Chapter 13 - Doomed By Cow Manure
Constable Zhou"s eyes uncontrollably blinked as he took in the scene.
This steward w.a.n.g was not regularly unlucky; it was quite like Mr. Unlucky"s mother opening the door for Mr. Unlucky proper---- a touch-base of unluckiness!
Coughing, Zhou instructed them, "Let"s get steward w.a.n.g on horseback and send him to the county for a diagnosis."
Upon hearing those orders, the constables immediately moved to w.a.n.g Er"s side and lifted him onto the horse.
w.a.n.g Er, being carried on the horse, was only growing more and more infuriated, the target of his ire still Chen Chen"s household.
Had it not been for the three of them running, he wouldn"t have ended up like this.
Thinking of this, his uninjured eye kept staring at Chen Chen, as ferociously as it could possibly get.
Chen Chen shivered.
This was so frightening.
w.a.n.g Er was being draped on top of a horse, his swollen head making him look like a monster----the only human-like thing on his face was his one eye. And he was still staring at Chen Chen!
This image…
Were it to be left in the haunted houses of his past life, hordes of children would have broken into tears.
"Steward w.a.n.g, are you fine?" Constable Zhou asked, coming closer.
His true meaning was clear: "Will you die?"
If he were to die, without a testifier in the wilderness, how could he get his money back after the business was done?
"Urghhh..."
w.a.n.g Er tried to speak but his mouth was already swollen to the size of a pot----therefore, he can only make rumbled sounds, not anything that could be understood.
He angrily stared at Chen Chen again, then turned his head to Constable Zhou for rea.s.surance.
Chen Chen was quite amazed by this as he observed what was occurring. Steward w.a.n.g was indeed the steward of a major household. Even if he only had a single working eye, he could still express his intentions.
An impressive person indeed.
Seeing this, Constable Zhou became indecisive; at this point, he felt a sense of palpitation.
Then, the horses screamed towards the sky. Before anyone could react, the horses dashed towards the depth of the forest, as if they had gone insane.
Hung on the back of a horse, w.a.n.g Er"s face was too swollen for his emotions to be interpreted, but his eyes showed infinite depths of shock, confusion, and helplessness.
Like a child dragged to a school on his first day of cla.s.s, w.a.n.g Er vanished into the forest.
"Steward w.a.n.g is being hijacked by the horse."
Chen Chen looked from afar, his face filled with sympathy.
Constable Zhou finally understood the situation, yelling, "Run!"
...
Several minutes later.
The group of people found the horses enjoying fresh gra.s.s deep into the forest.
Meanwhile, w.a.n.g Er was lying below a horse, his neck distorted, and his breath gone.
His only functional eye was filled with emptiness.
"He broke his neck and died?"
Constable Zhou"s shock was unparalleled.
A person with martial arts skills walking with him for a few kilometers and then getting killed by being thrown off of a horse after various accidents?
Who would ever believe that?!
But the truth was here! The corpse was still warm too.
Chen Chen squatted down with a face full of sympathy, closing his eyes for w.a.n.g Er and sighing, "Steward w.a.n.g was fine in all manners, except for being a good folk. He had done too many bad things, and here is his retribution. Ohhhh..."
Learning Chen Chen"s words, Constable Zhou"s eyes showed signs of fear.
He really had no idea how steward w.a.n.g could be up to such bad luck other than retribution.
"Housekeep w.a.n.g, don"t think about killing that much in your next life. See? Even heaven can"t take it. If heaven can"t take it, no amount of martial arts will be of use."
Chen Chen"s seemingly unintentional words only brought more cold sweat to Constable Zhou"s face.
He had done quite some orders of a.s.sa.s.sination related business, but in terms of martial arts, he wasn"t that much better than steward w.a.n.g.
Looking at steward w.a.n.g"s miserable death, he felt like he was being hit by thunder.
Was retribution a real thing?
As he thought of this, he decided that he would be a good person from today onwards.
"Bro- Brother, let"s go. At the county office, please do testify for us. That steward w.a.n.g died of bad luck, not due to our intentions."
Constable Zhou walked beside Chen Chen, his tone somewhat shaky and his words much friendlier than before.
Chen Chen stood up as he heard the words, smiling as he replied, "Certainly. Good civilians such as us never lie."
Constable Zhou was already tossing away any remaining plans to a.s.sa.s.sinate Chen Chen"s household. Sweating as he nodded, his face looked quite like a "servant of the people."
Chen Shan and Qin Rou were also staring at each other, trying to figure out what they had just seen, which was difficult to believe.
w.a.n.g Er, who had been enjoying his authoritative power and exploitative joys for decades, had just died without any clear reasons?
How could there be so many incidents in the world?
...
After that, the group continued to move towards the county town, now with two corpses on horseback instead of one.
For the remainder of the trip, every single constable practiced the highest degree of caution. If one were to look at them without context, one may as well a.s.sume that those constables were targeted by criminals on the wanted list.
However, no more incidents took place over the course of the trip.
Everybody arrived at the county office without any further issues.
The county magistrate was a person with high levels of cultivation; he would not show up without major businesses.
Minor issues such as these were all handled by the workers within the county office.
Upon w.a.n.g Er"s death, n.o.body was willing to pay for Chen Chen"s family to be a.s.sa.s.sinated, eliminating Constable Zhou"s incentive.
Additionally, upon seeing w.a.n.g Er"s death, he had decided that he should be a good person. Therefore, he did not give any further difficulties to Chen Chen"s family.
After confirming Wei Laosan"s ident.i.ty as an a.s.sa.s.sin, he even awarded them a pennant that read "eliminating harms for the people," giving them extra praise on the way.
Chen Chen"s family returned to the Stone Village happily with the pennant.
...
On the other hand, w.a.n.g Hu"s face was about as grim as it could get as he looked at w.a.n.g Er, whose face was already unrecognizable.
By asking w.a.n.g Er to get rid of that household, he"d already paid an exceptionally heavy emphasis.
But then?
In a mere day"s time, w.a.n.g Er was lying dead in front of him----and in a way that not even his mother could recognize his face!
"Father, how did steward w.a.n.g die? How can he be like this!" w.a.n.g Suqin angrily asked at his side.
w.a.n.g Hu was only more infuriated when he heard the question, tossing a piece of a silk book to w.a.n.g Suqin.
"Look at it yourself! That"s what the county office wrote on his death certificate!"
w.a.n.g Suqin grabbed the silk book, and as she continued reading, the fury in her eyes became nearly uncontainable!
"During the trip, steward w.a.n.g stepped on a piece of cow manure by mistake.
"Then, due to the aforementioned incident, a slip occurred. Steward w.a.n.g flipped 360 degrees mid-air, and as he landed, he stepped onto a thin, sharp rock, injuring his foot.
"Later, inside the forest, he encountered wasps. Due to the aforementioned foot injury, steward w.a.n.g was unable to run away as fast as the others, therefore becoming severely injured by the wasps.
"After those severe injuries, the constables put steward w.a.n.g on the horse, intending to have him carried to the county center for treatments. However, the horses were suddenly frightened, dashing deep into the forest with steward w.a.n.g.
"Steward w.a.n.g fell from the horse and broke his neck in the process, resulting in his death."
"This is ridiculous! What are those people in the county office doing? Do they think the w.a.n.g Household is a household of idiots? Not even storytellers would dare to forge such stories!"
w.a.n.g Suqin tore the silk book apart as she yelled.
w.a.n.g Hu put on a fake smile. "They must be using this opportunity to warn our household. Huh, w.a.n.g Er died due to a piece of cow manure. They are indeed experts on humiliation."
w.a.n.g Suqin"s facial expressions changed several times as she heard this.
A moment later, she sneered and said, "Last night, the gentleman of Zhang household was nearly killed in an a.s.sa.s.sination attempt. The two biggest households of the county are about to fight hard. They have a lot to keep them busy.
"By imposing such a warning on our household, it seems like they wish to stun us in order to prevent our involvement."
w.a.n.g Hu nodded. After some careful thinking, he found this theory persuasive.
"What about Chen Shan"s family?" w.a.n.g Hu asked.
"Tomorrow is the property rent collection day. I will visit the village myself. The county office will soon be in chaos. By refraining from the other two families" businesses, n.o.body can stop us," w.a.n.g Suqin said coldly.
In the past, if they wished to kill some civilians, they had to do some amount of preparatory work to go through with that.
But with Shichuan County on the verge of chaos, there was no need for that.