614 Brother Jiu’s Means
Yan Jiuchao meant what he said. Even though the woman’s head was bleeding, he still demanded one hand.
Hu’zi’s father’s hand.
Hu’zi’s father had been hiding in the crowd with his tail between his legs. He did not look at his son or his wife. He did not know how the other party recognized him as Hu’zi’s father.
Yan Jiuchao did not like blood.
Shadow Thirteen pulled him to the backyard to chop his hand off.
It was not unjust to chop him up. He had pushed his son and wife out to work while he hid in the house and counted his money. When something happened, he wished he could clear himself of the blame on the spot. It was already a blessing to chop off one of such a vicious and irresponsible man’s hands.
Hu’zi’s father’s scream echoed throughout the house.
Everyone, who were originally only 70% afraid, fell to the ground in fear. The timid ones peed their pants. The woman fainted on the spot. Hu’zi and his companions were so frightened that they didn’t even dare to cry. For the rest of his life, this scene would become the greatest trauma in his life.
But did Yan Jiuchao sympathize with him?
No.
If his son had not been raised well by the elders in the family, the one who would have been traumatized would have been his son.
He, Yan Jiuchao, had never been a good person.
Shadow Thirteen put the unconscious Hu’zi’s father into a sack and dragged him out of the backyard. Along with the sack was a heavy wooden box. Everyone knew what was in the box. And it was precisely because they knew it that they shivered even more.
Shadow Thirteen threw the sack and wooden box out of the door like a rotten cabbage.
What did he mean by not taking human lives seriously? This was it!
Compared to this, smashing a few rotten eggs and beating up a maidservant was nothing.
Everyone finally realized what kind of devil they had provoked. If they had known earlier, they wouldn’t have earned that sum of money no matter what. However, there was no way out now.
“Young Master, please spare our lives! Young Master, please spare our lives! We didn’t do it on purpose! We didn’t mean it!”
“That’s right, Young Master! We had no choice! Someone asked us to do this!”
“Young Master, please spare us this time on account that we have elders and children!”
“Young Master, please spare us! We won’t dare to do it again!”
“We didn’t touch the little masters! It was Hu’zi! It was them! They did it!”
“What nonsense are you talking about? We clearly did it together, so why are you pushing the blame to us? Zhang! Aren’t you the one who received money and asked us to do big things with you!”
“Did… did I let you bully the little masters? I-I-I… I… I only let you hit that maidservant!”
“You clearly said to smash the little masters to death!”
This group of people began to fight among themselves.
Yan Jiuchao, Shadow Thirteen, and the other three watched coldly.
In the blink of an eye, the group of people who were colluding with each other earlier were frightened into a state of disunity. It could be seen that not everyone had backbone.
Just as the group of people was getting more and more noisy and was about to fight, Yan Jiuchao raised his finger indifferently.
Shadow Thirteen said coldly, “Shut up!”
Everyone shut up.
Yan Jiuchao slowly paced a few steps and said, “Who instructed you? I’ll release whoever tells me his appearance and identity first.”
The tragedy of Hu’zi’s father had long frightened this group of people out of their wits. They could finally tell that even the people who threatened them back then were not as ruthless as this young master. This young master looked young, handsome, and harmless, but his heart was black!
He wasn’t a young master, he was a lunatic!!!
“I’ll talk! I’ll talk!” The leader, the burly man, crawled out on his knees.
“Move aside! I’ll speak!” A beggar in his early fifties squeezed him to the side. He was the one surnamed Zhang. He had been begging for many years in this area and had established his own small gang. His brothers in the underworld called him Sect Master Zhang.
Sect Master Zhang was a small local tyrant. Any faction with a little power could crush him until there was nothing left. Because of this, he knew better than anyone that fortune came from danger. However, he had made a mistake. He thought that the Queen Manor was the final orthodoxy, and the Helian Manor would sooner or later become a stepping stone for the Queen Manor.
In the end, he did not know if the Helian Manor would fall, but he knew that he was about to die.
“Young Master, please have mercy and let me go. I know everything! I’ll say everything!” Sect Master Zhang kowtowed repeatedly, a bloody hole in his forehead.
Shadow Thirteen looked at Yan Jiuchao.
Yan Jiuchao nodded indifferently.
Shadow Thirteen walked up to him and said, “Who instructed you? What did the person who instructed you say?”
“It’s a young man, about the same age as this young hero. He’s half a head shorter than this young hero. He has a square face, slanted eyebrows, and a mole on his chin.” Sect Master Zhang carefully recalled the other party’s appearance, not daring to miss a single detail.
As he spoke, Qing Yan took out a brush and ink and drew the person’s appearance.
Sect Master Zhang continued, “He didn’t say who he was. He just asked me to do something for the Queen.”
“The Queen?” Shadow Thirteen said in a deep voice.
Sect Master Zhang hurriedly changed his words. “Princess!”
“Continue!” Shadow Thirteen berated.
“Yes, yes, yes!” Sect Master Zhang wiped his cold sweat. “I asked him, what is it? He asked me to guard that alley and said that if I discovered the little masters of the Helian family passing by, I would smash them with something and call them jinxes. Tell them to get out of Nanzhao. It would be best if I could anger the people of the Helian Manor to make a move and then accuse them of killing the innocent! He gave me five thousand taels of silver and said that this was only a deposit. After the matter was done, he would pay me another ten thousand taels. I… I… I’ve never seen so much silver. When I saw so much money… I… I was confused. Young Master, please spare me!”
Fifteen thousand. The Queen Manor was really stingy. They wanted to drag the Helian Manor down with them with so little money.
On the other side, Qing Yan’s portrait was completed. He handed it to Yan Jiuchao. “Look.”
Yan Jiuchao did not see anything, but Jiang Hai felt that it looked familiar. Jiang Hai frowned. “Isn’t this a disciple of the State Preceptor Hall? He’s guarding the pill room.”
Qing Yan had some impression of him. They had been hiding in the State Preceptor Hall for a period of time and had seen many disciples, including the one in the portrait. Qing Yan gritted his teeth and said, “It’s the people from the State Preceptor Hall. They’re indeed jackals of the same tribe!”
Why was the State Preceptor Hall involved? Sect Master Zhang did not understand, but a small fry like him did not need to understand. He looked at the cold-faced masters and mustered his courage to ask, “I… I… I’ve confessed everything I know… Can… Can you let me go?”
Qing Yan and the other three looked at Yan Jiuchao.
Yan Jiuchao glanced at everyone.
No one understood what this young master wanted to do. Was he going to chop off someone’s hand again? All of them were so frightened that they shivered.
“Do you want to live?” Yan Jiuchao asked.
“Yes!”
“Even in my dreams!”
“Young Master, please spare my life!”
Everyone kowtowed on the ground again.
Yan Jiuchao said indifferently, “Do as I say if you want.”
Sect Master Zhang asked, “What do you need us to do, Young Master?”
Yan Jiuchao said, “Continue spreading the news that the Helian Manor allowed a servant to commit murder and protected the Eldest Princess, unwilling to expel this jinx from the family.”
Everyone was stunned. Wasn’t he from the Helian family? Why did he hire someone to slander his family? Was he stupid?
Shadow Thirteen was also puzzled as to why Young Master did this, but he believed that Young Master would not harm the Helian family. He must have his own reasons.
He said, “Just do as he tells you! If there are still people in the Capital who don’t know about the Helian Manor’s servants committing murder and protecting the Eldest Princess in a few days, I’ll capture all of you and kill you one by one!”
Sect Master Zhang hurriedly agreed. “Yes, yes, yes! I’ll inform my brothers now. In less than three days, I’ll definitely let the entire Capital know about these two things!”
This was originally what the disciple of the State Preceptor Hall had asked them to do. They had already done half of it. Now, they were only doing the other half with more vigor. He did not have any other abilities, but he was not bad at spreading rumors.
“Jiuchao, what do you want to do?” After the group of people left the house, Qing Yan said in confusion, “Shouldn’t we let them turn around their words and tell the truth to clear the Helian Manor’s name? At the same time, expose the scheme of the Queen and the State Preceptor Hall.”
Yan Jiuchao naturally had his own considerations.
They were just a few lowly beggars. It was fine to fan the flames, but as evidence that the Little Princess had colluded with the State Preceptor Hall, it was too useless. At that time, the other party could bite back and say that they had bribed the beggars and deliberately slandered the State Preceptor Hall and the Little Princess’s innocence.
Moreover, it was easy to wash the Helian Manor clean through these people, but the Eldest Princess could not. She was born to be a jinx. Yan Jiuchao either did not make a move or did a splendid job.
Didn’t those people say that the Eldest Princess was a jinx and that the Little Princess was the destined one?
He would let those people see who was the blessing and who was the disaster!
