Harsh Interrogation, Pressure at Every Step

"A-Ning? Why are you here?!"

Chen Mu focused his eyes and saw that the figure beneath the tree was actually A-Ning.

Leaning against the inner courtyard wall beneath the tree, she burst into tears the moment she saw Chen Mu and flung herself toward him.

Afraid that she would fall, Chen Mu rushed forward in three strides and caught her around the waist.

"When did you come out? You're wearing so little."

He discovered that A-Ning wore only a single thin garment.

Her face was frozen deathly pale, and her hands and feet were ice-cold. She seemed to have waited in the courtyard for a long time, waiting for her husband to return.

Even as his heart ached for her, Chen Mu could not help regretting that he had not gone in to check on her as soon as he returned.

A-Ning's forehead was frighteningly hot now. She was clearly running a fever.

"Husband, don't go... A-Ning will wait for you..."

She mumbled indistinctly, her arms locked tightly around Chen Mu's waist as she sobbed softly and beat his chest, as though terrified he would leave and never return.

Chen Mu knew that his words last night, which had sounded like final instructions before death, had frightened her badly.

But he had no time to properly comfort her. He could only hurry her back into the room and wrap her in a thick cotton quilt.

"Be good. Wait for me to come back."

He laid a thick towel soaked in cool water over A-Ning's forehead, then fed her several small mouthfuls of medicine broth kept warm over charcoal.

After only that brief delay, the soldiers outside had already reached Chen Mu's courtyard in their search.

Bang! Bang! Bang!

Someone pounded heavily on the door and shouted, "Open up! Everyone inside, get the hell out here!"

Chen Mu steadied himself, pretended to have just woken up, hastily wrapped himself in a thin garment, and went to open the door.

Outside, flames already blazed fiercely, illuminating all of Rubble Ward as brightly as day.

Dozens of lowborn commoners from the surrounding streets and alleys had been called to the alley entrance and arranged into three rows.

"Kid, what are you staring at? Get over there and stand properly!"

A military officer stood before Chen Mu's door with one hand on his saber and a torch in the other, shining it into the courtyard as he barked:

"What's your name? How many people are in your household? What do you do? Speak honestly!"

Chen Mu's heart tightened slightly. From this close, he could sense the man's surging vitality and blood. The officer was no weaker than Chen Mu after his breakthrough.

This man was at least a military expert at the Body Tempering Second Layer.

Chen Mu did not dare be careless. Putting on a terrified and deferential expression, he answered:

"Reporting to you, sir, this lowly one is Chen Mu, a butcher by family trade. I have a sick wife at home. There are only the two of us."

"Oh? There's someone else?" The officer's tone immediately darkened upon hearing that, and he ordered Chen Mu:

"Then why aren't you getting in there to call her out? Do you want your grandpa here to invite her with his blade?!"

"What? Could it be that your little wife has the pox and is afraid of coming out to make a spectacle of herself?"

Hearing him insult A-Ning, Chen Mu silently clenched his fists.

But a quick glance outside showed at least fifty or sixty soldiers.

There were also quite a few military experts like the man before him.

Chen Mu did not dare reveal the slightest abnormality. He immediately adopted a humble posture and pleaded:

"Please forgive me, sir. My wife has been ill for a long time. Her cold illness flared up again tonight, and her fever still hasn't gone down. She is bedridden and truly cannot come out to pay her respects."

As he spoke, Chen Mu stepped closer, casually turned over his palm, and slipped a small handful of broken silver to the officer.

"Consider it this lowly one's tribute to you, sir. Please make an exception."

He pleaded quietly, then silently stepped back again.

The officer's originally ferocious expression changed the moment he received the silver.

Chen Mu's move had been both secretive and swift. No one around them noticed at all.

The officer weighed it in his hand and immediately knew there were at least a dozen taels of silver there—enough for several good meals of wine and women.

He at once stared at Chen Mu and asked softly, "Kid, you're carrying quite a bit of money, aren't you?"

There was a vicious smile in his voice, as though he had discovered some secret.

Chen Mu knew these soldier-bandits were even harder to deal with than Ma San. He had already prepared an excuse and was just about to brush him off when the officer's expression suddenly changed.

"Enough! Stop standing there like an idiot. Remember, when Commander Zhao questions you later, there's only one person in your household!"

"Did you hear me? Get over there and stand properly."

With that, the man turned away with a hand on his saber and went to knock on the next household's door.

Seeing this, Chen Mu knew he had passed the first hurdle.

But he felt that something was wrong with the man's gaze. That sudden change in attitude could not possibly have come from kindness.

Most likely, the man had conceived some ill intent and wanted to seize the silver in Chen Mu's possession in private.

Chen Mu had no choice either. He could only cross each bridge when he came to it.

He mingled with the crowd and went to stand at the alley entrance.

An open space spanning several dozen meters had been cleared beside the main street. Soldiers and lowborn civilians together numbered nearly a hundred people.

A simple wooden platform had been erected at the front.

Soldiers stood in a ring around it, holding torches against the cold wind. All the bandit-like air about them had vanished, and they stood ramrod straight.

A huanghuali rosewood armchair sat atop the platform, occupied by a single man while someone beside him served tea.

Zhao Dong, the commander of the East City Drill Ground, commanded more than three hundred soldiers under his hand.

He had hawk-like eyes and a hooked nose, appeared to be around forty, and wore dark-scaled iron armor with a saber at his waist. Even without anger, he inspired awe.

Chen Mu did not dare look at him for long. He knew this man's background well.

Everlasting Prosperity Town lay on the frontier, a small city directly governed by the border army.

The nominal chief of the local government was the seventh-rank "Town Defender," but the post had stood vacant for years and was remotely held by a deputy general of the border army.

Thus, Zhao Dong had become the de facto chief.

Not only did he command his soldiers, he had also planted his own people throughout every department of the local government.

The Patrol Office, responsible for fire prevention and catching thieves, the transport officials at the docks, and the rest were all under his control.

It could be said that aside from a handful of forces occupied by martial artists, such as the Azure Dragon Martial Academy, Zhao Dong was the local emperor of Everlasting Prosperity Town.

And Ma San had been able to collude with him because of his one-way connection to the salt smugglers outside the city.

Now that Ma San was dead, his source of wealth had been cut off. No wonder he was so enraged that he had mobilized such a force for a midnight search.

Chen Mu did not know where he had exposed a flaw. He could only hide among the crowd and lower his head as well.

No one dared speak. The wounded Tiger Boy and Uncle Old Wu, whose face was full of deathly gloom, were also standing in the back.

Everyone stood in the cold wind like that for the time it took to burn a stick of incense.

Zhao Dong above them was growing impatient and spoke coldly.

"Enough. Go call them back and take attendance directly."

"Anyone not listed on tonight's register will be charged as a bandit and executed on the spot."

His voice was hoarse and calm, yet the stench of blood in those words chilled every commoner below to the bone.

Chen Mu's heart also tightened, but he soon felt relieved.

A-Ning was an undocumented fugitive who had fled here. Her name was not registered with the authorities.

Sure enough, following Zhao Dong's order, several soldiers took out household registers and began calling names.

Everyone answered one by one in terror.

Before long, the soldiers taking attendance reached Chen Mu.

"Name?"

"Chen Mu."

After those brief questions, the soldier looked at Chen Mu's face, then drew a red circle beside his name to indicate that he was present.

The taut string in Chen Mu's heart loosened slightly.

These people had no reaction to his name, so they probably had not come directly for him.

Just then, Zhao Dong rose with a hand on his saber, stepped to the edge of the platform, and looked down at the crowd below.

"Are you wondering why I called you all out here?"

After saying that, he gave a grim chuckle. Then his gaze suddenly turned icy, and he roared:

"You lowborn bastards have some nerve! You actually dared collude with bandits, murder people, set fires, and destroy fine homes!"

"Now this official will give you a chance to confess."

"Who went to Ma San's residence on Central Peace Street tonight?! The person behind you took something belonging to this official."

"Hand it over now, and this official may reward you with a quick death."

"If I find the stolen goods myself, then dying won't come so easily for you."

The entire crowd was shocked. The dead man was actually Master Ma San?!

Then everyone panicked, repeatedly bowing with clasped hands. Some even began kowtowing and begging for mercy.

"We've been wronged, my lord! We merely scrape by at lowly trades! How could we possibly have the ability to kill anyone?"

"Please show mercy and judge clearly, my lord. We truly know nothing!"

Many people had seen the blaze in the direction of Central Peace Street during the night.

But no one could have imagined that the authorities would trace the matter to lowborn people like them at the very bottom.

Chen Mu was also shocked. Only then did he understand that it was not because he had exposed a flaw, but because he had taken something he should not have taken.

Zhao Dong might not have any concrete leads at all.

He was likely planning to conduct a carpet search, investigating every street, alley, and ward around Central Peace Street.

But what exactly was so important that it had drawn such attention from him?

As Chen Mu pondered, Zhao Dong's patience had already run out. With a hand on his saber, he sneered:

"You won't shed tears until you see the coffin. Ma San came to Rubble Ward this afternoon, and he died after returning that night."

"And you say it has nothing to do with you? Do you take this official for a fool?!"

"All of you, get down there and search every household! Whoever finds the stolen goods first will be rewarded with a hundred taels of silver!"

At that command, every soldier's eyes immediately turned red. They clasped their fists and shouted, "Yes!"

After the roar, dozens of soldiers scattered in a rush, smashing and searching house by house as though they meant to scrape away even the ground itself.

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