The afternoon storm came without warning.
This place always had plenty of rain at the turn of spring and summer. Weather like this, where the sun was shining brightly just now and the rain poured the next moment, was very common.
A few people in woven rush raincoats stepped on the rainwater as they trudged through the heavy rain. The person in the middle was also wearing a woven rush raincoat, but there was someone holding an oil-paper umbrella over his head. However, the rain was too heavy, and the raindrops that formed into strings were blown left and right by the erratic wind, constantly hitting the person's body. The umbrella swayed in the wind and rain, but it didn't have any effect at all.
The few people in woven rush raincoats hurriedly entered the provincial governor's residence. Only then did they heave a sigh of relief. Pushing their straw hats back, they revealed their faces. The person in the middle was Zhang Jianzhi.
He had just returned from the military governor's residence. Censor Huang Jingrong was in a hurry to leave and firmly rejected Luo Shudao's good intentions of gathering the officials of Wei Province to give him a farewell dinner. Luo Shudao could only send Huang Jingrong off. After returning to the city, he asked Zhang Jianzhi to report the situation. Who knew that in just a short while, it would start raining cats and dogs.
There were long corridors on both sides of the provincial governor's residence's main gate, all the way to the central hall and the rear residence. Zhang Jianzhi walked down one of the corridors, shaking his drenched robe as he asked, "Where is the imperial envoy now?"
The steward answered, "The imperial envoy is rather tired after the heavy rain and has already returned to his room to rest. He instructed us not to disturb him."
Zhang Jianzhi had wanted to immediately inform Yang Fan of Huang Jingrong's departure. Hearing that he was already resting, he turned to his study.
The gatekeeper of the provincial governor's residence, Old Dou, waited for Ah Lang and the guards to return before closing the main gate again. He fetched a few basins of water to wash the footprints on the stone steps. When he returned to his room, he suddenly realized that something was missing. Old Dou looked around and realized that the woven rush raincoat hanging on the wall was missing.
It was a rainy season and raingear was a common item. Even though he did not go out much, he still had a spare raincoat hanging on the wall when he entered. Because it was hung there every day, he did not pay much attention to it and did not notice when it was taken away.
Old Dou slapped his forehead and scolded, "It must be that brat Kuang Sier who took advantage of the heavy rain to steal my woven rush raincoat to gamble." Old Dou didn't take it to heart after cursing a few times. In any case, no one would purposely come to the Provincial Governor's Manor just to steal a straw raincoat. It must be an acquaintance who had taken it.
The moment the heavy rain came, the customers on Fish Market Street dispersed one after another. The heavy rain poured down, splashing onto the ground. Because it could not be drained in a short time, the water was knee-deep. The ground of Fish Market Street was very dirty. After being washed away by the rain, the dirty water mixed with fish heads and organs flowed into the low-lying areas. Usually, the fishy smell here was overwhelming, but in the heavy rain, the fishy smell had lessened.
There were no more customers on the street, and a few vendors hid under the awnings of their houses. They did not bring rain gear and did not have time to go home. The fishmonger scooped up the turbid water from the ground with a large wooden basin and poured it on the chopping board under the rain shelter, washing away the blood, scales, and internal organs.
A man wearing a woven rush raincoat appeared on Fish Market Street. He waded through the dirty rain, walking from the east end of Fish Market to the west. At first, no one noticed him. It was only when he turned back at the end that he attracted the attention of some people who were taking shelter from the rain. However, because he was wearing a woven rush raincoat, and because he was afraid of the rain splashing on his face, it was impossible to see his appearance. One could only guess from his smooth chin that he was not very old.
The banners hanging on the fish vendors' stalls hung listlessly in the rain. Occasionally, when the wind blew, the triangular banners would unfurl, but they would immediately be beaten back to their original shape by the dense rain. However, it was only for a moment, enough for people to see the words on the banners clearly.
The man in the woven rush raincoat walked from the east end of Fish Market to the west end, and only saw one stall with the surname Chen. Therefore, when he came back, he went straight to this stall.
Old Chen wore a leather apron and was washing the chopping board under the tarp. The rain hit the tarp above his head, making splashing sounds. The dirty blood, fish scales, and innards on the chopping board were washed away by the basin of water into the surging dirty water.
The legs of the chopping board were still stuck to some sticky fish innards. Old Chen used a large wooden basin to scoop up some dirty water. Just as he was about to wash it, the man in the woven rush raincoat walked under the tarp. Old Chen coldly glanced at him and splashed out a basin of water. Some of the dirty water splashed onto the man's woven rush raincoat, but he did not care.
He only needed a glance to know that this person was not here to take care of his business. He was probably just borrowing the tarp in front of his door to block the wind and rain. However, the man in the woven rush raincoat looked at him and actually said, "Excuse me!"
Old Chen impatiently glanced at him. This person's head was lowered, and his facial features could not be seen clearly. His woven rush raincoat was dripping with rain, so only the part below his nose could be seen. This was a young man with a high nose bridge and well-defined lips. He was not ugly. However, the heavy rain had disrupted his business, so Old Chen was in a bad mood. He frowned and asked unhappily, "What is it?"
The young man did not mind his bad attitude at all. He very politely smiled, and the corner of his mouth hooked up into two smile lines, "Excuse me, is Sima Buyi here?"
Old Chen was shocked and suddenly raised his head. The young man was still smiling. He still did not raise his head. There were smile lines at the corner of his lips, and there were two dimples on his cheeks. This young man was not only not ugly, he was actually quite good-looking.
The wooden basin in Old Chen's hand fell into the rainwater with a "pu" sound, and it splashed a large amount of water. Old Chen rushed forward and picked up the sharp knife that was stuck on the chopping board.
This sharp knife was used by him to slaughter fish. It was sharpened every day, and when he washed it with water just now, the blood on the knife had already been washed clean. The sharp knife in his hand shone with a cold light.
Old Chen held the knife in his hand, and without saying a word, he slashed at the young man's chest from top to bottom. It was just like how he usually cut up big fish. Even if it was a big fish that weighed more than a hundred catties, he only needed one slash to cut it from the bottom of the gills to the tail fin. Then, he would use his hand to dig out the fish float, belly, and bloody internal organs.
"Ah!"
The customers sheltering from the rain under the opposite shelter saw this scene and couldn't help but cry out in alarm.
The young man raised his head and looked at the knife that slashed down from the sky. The tip of the knife drew an arc, passing by the tip of his nose and was about to touch his chest. If it continued to slash down, it would accurately cut open his straw raincoat and his internal organs. At this time, there was still a flickering shadow in the air that hadn't disappeared.
The young man's hands stretched out from under the straw raincoat like lightning. Old Chen only felt his wrists go numb, and the young man in front of him was still standing there perfectly fine. His straw raincoat wasn't cut open, and his stomach wasn't split left and right like a big fish on a hook. The young man was still smiling and said with a smile, "Looks like he's still here, right?"
When he spoke, he raised his head. Old Chen saw that this handsome young man seemed to have an eye disease, and his eyes were a little red and swollen. Old Chen looked down at his chest again. His hand was still tightly holding the knife hilt, but the foot-long knife had already pierced through the gap of the third rib on his chest.
Old Chen had killed people before, even though he had killed more fish. If he hadn't killed people before, he wouldn't have acted so decisively and fiercely. That was why when he saw that knife, he knew that he was about to die. He raised his head, and his eyes were like the eyes of those dried fish hanging under the shed to dry. They bulged out as he stared at the man in the straw raincoat.
The man in the straw raincoat was currently walking into the house. As he walked, he said to himself, "He actually really was hiding here! This is a lawless place, a lawless person! "
When Old Chen heard these words, he suddenly wanted to laugh. A lawless person had already been killed by you, so who were you?
The fishmongers under the opposite shed and at the other stalls all looked over in shock. Some of them had already nervously picked up knives and harpoons.
Old Chen swayed a little, and with a splash, he fell into the dirty sewage. He was washed away by the flowing rainwater and floated out of the shed bit by bit, moving in the direction of the drainage ditch.
A moment later, the sound of shouting and fighting came from Old Chen's shed. Because there was no business because of the rain, Old Chen had already closed the door planks, leaving only the entrance and exit door open. At this moment, there was a loud bang. The door planks were hit by a huge force and suddenly burst open. The slot at the bottom of the door planks was also broken. The row of door planks slammed into the puddles of water, splashing onto the faces of the onlookers who looked as if they had seen a ghost.
The onlookers were shocked to see a limp body, as if all the bones in its body had been broken, roll out several times from the tilted door planks. Its head fell into the water, and its feet rested on the door planks, and it stopped moving. Then, the man in the straw raincoat walked out step by step. His head was still lowered, and still no one could see his appearance.
The man in the straw raincoat walked forward step by step in the roiling muddy water. He had a feeling that his blood was swelling. This was what he had yearned for the most in his youth, but how long had it been since he had this feeling?
He was a wanderer in the city, hiding in the streets and alleys, free and unrestrained. Later, he discovered that his martial strength was not even worth mentioning compared to the great power of the government. For revenge, in order to grasp even greater power, he decisively threw himself into the officialdom.
But after being an official for so long, he had been stuck in a pile of rules all day. He had almost forgotten this simplest and most effective method. As a result, he was always restricted by the rules and had to follow them. Even things that could be resolved without using the rules, he was used to using methods within the rules to resolve them.
The terrifying consequences of almost being blinded and Sima Buyi's threat to an innocent child had aroused the viciousness in his heart. Today, he was once again Feng Fu, and his heart was truly carefree!
At the same time, and most importantly, the killing on the streets of Fish Market had broken the shackles in his heart. Wanderers used their martial strength to break the law, and officials used their power to maintain the law. These were originally two conflicting and incompatible aspects. When he was a wanderer, he stood against the government. When he became an official, he abandoned the actions of a wanderer. Now that he could break this shackle, he was both an official and a wanderer. In the future, what in the world could restrain him?
Lightning flashed in the sky like a purple python, and then a bolt of lightning struck down, causing the earth to tremble violently. The man in the straw raincoat suddenly laughed loudly in the thunderstorm, reciting, "I killed someone on the streets of Fish Market, the heavens poured rain to wash away the mortal world. Do not ask about other people's business, Jing Keyuan and Qin Wuqing …"
The man in the straw raincoat waded through the rain, his steps becoming larger and larger. As if he was cleaving through the waves, he walked toward the end of the long street. Many pairs of eyes looked at him from under the sheds of different heights. There was fear, bewilderment, and viciousness, but no one dared to charge up.
The man in the straw raincoat walked as if there was no one around him. Amidst his loud laughter, he disappeared into the misty rain …
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