The dry firewood, like a wild beast awakened, was engulfed in flames in the blink of an eye. The fire spread at an alarming speed, and the heat wave hit people in the face, causing them to scream and retreat in fright, while the gravel under their feet crunched underfoot.
The reporters, like firecrackers set off, crowded at a safe distance and frantically pressed the shutter. The flashes of the flashbulbs and the roar of the flames intertwined, making people's eardrums hurt, and it really felt as violent as a thunderbolt rolling down.
Just then, the sun completely sank below the horizon, its last rays swallowed by the night.
But the world did not fall into darkness—the raging flames, like an artificial sun, illuminated the surroundings as if it were daytime, and the firelight leaped and climbed onto everyone's face.
The photos revealed the excited or horrified expressions of the reporters, and the suppressed trembling of the workers.
It also reflected Cheng Muyun's face, half-lit and half-shadowed by the firelight, revealing the emotions surging in his eyes that were more intense and scorching than the flames.
Li Qirui's screams, like those of a trapped beast whose tail has been stepped on, tore through the air in front of the ancestral hall with each louder cry. The pain and terror in his voice gradually changed the expressions of the onlookers from initial surprise and uncertainty to a shared indignation.
"Cheng Muyun! How dare you commit violence in the street!"
Someone in the crowd shouted this first, as if lighting a fuse, followed by a chorus of stern accusations.
"Such cruelty in broad daylight, is there no justice left?"
"Is this how the Dongzhou Army bullies people with their power?"
Cheng Muyun seemed oblivious to the uproar and condemnation. He stood with his back to the open ancestral hall door, the hem of his clothes fluttering sharply in the wind.
The anger he had been suppressing just moments before now surged forth like molten lava, bursting from every syllable: "Cruel?"
He sneered, the icy shards in his laughter almost cutting. "When my wife was devoured alive by the flames, who among you stood up and said a single word about 'cruelty'? Her body was barely cold, her body had only been laid in state for three days, and you blocked the entrance to my Cheng family ancestral hall, shouting and threatening to kill based on baseless rumors. And this is what you call 'gentlemen'?"
He practically choked out the last few words, the veins on his neck throbbing, and his eyes, which were usually shrouded in a cold mist, were now frighteningly bright, like blood-soaked knives shooting straight at the crowd.
The crowd fell silent for a moment, stunned by his terrifying aura, but a voice still managed to utter a defiant one: "But...but it's also a fact that you condoned your men's violence against the people! The Dongzhou army's forced requisition of grain and oppression of merchants outside the city, are those all lies?"
Cheng Muyun slowly turned around, his gaze sweeping over the person who had spoken like a hawk, and then slowly passing over the silent crowd.
He narrowed his eyes slightly, and the chill emanating from him seemed to freeze the surrounding wind, even the shadows of the stone lions in front of the ancestral hall seemed to freeze.
"Leaving aside the so-called 'forced conscription and oppression,' my thorough investigation revealed that they were all fabrications with ulterior motives," his voice was hoarse as if it had been sanded, each word carrying the anger and exhaustion surging in his chest.
"Even if we take a step back, tell me, since my Dongzhou army was stationed here, has it ever shed a single innocent life?"
Upon hearing this, the previously restless crowd seemed to be muted, instantly falling silent.
The man who had just shouted opened his mouth, his Adam's apple bobbing a few times, but he couldn't utter a single word.
Yes, during those days, rumors about the Dongzhou Army were rampant, saying they were arrogant, domineering, and that Cheng Muyun allowed his subordinates to act lawlessly.
But upon closer examination, not a single person in the entire city could stand up and confidently say, "My family members were killed by the Dongzhou army," or "I witnessed them taking lives with my own eyes."
Those rumors are like rootless weeds, growing wildly with the wind, but when you really want to find evidence, you can't even find half a leaf.
Cheng Muyun looked at the silent, bowed heads of the crowd, and the chill in his eyes intensified.
A voice suddenly rose in the crowd, like a poisoned needle piercing straight at you: "Then your violent purge of the reactionaries before wasn't just a rumor! Back then, your men drew their knives right there in the street, and every one of those dead bodies had blood on your hands, Cheng Muyun?"
Cheng Muyun's brows furrowed even more, and the last bit of warmth in his eyes faded.
He was too lazy to argue with this group of people who had been incited, and simply uttered a cold, hard sentence: "That was an order from above."
"An order?" The man who had just spoken seemed to have suddenly seized a handle on Cheng Muyun. He stretched his neck forward, his face plastered with a nauseating smugness, and the curve of his mouth was full of malice.
"Orders are orders, but you ordered the knife to be wielded, you ordered the people to be killed! Cheng Muyun, do you even know how many lives you've taken? In my opinion..."
His words were still lingering on his tongue when a muffled gunshot suddenly rang out, making everyone's eardrums buzz.
The man's smug expression froze instantly, his eyes widening as if he had seen something unbelievable.
The next second, a dazzling flower of blood suddenly bloomed on his forehead, and blood was gushing out of a hideous blood hole.
His body felt as if all his strength had been drained, and he fell straight backward, crashing into the person behind him with a thud, his warm blood splattering all over the faces of those around him.
Cheng Muyun suddenly had a black pistol in his hand, with a wisp of smoke rising from the muzzle.
He lowered his eyes, not even glancing at the person who had fallen, only frowning in disgust, his voice as soft as shooing away a fly: "Annoying."
The deathly silence lasted only half a second.
"ah--!"
A sharp scream suddenly tore through the air, like a spark thrown into boiling oil, instantly igniting chaos throughout the scene.
My dear reader, there's more to this chapter! Please click the next page to continue reading—even more exciting content awaits!
Continue read on readnovelmtl.com
