Chapter 7: Charitable Hall, Mysterious Corpse

The two finished the wine in their bowls, and the light screen before Fang Xu changed again.

Friend Four: Liang San of Fenglin Town, Qinghe County, Huangzhou Prefecture（15％）

Friend Five: Xie Xiaoqi of Fenglin Town, Qinghe County, Huangzhou Prefecture（15％）

Not bad, not bad!

Five friends now!

But what do those percentage numbers at the back represent?

Staring at the final percentage numbers of each friend on the light screen, Fang Xu was somewhat puzzled.

"Fang family youngster, how much of this fine brew do you still have?" Wu Ningxue pondered for a moment, then asked with a gleam in her beautiful eyes.

His train of thought interrupted, Fang Xu came back to his senses and quickly said, "Don't hide it from Aunt Wu, the government has a liquor ban, I dare not brew too much; now I only have these two jars."

Hearing this, Zhang Mingliang hurriedly embraced the remaining jar of wine in his arms: "Aunt Wu, this is the wine Fang Xu gave to my nephew."

Wu Ningxue's phoenix eyes widened as she immediately said, "Fang family youngster only said to let you taste it; when did you promise to give it to you?"

"In that case, you take the jar you've drunk from, and I'll take the remaining one."

Zhang Mingliang clung tightly to the two wine jars, unable to let go, but feeling the faint killing aura emanating from Wu Ningxue, he could only reluctantly comply.

After reluctantly giving the unsealed jar of wine to Wu Ningxue, he quickly grabbed the mud seal nearby and covered his own jar, fearing the aroma would escape.

Wu Ningxue, having obtained the wine, was very happy.

"Fang family youngster, Aunt Wu won't take this wine for nothing; one jar of wine for one Blood Qi Pill—come get it in ten days, how about that?"

Upon hearing this, Fang Xu hastily cupped his hands in thanks: "Many thanks, Aunt Wu."

Seeing this, Zhang Mingliang also seemed a bit embarrassed and said, "Fang Xu, you probably need blood food lately; I won't take your wine for nothing either—I'll have someone send you fifty catties of blood food later."

Fifty catties of blood food and one Blood Qi Pill are of equal value; their barter shows they clearly did not regard Fang Xu as a friend.

Fang Xu didn't mind either way; no matter what they thought, as long as the system recognized this friendship, it was fine—he never intended to be true friends with them anyway.

With fifty catties of blood food, he didn't need to spend money buying any for the time being.

After a few rounds of pleasantries, Zhang Mingliang hurriedly left; on Fang Xu's side, since he couldn't obtain a Blood Qi Pill, he could only temporarily buy some medicinal powder to use.

After Fang Xu left, Elder Chu Li glanced at Wu Ningxue, bowed, and said, "Master, do you really consider that Fang family youngster a friend?"

"A friend?" Wu Ningxue gave a light smile and shook her head. "He's not qualified yet."

"All right, Uncle Li; in a few days it will be my father's eightieth birthday—this jar of fine wine must be kept well."

"Also, notify the household to send over some Blood Qi Pills as soon as possible."

……

Returning from the street, Fang Xu hummed a little tune all the way.

This trip, he spent fifty taels of silver to obtain the Visceral Refinement Method, then exchanged two jars of wine for five friends, fifty catties of blood food, and one Blood Qi Pill—quite a bountiful haul.

"Young Fang."

Just as he reached his doorstep, Fang Xu heard a familiar voice from behind.

"Sister-in-law?"

The person was Wang Ergou's wife, Madame Wang; seeing her, Fang Xu hurriedly hid the cloth bag holding silver behind his back.

"Young Fang, the Supervisor has already sent Ergou's corpse to the Charitable Hall; I… I want to go see it—Young Fang, could you…?"

Madame Wang had already changed into plain clothes, making her look even more delicate and frail.

"Sister-in-law, you want me to accompany you to the Charitable Hall?" Fang Xu said.

Madame Wang nodded, her eyes full of expectation.

Fang Xu hesitated a moment, then said, "All right, sister-in-law, wait while I put things down."

Madame Wang is part of his inheritance; although he currently cannot have other thoughts about her, the system's power has already altered her mindset, which can be exploited.

After all, behind the Wang Ergou incident there is also Wang Erhu, who serves as a prefectural soldier.

That is a martial artist, and he is Fang Xu's preselected candidate for friendship.

"Thank you for the trouble, Young Fang." Madame Wang slightly bowed in salute, looking at him with deep gratitude.

After putting things away indoors and hiding the remaining silver, Fang Xu locked the door and followed Madame Wang toward the Charitable Hall in town.

On the way, Madame Wang followed behind, her gaze occasionally wandering over Fang Xu's broad back.

"Young Fang…"

"Huh?" Fang Xu stopped short; Madame Wang behind him kept her head down, completely unaware, and ended up bumping straight into him.

Her face flushed red, she stepped back two steps, her slender jade-like fingers pinching the edge of her garment as she whispered, "Young Fang, do you know that my feelings for Wang Ergou aren't deep?"

Hearing this, Fang Xu blinked slightly, unable to stop himself from recalling a saying his close brothers from his past life often told him.

When a married woman complains to you that her relationship with her husband is bad, it means an opportunity has arrived.

Seeing Fang Xu silent, Madame Wang again spoke softly: "If it weren't for my father's gambling habit, which left him in debt and forced to send me away to settle it, it was Wang Ergou who helped me repay that debt.

Moreover, with his brother who is a prefectural soldier, how could I… how could I give myself to him?"

Once the floodgates opened, Madame Wang had a lot of grievances to vent; she followed Fang Xu's steps, chattering on endlessly:

"Young Fang probably doesn't know, but Wang Ergou… he… he's incapable."

"Wang Ergou incapable?"

A chill ran down Fang Xu's spine—could this be one of those melodramatic "married three years and still a virgin" plots?

However, regardless of whether Madame Wang is still physically intact now, I could never do anything to her.

At least before I have strength, it's best to avoid getting involved in such trouble.

Seeing that I had spoken so bluntly, Fang Xu remained unmoved, just lowered his head and walked on; Madame Wang's eyes grew a hint of resentment, and she didn't say anything more.

The two went one after the other, and soon arrived at the Charitable Hall outside town.

The Charitable Hall is a place where the bodies of the wrongfully dead are temporarily kept; it's very inauspicious. As evening approaches, nobody wants to come near.

After Fang Xu and Madame Wang arrived, the guards of the charity house had somehow slipped off to slack off, and there was no one around.

Wang Ergou's corpse lay on the wooden board in the center of the charity house, covered with a white cloth, looking somewhat grim and terrifying.

Madame Wang stood outside the door, unwilling to approach.

Fang Xu, seeing this, felt a bit puzzled and said, "Sister-in-law, didn't you come to see Ergou? Why not come inside?"

Madame Wang shook her head and said, "The guards of the charity house aren't here."

Upon hearing that, Fang Xu thought it over and instantly understood.

With no spectators, there was naturally no need for any pretense.

This Madame Wang probably thought that if she didn't come to the charity house to see Wang Ergou, when Wang Ergou's younger brother who is a prefecture soldier returns, it would be hard to explain.

"Since you've come, sister-in-law, you should still burn some paper money for Ergou." Fang Xu suggested.

Madame Wang blinked slightly, as if thinking burning the paper money wasn't bad—at least it would prove she had come.

She immediately took some rough paper from nearby and lit it before Wang Ergou's corpse.

On his side, Fang Xu, feeling grateful for the hundred taels of silver Wang Ergou had contributed, also bowed before his corpse as a token of thanks.

After bowing, he idly surveyed the arrangement inside the charity house.

In this world, human lives are as worthless as grass; clashes between martial artists, poisonous insects and ferocious beasts in the wild can easily take an ordinary person's life.

Those who die unjustly are usually first sent to the charity house, awaiting identification by relatives.

If after a period no one claims the corpse, the charity house guards will drag it to the random burial mound and inter it; naturally, any money or valuables on the body then become someone else's gain.

Fang Xu walked over to another corpse covered with a white cloth nearby, his gaze sweeping over the foot exposed outside, and he frowned slightly.

This is… golden-thread embroidery!

On the foot of the corpse before him were unmistakably a pair of black long boots embroidered with golden-thread!

His grandfather had once told him that this golden-thread embroidery technique came from the Yun family of Huangzhou Prefecture, and just like the golden-thread embroidered black long boots worn by the corpse before him, a pair was worth a hundred taels of gold!

Converted to silver, that amounts to a full ten thousand taels!

Unfortunately, however, the golden-thread embroidered short boots on the corpse are severely damaged, so they're probably not worth much money.

While examining that pair of golden-thread embroidered long boots, Fang Xu was about to turn and leave when he caught sight of something seemingly hidden in the damaged sole of one boot.

(End of chapter)