The court lackeys of the eight-hour workday

Chapter 318 I'll Learn!

“I, my name is Bei Shouzhen… I, I am a true disciple of the Kongming Sect, a disciple of Elder Yunfeng Zhenren, the third in my lineage. The two who died were my senior brothers…”

Bei Shouzheng suppressed the churning in his stomach, trying hard not to think about his left hand and right leg, which had become bare bones, and the rusty taste in his mouth, and said through gritted teeth.

"What my senior brother said outside that dilapidated temple last night, that elders from our sect would be coming later, was actually just him bluffing. After we ambushed and injured Shu Qingyi that day, we didn't actually know which direction he fled in."

"So we split up to pursue them, and only my two senior brothers and I caught up with them here."

Gao Anyu frowned, looked into the other person's eyes, and said coldly.

"and then?"

Bei Shouzheng hesitated for a moment, but Gao Anyu had already raised his longsword, which frightened him so much that his face turned pale, and he quickly continued speaking.

“We’ve been following Shu Qingyi for a long time, and we’ve been lying in ambush for more than half a month in order to catch him. Before we made our move, we even spent a day and a night squatting in the latrine. Seeing the duck that was about to be caught fly away, the two senior brothers are both very upset.”

“Our initial plan was to find our sect first, bring the elders of the sect with us, and then come back to you all… to reason with you.”

Li Miao, who was standing to the side, scoffed.

"But on our way down the mountain, we happened to run into a woodcutter going up the mountain."

“We didn’t pay any attention to him, we just passed by him. But at that moment, I… I glanced at him and realized that his appearance was five or six parts similar to Shu Qing, whom we had just lost!”

"I say, 'I searched high and low without finding it, but it came to me effortlessly.'"

He spoke as he recalled the events.

"Actually, at first, I just found it funny and showed it to my two senior brothers as a self-deprecating joke."

"Unexpectedly, when the eldest brother saw the woodcutter's face and heard what I said, he fell silent and stopped walking. The second brother also stopped."

"When the woodcutter saw that the two men had surrounded him, he panicked and slipped. The mountain path was already steep, and it had just rained heavily, making it extremely slippery. He fell to the ground and slid down the mountain path for several feet."

"The eldest brother pulled him back, and the second brother helped him up."

He said thank you.

He said, "Thank you, two great heroes."

"Then, the senior brother asked him with a smile how he wanted to thank him and what he should use to express his gratitude."

"He was stunned for a moment, and so was I. Then I saw my second senior brother draw his sword. Before I could even make a sound, his head fell off."

"After that, it was time to return to Guangxin Prefecture, collect the reward money, and then come here..."

Bei Shouzheng stopped speaking.

Li Miao and Zheng Yi didn't react, their expressions remained unchanged. Gao Anyu covered his mouth with his hand, yawned, and rubbed his eyes.

Only Cao Hanyan's face flushed red, her inner energy involuntarily surged, and she gripped the hilt of her knife tightly, making a creaking sound.

He spoke in a hoarse voice.

"You seem to be trying to absolve yourself of all responsibility... According to you, this is your first time coming down the mountain, so you don't know what they did before; this incident was also orchestrated by them, and you didn't lift a finger from beginning to end."

"Is it right?"

Bei Shouzheng nodded hurriedly: "Yes, yes, Your Excellency, I am absolutely not lying!"

"I was just dragged into this... I'm innocent!"

"Fuck you!"

Cao Hanyan let out a sharp shout, her face turning red for the first time, and uttered a curse.

Needless to say, Gao Anyu and Zheng Yi were surprised, and even Li Miao put down his teacup and raised his eyebrows to look at this usually calm and kind old man.

Cao Hanyan's anger was uncontrollable. She drew her long sword with a clang and slashed down.

A sound of metal breaking rang out, and a package suddenly exploded, scattering the reward money received by the three members of the Kongming Sect.

"You say you weren't involved, you say you're innocent!?"

"So, will you spend this silver, this silver obtained at the cost of innocent lives?"

"What did you mean by pouring tea for those two beasts just now?!" "You dare call yourself clean?!"

Cao Hanyan stepped forward and grabbed Bei Shouzhen by the collar, her eyes wide with anger as she stared directly into his eyes.

"Did you even look at that head? When you exchanged that head for silver, did you examine the person closely?"

“His face was covered in chapped skin, his ears were covered in frostbite, and there were scratches from wild animals on his neck! You were coming down the mountain around 3 AM at the latest, but he had already come up the mountain!”

"Woodcutters usually go up the mountain in groups around dawn, but he came so early just so he could cut down the trees sooner, get back to town to sell them, and earn a few more coins!"

"Look at his teeth, he's only in his twenties, but his face looks like he's forty!"

“At his age, he probably has an elderly mother, a wife, and children at home! The livelihood of the whole family rests on his shoulders, so he has to go up the mountain alone at night, risking being scratched by wild animals, just to earn a few more coins!”

With a loud thud, Cao Hanyan slammed Bei Shouzheng hard onto the table.

"He only wanted to earn a few more coins, and he ran into you bunch of beasts! You cut off his head and happily exchanged it for silver! And you even said you had a 'sudden enlightenment'!"

You say you're clean!

"Before he died, he was still calling you heroes!"

Cao Hanyan's eyes were already red.

He suddenly raised his head and looked at Li Miao.

"Uncle, no, when you were teaching Brother Gao just now, you said that this method of skinning and tearing flesh was only the first one."

"What is the procedure for the second set? Could you teach me?"

Li Miao raised an eyebrow, casually picked up a chopstick from the table, walked over to the table, and tapped Bei Shouzheng's armpit, neck, collarbone, and pelvis.

"Find a few chopsticks and insert them into the hole. Let your inner energy flow into the chopsticks. The more subtle the energy, the better the effect. Then keep inserting the chopsticks... I thought you didn't want to learn."

Cao Hanyan, her eyes red, slowly shook her head.

"I really didn't want to learn before."

“Before, I thought that killing was just a matter of beheading, and that using excessively ruthless methods was not the right way… I was wrong. I shouldn’t have thought that the martial arts world was like the story Brother Yin told me.”

“You are right, and the Embroidered Uniform Guard is right too. Some people shouldn’t die easily… Punishing evil without being harsh enough is tantamount to suppressing good; the more the wicked suffer, the more peaceful the good will be in the afterlife!”

"Could you please wait a moment for me, and also for Aunt Zheng? Please wait a moment."

"Brother Gao."

Cao Hanyan raised her head and spoke to Gao Anyu.

"Come here. Let's study this technique together!"

Gao Anyu's eyes widened in surprise, and he quickly walked over, smiling as he said, "Brother Cao!"

"You understand now! We're getting more and more compatible!"

Cao Hanyan nodded silently, picked up the chopsticks Li Miao had placed on the table, gritted her teeth, and stabbed them fiercely into the terrified Bei Shouzhen!

Suppressed screams spread along the official road.

A group of martial arts practitioners were traveling on horseback when an elderly man leading the group frowned and spurred his horse to stop a passerby who was coming towards them with a panicked expression.

"Please wait a moment, young man. May I ask what happened up ahead? Why are you so panicked? And whose bloodstain is this on your clothes?"

The passerby had just stopped to rest at a tea stall when he suddenly saw a head fall to the ground. He fled in panic along the main road, still in shock. Seeing the long sword at the other person's waist, and the manner of a江湖人 (jianghu person, a person of the martial arts world), he was even more terrified and speechless.

The old man dismounted and bowed.

“Young man, there’s no need to panic. I am an elder of the Kongming Sect. I was just passing by while following the trail of the sect’s disciples. I am not a villain from the martial world.”

"Our Kongming Sect is a reputable and righteous sect. If you encounter any injustice, please feel free to speak up!"

"Punishing evil and promoting good is the bounden duty of the Kongming Sect!"

(End of this chapter)