Free Web NovelChapter 28: Chapter 28: Bandits
At the end of the adjacent alley, miscellaneous items like bamboo baskets and rotten wooden crates were piled up. The sound was coming from behind this junk.
Fu Juemin approached step by step, and the sound grew clearer. In addition to the earlier commotion, there was now a strange, soft hum, like the muffled sound of someone trying to make noise through their nose with their mouth covered.
When Fu Juemin got closer and peered through the junk, he saw a woman pinned against the wall, her body rising and falling with the thrusts from below.
The woman had been enjoying it, but she casually opened her eyes and her gaze suddenly met Fu Juemin’s. She shrieked in terror.
"AH!"
Startled by the scream, the man on top of her jumped up, pulling up his pants.
Two panicked faces stared in unison at Fu Juemin.
"You... you..."
"Carry on."
Fu Juemin was speechless. He shook his head, holstered his revolver, and started walking back.
After that farce, Fu Juemin felt that his search for the tall, thin man was probably over for now.
But just as he exited the alley, the group of little rascals he’d given pan-fried buns to earlier swarmed him in a rush.
"Where did you go?"
The group of children pointed down the street, clamoring, "The guy you were looking for, he just got into a carriage here and headed toward the East City Gate..."
Fu Juemin was shocked. Without a second thought, he sprinted in the direction the children were pointing.
The intersection was just a dozen or so meters away. Fu Juemin ran to it and immediately spotted a gray horse-drawn carriage slowly making its way down the end of the street.
"BEEP—"
A horn sounded. Fu Juemin turned his head to see his own Wan Guo automobile pulling up beside him, the driver sticking half his head out the window.
"Young Master."
Fu Juemin quickly got in the car.
"Uncle Zhang, to the East City Gate. Follow a gray horse-drawn carriage."
"Yes, Young Master."
The drawbacks of the era were on full display. With no traffic laws to speak of, the pedestrians on the streets were disorderly. Even though Fu Juemin was in an automobile worth over ten thousand silver coins, it couldn’t pick up much speed within the county town.
The traffic was terrible. They would drive a short distance only to be forced to stop and wait for people or livestock to cross the street.
The gray carriage would occasionally appear at the edge of Fu Juemin’s vision, as if intentionally teasing him—visible, yet impossible to catch.
Fu Juemin considered getting out of the car to find another way to give chase several times, but he held back.
By the time the car left the city through the East City Gate, they had lost sight of the gray carriage completely.
But at this moment, Fu Juemin’s heart unexpectedly calmed down.
"Young Master, where to next?"
The car stopped at a fork in the road a few miles outside the city, and the driver turned to ask.
"Stop the chase. This is far enough."
Fu Juemin got out of the car and stood at the fork, looking at the yellow dirt road beneath his feet.
Three roads stretched out from the intersection in different directions, connecting all the surrounding villages. Each road had fresh carriage tracks on its surface. Heaven knew which path the gray carriage he was looking for had taken.
’What those kids saw might not have been the man I was looking for, and this carriage might not be the one I’m after, either...’
However, a lead was still a lead, and it had to be investigated. freēwēbnovel.com
Fu Juemin walked to the side of the car and instructed the driver, "Uncle Zhang, go back and have Qian Fei and Ma Dakui bring men here immediately.
Then, make a trip to the County Government. Report this to the police department and have them help me track someone down..."
Fu Juemin described the tall, thin man’s appearance from memory, then added after a moment of thought, "Just say he stole a watch of mine from the Western World. I’ll reward whoever helps me find him with five hundred silver coins."
"Young Master, you aren’t coming back with me?"
Fu Juemin shook his head. "I’m just getting some fresh air." fгeewёbnoѵel.cσm
The driver was helpless, but he couldn’t say anything. He could only turn the car around and slowly drive back the way they came.
Watching the car slowly recede into the distance, Fu Juemin stood on a slightly elevated loess slope, gazing at his surroundings. For the first time, he felt so close to this world, to this era.
The distant mountains looked like a dark green scar. Nearby, there was a river, and from the waist-deep reeds and artemisia growing along its bank, the faint outlines of a few lonely graves could be seen.
The air was filled with the gamy stench of wild grass and livestock manure. Though it wasn’t quite autumn yet, the surroundings already presented a desolate palette of gray and brown, devoid of greenery.
A small, wild grove a few hundred meters from Fu Juemin was probably the only pleasant sight in the entire landscape.
Fu Juemin strolled casually toward the wild grove, his mind on the day’s events.
He had sent both Qian Fei and Ma Dakui away. When he finally found a lead, he discovered he was in the awkward position of having no one available to help.
’If I had a mobile phone or some other instant communication device, things would be different. One phone call and I could have had people blocking the city gates. I wouldn’t have had to just watch the guy get away.’
But these were the limitations of the era; there was nothing he could do about it.
’That man... he must be an existence similar to Huang Youde...’
The Black-Scaled Snake Demon of Taohuang Village, the Water Demon at the docks, plus the incidents Qian Fei had mentioned, like the Old White Ape—from all these Demon Fiend cases, Fu Juemin had pieced together a general conclusion: the evil spirits of this world relied on humans for their existence to some extent.
They used humans as food, and as for other Demon Fiends, they were perhaps some kind of "great supplement."
This would also explain the inexplicable hunger that had surged within him when he saw the tall, thin man today, as well as the dream he’d inexplicably had about the Water Demon several days ago.
Everything stemmed from the resonance between Demon Fiends.
Fu Juemin was suddenly beginning to understand why [Soft Bone] appeared on his panel as a Talent and not a Skill or something else.
Because what he had obtained was not just the Black-Scaled Snake Demon’s [Soft Bone] ability, but also its memories and a part of its soul. These things were perhaps now hidden in his bloodline, causing other Demon Fiends to see him as a "kindred spirit" of sorts.
’There are pros and cons. The pro is that if I want to go Demon Hunting in the future, I have a built-in search radar and won’t have to work too hard to find them...’
’The con is that I myself will now be among those hunted by other demons and evil spirits...’
Fu Juemin casually plucked a reed, intending to make a whistle.
Suddenly, he noticed tracks in the artemisia bushes at his feet—wheel tracks, crushed into the ground, leading into the nearby wild grove.
’Don’t tell me the carriage hid in here?’
His expression shifted. He immediately followed the tracks, but after just a couple of steps, he realized something was wrong. The wheel impressions underfoot didn’t look like they were from a horse-drawn carriage; they were more like those made by an ordinary oxcart or donkey cart. Moreover, there were clear drag marks in the grass.
He quickened his pace and followed the trail, swiftly entering the wild grove.
He had only walked a short distance into the woods when he heard a noise from within.
Fu Juemin ducked down and slowly parted the bushes and weeds in front of him, peering toward the source of the sound.
—
In a clearing in the middle of the grove, a two-wheeled flatbed cart was parked. There were no draft animals in sight, but seven or eight shabbily dressed men were gathered around it.
’Refugees?’
Fu Juemin frowned. ’No, that’s not right.’
Refugees were mostly malnourished, gaunt and sallow. Although the seven or eight men before him were covered in patches, every one of them was sturdy and well-built. A few of them, judging by their frames, even looked like they had practiced martial arts.
Just then, one of the men stood up from beside the cart, revealing the gleaming blade of a large saber beneath him.
A chill went down Fu Juemin’s spine as he instantly realized the truth.
’They’re bandits!’
.......
