Chapter 12: Murder Murderer

Shen Fu was always someone who was unwilling to think badly of her friends. To be precise, she was a person who did not want to harbor negative thoughts. If someone wronged her, the first thing she considered was not her own suffering, but whether that person had any difficulties. If that person was her friend, she would ask them plainly, deciding whether to confront them or make a clean break.

What’s more, Ruyi had never done anything to apologize to her from the beginning to the end. She simply concealed her identity. Concealing one’s identity is not inherently wrong. It’s just that Ruyi had a special identity… and she did something that made Shen Fu vigilant.

Xiuchun Dao’s training of Shen Fu was completely based on the highest level of espionage. Poisoning, trapping, assassination… The two knives she carried were merely a cover. Just like when you see a person carrying a sledgehammer, you would never think that they would throw out embroidered needles when they opened their mouth.

People in the rivers and lakes believed that Shen Fu’s knives were unparalleled, especially a pair of knives that moved like arms; as long as the sword was drawn, it was bound to be a fight to the death. In reality, the people who embroidered the spring knives arranged for her before she left Shenxian Mountain were set.

“If you want people to ignore your face, the best way is not to make you ordinary, but to stand next to someone who is particularly eye-catching and carry a set of weapons on your body. It’s not about telling others how good you are, but making them subconsciously think that your strongest means of attack is the weapon you bring.”

Therefore, few people knew that although Shen Fu had a moderate tolerance for alcohol, she woke up very quickly and was particularly sensitive to drugs such as Mongolian sweat medicine. To exaggerate, if you poured her two pots of wine, she might sleep until dawn, but if you added half of the drug to the wine, she could wake up in a quarter of an hour.

Thus, when Ruyi poured the wine into her throat, Shen Fu immediately sensed something was wrong. She pretended not to know, wanting to see what Ruyi had drugged in the wine. Then she heard the sound of a mechanism being activated and also heard what Ruyi said in her ear.

…

Shen Fu knew Ruyi before Chu Baige.

She doesn’t chase all wanted criminals so smoothly.

There were always a few heinous crimes, but they were extremely cunning. After being discovered by her, they fled with oil on their soles.

If it was a thief, a robbery, or manslaughter… If they escaped, they would run away. After all, Shen Fu was not a fast catcher, and she was too lazy to pester these people. But some people knew that if you had seen their crimes, you could never let them go.

For example, when Shen Fu met Ruyi, she was hunting Hong Si Niu.

Hong Si Niu was an extremely pure villain. It was so pure that people who were not so evil would feel scared after learning about the sins he committed. When Shen Fu saw the wanted order, her hands were already stained with nearly fifty lives. Among them, there were more than forty young girls who were abducted or kidnapped into the wilderness by various means. They were raped and then killed. He also divided their bodies with an axe, returning their remains to their families wrapped in cloth bags.

He acted boldly and very cautiously, committing several major cases one after another, repeatedly provoking the government, and he was never discovered. If it weren’t for the younger brother of a victimized woman, who, when the family gathered his sister’s bones, recognized the golden hairpin in his arms as the one worn by his sister, that honest person would not have known how long it would take to reveal his face.

After being discovered, Hong Si Niu didn’t immediately flee but frankly admitted that he was a fortune that moved people’s hearts and made a fortune. After returning the golden hairpin, before the yamen summoned him, he packed up his belongings and fled immediately. The arresters quickly found many tokens from the victims in his home, only then realizing that he was the murderer they had been pursuing.

Hong Si Niu was extremely cunning, good at disguising, and quite tolerant. After being discovered, he never committed another crime for ten consecutive years, as if he had disappeared into the crowd. The wanted order posted on the wall by the government back then was already weathered and worn, and no one knew where it had gone.

Fortunately, the boy who identified him back then had not forgotten his sister’s hatred. He was now a talented scholar and had learned a handful of Danqing. Every half month, he would repaint the Xiao Xiang of the enemy, attach the wanted order, and paste it next to the public notice board. The local arresters knew what it was about; they turned a blind eye to his behavior. After all, this wanted order was not fake, at most it was just a little longer.

When Shen Fu remembered the wanted order in her heart, she still didn’t know what kind of murderer she was facing. She walked through the mountains and suddenly encountered heavy rain. Fortunately, there was a hunter’s hut in the mountains.

The furnishings in the house were simple, and the fur was very bloody. Fortunately, the roof was still strong enough to withstand the heavy rain, which was also a blessing.

Half a quarter of an hour later, Shen Fu dragged in a deer and encountered the bearded hunter face to face.

At this time, Hong Si Niu was already an old man, his face full of wrinkles, his hair gray, but his arms were still strong and his eyes were still piercing. When he looked at people, he resembled a beast living in the mountains and forests.

Shen Fu didn’t recognize him. After all, the murderer in the memory of a scholar had been vilified and portrayed as fierce many times. He looked like a villain with a face full of flesh and blood, while Hong Si Niu’s features were mediocre, even honest. If you didn’t look at those eyes, you would not think he was a criminal who committed heinous acts.

The deer that was dragged in by the old man was wailing, its lower abdomen bulging slightly, showing signs of life within.

This was a doe that was pregnant.

Usually, hunters would not kill all the prey in the forest unless necessary. Although many of them were uneducated, they followed a set of principles between heaven and earth, knowing to let the large ones go and keep the small ones, and not to kill pregnant females.

After hesitating for a while, Shen Fu handed her hands over: “Lao Zhang, this rain is really too heavy. I broke into your house without permission. Please forgive me. I am willing to pay a couple of silver to compensate you for your loss. I just ask you to let me stay until the rain stops so I can go down the mountain.”

The seemingly ferocious old man spoke very kindly, “Although I built this wooden house, I did not lock it, so as to provide convenience for passing travelers. As long as you don’t dislike the mess inside and the filthy smells, you can stay here. No need to talk about money. Many people have lived here, and I have not collected their money, and naturally, I will not collect yours.”

As if he noticed Shen Fu looking at the deer’s eyes, he held the deer’s ears tightly and smiled, saying, “Are you worried about it? It really doesn’t have to be the case. She is not my prey, but my guest. I saw her seriously injured on the mountain. I was afraid that she would be caught when she was not alive and could not give birth.”

As he said, he showed Shen Fu the wound on the doe’s body, and it was indeed on its hindquarters, as if it had been bitten by some animal. The wound had already become inflamed and abscessed. If she didn’t get timely treatment, she would die when she couldn’t support the pregnancy.

Shen Fu was still a little wary in her heart, but she also felt trust and affection for the elderly. She actively asked, “If there is a place where you need help, you don’t have to be polite. When I was at home, I also learned some treatments for trauma.”

“Then thank this young hero first! I’m worried about not being able to find someone to help. It’s the best if you are willing!” The old man laughed and made his request to Shen Fu, “I want to cut off the rotten flesh from her. I hope you can help me hold her body so that she will not struggle and hurt herself and her child.”

Shen Fu was more than willing.

She even had a good impression of this old hunter, who seemed vicious but was actually kind.

The two worked together to hold the doe, and the old hunter neatly treated the wound for it, sprinkling it with herbs he had made, and then let it go. The doe seemed to know that he was a good person; not only did she not leave, but she also licked his palm and cheek.

The rain continued into the night, and there was no sign of stopping. The doe and the two were squeezed into a small wooden house, looking like they were not ready to leave at all. This made the old hunter laugh, “It seems that it depends on me!”

Shen Fu chatted with the old hunter, and after deliberately chatting, she soon learned that the old hunter had been hunting in the mountains for more than ten or twenty years.

Shen Fu asked why he refused to go down the mountain, why he had no children or grandchildren to respect him, and the old man sighed for a while when he mentioned these things.

“When I was young, I had a wife who was beautiful and charming, but unfortunately, she was unfaithful. She hooked up with other men while I was away. I was so ashamed and angry that I went up the mountain to live. I’m a hunter. Although life on the mountain is hard, I have animals as friends, which is the happiest thing in the world.”

As any person, she would never have imagined that such an old man would be a murderer who had taken nearly fifty lives. Anyone who had been with him would not help but fall in love with him, including Shen Fu.

It’s hard not to sympathize with a person who has suffered betrayal, and it is hard not to envy a person who lives in the mountains and forests, who is free and unrestrained.

Therefore, Shen Fu never thought that such an amiable old man would do it himself.

This was her first loss since she first entered the arena.

Hong Si Niu did not use drugs but simply and rudely knocked her out when she was drowsy, leaning on the doe. When she woke up, Shen Fu was already in a cave, and all the joints of her limbs were simply and rudely unloaded, leaving her lying on the ground like an abandoned puppet.

“Y-You’re awake, are you okay?”

Shen Fu twisted her neck with difficulty to the place where the sound came from.

The image that caught her eye suddenly shrank her pupils to a tiny point.

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