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(A/N: Check the notes below.)
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"Old Jiang, are you out of your damn mind?!" one of the men snapped in a frantic whisper, his head snapping back and forth to check if anyone was watching.
"Did you not hear a single word the Village Head said?!"
"The Empress's guards will skin us alive! If we get caught, our whole families get wiped out to the third generation!"
"Shut your sniveling mouth!" Old Jiang hissed back, stepping right into his face.
"Don't look at me like that! I am going along with the plan with or without you. The point is, are you willing to follow me and get a cut in the earrings or do you want to stay hungry like the rest and wait for the Empire's dogs to throw us a bone and feast on it?"
"Are you insane?!" another man stammered, his face pale as chalk. "The Village Head literally just told us—"
"Fuck the Village Head!"
Old Jiang spat onto the dirt, his eyes flashing with desperate, toxic venom. "You really believe that old senile coward?!"
