In a chaotic and famine-stricken era, I picked up an empress to be my wife.

Ma Tianming dared not delay: "Commander Luo, please wait a moment. I will call out everyone in the teahouse to identify them."

The people in the teahouse were called out one by one, and Deng Donglai, who had come with Luo Li, identified them one by one.

After scanning the area, he shook his head: "Commander Luo, that person is not here."

Luo Li frowned slightly, tapping the long whip in her palm twice: "Nobody here? Didn't your men say he was here half an hour ago?"

Her tone was calm, but her aura was extremely strong, which startled Deng Donglai so much that he didn't know how to respond for a moment.

"Commander Luo, perhaps he left ahead of time."

Ma Tianming, adept at reading people, quickly said, "If the commander needs it, I'll take men to find it right now."

Luo Li glanced at him: "Go ahead. I will be staying in Qingyang County for the next few days. If you find it, you will be richly rewarded."

After saying that, she turned her horse around and rode away, with Deng Donglai hurriedly following.

As the sound of horses' hooves faded into the distance, Ma Tianming straightened up and roared at his men, "What are you all standing there for? Go find them! Bring them back if you find anything that matches!"

Zhang Meng leaned closer and lowered his voice: "Boss, do you think the person Commander Luo is looking for might be Shen An? Didn't he just leave? He's in his early twenties and rather thin."

Ma Tianming slapped him on the back of the head: "Shen An? Is your head full of dog shit?"

What merit did he, a mere corpse carrier, possess to be personally sought out by Commander Luo? And where did he get the ability to concoct a substance with such remarkable hemostatic effects?

Zhang Meng rubbed the back of his head and chuckled, "Boss, you're the one who understands things best."

"Stop talking nonsense, hurry up and take some men to look for him! That person might not have gone far!"

"Yes!" Zhang Meng responded and beckoned his men to run towards the city gate.

Unfortunately, Ma Tianming and Zhang Meng automatically filtered out Shen An.

Even though their men saw Shen An at the city gate, they didn't give him a second glance.

Besides visiting Constable Ma, Shen An also purchased some grain and meat in the county town, and bought several pieces of women's underwear for Dugu Meng.

When Dugu Meng took the clothes, her face flushed. How could this man be so shameless?

This is for women's use...

But when she touched the fabric, she was secretly pleased, feeling that he had at least put his heart into it...

Shen An didn't notice her reaction.

He bought these clothes because he felt she hadn't changed them for days and they were about to smell.

Back in the village, Shen An shared some of the grain and meat with Old Zhao and the others.

The corpse carriers hadn't eaten meat in years, and their hands were trembling as they held the meat; some almost knelt down.

Shen An did this to win people's hearts. After distributing the food, he let them take it back and cook it.

In times of chaos and famine, being able to eat your fill once every three days was considered good. Now that we have both meat and grain, who can resist the temptation?

Except for Old Zhao, who didn't go back with his granddaughter and grandson, the rest of them couldn't wait to take the meat home and cook it.

"Uncle Zhao, why aren't you going back to eat?" Shen An asked.

"Zhao Long, Zhao Feng, quickly kowtow to Chief Shen!" Old Zhao ordered.

The two men immediately kowtowed to Shen An. They were about fifteen or sixteen years old and had been forcibly placed in a mass grave by the government three months ago.

Zhao Feng's bright eyes were full of pleading, while Zhao Long seemed rather dull.

Shen An frowned slightly: "Uncle Zhao, what's wrong?"

"Sigh, their parents died early, leaving me to raise them. Corpse carriers don't live long, but you, Chief Shen, are different; you're a capable man."

"I've swallowed my pride and come here to beg you, if you ever leave this place, to take these two with you and have them serve you like slaves." Old Zhao's eyes reddened as he spoke.

"Squad Leader Shen, I'm willing to serve you like a slave!" Zhao Feng, being a woman, reacted faster than Zhao Long and immediately spoke up.

"Me too..." Zhao Long's voice was noticeably softer than Zhao Feng's.

"I'll let you be treated like cattle and horses. If you sincerely follow me in the future, I will take you away with me, including your Uncle Zhao!" Shen An said.

Old Zhao was overjoyed. He didn't even dare to hope that he would survive; Shen An's words were enough!

Zhao Long and Zhao Feng kowtowed again in gratitude.

Zhao Feng even offered to be Shen An's servant!

Shen An naturally declined. Even though she was Old Zhao's granddaughter, it was impossible for her to stay at home. After sending them away, she made sure they left.

The aroma of meat wafted from every household.

At that moment, Feng Guaizi, Liu Laowu, and the others took advantage of the break from going home for dinner to temporarily return from the mass grave, and happened to smell that aroma.

Their bellies hadn't seen any oil or fat for over half a year, and they were all rumbling loudly, their eyes fixed on the smoking stoves in other people's homes.

Liu Laowu swallowed hard. "Boss, how about we apologize to Shen An and get some meat too? We're not really apologizing; we can turn on him after we've had some meat!"

"Yeah, boss, that meat smells amazing..." the others chimed in.

Feng Guaizi was also craving it, but he gritted his teeth and held back.

What he wanted wasn't the pieces of meat, but the money in Shen An's hands.

He sneered and said, "Instead of asking him for meat, we should find out where he got the money to buy an official position and meat!"

Once we find out where he got the money, won't we be rich? Isn't that better than these few bites of meat?

"Boss, you're right!" Liu Laowu exclaimed excitedly, "Then let's find a time when he's not home, and steal the silver while no one's there!"

Feng Guaizi kicked him: "Do you think Shen An is as stupid as you? He definitely carries his money with him at all times."

Moreover, I already found out that Chief Wang didn't have that much money at all; Shen An's money must have come from other sources.

"Boss, he has a way to make money, but he won't tell us!"

Liu Laowu shrugged: "Why not take advantage of him being away one day and try our luck at his house!"

"But I think I already know how he got the money!"

Feng Guaizi smiled smugly: "I've been thinking about this since yesterday, and I've discovered something."

Shen An had been holding back from harming Wang Ban Tou all along, but he waited until Liu Xiao Si arrived before killing him. Don't you find that strange?

Liu Laowu and the others exchanged bewildered glances, still unable to understand: "What... is so strange about this?"

"Fools! Think about that Liu Xiao Si again. Doesn't she look delicate and almost like a woman?" Feng Guaizi squinted. "The military governor ordered the capture of a beautiful woman. Do you think it could be her disguised as a man?"

Liu Laowu was skeptical: "If Liu Xiaosi is someone the military governor wants to arrest, wouldn't it be enough for Shen An to hand her over for the reward? Five hundred taels plus the chance to be freed from slavery—why would he be stupid enough to keep her alive?"

"You pig-brain!" Feng Guaizi cursed. "He won't hand it over, of course, because that woman is giving him more benefits."

If we take Liu Xiaosi into custody, the money she gave to Shen An will fall into our hands.

Once she's no longer of any use, we can send her to the military governor, and wouldn't we be set for life?

Upon hearing this, Liu Laowu and the others' eyes slowly lit up.

"But those two brothers, Shen An and Shen Xiaoqi, are both pretty good fighters. Do you think we can manage to snatch them?" Liu Laowu hesitated again. "Or should we find a few more people?"

Feng the Cripple kicked him again: "If we find more people, we'll have to split the money again! If the news leaks out and the authorities find out, we won't get a single penny!"

"Then how do we snatch it from them? When he beat you last time, didn't he beat you..." Liu Laowu was halfway through his sentence when Feng Guaizi glared at him fiercely.

"That was because I was careless and didn't dodge! He took advantage of the situation!"

Feng Guaizi said with a stern face: "However, to be absolutely sure, tonight you should go to the blacksmith Xu in the next village. He recently took on a job for a big shot and had more than a dozen long knives made at home!"

Go steal a few! With weapons, Shen An's meager fighting skills won't be a match for us.

Now that Liu Laowu and the others had a better understanding of the situation, they asked, "Boss, what if Liu Xiaosi isn't the person the military governor is looking for?"

"Even if she isn't, once we have Shen An under control, we can always get the money out of him." Feng Guaizi grinned. "When we have the money, we'll buy a position as a constable at the county government office. Then killing Shen An will be a piece of cake, won't it?"

Liu Laowu and the others were completely relieved and excitedly rubbed their hands together!

That night, they placed several straw figures in the mass grave to make up the difference, and sneaked into the neighboring village to steal eight long knives from the blacksmith's shop.

As dawn broke, they successfully stole the knife and returned.

Looking at those long knives, Feng Guaizi felt his back straighten up considerably.

But during the day there are too many people around, and the other corpse carriers have just been bribed by Shen An with his meat and food. If a fight breaks out, those people might help Shen An.

Feng Guaizi decided to wait another day and make his move at night!

When Shen An arrived at the mass grave as usual, Feng Guaizi stood in the corner, watching his back, and the corners of his mouth slowly twitched up.

You bastard, I'll let you jump around for another half day.

You'll see what happens after dark!