Chapter 235: Arrived at Qingzhou 10
Qi Qingyao appeared to be shocked. “I live in Linquan Village, Baishui Town. I also count as a Qingzhou citizen. Why have I not heard anything about how chaotic this city is?”
Oh, was this lady from the nearby villages?
“The village people don’t know much about what’s happening in the city,” the servant said with the ease of someone very familiar with this subject. “You also know that Qingzhou is located in the southeast area of Northern Liang. The city shares its borders with two other countries, Eastern Ling and Southern Ming. Although it’s not exactly at the border, the city’s famous on the continent as the five Koi Fish G.o.d Temples are situated here.”
“I know about that.” Everyone knew about that.
“Then did you know about the number of retired imperial officials that live in this city?” The servant asked mysteriously.
“I heard that there’s a lot.” Jiang Bai had told her that.
The servant said, “Not only officials from Northern Liang, but also from Eastern Ling, Southern Ming, and Western Zhou. People from the four countries’ chambers of commerce also live here.”
“Really?” That was why the land here was so expensive.
“Look, this is what the village people don’t know about.” The servant looked like he knew everything about the jianghu. He told Qi Qingyao, “Qingzhou City hosts the five Koi Fish G.o.d Temples and has great weather, making the city a nice place to live in. The Jiuli River pa.s.ses by the city as well. On the west side of the city are the Tianyu Mountains, and at the east is the Jiuli River. This is a strategic and fortunate place!”
Qi Qingyao nodded slightly.
Si Jin did not listen to anything he said. He held his bowl of liquor up and licked it carefully. The taste of liquor swirled toward his brain, making Si Jin stick his tongue out and frown.
It was too spicy!
Who said that liquor tasted good?
Si Jin put his bowl down, and his face crumpled.
“Qingzhou City here is probably one of the most dangerous places on the continent, but only several areas in the city are dangerous,” the servant said.
“Tell us everything.” Qi Qingyao poured the servant a bowl of liquor as well.
“I’ll start from the basic stuff,” the servant said, “Qingzhou City is divided into four areas, the East, the South, the West, and the North. The East, also called the Upper East area, is the busiest area in the city. Countless rich people live there. It’s similar to the South, where many big houses are built. The West and the North are more chaotic. Don’t go to those areas if you don’t have any business there!”
“…” Qi Qingyao swallowed.
The servant said, “Everyone says that Daliang City in Eastern Ling is the territory of the Shen family, the owners of Wanbao Chamber of Commerce in Eastern Ling. It’s the Shen family’s base. Shen Yuluo is a clever man, and so Daliang is safe most of the time. Junlin City, the capital of Southern Ming, is where a group of madmen live. However, those madmen like to pretend that they have morals, surprisingly. So, under that guise, they are protecting Junlin from harm. Dadu City in Western Zhou is a mess too, but those capitals can’t compare to Qingzhou! Various kinds of people from everywhere have gathered in Qingzhou. Everyone likes to come to this city!”
“You sound like you’re proud of it.” Qi Qingyao did not know whether to cry or laugh.
The servant held his chin high. “Of course I am! It’s a show of power too! The city is so chaotic because there are so many criminals here!”
“…” D*mn, he sounded so proud of it.
“Like there’s the Corpse-eating Ghost, the Thousand-faced Man…”
“Wait, what’s that about the Corpse-eating Ghost?” Was that a ghoul or something? That sounded like b*lls.h.i.+t.
“There was a person who was both poor and deranged. He liked to eat corpses. He’d eat happily even if there were flies everywhere. His appearance was neither human-like nor ghost-like, and so everyone called him the Corpse-eating Ghost!” The servant said exaggeratedly.
“…” She almost thought that he was talking about a ghoul!
“Ah, don’t interrupt me,” the servant continued excitedly. “There’s also the Man of Misfortune, the Ghost Summoner, the Ghostspeaker… Most of them are madmen. None of them are normal.”
“With how big the city is, it’s not strange that various kinds of people exist,” Qi Qingyao exclaimed.
She thought about it for a while, and then she asked, “The law enforcement here is terrible, isn’t it?”
The servant said abashedly, “Ahem. In the alleys, there are always people who will stab you with knives so, miss, never venture into the alleys!”
“Are there no regulations?” Qi Qingyao asked.
The servant said, “There are, but they aren’t much use. The citizens here are all retired n.o.bles and officials. When they move here, their wealth moves here as well, which in turn increases the prosperity of the city’s economy. However, aside from those n.o.bles and officials, many people from various places want to live under the Koi Fish G.o.d’s protection, so that their descendants will be blessed as well.”
“…” When the number of people living here increased, chaos came!
“The authorities can’t really do anything, as the power dynamics here are too complicated. The government office is in cohorts with most of the gangs here in the West and the North, to some degree.”
“…”
Was this Qingzhou City really the rumored Qingzhou City that was “pure and unsophisticated”?
She wanted to laugh about it with Si Jin, but when she turned her head to look at him, Si Jin’s tiny face was flushed, and tears rimmed his eyes and fell down his face.
Qi Qingyao was shocked. “Why are you crying?”
The servant exclaimed, “Your younger brother must be so shocked after he heard about the chaos in Qingzhou that he cried. You should quickly rea.s.sure him.”
Then he got up and went back to work.
“Burp.” Si Jin burped.
“You drank liquor.” The faint aroma of liquor made Qi Qingyao furrow her brow. It looked like this kid did not stomach liquor well. “If you can’t drink it, then don’t.”
She s.n.a.t.c.hed away the bowl that was in front of him.
Si Jin pouted. His brow was furrowed and his whole face was flushed red, like he was drunk. He said with a grin, “Elder Sister, the first mouthful of liquor is so spicy, but the second mouthful is really irritating. Hehe~~~”
He had only drunk a little. Why were his eyes so clouded?
Qi Qingyao noticed that he was about to raise the bowl again, so she said, “Stop drinking!”
Si Jin was unfazed.
Qi Qingyao did not notice that the color of Si Jin’s half-closed eyes was s.h.i.+fting rapidly between gold and black.
He said drunkenly, “After the third mouthful went down, I felt like a fire was burning inside my stomach. Burp——”
“We didn’t come here to drink liquor.” They had come here to gather information.
Si Jin suddenly sat down on the same long bench as her. He scooted very close to her, and turned his head toward her, putting his chin on her shoulder, and then he pouted and said cutely, “Elder Sister, I, I—”
Qi Qingyao ate the sliced beef as she looked at the coquettish boy. She did not reply him and just watched silently as he acted out, influenced by alcohol.
She thought for a while, and then she picked up a slice of beef with her chopsticks and dangled it near Si Jin’s mouth, with the att.i.tude of someone playing a prank.
Si Jin, who had never eaten meat before, did not refuse. He opened his reddened lips, and the slice of beef was stuffed into his mouth. His eyes were instantly alight with curiosity. He did not refuse the beef though; he chewed on it silently and swallowed it.
The gold in his eyes became more potent.
Si Jin had wanted to speak again when a middle-aged man wearing considerably n.o.ble clothing and a long sword by his waist sauntered over with the air of a rascal. He put a hand on Qi Qingyao’s shoulder and said, eyes gleaming like a pervert, “Young miss, do you want to drink with me?”
Qi Qingyao froze for a while. She turned her head and caught sight of the hand on her shoulder. Her lips twitched as she mumbled, “This plot development…” A pervert?
Si Jin narrowed his eyes, to the extent that they looked closed. He stood up, somewhat swaying, his eyes darkening. “Take your dirty hand away.”
“You brat. You look like a prost.i.tute. Go away and don’t stop me from having fun.” The man did not take Si Jin seriously at all.
“Have fun?” The young boy’s eyes darkened. No one could see what he was feeling.
Less than a second later, his expression suddenly became violent.
His aura became strong and terrifying, and he said irascibly, “I’ll let you have some fun!”
He grasped the collar of the man’s outfit with one hand with ease, like he was strangling the throat of an ant, and hurled him aside. The man was hurled onto the wall, creating a huge crater in it, before he fell onto the floor.
The young boy flew up, landing in front of the man with a somersault.
He then straddled him, and without any regard for his image, proceeded to ball his hands into fists violently and pummelled the man’s face.
Like he was. .h.i.tting a punching bag.
All the while, he was muttering, “You dare bully Elder Sister? I’ll beat you to death!”
Qi Qingyao was startled for a few seconds, but she immediately came back to her senses when she realized that everyone’s eyes were on her. She quickly went forward and stopped Si Jin.
“Stop hitting him! He’s not even moving now!”
The young boy, who was giving off a violent aura, came back to his senses when Qi Qingyao caught his arm. He got up and stood there quietly. He also kicked the person on the floor once more.
When Qi Qingyao saw that the person was not moving, and that he was bleeding from his mouth and nose, she got somewhat nervous.
She squatted down and felt for his breathing.
Surprisingly, she discovered that…
“He’s… He’s dead…”
When Si Jin heard that, he was not fazed. He turned to call for a servant. “Servant, come deal with the body.”
The servant: ???
The other customers: ???
Several men who looked like guards only managed to react now. They ran forward and checked the middle-aged man.
They got up, and bellowed, “You, you killed our young master! Just you wait!”
They looked like they were planning to call for reinforcements.
Si Jin’s eyes gleamed with a hint of harshness, and his lips curled up into an arrogant smirk.
“You were the ones who said that, so everyone in this restaurant won’t be able to leave now.”
Just after he said that, some observant people tried to run outside.
However, the young boy stomped lightly on the floor, and all the restaurant’s doors and windows were closed shut.
“You, you, you, you… What do you want?” Someone asked.
An innocent and pure smile appeared on the young boy’s face. “To kill everyone here.”
Then the young man picked up the knife on the floor that used to belong to the middle-aged man…
Everyone wanted to run outside but, unfortunately, this restaurant had become a prison that locked everyone inside.
Qi Qingyao fell to the floor, unconscious, after the first person was beheaded. About what happened later… She knew nothing.
…
After a night’s sleep, Qi Qingyao woke up with a headache. She ma.s.saged the back of her head as she sat up. The kids had already woken up and gone to clean themselves up. Qi Qingyao was about to jump down from the bed when the image of a head flying through the air appeared in her mind. She s.h.i.+vered, but when she looked around, she realized that she was in her room.
She could not help but mutter, “Did I dream about everything that happened last night?”
After was.h.i.+ng up, Qi Qingyao realized that her clothes… She quickly rushed to the next room and found Si Jin, who was rubbing his eyes like he had just woken up.
Qi Qingyao looked nervous. “Last night, you… You killed people.”
Si Jin yawned. “You drank liquor. It was a dream.”
“You didn’t kill anyone?” Did she really have a dream? And a bad dream at that!
“You definitely had a dream,” Si Jin said determinedly.
“…” Was that really a dream?
After Qi Qingyao changed into her clothes and had breakfast, Si Jin had also changed into his clothes. Qi Qingyao led him into the hall. Just when they arrived, they heard Li Qing report to Heir Pei.
“Last night, there was a large-scale ma.s.sacre in Lingyun Restaurant. No one knows the reason why, and all the customers are dead. There was no one left alive aside from a single servant and the cooks at the back who knew nothing. The servant was so shocked that he went crazy. Rumor says that he remembers nothing about what happened yesterday.”
Qi Qingyao’s heart paused for a while.
Heir Pei said, “Who did it?”
Li Qing said dignifiedly, “According to the investigation report by the government office, the murderer used a sword, and his actions were quick, accurate, and merciless.”
He paused for a while and continued, “I think that maybe some gang was making a secret deal in Lingyun Restaurant, and they were discovered, so they had someone kill everyone else in the room.”
Heir Pei said seriously, “Or maybe the spies from Eastern Ling were plotting something and were discovered.”
Just when he was finished, he saw Qi Qingyao enter the room. He greeted her and told her everything about Lingyun Restaurant. He exclaimed, “It’s only the morning, but the news has spread all around Qingzhou already. It’s kind of a big deal now.”
Instinctively, Qi Qingyao turned to look at Si Jin, who still looked cute, like everything that happened was none of his business.