Chapter 128

Chapter 128

When the words “rather, nine” left Thirteen’s mouth, Ren Fengjue and Yu Lang exchanged a glance, their expressions turning exceedingly grim.

So this case was far more complicated than they had imagined.

Outside the window, the rain pattered on. Thirteen began to recall the things that had happened at Qiongying Inn over the three years since it opened…

Ge Town was a small town under the jurisdiction of Yan County, and it sat on the necessary route from the northwest regions to Shangjing City.

Because of its terrain and location, many merchants coming from the northwest would choose to spend a night there on their way to the capital.

Though Qiongying Inn was not ideally situated within Ge Town, its business had always been booming.

The place was large and spacious, with plenty of rooms, making it the first choice for many traveling merchants from out of town.

Of course, apart from that, the inn’s success also had much to do with its proprietress, Huang Yuqiong.

It was said that Boss Huang was a young widow. She was not a native of Yan County, but had come here three years ago after her merchant husband died, opening an inn on her own.

She was cheerful by nature and loved to smile. She was charming and lovely, and she took great care with her appearance.

This so-called “care with appearance” did not stop at her own clothing and makeup. Even the entire inn was decorated differently from other places.

She loved flowers. Not only did she plant them in front of the inn and in the rear courtyard, and carve flower names onto the room plaques, she also placed fresh flowers every day on the counter and inside every guest room.

The dining hall on the first floor was kept clean and bright no matter the season. As for the guest rooms, needless to say, even the stables were tidied with no corners cut.

With a reputation like that passed from mouth to mouth, it was only natural that many people came because of what they had heard.

But as time went on, and with more people came more gossip, the story inevitably began to sour.

People started saying she was “flirtatious to the bone,” that she relied on “flaunting her charms” to lure customers in one after another. Some even made veiled jabs about how trouble gathered at a widow’s door.

Yet Huang Yuqiong paid no mind to these rumors when they reached her ears. In her view, as an outsider trying to make a living here, life was already far harder for her than for others. If she still had to take every bit of gossip to heart, would that not simply be making herself miserable?

Whenever Thirteen felt indignant on her behalf, she would take his hand and say, “Let them say a few words if they want. It doesn’t matter. I conduct myself honestly and uprightly. Every coin I earn is clean.”

As she spoke, she would flash Thirteen a brilliant smile, revealing a neat row of pearly teeth.

Thirteen was a beggar Huang Yuqiong had picked up on the road to Ge Town.

At the time, a mad dog had bitten his leg, and he lay on the roadside with only a breath left in him.

Just when he was on the verge of meeting King Yan, Huang Yuqiong saved him. Not only did she spend money to have his leg treated, but after she opened the inn, she also kept him on to work there, giving him food and lodging and paying him generously besides.

Thirteen had once had no name.

Abandoned by his parents since childhood, he had been taken in by an old beggar out of pity.

And so, from the day he was born, he had been a beggar, with no choice but to wander from place to place.

But Huang Yuqiong said, “I was the youngest in my family, ranked twelfth. You’re younger than me, so why don’t we call you Thirteen? From now on, you can be my little brother.”

And Thirteen became his name.

She had truly done as she said, treating him like her own younger brother.

Over those three years, the inn grew better and better, but the rumors also grew more and more numerous.

Sometimes, when Huang Yuqiong walked down the street, people would point and whisper about her for no reason at all.

Thirteen saw it all, heard it all, and remembered it all.

He wanted to quietly vent his anger for the proprietress, so at night he secretly climbed into those people’s courtyards and smashed the newly pasted paper on their windows.

The first few times, he got lucky and was not discovered. Later, someone lay in wait for him. He was beaten, dragged to the government office, and beaten half to death again.

When Huang Yuqiong found out, she spent a large sum of money to redeem him from the town official, yet she did not scold him even once.
She only promised him that once she had earned a little more money, she would close the inn and take him with her to Shangjing.

Shangjing was a big place. If they went there, surely there would not be so much gossip and slander, right?

Surely there would be room for them there.

Thirteen also longed for that day to come.

One evening half a year ago, a trade caravan of nine arrived at Qiongying Inn.

The moment they came in, they announced that they wanted to book out the entire inn.

Fortunately, summer was the slow season. The weather was too hot, so there were not many traveling merchants coming and going.

And so, under the hospitality of the proprietress, Huang Yuqiong, the group checked into the inn.

At first, everything was as usual. But when night fell, the group ordered wine and food and drank heavily in the dining hall on the first floor.

Once the wine had warmed their blood, they began summoning the proprietress again and again, each time with a different excuse.

In the end, they simply tried to drag her into drinking with them.

Huang Yuqiong thought that, as long as she dealt with them perfunctorily as she usually did, they would have their fill of fun and return to their rooms to sleep.

After all, caravans had a hard time traveling all over the country, and most people would not stir up trouble while away from home.

And at first, everything did go as she expected. By nearly the hour of Hai, the group dispersed and went back to their rooms.

However, around midnight, the leader in the Earth-Class Room suddenly called for the proprietress to bring more wine.

At the time, Huang Yuqiong was checking the accounts with the bookkeeper, so she had Thirteen deliver the wine instead. Less than a moment later, the sound of a wine jar shattering against the floor rang out from upstairs.

Then the leader stood at the doorway and began cursing at the top of his lungs.

Huang Yuqiong thought Thirteen must have offended him, so she took another jar of wine upstairs herself, intending to apologize.

But the reason the leader had smashed the wine was actually this-he had called for the proprietress, not a waiter!

Thirteen wanted to argue with him, but the man shoved him hard to the floor.

Huang Yuqiong could only force a smile and personally carry the wine into the room. She also told Thirteen to go to the kitchen and fetch some side dishes.

Though Thirteen was reluctant, he still went. But when he returned, he found the door to the Earth-Class Room tightly shut, with two burly men blocking the entrance and refusing to let him in.

From inside came the proprietress’s cries for help.

At that moment, including Thirteen, there were only two waiters, one bookkeeper, and one cook in the inn.

The bookkeeper was merely a frail scholar, and the cook did not want to invite trouble. As for the other waiter, the instant he saw how tall and fierce the men guarding the door were, fear gripped him. For a while, they all looked at one another, and no one dared go upstairs.

Only Thirteen grabbed a cudgel and rushed up to save her, but one of the burly men stopped him bare-handed.

With his thin, weak body, he was no match for those two at all. Hearing Huang Yuqiong’s cries for help, he went mad with fury and sank his teeth hard into one man’s arm.

The man cried out in pain. Thirteen stomped on his foot as well, and only then did he seize the chance to force his way inside…

But the moment he pushed open the door, all he felt was despair.

The room was full of people.

Aside from the two men guarding the door, the other seven were all inside. They had Huang Yuqiong surrounded in the middle, and Thirteen could only faintly make out a bit of blue…

It was the headscarf Huang Yuqiong used to tie up her hair.

Thirteen screamed hysterically. But just as he threw caution to the wind and was about to charge in, someone outside the door struck him with a club and knocked him unconscious.

When he woke again, it was already the next day.

It was like jolting awake from a nightmare.

But the scene before his eyes told him it had not been a dream at all.

The authorities had come-and they were county yamen constables.

The Earth-Class Room had been sealed off, and the innkeeper had vanished without a trace.

Still dazed and unable to tell reality from illusion, he was seized by the authorities.

The head constable told him that the trade caravan from the night before, all nine of them, were already dead.