The third day of the first lunar month.
Early in the morning, Wen Chaosheng climbed out of the treehouse, simply washed his face with snow, and then hurried to the dilapidated temple.
Actually, he hadn't slept much last night.
Today was an extremely special day for Wen Chaosheng; though seemingly no different from any other day, he had waited three years for it.
Originally, he had planned to confront County Magistrate Liu Jinshi of Ku Hai County with his hatchet today, ready to fight him to the death. If Liu Jinshi didn't keep his promise, he would make Liu Jinshi pay a bloody price.
But now, because of A Shui's intervention, he felt that Liu Jinshi would most likely agree.
Having become a Qi citizen, he had countless plans simulated in his mind that could make him rich within five years, and once he had money in the future, there would be even more things he could do.
Because there had been no snow last night, traces on the road remained. As Wen Chaosheng passed by, his gaze caught a long dragging mark.
His brows furrowed slightly, and a faint ominous premonition flashed through his heart, so he quickened his pace. Upon arriving at the dilapidated temple, Wen Chaosheng immediately saw A Shui resting inside, and only then did he breathe a slight sigh of relief.
But very quickly, he also saw a pile of ironware in the corner of the dilapidated temple.
Those were weapons.
"Someone came last night?"
He asked A Shui directly. The latter had boiled some snow water, her eyes not fully open, as if she hadn't woken up yet.
"Someone came?"
"Who came?"
Wen Chaosheng pointed to the weapons in the corner of the dilapidated temple, among which there seemed to be a long hook.
"No one came. Where did these things come from?"
A Shui rubbed her hair lazily and said casually:
"Found them."
Seeing her indifferent attitude, Wen Chaosheng still sat by the fire, warming his arms as he said:
"It didn't snow last night, so what people do at night leaves traces."
"You should at least clean up the traces, shouldn't you?"
"Such a long snow trail from dragging a corpse—even an amateur like me can see the problem, let alone..."
Seeing him so seriously list these things, A Shui sighed, first rubbing her brow, then propping half her face with her hand, staring at him and saying:
"You're being a busybody."
"Wen Chaosheng, do you really think this broken place in Ku Hai County can hide people?"
Wen Chaosheng froze.
A Shui pointed to the shattered wine jars in the dilapidated temple that hadn't been fully cleaned up yet, and said:
"I went to find the local ruffians in Ku Hai County to get some wine. I didn't kill them to silence them, so traces were leaked long ago. If anyone with a motive wants to find me, this winter snow certainly can't hide it."
"The reason no one has come yet is because they are all waiting."
Wen Chaosheng was puzzled:
"Waiting for what?"
A Shui stared at him, a chilling sneer appearing on her face:
"They're waiting to see if the person who wasn't burned to death in that great fire is truly incapable now."
"Those people send fools to test me, so I'll kill them to show them whether I am capable or not."
Wen Chaosheng looked at A Shui, and after a long moment, his eyebrows raised, and he blurted out:
"That's so damn cool."
A Shui was unfazed, scoffing:
"Cool?"
"If you enter the Jianghu in the future, perhaps you won't think so."
Wen Chaosheng:
"I understand that. Once you enter the Jianghu, you are no longer your own master."
The last eight characters caused A Shui's gaze towards Wen Chaosheng to change slightly.
"...Once you enter the Jianghu, you are no longer your own master."
She repeated it, then muttered to herself:
"What a 'no longer your own master'."
"Wen Chaosheng, let me ask you, what do you want to do once you become a Qi citizen in the future?"
Wen Chaosheng:
"Make money, cultivate Qi."
A Shui:
"Is that all?"
Wen Chaosheng pondered for a moment, then replied:
"I want to do whatever I want."
The two looked at each other. For some reason, A Shui felt that the light projected from Wen Chaosheng's eyes was very sharp, both bright and keen. She silently drank a bowl of hot water, no longer mentioning the topic, and stood up to pat the dust off her clothes.
"Let's go, let's find Liu Jinshi."
Wen Chaosheng nodded and went to the county town with A Shui. But when they arrived outside the county town, Wen Chaosheng found that there were no armed yamen runners on duty at the gate today. His brows furrowed slightly, and a bad premonition flashed through his heart.
Although Liu Jinshi had not done much for the common people during his years as an official in Ku Hai County, he had certainly put on a good show regarding public order. Even in heavy snow, these yamen runners, who ate the government's food, could not slack off and had to be on duty there.
But now that the New Year was over, and it was broad daylight, there wasn't a single yamen runner on duty, which was truly strange.
Entering the county town, the South Gate Street was empty.
A Shui's sharp gaze swept around, a hint of confusion in her eyes. The two hurried towards the county yamen, but from a distance on that street, they saw a large, dense crowd of people.
The two exchanged glances and immediately pushed their way towards the center of the crowd. Wen Chaosheng struggled to squeeze to the entrance of the county yamen. The moment he looked at the entrance, he froze completely, too shocked to speak.
People beside him whispered, some pushed him, but he was completely oblivious, standing there dumbfounded like a block of wood.
At the entrance of the county yamen, he saw Liu Jinshi, whom he hadn't seen in a month, only the latter had now become... a corpse.
Liu Jinshi was dead.
He had been hanged.
His body hung at the entrance of the county yamen, facing the street, his face bluish-purple. With every gust of wind, his body swayed, a particularly horrifying sight.
Wen Chaosheng stared blankly at Liu Jinshi's corpse. After an unknown amount of time, he seemed to lose all his strength, collapsing onto the ground, and began to laugh hysterically.
Seeing this, the people around him either feared he had some kind of madness or worried he might be faking an injury, so they all moved away from him. Some people living nearby knew a bit about Wen Chaosheng and at this moment began to spread true or false stories to those who were unaware.
For a time, many people cast sympathetic glances at Wen Chaosheng.
After a while longer, a loud shout came from the distance:
"Government officials are handling a case! All idlers, clear out!"