An Unexpected Windfall
A deathly silence filled the Gathering Hall.
The heavy ghost-head saber rested casually on Chen Fan's shoulder, its blade reflecting the torchlight in flashes that made hearts tremble.
Iron-Armed Monkey's face had turned a deep purple, and his chest heaved violently, but he could not get a single word out.
The bandit leaders behind him kept their heads down, not daring to look at Chen Fan.
Rob the rich and aid the poor?
Coming from their chief, who killed people as readily as mowing grass, those words struck them as more absurd and frightening than an attack on the mountain by government troops.
Chen Fan swept his gaze around the room, taking in everyone's reactions.
Good. No one objected.
Or rather, no one dared to object.
He planted the ghost-head saber on the ground with a dull thud, then turned and sat back down in the great tiger-skin chair.
"That settles it."
He picked up his bowl of wine and looked at no one else.
In that eerie atmosphere, the absurd victory feast came to a hasty end.
The bandits dispersed, gathering in twos and threes to whisper among themselves. Whenever they looked toward the seat of honor, their gazes were full of awe and bewilderment.
The chief really had changed.
The old chief had been fierce too, but all he had ever thought about was killing, stealing money, and playing with women.
The chief as he was now, they could no longer understand.
Over the next few days, Black Wind Mountain entered a brief period of rest.
The mountain stronghold no longer rang with thunderous shouting and the cries of drinking games.
Iron-Armed Monkey shut himself in his room, drowning his sorrows in wine all day and refusing to see anyone.
Only the third chief, Smiling Tiger, took the initiative to seek Chen Fan out the next day.
"Chief."
Smiling Tiger bowed and offered him a roll of bamboo slips, his fat face covered in a shrewd smile.
"The matter you told me to look into-we've found some leads."
Chen Fan was in the stone chamber in the back hall, studying a new kind of cat's cradle with Yun Niang and the others. Hearing this, he casually took the bamboo slips.
Written on them in a crude hand were the names and assets of several wealthy households near Qinghe County.
The Zhang Household: rice merchants in the west of the county seat, who hoarded grain to drive up prices, bought by the bushel and sold by the pint, and drove three tenant families to their deaths.
The Li Household: loan sharks who charged compound interest, leaving no fewer than ten families ruined and broken.
The Wang Household: colluded with the county yamen to seize a hundred mu of fertile farmland...
Chen Fan skimmed through the lines at a glance. These were the "premium customers" Smiling Tiger had selected from Black Wind Baleful Intent's memories.
"Just these households?" Chen Fan tossed the bamboo slips onto the table.
Smiling Tiger froze for a moment, then hurriedly said, "Chief, these households are all notorious for being rich and heartless. They have deep coffers and not many guards or servants. They're the best targets!"
He thought Chen Fan was unhappy with how few targets there were, or that they weren't fat enough.
"I'm asking whether they really deserve to die." Chen Fan poured himself a cup of water and spoke calmly.
Smiling Tiger's smile froze on his face.
Deserve to die?
They were bandits. Did they need a reason to rob people? Wasn't it enough that the targets were fat?
But when he saw Chen Fan's calm, untroubled profile, a jolt ran through him, and he immediately put on a look of righteous indignation.
"They deserve to die! Every last one of them! Those damned wicked gentry have scraped the people's fat and marrow dry, driving who knows how many common folk from their homes! We're carrying out justice on heaven's behalf!"
Chen Fan glanced at him but said nothing.
That fatty knew when to bend and when to stand tall.
"All right, we'll go with them."
He waved a hand.
"Have the brothers get ready. Go down the mountain tomorrow."
"Right away!" Overjoyed, Smiling Tiger bowed and practically scrambled out of the room.
As long as we can go down the mountain and do business, carrying out justice on heaven's behalf or whatever else is fine by me!
Early the next morning.
Iron-Armed Monkey, who had been cooped up for days, finally charged down Black Wind Mountain with more than a hundred howling bandits.
The savagery that had been suppressed for so long burst forth completely.
Chen Fan did not go.
He stayed on the mountain as before, sitting on the raised platform outside the back hall and watching the group disappear at the end of the mountain path.
He was not the real Black Wind Baleful Intent.
He was merely a traveler passing through, someone who wanted to live out his life in peace and experience a different life along the way.
He could leave the fighting and killing to his subordinates.
All he needed to do was set the rules.
As for whether his subordinates would follow them to the letter...
That was beyond his control.
All he could do was, within the limits of his abilities, steer things in the direction he wanted.
Even if only a little.
The raid went unexpectedly smoothly.
In just three days, Iron-Armed Monkey returned with his troops and a full load of spoils.
Dozens of large carts were packed with grain, bolts of cloth, gold, and silver.
Every bandit's face was radiant with the wild joy and satisfaction of having survived the ordeal.
A group of refugees in tattered clothes had gathered at the foot of the mountain. They had heard the news and hurried over from all directions.
They looked fearfully at the bandits, who were as fierce as demons, yet the grain on the carts drew their eyes and held them rooted to the spot.
Iron-Armed Monkey sat on horseback, a flicker of impatience and disgust crossing his face as he looked at the refugees.
But he remembered the chief's rule.
He hesitated, then reluctantly let out a shout.
"Damn it, you dirt-scratching peasants are getting a bargain!"
He waved a hand.
Several bandits cursed as they shouldered a few sacks of grain off the carts and roughly tossed them onto the ground.
"Get lost, get lost! Take the stuff and get lost!"
The refugees froze at first, then erupted in joy and swarmed forward, scrambling for the grain like mad.
Iron-Armed Monkey snorted, paid them no further attention, and led the main group up the mountain in a swaggering procession.
From the raised platform, Chen Fan watched it all.
The grain they had handed out was less than a tenth of what they had stolen.
But he was not surprised.
Expecting a gang of outlaws to turn into living bodhisattvas overnight was a tale out of the Arabian Nights.
It was good enough to have made a start.
He stood up, intending to return to the stone chamber.
But at the very back of the procession, he saw something unusual.
Several bandits roughly shoved two women, bound hand and foot, out of a small carriage.
One looked somewhat older and wore brocade. Though her hair had come loose and her face was smeared with mud, she still held her head high, her expression full of defiance and anger.
The other was a young girl dressed as a maid. She trembled all over with fright, her eyes full of tears, and huddled behind her mistress, not daring to look at anyone.
Chen Fan stopped in his tracks.
He had given no order to abduct anyone.
In the Gathering Hall, the revelry began anew.
Iron-Armed Monkey tipped a chest of gold and silver onto the table with a clatter, its golden gleam stinging everyone's eyes.
"Hahaha! That's the stuff! Now this is living!"
"The chief is wise! Robbing these wealthy households really does yield more fat than robbing those paupers!"
The bandits cheered as they divided up the spoils.
Chen Fan sat in the seat of honor, expressionless, merely toying with the jade thumb ring in his hand.
Then Iron-Armed Monkey and Smiling Tiger came in with several bandits, bringing the two women before him.
"Chief!" Iron-Armed Monkey wore the smile of a man presenting a treasure. "Look, we had an unexpected windfall on this trip down the mountain!"
He pointed at the woman in brocade, waggling his eyebrows.
"We ran into this woman on the way back! She's a real beauty! The brothers figured you'd be lonely up here on the mountain, so we brought her back for you!"
A burst of raucous laughter and vulgar remarks rang through the cave.
Chen Fan's gaze fell on the woman.
Two bandits held her by the shoulders, but she still kept her back straight.
In the firelight, her eyes held not a trace of fear, only cold, burning rage.
"You beasts, worse than pigs and dogs!"
The woman's voice was cool and slightly hoarse, but every word was clear.
"If you've got the guts, kill me now!"
She stared fixedly at Chen Fan, the bandit chief sitting in the great tiger-skin chair, his face covered in a bushy beard and his murderous aura soaring to the heavens.
"Otherwise, I swear I'll make you repay this blood debt in blood!"