Chapter 21: The Substitute for Heaven's Punishment, the Executioner

  As soon as Skinny Monkey said that, I pretended to put down the hand I had raised. For three years, we've been together except when helping our parents with chores at home. We've never been apart, not even for a day. We're closer than biological brothers. I was just trying to scare Skinny Monkey, but I really didn't want to hit my junior brother. As soon as he said he had something to tell me, it caught my attention. So I put down my hand and asked him, "What is it, Junior Brother?"

  "Brother, do you know who we are delivering today?" said Shidi Qiuhou mysteriously.

  I shook my head and said: "Master didn't say, how would I know?"

  The thin monkey god mysteriously said: "The person we are saving today is Zhang Rentu from the county town who has been condemned to death."

  When I heard Zhang Ren's words, I was shocked. The so-called "executioner" is actually an executioner. Everyone has seen it, the executioner wears a big red robe and holds a ghost-headed knife. What everyone doesn't know is that this executioner can't be taken lightly. Most executioners are passed down from father to son or master to apprentice, but they are not biological fathers and sons, but adopted sons. Doing this job of an executioner is a loss of yin virtue, leaving troubles for future generations. Therefore, all executioners are adopted children, and the child must be extremely ugly, with a fate as cheap as grass, and the eight characters offending the lonely star. They also need to be ruthless and bold. The inside story is even more frightening, belonging to the old society's Yinmen, relying on eating dead people for food.

  Killing is not a good job, executioners all say they are substitutes for heaven to punish, the people they kill are all guilty and deserve to die. However, no one can guarantee that those who were killed were all destined to die young, there must be some innocent people among them, their souls will not disperse after death, and they will come back to haunt the executioners to avenge themselves. Therefore, in the later stages of an executioner's life, he will be harmed by vengeful spirits.

  Then the executioner had many rules, in fact, the executioner also had three ancestors, the first two are well-known, one is Fan Kuai who killed dogs, and Zhang Fei who made an oath of brotherhood in the Peach Garden. The other one that everyone definitely doesn't know is Wei Zheng, a famous minister of the Tang Dynasty. In fact, all the executioners insist that Wei Zheng is their ancestor, and many skills come from Wei Zheng's hands.

  The saying goes that the executioner's knife, the butcher's eyes, the paper cutter's craftsmanship, and the tailor's needle and thread are all people who make a living by taking lives. The executioner's knife in his hand is their means of making a living. This kind of knife is called a "thick-backed ghost-headed knife", with an extremely sharp blade. In ancient times, killing was done according to rules, divided into beheading and executing in the market, etc. Beheading refers to hanging the head on a high pole after decapitation to display to the public, while executing in the market means putting the prisoner to death in a bustling area. Before killing, they had to undergo strict training to ensure that one knife must cut at the joint of the prisoner's neck, and the severed head could not have any skin or flesh attached. In fact, at that time, beheading in the wilderness, before the execution, family members would give some money to the executioner, asking him to do it quickly and not to pull back and forth after one knife cut, which made the prisoner extremely suffer.

  When an executioner kills someone, he first drinks wine and worships the gods. The main thing is to explain that he killed the person, and it's hard to avoid killing innocent people. However, the executioner doesn't ask about the circumstances, and he doesn't want the wrongly killed person to become a vengeful ghost and come back to haunt him.

  Have you noticed? When an executioner kills someone, he always drinks a mouthful of wine and spits it onto the knife. Many people don't understand why this is done. Some say it's because they're afraid that if blood gets on the knife, it will rust. But that's not true. The reason for spitting out the wine is to ward off evil spirits.

  The wine that the executioner drinks is not ordinary wine. It's mainly made from the urine of young boys and the blood of black dogs, which has the effect of warding off evil spirits. Furthermore, when killing someone, it's always at noon, three quarters of an hour past. According to the principles of yin and yang, if you're off by even ten minutes from high noon, that's considered noon, three quarters of an hour past. At this time, the yang energy is strongest, and the yin energy disappears instantly. The person being beheaded doesn't have any yin energy left, not even enough to become a ghost.

  These years, the revolutionary party has been making a big fuss, and Zhang Renyou hasn't killed fewer people. At first, it was during the Qing dynasty that he killed, later in the Republic of China, the Republic emphasized the Three Principles of the People, using bullets to execute by firing squad. Later, I don't know what happened, but they started beheading again. It's said that beheading has a greater impact on people and can have an intimidating effect. I don't know how great this intimidation is, all I know is that when Zhang Renyou looks at me, I feel a chill on my neck. My mother often says that when making friends, you absolutely cannot make friends with executioners, because no matter how good they are, executioners will always stare at people's necks and think about how much force is needed to behead them.

  When I heard of Zhang Rentu's death, I was shocked at first, and then I had some expectations. Zhang Rentu's family is a wealthy household in the county town, not lacking in wealth. To go to his house for the funeral rites, this meal would definitely be unavoidable. In those days, there were many poor people and few rich people. When poor families asked us to perform funeral rites, even getting some plain rice balls was a luxury, let alone meat and wine. However, Master didn't care about these things, as long as someone invited him, he would go. As for the wealthy households, Master's requirement was eight dishes and eight bowls, and if we couldn't finish them, we would take them away.

  I put away the magic tools, changed into the Taoist robes that our master had made for us, and went out to take a look. Our master was already waiting there. I saw that he was wearing his usual yellow Taoist robe. Master's Taoist robe was much better than the gray cotton ones we were wearing. I walked up to him and respectfully said: "Master, the magic tools have been put away."

  "Is it that ordinary peach wood sword you're carrying?"

  I nodded and said, "Yes, Master, I don't quite understand. Why bring an ordinary peach wood sword instead of the Ba Na Fumo sword that beheads demons and monsters, or the Seven Star Sword?"

  The master said: "We are going to super relief the dead souls, let the Taoist ancestors take care of it, and not go to kill and suppress the demons, ordinary peach wood sword is enough."

  At this time, a horse carriage came over. It was a sorrel horse with a shiny coat and sturdy body, obviously well-fed. The carriage was an old-fashioned one made of wood with copper nails on the wheels, making creaking sounds as it moved. When the carriage stopped in front of us, the horse snorted and swished its tail. The coachman got down from the carriage and respectfully invited us to get on board. So, my master and I sat in the carriage, and the coachman cracked his whip and shouted, "Go!" The carriage headed towards the county town. Through conversation, we learned that the coachman was a clansman of Zhang Ren's family. Like many butchers, Zhang Ren had adopted an orphan as his own son. This adopted son was said to be very capable, with a dark complexion, red eyebrows, big mouth, and ears that stuck out - all the makings of a good butcher. However, this adopted son of Zhang Ren's was surprisingly kind-hearted and wouldn't even kill a chicken. Zhang Ren often sighed and said that his skill in butchering would be lost with this generation.

  As we were talking, we arrived at the county town. The city walls of the county town had already become dilapidated. At the gate, there were black-clad men holding guns and standing guard. They wore black clothes with white edges, tied their legs, blocked people, and asked questions. These black-clad men were not good things, deliberately making things difficult for people, and even searched the bodies of big girls and young women to take advantage of them. At the gate, two wooden cages were hung up. Upon closer inspection, I was frightened by what I saw - it turned out that they were two human heads. The faces of these two heads were ferocious and terrifying, with bloodstains on their heads and faces. The cart driver said that these people were rioters who had been killed a couple of days ago, and the county magistrate had ordered them to be hung at the gate as a warning to those who wanted to cause trouble.

  The master glanced at the human head, closed his eyes silently, and said in a low voice: "In the temple, rotten wood is used as an official, between the palace walls, birds and beasts eat salaries; those with wolf hearts and dog walks are rolling on the road, slaves and servants are governing, causing the country to be ruined, and the people to suffer."

  The driver of the carriage hurriedly said, "Master Dao, Master Dao, you can't say that. If the security guards at the entrance hear it, they'll arrest us and we'll go to jail. Please, Master Dao, let's talk about this in a place where there are no people."

  The master said: "This sentence was said by Zhuge Liang in those years, don't say it, don't say it."

  We arrived at the city gate, a black dog spoke loudly to us: "Halt, undergo inspection."

  The coachman hastily got down from the carriage, said something to the black dog's ear, and then the black dog raised his hand and let us go. We drove into the county town in the carriage. The county town was not very big. The carriage went along the main road of the county town, turned east at a corner, and entered a street. Actually, the county town had a distinction between east and west. The eastern part was where the wealthy families lived, and the county government and security team were also in the east. The western part was where the poor people lived, and it was like two different worlds in one county town.