"Since you couldn't take the dagger back, it's my turn to attack." Li Jin did not give the scarred man a chance to catch his breath. He struck the scarred man's right hand that was holding the dagger, and then turned the tables on him by pressing the dagger against the scarred man's neck.
"Brother Hai!"
The scarred man's underlings were all dumbfounded, unable to believe that the scarred man could be defeated by someone who seemed so weak and feeble.
Not only the scarred man, but even his underlings thought Li Jin was just a scholar who knew a few flimsy martial arts moves and was not worth mentioning. They never expected the other party to be a tiger hiding its claws.
The scarred man glared at Li Jin, gritting his teeth as he said, "Just who are you?"
"Don't move recklessly. Blades have no eyes. It would be terrible if I accidentally killed you by mistake." While Li Jin said this unhurriedly, he deliberately used the dagger to draw a line of blood on the scarred man's neck.
They are so powerful.
Dashu, who was being protected by Zhou Yunting, watched the scene in wide-eyed astonishment, occasionally rubbing his eyes subconsciously. He completely could not believe that Li Jin and the others had actually managed to subdue the villains who had always been tyrannical in their village.
Zhou Yunting noticed Dashu was still awake. To prevent Dashu from hearing too many things he shouldn't know, Zhou Yunting knocked Dashu out.
Hearing this, the scarred man threatened arrogantly, "You dare? My master is a favorite in front of His Highness the Prince. If you touch me, it means you are making an enemy of the Prince."
The Prince?
Li Jin raised his eyebrow in surprise.
Although Li Jin had long known the person behind the scarred man was not simple, he never expected it to be a prince.
"Which prince?" Ying Yuan asked with a frown.
"Heh." The scarred man sneered, "That's not something you need to know. Now, be sensible and let me go quickly. Then cripple your own martial arts, kowtow and apologize to me, and I might just spare your lives."
Actually, such a confidential matter was something the scarred man, given his status, should not have known. But by a chance opportunity, the scarred man had heard that the master he served had dealings with a subordinate of a certain prince. Since then, the scarred man became even more domineering and tyrannical. Although he still followed the original plan to control the water source in the village he was responsible for, forcing the common people to hand over grain, he also began to kill innocents arbitrarily and even forcibly seized beautiful women and shuang'ers from the village, living a very comfortable life.
In other words, these men had many lives on their hands.
Furthermore, the scarred man's offer to spare them was a complete lie. The murderous intent in his eyes made it clear he planned to kill them all along; there was never any chance he would actually let them go.
"The Emperor cherishes the people as his own children, and the princes are his sons. Knowing that Zhuzhou has been struck by a great disaster, how could any prince possibly send you to commit such atrocities? To falsely accuse a prince is a crime punishable by death."
Just as Li Jin's voice fell, he plunged the dagger into the scarred man's left shoulder.
"Don't kill me, I... I'm telling the truth." Seeing that Li Jin had so mercilessly stabbed the dagger into him, the scarred man's legs went weak with fear.
Hearing this, Li Jin revealed a smile like a warm spring breeze. "You don't even know which prince it is, and you still say it's the truth? Don't you think that's ridiculous?"
The scarred man broke into a cold sweat under Li Jin's smile and subconsciously blurted out the prince's name. "The Seventh Prince. My master has pledged allegiance to the Seventh Prince."
The Seventh Prince?????
This caused a huge stir.
Li Jin and the other two were dumbstruck.
The Seventh Prince? Isn't that Ying Yuan?
"Nonsense." Ying Yuan frowned displeased. "I think you are tired of living and think your life is too long."
Ying Yuan's every move in the palace was constantly monitored by various factions. How could he possibly have had the opportunity to develop forces outside the palace? Moreover, if he really had such forces, how could he himself not know at all?
The scarred man said in terror, "Don't kill me... don't kill me... I swear, every word I said is true, without a single falsehood."
Li Jin could tell the scarred man was telling the truth, so he immediately gave him a palm strike, knocking him out.
"A Yuan, Yunting, let's knock them all out."
"Yes, Young Master."
"Alright."
To avoid setting a tiger free back to the mountains and causing havoc later, Ying Yuan and Zhou Yunting followed Li Jin's intention, knocking out and tying up all the villains present. Then they had Zhou Yunting bring the carriage over, and with the guidance of the newly awakened Dashu, transported all these people to the scarred man's residence.
[放虎归山 (fàng hǔ guī shān): lit. to set a tiger free back to the mountains; fig. to release a powerful adversary, thereby allowing future trouble or danger to recur.]
During this time.
Perhaps the fear the scarred man and his gang had instilled in the villagers was too great, not a single villager dared to come out. Or rather, ever since they heard the sounds of fighting outside, the villagers had all returned home and locked their doors, not daring to come out, afraid of being caught in the crossfire.
"Brother Jin, you are so amazing, you actually caught all of them."
Looking at those villains still unconscious, Dashu's eyes were full of worship.
Although Dashu had been unconscious for the latter half, when he woke up and saw the ground full of tied-up villains, he could easily guess that Li Jin and the others had defeated the villains.
Li Jin instructed Dashu, "Dashu, first go tell Rong Fulang that we have captured these villains, so they need not worry."
The commotion caused by Li Jin having Zhou Yunting drive the carriage over was too big for Liu Rong and the others, as well as the people in the village, not to have heard, which was precisely why Li Jin sent Dashu to tell Liu Rong and the others.
"Okay, I'll go right now."
Dashu nodded vigorously and quickly ran off.
"You've been awake for a while, haven't you? Pretending to be unconscious is not a good habit." After Dashu's figure disappeared, Li Jin suddenly curved his lips into a smile and looked at the scarred man.
Because the scarred man was still useful, his wound had been temporarily treated by Shi Weixu.
"Just who are you people?"
The scarred man looked warily at Li Jin.
Ordinary people would have a strong reaction upon hearing that his backer was a prince, but this person's expression was extremely calm and unruffled, which was truly frightening.
"That's not important." Li Jin shook his head. "Where is the master you spoke of? How many others are there, just like you, who use the name of local bullies to secretly collect grain from villages across Zhuzhou?"
While the scarred man and his gang were still unconscious earlier, Li Jin and the others had already checked the scarred man's house first and found a secret tunnel under the master bed. They immediately sent Zhou Yunting to investigate and were surprised to find it filled with grain.
Moreover, deep inside the tunnel there was another door. To avoid alerting the enemy, Zhou Yunting observed the door for a moment, then came up to report what he had seen to Li Jin.
The scarred man's back stiffened, and he repeatedly denied it. "Grain? What grain? I don't know what you're talking about."
Li Jin ignored the scarred man's feigned ignorance and continued with absolute certainty, "You deny it so quickly. Is it because you think we couldn't possibly discover the grain is hidden in the secret tunnel under your bed?"
Hearing Li Jin accurately state the hiding place of the grain, the scarred man's eyes widened in disbelief, and his face changed dramatically. "How could you know?"
Li Jin gave a light laugh. "Naturally, one of your men told me."
"Impossible." The scarred man angrily retorted without thinking, "They wouldn't have the courage to betray the master."
"He simply chose to leave the darkness and seek the light. How can that be considered betrayal?" As Li Jin said this, he looked meaningfully at the others who were tied together.
Instantly.
The ruffians fell into internal conflict, dog-eat-dog, trying to root out the supposed traitor.
"It's you, it's you who sold us out, right? I knew you were someone who couldn't be trusted."
"You've betrayed our master! Do you not fear his retribution?"
The ruffians, with each word, singled out one person whom they all agreed was the traitor.
"It wasn't me, really it wasn't me." The person who was singled out immediately felt like crying but had no tears. Although he was usually a fence-sitter, he had never thought about betraying them.
"It must be you."
This person's weak defense only made the others more certain it was him.
"You betrayed the master. The master will definitely not let you off easily." The scarred man seemed to believe it too, staring coldly at that person, his eyes as if looking at a dead man.
Among these people, the scarred man had followed that master the longest, so he naturally knew better than the others how cruel the master's punishment was for traitors.
"You all are quite impressive too. I just said it casually, and you figured it out." Li Jin shrugged. "Yunting, take him and come with me."
"Yes, Young Master."
Before that person could speak again, Zhou Yunting had already gagged him with a cloth.
"Physician Shi, the remaining people are left to you. But remember, you cannot let them die." Leaving these words, Li Jin left the room where the scarred man was, along with Ying Yuan, Zhou Yunting who was in charge of escorting, and the others.
"Yes, Young Master, you can leave it to me."
Shi Weixu gazed at the assembled men with shining eyes, a flash of shrewdness quickly passing through his gaze.
Shi Weixu's greatest pleasure in life was researching various epidemic diseases and finding suitable test subjects. These men who had committed numerous evils were undoubtedly the best test subjects.
The scarred man, terrified by Shi Weixu who was suddenly approaching them holding a bottle, stammered, "You... what are you going to do... what is that thing... don't come over... don't come over..."
___
The ruffian who was taken to a separate room, once put down by Zhou Yunting, immediately shouted, "I never betrayed anyone! Why are you framing me?"
"One thing you need to understand, it wasn't me who said you betrayed them, but they who thought you did."
"......"
Hearing this, the man was stumped.
In this situation, even if he could escape, he would be subjected to cruel torture, where even death would be a luxury.
Why are they doing this to me? Fine! Since I'm doomed anyway, you will all accompany me in death.
"What do you want to know?" These men originally had no sense of right and wrong. Therefore, after being falsely accused as the traitor by his companions, he decided to perish together with them.
Li Jin got straight to the point. "The destination for the grain."
The man said with malice, "Brother Hai, on specific days, will take a few brothers and secretly transport the grain out through that door. If you can persuade Brother Hai, you will naturally find out."
The man was also ruthless. Right after saying this, he immediately bit off his tongue and committed suicide. He hadn't forgotten that besides his so-called good brothers, Li Jin and the others were also responsible for him ending up in this situation.
No comments:
Post a Comment