Jinting Han people

Chapter 60: Meeting Afule Again (4k)

After that, more than ten days passed and nothing happened in Anle Mansion. Just when everyone was about to forget about this incident, someone knocked on the door of Anle Mansion in the evening.

It was evening, but in reality it was already completely dark. The moon had risen in the east, and there were only about two-quarters of an hour left until curfew. Usually at this time of year, no one would visit. The gatekeeper, Wang Qi, had already spread out his bed and yawned, getting ready for sleep.

As a result, there were several "dong dong dong" sounds at the door, which were very loud, as if there was a water ghost at the bottom of the river digging at the boat.

Wang Qi quickly put on his clothes, lit a lantern and went out to see what was going on. He was shocked.

The man at the door not only had disheveled hair and a beggarly face, but also looked as if he had rolled around in a mud pit several times, his entire body covered in mud and filth, and he exuded a faint smell of blood and decay. He was leading a tall, mottled horse, holding a bloodstained package in his hand, and a rotten sword like an iron bar was worn out at his waist. He looked like a demon crawling out of hell.

The most terrifying thing was that this person seemed quite pleased with himself. He actually grinned confidently, revealing a row of snow-white teeth, and asked, "Does Liu Xian live here?"

The voice was very childish. Wang Qi could tell he was quite young, and then he came to his senses. Then he became a little confused and asked, "Excuse me, who are you..."

"Oh!" Afule said, "I'm a horse seller. The horse I'm leading is the one Liu Xian likes. If you tell him, he'll know right away."

"Horse seller?" Liu Xian was polishing the Zhaowu Sword in his room. Upon hearing this, he couldn't help but laugh, "Is this kid finally here?"

"Who are you talking about?" A'Luo was lighting incense nearby. When she heard this, she couldn't help but look up and ask.

"That's the guest I mentioned earlier, the one who was very unique and had been waiting for several days."

After saying this, Liu Xian immediately sealed his sword and walked out to greet the guests at the door. Seeing Afule's dirty appearance, he burst out laughing and asked in a very familiar voice, "Afule, you are still alive!"

The Jiehu boy looked at Liu Xian's face. "Hey, stop talking. I finally meet you." He also smiled easily. "Does what you said before still count?"

"I said a lot of things that day. Which one did you say?"

"Of course it's the last sentence." Afule pretended to imitate the tone and said, "My home still welcomes guests."

Liu Xian spoke calmly at the time, but after Afule said that, he seemed to become pretentious and hypocritical. His tone was quite similar, and everyone present, including Wang Qi, was amused.

"Of course it still counts." Liu Xian made way and smiled at him, "No matter what my family says, we still have a wing room."

"That's not enough."

"What's not enough?"

Afule said seriously, "You are a man of great reputation. You should be well-mannered and make guests feel at home."

Are you blackmailing me again? Liu Xian laughed, but for some reason, facing such a straightforward request that seemed like a joke, he still didn't feel disgusted. Instead, he pretended not to understand and asked, "What do you mean by making guests feel at home?"

Afule said: "Of course there must be a full meal, a bucket of hot water, a new set of clothes! And a bucket of wheat and beans for my brother!" After that, he patted the Fanyu horse beside him, and the Fanyu horse also understood human nature, raised its head and neighed.

"Good! Good! Good! You know how to live!" Liu Xian laughed and welcomed him in, and at the same time instructed Wang Qi, "Just do as he says! Wang Qi, go ask Zhu Fu how much wheat and beans are left at home. Feed it all to the horse."

Then Liu Xian asked Achun to boil water and cook, while he took out a set of silk clothes from the closet to make spare clothes for Afule.

After two quarters of an hour, Afule had finished washing. He came out wearing Liu Xian's clothes, which made people's eyes light up:
Although I thought Afule had an extraordinary appearance when I saw him before, but now that he was dressed up, he was completely transformed into a different person. He had a well-proportioned figure and a heroic face, especially his pair of flying knife-like eyebrows, which made his originally deep eyes look sharp and penetrating, as if he could see through people's hearts at a glance.

However, he felt quite uncomfortable with the silk. He shook his shoulders and rubbed his waist as he walked, saying uncomfortably, "You nobles' clothes are really strange. They look like they have been wiped with snot."

Liu Xian sat by the lake, food already laid out before him. He laughed and scolded him, "You're wasting food! How about I change you into something numb?"

"No, no!" The Jiehu youth hurriedly sat down at the table and said seriously, "I'll get used to it first. In less than ten years, I'll have a hundred rolls of embroidered silk. Right now, I'm just dormant, waiting for transformation."

He looked quite presentable when he was talking, but as soon as he started to eat, he immediately turned into a hungry ghost. Liu Xian prepared three Hu pancakes, a bowl of chicken soup, and a bowl of ham and egg custard for him, but he devoured them all in a flash. Liu Xian even doubted whether he had chewed them at all.

But Afule still looked hungry. He licked his bowl and then asked with an unsatisfied look, "I'm only half full. Anything else?"

"There are only steamed buns left. If you don't mind, you can have as much as you want."

"Just give me enough! I'm from a poor family and I'm not picky about food. Give me five!"

After a while, the steamed buns were served again. Afule ate a little slower this time, so Liu Xian had the opportunity to ask him about his experiences over the past few days:

"You went to the horse market to track him, but did you get any results?"

A Fule choked for a moment, quickly drank a glass of water to calm himself down, and then said, "There is a result. I saw someone selling my horse that day, so I hurried to go and see. It turned out that the person selling the horse was not the robber at that time."

"no?"

"Indeed, they weren't. There were only about ten people selling horses. The leader was so fat that he looked unrecognizable. He looked like he came from a wealthy family. He couldn't even hold a sword properly, so there was no way he could rob people."

"So, these past few days..." Liu Xian suddenly thought of his actions. "Ah, have you been following them and investigating?"

"Yes." Afule glanced at him and continued, "Although these people are not robbers, they are definitely related to the robbers. I'm squatting near them to see who they come into contact with."

"For the first five days, these people just sold horses and didn't do anything else. It wasn't until the fourth day, when some horses couldn't be sold, that they sold them at a low price and left. There were so many people at the horse market, I almost lost them. Luckily, the leader was easy to spot, so I was able to catch up with him."

"Have you found the robber now?"

"No, but it's almost there." Afule lowered his voice and said mysteriously, "I saw this group of people heading northwest, and I thought they were going to run into a bandit's den. But after walking for a long time, they ended up at a huge manor. It was horribly luxurious!"

A luxurious garden in the northwest of Luoyang? When Liu Xian heard this, he suddenly had a bad feeling.

Afule continued, "I don't know if you've seen it, but you've probably heard of it. Around the farm, there were over ten miles of ginkgo and poplar trees planted, a terrifying number. I hid Fanyu inside and walked deeper, but it took me three quarters of an hour to get out." "And when I looked inside, there were lotus ponds, rockery, and many small buildings, high platforms, and stone pavilions. Even though the people who followed us disappeared inside, where else could they have gone? They must be in the garden."

Hearing this, Liu Xian felt relieved. It really was Jingu Garden! Could it be that Shi Chong was the mastermind behind the robbers? This was truly a serious matter.

As he pondered, he continued to question Afule, "Are you sure? Without evidence, there's still a possibility of misjudgment. If you offend the wrong person, the consequences could be very serious."

"Of course I know." Afule rolled his eyes, leaned back, and rubbed his stomach. "So, I kept an eye on this garden for another six or seven days. This garden is really big. I had already made up my mind to chew grass roots every day and endure it for a month to find out if there was anything fishy going on here. But within two days, I really ran into it!"

"Did you see the robber?"

"No, but I found something else!" Afule excitedly picked up his blood-stained package, placed it on the table, and said excitedly: "I found the pit where they buried the bodies. It's in the apricot forest outside the garden!"

He opened the package, revealing the contents. A foul odor hit him. It turned out to be a human head, its eyes still open! Liu Xian frowned as he tried to identify it. He could vaguely make out the high nose and deep eyes of the head, clearly belonging to a barbarian.

"Is this your companion?"

Afule nodded, wrapped the head again, and said, "You didn't see it, that forest is a mass grave. There are at least hundreds of people buried there, and even thousands wouldn't be surprising. I've done nothing else these past few days but dig the soil there, and in the end I only found a dozen or so people I know."

"You were digging over there and you weren't discovered?"

"It's a good thing they buried it randomly. There are half-dug pits everywhere, and there are also pits that have been dug but not filled. Otherwise, it would be difficult for me to deal with it and hide it."

Afule shook his head regretfully, then leaned in and whispered, "Come to think of it, they buried two women there today. It's really baffling. Do they even rob women?"

Liu Xian couldn't help but smile bitterly. Of course it wasn't robbery; he simply tortured and murdered women for pleasure. The image of Ah Qing's death suddenly surfaced before his eyes. Was she buried there, too? Then he thought of Lu Zhu, her doll-like obedience and moonlight-like beauty.

Liu Xian quickly dismissed these distracting thoughts. A Fule's description of the inner workings of Jingu Garden was already horrifying enough. Earlier in Jingu Garden, Liu Xian had secretly criticized Shi Chong for murder, even imagining a river of blood. He hadn't imagined the reality would be mountains of corpses! And the murder and looting was happening right in the capital!
This also solved a puzzle in Liu Xian's mind: Why did Shi Chong's wealth reach such an unimaginable level? It turned out that he secretly had a group of assassins who specialized in robbing merchants. How could he not become rich suddenly when he made money without any effort?

But it is not surprising that he was so arrogant, as the country's eight-deliberation system allowed him to do so. Shi Chong was neither the first nor the only one to do so.

Li Mi had previously told Liu Xian that before he took office in Wen County, the Sima kings often had the habit of abducting the people as slaves in Wen County. Compared with them, Shi Chong was not very outstanding. He was just the most perseverant and the one who knew how to manage money the best.

Somehow, Liu Xian's eyes appeared with Lu Zhu's clear, indifferent and lifeless look again. Living in such a lifeless Jingu Garden, even if he had fine clothes and delicious food, could he really feel happy?
Seeing that Liu Xian's expression was uncertain, Afule was not sure what the Prince of Anle was thinking. However, he had made up his mind when he came to find Liu Xian this time, and even kept testing him along the way.

He patted Liu Xian on the shoulder and said, "Hey, do you know what's going on? You look so grim."

Liu Xian came back to his senses and forced a smile. He said, "This family is very powerful. You can't afford to offend them. Are you sure you want revenge?"

"How big is it?"

"I've been to the manor you saw. It's called Jingu Garden, the best garden in the world. The owner of that garden is Shi Chong, the former governor of Jingzhou. His father is Shi Bao, the Duke of Leling. This means that the entire Shi family supports him behind the scenes. Do you understand?"

A Fule thought for a moment, then shook his head and said, "I don't understand. I'm just a kid, and I can't read. So what if he holds a high position? To me, there's no difference between the emperor and the county magistrate."

What a rebellious boy! He clearly possessed boundless courage, and it was hard for him to conceal his admiration.

Liu Xian laughed and said, "But when it comes to revenge, there's a huge difference between a county magistrate and a county lord. I'm afraid you can't kill him. Even if you do, you definitely won't survive."

"Can't you kill him?" Afule nodded, seeming to trust Liu Xian's judgment, and then said, "Then don't kill him, but what if I want to make his life miserable?"

"There's a slight chance, but it's still a small chance."

"As long as there's a chance!"

Afule laughed heartily, his expression so full of hope that the future seemed smooth and that no matter how great the difficulties and obstacles were, they would be nothing more than pebbles everywhere. Liu Xian couldn't help but want to scold him: "But for you now, there's still no chance."

"No chance, why?"

"Because you're only one person, no matter how hard you try, there's only so much you can do."

Afule's eyes widened, and he asked in shock, "No, aren't we in the same group?"

"..."

Liu Xian didn't know what expression to use for a moment.

A Fule continued, "You've given me food, shelter, and clothing, and you've even helped me raise horses. Good brother, no, you're practically my husband (referring to my father)! Could you really bear to see me do this alone?"

"Get lost!" Liu Xian scolded with a smile, "I treated you to two meals and you're still blackmailing me. My whole family is here. If I do this to you, you'll have nowhere to run if something happens! The Shi family is one of the eight founding dukes, countless times more powerful than ours!"

"But aren't you a descendant of Liu Bei?" Afule said matter-of-factly. "No matter how powerful the Shi family is, they're just a fox relying on the power of a tiger. No matter how poor your family is, aren't you still the descendant of a hero? A fox is destined to be no match for a dragon."

"Where did this nonsense come from? Power is power, and it will not change because of who holds it." Liu Xian looked at Afule with a very serious face, but he was still moved in his heart.

It’s not that I can’t help him, Liu Xian thought.

Liu Xian stood up and wandered for a moment, glancing at the waning moon in the sky. His mind replayed the experience of that day in the Golden Valley Garden. He quickly made up his mind and turned to the Jiehu youth, saying, "How about this? I'll give you a test. If you pass it, I'll let you join."

"test?"

"As I said, one person can't possibly accomplish this, and two people wouldn't be enough either. But if you can secretly gather a hundred people, I think it's worth a try."

"One hundred people?" Afule stood up in surprise. He hesitated for a moment, then his hidden smile reappeared. He quickly nodded and said, "Okay, it's a deal!"

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(End of this chapter)