Runner Office

"There!"

Wang Zhao led the group all the way to the alley where Chen Mu's home stood, then pointed at the two houses in the distance.

Wang Zheng's face immediately darkened. With a sweep of his hand, he led the others over. Reaching the door, he stretched out his hand and began pounding on it with a violent bang, bang.

"Chen Mu, come out!"

"Where are you?"

He shouted twice in succession toward the inside of the house.

But there was no response.

Wang Zhao said from the side, "Chen Mu should be on duty, but he has a younger sister who ought to be at home. Ni Er should be inside too. They have nowhere else to go. Should we wait for them to come back, or..."

"Hmph."

Wang Zheng snorted. "Wait for what? Smash the door! If we're waiting, we'll wait inside!"

The moment his words fell, the people beside him darkened their faces and answered in chorus. They grabbed the shoulder poles and wooden clubs in their hands and savagely smashed them into the worn wooden door before them.

The wooden door had already been old and rotten, and even the bolt inside was just a piece of decayed wood. After several fierce blows, it gave a crack under the unbearable strain, and the bolt was forcibly shaken apart!

Bang!

Wang Zhao kicked the door open.

But just as he rolled up his sleeves and was about to rush inside, a cold shout came from afar.

"Insolence!"

That cold shout froze everyone in place. When they turned to look, they saw Chen Mu, dressed in a constable's uniform with a Yamen Saber at his waist, standing at the mouth of the alley at some unknown moment, his face cold as he strode toward them step by step.

Though he was alone against twenty or thirty men, he showed not the slightest retreat. With each step he took, a faint trace of Killing Intent seemed to spill forth. It was the aura that naturally arose from someone who had killed with his own hands and been stained with blood.

"Who gave you the nerve to come here and make trouble?"

Chen Mu walked over step by step, his cold gaze sweeping across the people before the door before settling on Wang Zhao.

The scene Wang Zhao had imagined—everyone coming together and forcing Chen Mu to meekly yield the deed and Wang Ni—had not happened. Instead, Chen Mu's arrival with a Yamen Saber at his waist and Killing Intent surging around him had intimidated their side.

Still, he recovered quickly.

There were more than twenty of them, while Chen Mu was alone. So what if he carried a saber? He was only trying to scare them.

"Hmph! Don't think that being a constable means you can bully the old and weak! You took someone's deed while my uncle was old, and you even snatched my uncle's granddaughter! Even if we take this to the City Guard, even if we take it before the Ward Chief today, we'll argue this matter through!"

Wang Zhao stared at Chen Mu and shouted sharply.

If this had happened in the past, Chen Mu might have had no choice but to retreat before such a display. But now, trying to gather twenty or thirty people and force him to bow his head was simply a fantasy as absurd as reaching for the moon.

Just as Chen Mu was considering whether he ought to establish his authority and how, another calm voice suddenly came from afar.

"Oh? Such a small matter hardly needs to disturb the Ward Chief. Why don't you first explain yourselves to me?"

"Who?!"

Wang Zhao frowned. He had not expected someone to meddle in their business, and immediately turned his head.

The moment he looked, he was so frightened he nearly collapsed onto the ground.

The other twenty or thirty men, including Wang Zheng, had been brimming with Killing Intent and fierce momentum. Yet when they saw the figure strolling over from the distant street, all of them widened their eyes.

A middle-aged man in a dark green Flying Fish Uniform approached with steady steps, square face and broad ears, his hands clasped behind his back. Two men in blue constable uniforms followed behind him.

City Guard.

Gray clothes marked ordinary Yamen Runners, blue clothes marked Head Runners, and within the Nine Stripes Ward Branch, only one person could wear dark green—the Yamen Director who commanded nearly two hundred Yamen Runners of the Nine Stripes Ward City Guard... Min Baoyi!

Min Baoyi strolled over with the ease of an idle walk through a courtyard, but as he approached, the entire scene fell into dead silence. Even households watching cautiously from afar, along with street thugs who had come to watch the excitement, wore expressions of terror.

The City Guard's Yamen Director!

He was a true great figure of Nine Stripes Ward. Even the leaders of the local criminal gangs had to treat him with courtesy, and the local gentry and powerful families had to welcome him with smiling faces. In times like these, calling him the local emperor of this patch of land would not be an exaggeration. A single word from him could send someone plunging into the abyss of hell!

"Good heavens, Yamen Director Min actually came. What's going on here..."

Several Red Gold Gang members who had heard the commotion and come to investigate from afar looked at one another, horror stirring in their hearts.

For a great figure like Min Baoyi to personally come to such a ruined little alley—it was like seeing a ghost in broad daylight.

Amid the dead silence.

Min Baoyi walked over with an indifferent expression. Looking at Wang Zhao and the others, who stood as stiff as wooden chickens, he said calmly, "What? Am I not qualified to hear your explanation? Must the Ward Chief be brought here?"

At those words, Wang Zhao and the others jolted. The whole group dropped to their knees at once. "Y-Yamen Director, sir, this lowly one wouldn't dare, wouldn't dare..."

"Didn't you have reason to argue? Then go ahead and tell me."

Min Baoyi stood with his hands behind his back and spoke mildly.

How could Wang Zheng, Wang Zhao, and the others dare mention Wang Ni and Old Man Wang now? Their talk of taking the matter to the City Guard or the Ward Chief had only been meant to bolster their courage. Before a great figure like Min Baoyi, explanations and reason meant nothing at all. If they said one wrong sentence and displeased him, disaster could descend upon them at once.

"This lowly one... this lowly one merely had a misunderstanding..."

Wang Zhao said tremblingly.

Min Baoyi glanced indifferently at Wang Zhao and the others. Seeing that they could not even speak steadily, he finally shifted his gaze toward Chen Mu. A friendly smile finally appeared on his impassive face. "Little Chen, you truly hid your brilliance well. Even I, the Yamen Director, knew nothing at all."

Chen Mu cupped his hands to Min Baoyi in salute. "Yamen Director, sir."

By now, he understood. After Min Baoyi received Xu Hongyu's message, he had likely immediately begun investigating Chen Mu's affairs. Then, by chance, he received word that Wang Zhao's group had gathered to cause him trouble. After considering it, he had come in person.

On one hand, Xu Hongyu's word carried tremendous weight. On the other, perhaps Xu Hongyu had also revealed some of Chen Mu's circumstances. At his age, he had cultivated Saber Force, and reaching Flesh Tempering before thirty would not be difficult. Once he reached that level, he would be fully qualified to hold the post of Yamen Director. Barring accidents, he was the reserve Yamen Director Xu Hongyu was cultivating.

With such a status, he naturally merited Min Baoyi coming personally.

"Hahaha, no need for such formality. From now on, just call me Old Brother Min."

Min Baoyi laughed heartily as he walked over, directly reaching out to tug Chen Mu by the arm. Then he patted Chen Mu's shoulder as he spoke.

The two Blue-Clothed Yamen Runner Captains behind him looked at Chen Mu with a trace of envy in their eyes. Having followed Min Baoyi all this time, they had more or less learned something of the situation.

Although Chen Mu was still only a Yamen Runner, even Head Runners like them were not qualified to receive such close treatment from Min Baoyi. He had even allowed Chen Mu to call him "Old Brother." What an honor that was.

On the other side.

Wang Zhao, Wang Zheng, and the rest stared at the scene, utterly dumbfounded.

The twenty or thirty men stood frozen in place, all staring wide-eyed as though they had been turned to stone. Cold sweat poured down some of them in an instant, and Wang Zheng felt his spine go icy cold, as if deep winter had suddenly arrived.

But at this moment, neither Chen Mu nor Min Baoyi paid them any attention.

Chen Mu looked at Min Baoyi. "Yamen Director, this..."

"Hm?"

Min Baoyi deliberately put on a stern face.

Chen Mu could only say helplessly, "Old Brother Min... it was only a minor matter, yet you had to make a trip here. I truly feel bad about it."

"Hahaha, I happened to have nothing to do. How could it be a bother?"

Min Baoyi laughed aloud. He then looked over Chen Mu's two small rooms and said, "This dwelling is hardly fit to live in. I have an unused courtyard behind Zhengli Street, two sections deep with three rooms. It is not especially spacious, but it is clean enough. I'll give it to you, little brother. It is close to the City Guard too, so it will be convenient when I want to find you for drinks or discussion."

"This..."

Chen Mu hesitated.

But Min Baoyi gave him no chance to refuse and insisted on giving it to him. Chen Mu could only accept helplessly.

It looked as though he had gained a two-section courtyard for nothing, but in truth, this was a favor Min Baoyi was extending. If Min Baoyi came to him for help in the future, Chen Mu would not be able to refuse easily. Though this Yamen Director seemed forthright, he was in fact meticulous beneath a rough exterior.

At this point.

Min Baoyi finally glanced at Wang Zhao and the others, smiling as he said, "These people have been so rude and reckless. I think they should all be taken to the yamen and given thirty strokes each. If that does not vent your anger, little brother, throwing them into prison would do as well."

He spoke of throwing them into prison as lightly as a casual remark, but in truth, it was a single offhand order deciding the lives of twenty or thirty people.

In times like these, twenty or thirty lives meant little to Min Baoyi. It was no more than a matter of one sentence.

Hearing Min Baoyi's words, Chen Mu sighed inwardly. A year ago, he had still been a bottom-ranking constable struggling to survive from one day to the next. Now, with a single sentence, he could easily decide the life and death of twenty or thirty people.

"Spare us, sir! Spare us, sir..."

Wang Zhao and the others had gone pale. They crumpled to the ground one by one, crying out as they kowtowed repeatedly to Chen Mu and Min Baoyi. Even after smashing their foreheads bloody, they did not dare stop. There was not a trace left of their earlier fierce bearing.

They were not afraid of an utterly destitute constable with no power or backing, relying on their numbers to face him. But a head constable was already someone they could not afford to provoke, let alone a dignified Yamen Director, who in Nine Stripes Ward was nearly the most powerful person below the Ward Chief.

All the men hated Wang Zheng and Wang Zhao to the bone. Had they known Chen Mu could address Yamen Director Min Baoyi as brother, they would not have dared come to cause trouble even if given ten times the courage!

Chen Mu gave them an indifferent glance, then cupped his hands toward Min Baoyi. "Handle them as you see fit, Old Brother."

Min Baoyi smiled. "Very well. The South City walls happen to need hands for repairs soon. Let them be put to proper use."

At those words, Wang Zhao and the others collapsed limply to the ground, their faces deathly pale. Only one thought rose in their hearts.

It was over.

What sort of work was repairing city walls? It was practically the harshest corvée labor in the entire city. Few who went ever returned. It was no work for human beings; most of those sent there were condemned prisoners under guard.

Min Baoyi did not care much. As he spoke, he gave one of the Head Runners behind him a look, signaling him to deal with the matter. Then he turned to Chen Mu and said, "It is still early. How about coming with me to the City Guard, little brother?"

"I will follow Old Brother Min's arrangements. But my sister may have been frightened, so I must go comfort her first."

Chen Mu cupped his hands toward Min Baoyi.

Min Baoyi waved a hand. "Fine. Then I'll head back first and wait for you at the City Guard."

Having said that.

He turned around and strolled away.