Legend Management Bureau Chapter 48

[ … words ]

The old woman’s spirit finally broke.

That night, the old woman slowly stood up, having finally figured something out.

If Meng Shan did not die, she would.

And if Meng Shan was going to die, she had to strike first.

Looking at Meng Shan sleeping nearby, she quietly pulled a sharp pair of scissors from under her pillow.

Trembling, she approached Meng Shan’s bed. The tender affection she once had for him when he was a child was gone from her eyes, replaced only by the fierce resolve to kill an evil demon.

‘Today, I will kill you, you wicked beast. Even if Mother Earth sentences me to hell for this, I will not regret it,’ the old woman muttered silently in her heart.

She reached out, just about to pierce Meng Shan’s throat, when he suddenly opened his eyes.

“Oh, so that is how it is, you old hag!”

“I wanted to see if you would starve to death eating weeds all day, but you actually wanted to kill me first?” Meng Shan revealed a savage expression, grabbing the old woman by her hair and preparing to smash her against the floor. “I am in a good mood today, and I suddenly want to see what color your brains are. Give me a nice show of a bursting skull!”

In this life-or-death moment, the wooden cabin door suddenly burst open. A fierce tiger with emerald-green eyes glared viciously at Meng Shan from the doorway, its expression one of indescribable fury.

“Oh? Isn’t this Si Huang? Do you want to see what color brains are, too?” Meng Shan sneered. “Don’t worry, I will feed you this old hag’s meat later.”

“Roar!!!”

A massive, deafening roar shook the air as Si Huang pounced on Meng Shan with blinding speed.

The tiger did not remember what it did that night. By the time it came back to its senses, all that remained of Meng Shan’s corpse was half a skull.

Under the bleak moonlight, the old woman hugged Si Huang, crying her heart out.

…

Du Yu listened silently as the old woman finished her long story, his fists clenched tight.

“Sir, you should already know what happened after that.” The tears in the old woman’s eyes had dried. It was as if this ordeal had not brought her sadness, only endless agony.

Far away in the Myth Management Bureau, Xiao Qi shed silent tears after hearing the story.

‘So for some people, living is just like being in hell?’

“Du Yu, this auntie is truly too pitiful…” Xiao Qi whispered.

“Old Madam, Si Huang, you two are coming with me,” Du Yu finally said slowly, having restrained himself for a long time.

“Sir… what are you going to do?”

“I am going to get you justice today!” Du Yu shoved the door open, his eyes blazing with fury.

The old woman followed him tremblingly, asking with worry, “Justice…? Sir, what are you talking about? I tried to kill Meng Shan, and Si Huang ate him. For the two of us, not being condemned is already the greatest justice…”

“Bullshit!” Du Yu shouted. “Are you going to carry this guilt for the rest of your lives?! I am going to find Cui Jue and demand some answers right now. You do not need to worry about a thing, just follow me!”

The old woman and Si Huang exchanged glances. This official usually looked so easygoing and playful, but now it was as if he had become a completely different person.

Du Yu led the old woman and Si Huang straight toward Qi County. Si Huang terrified quite a few civilians along the way, but Du Yu ignored them all, quickening his pace toward the county magistrate’s office.

“Eh? Yuan Xiangqin?” Li Neng, who was standing outside the office, suddenly spotted Du Yu. “You brought the fierce tiger down the mountain? I just asked Lord Cui Jue about this. His Lordship feels that a tiger is a tiger after all, and bringing it into the courtroom would be…”

“Get lost.” Du Yu shot Li Neng a freezing glare.

“Huh?” Li Neng jumped in fright. The imposing aura radiating from Du Yu was entirely different from before.

Du Yu shoved Li Neng aside and marched straight into the main hall.

“Cui Jue! Get out here!” Du Yu bellowed in the hall, but no one answered.

“S-Sir…” the old woman stammered timidly. “Maybe we should just drop it…”

Si Huang nodded repeatedly beside her.

“Drop it?” Du Yu gritted his teeth. “I am so angry right now I could die. I absolutely will not let this drop! Come with me!”

Du Yu led the human and the tiger straight into the rear courtyard, where Cui Jue and his family resided.

“Cui Jue, get out here!” Du Yu yelled.

Watching the screen, Xiao Qi felt incredibly nervous.

“Du Yu, what are you doing?! Do not forget your identity, and do not forget your purpose for coming into this myth…”

But at this moment, Du Yu was beyond listening to anything.

Li Neng followed them inside, accompanied by two constables. “Yuan Xiangqin, aren’t you going a little too far?”

“Anyone who interferes today dies.” Du Yu’s gaze turned chilling, and a heaven-shaking murderous intent erupted from him in an instant. It shocked Li Neng and the two constables so much that they did not dare to take a single step forward. Even Xiao Qi fell completely silent.

Du Yu twitched his ears, picking up what sounded like movement in one of the rooms. Thanks to the acute hearing and vision from Zhong Wuyan’s cultivation physique, Du Yu quickly located Cui Jue.

“Bang!” Du Yu kicked the door open and found Cui Jue indeed inside, accompanied by an elegantly dressed elderly woman.

“Jue-er, who is this?” the elegant old woman asked.

“Yuan Xiangqin? What are you doing here?”

Without a word, Du Yu strode forward and delivered a vicious, resounding slap across Cui Jue’s face.

“Smack!”

Cui Jue had never been struck so hard in his life. He stared dumbfoundedly at Du Yu. “What are you doing?! Have you gone mad?!”

“Cui Jue, and to think I admired you so much! I thought you were a good official who knew right from wrong and good from evil. It is exactly because I owe you a favor that I need to slap some sense into you today!” Du Yu snarled, immediately following up with another slap that sent Cui Jue crashing to the floor.

“Yuan! Do not push it too far!” Seeing the situation go south, Li Neng immediately charged forward with his saber drawn, slashing straight at Du Yu’s face. Du Yu did not even bother to dodge; he simply reached out two fingers and firmly pinched the blade.

With just the blade pinched, Li Neng found it completely impossible to pull his saber back.

“Li Neng, I will say it one more time. This is between me and Cui Jue. Anyone who interferes dies.” After delivering his frosty warning, Du Yu kicked Li Neng squarely in the lower abdomen. Li Neng flew backward and smashed into the wall behind him.

He had taken a kick from Du Yu before, but that kick could not even begin to compare with this one. He felt as if his internal organs were churning and had nearly been shattered.

Witnessing this scene, the elegantly dressed old woman turned pale with fright and immediately dropped to her knees. “Ah! Great hero! I do not know what my foolish son has done wrong, but please be magnanimous and spare his life!”

“Mother! Get up, you must not kneel!” Cui Jue cried out.

“Mother?” Du Yu’s expression flickered. He walked over and helped Cui Jue’s mother back to her feet. “Madam, you do not need to worry. I came here today to teach your son the difference between right and wrong, not to take his life!”

“Teach me… the difference between right and wrong?” Cui Jue slowly pushed himself to his feet. “What a joke! I have served as an official for over ten years and have never misjudged a single case. What right do you have to teach me about right and wrong?”

“Never misjudged?!” The anger Du Yu had just managed to suppress flared up again. “Cui Jue, the fact you even have the audacity to say that! Today, I am going to reopen a case right here with you. Do you dare accept?”

“Reopen a case?!” Cui Jue was getting angry too. “Every case I have ever judged is vivid in my mind. I remember every single one, and there has absolutely been no misjudgment!”

“Fine, you will not shed a tear until you see the coffin, will you!” Du Yu stepped aside, revealing the person and tiger behind him. “Do you remember these two?”

Cui Jue looked at the fierce tiger and jolted in fright, but he forced himself to remain calm and nodded. “I remember. A madwoman took a man-eating tiger as her son and dragged her actual son to court like he was the beast. Now she has indeed gotten her own biological son killed. Tigers are bloodthirsty by nature. What point is there in reopening such a matter?”

Seeing Cui Jue act like this, the old woman and Si Huang felt their hearts grow even colder.

Du Yu let out a cold laugh. “It seems I arrived too late. If I had been in that courtroom back then, I absolutely would not have let you bully a helpless old woman like this.”

“What on earth do you mean?”

Du Yu said nothing more. He walked straight over to Si Huang and rolled up his sleeve, exposing his arm.

“Si Huang, do you want to eat me?” Du Yu asked.

Si Huang was taken aback by the scene and silently shook his head. Why would he want to eat Du Yu?

“Since they all say you are bloodthirsty…” Du Yu drew the saber at his waist and sliced a cut into his own arm. Bright red blood instantly flowed out. He then offered his arm to Si Huang again. “What about now? Do you want to eat me?”

Seeing the shocking wound, Si Huang’s face instantly filled with worry. He wanted to say something, but remembering Du Yu’s previous instructions, he could only shake his head frantically, hoping Du Yu would not hurt himself anymore.

Cui Jue was stunned by the sight. This fierce tiger actually understood human nature?

Du Yu scoffed coldly and sheathed his saber. He turned back to Cui Jue and said, “You have not even met the most important figure in this case, yet you concluded it was a man-eating tiger. If others called you a dog official, wouldn’t it be entirely justified?!”

Although Cui Jue was startled by the scene, he quickly recovered and retorted, “That only proves it is a tiger that understands human nature. It does not prove that Meng Shan was trying to kill this old woman back then!”

“And what about afterward? After hearing the old woman’s testimony, did you examine her old wounds?” Du Yu roared furiously. “And that Meng Shan, a man over forty who achieved nothing and spent all his days loafing around the streets, how could he possibly support his elderly mother? Did you send anyone to investigate what kind of person Meng Shan truly was? If he was really as good as he claimed, why didn’t he take his mother to get her wounds treated immediately, instead of making her drag her injured body on a half-day trek to the county office?! If this old woman was truly senile and mad, why would she disregard her own safety and smash her forehead against the grievance drum?!”

“This…” Cui Jue froze. He had indeed never paid attention to any of those issues.

“Jue-er…” Cui Jue’s mother looked at the other old woman with a worried expression. “Didn’t you promise your mother… that you would strive to be a reasonable and just official? How could you…”

“Mother… I…” Cui Jue faltered. Could it be that he really had misjudged?