novelraw Chapter 21 Murder
Chapter 21 Murder
Suddenly, the view opened up before me, and my familiar little courtyard came into view.
However, Li Ziqing's pupils shrank involuntarily, and she remained in the shadows at the alley entrance, not taking a step out.
What appeared before her eyes was a scene she had never imagined before.
In the familiar courtyard, dirt flew everywhere, and many servants lay sprawled on the ground, their blood splattered on the soil.
The burly and robust Mr. Zhao was now kneeling on the ground, with a deep wound on the side of his neck, and blood almost turned him into a blood-soaked figure.
Zhou Xing stood amidst the pool of blood, the hem of her blood-stained wedding dress fluttering gently in the cold wind, like a bright red flower blooming on flat ground.
"It seems the Chrysanthemum Manual truly is a miraculous skill. Even without actual combat experience, Li Yingcai possesses a speed advantage far exceeding that of ordinary people simply by activating the internal energy generated from the second level of the Chrysanthemum Manual."
Zhou Xing stood there, slightly out of breath, muttering to himself.
I can't help but feel a little hopeful that Lee Young-jae will have a good time.
At that time, if we directly inherit the second level of the Chrysanthemum Manual that Li Yingcai has mastered, wouldn't that be like directly exploiting a bug, allowing us to master this extraordinary skill without having to castrate ourselves?
The next moment, a horse's neigh was heard, followed by the sound of hooves falling like raindrops.
But Zhao San Gongzi had already mounted his horse at some point and galloped away.
Before leaving, he casually lashed the face of the stunned old scholar standing by the roadside with his whip, and shouted:
"You heartless beast! My family kindly forgave your debts, and you were such a good matchmaker for my brother... Is this how you repay me?"
The old scholar had a bloody mark on his face and couldn't help but hiss in pain. But when he heard Zhao San's words before leaving, his eyes widened and he seemed to forget even the pain.
When he saw Zhou Xing's gaze finally turn towards him, he was greatly shocked.
This is fucking a case of shifting the blame!
Compared to outsiders who coveted the Li family, the old scholar's own younger brother was clearly more firmly rooted in hatred.
Zhou Xing mustered his strength and chased after him for a few steps, but seeing that he couldn't catch up, he could only stop and look back at the courtyard.
But then they saw the old scholar being kicked over by Li Ziqing, who had appeared out of nowhere, and Li Ziqing stepped on his chest.
"Ziqing? Why are you back?" Zhou Xing asked in surprise.
Li Ziqing didn't answer, but stared at him with her strange eyes.
Her gaze swept over the blood-stained kitchen knife in Zhou Xing's hand, and then over the wound on the neck of Zhao Weigang's corpse, who was kneeling on the ground.
"Zhao Weigang is a ninth-rank martial artist who has cultivated true qi. If he were to join the Great Mang army, he could also become a ninth-rank officer."
"That's right, I killed him." Zhou Xing nodded frankly.
"Look how much manly your father has now?"
Such frankness, however, made Li Ziqing hesitate for a moment.
She was somewhat reluctant to believe that her biological father was truly a capable person.
Is it possible, even if there's only a slight possibility, that someone else helped kill the person?
Prejudice in people's hearts is a mountain; in her mind, her biological father was always a spineless old coward who abandoned his wife and children.
Her father's public persona suddenly collapsed today, which made her almost unable to believe it.
"He's about one or two parts like a madman."
Her gaze then fell on the old scholar at her feet.
The old scholar trembled slightly, his face flushed, and he began to curse angrily, his neck stiff:
"What are you doing? I'm your own uncle!"
Caught off guard, the old scholar flicked his robes and knelt down with a thud:
"Dear uncle, please, we're all family, there's no need to go too far."
Li Ziqing choked up for a moment before saying softly:
"Indeed, if it weren't for my uncle's help, my mother and I wouldn't have had the opportunity to marry into a wealthy family."
The old scholar's expression changed drastically, and he looked at Zhou Xing beside him and shouted:
"Li Yingcai! Are you really going to just stand by and watch your daughter commit such a heinous crime as murdering her own mother?"
Zhou Xing thought about it and agreed, so he nodded and walked over:
"You've reminded me."
"Such immoral things should not be done by Ziqing."
"Ziqing, quickly put your uncle down, let me do it."
Li Yingjie was shocked to see her older brother approaching, only to be stopped by her niece:
"No, I'll do it."
"You're too kind. Let Dad do it."
"...I'll do it!"
"I'm your father, let me do it!"
"..."
The old scholar stared dumbfounded as the father and daughter politely wrestled over a kitchen knife in each other's hands.
Despite committing the heinous crime of murder and patricide, the father and daughter acted as if they were friends vying to pay the bill, eagerly taking turns doing the work.
Moreover, they seemed to be unfamiliar friends, with a faint sense of politeness and distance permeating the scene.
They were polite, courteous, and distant as they vied to kill their own parents.
The old scholar's face turned pale instantly. He collapsed to the ground, uttering a sorrowful lament:
"Li Yingcai! Brother! We're family!"
"You, the eldest brother, are childless and have become a eunuch, afraid to go home, afraid to face your wife, daughters, and parents. For ten years, your parents have been waiting anxiously at home. During these ten years, I have been the one to take care of them, to care for them in their old age, and to see them off in their final days!"
"You eunuch, you're unworthy of being a son! And now you want to kill me?!"
After these hurtful words, the father and daughter stopped fighting over the knife.
Zhou Xing stared at Li Yingcai's younger brother, feeling only a little amused.
If it were the real Li Yingcai, he would probably be hesitant and conflicted at this moment, right?
Everyone has their own Achilles' heel.
Li Yingcai's dying wish, which he could not rest in peace, was for his family.
The old scholar Li Yingjie's brother was also his family.
But what does this have to do with him, Zhou Xing?
"What nonsense are you spouting? All I know is that if it weren't for me today, my wife and daughters would have been sold to the Zhao family by you. Go talk to my knife!"
If he won't do it, I will!
While his daughter Li Ziqing was in a daze, Zhou Xing snatched the dagger from her hand.
He stepped forward and stabbed the old scholar in the heart with a knife.
But the knife missed its mark.
In the blink of an eye, the old scholar was knocked to the ground by a small, thin figure that darted out from the side. The dagger pierced the old scholar's shoulder, and blood gushed out.
He is the simple-minded nephew of the old scholar.
Zhou Xing remembered him as a shy and timid child who would hide behind his father when he met strangers, but now he was standing in front of his father, his lips moving and trembling, but he couldn't utter a single word.
The old scholar stared blankly at his son, then looked at Zhou Xing and the other man with complicated emotions, and murmured:
"My son is innocent..."
Just when Zhou Xing thought the two were about to start a family drama, the old scholar suddenly unleashed an astonishing speed.
He swiftly pulled the dagger from his shoulder, ignoring the spurting blood, and held it to his son's neck:
"My son is innocent! Brother, you don't want to cause the death of your innocent nephew, do you?"
Zhou Xing and Li Ziqing were both rendered speechless.
The little nephew was also clearly terrified, his body trembling, but he didn't seem to struggle; he just stared intently at the dagger at his neck.
"Are you threatening me with your own son's life?" Zhou Xing asked, enunciating each word clearly.
"That's right! Because I know that my older brother is a kind and righteous person."
The old scholar smiled bitterly:
"For ordinary people like me, if they can't survive without money, they sell their children to become maids or eunuchs. This is perfectly normal in today's world."
"And someone like my elder brother, who entered the palace in middle age and used the money he earned to support his wife and daughters, is certainly a kind and righteous person!"
Zhou Xing watched as the old scholar who had threatened his son slowly retreated, and murmured:
"It's too late to start flattering me now."
He sighed softly and turned his body slightly to the side.
Behind him, his daughter, Li Ziqing, had somehow taken a pebble and held it in her hand. Her strange double pupils shimmered with a faint light as they locked onto the old scholar's wrist.
laugh---
With a whooshing sound, the pebble landed precisely on the old scholar's wrist, which held the dagger.
In pain, the old scholar could no longer loosen his grip, and the dagger slipped down his side.
It happened to be caught by his nephew, Li Qingping.
Zhou Xing glanced at his daughter Li Ziqing behind him and muttered to himself.
The original owner of this body, Li Yingcai, was probably a loyal and righteous eunuch.
But he clearly has a daughter who is willing to be the bad guy.
now.
The old scholar clutched his wrist in pain, looking at his son who stood there blankly, holding a dagger.
"Enough, enough, you can do it then," the old scholar sighed.
My heart was filled with gloom, and I felt that everything was over.
But then he felt a chill on his hand, the coolness of a sharp metal object.
Looking down, he saw it was his own son, Li Qingping, who picked up the fallen dagger and handed it to him.
"Father...you dropped your dagger."
The old scholar stared blankly at his son and the dagger handed to him, unsure of what to say.
"I...I'll do whatever Dad says," Li Qingping said.
The old scholar listened blankly, then glanced at the dagger in his hand. His body swayed, like an old ox that had been hit by a hammer, and he collapsed completely.
"What a simpleton..." he said with a wry smile.
Then he suddenly kicked his son to the ground.
"You fool, you have absolutely no sense of propriety!"
He held the dagger, his hands hanging limply at his sides, standing silently. He watched as Li Ziqing stepped forward, shielding his son who had been kicked over, but only said calmly:
"Since you say you'll listen to your father completely... then I'll say a few more words today."
"From this day forward, you are no longer my son, Li Yingjie's son. I sever all ties with you. Kneel down and kowtow to acknowledge your uncle as your godfather!"
What kind of show is this...? Before Zhou Xing could react, his silly nephew had already knelt down and started kowtowing repeatedly.
The old scholar watched this scene with a bitter expression, and said with a wry smile:
Secondly.
"I, Li Yingjie, was not killed by my own brother or niece, which led them to commit the crime of patricide."
"Instead, he knew that he was guilty of a grave sin and that he had forced his brother's family out of greed, which was against human ethics and was not a human thing to do."
"Feeling guilty, he committed suicide!"
The old scholar sighed softly, held the dagger to his neck, closed his eyes, and took a deep breath.
His heart was pounding, and he began to exert force with his hands.
The dagger sliced open the skin of her neck, and blood began to flow. Even stronger than the pain was an indescribable fear.
When he opened his eyes again, he saw Zhou Xing and Li Ziqing, father and daughter, staring at him coldly, making no attempt to stop him, simply waiting for his next performance.
Clearly, after repeated setbacks, his brother's family had completely lost trust in him and felt that he was just putting on an act to gain sympathy.
"Very well." He finally looked at his son.
"Did you remember the two things I just mentioned?"
"Father, I've remembered."
"You idiot! What should you call me?!"
"Second Uncle...Second Uncle, I remember!"
Upon hearing the word "Second Uncle," the old scholar finally took a deep breath and plunged the knife into the side of his neck.
Blood gushed out like a fountain, and the old scholar quickly lost his strength. He tried to say something more, but his body collapsed.
He then died.
"...Is he really dead?" Zhou Xing stepped forward to examine the old scholar's body, a slight change appearing on his face for the first time.
He thought the old scholar who would use his son to threaten others was up to some wicked scheme... but he was wrong about him.
He also understood the two sentences the old scholar said when he committed suicide.
Severing ties with his father and committing suicide was simply a way to absolve himself of the so-called hatred for killing his father.
There was no need for his nephew to do any revenge that followed the old adage of "thirty years east of the river, thirty years west of the river"; all the grudges were settled with his blade.
He turned and glanced at his little nephew.
The young nephew knelt beside the old scholar, tears and snot streaming down his face, but meeting Zhou Xing's gaze, he still lowered his head and stammered:
"...Godfather!"
Zhou Xing paused for a moment.
Brothers kill each other, and the nephew recognizes his father.
The ethical norms of peacetime are not applicable in a chaotic world where people resort to cannibalism.
Frequent natural disasters and famines, coupled with land annexation, caused the money and land in the hands of the poor to flow to the richer.
The fratricidal conflict between the Li brothers over money is merely a grain of sand falling on the shoulders of ordinary people in this great era of turmoil that has plagued the land.
Born in a peaceful era, Zhou Xing was unaware of the hardships of ordinary people; he only glimpsed a few aspects of these hardships from history books.
Now, we'll see it from the perspective of Li Xuanqing, who sells human blood on the streets, and from the perspective of Li Yingcai, a eunuch who sold himself into the palace...
Only now do we see a corner of the reality of this vast and desolate world.
"It is indeed an era different from my previous life..." he murmured to himself.
The feud with her younger brother Li Yingjie has ended, but the turmoil is far from over.
At this moment, Zhou Xing's daughter, Li Ziqing, finished examining the old scholar's body and quickly got up to tug at his sleeve:
"We have to leave right away; our mother is waiting for us outside town."
"Just now, Zhao San on horseback escaped, but Zhao Dashan's family is powerful, and if we don't leave now, we won't be able to leave."
However, this pull only tore a small hole in the already damaged, blood-stained wedding dress, and Zhou Xing stood still.
"You mean if we don't leave now, we won't be able to leave? Is the Zhao family that powerful?" Zhou Xing asked seriously.
"Of course!" Li Ziqing said urgently.
"The Zhao family has grown powerful through lending money, and now almost half of the townspeople in this surrounding area are tenant farmers of the Zhao family. With such power, how could they have become so large without a master to oversee them?"
"Let's hurry up and go."
"Then I finally understand." Zhou Xing nodded:
"Then let me ask you, Qing'er, is it faster to ride a horse, or is it faster for the three of us to walk?"
"Of course, riding a horse is faster—" Li Ziqing paused slightly, vaguely sensing something.
"Therefore, I, as your father, cannot sit idly by and wait for my doom." Zhou Xing smiled faintly.
"You take your younger cousin and go to the outskirts of town to find your mother. I will go and kill the entire Zhao family."