Chapter 2: The Name of the Sword is Not Asked

  Wang Chongchuan's home was a small, solitary courtyard. Since his parents had died early and he didn't have a wife, he lived alone. After pushing open the door and entering the house, Wang Chongchuan first placed the person's head on the table, then began rummaging around the room. Before long, he found a plate of leftover rice and a few pieces of salted pork from the night before. He filled the bowl in front of the person's head with wine, and poured another bowl for himself. Raising his bowl, he smiled at the person's head on the table: "Wine companion, wine is all we have. Come, let's take a drink together first." After finishing speaking, he drained the bowl in one gulp.

  After drinking the wine in the bowl, Wang Chongchuan looked at the bowl of wine in front of him, and a strange thing happened! It was as if someone had drunk it, and it slowly sank down, disappearing into thin air!

  Wang Chongchuan looked at the empty bowl in front of him and burst out laughing, stretching out his thumb: "Good drinker, refreshing! It seems that you are also a connoisseur of wine!" After finishing speaking, he patted the wine jar on the table: "Don't look at our humble dishes, but this jar of wine is authentic Erxianju old cellar! How's it? Enough kick? Come on, have some more?" He then refilled the bowl in front of him.

  But this time, the man's head didn't drink from the bowl again. Instead, it suddenly turned ferocious. With a mouthful of air, he spat out a mouthful of thick black blood, which landed right in the bowl!

  Girl, if a normal person saw this situation at that time, I'm afraid it wouldn't be just a fright, but also a faint. But Wang Chongchuan is now really drunk and confused, actually taking the human head in front of him as a real person. Seeing him waste such good wine, without saying another word, he slapped the table with a loud "pa": "You damn thing, what? You think my wine and dishes are not good enough? You son of a turtle, wasting things like this, watch me not chop you up!"

  As soon as the words were spoken, this man's head was raised with a scowl and glaring eyes, revealing white teeth stained with blood. A chilling sound like bone scraping against bone echoed faintly: "I died unjustly! I died unjustly!"

  Wang Sigou took a light sip of wine, raised his eyes and looked at him with disdain: "Fart, who died unjustly in this world? What's the fuss about! Even if I don't kill you, there are others who will come to kill you, that's fate! Do you understand?"

  That man stared at him with his eyes wide open, not answering, just staring straight at him. Wang Chongchuan looked at him with a bear-like expression, feeling very displeased in his heart, and slammed the bowl: "I'm telling you, you stupid ass, are you going to drink or not? If you don't drink, get out of here! Looking at this useless thing, I'm getting annoyed!"

  That man finally stopped staring at him, let out a long sigh, and honestly drank the wine in his bowl. Wang Chongchuan then turned his anger into laughter: "Damn it, you're just a good-for-nothing. Isn't this just right? If you die early, you'll be reborn, they say there's a reincarnation, you little devil are running faster than others by one step, what more do you want? Come on, let's have another round." After finishing speaking, he picked up his wine bowl and clinked it with the person in front of him.

  This man listened to him finish, almost spitting out a mouthful of old blood again. Facing such a confused person, what can you do? Just like this, one bowl for you and one bowl for me, we drank the whole jar of wine clean!

  I don't know how many bowls I drank, but eventually the wine overpowered me and I fell to the table with a thud. The next day, Wang Chongchuan woke up to find it was already broad daylight. Now his head was throbbing with a hangover, almost splitting in two. He lay on the table, rubbing his temples, looked out the window, and sighed inwardly: people say that being greedy for cups leads to trouble, it seems today's business is not going to work out. So he stretched his waist, slowly sat up, and as soon as he got up, Wang Chongchuan saw a bloody head on the opposite side of the table!

  At that time, I was so scared that I let out a loud "ahh" and fell backwards onto the ground. I crawled to the bed on all fours, holding onto the bedside and couldn't get up no matter what. All I felt was a warmth in my crotch, and a stream of yellow urine flowed out from my pants leg. After this stream of urine came out, I calmed down a bit. I snuck a glance at the table, but was so scared that I quickly closed my eyes again. In my heart, I thought: "My god, what's going on? Where did this dead person's head come from?" So I tried to recall what happened yesterday, but now my brain is all muddled and I couldn't think of anything.

  At this moment, someone outside the door knocked on the door: "Is Wang Er Tuo at home? Come out quickly to receive the reward." Wang Chongchuan was so scared that his whole body trembled and he wondered in his heart: What kind of reward is this? Now there is a bloody head on the table at home, if someone sees it and tells the government, how can I survive? Even if my whole body were a mouth, I couldn't explain it clearly! Thinking of this, he quickly held his breath and remained silent, not daring to make any noise. The person outside called for half a day, but no one answered. Feeling impatient, they saw that the door was locked from the inside and assumed there was someone in the house. So they lifted their foot and kicked the big door open.

  With a loud thud, this one kick almost scared Wang Chongchuan to death! His body uncontrollably shook violently, and his foot kicked the leg of the table. The person's head on the table was shaken off and fell to the ground, rolling to Wang Chongchuan's side. Wang Chongchuan was so frightened that he quickly withdrew his hand, and after reacting, he hurriedly wanted to find a tattered cloth to cover it up, but it was too late. Just then, two men dressed as officials walked into the courtyard with an air of arrogance.

  Wang Chongchuan stared straight at the two of them, thinking to himself: It's all over, it's all over. The government officials have come to arrest people, and I'm in this mess too - even jumping into the Yellow River won't wash me clean! As he spoke, the two officers entered the courtyard, originally intending to give Wang Chongchuan a warning shot, to "get" some hush money first. But as soon as they saw the scene inside the house, the two of them were suddenly frightened, feeling their own legs go weak and tremble. All they saw was Wang Chongchuan holding someone's head in his hand, staring angrily at the two of them with a blank expression! The two of them immediately shrank back, cold sweat breaking out on their spines.

  The two of them were secretly worried, thinking to themselves: "My goodness, this guy won't become a bloodthirsty killer, will he?!" A slightly older official hastily nodded and bowed, walking over with his hands clasped together: "So the Second Butcher brothers are at home, huh?" After finishing speaking, he glared at the young official beside him, then looked at Wang Chongchuan and smiled: "This kid is new here, handling things in a rough and unrefined way. Don't bother with him, Second Butcher brothers, I'll make sure to discipline him properly later." He then hastily put on a foolish smile.

  The young official heard this and secretly scolded in his heart: You old fox! This 'door' was obviously kicked by you, how could you shift the blame to me? However, he didn't dare speak out. Smelling the bloody smell in the house and looking at Wang Chongchuan holding a human head on the ground, he felt a chill run down his spine, just hoping to get things over with quickly and leave as soon as possible. The older official saw that Wang Chongchuan didn't respond, so he awkwardly smiled again: "Second butcher brother, we two brothers came specifically to congratulate you." After finishing speaking, he dryly laughed and walked to the 'door', but refused to enter the house.

  Wang Chongchuan was dazed at this moment and didn't hear clearly what the two men were saying, so he didn't know how to respond. After using a lot of effort, he finally squeezed out an "ah". The man came to the door, quickly squatted down, smiled and placed the tray in his hand on the threshold. He wiped the cold sweat from his face with his sleeve, then smiled and said: "Yesterday, Brother Wang showed great power at the execution ground, making people admire him greatly. My master liked it even more, so early this morning he ordered us to come and give you a reward and a letter of appointment. Here are five taels of silver, please accept them." After finishing speaking, the two men didn't wait for Wang Chongchuan's response and quickly turned around and left, as if they were fleeing for their lives.

  Yesterday's execution grounds! These four words suddenly stirred up Wang Chongchuan's memories! Instantly, he felt a pang of regret in his heart. Without saying another word, he slapped himself twice. In his mind, he cursed: "Wang Chongchuan, ah Wang Chongchuan, your ancestors were all honest craftsmen! How did it come to this generation, and you're involved in the business of killing people? Who gave you such great audacity?! The more he thought about it, the angrier he became, the more regretful he felt. Losing control of his emotions, he slapped himself again, slapping his ears more than a dozen times!

  But regret is just regret, this thing has been done, what's the use of regretting now? Wang Chongchuan wiped away his tears and knelt down, heavily kowtowing three times to the person on the ground, muttering: "Brother, yesterday I, Wang Chongchuan, was blinded by evil intentions and took your life. Now it's too late for regrets! I will definitely buy a good coffin and find a auspicious burial site to lay you to rest, brother, so you can go in peace." After saying this, he got up, and only then did he pick up the silver and betrothal gifts from the ground.

  To be honest, Wang Chongchuan was extremely unwilling to take on this task, but he had no choice. If he refused, his own life would be over. Firstly, this was an official order, and if he didn't comply, it would be considered disobedience! The punishment would be at least 80 lashes, or even imprisonment. Secondly, yesterday's incident of killing the prisoner was enough to warrant a death sentence! As a commoner, what right did he have to take someone's life? If the authorities were to investigate further, he wouldn't be able to escape unscathed. With a sigh, Wang Chongchuan resigned himself to his fate and set off towards the yamen with large strides.

  So, Wang Chongchuan became a executioner in the government office, killing people with his knife! However, this executioner not only had to be clean and efficient but also had to have the right tools for the job. Because at that time there was an unwritten rule called "following in one's father's footsteps". It meant that if the old man did a certain job, then the son would also do the same job, rarely would someone change professions or not follow in their family's trade! If they didn't inherit their family's skills, people would gossip and accuse them of being disloyal to their ancestors.

  So, under the special approval of County Magistrate Dai Lao Ye, Wang Chongchuan had a rare treasure knife made for himself! In fact, when Wang Chongchuan was making this knife, he didn't think about letting his descendants inherit the executioner's business. However, being an executioner is not something you can just quit because you want to. The saying "son inherits father's career" is most severe in this line of work, it's not that the old man forces the son to inherit, but rather the government does! Also, precisely because of this, before the Qing Dynasty, most people in this line of work were hereditary!

  Thinking of the future, Wang's family might have to accompany this knife for a long time, and he was deeply afraid of being haunted by ghosts. Therefore, Wang Chongchuan excavated three top-grade Jiangzhe Yun "Hua" steel left by his ancestors in his own courtyard, and forged a handy blade in the style of the Spring and Autumn period's cloud-backed board knife.

  The blade is two feet one inch long, three inches wide, and one finger thick. The handle is a foot long, with the "Spring Autumn Cloud Dragon" pattern on the back of the knife, and the "Wild Fire" pattern on the blade. The handle is long and curved outward, with a three-eyed ghost king pattern at the base. On the upper part of the blade are carved two ancient seals, named: "Don't Ask!"