Today, Guo Jun came to the Hou Family. Hou Yong's family had vaguely known that he had someone backing him, but they had had no way to meet that person. Now that Guo Jun had come, they immediately begged him to uphold justice.
When Guo Jun heard that Hou Yong was dead, his head began buzzing. Then he heard that the yamen had ruled Hou Yong and his two guards had drowned. As a normal person, he naturally did not believe it. He immediately thought of who the murderer was, yet he still clung to a sliver of luck. He did not dare—or rather, did not wish—to believe it, and asked for confirmation, "When did something happen to Hou Yong?"
"Last month, on the twenty-third..."
As expected!
Thinking of the time Zhuang Jin had broken through, Guo Jun finally shattered his last illusion. Cold sweat seeped from his forehead. Looking at Hou Yong's family kneeling before him, crying to heaven and earth and begging him to uphold justice, he thought of Zhuang Jin, who had already broken through to the Third Meridian. His lips moved, and he said, "Since the yamen has reached its verdict, then accept it."
Then, distracted and absent-minded, he hurried away.
Guo Jun had taken leave when he came out. After leaving the Hou Family, he returned home in a daze.
He thought again of the day after Zhuang Jin's breakthrough, when he had delivered three taels of silver and the other man had greeted him with a smile. He connected it to how Hou Yong had once sought reconciliation, how Zhuang Jin had agreed and accepted the silver as compensation, then smiled at him every day when greeting him...
That smile seemed to have come from the same mold. And Hou Yong, the last