Free Web NovelChapter 402: Chapter 157: Murder for Money
What the peddler had shattered was not, in fact, a golden statue of the emperor, but a stone tablet.
But this was no ordinary tablet.
Zhao Jing had discussed the matter with the clan elders. They had concluded that while placing the memorial tablets of each family’s deceased elders beneath the Holy Decree wasn’t necessarily improper, it would inevitably lead to chaos in the long run.
Rather than have all the village families share the ancestral hall, it would be better to convert it into a living shrine for His Majesty.
Each family would still have its own ancestral hall, but by enshrining the Holy Decree in His Majesty’s living shrine, every family could come to pay their respects at any time.
This solution better suited the needs of every family and ensured the purity of their ancestral worship. The clan elders had no reason to disagree.
Fortunately, because they were still in the process of selecting an auspicious date, none of the families had moved their ancestral tablets in yet. Now, they were spared the trouble of having to move them back out.
But establishing a living shrine for His Majesty required a dedicatory tablet.
Besides describing his life and virtues, the reason for the shrine’s establishment, and the names of its patrons, the tablet also had to state the purpose of its dedication—for example, with an inscription like, "In Gratitude for His Virtue, Worshipped for All Eternity."
Zhao Jing possessed exceptionally fine calligraphy, so the task naturally fell to him.
The inscription then needed to be carved. The crowd was now rushing out to find a craftsman to engrave his calligraphy onto the stone.
It was hard to say whether the stone tablet was too thin, the peddler’s impact too forceful, or the fall against the bluestone slabs too violent, but the tablet shattered the instant it hit the ground.
Seeing this, the Zhao clansmen, led by Zhao Tang, Zhao Liang, and Zhao Chang, were enraged. They pinned the peddler to the ground and gave him a sound thrashing.
Jing had gone to great lengths to find this stone tablet, and they had no idea if another one even existed. The thought fueled their rage. When they saw the peddler darting his shifty eyes about, they couldn’t stop themselves from swarming him again for another brutal beating.
Finally, it was Zhao Jing who spoke up. "As a precaution, I procured two tablets. The other one is at my home. Its quality is comparable to this one, so you can go and get it."
With this unexpected turn of events, the men were overjoyed and finally stopped. They didn’t even bother with umbrellas, simply turning and running for Zhao Jing’s house.
No one paid the peddler any mind. As far as they were concerned, a beating was enough to settle the matter.
The peddler thought so too.
As soon as the men left, he ignored the pain, scrambled to his feet, hoisted his carrying pole, and prepared to make a run for it.
But before he could take a single step, a clear, unhurried male voice sounded from behind. "You’ve shown disrespect to His Majesty and offended his sacred name, yet you think you can just walk away?"
The peddler’s heart seized. He wanted to run, but he knew he couldn’t get away. He could only turn and drop to his knees with a THUD.
"Honorable Scholar, I swear it wasn’t on purpose! Please, spare my life! I can pay you. I’ll give you all the silver I have."
As a peddler who traveled from street to street, he had seen all sorts of people.
The moment he first laid eyes on Zhao Jing, he recognized that a man of such grace and refinement couldn’t possibly be an ordinary person.
Throughout the entire Zhao Village, only Zhao Jing, the newly distinguished Scholar, possessed such a refined bearing.
And just as he’d thought, when he addressed him as "Honorable Scholar," the man didn’t correct him. This confirmed he was, without a doubt, Zhao Jing.
With this confirmation, the peddler’s heart first clenched, then eased, only to clench again. He was fraught with anxiety, like a piece of fruit on an autumn branch, swaying in the wind, terrified that a torrential downpour would knock it to the ground and crush it into pulp.
Zhao Jing paid the peddler’s words no mind. He simply strode over and brought his boot down hard on the man’s fingers.
He ground his heel in, and the peddler bit back a scream of agony. Instead, he just desperately smashed his forehead against the ground again.
"A man of your stature is magnanimous! This humble one swears it wasn’t on purpose!"
"’Not on purpose? Then was your special trip to the Zhao Village to sell your wares *also* not on purpose!’"
His tone was even, but his actions were anything but. With a deceptively light motion, he kicked the peddler into a corner.
The kick looked light, but it felt as if it carried the weight of a mountain. Caught off guard, the peddler’s head slammed hard into the wall. He grew dizzy as blood began to stream from the wound. Combined with the dark bruises on his forehead from his earlier kowtowing, he was a gruesome sight.
The pain was so intense the peddler wanted to pass out, but he didn’t dare.
By now, how could the peddler not realize that his and Chen Wanyue’s plan had been exposed?
’Then again, maybe the news wasn’t leaked at all. Perhaps this Scholar is just so incredibly perceptive that he saw the inconsistencies hidden within my seemingly logical actions.’
