August arrived right on schedule.
The day was bright and clear.
Jiang Wang, Chongxuan Sheng, and Shi Si rode side by side out of Jiang Mansion.
They swaggered down the streets of Linzi, acting like tyrants. Mainly because Chongxuan Fatty was so enormous that even the main streets of Linzi, usually wide enough for seven horses abreast, had little room to spare once he rode through.
The three rode abreast, taking up most of the street. They looked every bit the spoiled young masters.
And behind them trailed a pack of vicious servants carrying sticks.
"Tell me, is all this really necessary?" Jiang Wang asked, feeling a little awkward under the passersby's scornful stares.
"We're going to bully someone. How can we do that without acting the part?" Chongxuan Sheng said, unconcerned. Then he added, "Shi Si, keep up. Hold formation!"
Even in the middle of all that, he found time to glare at someone by the roadside. "What are you looking at? Never seen someone unreasonable before?"
The passersby were furious, but dared not say a word.
Shi Si stayed silent, but kept her head lowered.
Though she wore heavy armor and an iron helmet, she didn't have Chongxuan Fatty's amazing defenses, which let him ignore every scornful stare.
The story was that one of their stewards had been harassed while visiting a brothel, and the culprit was a young master from Linzi. Of course, as Chongxuan Sheng put it, "Some nobody with a fourth-rank hat dares to get in our faces? We'll beat him and his father too."
Yes.
That was what passed for an ordinary day: Chongxuan Sheng and Shi Si, inseparable as ever, had dragged Jiang Wang along to settle a dispute over one of their stewards visiting a brothel. They were going to bully someone—or,