Dream of the Red Chamber: Rising from Refugees to Sweep Across the Land

Chapter 5 Murder

An old saying goes, "When a child carrying gold passes through a bustling market, all passersby are evil spirits."

Liu Feng had two and a half pieces of flatbread and a pinch of salt hidden in his arms. He was terrified all night, afraid that someone would find out.

Before dawn, he ran out of the shack.

As the sun rose, all was still and silent outside Xuzhou city.

Liu Feng sat on a mound of earth, munching on a hard flatbread, his gaze fixed on the oxcarts piled up like small mountains.

Many disaster victims did not survive that night.

Before dawn, government officials began collecting the bodies, saying that the imperial envoy would be arriving in the next few days and all the corpses had to be taken to the crematorium to be burned.

The "Lin Ruhai" mentioned by the fortune teller is most likely the imperial envoy.

Liu Feng pondered for half the night, only able to recall a character named Lin Ruhai from Dream of the Red Chamber. Could this be the world of Dream of the Red Chamber?

But there are gods and monsters in *Dream of the Red Chamber*! He's been here for over a year, and he hasn't seen a single decent martial arts master, let alone any gods or monsters. At most, he's met some arrogant constables and yamen runners, whose rudimentary skills he can't even beat.

Liu Feng didn't know much about the Daqian Dynasty. He only knew that at the end of the Ming Dynasty, a hero who claimed to be a descendant of Emperor Gaozu of Han emerged, replaced Li Zicheng, the original historical figure, overthrew the Zhu family's empire, and established the Daqian Dynasty.

As for why he didn't just call it the Han Dynasty, only he himself probably knows the answer.

A girl's heart-wrenching sobs pulled Liu Feng back to reality.

Nearby, by a shack, a thin, sallow-faced girl was kneeling at the feet of a distressed old man, crying out, "Father! Father! Don't sell me! Don't sell me!"

The slave trader standing nearby said impatiently, "Don't try to act all sentimental with me. I don't have the patience to waste time with you. Are you selling or not?"

At this moment, a constable stepped forward and advised, "Child, sell yourself. You can save your father and find yourself a place to eat. Otherwise, you and your father will both starve to death. It's better to live a miserable life than to die. Do you understand?"

The girl choked back tears and said anxiously, "They said it's a brothel, I can't go! I can't go..."

The constable shouted, "Enough with the nonsense! Take him away!"

The slave trader threw two cakes and half a string of copper coins into the old man's arms, then grabbed the girl and tried to leave.

"Father! Father, save me!" The girl clung tightly to the old man's leg, refusing to let go.

The old man didn't say a word, grabbed the pancake and stuffed it into his mouth, wolfing it down.

The slave trader, growing impatient, slapped the girl across the face and dragged her away.

"Father! Father..."

Amid the girl's heart-wrenching cries, the old man finally seemed to come to his senses and reached out to pull his daughter back. But as soon as he raised his hand, he coughed up a mouthful of blood and collapsed to the ground.

The surrounding disaster victims swarmed forward, frantically snatching the unfinished bread from his hand.

No one glanced at the girl being dragged away, crying in despair, nor did anyone care about the elderly man lying on the ground, his life hanging in the balance...

Liu Feng sighed. He had seen too many things like this lately, and he couldn't and didn't have the ability to control them.

Human slave traders were all backed by government officials. These officials embezzled disaster relief funds, leaving ordinary people starving and forced to sell their children. It was a complete industry chain. In just over a hundred years, the world has become this rotten...

A thought suddenly flashed through Liu Feng's mind: perhaps the White Lotus Sect's rebellion was the right thing to do.

He shook his head violently, finished the bread in his hand in a few bites, and walked towards the reeds with the pottery jar in his arms, deciding to survive first.

"Boss, I wasn't wrong, was I?"

"These clam shells are so big, just a few will fill our stomachs!"

"Hurry up and go into the water to catch some river clams. We'll have a good meaty meal at noon; we haven't had any fishy food for days!"

Several rough voices came from afar, and Liu Feng stopped in his tracks. He saw several men squatting down and searching the spot where he had lit a fire to cook river clams the day before.

The other side had a large number of people and was not willing to cause trouble, so Liu Feng turned around and walked in another direction.

After taking only a few steps, another voice drifted from behind: "Making soup? That kid probably has salt on him..."

A cold glint flashed in Liu Feng's eyes, and he quickened his pace.

The ancient disaster victims weren't stupid; it wasn't that they didn't want to fish, but they simply had no other choice. The flood washed everything away; the fish in the river either drowned in the muddy water or were swept away without a trace.

Besides, they don't have any tools; relying solely on their bare hands, they might not be able to catch a single fish even after a whole day.

Moreover, those who escaped from the disaster area were already so hungry that they were weak and had no strength left, so they could only find things that were easy to get their hands on, such as wild vegetables, tree bark, and grass roots, to fill their stomachs.

Liu Feng was purely lucky to stumble upon a reed bed yesterday. He walked for seven or eight miles and then stopped seeing reed beds, only a few shallow beaches, and didn't even find a single clam.

Fortunately, they finally dug out a small turtle and two loaches. August is the time when loaches are at their fattest, which made Liu Feng very happy. He immediately cooked a pot of turtle and loach soup.

While eating, he secretly plotted how to reclaim that auspicious land.

There was no other way; this was the only place on the riverbank where we could find food. If we wanted to survive, we had to take it back.

Moreover, the other party has already set their sights on him.

The first to strike gains the upper hand, the last to strike suffers the consequences—Liu Feng understood this principle better than anyone.

Besides, those people didn't look like good guys at all. The Yellow River had been breached for more than 20 days, and while ordinary disaster victims were all pale and emaciated, they were the only ones who were fat and big-eared. What kind of good people could they be?

Since I'd made up my mind to do it, I decided not to skimp on the bread and ate it all in one go.

After eating and drinking his fill, Liu Feng sank the earthenware pot into the water, picked up a stone, and continued polishing the iron sheet, waiting for the sun to set.

As the sun sets, its afterglow softly spills across the river, and a cool evening breeze gently sweeps across the banks.

Liu Feng sat quietly by the river, feeling a rare sense of relaxation.

Suddenly, his ears twitched slightly, and he gripped the sharpened piece of iron in his hand.

"It really was you, kid!"

Liu Feng did not turn around.

"Looks like you've found another good spot? What good stuff did you find?"

The man walked to the riverbank behind him. "Holy crap, turtle shells! This stuff is incredibly nutritious! Hahaha, I'll use this to replenish my energy today, and then find a few women to relieve my pent-up desire tonight. If I could even run into a rich family's daughter, that would be even better—delicate skin and tender flesh, but she's too fragile. The brothers haven't even had their fill, and they're already out of breath."

"Oh, what a disappointment!"

Seeing that Liu Feng didn't speak, the man impatiently shouted, "Hey, I'm talking to you!"

They're down!

Liu Feng hid the hand holding the iron plate in front of his chest and slowly stood up.

"Hurry up and grab another turtle for me, and hand over the salt too, or I'll spare your life. Follow me from now on, and I'll guarantee you a life of luxury... Turn around here!"

A hand slammed heavily on Liu Feng's shoulder. Liu Feng turned around abruptly, and a flash of cold steel light appeared, so fast that it was almost invisible.

Blood immediately seeped from the man's neck. He clutched his throat in terror, making a "hoarse" sound as blood gushed from between his fingers. He swayed twice, then collapsed heavily to the ground, his limbs twitching a few times before falling silent.

"I'll numb you!"

Liu Feng kicked him hard, and seeing that the other man's arms were bulging, he reached in and pulled out a small cloth bag.

Upon opening it, Liu Feng kicked the corpse several times. Inside were two undergarments, indicating that two girls had already been murdered.

There were also some gold and silver jewelry and loose silver in the bag, and at the bottom were two books, mostly in traditional Chinese characters, which Liu Feng couldn't read, but he could understand the illustrations. One book was about marksmanship, and the other looked like a book about physical fitness.

The people around Xuzhou are known for their fierce and tough nature, and martial arts are extremely popular. Martial arts families are everywhere, so it's not surprising that such martial arts books could be found.

The fire burned two undergarments. Liu Feng muttered "Amitabha" a few more times, as if to comfort the soul of the murdered girl in heaven.

These days, clothes and shoes are hard currency, but he didn't mind and just took them off and put them on. Cloth shoes are much more comfortable than straw sandals.

Liu Feng wasn't the kind of person who would kill someone and then leave them to be buried. He dragged the body into the pit and buried it, and the grass there would surely grow exceptionally lush the following year.

The sun had set. Liu Feng gripped the piece of iron in his hand tightly, turned, and walked towards the reeds...