In a small restaurant closest to the County Yamen, Xiang Yang and Fu Da Chun, both dressed in constable uniforms, had laid out a table of food and wine: wine-soaked peanuts, stir-fried kidneys, braised carp, and two large bowls of white rice. The fragrance made mouths water.
Five days had passed since Xiang Yang's first day on duty. The County Yamen worked efficiently: Little Knife Society members who needed arresting were arrested, those who needed sentencing were sentenced, and the rescued women and children had returned home one after another. As for what happened afterward, it had little to do with the authorities.
Xiang Yang had rendered the greatest service in solving the case. Aside from the twenty taels of silver awarded by the County Yamen, Mr. Lan's invitation card and one hundred taels of patterned silver, he had also earned the recognition of the other constables and squeezed into their circle. They had not exactly become one big happy family, but at least no one treated him like a greenhorn and bullied him anymore.
Of course, it was impossible for everyone to like him. Liu Feng, along with several other young men who had also become constables at an early age, had a fairly poor—perhaps even hostile—attitude toward Xiang Yang.
"Brother Xiang, I just don't get it. If Liu Feng hadn't relied on your information, could he have claimed all that credit? Why does he strut around all day, blowing his beard and glaring? Just looking at him makes me sick."
He tossed a peanut into his mouth and crunched it until it crackled. Fu Da Chun's face was slightly flushed as he spoke with indignation.
He himself had no real ability. He could neither fight nor investigate cases, and he admitted as much. If he suffered a little