"The stories though, have truth to them.... Words ultimately fall short of truly depicting certain things...the hell it was...the constant fear that at any moment you may die, your wife may die, your child may die, your parent may die, your brother, sister, or girl you want to marry. We did not have the luxury of the living...."
"Fear was our constant companion, fear was our way of life from dawn till dusk and dusk till dawn. There are those who enjoy the sounds of crickets chirping by the water, the cicada noises announcing summer, and the bird chirps announcing spring.
These noises symbolize life, change of seasons, something to be enjoyed and celebrated, but to us...."
Bai Zou had a pitiful smile and his frame seemed to have grown frail. He stared at his hands which were trembling as he chuckled to himself.
"Even as a palace realm cultivator I still haven't escaped it, it seems.." he lowly muttered to himself.
"When we hear cricket sounds, we know it's the writhing melody crickets, whose cries induce illusions and hallucinations that dig up your worst nightmares, cicada noises act as a precursor to the sun blistering smog that will boil your smoke alive.
To this day I don't know if the smog is brought about by the cicada or what the source is, but the damage it does is unimaginable.." Bai Zou said with a slight tremble in his voice.
"As for the birds, a quick painless death is all a Cinnabar citizen can hope for when met with their flock. But if you have horrible luck then your innards may very well end up being used as an incubation chamber for their eggs whilst you're still alive.
In the Cinnabar kingdom, whether you have lived there for 10 years, 100 years, or 1,000 years if you're lucky or unlucky depending....fear is a constant factor to you all. You never get used to the place, and your only reprieve is death.
Of the stories about me floating around, more so in respect to my father is how he taught me my butchering skills, but what they don't say is, the day he died I was there. He was butchering the carcasses like usual, however this time it was different than the other harvesting expeditions he had been to.
Within those corpses, there was a yellow agate jackal that wasn't completely dead. When my father went to carve it up, it used whatever life and strength it had left to tear him apart in the most brutal way possible before it died.
Before any of the other butchers could react, my father had his arm torn off, his torso was being chewed into. But even in all that carnage, where I could hear that jackal grind his bones with a malevolent grin, not once did he yell in pain.
I could never forget his look at that moment, and to this day I have never forgotten it. As that jackal was tearing him apart, he had this peaceful smile on his face, one of pure relief.
At the time, I could understand why he looked so relieved as he was being brutally torn apart. But the long I lived, the better I understood it, which was why when the royal family came asking me to take a different post, one that wasn't as dangerous, I refused.
I wanted to be a butcher, and not because of some altruistic sense of duty to defend others, or protect the kingdom, no, it was because I wanted that release, the release I saw on my father's face that day.
That final moment is something I consider as his final lesson to me.
The peace and comfort that came from knowing, I won't have to endure this anymore, I can now sleep forever.
The constant fear does things to someone to the point death even though brutal seem like the best gift one can get.." Bai Zou solemnly said.
"I would have ended up the same as him, had I not met my mentor, the protector assigned to me.
He showed me a different form of reprieve, one that wasn't centered on dying, and that was cooking.
Cooking and enjoying good food, helped me live through it, which is why I would not jeopardize my restaurant. The Golden Duck is a restaurant to others but to me, it's a saving grace, a proof of a life being lived, which is why I would treat it no different than my life, because it is.."
Bai Zou's gaze turned firm as he faced Li Shu.
"Daoist Li Shu I can assure you and also the court, our restaurant had nothing to do with it, and if I could help you with your ailment I would. You are our customer after all, and offering reprieve is what I aim for as the owner, but my qi isn't exactly suited for healing, and despite being a palace realm expert myself, I don't know others since I spend all my time in Cinnabar kingdom, and my prior history made it hard for me to do so.
For that I am sorry, but our restaurant had no part in your pill poisoning.." Bai Zou said as he showed a rare gaze of sympathy.
"Thank you for the opportunity, Judge Yang Qing, and I leave the matter to your court.." he added.
Yang Qing gently sighed with a heaviness surrounding the court. Even Xia Ting who always seemed like the energetic sort, had a somber expression on her face, and as for Li Shu, her gaze was complicated and full of confusion.
Yang Qing could understand her current state. Before the case, she was all but certain the restaurant was involved in her current ailment, and with her uneventful life of training and going to the restaurant, to her, the logic that she was poisoned by the restaurant was sound. But with the insight from Bai Zou and the staunch conviction he had for himself and the restaurant, she had doubts about whether the restaurant was really responsible despite not having any other plausible suspects.
If she didn't get it from the restaurant, where could she possibly have gotten her pill poisoning from?
"Thank you for your words and explanation Owner Bai Zou. With both testimonies in place, we can move on to the next stage.
Xia Ting, please call them over.."
This content is taken from (f)reewe(b)novel.𝗰𝗼𝐦