Chapter 64: A Short Ruler's Measure

Golden light spread across the surface, and on the shimmering Yangchun River two or three black-snake boats lay moored.

Inside the bamboo-woven courtyard.

Shen Yi sat on a stool, a rag in hand, carefully wiping down a scabbard.

He wasn't much good at tending to the wounded, but fortunately the madman often got hurt, and the young widow had picked up some experience on him.

At the very least, he'd staunched the bleeding on Ma Tao and Li Xinhan and re-bandaged them into something resembling "human shape."

Once Li Mujin came to, he hurriedly fed her a few pills, temporarily stabilizing the two of them.

She walked slowly out of the room.

Her ponytail loosened, strands of hair falling in slight disarray to veil her pallid cheeks; her breathing was faint and unsteady—clearly from last night's fight, where she'd held nothing back and suffered a great depletion.

Li Mujin's expression had lost some of its coquettish charm, and her once dewy red lips were now a little cracked.

Gazing at Shen Yi's back, it gradually matched up with the figure from last night in her mind.

She tugged at the corner of her lips, her voice hoarse: "What about the others?"

"They just exhausted themselves, didn't take any real injuries. They woke earlier and went to the government office to get the horses."

Shen Yi set down the rag and hung his saber back at his waist.

Li Mujin dragged a stool over, sat down beside him, propped her chin in her palm. She'd meant to ask something, but didn't know where to begin, so she simply stared blankly at his profile.

Just when Shen Yi could no longer stand the gaze and frowned to shoot her a withering look—

Li Mujin burst out laughing, a note of feeling welling up in her eyes: "So you really are this good at killing yao."

So good that even she, a Miss who'd grown up Outside Qingzhou, couldn't possibly have imagined it.

Though the villagers kneeling on the ground had blocked her view, that shrill scream of the River God still echoed in her ears. Without facing some life-and-death terror, how could a River God, so proud of his station, have lost all composure like that?

"I thought you were already dead."

He'd chased the Black Wind into the mountain forest—she didn't know what kind of yao it was—but the River God's face had been full of expectation, and Li Mujin had taken it all in.

It was a look of complete trust, brimming with longing, utterly assured.

She hadn't expected that in the end, it would be Shen Yi who came back.

"Lucky for you I didn't think that way."

Li Mujin stood up, schooling her smile, and without the slightest constraint bowed to the young man.

If he'd held the same thought, then the safest course after escaping would have been to hurry back to Zhen Mo Si and report.

Faced with a yao whose realm far surpassed his own, in a situation where anyone would have judged there no chance of victory, leaving under the pretext of delivering word—even Zhen Mo Si wouldn't have been too harsh.

"…"

Shen Yi felt a flicker of surprise; he hadn't expected her to suddenly get serious.

He waved a hand, but before he could speak, his arm was pulled tight into a vast, soft warmth.

"Haha."

Li Mujin slipped back into her usual flippant manner, clinging to his arm and complaining: "You nearly scared me stupid! I couldn't even move a finger, yet I still had to put on a calm, collected look—and even that acting didn't fool the River God. I'm furious."

Saying so, she pinched her fingertips together and said pitifully, in earnest: "When you came walking over, my tears were just about to fall. Lucky for me you're so handsome—I figured I had to keep up appearances, so I held them back."

The familiar touch was, astonishingly, even more striking than that of the Song family's sister-in-law.

Shen Yi was speechless and pulled his arm free: "That's enough, roughly."

When the fish-trident had stabbed down, there hadn't even been fear on her face—only a trace of sighing, and she'd even shed tears. Yeah, right.

Li Mujin planted one hand on her hip and gave her chest a hearty slap: "Still, still—alive is enough. What a tough life."

The people of Zhen Mo Si all seemed to take things rather lightly.

Infected by her smile, Shen Yi turned his head, and the almost imperceptible savagery in his eyes faded just a touch.

Perhaps it was from the moment he woke up at the Liu family in Boyun County.

He'd still been in a carefree, game-playing frame of mind, so much so that he hadn't noticed anything amiss.

As he gradually shook off the traces left by his former self and settled into the ways of this world—

Shen Yi somehow discovered that he'd grown used to days with blood on his hands, to the point that not seeing blood left him feeling a touch uneasy.

Savagery was a tool to help him survive in these chaotic times.

But he couldn't let it turn him into its puppet.

Shen Yi drew a deep breath, his mind clearing considerably, and only then looked beyond the courtyard.

The young widow, clutching a few borrowed old garments, approached reverently: "my lord, would you like to change? We couldn't find anything new on the spur of the moment, but they're all clean."

The madman followed behind her, head lowered, none of yesterday's foolishness about him.

In his cautious glance toward Shen Yi was nothing but gratitude and fear.

Those clear eyes of his seemed able to see through everything, and when sharp, could easily overawe yao and evil alike.

"Try to bear with it and don't change."

Li Mujin shook her head—for a Captain, returning with merit in this very state would help Shen Yi establish himself at Zhen Mo Si all the faster.

"Er, all right then."

The young widow produced a short wooden ruler and said timidly: "Then might I measure your shoulder width for you?"

Li Mujin seemed to read the situation and, for once, didn't refuse. She took the ruler and pulled Shen Yi to his feet.

"What's this for?" Shen Yi was a little puzzled.

"Probably to make you some clothes and send them to Outside Qingzhou to thank you."

Li Mujin pinched the ruler and began measuring him in earnest—even including the saber at his waist.

She called the numbers out to the widow and waved her off: "Off you go."

"Thank you, my lord."

The young widow, so fiery and brash just yesterday, today didn't even dare meet Shen Yi's eyes.

But it wasn't exactly pure fear.

That expression felt vaguely familiar to Shen Yi, though he couldn't recall where he'd seen it before.

The widow took the madman out again, and ran straight into a man at the door; the fellow tossed down a chunk of fish meat bound tight with grass rope, then turned and ran off toward the next house.

"He's... he's already run to nearly every household in the village."

The young widow picked up the fish meat with a helpless look.

The man whom Shen Yi had forced to swallow the river god's flesh yesterday was now desperate to let everyone taste the delicacy, as if only this could wash away the guilt in his heart.

And only by swallowing this fish meat could the lie they'd been telling themselves be torn apart.

Since it was a demon, it was naturally impossible that it had been raising three hundred children in the river.

Sinking into the river meant sinking into the river — their children would never again come riding the waves, never come to take them to the river god's cave-dwelling to enjoy blessings.

A truth so plain to everyone, once stripped of its excuse, would make one want to cover one's face in shame.

"In years of great famine, people traded their own children to eat."

"It was done out of necessity."

"Now that we can earn our own keep, we should cut it off cleanly. Those who eat people are demons — useful, and we enshrine them; useless, and they go into our bellies."

"This is how ordinary people survive."

"A Captain of the Zhen Mo Si doesn't need to fish or farm to feed himself — he's one of those who feed off the common folk. Not only can he not offer grain to fill their bellies, he has to snatch another portion from their mouths. He stands too high to begin with; to heap more blame on him would inevitably come across as cold comfort."

Li Mujin reached out and placed her hand on Shen Yi's shoulder, her bright eyes sparkling as she said with a grin: "My lord, have mercy, let them off this once, won't you?"

It was the work of someone with an agenda, deliberately stamping this great sacrifice into the fishermen's minds over and over, as if it were an ancestral truth that must never be defied.

Yesterday, more than ten people including the village head had their lives snuffed out in an instant.

To tell the truth, such ruthless methods had genuinely startled Li Mujin — yet she also felt a secret thrill in her heart! The other party had done what she and her fellow Outside Qingzhou disciples dared not do, and done it cleanly and decisively.

But if more killing were added on top, the flavor would begin to change.

"They weren't planning to spare you yesterday." Shen Yi raised an eyebrow.

"Is this uniform for show?" Li Mujin pouted, tugging at the cloud-pattern on her cuff: "The ones who raised a hand deserve to die, but the rest — without their daily labor, where would our salaries and rations come from?... Hey, stop pawing at my hand, what's with you acting like some Miss, can't be touched at all."

"Go stand off to the side."

Shen Yi patted her shoulder and said casually.

From the moment he had woken, he had never done a single evil thing — he only sought to keep himself safe.

How had it come out of this woman's mouth as if he were some bloodthirsty brute who couldn't stop killing?

(End of chapter)