Chapter 169 This is too much of a bully; those who lose the Way will find themselves isolated.

During the most difficult time of her life, Tang Si happened to be short of that hundred taels of silver.

“One hundred taels of silver and two lives are nothing to Xuan Yutang.” He sighed softly. “I buried my wife with my own hands and erected a tombstone for her and my son with my own hands.”

As Tang Si finished speaking, her Adam's apple bobbed, and her eyes lost their light.

His fingers, crippled by Xuan Yutang, trembled for a long time as he held a cup of warm water, his parched lips mingling with the smile on his face.

Jin Shu stared at the shape of his fingers, comparing it in her mind for a long time, and a sense of doubt gradually rose in her heart.

The shape of those hands and the handprints on the victim's neck were quite different from the marks on the boy's neck.

She frowned, bent down, raised her hand, and whispered in Li Jin's ear, "These hands are not right."

With just five words, Li Jin understood Jin Shu's meaning.

“After that, I lived with hatred for Xuan Yutang.” Tang Si finally spoke after a long pause.

“I don’t understand,” he said. “Why can he stand so openly in the sunlight, while I, relying on my own two hands, am forced into a corner by him, forced to eke out a living in the cold darkness?”

"He's just a beast in human skin."

He lowered his eyes and chuckled softly: "I made up my mind to kill him, and whether then or now, I truly have no regrets whatsoever."

At this point, he choked up slightly: "But having also caused the deaths of three innocent people, I know my sins are grave..."

Just as he finished speaking, the sky over Shengzhou was plunged into darkness.

Jin Shu took the lantern handed to her by the yamen runner and placed another lamp on the table, instantly illuminating the small courtyard with red lights.

However, this light could only illuminate Tang Si's cheeks, just like the smile on his face, but it couldn't reach his heart.

He raised his hand, wiped his cheek, and finally recounted what had happened that day.

“I’ve thought about it for a long time. Rather than letting this cancer continue to live in Shengzhou, I’d rather stand up and kill him with my own hands.” He smiled, his face slightly weary. “No matter what, he’s still a person with a beating heart. If his heart stops beating, many people can be saved.”

"That's what I was thinking when I made a whole truckload of paulownia wood lacquer," he said. "Bright red is suitable for revenge, and it's suitable for a proper celebration after he's dead."

As Tang Si spoke, though there was no hope in her eyes, she was extremely dashing and decisive, without any hesitation.

“After burying my wife and child, I was penniless. To make that cartload of red paint and to buy cinnabar, I sold my house. I stood guard at the gate of his Xuanfu residence, trying to get close to the people coming out of the mansion every day, saying that I was selling this cartload of red paint cheaply, for only twenty taels of silver.”

Xuan Yutang, driven by greed and a thirst for profit, could not resist such temptation.

He observed Tang Si for many days, and seeing her disheveled appearance, he had a wicked idea.

That night, under the cover of moonlight, he slipped out the door and kicked Tang Si, who was squatting in the corner: "Hey, beggar Tang, where did you steal this red paint from?"

Tang Si looked up, and upon recognizing him, his heart pounded. Suppressing the surging hatred within him, he pleaded like a dog before Xuan Yutang: "Master Xuan, please, for the sake of our past relationship, spare these lacquer pieces..."

"Is one meal enough?" Xuan Yutang narrowed his eyes, his fingers lightly tracing his beard. "If one meal isn't enough, I'll just steal it all."

Before her, Tang Si's hands were clenched into fists, and her lips were pursed into a thin line.

"Your junk isn't worth a penny these days. I bought this whole truckload of trash from you for just one meal, and you have no complaints? You'd better kneel down and beg me!" Xuan Yutang laughed triumphantly. "You beg me! I'll treat you to a feast! I'll even give you a chance to sit at the same table and drink with me!"

Xuan Yutang understands Tang Si.

This person was upright and decisive, but in his own words, he was like a rock in a latrine—stubborn and inflexible.

He stubbornly clung to his moral high ground, remaining poor to the very end.

Today, he's deliberately being sarcastic, wanting to see him make a fool of himself. He wants to see this so-called tough guy have his spine broken by his own hands.

Then Tang Si knelt before him and kowtowed to the ground as he wished: "Please, I beg you."

He nodded his head to the ground, gritting his teeth.

Seeing this, Xuan Yutang was in a good mood. He stepped on the man's head and pinched it a couple of times: "Come in, there's good wine and good food, eat your fill."

After saying that, he turned around and gave the surrounding neighbors a threatening look: "See that! This is what happens when you go against me!"

As he spoke these words, he was completely unaware that Tang Si, who had climbed up from behind him, had already drawn the dagger hidden in his sleeve.

“He would do anything to me to kill me, and I can endure it.” In the garden of Shengzhou Prefecture, Tang Si took a deep breath. “After that, I followed behind him, and he humiliated and insulted me in every way possible, saying that I had chosen the wrong side.”

“He did have a table full of good food and wine, but it was all leftovers,” he said. “His wife and two children had just finished eating.”

Tang Si stopped talking at this point.

His thoughts seemed to return to that day, as if he could see those three innocent people again, their eyes filled with surprise and fear.

They were forced into it too.

The girl was someone else's wife whom Xuan Yutang had stolen, and the child was born to Xuan Yutang by force.

To prevent the girl from escaping, Xuan Yutang poisoned her voice, rendering her mute. From then on, to survive, the woman had no choice but to stay there, like a walking corpse.

"Later, when Xuan Yutang saw that he had no response to my mockery, he began to mock my deceased wife." As he said this, the anger in his heart burned on his cheeks, "saying some foul things and disrespecting her."

"It was at that moment that I became extremely angry, took out a knife, and stabbed him."

Xuan Yutang stared blankly at the dagger stuck in his waist, his words abruptly cut off as he saw the real killing intent in Tang Si's eyes.

That arrogant and self-important demeanor crumbled in an instant.

He looked at Tang Si with a pale face and gave an awkward laugh: "Young Master Tang, what... what do you mean by this?"

He raised his hand and pointed to the front yard: "You...you think you can leave this yard after killing me?"

Tang Si, with a cold expression, said nonchalantly, "It doesn't matter."

Xuan Yutang panicked at this moment. He staggered two steps and shouted, "Guards! Someone is trying to assassinate me! Someone is trying to assassinate me!"

People in the front yard came running at the sound, and were stunned by what they saw.

Tang Si held a bloodstained dagger in his hand, pointing it at Xuan Yutang, standing arrogantly by the table: "I will kill him here today, and Shengzhou will be free of this local bully. You will have no more worries, and how many souls will be comforted by his blood!"

He stood there, like a messenger from hell, his face coldly and arrogantly surveying everything before him: "My grudge against him is none of your business. You may all disperse! I will not harm any of you!"

Standing at the door were the servants of Xuan Yutang, who were usually oppressed and treated like animals by him.

They retreated.

Xuan Yutang panicked: "One hundred taels! Kill him! A reward of one hundred taels of silver!"

The people in front of him remained unmoved.

"You owe us more than a hundred taels of silver in wages!" someone in the crowd shouted.

Xuan Yutang's face was as white as a sheet: "No! No! You capture him, kill him, and I'll give you a thousand taels! A thousand taels!"

In the moonlit night, only his voice echoed in the inner hall.

Only one person stepped forward, and that was Tang Si.

"He's dead. You can take his belongings to pay your wages."

He gripped the dagger in his hand tightly, coldly staring at his face.