Volume 1: A Stranger in a Foreign Land Chapter 9: Killing Four Birds with One Stone
The streets were filled with pedestrians converging in one direction.
Yang Ge and Wang Dali walked through the increasingly crowded crowd and returned to Yuelai Inn.
From a distance, Yang Ge saw Manager Liu standing in the half-open door of the inn, surrounded by a circle of business owners.
Seeing Yang Ge coming back, Shopkeeper Liu came out to greet him with great joy: "You are finally here!"
Yang Ge came forward and asked in confusion, "Boss, what's going on?"
Wang Dali's mouth is as fluent as a rap when he talks about gossip, but when it comes to serious matters, he is like the crotch of cotton pants, stuttering for a long time and unable to make any sense.
Yang Ge listened to him all the way, but still didn't understand what was going on.
Manager Liu dismissed the neighbors gathered at the inn's gate. When the three of them were the only ones left, he said, "The gangster who robbed our inn the night before has been apprehended. The authorities have ordered us all to wait at the inn. They will bring him here for identification."
"Is the efficiency of the Embroidered Uniform Guard so high?"
Yang Ge understood and pointed at the crowd outside the door: "Who are those people on the street..."
Shopkeeper Liu: "Just watch the fun! The government is parading that villain through the streets!"
"Parade?"
Yang Ge was stunned for two seconds before he suddenly realized what was going on. He exclaimed in his heart, "As expected of someone who can accomplish great things, he has a big vision!"
He initially thought that Shen Fa would send someone to spread the word and directly pin the "martial arts secret book left by Jiang Kui" on the man in black the night before.
I didn't expect Shen Fa to publicize this matter so loudly and even push it to the political level of killing the chicken to scare the monkey.
So...
It solved his problem once and for all.
It also strengthened public security during the martial arts test by killing the chicken to scare the monkey.
It also indirectly demonstrated the majesty of the imperial court and the power of the Embroidered Uniform Guard in front of that group of lawless people in the martial arts world.
It can be said to kill three birds with one stone!
Compared with Shen Fa's method, his method is not only passive and petty, but also fails to solve the problem from the root.
Shopkeeper Liu seemed to have thought of this as well, and asked expectantly, "Young man, is that matter over now?"
Yang Ge nodded confidently: "It's definitely over. The government has already stepped in. If they continue to pick on us, wouldn't that be a slap in the government's face? It's not worth it!"
After hearing Yang Ge's firm assurance, the heavy stone hanging in Manager Liu's heart finally fell to the ground.
He stroked his chest, feeling relieved, and said, "It's all over, it's all over... I haven't been able to sleep these past two nights, worried that this will hurt you. If that happens, we won't be able to live in peace for the rest of our lives!"
After the matter was settled, he finally expressed his worries.
Yang Ge was touched and forced a smile to comfort her, "You're just overthinking it. Didn't I tell you yesterday that it was nothing serious? You still don't believe me!"
Shopkeeper Liu turned around, dragged over a chair, and slowly sat down. Upon hearing this, he smiled and waved his hand, saying, "Whether it's true or not, I have a scale in my heart."
Yang Ge smiled and said nothing more. He turned to Wang Dali and said, "Little Wang, come with me to boil some water and make a few pots of hot tea. When the officials come to visit, we can't just not offer them a cup of hot water. That would be too rude."
These words made Shopkeeper Liu unable to sit still. He slapped his forehead and stood up: "What a neglect! Go and boil some water. Let's go get the good tea we have in stock..."
It was a coincidence that the three people in the inn had just hurriedly made tea when they heard a loud gong sound.
The three of them hurried out to greet them.
In the center of the crowded long street, more than twenty officials with dignified appearance, wearing dark embroidered robes with tight sleeves and silver oxtail knives on their waists, were escorting a middle-aged man covered in blood, with his hands and feet shackled, towards this side with the sound of gongs and drums.
Yang Ge was mentally prepared. After glancing at the Embroidered Uniform Guards wearing Yazi uniforms, he turned his gaze to the middle-aged man in shackles. He felt that this man's figure was indeed very similar to the man in black who sneaked into the inn the night before.
Shopkeeper Liu was not mentally prepared. The moment he saw the uniforms of the Embroidered Uniform Guards, his legs went weak with fear: "Oh my god, Embroidered Uniform Guards!"
Yang Ge quickly supported him and said, "Don't be afraid. We are all good citizens. The officials from the Embroidered Uniform Guard are here to uphold justice for us. What are you afraid of?"
“Yes, yes, yes…”
Shopkeeper Liu nodded rapidly, "We are all good citizens... our ancestors have all been good citizens for eight generations!"
Having said that, the old man's legs were still shaking like the little prince of electronic music.
Seeing Manager Liu like this, Yang Ge finally had an intuitive understanding of the deterrent power of the Embroidered Uniform Guard.
A group of Embroidered Uniform Guards escorted a middle-aged man to the door of Yuelai Inn. The leading officer raised his hand and the whole team stopped.
"Are you the victims of Yuelai Inn?"
The officer of the Embroidered Uniform Guard held his sword at his waist and glanced at the three people in front of the inn door with a cold gaze like the wind.
Shopkeeper Liu stepped forward tremblingly, bowing like pounding garlic: "Master Fatty, we, we, we..."
Seeing that Shopkeeper Liu was so nervous that he couldn't even speak straight, Yang Ge stepped forward and bowed, saying, "Your Excellency, I and others are the owners of the Yuelai Inn. Last night, a criminal did break into our Yuelai Inn and commit a crime. I was the one who discovered the criminal."
"That's perfect!"
The Embroidered Uniform Guard officer turned sideways and pointed at the middle-aged man behind him: "Take a closer look. Is this the villain who committed the crime the night before?"
"yes!"
Yang Ge responded, and under the gaze of countless people, he stepped forward and took a closer look at the middle-aged man.
The middle-aged man had a ball gag in his mouth and couldn't speak. Seeing Yang Ge coming up to him and staring at him intently, he cried out in fear.
With disheveled hair and tears streaming down his face, he looked both hideous and pitiful.
"Behave yourself!"
The officer of the Embroidered Uniform Guard turned around and kicked Yang Ge to his knees, not knowing whether he was afraid that Yang Ge would be frightened by the middle-aged man or that Yang Ge had other concerns.
Unexpectedly, the middle-aged man fell to the ground, rolling around howling, as if he had suffered some great injustice.
The crowd watching was slightly agitated...
Although there was no sound of discussion, it seemed as if countless mosquitoes and flies were scurrying around in the air.
Yang Ge looked up at the officer of the Embroidered Uniform Guard.
But he found that the officer of the Embroidered Uniform Guard was also looking at him... staring at him.
He lowered his head, stepped on the middle-aged man's neck, bent down and opened his clothes, and saw a circle of hemostatic cloth tied around his left shoulder near his chest.
He lifted the hemostatic cloth, and a hideous blood scab half a foot long, running from left to right, with the skin and flesh turned to both sides, which was still oozing black blood even after being coated with a thick layer of hemostatic medicine, appeared before his eyes.
Seeing this scar, Yang Ge finally confirmed the identity of the person under his feet.
The night before, the man in black overturned the table and extinguished the oil lamp on it.
Therefore, the only clue Yang Ge had to verify the identity of the man in black was the first axe he swung when he rushed into the darkness... That was the axe he swung based on his last memory after the light went out and the direction from which the man in black's shouting came.
He clearly remembered that the axe hit the black-clad man's chest.
The subsequent tearing and chopping was completely random. Although he felt that he had hit several times with the axe, he didn't know where exactly he hit.
"Your Excellency, this man is indeed the villain who broke into our Yuelai Inn the night before and committed a crime. That night, I was forced to fight him and hit him in the chest with the axe we use to chop firewood in the inn... Please look, Your Excellency, this scar is the proof!"
Everyone's eyes turned to the middle-aged man's chest as Yang Ge spoke.
The crowd gradually became still, and the faint sound of mosquitoes and flies flying in the air slowly disappeared.
The Embroidered Uniform Guard officer glanced at the scars and raised his head, "Is there any physical evidence?"
Yang Ge bowed and said, "There is physical evidence... Brother Wang, the axe is hidden on the roof of the thatched hut. Please go get it."
Wang Dali, who was in a state of panic over there, heard the words and said, "I'll get it right away" as if he had been pardoned. Then he ran towards the inn.
Upon seeing this, the officer of the Embroidered Uniform Guard waved his hand, and immediately two Embroidered Uniform Guards, holding their swords at their waists, quickly followed in.
After a while, two Embroidered Uniform Guards held Wang Dali and retrieved a rusty axe with some bloodstains on the blade and presented it to the Embroidered Uniform Guard officer.
The officer of the Embroidered Uniform Guard took the axe, walked up to the middle-aged man, squatted down, and compared the axe with the scar on his chest.
Soon, he waved to Yang Ge without looking back.
Yang Ge understood, raised his foot to loosen the middle-aged man's neck, bent down and took a step back.
The middle-aged man listened to the entire conversation between Yang Ge and the officer of the Embroidered Uniform Guard. As soon as he got up, he kowtowed to the officer of the Embroidered Uniform Guard continuously.
The Embroidered Uniform Guard officer removed the gag from his mouth, stood up, and shouted condescendingly, "Ding Man, do you admit to sneaking into the Yue Lai Inn the night before, committing murder, and plotting against us?"
The evidence was irrefutable. How could the middle-aged man dare to confront the formidable Embroidered Uniform Guard? He immediately burst into tears and begged for mercy, "Your Excellency, I just wanted to rob..."
The officer of the Embroidered Uniform Guard interrupted his plea for mercy with a cold voice: "Just plead guilty!"
The middle-aged man was stunned for a moment, then he straightened up and was about to shout...
Unfortunately, it's too late.
"Keng."
There was a blinding flash of light.
Yang Ge, who was standing behind the middle-aged man, had not yet reacted to what was happening when a puff of warm liquid hit his face.
He subconsciously touched his cheek and took a closer look: red and sticky.
When he looked down again, he saw the middle-aged man's head rolling to the ground. It bounced twice on the ground like a ball, then rolled all the way to his feet. He turned his head to face him, and a pair of terrified eyes stared straight at him...
Yang Ge shuddered suddenly, and a tingling sensation like an electric shock spread from his tailbone, climbed up to his scalp in an instant, and turned into goose bumps all over his body.
"Bang."
The headless corpse fell heavily to the ground, and bright red blood gushed out like a faucet, flowing and dyeing the ground scarlet.
Yang Ge finally came to his senses, took seven or eight steps back, sat down on the ground, and scratched his body frantically with his hands.
He closed his eyes tightly, not daring to look at the bloody scene before him.
But the bloody scene of the human head and the headless corpse floating on the red carpet seemed to be engraved in his mind.
Goose bumps appeared all over his body, one after another, and no matter how he scratched, the itch could not be stopped!
The officer of the Embroidered Uniform Guard glanced at him with disdain, turned to face the crowd of people watching the excitement, pointed the long knife in his hand at the headless body of the middle-aged man, and shouted loudly.
"Ding Man, an escort of the Huwei Escort Agency in Taiyuan Prefecture, is lawless and audacious. During the period leading up to the martial arts examination, he committed the capital crime of burglary, robbery, and murder. He has undermined the grace of the Emperor and the integrity of the martial arts examination. He deserves death and his crimes are unforgivable. We hereby issue a righteous sentence to serve as a warning to others!"
The crowd was silent for a moment, and suddenly someone shouted, "Your Excellency is wise!"
"Great Lord!"
"With your Excellency here, Luting County now has a judge..."
The crowd was in an uproar, with cheers and praises rising one after another, just like a boiling festival.
Only Yang Ge was still sitting there, scratching his head and ears frantically: "Nightmare, nightmare..."
…
At that time, in the second floor of a residential building not far away from Yuelai Inn.
Shen Fa sat upright in front of the window, staring intently at the drama that was about to end in front of Yuelai Inn.
Behind him, a dozen figures with disheveled clothes like street vendors were walking back and forth hurriedly.
"Painter, the client sat on the ground, scratching his head and cheeks, closing his eyes, unable to look directly at the decapitated corpse, and muttering: 'Nightmare, nightmare,' 'Psycho, they're all fucking psycho'... Uh, latest news, the client vomited."
"Accountant, on June 18th, a client purchased six dou of corn, two dou of wheat, two catties of pork, and three ounces of private salt at the East Market in Luting, spending one hundred and twenty-seven."
"Village head, Dongshi Caitougu owns land and is well-off. His only daughter, Gu Yingchun, is quite pretty and is interested in marrying a guest as her husband. He has asked the innkeeper to mediate three times, but has been politely declined each time. He said he has no intention of starting a family for the time being. Gu Yingchun was furious and once went to the inn to meet the guest privately, but the guest avoided him..."
"Master, three months ago, a Japanese merchant stayed at the inn. I received a three-cent reward from him. I was overjoyed and told the guest to go with me to ask for his reward. The guest said, 'You little Japanese devil, you have small principles but no moral integrity, you have a human face but no heart.' He advised me not to be deceived by illusions. I suspected that the guest was jealous of my reward, so I told the neighbors..."
As Shen Fa listened to the reports behind him, the image of Yang Ge became clearer and clearer in his mind.
