Chapter 40: The Rogue's Trail (Part 1)

  Xiao Ziyang took out a Tongbao coin, and the shop assistant's face showed a hint of joy. He stretched out his hand to take the purple gold Tongbao, "Sir, please wait for a moment, I'll go get your change," he said, then turned around and quickly walked towards the side door.

  After a moment, the fellow walked over quickly and handed a pouch of money to Xiao Ziyang.

  Xiao Ziyang took the money bag, opened it and found that there were actually fifty gold coins inside. However, he didn't find this strange at all. Although the official exchange rate was one purple gold coin for a hundred gold coins, in reality, due to the extreme rarity of purple gold coins, one purple gold coin could usually be exchanged for 120 gold coins. Xiao Ziyang put the money bag into his bosom and walked downstairs with a joyful expression.

  Xiao Ziyang rode his horse aimlessly on the street, pondering where he should go next to settle down.

  Suddenly, a commotion in front of him caught his attention. A group of martial artists with swords and knives were surrounding the entrance of a shop, talking to a large man wearing low-ranking military uniform.

  Xiao Ziyang was momentarily curious and walked towards the store.

  It turned out that a wealthy family was recruiting martial artists for their nursing home. Xiao Ziyang surprisingly saw a familiar face in the crowd!

  The big man sitting behind the table in charge of collecting the exam papers was actually the leader of the escort who accompanied the official returning to his hometown on the Shunhe number that Xiao Ziyang took half a year ago.

  It turned out that the surname of this returning official was Wen, and his ancestral home was in Shuangping Town, not far south of Shangyuan City. Recently, I heard that the bandit Hong Zhuo had fled to Shangyuan, fearing that the bandit would take a liking to his own daughter, so he temporarily recruited some good hands to guard the house.

  Xiao Ziyang looked at it for a moment, then prepared to ride away. Although the 20 taels of silver per month offered by the Wen family was more than double his usual wage, it was naturally not attractive to Xiao Ziyang, who had spent nearly 4,000 taels of silver in just one day today.

  Just as Xiao Ziyang was about to turn his horse around, he suddenly saw a familiar figure in the distance.

  That man was precisely the curly-bearded fellow he had met at Mingjian Pavilion.

  Xiao Ziyang dismounted his horse, feigning great interest as he approached the bearded man. He took the opportunity to carefully observe this whiskered fellow, whose extremely thick beard was truly eye-catching. With such distinctive features, if Xiao had seen him before, he would never have forgotten. However, after scouring his memory, he came up with nothing.

  Why did he feel that his sordid back, his turbid eyes, and the lewd gleam that flashed in them from time to time were all so familiar?

  Xiao Ziyang looked up at the leader of the guards, a flash of inspiration crossing his mind.

  "It's him, no mistake, it's him, Tang Zheng!"

  Xiao Ziyang suddenly realized everything. The red-robed guest was actually Tang Zheng, whom he had met by chance at the Harmony Inn and had a drink with! This person must be extremely skilled in disguise!

  On that day, on the He Shun boat, Hong Zou set his sights on a sweet and beautiful young maid in the Wen family's household. At that moment, he couldn't control his evil thoughts and was about to take action; however, the sudden appearance of a youth wearing magnificent clothes and carrying a sword startled him.

  Now thinking back to the situation at that time, Hong Zou Ke should have known that young man in Chinese tunic and was very wary of him, so he could only temporarily put aside his idea. The official with the surname Wen and the young man in Chinese tunic lived next door to each other. When they arrived at Xiang An, they got off the boat together.

  The red-clad guest was afraid of arousing suspicion from the young man in fine clothes, so he stayed on the boat. This red-clad guest must be a person with an extremely strong sense of possession. He did not give up at this point, but instead got off at the next stop and hurried back to Chuzhou; while committing crimes all over Chuzhou, he was also looking for the whereabouts of the Wen family official. And today he finally got his wish and planned to take advantage of the new guards recruited by the Wen family to sneak into the Wen mansion and commit a crime.

  At this thought, Xiao Ziyang's face revealed a struggling expression. He was already troubled himself and shouldn't have interfered with others' business, but thinking of that sweet-smiling girl being brutally murdered made his conscience feel uneasy.

  He thought to himself, if he had to watch something like this happen in order to avenge himself, then even if he were to avenge his great hatred, he would probably become an ice-cold corpse.

  Xiao Ziyang thought it through and began to consider a countermeasure.

  In an instant he had an idea, and his face suddenly revealed a fierce expression, roughly pushing through the crowd, squeezing inside.

  His behavior was met with a chorus of jeers and catcalls.

  Xiao Ziyang walked straight to the table, not saying a word, and with a backhand motion, drew out a thick-backed knife and slammed it onto the table. With a loud "crack", the table was instantly cracked open in several places.

  He lightly grasped the thick-backed knife and began to dance it on the small patch of empty space in front of the table. After a round of four flat knife moves, Xiao Ziyang's face was not red and he was not panting as he put the knife back into its scabbard. With his thumb pointing at the thick-backed knife, he proudly said: "This knife weighs 72 catties and 8 taels! 200 taels per month! If Red Silk is dead or leaves Chu Prefecture, I'll take my money and leave!"

  "Good! This hero is worth the price, I'll take it for my master. Zhao Deputy Commander, you personally escort this hero back to the mansion to see my master, arrange a good guest room and treat him well."

  A robust man with a red face walked out of the Wenfu government office, responded with a "yes", and smiled apologetically at Xiao Ziyang, saying: "This great hero, please," and then led the way to a horse-drawn carriage.

  Xiao Ziyang led his horse back, mounted it and said to Zhao Deputy Captain: "You lead the way in your carriage."

  He followed the carriage for two steps, then turned around with a self-satisfied expression on his face, looking at the crowd with a complacent smile.

  He seemed to be showing off to everyone, but in fact, all of Xiao Ziyang's attention was focused on the face of that curly-bearded guest. He saw a look of suspicion and retreat on that face. This is exactly what he wanted!

  Judging from Hong Zongke's behavior, this person is extremely cunning and cautious. At the slightest sign of trouble, he would disappear without a trace.

  A cunning person is often suspicious, so Xiao Ziyang took advantage of his feeling familiar yet unable to recall who he was, and made a high-profile appearance. He wanted to scare him off, at least not letting him mix into the crowd in the courtyard.

  Xiao Ziyang sat on his horse, looking somewhat distracted. He was thinking of a countermeasure in his mind.

  According to hearsay, the Red Cloak Guest's lightness skill is quite excellent, and he has escaped from pursuit by experts many times relying on this. As for himself, he practices external family kung fu and will not practice lightness skills.

  Hong Zou guest relied on light work, rarely fought with people, so the world didn't know how good his martial arts were. However, it shouldn't be too bad. But he was not as good as before, and had Palm Dragon, a killer move, to calculate with heart or without heart, taking him down should not be a problem.

  Shuangping Town is only thirty miles away from Shangyuan City. An hour later, Xiao Ziyang saw the Wen family official again, who was now Wen Yuanwai. Wen Yuanwai was about sixty years old, not tall, with a long beard, looking rather weak and effeminate, but his eyebrows and eyes still showed that he must have been a handsome young man in his youth.