Chapter 25: The Fourth Lady

The inn.

Second floor.

Private room.

Originally, there had been no private rooms on the second floor at all, only red-curtained cubicles. But after the Fourth Lady cleared the women out, the entire floor became much more spacious.

The little “studios,” each so narrow they could fit only a plank bed half a meter wide, had all been dismantled.

It was still the room at the very back.

A table had been set with food and wine.

Two sturdily built men sat there, with a young man standing beside them.

“Boss, what do you think Hong Bazi called us here for? Usually he collects his protection money, and we collect our cart and horse fees. The well water doesn’t interfere with the river water. We hardly deal with each other at all.”

“Second, what are you getting worked up for? Trade’s cut off because of the fighting, and the brothers don’t have any work anyway. We’ve got nothing better to do. If Hong Bazi wants to treat us to a meal and wine, then we’ll come. No matter how impressive he is in Tiger Head City, you think he can throw his weight around over our Cart Gang?”

“That’s true. Boss is right. We’ll eat what’s served and drink what’s poured.”

“Exactly. Soldiers come, send a general; floods come, pile up earth. You think our Cart Gang is afraid of their Brotherhood Gang? Come on, Second. Have one.”

“Oh my, hehehe... Gentlemen, already eating? Does the food suit your tastes?”

Before she had even arrived, a soul-hooking laugh drifted into the room.

Then came Feng Siniang herself, together with a slowly spreading trace of perfume.

“Hey, I was just about to ask about that!” The gang leader slapped the table and barked, “Where are the girls? Madam, is this place of yours only a restaurant now?”

“Oh, goodness, of course not.”

“Then where are the girls? We’ve been sitting here forever and haven’t seen a single one. What, you looking down on us?”

“You mustn’t say that, sir. I keep my doors open for business; anyone who comes through them is a guest. How could I possibly look down on anyone? It’s simply that your timing is unfortunate. I dismissed all the girls here, and the new girls haven’t arrived yet. So at the moment, there really isn’t anyone.”

“Dismissed them?”

The gang leader looked as though he had just heard the greatest joke in the world and immediately burst out laughing. He slapped the deputy leader on the shoulder and wiped tears from his eyes as he said, “You’re killing me, Second. Listen to this. There’s actually a brothel under heaven that fired every last one of its girls.”

“Hahaha.”

The deputy leader laughed along obligingly.

At last, the gang leader stopped laughing. His gaze began roaming brazenly over Feng Siniang’s body.

“Since the girls are gone, how about you, Madam, come drink with us instead? That work?”

“Of course, of course. Gentlemen, please drink.”

Feng Siniang walked forward gracefully, picked up the wine pot, and poured for them.

The gang leader reached out, trying to seize her hand, but Feng Siniang slipped away.

“What’s wrong? This is what you call drinking with us?” the gang leader demanded.

“Gentlemen should know that I do not receive customers.”

Feng Siniang dipped into a slight curtsy, apologetic.

The deputy leader immediately pointed at her and laughed.

“You’re a brothel madam. What are you pretending to be some chaste maiden for? A few days ago I heard you put yourself up for bidding—the highest bidder got you!

“And now—”

“Oh? There was something like that? Fine, then. So you really are looking down on us. Heh.”

The gang leader stopped being polite.

He rose and advanced directly on Feng Siniang, reaching for her.

Feng Siniang retreated again and again, panic appearing in her eyes, until she had been forced into a corner.

“Don’t, sir. Please don’t. Sir, if you keep this up, I’m going to scream.”

Rather than resistance or refusal, it sounded more like another kind of teasing invitation.

The gang leader reached for Feng Siniang.

But at that instant, he suddenly felt his right hand go numb, completely losing sensation.

His palm stopped in front of Feng Siniang.

Hm?

The gang leader lowered his head and looked at his hand.

His eyes flew wide.

His right hand all five fingers of his right hand had been pierced through by strands of thread and sewn tightly together.

He could not spread his fingers at all.

Before the gang leader could understand what had happened, the delayed pain arrived all at once.

“AAAAAAAHHHHH!”

He clutched his hand and squatted down in agony.

The ten fingers were linked to the heart. Having strand after strand of thread “carefully stitch” your fingers together was agony even the toughest man would struggle to endure.

The panic on Feng Siniang’s face gradually faded. A contemptuous curve appeared at the corner of her lips.

“You really are a humorless blockhead. Just now you were supposed to say, ‘Go on, scream. Scream your throat raw and nobody will come save you.’”

“Demoness! What the hell did you do to me?”

The gang leader raised his head, staring at Feng Siniang with bloodshot eyes.

The deputy leader, who had been sitting at the table preparing to enjoy the show and help liven the mood, and the young subordinate they had brought with them both realized at once how serious the situation had become. They drew their sabers and went on guard.

“Tsk, tsk, tsk. You think this old lady’s tofu is that easy to eat? Why don’t you piss into a puddle and take a look at yourself first? Are you even worthy?”

“Demoness, die!”

He was, after all, the leader of the Cart Gang. His body had been trained hard enough that otherwise he would never have been able to keep his subordinates in line.

Suppressing the agony in his right hand, he reached with his left to draw his saber.

Hum!

But his saber never left its sheath.

Because all five fingers of his left hand had also been sewn together.

“AAAAAAAHHHHH!”

The gang leader dropped to his knees.

Both hands rested on the floor before him. Looking at the dense web of thread stitching them together, horror and despair finally appeared in his eyes.

At this point, no matter how stupid or reckless he might be, he understood exactly what kind of predicament he had fallen into and just how terrifying the woman he had been calling a brothel madam only moments earlier truly was.

Feng Siniang shook her head.

Actually, she had never liked attacking people this way before. It lacked beauty.

But perhaps over the past half year, although she had always managed to slip away from the wandering pig hands of those men, she had still swallowed far too much foul temper.

A considerable amount of resentment had built up inside her.

Now that she had finally made a move, she found herself unable to restrain the violence in her heart.

She did not even want to waste another word on the man kneeling before her.

She simply walked around him.

The next instant, the gang leader’s hands came apart.

Then, his arms came apart.

After that, his head gave a faint tremble.

Thunk.

It rolled across the floor.

From beginning to end, not a single drop of blood spilled out.

Yet that rhythm that clean finality that sight of a human being being taken apart piece by piece, section by section, like a set of building blocks was often more horrifying than bloodshed itself.

“You. Did you see what happened to him?”

Feng Siniang asked.

Thud!

The deputy leader immediately dropped to his knees before her and began kowtowing furiously.

“My Lady! My Lady! My Lady, spare me! Spare this lowly one! From now on, I’ll follow wherever My Lady points! I’ll climb mountains of blades and cross seas of fire, I absolutely—”

“Did you see what happened to him?”

“I saw it! I saw it! The gang leader—ptui, no, that damned bastard dared disrespect My Lady. He deserved to die! He truly deserved to die!”

“I’m asking you a question.”

Feng Siniang spoke again.

The deputy leader was confused.

What?

Hadn’t he answered?

Fine, then he would answer again.

“My Lady, I saw it! I saw it! From now on I would never dare harbor any improper thought toward My Lady—”

Pop!

The deputy leader’s entire body stiffened.

Still kneeling and kowtowing, he suddenly saw something that looked very much like an ear fall onto the floor.

Pop!

Then something that looked very much like a nose fell down beside it.

Horrified, the deputy leader raised both hands to his face.

In an instant, there came the sound of paper being torn apart.

At some point, countless fine threads had appeared beneath the skin of his face. His entire face seemed to have been completely cut loose, and the moment his hands touched it, the pieces all fell away.

“AAAAAAAHHHHH!”

The deputy leader did not die.

But he had already been frightened insane.

Their Cart Gang normally did little more than bully poor laborers and squeeze another cut from the sweat and blood they earned.

Calling them a gang sounded respectable.

Put less politely, they were merely a pack of transport-yard bullies.

Naturally, their nerves could only withstand so much.

“I asked you a question.”

Feng Siniang repeated herself.

Only now did the young man who had accompanied the two gang leaders finally understand.

This female demon no, this lady had been asking him.

He immediately shuddered and answered, “I understand. I understand.”

Feng Siniang smiled.

Her smile was alluring and full of mature charm.

But with the gang leader’s corpse nearby and the deputy leader reduced to that state, there was probably no man alive who would dare entertain improper thoughts about her at this moment.

“Good. Kill him, and the Cart Gang is yours.”

Feng Siniang sat down beside the table, picked up a wine cup, pressed it to the spout of the pot, and drank.

Then she set the cup down heavily.

Her left hand propped up her chin. One fingertip lightly touched her crimson lips.

She did not look at the young man, who was trembling as he carried his saber toward his own deputy leader.

Instead, she let her gaze drift toward the curtain of rain beyond the window.

“Sigh. I wonder whether Master’s battle over there is finished yet.”

Pfft!

The sound of a blade entering flesh.

The young man returned to Feng Siniang and cupped his hands.

“My Lady, he’s dead.”

Feng Siniang’s thoughts were dragged back from the desert.

Somewhat listlessly, she stretched. Her graceful figure was revealed in full, but the young man before her did not have even the slightest courage to raise his head and appreciate it.

“Since they brought you along with them, you should have been one of their trusted men. Now that they’re dead, can you take control of the Cart Gang?”

The Cart Gang was an important part of the inn’s plans.

In the future, they would need it to organize their own merchant caravans and generate wealth.

“My Lady can rest assured. This lowly one is confident I can control the situation.”

He sounded very certain.

“Oh? Now you’ve made me curious. Just what position do you hold in the Cart Gang?”

The young man pointed at the deputy leader he had just killed, now lying on the floor.

“He’s my father.”