You promised steampunk martial arts, but you've got an internal combustion engine in your chest

After an unknown amount of time, Baili Jing slowly woke up.

As soon as he opened his eyes, he felt as if his whole body had been shattered inch by inch. The pain was so intense that he almost passed out, and his throat felt like it was on fire. He coughed violently.

Before he could finish coughing, a bowl of warm water was brought to his lips.

Baili Jing instinctively leaned over and swallowed a large gulp, and it took him a long time to stop coughing.

Then, he rubbed his dizzy head and slowly opened his eyes to look around.

The first thing you see is a mud and wood hut, with a few rays of sunlight leaking in through the cracks in the broken window, illuminating countless floating dust particles in the air.

The younger brother, Baili Jie, was sitting on the edge of the bed, holding an empty bowl of water in his hands. There were dark circles under his eyes, indicating that he had stayed up all night.

A flicker of alertness crossed Baili Jing's muddled mind, and he weakly asked:

"Xiao Jie...where is this?"

Baili Jie replied softly, "Brother, this is your coworker Grandpa Qian's house. He carried us back after you fainted last night."

Baili Jing paused slightly, then murmured, "Old Qian..."

He wasn't a truly reckless seventeen-year-old; upon hearing "Old Qian's family," he immediately understood the implications.

Now that he's in big trouble, Old Qian taking them in at this critical juncture is tantamount to putting his entire family's lives on the line!

"No...we have to leave as soon as possible."

Bai Lijing's expression changed, and he gritted his teeth, struggling desperately to sit up in bed: "I can't stay here, it will bring disaster upon Lao Qian's family..."

However, before he could straighten up, Baili Jie gently placed a hand on his shoulder, his tone resolute:

"Brother, you're badly injured. The flesh on your back is all twisted inside out. Don't move!"

Baili Jie was just a weak scholar; how much strength could he possibly have?

At this moment, Baili Jing felt that hand was as heavy as a thousand pounds, and the emptiness in his body made him weak all over. He was actually pressed back onto the straw mat by his younger brother.

Bai Lijing lay on the bed, a bitter smile on his face:

"I'm really that weak... Even you can hold me down... By the way, where's Old Qian? I haven't seen him."

Baili Jie placed the empty water bowl on the wooden stool beside him and said in a low voice:

"Grandpa Qian and his son left early this morning to go to work at the docks."

Baili Jing was completely bewildered: "Start work? The docks were in such a mess last night, how can we start work today?"

Baili Jie smiled somewhat helplessly:

"The canal gangs rely entirely on waterways and docks to make money. How could they let the money stop? As soon as it gets light, the dead are carried away, the bloodstains are washed away, and they still have to carry the heavy loads."

Baili Jing rubbed his temples and said in a deep voice, "So... what's the wind direction outside right now?"

"That's what makes it so strange."

Baili Jie frowned slightly and slowly said:

"Last night, Prefect Huang persuaded the canal gang to leave and led the constables to clean up the area. But not long after they finished, the prefect led his men back to his residence."

"Until dawn today, the government has neither sent anyone to search the area, nor has there been any news of a wanted notice being issued. As for the canal gangs, it's equally silent; not even a patrolling thug has been seen..."

Baili Jing frowned.

Something is definitely amiss. After all the commotion last night, everyone is holding back today. This is really too strange.

Before he could figure it out, the curtain in the next room was suddenly lifted.

A young woman carrying a bowl of herbal medicine, with a somewhat embarrassed smile on her face, hurried over.

"Oh, Brother Baili, you're finally awake! Here, I've just finished brewing the medicine. Drink it while it's hot; it'll help improve blood circulation and remove blood stasis."

Baili Jie whispered a reminder from the side: "Brother, she is Grandpa Qian's daughter-in-law, Zhao Chunlan."

Baili Jing forced himself to stay awake and politely nodded to the woman: "Thank you, sister-in-law. Xiao Jie, help me up to drink my medicine..."

Instead of immediately helping him up, Baili Jie stood up and took the medicine soup from Zhao Chunlan's hand.

The boy sniffed and spoke with a touch of consideration:

"Sister-in-law, this medicine is a bit hot, let me let it cool down for a while. Isn't the puppy still sick? You go to the inner room to take care of the child, I can manage here."

Zhao Chunlan's hand twitched slightly, her smile becoming increasingly forced, and she replied repeatedly:

"Okay...okay, then remember to urge your brother to drink it. If you need anything else, just call me anytime."

After saying that, she secretly glanced at Baili Jing, then hurriedly lifted the curtain and left.

Just as Baili Jing was about to sit up and drink his medicine, he saw Baili Jie carrying the bowl of medicine and walking straight to the wooden window.

The boy opened a narrow crack in the window, and with a flick of his wrist, poured the entire bowl of medicine out along the wall.

Baili Jing was taken aback:

"Xiao Jie, what are you doing? This is someone's kind gesture..."

Bai Lijie casually placed the empty medicine bowl on the windowsill, turned around and sat back down on the edge of the bed, his calm expression sending chills down one's spine.

"Brother, this morning when she was brewing medicine in the kitchen, she added a sleeping potion to it. I saw it clearly."

Baili Jing opened his mouth, completely bewildered: "Huh? What's that?"

Baili Jie smiled helplessly, lowering his voice even further:

"Although Grandpa Qian was willing to take us in, his son and daughter-in-law were worried. They wanted to drug you while Grandpa Qian was working at the dock. Since you were seriously injured, it would be normal for you to fall asleep and die."

As he spoke, a coldness beyond his years flashed in his eyes:

"Once you pass out, this Sister Zhao will secretly slip to the yamen to report to the authorities. At that time, the constables will arrest us. Her family can both receive the reward money from the government and clear their name of the crime of harboring a death row inmate. It's killing two birds with one stone."

Baili Jing stared in disbelief, and after a long while, he managed to utter a single, difficult sentence: "You... what did you say? How could they...?"

Baili Jie shook his head, stopping his brother from finishing his sentence, and then suddenly asked:

"Brother, do you believe me?"

Baili Jing let out a deep breath.

After experiencing life and death last night, his younger brother in front of him felt both familiar and somewhat unfamiliar... He had always known that his brother was a calm and intelligent person, but he never expected that his brother's words and actions would be so mature under such circumstances.

He was silent for a moment, then asked in a deep voice:

"Xiao Jie, what do you want to do?"

Baili Jie responded softly:

"The situation outside is too chaotic right now. We know too little. We don't know what that Prefect Huang is up to, nor do we know how far the infighting in the canal gang has progressed. If we just wait blindly like this, we won't know how to start, whether we try to escape the city or find other backers."

The boy leaned forward and said earnestly:

"So, I want you to pretend to be asleep right now, brother. We'll have that Sister-in-law Zhao go out and report to the authorities. When the constables come to search the house, you and I will hide in the shadows beforehand. In this way, we can follow the clues and gradually figure out the prefect's and the canal gang's thoughts by observing the movements of these constables."

Baili Jing frowned, and after listening to his younger brother's plan, he immediately shook his head:

"That's absolutely not going to work."

He looked at his younger brother, his expression serious:

"If the government officials come and can't find you and my brother, they might take their anger out on Lao Qian's whole family. Besides, if the government can't catch me, once the news gets out, the canal gang will soon find out that Lao Qian once took me in. At that time, Lao Qian's whole family will die."

"This must not be done this way."

Upon hearing this, Baili Jie immediately became anxious and said urgently:

"Brother! What time is it? We're barely keeping our own lives at stake, and you still have the nerve to think about others?!"

Instead, Baili Jing grinned, but the smile aggravated the wound on his back, causing him to wince in pain.

After the pain subsided, he patted his younger brother's head:

"I know you're smart and resourceful; you must have another way. Think of another plan."

Bai Lijie was a little unhappy and muttered to himself, "This is the fastest way to break the deadlock right now."

Baili Jing shook his head, his expression more serious than ever before:

"If we really do as you say, and leave the fuse to Old Qian, then you and I, brothers, will become unjust people who repay kindness with enmity. Xiao Jie, I'm your older brother, you have to listen to me."

The two brothers stared at each other for a long time, and finally Baili Jie could only sigh deeply and compromise:

"Alright... let's try a slightly gentler approach then."

……

Meanwhile, in the kitchen of the small house next door.

Zhao Chunlan was washing vegetables with a distracted mind. She was so absent-minded that she didn't even wash the mud off the vegetable leaves.

After kneading the medicine in the basin for a while, she estimated that it was about time. Baili Jing should have already drunk the medicine and fallen into a deep sleep.

Thinking of this, Zhao Chunlan took a deep breath, wiped her wet hands, and walked towards the main house outside with her head down.

But when she lifted the curtain and looked up at the wooden bed, she was immediately stunned.

The large bed was empty, the bedding was in disarray, and the two brothers, Baili Jing and Baili Jie, had vanished without a trace!

Zhao Chunlan's face turned deathly pale instantly, and she began to tremble uncontrollably. If they found out she had drugged him...

"Hehe...haha..."

Just then, the sound of a puppy laughing suddenly came from the inner room.

Zhao Chunlan was startled and, disregarding everything else, hurriedly and frantically lifted the curtain and rushed into the inner room.

Upon entering the room, the scene before her eyes made her gasp for breath.

Baili Jie was sitting comfortably on the edge of the bed.

He held the puppy on his lap, holding a straw, and teased the child with a smile. The two of them looked very harmonious.

On the broken wooden chair beside the bed, Baili Jing sat calmly, his upper body naked and his back wrapped in blood-soaked strips of cloth.

Seeing Zhao Chunlan rush in, Baili Jing forced a smile and spoke in a somewhat hoarse voice:

"Sister-in-law, I'm so sorry, the medicine tasted really strange and was a bit harsh on my throat. I took one sip and then spat it all out... so I couldn't drink it."

Upon hearing the words "strange taste," Zhao Chunlan's legs went weak, and she almost collapsed to the ground. Her face turned deathly pale, and she was drenched in sweat.

"But don't worry, sister-in-law. Xiao Jie and I are both sensible people. We naturally don't want to stay here any longer and cause you trouble for no reason."

Baili Jing smiled and gazed at Zhao Chunlan:

"But before we leave... there's something I'd like to ask my sister-in-law for a favor."

Zhao Chunlan froze on the spot. She didn't reply immediately, but instead turned her gaze to her son in horror.

At this moment, Baili Jie was playing with the puppy when he felt Zhao Chunlan's gaze and slowly raised his head.

He placed one hand on the puppy's shoulder, a smile playing on his lips.