Chapter 35: Punishment

  A group of ruffians were making a racket in the room, Yang Yun glanced at the large hall outside, where over a dozen people were eating and drinking while keeping an eye on the private room's movements. They should be the followers and guards brought by those ruffians. Without making a sound, he pulled Meng Chao out of the wine house.

  That group of people shouted and drank for half a day, finally stepping out of the wine building with red faces and ears, surrounded by followers in front and behind.

  As soon as he stepped out of the door, a nimble young servant in a hemp garment rushed towards him from the street ahead, with several sturdy men shouting and chasing after him.

  "You scoundrel, quickly return the money pouch you stole from my grandfather, otherwise I'll beat your bones to pulp!" A loud shout scared several rascals into trembling.

  "What a sturdy and robust fellow."

  Four men chasing thieves lined up in a row, rushing wildly on the street, each with a tall and sturdy build, their movements stirring up strong winds, pedestrians and vendors scurrying to get out of the way.

  They drew near, and saw that the four men were all dark-faced, with a steel needle-like mustache. A wicked-looking young man whispered: "What fierce-looking four big men, are they four brothers?"

  One of the guards saw the thief rushing towards him and stretched out his hand to block him, shouting: "Are you blind? Where are you going?"

  The thief chuckled and the guard's eyes blurred for a moment, feeling a gust of wind by his side, and when he looked again, the thief was gone.

  The guard was stunned, but the onlookers saw clearly that the little thief somehow slipped past him and disappeared into the crowd.

  Four sturdy men rushed over at full speed, shouting loudly: "Hand over the thief!"

  A young master in brocade clothes was about to speak when a purse suddenly appeared in his hand.

  "Brothers, I'll give you the money, I'm leaving first!"

  "It was an accomplice!" The most powerful man didn't say a word, stretched out his hands and pulled them apart, the two followers spun around like waves and fell out, then a punch hit the face of a villain.

  "Ah!" The rascal who was hit let out a miserable cry and fell to the ground. This move was like stirring up a hornet's nest, as the attendants and guards rushed over with red eyes, surrounding the four big men in a circle.

  A group of sheep can't defeat a fierce tiger. Four big men charged left and right, and in no time, they knocked down a bunch on the ground. When the four big men fought the followers, they still had some measure, but when they attacked those evil young men, their fists landed squarely, beating them until they cried out in misery.

  "Do you know who my dad is? Dare to hit me?" The white young master covered his cheek and shouted angrily, the pockmarks on his face were red with rage.

  It's better not to open your mouth. As soon as he finished saying this, the burly man who hit him first glared over with a menacing gaze, "Afraid of you? Even if Grandfather kills you with one knife, gets on the boat and returns to Daliang, can your family catch up with me at sea?"

  Bai Mazi was stared at by Da Han's fierce gaze, his whole body trembling with fear, and he didn't dare say a word.

  The big Han had a burst of anger, swung his palm and slapped over a loud slap, with a crisp sound, Bai Mazi spat out a mouthful of blood, along with two yellow teeth, and the subsequent mournful howl was accompanied by crying sounds.

  Yang Yun, disguised as a thief, hid aside and shook his head secretly.

  "Lao Meng is still soft-hearted, taking advantage of this opportunity to take Bai Mazi's life wouldn't be a clean move?"

  Yang Yun thought so, but he wouldn't dare to take the place of the chef. Seeing a villain sneaking over this way, he secretly stretched out his foot and kicked him. This kick already contained the hidden strength of the Jingyuan Huajing Jue, and he thought: "There must be someone who is more seriously injured than Bai Mazi, to confuse the target."

  The young villain was hiding and stealing, when he suddenly felt severe pain in his leg, which had already been kicked to the point of fracture. He let out a miserable cry, but before he could finish, Yang Yun punched him on the bridge of his nose, causing tears, blood, and snot to flow freely, and the second half of his miserable cry was cut short as he fainted abruptly.

  Hearing that faint cry of pain, Yang Yun felt a sense of satisfaction in his heart. "Just now, the big beauty and little beauty were shouting the loudest, it was you, not hitting you those two times for nothing."

  The four burly men were Meng Chao, Yang Yue, Chen Hu and Lian Pingyuan. They were in the midst of a heated fight when they suddenly found that everyone was either lying down or running away, and there wasn't a single person left in front of them. Only then did they stop their fists and take large strides to leave, and seeing their ferocious appearance, no one on the street dared to block their way.

  They slipped into a small alley that had been reconnoitered earlier, and in a deserted corner, the four of them met up with Yang Yun, who had arrived ahead of time.

  "Haha, that's great, this group of bastards is just begging to be beaten, Cloud Brother's idea is too awesome!" Chen Hu said with a big laugh.

  "Hurry up and pack," Yang Yue urged.

  Yang Yun simply took off her hemp garment, wiped her face and that was it.

  The other four people took off their outer coarse cloth garments, revealing the layered cotton padding inside, and pulled each other down.

  Stuff it into the pile of clothes.

  Meng Chao was the tallest, with the least amount of cotton padding. The other three still had bricks tied to their feet, which made them look roughly the same height as Meng Chao.

  Finally, he used his removed clothes to wipe his face vigorously, removing the black oil and fake beard together, revealing his true appearance.

  He flipped over the wall of the courtyard, casually tossing his clothes into a dry well, thinking that even if this family discovered it, they wouldn't dare make a sound, then walked through the yard and left from the other side.

  The streets were already in an uproar, with a large group of constables and bailiffs surrounding the scene of the incident, making it impossible to get through. Yang Yun and his five companions had made their way through several courtyards and emerged onto the street on the outer perimeter, blending in with the crowd of onlookers. Even if the constables saw them, they wouldn't have suspected that these rough-looking men were the culprits, given how different they looked from one another.

  The only one with a similar build was Meng Chao, who wore an authentic xiucai (scholar) green robe and had a thick face.

  Yang Yun looked at Meng Chao and laughed, never expecting Old Meng to be so good at pretending, truly people are not what they seem.

  Watching the group of evil young men being carried away in tears, the five of them left with satisfaction. Along the way, they heard passersby discussing the incident with schadenfreude, mostly saying that the good guys from Beiliang were too lenient and should have killed a few of these troublemakers, it seems that this group of evil young men was hated by everyone in Fengming Prefecture.

  Several of them came from extraordinary families, and the one who was killed by Yang Yun was still the nephew of the county magistrate.

  As the sky was getting late, the five of them found an inn to rest. Yang Yun and Meng Chao were going to Haitian Academy the next day, while Yang Yue and Chen Hu accompanied each other back to Jinghai County. Lian Pingyuan, on the other hand, had to stay in Fengming Prefecture for a while to take care of some business along the way.

  After dinner, Yang Yun returned to his room after a comfortable hot bath in the guest house and took out the Tiangou stone bracelet to ponder.

  Today, the black stone on the bracelet had a feverish phenomenon. At that time, Yang Yun was busy punishing the evil young man, but he still kept the reaction of the bracelet firmly in mind.

  Yang Yun has now confirmed that the joys and sorrows of the people around him are the cause of the Black Stone Fever. However, the thirteen black stones each have their own separate triggers and do not all become feverish at the same time.

  "This one, that group of rascals laughed the most fiercely. This one, when the rascals cried and wailed, was almost scorching hot, and this one, when Old Meng got angry, it was this one that burned with heat." Yang Yun distinguished them one by one.

  "Ah, a total of thirteen black stones, just matching the seven emotions and six desires. From now on, this treasure will be called the Seven Emotions Six Desires Pearl."

  Although the Seven Emotions Six Desires Pearl doesn't seem to have any divine effects yet, Yang Yun believes that this peculiar treasure definitely has great potential to be tapped. For now, he can at least use it to sense other people's emotions, which is also a pretty good use.

  After studying the Seven Emotions Pearl, I continued to cultivate the Night Moon True Classic all night and went out in the morning feeling refreshed and invigorated.

  After having breakfast, Yang Yue and Chen Hu took the silver back home. Yang Yun and Meng Chao settled the bill at the inn and learned that the Haitian Academy was in the east of the city. The two set off together.

  The Haitian Academy is adjacent to a small mountain in the east of the city, covering a large area, almost enclosing half of the mountain foot. From a distance, I saw a pavilion on the top of the mountain, and when I asked people for directions on the road, they all pointed to this pavilion, it seems that this is also a symbol of Haitian Academy.

  The Hai Tian Academy was quite famous in southern Wu, and people like Yang Yun and Meng Chao came to study here almost every day. There were special staff responsible for receiving them, collecting a tuition fee of two taels from the two men, and then smilingly taking them to a group of houses.

  "It's almost the end of the month, so the tuition for these few days won't be counted. Starting from July 1st, each person will have to pay an additional 3-4 silver coins at the beginning of every month. The college provides meals, but clothes need to be washed by oneself or one can spend some money and there are also laundry servants here." The college's administrator introduced this way.

  Yang Yun let out a soft sigh, it was just this three to five taels of silver every month that could have worried her former self and the whole family to death. Now with just the money on herself, she could stay at the most famous academy in the prefecture for two years, and this was still under the circumstances where she had entrusted a large part of the money to her second brother to bring back home.

  "Is there still an eastern-facing study room available?" Yang Yun asked.

  "They're all fully occupied, this year being a big comparison year, and especially many students have moved in. This is still the newly expanded school building half a year ago, otherwise each room would have to squeeze in three people."

  Yang Yun had to choose a room in the not-too-large dormitory, the room had two beds, a square table, two chairs, there was a lamp on the table but no oil, and a small window facing west.

  "It seems that I'll have to find another place to practice the Moon Flower True Classic at night, if there isn't a suitable one, then I'll go rent a house." Yang Yun thought to himself, throwing his luggage into the room and heading to the school with Meng Chao.