A Man Dares to Kill

A Man Dares to Kill

Jiang Hao was starving, his chest practically stuck to his back. Ever since he could remember, he had never been this hungry. His family had never been wealthy, but they had never lacked food. He had never truly gone hungry before.

He stirred the noodles a few times with his chopsticks, then lifted a huge bite of the red, glistening bowl of noodles to his mouth.

"Slurp, slurp~~"

"Slurp!"

In just half a minute, he had cleaned out the huge bowl. Jiang Hao only wanted to say one word:

"Awesome!"

He set down the first bowl and picked up the second. This time, he could slow down and properly savor these authentic Youpo Noodles. Mm, they really did taste great.

He had eaten Youpo Noodles before, but compared to these, they seemed to be missing something. He could not say exactly what it was, but in any case, they were not as delicious as the noodles here.

"Boss, bring me two bowls of noodle soup to wash it down," Jiang Hao called.

The owner did not hesitate. He used a large ladle to fill the two big bowls in front of Jiang Hao. Original broth paired with original food—the steaming noodle soup washed everything down, leaving him completely satisfied.

"Boss, how much?"

"Four jiao altogether."

Jiang Hao shook out his clothes and took several copper coins from his pocket. This was the money he had searched off that crooked-cap fellow yesterday: two twenty-copper coins and one fifty-copper coin. Jiang Hao placed the two twenty-copper coins on the table, slung his undershirt over his shoulder, and walked out of the noodle shop.

After eating his fill, he felt invincible.

He went to another general store and bought a pack of cigarettes, a box of matches, and a pair of coarse cloth gloves. Then he bought four buns from the shop next door and had the owner wrap them in oiled paper. Now, he did not have a single coin left on him.

Jiang Hao did not return to the sedan chair company. Carrying the buns, he left the county town and walked all the way back to the Sorghum Field. He dug out the two guns, loaded the homemade gun with gunpowder and bullets first, and carefully set it aside to take with him that night.

He did not know whether he would need it, but it was better to be prepared.

He picked up the stolen Hanyang Type and began fiddling with it. Jiang Hao had learned how to disassemble firearms when he practiced with guns before, but he had only seen this old thing in the materials he had collected.

Fortunately, the basic principles were similar. After messing with it for a while, he was able to load bullets, chamber rounds, and eject them skillfully. Sitting on the ground with one leg propped up, he held the gun in both hands and copied the posture of a sniper practicing. His instructor had taught him some of that when he learned to shoot.

"Bang!"

Jiang Hao made a gunshot sound with his mouth, then chuckled.

Cars and guns could be called men's favorite toys. Few men did not love them. Jiang Hao happily played with the Hanyang Type until night fell.

He ate the four buns, hid the Hanyang Type again, tucked the homemade gun into his waistband, and pulled out the burlap sack he had prepared during the day. He slipped it over his head, leaving only his eyes and mouth exposed, then resolutely headed toward Shibali Slope.

After walking three or four li through the darkness, Jiang Hao lay prone on a dirt slope and looked down. The Distillery still had faint lights on, so the Helpers presumably had not gone to sleep yet.

He lay back on the slope, took out a cigarette, lit it with a match, took a drag, and spat out the bits of tobacco from his mouth. He smoked as he watched the stars in the sky.

He waited for over an hour before the lights at the Distillery went out, leaving the surroundings pitch-black. But to be safe, Jiang Hao waited another hour before moving. He also remembered to bury the cigarette butts he had just smoked in the dirt.

He put on the coarse cloth gloves and slowly approached the Li family house. The owner's house was roughly thirty to fifty meters from the Distillery. As long as he did not make too much noise, the people over there should not hear anything.

Only after circling around did Jiang Hao discover that the back window was still lit. There should have been only Li Mafeng in this courtyard; the Helpers would not casually come over. He had not expected the old man to still be awake so late.

Perhaps because the weather was hot, the rear window was propped halfway open. Jiang Hao carefully edged over and peeked inside. A small table stood in the middle of the kang bed. A thin figure lay on his side with his back to the window, holding an opium pipe. The oil lamp on the small table was for smoking opium.

Huff—

A cloud of white smoke came out of his mouth, and the old man moaned contentedly a few times.

Not knowing how long the old man would keep smoking, Jiang Hao hardened his heart. He grabbed the wooden window and pulled it outward, braced himself against the sill, and slipped into the room in one graceful movement. Jiang Hao was not exactly quiet. The person on the kang drowsily turned his head, and their eyes met.

The first thing Jiang Hao saw was a scrawny, dried-up man in his forties or fifties, with deeply sunken eye sockets, a face full of wrinkles, and pockmarks.

Perhaps the opium had muddled his mind. Only when Jiang Hao was standing fully on the kang did Li Mafeng seem to wake up a little. Seeing a man with a hood over his head, he knew something was wrong. Terror appeared in his eyes. Just as he was about to cry out, a large foot viciously kicked him.

Bang!

The kick landed squarely on his head. Li Mafeng's head snapped to one side, and he passed out immediately.

That man had leprosy. Although the system's time travel could remove all negative conditions, Jiang Hao did not want to catch leprosy here. This disease could kill people, so he had prepared the hood and coarse cloth gloves.

Whether they would work or not, this was all he could do.

He found a bedsheet and tore it apart with a rip. He balled it up and stuffed it hard into Li Mafeng's mouth, afraid that he might wake up and shout. Then he tore the sheet into several strips, twisted them into cloth ropes, and securely tied up Li Mafeng's hands and feet.

He found a thin quilt on the kang and rolled Li Mafeng up inside it. At this point, let alone a man half-dead already, even a strong young man would not be able to break free.

Only after finishing all that did Jiang Hao let out a breath.

He looked around the room. It was an earthen kang in a mud-brick house, a typical northwestern dwelling. A row of cabinets stood along one side of the kang, with cotton quilts on top and several small cupboards beneath, all locked with brass locks.

In Jiang Hao's eyes, this was an extremely crude security measure. A light strike with the door bar from inside the room broke them open. After searching through the cupboards, he found a bag of Silver Dollars. Judging by the weight, there were probably forty or fifty. Jiang Hao stuffed them directly into his pocket.

He hoisted Li Mafeng onto his shoulder, blew out the oil lamp, and strode out of the room. He headed toward the Sorghum Field, and after walking for about half an hour, he plunged into the Gauze Curtain.

He casually found a hollow in the ground, tossed Li Mafeng inside, and covered him with thick yellow earth. Li Mafeng vanished from this world completely.

"No matter where you die, the yellow earth will bury you. Living was misery for you, and you only harmed others. Go reincarnate early." After Jiang Hao said that, he spat and turned away.

Early the next morning, Er Dan's Mother, the only woman at the Distillery, got up early to make breakfast for everyone. She made a separate portion for the manager, then carried it to the owner's house on the slope.

Standing outside the door, she called, "Manager, Manager, are you up? I brought your food."

She called twice but received no answer. Seeing that the door was not bolted and stood slightly ajar, Er Dan's Mother hooked it open with her foot and prepared to bring the food in. But the moment she entered, she saw the room in complete disarray, the smashed cabinet door beside the bed, and no sign of the manager. Terrified, Er Dan's Mother ran out carrying the tray, shouting as she ran, "Something's wrong! Something happened in the manager's room!"

She ran so urgently that the plates and bowls on the tray clattered to the ground.