The Yamen

Chapter 642: The Yamen

“Looks awful. Nobody died at home, so why are you wearing white?” Yang Xiaohai remembered that in the past, you only wrapped your head in white cloth when someone in the family had died.

“That’s where you’re wrong, little fella. Granny says that as long as you wear this, the Shidu Bodhisattva will protect us. You should wrap one on too.”

“Wrap a white cloth and get a bodhisattva’s protection? If it were really that good, there wouldn’t be any poor people left in the world.” Yang Xiaohai sighed. Sometimes he really didn’t know which of them was the actual adult.

Looking at the five white-wrapped heads in the carriage, Yang Xiaohai spoke up. “Get off. This inn is fine. We’ll stay here tonight and set out at dawn.”

To the left of the carriage was an ordinary inn. The tables and stools looked like they had been coated in a layer of grime, but that was exactly what Yang Xiaohai wanted. Staying somewhere too good was bad—don’t flaunt your wealth.

The five of them sat around an octagonal table. When the one meat, three vegetable dishes were served, Yang Xiaohai and the monkey-children dug in with gusto. The old woman, however, kept sucking on her stone.

“Granny, eat your meal. That thing won’t fill you up,” Zhao Xiumei urged.

“Ah, you go ahead and eat yours. This is something good, it is.”

Zhao Xiumei wanted to say more, but Yang Xiaohai kicked her under the table.

He had seen the old woman casually smash someone’s head in with a stone. He figured that this eating thing was probably some kind of cultivation method, just like Senior Brother Li’s practice.

This kind of private matter was best left unasked. No need to overstep.

Then, Yang Xiaohai changed the subject. “Elder, where are you headed? I don’t know if our paths will still be the same after this.”

“Where am I headed? I was supposed to go here. But after that business is done, where I go next… only the heavens know. We’ll just take it one step at a time.” The old woman scanned the other patrons in the inn as she spoke.

They were still eating when the sound of wailing came from the inn’s entrance.

Everyone looked up. A woman with long hair, wearing a wooden cangue, was being paraded through the streets under the escort of a few constables.

A voice of extreme misery rang out. “Why?! I was violated in broad daylight! Why did that criminal file a counter-suit and accuse me instead! Old Man Heaven, open your eyes!”

As the woman passed by the inn, the waiter, the accountant, and everyone else in the shop all turned their heads away, sighing in despair.

Their angry whispers reached the ears of Yang Xiaohai and his group.

“Ai. How could she win the case? That scoundrel is the County Magistrate’s own son. How many people saw it happen? But who dares say a single word?”

“That fat, greedy official is detestable! Bullying men and women, turning black into white!”

“I heard he’s greased the palms of higher-ups. He’s about to get promoted, so of course, he has to squeeze everything he can out of this post while he still can.”

Hearing this, Yang Xiaohai and the others stopped eating. Their gazes turned, almost in unison, toward the ragged old woman.

The old woman didn’t react. She picked up her chopsticks, clamped a river stone, and shoved it into her mouth. Then she picked up another and did the same.

One after another, until all the stones in the clay pot were in her mouth. Yet her cheeks remained hollow.

“Mm… I’m full. Little one, help me put this pot away.” The old woman stood up, grabbed her staff, and, leaning on it, walked out of the inn.

Yang Xiaohai and Zhao Xiumei exchanged a look. When they heard the sound of blades being drawn and screams from outside, they wiped their mouths and hurried out.

When they emerged, the escorting constables were already lying on the ground. Blood was slowly seeping from their heads, soaking into the earth.

And the old woman was holding the cangued woman’s hand, her neck craned stubbornly forward, marching towards the main gate of the yamen.

This scene on the main street was too eye-catching. Soon, it wasn’t just Yang Xiaohai following; other curious townsfolk were also trailing behind.

Bang! The bolt on the yamen’s main gate was blasted apart by a flying stone. The entire gate, along with its plaque overhead, crashed down.

“Good! Tear it down!”

“So satisfying! Finally, someone’s here to teach them a lesson!”

The huge commotion quickly drew everyone inside the yamen out, but it was futile. One by one, stones smashed into their brains, and in no time, hardly anyone in the yamen was left alive.

Everyone else was killed, leaving only the fat County Magistrate and his equally fat son.

The two knelt on the ground, kowtowing frantically to the old woman, begging for their lives. But this time, the old woman turned around to face the crowd of commoners packed in layers outside the yamen.

“I’m here today. I’m in charge! Anyone with a grievance, now’s your chance for revenge! Anyone with a wrong, now’s the time to right it!”

“Kill the dog official! Kill the dog official!” A very suggestive voice led the charge from within the crowd, and the others, their blood boiling, surged forward with excitement.

Soon, following her orders, they found stones of various sizes and, with shouts of rage, hurled them at the two men.

A stone with a sharp edge flew over, smashing into the Magistrate’s mouth. Before the shattered teeth could hit the ground, another stone struck his forehead, punching a small hole in it.

There was no way a living person could withstand that many stones. Before long, both men were stoned to death.

Watching the two bodies being crushed into pulp by the stones, and seeing the agitated, frenzied crowd around him, Yang Xiaohai’s face turned pale. He swallowed with difficulty. “Killing a county magistrate… that’s a capital crime, isn’t it?”

“Dog official!! I’ll eat your flesh and drink your blood! My daughter was only sixteen!! And you turned her into a human candle!” A one-legged old man with grey hair lunged forward, sinking his few remaining teeth into the corpse with savage desperation.

It was as if this action had given the signal. Anyone in the county who bore a deep grudge against the dog official charged forward, throwing themselves onto the bodies and devouring them ravenously.

Everyone fought and scrambled, as if they were afraid someone else would swallow the flesh down first.

The Magistrate and his son were fat, but even they couldn’t withstand this kind of gnawing. In no time, only two bloody, mangled skeletons were left on the ground, alongside over a hundred “commoners” with red-rimmed eyes and blood-soaked mouths.

“That’s not enough! How much stuff has that dog official stolen from us? We’re taking it all back!” Another voice rang out from the crowd.

“Right! Loot the bastard! The debtor is dead, but the debt remains! He owed us all this!”

“Yeah! And those seven wives of his! Damn it, why does he get seven when I don’t even have one!”

Urged on by the voices, the people trampled over the threshold of the county yamen, swarming inside. They grabbed anything valuable they could see.

Gold and silk stir men’s hearts. When they saw chests of silver being carried out, and even realized that the dog official’s dog bowl was made of gold, everyone’s eyes grew red, their breathing rapid, and they went berserk.

“Aaaaah!” A shrill scream rang out as a woman with a pretty face was dragged out. With hands pulling at her from all sides, she was soon stripped naked and completely swallowed by the mass of men.

The woman whose neck still wore the wooden cangue stood in the main hall, watching it all unfold. She saw the dog official’s wife and daughter suffering a fate worse than her own. But there was no joy on her face. She stood there, listless and lost, as if her soul had left her body.

— Next chapter update at 11:30 PM. (Chapter End)