Chapter 204: The Group Price
“This is Heaven’s will, a calamity to collect souls,” an older rider said with a sigh. “I hear Hebei and Shanxi are in chaos too.”
“Everyone, eat and drink. Rest well, and then we’ll be on our way!” The speaker was tall and sturdy, yet very young, around twenty-four or twenty-five, with sharp eyebrows and tiger-like eyes, a handsome figure. Once he spoke, the others fell silent, clearly indicating he was the leader of the group.
Someone immediately instructed the waiter to prepare food. This place only served coarse fare like flatbread, hard buns, and pickled vegetables with soy sauce and garlic. There were no vegetables, and certainly no meat. In a year of disaster, even the flatbread commonly eaten by local farmers had become coarse and black, mixed with who knows how much grass roots and tree bark. It was black, hard, and dry. Not just the three women, but even the other riders ate with grimaces, having to wash it down with tea.
The young woman who had just spoken couldn’t help but frown as she ate. After a few bites, she put it down and refused to eat anymore.
“Hurry up and eat. There’s still something to eat here. Further on, who knows if we’ll have to eat human flesh,” the young leader said with a grin, an indescribable gloom in his voice.
The words “eat human flesh” blew through the mat shed like a cold wind, making everyone’s hair stand on end and dispelling any feeling of warmth.
“You… you’re joking, right…?” the young woman forced a smile.
The middle-aged man with a local accent said, “Something like that happened here during the war more than ten years ago. They used dead human flesh as filling for buns. It was later exposed and the local magistrate had them arrested. I heard they were sentenced to death by a thousand cuts.”
The young woman’s face showed a look of disgust. She glanced at the food on the table again—it was all vegetarian, so there probably wasn’t any human flesh.
The group stopped talking and buried their heads in their food. The young leader ate while keeping an eye on the outside of the shed, as if waiting for someone.
After the time it takes to eat a meal, another person came in from outside, dressed like a small merchant. He looked around, then headed straight for the two tables where the riders were sitting.
“Excuse me, sorry to bother you,” he said with a smile to the middle-aged man with the local accent. “It’s so hot. You’ve all worked hard.”
The middle-aged man, surprisingly, didn’t mind and let him sit down.
A waiter came over, and the small merchant said with a smile, “A bowl of water will be fine. Nothing else.”
A bowl of plain water was free at the tea shed, so of course, the waiter didn’t have a very pleasant expression. He brought over a large, coarse, black-glazed bowl filled with water. The small merchant repeatedly expressed his thanks, took out a piece of cornbread as black as mud from his pocket, and ate it with the water.
“Still doing business outside in the scorching summer? That’s really tough.”
“I don’t eat if I don’t work for a day,” the merchant said.
“This Yizhou is a dead land now. What kind of business are you doing here?” the middle-aged man said with a cold laugh.
“It’s just a small business, seeking a small profit. It’s embarrassing to even mention it to you masters,” the merchant said with a smile. “I rely on my legs to make a living.” As he spoke, he drew a symbol on the table with his chopsticks.
The middle-aged man’s eyes flickered, and he glanced at the young leader. The young man nodded. The middle-aged man immediately laughed heartily. “You say you’re making a living, but you can’t even afford a cup of tea.” He immediately picked up the teapot and filled his bowl with tea.
“Thank you for your kindness, master,” the merchant said with a smile, picked up the tea bowl, and finished the black cornbread in a few bites with the tea. He thanked them and left.
The merchant walked along the official road for two or three li, then turned onto a small path by the side of the road. He sat down in a small grove and fanned himself with his straw hat. Before long, the group of riders who had been resting at the tea shed followed his tracks.
The two parties did not speak. The merchant led the way in front, walking with swift steps. He soon led the riders to an ordinary small farmhouse. Before they could knock, the door opened on its own.
The small courtyard was in an extremely secluded location, surrounded by woods on three sides and facing a small river on one side. Beyond the woods was a vast field. It was completely invisible from the main road, and once the green sorghum grew tall, it would be almost completely hidden.
When the riders entered the courtyard, they found an ordinary farmhouse. There were three low houses with thatched roofs and rammed earth walls. The courtyard was scattered with wheat straw and farm tools. A stone mill stood in the corner of the courtyard. It looked like the home of an ordinary middle-class farmer, but it was not.
“Please come inside, everyone,” the merchant said after knocking gently on the door.
Upon entering the house, they found that these small huts, though shabby on the outside, were like the home of a wealthy family on the inside. The so-called earthen walls, broken bricks, and thatched roof were just a deceptive facade.
The floor inside the house was lower than the ground outside, so it didn’t feel oppressive inside.
Not only was it luxuriously decorated, but all the furniture and furnishings were exquisite.
On the central mahogany Eight Immortals table, two tables of delicious dishes had already been prepared, with several maids waiting with ewers. Even more impressively, there were large blocks of ice in the middle of the room, emitting white mist. The group, coming in from the scorching sun, immediately felt a refreshing coolness all over.
“A simple meal, a small token of our respect,” the merchant said with a smile. “Please have some wine and food, and rest for a while. The Chief will be here to see you soon.” After speaking, he disappeared in a flash.
“Everyone, sit down,” the young leader said, greeting the others as if he were the host. “Come, come, have a seat. Don’t be polite. Eat. The dry pancakes on the road have ruined my teeth. Come, pour tea for everyone!”
The group sat down. The young girl looked at the meat dishes on the table and hesitated. The young leader laughed heartily, picked up a piece of meat, and put it in his mouth.
“Don’t worry, this is top-quality yellow beef.”
The middle-aged man whispered, “We’re just eating like this?”
“It’s fine,” the young man nodded. “Don’t drink the wine.”
They had been eating coarse food on their journey, just enough to fill their stomachs. Now, with a table of delicious dishes before them, everyone ate with gusto, like a whirlwind sweeping through the clouds. In a moment, the table was clean.
The dishes were certainly delicious, but to prepare such a feast in this disaster-stricken area of a thousand li of barren land, the host’s resources and abilities were evident.
After the feast, the merchant quietly appeared in the hall.
“The Chief is here and is waiting for you, sir.”
“Good.”
“The Chief will only see you alone, sir…” the merchant said with a smile. “Please forgive us.”
“Of course,” the young leader nodded. “Lead the way.”
The merchant led him to a side door, knocked, and pushed it open. Inside was another elegant room. Someone was already waiting inside. The man was of unremarkable appearance, around forty years old. His face exuded an unfathomable and chilling aura.
Beside him stood a red-clad young girl with her hair in a bun, carrying a long sword. On each side were eight large men, looking like stars surrounding the moon.
“This is the Soul-Searching Sword, Min Zhanlian,” the merchant reported respectfully.
“Oh,” the middle-aged man said, sizing up the visitor. “I’ve long heard of your name.”
Min Zhanlian nodded nonchalantly. “No need for pleasantries.” He showed no intention of paying his respects.
“How dare you!” the red-clad girl scolded. “You don’t even greet the Venerable One when you see him!”
Min Zhanlian sneered, took a seat on the guest’s side, and said to the middle-aged man, “Why did you want me to come this time? What do you need me to do? And who is the target?”
The red-clad girl, seeing that he was ignoring her, took a step forward but was stopped by a look from the middle-aged man.
“Young man, you have great courage. But courage and arrogance are separated by a thin line,” the middle-aged man said with feigned composure. “Our sect is in need of people, so I will not concern myself with minor details with you.”
Min Zhanlian put on an impatient expression. “Who on earth do you want to kill, old man? If you just talk about useless things, how can I give you a quote? For those of us in this line of work, time is money. I can’t chat with you. Please forgive me!”
A look of anger appeared in the middle-aged man’s eyes, but he was in need of people right now. This Min Zhanlian, known in the jianghu as the Soul-Searching Sword, was a famous assassin whose price started at one hundred taels per life. He was elusive and had many skills, so it was not easy to hire him.
“It’s this person.” He gave a signal, and someone brought over a scroll.
On the scroll was a half-body portrait of Daoist Priest Daoquan, drawn in the baimiao style.
“A Taoist priest.”
“That’s right. This person’s secular surname is Zhang, and his Taoist name is Daoquanzi,” the middle-aged man said. “He’s from Jiangnan. But his accent is very strange; I don’t know his exact origin.”
Min Zhanlian nodded in understanding and asked:
“Where is this person?”
The middle-aged man told him the location of the Taoist temple where Daoquanzi was staying.
“I’ve already sent people to watch him. We can know his movements every day.”
“Good. Now let’s talk business,” Min Zhanlian said.
“One hundred taels for one life. I’ll pay one hundred taels.”
“Heh heh, that’s the base price. How much this person’s life is actually worth, I’ll know after my people have seen him,” Min Zhanlian sneered. “Killing a farmer and killing a jianghu expert for one hundred taels each, wouldn’t I be at a great loss?”
“He’s just a Taoist priest who knows some medicine…”
“If it were that simple, why would you need to hire me? Don’t you have a few desperate men who can kill?” Min Zhanlian said with a cold laugh. Those who came to him to buy a life were either unable to do it themselves or didn’t want to show their faces. The target of the assassination was never a simple person.
In the jianghu, monks and Taoist priests were generally not to be trifled with. The other party had considerable power in southern Shandong, yet they had to go to the trouble of hiring him from a thousand li away. This so-called Daoist Priest Zhang was by no means an ordinary, kind person.
“Alright, how much silver do you want?”
“I said, I’ll decide after my people have seen him,” Min Zhanlian said. “However, I will start charging from this moment on.”
“What? You’re charging before the job is done?” the middle-aged man finally couldn’t help but question.
“Of course. My men also need to eat and drink. They can’t work on an empty stomach,” Min Zhanlian said. “My brothers are all experts with extraordinary skills, and I need their help when I work. From now on, it’s seven taels and three qian of silver per day, calculated daily.”