I bring bad luck to my husband, you bring bad luck to your wife.

Yang Tongshan led two horse-drawn carriages, galloping away at full speed.

They finally encountered Yang Tongchuan's team on the second day.

The situation was slightly better than Yang Tongshan had anticipated.

In this bandit suppression operation, a total of eleven people went, including Yang Tongchuan, and eight of them returned.

Of the eight, three were seriously injured, and the remaining five also sustained injuries of varying degrees.

He looked disheveled, but thankfully his arms and legs were still intact.

Yang Tongshan brought plenty of supplies with him.

The group found a nearby village, gave the village chief some money, and vacated a few rooms for the people to wash up and rest.

Yang Tongchuan's injuries were all in places that could not be seen. Not counting the bruises, the palm-width knife wound on his abdomen had just scabbed over.

Since the knife wound couldn't be exposed to water, Yang Tongshan took the initiative to help his younger brother wash his body.

It took three basins of water to finally clean Yang Tongchuan.

"Lie down here, let your older brother wash your hair." Yang Tongshan found a long bench for his younger brother to lie down on.

Just like when we were kids.

The moment Yang Tongshan saw his younger brother, he noticed that something was wrong with him.

"Were you scared?" Yang Tongshan hadn't spoken to his younger brother like this in a long time.

"Brother, I..."

I killed people, I killed a lot of them.

The daily work of constables mostly consists of patrolling, drills, and accompanying court proceedings.

It's rare to encounter a business involving murder and bloodshed.

This bandit suppression was a life-or-death struggle. When Yang Tongchuan was in a bloodthirsty frenzy, he could chop people up as easily as chopping cabbages.

The waist knife controls the brain.

Only after calming down did I realize that my back was already covered in cold sweat.

"You're a constable, you're just doing what you're supposed to do."

Many things don't need to be explained; Yang Tongshan understands them all.

Yang Tongshan untied his younger brother's hair, which was so dirty it no longer suds; it needed to be washed several times.

"No matter what you do, you must remember that you are my brother, Xuebao's father, and the second son of the Yang family. That's enough." Yang Tongshan had the words "eldest brother is like a father" firmly engraved in his bones.

My younger brother grew up under my wing, and it is my responsibility and duty as the eldest brother to take care of him and the family.

Yang Tongshan's words brought tears to the eyes of Yang Tongchuan, a grown man.

"Oh, water got in your eyes? Quick, wipe them clean." Yang Tongshan handed his younger brother a cloth.

Then he said nothing more.

The team had rested overnight and were in much better condition. Even the three who were lying in the car unable to move had regained some color in their faces.

After another day of travel, the group finally returned to Changxing County before sunset.

Upon receiving the news, the yamen notified the families of the three constables who died in the line of duty a day earlier, and the compensation would be paid out later.

Meanwhile, upon learning of the constables' return, other family members gathered outside the city gates, anxiously awaiting their loved ones' triumphant return.

Finally, the sound of the carriage wheels grew louder as it approached.

Xiangxi, holding Xuebao, finally met the person he had been longing for day and night.

Yang Tongchuan had already spotted Xiangxi, but there were still injured people on the carriage who couldn't handle the jolting, so he had to keep the pace slow.

Time seemed to be working against him; the more anxious he was, the slower it seemed to pass.

When Yang Tongchuan finally held his husband and child in his arms, he truly felt that he had finally returned to the human world.

"I need to go back to the yamen to report first. You take the child and go home with your elder brother. I'll be back soon."

"Okay, okay." Xiangxi cried tears of joy.

While he was waiting, he heard from other family members that some constables had been killed in the anti-bandit operation.

Even though she knew Yang Tongchuan was alive, Xiangxi's heart still ached.

Recalling the scenes of carnage depicted in the folk tales he had read before, Xiangxi once again thanked the ancestors of the Yang family for their protection, thanked all the gods and Buddhas in the sky, thanked the local earth god, and thanked the swords and blades that had not harmed Yang Tongchuan.

When Yang Tongchuan arrived at the yamen, the county magistrate was already waiting for him.

"This is a letter from the county magistrate, praising you highly for doing a great job." The county magistrate kept his promise and removed Yang Tongchuan from his acting position, making him a formal head constable.

Yang Tongchuan felt no excitement as he had imagined.

Perhaps because I've truly experienced life and death, many things have become less important.

However, he still expressed his gratitude to the county magistrate on the surface.

"Tomorrow night, I will host a banquet at the restaurant to celebrate Constable Yang's promotion and to welcome you all." The county magistrate's banquet was a huge honor for them.

"There's one more thing. This is the compensation for those three people. Please deliver it to their families on your way back." The county constable handed three money bags to Yang Tongchuan.

In the eyes of officials of rank, the status of constables was no different from that of watchdogs who did the work.

He's dead, so be it. The fact that the county magistrate was able to pay the full amount of compensation shows his kindness.

Yang Tongchuan held three money bags in his hand, each containing twenty taels of silver.

If it were Constable Wang, he might have pulled out five taels of money from a bag to handle, since the county magistrate giving money to Yang Tongchuan might have had that same intention.

After thanking the county magistrate on behalf of the fallen constable, Yang Tongchuan left.

The constables in the yamen kept calling Yang Tongchuan "Captain Yang" and dared not show the slightest dissatisfaction.

They had already heard about Yang Tongchuan's heroic deeds in suppressing bandits.

As the saying goes, "three men can make a tiger," and the story of Yang Tongchuan killing the bandits became increasingly exaggerated. He was now being portrayed as a cold-blooded master who killed without blinking an eye.

Yang Tongchuan did not go straight home; he had to deliver the pension first.

The three families cried more and more bitterly than the last; the wife of the constable in the third family even fainted from crying.

The child was too young to understand why his family was crying; he was simply frightened and cried along with his mother.

A living, breathing person has been reduced to a weighty, insignificant money bag.

Yang Tongchuan's back molars were almost ground to dust.

If I don't come back, Xuebao is too young to even cry, so what will Xiangxi do?

The bodies of these three people are still in another city, and the authorities will need to coordinate with their families before they can be brought back.

After explaining these matters to his family, Yang Tongchuan slowly walked home.

Passing through the market, Yang Tongchuan heard the clanging of blacksmiths, and his hair stood on end. He felt a suffocating restlessness.

A wave of dizziness washed over Yang Tongchuan, and he felt an urge to vomit.

I forced myself to walk a few steps faster, found a tea stall, sat down, and ordered a pot of tea.

Sipping tea, I slowly pieced together my thoughts from a blank mind.

Yang Tongchuan rested for the time it takes to drink two cups of tea before heading home again.

The Yang family had prepared a celebratory banquet to welcome him. Yang Tongchuan forced himself to drink some wine and eat a few bites of steamed fish, but he didn't touch any of the red meat.

That evening, Yang Tongchuan moved his pillow from the small room back to Xiangxi's room.

Xiangxi didn't stop him, assuming Yang Tongchuan wanted to do something.

As a result, Yang Tongchuan was unusually well-behaved all night. In the first half of the night, he held Xiangxi in his arms, didn't say anything, and just kept rubbing his chin against the top of Xiangxi's head.

In the middle of the night, Xiangxi woke up because of the heat. She saw Yang Tongchuan curling up in her arms like a child.

Yang Tongchuan was sleeping restlessly, his eyelids kept twitching, and he kept muttering "Run, run!"

It must be a nightmare.

Xiangxi imitated how Yang Tongchuan comforted her, stroking Yang Tongchuan's back repeatedly.

Until Yang Tongchuan calmed down in his dream.