Inner Demons

Chapter 153: The Onlookers

The women and children in the crowd cried even louder after being scolded by Second Brother Wu, and a few even made a move to rush forward and hug their legs. Seeing this, Wu Er became a bit confused—he had initially thought these people were bullying his young master, trying to get a reward again.

Everyone in Weicheng knew that his young master had a good temper and a kind heart. Therefore, there would always be some people, with or without reason, who would block his path on the street, kneel down, and start wailing about their grievances. His young master couldn't stand this and would quickly give them money to send them away.

He had thought this was another one of those instances, but looking closely now...

It didn't quite seem like it.

Yu Meng couldn't stand it either. After being surrounded by his own people, he finally felt a sense of calm—it wasn't that he was afraid of what those people would do to him, he just couldn't bear the sounds of wailing and pleading. The moment he heard it, he would feel lost and utterly without a plan.

Now, feeling a bit calmer, he finally let out a long sigh of relief. "Stop crying, stop crying! Tell me what's wrong. Your Dragon Head is here; I will see that justice is done for you!"

Hearing his words, Wusu and Lili also sighed. Originally, only a few people had seen and entangled them. But they just knelt and cried for help, refusing to explain what had happened. After a while of this entanglement, a huge crowd rushed over—it seemed the first group was just stalling them while others went to spread the word.

Now that everyone was here, and the onlookers had formed three layers deep around them, they were finally willing to talk properly.

This kind of bullying, who else but their young master would tolerate it? Anyone else would have had them beaten away with clubs!

It was then that the wife of the head of Wanshun Escort Agency let out a long, mournful wail and threw herself before Yu Meng. "Dragon Head Yu, you must save my husband's life! The emperor of the Li Kingdom has died, and the border passes have been sealed. They're accusing my husband of being a Qing Kingdom spy and have detained him along with the goods!"Hearing this, the kneeling crowd let out a chorus of even more mournful cries, while Second Brother Wu's perpetually raised eyebrows slowly relaxed. Now he understood why these people were making such a scene—it wasn't an exaggeration at all. They were truly asking him to "save their families' lives"...

A half-hour later, the whole story was finally clear.

The Great Qing Dynasty and the Li Kingdom were separated by the Ye Kingdom. But the territory of the Ye Kingdom was not a round, solid block. Instead, it was a long strip—bordering six different countries. Therefore, the journey from the Great Qing Dynasty to the Li Kingdom through Ye Kingdom territory was not long, taking only a month to cross.

The Great Qing Dynasty was to the south, and the Li Kingdom to the north, allowing for a good flow of goods between them. However, this kind of cross-three-kingdoms business was something only large escort agencies dared to take on. For a medium-sized agency to make the trip, they had to risk their lives and fortunes. And for a small agency, they couldn't do it alone—they needed three or four to partner up.

Just like the ones before them now.

The three small escort agencies from Weicheng—Wanshun, Quanshun, and Zhaoyuan—had partnered up for a trip to the Li Kingdom. The three heads of the agencies had all gone along, fearing any mishaps on the road. They had thought that once they completed this escort route and paid their respects to the local powers along the way, it would become a highly profitable path for the future.

But days ago, after entering Li Kingdom territory, they, along with their goods, were detained by the Li Kingdom's border guards. At first, they thought the border guards were just trying to extort money—if they gritted their teeth and spent some money on bribes, they could probably resolve the matter. Though not common, such incidents were not unheard of.

However, two days later, they found out...

The "Heavenly Emperor" of the Li Kingdom had died last month.

With the Heavenly Emperor's death, perhaps due to some internal struggles in the palace, the news was kept secret and had only just reached the border. Therefore, the borders were sealed as a matter of procedure, and also as a matter of procedure—

The goods were confiscated.

Now the people from the escort agencies knew that a great disaster had befallen them. With the emperor's death, the military was at its highest state of alert. Any "possibility" could become a reality at this time. For example, the escort carriages from a neighboring country could be hiding contraband, or they might be "not escorts at all, but spies."

Such a highly sensitive time, where it was better to kill a hundred innocent people than to let one guilty person escape, was also a time for the border guards to make a great fortune.

Almost no one would be held accountable afterward, because everything was done out of the generals' "utmost loyalty in protecting the country."

After countless hardships, someone finally managed to release a carrier pigeon, and after overcoming numerous obstacles, the news was delivered back to the escort agencies.

It wasn't just these three agencies that were detained; several medium-sized ones were as well.

But there wasn't a single large escort agency among them—they had all, with a tacit understanding, temporarily suspended their business with the Li Kingdom since last month.

Those medium-sized escort agencies had ways to get through the doors of the Yu Manor and seek an audience with the master. But these three small agencies couldn't even get a glimpse of the Yu Manor's gatekeeper's face. Their only option was to stop this nominal Great Qing Dynasty Escort Agency Guild Dragon Head on the street.

When this matter was revealed on the street, everyone was in an uproar.

Even Yu Meng was a bit stunned—such a thing had happened?!

An escort agency in his guild, an escort agency in Weicheng, had encountered such a thing!

Seeing his expression, the crowd wailed even more fiercely. The wife of the Wanshun Escort Agency head, fearing that this Dragon Head would find the matter too troublesome and refuse, began to speak frantically, "Dragon Head Yu, if you save my husband, I have a sky-high secret to tell you—so you can also avoid disaster in advance!"

But Yu Meng paid no attention, thinking the woman was not in her right mind. He frowned deeply and agreed to everything. He then fumbled for money on his person, gathered all the gold and silver Wusu and Lili were carrying, and distributed it among the crowd, promising that another sum of money would be sent to them in the evening to help them through this difficult time.

After much coaxing and persuasion, the people finally dispersed, weeping.

And so, the news spread—the Heavenly Emperor of the Li Kingdom had died.

However, while almost everyone focused on the death of the "Heavenly Emperor," another person stood under a tree by the side of the street and raised an eyebrow.

He was interested in what the woman had said—"Dragon Head Yu, if you save my husband, I have a sky-high secret to tell you—so you can also avoid disaster in advance!"

This sentence was quite interesting.

Since this group of people knew that the fool Yu Meng was easy to bully and used this method to plead with him, they must have been at their wit's end. What people say when they are at their wit's end is more credible. The woman said this...

—Her husband was detained by the Li Kingdom's border guards and was very likely to be beheaded. This was a first-class disaster. Yet, she mentioned another "disaster" that seemed even bigger than her own husband's impending death...

"It sounds really curious," Li Yunxin said in a low voice, holding a slice of watermelon.

He was really bored today, and not in a very good mood.

He wasn't the type who liked to remain obscure; on the contrary, he rather enjoyed joining in on the excitement. When he accomplished something, he hoped someone would praise him, and it would be even better if they could exclaim in amazement, "How amazing!"

But ever since leaving that mountain village, he had to keep himself hidden. Last night—after killing that person last night...

He still had to leave quietly.

It was really annoying.

Killing Qingliangzi was a spur-of-the-moment decision. Although he had made some follow-up plans to minimize the scope of this unexpected event's impact, it still required some time for observation—

To observe Yue Yunzi's reaction. To observe the reaction of the Lord of Dongting after hearing Lady Hong's description of him.

So... he was so damn bored.

Although there were other important matters in Weicheng for him to handle, he had taken care of them between last night and this afternoon. Thus, he became interested in Yu Meng and followed him, wanting to see what other foolish things this silly, noble young master could do.

When he reached this street corner, he was about to feel bored and uninspired again and planned to go for a stroll outside the city, but then he suddenly discovered—

At the entrance to this alley, there was a bluestone well. And a family at the alley entrance had come up with a good business because of this well.

They would buy some watermelons, put them in clean baskets, and lower them into the well. After chilling them overnight, they would take them out to sell in the afternoon. When someone wanted to buy one, they would fish a whole one out of the well, and with a single chop, it would be split open. Icy cold. One bite would send a refreshing coolness right to the bone.

Li Yunxin was overjoyed when he saw the watermelon and couldn't bring himself to leave—it was summer, after all. If you don't eat a slice of icy-cold watermelon, how could summer even be considered to have started?

This was the beauty of the mortal world. If this world were full of demons, where would one find icy-cold watermelon to eat?

...And then, he heard that sentence.

Li Yunxin hesitated for a long while between the watermelon stall and the woman, but in the end, he followed her.

For him, curiosity was a good thing. The more information he got, the more variables he had for reference, and the more options he had. Curiosity also meant that his subconsciousness thought this matter was unusual and might be related to his own interests—for the current Li Yunxin, there were not many secular people who could arouse his curiosity.

So, holding the watermelon, he followed the wife of the Wanshun Escort Agency head.

After following the group of a dozen or so people for two streets, Li Yunxin realized why he had been curious.

...These people of the Qing Kingdom actually all knew about the Heavenly Emperor of the Li Kingdom. His death had just been announced publicly on the street, and in about two or three days, the news would spread throughout Weicheng. Then, it would also spread throughout the Great Qing Dynasty—and then, people from many, many other countries would also learn of this matter, right?

Weicheng alone had a population of three hundred thousand.

If the Heavenly Emperor's soul, for some reason, had not yet been taken away by the Black and White Yama Kings...

Such power of will...

Li Yunxin suddenly realized what the woman was probably going to say.

After walking for another fifteen minutes, they turned into a quieter alley. After about a dozen steps, the people in front suddenly stopped and turned around. With two thuds, two people jumped down from the walls on either side—they must have felt something was wrong and had circled around by climbing over the walls.

Among the people who had stopped, an escort frowned and cupped his fist at Li Yunxin. "Friend, you've been following for so long. You must have a reason, right?"

This was Li Yunxin's fault for not concealing his figure. But if he had concealed his figure, only a slice of watermelon would be floating in mid-air, which was not a good way to hide his tracks.

However, there was no one else in the alley now, so it was a good place to talk. There was no need to follow them all the way home.

Li Yunxin sighed and, holding the watermelon, cupped his hands. "I mean no harm. I'm just an ordinary onlooker—but I am rather concerned about the disaster you mentioned. What is it exactly?"

The escort didn't speak, his gaze dark as he sized him up, as if trying to see through his identity.

A scholar in a white robe, with a fan tucked into his waist and a white jade pendant hanging from it. Three drops of watermelon juice were splattered on the front of his robe. The only thing that stood out was that he was very handsome, very dashing.

Oh, and he was holding a long slice of half-eaten watermelon.

He really couldn't make anything out of him.

The escort then said, "You should reveal your identity first, sir. If you are the young master of some noble family, we wouldn't want to misunderstand and cause any offense."

Li Yunxin smiled but didn't answer him. "What I'm more curious about is this—fifteen minutes ago, you were all crying your hearts out on the street, and now you've become so cool and composed. Especially that lady—she's completely different from before."

"Actually, you should all be clear about this, right? According to what you said in front of Yu Meng just now, the major escort agencies in Weicheng stopped their business with the Li Kingdom last month. The emperor of the Li Kingdom died last month—I think it must be that those major escort agencies have someone in the Li Kingdom's court who tipped them off, so they pulled out early."

"If those escort agencies knew about this, the Yu Family should know even more. But Yu Meng is the Escort Agency Guild Dragon Head and said nothing, which is why you small and medium-sized agencies were detained along with your goods. If you ask me, that Yu Meng probably really didn't know, but that master of the Yu Manor... I reckon he deliberately let you fall into this trap, right? So he could take over your businesses?"

"You all know this too, and you understand even better that your masters are doomed. That's why you came to the street to make a scene. It was to make it known throughout the city so that the Yu Family couldn't go through with their plan, right?"

"No, that's not right. If Master Yu could be ruthless enough to want your masters dead... why would he care about you making a scene like this... I think you were actually..." Li Yunxin feigned a sudden realization. "You were really just planning to get some money from Young Master Yu and run away!"

"—Madam, what was on your mind when you shouted that out on the street just now?" Li Yunxin seemed to find it even more interesting and laughed. "I guess it was because you were truly filled with hatred, and you felt that the disaster was coming, and that even the people of the Yu Manor wouldn't be spared, so you couldn't help but shout it out—to pronounce their death sentence early and vent your own feelings, am I right?"

"That's it... that also explains your current appearance—solemn-faced. This is the expression a calm avenger should have!"

After finishing, Li Yunxin took a big bite of watermelon and gave the people in front of him a thumbs-up. "I like people like you. Calm, steady, cohesive, and unscrupulous. You will accomplish great things sooner or later."

The escort glanced at the woman beside him. "I don't recall any young master in the city with a mind like his."

"And that accent isn't from Weicheng either," the woman finally spoke. She was in her thirties. Her hair was a bit disheveled from kowtowing and wailing on the street earlier, but her demeanor was now composed. She was the true core of this group.

She looked at Li Yunxin again and gave a cold smile. "Like to eat melons? I, San-niang, have seen plenty of arrogant fools who pretend to be mysterious experts—first, cut the tendons in his arms and legs, then we'll question him."

As soon as her voice fell, the four escorts in front and behind let out a low roar and pounced on him!

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(Author's Note)

In the real history of China, the value of one tael of silver fluctuated roughly between 150 and 450 RMB.

Oh, you all are so sharp and meticulous to notice that one tael of silver in the current Qing Kingdom is worth 2000 RMB.

This was mentioned once when Li Yunxin first met the Qiao Family Escort Agency, saying that one tael of silver could cover a month's expenses for a middle-class farming household in the Great Qing Dynasty (I think that's how I wrote it, which means one tael is about 2000 RMB).

This is a setting where I increased the exchange rate.

The reason is that in many books, a simple meal at a small restaurant can cost several taels of silver—almost a thousand yuan—so I went in the opposite direction a bit.

Also, when I wrote that Li Yunxin tossed "one tael of silver" to Qiao Duanhong instead of "ten taels of silver," it seemed more... how should I put it, it's my personal peculiar preference—the character "one" always feels more "primitive and simple," haha. (To be continued.)

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