Shen Yi asked, then continued to gaze at him calmly.
The result was that Thin Ascetic didn't react for a moment. He almost thought Shen Yi really wanted an "answer."
A moment later, fury surged in his heart.
His gaze turned sinister, his breathing quickened. Since arriving in Baiyun County, no one had ever dared provoke him like this.
Thin Ascetic clenched his fist so tightly that his nails dug into his palm.
He wanted nothing more than to split Shen Yi's skull with a full-force blow.
But for some reason, under the other man's placid gaze, he felt inexplicably flustered. His hand still wouldn't rise. Had living in comfort at the estate for so long made him lose his taste for a fight?
No. There was simply no need to quarrel with a dead man. It would be foolish.
After offending the North Cliff Fox Demon, Shen Yi had no chance of surviving. Why should Thin Ascetic dirty his own hands?
With that thought, Thin Ascetic forced another sneer, though it lacked some of its former confidence. "As expected of a man from the yamen. Lord Shen, you're even more imposing than the county magistrate. I was the one who failed to read the room."
Shen Yi nodded, then turned to leave. Suddenly remembering something, he glanced back with a touch of concern. "At your age, you shouldn't keep grinning with your mouth crooked like that. You could end up with facial paralysis."
"Kh..."
Thin Ascetic reflexively adjusted the corner of his mouth. Then his eyelids began to twitch violently.
Watching Shen Yi stroll away at an unhurried pace, he suddenly felt a tightness in his chest, and a metallic sweetness filled his mouth.
Butcher Zhang walked over to his senior brother and shot him a somewhat pitying glance before leaving the Lin Family.
"To think the household was hiding such a ferocious tiger demon!"
Master Lin, who had arrived late, stared wide-eyed as Chen Ji secured the enormous tiger corpse to a handcart.
He glanced at Thin Ascetic, who remained where he was, lowered his head and offered a couple of ingratiating laughs, then hurried after Shen Yi.
"Lord Shen, please wait!"
With his unsteady frame and his ornate, cumbersome clothes, there was no way he could run. All he could do was call out again and again.
Shen Yi stopped, puzzled.
"I came to apologize for what happened earlier."
Master Lin bent over, bracing his hands on his knees in shame. "You saved my daughter, yet I suspected you'd colluded with demons to harm her and steal her memories. And the reason I let her come home was to trick you into giving me money to gamble with..."
At that, Shen Yi's expression stiffened slightly.
"I was a merchant looking down on you with my dog's eyes." Master Lin sighed with deep regret, unaware that Shen Yi had quietly turned his head to look elsewhere.
"You're a good man. Bai Wei was deceived by the demons. If not for you today, Lord Shen, that tiger demon might have eaten my entire family."
"..."
Hearing that name again, Shen Yi fell silent.
Of all the troubles his predecessor had left behind, this was the most troublesome.
Either he killed the Fox Demon and silenced it,
or he eliminated the real Lin Baiwei and joined forces with the North Cliff Fox Demon.
There was hardly a third path.
The decisive, clean stroke he had just delivered had not only severed the tiger demon's head, but also cut off his own retreat.
Shen Yi knew he was just an ordinary person. He, too, could be plagued by doubts and misgivings.
Better to be decisive and follow his heart. Why drag his feet like a child who hadn't been weaned, unwilling to let go of this or give up that?
"There's no need. I draw a salary from the imperial court, so doing my duty is only right."
Shen Yi gathered his thoughts. Seeing Chen Ji pulling the handcart over, he gave a slight nod and took his leave of Master Lin.
"Only right..." Master Lin nodded along, though bitterness tugged at the corner of his mouth. How noble, this talk of doing what was only right. If that were truly the case, then after all the silver he'd paid the county magistrate, why hadn't Thin Ascetic done his job and earned it?
"Lord Shen, how about I invite you over for tea once Bai Wei returns? She studied under a master and knows a little martial arts. You're close in age, so I'm sure you'll have plenty to talk about."
Chen Ji frowned instinctively.
Everyone in Baiyun County knew the Lin Family's only daughter was as beautiful as a celestial maiden. Countless fine young men coveted her. Compared with her, his own younger sister might be a delicate beauty, but she was far behind in both family background and worldly experience.
Wait... why was he comparing his sister to the Lin Family's young lady?
Chen Ji slapped his forehead. Besides, with Lord Shen's current martial arts, he might not even be interested in a woman who had consorted with demons.
"What do you think?" Master Lin asked cautiously.
Shen Yi lowered his eyes to the saber at his waist and replied slowly, "All right."
Master Lin was overjoyed to get his answer. Shen Yi's expression was a little odd, but they were both young. If they spent more time together, perhaps something would come of it!
Chen Ji rolled his eyes. Sure enough, even if everything else had changed, Lord Shen's restless heart remained the same.
Just then, Fat Steward, now dressed in clean clothes, struggled over with a large silk bag and placed it on the handcart with a series of grunts.
Chen Ji could tell what was inside just from the sound.
Judging by how much the cart sagged, there had to be at least eight hundred taels. At a constable's salary, that was nearly thirty years' worth.
"Please, don't refuse. If you don't accept it, I won't be able to live with myself. Besides, the imperial court tacitly permits Demon-Slaying Silver."
Master Lin pressed his hands together repeatedly.
"I know you like to have a bit of fun. Copper coins aren't convenient, and banknotes don't look impressive, so we prepared silver ingots instead." Fat Steward beamed, eager for praise.
Shen Yi walked up to the cart and lifted the silk wrapping. As he looked at the gleaming silver inside, a trace of barely perceptible envy flickered through his calm eyes.
Rich bastards! They ought to find a lamppost and hang these people from it.
A couple of egg pancakes cost ten coins. This much silver could wrap an entire peddler's family in pancakes.
"That's true," Chen Ji sighed. No matter how much silver someone else could casually give away, he could never save enough for his sister's dowry in a lifetime.
Shen Yi casually rummaged through the ingots, picked out two weighing ten taels each, and tossed one to Chen Ji. "That's enough."
He couldn't raise the Lin Family's daughter for free. They could at least pay for her food.
He pushed the rest off the cart.
Before anyone else could say a word, Shen Yi left Master Lin standing there in stunned silence and strode out of the Lin residence.
Chen Ji stared at the ingot in his hand in surprise, then pulled the cart and hurried after him.
"Lord Shen."
Once they reached the street, Chen Ji finally got the chance to ask about what had just happened.
He truly hadn't expected Shen Yi to fall out with Thin Ascetic so readily.
"Think before you act next time. Your life wasn't something you picked up off the ground."
Shen Yi stretched and headed toward a tavern by the roadside, studying the wooden signs on the wall. "A pot of Huadiao wine, a roast goose leg—left leg, mind you—and a steamed fish..."
Watching him order, Chen Ji rubbed his stomach.
The way Lord Shen put it, you'd think Thin Ascetic's life was something he'd picked up off the ground... Even if he had, why risk it for someone who had nothing to do with him?
He'd even bought him a meal.
By the time Shen Yi left with an earthenware jar and a lotus-leaf-wrapped parcel, Chen Ji's mouth hung slightly open. He asked, puzzled, "Aren't we eating here?"
"Who said 'we'?"
Shen Yi glanced back, his expression strange. "If you want to eat, buy your own."
Ever heard of keeping public and private matters separate?
Two taels and four mace a month, and he was supposed to buy him a meal too? He might as well ask him to eat shit.
"..."
Chen Ji took out the ten-tael ingot and looked from the silver to Shen Yi, his heart full of emotion.
"What a strange man."
Before you continue