Back To When The Demon Lord Was A Beggar - Chapter 12

“That old woman is truly shameless! If she had even a shred of kindness in her heart, her son wouldn’t have met such a dead-end fate. Hmph, if you ask me, they brought this all on themselves. To think they actually have the nerve to come here crying for justice, their skin is thick indeed. If I were Ji Chushan, I wouldn’t have left her so much as a bone fragment!”

Chu Nanzhen was fuming just looking at them. They actually had the audacity to run here and plead “wrongful death,” though heaven only knew what kind of “wrong” they were talking about. It was a stroke of luck that they had gone to the Mist Forest, if it had been any other woods, the Princess might have met a far more terrible end.

“Now that the Princess is safe, she will report this to the Emperor the moment she returns to the capital. They won’t be staying in Chao City for long. Plotting against the imperial family is a capital offense. Even if they escape the death penalty, they won’t escape a lifetime of suffering.”

It made sense. To humiliate a Princess was to trample on imperial dignity. They had truly dug their own graves.

Chu Nanzhen patted the Wuxiang bird in his arms and shouted mockingly as he walked forward, “Oh! I was wondering who had come, it’s you, old lady. Hasn’t your son’s funeral started yet? Why have you come to the City Lord’s manor to throw a tantrum?”

At these words, the three people at the gate turned to look at them. The old woman’s wailing stopped abruptly. Chu Nanzhen stepped quickly to her side, scanned her up and down, and covered his mouth in mock surprise. “My word! You’ve cried until there are no tears left. Did you run dry, or are you just putting on a show?”

Zhi Shiyi followed close behind, unable to suppress a smile at the comment. Caught in her act, a flash of panic crossed the woman’s face, but she suppressed it when she saw Zhi Shiyi. Instead of letting go, she gripped Guyu’s leg even tighter.

“Young Master, what is the meaning of this! My son died a wrongful death, and as his mother, I naturally must seek justice for him. You, on the other hand, are talking nonsense. Could it be that you were the one who killed my son?” She could clearly hear the sarcasm in Chu Nanzhen’s voice and looked up to glare at him.

Chu Nanzhen nearly laughed out of pure anger. How could someone be this brazen? The middle-aged man beside her joined in, pointing a trembling finger at him. “You killed him! It must have been you!”

Zhi Shiyi’s brow furrowed as he barked, “If you point that filthy finger at him one more time, I will chop off your hand.”

Chu Nanzhen froze for a second, then tilted his head high, looking at the man triumphantly. “Go ahead, try pointing again!” In that moment, he felt like a cat with a powerful protector, full of confidence and fearing nothing.

“…” The man’s anger turned to instant shock at Zhi Shiyi’s words. He timidly lowered his hand, terrified the City Lord might actually follow through on the threat.

At this point, Guyu spoke up calmly, “City Lord, here is what happened. Today, I heard an auction house was selling a glazed cup. Knowing you have always liked them, I intended to go and bid for it, but I was accosted by these two and their unreasonable antics. Before you and the Young Lord returned, they were clamoring for the manor to give them ‘justice,’ or else they would report us to the imperial court.”

Zhi Shiyi cast a disgusted glance at the pair. He had already said that threats didn’t work on him, yet these two refused to believe it, likely thinking that no matter how much power a City Lord had, it couldn’t compare to the ruler of the realm.

“City Lord, my son is dead, and his body is still in your manor! Yesterday you said you would come to the village once the killer was caught, but we waited an entire day and you never came. That is why we came to ask!”

This was “asking”?

Guyu’s clothes were now covered in wrinkles from the old woman’s grip, looking as if they might tear if she pulled any harder. The old woman had truly lost her wits in her old age. Time did move fast, an entire day had indeed passed, and since the Mist Forest was pitch black, it wasn’t surprising they had lost track of time.

“Guyu, if you encounter people like this who refuse to leave in the future, don’t worry about being polite. Drive them away by force. If they still won’t go, use a bit of muscle,” Zhi Shiyi said coldly. He had been too kind, and now they were trying to climb over his head, thinking the City Lord’s manor was an easy target.

“City Lord! I only have this one son! If even I, his mother, don’t seek justice for him, then he truly died in vain!” the old woman screamed.

“Justice? More like a story you made up yourself!” Chu Nanzhen sneered, stroking Wuxiang’s feathers. “You really have a lot of nerve, kidnapping a Princess. Your son got exactly what he deserved! To come here for ‘justice’ now, where is the injustice? This is nothing but the karma of your own evil deeds!”

The old woman’s heart skipped a beat. Her face was full of disbelief and her heart was racing with terror, but she forced herself to remain steady. “You, what are you saying? I don’t understand. What kidnapping? Why would I have the courage to kidnap a Princess? Stop speaking nonsense…” Her eyes flickered shiftily, her guilt practically written across her face.

“People from the Palace will be here soon to take you in for questioning. We’ll see if you keep quiet then,” Zhi Shiyi said, his face dark.

Hearing that the Palace guards were coming for them, the old woman finally lost her spirit. Her body went limp, and she finally released Guyu’s leg. Everyone knew how cruel the Palace’s methods were. She didn’t want to die, yet she still didn’t feel she had done anything wrong.

In her mind, her son had simply taken a liking to a girl, and she had just helped things along! If anyone was to blame, it was that girl’s bad luck.

The old woman’s son had been a lazy man by nature. He didn’t want to do hard labor or learn a craft, but he wanted money constantly, so he stayed home and lived off his mother. She only had this one son, so she pampered and spoiled him. Previously, she would go into the forest to chop wood herself, but as she grew older, she could no longer carry the loads. Her back would ache for days after a single trip, so that day, she had gone with him. She would chop, and he would carry.

Who would have guessed they would run into a Princess halfway through? The man, greedy and lustful, immediately felt a surge of desire. As his mother, she could tell exactly what he was thinking. Though the girl clearly looked like a daughter of a wealthy family, the man didn’t care. He wanted her.

He had leaned in and whispered in her ear, “If this girl carries my child, she won’t be able to marry anyone else. She’ll have to settle for me. No matter how precious she is, she’ll be your daughter-in-law. And she clearly has money. In the end, not only will we have her, but we’ll have her wealth too, hahahaha.”

Hearing this, the old woman thought it made sense. The Princess had a large entourage, so if they just rushed out to grab her, they wouldn’t succeed. Thus, she devised a plan. She hunched her back and walked over, timing it perfectly so she appeared to trip over something and fall right in front of them.

The Princess was kind-hearted and immediately had someone help her up. She stepped forward and asked with concern, “Are you alright?”

The old woman let out several groans of pain, clutching the Princess’s hand tightly. “Young lady, I’m so sorry for blocking your path. These old bones of mine can’t move right now. Could you do me a favor?”

The Princess nodded. “What do you need? I will help if I can.”

The old woman pointed toward a secluded part of the woods. “Could you help me find my granddaughter? She ran off that way. Her parents aren’t home, and she ran out to play. She’s too fast for me to keep up with, and my old body can’t take the strain.”

Just then, a maid stepped forward to warn her, “Princess, you mustn’t. If you want to find someone, I can send the guards. There is no need for you to go yourself.”

Hearing the word “Princess,” the old woman panicked for a moment, but then remembered her son’s words and calmed down. She let out several more loud groans of pain, looking at her with a pitiful face. “So you are a Princess, I didn’t even realize. I’m just an old woman with one foot in the grave, what could I possibly do to a Princess? No one would dare cross the imperial family. It’s just that my granddaughter is shy, if so many people go, it will scare her. Princess, please help me.”

The Princess thought about it and felt the reasoning was sound. After a moment, she said, “How about this, I will go with her to help you. Is that alright?”

The “her” referred to the maid by her side. The old woman thought about how much strength two young girls could have and nodded in agreement.

The Princess signaled for the others to wait while the two of them supported the old woman on either side and walked into the woods. The man followed stealthily behind them. After walking for a while without seeing any sign of the granddaughter, the Princess couldn’t help but ask, “Should you call out your granddaughter’s name? Searching blindly like this won’t work.”

The moment she finished speaking, the man jumped out from behind them with a lecherous grin. Seeing this, the maid let go of the old woman and stepped forward, pulling a dagger from her sleeve and pointing it at him. “One more step and I’ll kill you,” she warned.

The man didn’t take her seriously at all. He laughed and prepared to pounce on her. The maid, seeing this, didn’t care where she hit and plunged the knife into his left shoulder. Though it wasn’t a deep wound, the pain made him hiss in a sharp breath.

Seeing the situation, the Princess tried to help the old woman back the way they came to call for help, but the old woman suddenly wrenched her arm away and lunged, pinning the Princess to the ground. The old woman was much heavier than the Princess, and under her weight, the Princess struggled to breathe.

It was only then that they realized they were all in it together.

The man then gave the maid a vicious slap, cursing, “You little bitch, you dare wound me? You’re looking for death!”

Though he was lazy, his strength was surprisingly great. With a sickening crack, the maid’s arm broke, and she let out a sharp cry of pain. At this rate, neither of them would make it out alive.

The Princess shouted to her, “Run! Go out and find someone to save us, hurry!”

In this situation, only the maid had a chance to escape, the Princess couldn’t push the old woman off her. Hearing this, the maid nodded heavily and bolted back the way they came.

The pair’s goal had always been the Princess, so they weren’t afraid of the maid bringing help. They figured the trouble hadn’t found them yet, and they would deal with it when it did.

Fearing someone would find them, the man took her deep into the Mist Forest, which led to the scene they had witnessed earlier.

The middle-aged man, seeing that things were going south, began to distance himself. He pointed at the old woman and barked, “You dared to lie to me! And to think I trusted you!” With that, he turned and ran, terrified of getting caught up in the mess.

Her son was gone and the Princess was coming for her, what was the point of living? She might as well bash her head against a wall! But like all cowards, she didn’t actually have the courage to die.

“City Lord, save me! Save me!” the old woman crawled forward miserably. The two men frowned and took a large step back. She continued, “I don’t want the killer anymore, just give me three hundred taels! Just give me three hundred taels and I’ll pretend this never happened! I’ll use the money to beg for the Princess’s forgiveness!” In the face of disaster, she was looking to save herself first.

Zhi Shiyi was usually kind to the people, which led some to forget their place and push their luck.

“…This is truly hilarious.” Chu Nanzhen looked at her with a strange expression, wondering where she got the nerve. “Why should the City Lord’s manor give you three hundred taels for the evil you committed? What does this have to do with the manor, or the City Lord for that matter? You really are thick-skinned.”

Moreover, three hundred taels was no small sum, not something to be handed out on a whim.

“Guyu, bring out the body and let her take it home,” Zhi Shiyi said, his face cold and offering no sympathy.

Guyu nodded. “Yes, City Lord.”

Soon, the wooden cart was pushed out. Seeing her son’s body, the old woman was filled with grief and fear. Tears streamed down her face, but no one cared.

“City Lord, I am a citizen of Chao City, how can you not help me! Aren’t you afraid of losing the hearts of the other citizens!”

“A criminal does not deserve to be compared to the citizens. From this day forward, you are no longer a person of Chao City. Please find another city to live in, though I doubt anyone will take you.”

Chu Nanzhen let out a yawn and said to Zhi Shiyi, “I’m tired, let’s go inside.”

The old woman glared at the two of them with hatred that seemed like it could burn them to ash. Looking at the corpse, she had no choice but to take it and head home. Before leaving, she pointed at the manor and cursed their retreating figures, “Just a measly City Lord, and you think you’re someone special! Just you wait, even if it kills me, I’ll take you down with me!”

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