Looking again at the man before him, there was a look in his eyes—an indifference that treated human lives as nothing more than grass or chaff, and a dominating pressure that came naturally to one who stood at the very top.
Constable Zhao’s pupils shrank violently, and his entire body began to tremble uncontrollably.
“This… This move…” Constable Zhao’s teeth chattered as he pointed at Xiao Hanyuan, his voice turning hoarse. “You are… You are…”
The name sat right on the tip of his tongue, ready to spill out!
Su Qinghe’s heart pounded wildly, and cold sweat instantly soaked the back of her clothing.
Constable Zhao had recognized Xiao Hanyuan’s fighting style and skill!
In the blink of an eye, Su Qinghe’s mind raced at lightning speed.
She rushed forward abruptly, pointing right at Constable Zhao’s nose and shouted at the top of her lungs, “Are you actually scared of moves you’ve only seen in opera plays?!”
“My husband used to be the star performer in an opera troupe! He specialized in playing the great General Xiang Yu! That move he just used—The Conqueror Strips Off His Armor—was brilliant, wasn’t it? It’s a skill he’s practiced and perfected on stage for over ten years since he was a child!”
While she yelled, she secretly pinched Xiao Hanyuan hard and shot him a frantic look, signaling him to play along.
“We run a decent, honest business here! You rotten official—if you wanted to extort money, fine, but don’t you dare try to pin some ridiculous crime on my husband! What, just because he is handsome, are you trying to say he is some kind of fugitive bandit?!”
Feeling that pinch, the violent and murderous intent deep in Xiao Hanyuan’s eyes faded slightly.
He reacted instantly and seamlessly. He let go of his grip, took a step back, and returned to his usual cool, distant demeanor—though his gaze remained sharp and piercing.
“Get out,” he said coldly, uttering only one word.
Constable Zhao clutched his swollen, aching cheek, his mind still reeling in confusion.
An opera performer? A martial arts actor?
He looked Xiao Hanyuan up and down with deep suspicion.
Had he really misjudged the situation?
No… He would have to investigate this thoroughly!
Though he was filled with doubt and uncertainty, his arm was truly useless now. If he stayed any longer, he might well lose his life too.
“Fine… Fine, you shrewish woman! Just… just you wait and see!”
Clutching his dislocated arm, Constable Zhao shouted his threat with as much bluster as he could muster. Amidst the jeers and laughter of the villagers, he scrambled clumsily to his feet and fled from the courtyard as fast as he could.
“It is all right now,” Xiao Hanyuan said softly, noticing the heavy, worried look on her face, trying to comfort her.
The forced smile faded slowly from Su Qinghe’s face, replaced by deep concern. She nodded absently.
Today’s incident had drawn the attention of the county government.
She was terrified that Xiao Hanyuan’s true identity would be discovered.
And if that happened… once he realized she had been deceiving and manipulating him all this time—given his vengeful nature—her life would be in grave danger.
She could not afford to slow down her efforts to make money. She had to earn as much and as fast as possible. Only then could she run away and escape before it was too late.
Seeing her still lost in thought and heavy with worry, a cold glint flickered deep within Xiao Hanyuan’s dark eyes.
Did those people cause her this much distress?
If that was the case… it was time he taught them a lesson they would never forget.
Even though he did not hold affection for her, they lived under the same roof. And as her husband, it was only right that he stand up for her.
Night fell, silent and still. The moon was dark, and the wind was strong.
A dim oil lamp burned in the small courtyard of the Su family home.
Xiao Hanyuan sat by the window, holding a whetstone. Slowly, rhythmically, he polished the rusted iron sword in his hand. The blade caught the candlelight, glinting with a chilling, icy gleam.
Su Qinghe sat at the table, counting the day’s earnings. The clinking of copper coins was unusually clear in the quiet of the night.
She swept the last handful of coins into a small wooden box and snapped the lid shut with a click.
Patting the box as if it were her own precious, chubby child, her face lit up with a bright, happy smile.
At this rate, in just another month or so, she would have enough to go to the pawn shop and redeem that dark jade ring.
Once she placed that ring right in front of Xiao Hanyuan, perhaps the deep hatred he held toward the original owner of this body would fade a little.
And then, when this dangerous man eventually recovered his memories… perhaps, for the sake of that ring, he might just spare her life.
The more she thought about it, the happier she became. Her slender fingers played lightly with the coins, her eyes curving into delighted crescents.
“Still not asleep yet?”
Xiao Hanyuan watched her, seeing how she beamed with joy over her money. His voice, usually so cold and deep, softened noticeably.
Snapping back to reality, Su Qinghe stuffed the wooden box securely under her pillow, took off her outer robe, and rolled over to the far side of the bed.
“Going right now! I am going to sleep this instant!”
She pulled the quilt up, wrapping herself tightly like a silkworm cocoon, leaving only her bright, clear almond-shaped eyes visible. Her long, curly lashes fluttered gently. “You should rest too. Tomorrow we still have to go out and harvest river snails.”
“Mm,” he replied.
Xiao Hanyuan blew out the oil lamp.
The room plunged into darkness, save for the pale moonlight filtering through the window, casting a cold glow across the foot of the bed.
He hung his sword back on the wall, then lay down fully clothed on the outer edge of the bed.
Before long, the breathing of the woman beside him grew long and steady. She was fast asleep.
Xiao Hanyuan turned his head.
By the light of the moon, he looked down at Su Qinghe’s face, glowing pale and smooth as jade in the darkness.
She had delicate, painterly features: finely shaped eyebrows, a straight nose, and full, rosy lips red as flower petals. Her dark hair spilled messily across the pillow, creating a striking contrast against her fair skin.
Her sleeping face was gentle and beautiful.
Just then, she pursed her lips slightly and turned over.
Her collar slipped open, revealing a long, slender curve of neck—so white it almost hurt his eyes.
Xiao Hanyuan’s Adam’s apple bobbed twice in his throat.
His gaze drifted lower, beyond his control.
Restless even in sleep, she had not kept her clothes properly fastened; the neckline hung loose and open.
He saw the hollow of her collarbone, and further down, soft, pale white skin rising and falling gently with every breath she took.
Xiao Hanyuan felt his body heat up, his breath growing warmer. It was as if he had drunk strong, fiery wine; a burning sensation spread through his whole body.
He squeezed his eyes shut tight, forcing himself to forget the sight before him.
But the image was branded onto the back of his eyelids, impossible to shake off.
From beside him came soft, muffled murmurs, and a fresh, clean scent of soap drifted from her hair and clothes, straight into his nose.
He opened his eyes. His breathing was hot and heavy. The torment of this moment was almost unbearable.
He reached out and pulled the quilt up, covering her up properly, hiding the tempting sight she had unintentionally revealed.
He pulled it all the way up to her chin, wrapping her completely tight. Only her small, pretty face was left exposed above the covers.
In her sleep, Su Qinghe felt too warm. She frowned, grumbled softly, and moved to kick the quilt off again.
Xiao Hanyuan moved faster than thought. Through the blanket, he firmly pressed his hand down on her leg to hold her still.
“Behave yourself,” he said, his voice low and husky.
Su Qinghe turned over once more, buried her face deep into the pillow, and finally settled down.
Xiao Hanyuan let out a long breath, though fine beads of sweat had already formed across his forehead.
He could not stay inside this room a moment longer.
He swung his legs over the side of the bed, stood up silently, and walked to the window, pushing it open just a crack.
The night breeze rushed in, carrying a coolness that helped dispel the heat raging through his body.
He glanced back once at the small woman sleeping soundly on the bed. Slowly, his expression hardened and turned cold.
There were scores to settle. And it was time to collect.
He grabbed his outer robe, threw it over his shoulders, and stepped out into the night.
The courtyard was dead silent. Dark clouds had swallowed most of the moon’s light.
Xiao Hanyuan pushed off lightly with his toes. His tall, powerful figure rose up and vanished instantly into the vast darkness.
Li Ergou lived at the far end of the village, in a run-down cluster of mud-brick houses, half-collapsed, surrounded by crumbling walls.
It was the dead of night. Even the village dogs were fast asleep.
Only from Li Ergou’s courtyard came the soft, splashing sound of running water.
Li Ergou had been forced to swallow bucketfuls of dirty water earlier that day. He had vomited until he felt his gall bladder would burst, and his stomach still felt terrible. Now he stood leaning against the wall, wrapped in a tattered jacket, relieving himself.
As he did, he muttered curses under his breath.
“That little witch… daring to pour dirty water down my throat… Just you wait until I recover. I will find a chance, and then I will show her a thing or two…”
He shook himself, a lewd, evil grin spreading across his face. “Look at that figure… oh, she has quite a body on her… absolutely mouth-watering…”
Before he could finish his sentence—
Whoosh!
A sharp sound pierced the air.
Xiao Hanyuan stood perched high on the branches of a distant tree. With a flick of his fingers, he sent a small stone flying. His dark eyes gleamed with cold, ruthless ferocity in the night.
The stone shot through the air with tremendous force, faster than lightning.
Crack!
The sound of bone snapping echoed harshly through the silence.
AAHHHH—!!!
Li Ergou’s scream tore through the night sky, shrill and sharp like a rooster being strangled.
He toppled sideways, crashing straight down into the puddle of his own making. He clutched his right leg, rolling frantically in the mud, screaming in agony.
“My leg! My leg is broken! AHHHH, it hurts so bad!”
That single stone had struck with such power that it had shattered his kneecap completely. That leg would never work properly again.
Lights flared up instantly inside the house.
“What is it?! What is happening out there?!”
Li Ergou’s mother, Madam Li, rushed out with her hair wild and unkempt, holding a lit oil lamp high in her hand. “Son! What happened to you?!”
She saw her son writhing and wailing on the ground. Terrified out of her wits, she threw herself down beside him to help.
“Son! What happened to you?! Do not scare your mother like this!”
Li Ergou was soaked in cold sweat from the pain. Pointing shakily toward the darkness, he stammered, “Mother… someone… someone attacked me…”
“Who? Which damned bastard dares to hurt my son?!”
Madam Li held the oil lamp high, glaring fiercely all around her. “Come out and face me! Hiding in the dark and playing tricks—what kind of skill is that?!”
Xiao Hanyuan’s tall figure remained hidden in the shadows. He watched the mother and son with cold, indifferent eyes.
Earlier that day, right in the Su family’s courtyard, this woman had tried to raise her hand and strike Su Qinghe.
That hand of hers was nothing but a source of harm. There was no point in letting it stay unpunished.
He curled his fingers and flicked his wrist again.
Another stone shot out.
This time, the target was not a leg, but those malicious, roving eyes of hers.
Thwack!
The stone buried itself deep into her left eye with perfect precision.
Blood spurted instantly.
“Ah—! My eye! I’ve gone blind!”
The oil lamp fell from Madam Li’s hand and shattered on the ground. She clutched her face and collapsed, wailing even more miserably than her son.
“It hurts! Help me! Someone! Murder!”
Mother and son rolled together in the foul-smelling mud of the yard, screaming and crying at the top of their lungs.
Xiao Hanyuan cast one cold glance at them. Then, pushing off the ground lightly, he used his lightness skill to leap away and vanish.
Meanwhile, at Su Daqiang’s house…
His wife, Madam Wang, had lost one tael of silver and a bracelet earlier that day. She was so distressed over the loss that she hadn’t even eaten dinner. Now she tossed and turned in bed, unable to sleep.
“Quit moving around so much!” Su Daqiang grumbled, kicking her in the leg, clearly irritated. “You’ll have the bed falling apart under us at this rate.”
“I can’t help it! I’m sick with worry!” Madam Wang sat up, beating her chest with her fists, her hair a mess. “That was a whole tael of silver! That ungrateful girl—how could she be so cruel and heartless? We’re her own uncle and aunt, for goodness’ sake!”
“Enough already! This whole mess started because of that stupid idea of yours to go there and try to extort money,” Su Daqiang said, turning his back to her. “Just go to sleep. Tomorrow we’ll figure out another way to get our hands on some cash.”
Madam Wang huffed in frustration. She lay back down but kept muttering bitterly under her breath. “Just wait… sooner or later, I’m going to get every last bit of that girl’s money… every single copper coin…”
High above, perched on the roof…
Xiao Hanyuan carefully lifted one roof tile aside.
In his hand, he held a green bamboo snake he had just caught from the rocky hills behind the village.
It was a highly venomous snake. One bite from it was enough to leave a person crippled, if not dead.
It was the perfect punishment for this greedy, insatiable couple.
He loosened his grip.
The cold, slippery reptile slid down smoothly through the gap between the tiles, landing right in the middle of their warm quilt.
Snakes are naturally drawn to warmth.
As soon as it entered the covers, it wriggled instinctively toward the heat radiating from their bodies.
Madam Wang was drifting off to sleep, half-dreaming, when she suddenly felt something cold and smooth slithering up her calf.
“Daqiang… stop fooling around…” she mumbled sleepily. She thought her husband was being mischievous again and reached out to push his hand away. “It’s so late… and after everything that happened today… you still have the nerve to…”
Her hand touched something cold, scaled, and alive.
And it was coiling tightly around her wrist.
Every hair on Madam Wang’s body stood straight up in terror.
Hissss…
A soft, sharp sound came from right next to her ear.
A split second later, she felt a sharp, piercing pain in her hip.
“AHHHH—!!!”
Madam Wang screamed so loud it nearly blew the roof off the house.
She threw the blanket aside and leaped straight up from the bed.
“A snake! There’s a snake! Inside the bed!”
Su Daqiang was jolted awake, utterly confused. Before he could even understand what was happening, he felt a sharp bite on his inner thigh.
“Holy Mother of God!” he yelped, scrambling frantically backward and falling off the bed. “Where the hell did that come from?!”
The startled snake thrashed wildly on the bed, rearing its head high and flicking its forked tongue.
Madam Wang’s legs turned to jelly. She tried to run but tripped over the tangled bedding, falling face-first right onto her husband below.
“My hip! It bit me on the hip!”
“My leg! My thigh is killing me! Help! Somebody help us!”
Chaos erupted in the room. Furniture overturned, bowls and plates smashed to pieces on the floor.
Xiao Hanyuan carefully replaced the roof tile back into place. Listening to the terrified screams and cries below, a faint, cold smile touched the corner of his lips.
There. That ought to keep those two quiet and out of trouble for a good long while.
Having dealt with them, Xiao Hanyuan turned his course and headed straight for the county yamen in town.
That Constable Zhao… how dare he draw a knife and threaten Su Qinghe earlier that day.
If Xiao Hanyuan hadn’t acted fast enough, that woman’s beautiful face would have been ruined forever.
A man like that had no right to live.
Xiao Hanyuan moved incredibly fast. It took less than a quarter of an hour to reach the town.
It was deep into the night now. Two red lanterns hung at the entrance of the government office, swaying eerily in the wind.
He vaulted easily over the high outer wall and landed silently on the ridge of the roof covering the inner courtyard.
Constable Zhao lived in a side room at the back of the compound.
Xiao Hanyuan was about to make his move when he suddenly noticed the yard below was crawling with people.
Seven or eight armed runners were patrolling with burning torches in hand, looking sharp and alert.
“Stay alert, everyone!” the head runner called out loudly. “Inspections from above have been strict lately. We’ve heard reports of bandits roaming the area. The Magistrate has ordered us to increase security!”
Two armed guards stood right outside Constable Zhao’s door as well.
Xiao Hanyuan frowned slightly.
He had only just dislocated Constable Zhao’s arm earlier that day. Now the whole office was on high alert. If he tried to force his way in and kill the man, he would certainly alert everyone nearby.
He wasn’t afraid of killing, nor did he care about causing trouble for himself.
But he was afraid of bringing trouble down on Su Qinghe.
Right now, his official status was that of a live-in son-in-law of the Su family. If a murder investigation started and led back to the Su household, that woman would surely panic and wail all over again.
*Meow—*
A stray cat darted across the top of the wall, knocking loose a piece of tile that clattered down.
“Who’s there?!”
The guards below drew their swords instantly and looked up in unison toward the roof.
“Go check over there!”
Xiao Hanyuan crouched low, using the shadows of the roof ridge to hide his figure completely.
Fine then.
Today, that corrupt official had gotten lucky.
He’d let the wretch live a few more days. Once things had calmed down and the security tightened was over, he’d come back and take his life.
Xiao Hanyuan did not linger. He turned away and, with a few powerful leaps, disappeared into the night.
By the time he returned to the Su family’s small courtyard, the first light of dawn was already painting the horizon white.
Xiao Hanyuan splashed cold water on his face by the well, washing away the dust and the killing aura clinging to him.
He sniffed his clothes carefully, making sure there was no scent of blood on him. Only then did he push open the door and step inside, moving quietly.
On the bed, Su Qinghe was sleeping soundly.
She was sprawled out wide, occupying most of the bed space. The quilt had long been kicked down to her heels.
Xiao Hanyuan shook his head helplessly.
How could this woman have such terrible sleeping posture?
He took off his outer robe, remaining only in his undergarment, and lay down on the outer edge of the bed.
No sooner had he settled than the warm body beside him automatically pressed close.
Su Qinghe turned over in a half-asleep daze. She threw one leg over his waist, wrapping it tightly around him.