Dazhou was an isolated province. Although the bailiffs and officials there couldn"t be said to be like wolves and tigers, it was clear they weren"t good people who loved the common people as their own, particularly on such a blazing summer day. The sun had drawn the smelly sweat from the bailiffs" bodies and blazed away much of their intelligence.

With an additional 3 pounds of beef and 2 measures of rice liquor in their stomachs, the alcohol burned their stomachs. They left the small liquor stall and came to the noodle shop. Smiling widely, they stared at the beautiful wife of the owner and began to drool.

Teasing a woman was not something officials and bailiffs usually did. Usually, these bailiffs would just have a look and leave it at that. For some reason, they could not move away. The words in their mouths grew dirty. A few of the men, flushed from drinking too much, seemed to have the intention of having the wife of the noodle shop keep them company.

It was the fault of the yellow alcohol for being too drinkable, the rice liquor for being too powerful, and the woman in the shop for being too beautiful.

…

…

Gao Da took a wife in Dazhou. He had never told her about his past. He just lived his life in peace.

Sometimes, he felt the heavens were truly looking out for him to give him such a beautiful wife after half his life. The woman was a widow and mute and had a son. Even so, Gao Da still felt lucky.

Since the woman was very beautiful, she was a famous beauty in Dazhou. In Gao Da"s eyes, she was comparable to Si Lili, whom he had escorted to Northern Qi. Furthermore, she was sweet-tempered, virtuous, and good, to the point that he didn"t know what other adjectives could be used to describe her.

In order to hide his true ident.i.ty, Gao Da should not have married such a dazzling and beautiful woman. But, he loved her and felt tender toward her. He also felt tenderness toward that little boy who was only a year old.

The mute woman also loved the strange foreigner"s honesty, the strength of his body, and the sense dependability and safety he gave off.

Although she was beautiful, she was also a mute widow. She originally had no hopes for a good ending to her life. She had no family or relatives in Dazhou. The men who often drooled over her probably only l.u.s.ted after her body and wanted to take her back to be a concubine. The mute woman didn"t want that. She just wanted a simple and warm home.

Naturally, the two of them ended up together. They invited a few neighboring families for a meal and worker Song, who had drifted there from another place. They moved into together with the pitiful mute widow in Dazhou and opened a noodle shop.

Sometimes, the child also came to the noodle shop. When the business was good, they could only have a neighboring aunty help look after him.

The common people of Dazhou were just as pure and dependable as other people from around the Qing Kingdom. However, the officials and bailiffs were not common people. Ever since ancient times, they had not been common people.

That was why Gao Da"s hand that was picking up noodles drooped and his face lowered slightly. Enveloped by the steam rising from the pot of noodle soup, the emotions in his eyes could not be seen clearly.

A red flush appeared on the woman"s face. It was an embarra.s.sed and angry flush. She heard the words in the shop growing more and more filthy. Tears of humiliation gradually rose in her eyes. She glanced at her husband by the noodle soup and hoped to see something, but she didn"t see anything. She felt slightly disappointed but also accepting of her fate. Before they got married, she knew that brother Song was a timid person. He was an honest person who spoke almost as little she did.

The silence of the noodle shop couple encouraged the behavior of the bailiffs. Things were always like this. If one side pushed down on the other and there was no resistance, the side pushing down would do so with more force.

A bailiff extended his hand to grab the mute woman"s white and tender hand and was dodged by her. The bailiff began to feel unhappy and started cursing out loud.

Gao Da"s hand holding the chopsticks tightened. He knew he should resist. Once things went wrong, he and his wife would be faced with pursuit by the court. Furthermore, he had once been an ace in the royal court. He always had some confidence in the officials of the Qing Kingdom. He thought these bailiffs were just running their mouths and would leave in a moment.

However, the bailiffs did not leave. There was a high official from the Ministry of Justice in Dazhou. It was said that he was secretly investigating a major case, which was why they, the low-level bailiffs, had been chased out to walk tiredly under the blazing sun.

They hid under the shadows of the noodle store and teased a beautiful but mute young girl. What wonderful fun it was! As for that man in the noodle shop? The bailiffs knew that although the man surnamed Song appeared to be solidly built, he was a useless creature who couldn"t even let out a fart. Teasing the wife in front of her useless husband, was this not even more fun?

The other people in the noodle shop noticed that the atmosphere was off and had long sneaked away. Before they left, they threw a sympathetic and warning glance toward Gao Da. The people did not fight with officials. They didn"t want the owner of the noodle shop to actually cause trouble with the bailiffs.

Gao Da didn"t cause trouble. He only held his chopsticks and gently called his wife back behind the shop. Then, he walked to the side of the table and, pushing up his cheeks, gave a smile that was uglier than a crying face. He said a few fawning words and pleaded for leniency.

It was strange. All his life, Gao Da had only fawned over Fan Xian, who had thought that he didn"t do it very well, and stopped him learning from w.a.n.g Qinian. From that day onward, Gao Da had never fawned over anyone again. Even faced with a third-rank official, he was only incomparably polite.

Fawning and begging for leniency from these bailiffs was the biggest compromise Gao Da had made for his life. His rough-living these three years should have taught him some things but, in the end, he was Tiger Guard Gao Da, who held a knife in one hand, stood in Shangjing"s palace, and defeated enemies in one move. How could he have truly broken his pride and become a shrimp in the sand?

Tiger Guards were not sentries. They didn"t serve others. They were only used to kill.

The bailiffs suddenly felt that there was an additional mountain in front of them, which was the owner of the noodle shop. A powerful aura washed over them. It abruptly cut off their teasing obscenities.

A moment later, they felt an embarra.s.sed rage because of their loss in focus. How could this honest person in front of them scare them so much they couldn"t talk? It was clear that this Song man was bent over and smiling with all his strength. Because they were embarra.s.sed and angry, they became even more arrogant. Their banging on the table made the scabbards on the table tremble with a heaven shaking roar.

Gao Da"s eyes landed on the sheaths of their knives. He suddenly remembered that it had been a long time since he held a knife. His hands only held a long pair of black wooden chopsticks.

He didn"t make a sound or resist, allowing them to curse as they wanted. He had to protect his wife and her son. He didn"t want his wife and child to drift around the world homeless because of his actions.

Even Gao Da did not want to be adrift again. After he escaped from Dong Mountain, he could have gone to Dongyi or Northern Qi, but he didn"t want to. After all, he was a subject of the Qing Kingdom. He wanted to stay in the Qing Kingdom, even if there were corrupt officials and injustice wherever he stopped.

Gao Da endured with difficulty. He pretended to be weak and inadequate. He suddenly heard a strange sound. Turning his head, he saw a drunk bailiff leaning by his wife. His hand was stretching toward the round shape beneath her cloth dress. Gao Da"s hand holding the chopsticks tightened as if he was holding a very long knife.

His expression did not change. His gaze remained calm but without any resistance or falseness. There was no need to think anymore. He only had to follow his natural abilities, which he had ignored for three years. Very naturally, he sliced downward.

He sliced just like when he did toward Xiao En, an a.s.sa.s.sin, stabbing through the wind. A Tiger Guard used a long knife. Throughout their lives, they only knew how to use the simplest method to slice away all problems in front of them.

Gao Da seemed to have forgotten that he was holding a pair of chopsticks in his hand and not a knife as he sliced down. The bailiffs stood there laughing loudly as they watched. They were going to ask their brother in a moment if the mute woman"s a.s.s was truly as firm as it looked. They were planning to go and have a feel themselves in the chaos after the Song man had been beaten to the floor.

With a snap, the chopsticks broke. The entire shop fell silent.

The mute woman also looked at the scene in a daze. Her pupils shrank. She appeared terrified and shocked. She could not believe everything she saw. Her mouth chattered. She wanted to cry out in shock but could not make any sound.

The bailiffs in the shop also stopped their laughter and all their actions. They only watched in a stupor.

A pair of long black wooden chopsticks broke into two. Among them, one part had already sliced through the bailiff"s throat like a sharp blade.

The front of the bailiff"s chest was completely covered with blood. His throat had been slit open by the pair of chopsticks, revealing his windpipe and esophagus, as well as the b.l.o.o.d.y threads of a name he couldn"t call out.

The bailiff"s dead fish eyes bulged as he stared at Gao Da, who seemed as tall as a mountain in front of him. Slowly, he sank to the ground. Until he died, he did not understand how he had just touched the woman"s b.u.t.t, yet his throat had split open. He also didn"t understand how the chopsticks in the shopkeeper"s hand could be so sharp.

Gao Da"s hand holding the broken chopsticks were steady. When the bailiff died in front of him, it seemed that he was no longer a noodle shop owner. He was a terrifying knifeman. Those familiar sensations returned to his body.

He walked forward and gently held his wife. Quietly, he said some things by her ear and furrowed his brows slightly. He knew he had struck too hard. The bailiff"s crime had not necessitated death. Now that he had revealed his hand, an investigation by the Qing Kingdom"s powerful state machinery would probably expose his past.

Gao Da had not lost control because of his anger. In reality, he was just lightly waving the chopsticks but had forgotten he was a peak eighth-level ace. He had also forgotten that the people making trouble today were not the Junshang Conference or Northern Qi"s Brocade Guard. Enemies at this level were only hateful, shameful, and pitiful little bailiffs.

It was a misunderstanding, a fatal misunderstanding. Gao Da had overestimated these bailiffs, so he had easily killed someone.

The rest of the bailiffs in the noodle shop looked at this scene and trembled. They didn"t know who this shopkeeper was and were stunned by all the blood. After a long time, a timid bailiff finally screamed.

The scream awakened people to their senses. They refused to believe that someone could kill using a pair of chopsticks. They thought they had seen wrong or perhaps this shopkeeper had hidden some weapon earlier that caused their brother to be killed.

A bailiff sneaked away to the government to report while the rest of them, led by their leader, pulled out their knives from on the table and charged toward Gao Da with a yell.

Gao Da had his head down and was quietly explaining something to his wife. The chopsticks in his hands had already fallen to the ground. He realized his wife had been scared witless.

He stretched his hand into the whirl of blades and s.n.a.t.c.hed a knife. He then brought it down casually. With a cacophony of clangs, a stench of blood, and a wave of b.l.o.o.d.y fog, the bailiffs had no way to retaliate. Their heads and bodies fell down into the noodle stall.

All of the bailiffs died cleanly and straightforwardly.

Half-covered in blood, Gao Da held the knife in one hand and his wife in the other as they headed out of the noodle shop. They shocked the people in the street into an uproar, who parted like the tide to clear a path for them.

He knew they had to leave Dazhou as soon as possible. They had to act fast. Killing these bailiffs was nothing. He was Gao Da, the head of the Tiger Guards. He was originally a weapon used to kill. His past and history ensured that he would not continue in the noodle shop forever. Now, he had a wife and child. He didn"t want to die by the court"s pursuit, which was why he had to run for his life.

With the blazing sun in the sky, Gao Da and his wife stepped onto a path of escape. The husband and wife didn"t say much. At the first instant, they hurried home and picked up their son from the neighboring aunty. They then picked up some silver and got ready to leave the city.

All along the way, the mute woman did not say anything. Her stubborn and beautiful face was filled with trust and admiration for her man. She was willing to go with him.

Under the blazing sun, Gao Da held the child and carried the short knife. Looking at his wife, he thought of the wandering existence on the jianghu. A powerful sense of remorse and unease welled up in his heart. Quietly, he said, "Wife, I owe you too much."

However, the officials of Dazhou City reacted faster than any other time. Before Gao Da even had a chance to make up for the remorse in his heart, the city gates of Dazhou were already tightly closed.