Chapter 791

In the sleeve of Hongye's right hand, the fine steel short sword had already slid out by half an inch silently.

The cold sword spine pressed against the skin on the inside of her forearm, her fingertips slightly raised; she only needed a very subtle nod from Chen Yan, or even just a shift of his gaze, and she could sweep across the distance of twenty paces within the next breath, sending those four fleshy ruffians along with the two yamen dogs at the alley entrance who were pretending not to see anything to the Yama Palace to report.

Chen Yan did not nod.

He didn't even look at Hongye.

His gaze crossed the branches of the crooked-neck willow tree at the alley entrance and fell on the rope stringing the copper coin chain on the bald man's neck.

That rope was not an ordinary hemp rope, but a thin cord woven from cow tendons; this kind of thin cord could not be bought in the Rangping County market, and only the yamen servants of the county yamen would use it to hang their waist badges.

Chen Yan tapped lightly on the green silk belt at his waist with his fingers.

Hongye's sword stopped.

She felt that signal and sent the half-inch sword body that had slid out back into the depths of her sleeve extremely slowly, the blood color that had turned slightly pale due to suppressing murderous intent returning to her knuckles.

The movement in the alley was still continuing.

The bald man pushed the little girl to the ruffian behind him, squatted down, took out a coarse cloth money bag with several layers of patches from the refugee man's arms, weighed it, and threw it on the ground.

"Just these few copper coins are enough to be embarrassed; before tomorrow, send three hundred wen to the Liu Ji Grain Store in the east of the city without missing a single one; if you can't send it."

He reached out and pinched the little girl's face, which had been scared white.

"This little girl will be considered as you having paid me in advance."

The refugee man lay on the ground, the bones on the back of his hand being crushed with a creaking sound, his teeth biting his lips, not making a sound.

That little girl finally couldn't help it and burst into loud tears.

The crying sound collided back and forth in the empty alley and reached the main street of the market, but the vendors and pedestrians coming and going just quickened their pace, and not a single person looked over here more than once.

The two yamen servants at the alley entrance still had their backs to all this, and the one eating melon seeds even hummed a run-down little tune.

Chen Yan took all this into his eyes.

He turned around and stepped toward another direction of the market, walking not fast or slow, the hem of his green gown fluttering slightly in the spring breeze, looking like a passing young master who had no interest in such trivial market disputes.

Hongye followed behind him, her lips pressed into a very thin line.

When the two walked out of the north gate of the market, Chen Yan suddenly opened his mouth, his voice very light, as if talking to himself.

"The rope on that bald man's neck is the standard cow tendon cord in the yamen."

Hongye's footsteps paused for half a beat.

"This subordinate saw it; those four ruffians are not ordinary street thugs."

Chen Yan did not look back, the arc at the corner of his mouth pressing down by half a point.

"They have no calluses on their bodies, their finger joints are clean; these people don't farm or work, but wear the local indigo short coats and use the yamen's ropes to string copper coins."

He stopped for a step by a crooked-neck tree on the side of the road, turning his head to look at the gray city gate tower of Rangping County behind him.

"Add those two blind and deaf gate-keeping dogs, who do you think is standing behind this?"

Hongye's answer was as short as two words.

"County yamen."

Chen Yan shook his head.

"The county yamen is just the skin; the bones inside the skin are the point."

He stroked the inconspicuous white jade pendant at his waist twice.

"That bald man mentioned a sentence, did you hear it clearly?"

Hongye's brain replayed the conversation just now at high speed, and a very short essence flashed in those cold eyes.

"He said the land in this Rangping County has been the Liu family's since his grandfather's generation."

"Old Master Liu."

Chen Yan chewed these three words slowly in his mouth, as if tasting a piece of rotten meat with a foul smell.

"The vermilion boundary stakes nailed on the field ridges also have a 'Liu' character, and when asked about this character, the faces of those old farmers were whiter than seeing a ghost."

He lifted his head and looked at the sky.

"The report from the county yamen says peace and prosperity, the stakes nailed on the fields are private stakes of the Liu family, the thugs raised in the market are the Liu family's thugs, and the yamen dogs standing at the yamen entrance are the Liu family's dogs."

His speaking speed became slower and slower, every word as if squeezed out one by one from between his teeth.

"This Duke is actually very curious about what kind of background this Old Master Liu has, to be bold enough to treat this Duke's new policy as a fig leaf for his own backyard."

Hongye did not reply; she knew Chen Yan didn't need an answer at this time, what he needed was action.

"Killing those four ruffians is easy, but what about after killing them?"

Chen Yan turned around and walked toward the direction outside the city.

"This Old Master Liu will receive the news within a stick of incense; he will shrink back, destroy the evidence, and kill all the refugees who have been gnawed to the bone by him."

His palm gripped emptily in mid-air, as if crushing something.

"What this Duke wants is not to beat a few flies to death; what this Duke wants is to pull out that rotten tree full of maggots by the roots and place it in front of the tens of thousands of refugees, letting everyone see clearly."

He turned his head and looked at Hongye.

"Remember the faces of those two yamen servants."

Hongye nodded slightly.

"Already remembered."

Outside the city gate, by the official road, there was a mule and horse shop, specializing in short-distance passenger transport.

Chen Yan hired a semi-old green-canopied mule cart with several dozen copper coins; the canopy cloth had several patches, most of the lacquer on the two wooden shafts had peeled off, and the mixed-color mule pulling the cart was so thin that its ribs could be counted.

This kind of cart could be seen everywhere on the country roads of Rangping County, so ordinary that even the wild dogs on the side of the road were too lazy to look at it more than once.

The old driver was a thin old man with two missing front teeth; he grinned when he took the copper coins, wind leaking from the pitch-black tooth hole.

"Young master, where are you going?"

Chen Yan lifted the curtain and sat in, and Hongye followed and climbed onto the cart shaft.

"Liu Family Fort."

The whip in the old driver's hand paused.

The smile on that laughing old face froze in an instant, and then, as if it had been crushed and re-kneaded by someone, it turned into an extremely unnatural stiffness.

"Young master, you... what are you going to that place for?"

Chen Yan replied from behind the curtain.

"Do business."

The old driver looked back at this young master and the delicate maid behind him, his mouth opening twice, as if wanting to say something, but swallowing it back.

He whipped the mule's butt, and the broken cart creaked onto the road.

After walking for about half a stick of incense, the old driver couldn't help it.

"Young master, this old man asks one more question, are you going to Liu Family Fort to do business with the Liu family?"

Chen Yan leaned against the wall of the carriage, eyes closed.

"Why, is it not allowed?"

The old driver's voice pressed lower, and his speaking speed became much faster.

"It's not that it's not allowed, it's that that place is not easy to go to."

He turned his head, a very complex look in those muddy old eyes, as if afraid, and as if angry, the two emotions stirred together, neither able to suppress the other.

"Liu Family Fort is Liu Daba's territory; that animal has been walking sideways in these ten miles and eight villages for almost ten years, raising a bunch of thugs, lending usury, grabbing people's fields, and forcing people to sell their sons and daughters."

The old driver's whip cracked in mid-air, and the mule was so scared it stumbled.

"The year before last, a young man who fled from the Qi State didn't know the height of the sky and the depth of the earth and argued with Liu Daba twice; the next morning, the person was floating in the canal east of the village, his stomach swollen like a ball."

"Does the county yamen not care?"

Chen Yan's voice drifted from behind the curtain, without any emotion.

The old driver sneered, the laugh full of bitterness.

"Care, they care very well; the county yamen's coroner examined it and said it was an accidental drowning, drowning himself."

He spat a thick phlegm into the mud on the side of the road.

"Young master, this old man will say this one sentence; that Liu Daba's older brother is named Liu Dabao, and he is the grain chief of Qinghe County, holding the power of grain tax verification for all eighteen villages in the entire Qinghe County."

Chen Yan's closed eyes moved.

"Grain chief."

"Right, grain chief, that is the errand of collecting grain."

The old driver pressed his voice to the bottom of his throat.

"Chen Zhuguo exempted the refugees from taxes for three years, but whether the taxes are exempted or not, doesn't it still depend on the grain chief at the bottom? If he says you paid, you paid; if he says you didn't pay, you didn't pay; if he adds a stroke to that account book at will, you wouldn't be able to explain it clearly even if you were full of mouths."

The mule cart bumped at a turn, the old driver steadied the reins and sighed.

"This old man has driven a cart for a lifetime, what kind of people haven't I pulled? Young master, listen to this old man's advice, if you can avoid that place, don't go; the Liu family people have black hearts and cruel hands; if you, a scholar from out of town, suffer a loss, you won't even have a place to cry out your grievances."

It was quiet behind the curtain for a few breaths.

Then the young master's voice drifted out again, the tone as flat as a lake without wind.

"Old uncle, rest assured, this young master has never suffered a loss in anyone's hands in this lifetime."

The mule cart continued to bump south, the fields on both sides of the muddy road becoming more and more desolate, occasionally seeing a few adobe houses that had collapsed on one side, with a few sallow and emaciated old people squatting at the foot of the wall, staring blankly at the mule cart driving past.

After walking for about two more quarters of an hour, a village of considerable scale appeared in the field of vision ahead.

Liu Family Fort.

A stone memorial archway that was half-new and half-old stood at the entrance of the village, and four large characters were carved on the crossbeam of the archway—"Plow and Study Pass Down Family".

Chen Yan lifted the curtain and looked at those four characters, the corner of his mouth picking up by half a point, the arc cold to the extent that Hongye's fingers gripped the sword hilt in her sleeve again.

He was just about to order the old driver to stop the cart at the entrance of the village when a sound that pierced through the spring breeze poured into his ears.

That sound was very distant at first, as if drifting from some corner deep in the village, sent across half the village by the wind.

But soon, that sound became clear.

It was a woman's cry.

Her throat had already been cried hoarse, torn, carrying a desperate roar of being pushed to the end of the road, having already given up even begging for mercy.

"Please, please let my daughter go, she is only fifteen years old!"

Hongye's body had already sprung up from the cart shaft, those cold eyes shooting two sharp cold lights toward the direction the sound came from.

Chen Yan stepped over the threshold of the archway and stood under that stone memorial archway written with "Plow and Study Pass Down Family".

He listened to that desperate cry being transmitted wave after wave in the spring breeze, his expression not changing at all.

But his right hand had already clenched into a fist silently.