Chapter 15

"Master, Old Man Li hit the Second Master's man."

A middle-aged steward looked respectful.

Zhu Ping's expression didn't fluctuate at all: "It's just servants bickering; give them ten lashes each. Old Man Li is almost seventy, right?"

"Yes, Master."

Zhu Ping seemed to recall something and added:

"Old Man Li is too old; it's not appropriate to use corporal punishment. Just record it for now."

The middle-aged steward looked up in astonishment.

So in the end, only Zhao Zhao Mazi was beaten.

The Master's bias in this dispute was too obvious.

"Understood."

The middle-aged steward had been a steward in the Zhu family for over a decade and was already a shrewd person; how could he not understand that the Master was taking this opportunity to knock the Second Master down a peg?

Only Zhu Ping remained in the room.

Zhu Ping's lips curled slightly: "Old Man Li, you've given me a surprise."

"Old Man Li, the Master considers your age too advanced, so the punishment of lashing is waived; you are fined three days of confinement."

The middle-aged steward was smiling, with no sign of punishment on his face.

Li Rui: "Many thanks to the Master. Steward Zhu, a small token of appreciation, please accept it with a smile."

He took a bulging purse from his sleeve.

Steward Zhu took the money bag nonchalantly and weighed it; the sound of copper coins clinking together rang out, and his smile grew wider.

The elderly still understood the rules better.

"Old Man Li, you are an old hand in the manor; work hard, the Master sees everything."

The subtext was: feel free to fight, the Master has your back.

Li Rui: "The Master is truly a great philanthropist."

In this Zhu family residence, what one does is not important at all; following the right person is the key. As long as someone has your back, then whatever you do is right.

He had heard the news and just had Wang Zhao go to the shop on the next street to exchange for this bag of copper coins.

Giving gifts, after all.

A small piece of broken silver doesn't look as generous as a bag of copper coins.

After seeing off the middle-aged steward.

Wang Zhao then said with the look of someone who had survived a disaster: "Master, is that it?"

Li Rui glanced at his foolish apprentice: "What else could there be?"

The discord between the two Zhu brothers had existed for a long time, but there was still a layer of paper between them.

Soldier against soldier, general against general.

As long as he wasn't hitting Zhu Lie, the problem wasn't actually big; Zhao Zhao Mazi could only blame himself for his lack of ability, and the beating was in vain.

"Go, don't be negligent with the fodder for these three days."

"Yes, Master."

After sending Wang Zhao away, Li Rui was the only one left in the room, and cold light flashed in his eyes: "Zhao Zhao Mazi must not be left alive!"

This Zhao Zhao Mazi, pulling on Zhu Lie's banner, had done no shortage of bullying and domineering in the Zhu family, committing acts of oppressing men and women, and Zhao Zhao Mazi had a sense of proportion, never provoking people he shouldn't.

The Master of the Zhu family just turned a blind eye.

But he just had to provoke Li Rui.

"Zhao Zhao Mazi eats at the mess hall; poisoning him might easily hurt others, which could lead to bigger trouble."

If too many people were poisoned, it wouldn't just be the Zhu family; it would likely alarm the government officials.

Although this world lacks sophisticated instruments, experienced constables are not to be underestimated.

"Then let's be straightforward!"

Li Rui finally made his decision.

Late at night.

In a pitch-black hut on the west side of the Zhu residence, the door was open, and the sound of someone wailing in pain could be heard faintly.

"Old thing, once I recover, I'll poison your horses first and see how you explain that!"

Zhao Zhao Mazi was lying on the bed.

With his upper body bare, under the moonlight, one could see bloody whip marks on his back—not one more, not one less, exactly ten.

"Ouch..."

The moment Zhao Zhao Mazi thought about how he had received ten lashes while Li Rui was only confined for three days, he was even more infuriated.

"Who is it?"

Zhao Zhao Mazi saw a shadow in the room out of the corner of his eye.

"Damn it, are you dead? You don't even make a sound when you walk."

He only assumed it was the subordinate coming to change his medicine.

Just as he was about to turn his head—

"Mmph..."

A quilt was pressed over his head, and his vision turned to darkness; the feeling of suffocation made his limbs flail wildly. Zhao Zhao Mazi struggled desperately, but it was to no avail.

Although he had some strength, how could he compare to a Rank-Entered martial artist?

"Watch yourself in the next life; some people are not for you to provoke!"

Zhao Zhao Mazi, his face turning purple under the quilt, had his eyes wide open.

It's Old Man Li!

He wanted to curse, but couldn't; he whimpered low, then his limbs went limp, and he completely stopped moving.

Li Rui did not loosen his grip just because Zhao Zhao Mazi had stopped resisting.

He counted silently in his heart:

"Two hundred and fifteen."

"Two hundred and sixteen."

Not until he counted to five hundred did he release his hand from the quilt. Zhao Zhao Mazi had long since wet the bed, his face was blue and purple, his tongue was lolling out, and he was dead as dead could be.

He didn't give Zhao Zhao Mazi any chance to play dead.

Li Rui didn't have much turmoil in his heart; he even had the presence of mind to carefully clean up the scene and take all the valuables in the room in one go.

Finally, he staged Zhao Zhao Mazi's death to look like he had fallen off the bed and frozen to death.

After doing all this, he turned around calmly.

He left after the deed was done.

There is no surveillance in this generation, and many murder cases end up as cold cases, not to mention that it was just a dead Zhu family servant; the government had no interest in managing it.

Of course, the government might possess non-natural powers beyond his imagination.

Just like the Divine Soldier Talisman he heard about from Zhu Yue earlier.

But even with such means, the government wouldn't use them for a lowly commoner.

Zhao Zhao Mazi's body was discovered the next day by several guards.

It was the dead of winter, and meat in the kitchen wouldn't rot even after half a month; by the time Zhao Zhao Mazi was discovered, the body was already frozen stiff.

Li Rui heard that the Second Master of the Zhu family was furious upon hearing the news, threatening to find out who had killed his man.

Zhao Zhao Mazi's belongings were missing, suggesting it was a murder for money.

But Zhao Zhao Mazi had participated in many of his secret dealings and had offended too many people; Li Rui was just one of them.

Moreover, Li Rui was currently confined to his room and had no opportunity to act.

Unless he was a martial artist.

A seventy-year-old man becoming a Rank-Entered martial artist? What a joke!

The matter could only end up with no result.

Zhao Zhao Mazi was dead, and the Zhu family servants were secretly jubilant; without Zhao Zhao Mazi's oppression, their lives might be much easier.

Some things change flavor as they are passed from person to person.

At first, some people rumored that it was Old Man Li who did it, but they felt it wasn't very reasonable; after seven or eight retellings, it became that Zhao Zhao Mazi had done too many evil deeds for the Second Master, and it was a vengeful ghost seeking his life.

Otherwise, how to explain how a sturdy, living man died without a sound, and even the guards sleeping in the next room didn't hear a single noise?

These things had nothing to do with Li Rui, a seventy-year-old man with one foot in the grave.

Li Rui returned to his room.

Strings of small characters appeared before his eyes.

【Congratulations to the host for completing the achievement: Famous in the Jianghu, Beginner Plot—First Entry into Jianghu 2.】

(End of chapter)