Uncle Rong Kui lowered his head, hiding his startled eyes.
That probing remark had just confirmed one more thing for Uncle Rong Kui: this kid had killed Qiao Zi'ang, too!
"Hey—" Xu Yuan had already reached the stairs when Uncle Rong Kui hurriedly called him back. "The Monster Extermination Army. Are you joining or not? Give me a straight answer."
Xu Yuan didn't hesitate. "I'm not."
"You're not?" Uncle Rong Kui stared at him in disbelief. He was just going to pass up such a golden opportunity?
"Don't listen to the nonsense going around. The Monster Extermination Army's not easy to get by in, but it's another story if you've got someone looking out for you. Your second uncle's got an official post now, and he has no son. He's bound to be grooming you as his successor. At the very least, you could end up like him someday, make it to Commander..."
Xu Yuan shook his head again. "I'm not joining."
"A Commander gets five hundred mu of first-grade fields and fifteen hundred mu of middle-grade fields, plus an annual salary of three hundred taels of silver!" Uncle Rong Kui played his trump card. In all his life, he'd never met anyone who truly didn't love money.
Xu Yuan hesitated, then sighed. "I really can't go. Uncle Rong Kui, please thank my second uncle for the offer."
Xu Yuan went upstairs and slept in Zhao Yong's room again. He lay on his back, hands tucked behind his head, staring at the ceiling as he thought to himself:
What'll happen to my stepmother if I leave?
Xu Yuan didn't know the details of his family's affairs. From the time he was little, his father had never told him anything about them.
But Xu Yuan could always sense that those matters were no small thing.
For instance, on certain special holidays, his father would grow extremely tense.
He'd secretly make a lot of preparations in advance.
If nothing happened, his father would be in high spirits for the next few days. If Xu Yuan asked for a toy or a snack, his father would cheerfully buy it for him.
But Xu Yuan also vaguely remembered that when he was seven, his father had spent three whole months bedridden.
Thick cotton curtains had been drawn tight over the doors and windows, not letting in a single ray of sunlight.
What Xu Yuan remembered most clearly was that the stench of blood on his father was so strong it overpowered the medicinal smell that filled the house. His father's coughing in the middle of the night often woke the neighbors on both sides.
Uncle Rong Kui hadn't managed to persuade Xu Yuan. He drank a few cups downstairs by himself, then decided against eating and got up to peer out the back door. After that, he cracked it open and slipped into the night.
Xu Yuan saw Uncle Rong Kui heading toward the south end of the street and couldn't help chuckling. "What a lecher."
Night travel was unusually permitted today, but going out after dark still carried considerable risk.
Uncle Rong Kui groped his way inside and heard a delighted, coquettish laugh. A pair of soft, warm hands slipped inside his lapel, moving down with practiced ease and taking charge.
Uncle Rong Kui fought to keep his desire in check. "I've got something important to do."
"Use your usual channels to send a letter back for me."
Widow Yang lit the lamp, and Uncle Rong Kui wrote the letter and handed it to her.
Widow Yang smiled. "Now that the important business is done, let's do something fun."
Uncle Rong Kui naturally put his all into it. He was leaving in the morning, and he'd likely never see her again.
Outside the window, Xu Yuan quietly slipped away.
Uncle Rong Kui was a lecher, but when Xu Yuan had pressed a small knife to his neck that afternoon, it had been clear he was even more afraid of dying.
He wouldn't have ventured out to see Widow Yang in the middle of the night unless he had no choice.
Widow Yang was a hidden sentry for the Monster Extermination Army.
The Monster Extermination Army had many sentries of this lowest rank.
They were especially useful in places like Qihetan Town, where the authorities' reach didn't extend.
The Monster Extermination Army used them to gather and relay information.
They had no particular duties in their day-to-day lives and each went about their own business. The Monster Extermination Army offered them a degree of protection and a small stipend.
Even if one of these sentries was exposed and eliminated, the Monster Extermination Army lost little.
Together, they formed a vast network at the lowest level, able to gather a great deal of intelligence for the army.
And their network made it extremely convenient to pass messages along.
Xu Yuan returned to Zhao's Furs Shop and went straight to bed.
Uncle Rong Kui was in such a hurry to send word to his second uncle that he couldn't even wait until he reached the county town the next day. Xu Yuan suspected his second uncle's attempt to "recruit" him this time wasn't entirely innocent.
"Cock-a-doodle-doo!"
Ah Hua flapped her wings and hopped onto the roof, letting out her first loud crow of the day.
With dark bags under his eyes and unsteady steps, Uncle Rong Kui emerged from Widow Yang's house. As he walked, he fastened his belt and buttoned the frog closures at his collar.
Xu Yuan happened to open the door of Zhao's Furs Shop as Uncle Rong Kui reached the entrance.
"Let's go now," Xu Yuan said. "We'll buy something to eat at the west end of the street."
There was a breakfast stall at the west end, run by a father and son who pushed a cart with a large stove on it. They baked flatbreads in the oven for two copper coins each, and offered free hot water and pickled vegetables. The merchant caravans passing through town often ate there in the morning.
The two bought four flatbreads and ate them, then arranged with a merchant caravan to ride to the county town for ten coins total.
The caravan's carts were loaded with goods, so the two climbed aboard and sat atop the cargo.
It wasn't comfortable, and they had to be careful not to fall off. But it was cheap, and better than walking all the way back themselves.
The old horse pulling the cart plodded along, making it sway from side to side. The two simply lay down atop the cargo, and Uncle Rong Kui chatted with Xu Yuan on and off.
That fat man just couldn't keep his mouth shut.
"Being a soldier and living on the imperial payroll isn't a good career. Hundreds of years ago, the rank-and-file soldiers were already getting shorted on their pay. Those officers who bleed their troops dry are shameless. You're lucky if two tenths of your wages make it into your hands."
"It's the same in the Monster Extermination Army, actually. But we're not regular troops. We're proper Imperial Guards! Our treatment's much better than those ordinary soldiers'.
"A Minor Banner Officer gets twenty taels, a General Banner Officer fifty, and a hundred-household officer gets a hundred and fifty. Plus, from the rank of hundred-household officer onward, they get assigned land."
"Down here in Jiaozhi, the land grants are real. On newly conquered territory, they killed off a whole bunch of the local gentry and clans, leaving behind some of the finest irrigated fields."
Xu Yuan had a foxtail grass stem in his mouth and paid no attention to anything Uncle Rong Kui said. Once the sun climbed high enough to sting his eyes, he pulled his thick felt hat over his face.
Uncle Rong Kui kept rambling about all the benefits of the Monster Extermination Army, but then he suddenly heard a snore and could only look on in helpless dismay.
The forty-li highway was a little faster by cart than on foot. By midafternoon, Xu Yuan finally spotted Shanhe County's low, dilapidated walls.
This wasn't a "strategic stronghold," so the walls were only meant to keep out bandits. The County Magistrate had no interest in repairing them, let alone the Son of Heaven himself.
At the city gate, Xu Yuan and Uncle Rong Kui jumped down from the cart and said goodbye to the caravan.
They queued up nearby. Once they paid the head tax, they could enter the city, but the caravan had to go through a detailed calculation of its commercial taxes.
Just from the caravan owner's worried expression, it was clear the tax rate wasn't low.
Xu Yuan paid his fee, then saw the caravan's drivers shouting at their animals and steering the carts toward the left side of the city wall to clear the area in front of the gate. It was obvious they wouldn't be entering the city today.
Even the slightest bit of spice gets a chapter banned...
Sigh, I'll keep asking for monthly votes.
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