Seeing Zhang Long return with a rabbit in hand, the group was momentarily stunned.
“You caught something so quickly! As expected of Constable Zhang, what marksmanship!”
“What a plump grey rabbit. Looks like we’re in for a treat tonight.”
“Hah! What an obliging rabbit! Seeing that us brothers could only gnaw on these tasteless dry pancakes, it threw itself right into your hands, Constable! Hahaha!”
“Quick, quick, skin and bleed it! Wild rabbit is gamey; boiling it won't taste great, but it’d be wonderful if we’d remembered to bring some spices!”
The men crowded forward. Seeing Zhang Long’s grim expression, they assumed he was still grieving over Chunsheng being carried off by the tiger and hurriedly tried to console him:
“Constable, life and death are fated; wealth and honor rest with heaven. That hunter took our silver to guide us in the first place.
Who knew that before we could even react, he’d be snatched away...”
“Speaking of which, it’s really the Magistrate of Wen County who’s a piece of work. For that tiger to grow so massive, it must have become a demon. Mere mortals of flesh and blood like us stand no chance against it!”
“Exactly. With a demon tiger this huge, I'm afraid only people from the Demon Suppression Division could handle it.”
The men chattered over one another, while Nan Yi sat quietly by the fire, saying nothing.
Zhang Long tossed the dead rabbit to a companion, glanced around, and realized someone was missing. His brow instantly furrowed:
“Where is Zhou Dalang?”
The men exchanged glances, but no one spoke up.
—Earlier, Zhou Dalang had been foul-mouthed and picked a fight with Nan Yi. Not only had two of his front teeth been knocked out, but he had also lost face.
An older, more dependable runner spoke up:
“Ah, that fellow was spouting arrogant nonsense earlier, only for Brother Yi to make a fool of him and knock out two of his teeth.
Well, he went off to relieve himself about a cup of tea's time ago and hasn't returned yet. How about I take a couple of brothers to check on him?
Wouldn't want him getting lost in this forest and unable to find his way back.”
The moment Zhang Long heard this, he knew something was wrong.
The dense forest was eerie and gloomy; stepping slightly away from the campfire, pitch blackness swallowed everything in sight.
Though Zhou Dalang was a lecherous scoundrel, he certainly wasn't foolish enough to get himself lost just taking a leak.
In all likelihood, just as the Nan family's eldest daughter had said, something in these woods had cast a glamour over his eyes.
Having been gone for so long, given Zhou Dalang’s lustful nature, his corpse was probably already cold.
Perhaps those chang ghosts were hiding up in the trees, amid the grass, or behind the rocks, watching in dead silence with cold detachment.
Perhaps they were using their withered, branch-like fingers to count them one by one, letting out eerie giggles as they plotted how to devour them whole.
At this thought, a fine sheen of cold sweat broke out across Zhang Long’s back.
After all, the men had followed him into the mountains.
Zhang Long wanted to search for Zhou Dalang, but remembering Nan Zhi’s warning about the chang ghosts and the fierce tiger watching from the shadows, he could only feign anger and curse loudly:
“That useless, bumbling idiot! It's bad enough he always causes trouble for Brother Yi, but in a situation like this, he still can't grasp the gravity of things!
No need to look for him. That fellow has a foul temper and usually throws his weight around because of his uncle. Right now, he's probably waiting for us to go beg him to come back—”
Zhang Long took a few brisk steps, stopped beside the campfire, and scanned the faces of everyone present:
“Just now, I searched around the woods, but found no trace of that beast. That tiger must have filled its belly and is currently lying in its den digesting!
The mountain paths are rugged, and as outsiders who don't know the terrain like local hunters, wandering further will only make it easy for us to lose our bearings in the woods.
Tomorrow at dawn, once the path is visible, we'll head down the mountain first, find the local runners and constables of Wen County, and bring more men up to avenge Brother Chunsheng!”
The men couldn't understand why Zhang Long, who had previously vowed with ruthless determination to hunt down the tiger, had changed his mind after just one trip into the woods.
However, these runners were merely earning a stipend to get by and never harbored any grand ambition of “ridding evil for the people.”
Having witnessed the tiger devour a man with their own eyes during the day, they were scared out of their wits.
Hearing Zhang Long say this, joy surfaced on everyone’s faces, and they chimed in with enthusiastic agreement.
Having chased the tiger all day, the men were naturally exhausted and starving.
Huddled near the campfire, they toasted their pancakes and washed them down with cold water, quickly growing drowsy.
Zhang Long didn't dare close his eyes. Pulling an experienced runner alongside him, he kept his hand firmly on his official saber, sitting by the fire to keep watch.
When one runner complained that his saber was digging into him uncomfortably and wanted to set it aside, Zhang Long scolded him fiercely.
Even when someone got up in the middle of the night to relieve themselves, Zhang Long watched them closely, forbidding them from straying far.
He feared that in the blink of an eye, another person would vanish just like Zhou Dalang.
Whether it was because the chang ghosts saw the tight-knit group and hesitated to strike, or because the fierce tiger was scheming, the first half of the night passed in peace.
Listening to the cries of night birds echoing in the mountains, Zhang Long rubbed his bloodshot eyes. His eyelids fought to stay open, threatening to snap shut at any second.
He couldn't help but mutter inwardly:
Why is this different from what the Nan family's eldest daughter said?
Could it be that the chang ghosts won't come tonight?
Just as the thought crossed his mind, Zhang Long cast an offhand glance toward the woods—and that single glance made his entire body run cold.
Emerging from the depths of the forest were Zhou Dalang and Chunsheng, one after the other, supporting each other.
Upon spotting the firelight, joy spread across their faces. Only after drawing near did they collapse onto the ground, panting heavily for breath.
“What luck! What sheer luck!”
“We finally made it back alive!”
The men were awakened by the noise. Seeing the two return alive, they were naturally overjoyed:
“Chunsheng! You're actually alive!”
“Zhou Da, how on earth did taking a leak take you so long—?”
“Heaven bless us! I thought you were a goner, Chunsheng!”
As the group bombarded them with questions, Zhang Long stepped forward, clapped both of them firmly on the shoulders, and laughed heartily:
“Brother Chunsheng, weren't you carried off by the tiger? To actually make it back, you truly possess tremendous fortune!
And Zhou Da, you rascal, why have you returned in nothing but your inner garments? Could there be some bewitching fox vixen in these woods that tricked you out of your clothes?”
Only then did the crowd notice that Chunsheng and Zhou Dalang were in a wretched state, each looking worse than the other.
Their faces and hair were covered in dirt and dust. The former had an injury on his leg, appearing as though a large chunk of flesh had been torn away by a beast.
The latter's face was an ashen grey, his movements stiff, and his body spattered with blood, looking as though he had yet to recover from the sheer terror.
“Heaven truly blessed me. During the day, after being snatched by that tiger, I had no choice but to play dead. I fell into a stream, which is how I managed to escape with my life.
Just now, I woke up in the water and heard someone calling for help in the woods. When I walked closer to look, I found Brother Zhou.”
Chunsheng glanced at Zhou Dalang, putting on the expression of a man who had narrowly escaped death:
“As it turns out, a band of bandits had arrived in these mountains at some point, pillaging gold, silver, and jewels from several wealthy households to set up camp as outlaws.
Those bandits even abducted a village woman into the mountains and were about to commit vile acts out in the open. Brother Zhou tried to save her just now, but ended up captured instead. They hung him from a tree and stripped him of his official uniform and official saber.”
“Heh... yes, that's how it was.”
Zhou Dalang kept his head lowered, preventing the others from seeing his expression. They merely assumed he felt humiliated and was reluctant to elaborate.
—Yet anyone looking closely would notice that Zhou Dalang's expression was rigid, and his complexion had an unnaturally corpse-like, sickly hue.
“Bandits in the mountains? For this little Wenshan to have both a tiger plague and bandits is quite a coincidence.”
Nan Yi, who had remained silent all along, suddenly spoke up:
“Then how did the two of you escape?”
“It was also a stroke of luck. That band of bandits was dividing their loot in the woods when, unexpectedly, the fierce tiger passed by and slaughtered them. Only then did I secretly climb up the tree to cut Brother Zhou down.”
Chunsheng's eyes shifted slightly before he spoke calmly:
“All the gold, silver, jade, and precious valuables that gang plundered are laid out right there in the woods! The two of us were terrified the tiger would double back, so we rushed back to bring the news.”
Hearing that there were gold and silver treasures in the forest, heat flared in the men's hearts, and they began questioning them in a flurry of eager voices:
“Is that true?”
“There’s really gold and silver? Zhou Dalang, did you see it too?”
“Hiss! That tiger could actually be considered to have eliminated evil for the people! I just wonder who will get lucky with all that gold and silver?”
“Either way, it was stolen by bandits. Rather than letting some random passerby profit, why don’t we...”
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