Chapter 232 – Spitting Blood (1)
In the grand livestream room, talent was abundant.
For the first time, Jiang Pengji felt that the audience wasn’t just there to watch the show—they were surprisingly skilled at cursing!
Qi Guanrang watched in shock, not expecting the elegant scion of a noble family to unleash such profanity.
Still… he found it rather refreshing. Who would have thought, Liu Xi, you’d turn out to be such a noble young master?
Qi Guanrang felt like he had opened the door to a new world; the hundred-man troop echoed a particular phrase, reverberating across the mountains, while the Escort Group Leader felt a sharp pang in his heart and nearly choked.
He glanced around at the corpses strewn about, and his vision darkened. Stumbling, he almost sat down hard on the ground.
The old hunter crawled away stealthily from his hiding spot, too terrified to look back. His clothes were stained with the blood of many soldiers, his hands sticky and warm, sending chills down his spine. Pale as paper, he scuttled away on all fours.
Even though the bounty for guiding the way was tempting, it couldn’t compare to his own life!
Having money without a life to spend it was pointless; he swore never to take such deadly jobs again.
The Escort Group Leader also valued his life. Staying outside was much riskier than in the Bandit Stronghold, at least there were buildings and cover there to protect him from terrible hidden arrows… Yet, when he and his subordinates abandoned the battlefield of corpses and entered the brightly lit bandit camp, everyone was horrified by the bloody scene inside… the number of bodies was several times greater than outside, each one pierced by multiple random arrows.
Some corpses bore fatal wounds that weren’t from arrows; they must have been finished off afterward, having their lives snuffed out.
The Escort Group Leader, who usually didn’t care much about lives lost, was now shaking in fear, unable to utter a word.
“L-Leader… that… that seems to be the Second Young Master…”
A terrified junior soldier, shaking like a leaf, pointed with trembling fingers at a body exuding a strange, bluish-black aura.
What?
The Escort Group Leader suddenly snapped to attention and rushed over to the corpse in three quick steps.
The corpse was very cold, even hardening, giving off a slight stench of decay, but the face was still recognizable.
At that moment, he realized what Meng Hunyun’s gang meant when they shouted about “descendants paying money and still losing grain”… Meng Liang had actually met his end long ago. Touching the corpse’s chilly surface was like feeling meat taken from an ice cellar, his heart sank into despair…
Just by looking at the state of the body, he could guess that Meng Liang hadn’t been killed in the last few days.
It was highly likely… highly likely that he had already fallen victim to foul play when Meng Hunyun had captured him!
With that thought, the Escort Group Leader’s mind went blank from fear; a sharp pain hit his heart, and he nearly forced himself to swallow back a mouthful of blood. But the shocking revelations weren’t over yet. “Leader… the grain is gone too…”
The bandit camp was utterly empty—where were the mountains of grain bags?
Hearing that, the Escort Group Leader couldn’t hold back any longer and spat a mouthful of blood, his eyelids rolling back as he fainted.
How could he not be furious to the point of spitting blood?
How could he not be enraged enough to lose consciousness?
Meng Liang had already been killed, but Meng Hunyun was still creating the illusion that Meng Liang was alive, fooling the Meng Clan into providing food while humiliating them with those scornful taunts, shouting them out loud enough for the hills and fields to tremble, as if worried someone wouldn’t know he had killed Meng Liang and ripped off the Meng Clan’s supplies.
Meng Liang had ruined his wife and daughter; now, he’d taken his revenge by killing Meng Liang and stealing three thousand stone of grain, making the Meng Clan believe they had something to be proud of, while he watched them like a monkey show… One could only imagine how much he’d been secretly mocking the Meng Clan for being as foolish as pigs!
Truly, they lost a son and food in one fell swoop!
“I’ve been feeling so suffocated until now, but isn’t this exhilarating?”
On the other hand, Jiang Pengji was feeling on top of the world.
“How could it not be exhilarating?” Meng Hunyun exclaimed, his hands trembling with excitement, as he dropped to his knees with a thud, humbly bowing his sturdy frame. “From now on, my life is yours, Young Master. Your kindness is akin to giving me life anew. In this life and beyond, I wish only to serve you, risking it all, even if it costs my life. One word from you, and I’ll do it without a second thought!”
Jiang Pengji restrained her smile, not immediately helping him up, but instead said meaningfully, “Remember your vow from today, no matter what changes may come, I hope your loyalty remains.”
Though having a male identity was beneficial, Jiang Pengji didn’t like always keeping things hidden.
One day, she would plainly tell the world—Liu Xi is indeed a proper woman, not the eldest son of the Liu Clan.
Society treats men and women entirely differently; the same actions could earn a man respect while a woman faced scorn, the likes of which might be labeled as “a hen crowing at dawn”… Jiang Pengji was curious: if Meng Hunyun knew she was a woman, would he still remain loyal?
Meng Hunyun resolutely declared, “If I betray this oath, may the heavens strike me down with five bolts of lightning!”
“Get up; the ground is rather cold.”
Jiang Pengji smiled and reached out to help Meng Hunyun to his feet.
“Exhilarating as it is, have you thought about how to handle the aftermath?”
Beside them, Qi Guanrang poured cold water on their enthusiasm.
“If I dared to do this, I’ve surely considered my escape route. I’ll leave a portion of troops at the farm, and the rest will disguise themselves as bandits, cleansing the bandit camp secretly and recruiting useful bandits to expand our troop size,” Jiang Pengji stated calmly, “There are many bandits in the mountains of Hejian; the government can’t do anything about them. With this identity as a disguise, hiding will become much easier.”
“The Meng Clan might send troops for revenge…” Qi Guanrang began, then suddenly stopped.
All the blame had already been pinned on ‘Meng Hunyun’; if the Meng Clan sought revenge, they would dig deep to find him, not trouble the Hejian bandits—no one had the goodwill to travel so far for that, increasing the Hejian County Guard’s achievements.
“Tsk tsk, let them take revenge; no idiot would stay put after stirring up a mess,” Jiang Pengji said nonchalantly, “After a couple of days, when the dust settles, I plan to spread word that ‘Meng Hunyun’ is leaving Hejian County to escape elsewhere, diverting the Meng Clan’s eyes. The mess in Cangzhou’s Meng County hasn’t even been dealt with; where would they find enough troops to come here for revenge?”
This was a tumultuous time, and the Meng Clan still had a heap of crap to clean up; how could they afford to seek her out?
In two or three months, she would leave Hejian County. If they managed to track her down, she would concede defeat.
“What about the grain, just leaving it like this?” Qi Guanrang inquired.
“As for the grain, let’s store it in the cellar; I’ll have someone keep an eye on it. The most dangerous place is the safest. Those fools think ‘Meng Hunyun’ took the grain away; who would suspect it just moved from aboveground to underground?”
Jiang Pengji’s gaze was sharp, her words carried a hint of bitterness yet weren’t off-putting.
