Dual wielding volcanoes, killing through the west

----

Stepping out of the theater, Zhang Renfeng saw that the girl in black from before hadn't left. Instead, she stood quietly at the entrance, her hands clasped together, her body slightly turned to the side. In the bright sunlight, her slender waist was even more apparent. The first phrase that popped into Zhang Renfeng's mind the moment he saw her was, "The King of Chu loved slender waists."

“Ms. Dietersdorf?” Gordon asked, somewhat surprised. “Is there anything else I can help with?”

“Regarding my brother’s death, I have some details that are not convenient to disclose, and I hope to tell you. If you allow me to…” Evelyn did not hesitate for a moment. Although her voice was still gentle as water, her attitude was very firm. She raised her hand and pointed to Zhang Renfeng in the crowd, “I hope that this sheriff will be my listener.”

Chapter 130: I've never heard of such a request in my entire life!

Evelyn's residence is quite far from the center of White Torch.

Even though Zhang Renfeng's chestnut-colored Turkmen warhorse had a broad back and could carry an extra person, he dared not ride too fast. This place was much more prosperous than Fengchuisha, and when passersby saw him riding a horse, they felt he was closer to a civilized city.

When people saw him riding his horse, kicking up dust, they would instinctively give him disgusted and disdainful looks as they moved away. Riding a horse was something only roughnecks like cowboys or wandering gunmen would do, and in civilized towns, it naturally became an object of contempt.

Fortunately, the further away from the city center, the wider the roads become, and such sights are rarely seen.

Zhang Renfeng had her hold onto the reins, and dared not ride the warhorse too fast, at a pace slightly faster than walking. As the buildings gradually thinned out, Zhang Renfeng stopped the reins at the edge of a dark, narrow alley. He dismounted first, then put his arm around Evelyn's waist and lifted her down from the horse.

As he embraced her, the girl's delicate fragrance wafted from the ends of her hair beneath the black veil, but he felt no desire whatsoever, only worry.

Too thin...

It's no exaggeration to say that he didn't dare to use much force, fearing that he might break her in half if he used too much. He could sense that her slender waist was abnormal; there was something close to her waist and abdomen, tightly binding her waist with her clothing.

"..."

After her toes touched the ground, the girl tilted her head and stared at the horse with some curiosity for a while. Suddenly, she took off her gloves and used her fair, delicate hands to touch the chestnut neck of the Turkmen warhorse.

The girl was deeply moved by the sensation of body temperature, heartbeat, and the warm flow of blood beneath her skin.

“So… this is what it feels like…” She seemed to smile, and from beneath the black veil came an almost imperceptible sigh, “Such vigorous vitality.”

"Don't try this on the horses outside!" Zhang Renfeng didn't stop her when he saw her doing this. He just tied the reins himself and warned her, "This is a horse I've already trained. It's my darling. It won't resist if you touch it. Some horses are still very wild and will kick if you touch them. A horse's hind legs are extremely powerful. If it kicks hard, it can break an adult man's ribs. If this happened in the wild, there would be no way to save him."

Colin Chadell's face flashed through my memory.

He moved stealthily along the wall, flashing briefly without making a sound, yet he did not escape Zhang Renfeng's notice.

"who!?"

A powerful, furious roar echoed through the alley like thunder, startling the person across the street, who clearly heard the sound of something hard hitting the ground. In martial arts, there is also a form of "roaring," such as the Buddhist Lion's Roar. Some extremely powerful styles of boxing, like Hung Gar, also require a roar when throwing a punch to coordinate with the muscle exertion.

Zhang Renfeng's sudden roar was enough to terrify even the most treacherous villains hiding in the shadows.

"It's alright, don't worry about them..."

Evelyn said this, but he wouldn't listen. He immediately took off running, rushing around the corner, only to see a furtive young boy. He was very thin, looking about fifteen or sixteen years old, and was running away while holding onto the wall. It seemed that he had been peeking in this direction from a pile of wooden crates, and had slipped and fallen in fright.

After injuring his knee, he could barely run. Zhang Renfeng caught up with him in a few steps, grabbed him by the back of the neck like catching a cat, and slammed his head hard on the ground with a thud.

"Let me go, let me go, you stupid donkey!" Enraged after being caught, he tried to kick the person behind him, yelling, "Try touching a single hair on my head, and I'll make you..."

"Click!"

Zhang Renfeng, expressionless, pried off his left ring finger.

"ah---!!"

The screams echoed through the alley. Evelyn, who rushed over upon hearing the noise, was clearly shocked, but not afraid. She simply stood at the alley entrance, watching Zhang Renfeng's back, lost in thought.

“I’ve never heard of such a request in my life,” Zhang Renfeng chuckled, pressing down on his second finger. “So, what’s next… should I break off all your fingers one by one, or will you confess why you’re stalking here?”

"I...I...Ms. Dietersdorf, please save me, please make him stop!" His eyes suddenly cleared, and he even knew to look up and beg Evelyn, who was relatively easier to talk to.

Zhang Renfeng raised an eyebrow, turned around, and asked, "You know them?"

“I don’t think so,” Evelyn sighed, reluctantly introducing, “This is Tommy, the guy who provides gossip for The Pearl. For a long time, I was their fodder. Aside from sticking to me all the time, there’s not much else.

"Yes, yes... Ms. Dietersdorf is absolutely right. I haven't done anything heinous. I'm just trying to make a living!" Tommy changed his tune, bursting into tears and begging for mercy, "Let me go, let me go!"

"Never mind, let him go." Evelyn's tone was somewhat weary; for her, this seemed to be a routine part of life.

She didn't even spend time talking to Tommy, but simply told Zhang Renfeng, "If it wasn't him, it would have been someone else. Some obsessive suitors even slip their underwear under the door or rummage through our trash..."

"It's alright to look at it from a distance."

"So you're that famous?" Zhang Renfeng finally took a closer look at her, and couldn't help but mutter, "I thought you were..."

After thinking about it, he ultimately didn't say the words "stripper." He had been wondering the whole way there: how could a nobleman, no matter how down on his luck, possibly become a stripper? She didn't have much of the air of a woman of the night. He figured it was Marion deliberately saying those contemptuous words to belittle Evelyn.

Evelyn perked up, her eyes blinking slightly beneath the black veil as she asked curiously, "You don't recognize me?"

“I haven’t been in this city long.” Zhang Renfeng shook his head, then had an idea. He pressed Tommy’s fingers down and snapped them back into place. Tommy was in so much pain that he almost fainted, but he didn’t dare to make a sound.

The thug who relied on bluffing was actually more afraid of death than anyone else. He knew when he started cracking his knuckles that he had definitely kicked a hornet's nest. If he really angered him, he wouldn't even know how he died, so he gritted his teeth and dared not utter a sound.

"I can let you go, but you have to do something for me," Zhang Renfeng said calmly. "Don't you have connections with the newspaper?"

Realizing he still had value and wouldn't have to die, Tommy ignored the pain from his finger being reset and nodded repeatedly.

"Tomorrow morning, I want to see an exclusive story in the newspaper, otherwise..."

"I understand, I understand perfectly!" Before he could finish speaking, Tommy nodded like a chicken pecking at rice, promising, "No matter what the content is, I guarantee it will make the headlines and that everyone in White Torch Town will see it!"

Chapter 131: Remove the armor, remove it for me!

After hastily dismissing Tommy, the two finally entered the dilapidated old wooden house. Perhaps the only redeeming quality was that the space was quite spacious, enough to hold all these numerous paintings.

Indeed, as Evelyn said, her brother Theonado left behind many works during his lifetime.

The drawing boards were piled up in stacks, covered with white cloth. There were no lights in the room, only the light of two candles. The flickering light cast on the white cloth made it look like a messy graveyard, which looked rather eerie.

"You said before that you wanted to tell me something about your brother..."

Evelyn lifted her black veil, finally revealing her true face: cascading hair, snow-white skin, a high-bridged nose, and deep, lake-like eyes. Combined with her slender waist, she gave off an air of fragile vulnerability. Yet, her full lips, glowing a cherry-pink in the candlelight, contrasted sharply with her veil, adding a subtle yet striking element to her otherwise serene and dignified demeanor.

"Wait a moment, let me look for it. Theodore had a collection of essays that might be of help to you."

She bowed slightly, bent down, and rummaged through a large pile of books and manuscripts. An eerie silence filled the room, and Zhang Renfeng took the opportunity to look around. The leftmost door was tightly closed, followed by a sink, wardrobe, and dishwashing area, along with a jumble of empty cans. Occasionally, she could hear the squeaking of mice scurrying across the corner.

Zhang Renfeng couldn't help but worry about her. The entire Dietersdorf family had only this one young girl left, and she was doing a job that required her to be in the public eye. Without the family's protection, could she really survive in this treacherous world in the long run?

……

"Boom!"

Suddenly, a muffled thud was heard. Looking in the direction of the sound, the girl had fallen heavily, her fair face flushed red as if she couldn't breathe, and sweat was pouring down her forehead. Despite this, she didn't open her mouth to breathe, as if she was deliberately suppressing something. Her eyes were slightly closed, her brows were tightly furrowed, and her chest was heaving violently.

"Stop pretending now, catch your breath, are you trying to suffocate yourself?!" Zhang Renfeng was anxious and quickly got up to help her up.

"No! Please...please don't touch me..." Evelyn bit her lip and whispered, "It's an old problem, I'll just need a little rest, and then...ah!"

Zhang Renfeng ignored her, grabbed her wrist with his obsidian-like rough hands, supported her waist with one hand, and pulled her up without much effort.

He hooked a chair over with his toes, pressed down on the girl's shoulder, and almost forcibly pushed her into the chair.

Evelyn looked at him with some surprise. From a very young age, her parents had her learn aristocratic etiquette, striving to mold her into the epitome of the Dietersdorf family's lady-in-waiting. According to the dogma of etiquette, an unmarried lady should maintain her composure when facing men, and physical contact should be avoided as much as possible.

But those doctrines didn't seem to have taught her what to do when faced with such a domineering man.

"What's that around your waist?" Zhang Renfeng finally couldn't help but ask. "There's something like an iron hoop. I just touched it. It's very tight. With it like that, and you have to bend over to find something, of course you can't breathe."

“That…that is…” Evelyn’s face flushed slightly, whether from the rush of blood after being short of breath or for some other reason, “It’s a corset.”

"Take it off right now! This is no joke, it's going to break your back!"

Zhang Renfeng's tone was very serious. The next line after the King of Chu's fondness for slender waists was, "Many starve to death in the palace."

Moreover, she didn't lose weight naturally; she used an iron band or something similar to tightly constrict her waist, achieving an unnaturally thin figure that essentially compressed her internal organs. Over time, this will likely shorten her lifespan compared to others.

“I am the last daughter of Dietersdorf, and as the continuation of this bloodline, I have an obligation to… show appropriate manners in front of others.”

Evelyn caught her breath, her delicate frame displaying a stubbornness like that of an ox. She shook her head and said firmly, "This is my way of life. My etiquette teacher has required it since I was five or six years old. No one wants to see a lady from Dietersdorf without a corset."

Zhang Renfeng was taken aback by what she said.

----

What happened to your foot?

During the first month of the lunar calendar, Master and his fellow disciples had all gone home for the New Year, leaving them with nothing to do. Zhang Renfeng lay on the grass, tired of watching the floating clouds in the sky. In his boredom, he pointed to the girl's feet, which were noticeably smaller than normal, and asked, "They look so strange."

Bai was taken aback by his question, her chubby cheeks flushed slightly, and she stopped doing her needlework.

"Young master is so unreasonable." Chunlan, the maidservant, pouted and said coquettishly, "What do you mean by strange? My young lady has had her feet bound since childhood. It is called 'a soft jade gliding on the water, two red lotus petals landing lightly.' Even a servant like me can't have that."

Bai smiled shyly, looking at Chunlan's big feet, but there was a hint of loneliness in her eyes.

"Really?" Zhang Renfeng yawned casually. "My mother didn't bind her feet... I had only heard about it before, I didn't expect it to be like this."

"Look at what you're saying, young master, you're just making things up again." Chunlan chuckled. "You've already shared a room with Miss, you've been completely naked with each other, how could you not know?"

Bai's face turned even redder, and she pursed her lips slightly.

"I don't know, I didn't look closely." Zhang Renfeng shook his head, like an immature kid, resting his hands on his head and said leisurely, "But... if you need someone to help you walk, and you have to be mindful of other people's feelings when you want to go somewhere, will you really be happy?"

"My lord, you are mistaken."

When someone suddenly called him "husband," Zhang Renfeng felt strange, and goosebumps would creep up his skin.

"The practice of foot binding has a long history. The 'Treatise on the Five Elements' in the History of Song states that during the reign of Emperor Lizong, palace women bound their feet to make them slender and straight. It is said that even Princess Rongfu was once suspected of not being a princess because of her large feet, let alone ordinary women?" Bai said softly. "Since it is something passed down from the ancients, it must be true."

"With delicate steps, her exquisite beauty is unparalleled. These three-inch golden lotuses are the destiny that every young lady from a prominent family must experience."

"Eh...is that so..."

At that time, Zhang Renfeng was still at an age where he wasn't particularly interested in women. Although they shared a bed, he only considered it as fulfilling his parents' expectations. He wasn't very interested in this marriage, which was supposedly arranged since childhood. To be honest, he still didn't understand how a girl he had never met had inexplicably become his "wife."

They just gave a perfunctory reply, and that was it.

"Ah... I hope Master and Senior Brother will come back soon..." he thought to himself.

----

"You may not know that corsets originated in the courts of Europe..."

"Bang---!!!"

Zhang Renfeng suddenly flew into a rage, slamming his hand on the table and smashing the entire wooden table into pieces.

Evelyn's shoulders trembled with fright. In the world of aristocratic ladies, even when someone wanted to bully her, it was usually done in the manner of Marion, expressing rejection through words and attitude. She had never encountered someone like Zhang Renfeng before, and faced with this sudden violence, she was momentarily at a loss for how to react.

"Stop talking nonsense..."

Contrary to his usual demeanor, he spoke in a highly authoritative and commanding tone, "Take it off now!"

Chapter 132: This is nothing but a cage!

The sash, now removed, was hung on a special hook. Its construction appeared extremely complex: it was made of dark silk with a fine cotton lining and meticulous stitching. Zhang Renfeng glanced at it and noticed at least 20 whale bones and about a hundred ties. When all of them were pulled tight, they would be enough to completely bind the girl's waist, like a cage woven from threads and bones.

"Ugh……"

He sighed inexplicably, because he knew very well that even if she took it off temporarily, the girl would put it back on as soon as he left. He suddenly felt ridiculous, showing inexplicable concern and then inexplicably getting angry at a woman he had just met, acting like a dog chasing a mouse.

In the end, she was no relative to him. Even if she broke her back or developed anorexia and starved to death, what did it have to do with him?

Even so, he still bent down and squatted among a pile of draft texts, rummaging through them until, with Evelyn's guidance, he finally managed to pull out one.

As soon as he opened it, the smell of paint hit him, making him frown involuntarily.

"You said there's something that can't be said in public, is this it?"

He flipped through a few pages, his tone rather helpless, "I don't know many characters, could you give me a brief overview of what's written here?"

“Just as you’ve been consumed by anger, Theonado has always been trapped in confusion.” Evelyn’s tone was somewhat indifferent, not as if she were commenting on a blood relative, and it was hard to say whether she had any feelings for her deceased brother at all. “You must have heard at least a little about what people call us, right?”

"Nonsense." Zhang Renfeng snorted, not agreeing with this claim. "Long lifespan but short lifespan, how can that be predetermined by fate?"

“Perhaps…but, at least for Theonado, death might be a relief.” Evelyn’s lips curled into a strange smile. “He suffers from severe hysteria, a condition that gives him an unparalleled talent for artistic creation. Like Dante in the Divine Comedy, he walks on the edge of hell, glimpses magnificent scenes unimaginable to mortals, and captures even a fraction of them on canvas.”

"The price is that, most of the time, he can't tell who he is."

"What do you mean?" Zhang Renfeng sensed something was wrong.

"If you could read, you would know what I'm talking about... According to the book, he is a completely different person from another world, but he is trapped in this body. This world is incompatible with his original understanding, so he feels confused all the time."

The candlelight flickered, and as Zhang Renfeng listened, he suddenly felt a chill run down his spine and couldn't help but shiver.

The drawing board, the white cloth, the creaking wooden door, and the waistband hanging on the hook... their shadows were sometimes long and sometimes short, as if they were about to be blown out by the wind.

“What do you mean by ‘not from this world’? Wasn’t he born from his mother’s womb?” Zhang Renfeng shook his head, shaking off the feeling of unease from his mind.