grass behind him.

He turned to see a young man poke his head out of the brush, belt hanging loose, not even tied, face white as a ghost, like he'd just ducked out here to take a squat in the weeds.

His voice shook a little: "Hey, man... I..."

Zhong Piaoping stared at him, unblinking, and tilted his head.

The young man hurriedly said, "Don't do anything hasty! I—I saw it all!"

He pointed ahead urgently, talking fast and clear: "That guy pulled the knife first! I was squatting right here, I saw everything! You and this... this..."

The young man pointed at the mud-caked corpse: "You two are together, right? This guy was the cart driver? Was he trying to rob you in the chaos, take your stuff, and when that didn't work, kill you?!"

He put on a righteous, angry look: "I'll go to the courthouse with you—I'll be your witness!"

Any other person would've grabbed this lifeline like a drowning man.

But not Zhong Piaoping.

His head started pounding, and his paranoia kicked in hard, right then and there.

...Could it really be that much of a coincidence?

Because of the mudslide up ahead, "Road Closed" signs were posted all over, so Zhong Piaoping had hardly seen a single person on the whole road to the disaster zone.

Could it really be that much of a coincidence?

A random passerby just happened to be squatting in the grass and saw the whole thing?

Why did A Shun deliberately drive the cart toward the brush?

Why did he shout like that on purpose? It was almost like he was signaling someone.

Why, after seeing something so bloody, would the kid not sneak off while he wasn't noticed, but instead show himself and offer to testify?

Under the huge, nonstop pressure bearing down on him, Zhong Piaoping grabbed his forehead, his head hurting so bad he went weak. He leaned on the cart, sliding down, all shaky.

Seeing him about to pass out, the kid sprinted over and grabbed his arm: "Are you alright? You—"

In a flash, he couldn't talk anymore.

Zhong Piaoping caught him off guard with a chop to the side of the neck.

His eyes went wide in shock at Zhong Piaoping, then rolled back as he collapsed like a sack of mud.

And that's how things ended up the way they did.

After knocking the kid out, Zhong Piaoping looked around and found the kid also had a horse, just grazing in the grass with no purpose, so he brought it over too.

He searched around where he found the horse but couldn't find where the kid had taken his squat.

But the wormwood brush was huge, and going too deep meant risking getting lost.

So Zhong Piaoping gave up on searching deeper and instead took everything the kid had on him.

A travel pass from the capital, a flatbread, and a few pieces of loose silver.

...Someone from the capital city?

Zhong Piaoping got even more suspicious.

But he had no plans to question the kid.

Because when the kid woke up, he was furious, and Zhong Piaoping was afraid he'd start yelling the second he opened his mouth, so he stuffed a rock in his mouth to shut him up. Unfortunately, the guy was stubborn as hell, working his tongue like crazy to make muffled grunts.

Even though no one was around, Zhong Piaoping didn't dare gamble on his luck again.

He'd sworn he'd never gamble again, not ever.

So he found a thick corncob and shoved it in the guy's mouth instead.

Zhong Piaoping gnawed on the other half of the corncob, getting his strength and wits back, thinking—what the hell should he do?

He was soaked in sweat and blood, looking real suspicious. The second he left the cover of the wormwood brush, he risked getting caught.

He needed to come up with a good plan.

...

While Zhong Piaoping was hesitating, another man in danger had already made his choice.

In the Dansui county jail, Wang Cheng huddled in a corner on a pile of scattered straw, breathing hot and ragged. The medicine on his forehead had mostly been smeared off, and blood had turned his handsome face into a mess.

Two jailers huddled in the shadows, worried out of their minds:

"Boss, he won't drink a drop of water, won't eat a single grain of rice, and we can't even get the medicine down his throat. Did the beating knock his soul clean out of him?"

"This bastard's got shit luck! One hit with the rod, and he's about to croak?"

"Is it just bad luck? Hell, You the Second's old lady is a damn fool—she shouldn't have hit him on the head! I knew a guy once, took a brick to the back of the head, and dropped dead right there."

"If he really dies, we're screwed! The boss made it clear—he can't die! Him alive is worth way more than him dead!"

"No good, I'm gonna clean his wounds again. It's scorching hot, and this cell is filthy—if he catches a fever and dies on our watch, how do we explain that!"

After all, if an envoy from the capital tried to shake down local merchants, that was the envoy's fault.

But if an envoy from the capital died mysteriously in the Dansui jail, everything would be totally different.

Besides, if it turned into a murder case, You the Second's wife would definitely get scared shitless and confess everything...

Wang Cheng opened his eyes, which were sore from the dried blood.

Dried blood had crusted in the corners of his eyes, pulling his skin tight.

His expression had lost all its earlier confusion—he was remarkably clear-headed now.

He'd guessed right.

...It really was targeting Lord Wenren.

So he rolled over, coughed a long rattling fit, and mimicked a dying consumptive, breathing in shallow, uneven gasps.