Chapter 41: Scaling the Wall (2)
The sound of the bell announcing the third watch resounded in the distance.
“Prepare to close the city gate.”
The guard captain, Won Wol (薳越), issued orders to the soldiers.
The steps of the people lined up in front of the city gate began to grow hurried.
Depending on when that city gate closed, some would enter a warm house or inn beyond the gate, while others would be forced to endure the night dew without choice until the start of the Hour of the Rabbit.
A soldier said to Won Wol.
“Captain. How about keeping the gate open just a bit longer today? There are too many people in line. Forcing everyone to spend the night outside the wall is a bit……”
However, Won Wol was firm.
“The gate cannot be moved unless it is by imperial decree. That is the law that has been consistently observed ever since the capital was established in Nanjing.”
He was a man of principle, and the soldiers knew it.
Thus, the soldiers gave up on persuading Won Wol and, instead, carried out the gate inspections even faster to let at least one more person inside the Zhaoguan Pass.
“Now, next. Hmm. Different from the facial description. Do you have a travel pass? I see. Pass.”
“What is this? Ah, silk to be delivered to the Fuchai Pavilion. Enter.”
“Bring the horses this way. There’s nothing hidden inside the cart, right?”
The soldiers proceeded with the inspections quickly, taking the circumstances of the people in line into consideration.
Right at that moment.
A cart pulled by a single horse stopped before the gate of the Zhaoguan Pass.
Hay was piled high atop the cart.
The soldiers asked.
“What is this cart?”
“It is cattle fodder. As you can see, it is only hay.”
“Is that so?”
The soldier checked the coachman’s travel pass and compared it with the facial description on the wanted poster.
The Death Plum Blossom shown in the wanted poster was a tall and very handsome man, but the coachman was short, hunchbacked, and his mouth was covered in pockmarks.
“Pass.”
The soldier ordered him to pass as if there was nothing more to see.
At that time.
“Wait a moment.”
There were those who stopped the soldier from behind.
They were martial artists of the Mount Hua Sect and the Wudang Sect.
“Since the times are what they are, we will check one more time.”
“We ask for your understanding.”
They cupped their fists to the soldiers and drew their swords.
Thrust- stab-
The martial artists of Mount Hua and Wudang jabbed the haystack with their swords.
At that very moment.
“Gack!?”
A scream erupted from within the haystack.
Instantly, the guards surrounded the cart holding spears.
“Who goes there!”
“Someone is hiding inside the hay!”
“Surround them! Stop them from escaping by all means!”
Eventually, the guards dragged out the two men hiding in the haystack.
“P-please spare us!”
“W-we will hand over everything! Please, just our lives……!”
They were men of average build, and each had hidden a gold toad in his bosom.
Won Wol, the guard captain who had come down to the city gate wondering what was happening, wore an angry expression.
“You are those who came to offer bribes to the Hegemon Society. Since you came for an underhanded business, you must have sneaked in like this. Perhaps you intended to petition them to kill someone?”
As for the two men, they were silent like mutes who had eaten honey.
They merely hung their heads low and shut their eyes tightly.
Won Wol gestured with his chin as if he didn’t want to look.
“How dare you try to enter the Zhaoguan Pass I guard without even a travel pass? Drag them away and throw them in prison!”
The two men were dragged away like dogs by the guards.
Needless to say, the gold toads were confiscated.
The martial artists of Mount Hua and Wudang sighed, half in disappointment and half in relief.
“By the way, I do not know if that Death Plum Blossom fellow will really come this way.”
“Honestly, he is a terrifying villain, so I only hope we do not meet him. However, if we do meet, I will risk my life to destroy that villain.”
With their swords slung at their waists, they stared at the people again.
A boy stood at the gate screening desk last.
The guards checked the boy’s travel pass.
“The name is Dong Go-gong. A physician. The purpose of the visit is…… delivery of aphrodisiacs to the Hegemon Society?”
Guard captain Won Wol personally checked the boy’s travel pass.
The boy’s face and hair were covered in dirt and dust, making it hard to see clearly, but looking at his height and build alone, he was distinctly different from the Death Plum Blossom on the wanted poster.
Won Wol searched the boy’s baggage once.
Everything loaded onto the A-frame carrier was nothing but medicinal herbs.
Since he possessed a travel pass, had nothing unusual in his baggage, and his appearance was different from the wanted poster, there was no reason not to let him pass.
“Pass. Now, close the city gate!”
Won Wol waved to the guards after letting the boy physician inside the Zhaoguan Pass.
Ruuuumble……
The gate closed.
It was an iron fortress that would only open again when the first rooster crowed tomorrow.
* * *
“Where is it…… found it.”
After circling along the inside of the fortress wall, Chui discovered what he was looking for.
It was precisely his Ink Bamboo staff.
Since this staff of the Staff Ghost was long and heavy, it was not suitable for a child to carry around.
Because entering the city gate while carrying such a thing could easily cause misunderstanding, Chui had thrown this staff high over the fortress wall and retrieved it after passing through the gate like this.
The staff, which had flown over the fortress wall, was firmly embedded in the ground nearby, forming a deep depression.
Even if three or four robust men who used decent strength were to try, pulling out this staff firmly embedded in the ground would be difficult.
However.
Pull-
Chui pulled it out all too easily.
Discarding all the medicinal herbs he was carrying on the A-frame carrier, Chui slung the staff diagonally over his shoulder and headed toward the bustling district of Chu River County.
Donghak Road, the county’s bustling street, was noisy with various merchants.
Bear skins and deer skins laid out by beast hunters hung in rows; people coming to buy meat, people coming to buy silk, drunkards, people scooping manure, people applying powder, people performing tricks, coachmen driving carriages, and even young children playing while kicking balls…… indeed, the street was packed to the bursting point.
In the midst of that, Chui encountered a robust man standing by the roadside.
The man was already flushed red from drink, yelling loudly at passersby or vomiting anywhere.
Chui grabbed the drunkard and asked.
“Where is the most expensive courtesan house on Donghak Road?”
“What? This bastarrrd—eh? The blood on your head, punk, huh? The blood hasn’t even dried on this bastard and he is already corrupted…… Ugh! Shit……”
The man pointed his finger repeatedly even while spewing vomit toward Chui’s face.
Chui silently reached out, grabbed the man’s hair firmly, and slapped him across the face.
Slap!
As an impact that seemed to crush his jaw was delivered, a bit of focus returned to the man’s pupils.
“Where is the most expensive courtesan house on Donghak Road?”
“After going straight to the left, turn right again and a three-way intersection will appear. Go straight down the central avenue and keep going until an uphill path appears, turn into the first alley by the dumpling shop with a red sign, and you will find a courtesan house called the ‘Fuchai Pavilion.’”
It was a relief he didn’t have to ask twice.
Slap!
Chui slapped the man’s cheek once more.
“Do not vomit on the street.”
Leaving the fainted man behind, Chui moved his steps.
Soon, as he followed the road as instructed, a large building appeared before his eyes.
On the main gate of the tall, ten-storied pavilion, a signboard reading ‘Fuchai Pavilion’ was visible.
Chui kicked open the main gate and walked inside.
“Alcohol. Meat. Women. Bring them all out.”
At this, a waiter near the entrance stared toward him as if dumbfounded.
Confirming Chui’s shabby attire, the waiter cracked his knuckles along with a sigh.
“A crazy beggar kid is trying to put a messy period on my elegant life. Kid. If you wipe off the footprint on the door and return quietly even now, I will reconsider my plan to beat you to a pulp.”
The waiter waved his hand dismissively toward Chui in a thoroughly elegant tone.
However.
…Crack!
Chui grabbed the waiter’s hand that was fluttering in front of him and squeezed his palm.
“Aaaagh!?”
As the waiter shrieked, wrapping his seemingly breaking fingers with his other hand, Chui spoke a brief word.
“If a customer has placed an order, you should quickly prepare the table. You talk too much.”
Waiters working at high-class courtesan houses sometimes act as if they are superior to the customers.
The waiter, who had met his match while trying to use fancy words for no reason, guided Chui upstairs in a thoroughly intimidated state.
Soon, guided to a spacious room, Chui sat before the liquor table without hesitation.
A courtesan approached and sat beside Chui.
“Brother. Do you have money?”
Toward the courtesan who asked with a bored expression, Chui swept his bangs covering his face backward once.
The courtesan said.
“Brother doesn’t need to have money.”
Before Chui could say anything, the courtesan poured alcohol into his cup.
And clinging tightly to his side, she began to laugh charmingly.
“It’s fine. Money is something that is here one day and gone the next. You can just visit again when you have money later. Just hang out today. The drinks are on me.”
“?”
Since this was a reaction he hadn’t anticipated at all, Chui was slightly taken aback.
At that time.
Rumble-
The paper sliding door opened, and four men with rugged faces entered the room.
“Are you the bastard who beat Hwang Nul earlier?”
It seemed the name of either the drunkard who showed the way earlier or the waiter he met first was Hwang Nul.
Chui drank from his cup and said.
“If you want to get beaten, get out.”
“What? You must mean ‘If you don’t want to get beaten, get out.’ A fool cannot even speak properly.”
“If you want to die, come in.”
“……”
Hearing Chui’s words, the expressions of the four men instantly froze stiff.
As the atmosphere in the room was unusual, the courtesan quickly fled outside.
When Chui stood up slowly, the men charged all at once.
Thud— Crash!
Chui picked up a liquor bottle and smashed the head of the man at the very front.
Afterward, he stabbed the side of the adjacent man with the broken bottleneck to bring him down, and kicked the groin of the man behind him.
It was literally a brawl of street thugs.
“Y-you cowardly……”
The remaining one trembled before trying to flee, but.
…Thud!
When a chopstick thrown by Chui lodged in his thigh, he rolled on the spot and let out a shrill scream.
Right at that moment.
“Hey.”
A low voice was heard from up the stairs.
A man dressed in black clothes was looking down at Chui from the top of the stairs.
“Play a bit quietly, children.”
A scar on his face and a long saber hanging at his waist.
As the scarred man spoke in a low voice, the four men who had been fighting Chui until just now bowed their heads with pale complexions.
However.
“No.”
Chui replied with a calm face.
The scarred man doubted his ears.
“What did you say?”
“I said no. I will play noisily.”
“……”
The scarred man stood in a blank expression for a moment.
And then he let out a small sigh.
“How long has it been since I was provoked like this? It is amusing, but…… I cannot help it today because I have a mission.”
He raised his head toward Chui and continued.
“The Young Master inside dislikes noise. So, even if you dislike it, keep quiet.”
“Tell that Young Master. If it is noisy, he should go play elsewhere.”
“……”
Hearing Chui’s words, veins popped on the scarred man’s forehead.
He pointed at his black clothes.
The character ‘Pae’ (佩) written on his chest was glowing crimson.
“Young Master Do of the Hegemon Society is up here. If you want to die, keep making noise.”
At the scarred man’s words, Chui stroked his chin once.
Hegemon Society (佩刀會).
It was a quite familiar name in many ways.
A water bandit of the Yangtze River Water Bandit Union he had killed once said this:
‘The Hegemon Society told me to pass a word to you. Thank you for your hard work paying the tribute so far, and wherever you are sold now, think of it as your hometown~ and try to live settling down.’
He also recalled the reaction shown by the women of the wave-lantern boat who heard those words.
‘H-how could that be…… We have paid off almost all our debts now……’
‘What do you mean by this? They told me if I worked only until this year, I could go home……’
‘Sell us? U-us? They sold us to you?’
‘M-mother…… I have to go see my mother……’
Chui, recalling his memories of the wave market, nodded his head.
Perhaps getting the Death Plum Blossom through the city gate could become even faster.
Chui said to the scarred man at the top of the stairs.
“I will be quiet.”
“Hmph. So you finally know your place……”
At that moment.
Two awls shot out from Chui’s bosom.
Chui, who leapt up the stairs in the blink of an eye, drove the two awls deep into both ears of the scarred man.
“……! ……! ……!”
The scarred man widened his eyes, not even knowing what had happened.
However, no sound came out.
It was natural, as not only were the awls rammed into both eardrums, but they had also pierced through his skull and stabbed into the brain within.
“Now it is quiet, right?”
Chui continued speaking as he went up to the upper floor where the ‘Young Master’ was playing.
“Soon it will be even quieter.”
Unrivaled Spear Ghost