Officer Zhang woke up from his unconsciousness, throwing his head around in his confusion to find out where he was. With a loud crash, he fell from his chair. I lighted a smoke and offered another one to him. With a casual tone, I said, "It has been days since we last met, Officer Zhang!" His hands trembled and the cigarette shook in his mouth. I reached over with a lighter and set his cigarette alight. "Your woman has confessed," I said, matter-of-factly, "Ah, yes! You'd do well to remember that we are now aligned with the horse bandits. There's a lack of awareness for the rule of law here, so I'd advise that you cooperate to spare yourself from any pain!"
Still, my words seemed to have failed to make any impression to the man. Seeing that he was not bound by ropes, Officer Zhang sprang to his feet and bolted for the door! I merely smiled and made no attempt to stop him, still remaining crouched on the ground. Officer Zhang was gleeful at being able to reach the door.
I went to the bonfire outside, and there was the hopeless Yuan Chongxi, engrossed so deeply in another binge of food and drinks... Lin Feng waved me to his side, and I sat down. A girl handed him a lamb's leg which he passed to me. "Come, Brother! I know you'll love this!" I could not resist a smile, taking the roasted leg from him and nibbled a bite, tasting it. The rich flavor of the roasted meat tingled my senses; it was fabulous! Aunt Ulan sat down beside me, grinning. "Have some more, my good boy!" My head bobbed profusely like a little boy as I continued chomping down on my meat while taking a cup of kumis (fermented mare's milk) from her hand. It was the first time I had tasted such a drink, which was an impressive experience. Aunt Ulan was overjoyed to see me enjoying the food. She placed her fingers to her mouth and whistled hard, and the music and revelry rose to a crescendo as everyone rose to their feet and began dancing around the fire. Some were strumming
We were alerted by the arrival of a line of oxen-drawn wagons that waited outside the encampment at nine the following morning. Each of the wagons was carrying a large crate, and the convoy was led by the agent who had tried, and failed, to secure an audience with Aunt Ulan. "The goods are all on the ox carts," he said, "Feel free to inspect the goods, Chief Ulan!" Under orders from Aunt Ulan, some of the girls carefully pried open the lids of the crates and inspected the rifles and boxes of ammunition. Still wrapped in oil papers, the guns could be seen glistening with gun oil when the wrappers were peeled off! Satisfied, Aunt Ulan barked some instructions to her girls, ordering them to begin hauling the crates into the camp, but the agent came to her and stopped her immediately. "Wait!" he cried, "You can take the goods, but not the crates!" "What nonsense is this?" Aunt Ulan glared at him indignantly and earned the agent's hesitant answer, "I'm afraid this is my emp
When we went back, we began discussing the possible places that Zheng Tong might have escaped to. But the surrounding regions were nothing but a desolate no man's land; miles and miles of barren wastelands where no one could survive. An urgent call for help would also require at least a day or two for the police to arrive from the nearest station. I shook my head helplessly, looking at Yuan Chongxi, who looked at me too. I could see that he too loathed Zheng Tong very much, since his teacher had suffered a tormenting ordeal at the hand of Zheng Tong's father. "Zheng Tong's father, Zheng Haoshan, was the one that had caused great pain to my teacher!" he muttered bitterly, "The suffering that he bears even to this day, was also that evil monster's handiwork! But I do not think Zheng Tong is an overly smart and careful man. He was hardly careful enough when he thought he had us." I nodded in agreement. "He would not have been in such a pitiful state now if he was careful
When night fell, we watched Aunt Ulan's cabin from afar, watching through binoculars for any movement. Two pieces of talismans laid in two separate ashtrays on my table. Long have we waited, until one of the talismans broke into fire, disintegrating into cinders swiftly in its ashtray before its counterpart in another tray burst into flames as well? I yanked my binoculars from the table and peered into its barrel, scanning intently on the outside of Aunt Ulan's cabin. But everything was well; nothing outside was disturbed! I waited for another ten minutes, keeping a close watch at the cabin door. Something was wrong! I rushed out of my cabin, calling Lin Feng and Yuan Chongxi to keep up, and tore across the compound towards Aunt Ulan's cottage. We stormed through the door and turned on the lamps. I inspected the lamb skin mannequins and found a tiny blood-red dot on the decoy I had set in Aunt Ulan's bed! The enemy was here, and he had left! But how did he came in? We had been watch
With my two companions, Lin Feng and Yuan Chongxi, and Aunt Fen's six ghostly Sisters, I set off on a journey into Inner Mongolia; the trip, disguised as a travel tour, was in fact a crusade to investigate and eradicate the remnants of an evil cult, the Creed of the Eight Trigrams. Little did we realize that this was an elaborate ruse to lure me into a trap! Not only did the mastermind of the whole episode, a man called Zheng Tong, harbored hatred towards us three; moreover, he had a father called Zheng Haoshan, whom my father had slain for the atrocities he had committed many years ago. Zheng Haoshan joined the Creed and became the Seventh of the Thirteen Apostles of the diabolical order. He was hell-bent on enacting vengeance on me, having armed himself in a surplus of druidic and mediumistic sorcery in addition to shamanistic venomous curses that had caused us a string of troubles. During the course of our adventures, we encountered a former "paramour"
Mr. Kang was one of the councilmen of a village from Fengrun District. His mother was in hysteria over the disappearance of his neighbor's chicken. A simple matter of a missing chicken would not have a councilman traveled so far for help; but the owner of the chicken was a shrew, a termagant with an intolerable streak of temper that would embitter anyone who would dare commit the folly of antagonizing her. She was known to everyone in the village to sit and pout at the gates of anyone who had offended her, wearing the person down until apologies were tendered and disdainfully accepted by her. As it turned out, she woke up one day and found her chicken missing. But she had not even the slightest inkling of who to look for, sitting outside her house and began grumbling that her chicken must have been poached by weasels. Coincidentally, her angered complaints were heard by Mr. Kang's mother, who succumbed into fits of rage and anger herself. The old lady took to the streets, storming t
For the past few evenings, I had been adjourning directly to the Internet cafe once I had finished closing the Center that I spent my dinner time poring over the computer screens while munching my food. For an entire year, I had been cooped up in the Center, studiously perusing the booklet that my father had given me that I almost became a hermit that was detached from the world. It was only after our return from Inner Mongolia that I had found out the existence of a new Internet game that had grown popular more than a year ago. Much of my recent hours I had spent engrossed in the game, that I became part of a tacit brotherhood of players bound together by the game who regularly fill the seats of my nearby Internet cafe to the hilt as we chanted the mantra "WINNER WINNER, CHICKEN DINNER!" as we played the game. Even the caretaker of the cafe, a young girl, could easily recognize me now; not only I had subscribed for a five-hundred-yuan account, but I had also become on
The large double-decker was not a normal bus coming from nor it was heading to somewhere else; it was a conveyance from the Underworld, here to deliver spirits and ghosts! The ghost of the dumb person had felt it coming; this explained his forlorn reluctance to leave the black cat! He, a dumb person, did have less attachment left in this world than other common people, save for the black cat which had been his companion for some time. With Smoky's wellbeing now seen to, the ghost could now pass on in peace, hence the coming of the Underworld Express for him. Most spirits and ghosts were taken by the heralds of Hell into the Underworld. But those which final wishes had been fulfilled, and had passed on in peace, could just ride on the bus into the Realm of the Dead without wading through messy formalities. The bus had found the ghost of the dumb person, since his final deathbed bequest was effectuated. The large bus screeched to a halt before us. Its doors slid open, re
Along the way, Qiao Yu asked the sword bearing youth, "The youth senior just now is ......" The sword-bearing youth replied with the same color as usual: "My old man." Although Qiao Yu had already heard the previous conversation between the two, but at this time the youth personally said number, or let Qiao Yu again ate a shock.The accompanying magistrates were all confused as well, and the martial youth laughed and said, "Don't you guys always talk about gods and goddesses, but this time you've seen a real one, why don't you all recognize it?" The crowd was instantly startled and turned back to look, even though they had long since left the place of the incident by a great distance. Qiao Yu at this time sighed: "Immortals can only, heaven and earth with spring. At today's sight, it is really so!"The sword-bearing youth laughed, at which point the shorter youth asked, "Do you think that this old Uncle Hai is the same person he was three hundred years ago, or the same p
And this is the end of the southern part of a place called Chao Luowo, the county's two big rivers, return to the township, artichoke transport through this place. Because Wuling has been very close to the sea sea water rise and fall along the river, up to this, so the name Chao Luo nest.The military rations of Xingzhou Zuotunwei and the nearby guards established by the imperial court had to be transported through here via the Huixiang River. Because of the return to the countryside of the river turned a corner here, the river flows here, and then with the tide upstream of the sea water meeting, will cause the river siltation. Nine floods in ten years, often affecting the transportation of military rations. Therefore, the court ordered Yutian to dredge the river. Qiao Zhixian field survey, decided to straighten the bay some, the project involves the shore of an ancient well, already do not know how many years. It was the digging of this ancient well that brought considerable
And said no end of the three absolute and Qiao Zhixian line back to the city, not yet into the courtyard will encounter a messenger led a little girl kneeling down in front of the four people crying for help. Negative sword youth went forward to pick up the child, this is a little girl of eight or nine years old, on the fat side, long and sturdy. Round face is very cute, negative sword youth asked her: "What's wrong ah? Saving whose life ah? Who is trying to harm you?" That child was very much in tune with the negative sword youth and hugged the negative sword youth's neck, saying, "Uncle save my father!"The officer who led her said, "This is my relative's child, who traveled thirty miles to the city to look for me, saying that her father had been lost for three days. The village can't find him, so I think the three masters can calculate what's wrong with this relative of mine!"The short youth shook his head like a rattle drum and said, "How can the child say her fathe
It is said that a family in a village in the southern part of Wuling held a wedding ceremony, and the groom died violently on the wedding night. The county magistrate, Mr. Qiao, received a report of the case and took the coroner to the scene to investigate.The pallbearer examined the body and saw that the groom had no visible trauma. Face serene, slightly smiling. Asked the bride, the bride said the morning found the groom sleeping, greeted get up did not answer, lifted the brocade quilt only to find the groom is dead! In-laws rushed to find their son died violently, rushed to find someone to the county to report! Lord Qiao saw that the groom had no external injuries and no signs of poisoning, so he could only conclude the case by saying that the groom had been over-excited on his wedding night and had died violently.Not a day and the people reported that the southern part of the county, a wedding night groom died violently. Mr. Qiao, the county magistrate bu
It is said that there is a Lian Sheng Inn in this Endless City, and this day a merchant came to live in the store.After the meal, the merchant greeted the fellows to ask the shopkeeper to come to see, see the shopkeeper, the merchant took out some loose silver, said to the shopkeeper: "My name is Wang Hui, is a few hundred miles to the west of Qizhou, do the business of medicinal herbs. I have a store in the capital, and recently I've expanded my business, so I'm planning to open another pharmacy in this city. Before staying in the store in the city around, to open a pharmacy is best with the city now several pharmacies to distance themselves. I have already looked at a street frontage and negotiated with the owner there, but the shopkeeper and the doctor-in-charge must have family members to come with them, so I need to buy another mansion not far from the store. Although I have found a house, I don't know if the owner is willing to sell it. I'd like to ask the shopkeeper ab
It was said that there was a village in Wufeng called Xijiatun. There was a villager named XI Maungzhao, who was a businessman. Catch this summer to Henan for business, unexpectedly Henan flood capsized the boat, folded the capital. And encountered porcelain extortion, only to engage in penniless, then picked up the eight rope. From the market on credit some vegetables, pick to the village to sell, to make up some money. After a lot of hard work, the next year only bounced back home. After coming back, he got very sick, and used up all the family's savings before he could barely save his life, but he could not work and often vomited blood.This day, sitting on the stone in front of the door to rest cool, came three guests passed by the door. Xi Maung Zhao recognize that these three is the famous endless three great, said that they have been unlucky for years, recently met the three immortals, I heard that some people know them, then mixed with the county's errand boy. Why don'
That said, the two to the county government office two people are still tearing. Qiao Yu busy asking why the conflict, the Taoist priest said that the fortune-teller to their own insults for no reason, but also blinded his eyes.Qiao magistrate immediately asked the short young man for what reason conflicts with Taoist priests, short young man said Taoist priests involved in plotting to take people's wives, killing and harming life, he is for the yin and yang line clean up the door. The specific case only need to Wan Zidong couple of Wan Jia Zhuang in the east of the city will be summoned to the hall, a question from the clear.Less inclined Wan Zidong brought, saw the hall kneeling that Taoist priest, immediately ate a shock.Qiao magistrate immediately slapped the shocking wood: "Daring Wan Zidong, how did you plot to take a man's wife to kill and harm life, tell us the truth!" That Wan Zidong shivering, can not say a word.The short youth said, "All you ne
And that out of the endless mountains, east out of the pass, is the Luanzhou territory. In Luanzhou, there was a Huang Xiu Cai, who had failed in his repeated attempts, and became obsessed with shadow puppetry. He traveled all over the country performing on weekdays to make ends meet.This day, Huang Xiucai is a village performance of shadow puppet theater, the stage down three dressed in strange costumes, one of the visitors actually still carrying a sword. Generally, the sword is across the waist, but this person is carrying it on his back is very strange! These three people did not watch the play in the front stage, but went around to the backstage to watch Huang Xiucai operate. The audience has never seen this dress of people, have wondered if the shadow man alive, a closer look, three people dressed and shadow man is not the same, then they have been curious to watch. For a while, no one watched the play, all around the three people, do not know what the origin of the thr
And say this day, no end of the mountain slopes in front of the path came a pick eight rope. What Wuling called "picking eight ropes" was in fact a cargo man. At that time, the income of the cargo man was not as high as that of the farmers, so he had no choice but to make a living.This pick eight rope, saw the hillside in front of a tree under the three people are resting in the cool, recognized that it is the Terminal Three, then went up to chat with the cool. During this eight rope picking, asked the endless three, said: "small Pu two, three masters of the magic power is profound, can you show me, I'm tired of running around every day, when I can buy a few acres of land, when an honest farmer ah?"The short youth of the Three Jedi smiled and said, ''Your requirements are not too high. Although people's lives are predestined by heaven, but it is not like the legend of the difference. This sometimes ah, the same opportunity, people's character is different approach is d