Hou Huai held his saber across his chest and roared, "A constable of Bo County is here!"
32 The way here
The dark-faced man slowly turned his head. Twilight fell on him, tracing the sharp contrasts of light and shadow on his face.
He looked at Hou Huai standing there with his saber and showed no sign of alarm. "Well, well, an officer?"
He ground his toe against Butcher Zhang's shoulder, and a groan of pain immediately came from beneath his foot.
"We work for Young Master Hong Fan. Since you're a constable, you ought to know who Young Master Hong is, right?"
The burly, dark-faced man asked with a mocking look.
Hou Huai's heart sank.
He had recognized the burly, dark-faced man the moment he rushed through the door.
That day, when more than two hundred cavalrymen had come to demonstrate their strength outside the city, Hou Huai had been guarding the walls. He had seen this man catch an arrow fired by Xu Jing with his bare hands and knew he was an expert.
More importantly, Hong Fan...
In the past few days, nearly everyone of standing in Bo County had heard that name.
Hong Fan had put up the money to establish the new militia, and he had come as a representative of the Mist Hidden Temple.
And not long ago, the Mist Hidden Temple had crippled the Mo Family!
This was not someone Hou Huai could afford to offend...
A woman's shrill sobs and cries rang out from the main room again, accompanied by the sound of shattering porcelain.
Hou Huai looked at the burly, dark-faced man. The saber in his hand seemed to weigh a thousand jin.
"A misunderstanding, a misunderstanding."
Hou Huai lowered the tip of his saber and plastered a smile on his face, the wrinkles at the corners of his eyes bunching together.
He took a money pouch from inside his clothes. It was the very one Wu Shuangren had given him that afternoon.
He bent at the waist and opened the pouch, revealing a string of copper coins inside. "How about I pay for you two to have a drink at the Drunken Moon Tower? The girls there are fresh and pretty, and they really know how to take care of a man."
The burly, dark-faced man glanced at the pouch in Hou Huai's hand and sneered. "I'm afraid that little bit of money won't be enough for us brothers to call a few more girls."
"I have more money at home. I can go and get it."
Still bent at the waist, Hou Huai kept smiling. "Young Master Hong has only just arrived in Bo County. If something happened and hurt his reputation, that wouldn't be good, would it?"
The burly, dark-faced man sneered. "Are you telling me how to do things?"
"I wouldn't dare."
"All right, get lost. My brother just has a taste for this!"
"..."
The smile froze on Hou Huai's face.
The burly, dark-faced man lost patience, a fierce gleam in his eyes. "I'll say this one last time: get lost, now! Otherwise, you can stay here and keep the one under my foot company!"
Hou Huai said nothing. He sheathed his saber, turned, and walked out of the courtyard.
He had practiced martial arts at a martial hall since he was little, and as a child, he had loved listening to storytellers tell tales of great heroes.
After his parents died, he had gone out to make his way in the jianghu at nineteen, hoping to become a great hero himself.
But this world cared nothing for chivalry, only fame and profit. Every time he intervened, he came away with his head broken and bleeding!
The most dangerous time, he had offended a local power and been hunted down. He had escaped by the skin of his teeth and dared not return to his hometown. After wandering from place to place, he had reached Bo County and become a constable, spending more than twenty years in this little county town.
Throughout his more than twenty years as a constable, Hou Huai had never competed or fought for anything. Though he had considerable skills, he had remained an ordinary constable.
He knew that, just like in the past, he shouldn't interfere this time, and couldn't.
If he insisted on interfering, he would only end up with his head broken and bleeding again...
Head bowed, Hou Huai walked heavily out of Butcher Zhang's courtyard, forcing himself not to listen to the screams and pleas for mercy that kept coming from within.
This world had long since worn away his sharp edges and taught him the consequences.
But he still clung to a few things that were out of place in these times-
All the constables were lining their pockets, united from top to bottom, yet he alone refused to take the money.
When it came to catching thieves and solving cases, no one wanted cases with no profit in them. Only he was willing to take them, sometimes even paying out of his own pocket.
A rising star with a bright future like Wu Shuangren had taken the initiative to draw him in, yet because of the tragedy that had befallen Li Youcai's family and the slaughter at Mo Family Village, he had chosen to keep his distance from Wu Shuangren.
Hou Huai knew it was rather foolish of him, but this was his last, tiny act of resistance against this world.
Just that little bit was enough...
He walked more and more slowly. After a dozen or so steps, he suddenly stopped.
One breath.
Two breaths.
Three breaths.
A relieved smile appeared on Hou Huai's face.
He spun around, drew his saber, and charged toward the courtyard with a furious roar!
Just like back then.
The fifth day after Hong Fan's banquet.
Only one day remained before Wu Shuangren officially became the militia commander.
That morning, Wu Shuangren was still at home learning the Cloud Tide Returning Wave Steps from Xu Nanzhi.
The footwork had to be used together with profound internal cultivation to produce its true effect. Wu Shuangren's internal cultivation was still shallow, so for now he could only learn the basics.
He had been practicing with Xu Nanzhi for less than a quarter of an hour when a frantic knocking suddenly came from outside the door.
"Is Doctor Xu home?"
Someone called out loudly.
"Someone's looking for me."
Xu Nanzhi went to open the door. A plainly dressed woman stood outside, her face already streaming with tears.
As soon as the woman saw Xu Nanzhi, she dropped to her knees. "Doctor Xu, please save my husband!"
Xu Nanzhi hurriedly helped her up. "Is your husband at the clinic now? What happened to him?"
The woman nodded through her tears. "He's at the clinic. Someone beat him up, and he's covered in blood. It looks like he's about to die! Please, save him! He's a constable too, and he knows your son..."
"Who is your husband?"
Hearing this, Wu Shuangren immediately came over and asked.
The woman said through her tears, "My husband is Hou Huai."
Wu Shuangren's eyes widened.
"Mother, I'll go to the clinic with you!"
"Let's go."
Xu Nanzhi went back inside to get her acupuncture needles, then left with Wu Shuangren.
The two moved quickly, reaching the clinic ahead of the woman.
Quite a few people had already gathered outside the clinic's doors.
"Doctor Xu is here!"
"Make way, the doctor's here!"
When the people saw Xu Nanzhi, they moved aside.
Three people lay at the clinic's entrance, two men and one woman.
Wu Shuangren spotted Hou Huai at once-
His eyes were tightly shut, his face was covered in blood, his left ear was gone, and his arms and legs were twisted.
"Uncle Hou!"
Wu Shuangren called out instinctively, clenching his fists.
Ever since transmigrating, he had sparred with Hou Huai almost every day.
Apart from his parents, Hou Huai was the person he knew best.
Xu Nanzhi stepped forward to check the breathing and heartbeat of all three, then said to Wu Shuangren,
"Help me carry them inside."
Wu Shuangren stepped forward and carefully picked up Hou Huai, while Xu Nanzhi picked up the woman.
Soon, both the man and Hou Huai were laid flat on tables.
The woman was also laid on a table, with a white curtain separating her from the others.
"Mother, what can I do to help?"
Wu Shuangren asked.
Xu Nanzhi examined the three patients' injuries in detail and said without looking up, "Fetch a basin of water."
When she was saving people, she seemed more capable and composed than usual, putting others at ease.
After that, Wu Shuangren assisted Xu Nanzhi, constantly running back and forth.
Of the three, Hou Huai's injuries were clearly the most severe. Xu Nanzhi used the most medicine and needles on him.
After Hou Huai's wife arrived at the clinic, she wiped away her tears and helped.
Only after more than two hours of work did Xu Nanzhi stop and wipe the sweat from her forehead.
"Mother, how are they?"
Wu Shuangren asked anxiously.
Xu Nanzhi first pointed to the woman behind the curtain and frowned. "She's covered in bruises and scratches. Her injuries are relatively light, and she'll wake up soon."
Then she pointed to the man. "His injuries are more serious. He'll have to stay in bed for at least a month."
"What about Uncle Hou?"
Wu Shuangren looked at Hou Huai, whose body was covered in needles.
Hou Huai's wife also looked tense.
Xu Nanzhi sighed. "It's thanks to his internal cultivation that he managed to hold on this long... But his arms and legs were twisted and broken with great force, nearly half the bones in his body are broken, and he has internal injuries... I can't say whether he'll wake up."
Hou Huai's wife fainted on the spot.
Wu Shuangren clenched his fists.
33 An incident
"Yesterday afternoon, while Old Zhang and I were at our stall, I noticed a man who kept staring at me. There was something improper in his gaze."
"Later, Old Zhang and I packed up the stall and went home. That man followed us, and when we were almost home, Old Zhang pulled out a knife to scare him off..."
"Then another, taller and bigger man came out, carrying a very long saber over his shoulder."
"...The two of them went into our home. The one with the saber knocked my Old Zhang down, and the long-haired one dragged me into the room..."
Butcher Zhang's wife wiped away her tears as she recounted what had happened yesterday.
Just as Xu Nanzhi had predicted, she was the first to wake up.
Only after Xu Nanzhi had spent some time comforting her and calming her down did Wu Shuangren come over and question her from the other side of the curtain.