Truly worthy of someone from the military, she never dragged her feet when handling matters. When Na Rimu returned home, she explained the whole cause and effect to Xinyue, and also told Xinyue that it was she who had asked Old Jiang to take action, so the responsibility was hers, and had nothing to do with Old Jiang—whatever consequences there were, she would face them. Her manner was straightforward and decisive.

No sooner had she finished speaking than Zhang Liang’s eighteen adopted sons arrived dragging Zhang Hui’s corpse, coming menacingly to the door to demand justice. Each wore armor and carried sharp blades, surrounding the main gate of the Yun estate and creating a continuous clamor. Although they were surrounded by the Yun family’s guards, relying on their numbers, they showed no fear whatsoever. They repeatedly demanded that someone from the Yun family with authority come out to answer them, otherwise they would attack the Yun estate and interrogate the old matriarch of the Yun family. This was arrogance taken to the extreme.

After Na Rimu became pregnant, Xinyue had never lifted a finger against her again. The household meals were arranged to suit her appetite first, so now Na Rimu wasn’t afraid of Xinyue at all. But seeing Xinyue’s eyes flash with cold light, she couldn’t help but lower her head involuntarily, not daring to meet her gaze.

Instructing the servants to open the main gate, Xinyue stood at the entrance. She neither curtsied nor showed any sign of panic, saying coolly to Zhang Shenji, who led the group: “Where is the dead person’s body?”

“Madam Yun, I respect you as one with a fourth-rank imperial mandate and as a woman. Zhang Hui’s corpse is too horrifying to look at—his face is completely unrecognizable, and he has seven or eight knife wounds. It would be better if you didn’t look, Madam.”

Xinyue raised an eyebrow and said: “You casually bring a corpse to the Yun estate claiming my family killed someone, and you expect me not to examine it clearly? If tomorrow I also brought a corpse to the Zhang estate to demand justice, would I also not need to show it to you?”

Hearing this, Zhang Shenji burst out laughing and said to Xinyue: “Since Madam wishes to see it, why would I refuse?” With that, he waved his hand, and immediately a servant lifted the hemp cloth from the cart. Zhang Hui’s miserable corpse was exposed under the bright light of day, the tears of blood on his face not even wiped away—they had deliberately left them there to disgust people.

Xinyue forced herself to look for a few moments, and seeing Old Jiang nod at her, she knew this was indeed the person in question.

She then raised her head and asked Zhang Shenji, who sat high on his horse: “I wonder what Lord Zhang’s opinion is?”

“My adoptive father takes pity on your family for having no adult men. As long as you provide some compensation to Zhang Hui’s family and kowtow and burn incense before his spirit tablet, this matter will be settled. This is only because we’re all part of the military faction—otherwise, today we would trample your Yun estate flat.”

Xinyue nodded and instructed the steward to bring out fifty taels of gold, placing them before Zhang Shenji’s horse. Then she said: “Fifty taels of gold is sufficient compensation. You may leave now. Considering that you don’t know the Yun family’s rules, I’ll let you off this time.”

Before Zhang Shenji could speak, the other guardians became agitated, pointing at Xinyue and beginning to shout in a cacophony of voices. They drew their weapons, as if at a single command they would immediately charge forward.

Zhang Shenji turned his head and barked an order, first getting his brothers to quiet down. Then he said with a smile: “Both our families are noble houses, and both serve in the military. To seek out civil officials to judge right and wrong would be beneath our dignity. Let’s settle this according to military rules—the strong prevail. As long as your family can produce a household warrior stronger than our brothers, we’ll admit defeat and slink away with Zhang Hui’s corpse, never mentioning this matter again. But if we win, your Yun family must immediately yield the Yinshan pasture. How about it?”

A trace of understanding appeared on Xinyue’s face. As expected, this wasn’t about standing up for a dead man. A good-looking household servant wasn’t worth the Zhang family making such a grand show of force at their door. Their real objective was the grassland pasture.

Xinyue smiled and said to Zhang Shenji: “As you wish. But we need to add one condition—if you’re defeated, each of you must give up one leg. Don’t worry, the Yun family has quite a few medical soldiers who will carefully saw off your legs without letting you die.”

Zhang Shenji was very confused. He couldn’t understand why a mere woman would have such confidence to make this wager with him. A trace of doubt arose in his heart, but now there was no way to retreat. Whether good or bad, he could only grit his teeth and proceed.

Xinyue’s greatest source of confidence came from her husband’s words. That fellow Dan Ying’s martial prowess could already rank among the world’s top experts. Those who could defeat him numbered no more than ten, and more than half of those ten were in the imperial palace. The rest were all veteran generals—Yuchi Gong, Qin Qiong, Li Jing, Duan Zhixuan were among them, but she had never heard of Zhang Liang being one. So she wasn’t at all concerned about this wager. The Yun family had been stifled for several years, and due to her husband’s circumstances, they had always been careful and cautious, fearing any misstep. Now there were no such concerns—her husband’s fate was unknown, and this matter was precisely a good opportunity for the Yun family to establish their authority. As a mere woman, whatever she did could be considered understandable. No matter how much trouble it caused, it wouldn’t make the imperial family wary.

Dan Ying appeared at the entrance wearing a blue robe and small cap. Ever since Yun Ye disappeared, he had mobilized his outlaw friends from all corners of the land to help him investigate, while he himself stayed at the Yun estate waiting for news. Since learning of Yun Ye’s whereabouts yesterday, he had been preparing to enter Nanzhao alone to search for Yun Ye. He was ready to set out when this incident occurred.

Yun Jiu insisted that Dan Ying not go out wearing his own clothes, but instead found him a servant’s outfit. After asking Dan Ying how confident he was, he also found the most worn and shabby wax-wood spear in the house, tied half a cow’s tail to it as a tassel to serve as a spear pennant, and gave him a very impressive name: Yun Thirty-Eight.

The newly minted Yun Thirty-Eight took his position at the entrance and was immediately drowned in mocking laughter. In order to occupy the moral high ground, Zhang Shenji had gone so far as to use Zhang Liang’s calling card to invite several minor aristocratic families from Chang’an to come as witnesses, wanting to make this into an ironclad case from which the Yun family couldn’t renege.

The entrance to the Yun estate was surrounded so tightly that not even water could leak through. The tenant farmers from the Yun estate’s manor came pouring in from all directions carrying manure forks, iron spades, and hoes, their eyes blazing with fire. With just one command from Xinyue, Zhang family’s dozen or so guardians would be buried right there at Yun Manor.

Zhang Shenji felt somewhat alarmed. The situation on site exceeded his expectations. He could tell that the Yun estate’s tenant farmers truly dared to raise their hands against them. His adoptive father had miscalculated in coveting the pasture.

Dan Ying said with a smile to the Zhang family’s eighteen guardians: “My name is Yun Thirty-Eight. I’m specially employed to sweep floors at home. My favorite pastime is fighting—I’ve always been one person fighting a group. Today Madam has said that each of you must leave behind one leg, so leave them behind. Don’t try to leave.”

Without waiting for Zhang Shenji to react, he attacked first. Zhang Shenji was no mediocrity either. Seeing a spear flower flash before his eyes, he roared and slashed out with his blade to meet it. The blade struck empty air. Realizing something was wrong, he prepared to dodge, but discovered a large black shadow beside him. There was no time to evade—the short blade in his left hand thrust out.

With a squelching sound, the short blade entered flesh, but still couldn’t stop the black shadow’s approach. The shadow heavily crashed into him, knocking him off his horse.

When he stood up rubbing his dizzy head, he discovered that the detestable household servant was standing right in front of him. Then who was the person he had just stabbed with his blade?

Looking down, he discovered it was his second brother, with great gushes of fresh blood pouring from his mouth, his own blade still stuck in his belly.

“Who are you?” Nothing could make Zhang Shenji believe this person was just a floor-sweeping servant.

“I’m just a servant. My name is Yun Thirty-Eight, and I like fighting. Unfortunately, you don’t have even a shred of courage to face opponents—you don’t even have the courage of common thugs. If there’s time, I’d very much like to compete with Zhang Liang to see who’s more formidable.”

Old Qian had servants bring over the grass-cutting guillotine without any regard for consequences. Two old soldiers who had been on the battlefield lifted up one guardian, and regardless of whether he was dead or alive, placed one of his legs under the guillotine blade. Assuming the posture of cutting grass, they prepared to make the guardians fulfill their wager.

“Wait a moment, I have something to say!” Zhang Shenji became anxious. Although Zhang Liang claimed to have five hundred adopted sons, there were fewer than a hundred martial guardians among them—the rest were all literary guardians who were utterly useless, swaggering around Chang’an under Zhang Liang’s name, swindling people left and right until they had nearly become a public menace. If these dozen or so men lost a leg, without question, they would be abandoned by Zhang Liang. Their future days would be miserably pitiful. Zhang Liang never kept useless people, even if that person called him father.

“Madam Yun, Zhang Shenji admits defeat. I beg Madam, considering we’re all part of the military faction, to spare these pitiful wretches and take only my leg. How about it?”

“I don’t care. I’m a woman and don’t know what the customs are outside. Since you dared to have designs on the Yun estate, you must be prepared to pay the price. If we had failed, would you have spared all the women and children of the Yun family? My husband taught me that if you strike a snake and don’t kill it, it brings disaster for three years. So just endure it.”

Hearing that Madam had no intention of relenting, the old soldier happily pressed down the guillotine. The medical soldiers on the side had long since prepared red-hot branding irons. The moment the leg fell off, they pressed the iron against the wound. After an earth-shattering shriek, the smell of roasted meat permeated the crowd, and many people immediately vomited.

Xinyue’s face was pale. She said to the several minor families who had come to witness: “Open your eyes wide and watch carefully. Their today is your tomorrow. If you want to cling to someone’s coattails, you’d better find sturdy ones—not the kind that can fall off at any moment.”

The elderly Liu patriarch at the head of the group prostrated himself on the ground, kowtowing repeatedly: “Madam, have mercy! We didn’t come of our own accord. They came to us with Duke Xunguo’s calling card—we truly didn’t dare refuse!”

Xinyue had made up her mind to use this incident to establish authority. She would rather bear the reputation of a vicious woman than back down. If by any chance her husband couldn’t return, she herself would have to become strong—over a hundred people in the household were all counting on her to make decisions. No matter who wanted to snatch the property her husband left behind, Xinyue would fight them to the death.

Someone arrived on horseback at full gallop. Jumping down from the horse, he saw nine human legs neatly arranged on an oil cloth to one side, and on the other side nine men missing one leg each—some wailing, some weeping, forming a stark contrast with the excited smiling faces of the surrounding tenant farmers.

The person who arrived was none other than Zhang Liang. He had originally been hiding at his own manor listening for good news. Just thinking about how his family would soon have an enormous additional pasture, and that the cattle and sheep alone would bring in a large sum each year—who would have known someone would bring him terrible news: his guardians couldn’t defeat the Yun family’s servant, and now were about to have their legs cut off.

Although his adopted sons were merely watchdogs he kept, now that they were all about to be slaughtered by others, he naturally felt some fellow feeling, like a fox grieving for a dead rabbit.

Zhang Shenji, who had already been placed under the guillotine blade, hurriedly cried out for help: “Adoptive father, save me! Adoptive father, save me!” Old Tian, who came from an executioner’s background, paid no attention whatsoever and forcefully pressed down the guillotine blade again.

Zhang Liang was enraged. Pointing at Xinyue, he said: “You vicious woman!”