The night was black as ink, the wind and snow raging.
Using the storm as natural cover, Chu Fan moved like a phantom, hugging the wall as he silently crept toward the last earthen hut.
The snow began to fall even harder.
The voices of a man and a woman drifted from inside the hut.
Just as Chu Fan was about to make his move, he heard a woman moaning from within.
'That shameless pair, doing such a sordid thing at a time like this.'
Ten breaths later...
The woman's furious voice erupted. "Useless trash!"
"You're getting more and more useless!"
"You can't even scrape together a few coins outside, and you can't even please me in bed. What good are you!"
"It's bad enough you can't compare to Boss Liu, but you're even worse in bed than Three and Four..."
"I must have had eight lifetimes of bad luck to end up with you!"
Chu Fan's eyebrows twitched as he listened from the corner of the wall.
'I never thought Liu Da and his men were such 'kindred spirits'.'
The man's timid voice came from inside. "Once we get the deed to the Chu Family's Old Mansion, Young Master Huang will reward us with a few taels of silver..."
"A few taels of silver?" the woman sneered. "I've seen stupid people before, but I've never met idiots like you!"
"The Chu Family's Old Mansion is worth over thirty taels, at least! You're going to steal it for the Huang Family and only get a few taels in return?"
"Can't you even do the math?"
"I told you to make your move two years ago. While that brat was out fishing on the Black Water River, you should have killed him and dumped his body. No one would have ever known..."
"It would have been so easy!"
A chill went down Chu Fan's spine.
'This venomous woman is even more ruthless than Liu Da and his men.'
'She wanted me dead two years ago!'
His eyes narrowed.
"What could we do?" the man stammered. "The Chu Family's Old Mansion is haunted. Of all the people who tried to take it before, they either died or went insane."
"Even Young Master Huang has only just now dared to make a move on that mansion..."
"But it's not all bad. If we handle this for Young Master Huang, we'll have a powerful backer. It's always nice to have a large tree for shade!"
"And Young Master Huang is a Small Leader in the Blood Saber Sect!"
'My family's old mansion is haunted? Anyone who tries to take it either dies or goes mad?' Chu Fan searched his memory but found no trace of such a thing.
He listened a moment longer.
The two in the room bickered back and forth before their conversation returned to carnal matters.
The man seemed to be preparing to cover the woman in his saliva...
Chu Fan raised his Firewood Splitter, kicked the door open, and charged in. In one swift motion, he brought the blade down, finishing the preoccupied man on the spot!
The venomous woman on the bed, however, had some nerve.
Even after seeing Chu Fan kill her lover and getting splattered in the face with his blood, she managed to feign composure.
She shrank back and said, "Sir, our money is hidden under the bed. It's all yours, just please don't kill me!"
Chu Fan extended his left hand. "Get it."
The woman threw off the covers, got out of bed naked, and even tried to give Chu Fan a seductive look.
But in the bitter cold of the winter night, she was stark naked and shivering uncontrollably. With her face splattered in blood, the look held none of its intended allure. Instead, she looked like a vengeful spirit!
Chu Fan's grip on his splitter tightened, and he was tempted to cut her down right there.
The woman struck a coquettish pose, then bent over to move a loose brick from under the bed, retrieving a small box.
"There are three taels of silver here, it's all yours..." She offered him the box with a fawning smile. "The silver is yours, and so am I! Just spare my life, and I'll be sure to serve you well!"
As she handed him the box, she used the opportunity to slowly press her body against him.
Chu Fan watched her every move. The moment she drew near, he struck.
A cold light glinted off the Firewood Splitter as it sliced across the woman's throat.
The woman's eyes shot open. She clutched her neck with both hands, the box falling from her right.
CLAP!
Chu Fan caught the box, turned, and walked out the door.
Behind him, the woman's eyes filled with despair as she slowly collapsed.
She died without ever knowing that her killer was the very boy from the Chu Family she had been so determined to eliminate.
What goes around, comes around. Retribution is always served.
Chu Fan tossed the bloody Firewood Splitter into the latrine and was about to melt back into the darkness.
Suddenly, he heard the strange chiming of a bell.
'The Moon Worship Sect?'
Chu Fan frowned and slipped back into the hut where he had just committed the murders.
"Break the veiling mist to find your way, cast off your fate to seize the day!"
The monotonous chanting and the eerie ringing of the bell mingled with the howling wind and snow, making Chu Fan feel as if he were trapped in a nightmare from which he could not escape.
'These lunatics from the Moon Worship Sect are truly impossible to figure out.'
'Wandering the streets in the dead of night, in the middle of a blizzard.'
'What in the world are they doing?'
Peering through a hole in the paper-covered window, Chu Fan saw a figure in white leading a procession down the lane ahead.
Suddenly, the white-robed figure ringing the bell turned and looked directly at the window where he was hiding!
'What!'
Chu Fan's heart leaped in alarm, and he took a quick step to the left of the window.
'From such a distance, in this wind and snow, how could that white-robed member of the Moon Worship Sect possibly have sensed him?'
Chu Fan reached into his robes and pulled out another Firewood Splitter.
The one he'd tossed into the latrine was his usual one, now stained with blood.
This one had been taken from the Seven Stars Gang.
He gripped the splitter tightly, closed his eyes, and silently tried to sense his surroundings.
The people from the Moon Worship Sect did not approach.
They had no conflict with each other.
Nor were their interests entangled.
Although the white-robed figure had sensed something amiss, it seemed they had no desire to get involved.
The sounds of the bell and the chanting slowly faded away.
After some time had passed.
Chu Fan peeked through the window hole again. After confirming no one was nearby, he dashed out into the blizzard and hurried home.
Once home, he emptied the silver coins from the pouches and counted them carefully.
The total came to nine taels and four maces of silver, plus three hundred fifty copper coins.
He couldn't remember ever seeing so much silver in his life.
Staring at the pile now, his eyes couldn't help but gleam.
This money was enough to buy a dozen or so Blood Refining Pills, and also enough to afford meat for a long time.
He might not have saved this much even after ten years of toiling as a fisherman.
Yet after killing a few ruffians, he was suddenly rich.
Chu Fan tucked the three hundred fifty copper coins into his robes, placed all the silver into a single pouch, and walked to the southwest corner of the courtyard.
He listened carefully. After confirming he was alone, he felt along the courtyard wall for a moment before prying out half of a loose brick.
Beneath the brick was a small hollow containing his family's property deed.
The deed was wrapped in oil paper.
The paper had been treated with tung oil, creating a waterproof layer on its surface that wouldn't tear or leak, protecting it even from a downpour.
Liu Da and his men had turned the house upside down, but how could they have known the deed was hidden here?
Chu Fan hid the bag of silver in the hollow as well, then set the half-brick back in its place.
With everything done, Chu Fan turned to go back inside.
Suddenly, there was a knock on the gate, followed by Zhao Hu's voice. "Fan, are you home?"
"Mr. Zhao?" Chu Fan walked over and pushed the gate open.
He saw Zhao Hu and his wife standing outside, holding a bedroll and a large bundle of hay.
Zhao Hu said, "Liu Da and his gang tore up all your bedding... I brought you a set."
"It's a bit old and worn, and a little thin, but I hope you don't mind."
"Add this hay underneath, and it should keep you a bit warmer at night."
As he spoke, he and his wife walked into Chu Fan's room and began spreading out the hay and the bedroll.
They even gathered the cotton and hay scattered on the floor, placing it under the new bedding for extra padding.
Chu Fan's humble dwelling finally started to look like a proper room again.
"Thank you, Mr. Zhao. Thank you, Auntie."
A warmth spread through Chu Fan's chest, and his eyes began to sting.