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Chapter 83 Atrocities
Wu Wenqing's smile grew increasingly bitter.

“If it were a normal matter, I would accept it. I, Wu Wenqing, may be stubborn, but I am not the kind of person who can’t stand the slightest grievance. But Pan’er, this is not a trivial matter of suffering grievances. If the county magistrate and the tyrant continue to do this, half of Cangzhou will be finished!”

Wu Wenqing slapped his leg hard, seemingly accidentally touching the wound, and immediately grimaced. But he still spoke angrily.

"Others may not know, but how could I, as their official, not know? Those livestock, that Tai Sui meat, are all made from living people! Demons eat livestock, people eat Tai Sui, and then Tai Sui eat people. Right now, there are many refugees, so we can't see anything yet, but if we let them continue like this, in a few years everyone in Cangzhou will be eaten alive!"

The wife quickly bandaged the wound and then said softly.

"Then you can bring up the current situation. I remember you mentioned that the imperial court has some kind of government office called a 'town'."

"The Evil Suppression Division!" Wu Wenqing gritted his teeth even more at the mention of this. "I wrote to them four months ago, and what did they reply? 'They're busy with disaster relief in the prefecture and have no time to deal with this—'"

The next moment, Wu Wenqing burst into a tirade of curses.
"They're providing relief for a ghost disaster! If the imperial court were truly providing relief, would Cangzhou have become a place of rebellion, with demons and ghosts eating people and countless people starving to death?"

His wife immediately became anxious as well.

"Erlang, Xisheng, do you want to get arrested?"

So Wu Wenqing could only grumble and mumble.

"Since we couldn't rely on outsiders, I could only gather a bunch of my brothers, who also couldn't stand by and watch, and take advantage of the fact that the Tai Sui was too busy to care about this place. We thought we'd first coerce the county magistrate—at least there was still plenty of grain in the county's granaries, and several wells hadn't run dry—and get the people to give up Tai Sui meat first. But then..."

Seeing Wu Wenqing's sorrowful expression, his wife comforted him.

"Look on the bright side, at least you escaped with your life. As long as you're alive, there's still a chance."

"Spared my life? No, the magistrate deliberately spared me as an example, to show others what a miserable end I would suffer, in order to deter others."

Wu Wenqing finally shook his head and sighed.

"Forget about these upsetting things. We just passed by Ma Li's house—the one where I saved his dad's life before. They gave us some food, so at least we didn't leave empty-handed. Let's tidy up; at least we can have a decent meal today."

But right now.

Suddenly, a series of 'bang bang' sounds came from outside the door.

The couple both stopped talking at the same time.

The two exchanged a glance, both seeing a hint of unease in each other's eyes.

"Should I go open the door?"

Wu Wenqing gently shook his head.

"I'd better go."

He struggled to get out of bed, straightened his clothes, and then limped to the door.

"Who?"

A muffled, low voice came from outside the door.

"The county magistrate sent him to ask you some questions."

Wu Wenqing sighed silently.

—It's always like this.

Whether it was deliberately causing trouble or something else, lately whenever something happened in the county, the yamen officials would always send someone to interrogate him, ostensibly to prevent criminals from committing crimes.

But in any case, it's much better than getting beaten up for no reason.

So he had no choice but to pull out the latch and push open the wooden door.
"It's so late, what happened this time?"

But his voice suddenly stopped when he saw the person outside the door.

The clerks who used to come to interrogate people were not the ones outside the door.

Instead, it was a few burly yamen runners.

Moreover, Wu Wenqing was quite familiar with these constables—after all, not long ago, they had pinned him down on the street and beaten him half to death.

Wu Wenqing frowned instantly. "What are you doing here? And what does the magistrate want with me?"

The man in the lead opposite them returned with a grin.

"It's nothing, it's just that we brothers had a little conflict with you, Wu Tou, before, and we felt a bit bad about it after we got back, so we wanted to ask you to apologize."

—Apologize? With your kind of behavior?
Wu Wenqing, with a cold face, was about to close the door.

"I'm sorry, that conflict was indeed my fault. I don't need you guys to apologize. Just get away from me as soon as possible."

however.

Suddenly, a foot blocked the threshold.

The man in the lead was laughing more and more viciously.

"No way, we brothers came here sincerely to apologize. How can we just stop apologizing if you don't accept our apologies? Guys, how can you be so clueless? Can't you see that Wu Tou can barely stand? Help him up."

Before he could finish speaking, the burly men grabbed Wu Wenqing without saying a word.

"What are you doing! Let me go!"

Wu Wenqing immediately became anxious.

In the past, he might have been able to put up a fight, but now he is so thin and emaciated, and with the frequent beatings, his body has long since broken down, so he is completely powerless to make any struggle.

The person opposite him grinned maliciously.

"What am I doing? Didn't I say before? Of course, I'm apologizing to you, Secretary Wu. By the way, since you won't accept my apology, I can only apologize to your family."

In an instant, Wu Wenqing understood what the other party meant.

The next moment, his pupils suddenly widened to a point of rage.

"You bunch of bastards, come at me if you have a problem, don't touch Pan'er—"

However, the leader simply waved his hand, and Wu Wenqing's mouth was stuffed with a rag.

Then, they carried Wu Wenqing into the house.

—In the bedroom, Wu Wenqing's wife had already heard the commotion outside and was now retreating to the corner of the wall, looking panicked.

Seeing this group of wolves and tigers enter, she suppressed her fear and spoke in a trembling voice.

"Um, esteemed gentlemen, has Erlang offended you in any way? If so, I apologize on Erlang's behalf. I only hope that you will be magnanimous and not hold it against him."

But before she could finish speaking, the leader interrupted her.

At this moment, his smile became increasingly ugly.

"So that my wife may know, we've come here specifically to apologize to the clerk. As the saying goes, the best way to apologize is to become relatives with the person you apologize to, so we're planning to become relatives with the clerk for once. What was it again?"

The man turned around and asked, and his entourage burst into laughter.

"Boss, that thing is called a brother-in-law!"

"Yes, that's right, I'm going to become brothers-in-law with the clerk today!"

Accompanied by Wu Wenqing's muffled groans behind him, the leader grabbed the still-attractive woman and, with a forceful pull, tore open her thin blouse!

A patch of fair skin came into view, accompanied by even more laughter and whistles.

The leader grinned maliciously at the woman who was already terrified.

"Don't worry, my wife. There are plenty of people who want to become brothers-in-law with Wu the Clerk today. Anyway, you've offended the Star Lord and the Magistrate. Even if you get killed here, no one will say anything. I've long heard that the Clerk's wife is beautiful, and now it seems she truly lives up to the name. Come, let me have a taste of the first soup."

But just as the leader took off his pants, a voice suddenly rang out not far behind him.

"—Excuse me, what are you guys doing here?"

　The author, having finally finished writing, felt completely drained, truly, without a single drop left.
　　
　
(End of this chapter)