Chapter 273: Treating the Town to a Full Meal

The boy hesitated for a moment before answering, “I know Mr. Hong. He told us not to be afraid.”

“Hong Chenglue?”

“He lives in Yushu Alley. His house is the only one without a blessing charm on the door.”

That piece of information caught He Lingchuan completely off guard. “You mean he already lived in Bailu Town?”

The boy nodded vigorously.

“What does he do?”

“He teaches in the school.” As soon as he got his second candy, he popped it into his mouth and spoke around it. “My dad said we’re too poor. We can’t afford Mr. Hong’s classes.”

A grand general who was famed for bloodshed on the battlefield actually retired to a backwater town and became nothing more than a schoolteacher?

Before He Lingchuan could digest that absurdity, the boy lunged toward Ling Guang to grab a third candy. Stuffing sweets into his mouth too quickly made him hiccup twice in a row.

At that moment, Ling Guang suddenly turned its head.

A man rounded the corner of the alley they were on. When he spotted his son talking to strangers, his face visibly blanched. He rushed forward and snatched the boy into his arms. “What are you doing with my son?!”

“The grain convoy was ambushed. We’re here looking for clues.” He Lingchuan spread his hand open. Resting on his palm was a small ingot of silver. “This is your reward.”

The silver gleamed, and the man’s eyes nearly flashed with desire. However, the greed fled as quickly as it came. He shook his head hard and said, “I heard shouting and killing last night. I hid at home, and I don’t know anything!”

“Oh?” He Lingchuan lifted a brow. “And Hong Chenglue didn’t say anything to you?”

At the sound of that name, the man’s mouth twitched uncontrollably. “No!”

He Lingchuan exhaled slowly, and then he abruptly snatched the child from the man’s arms.

The man yelped, “What are you—”

He never finished the sentence. A faint glint flashed before his eyes, and the silver ingot was stuffed directly into his mouth, cutting him off while he was in the middle of speaking.

The child finally realized something was wrong and was about to cry out. He Lingchuan flicked a finger against his temple, and the boy slumped unconscious at once.

The man barely managed to spit the silver out before He Lingchuan set the child gently on the ground. Then, he pinned the man by the neck with one hand, slamming him against the wall.

“Don’t want the easy way, hm?” He Lingchuan was taller. With one lift, the man’s feet dangled above the ground. “Tell the truth, and you’ll walk away unharmed, and with silver in hand. Lie to me, and both you and your son die. Understand?”

Unable to breathe and unable to break free, the man nodded frantically.

Only then did He Lingchuan release him and ask, “Your son said Hong Chenglue has lived here in Bailu Town for years. When did he move in? What did he do normally? What happened in the past few days? Speak.”

The man clutched his throat, coughing several times before he could answer:

“They moved here three years ago—he and his wife. Both of them seemed like good folk. I don’t know what they did before that, but Mr. Hong opened a little school in town. You know how poor we are. We can barely fill our stomachs, so how could we possibly have the money to send kids to study? So his school only ever had one or two pupils. He couldn’t earn much.”

“Mr. Hong also worked at the rice shop at the end of the street. He could carry seven sacks of rice at once! And sometimes he took short-term labor jobs to make ends meet. Recently, as the northern war spread south, two wealthy families in town fled. Mr. Hong lost the last of his students.”

“Wife?” He Lingchuan honed in immediately. “Where is she?”

“His wife’s name is A’Jin. She’s paralyzed. The first year they came, she could still stand by the wall for a few steps. Later, she couldn’t get out of bed at all. Mr. Hong always bought medicine for her. Their house smelled like herbs every day.”

“How did she become paralyzed?”

“I heard she had a difficult childbirth. The baby died, and she... broke.”

“If he were a teacher, why become a bandit?”

“I wouldn’t know! One day, several constables were found dead in his house, and when the officials came, the couple had already vanished. The authorities searched everywhere, but no one knew a thing.”

He Lingchuan tossed him another silver ingot. The first one—after being spat out—had been secretly pocketed. And if one was willing to take one, one would take two.

As expected, the man’s tongue loosened. “But I just remembered something: before Mr. Hong disappeared, the patrol officer had just executed Liu Yalin and two others for stealing military grain. That boy used to be Mr. Hong’s student, at least he studied with him for half a year.”

“Stealing grain?” Something clicked in He Lingchuan’s mind.

Right, a grain convoy passed Bailu Town just days earlier.

“How is that crime handled?”

“They were executed on the spot. There wasn’t even a need to report.” The man shuddered. “I heard beheading was enough, but the patrol officer had the executioner chop off Liu Yalin’s limbs first before taking his head.”

He Lingchuan’s eyes moved. “Where is this patrol officer?”

“I-I don’t know.” Nor did he want to know. Better that the man never returned.

He left the second half unsaid, but his eyes spoke clearly.

“When Hong Chenglue returned afterward with his men and killed the soldiers and stole the grain, he didn’t speak to any of you?”

“No—” His instinct was to deny everything, but when he met He Lingchuan’s suddenly sharp gaze—sharp enough to stab through flesh—his heart froze, and his words tripped over themselves. “Y-Yes, when they killed the soldiers, we couldn’t do anything. We just hid. After the noise stopped, the Xun Province soldiers dragged us all out to gather. We saw M-Mr. Hong and were shocked, but he told us not to panic. They would leave soon and wouldn’t hurt us.”

“And that’s it?” He Lingchuan chuckled. Even this trimmed-down version already sounded wrong. “If they wanted to leave, they could just leave. Why bother gathering you first?”

“T-They... they killed some people in town. Two wealthy households on the east side, both surnamed Liu. One ran the grain-and-oil business here, the other owned the pawnshop. Mr. Hong said those families colluded with the officials and preyed on the locals, so he punished them for us.”

“They were actually so good to you?”

Funny, when this man tells the truth, he speaks fluently, but when he lies, he trips over every word.

“Mr. Hong said... since he was from our town... he owed us that much.”

At that moment, two figures appeared at the entrance ot the alley. It was Mao Tao and Shan Youjun.

Mao Tao reported, “I questioned the steamed bun shop. The dough boy pretended not to know anything. Later, I gave him a little pain, and he confessed. Hong Chenglue killed the soldiers last night, then gave the townsfolk some grain. I knew something was off. He was wearing rags that could blow away in the wind, but there were two whole bags of good grain under his counter!”

Shan Youjun added, “The Xun Province troops gathered the townsfolk at the clearing by the town entrance. I went there and saw fire pits made from stacked stones, unburnt branches, and bits of charcoal.”

“Bags of good grain?” He Lingchuan turned to the villager. “Did Hong Chenglue feed all of you?”

“N-No! They cooked, they cooked for themselves! It had nothing to do with us!”

All this time, Ling Guang had perched silently on He Lingchuan’s shoulder. Now it spoke. “That child earlier, when he hiccuped, I smelled sour and gamey odors. His belly was slightly swollen. It’s likely that he hadn’t eaten meat for a long time, then suddenly ingested a large amount, especially fatty meat, causing digestive stagnation.”

“A large amount of meat?” He Lingchuan glanced at the unconscious child. A disturbing possibility surfaced.

Could it be...

“You said Hong Chenglue and the Xun Province soldiers dragged the two Liu families to the clearing and executed them, then what?” He Lingchuan stared him down. “Where are their corpses?”

The villager’s face drained of blood. He opened and closed his mouth, unable to speak.

Shan Youjun seized him by the collar, a dagger appearing in his other hand. Now, a blade was pointed right at the man’s eye. “What did you all use as your midnight meal? Speak!”

“We, we were forced! They said the Liu Family had fed on the townsfolk for years, so now they should become our food!” He sobbed. “So they—they forced everyone to eat!”

“How could I dare?” The man burst into tears. “I only took one tiny bite and vomited afterward!”

However, when his ignorant and starving child caught the smell of meat, the boy gobbled it down eagerly. The Xun Province soldiers were cruel; the moment the boy showed interest, they shoved food at him.

He Lingchuan looked at the trembling man. “Both Liu Families had grievances with Hong Chenglue?”

“M-Maybe. The pawnshop always offered low prices. Even when people scraped enough money to redeem their things, sometimes they still wouldn’t return them. And they did many terrible things... They weren’t good people.”

“It seems that Hong Chenglue suffered plenty under them as well.” He Lingchuan frowned. “But why would someone like him endure humiliation here for so many years?”

The absurdity was glaring. It was like imagining himself, a dignified transmigrator, stooping to become a servant in Liu Baobao’s merchant household for years. It just sounded absurd.

“I-I don’t know.”

Shan Youjun released him. He Lingchuan tossed another piece of silver. “Keep your mouth shut, at least until we leave town.”

The four of them then hurried toward Hong Chenglue’s residence.

Along the way, everything they saw was bleak. Most villagers were gaunt, their faces were sallow, and their expressions cold. Even toward Xia Province officers like He Lingchuan, they barely hid their distrust and dislike.

This place had been in poverty long before the Xun Province soldiers ever arrived.

Passing through the town entrance, He Lingchuan found the traces Shan Youjun had described: stacked stones forming makeshift stoves, scorched wood, and ashes. Nearby stood a wooden platform raised on a frame.

Darkened blood stained the cracks between the planks. Though it had long dried, his sharp nose still caught the metallic scent of blood.

A place and a platform like this were clearly used for public executions.

He Lingchuan suddenly remembered that Hong Chenglue’s student had been beheaded here for stealing military grain. And just days later, the teacher himself attacked a grain convoy—not to steal, but to rob openly and brazenly.

Why did Hong Chenglue distribute grain to the townsfolk?

Was he trying to win them over? But was there also a touch of pity? After all, he lived here and suffered the same hardships.

And then forcing the townsfolk to eat the meat of the Liu Families... Was he venting for himself? Or venting for them?

He Lingchuan mulled over these questions until they reached the house.

The alley’s ground was uneven, the walls mottled with mold and moss. The alley was not long, but it fit more than ten cramped households.

“This should be the one.”

The door creaked as He Lingchuan pushed it open. Inside lay a tiny courtyard and two low rooms.

The entire property was only slightly larger than the wood house he occupied in Panlong City, maybe eleven or twelve square meters of yard. Broken wooden frames lay toppled about, two empty jars cluttered a corner, and dark stains of blood spotted the ground.

They looked through the house. With four grown men in such a small space, they nearly bumped into each other every few steps.

Mao Tao let out a sigh. “Mr. Hong was really poor.”

A grand general of Beijia was reduced to what one could only call abject poverty.

The bedroom consisted only of a bed and a low cabinet.

Shan Youjun, after checking the kitchen, said, “It’s completely empty. Even the bowls and pots are gone, but the stove still bears the marks of constant use. That’s not normal.”