A Dark and Windy Night

Lu Chen watched Huang Chao leave with a smile on his face. Staring at his departing back, his gaze was frighteningly calm.

There's no need to wait until tomorrow. I'll come find you tonight!

He said to himself.

Once Huang Chao had disappeared from sight, Lu Chen shut the door and quickly, quietly followed him.

Huang Chao had no idea someone was following him. Whistling, he arrived at Teng Jun's house.

Teng Jun's parents were both dead, leaving him an orphan. The house would most likely go to his uncle's family eventually, but Huang Chao had occupied it for the time being.

Seeing that Huang Chao really was staying there, Lu Chen watched for a while. When he saw no sign of Huang Chao leaving, he quietly departed and returned to his own house.

Looking at the two worried faces, he smiled gently. "Let's eat."

"Brother..." Lu Ming began to say something.

Lu Chen waved him off.

"Let's eat first. Everything will be fine tomorrow!" He looked at Lu Tang. "Little Tang, try this pork tripe and chicken soup. It's really nourishing. Eat it and you'll grow tall in no time!"

Lu Tang was very clever. She knew her brother didn't want to talk about these things because he didn't want her and their second brother to worry, so she smiled too. "Then I'm going to eat lots and lots! I'll grow even taller than you!"

Lu Chen laughed. "If you grow taller than me, you'll have trouble finding a husband."

"No, I won't!" Lu Tang said, puffing out her cheeks.

In the middle of the night, Lu Ming and Lu Tang were fast asleep.

Lu Chen climbed out of bed.

He wore dark clothes, and even his face was wrapped in black cloth, leaving only his eyes exposed.

He hung a woodcutter's knife at his waist and took a few stones, along with several hard, short wooden sticks he had sharpened and carbonized that evening.

He intended to use the sticks as throwing knives. He had tested them before, and they packed quite a punch.

He carefully closed the door, stepped into the courtyard, and looked up at the sky.

The night was dark and windy, unlike the previous few nights, when the moon had been bright and the stars sparse.

The right time, the right place, and the right people are all on my side!

After leaving, Lu Chen followed the route he had taken earlier, keeping close to the walls all the way. He was afraid someone might get up in the middle of the night and spot him.

But his worries proved unnecessary.

He reached the outside of Teng Jun's house and watched carefully from the shadows for a long time, but detected no movement.

Only the croaking of toads in the distance lent a trace of sound to the silent night.

He carefully raised his head to look over the wall. There was no one in the courtyard, and the house was pitch-black.

He climbed over the wall, went to the door, and held his breath as he listened.

There was snoring.

After a while, he confirmed that it really was just one person snoring. He found no sign of anyone else.

He tried pushing the door gently.

It was shut.

He wasn't disappointed. Instead, he took out a thin blade whittled from bamboo, slipped it through the crack in the door, and slowly pushed upward.

The doors in the village were essentially all the same, made by the same craftsman.

Lu Chen knew exactly where the bolt was.

He had long since tried it on his own door.

A gentle nudge was all it took to open the thing.

It could keep out gentlemen, but not scoundrels.

People didn't rely entirely on the bolt behind the door to keep thieves out; they relied on dogs.

But Lu Chen was a familiar face, so the villagers' dogs wouldn't bark at him.

He carefully opened the door, slipped inside, and quietly pulled it shut behind him.

The snoring inside continued.

Lu Chen crept to the bedside and looked at Huang Chao, who was sleeping like the dead. By the faint light, he could make out the mole on Huang Chao's chin.

Lu San and the others are waiting for you on the road to the Yellow Springs!

As Lu Chen spoke in his heart, he held the woodcutter's knife in one hand, aimed its back at Huang Chao's throat, and raised it high.

Crack!

The woodcutter's knife struck Huang Chao's throat heavily, the tremendous force shattering the bones outright.

Huang Chao's eyes bulged, but not a sound came from his throat.

Lu Chen dropped the knife, leaped up and landed sitting on Huang Chao. He clamped one hand tightly over Huang Chao's mouth and nose and gripped his throat with the other, squeezing with all his might.

Huang Chao barely struggled. His legs jerked, then gradually went limp.

Lu Chen didn't let his guard down. He kept Huang Chao's mouth and nose covered for another minute or two before letting go.

Moving behind Huang Chao's head, he held it like a watermelon, placing one hand on his chin and the other against his head, then twisted sharply in the opposite direction.

Crack.

His cervical vertebrae snapped.

He couldn't have been any deader.

[Under the host's influence, Huang Chao's fate has changed]

[Fate Value settlement: 60]

Finishing the job is a good habit!

Lu Chen muttered to himself, then searched the body and found nothing.

He turned and saw Huang Chao's outer robe hanging on a clothes rack nearby.

He searched it and found a few pieces of broken silver, probably about two taels in all.

There was an IOU, which Lu Chen promptly stuffed into his pocket.

There was nothing else.

Really poor!

Without wasting time, he wrapped Huang Chao's corpse in the outer robe, put his shoes and the other things belonging to him inside, then took out a bundle of rope and tied it securely.

He tried carrying it on his back. It felt manageable.

He carried the body out of the house, put everything inside back as it had been to make it look as though Huang Chao had left of his own accord, then strode quickly toward the mountain behind the village with the corpse on his back.

The corpse weighed over a hundred jin, making it heavier to carry than the basket of pork he had hauled that afternoon.

But Lu Chen didn't dare pause for a moment. Once on the mountain, he found the hunting route he knew so well and walked for more than half a shichen before coming to a steep cliff.

"In your next life, remember to be a good person!"

Lu Chen spoke softly. He cut several wounds in the corpse with the bamboo blade, and after blood flowed out, he stabbed its heart and lungs with the carbonized wooden throwing knives. Then he threw it off the cliff.

In a few days, the corpse would return to dust and earth, back into nature's embrace, and become some animals' feces.

By the time he got home, the sky was as dark as before.

He lay down in bed and soon fell into a deep sleep.

Early the next morning, after exercising, he checked his current status panel.

[Name: Lu Chen]

[Age: Fifteen]

[Fate Value: 93]

[Luck Value: 0]

[Traits: Recovered, normal nutrition, strong and healthy, passable aptitude]

[Skill traits: Throwing: Minor Achievement (7%), Chopping: Great Achievement (1%), Stabbing: Beginner (11%), Agile Footwork: Great Achievement (1%), Robust Strength: Minor Achievement (2%)]

Now that Huang Chao is dead, the Green Bamboo Gang will definitely react. I have to strike first.

Lu Chen thought as he ate.

Still, they definitely won't react that quickly. Normally, Huang Chao wouldn't return until today. If something else delayed him, it would be normal for him to come back a day late. They can't possibly think something's happened just because they haven't seen him for half a day. I can still hold class as usual this morning, collect the settlement reward first, and head straight to the county town after class!

He made his plans, then went to the schoolhouse after eating.

Today, there were unexpectedly five more students.

Presumably, his classes had gone well enough to reassure other villagers who had been watching and waiting that they could entrust their children to him.

After class, Lu Chen first told the students he needed a day off. He said he had to go out for a day, so tomorrow's class would be self-study, and asked them to tell their parents when they got home.

Once the children had all left, Lu Chen heard a notification.

[Under the host's guidance and influence, the fates of twenty people, including Lu Chengzong, Lu Yaozu... have changed]

[Interim Fate Value settlement: 5]

Huh, only 5 points?

Lu Chen understood a little. Those five points had probably come from the five new students.

Perhaps the others couldn't provide him with Fate Value points every day.

Lu Chen went to tell Lu Xiande, then briefly asked him about conditions in the county town. After eating, he took his silver and stones and headed straight for Shahu County, more than ten li away.