Tragedy

After burying Luo Cheng's family, Chen Laosan found an opportunity to visit the checkpoint leading to the Provincial Capital, only to discover that it had been sealed off. Unwilling to give up, Chen Laosan tried another direction and found that it was not only the checkpoint to the Provincial Capital—every route out of the surrounding area was guarded.

Qingya County had been placed under lockdown!

This discovery left Chen Laosan thoroughly unsettled. Though he had no idea what was happening behind the scenes, this situation was definitely no good sign for ordinary people like them.

Then he recalled the Imperial Clan corpse he had buried a few days ago, and he could no longer sit still.

I can't just sit here and wait for death.

With that thought, Chen Laosan immediately went to Wang Laoshuan's home. Since that Old Fellow had managed to send his granddaughter away, he surely had his own connections.

By the time he returned to the inner city, it was already dusk.

A full day of searching for a way out had left Chen Laosan exhausted, but he could no longer afford to care about that. Following his memory, he quickly arrived at Wang Laoshuan's house.

It was a rather shabby little dwelling.

Still, it was better than Chen Laosan's doghouse. After all, Wang Laoshuan had a granddaughter to care for. He could suffer himself, but he could not let the child suffer.

Chen Laosan drew a deep breath, glanced around, then strode over and lightly tapped the door knocker twice.

Clang, clang.

The sound rang out, but there was no response from inside.

Had they fallen asleep?

A flicker of unease rose in Chen Laosan's heart. But remembering that he had seen Wang Laoshuan at Luo Cheng's house during the day, he forced it down. Wang Laoshuan was more cautious than he was and would surely have left a backup plan. With that thought, he lowered his voice and called into the house.

"Wang Laoshuan, open the door. It's me, Chen Dahe."

Chen Dahe was Chen Laosan's actual name. He rarely used it in everyday life, and not many people in the county yamen knew it. Since Wang Laoshuan was his colleague, they had exchanged names in the past.

Unfortunately, no matter how Chen Laosan knocked at the door, there was not the slightest movement inside.

No footsteps, nor did anyone come to open the door.

Chen Laosan stopped and pressed his eye to the door crack to peer inside. The moment he drew close, he caught a pungent smell.

Blood?

Chen Laosan's heart skipped a beat.

Fortunately, the inner courtyard within his view looked perfectly normal. There was no horrifying sight to be seen. But Chen Laosan did not dare linger any longer. Something had definitely happened to Wang Laoshuan—otherwise, the courtyard would not have been leaking the stench of blood.

Having realized this, Chen Laosan quickly rose and ran toward Main Street without looking back.

There were lots of people there. Whoever it was probably would not dare murder someone so openly.

Behind the door, beyond Chen Laosan's sight, a corpse hung half-suspended from it, drops of blood sliding down from the corner of the corpse's mouth. It was Wang Laoshuan, the very man who had spoken with Chen Laosan that day. And he was not alone. The granddaughter he had pulled strings to send away during the day was also inside, along with several unrelated corpses. They were brokers who had helped Wang Laoshuan's granddaughter run away. The person behind this had clearly resolved to cut the grass at its roots.

The only question was why he had delayed until now.

Panicked, Chen Laosan ran all the way home.

His nephew Chen Luo had not returned, which made him sigh in relief. It was fine if Chen Luo was at Crippled Ma's place. No matter what, Crippled Ma was a martial artist. If something happened, he could at least block a couple of blades.

Though it was somewhat unfair to his friend, compared to his nephew's life, sacrificing a friend like Crippled Ma was not impossible. At most, he would burn him more paper offerings during the holidays in the future.

"Silver, right! Silver!!"

In his panic, Chen Laosan rushed into his bedroom and flung open the bedboard. He pried up the third wooden board hidden beneath it, revealing a thick stack of silver notes. This money was Chen Laosan's nest egg, meant to be saved for finding a wife for his nephew Chen Luo.

But at a life-or-death moment like this, he could not worry about any of that.

Chen Laosan grabbed the silver notes in one sweep and turned to head for the yamen.

He had already decided that tonight, he would take Chen Luo to stay in the county yamen. He refused to believe those people would dare to kill in the yamen.

Bang, bang, bang!

Just as Chen Laosan tucked the silver into his robes, Knocking Sound suddenly came from outside.

"Old Chen! Old Chen! There's work!"

The voice made Chen Laosan jolt. He instinctively grabbed the dagger by his bedside. Only after confirming where the voice came from did he relax slightly.

He knew the man calling out—Constable Jiang Danian. The two often drank and visited courtesans together, making them kindred spirits with shared interests.

"What is it?"

Chen Laosan did not lower his guard. Instead, he shouted back.

Night was practically falling, yet Jiang Danian had suddenly come to his door. No matter how he looked at it, something was off.

"There's another case over there. The higher-ups want you to clean it up." Outside, Jiang Danian cursed under his breath, clearly unhappy about being assigned work at this hour.

Another person had died?

Chen Laosan's heart skipped a beat.

He immediately recalled what had happened outside Wang Laoshuan's home.

It couldn't be that bad!

"Why not have Wang Laoshuan do it? I just dealt with Luo Cheng this morning. I was about to sleep."

Chen Laosan's mind stirred as he came up with a way to learn about Wang Laoshuan.

So he refused, saying that he needed rest. He would have the yamen send someone to find Wang Laoshuan. That way, he could confirm Wang Laoshuan's situation without putting himself in danger. It was killing two birds with one stone!

"The dead are Wang Laoshuan and his whole family. You want me to go find him in the Underworld?"

Jiang Danian cursed from outside. From the sound of it, he had already entered the house.

"What?!"

Chen Laosan threw open the door, his face full of shock.

The unease in his heart had been proven true in an instant.

In just one day, both Luo Cheng and Wang Laoshuan had died. Would he be next? The thought made Chen Laosan feel as if he had fallen into an ice cellar. He did not hear another word Jiang Danian said afterward.

"Good, you're not asleep. Hurry up and come clean things up with me. If we're late, there won't be any room at Little Peach Red's place."

Jiang Danian did not notice any of this. Seeing that Chen Laosan was fully dressed, he grabbed him and prepared to take him to deal with the aftermath.

These were troubled times. If corpses were not dealt with, problems could easily arise.

Corpse Collectors existed to handle this kind of trouble.

Wang Laoshuan's family's corpses were all inside the County Town, disturbing the County Magistrate's peace. Naturally, an order had been issued for them to be handled overnight.

Thus, Chen Laosan and Jiang Danian arrived at

As he pushed open the door, Chen Laosan halted.

The pungent stench of blood rushed at him. The smell he had caught at the entrance earlier had been real.

Five corpses lay scattered across the courtyard. Chen Laosan recognized two of them: Wang Laoshuan and his granddaughter. After all his painstaking efforts, Wang Laoshuan had still failed to help his granddaughter escape. The other three were unfamiliar faces. From what Jiang Danian said, they seemed to be brokers from Qingya County who specialized in smuggling people to the Provincial Capital.

Beside him, Jiang Danian babbled on and on, saying a great deal of nonsense.

Chen Laosan did not hear a single word. His mind was filled with the miserable fates of Luo Cheng and Wang Laoshuan.

And their parents and families.

"This is silencing everyone!!!"

Chen Laosan's eyes were bloodshot. By now, how could he not understand the Dead Eunuch's true purpose?

To cut the grass at its roots.

He would not spare any possible source of leaked information. Even if there was only the slightest possibility, he would sever it.

Better to kill the wrong person than let one slip through!

In these people's eyes, lowly ants like them were not even lives.

The only thing he could not understand was why that eunuch dog had let them return. Had something been overlooked? Or did the other party want to kill even more people?