Chapter 49 Soldier: "Look carefully, see who I am."...

Pinghai County.

A new restaurant opened in the city, and diners flocked to try it out. The main hall was bustling with activity and filled with lively chatter.

Amidst the commotion, the voices from one table stood out particularly loudly.

"...What's that? You don't know Brother Liu, he accompanied His Highness the Crown Prince on a distant expedition." A man dressed as a soldier, his face flushed from drinking, gesticulated wildly as he introduced him to his tablemate.

The soldier put his arm around the shoulder of a black-armored soldier next to him and said drunkenly, "Brother Liu is my closest brother. From now on, he's your brother too. Help him out whenever you need him."

“Of course, of course,” the people at the table echoed.

"However, it seems that this is His Highness the Crown Prince's first expedition. Brother Liu, you're not going to that land of the southern barbarians, are you?" someone at the table asked.

The soldier surnamed Liu nodded indifferently, his posture arrogant, his black military uniform standing out among the soldiers at this table.

As a member of the Xuanjia Cavalry, he was somewhat arrogant in the face of these ragtag troops. If it weren't for the fact that this man was from his hometown and was shamelessly asking him to come out for drinks, he would never have associated with these people.

However, he was just a nobody in the Xuanjia Army, but in front of these people, he was the most remarkable one. He both looked down on them and enjoyed the rare experience of being high above them.

"I've heard that a lot of strange things have happened in that place. This battle must have been tough."

The soldier in black smiled contemptuously. "Just a bunch of barbarians. What's so hard about them? Those guys can't even make a decent weapon. Killing them is like cutting melons and vegetables."

"The Xuanjia Cavalry is truly formidable!"

"But I heard they wiped out the entire enemy village. Our Dayong army doesn't usually do things like that."

The soldier in black downed a bowl of wine, clicked his tongue, and said, "The barbarians are ruthless. They poisoned the first wave of people who went in, killing quite a few. Anyway, the barbarians are useless to keep alive, so it's fine to wipe them out."

He accepted the praise of the crowd with pride, telling part of the truth and concealing the rest, and this massacre became a military achievement he could boast about.

"Shopkeeper, bring two more jugs of good wine!" the drunken soldier shouted at the doorway.

Then a young girl brought over the wine.

The girl had a delicate and fair face. Although her expression was indifferent, her bright and beautiful appearance could easily tempt someone who was drunk.

"Hey, hey, hey, why are you leaving as soon as you put down the wine jug? My wine bowls are all empty, don't you know how to refill them? What kind of teaching did your shopkeeper give you?" The drunken soldier angrily blocked the girl who was about to leave.

The young woman obediently poured wine for the guests. To avoid getting any on the food on the table, she rolled up her sleeves, revealing a section of her fair wrist.

As he poured the wine into the bowl in front of the soldier in black, he stared intently at the severed wrist, and just as the girl was about to pull her hand away, he grabbed it.

Indeed, it was smooth and delicate; it was rare to see someone from a poor family with such fair and tender skin.

The girl was so startled by his sudden action that her hand trembled, and she spilled a lot of the wine on him.

Seeing that he was genuinely interested in the girl, the crowd started jeering, "Little lady, if you get my brother's clothes dirty, can you afford to pay for it with your meager wages?"

"How about you sleep with my brother Liu for a night?"

"Hey, right, right, right..."

The commotion grew louder, and people at other tables in the restaurant started looking at their table.

The girl tried to break free several times, but the soldier in black held onto her hand tightly, staring at her face with interest, looking down at her as he waited for her to compensate him.

"It is my fault for offending you, sir. Please come upstairs with me to change." The girl lowered her eyes and bowed her head, her posture submissive, as if she knew she could not escape and resigned herself to sacrificing herself in order to end this farce.

Upon hearing her words, the soldiers at the table excitedly shouted and winked at the soldier in black, implying that his chance for a night of passion had arrived.

The soldier in black smiled even more smugly, and left with the girl amidst the envious gazes of his brothers.

When you're drunk, your lustful desires are easily aroused. He originally just wanted to take advantage of the girl because she was somewhat attractive; since she made a living in a restaurant, there wouldn't be any consequences even if he went a little too far and forced her. Unexpectedly, his brothers egged him on and scared the girl away. Thinking that he was about to succeed, he couldn't help but feel a little smug.

The restaurant's stairwell was narrow and extremely steep. The girl walked ahead of him without holding onto the wall, taking each step very steadily, which seemed quite strange given her frail figure.

But the soldier in black quickly dismissed his doubts, convincing himself that this person had been running up and down the stairs in the restaurant a lot, so his steady gait was normal.

At this moment, nothing is more important than getting down to business.

Upon reaching the second floor, the girl went in first, and he followed behind, closing the door behind her.

The noise downstairs instantly subsided. The room was piled with miscellaneous items, including clothes and a bronze mirror, making it appear to be a proper changing room.

He threw his military knife on the ground and stood there casually, waiting for her to serve him.

The girl stood with her back to him for a while without making a move, so he impatiently urged, "Come here and help me undress."

The girl obediently came over, and he smiled maliciously, opening his arms to wait for her to undress.

A slender hand touched the wine stain on his lapel, making him feel itchy inside, as if half the blood pumping from his heart was flowing upwards and half downwards.

That hand parted his clothes and slid into his chest. The delicate touch made him feel incredibly comfortable. He thought to himself that this young lady was quite shrewd, and it wouldn't be bad to take her as a concubine in the future.

You can't just touch this one spot! Besides, her hand was pressing too hard on his chest, making him uncomfortable. So he impatiently urged, "Touch the other side too, let me touch the other side as well."

As soon as he finished speaking, the hand suddenly clenched into a claw, its sharp fingertips digging deep into his flesh.

Before the soldier in black could even cry out in pain, he heard the indifferent voice of the girl in front of him.

"Look carefully, see who I am."

He was in unbearable pain, and all his beautiful thoughts vanished. His first instinct was to kill the man, but when he reached to his side, he found that he had already thrown the knife away.

The hand was firmly embedded in his heart, rendering him unable to move. However, his years of combat experience allowed him to endure the pain and break free from the girl's grasp. He clutched his chest and reached for the knife on the ground.

But the next moment, the girl's figure suddenly appeared in front of him like a ghost.

The soldier in black was so frightened that he fell to the ground, looked up and met the eyes of the tavern girl, his whole body trembling like a leaf.

That look... that look... he had only ever seen it on that nightmarish battlefield.

The white-haired girl wielding a wood-chopping knife mercilessly slaughtered like a demon from hell.

"It's you, you monster!"

No, this person clearly has a completely different face!

He cowered and crawled out, desperately trying to escape the room.

But then that hand, that hand grabbed him again.

She grabbed his ankle, and his body was dragged across the floor like a rag doll, the blood from his chest leaving a trail on the floor.

"Please, spare me... I'm just a lowly soldier. It was all orders from my superiors. They ordered me to be killed..."

She dragged him back to the center of the room without giving him a chance, looking down at the man trembling on the floor begging for mercy, completely unmoved.

"Chopping vegetables and cutting melons?"

"No...no..."

Is that what you mean?

The girl slowly bent down and approached the person on the ground who was trembling like a leaf.

Her hand pressed against his chest again.

The next moment, that hand pierced through his chest, grasped his heart, and ripped it out of his torn chest.

The black-armored soldier stared in disbelief, his body twitched a few times, and then he died, collapsing to the ground like a limp rag. Blood slowly seeped from the hole in his heart, quickly forming a small pool on the floor.

Xiao Jiang stood up, looking at the still-beating heart in her hand, warm and fresh...

Blood dripped from her hands onto the face of the black-armored soldier, whose eyes were wide open, his life frozen in the shock of his last moments before death.

Xiao Jiang lowered his head and muttered to himself, "He died so quickly..."

Humans are so fragile...

The seemingly indestructible appearance is like a cardboard shell. No matter how arrogant or overbearing a person is, once this shell is pierced and their heart is seized, that person will never live again, and everything will be lost.

She stood quietly for a long time, feeling neither pleasure nor fear. Her emotions seemed to have been detached, and she numbly looked down at herself, who had done all of this, from a high place.

A wisp of black smoke coalesced into a human shape, and the gluttonous demon descended from her body.

"Well done, good boy..."

The gluttonous demon praised her in a soft voice, and began to greedily devour the heart of the black-armored soldier using her hand.

Xiao Jiang looked up at the completely unfamiliar face in the bronze mirror, a face that bore the same bewilderment.

*

"Jinzhi, Jinzhi... wake up."

Jinzhi felt someone patting her face, and she reluctantly woke up. She felt like she had slept for a long time, and when she opened her eyes, her head throbbed as if she had been hit by a stone.

She struggled to open her eyes and saw a strange young girl, fair-skinned and clean-cut, like a girl from a wealthy family. She didn't remember knowing anyone like that.

"You're finally awake." The girl smiled faintly when she saw her wake up.

Jinzhi sat up and found herself in a dilapidated house. The sky outside was gloomy, and a cold wind blew in through the broken windows and tiles. There was a bonfire burning beside her, so she didn't feel cold.

"Where is this?" Jinzhi asked anxiously.

She clearly remembered being tricked into going to a shady shop, and being drugged right after finishing her meal.

Where did those two swindlers and Xiao Jiang go?

"Don't be afraid, it's safe here." The girl's voice was gentle, and it had a strangely calming power.

Jin Zhixin calmed down a little. She felt something being stuffed into her hand. Looking down, she saw it was a money bag, heavy as a feather.

"Someone asked me to give you this money."

Jinzhi instinctively refused, "So much! I can't take it..."

She pushed it once, but no one took it, and the heavy money bag fell into her hands. But she really needed the money, so her gaze returned to the money bag, and she didn't push it a second time.

"Take this money and go home." The girl stuffed the money bag into her arms.

"Did Xiao Jiang ask you to do this? Where is he?"

Jinzhi couldn't think of anyone who would give her money. She had told Xiao Jiang that she wanted to go home, but he was clearly a little beggar, so where would he get money? And even if he had money, why didn't he give it to her himself?

Upon hearing her question, the girl paused for a moment.

"She is dead."

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Author's note: Rest in peace, brother. Even your crown prince never received this treatment. [doge emoji]