Despicable

Liu San and Wu Dong did not head straight for Bitter Locust Village. Instead, they turned into a fairly clean little eatery halfway there, planning to fill their stomachs first.

Chen Cheng had followed them all the way. From the scraps of hushed conversation they exchanged, he had already pieced together a plan too shameful to see the light of day, one that could only be carried out after nightfall.

Chen Cheng did not wait any longer. He took another, nearer and more secluded alleyway to get there first and lie in ambush.

Night fell completely.

Even the last trace of human life in the slums vanished. Only the early winter night wind howled, dragging that despair-inducing stench with it as it surged wildly, blotting out the sky and covering the earth.

At the northern end of Bitter Locust Village, hysterical screams from a young girl rang out without cease from the only mud-brick courtyard.

The surrounding silence only made those cries sound all the more ghostly and shrill, enough to make one's scalp crawl.

Liu San and Wu Dong slowly approached the courtyard gate. After exchanging a glance, they hammered heavily on the door.

The next instant, a furious curse, warped beyond recognition, erupted from inside.

"Fuck your mother! Which pig with shit for brains is ruining my fun at a time like this?! I'll fuck your mother's rotten—"

"Scar Bear! Get out here!"

Wu Dong's face turned cold as he barked in a low voice.

The cursing inside stopped abruptly, followed by a flurry of panicked rustling and hurried footsteps.

The courtyard gate was pulled inward.

Scar Bear poked his head out. Once he recognized the visitors' faces in the ghastly moonlight, he immediately bowed and scraped, sweat beading at his temples, his voice trembling slightly.

"T-two officers, it's so late. Wh-what wind blew you two to this doghouse of mine?"

"There's something we need you to lend a hand with."

Wu Dong crooked a finger.

Scar Bear hurriedly leaned over and brought his ear close.

Lowering his voice, Wu Dong quickly laid out their intentions.

"...Th-this isn't appropriate, is it?"

After hearing him out, Scar Bear's eyes darted about in panic as his mind frantically weighed the pros and cons.

On one side stood a newly risen Martial Artist from Longshan Middle Academy. On the other were Patrol Office officers who carried out the Imperial Government's violence and held the lifeline of both him and the entire Black Wolf Gang in their hands.

No matter how he calculated it, the matter made his calves cramp.

"What's the matter?"

Wu Dong pressed him coldly.

"Is that brat surnamed Chen your father? Are you helping him or helping us? Do you even need to think about it?"

"...N-no need to think. I'll definitely stand with you two unconditionally."

Scar Bear shook his head, and an ingratiating smile immediately spread across his face.

At most, Scar Bear was just a minor gang leader, overseeing the territory of barely twenty households in Bitter Locust Village. Yet the entire Black Wolf Gang operated under the jurisdiction of the South Third Guard Patrol Office.

Zhao Chuan would not even need to step in. So long as Wu Dong and Liu San passed along a casual word to the Black Wolf Gang's higher-ups, they could press Scar Bear completely back into the mud.

If he could not even grasp that much, he would have died who knew how many times already.

"Good that you know your place. Go get the things," Wu Dong said indifferently.

Scar Bear nodded and immediately darted back inside, returning with a slightly shriveled money pouch.

Wu Dong glanced at it, then directly cursed, "Did a donkey kick your fucking brain? A dignified Martial Artist of Longshan Middle Academy would care about this little money?"

Beside him, Liu San, who had been standing with his arms folded and watching coldly, added in a sinister tone.

"Scar Bear, think it through. If the case isn't made solid and the sentence isn't severe enough, once Chen Cheng gets out... the first skin he'll peel will be yours."

"Hiss—"

Scar Bear sucked in a sharp breath and hurried back inside again.

This time, he came out carrying a small locked wooden box. As he ran, hard objects inside clattered against one another with dull thuds.

"Two officers... th-this is all my worldly wealth..."

"Enough, enough. You won't lose out."

Wu Dong narrowed his eyes, looking as though everything was ready and entirely within his grasp.

"We'll put this 'stolen property' into Chen Cheng's home right now. Half an hour later, you make a scene and catch him red-handed. Old Liu and I will just so happen to pass by and arrest him according to the law!"

Wu Dong's gaze turned cold, his whole bearing growing ever gloomier and more menacing.

"With ironclad evidence and countless witnesses watching, even Longshan Middle Academy won't be able to keep a scum like him who committed the grave crime of theft!"

"Brilliant! Truly brilliant!"

Scar Bear's face was plastered with a fawning smile, but inwardly, he understood as clearly as a mirror.

The South Third Guard Patrol Office—especially the pack of mad dogs under Zhao Chuan—whenever they could not make a case or harbored some other ghost in their hearts, would go round and round using nothing but these childless, virtue-rotting tricks...

Planting evidence, framing the innocent, conjuring something from nothing, turning black into white... whatever was more vicious and underhanded, they used it!

Shameless! Despicable! A filthy bunch whose sons will be born without assholes! Pah!

Scar Bear cursed viciously in his heart, yet obediently presented the wooden box.

Once night fell, the poor folk of Bitter Locust Village could only curl up in their bedding early.

The twisted, chaotic alleyways had long since become empty. Every household had its doors and windows tightly shut, without a trace of lamplight.

Where overhanging shed eaves blocked out the moonlight, everything was swallowed by dead blackness. Only the night wind threaded through broken boards and tattered felt, whimpering like invisible hands scratching softly.

That environment made Wu Dong and Liu San uncomfortable all over, and they walked far more slowly than expected.

"San'er..."

Wu Dong suddenly spoke, his brow knotted tight.

"Why do I feel like... something's following behind us...?"

"Fuck! Can't you talk without sounding so creepy? You scared the shit out of me!"

Liu San snapped in a low voice.

"Those lowborn wretches living in this damned place are probably sleeping like the dead already! Even if I lent them eight hundred guts, they wouldn't dare wander around in the middle of the night!"

His words were fierce, but the hairs at the back of his neck had long since stood on end. His right hand slowly moved to the cold hilt of his blade, his fingers tightening around it.

"Those worthless poor bastards definitely wouldn't dare... b-but you know what's been happening at Red Moon Nunnery lately..."

Liu San swallowed, but his throat remained dry.

"Woo..."

Before he had even finished speaking, a sinister gust drifted past. In the distance, a broken plank on a shack suddenly creaked.

"Hiss—"

The two men sucked in breaths at the same time, their eyes snapping toward it.

There was only deeper darkness there, along with several shadows—perhaps scraps of cloth, perhaps torn paper—whipped up by the wind and flashing past in an instant.

"Go! Hurry! Drop the thing and get out! This damned place... it really... really reeks of evil..."

Goosebumps rose all over Liu San's body, and none of the forcefulness he had shown while berating Wu Dong remained.

The two quickened their pace, almost breaking into a run. Their heavy breathing sounded especially clear in the silence.

The heavy wooden box in Liu San's hands now felt like a red-hot branding iron, making him desperate to throw it away at once.

"Whoosh—"

Suddenly, a sharp sound, shriller and briefer than the wind, like a poisoned crossbow bolt leaving the string, burst without warning from the blind spot behind them.

"Who?!"

Every hair on Wu Dong's body stood on end. Relying on the instincts he had honed through years of living with a blade at his throat, he twisted around sharply, his right hand already flashing toward the hilt of his weapon.

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