Book 16: Chapter 46
In spite of how busy it was in the city, nobody noticed Hua Feihua zooming along as he blended in with the wind virtually perfectly. He pushed open a door and entered as though he was never going to be rejected and called, “Uncle Zhao.”
The unmoving short elder sitting in the room was seemingly accustomed to only having sparse light pass through the window. He looked indifferent to everything until he heard Hua Feihua. “Y-you have arrived, Sir?”
“Yes.” Wearing a small smile, Hua Feihua sat down beside the elder.
Hua Feihua’s visual clarity was perfect in the darkness. As for the elder, the world’s appearance made no difference to him whether his eyes were open or closed.
“I made you a promise.” Hua Feihua placed a small pouch onto the bed, took hold of the elder’s hand and softly expressed, “I have retrieved it.”
Though he remained unmoving, quiet and expressionless, Zhao Laoshi had conveyed his thoughts with his silver pearls dripping onto the table.
The mason’s son, Zhao Shi, was a single, rather robust man in his thirties who never complained about his workload – although it was not a lot. One day, he was accused of indecently harassing the daughter of Hangzhou’s wealthy Lin Clan. In contrast to him, she was notorious throughout the city for her ruthless tongue and haughtiness. Nobody who knew her believed that the honest-to-a-fault Zhao Shi did wrong by her, but nobody dared to step in, either. Without sparing a moment to listen to his stuttered explanation, Lin Clan had apprehended him.
Yan Buer would not pardon personal interrogations, and Lin Clan did not dare to challenge his authority. Somehow, Zhao Shi was exiled from the city overnight and then went silent. His father subsequently returned from his search for his son empty handed and less a pair of eyes.
Zhao Laoshi was illiterate, so a friend from his hometown took pity on him and helped him write his complaint and planned to escort him into the city so that he could report the case to the magistrate. Out of nowhere, Lin Clan’s muscles showed up, assaulted Zhao Laoshi, breaking his leg in the process and destroyed the written complaint, all of which nearly ended his life before winter. Despite not being able to enter the city, he pleaded with someone to teach him how to write just one word – injustice.