As the young man’s words faded, a dead silence fell over the scene.
Hu Fulai gulped, swallowing the curse that had risen in his throat. The fat on his face quivered uncontrollably.
The next mont, he rushed forward, frantically gesturing with both hands for the Patrol Police to lower their weapons.
"Down, down! Put your guns down, all of you!"
Hu Fulai practically scrambled toward the military jeep, but several ard soldiers in uniform coldly blocked his path before he could get close.
He didn’t seem angry at all. He simply stood his ground, tilted his head back, and addressed the young man in the jeep with a broad, fawning smile.
Fu Juemin couldn’t make out their words. Standing amid the crowd, he could hear the murmuring around him slowly grow into a clamor.
Soon, Zhou He also led a group of n forward, while others broke away from the crowd and ran back toward the Hu Mansion.
Before long, the street had beco a bustling scene.
A large crowd of servants and retainers arrived with torches, followed by the gentlen, ladies, and young masters and misses who had been in the Hu Family’s banquet hall.
They hurried over, so walking briskly, others breaking into a trot. Fu Guosheng was clearly among them.
The group drew near, and soon, they were escorting the uniford young man from the military jeep away.
In the blink of an eye, most of the people were gone, and the wide street was once again desolate.
At so point, Su Hui had left. Fu Juemin ordered Qian Fei and another man to take Cao Tian for dical treatnt at once, then turned his gaze to a lone figure.
Fu Juemin walked up to the figure and called out softly, "Second Uncle."
Fu Guoping didn’t turn around, his gaze fixed on a single spot.
Following Fu Guoping’s gaze, Fu Juemin saw a large, blurry patch of blood on the street ahead.
It was the woman who had called herself Wu Wanshu. After being riddled with bullets, her body had just been run over by the wheels of the military jeep and trampled by a dozen pairs of combat boots... Now, all that remained was a pile of mangled flesh, utterly beyond recognition.
In contrast to the boisterous crowd that had not yet fully departed, this bloody pile of flesh seed grotesquely absurd and ironic.
"Clean this up. Properly."
Fu Guoping suddenly called over the mbers of the Civil Affairs Bureau by his side. Several n acknowledged the order and split up to find sacks and tools.
Fu Guoping turned, and Fu Juemin saw his face was as black as a storm cloud.
Fu Juemin’s eyes shifted. He couldn’t help but ask, "Second Uncle, that man just now, Song Lin..."
"We’ll talk when we get back."
Fu Guoping cut him off.
Fu Juemin was stunned for a mont, then nodded slowly.
......
「That night.」
In the Fu Family’s study.
BANG!
Fu Guoping slamd his fist down on the solid wood tea table, sending the cups rattling and splashing tea everywhere.
"He forces his way through the city gates late at night, kills three on-duty Patrol Police, and nearly beats Lingjun to death right in front of ...
...And now he expects the Fu Family to pay him one hundred thousand silver coins in compensation?"
Fu Guoping’s face was livid as he spoke through gritted teeth.
"It’s not compensation."
Fu Guosheng, sitting in a round-backed armchair, shook his head. "As for the ’attack,’ the Special Envoy is being magnanimous and will not pursue the matter.
This one hundred thousand silver coins is a donation for disaster relief."
"Is there a difference?"
Fu Guoping sneered.
Without so much as raising his eyes, Fu Guosheng said faintly, "Even Hu Fulai donated fifty thousand silver coins."
Fu Guoping fell silent, but his face remained incredibly grim.
He snatched a teacup from the table and threw back two large gulps.
Just then, Fu Juemin, who had been sitting and listening quietly, asked, "Father, what’s the story with this Special Envoy?"
Fu Guosheng looked up at him and said slowly, "The title of Special Envoy is nothing. The main issue is Song Lin himself.
His father, Song Zhenyuan, is a Warlord. Back in the day, he almost beca the ’Emperor’ of this Southern New Dynasty.
Now, Song Zhenyuan is the Governor of Yangping Province, while also serving as its Governor and Commander."
’The son of the Governor of Yangping Province?!’
Fu Juemin’s fra trembled slightly, his face a mask of astonishnt.
"Although you were trying to save Lingjun today, you did, after all, fire a gun at him."
Fu Guosheng turned to the sulking Fu Guoping. "This Young Master Song is temporarily staying at a residence in Hu County. Go there later and donate fifty thousand silver coins as a show of good faith."
"I have no money."
Fu Guoping sneered. "I have plenty of bullets, though. Does he want so?"
Fu Guosheng wasn’t angered. He simply picked up a kraft paper envelope beside him and tossed it to Fu Guoping.
"Take a look."
With a cold expression, Fu Guoping tore open the envelope, pulled out a sheet of paper, and scanned it.
A few monts later, Fu Juemin heard his uncle’s teeth grinding audibly.
"Replaced five county magistrates while passing through eight counties!
More than thirty households ransacked and exterminated..."
Fu Guoping slamd the docunt down on the table, his knuckles rapping hard against the wood. The veins on his neck bulged as he let out a laugh born of pure rage. "This insatiably greedy beast—he’s worse than a pig or a dog! And you want to go to his door, bow and scrape, and hand him money?"
Fu Juemin quickly snatched up the docunt Fu Guoping had thrown on the table and read it carefully.
He had no idea when or how his father, Fu Guosheng, had gotten this intelligence, but the contents were utterly horrifying.
The paper detailed how Song Lin, in his capacity as the Special Envoy for Disaster Relief, had left the provincial capital of Yangping. Under the pretexts of "punishing corruption" and "incompetent disaster response," he had executed the magistrates of five different counties. On top of that, he had ransacked and exterminated over thirty households of local gentry and wealthy families, large and small.
The na he had heard earlier—Wu Yongqian, the magistrate of Qingyuan County—was right there on the list.
It seed, then, that the story about the magistrate’s daughter was true—chased through the streets in the dead of night, then sadistically toyed with and murdered by Song Lin.
’The only daughter of a county magistrate, reduced to a plaything and sadistically murdered in the street...’
For a mont, Fu Juemin couldn’t find the words to describe the absurdity of this world.
No wonder Hu Fulai was so terrified after hearing Song Lin’s na.
"Can the Xin Republic’s Central Governnt truly tolerate such lawlessness?"
Fu Juemin took a sharp breath, set the paper down, and asked with a frown.
Fu Guosheng’s face was impassive as he said in a flat tone, "For years, the wars between the Xin Republic’s Governnt and the North have never stopped. New taxes are added every year.
This year, we also have the great disaster in the Southwest, and rebel armies are rising everywhere.
The higher-ups can’t allocate funds for disaster relief or military pay to quell the rebellions. They can only rely on Song Zhenyuan’s own troops to suppress the uprisings in Yangping and the four surrounding provinces.
As long as Yangping isn’t lost, his position as Governor is as stable as Mount Tai...
Now, no matter what he does, the higher-ups will just turn a blind eye..."
Fu Juemin fell silent, his expression turning slightly solemn.
"...This Song Lin seems cruel and bloodthirsty, but in reality, he’s just after money.
Song Zhenyuan lacks the funds to pay his troops, so he specifically sent his only son down here to extort and plunder."
Fu Guosheng continued, "Tonight’s incident was just a pretext. We were just unlucky enough to be caught in the crossfire.
That person with you from the Lin Family has the Su Family backing them. Song Lin wouldn’t dare touch them.
From now on, I fear the full weight of this will fall on us..."
"We’ll just have to find a way to satisfy his appetite..."
As Fu Juemin left the study, he could still hear the sound of his uncle, Fu Guoping, smashing a teacup against the floor from behind the door.
The events of the evening flashed through his mind again and again. Lost in thought, he bumped right into Li Tong, who was walking toward him.
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