Ming Tan was slow to react, biting her chicken leg as she looked up at Jiang Xu with confusion.

How had she invited trouble?

Before Jiang Xu could explain, she heard footsteps outside the abandoned temple. The steps were chaotic and hurried, some light, some heavy, all sounding ominous.

Ming Tan seemed to understand something: “Is… is it the innkeeper bringing people here?”

They had only interacted with the innkeeper since arriving in Tonggang. Could it be that because they discovered the inn’s true nature, people were coming to silence them?

But that… didn’t make sense. The townspeople knew what business the inn was in, otherwise men wouldn’t have been heading there so purposefully. So what had they done to warrant being silenced?

Ming Tan couldn’t figure it out.

Though her mind was confused, her body reacted quickly. She hastily put down the chicken leg and cowered behind Jiang Xu. Fearing he might be outnumbered, she tugged at his sleeve, intending to hide with him behind the Buddha statue.

Jiang Xu glanced at her without a word.

As the footsteps outside grew closer, Ming Tan’s anxiety increased. Her hand gripping Jiang Xu’s sleeve began to sweat.

But to her surprise, though the footsteps approached menacingly, they all stopped simultaneously outside the temple. Then came the sound of bodies hitting the ground, followed by cries of pain—

“Ouch!”

Ming Tan belatedly remembered the two guards who could chop wood and buy chickens, and who spoke even less than her husband.

She felt slightly reassured.

A moment later, the guards had thoroughly tied up all the people outside and were tossing them into the temple like sandbags.

One, two, three…

Ten.

When the tenth person was thrown in, Ming Tan froze, her gaze fixed on him. She didn’t move for a long while, not even blinking.

She had seen this person before—it was the pitiful little beggar from earlier that day, to whom she had given a package of pastries and a small piece of silver.

Why was he here?

“What’s going on?” she asked Jiang Xu, perplexed.

Jiang Xu didn’t answer. He stood up and looked down at the man who had been thrown in first.

Without a word, he placed his foot on the man’s left cheek and slowly ground it down.

“Ah! Spare me, sir! Spare—” The man’s scream was cut short, his face distorted under Jiang Xu’s foot, blood seeping from the corner of his mouth.

Seeing this, the others were terrified. They knelt on the ground, kowtowing and begging for mercy.

The little beggar Ming Tan had helped earlier turned deathly pale, trembling uncontrollably as tears streamed down his face.

He crawled forward pitifully towards Ming Tan, not daring to get too close. He kept kowtowing, his voice small and whimpering: “Sister, sister! I was wrong! Please spare me! Sister, I’m kowtowing to you! Spare me, please spare me!”

Soon, his forehead was bloody from the kowtowing, the blood mixing with dirt and tears on the ground, seemingly without feeling.

Though Ming Tan knew he was involved, seeing how small and pitiful he looked, she couldn’t bear it: “Stop kowtowing!”

Suppressing her anger, she asked, “Tell me, what exactly is going on?”

The little beggar wanted to say something, but before he could, he glanced at the man under Jiang Xu’s foot and shrank back.

Ming Tan noticed this and crouched down, asking patiently, “Tell me, what’s happening?”

Terrified and shaking, the little beggar finally whimpered after a long pause, “Sister, I didn’t want to harm you, but if I didn’t obey, he would beat me.”

He?

Ming Tan looked at the man under Jiang Xu’s foot.

The man seemed to want to say something and struggled, but he couldn’t move or speak. Jiang Xu appeared to increase the pressure, and the man, unable to bear the pain, passed out.

Ming Tan had a vague guess. She handed a clean handkerchief to the little beggar, her voice softening, even becoming gentle: “Don’t be afraid. Take your time and tell me.”

Seeing the man pass out, the little beggar breathed a huge sigh of relief. After some hesitation, he finally mustered the courage to stammer out the whole story.

It turned out the little beggar’s name was Little Stone. He had been kidnapped from another village and brought to Tonggang. The man who kidnapped him was the one under Jiang Xu’s foot, Chen Wu.

Chen Wu, along with Li Si and Wang Three-Pock, often kidnapped children from villages near Tonggang. Once they had a batch, they would take them from Tonggang to nearby wealthier towns.

There, they had contacts who would specifically train these children to become beggars skilled in various scams. Not everyone could become such a beggar—one had to be quick-handed and clever. Otherwise, they would end up with missing limbs, relying solely on pity to beg.

Little Stone’s batch was to be taken away in two days. Today, they happened to encounter these two outsiders on the street, and Chen Wu pushed him forward to beg. Who would have thought these outsiders would be so generous, giving not just a package of pastries but also a piece of silver?

Seeing only two of them, Chen Wu thought they were defenseless and harbored ill intentions. He secretly followed them all day, and when he saw them enter the abandoned temple at dusk, he gathered people to come and rob them, hoping to make some easy money.

Little Stone’s account matched Ming Tan’s guess closely. However, when she heard him say that those who couldn’t perform the scams well would have their limbs cut off, she couldn’t help but gasp.

They were all just children—how could anyone be so cruel?

Suppressing the unease in her heart, she gently reached out and brushed aside Little Stone’s dirty, blood-matted hair. “Do you remember where your home is?”

Little Stone lowered his head and sniffled, saying in a tiny voice, “I remember.”

Ming Tan almost blurted out, “Then sister will send you home,” but remembering the purpose of their journey, she swallowed her words.

Just as she was about to ask Jiang Xu if they could have the guards send these children home, Little Stone sniffled again, and kowtowed to Ming Tan, his voice full of relief and humility after escaping danger: “Sister, you’re a good person. We didn’t want to harm you. Can you spare us?”

“Stop kowtowing.” Ming Tan couldn’t help but support him. “Sister will have someone send you home, okay?”

Hearing this, Little Stone looked up at her, so happy that he blew a snot bubble: “Thank you, sister. You’re truly a good person!” He wiped his nose, glanced at Jiang Xu, and his voice involuntarily lowered, “I can go back by myself. No need to trouble brother and sister.”

This child was so sensible it hurt Ming Tan’s heart.

She looked at the other children, all thin and grimy, feeling awful. She stood up, took out all the silver pieces and dried food from her bundle, and distributed them among the children.

Jiang Xu allowed her to do this without interference.

Among those who came tonight, besides the children brought as helpers, were Chen Wu’s companions, Li Si and Wang Three-Pock. However, Li Si and Wang Three-Pock had put up more of a fight outside and thus received harsher treatment from the guards. They had passed out even before being thrown into the temple.

After Ming Tan finished distributing things to the children, Jiang Xu ordered the guards to escort them away from this desolate place. He also had the guards break the arms and legs of the unconscious trio before dumping them in a mass grave.

The abandoned temple fell silent once more.

The unfinished chicken leg had gone cold.

Ming Tan no longer had the appetite to eat.

She sat hugging her knees by the still-warm fire pit, lost in thought for a while before asking dazedly, “Did husband know earlier that giving them things would invite trouble?”

Jiang Xu sat down beside her, lifting his robe, his voice calm: “Someone who hasn’t eaten for three days, upon seeing pastries and silver, how could they not bite the silver instead of touching the pastries?”

Ming Tan recalled the scene from earlier that day and hesitated: “Can you deduce all that from just that? Maybe he needed money urgently, or maybe he wanted to take the pastries back to share with others. It’s not… necessarily what you think, is it?”

Jiang Xu lowered his gaze, saying coldly, “You’ve never gone hungry for three days. Naturally, you don’t understand.”

Hearing this, Ming Tan turned to look at him, her eyes full of surprise and doubt.

“Husband, have you gone hungry for three days?”

She asked without thinking, but then suddenly remembered that her husband had mentioned nearly dying of thirst during a military campaign before.

If he had nearly died of thirst, nearly starving to death might not be unusual for him either. Her husband was the noble Prince of Daxian—what kind of life had he lived before? Ming Tan felt even worse.

But Jiang Xu didn’t respond. He simply put his arm around her shoulders and guided her to lie down on his lap. “You’re tired. Rest early.”

Ming Tan wanted to say something more.

Jiang Xu lowered his head, brushing away the stray hairs on her face. “Sleep.”

From this angle, her husband’s facial features seemed much softer than usual, his voice becoming low and gentle.

She gazed at Jiang Xu without blinking for a while, then suddenly said, “Husband, Ah Tan will be good to you in the future.”

Before Jiang Xu could react, she hugged his waist, snuggled closer, and contentedly closed her eyes.

Jiang Xu was slightly taken aback, a faint warmth passing through his eyes.

The night was deep.

It was a clear night, the moon washing everything in silver. All was quiet except for the intermittent cries of unknown birds and beasts in the forest, sounding somewhat lonely.

After the hardships of recent days, Ming Tan had learned to sleep soundly even in these harsh conditions.

Seeing her fast asleep, Jiang Xu gently placed her on the straw mat, gave a signal to the guards with his eyes, and then melted into the boundless night outside the abandoned temple.

…

Little Stone and the group of children were safely escorted back to their lodgings in town by one of the guards.

Seeing the guard leave, the children were quiet for a moment.

Suddenly, Little Stone spoke up: “Who knows what happened to Chen Wu, Li Si, and Wang Pock-Face. We should go to Lotus Town tonight, in case they wake up and talk, and those people come after us again.”

The other children all listened to him, nodding in agreement.

Little Stone’s face no longer showed the timidity from before, replaced by a maturity that didn’t match his age: “I’ll go outside first and keep watch. You all hurry and pack up, gather all their valuable things too.”

With that, he stood up, patted the dust off his bottom, and walked out briskly.

The streets of Tonggang Town were eerily quiet in the dead of night.

Little Stone walked to the crossroads without seeing a soul. It seemed the man who had escorted them back had truly left. He finally breathed a sigh of relief.

But as he turned back, he suddenly stopped in his tracks.

In the cold moonlight, a man in dark clothes descended from the rooftop. His face was expressionless, his gaze calm, like still water.

“Where do you think you’re going?” the man asked.