I want to die!

Chapter 23 Borrowing Ink

Even before Li Ziqing and her daughter entered the house.

Crown Prince Murong Ying then discussed with the hostage Zhou Chen the matter of falsely accusing the hostage of raping and killing the eunuch.

The guards Zhang Kui and others are certainly highly suspicious, and there may be someone else behind them.

But in Murong Ying's opinion, the personal attendant mentioned by the hostage Zhou Chen might not be so clean.

Li Yingcai, an honest and unremarkable eunuch in the palace, showed his true abilities when he was by the side of the hostage.

Both uncovering conspiracies and offering various strategies?

"Who knows, there might be more than just one or two spies in this delegation," Murong Ying said quietly.

Zhou Chen was clearly stunned.

Now, the Southern Zhou, clinging to life in a corner of the country, has sent its prince as a hostage, which is naturally a sign of submission.

But if the attitude is lowered to such an extent, and the nominal crown prince sent to Da Mang is found to have "raped and murdered a eunuch" on the way, it will not only damage Zhou Chen's reputation.

Just then, the voice of the man in the green robe announced their arrival from outside the door. Li Ziqing and her daughter stepped into the room and began to recount what had happened to her father, Li Yingcai.

Murong Ying sipped his tea with an air of nonchalance, not taking it to heart.

Ultimately, it was nothing more than a private conflict between local gentry and a returning eunuch... Such trivial matters would normally not be worth mentioning.

That's why I heard about this – I was mistaken for Zhou Chen.

Who was right and who was wrong, who was strong and who was weak, was of no significance to him.

There was only one thing he cared about.

"There seems to be something fishy about this man. Now is not the time for him to die at the hands of the local gentry." He composed himself and had an idea.

...............

At the end of the street in Baxiang Town, a mansion stands imposingly, forming a stark contrast with the low-rise houses around it.

A long, ten-foot-high wall of blue bricks stretched out, its top covered with sharp, broken pieces of porcelain to deter thieves. Two heavy gates were tightly shut, covered with black iron sheets that gleamed with a cold, hard luster in the twilight.

What puzzled Zhou Xing was that... the mansion was too quiet.

The room was brightly lit, but no human voices could be heard inside; it stood quietly in the twilight.

Logically speaking, a wealthy family like Zhao Dashanren should have servants to guard the gate.

But now Zhou Xing was standing at the gate of the Zhao family mansion, yet he couldn't hear anything from inside; there was an elusive silence.

"I sense a surprise inside. Is this body's time to die?"

Zhou Xing did not back down. He took a deep breath and pushed the door hard... but it wouldn't budge, as if it was bolted from the inside.

Zhou Xing then knocked hard on the door, trying to call out to the door:

"Li Yingcai has come to pay his respects to Master Zhao, wishing you and your family a happy reunion and a complete and harmonious family!"

His shouts echoed in the twilight.

Inside the mansion, there was finally a faint sound—a somewhat unsteady footstep, and only one person.

"Who goes there?" The mansion door opened a crack, revealing a chubby face wearing a warm hat.

It was the debt collector Zhou Xing had met on that snowy night ten years ago, the Zhao family's steward.

However, the portly butler looked rather flustered, his face pale, and his bulky body hunched over. Upon seeing Zhou Xing standing alone outside, he frowned.

"Li Yingcai? Ha, what are you doing here?"

Zhou Xingchao peeked through the crack in the door.

The courtyard was brightly lit, but there seemed to be no servants or guards in sight. I only glanced at it before the fat butler intentionally or unintentionally blocked my view.

He then frankly said, "It's nothing."

"I accidentally killed your young master Zhao, so I've come to your door to clean up the mess."

"What nonsense are you talking about? Our young master knows martial arts! He's going out today to—" The butler instinctively scolded, but halfway through his sentence, his expression suddenly turned strange.

"...Then tell me, how do we clean up this mess? Since we've killed someone, then it's a life for a life?" he said in a low voice.

"One life for one life isn't enough, is it? With your stature, young master, it should be at least five to ten times the original price, shouldn't it?" Zhou Xing casually bargained.

"So today I have come to exterminate your entire family and wish Master Zhao a happy family reunion."

"Extinguish—" The butler's face flickered between light and shadow under the lantern at the door, and he spat out:

"What a madman spouting nonsense. If you want to come, then come in."

He stepped aside, disappearing into the shadows through the crack in the door.

The reaction seemed a bit off; did they really want me to come in...? Zhou Xing looked at the shadows inside the door and muttered to himself, but quickly came to his senses.

If the reaction is wrong, then it's right. Doesn't it mean that the people coming here have ill intentions?

Zhou Xing smiled slightly, stepped over the threshold, and strode into the room.

The mansion gate creaked shut, the heavy sound echoing in the twilight.

A moment later, the quiet streets behind them came alive again.

One by one, heads peeked out of the windows, cautiously glancing towards the silent Zhao Shanren's house.

"Li Yingcai, he really went in?"

"He really dares to enter the Zhao family's residence? The Zhao family is powerful; if he really goes in, who knows whether he'll leave lying down or floating on the ground..."

The town is not big.

What happened in the afternoon was spread by idle men and gossipy women before dark.

....................

Inside the Zhao family residence.

Zhou Xingcai had just stepped in when he suddenly stopped.

Inside the high-walled compound of the Zhao family, there was blood and corpses scattered everywhere.

Servants in servants' uniforms and guards dressed in short clothes lay scattered on the ground, blood flowing like a stream.

It wasn't until they reached the grand chair in the hall that they saw Zhao Shanren, who looked like a wealthy man, sitting there. He was completely bound, with ropes wrapped around him again and again, and his belly was bulging outwards from the tightness.

Zhou Xing was slightly dazed, his gaze falling on the ground to the right of Zhao Dashanren.

There lay a dark, heavy pistol, its barrel gleaming with a cold, metallic sheen, the leather grip soaked in blood and turning a dark red.

Upon closer inspection, a brass bullet had landed about seven or eight meters away from the armchair. The bullet was dented, but there was no blood on it.

"Zhao, the philanthropist, had a gun, and he even fired it, but even with a firearm, he missed?"

From the shadows behind the door, the plump butler wearing a warm hat smirked at him with a rather mocking smile. Behind him stood a swordsman wearing a straw hat.

But I could hear the sound of wind behind me.

But from behind the screen in the hall, on the beam overhead, behind the door... figures emerged from the shadows, each carrying a bloodstained knife, surrounding him.

Several figures appeared as if from nowhere, their eyes unable to make out their features, before a long knife was already across their necks.

Four swordsmen in straw hats surrounded him, one of whom held a long sword to his neck.

"Who are you?" The leader was a bearded swordsman whose appearance was vaguely familiar.

He stood there, his massive frame like an iron tower, his explosive muscles encased in his night clothes, like a giant elephant lurking in the shadows.

Fear arises when you can't see clearly, and you are even more shaken when you can see clearly.

"Hiss----" Zhou Xing also understood.

It turns out that Zhao Shanren happened to be visited by bandits today, which can be described as a double blessing.

Although it was a surprise attack, the speed of these men in straw hats was indeed beyond his expectations.

Li Yingcai practiced the palace's extraordinary martial art, the "Chrysanthemum Manual," which was known for its speed.

Previously, when facing Young Master Zhao, who was at the ninth level of martial arts, she did not confront him head-on at all. Instead, she relied on the speed advantage of her technique to stab Young Master Zhao in the neck.

But the group of men in straw hats in front of him were clearly speed-type athletes similar to Li Yingcai, and even faster than him.

"This is Mr. Li Yingcai, also from our Eight Townships. He's related to the Zhao family by marriage," the chubby butler grinned and answered first.

"This man is the handsome gentleman in white robes we bumped into at the town market. It's no mistake that he's from the eight townships," a woman with a sword chimed in.

The burly swordsman at the head of the group remained silent, staring intently at Zhou Xing's face for a long time before finally speaking:

"Li Yingcai?" he asked tentatively.

"Is he the father of Li Xuanqing, the 'righteous bandit' who robbed grain in Qingshui County?"

"...Yes." Zhou Xing was slightly surprised.

Could it be that these strongmen are actually acquaintances from before?

He looked closely and saw a square wooden plaque on the waist of the burly, bearded swordsman, with an image of an empty bowl and a long knife carved on it.

Upon closer inspection, the bearded swordsman's beard appeared to be a fake beard pasted onto his face. He was clearly a Westerner with deep-set features and a robust physique, and his appearance was merely a disguise.

This image, along with the shape and pattern of the wooden plaque at his waist, did indeed give Zhou Xing a vague guess.

Wayne's butler, "Black Tiger" Alfred.

As for that wooden sign...

Zhou Xing tentatively asked, "Are you members of the Black-Winged Bat King's 'Alliance'?"

After he uttered the name, the swordsmen were clearly taken aback for a brief moment.

"You know quite a lot," the leading bearded swordsman said calmly, gesturing to his men to remove the long sword from Zhou Xing's neck.

"It is your good fortune to have encountered our righteous alliance today to eliminate traitors."

"Otherwise, if you come alone with a knife, you'll only be throwing your own life away."

"From now on, you must cherish your life and not act recklessly."

At this point, the bearded man, Afu, did something that surprised everyone.

He raised the knife in one hand, flipped his wrist to turn the handle upside down, and handed it directly to Zhou Xing.

"What...what does this mean?" Zhou Xing asked in surprise.

"I heard that Zhao Shanren had a long-standing feud with the late Li Xuanqing, and he's also a local," Afu said casually.

"If you have the guts, then you can kill Zhao Shanren yourself."

"Of course, you'll also bear the blame for the murder. Do you dare?"

"The head seat?" The white-clad woman with a sword beside her was the first to object.

"This elimination of traitors was my initiation gift to the alliance. I worked so hard to take down the Zhao family, and now I'm just handing over my head and the reputation for eliminating traitors to someone else? What kind of logic is that?"

The other hat-wearers nodded secretly, clearly having similar thoughts in their minds.

Afu just smiled faintly.

"Logic? Okay, then let me ask you, if we kill someone, then what?"

The woman in white was taken aback, then replied, "Then naturally we should leave as soon as possible to avoid being pursued by the authorities."

"And our Righteous Alliance will gain some renown from this act of eliminating traitors..."

"Of course, your reputation is also part of this. As a newcomer to the Righteous Alliance, you naturally want to make a name for yourself like the Alliance Leader, 'Black Wing Bat King'."

The woman in white smiled slightly, clearly embarrassed, as if her thoughts had been exposed.

"There is no need to be ashamed. It is not something to be ashamed of for us to seek fame."

"There are things I desire and things I don't desire, that's all," Afu continued.

"Having discussed your actions afterward and the subsequent alliance, let me ask you now: what will become of this eight-township region in the future?"

The woman in white opened her mouth, but didn't speak for a moment.

It wasn't that she was speechless or dumbfounded, but rather that she had never thought about this issue before.

"In vernacular novels, it's only said that chivalrous heroes kill for justice, and storytellers in teahouses only sing about how the wicked are utterly wicked. But what happens after that is never told."

"The person our Righteous Alliance is looking for is not a lawless knight-errant who 'does his duty and then disappears without a care in the world.'"

"If we leave, the remaining property of the Zhao family will be embezzled by officials. In three to five years, new gentry will rise up on this land."

"The rent paid is not a penny less, and every poor person who deserves to be driven to death is accounted for. Change the signboard, change the name, but the corruption underneath will not decrease by a single cent."

Everyone fell silent.

Afu points to Zhou Xing:

"But Li Yingcai, a local who has had a long-standing feud with the Zhao family, is different from our Yimeng."

"He will be a flag, standing tall in these eight towns. Everyone knows there is a murderer here, and naturally they will be afraid of him."

He paused, his voice turning serious:

"If you govern people by law, they will fear the law, not their own hearts; if you treat people with kindness, they will bully the kind, not fear the wicked. To subdue wicked people, you must make them even more wicked."

"Although the Righteous Alliance is large, it will not stay in this town or county."

I wouldn't, and neither would you. But a murderer who wipes out an entire family would.

"This is much more effective than our Righteous Alliance's reputation."

Afu finally turned his head and stared intently at Zhou Xing:

"So, are you willing to be a notorious murderer who wiped out an entire family, spending the rest of your life constantly being hunted by the authorities?"

"This is the best outcome for your visit today; it's better than dying at the hands of the Zhao family's guards."

At this point, he changed the subject:

"Of course, there is actually an even better outcome. The crime of murder and annihilation can also be borne by our 'Righteous Alliance'. After all, we are incapable of killing criminals, so this additional crime is not a big deal."

Zhou Xing looked at the knife hilt being offered to him and suddenly smiled.

"If there are any more opportunities to take the blame like this in the future, please mention my name more often."

He smiled and approached the armchair step by step.

At this moment, only the fat steward and Master Zhao Shanren were left alive in the Zhao family. They had already been driven and surrounded by the swordsmen, and their mouths were stuffed with rags.

All it could do was whimper and listen quietly to the conversation between the two groups.

They were clearly using their lives as bargaining chips to gain fame.

What horrified Zhao Shanren even more was that Zhou Xing eagerly accepted the offer, even coming up to dip his brush in blood and write on the screen.

"The murderer is Li Ying..."

The last character wasn't finished.

We're out of ink.

Zhou Xing turned his head and quietly looked at Zhao Shanren, who was bound hand and foot:

"Master Zhao, would you mind if I borrowed a little ink from you?"

"Since your family's main business is lending money anyway, I'm asking to borrow some ink from you now. I'll pay you back more later, okay?"

With a rag stuffed in his mouth, Zhao Shanren made muffled noises and shook his head desperately.

"Silence means consent. Thank you for your generosity, Master Zhao."

Knife up and down.

Blood splattered onto the screen like ink.

The last stroke was finally completed.

The murderer is Li Yingcai!