Chapter 44: A Small Hearing During the Banquet

After a small interlude, the banquet continued.

The main dishes of the Four Treasures Banquet were all staggering, with no small cost.

Zhou You only felt that what he was eating were not dishes, but mouthfuls of gold foil and jade dust.

However, such expensive dishes were merely embellishments for the banquet, meant to accompany the wine and food.

The star of the banquet was thirty-year-old aged wine; the liquid was orange-yellow like amber, and when lifted with chopsticks, it could stretch into threads—it was a top-tier fine wine.

"..."

The sound of musical instruments coming from behind the bead curtain reminded him that there were also musicians hired at great expense in the private room.

The musicians were not alone; there were accompanying players and instruments, and the cost for the whole troupe was at least 30 taels.

Zhou You made a rough calculation; between treating guests and giving gifts, Shen Sijing would have to shell out at least 500 taels tonight.

This sum of money was exactly the emotional damages Zhou You had brazenly demanded from Tu Laosan of the Wild Fox Gang.

As the Vice Gang Leader, Tu Laosan had yet to give a reply, clearly finding it very difficult to cough up this money.

Yet in the private room on the second floor of Zhaijin Lou, Shen Sijing spent 500 taels on a single meal.

"No wonder everyone looks down on those in gangs; their fists can't compare to martial arts halls, their wealth can't compare to rich merchants, so all that's left is bullying the common folk."

Zhou You shook his head, feeling even more contempt for those gang members.

"Zhou You, I only learned about your conflict with the Wild Fox Gang after I returned."

At this moment, Shen Sijing suddenly spoke up.

"You demanding 500 taels of silver is not too much; I think it is very reasonable."

"If Tu Laoer refuses to pay, I will go to his door myself to demand it for you; I cannot let one of our own be wronged."

Shen Sijing said heroically, "If you are in urgent need of money, I will first write you a note for 500 taels, and you can demand the rest from Tu Laoer."

Listening to the implication of his words, he actually intended to pay the 500 taels out of his own pocket first.

Zhou You had witnessed his grand gestures before and did not doubt for a second that a mere 500 taels was nothing but a piece of cake for this Senior Brother.

"Senior Brother Shen, you absolutely must not; one thing is one thing, what I want is not the money, but the attitude of the Wild Fox Gang."

The 500 taels of silver must be presented by the Wild Fox Gang themselves to show their attitude.

Shen Sijing nodded upon hearing this, "Very well, with me stepping in, you just wait to collect the money in three to five days!"

"Then I shall toast Senior Brother Shen again; thank you for standing up for me."

"It is only right; we are fellow disciples, if I don't stand up for you, who else would I stand up for?"

After drinking a few more cups of wine, a commotion came from outside the window; he originally thought it would stop after a while.

Unexpectedly, not only did it not cease, it became even noisier, drowning out the sound of the instruments from behind the bead curtain.

"Stop, go down and collect your reward."

Shen Sijing immediately felt his appetite vanish and waved away the troupe of musicians.

Soon, the restaurant manager hurried over to apologize.

"Young Master Shen, outside, the City Gate Guard is apprehending dangerous criminals, and they have started fighting."

The environment around Zhaijin Lou was usually quiet, and it was rare for anything to happen, yet tonight they had run into a major event.

Xu Ying walked to the window and pushed open the wooden shutters to look out; in the pitch-black night, firelight and shouting could be heard.

Along the sides of the street, seven or eight Constables were maintaining order, blocking pedestrians from moving forward for fear of disrupting the battle.

The night wind was slightly cool, carrying a faint scent of blood; not far away, lives were likely being lost.

"Constable Liu."

Zhou You saw a familiar face in the crowd, "Call him up to ask about the situation."

A moment later, Constable Liu was called to the private room, his heart filled with trepidation as he entered.

When he saw Zhou You, his face was full of shock, which then turned into an expression of respect.

He naturally recognized Shen Sijing and also knew that everyone present were Apprentices of the Jian Xiong Martial Arts Hall, a room full of Force-using martial artists.

Although he had long anticipated that Zhou You had a limitless future, seeing him in the private room now, his heart suffered a violent impact.

"Tell us, what exactly has happened?"

Xu Ying was not polite and asked straight away.

Constable Liu stood respectfully and recounted the whole story from beginning to end.

It turned out that recently, a large number of refugees from Su Cheng had flooded into the city, among whom were many martial artists.

These martial artists were of mixed quality; some were content with poverty and law-abiding, while others were so hungry they took risks.

The cause of the incident was a group of gathered out-of-town martial artists.

It turned out that there were two families in Gongliang City who were sworn enemies, both being small, wealthy families with some assets.

Over the years, the two families had constant conflicts and friction, gradually accumulating generational blood feuds, with blood debts of lives on both sides.

One of the families hired a group of out-of-town Force-using martial artists as assassins to wipe out the entire family of their enemy.

In the past, they would never have dared to do such a thing, but as the number of refugees increased, order in the city became chaotic, and the government could not manage it all.

This family had also calculated that the out-of-town refugees would run away after killing the people, making it impossible to find the culprits and naturally impossible to investigate further.

However, the results were always unsatisfactory.

This group of Force-using martial artists were ruthless; since they were willing to take the risk to be assassins, they were naturally not kind-hearted people.

In the first half of the story, they killed the entire family of their enemy, not letting a single one escape, which was considered a successful completion of the mission.

But in the second half...

The employer did keep their promise and took out gold and silver to settle the bill, but they never expected that the display of wealth would lead to disaster.

That group of out-of-town martial artists had just finished killing, and suddenly evil thoughts arose; they thought that killing one family was killing, and killing two was also killing, so they might as well kill two birds with one stone, turning on their employer on the spot to wipe out the entire family and looting all their wealth.

The double-extermination blood case of the two families shocked everyone in Gongliang City once it broke out.

These out-of-town martial artists still underestimated the level of public security in Gongliang City.

The two victimized families were both moderately wealthy, far beyond what ordinary poor people could compare to, so the case drew high attention after it occurred.

After the Constables in the city tracked the investigation to the Force-stage martial artists, the City Gate Guard quickly took over this important major case.

The City Gate Guard cast a net of heaven and earth, chasing the culprits who had not managed to escape all the way to the vicinity, and it had already entered the final stage.

After Constable Liu finished speaking, Shen Sijing rewarded him with half a pot of wine and two pieces of beef.

Constable Liu thanked him hurriedly and left.

He still had to continue maintaining order and could not leave his post for too long.

"Aren't these guys total idiots?"

Hiring a killer is a high-risk operation; you should look for someone whose roots you know well. Did you think you were looking for manual labor, where you could just pull anyone off the street?

Why does everyone look for fellow townsmen? Because there is the restraint of hometown sentiment, which brings at least some scruples; no matter what, they won't play too dirty.

It is true that out-of-town martial artists have no scruples after killing someone and hiding outside the city.

But the employer's family did not expect that since the others had no ties locally, they naturally had no scruples; they would not go soft on killing their enemy's family, and conversely, they would have no psychological barriers to double-crossing you to wipe out your whole family and killing you to seize your wealth.

The martial arts hall Apprentices in the private room sighed endlessly; a dignified Force-stage martial artist had degenerated into an unscrupulous killer.

The City Gate Guard had clouds of experts and the advantage of knowing the local geography, and with the help of local snakes like the Constables, wiping out that gang of culprits was only a matter of time.

Sure enough, the clamor continued until the second half of the night before it stopped.

The City Gate Guard wiped out this gang of vicious people, leaving not a single survivor, and chopped off their heads to hang in wooden cages around the city walls to intimidate the displaced people.

The wind blew the wooden cages, causing them to spin and sway, lightly knocking against the flagpole, while the heads withered and turned black in the weathering.

"This world is about to descend into chaos."

From a certain corner of the city wall came a weak sigh, which scattered as soon as the wind blew.