Chapter 1126 – In the Four Seas of Jiuzhou, I Demand a Hundred Percent (Twenty-Five)
Qin Gong certainly wouldn’t let Xu Yansiao get her hands dirty; would he let these thugs disgust her a second time?
This task was left to the soldiers.
Peeling the scalp off a dead body is one thing—after all, the corpse isn’t going anywhere. But peeling the scalp off a living person while also performing castration? Now that’s a thrill!
Coincidentally, the soldier assigned to the task was a butcher before enlisting, and he had some serious skills in skinning pigs.
The thugs were already scared stiff, begging for mercy with their mouths. When pleading fell on deaf ears, they resorted to hurling every insult under the sun.
Qin Gong was worried they might say something even worse, so he had them gagged.
The soldier with the knife glanced at Qin Gong, then at the bound-up “pigs” tied to the post to prevent any struggle.
“Tsk,” he clicked his tongue and wondered where to start.
“Should we shave their heads first?”
He quietly asked his assistant, who pondered for a moment and wrinkled his nose in disdain.
“Just dive right in! Who knows when these guys last bathed? The dandruff and grease in their hair could fry up a whole meal!”
“Alright, find a straw rope to tie up the hair; it’s hard to grab them with all this fluff.”
His fingers deftly traced the hairline with the blade, revealing a bloody “chain.” Peeling someone’s scalp was indeed brutal, so Qin Gong had them do it in a farmer’s courtyard. Aside from the working soldier and his assistant, only Xu Yansiao and he remained.
“If you find this disgusting, feel free to step outside and catch your breath. I’ll keep an eye on things for you.”
Xu Yansiao’s youthful face flashed a strong determination as she silently declined Qin Gong’s kind offer.
“No need; I want to see this with my own eyes.”
As the thug succumbed to the pain and passed out, it made the soldier’s job easier.
At first, he was a bit clumsy, but halfway through, he clearly found his groove, and soon enough, he stripped the scalp off.
When the bloody scalp and hair were placed on a plate and handed to Xu Yansiao, she suddenly broke down into an almost mad laughter.
The soldier looked to Qin Gong for guidance.
With the scalp done, was there really still the need for castration?
Qin Gong cradled the out-of-control Xu Yansiao and responded with a look.
“Castrate!”
The soldier felt a chill run down his legs; asking a butcher to castrate a man? That was oddly unsettling.
He had experience with skinning, sure, but castration? That was a different story altogether.
He wasn’t a professional!
Remembering the thugs’ vile deeds, the soldier felt no pangs of sympathy.
After all, it was a dying man; any meat cut wouldn’t matter, so he could disregard everything else.
Suppressing his nausea, he pinched the filthy underbelly of the thug with one hand and wielded the large knife with the other, slicing at the base.
The thug, who had previously passed out from the pain, screamed back into consciousness, howling before fainting again from the agony.
“Ptooey—”
Caught off guard, he was sprayed all over, and the soldier disgustedly tossed the contents onto the plate.
Was he supposed to show this to Captain Qin too?
The soldier looked at Qin Gong, who glanced at him, then at the meat lying limply in his plate, unable to suppress his own wave of nausea.
“Take it away and feed it to the dogs—”
Feeling sorry for the village’s free-roaming wild dogs, the soldier couldn’t help but think they might turn their noses up at such filthy meat.
One thug skinned, but there were still thirty or forty more to go.
Qin Gong wouldn’t let Xu Yansiao watch each one of them; one fright after another? Was she stupid?
“I promise you, each one will meet the same fate. Please, Lady Xu, take care of yourself and don’t hurt yourself with unnecessary excitement.”
Xu Yansiao remained unmoved, so Qin Gong brought up her mother.
“The affairs of the mistress still require Lady Xu’s leadership. Can you bear to see her end poorly?”
This line was learned from Cheng Yuan; while it did have shades of plagiarism, it worked.
For Xu Yansiao, being the main wife was her Achilles’ heel.
Having talked Xu Yansiao out of the scene, the soldier with the knife silently looked at Qin Gong, eyes questioning—
“Continue or not?”
Qin Gong gritted his teeth, “Continue; do what you can. If we run out of time, remember to dispose of them so they don’t waste away alive.”
With tens of thousands of troops stationed here, it was like a moving landmark.
Xu Pei’s pursuing soldiers weren’t blind, and they would definitely spot them.
If necessary, they might even need to carry out a strategic retreat; they were pressed for time.
The soldier nodded, “Understood.”
Aside from Xu Yansiao, Xu Fei’s concubines had also survived, all in a pitiful state.
Qin Gong had no fondness for them.
Moreover, as an outsider, he needed to maintain his distance from his old master’s women.
“Captain Qin, the military adviser sent me to report; we’ve found the offspring of Duke Wen.”
They found the people, but sadly, not the living ones.
Xu Fei had three sons and three daughters.
The eldest son was already nine, while the youngest one had yet to wean.
The thugs had attempted something unspeakable with Xu Fei’s concubines in the wagon, and the children cried incessantly, inciting the thugs’ wrath.
The nine-year-old was beaten severely, his sternum shattered and puncturing his organs.
The youngest was directly thrown to his death, found in a twisted position.
The middle child was tossed off the carriage, crushed by the wheels.
All three of the bastard sons were dead.
The two remaining daughters, aside from Xu Yansiao, were also on the brink of death, having been violated by the thugs on the wagon, nearly losing their lives from the severe beating. The two children didn’t even wait for a military doctor; their breaths faded away, faces turning pale and lifeless.
Yang Si looked at the two young girls, lost in silence for a moment.
Although the female soldiers had tidied them up, their bruised and distorted faces struck him hard.
Images flitted before him, and after a long pause, Yang Si finally said, “Prepare two coffins for them.”
Killing Xu Fei was within the realm of his and the lord’s expectations, but—
Yang Si halted his dangerous thoughts, stood up, and stepped into the farmer’s courtyard.
The soldiers were still laboring away.
As the saying goes, “Practice makes perfect,” their efficiency had vastly improved from earlier.
“Military adviser!”
Yang Si smiled and said, “You keep at it; I’ll just watch.”
The soldier nodded, dazed.
Just as Qin Gong had anticipated, Xu Pei’s chase crew discovered the scene, but they didn’t dare act hastily; instead, they relayed the news back to the camp.
Upon hearing this, Xu Pei became restless.
“So, you mean, Qin Gong has already saved Xu Fei?”
The thought made Xu Pei’s stomach churn.
In such dire straits, Xu Fei could still manage to pull through, snagging Jiang Pengji’s boat? Was he sincerely looking to make things difficult?
“The specific details are unclear.”
They merely found traces of Qin Gong’s troops but weren’t sure if Xu Fei had been rescued.
Xu Pei felt a headache coming on, resting his forehead in his hand as his officers exchanged glances.
One suggested, “Why don’t we send a messenger to probe the waters?”
A little probing would clarify whether Xu Fei had been saved or not.
Just as they were discussing, hurried footsteps sounded outside.
Not only were there clattering armors, but the rustling of clothes brushed against the movement.
“Lord, Military Adviser Han seeks an audience.”
Xu Pei’s eyes lit up, and he quickly replied, “Quickly, invite Wenbin in.”
Realizing something was amiss, Han Yu rushed to the front lines without pause.
Unfortunately, reality turned out to be worse than expected.
