Chapter 22
The first time I killed a man, I was not yet fifteen.
That day, the sun was blazing. I left the residence and went to a shop in the west of the city to buy freshly baked cured meat pastries for Zhang Mi.
It was a newly opened shop, and their cured meat pastries were exceptional. I queued for a long time.
The pastry shop was next to a tea stall.
While I was waiting in line, my sharp ears caught the conversation of a constable drinking tea not far away, bragging to someone.
He said he had served in the army.
The Guodao Army from the Jiangxi uprising, he had followed the Loyal and Brave Marquis to pledge allegiance to the current Emperor. Unfortunately, he was later wounded and now had become the lowest-ranking constable, only able to guard a gate on the outskirts of the Capital.
He wore a half-worn uniform, his face darkened by years of wind and sun.
His companion accused him of boasting, and he slapped the table, spittle flying-
“You still don’t believe me? Back then, our unit was formidable. On our way to the Capital, we passed through Kaizhou. Bandits caused chaos and killed many townsfolk, but it was us who drove them out, confiscated grain and money for military supplies…”
The victors can always rewrite the story as they please.
If you were in Kaizhou today and grabbed any child to ask if they knew Qingshi Town, they’d ask you, ‘Is it the Qingshi Town that was plundered by the Guodao Army?’
Yet outside Kaizhou, everyone knows it was the bandits, and the Guodao Army were righteous soldiers who drove them away. Rumors and hearsay are not to be trusted.
We grow up on this land, such insignificant beings, so small that even when the fog thickens, we struggle with all our might but cannot escape.
The truth is buried in the mist, and when the sun rises high, it will dissipate along with the fog.
The Guodao Army was stamped with the authority of Prince Ping of Yanshan Prefecture, and the Loyal and Brave Marquis was personally granted his title by the Emperor.
So we are labeled as troublemakers.
I followed that constable from the tea stall to the city’s outer gate, watched them guard the gate, and observed the common folk coming and going.
Sitting on the street beside me was a little beggar, wounded, filthy, and stinking, maggots crawling in the rotting flesh of his wounds, gnawing out a gash.
He curled up motionless at the base of the wall.
I reached out to check if he was breathing, then placed the cured meat pastry I’d bought beside him.
Later, night fell. The constable guarding the gate called his companions to drink and make merry, and only staggered home drunk late at night.
I followed him all the way, found an opportunity to knock him out, and pushed him off the bridge.
He drowned in Longcang Pu. Others would only say he drank too much and accidentally fell in.
When I turned back, the little beggar who had eaten my cured meat pastry was silently watching me in the deserted night.
The second person I killed was a Tunbing Xiaowei.
Commander of Shanglin Yuan in the Capital, a widower.
When I poisoned him, he still mistakenly thought I was a matchmaker’s candidate for his remarriage.
Wei Donghe came to the Capital to find me, already a cripple.
He arrived neither too early nor too late.
After I killed the Tunbing Xiaowei, as I gained more and more knowledge of the situation in the Capital, he and Gouer became my most valuable assistants.
Now, four years have passed.
Heir Jiang has disappeared, and the prologue begins anew.
He is the only son of Loyal and Brave Marquis Jiang Wenlu.
I know that no one can win forever, and I am prepared to be killed in return.
Before that happens, I must take Jiang Wenlu’s head, so I can die without regret.