I want to die!

Chapter 8 A Job That Could Kill You

As the sun sets, crows take flight in droves.

Hanakofusa's dinner tonight was more lavish than usual, with stewed cabbage and tofu, and even a few plates of slightly spoiled stir-fried meat.

Yesterday I went to the newly opened Liangyou Restaurant and got a lot of leftover food, and now I'm bringing it all out at once.

If it weren't for the fear that drinking would cause trouble, Da Kuang would have given them a few drinks to embolden them.

Zhou Xing was also rushing to lunchtime, so he went to the flower shop first.

When the girl serving rice by the big pot saw Zhou Xing carrying a ceramic rice bowl over, she didn't forget to put on a smile and call him "Little Green Head," filling his bowl to the brim.

The small rice bowl was filled with mixed grain rice, topped with a large spoonful of oily tofu. The tofu was soft and tender, having absorbed all the broth, and there were also a few slices of pork that were half fat and half lean.

These guys are going to do a lot of work tonight, so naturally they'll get a lot of work.

Zhou Xing even felt he might not be able to finish it.

Out of the corner of his eye, Zhou Xing saw the beggar girl with the little girl from yesterday brush past him, and waved to stop them:

"Wait a minute, there's not enough for the kids, so we'll share some with you two."

"Oh? Thank you, Little Green Head. You're so kind."

Zhou Xinggang lowered his head and scooped some over with a wooden spoon, but then suddenly looked up... his voice was off.

Looking up, I saw the unfamiliar face of a thin, dark-skinned woman, and beside her was a little girl... no, it was a small, thin little boy with a blank stare.

"...Another unfamiliar face. Are you also a refugee from the north who just entered Hanako-bu?" Zhou Xing asked casually.

Mistaking someone for someone else is a minor matter.

After all, the mother and daughter who seemed to be from a wealthy family in distress yesterday were only met once, and they didn't even ask each other's names.

The beggar girls in the Hanako-san (a type of brothel) all had disheveled hair and wore tattered clothes, so it was normal for them to admit their mistakes.

But a strange feeling was vaguely rising in his heart.

He looked up, his gaze sweeping over the crowd of people receiving their meals in the courtyard, but he couldn't seem to find the little girl with bright eyes from yesterday... He didn't see either the mother or daughter.

He pondered for a moment, then pulled over the bald-headed Wu Huazi beside him and asked:

"Do you remember the mother and daughter I asked you to keep an eye on when we went to Liangyou Restaurant yesterday? Why didn't they come to collect their meal?"

Bald Wu Huazi was taken aback, then chuckled:

"Didn't Little Greenhead hear Big Basket mention our Flower Shop and Zheng's Butcher Shop on Commercial Street?"

"Those two new out-of-town women aren't even part of our Hanako-san family. We handed them over last night."

Zhou Xing paused for a moment before speaking:

"What I heard from Da Kuang yesterday was that some people couldn't make ends meet and voluntarily sold themselves into prostitution to feed their families..."

After he finished speaking, he already had the answer in his heart.

What's this talk of voluntariness and involuntary actions? Talk is cheap, actions are another matter.

Hanako-bo is now more than just a middleman connecting sellers with butcher shops...

"Little Greenhead..." Bald Wu Huazi saw Zhou Xing's silence and suddenly realized:

"If I had known that Xiao Qingtou had taken a liking to that mother and daughter, I would have just informed Luo Zitou. It wouldn't have mattered if they had stayed a few more days to relax."

"Has that young lad taken a fancy to that mother and daughter?" The beggars nearby, receiving their food, also smiled and complimented him.

"Young Qingtou has a good eye indeed. That mother and daughter look like rich dogs who have suffered retribution. Their skin is quite different from the rough women around here."

"Just because you smear your face with mud and dirt, change into tattered clothes, and smell like a stranger from out of town, you think you can beg with us?"

"That pampered, well-bred air of a good family, he can't even act it out properly, this time he's really fallen into the mud."

The beggars chatted and laughed loudly, completely ignoring the refugee mother and child who were gradually shrinking to the side.

Zhou Xing watched this scene quietly, momentarily dazed.

The unrestrained laughter, the woman's barely suppressed trembling, and the greasy, slightly sour smell of food in the air all pressed down heavily on her.

Last night, he thought he understood the true meaning of the saying "In times of great famine, people eat each other."

Sixteen-year-old Li Xuanqing joined the Flower House only to make money through shady dealings to pay off his debts.

Whether it was Zhou Xing or his predecessor Li Xuanqing, they would leave the flower shop every night to return to their homes in town, never knowing the true business the flower shop did at night.

The real world seems very far away from them.

But looking at it now, it's clearly very close.

So close it's within reach.

Zhou Xing reached out and put his hand on the shoulder of the bald-headed Wu Huazi, who was chatting and laughing.

"Little Greenhead?" Bald Wu Huazi asked, puzzled.

"Tonight, we're going to get some serious work done," he said slowly, enunciating each word clearly. "Brothers, eat your fill."

"You need to be well-fed to have the energy."

Night fell completely.

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

The thick darkness of night poured down like ink, almost swallowing the outlines of the streets and alleys.

A dozen or so dark figures huddled close to the walls, silently moving through the sleeping streets and alleys.

As the year drew to a close, the weather turned cold almost overnight. A fierce, biting wind swept across the northern plains, like an emperor reigning over the land, causing all the common people to shiver in its wake.

The beggars were inconspicuous, no different from the shivering refugees huddled under the eaves wrapped in tattered straw mats.

Many homeless people must have frozen to death on the streets that night, and even the patrolling soldiers were too lazy to move, chatting idly under the eaves of the teahouse.

With the weather freezing cold and everything shivering, it was the perfect time for them to take action.

Without any trouble, the team sneaked to the back wall of the granary in the south of the city.

This is a remote corner, with peeling paint and overgrown weeds.

The two beggars skillfully moved aside several seemingly randomly piled broken bricks and stones, revealing a hole formed by the collapse of the wall base, barely wide enough for one person to squeeze through, in the faint moonlight.

Zhang Dakang is here tonight too.

As the manager of Hanako-bu, he always stayed behind the scenes and rarely appeared in person.

The details of this matter and the subsequent sales channels require him to personally handle the transactions with the other party.

Beside Zhang Dakuang stood a scarred man who was not particularly strong; in fact, he was rather thin.

But when he stood among the dozen or so beggars, and his triangular eyes glanced over, no one dared to meet his gaze.

These are true outlaws, completely different from the cowardly bullies in Hanako's quarters.

"Brother Xiaoqing, you're the capable one, so go first. Figure out the situation inside, take down the old good-for-nothing guard, and then open the door," Zhang Dakang ordered.

His gaze shifted to the dark hole, and he added, "The brothers who will carry the mountain winds and the grain carts are waiting in the alley not far away. Once the door opens, the mission will be accomplished."

Without hesitation, Zhou Xing took a deep breath and bent down to crawl into the hole in the wall, with Luo Zitou and the others following closely behind.

The granary courtyard was large, and the dark granaries stood silently in the night like crouching giant beasts.

Near the side door of the warehouse, directly opposite the direction they had crawled in, was a small guardhouse with torn paper windows that let in a dim, yellowish light. Faint snoring could be heard coming from inside.

Upon closer inspection, two gray-haired veterans were slumped on a bench, fast asleep, clutching a musket, with two old wine jugs lying at their feet.

Without a word, Zhou Xing and several martial arts apprentices tiptoed into the room, put their arms around the old soldier's neck, and the old soldier, who had just woken up from his sleep, immediately fell back into a baby-like sleep.

"It's supposed to be the government's granary, how can it be so lax?" The bald-headed beggar couldn't help but ask.

"At least wait until things are settled before you spout nonsense." Luo Zitou was also clearly surprised, but he just muttered a curse under his breath and gently pushed open the side door of the granary.

The interior of the warehouse was not entirely dark; there were small ventilation windows high up, letting in a few faint rays of starlight and moonlight that barely outlined its massive shape.

The first thing that hits your nostrils is a complex odor: the musty smell of aged grain, dust, and a faint, almost imperceptible stench of decay.

With that little bit of light, Zhou Xing and Luo Zitou were able to see the scene before them.

Stacks of coarse burlap sacks filled most of the granary in front of us.

Luo Zitou groped forward, cut open the rice bag with a knife, and the clean, plump grains of rice inside gushed out like flowing water.

But the rice bags further inside were a darker color, already covered in mold and showing suspicious dampness. The faint smell of decay wafted from the inside of the warehouse.

"The rice bags outside are still fresh, but the ones inside are old grains that have been piled up for who knows how long. They're probably already rotten," Luo Zitou said slowly.

"The imperial court isn't releasing grain, so all this grain that's been piled up for so long is just wasting its time and is now rotting!" The beggars felt a pang of heartache.

"This is good for us. Isn't tonight a lucky break for us?" The leader chuckled.

"Let's go, open the granary door!"

Stepping out of the dull barn, the night was slightly brighter, with a bright moon and few stars. The faint starlight spilled into the empty courtyard, and everyone felt a sense of relief.

"If I had known it was this easy to steal from the granary, I should have come much sooner. The grain in the granary has been waiting for us until it rots."

"Yeah, why bother looking for the mountain wind? We can just steal two or three bags ourselves. These old idiots in the granary won't even notice."

The main gate of this granary was quite different from the side gates. It was made of thick solid wood and may have been covered with sheet metal, which gleamed with a cold, hard light under the moonlight.

The most troublesome part was the door bolt, which was not a simple horizontal bar, but three thick hardwood bolts, each about the size of a bowl, which were deeply embedded in the grooves in the stone wall from the inside.

"One, two... Damn it, the government is more concerned about preventing thieves than about preventing famine!" The head of the guards and another martial arts expert were already panting as they lifted the second bolt off the door.

"This is the third one, come lend a hand... Brother Xiao Qing, you're strong, come over here!" Luo Zitou wiped his sweat, suddenly remembering that he had specifically called for a naturally strong man for this operation, and quickly said:

"Brother Xiaoqing, it's your turn to do it! Quickly lend a hand!"

"Alright! I'll get started right away." Zhou Xing's voice came from about twenty or thirty steps behind, in the center of the granary courtyard.

He turned around in surprise after the piece fell.

But Zhou Xing was standing in the empty courtyard, holding a tinderbox that had just been lit in one hand and lifting his robe with the other.

In the dim moonlight, one could vaguely see that his robe was covered with a long string of red firecrackers, the fuses of which had been lit by firecrackers and were hissing and emitting dazzling sparks!

"What the hell are you doing?!" Luo Zitou shouted instinctively, forgetting that he was a thief.

Zhou Xing just smiled dismissively.

"Hey, do you know that in a team with enough members, there will always be a leader, a fierce wolf, and a loyal dog..."

He pointed to himself with his thumb:

"And me, the black sheep horse."

The next moment, he took off his robe, revealing his bare upper body to Luo Zitou and the others, and threw it forcefully, sending the robe, covered in firecrackers, toward the roof of the granary.

Snap snap snap snap snap snap-------

The loud sound of firecrackers was exceptionally clear in the dead of night, sounding like continuous thunder.

At that moment, countless people in the neighborhoods surrounding the granary were awakened from their sleep.

"Who's so inconsiderate to hold a funeral so early? It's not even dawn yet."

"...Wait a minute! It's only midnight, who set off the firecrackers?!"

"Who? Who did this?!"

Countless people were jolted awake from their beds, while the refugees sleeping by the roadside stared in disbelief at the firecrackers lit up the roof of the granary.

Of course, the ones who were most frightened were Zhang Dakuang and the others who were waiting outside the wall.

"Someone set off firecrackers on the roof of the granary?" Zhang Dakuang asked in surprise.

He had considered the possibility that things would be exposed and discovered by the authorities, but he had no idea how things had escalated to the point of setting off firecrackers.

But soon he had no energy left to think about the reasons.

A cold, metallic sensation ran down my neck.

The triangular-eyed bandit, Chuan Shanfeng, had his knife drawn and was held to Chuan Shanfeng's neck. His triangular eyes were slightly narrowed, and he exuded a chilling murderous aura that made these beggars almost wet their pants.

"Zhang Dakuang, where did you get the audacity to collude with the government to trick me into entering the city?"

Zhang Dakang's face gradually turned green.

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

"How the hell did I hire a lunatic to do this?!" Luo Zitou glared angrily at Zhou Xing, his body covered in a cold sweat.

He doesn't understand, he really doesn't understand.

Zhou Xing's behavior was completely incomprehensible to him. Who would break into a granary to steal grain and then specifically bring firecrackers? Were they afraid others wouldn't know?

In the Hanako-bu, there were quite a few simple-minded, disabled people with only one eye, who were good at gaining sympathy and begging for food.

But Li Xuanqing doesn't seem stupid at all...

"That lunatic must have had his brain damaged by that nail!" Luo Zitou gritted his teeth and gestured to the bald man next to him.

"You son of a bitch, if you want to die, don't drag us down with you!" Bald Wu Huazi was now furious. He put down the door latch, drew his knife, and lunged at Zhou Xing.

At this moment, Zhou Xing, shirtless, was quietly looking up at the firelight on the roof of the granary.

His breathing was slightly heavy, and his seemingly thin upper body was slightly swollen and red.

The corners of his mouth unconsciously turned up little by little.

Just as Bald Wu Huazi charged forward with his knife, he was suddenly spun around as if he had been hit head-on by a bull, and his body flew backward and slammed against the back of the granary door.

His sternum collapsed inward, blood and foam kept coming out of his mouth, and he kept convulsing as his body slowly slid down.

The beggars who were surrounding Zhou Xing froze, stopped in their tracks, and even the anger on Luo Zitou's face vanished instantly.

The strange strength he displayed was even more outrageous than when he broke into Hanako's room alone that day.

"After lighting the firecrackers and revealing my scheme, the boost to my strength is much stronger than when I took off my clothes," Zhou Xing thought to himself.

"Exhibitionists, do they get excited and go crazy when they're exposed? That's so annoying."

Zhou Xing has figured out the mechanism of the exhibitionist talent.

Some people don't realize they've been swimming naked until the waves recede; others swim naked every day, waiting for the waves to recede.

Zhou Xing realized that he seemed to be the latter type of person.

What he was going to do tonight was only the beginning.

He reached into his crotch and, in full view of Luo Zitou and the others, rummaged around in his crotch twice, pulling out a small megaphone.