The one-eyed man leaned on his sword, still standing like a door god on the stairs.
But blood had already soaked through his clothes...
Fang Ke waited for a long time before he gently waved his hand, and a strong man immediately stepped forward to check the one-eyed man’s breathing and pulse.
"Leader, he’s stopped breathing!"
The strong man reported back.
Fang Ke glanced at Yang Ge and waved his hand, "Keep searching, don’t let a single villain escape. You two, go inside and take a look, but don’t frighten the people inside..."
"Yes!"
The strong men took the order and continued searching the backyard.
Two strong men carrying torches stepped over the one-eyed man and gently pushed open the door behind him.
"Hoo..."
Yang Ge let out a heavy sigh and said with a forced smile, "Have these people always been so ruthless?"
The number of dead he had seen today
Was more than he had seen in his entire life.
Fang Ke replied, "These people are just like that, ruthless to others and to themselves. They don’t blink when swinging a knife at others, and they don’t blink when swinging a knife at themselves either!"
Yang Ge couldn’t quite articulate the feeling in his heart and didn’t know what to say.
Just then, a strong man who had been inside to investigate hurried back, saluted, and reported, "Leader, there’s just one girl inside, she’s just woken up..."
Yang Ge stepped quickly toward the house, and as he passed the one-eyed man’s corpse, he glanced at it and said, "Separate this man’s body from the others when collecting the remains later!"
Fang Ke responded with a nod.
Yang Ge stepped into the low, old house.
In a flash, a thick musty smell hit him in the face.
Yang Ge instinctively wrinkled his brow, then looked around the room in some surprise.
He knew this smell was due to the wooden beams and furniture becoming damp and moldy, coupled with poor ventilation, which created the trapped odor.
The small broken courtyard where he used to live had this smell too, but the mustiness in this house was even more pungent than that.
He looked more closely and saw that the furnishings in the room were very simple; there was a large communal bed on one side, a few old washbasin stands on the other, and in the corner, there were several chamber pots thrown about.
Yang Ge immediately understood that this room must be the quarters for the servants of the county headquarters.
More precisely, it was the quarters for the lowest-ranked servants of the county headquarters.
Luting County wasn’t big, and he had been there for nearly a year, so he had naturally seen the servants of the county office... those people didn’t even pay when they ate at Yuelai Inn!
The strong man waiting inside the room, holding a torch in one hand and a drawn sword in the other, stood at the far end of the communal bed. The flickering torchlight illuminated the corner of the bed where a thin blanket was huddled into a ball, quivering like a sieve.
Yang Ge handed his drawn sword to Fang Ke behind him and slowed his pace as he walked over.
Seeing him approach, the strong man bowed and reported, "Leader, this girl says she was knocked unconscious by the man outside, she doesn’t know anything."
Yang Ge looked at the trembling bundle of blankets, softened his tone, and spoke gently, "Miss, we are officials, not villains. There has been a disaster at the county lord’s residence, and we are here to investigate. Don’t be afraid, come out so I can ask you a few questions!"
Perhaps the identity of the officials had an effect; the small blanket shook less violently.
A head with yellow hair timidly extended halfway from the blanket, revealing a pair of bright, scared eyes darting around at the people inside the room.
When she woke up, the first thing she saw were two brawny men with shiny long knives standing beside her, which terrified her!
Yang Ge turned to the side, gesturing to his own robe in the firelight, "See this? The attire of an official family."
But the girl with the small eyes didn’t look at his clothes; instead, she stared into his eyes for several moments before hurriedly flipping over to kneel on the bed, bowing repeatedly to Yang Ge, "This servant has seen the lord!"
She was a servant girl who wasn’t particularly attractive, thin and dark, seemingly with a slight limp.
Yang Ge stepped forward to help her up and after a moment of thought, he asked, "There’s an old man in your manor who has lost an eye, do you know him?"
The timid girl nodded, "Replying to the lord, this servant knows him, he’s the new stableman at the manor, we call him Wang."
Yang Ge’s spirits lifted, he quickly pressed on, "New? How long has he been here?"
The girl answered, "Replying to the lord, he arrived two days before the Mid-Autumn Festival. The day they entered the manor, the master gave us quite a bit to eat."
"They?"
Yang Ge seized upon the point, "How many of them? Did they all come together?"
The girl tried hard to remember for a moment, her little face flushing with urgency, "Lord, this servant doesn’t know, this servant has only seen them two or three times."
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"No hurry, if you don’t know, then you don’t know!"
Yang Ge spoke softly, calming the girl who was almost in tears, "Your manor has suffered a calamity, and you might not be able to stay here any longer. You wait here for a while, and soon someone from our side will take you to another place, and there are some other things we will need your help with later on."
The girl looked terrified but didn’t dare to ask any questions.
Yang Ge turned and walked towards the door, but after a couple of steps, he suddenly remembered something and turned back to ask, "Girl, are you familiar with that stableman, Wang?"
The girl reflexively shook her head like a rattle, "Not familiar at all..."
Yang Ge then realized that his manner of questioning might have frightened the girl, and he quickly changed his approach, "Don’t be afraid, he’s not a bad person, he was just protecting you... Think carefully again, are you familiar with him?"
The girl settled down some and answered cautiously, "Replying to the lord, since Wang is new to the manor and did not know his way around, and the stables are far from the kitchen, he... he missed several meals, and since this servant is close to the aunt who serves the meals, I hid two steamed buns for him..."
Yang Ge was stunned for a moment, repeating, "Just two steamed buns?"
The servant girl, not understanding the reason for his reaction, also looked puzzled and nodded, "Yes, just two steamed buns."
Yang Ge felt a desire to laugh, but he could not quite pinpoint why it was amusing.
He waved her off, "You rest easy, someone from our side will come to take you somewhere else shortly!"
After speaking, he walked out with long strides.
Stepping out the door, the corpse of the one-eyed man stood like a door deity on the steps, blocking the doorway as well as the bloody turmoil outside.
As Yang Ge passed by, he couldn’t help but glance at him once more and whispered softly to himself, ’Was it worth it?’
Two steamed buns.
Two lives.
This was an equation he couldn’t solve...
"Fang Ke."
He called out quietly.
Fang Ke stepped forward promptly, "Your subordinate is here."
Yang Ge, "Assign a capable member of our banner to protect that girl inside, she’s the only critical witness; there must be no mistakes!"
As he said this, another thought occurred to him, "Also, send someone to verify the girl’s identity with the neighboring residents."
Fang Ke saluted in acquiescence and then asked in a low voice, "Lord, should we continue to search for those three who escaped?"
Yang Ge, "First, maintain order within the city; we will deal with the rest after dawn!"