Chapter 25: Secretly Tearing Tickets

  Just as Feng Shiyu was following Ma Fei's letter, putting the fifty silver dollars into a cloth bag and placing it under the old elm tree by the bamboo forest at the edge of the paddy field before the first watch, a pair of greedy eyes had been waiting for a long time under a mound of earth overgrown with weeds in the distance. Those eyes were fixed on the movement under the old elm tree, like a hunter waiting for his long-awaited prey to appear.

  Those eyes were none other than Zhao Erhu.

  Zhao Erhu followed the request of his second brother, Ma Fei, and brought the extortion letter written by Ma Fei himself. Under the cover of night, he sneaked into Chengguan Village. In the village, he also met some people, but no one paid attention to this half-grown child. Usually, there were many children of Zhao Erhu's age in the village, and it was dark, so who would notice him?

  Zhao Erhu wandered around the village for a while before arriving at the gate of Feng Shiyu's courtyard. At that moment, he saw Feng Shiyu leaning against the doorframe with his wife, looking out towards the village entrance and calling out the name of his son, Feng Dengke. He determined that this old man was indeed Feng Dengke's father, but didn't dare to linger at the gate and instead walked past Feng Shiyu as if nothing was wrong.

  Feng Shiyu would never have imagined that just as he was looking out for his son Feng Dengke, who had not yet returned home, one of the kidnappers who had just participated in kidnapping his son calmly walked past him under his nose.

  Just as Feng Shiyu was waiting for his son Feng Dengke and old servant Wang Shoulin to return home, he turned around in disappointment and returned to his own courtyard. At that moment, Zhao Erhu turned back from the front of a neighbor's house, saw that Feng Shiyu had gone back inside, and quickly walked to the front of Feng Shiyu's house. He peeked through the half-closed door gap and found that Feng Shiyu and his wife were walking into the house. He hastily pulled out the blackmail letter from his pocket and stuffed it through the door gap. Then, he looked around in all directions, saw no one behind him, and hurriedly left the entrance of the Feng family's courtyard.

  After sending the letter, Zhao Erhu let out a sigh of relief. As he walked out of the village and stood on the ridge of the rice paddy again, he couldn't help but burst into laughter. "Haha, Old Man Feng, you're so rich! If only you were like me, Zhao Erhu, with nothing to your name, just a poor wretch, who would dare to meddle in your affairs? This is all your own doing, and it's only right that we poor devils get a share of yours. Otherwise, heaven wouldn't be fair. Hehe, Ma Erge is really something, this idea of his is even better than my thievery, soon I'll have 50 big silver dollars!"

  Zhao Erhuo thought the more beautiful, the faster his footsteps became, and soon he walked to a tree near the brick kiln. Standing under the tree, looking back, behind him was a paddy field reflecting water light in the night color. Except for a few dog barks coming from the front of Chengguan Village, no one was found.

  However, Zhao Erhu was still uneasy and walked around the brick kiln in a circle to confirm that no one was following him. He then crouched down and entered the abandoned brick kiln.

  "Big Brother, Second Brother. I put the letter under their doorstep." Zhao Erhu said as soon as he entered the brick kiln, to Li Guoting and Ma Fei who were anxiously waiting for news from him.

  "Hope no one has found out?" Li Guoting asked with concern.

  "No one has found out. I've been careful." Zhao Erhu said.

  "Alright. Third brother, you've done well." Ma Fei said.

  "Lao Er, what should we do next?" Li Guoting asked.

  Ma Fei did not immediately respond to Li Guoting, but instead stepped out of the brick kiln and stood at the entrance of the abandoned brick kiln overgrown with weeds. He looked around in all directions, then raised his head and gazed up at the sky above him. The deep sky was filled with countless twinkling stars, but there was no moonlight to be seen.

  Like an astronomer, Ma Fei gazed at the stars in the sky for a while, then turned around and said to Li Guoting who followed him out of the brick kiln: "Brother, it's still some time before the first watch. Let's take a rest first, and later we'll let Erhu hide in that bamboo forest. Wait for Old Man Feng to bring the ransom."

  Li Guoting nodded and said, "Second brother, what you said makes sense. Let's do it your way. To be honest, this is my first time doing something like this, I'm not confident and a bit scared. I'm asking, second brother, will the Feng family follow your plan and send the money?"

  "Big brother, don't worry, I, Ma Fei, do things with care and won't make mistakes. If it's not well thought out, then I won't do it. Can the Feng family afford to lose their son? Big brother, what is it that you want - money or your son's life?" Ma Fei said.

  "That would be taking his son's life."

  "That's right, big brother."

  "But I still have some misgivings, what if the Feng family reports us to the authorities?"

  Ma Fei furrowed his brow and said, "I bet he doesn't dare. If he really dares to report to the authorities, we'll take care of these two and let him bring the officials to carry away his son's corpse. As long as it's past midnight and Third Brother hasn't brought back the silver, we'll make our move."

  Li Guoting didn't say anything else and turned around to walk into the brick kiln.

  "Brother, come here." Li Guoting called out to Zhao Erhu as he walked into the brick kiln.

  Zhao Erhu walked up to Li Guoting: "Big brother, is there something?"

  "I'm afraid I'll have to trouble you again," said Li Guoting.

  "What's going on?" Zhao Erhu asked.

  "After a while, go back to the bamboo forest again. After one more watch, retrieve the ransom silver from under the old elm tree at the Feng's house."

  Zhao Erhu heard this and pouted his mouth, saying: "Big brother, I've already taken a risk running once. I'm not going."

  "Third brother, you'd better go. Your legs are quick and your hands are fast, in this aspect, neither I nor the eldest brother can compare to you. Just trouble you to run an errand." At some point, Ma Fei also walked up beside Li Guoting, he interjected.

  "Since both of you are saying that, I'll have to make another run. However, I'm warning you guys, if I get caught, don't just run away with your tails between your legs, you have to rescue me! If you don't save me, I'll turn you two in!" Zhao Erhu said.

  "Go on, go on, nothing will happen. If you get caught, we'll definitely rescue you." Li Guoting said with a smile.

  "Big brother, you'd better not be joking. If you don't save me, you'll be the ones in trouble." Zhao Erhu seemed to be going to his doom rather than to fetch the ransom.

  After Zhao Erhu left, Ma Fei said to Li Guoting: "Big brother, you watch those two. I'll go outside and keep an eye out for us." With that, he walked out of the brick kiln.

  Zhao Erhuo arrived at the side of the bamboo forest in the dark, found a mound covered with weeds nearby, climbed up, and quietly gazed at the old elm tree in front of him, waiting for the Feng family to bring the ransom silver as soon as possible.

  As expected by Ma Fei, Old Feng arrived at the old elm tree before the first watch, carrying a cloth bag filled with silver coins. He looked around cautiously and didn't see anyone, so he put down the bag of silver coins under the tree, praying that the kidnappers wouldn't harm his son, tears streaming down his face as he left.

  Old Man Feng had just left for a short while, Zhao Erhu, who was hiding under the pile of soil, looked around and confirmed that there was only Old Man Feng alone, with no ambush. As soon as Old Man Feng's figure disappeared into the night, he quickly got up, ran to the old elm tree, grabbed the cloth bag containing silver coins on the ground, and ran into the bamboo forest.

  After circling around in the bamboo forest, Zhao Erhu confirmed that no one was following him, and only then did he feel at ease carrying the bag of silver coins back to the brick kiln.

  "Big brother, second brother. Old Man Feng really did send the silver dollars on time." Zhao Erhu tried to conceal his inner excitement as he spoke to Li Guoting and Ma Fei who were waiting for him.

  "That's great! We succeeded." Li Guoting also exclaimed excitedly.

  Ma Fei took a candle from the horseback of Feng Dengke, lit it with a match, and shone it on the bag of silver coins on the ground. He nervously untied the rope tied to the pocket, reached in and grabbed a handful of silver coins, looked at them, and a triumphant smile appeared on his face.

  "Big brother, what about these two?" Zhao Erhu turned his head and looked at the corner of the brick kiln where Wang Shoulin and young master Feng Dengke were tied up.

  "You go and release them. Since we've taken their ransom money, let's not make things difficult for them anymore." Li Guoting said.

  Zhao Erhu was about to move forward and release the person according to Li Guoting's instructions.

  Ma Fei, who was standing beside him, turned his eyes and pulled Zhao Erhu with one hand, saying: "Third brother, don't be in a hurry, wait for a while." Then he turned to Li Guoting and said: "Big brother, you take the silver yuan and leave first. We can't stay here for too long. These two men, I'll handle them with Erhu, you just don't care about it."

  Li Guoting turned around and looked at Feng Denglai, the young master of the Feng family, who was crouched on the ground in fear. He said: "You two don't have to be nervous, we don't have any bad intentions. We just want to borrow some silver from your family, and if we make money in the future, we will return it to you. In a while, they will let you go. Don't be afraid. We won't kill you."

  Feng Dengke and his old servant listened to Li Guoting's words, the two of them grumbled in their throats, wanting to say something, but their mouths were blocked, unable to speak, so they kept nodding at Li Guoting.

  "Second brother, third brother. Then I'll take the silver dollars and go first, I'll wait for you at the intersection ahead. After you release them, hurry up and come. Don't make me wait too long." Li Guoting said to Ma Fei and Zhao Erhu.

  "Don't worry, big brother. You can go now." Ma Fei said to Li Guoting.

  "Yes, big brother, this matter is for me and second brother to handle, you can go." Zhao Erhu also said.

  Li Guoting carried the bag of silver coins and turned out of the brick kiln, walking towards the outside.

  After Li Guoting left, Ma Fei called Zhao Erhu to the kiln mouth and said: "Third brother, these two people cannot be released. If they are released, we three will not make it till dawn, and we will be caught by the officials sent by the government. At that time, let alone enjoy that pile of silver dollars, even this head on our necks can't be kept."

  Zhao Erhu listened to Ma Fei's words and asked somewhat nervously: "Then Second Brother, what should we do?"

  Ma Fei wiped his chin with his hand and turned to Zhao Erhu, saying in a low voice: "We've taken care of those two."

  Zhao Erhu stared at Ma Fei in shock, understanding what he meant. He said: "Brother Two's meaning is to kill them all?"

  "Hmm, kill them and there won't be any survivors. Third brother, you think that if we let these two go according to big brother's plan, they will definitely go report to the authorities. By then, they would have described our appearances, the government would have drawn a portrait, and posted it in every village with a reward for our capture. The three of us won't be able to escape anymore. If we kill these two, even if Old Man Feng reports to the authorities, they still wouldn't know who did it or how to catch us." Ma Fei said.

  Zhao Erhu nodded and said, "Second brother is right, but earlier big brother clearly instructed us to let them go. If we kill them and big brother finds out..."

  "Hey, Third Brother, don't worry about this. Big Brother doesn't have experience. He's a country bumpkin from the mountains, not like you and me who've seen the world. He doesn't know how serious this matter is. Let's not tell him, we'll just do it and leave. If Big Brother asks, just say we let them go." Ma Fei said.

  Zhao Erhu nodded in agreement and said: "Alright, Second Brother, let's do it your way. How are we going to get started?"

  "I'll take care of the old one, you take care of the young one. Remember, don't be careless, strangle him with a rope. I'll use my dagger to take care of the old one. Be quick with your hands and feet, don't let them shout out." Ma Fei said.

  "Alright, let's do it this way. I'll deal with that little one." With that, Zhao Erhu turned around and walked towards the brick kiln.

  Ma Fei pulled out the dagger that Li Guoting had given him from his bosom, flashed it in front of his eyes, and turned around to walk into the brick kiln.