"After him! We can't let him kill Brother Chun!" Qin Hongmian cried urgently.
Gan Baobao hurried to her feet and rushed toward the window, only to see Li Qingluo coming over too. She could not help sneering, "Are you chasing your husband or your lover?"
"Shut up, bitch!" Li Qingluo snapped, then leaped out.
"Hurry!" Qin Hongmian urged again.
Gan Baobao glared at Li Qingluo and followed.
By the time Wang Gang reached the shore, Fu Sigui and Duan Zhengchun had already poled their boat more than twenty feet away.
Wang Gang glanced around and discovered that the other small boats had all been smashed and were taking on water with a gurgle. He raised his voice. "Duan Zhengchun, if you leave, those three guards of yours won't live!"
Startled, Duan Zhengchun hurriedly said, "Every grievance has its perpetrator, every debt its debtor! This has nothing to do with them!"
"Spare me those fine words! Could you have escaped without them?" Wang Gang's tone was calm. "Come back, and I'll kill only you. Leave, and all three will die because of you!"
Duan Zhengchun panicked. After struggling with himself for a moment, he told Fu Sigui, "Go back!"
Fu Sigui ignored him and continued poling the boat forward.
"I told you to go back!" Duan Zhengchun roared.
"My lord, going back means certain death! Forgive your subordinate, but I truly cannot obey!" Fu Sigui argued.
"This happened because of me. How could I let my brothers die needlessly in my place? If my death can save their lives, what does it matter if I die?"
Seeing that Fu Sigui remained unmoved, Duan Zhengchun added, "Besides, I won't necessarily die! He's never killed anyone. He wouldn't dare. At most, he'll turn me over to the authorities, and you can break me out then!"
Fu Sigui began to waver. As his lord said, he might suffer a little, but if that could save their three brothers' lives, it would certainly be worth it!
He was just about to agree and pole the boat back when a woman ran up to the shore and shouted, "Go! Don't come back! Your three guards are already dead!"
Wang Gang slapped Li Qingluo across the face. "Bitch! Do you want to die?"
"Then kill me!" Li Qingluo lifted her head, baring her neck.
Wang Gang seized her by the throat and tightened his grip, lifting her off the ground. Li Qingluo immediately struggled to breathe, her cheeks flushing red!
"Wang Gang, you really killed them!" Tears poured down Duan Zhengchun's face as he cried out in horror.
"They really have been killed! Hurry and go!" Gan Baobao arrived!
With his answer, Duan Zhengchun felt as though all his organs were burning, his chest unbearably tight. His head tipped back, and he spat out a mouthful of blood.
"My lord! My lord!" Fu Sigui panicked. Only after checking that Duan Zhengchun was still breathing did he relax, but the thought of his brothers brought unbearable grief again. He shouted, "Wang Gang, you dared kill my brothers! I swear I'll destroy your family, leaving not even a chicken or dog alive!"
Wang Gang merely watched the little boat recede with cold eyes. Suddenly, he laughed and flung Li Qingluo to the ground. Heavy gasping and violent coughing immediately followed.
Qin Hongmian arrived then too. Leaning on Gan Baobao, she asked what had happened between gasps. Only when she learned that Duan Zhengchun had left did she breathe a sigh of relief.
"We aren't trying to oppose you. We just didn't want to see a friend die..."
Seeing Wang Gang approaching them, Gan Baobao grew flustered. They were outsiders, unlike Li Qingluo, whose fate would at least be investigated by the authorities if anything happened to her. She hurriedly spoke, hoping to make Wang Gang spare them.
But before she could finish, Wang Gang suddenly struck, slapping both her and Qin Hongmian on their lower abdomens. Looking down, she saw a piece of brown paper resembling a medicinal plaster.
What was this for?
The question had barely arisen when she suddenly felt a foreign stream of internal power surge into her Qi sea, churning it into chaos!
"Ah!"
She cried out, and her internal power dissipated!
Her cultivation had been dispersed?
Feeling her utterly empty Qi sea, Gan Baobao looked despairingly at Qin Hongmian and found the same expression on her face.
"I ought to thank you for helping me let Duan Zhengchun go!" Wang Gang said coldly.
Qin Hongmian exclaimed in astonishment, "You let him go on purpose!"
"Among the pre-Qin schools of thought was one called Yang Zhu, which once flourished. There was even a saying that all discourse under heaven belonged either to Yang or to Mo! This school advocated valuing oneself, declaring that one would not pluck out a single hair even to benefit all under heaven!"
Wang Gang smiled throughout, yet the sight made their hair stand on end.
"And yet even a philosophy that values life so highly, placing one's own life above all else, could say that a constrained life is worse than death! Clearly, death isn't the most frightening thing!"
"What's a constrained life?" Gan Baobao looked bewildered.
"A constrained life is one in which none of the six desires finds its proper satisfaction, and all encounter what they most abhor: servitude and humiliation. No humiliation is greater than unrighteousness; thus unrighteousness is a constrained life. Hence the saying that a constrained life is worse than death."
Wang Gang never tired of instructing others, but after his explanation, he saw that the women were still lost in the clouds. He put it more plainly. "Simply put, it means forcing him through outside pressure to drag out a humiliating, stifled existence. None of his six desires can be satisfied. All day long, he must endure what he loathes, suffering enslavement and humiliation, his true nature forcibly twisted. That is a constrained life."
This time, they understood. Thinking of such a fate worse than death, they all shuddered.
Wang Gang swept his gaze over them and turned to leave. Li Qingluo had caught her breath by then. She rose and said, "Wait!"
Wang Gang stopped.
Clutching her neck, Li Qingluo raised her head. "Since things have come to this, let's divorce by mutual consent!"
"Divorce?" Wang Gang sneered. "You think I'm only targeting Duan Zhengchun?"
Gan Baobao's sobbing abruptly stopped, her eyes lighting up. Some juicy gossip!
"I won't go to him!" Li Qingluo sounded sincere.
"I don't believe you!"
"Then what exactly do you want?"
Wang Gang raised his head and gazed into the night sky, saying softly, "Do you know why I won't kill you? Because if I did, you'd still move yourself with the thought that you had died for love!
"What I want is to make you see that your so-called love is nothing but an illicit affair! Worthless!"
"You... nonsense..." Li Qingluo's heart trembled, and she staggered back two steps.
"Nonsense? Hahaha..." Wang Gang threw back his head and laughed, pointing at the other two women. "Ask them whether they've heard Duan Zhengchun's sweet words! Compare whose love is more sincere!"
Li Qingluo looked at the two women, her face instantly paling. Qin Hongmian's did too. Only Gan Baobao timidly raised her hand. "I haven't..."
"Come along, you two!" Wang Gang turned, glanced at the two women, and headed toward the Waterside Cottage.
The commotion that night had woken all the Wang Family's servants, who were peeking out at Wang Gang.
"Get back to sleep, all of you! Anyone who won't sleep can go repair the boats by the shore!" Wang Gang barked.
The servants immediately ducked back inside. Before long, snores rang out.
Back at the Waterside Cottage, Chu Wanli was sitting blankly before the two corpses. Wang Gang walked over and said coldly, "Do you want to die or live?"
Chu Wanli raised his head in a daze.
"If you want to die, I'll oblige and bury you together! If you want to live, you'll have to show me your worth!"
"I... I won't betray..."
"Enough! I know!"
Wang Gang helped him up and slapped another plaster over his Qi sea. Before long, Chu Wanli cried out in terror, "My martial arts..."
"With your martial arts so powerful, I wouldn't feel safe leaving you on the estate!"
Chu Wanli slumped to the ground and looked at the plaster over his Qi sea. "This is that veterinarian's medicine!"
"Hu Santie, Divine Physician Hu's wondrous medicine!"
Wang Gang looked around at the people in the room and ordered Gan Baobao, "Go dig a pit in the courtyard and bury them!"
"Me?" Gan Baobao pointed at her own nose, her face full of astonishment.
"Yes, you. Take your senior sister along!" Wang Gang showed no inclination to cherish the fairer sex. He pointed at Rui'er too. "You go help as well!"
Rui'er put Ping'er down and stood up. She had known the young master-in-law would never let her off. There would be plenty of suffering ahead!
"Young... husband, I was only afraid my elder sister would hurt you, so..." Ping'er stood up, clutching her shoulder, her face full of grievance.
Wang Gang looked at Li Qingluo and sneered. "I hear camellias nourished with flesh and blood bloom more brilliantly. Enjoy the sight!"