"Holy shit, this guy was the ultimate self-reward bro!"
Chen Xia looked at the corpse of the wealthy household's youngest son and couldn't help exclaiming.
His curious colleague beside him asked, "What's a reward?"
Chen Xia explained, "A craft handed down by our ancestors."
"Ohhh." His fellow constable nodded in understanding, then looked at the wealthy household's youngest son's lifeless, spiritless corpse and nodded in agreement.
"He really did know how to reward himself."
"What nonsense are you chatting about?!" The constable captain up ahead couldn't help snapping, before adding quietly,
"Though lewd indulgence can sap a person's vitality and spirit, it certainly won't kill them. This looks more like the work of an evil spirit!"
"Then this shouldn't be our job. Go find Daoist Mu Xieyang at the town entrance. This is his specialty," Chen Xia replied.
"Exactly, exactly." The colleague beside him hurriedly nodded too. As constables, they held official posts, but unlike the soldiers guarding the city, they had no need to risk their lives.
He still remembered the three great rules of being a constable that a senior had taught him.
1. Collect protection fees on time.
2. Shut up merchants who don't know what's good for them.
3. Get away unscathed when you encounter criminals.
This evil spirit was far more dangerous than a criminal. He couldn't get mixed up in this.
Chen Xia thought the same. He hadn't been lying low for long, and he had only earned one attribute point. This wasn't the time for conflict.
The constable captain pondered for a moment, then said quietly, "Actually, this isn't the first time something like this has happened. Ten years ago, when I was just a lowly constable who'd recently taken the job, there was an identical incident."
Good lord, we're going back ten whole years?
Chen Xia was a little surprised, but then he felt that if a case like this only happened once every ten years, there was no need to be too afraid.
After all, ten years from now, once his strength points had piled up, who would pummel whom to death was still very much up in the air.
The case really was too bizarre for the constables to handle. They merely spent a few days searching around the wealthy household for clues.
In the end, they still had no leads and couldn't find a shred of evidence, yet the scene of the death made suicide impossible.
The constable captain was unwilling to investigate any further and offered some words of profound wisdom.
"Don't meddle in things you shouldn't touch. Isn't it better to live a few more years?"
Upon hearing this, Chen Xia's mighty frame jolted. He felt a rush shoot straight to his head, and words rose in his heart that he couldn't bear not to say. Yet he held them back, left with only a sigh of reflection.
It really did make sense.
Wasn't it better to live a few more years?
Besides, the longer he lived, the stronger he could become.
The matter would have ended there, unresolved, but the master of the wealthy household refused to accept it. He was a local notable in town who had been fortunate enough to have a youngest son in his old age, and he had showered the boy with affection.
Now the boy had died just like that, and his remaining children were daughters. It had effectively ended his family line.
So he spent a considerable sum to invite Daoist Mu Xieyang from the town entrance to investigate.
But what happened after that had nothing to do with the constables.
Chen Xia was already collecting protection fees punctually every month. Whenever he had nothing to do, he would ask around for strange tales about cultivators so that he could steer clear of them.
Meanwhile, holding to his creed of forging more good ties and fewer bad ones, Chen Xia did plenty of good deeds around town. For instance, Widow Wang's household had been poor for years, so he contributed money and labor to help.
Chen Xia also frequently assisted fallen young women, helping them become star courtesans in the pleasure houses.
And Chen Xia had always treated men and women equally. He didn't just help women; when men ran into difficulties, he would lend a hand too.
For instance, whenever someone's wife cheated on him, Chen Xia would thoughtfully let him know. When husband and wife fought, Chen Xia would even stand beside them and try to break it up.
Even when he encountered a stray dog by the roadside, Chen Xia would take it out for a buffet.
And so, as a matter of course, Chen Xia won Outstanding Constable for the second year running.
He truly hadn't expected that.
As for his second attribute point, Chen Xia put it into strength again.
Having learned from last time, Chen Xia didn't head up the mountain. He simply locked his door and allocated the point inside his house.
[Point allocation successful. Strength: 2]
The voice had only just sounded in his mind.
Chen Xia immediately felt incomparable strength surge from within his body. It was as though his body had become tough through a thousand hammerings and a hundred temperings, harder than steel and fiercer than a Demon Beast.
The entire point-allocation process finished within a minute.
Chen Xia exhaled a cloud of extremely hot mist, casually reached out to grasp the blade of a kitchen knife, and squeezed hard.
The kitchen knife twisted as easily as rice paper, letting out a piercing crack as it broke apart. Chen Xia kneaded it in his palm, constantly changing its shape.
In the end, it became a misshapen iron ball, which fell to the floor with a clang when Chen Xia let go.
He should now have had the strength of nine oxen, perhaps even more.
Chen Xia felt that he could now easily kill a wild tiger with a single punch and pummel a pack of wolves to death.
He was very satisfied with the current rhythm of his life.
The third year.
The imperial court sent people to town to conscript soldiers, saying that war had broken out with a foreign country, that there weren't enough troops, and that soldiers needed to be recruited nationwide.
Naturally, the town's constables were the first to bear the brunt.
Constables held official posts and had received training, making them somewhat more useful than ordinary people. Besides, they had previously drawn government salaries, so now they had to risk their lives for the government.
It was perfectly normal. In past wars, too, constables had been called up first, followed by men from farming households.
However, there was one point to note about conscription: people without family or dependents were generally not recruited.
Those without family or dependents had nothing holding them back, nor did they fear punishment after deserting. Even defecting to the enemy during a war would leave them without any worries.
Thus, people like that were generally exempt from conscription.
Chen Xia, for example.
The reason given was that, as a two-time Outstanding Constable, Chen Xia could be exempted from the draft.
It actually made Chen Xia feel that good people really did get their just rewards.
The other constables, who had families, were all preparing to go to war, including the constable captain.
Before leaving, the constable captain sought Chen Xia out to ask a favor.
"Going off to war this time, I don't know what year I'll return. I might even never return at all, becoming yet another heap of white bones. I don't mind that myself, but there's someone on my mind, and I simply can't rest easy."
"Of all the constables, I think you have the best character, so I'd like to ask you to take good care of..."
"Don't worry, Captain. I'll definitely take good care of your wife." Chen Xia jumped straight in with an answer, nodding and patting his chest.
The constable captain froze for a moment, gave Chen Xia a long look, then shook his head. "Not my wife. My fifteen-year-old daughter, Xu Zhen."
"Oh, oh, a loli. I'm good at that too." Chen Xia hurriedly nodded.
The constable captain couldn't understand what Chen Xia was saying and continued, "I've left quite a bit of money in the house. Consider it my daughter's future living expenses and payment for your trouble. You must take good care of her. Don't let me down."
"Of course, of course." Chen Xia nodded.
"Mm." The constable captain nodded too, but said nothing more. With his hands clasped behind his back, he turned and slowly walked away into the setting sun, his desolation plain to see.
Going off to war this time, he might truly end up as a heap of white bones, with nothing more than a lonely cenotaph erected for him.
After autumn arrived.
Chen Xia was the only constable left in all of Weixi Town.