Chapter 153: Watertight (Second Update)

The twenty-eighth year of Wanli? The executioner lost his life? Zhao Jin suddenly reacted — wasn't that exactly why his father Zhao Zhentang had become the executioner? No wonder no one had dared take the post at the time, no wonder his parents were always evasive when the subject came up. So it was connected to the Scenting Incense Sect after all.

Seeing Zhao Jin lost in thought, You Zhenrong had no wish to linger. He simply clasped his fists in farewell, but just as he stepped out the door, he heard Zhao Jin's voice ring out clearly behind him: "I will remember this warning, old brother. My thanks."

Saying he would remember the warning was really saying he would remember the favor. You Zhenrong hurriedly turned, clasped his fists, and only then took his leave.

No sooner had You Zhenrong left than Ji Xiang and Sun Dalei walked in. Ji Xiang lowered his voice the moment he entered and asked, "Big Brother, wouldn't it have been cleaner just to hack that Li Yang to death last night? Why get him drunk first and then set the fire?"

At this hour, the day in Xuzhou city was only just beginning. Over at the Xuzhou Subprefectural Magistrate's yamen, everyone had just reported for duty. In the constables' office, men sat around in their own clusters, drinking tea and idly chatting. Zhao Zhentang sat in a corner as usual, but around him were seven or eight men smiling and fawning.

The chief constable Chen Wu, however, was nowhere to be seen in the constables' office. When someone came asking, they learned that Chen Wu had gone over to the judicial office first thing that morning.

"The coroner's already back from examining the body, and the brothers have finished questioning people. The low-class whore's lover said Li Yang was staying the night there. Li Yang was burned alive. The woman, though, was already dead before the fire started — they could still see the broken wine jar shards there." Chen Wu was explaining in detail. This was a small, private room, with only Judicial Clerk Li and Chen Wu present.

Judicial Clerk Li listened very carefully. After Chen Wu finished, Li hesitated and said, "So Li Yang quarreled with the whore, killed her, and then committed suicide out of fear of punishment?"

"That's what the brothers all say too. Please, Mister Li, just write it up that way in the report." Chen Wu nodded.

Judicial Clerk Li nodded as well. He glanced toward the door, then lowered his voice and said, "That Zhao boy really has a ruthless hand. Swept through the southern district yesterday, and then went setting fires at night..."

Chen Wu also glanced back uneasily. He hesitated, then picked up the thread: "What's rare is how meticulous he is — actually knew to burn the man alive. As you know, Mister Li, a dead man who's burned has no ash in his mouth. Even if someone wanted to find fault, they couldn't."

At this, Chen Wu caught himself and smacked his forehead. "Probably wasn't them after all. I heard that my boy was over at their place making a drunken racket half the night — him and that whole pack of fair-weather friends, all dead drunk."

"What are you panicking for? We're just talking in private." Judicial Clerk Li shook his head with a scoff.

Chen Wu had been getting carried away and had forgotten his own son was tangled up in this. He did not respond to that, only cleared his throat and continued, "Mister Li, two of the men arrested yesterday have already confessed. They sent men to set fire to the Zhao residence. The arsonists have also been captured. I'd ask Mister Li to prepare a case file for all of it, for the judge and His Excellency to rule on."

Judicial Clerk Li nodded, then said with feeling, "The son is ruthless, and the father's hand is no softer. The Zhaos are truly something else."

Chen Wu had already been about to rise and take his leave. Hearing this, he couldn't help but lower his voice again in warning: "Mister Li, this case is only about arson and attempted murder. Whatever you do, don't let it get tangled up with the sect, or we'll all have trouble."

"After all my years handling cases, you think I don't know a little thing like that?" Judicial Clerk Li answered impatiently.

Chen Wu gave a smiling greeting and turned to leave the judicial office. He hadn't gone far when a minor clerk came over to him and said in a low voice, "Old Chen, a few bastards have been talking behind your Dasheng's back, saying he's mixed up in last night's case. But someone spoke up right away — said Dasheng and Old Zhao's boy were drinking all night and slept right over there."

"Those troublemaking scum!" Chen Wu frowned and cursed. He then thanked the clerk who had tipped him off and continued toward the constables' office. After three steps, he stopped. Smiling, he muttered to himself under his breath, "Truly watertight..."

Zhao Jin's explanation to Ji Xiang was equally simple. He had thought of every possible trace that might be discovered, and he also knew the yamen would help cover for them. So at every link in the chain, he had left a plausible explanation. The yamen had no desire to stir up more trouble, let alone get entangled with them, and would naturally handle the case in a way that favored them.

It was indeed watertight. Drunk and staying the night, with household servants and laborers outside to testify. Since Li Yang was burned alive, there would be no signs of serious injury or restraint. And with the whore killed, it could be read as a drunken murder-suicide. Taken this way, Zhao Jin and his men were naturally in the clear.

That was the official explanation, of course. But the people on the street understood perfectly well. Why did Li Yang die right after Zhao Jin swept through the southern district, and not before or after? And of all the ways to die, why was he burned to death in a fire set in the middle of the night?

Though no one had any proof and no one could find any holes, everyone knew who had done it.

By this point, the Scenting Incense Sect followers in the city were afraid. Zhao Jin's exploits had long been talked about in the city — anyone who should have heard them had. But the sect followers had always been confident, because they were numerous and well-hidden. If someone truly set themselves against them, numbers were only one part of it. The harassment from the shadows, impossible to guard against, was far more terrifying.

In the Scenting Incense Sect's usual conflicts, they often came out on the losing side. But they would immediately retaliate against the other party — setting fires at night, poisoning water, ambushes in the dark, even hurling bricks over walls in the dead of night. This endless, unpreventable harassment would drive a person to irritation, rage, and fear, all the way to the breaking point.

That Li Yang had used much the same methods against the Zhao household was known to quite a few. They knew Zhao Zhentang was the executioner of Xuzhou city, and they knew Zhao Jin was a name that rang loud across the Xuzhou region. But they were all very confident, thinking that even if you were the King of Heaven himself, there was no dealing with this kind of endless harassment. In the end, you either submitted or moved away.

Many were even rubbing their hands in anticipation, waiting for the Zhao household to submit so the Scenting Incense Sect could spread its grand designs through the city and regain its former swagger.

But things did not develop at all as they had imagined. The first night's arson had many secretly cheering. The very next day, Zhao Jin led men to sweep the southern district and arrested several of the evangelists who liked to stick their necks out and stir up trouble. Then, the night after that, Li Yang was burned to death.

The harassment had produced no results, but the retaliation came swift as a thunderclap. Everyone was terrified, afraid they would be caught in the backlash of Zhao Jin's vengeance.

It was just after breakfast, and the household guards had only just been led out for training, when visitors began arriving at the door in a steady stream. They came from all walks of life, high and low, every sort of person. Each was exceedingly polite. None stated their business outright; they only said they had come to congratulate Zhao Jin on the opening of his trading company. After presenting their gifts, they would only say they hoped Zhao Jin would look after them in the future.

At first, Zhao Jin was somewhat baffled, but he soon recognized who these people were. The men from the day before who had no connection to the arson had also been released. They had suffered plenty inside the yamen, but upon getting out, they hadn't paused to recover. Instead, they hurriedly prepared lavish gifts and came to express their gratitude — gratitude that Zhao Jin had spared their lives.

When they arrived and Zhao Jin saw them exchanging awkward greetings and nods with the other guests, he understood. All these people were evangelists of the Scenting Incense Sect. Zhao Jin truly had not expected the sect's evangelists to be so diverse, coming from every conceivable trade. He also took the chance to ask who the sect master was. Everyone's answer was much the same: the sect master only sent envoys to deliver orders; no one had ever seen his true face.

The day passed just like that. When evening came and he returned home, his father Zhao Zhentang also brought back news from the yamen. The two men who had sent people to commit arson, along with the underlings they had dispatched, had all been arrested. The arson case at the Zhao residence had caused no deaths or injuries, nor any loss of property, so at most the punishment would be a beating — there would be no other penalty. Zhao Zhentang asked Zhao Jin for his opinion.

"Father, if we wanted them beaten to death inside the yamen, how much silver would it cost?" Zhao Jin asked coolly.

Zhao Zhentang was taken aback. He glanced back toward the house and said, "Good thing we're talking about this in the courtyard. If your mother heard, she'd be frightened to death. Cheap lives like those — ten taels of silver each."

"I'll pay the silver. Have them beaten to death in the yamen." Zhao Jin's words were resolute.

As he spoke, the monkey on its perch nearby let out a squeak and shrank back into its den. A smile tugged at the corner of Zhao Zhentang's mouth. "That's simple enough," he said.

After the evening meal, Zhao Zhentang made another trip to the yamen. When he returned, the whole household slept peacefully.

As for the household guards stationed outside, Zhao Jin did not pull them back to the goods yard. Keeping them there in constant, monotonous drill was no solution. They needed to go out on assignments, to stay active in the field. Guard duty, simple as it was, was still a form of training. He simply kept the guards on rotation.

At noon the next day, word came from the Subprefectural Magistrate's yamen: the criminals involved in the Zhao household arson case had been sentenced to a beating. During the execution of the sentence, they had failed to endure it and were beaten to death.

In the yamen, it wasn't only beheadings that killed people. Deaths during punishment were quite common. But no one took this as a coincidence. After the examples of the previous days, everyone understood perfectly well. The city of Xuzhou was shaken once again.

The first time doing anything is always nerve-wracking. Shi Manqiang, Ji Xiang, and the others spent several days quite worried, only returning to normal once everything had settled down.

Zhao Jin, for his part, had looked as if nothing were amiss the entire time. These past few days, he had mainly been hiring the city's bamboo weavers and carpenters to make bamboo armor and protective gear for the household guards. The outfit looked like a joke, but in an actual fight, it could defend against clubs, staves, dirt, and stones. It even offered some protection if the opponent used blades like swords and axes. More to the point, Zhao Jin didn't have much silver on hand. Outfitting over a hundred household guards entirely with this kind of gear cost very little.

All factions in the city, cowed by Zhao Jin's ruthless methods, had reined in their behavior considerably. As a result, even Zhao Zhentang's standing in the Xuzhou Subprefectural Magistrate's yamen rose with the tide. People even from Feng, Pei, Xiao, and Dang counties all assumed Zhao Zhentang was the chief constable of the Xuzhou Subprefectural Magistrate's yamen.