Chapter 810: The 'Sins' of Lanu and Qiaoyi

"K-Knight sir. My name is Lanu, I am actually not a villager from Blue Well Cunzi."

This young man named Lanu cowered, following closely at Jier's side with slow steps, speaking in a low voice.

"Oh, then why are you here? Where are the others from the village? Answer me."

Seeing him walk slowly, Jier grabbed Lanu by the shoulder, half-pulling and half-pushing him to walk in front.

"Sir, Qiaoyi is from the village; the courtyard we were hiding in just now is his home. As for the others in the village, they were all called to the town at the beginning of spring. Sigh, it's not just this village; the villagers of all the villages around Yemei Town were called over by the Tax Officer along with the Soldiers."

Speaking of this, Lanu was somewhat angry and also somewhat afraid. He continued to explain: "Those soldiers said the Lord had taken his troops to war, and that the Bandits in the mountains had all come out, killing everyone they saw. Several remote villages were already breached, and no one survived, so they made the villages everywhere bring their people to the town, waiting for the Lord to finish the war and bring his troops back to wipe out those Bandits. Heh, ptooey, it's all lying bullshit."

Jier hummed, laughed twice, and then said: "It's not Bandits, right? Looking at the state of you two, you've discovered what's actually going on, haven't you?"

Lanu bowed slightly, smiling humbly: "Knight sir, you must have encountered those man-eating Monsters on the road here, right? You definitely did, otherwise you wouldn't be so nervous just seeing the tree trunks painted red in the courtyard."

Jier shrugged, neither confirming nor denying. He arrived at the next courtyard to be inspected, lifted his foot, and kicked open the wooden door of the house. With a *clatter*, the fairly sturdy wooden door flew entirely into the room.

Lanu was startled, shrinking his neck and muttering: "If Old Potato comes home and sees his front door, he'll probably squat on the ground and cry..."

Jier had an Armed Civilian behind him wave a Torch inside the doorway. By the light of the fire, Jier carefully looked around the room; it was basically as poor as the homes of the other villagers.

This led him to walk out of the house and ask Lanu, who was cowering among the Armed Civilians: "Why is your village so poor? Every household is just a pile of wooden junk—the houses, the cellars, the courtyards. The poorest beggars in Kendall City are probably wealthier than you farmers."

"Sir, I am not from Blue Well Cunzi. But everyone's life is alright, after all, all the surrounding villages are like this. The Lord collects a lot of grain tax, but at least everyone can always eat their fill. I was born locally, but my parents were migrants who moved from the Empire. I heard them say that everything in the Empire is fine, except that the people are always miserable; everyone is born owing all kinds of debts they can never pay off in a lifetime, and there is no land to farm, and the grain they grow doesn't end up being their own."

Jier stopped the complaints the young man had heard from his parents, grabbed him, and led his men to continue inspecting other houses.

"Stop beating around the bush. Confess honestly: since everyone else was taken to the town by the Lord's soldiers, why are you two here? It looks like you didn't just return to the village these past two days, but have been here for a while."

Upon hearing this young Knight sir ask, Lanu's face wrinkled. After hesitating, he asked: "Sir, merciful and mighty Knight sir, if I tell you, will you let me go after hearing it?"

"You speak first, and I will judge after I hear it. However, judging by your tone, did you and that injured fellow commit a crime in the town—a major crime—and couldn't stay there anymore? So you risked the possibility of being killed by the so-called 'Bandits coming out of the mountains' to live in this deserted village?"

Hearing these words from the Knight sir, Lanu tried to keep a humble smile on his face, but he couldn't manage it: "Yes, that is how it is, sir. Qiaoyi is my good friend. Although we aren't from the same village, we have known each other since we were small. At the beginning of spring, the villagers from every village were taken to the town to take refuge, so not long after arriving in town, I started hanging out with Qiaoyi."

"Taking refuge..." Jier mused for a moment: "With people from nearby villages all going to the town, not to mention whether so many people could be housed, how were food and security handled?"

"Uh, as for food, although there wasn't much, everyone could receive a bowl of Wheat Porridge every day. It was fine if you just lay around and didn't move." Lanu smiled, but this smile was mostly mockery, and it was hard to tell if he was mocking himself for believing such nonsense.

"As for security, people from each village lived together, and everyone protected themselves. Soldiers would also patrol the streets. Oh, sir, the villagers taking refuge in the town basically gathered on the streets inside the town and under the city walls outside the town."

"Continue with your story."

Jier kicked open another farmer's door. There were no Monsters or people inside, but a weasel darted out from the corner of the room. Lanu was extremely excited when he saw this small wild beast and lunged directly at it, wanting to catch the animal.

Of course, he failed to catch it. The little thing was very agile, and after being startled, it kept scurrying around the farmer's courtyard. It wanted to escape, but the Armed Civilians following Jier stomped their feet to scare it, so the weasel kept turning around to flee, while Lanu kept pouncing back and forth on the ground, always a step too slow, trying to catch it.

"Enough, enough. The people outside the town are still waiting. I don't have time to watch you play around. You can find another time for games and activities."

After saying this, Jier took two steps forward, then slightly lifted his leg and kicked out without even looking. The weasel happened to dart past in front of Jier, and this strike hit its body squarely.

The iron-clad combat boot was like a war hammer; with a *crack*, the small animal had many of its bones broken, vomiting blood as it collapsed at Jier's feet.

Jier grabbed Lanu, who had lunged over, and told him to continue his confession, while Jier had the accompanying Armed Civilians carry the small animal he had kicked to death.

"Continue."

Pushed along by the Knight, Lanu scratched his head and awkwardly continued: "Life in town was okay at first. At least for a young man my age, I didn't have to exert myself working the fields, and I could still get a bowl of salted Wheat Porridge every day. Although I couldn't eat my fill, I wouldn't starve to death."

Then his expression changed: "But as the days went by, strange things started to happen. 'Bandits' would take advantage of the night to attack the villagers living under the city walls outside the town. Those guys would shout things like 'Hang them, hang them,' scaring us and the guarding Soldiers as well. Not only were people dragged away, but some people would wake up in the morning very strangely, shouting and running toward the uncultivated farmland outside the town."

"And at the same time, the Lord's officials in the town were probably scared too, making everyone dig earth outside the town to build a second city wall around the town. But the problem was that the food given was still the same amount, and many people were exhausted. Although everyone was resentful, seeing that those things were to protect us, they still worked hard to build them."

"And then? What happened?" Jier continued to lead his men to inspect the remaining farmer houses. Basically, except for the small animals occupying the humans' houses, every household had been cleaned out by the fleeing villagers.

Or rather, these villagers themselves didn't have much property to begin with.

Jier estimated that not only for Blue Well Cunzi, but for the villagers of other nearby villages, the vast majority of most people's property was the farmland on their respective Deeds, as well as their own courtyards and the dilapidated self-built mud houses.

Even the hinges and wooden pivots on the doors were simple things made of pure wood.

Simple to make, cheap, and not durable.

One could hardly see a single metal product.

"Later, Qiaoyi was a brave and reckless guy. He didn't like digging earth outside the town all day, so he would often sneak into Yemei Town and squat outside the town tavern to listen to the Bard singing inside. Then the trouble came, sir."

"Trouble, what trouble?"

Jier scanned the area and found that in the entire small village, only the last few farmer houses remained to be inspected.

Lanu also realized what this Knight sir was doing with his men. He knew the village was relatively safe, but he also knew that if he said it was safe, the other party wouldn't believe him; they had to inspect it themselves.

"The trouble was that Qiaoyi kept hanging around outside the tavern in town, watching those wealthy townspeople eating and drinking in the tavern every day, and he was very envious. Until one day, he reached out toward a townsperson who had passed out drunk outside the tavern."

Lanu felt somewhat ashamed saying this. Although he wasn't the one who did those things, he felt disgraced that his good friend had done so.

"Vanity turned a young man into a thief." Jier curled his lip: "And I'm sure he was a clumsy thief. He was seen stealing, right?"

"Uh, yes, sir, you are right. Qiaoyi told me excitedly when he came back that night that he had fished out more than ten copper coins from that drunkard's purse, and that same night he had fulfilled his wish to drink a large mug of iced ale in the tavern, along with a plate of fried chicken breast. It cost him five copper coins. Heh, he planned to take me with him the next day with the remaining money."

Lanu swallowed his saliva, seemingly somewhat envious.

"But when I went with him the next day, Security Soldiers from the town rushed out from the tavern kitchen and caught him and me. That drunkard was a middle-aged Merchant who ran a shop. He ran to the Security Office in town that very morning to report that he had been stolen from, and when the Security Soldiers asked at the tavern, others had seen that it was Qiaoyi who had helped the drunk guy away from the tavern entrance."

"Although Qiaoyi had picked the man's purse, he only took a little. That man was quite rich, and in the end, he didn't just throw the guy on the side of the road, but properly sent him back home. But when the Security Soldiers caught the two of us, that middle-aged Merchant claimed that a sum of money he had prepared for business that night—uh, amounting to hundreds of copper coins—was all gone."

As soon as Jier heard this, he hummed and laughed softly, saying: "Clearly, that man wanted to try to turn a loss into a profit. I believe those soldiers were also happy to see the matter develop that way. Continue."

Lanu's face was full of resentment: "I know what kind of person Qiaoyi is; he wouldn't lie to me, and he knew what he was doing. He couldn't have taken that much money from that man. This was a frame-up, a shameless frame-up."

The Armed Civilians who had been listening all along finally started to laugh softly. This laughter seemed to sting Lanu. The young man excitedly raised his head, wanting to argue, but seeing the Mudu, Cleavers, and Long Swords in the hands of the Armed Civilians, he immediately realized he was no match for them.

Better to be a coward, to avoid getting beaten.

So he had to accompany them with a few awkward laughs.

While speaking, Jier kicked open the wooden door of the last farmer's house, inspected it by the light of the Torch, and then opened the cellar in the courtyard. After poking his head in to confirm there were no signs of life, he finally breathed a sigh of relief.

He turned his head and ordered one of his men: "You can notify Bafute at the village entrance and have him and Xueya Site arrange for people to enter the village and set up camp. Also, have the Lumberjacks cut down all the Fruit Trees in the courtyards of the village to use as fuel for cooking and campfires. Those broken beds in the houses aren't suitable for sleeping on either; chop them up for firewood as well."

"Yes, Knight sir!"

The Armed Civilian acknowledged the order, shouted loudly, and then trotted in a straight line toward the brightly lit village entrance.

Jier then said to another Armed Civilian: "Go to Bata'er Jiaoshi and have that painted red Fruit Tree cut down for me in advance—hmm, hide it to avoid causing unnecessary panic."

"Understood, Knight sir! I'll go do it right away."

The Armed Civilian shouted once and also walked away quickly.

Lanu watched these young men carrying shields and wearing swords with envy; their powerful strides and responses clearly showed the vitality that only well-fed people could possess. With only a bowl of thin Wheat Porridge every day, a normal person could not shout so loudly.

Once everything was arranged, Jier led his men toward the water well in the center of the village and said to Lanu, "Continue, pick up where you left off, keep talking."

"Oh, oh right, Knight, Lord Knight."

Lanu imitated the Armed Civilian and did not call Jier "Lord Knight"; it seemed he himself realized that calling a young Knight of about his own age "Lord" was not quite appropriate.

Having changed the form of address, he felt much better.

Jier also felt much better; "Lord," "Lord," it made him sound old.

"Hundreds of copper coins, that is not a small sum of money; one would have to sell a portion of their house and land to have that much. Since we didn't do it, Qiaoyi naturally wouldn't admit to it, but those greedy Security Soldiers didn't care about the truth of the matter; after capturing the two of us, they took us to the underground of the Security Office for torture and interrogation."

Lanu lifted the Linen Cloth clothing on his chest, revealing the whip marks and wounds carefully cut by sharp weapons on his abdomen and chest.

"Those devils repeatedly whipped us with water-soaked lashes and used small knives to cut strips of wounds into our bodies. Qiaoyi was carrying copper coins at the time, so they were naturally treated as stolen money; those 'pieces of evidence' were placed in front of his parents and my parents, forcing our two families to pay compensation."

"And then? How did you two get out? And why did you risk coming here?"

Jier was a bit curious; usually, when things developed to this extent, it could basically only be resolved by paying money, or if not paying, by receiving a criminal sentence.

Lanu gave a bitter smile and continued, "My father believed that because I played with a bad kid like Qiaoyi, I had also turned bad, so he would rather let me have a hand chopped off than sell the house to pay the compensation. When he visited me in the Jianlao, he told me that this was a lesson in my life and told me to remember it well."

"And Qiaoyi had it even worse; his family didn't care about him at all. His family is large and poor, and as the 'principal offender,' he had to pay most of the compensation, but even if his family sold their house and the Deed to their farmland, it wouldn't be enough for the 'compensation' of hundreds of copper coins. So his family didn't bother with him, and that detestable Merchant even went to pressure his family. As a result, his older brothers claimed that even if Qiaoyi had his hands or head chopped off because of this, their family would not pay a cent."

"Continue."

"At the time, I was very desperate, not for myself, but for my friend. I knew he had done something wrong, but it was never that serious; it was entirely that detestable, greedy Merchant spouting nonsense and exaggerating his losses just to extort more money from us Farmers. Those Security Soldiers were also in league with him; in the Jianlao, I saw that middle-aged Merchant more than once stuffing money to the Security Soldier in charge of our interrogation, just to use more severe methods to intimidate us into confessing, but we firmly refused to admit it."

"And then?"

"And then. Lord Knight, you would never guess what happened next!"

When Lanu said this, he changed from his previous grief and anger, and his tone became high-spirited.

"Oh, let me guess, it has to do with the 'Bandits' outside the town, right?"

Lanu looked surprised: "How did you know?"

Jier shrugged: "In this Yemei Town of yours, that is the only extra factor that could cause such a drastic change in events. Am I right?"