Chapter 250 Avenging the Schoolteacher

The lead officer's eyes lit up. "I didn't expect there to be someone who slipped through the net here. Arrest him!"

The other two officers immediately arrested the schoolteacher.

The schoolteacher shouted, “Are you all crazy?! Open your eyes and see who I am! I am a scholar from Zixian County! I am exempt from taxes and corvée labor! The county magistrate even invited me to his home last year! Let me go!”

Inside the cave, the young students were all extremely nervous upon hearing their teacher's angry roar.

Fang Hui and the others next to him held their breath and cautiously peered out through the gaps in the wooden planks. They saw that the schoolteacher's hands were already tied behind his back.

"Ha! So it's Scholar Liu. No wonder you're so arrogant." The leading officer smiled insincerely. "But even if you're arrogant, you'd better keep your tail between your legs. We're going to suppress bandits, and we're short-handed. I haven't caught enough bandits yet. Even though you can't carry heavy loads, you can still be considered a strongman."

The schoolteacher struggled and said, "They even dare to arrest me! I...I want to see the magistrate!"

The leading constable slapped him across the face and said viciously, "Things are different now. Before, when nothing was wrong, the county magistrate would give you some face. Now that something's happened, what's your face worth? If you keep yelling, I'll cut your tongue out!"

Seeing that their teacher was about to be conscripted, the students in the cave became anxious and inadvertently made a noise.

The officers looked down at the sound and glanced at the area near the wooden planks. "What was that noise? Did you hear it?"

The schoolteacher froze.

The other two officers said they thought they heard it, as if it were coming from underground, and wondered if it was something like a rat.

It's normal to find rats in a dilapidated temple.

But the leading officer drew his sword and slowly walked towards the wooden plank.

Fang Hui, inside the cave, could already see the tip of the knife through the cracks in the wooden planks. The other students also heard footsteps overhead. Everyone held their breath, cold sweat pouring down their faces.

If they are discovered, they won't even be able to escape.

Just as the leading official was about to step onto the wooden plank, the schoolteacher suddenly used all his strength to shove the official aside with his shoulder and ran out of the dilapidated temple.

Only in this way could he attract the attention of the officials and prevent the children from being discovered.

The leading official paused and turned around.

The other two officers immediately chased after the dilapidated temple gate.

Liu, the scholar, was ultimately just a scholar. With his hands tied behind his back, he stepped on a pothole in the ground in his haste, lost his balance, and fell heavily against the threshold.

"Wow, you're pretty fast! Keep going!"

"With your skinny arms and legs, you mustn't fall and die!"

"Ha ha ha ha!"

The two officers walked up to him, laughing at him.

Liu, the scholar, hit his head on the threshold and bled, losing two front teeth. He was dizzy and disoriented, but he still managed to roll over despite the pain and kicked the two constables in the shin.

Caught off guard, the two officers were kicked and stumbled, falling face-first into the mud.

Liu, the scholar, struggled to his feet, using his head to brace against the threshold. He staggered out, shouting as he ran, "You've committed atrocities! I refuse to believe the magistrate would dare arrest me! I'm going to take this to him! You're all going to die!"

This shout really startled the three guards in the dilapidated temple.

Some things may seem insignificant on the scale, but can weigh a ton on it.

They conscripted men, including those with official titles. If the county magistrate didn't know, it would be fine, but if Liu, the scholar, really reported it to the magistrate, they would definitely be in deep trouble.

"What are you waiting for? Don't let him go!" the lead officer roared.

The two officers who had fallen hurriedly got up and caught up with Liu, the scholar, in a few steps. Then they drew their swords and stabbed him in the back.

Pfft—

Two blades pierced through Liu Juren's body, with the tips emerging from his chest.

Liu, the scholar, lowered his head in disbelief, watching the blood slowly flow down the tip of the knife.

The lead officer was dumbfounded and rushed over, shouting, "Why are you killing him!"

The two officers were utterly astonished. They drew their swords and asked in bewilderment:

"Didn't you say not to let him go?"

"That's right, if he really goes to the county magistrate, we're finished!"

Liu, the scholar, slowly collapsed, his blood staining the muddy ground. Before he breathed his last, he still tried to look in the direction of the dilapidated temple gate.

Enraged, the lead officer drew his sword and pointed it at the two officers who had killed someone, cursing them loudly:

"I told you not to let him get away, not to kill him! If you catch him, he'll be sent to Blackwater Bay with the other able-bodied men to fight the river pirates. How will he ever see the magistrate? Are you two pig-brains? We already don't have enough able-bodied men, and we finally found one in this dilapidated temple, and you two idiots... Ugh! I really want to kill you both!"

The two officers were so humiliated that they couldn't lift their heads and dared not utter another word.

The leading official checked on Liu, the scholar, and found that he was no longer breathing and was completely dead. He couldn't help but vent his anger by punching and kicking the two stupid officials who had misunderstood his intentions.

After a moment, the leading officer calmed down.

The other two apologized in hushed tones.

"Enough, stop talking!" The leading officer's face was grim as he stared at the corpse at his feet.

The other two then asked him what to do.

The leading officer thought for a moment and said, "Tie the ropes off his hands, and strip him of his money, clothes, and shoes. That way, we can consider it his bad luck to be robbed and lose his life here."

The other two officers immediately began to stage the scene as a robbery and murder.

After the forgery was completed, the three officials quickly left.

Inside the dilapidated temple's underground cave, Fang Hui waited until he could no longer hear any movement outside before mustering the courage to pry open the wooden planks.

"Push me out first, let me see what's going on," Fang said to the others.

The boys worked together to slowly push Fang Hui out of the hole.

Fang Hui finally managed to climb out, carefully observed his surroundings, and looked out from the entrance of the dilapidated temple to make sure that there were no officials in sight. Then he returned to the cave entrance to help the others.

A dozen or so students emerged from the cave one after another, covered in dust and dirt. They all assumed that the teacher had been arrested by the officials, and began to discuss how to rescue him.

But they were just children with no life experience, and they were as anxious as ants on a hot pan, unable to think of any solutions.

Fang Hui comforted him, "Don't worry, sir. He was just taken to the yamen as a conscript, so he's definitely not in any danger. Let's wait for Brother Lihe to come back. He's the most quick-witted, and he'll surely come up with a solution. Until then, let's not leave the temple!"

Hearing him say that, the boys calmed down.

"Hmm? Something's burnt..." someone sniffed and asked.

"Ah!" Fang Hui slapped his forehead. "I completely forgot that I cooked you all some food!"

He turned and ran to another corner of the dilapidated temple, and the others followed. They saw a large pot churning with a sticky substance, and after the bubbling bubbles burst, wisps of burnt blue smoke emerged.

The only saving grace was that the fire under the pot was about to go out, otherwise this huge pot of food would have been charred.

Fang scratched his head, embarrassed, and said, "Add half a pot of cold water, stir it up, and it'll still be edible..."

Since they had hurriedly fled the private school yesterday, they hadn't eaten anything and were starving. They didn't care whether the half-pot of food, whose ingredients were unidentifiable, was burnt or not.

Then he and Fang Hui went to the backyard of the dilapidated temple and took the rainwater collected the night before from several half-broken water vats and mixed it into a pot.

After making a big pot of thin porridge that smelled burnt, they took turns drinking it by scooping it up with their hands.

Just as everyone was enjoying themselves immensely, Li He's roar suddenly rang out from outside the dilapidated temple: "Mr. Liu! Mr. Liu!!!"

Everyone was stunned for a moment, then rushed towards the door, and saw Li He kneeling on the ground, wailing loudly.

Everyone rushed to his side, only to find that the schoolteacher was already a cold corpse. His coat was gone, his shoes were gone, and all that was left was a tattered, thin undergarment stained with blood.

Fang Hui and the others were stunned into silence, their minds blank, frozen like puppets.

Li He looked up, her eyes red and tearful, and demanded, "What happened! Why...why was my master killed?!"

The sound was deafening, waking everyone up.

The group of young students knelt down abruptly and wept bitterly.

Fang was calmer than them. Suppressing his grief, he recounted in detail how the three officials had come to the ruined temple to arrest people.

“Brother Lihe…I…I thought the master had been arrested by the officials,” Fang Hui knelt down, his face full of self-reproach. “I never imagined that the master would be so cruel to thieves. It would be one thing if they stole his clothes, shoes and money, but why…why did they have to kill him!”

Li He closed his eyes, took deep breaths, then suddenly opened them, his face filled with murderous intent. "No, in my opinion, the gentleman was not robbed and murdered!"

Fang Hui said blankly, "But that's how it looks. Surely those three constables couldn't have killed you, sir? They have no reason to do that."

Li He gritted her teeth and said, "Although I can't understand their reasons, judging from the shape of the wound, the gentleman was stabbed to death from behind with two official knives. The fact that the gentleman's clothes and shoes were stripped off and his personal belongings were taken away must have been a deliberate illusion created by those three people to shift the blame to the robbers who killed him!"

Fang Hui gasped, recalling how the master had argued with the officials to prevent the people hiding in the cave from being discovered, and said, "It seems... the master died because of us..."

"I want to avenge my master!" someone cried out.

The other young students roared in anger, "Avenge our teacher! Kill the corrupt official!"

Some people kowtowed several times to the schoolteacher before getting up and running towards the county town.

"Stop right there!" Li He roared. "Mr. Liu risked his life to save you, not to send you to your deaths!"

"What do we do then?" the boys exclaimed angrily. "Are we just going to let the murderer go?!"

"Even if we are weak, together we can kill those three corrupt officials!"

"Yes! We're not afraid!"

Li He slowly stood up.

His bloodshot yet calm eyes swept over the crowd.

The domineering aura that was revealed unconsciously suppressed everyone's anger.

"Listen to me," Li He said, enunciating each word clearly. "This grudge must be avenged, but we must act according to plan and absolutely not act impulsively!"

Fang Hui also stood up. "Everyone, you should trust Brother Lihe. He always keeps his word. Let's bury Mr. Liu first. We can't just leave him lying here in the cold, muddy ground..."

The group of teenagers couldn't stop crying.

“Brother Lihe, Brother Fanghui, you’re right…”

“We will listen to our two elder brothers and bury the gentleman first before making plans for revenge.”

Afterwards, the crowd carried the schoolteacher back to the dilapidated temple.

The boys cleaned the man's body while weeping, then dug a pit behind the temple, buried him in it, and knelt in a circle, kowtowing and weeping.

The teachers were usually very strict, but they were also genuinely good to them.

This time, they even lost their lives to protect them, causing them immense pain, as if their hearts were being sliced ​​open and crushed into mincemeat.

Once Li He had calmed them down, he led them back to the dilapidated temple, sat down with them on the ground, and told them about the information he had gathered during his return to the city.

The county government has truly gone mad; when it comes to robbing the people, they are even more ruthless than bandits and brigands.

They not only robbed people of their money, but also forcibly conscripted men, even fourteen or fifteen-year-old boys, and many young beggars were also taken away.

As for the fathers or brothers of these students, they will probably all be caught as well.

From yesterday until now, the city has probably been almost completely looted and ransacked, and the county government officials have begun to extend their reach to the surrounding villages.

Upon hearing this, everyone felt both fear and anger, and a sense of despair welled up deep within them.

"Brother... what should we do?" Fang Hui asked. "How can we avenge Mr. Liu?"

Faced with this situation, Li He had no best solution in the short term. He could only tell everyone to hide in the dilapidated temple, which had already been searched and was at least the safest place at the moment. He would then continue to look for opportunities in the city after nightfall. If he encountered the murderer who killed the gentleman, he would take his life.

"By the way, do you know what those three constables look like?" Li He asked.

Fang immediately said, "I've seen what they look like. The one in the lead has a big black mole on his nose, which makes him easy to identify. As for the other two... they're quite ordinary and don't have any obvious features."

Li He nodded. "As long as we find the big black mole, we won't have trouble finding the other two. Fang Hui, where did we put the kitchen knife we ​​took with us earlier?"

Fang ran to the corner and rummaged around for a while before finding it and placing it in front of Li He.

Li He picked up the two kitchen knives and looked at them. "Hmm... sharpen them later, it's better than having no weapons at all. Fang Hui, you're in charge of staying at the temple to take care of these boys for the time being. I'll handle the matter of avenging Master."

Upon hearing this, the students all expressed their desire to participate in the revenge.

Li He brandished his twin swords with practiced ease, then looked around at the crowd and asked, "Among you, who has skills like mine?"

The group looked at each other in bewilderment.

Li He said, "You've never even killed a chicken, how can you talk about killing someone? You probably can't even hold a knife properly, so don't try to be brave. You call me Brother Li He, and Mr. Liu is also my teacher, so I should take responsibility for revenge. Just wait for my good news!"

"Brother Lihe..." A dozen or so young students burst into tears and kowtowed deeply to him.

However, they still insisted on getting involved.

Even if they didn't have the ability to kill their enemies, they still wanted to help Li He. Some even said that they had never held a knife before, but it was not too late to learn now, and they were very confident in their learning abilities.

Li He laughed, "Do you think learning martial arts is the same as studying literature? Besides, even if you want to take a knife, I don't have any extras here, just two kitchen knives."

Fang Hui suddenly spoke up: "Big brother, I remember now, Sister Jinli came by again a couple of days ago and gave us some weapons for self-defense."

Upon hearing this, the others' eyes lit up.

Li He said, "That's still not enough! Fang Hui, you'd better shut up! I can take the risk by myself, there's no need to drag the rest of us down with me!"

Just then, a gentle voice that they both knew rang out.

"Huh? Why are there so many people today? Li He, Fang Hui, what are you doing?"