Chapter 173: Sow Melons, Get Melons

Among the hundred folk arts and thousand trades, each has their own specialty; I have my own craft for making a living.

Unless they are one's own sons or daughters, these skills are rarely passed on to outsiders.

As the saying goes, skills are easy to learn, but the secrets are hard to grasp.

In any era, those with skills to rely on always keep a layer of paper-thin distance between themselves and others, even with apprentices they have trained for many years, aside from their own children.

Once an apprentice takes a master, there are endless mountains to climb and skills to learn; when a master takes an apprentice, they likewise labor in heart and mind, for while teaching the apprentice, they must also consider their own future.

Some clever apprentices understand the principle of "spending three years learning the craft, then using the craft to earn money for three years"; here, "spending money" refers not only to coin, but also to the daily morning and evening greetings, serving tea and handing water, which are never omitted.

One does not know how much bitterness must be endured before earning even half a sentence of true transmission from the master.

But this is only the beginning; masters, aside from their own children, are accustomed to "holding back a hand" even towards others, including their apprentices.

For instance, with those who carve stone Buddha statues, the master teaches the apprentice the skill, yet when the apprentice goes to work, they always fail to capture the spirit on the Buddha's face.

Do you think they did not study hard? No, it is simply that the master held back a hand, not teaching the apprentice what they were best at.

Again, when elders tell old tales, they often say the cat was the tiger's master; the cat passed on all its skills, yet it alone did not teach the tiger how to climb trees.

Later, the tiger forgot its master and betrayed its duty, turning to thoughts of harming its teacher.

The tiger thought that if it ate its cat master, it would be the only one left who could hunt best, making it number one under heaven.

But it never expected that the cat would dart up a tree in a flash; the tiger looked on in shock—who could have guessed the cat had eight hundred cunning tricks, saving this one hand until the very end!

However, the cat survived because of this.

True transmission is one sentence; false transmission fills ten thousand scrolls.

These matters cannot be judged; masters fear that teaching an apprentice will starve themselves, while apprentices resent masters for refusing to teach their most treasured secret skills; since ancient times, many crafts have been lost for this very reason.

In short, wanting to take a master and fully master a craft is inevitably a very difficult matter.

At present, Xu Qing has also taken corpses as masters, and he has taken over a hundred of them in one go.

These old corpses, young corpses, male corpses, and female corpses mostly possessed supreme skills; otherwise, they would not have entered the prison nor become condemned prisoners.

They held nothing back from Xu Qing; truly, they were his good teachers and friends.

In just one night, Xu Qing drained every skill from those hundred corpses.

By the time the sky was fully bright, Xu Qing had learned nothing else, but he had indeed learned quite a few methods of making wealth recorded in the Great Yong laws.

Upon opening the shop door, customers were already waiting outside.

Xu Qing took out the purchase and delivery slips; with a few ticks and strokes, he completed a transaction.

"The total comes to seventy-five cash."

The twenty-five cash for Autumn Execution corpse collection and ordering, plus the remaining seventy-five cash, totaled one hundred cash; Xu Qing kept his word, considering the face-restoration and head-sewing as a complimentary service for the Autumn Execution activity, charging no extra fees.

Those customers coming to claim the corpses were also straightforward; not a single one haggled with him, and by noon, more customers continued to arrive at his place.

Xu Qing glanced at the sky; the Autumn Execution business for the day was about to open, so how could he waste time here?

He asked the people claiming the corpses to wait at the shop door, then Xu Qing pushed open the inner room door and called out, "Second Lady, I am going out for a bit; come help me manage the shop."

As soon as Xu Qing finished speaking, the black cat on the counter, which had been staring at the poison jar, suddenly jumped to the ground and then turned into the side room.

Before long, a woman with a cold temperament who rarely spoke or smiled followed Xu Qing out of the side room.

Handing the account book to "Sun Erniang," Xu Qing then drove the cart, heading to the execution ground once more.

In the following days, hundreds more heads fell at the vegetable market square.

Among the corpses at the Autumn Execution ground, there were many unclaimed bodies; at such times, Xu Qing would shamelessly step forward, saying this one was his great-uncle, that one was his great-cousin-in-law, and even the monk with the branded scars on his head was actually his eldest cousin.

Good heavens, hundreds of condemned prisoners had all become his relatives.

Those who didn't know might think the entire family had rebelled and been executed with their clan wiped out!

The patrol captain Zhao Zhonghe asked in confusion, "These headless corpses fetch no price anyway; why do you claim them? Do you intend to take them back to make bun fillings?"

The headless corpses of the Autumn Execution differed from ordinary intact bodies; even if sent to the charity mortuary, they would fetch no price. In the past, such corpses were sent by the government office to the mass grave and buried haphazardly to finish the matter; now, seeing someone like Xu Qing eagerly claiming corpses was the first time Zhao Zhonghe had witnessed it.

"To not hide it from Captain Zhao, I entered this trade with my master; the old man often said that in the funeral trade, one must respect the dead; even if one encounters bleached bones exposed in the wild on the road, one must bury them, letting them rest in the earth."

"This is a good deed that accumulates hidden merit, unrelated to how much money is involved."

Zhao Zhonghe looked at the youth, who wore a serious expression and resumed moving corpses, thinking to himself that there are still many good people in the world!

"Look at his level of awareness; no wonder he passed the Licentiate exam."

Beside him, Zhao Yuan remained silent.

He, who couldn't even pass the exam for a Child of the Academy, was certainly not qualified to speak up.

Xu Qing's days recently had been quite fulfilling; the business at the Coroner's Shop grew more and more prosperous, and the Feng Shui at Water Gate Bridge improved day by day; by the time the Autumn Execution ended, he estimated he could cultivate at least five or six new Chang Generals.

Adding the five Chang Generals he already held, his current foundation alone far exceeded that of the first-rate sects of the Jianghu.

If a hundred or a thousand years passed, the number of Chang Army troops under his command would likely not be much less than the soldiers under some regional warlords.

Before he was confident in surviving the Thunder Calamity, these powers independent of his own Dao cultivation were equally his foundation for standing in the world.

The days of the Autumn Execution passed quite quickly; in the blink of an eye, the busiest time at the vegetable market square had passed; after this, the number of corpses Xu Qing transited daily dropped from a peak of around two hundred to gradually forty or fifty.

In mid-September, the main official in charge of the execution, Prefect Lu, left Linhe, leaving only Assistant Prefect Li and Commandant Dong on the execution platform to manage affairs.

During this period, Xu Qing happened to meet an acquaintance again.

To be precise, it was an acquaintance who had just had his head chopped off.

Several months ago, he, Xu Mouren, was working a side job outside and took on the task of a corpse-retriever; by the reed marsh, he had discovered a corpse planted upside down.

Xu Qing had seen the life-flash of that corpse; the deceased was named Zheng Deli, and in his lifetime on the Baijiang River, he had been strangled by two water bandits and thrown into the river.

Zheng Deli faked his death to escape, drifting with the current all the way; finally, he survived a great disaster only to be finished off by a Water Tiger, strangled by water weeds by the reed marsh, becoming an upside-down corpse.

Those two water bandits were not originally bandits on the surface, but boatmen disguised as ferrymen.

After Zheng Deli was thrown into the water, the old ferryman and his deputy opened the deceased's pack but found it filled entirely with stones.

Many people saw Zheng Deli boarding the boat; fearing the matter would be exposed, the two went to the corpse-retrieval team and claimed to the outside world that Zheng Deli had accidentally fallen into the river while relieving himself and was nowhere to be found.

Xu Qing could not bear their conduct, and combined with his desire at the time to look after Senior Brother Wang's performance record, he took Zheng Deli's corpse to the government office's coroner's room and pinned the incident of the Water Tiger strangling Zheng Deli with water weeds onto the ferryman and his deputy, Yuan Hu.

Wang Ling, after examining the body, discovered the deceased had indeed been strangled, and reported the case to the government office.

Xu Qing had thought the matter would end there, but he never expected that months later, he would see the boatman from Zheng Deli's memory again.

As the saying goes, you reap what you sow.

The corpse seed he had inadvertently planted months ago had now borne a new corpse.

The pages of the Sutra of Saving People turned, revealing the boatman's life filled with evil deeds.

He dug up graves of those without heirs, kicked in the doors of widows; regarding anything involving people, this boatman did not do a single thing.

When the boatman grew slightly older, a boon companion suddenly came to his door.

"Zhang Da, do you want to engage in a money-making business?"

"What business?"

"Of course, the business of robbing the rich to help the poor!" Yuan Hu chuckled and said, "I see many travelers coming and going on the Baijiang River; some carry travel funds for long journeys, others carry merchandise money for trade at the port. If you and I disguise ourselves as boatmen ferrying people..."

"The waters of the Baijiang are very swift; if we kill people, we only need to throw the bodies into the water. By then, who could possibly know?"

The boatman asked in confusion, "I am advanced in years and my legs are not steady; why do you not find a young and strong person, but insist on seeking me to form a gang?"

Yuan Hu laughed and said, "If we were all young and strong, those taking the boat would naturally become wary. But Brother Zhang is different; if others see your appearance, they will instead relax their guard. No matter how they speculate, they probably would never think that an old man like Brother Zhang would be a water bandit who kills and robs!"

The boatman suddenly understood.

The world only knows to respect the old and love the young, but does not know that evil men also grow old.

The two made up their minds; the next day they purchased a black-canopied boat and began ferrying people.

The two selected targets specifically, choosing those who were alone; those people might have had some wariness, but upon seeing the old boatman's simple smile, they all relaxed their guard.

The boatman Zhang Da lured people onto the boat at low prices; once they reached the middle of the river, the second-in-command Yuan Hu would join forces with Zhang Da to strangle the passengers and throw them into the river.

In half a year, the two stubbornly used this method to murder dozens of lives.

Among them was Zheng Deli, who had gone to the port to buy fish on credit.

Xu Qing continued reading; since Zhang Da and Yuan Hu had been listed on the wanted notices, the two had hidden in the Tile Kiln Street of Jinmen.

Tile Kiln Street was a place where poor people stayed; people of all trades and professions were numerous, and many living there were individuals with matters on their backs.

Xu Qing originally thought there was nothing worth seeing here, but he never expected that just as he was preparing to skip these scenes, a Constable from the Jinmen Prefecture suddenly found Zhang Da and Yuan Hu.

The Constable's surname was Zhou; Yuan Hu and Zhang Da, upon seeing him, addressed him as Master Zhou.

That Constable came straight to the point, stating directly, "Zhang Da, Yuan Hu, you two kill and rob; according to the law, you should be beheaded! If I capture you two and take you back today, I will at least receive a reward of one hundred taels of silver."

Yuan Hu was startled and suspicious in his heart, but he did not flee.

He often dealt with the government office and knew the nature of these people; if the other party truly intended to arrest him and punish him, he would not have come alone and spoken to him about this nonsense.

"Master Zhou, look at what you are saying; we are all family. Even if you catch someone, you cannot catch us, right?" The boatman nearby smiled broadly.

Constable Zhou sneered, "I am an official, you are a bandit; who is family with whom?"

Speaking thus, Constable Zhou took ten taels of silver from his sleeve, placed it on the table, and spoke with a slightly softened tone, "I know your livelihood is difficult now; take these ten taels of silver and spend them."

Yuan Hu looked at the silver, did not dare to take it, and opened his mouth to probe, "Master Zhou, please speak clearly; if there is anything requiring our service, we certainly will not decline."

Hearing this, Constable Zhou immediately showed a smile, "There is indeed a matter. The magistrate of Baisha County recently recruited a son-in-law who ranked first in the prefectural examination, named Wu Zhiyuan. Have you heard of him?"

"I seem to have some impression."

"That person offended someone he should not have offended; now someone wants his life."

Seeing Yuan Hu say nothing, Constable Zhou raised his eyebrows and said, "Don't you want to know who wants his life?"

"I do not ask what I should not; I know the rules."

Constable Zhou stared at Yuan Hu for a while, then suddenly spoke, "The one who wants to kill him is the magistrate's eldest son-in-law, Yang Hong!"

Upon hearing this, Yuan Hu looked at Constable Zhou, his gaze dim.

The latter laughed heartily, "Yang Hong is cunning by nature; if he intends to burn the bridge after crossing, I must be on guard. Speaking of which, Wu Zhiyuan has a brother; tomorrow they will go to the ferry to take a boat. At that time, I will disguise myself as a government office courier delivering official documents, you will disguise yourself as a passenger, and Zhang Da will strike up a conversation with them, inviting them onto the boat."

"Afterwards, you two must keep this matter buried in your bellies; however, if one day I..."

Yuan Hu's eyebrows twitched, and he said, "If Master Zhou meets with misfortune, we will certainly devise ways to expose this matter."

In the mortuary, Xu Qing sucked his teeth; how could this involve saving a corpse, and what about the Wu brothers' affair?

Continuing to read, the next morning the Wu brothers indeed arrived together at the Jinmen ferry.

Zhang Da and his group acted in perfect harmony, performing so realistically, plus with the Constable Zhou, who had the identity of a government office courier, riding on the same boat, the Wu brothers simply did not discover any flaws and boarded the bandit boat.

Until—

"What are you doing? There are still officials on this boat; do you not fear?"

Yuan Hu chuckled, "We take money to remove disasters for others; if you must blame someone, blame yourselves for being tactless and offending someone you should not have offended."

"Say less, and finish the job quickly!" The Constable Zhou, dressed as a courier, finally revealed his true face.

In the middle of the river, Constable Zhou hoisted Wu Wencai onto his shoulders, Yuan Hu followed closely behind; upon reaching the bow, the two threw the Wu brothers into the river together.

"..."

Xu Qing was silent.

After the Wu brothers fell into the water, they did not sink, but drifted away.

"Strange!"

The boatman rowed the boat in pursuit, and Constable Zhou drew a fish spear to stab at the two of them.

Just as Constable Zhou's fish spear was about to pierce Wu Zhiyuan's body, a layer of pale white light suddenly lit up from Wu Zhiyuan's waist, wrapping him up.

Constable Zhou and Yuan Hu took turns stabbing, but it seemed as if they were stabbing a loach; no matter what they did, they could not harm the other party even slightly.

Just as the two began to grow angry in their hearts, a huge wave suddenly swept over from the bow.

After the wave crashed down, the few people looked up; on the foamy river surface, where could the traces of the Wu brothers be seen?

Constable Zhou breathed a sigh of relief, believing that under such huge waves, the two could hardly survive.

About a month and a half later, the boatman staying in Tile Kiln Street, ignoring Yuan Hu's warning, secretly ran back to Linhe alone to dig out the silver hidden in the old house.

It was only on this return trip to Linhe that the boatman Zhang Da encountered Zhao Zhonghe wandering the streets.

At that time, Zhao Zhonghe had just left Xu Qing's shop, and the two bumped straight into each other in front of the coffin shop on Jingxia Street.

The funeral street was famously desolate; who among the soldiers and government office runners would ever patrol here? Zhang Da deliberately chose such secluded stretches to avoid meeting officials.

But who could have expected that in this godforsaken, unlucky place, he would run headlong into Zhao Zhonghe, the living Yama.

(End of this chapter)