Chapter 212 Fellow Villagers Meet
"What? Yan Bugui is back?"
Another scholar had a look of admiration.
"Yan Bugui is my idol, a great hero who robs the rich to help the poor!"
"In our county, many poor people have been helped by him. The prestige of Hero Yan is almost on par with the County Magistrate."
"Indeed!
I heard that Hero Yan's Lightness Skill is peerless. He can walk on snow without leaving a single footprint, hence his nickname 'Treading Snow Without Trace'.
The government has drawn hundreds of his portraits, but not a single one is accurate, because no one has ever seen his true face!"
"Hero Yan has been gone for many years. Why did he suddenly return this time?"
"Who knows? Perhaps he saw that our county has wealthy gentry again, and Hero Yan is preparing to act."
Shen Yulou heard everything clearly from the corner, and his eyes instantly lit up.
Treading Snow Without Trace, Yan Bugui?
Good name! Good persona!
It's simply tailor-made for me.
Shen Yulou instantly had an idea.
From now on, he is Yan Bugui... Early the next morning, just as dawn was breaking.
Clang, clang, clang!
The piercing sound of gongs woke the common people.
The shouts of the officers echoed through the streets and alleys. The people all ran out of their homes, panicked, as if something major had happened.
"By order of the County Magistrate! Search the entire city for the imperial fugitive! Everyone, without exception, come out into the streets to be screened!"
Shen Yulou pushed open the window and looked down, only to see the streets already filled with soldiers holding blades.
They were escorting Old Eighth Hu, who was covered in injuries from being beaten, as he went from house to house on the street, identifying people. Every family's residents had to come out to be identified, and their homes were also searched.
That grandson, Old Eighth Hu, was truly miserable, not a single good patch of skin on his entire body.
He was promised ten thousand taels of gold to start.
But Old Eighth Hu's start was ten thousand lashes, leaving him a bloody mess.
Old Eighth Hu's only thought now was to quickly find Shen Yulou.
To identify him and save his own dog's life.
Shen Yulou truly ruined him!
He thought it would be ten thousand taels of gold, but it turned out to be ten cruel tortures!
His eyes, swollen like walnuts, desperately searched through the crowd.
His gaze was filled with hatred.
Shen Yulou cursed under his breath and pulled his head back.
This fellow was quite resourceful.
If they searched house by house like this, his face and attire would eventually give him away.
He emerged from the inn and blended into the crowd, head lowered, trying to appear as inconspicuous as possible.
However, he also knew that there was no escaping.
In those days, common people wore coarse linen clothes, mostly black or gray.
Although the one he was wearing wasn't particularly flashy, it was still silk fabric from the Princesss Residence, gleaming with a subtle, luxurious sheen in the sunlight.
Standing among the common folk, he stood out like a sore thumb, very conspicuous.
Sure enough, when Old Eighth Hu was less than a hundred meters away from him, he instantly locked onto him!
"It… it's him…"
Old Eighth Hu excitedly raised his bloody hand, trembling as he pointed at Shen Yulou.
Shen Yulou snorted coldly in his heart, knowing that there was no avoiding it now.
His expression remained unchanged, and his hand quietly slipped into his pocket, gripping a jujube pit he had prepared earlier.
Internal energy flowed to his fingertips, and just as Old Eighth Hu opened his mouth to shout—
Whoosh!
Shen Yulou flicked his wrist, and the jujube pit, like a miniature bullet, cut through the air.
It accurately shot into Old Eighth Hu's open mouth, directly lodging in his throat!
"Ugh…"
Old Eighth Hu's voice abruptly cut off. His face turned a pig-liver color, tears streamed down uncontrollably, and a sharp pain shot through his throat. He couldn't utter a single word.
Before the surrounding officers could react, Shen Yulou had already moved.
He shifted his feet, seemingly inadvertently pushing forward, and at the same time, the second jujube pit was already launched!
Thud!
The jujube pit accurately struck Old Eighth Hu's knee. Old Eighth Hu couldn't even let out a scream, his legs went soft, and he tumbled forward.
Shen Yulou's aim was still good, but his strength was a bit lacking, not enough to take a life.
"Ouch!"
Shen Yulou took the opportunity to push forward, shouting as he did so.
"Watch out!"
The crowd instantly fell into chaos. The people in front were knocked over by Old Eighth Hu, piling up like arhats.
Now!
Taking advantage of the confusion, Shen Yulou's figure moved like a ghost, crossing to the pile of fallen people in a single step.
He appeared to be helping, but in reality, a third jujube pit was clamped between his fingers, instantly piercing Old Eighth Hu's Jianjing acupoint!
With internal energy boosting it, the small jujube pit was now sharper than a steel needle!
Pfft!
A faint, almost inaudible sound.
The jujube pit accurately entered the acupoint.
Old Eighth Hu's eyes, wide with extreme terror, twitched violently, then closed, and he completely stopped breathing.
He sold jujubes his entire life, and in the end, he died from a tiny jujube pit.
It could be considered karma.
"The prisoner is dead!"
"Quick! Surround everyone!"
The lead officer, seeing this, flew into a rage.
He waved his hand, and the surrounding soldiers instantly closed in.
They rounded up dozens of common people from the chaotic area, not letting a single one escape!
...County Yamen main hall.
Dozens of people were all brought back to the County Yamen, held in the courtyard, each one trembling with fear.
The jail couldn't hold so many people, so they all waited in the County Yamen's main hall, awaiting interrogation.
The County Magistrate had not yet appeared. A shifty-eyed aide with a goatee stood on the steps, reporting to a young man seated in a grand chair.
The young man looked to be only twenty-five or twenty-six, dressed in an ordinary green robe.
But his eyes were unusually sharp, revealing a shrewdness.
He was Liu Wenxuan, the County Magistrate of Anyuan County.
Lord Liu could be said to be a man of distinguished appearance, very different from the common people of this era.
The aide bowed and said.
"My lord, in my humble opinion, the one who committed murder to silence the witness in the street must be the person who completed the couplet!
He is mixed in with this group of people. As long as we interrogate them one by one, he won't refuse to confess!"
Liu Wenxuan nodded, picked up his teacup, gently blew on it, and calmly uttered two words.
"Interrogate." (Are those two words, damn it!)
At the County Magistrate's command, several officers immediately walked into the crowd and began interrogating them one by one.
"Bring him up!"
"Speak! Was it you who made the move just now?"
"My lord, I'm innocent! I've never even killed a chicken!"
"You won't shed tears until you see the coffin! Torture him!!"
Screams of agony instantly echoed through the County Yamen.
Finger-crushing, force-feeding chili water, whipping, flogging... various cruel tortures were used in rotation. They were dragged away only after being beaten to within an inch of their lives.
One after another, ordinary common people were tortured to death and back. Blood flowed like rivers in the courtyard, turning it into a living hell.
Shen Yulou stood in the crowd, his face grim, but his heart was churning with stormy waves.
How ruthless!
This fellow was truly a ruthless character!
Rather kill the wrong person than let one go!
Finally, the people in front had all been interrogated, and it was Shen Yulou's turn.
He was pushed to the center of the main hall by two fierce yamen runners.
When the aide saw Shen Yulou's demeanor and attire, his eyes lit up.
He walked down the steps, circled Shen Yulou once, and spoke in a sarcastic tone.
"Oh, this young master, you look very unfamiliar."
The aide leaned closer to him, lowered his voice, and questioned him word by word.
"Tell me, was it you who killed that Old Eighth Hu? You are the one who completed the couplet, aren't you?