His voice was booming, and carried by a passing gust of wind, the words traveled nearly half a li downwind.
Every caravan waiting before the checkpoint heard him clearly, and all turned their heads to stare.
Trouble was common at border crossings, and an occasional quarrel in a place like this was nothing unusual, but a spectacle on this scale was rarely seen.
Which official was extorting extra silver this time?
He Lingchuan had stopped the caravan hands from unloading cargo out of safety concerns as well. With over a hundred pairs of eyes watching intently, it would not be nearly so easy for these bailiffs to plant contraband and tamper with the goods as they had before.
He noticed several soldiers with shifty eyes, repeatedly trying to angle their bodies to block the wagons from view, but frustrated by caravan men dogging their steps and glaring at them, they never found an opening.
Zhongsun Mou naturally had not missed a word. He sized He Lingchuan up. "And what sort of nobody are you supposed to be?"
"Merely a commoner in plain cloth," He Lingchuan said with a shrug. "I walk tall and straight, without relying on framing others to gain rank and title."
An Inspector's duty was to oversee officials and enforce discipline, yet this fellow's very first move had been to plant false evidence on them. It was easy to see that the methods he usually used to hit his quotas were far from honorable.
Zhongsun Mou stared deeply at him. "You refuse to yield?"
"Oh, I yield." He Lingchuan met his gaze with a toothy grin. "This is Lingxu City's territory; of course we must yield."
"Good that you know your place." Acting as though he hadn't heard the sarcasm, Zhongsun Mou stepped forward, his tone flippant. "Otherwise, under Lingxu City law, anyone who slanders a high court official has their tongue cut out. You would have to slice off that troublemaking tongue of yours before you could ever walk through that gate."
Just then, a soldier suddenly shouted, "Found something! Found another!"
Found what?
Everyone looked over to see the soldier holding high a small bottle containing several crystals.
"Heart of Ancient Rock fragments!"
The caravan hands could no longer contain themselves, bursting into curses and spitting in anger.
The bottle was only palm-sized. Evidently, under the watchful eyes of the crowd, the man hadn't been able to slip anything large into the cargo, so he had resorted to surreptitiously stuffing a tiny vial inside to finish his assignment.
"The Heart of Ancient Rock!" Ignoring the outcry, Zhongsun Mou beckoned a clerk over. "How is this calculated?"
"Illegal possession of six fragments of the Heart of Ancient Rock... er, a tenfold fine comes to... five hundred taels!"
The crowd erupted in an uproar.
Another plant, and another maximum penalty!
The clerk added helpfully, "If two or three more items are uncovered, it will count as malicious smuggling, carrying an aggravated sentence, and they may be detained."
Fu Shanyue suddenly spoke up. "Greedy as a starving pig. Does no one in Lingxu City ever impeach you?"
He looked toward the rear of the checkpoint. "Where is the gate captain originally stationed here? Why hasn't he come out, leaving you here to play watchdog in his place?"
He had passed back and forth through this checkpoint no fewer than ten times. If the usual gate captain dared to pull nonsense like Zhongsun Mou, there was no telling how much chaos would have broken out.
"What business is that of yours?" Zhongsun Mou said leisurely. "This is your last chance. Put in a proper plea on their behalf, or else..."
Second Master Shi did not even bother to argue anymore. He turned to gather money from his managers and subordinates—having just handed over three thousand taels, his own pockets were clean empty.
Fu Shanyue's face darkened, and he abruptly strode toward Zhongsun Mou.
The guards behind Zhongsun Mou immediately moved forward to block him, only to be barked back by their master's raised hand.
Fu Shanyue lowered his voice: "I hear that three months from now, the Zhongsun clan is hosting a grand event at the Xiling Grass Sea, and quite a few noble houses will be attending. You lot had best be careful. The Grass Sea hasn't been very peaceful lately."
Zhongsun Mou's expression shifted slightly. "You dare?"
Fu Shanyue said darkly, "In times like these, certain bandits and fierce monsters simply can't be kept down. Tell me, what could anyone do about it?"
Zhongsun Mou snorted, but he was no longer as smug as before.
After hesitating for a few breaths, he finally waved a hand at the bailiffs, signaling to let it go and clear them through.
He was the highest-ranking officer on the scene; once he gave the nod, his subordinates naturally raised no objections.
And so the caravan hands hoisted the cargo, reloaded the wagons, and returned to the queue.
Half an hour later, they finally crossed through the gate and set foot on the soil of the Chiyan Kingdom.
Both the Shimen caravan and Fu Shanyue's guards let out a long, collective breath of relief.
They were finally through!
The head bailiff also turned to gather his men and depart.
He did not forget to drag the base slave along. Once they had walked a dozen paces, he brought a heavy slap down onto the base slave's head, teeth clenched. "Look at what you've done!"
The base slave's teeth chattered in terror, his words incoherent. "I—I don't know what happened, it was clearly on their wagon..."
The bailiff kicked him squarely in the rear, nearly sending him sprawling. "Just you wait until we get back to the yamen!"
No one spared a thought for what would become of the base slave.
Having lost face before a huge crowd, the bailiffs would undoubtedly vent all their fury on that miserable wretch once they returned.
Fu Shanyue sneered as well.
Zhongsun Mou had thought the base slave was a trump card he could use to make life difficult for him. Yet Little Taozi was not in the caravan at all. Seeing his plan fall through, Zhongsun Mou had resorted to a backup scheme, hastily improvising the planted contraband.
He was simply determined to pick a fight.
Turning around, Fu Shanyue saw He Lingchuan gazing after their departing backs. "What is it?"
He Lingchuan sighed. "What a figure the King of Yuan was back then, and the people of Yuan had unyielding backbones to match. Who would have thought that a hundred years later, their descendants would turn out like this?"
The base slave's conduct gave him a deeper, visceral sense of the tragedy this land bore.
One person's behavior was a microcosm of an entire populace.
Fu Shanyue remarked flatly, "Anyone with a shred of backbone was slaughtered back then. The only ones left today are cowards. You can trample them however you like, and the only thing they cannot do is walk with their heads held high."
He Lingchuan remembered the resolute words spoken by the King of Yuan before his martyrdom:
*I would rather my children die with their eyes open than live in cowardly disgrace.*
On the eve of Yuan's destruction, sovereign and ministers had embodied great righteousness, going to their deaths with smiles and laughter, their voices and faces still vivid in memory.
Yet today, the descendants of Yuan had long had their spines broken and their pride stripped away, living like maggots in the mud, daring only to vent their pent-up malice upon their weaker, more innocent kin.
They and their forebears were like two entirely different species.
Who could have imagined that they were the same race born of the same soil?
Separated by a mere hundred-odd years.
He Lingchuan could almost hear Lingxu City's arrogant laughter booming across the sky:
*This is the price of defying Beijia and defying the gods.*
*If you dare rebel against heaven and cause unrest in Beijia, I will destroy your kingdom, eradicate your race, and trample your descendants into the dirt!*
*Your children and grandchildren will be mocked and spat upon for ten thousand generations.*
*Your children and grandchildren will wish with all their hearts that they had never had ancestors like you, who brought endless ruin upon them!*
What was even more terrifying was that if the Beijia Kingdom could be so cruel and venomous to its own subjects, would it ever stay its hand against other nations and other peoples? Would it show a shred of mercy?
At the thought, He Lingchuan could not help pressing his hand against the divine bone necklace beneath his collar, a chill creeping up his back.
What kind of colossus would he have to face in the future?
What sort of raving lunatics were they?
How could he ever maneuver against such a force?
Zhongsun Mou still stood behind the gate, staring gloomily in their direction.
Fu Shanyue raised his middle finger at him.
It was a gesture he had learned from He Lingchuan just a few days ago, supposedly capable of conveying disdain, contempt, and malice all at once.
Now that he was inside the Chiyan Kingdom—his own territory—why should he give a damn about that bastard?
Even if he let Taozi out right now to skip around for a few laps, the people from Lingxu City had no authority to cross the border in pursuit.
He Lingchuan also glanced back toward the gate. "You're just letting it go?"
From what he knew of Fu Shanyue, the fellow was the type to chase someone down relentlessly.
Otherwise, the two of them would never have crossed paths as enemies in the first place.
"How could I?" Fu Shanyue scoffed. "Just wait a few days until I slip back across to get real close and personal with them!"
Now that sounded right; that was Fu Shanyue's style.
Fu Shanyue added to He Lingchuan, "Don't worry, I'll definitely vent your anger for you!"
He Lingchuan didn't care in the slightest. "All I care about is those three thousand taels. When are you paying me back?"
"Once I'm home!" Fu Shanyue said helplessly. Having already handed over his very last copper to this fellow, he truly had nothing left. "As much money as you want, I'll have it!"
He looked toward the checkpoint again and muttered venomously, "That bastard Zhongsun Mou is like a rabid dog; once he bites, he won't let go. Unless you kick him to death, he'll always find a way to disgust you."
Why plant evidence so blatantly?
Why use a glass jar to do it?
Wasn't it purely to sicken Fu Shanyue?
He Lingchuan rolled his eyes. Was this fellow describing Zhongsun Mou, or talking about himself?
"And here I thought high officials from Lingxu City would show some finesse when framing people."
He had expected a battle of wits, a war of words where both sides fought eight hundred rounds without a ripple on the surface.
Instead, reality was basically kicking over the stool and charging in with a cleaver.
Fu Shanyue barked out a laugh. "You don't understand Lingxu City, and you don't understand these monster officials."
"Right, I don't," He Lingchuan said with great humility.
"Monsters and humans will always have different temperaments," Fu Shanyue remarked with deep meaning.
Monster officials were tyrannical, while human officials were crafty? Amused, He Lingchuan asked, "So do you count as human or monster?"
Fu Shanyue said unhurriedly, "Strictly speaking, a ba is also human."
Fine, there was nothing wrong with that logic. He Lingchuan cleared his throat lightly. "By the way, what kind of monster is that Inspector anyway?"
"You don't know?" Fu Shanyue looked surprised instead. "Have you never seen a jiaoren before?"
"That was a jiaoren?" He Lingchuan scratched his head. "I thought they all lived by the water." The miscellaneous chronicles of the bizarre he had read in Panlong City certainly described jiaoren, but they all depicted them dwelling in shallow waters.
The nearest large river was at least ten li away, and Zhongsun Mou had traveled all the way from Lingxu City, detouring through the Twilight Plains. He hadn't looked particularly starved for water either.
"Oh, jiaoren do need water," Fu Shanyue said, filling him in on common knowledge in Beijia. "But they all wear water-gathering array plaques on them, which constantly draw moisture from the air to hydrate their bodies. So going half a month away from open water is no problem at all."
"Lingxu City is half mountain and half sea, immensely vast, and quite a few aquatic tribes live there."
"Are all jiaoren so petty-minded, or does he just hate you that much?"
"He's just an exceptional piece of work." Fu Shanyue naturally had nothing good to say about Zhongsun Mou.
Since Fu Shanyue had promised to cover the cost, the episode was laid to rest, and even Second Master Shi stopped bringing it up.
Only the members of the Shimen caravan continued grumbling curses the entire way.
And so the party traveled on, not stopping to rest until they reached the second small town.
Chapter 433