"I remember there was a lake over that way when I came here. A Shun and the others get their water there. I'll take care of this wolf while I'm at it."
It was wolf meat, after all. It would be a waste to let it go to rot.
When he reached the lakeside, Zhao Han glanced around. Seeing no one, he began to process the gray wolf's carcass.
This was meat. Even if it was wolf meat, it was still edible.
For Zhao Han, who hadn't had meat in a long time and needed it to train in martial arts, wolf meat was a potent tonic.
He skinned it, severed its limbs, removed the organs and intestines, kept the kidneys, and washed away the blood until the stench had mostly faded. Only then did he finish.
He found some large lotus leaves by the lake, wrapped up the wolf meat and legs, and put them in his carrying basket.
Then he went to chop some firewood, both to hide the meat and to prove he hadn't gone off to fish.
He retraced his steps and returned to the kitchen at four in the afternoon. Everyone was swamped.
Frying, chopping, cooking rice...
Zhao Han was quite pleased. All he had to do was chop wood; cooking wasn't his responsibility.
He hid the wolf meat in the Wood Shed, then went back to splitting logs into smaller pieces.
While A Shun was slacking outside, he saw Zhao Han return unharmed and looked surprised, thinking Zhao Han was lucky to be alive.
There were plenty of wild beasts in the Eastern Forest.
Zhao Han greeted A Shun as usual and didn't mention his encounter with the beast.
Once A Shun went back to work, Zhao Han finally made his move.
He quietly climbed through a window at the back into the communal dormitory, pulled the Black Wolf Fist Manual from his clothes, and slipped it under A Shun's hard pillow, where the person sleeping on the inside would spot it at a glance.
I, Zhao Han, am not someone you can mess with. Since you, A Shun, set me up, I'll pay you back tenfold. Revenge can't wait until morning!
After dinner, once all the work was done, Zhao Han also filched a few fire starters from the kitchen.
Tomorrow, he'd go chop wood in the forest and bring a wolf leg along to roast.
After that, just like the others, he took out the Snake-Style Deft Hand manual and started reading.
Unlike the others, who stumbled over the words because they couldn't read, Zhao Han had a much easier time.
After all, he'd received compulsory education. The writing in this world was largely the same as the traditional characters on Blue Star, so reading posed no difficulty.
He pretended to read through it once. When night fell, everyone went to the communal dormitory to sleep.
A Shun lay quietly on his bed. After a full day's work, he was about to close his eyes when one of the gang members beside him suddenly grabbed him and hauled him up.
"What the hell are you doing?" A Shun said, displeased. Was this guy crazy?
"What's this?" The gang member reached under A Shun's pillow, pulled out the Black Wolf Fist manual, and waved it around above his head.
The commotion drew the attention of many gang members nearby, who got up to look.
"Black Wolf Fist! This is a Black Wolf Gang martial art!"
"How did this Black Wolf Fist end up here? Could it be..."
"A spy! He's definitely a spy sent by the Black Wolf Gang!"
"Quick, notify Leader Liu! There's a spy here!"
Everyone chimed in, eager to watch the drama unfold.
"Don't talk nonsense! It isn't mine." A Shun's expression changed. He protested and tried to grab the Black Wolf Fist manual.
"Trying to destroy the evidence, too? Come help me catch this spy!" the gang member scoffed, releasing A Shun and shoving him forward.
The gang members around them rushed over and pinned A Shun down, leaving him unable to move.
"It's not mine, it's not mine..." A Shun protested desperately, trying again and again to prove his innocence.
Before long, Leader Liu Gang entered the dormitory, his expression grim.
A Black Wolf Fist manual had turned up among the Poisonous Snake Gang. Combined with the Black Wolf Gang's recent attack on the mine, it was obvious: this was a spy sent by the Black Wolf Gang.
Standing before A Shun, Liu Gang said coldly, "You're a spy from the Black Wolf Gang?"
"Leader Liu, it wasn't me. I don't even know where this book came from..."
A Shun pleaded tearfully as Liu Gang took the Black Wolf Fist and flipped through it.
"It is the Black Wolf Fist. Speak! What are you really after, and who are your accomplices?" Liu Gang demanded.
Several people in the dormitory exchanged glances at the word "accomplices," their expressions tense.
"I've been wronged, Leader Liu! I don't know why this book was under my pillow..." A Shun had no idea where the Black Wolf Fist had come from, so all he could do was keep pleading and insisting he was innocent.
But it was no use. Liu Gang's expression didn't change.
If a veteran gang member had been caught with it, they could have claimed he was trying to learn too many styles at once and had secretly studied the Black Wolf Fist. Liu Gang wouldn't have cared.
After all, the Black Wolf Fist was common as dirt. Plenty of people had practiced it.
But an ordinary gang member who hadn't even mastered the Snake-Style Deft Hand, yet kept a copy of the Black Wolf Fist, was clearly suspicious.
"Take him away. I'm going to interrogate him properly." Liu Gang waved his hand, and several gang members marched A Shun out.
"I'm innocent! I've been framed..."
Liu Gang asked the gang member who had found the manual, "You're the one who found it?"
"This humble one did."
"Good. You've done well. Keep it up!" Liu Gang patted him on the shoulder, then turned and left.
The gang member was left staring in a daze.
Where was his reward? Was a few words of praise really all he got?
He'd found a spy for the gang! He'd done them a great service.
Was he being played? Was that really it?
In truth, Liu Gang had seen this sort of thing before. He knew A Shun had been framed.
Anyone with half a brain wouldn't leave the Black Wolf Fist somewhere so obvious, under a pillow, and expose himself like that.
A man like that couldn't be a spy.
He also knew that among the Poisonous Snake Gang's ordinary members—and even its elite members—there were plenty of Black Wolf Gang informants.
Likewise, the Black Wolf Gang had plenty of informants among the Poisonous Snake Gang.
The dormitory settled back to normal, while Wang Dawei and the others in the kitchen sighed repeatedly.
They didn't feel sorry for A Shun. They all despised him; nobody would pity a turncoat.
It was just that with one less person, everyone in the kitchen would have more work to do.
"Where's Li Er? Why isn't Li Er here?"
Beside Zhao Han's bed, the short, dark-skinned Zhao Da asked.
Zhang San, who had worked with Li Er, looked sorrowful.
"Who knows what happened? Li Er offended the Hall Master. I heard him screaming with my own ears. When I went in, he was already dead, with his backside a bloody mess."
"Ah..." Zhao Da and Zhao Han looked at each other, unable to believe it.
Fairer skin, a rather handsome face, and a bloody backside. Put those three things together with "serving tea and pouring water"...
Zhao Han immediately felt his rear tighten.
Sure enough, in times of chaos, even a man couldn't necessarily keep his virtue intact.
Zhao Da and Zhang San, however, didn't think that far. In their eyes, Li Er had died because he offended the Hall Master.
His backside had just been hit by accident.
That "serving tea and pouring water" job was no easy task. One careless mistake, and you could lose your head.
"Ah, good luck to you." Zhao Da patted Zhang San's shoulder, glad for the first time that he was short and dark.
Inside a shabby tarpaulin shelter, A Shun was bound to a wooden frame. Liu Gang and two elite gang members were interrogating him.
"Go on, tell me who the spy is." Liu Gang held a leather whip, slowly tapping it against his palm as he smiled.
"Leader, I've been wronged, I've been wronged..." A Shun pleaded tearfully, continuing to insist that he was innocent.
"Heh. How have you been wronged? We have both witness and evidence. You're the spy."
"I really am not a spy..."
"You still have the nerve to deny it? Zhang Long, Zhao Hu, take the whip and beat him until he confesses!"
Before you continue