Chapter 375: They Want to Kill Us

"What are you doing? Ah—"

Before the dark‑faced man could finish speaking, Xiao Er had already twisted his wrist behind his back, and two punches landed on his face in an instant, the pain making him howl.

Xiao Er twisted his arm hard, daring to say the Prince was dead? Daring to make the miss sad?

Lu Qi's palm‑sized hand, like a folding fan, grabbed one each, and in the blink of an eye the three were pinned to the ground.

"On what authority do you arrest people!"

"We're not even officials!"

"Has there been any law left!"

The three struggled desperately, shouting their innocence, and the surrounding refugees stirred, their gazes toward Xiao Ningxun and the others filled with suspicion and hostility.

The porridge‑serving officials hurried over, the leader about to speak, but Xiao Ran had already taken his own token from his chest and held it up before him.

The man's pupils narrowed, and with a "Thump—" he fell to his knees: "Your humble servant presents himself before you, sir!"

The other officials, seeing this, hurriedly knelt as well.

The refugees were stunned; were these passersby actually important figures?

The three pinned to the ground saw this, their faces turning pale, yet they forced themselves to shout: "Even if you're an official lord, you can't arbitrarily arrest people!"

"Everything we say is true! Are you trying to silence the common folk, sending us all to our deaths?"

Many refugees, hearing this, also showed signs of anger.

Xiao Ningxun looked down from his height and said, "Search them."

"Yes!"

Xiao Er and Lu Qi moved extremely fast, ignoring the cries and struggles, and in a few motions each pulled a small oiled paper packet from the chests of two of them, handing them to Xiao Ningxun.

Xiao Ningxun opened one and saw some yellow‑white powder inside.

He brought it close to his nose and sniffed, "Please bring that old doctor over."

The old doctor shakily approached, examined it closely, dabbed a bit of the powder on his tongue and tasted it, his complexion changing abruptly: "Th‑this is bitter‑bean powder!"

"It's a refined, roasted and ground premium, its medicinal properties are extremely fierce!"

Xiao Ningxun looked at their pallid faces: "Having fled here, you can't even get enough food; how could you be carrying such high‑grade medicinal material?"

Xiao Ran grinned, "It's in case of constipation on the road, specially prepared as a laxative?"

The onlookers burst into a raucous laugh.

The two glanced at each other: "This is leftover from before! I couldn't bear to throw it away, is that a problem?"

"I took it for a neighbor, so what? Which law have I broken?"

Xiao Ningxun raised an eyebrow, "You just shouted about stomach pain, you used this, right?"

The two kept kowtowing to him, "We are wronged!"

"Who saw us eat it?"

"Since no one saw, how can you tarnish our innocence?"

Tuan Tuan clutched Xiao Ran's neck, head lowered, staring at them intently.

Big villain! How dare they say father is dead!

Uncle Two only hit him twice! When will Third Brother finish asking?

After finishing, let Uncle Two and Uncle Seven beat them up together!

Huh, what's this? She tilted her head, staring intently at the backs of those two's heads.

"Third Brother," she tugged at Xiao Ningxun's clothing, leaned to his ear and whispered, "Why do the backs of these three villains' ears each have two little black spots?"

Xiao Ningxun was startled, and carefully looked at the backs of the two still kowtowing.

He saw that behind each ear, on both sides, there was a sesame‑sized black mole, symmetrically placed, with almost identical positions.

His gaze suddenly sharpened, he gestured to Xiao Er, Lu Qi, and the officials standing nearby, and everyone walked up to him together.

Xiao Ningxun whispered, "Do not make a sound or move; rigorously investigate everyone here! Anyone with a mole behind both ears shall be taken down!"

"Yes!"

The refugees, seeing them suddenly weaving through the crowd, wore bewildered expressions.

But in the time it takes to brew a cup of tea, seven people were dragged out, men and women, old and young, all pinned to the ground.

Including the original three, ten in total knelt in a row, all shouting their grievances loudly:

"Why do you arbitrarily arrest people?"

"What have we done?"

"We are all suffering refugees! You oppress the common folk! Do you not treat us as humans?"

The onlooking refugees, seeing they were just like themselves—tattered clothes, dust on their faces—also shouted questions loudly.

"Even if you are nobles, you cannot bully us homeless commoners like this!"

Xiao Ningxun ignored them, walked around them, and without exception each person had that pair of strange black moles behind their ears.

He fetched a bowl of clear water, soaked a cloth, went behind one person, and forcefully wiped the back of his ear.

The ink marks faded with the water, and after a few wipes were completely cleared, revealing the original skin tone.

It wasn't a mole at all! It was marked with ink.

He moved to another person, did the same, and indeed, it was the same.

The spectators, seeing this, all fell silent with surprised faces.

Xiao Ningxun tossed the cloth aside, coldly saying, "Speak. Whose orders did you come here under? What is your purpose?"

The ten exchanged glances, none daring to speak.

Xiao Ran frowned, "Help!"

A few officials stepped forward.

Hit! Hit them until they say to stop! Start with this black‑faced man, the one who just said Prince Ning died in battle.

Yes!

Two yamen runners pressed the black‑faced man firmly to the ground.

The other two looked around, picked up two thick tree branches from the roadside, snapped off the side twigs, and began striking his waist and buttocks hard.

The black‑faced man shouted loudly from the pain.

Xiao Ran pressed Tuan Tuan's little face against his chest so she couldn't see, and whispered, "Be good, cover your ears; his cries are awful."

"Mm, Ninth Brother, beat him hard! He's the one who said Father died." Tuan Tuan raised both little hands to cover her ears.

"All right." Xiao Ran chuckled; the little one really holds a grudge.

Soon the black‑faced man was beaten to the point he couldn't cry out, yet he stubbornly endured, refusing to speak.

Seeing this, Xiao Ningxun called a halt, looked at the old woman shouting about stomach pain, and said, "Elder, he's young and can hold out; how about you?"

The old woman trembled all over.

Xiao Er understood; Third Young Master was killing a chicken to scare the monkeys.

He stepped forward, took the branch from the yamen runner's hand, and tossed one to Lu Qi: "Brother Lu, these brothers are tired too; let us two take over! Third Young Master, should we beat this old woman?"

Seeing this, the old woman noted that Xiao Er and Lu Qi were taller and stouter, like iron towers, a notch bigger than the two yamen runners who had just been hitting; if they struck her, she would surely die.

She finally grew afraid and shouted, "Sir, spare my life! I, I will confess!"

"We, we are all people of Da Xia."

A sudden intake of breath rose from the surroundings.

"We were ordered to come here and spread the rumor that Prince Ning died in battle."

"The ink marks behind your ears are the mark of Da Xia, aren't they?"

The old woman shuddered: "Yes, we don't know each other, but as soon as we see that mark we know we're on the same side."

Xiao Ningxun nodded: "And the croton bean powder?"

"We can't say that; if we did, those refugees would eat us!"

The old woman's eyes darted: "I really don't know about that."

"Oh," Xiao Ningxun said mercilessly: "Hit!"

Xiao Er and Lu Qi raised the branches.

The old woman trembled all over: "Don't, don't hit! I'll speak!"

"The croton bean powder was meant to be thrown into the pot when they were serving the porridge!"

"Who knows? They were on strict watch; we had no chance, so we could only pretend to have stomachaches."

The refugees burst into earth‑shaking curses.

"Spies! Turns out they're all Da Xia spies!"

"They want to kill us!"

"Beat them to death!"

The angry crowd surged forward.