Lord of the Desert

Chapter 469: Emptiness
September 11th.

At noon, the sun was shining brightly, and the fishy sea breeze rubbed against the fields.

Twenty miles outside Hegao County, the largest house in Xiangzhuang was sealed on all four sides by the police and turned upside down.

"Geng, don't say this house looks shabby from the outside, but inside it is filled with furnishings that only a wealthy family would have. The bed, chairs, and screens are all made of top-grade mahogany."

A short and strong constable walked through the gate laughing, carrying a thin young man in his hand.

"We found the cellar. It's in the backyard. It's full of salt bags, at least several thousand pounds. This guy is the third son of the Xiang family. He was hiding in the haystack in the corner of the stable. Luckily I had sharp eyes."

He reported quickly and threw the young man to the ground.

"Well done, you should go through each room carefully again; this case is handled by the Salt Transport Judge Qiu who asked the county magistrate to assist, there can be no mistakes or omissions!"

Geng Chi put his hand on the hilt of the knife and gave the order.

"I understand, I'll go right away."

The constable left upon receiving the order, but after a few steps he noticed a middle-aged man in brocade robe with disheveled hair kneeling on the stone bricks, looking at him coldly and sneering provocatively.

"Hey, old man, you don't plead guilty?"

He stopped and asked with his hands on his hips.

"Confess? What crime have I committed?"

The man in brocade robe asked proudly.

"You sold private salt, violated the laws of Dahua, and embezzled at least several thousand taels of salt tax. Look at all the luxury items in your house!"

The constable shouted loudly.

"Fool, how can the salt be official or private?"

The man in brocade robe had his hands tied behind his back, but there was no fear on his face.

"So what if the taxes can't be collected? It's just the difference between those ornaments being placed in the official's house or in my house. Why are you, a lowly official, so anxious?"

Hearing his old father say this, Xiang Laosan, who was lying on the ground, was so frightened that he almost stopped breathing.

The constable was naturally furious.

"You old turtle, the imperial court collects taxes for the public good, but you only seek personal gain..."

He jumped over the fence in one step, but was interrupted before he reached the person.

"I am acting in my own interests, but I am more fair than the imperial court - the people can save more than half of the price when buying salt from me than from the government."

The man in brocade robe spoke incredibly fast.

"Your merit in exterminating the salt dealers was paid for by the starving people who could not afford salt. As for the Dahua Law Society..."

He sneered.

"It's nothing more than a bloody account book of harming one person to benefit another!"

"What's wrong with you, old man?"

Xiang Laosan couldn't bear to listen any longer, he suddenly sat up and cursed in a trembling voice.

At the same time, his father was slapped to the ground by the constable.

"What do you mean by harming one person and benefiting another? Bullshit!"

The constable rolled up his sleeves and caught a glimpse of the cataract on the left eye of the man in brocade robe under his graying hair, and sneered with disdain.

"Don't say your grandfather conquered people with force, he is now arguing with you! Let me ask you, the new "Church Notice" issued at the beginning of this year stipulates that village elders who mediate disputes can be exempted from taxes and labor service. Isn't this good policy?"

"Do you know how many unjust cases have been caused by this? Just last month, Tu Si'er from Tuyan Township next door had his land seized, but in order to exempt the local sages from taxes, the lawsuit was forcibly mediated and dropped. Is this good governance?"

The man in brocade robe answered fluently without hesitation.

"In my opinion, this "Church Bull" is simply a living shackle - if a 'righteous citizen' is released on one end, a 'disobedient citizen' will be hanged on the other end, right?"

"This……"

The constable found it difficult to refute for a moment and quickly changed the subject.

"Last year, when Hanzhou suffered a major disaster, the imperial court allocated money for disaster relief. This is a good policy!"

"Oh, it's just a trick. You, a mediocre person, only see that the annual tax in the disaster-stricken areas of Hanzhou has been exempted, but where does the relief money come from?"

The man in brocade robes asked sternly, "How many times the loss is in corruption and bribery when one tael of silver is sent from the local area to the capital, and then sent back from the capital to the local area? For every household in Hanzhou that receives disaster relief money, ten households elsewhere have to pay taxes to make up for the difference!"

After eating his drink, the constable was dumbfounded and had no idea what to say.

"You, okay, okay, I can't argue with you; our Captain Geng is well-known in the local area for punishing evil and promoting good, and he advocates the Dahua Law the most. Could he also be a bad official?"

"I have also heard of Captain Geng's great name. There have been few criminal cases in Hegao County in recent years, so he is not a bad person."

The man in brocade robe glanced at Geng Chi who was standing in the distance, and spoke more slowly.

"But I just want to ask one question. Has Captain Geng been promoted in all these years of hard work? Not to mention the comparison with those officials, let's just look at Yuqiong County, thirty miles away. The unrest in the area has made the captain earn more merits. Has he been promoted before Captain Geng? Those who have done well have not moved for years, while those who have done bad things have been prosperous. Is there something wrong with this performance evaluation method?"

"You old man are really stubborn!"

The constable instinctively felt that there was something fishy in the other party's words, but he couldn't figure it out at once. He was so angry that he wanted to draw his sword, but was stopped.

"He was shackled and gagged."

He looked back and found that the captain of the police had approached him without him noticing, with an extremely embarrassed look on his face.

The heavy wooden yoke was soon brought over, and the man in brocade robe was still laughing while being yokeed.

"Lions and tigers eat meat, while cows and sheep eat grass; pine trees like cold weather, while summer violets like warmth. Everything in the world has different natures, and so do humans! The so-called moral law of mankind is nothing more than killing one and saving one..."

After dealing with Xiang Zhuang's affairs, it was already dusk when Geng Chi returned home.

The long alley was empty, with white paper money scattered all over the ground by the wind. Only the neighbor Old He was standing under the old camphor tree, staring blankly, no one knew what he was thinking.

"Lao He, why are you standing outside alone again?"

Geng Chi took two steps closer and smelled a familiar stench of decay. He saw the wall behind the camphor tree peeling off and mixed with the paper money, like the remains of insects and snakes.

Old He looked sad.

"Old Mrs. Yang is over seventy years old. She has children and grandchildren. It's a happy funeral."

Geng Chi comforted him, thinking that this neighbor was cold on the outside but warm on the inside.

Unexpectedly, Lao He's response was cold.

"Everyone is destined to die, so why should we feel happy or sad?"

Geng Chi was stunned when he heard this.

At this time, the sun was low to the roof, and the dim light cut into the alley, casting a long slanting afterglow on the wall.

"Then what are you..."

"The sun sets in vain, the moon rises in vain, and the people of the world spend another day in vain."

Lao He sneered in a low voice, casually peeled off a piece of wall, and turned to go home.

Following his figure, Geng Chi saw more than a dozen pots of green plants neatly arranged in his yard. They had just been watered and were lush and green, but he had no idea when they were planted.

······
Hong Fan spent his birthday on September 11th in a state of rushing around and flying.

On September 14, he arrived at the nineteenth place on the list, Hegao County, Zhanzhou, and finally found the combination of a hexagonal pagoda and a three-story mansion.

Hegao County is not big, with a population of only 30,000, but it is not easy to find a congenital warrior who practices "Shuyu Feiquan Classic" among 30,000 people.

Wearing the prepared coarse linen clothes, Hong Fan deliberately used coal ash to cover up some of his features - in the past two years, he had often experienced the distress of being too handsome.

According to Tai Suyan's estimation, the target will stay here until the end of September.

Compared to the others on the evil list, the Prankster has no other physical features except for a molar on his left eye. Due to his "work habits", he often changes his clothes and identities, making tracking him more difficult.

[The best entry point is the stench brought by the zombie transformation. ]

Hong Fan leaned against the street corner with his arms folded.

[In order to cover it up, he may use a lot of perfume, or live in a place that already smells bad, so you should first check for places with special smells. ]

This is actually not easy for ordinary people, but fortunately, the innate sense of smell of masters is as strong as that of a hound, and it is not too difficult to enumerate all the objects in a small county.

[In order, I first checked the charity cemetery, the medical clinic, the pig and duck farmers, the area near the manure pit, the residences of the manure workers and seriously ill patients, etc.

If none of these places are found, you can focus on perfume shops and brothels. Oh, and don’t miss out on the uninhabited houses around the county town...】

In the morning light, Hong Fan chose a good sunny spot to think, but soon he was scolded fiercely. It turned out to be a local vendor who came to compete with him for the stall.

(End of this chapter)