The Village Butcher

He had acquired a second talent!

To be precise, Ten Thousand Questions had identified a second talent.

Did it come from that young monster strain?

Withered Abyss?

It sounded thoroughly sinister.

Xie An knew this was no place for research, so he packed up Zhao Hu and his wife's clothing and handed it to Li Dao. "Zhao Hu followed me for many years, and we were master and servant after all. Now that he has met with this foul disaster and his body was even gnawed upon, make a cenotaph for Zhao Hu and his wife."

Li Dao received the clothing with both hands solemnly. "You have the heart of a bodhisattva, young master."

Xie An walked out of the living room and saw Uncle Shui standing under the eaves, staring blankly in the direction where the young monster strain had crawled over the wall and left.

Xie An stepped closer. "That monster strain just now kept staring at me and even asked if I'd paid my grave tax... Could it be that it came for me?"

Uncle Shui's expression was grave. "There is a high probability the young master is its next target."

Xie An had been mentally prepared for this for a long time, and pressing down the creepiness in his heart, he asked, "Why did it run away at the end, then? Could it be that it was afraid of Uncle Shui?"

Uncle Shui shook his head. "I'm afraid not."

Xie An asked, "Then for what reason?"

Uncle Shui let out a long sigh. "It likely had more pressing matters to attend to."

Xie An's heart instantly chilled.

More pressing matters?

How did that sound even more terrifying?

The torrential rain was still falling.

As if the heavens had been poked through with a giant hole, the entire outer city of Qingwu County was immersed in an ink-black, gloomy shade.

The county yamen of Qingwu County was situated right in the center of Zhengping Street.

Not far to the left was the outer gate of Returning Dragon Abbey. To the right was a tract of aged old houses, mostly where the bailiffs lived.

Two saber-wielding bailiffs walked out of the county yamen gates through the rain, holding oiled-paper umbrellas as they headed toward the right-hand street.

The taller bailiff walked a couple of steps and carelessly stepped into a puddle, the rain soaking his shoes and socks. After pulling out his foot, he began to grumble, "Such rotten luck, it has to pour heavy rain on the day of our shift. A lot of those well-connected families in the city still haven't paid their autumn taxes, and on a rainy day like this, we still have to go door-to-door dunning for taxes. Such a bitter life."

The other, shorter bailiff also muttered, "Constable Lord actually knows how to slack off. Ever since he went down to the countryside to Wuqiao Town to dun for autumn taxes, he's been taking sick leave to recuperate at home, dumping all these odd, grueling chores onto the two of us."

The tall bailiff grew angrier the more he spoke. "Who made that wretch Zhu Youcai the head of our household revenue department? That bastard entered the revenue department with us, and later relied on sending silver to buy himself the position of a revenue department clerk. After that, he started bossing us around left and right. Back when he first came, that skinflint Zhu called me Brother Bin left and right; once he became a clerk, he started calling me Xiao Bin. Such a petty villain, damn it..."

The shorter bailiff made a silencing gesture. "Brother Bin, keep your voice down. Skinflint Zhu's residence is right ahead. If skinflint Zhu hears us cursing him behind his back, he'll inevitably dispatch us to do hard labor."

The tall bailiff said, "So what if skinflint Zhu finds out? Just a ninth-rank clerk, does he really think he's the constable?"

The shorter bailiff lowered his voice. "Brother Bin, don't be so hot-headed. Yesterday, I heard Constable Li's confidant Liu Zhong discussing privately that when skinflint Zhu went to Wuqiao Town to collect taxes earlier, he took silver and money from the large families in town and slaughtered several villages. He's a ruthless character, though. We can't afford to offend him."

Hearing this, the tall bailiff's expression froze for a moment, and his arrogant bluster faded by more than half. "Skinflint... Clerk Zhu really slaughtered a village?"

The shorter bailiff looked all around, and finding no one, said, "Yeah, I heard it from Liu Zhong's own mouth when he was drunk. Li Family Village under the Xie Residence was wiped out by skinflint Zhu."

The tall bailiff turned pale. "Won't the fast runners of the apprehension squad do anything?"

The shorter bailiff said, "Apprehend my ass. Nowadays, refugees are running rampant outside, and there are countless refugees fleeing famine from other places, corpses of the starving all along the road. Coupled with the southern barbarians fiercely crossing the border to harass us, the garrison urgently lacks military funds to resist the enemy. To raise rations, the yamen has instituted a policy of surrendering tenancy in exchange for grain; who cares about the life or death of a few village tenants?

After slaughtering the village, Clerk Zhu grabbed all the grain stored in the tenants' homes and handed it over to serve as military funds. Registrar Xu not only didn't blame him upon finding out, but even praised Clerk Zhu for doing a good job. I reckon Clerk Zhu has a boundless future and is probably going to be promoted."

The tall bailiff was utterly shocked. He stopped dead in his tracks and looked ahead at Clerk Zhu's residence. "Xiao Chen, you make a good point. I was too impulsive just now, and I see that Clerk Zhu has always treated us pretty well. Now that we've reached Clerk Lord's doorstep, how can there be no reason to go up and pay our respects?"

Xiao Chen smiled. "There's a wine shop right next door, and Clerk Zhu has always favored plum blossom wine; we can buy two jars and send them over, letting Clerk Lord know our intentions as well."

"Good idea."

The two bought two jars of plum blossom wine at the neighboring wine shop, then arrived at Zhu Youcai's dwelling and knocked gently on the door.

While knocking on the door, the tall bailiff let out ingratiating laughter. "Lord Zhu, it's me, Xiao Bin, and I've brought Xiao Chen to see you."

The old wooden door was battered by the wind and rain, clattering noisily and emitting a stench of aged, rotting wood.

A faint smell of blood drifted from inside the house as well.

The shorter bailiff, Xiao Chen, leaned toward the door crack and sniffed, instantly catching a pungent, fishy stench. "Why is there still a smell of blood inside? The situation doesn't look right... Shall we come back another day?"

"Who hasn't got a bit of bloody smell when buying a few catties of pork or slaughtering a chicken or duck these days? What are you panicking about..." The tall bailiff, Xiao Bin, was unimpressed.

"But the bloody smell shouldn't be this pungent..." Xiao Chen tugged Xiao Bin closer to the door crack to sniff.

Xiao Bin immediately smelled an extremely pungent, fishy stench. His expression changed instantly, and he turned to leave.

Right at that moment—

Crack.

The door opened.

The two looked back and saw Clerk Zhu standing naked inside the door, his skin as tender as a baby's, the corners of his mouth stained full of fresh blood and bits of flesh.

Unconsciously, the two wanted to cover their eyes, but the next moment they couldn't cover them no matter what...

Because they saw a wife and child lying behind this Clerk Zhu, both with their abdomens dug out and internal organs spilled all over the ground.

They recognized that wife and child; they were precisely Zhu Youcai's wife and child...

In a flash, Xiao Chen and Xiao Bin both felt a chill run down their spines, experiencing unspeakable terror. Just as they were about to grease their heels and run, they were grabbed by Clerk Zhu, one in each hand.

Then Clerk Zhu's mouth slowly opened, splitting all the way to his earlobes, and he let out a gloomy and terrifying laugh. "Didn't you want to bring me wine? Since you've already come, where are you going? I'm just short two sets of bailiff uniforms..."

Swish!

The two were instantly dragged inside the courtyard gate, immediately followed by terrified and miserable screams:

"Ah!!!"

Not long after, the courtyard gate opened anew.

Xiao Chen and Xiao Bin inside had already vanished, leaving only a puddle of blood on the ground. The wife and child who had originally lain on the ground were also gone, leaving only bloody garments.

Zhu Youcai wore cyan bailiff robes, a bronze bell and a bronze mallet hanging from his waist, and held a volume of pages and a wolf-hair brush in his hand.

Zhu Youcai picked up the bronze mallet at his waist and struck the bronze bell heavily:

"Clang, clang, clang... Rations coming through, pay your taxes..."