Make a Grand Show of It

"Then what exactly have you come to see me about?"

Yang Qing flicked his robe aside and slowly sat back down.

"I heard you led some men to dig up several big chests of treasure on Mantou Ridge a few days ago? That belongs to me. Go tell that fatty Dai I'll be coming to collect it in a few days."

Yang Qing merely smiled faintly and said nothing.

"Yang, I rarely speak this politely to anyone. Since you're new to Yan Prefecture and trying to scrape out a living, I'm giving you plenty of face this time. If you act like this again, don't blame me for tearing down your whole stage!"

Tiger snorted.

"This is the Yang Residence in Little Willow Lane."

Yang Qing's voice was quiet, yet every word reached Tiger's ears with perfect clarity.

"I don't give a damn whether it's Little Willow Lane or Big Willow Lane... Little Willow Lane?!" Tiger's heart shuddered.

"Remember something?"

Yang Qing's voice remained unhurried, but he had risen from his seat and now stood before Tiger.

The little candle lamp cast a wavering glow, projecting the lampshade's silhouette onto the floor and leaving a patch of murky shadow.

"You... you're a descendant of the Yang Family?"

Tiger stumbled back. With a crack, the chair beneath him shattered under his internal force, scattering fragments across the floor. The saber he had slapped onto the table was already in his hand. "No, that's impossible! We didn't leave a single survivor back then..."

Yang Qing nodded. "You're right. I'm a ghost of the Yang Family..."

"You've got some nerve! One wave of my arm, and I can send you straight to the Underworld! Hah, who'd have thought I'd make a tidy windfall just by coming here today!"

Tiger threw back his head and laughed smugly. After only two bursts of laughter, however, he felt as though invisible hands had clamped around his throat, leaving him unable to make a sound.

A youth had appeared before him without a sound.

Had the wall behind the youth not clearly reflected his silhouette, Tiger would almost have believed he truly had encountered a ghost.

"Wood! Wood!"

What was that brat still standing there for?

Tiger watched his brother standing motionless in the same spot, unresponsive no matter how he called. Cold sweat suddenly streamed down his forehead.

As though responding to him, Wood's body moved, only to topple stiffly to the ground. He struck the flagstones, and a great gush of bloody fluid instantly flowed from the corner of his mouth.

"Wood!" Tiger roared, his eyes stretched wide with fury.

"Bu Er, take him away."

With that, Yang Qing turned and trimmed the wick of the little candle lamp to brighten it, then picked up his book and resumed reading intently.

The next day, at the gates of Yan Prefecture City

"Look! Everyone, come look! A bandit! They caught a bandit!"

"Really? Where?"

A large crowd soon gathered at the gates of Yan Prefecture City, surrounding Wood's corpse and pointing at it.

The people of Yan Prefecture were no strangers to Wood.

The people of Yan Prefecture had long suffered under the bandits' scourge. Whenever Scarface and his arrogant, tyrannical followers were mentioned, everyone wished they could strip off their skin and gnaw their flesh raw.

Yet no one dared dig in the earth above these tyrants' heads.

The only person who had entertained the thought was Lord Jiang. Sadly, he had been found dead in the street the very next day.

Now someone had actually dared to bring Wood down and hang his corpse at the city gates. It was undoubtedly like pouring a ladle of hot oil into boiling water.

The whole place erupted at once.

"Make way, make way..."

Li Hai reached out to push aside the people packed together at the city gates, then went forward himself to inspect Wood's corpse from head to toe.

Once he had finished, he silently withdrew from the crowd.

The Li Residence, inside Yan Prefecture City

"Outrageous! Utterly outrageous!"

With a tremendous crash, an exquisitely carved screen was shoved over. It struck a small tea table beside it, sweeping the tea set off the tabletop and smashing it to pieces on the floor.

"Master, please calm down..."

Looking at the wreckage in the reception hall, Li Hai cautiously searched for somewhere to set his feet.

"Calm down? Someone's slapped me in the face right under my nose, and you expect me to calm down? Where's Tiger? Where has that brat crawled off to?"

Li Yi's chest heaved rapidly, taking a long time to settle.

"Master, this old servant hasn't seen Tiger. He probably wasn't with Wood."

Li Hai stood with his head bowed and his hands lowered, but inwardly he had already cursed eighteen generations of Tiger's ancestors. That bastard couldn't even die quietly. He had to drag me down with him.

"He wasn't?"

Li Yi spun around, his expression as though he wanted to devour someone. "Then where would he be?"

"Master, do you think he might be in Dai Sheng's hands?" Li Hai suggested.

"Dai Sheng? Ha! With his spineless nature, would he dare touch a single hair on these local tyrants of Yan Prefecture?" Li Yi shook his head.

"He wouldn't dare, but there's someone else we have to guard against..." Li Hai said.

A face wearing an ambiguous smile immediately flashed before Li Yi's eyes. "That wolf who'll swallow anything, raw or cold, certainly has the nerve."

"If he really did it, Master, what should we do next?"

Li Hai leaned closer to Li Yi.

"What should we do? Make a grand show of it, of course! Doesn't he want to make a name for himself? Then let him make a fine name for himself!"

Li Yi withdrew the hand resting on the chair back and strode away.

Only Li Hai remained, gazing at the two deep finger marks in the chair back, lost in thought.

The Yan Prefecture County Office

The usually deserted frontage of the Yan Prefecture County Office was bustling that day. A procession approached in orderly ranks, pipes blaring and drums beating, startling the guards at the entrance into craning their necks curiously to look outside.

Which wealthy family was celebrating a happy occasion?

To their surprise, the festive procession came to a complete halt before the County Office.

Dai Sheng had also heard about the incident at the city gates and was pacing anxiously through the hall with his hands clasped behind his back.

Wood had actually been hung at the city gates! Who did it? Who on earth did it?

The clamor outside drifted faintly into the hall, further stoking Dai Sheng's irritation.

He beckoned a guard over. "What's all that racket outside?"

"My lord, several wealthy merchants in Yan Prefecture City have brought you an Umbrella of the Ten Thousand People," the guard replied fearfully.

"What?"

An Umbrella of the Ten Thousand People?

"Nonsense! Absolute nonsense!"

Dai Sheng swept his robe aside and stormed out of the County Office.

"Lord Dai is coming out!"

Seeing Dai Sheng emerge from the County Office, the people waiting outside dropped to their knees in a great wave, crying, "Thank you, Lord Dai, for ridding the people of a scourge!"

"Lord Dai risked his life without a thought for death! What a blessing for our Yan Prefecture!"

For a time, the entrance to the County Office bustled once more.