The youth cried out in terror and squatted on the ground—there was already a wet stain in his crotch. The lead burly man lifted the youth up, and his gaze suddenly froze. He saw bloodstains on the youth’s body, and a strong bloody smell assaulted his nose. The companions behind him, seeing something was wrong, placed a horizontal sword against the youth’s neck, ready to slash at any moment.

“Where did the bloodstains on your body come from?” The burly man’s eyes held some doubt. This thin, weak youth shouldn’t be an assassin. If assassins wet their pants, that would be too laughable. However, years of experience in the Bai Qi Si told him that appearances could be deceiving.

The youth pointed with difficulty toward the back courtyard. The remaining burly men crossed over and charged into the back yard. There was nothing there except a fat pig in its final death throes.

“Are you alone in this shop?” The burly man looked around as he questioned the youth.

“My mother passed away. It’s just me in the family. I’m a pig butcher.”

The several burly men stopped speaking. Instead, they helped the youth place the fat pig into the steaming large wooden barrel, then left.

After the burly man departed, the youth didn’t even change his wet pants. Holding a pumice stone, he began removing the pig hair. The corpses strewn all over the ground outside the fish shop seemed to have no connection to him whatsoever. He was just a youth who butchered pigs to make a living.

After removing all the pig hair, he easily hung the two-hundred-jin fat pig on a frame, placed a wooden basin underneath, flipped his wrist, and a butchering knife appeared in his hand. With a casual wave, the pig’s belly was sliced open. Intestines connected to pig lungs came tumbling down with a splash into the basin. After cutting out all the pig’s heart, liver, and kidneys, he took down an axe from the frame, held his breath, closed his eyes, and suddenly swung the axe. After only a slight tearing sound, the pig was immediately split evenly in half along the spine.

He scrubbed the large pot clean, drew up several buckets of water from the well and poured them in to boil, threw a few pieces of pine wood under the stove, then got up to go into the house and change into clean clothes.

The pig intestines had been washed by him three times and were already very clean, but he still used a bit of bean flour to carefully rub them once more. This work was originally women’s work. That young lady in the flowered shirt from the Yun family would be very suitable for this work—hands as white as scallion whites, nails dyed with rouge flowers, red and very beautiful. In any case, his elder brother loved eating pig intestines. At worst, he’d give him all the pig intestines from now on. He didn’t know if this would let him marry her?

The market had reopened. The emperor’s carriage had already departed. None of this concerned him. His revenge had been taken. The pork was very good. Four-finger-thick fatty meat was a tenant farmer household’s favorite. One pig sold out in two hours. It looked like he could sleep well tonight. Only that young lady in the flowered shirt didn’t appear. Could it be his elder brother wasn’t eating pig intestines today?

Yun Ye had no mood to eat pig intestines. That extremely miserable corpse in the fish shop had made him vomit everywhere. White brain matter was splattered all over the ground. Two eyeballs rolled back and forth on the floorboards, as if trying to tell him something.

The old veterans were very interested in how the other person in the attic had departed. Old Jiang replicated the scene according to the circumstances at the time. First, he smashed open the first eight-ox crossbow with one hammer blow, then opened the second, then backhanded with the wooden mallet to smash open the dummy’s skull, then stood on the ground and smashed the dummy’s head a few more times. Looking up at the hole in the roof, with one spring he grasped the beam and flipped up with feet over head. But as soon as his head showed, he was discovered by the archers on the opposite side. This happened several times in succession, leaving him thoroughly discouraged.

“My lord, this person is a true expert. Not many people in the military camps have such skills. His age won’t exceed thirty. This old man is getting on in years—my body doesn’t have its former agility. I can’t do this work now.”

Hearing Old Jiang finish, Yun Ye became even more worried. Having such a menace at the family’s doorstep—how could that be tolerated? Would the whole family be able to leave the house or not?

“My lord need not worry. This person will only strike once. One strike failing, flee a thousand li—this is these people’s creed. They will absolutely not strike a second time. This old man is very certain.”

Seeing Old Jiang say this with such conviction, Yun Ye could only choose to believe him. He was half-skeptical about these inexplicable creeds of the ancients. Old Jiang and the others, however, believed without doubt, and even the other old veterans said the same.

Dou Yanshan was nowhere to be seen. Sixteen people from the fish shop had died—fifteen dead, one missing. These were all hidden dangers. His head couldn’t help but ache. The authorities had already begun pursuing Dou Yanshan with full force. Presumably he couldn’t stay in Guanzhong anymore. The world was so vast—he would certainly hide in some dark corner, waiting for the next opportunity to strike. He wouldn’t give up. Yun Ye was very certain of this.

The Yun family people were all on the perimeter. It was the Bai Qi Si people who took action—eight had died. Hong Cheng had nearly been pinned to the ground by a siege bolt and was still trembling with fear. An arm-thick crossbow bolt had grazed past his back. That deadly whistling sound still rang in his ears. He didn’t fear death—he had seen plenty of death already. But when he saw six of his brothers strung together by a five-chi-long crossbow bolt, cold air rose from his heart. One person had merely been pierced through the thigh, but before Yun Ye could administer aid, he had already bled to death early on.

He couldn’t stay in the capital anymore. There were more and more demons and monsters. People who wouldn’t die even jumping off cliffs could now be caught by the handful. The academy students’ favorite activity was jumping off cliffs, saying they wanted to try that immortal feeling of floating at high altitude. Even beating them with boards couldn’t prohibit it. Those who were beaten with boards and limped around showing off everywhere would be treated as heroes. Liu Xian had specifically posted guards at the cliff just to prevent anyone from jumping again. They were all pampered at home—if someone died, there would be no way to explain!

Yun Ye lay in the tree shade with a wet cloth on his head, calling out—long cries, short cries. Xinyue lay beside him napping. Daya, wearing her favorite pink dress with intertwining floral patterns, fished another wet cloth from the water basin and covered her brother’s head with it. The thirteen-year-old girl was fair and lovable. Most rare was her gentle temperament. She stayed in the embroidery room all day without going out. She and Xiao Ya, that little devil incarnate, didn’t seem like real sisters. If Yun Ye hadn’t sent her to buy pig intestines, she would never willingly step outside the estate gates her whole life. The outside world was very terrifying to her.

A huge fat pig quietly pushed open the back courtyard gate. Xiao Ya sat on the pig’s body. That pig was very obedient—if Xiao Ya said go east, it absolutely wouldn’t go west. Flapping its big ears and panting with rough breaths, grunting, it ran over. Daya couldn’t stop it in time, and that fat pig brought its wet nose up to Yun Ye’s face and nudged twice. The worried Yun Ye turned his head to see a huge pig snout seemingly about to nudge him again. With a roll he sprang up, kicked off his shoes, and prepared to deal with Xiao Ya.

Xiao Ya laughed and shouted: “Hanhan, run! Hanhan, run!”

That fat pig also knew things had gone wrong. Twisting its plump bottom, it dashed in a puff of smoke through the moon gate, even knocking over Xiao Huan who was carrying water, and amid Xiao Ya’s laughter, burrowed into the garden and disappeared.

Xinyue hurriedly brought over the shoe Yun Ye had lost while running, covering her mouth to stifle laughter, saying quietly: “No kissing me tonight. You were just kissed by a pig. My lord, this is truly shameful.”

Yun Ye collapsed dejectedly into the reclining chair. Daya quickly wiped her brother’s face. Only this girl was heartwarming now. None of the rest were any good. Yun Ye’s free-range educational style had completely failed.

Xiao Dong had now become a money-grubber. All day long she hugged her money jar counting over and over. If she felt unsatisfied with the amount, she would tug at her brother’s clothes and point at the money jar, meaning she wanted Yun Ye to fill it for her. In any case, Yun Ye had already filled many jars for her, but they had all gone who knows where. Now she still clutched an empty jar asking her brother for money.

Money and wealth were external possessions—the marquis never cared about them. A few dozen cash coins were trivial—if she asked, he gave. Until yesterday when Xiao Dong stopped wanting copper coins and instead stuffed him with a whole pile, then dug out two silver ingots from her brother’s purse before leaving satisfied. Only then did this catch Yun Ye’s attention.

Now for some unknown reason, silver in the market had started appreciating. The matter of exchanging one tael of silver for one thousand copper coins was no more. Now one thousand one hundred coins were needed to exchange for one tael of silver. Where had this girl learned this? Could she be a natural financial genius?

Xiao Nan most loved staying in the kitchen tinkering with food. Ever since her brother last time used eggs, sugar frosting, and flour to bake an extremely soft and fluffy pastry for Auntie, she had become obsessed with that thing. Soft, loose, and fragrant, melting in the mouth—it was her favorite pastry. But her brother was too lazy and unwilling to make it often. She had begged twice and was even scolded by Grandmother, who said not to let Brother go into the kitchen again.

In a fit of anger, she made it herself. What was the big deal? Wasn’t it just eggs, sugar frosting, and flour? In one day she baked eight batches, and Yun Ye tasted eight times, eating until he wanted to hit someone. All the good stuff was cheaply given to Xiao Ya’s pig. Unable to bear it any longer, he taught her how to bake cakes. Now she even knew to spread jam on the cakes. All day long she didn’t eat meals, just ate cakes. Her little mouth was stained red from eating, and she had already gotten so fat it was unbearable.

Xiao Xi and Xiao Bei were a bit better. Aside from loving to practice with staffs, they had no other hobbies. The room was full of small knives, small spears, and small bows that Cheng Chumo had sent. From morning they started running in the garden with Wang Cai, and at night they still held small bows and arrows practicing their eyesight by aiming at incense heads.

These were all sins caused by that bastard Cheng Chumo. From who knows where he had hired a female idiot teacher. They didn’t learn to read or do embroidery and needlework—they only knew how to practice martial arts. Beautiful little girls dressed all day like boys—Yun Ye could barely recognize them anymore.

What made him most heartbroken was Runniang. She stayed at the Qin family’s place all day long. A grown young lady didn’t even know to be embarrassed. She only said the Qin family had two lynxes that were beautiful. Yun Ye couldn’t mention Qin Shuang—mentioning Qin Shuang made her fly into a rage. Lynxes were ferocious beasts. Grandmother wouldn’t allow her to bring those things home—the whole family was women and children. It wouldn’t do if anyone got hurt.

Yiniang was learning etiquette, which pained Yun Ye to watch. Sitting there motionless for a full hour, watching sweat flow down, not even allowed to wipe it. He had originally wanted to rush in but was held tightly by Auntie who pleaded: “I know you feel for your sister, but girls must pass this trial. Otherwise when she marries over, people will say the Yun family’s daughter doesn’t know propriety and will lose face for the Yun family.”

“Hmph! With me as the foremost of Chang’an’s Three Scourges in the Yun family, where is there any face to speak of? My sister should live freely and at ease. Whoever dares bully her, I’ll take his life.”

In the end, the kind Yiniang tearfully said she could bear it and didn’t want Brother to worry. Yun Ye could only heave a long sigh and go alone to the garden to sleep. Once asleep, perhaps there would be no more troubles.