Records of Mysterious Things in the Southern Dynasties

Chapter 18: Ying Ran Sees the Edge

"My family has been so kind to him, why would he do this?" Ren Yuan asked loudly.

"Ah, why did he do that?" As soon as Butler Xie mumbled, his neck was cut by the sharp blade and blood started flowing. He quickly shouted, "I remember now, he committed adultery with Feng, and he must have done that because he was afraid of being discovered by the owner of the manor."

With a buzzing sound, everyone in the village looked at the village owner's concubine, Feng, who fainted on the spot.

"Great, now the truth is out." Ren Yuan immediately ordered someone to bring paper and pen, and asked Butler Xie to write down the charges that Ma Qianjin had committed adultery with the manor owner's concubine and colluded with the evil spirit to kill the owner's family for fear that the matter would be exposed, and had him sign and seal it.

After pressing the handprint, Butler Xie looked at Ren Yuan flatteringly and said, "I will definitely obey the Second Young Master's orders in the future, and will go through fire and water without hesitation."

"Okay, that's what you said." Ren Yuan nodded and said calmly: "Then I will kill you now!"

"Ah?" Before Butler Xie could show the shock on his face, Ren Yuan raised his sword and killed him on the spot.

"Do you think I don't know that that idiot Ma Qianjin was instigated by you?" Ren Yuan wiped the blade of the knife with Butler Xie's clothes and looked around the field calmly. Everyone lowered their heads in fear and no one dared to look him in the eye.

Shocking the whole audience, Ren Yuancai announced in a cold voice: "All evil is led by conspiracy, and Xie Fugui is the real mastermind! He has been deceiving his superiors and subordinates for a long time, enriching himself, and when he saw that the matter was exposed, he instigated Ma Qianjin, who was guilty of adultery, to join in the rebellion. So should he be put to death?"

"Damn it!" Everyone in the village hurriedly responded loudly, fearing that they would be implicated.

"Okay, now that you understand right from wrong, I'll reward each of you two strings of cash!" Ren Yuan waved his hand again.

"Thank you, Master!" Now everyone in the manor wholeheartedly supports the second young master. "We swear to be loyal to you till death!"

"That's right, do your job well, and I won't treat you unfairly." Ren Yuan nodded with satisfaction, then glanced coldly at the two dead ghosts' confidants and squeezed out some chilling words from between his teeth.

"As for you, those who commit treason must die, and so must those who conspire with them!"

"Second Young Master, no, Master, please spare us. We know nothing!" The farmhands cried out in injustice, saying:

"They only said they would take us to catch the murderer, but they didn't say they were targeting the owner of the manor. Otherwise, we wouldn't dare to come even if they beat us to death."

"Yes, let's kill them first!"

"We are the owner's people in life and his ghosts in death. Who is Xie Fugui? How could we possibly rebel against him? We have been deceived!"

"Anyway, there is no evidence, so they can't refute anything you say." Ren Yuan said with a straight face.

"We are so loyal that we would never dare to disobey the owner of the manor even if we die!" The farmhands kowtowed and begged for mercy.

"Okay, I'll give you a chance to make up for your crime." Ren Yuan said fiercely, "Listen to my orders and do what I say. Don't hesitate. If you can do it, you can atone for your crime and get a huge reward. If you hesitate even a little, not only will you be in danger, but your whole family will be in trouble!"

After a long pause, he asked in a deep voice: "Those who are willing to seize this opportunity, stand in front of me!"

"I!"

"Me!" All the twenty or so farmhands stood in front of Ren Yuan without exception.

"You, immediately find all the vegetable oil and cotton cloth in the village, make them into torches and send them to the temple." Ren Yuan ordered the rest of the people in the village, "I don't care what method you use, even if you tear down the village, I will reward you handsomely if you can make 10,000 torches. If you can't make 8,000, you will be punished!"

"Yes, Master!" Everyone in Zhuangzi obeyed the order in awe, feeling that this young second master was more intimidating than the previous two masters.

"Take your weapons and follow me!" Ren Yuan gave an order, turned over, rode on the leopard, and led the twenty or so farmhands out of the farm with murderous intent.

The civet cat jumped down from the village gate, landed on Ren Yuan's head, and asked, "A Yuan, what are you going to do now?"

"Go and be Ximen Bao!" Ren Yuan adjusted his 'Wenli official hat'.

The red leopard was very happy when he heard it. He closed his eyes, opened his bloody mouth, bared his fangs, stuck out his tongue, and laughed like a leopard, which was very devilish. "What are you laughing at? Ximen Bao is a human being, not one of your kind." However, he was hit by the civet cat, and his tail fell to the ground.

~~
The open space in front of the community temple at the end of the boulevard was already crowded with people, more than twice as many as the last time the gods were worshipped seven days ago.

Seven days ago, each family only sent out one representative, but today the whole family came out, kneeling in front of the temple and kowtowing continuously, begging the god to take quick action to stop those terrible locusts!
Otherwise, all the crops, trees, grass... would be eaten up before dark.

But the community god was reluctant to go out. It was said that the old witch threw the divination blocks and got a Yin cup, which meant that the god did not agree to go out.

Several village heads wanted to ask Xie Zhuangzhu to take charge, but they heard that there was a commotion in the village and they were too busy to take care of themselves. Just when they were running around in panic and seeing stars, they finally saw someone coming from Xiejiazhuang.

They hurried over to meet them, but saw that the Xie family members were all wearing linen clothes and white cloth around their waists. It was obvious that there had been a funeral in the family. So they bowed to Ren Yuan, the leader, and asked, "Second Young Master, who is this person who has passed away?"

"Except me, all are gone." Ren Yuan covered his face with his sleeves and said in a sad voice, "Last night, my family suffered a great disaster. The thieves colluded with the evil spirits and killed my grandmother, father, brother, and younger brother. Wahahaha, sob, sob, sob..."

“Ah?!” Everyone’s jaw dropped to the ground, not knowing whether to be shocked or sad. They were all stunned.

"Everyone, let's put my family's funeral aside for now, and let's solve the current locust plague first!" But Ren Yuan had already taken on the responsibility and regarded himself as the new owner of the manor.

"Oh, yes." Everyone nodded in agreement, and no one questioned Ren Yuan's authority.

In this strictly hierarchical society, even the children of the Xie family can give orders to them, not to mention the second young master who was solemnly introduced by the late owner of the manor and listed in the Xie family genealogy.

Besides, the situation was urgent, and any delay would result in the destruction of large tracts of fertile land. No matter who he was, we should be thankful that there was someone who could make the decision and come forward to communicate with the community god.

So everyone surrounded Ren Yuan and entered the community temple.

~~
In the community temple, the old witch and a group of fairy children were actually very panicked, because their community god had gone out last night and had not returned yet...

The old witch crushed several talismans to summon the gods, but there was no response at all. This had never happened before.

"I've told you so many times. We can't set out without instructions from the gods." Seeing Ren Yuan and the others coming in, the old witch with chicken skin and white hair shouted hoarsely, "Everyone, go out and wait!"

"There are locusts everywhere outside, eating our crops everywhere, and you just let us wait?" Ren Yuan didn't listen to her at all. He walked into the main hall, pointed his halberd at the statue, and shouted:

"You sucked our marrow from our bones and never waited even a moment when you asked us to offer you blood and food!"

"Are you crazy? How dare you insult God in person?!" The old witch was so shocked that she couldn't close her mouth. She had never seen such a madman before.

"What's that? I dare to hit him!" Ren Yuan said, and he jumped onto the altar, slapped the ferocious face, then grabbed the arm of the statue and ordered:

"Stand up right now and go out and scold the Locust God - didn't we agree that if we sacrifice a boy and a girl today, he would let us go? Why did you take action before the time comes? Do you have any credibility at all?!"

"Oh my, what are you doing? Come down quickly!" The old witch and everyone in the temple were furious. The fairy children who acted as minions gathered around the altar and tried to pull Ren Yuan down.

"Who dares to touch our manor master?!" The farmhands brought by Ren Yuan had already received orders and drew their weapons to block the fairy children aside.

"Second Young Master, come down quickly. You can't afford to offend the community god!" The village heads also tried to persuade him with pale faces. If they knew that Ren Yuan was so reckless, they would never dare to follow him in even if they were beaten to death.

"That's right, divine punishment is about to come. If you continue to disrespect the gods, the entire Xiejia Village will suffer with you!" said the old witch sternly.

"If you have the guts, punish me!" Ren Yuan smiled contemptuously and sneered at the statue, "I'll count to three. If you don't punish me, I'll push you down."

"One, two, three, it's about time." He stretched out three fingers, bent them one by one, and then exerted force with his arms, pushing the ferocious statue off the altar.

Amid screams, everyone dodged in panic, watching helplessly as the usually high-and-mighty statue of the god fell to the ground with a bang, shattered into pieces, and turned into a pile of broken rubble.

(End of this chapter)