Nightfall Chapter 44

Zhang Yi Qi started struggling for his life. His fat body was moving like a disgusting caterpillar on the short bed. He tried to scream for help but his mouth was stuffed by a towel.

There were unique dead knots that tied his hands to the bed. The wild boar in Mountain Min couldn’t struggle itself out of this type of knot after one night, much less this old and sick body. No matter how hard he struggled, his efforts turned to waste. His actions were silly as well; his scream for help wasn’t much louder than the noise of a mosquito.

Zhang Yi Qi discovered that he was totally helpless. Because he was a Tang Official that ignored the injustice for hundreds of lives, he actually able to calm himself down in such a critical situation. He stopped struggling and started listening closely to the surrounding sounds.

There was a person in the room, and clearly that person didn’t want to hide his presence either. His foot steps could be heard clearly behind Zhang Yi Qi and they were getting closer. Zhang Yi Qi wanted to see who dared to do this but suddenly he remembered one thing and his body froze. He used all of his energy under this terrifying situation….. and closed his eyes tightly.

A criminal who dared to kidnap a customer in the Red Sleeve Club was no ordinary criminal. If the criminal knew Zhang Yi Qi saw his face, then Zhang Yi Qi had no chance of surviving. Yes, even though he was a censor, in the history of Tang, many officials died in the hands of reckless men!

“This wasn’t as fun as I expected it to be. I thought after I stuffed your mouth you wouldn’t try to say that you don’t like this kind of play, then I could use this thing in my hand and let you feel the pain and pleasure at the same time. I never thought you would calm down this quickly. Alright, open your eyes.”

The voice was crispy. It contained a trace of mocking in its calmness. It didn’t sound like a criminal talking but instead, it sounded like a youngster who was joking with someone in the streets of Chang An.

Zhang Yi Qi didn’t want to fall for the trap and his eyes were still tightly shut. His eyes were closed so hard that the middle of his eyebrows started to hurt. But even then he didn’t want to open his eyes. However, he kept on guessing the identity of this young man and why he was trying to harm him.

“Open your eyes, or I will actually use this thing in my hand as if you dropped the soap.” That young voice was calm but determined.

Zhang Yi Qi didn’t dare to keep on guessing the youngster’s intent and opened his eyes in fear and looked to the front.

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There was a youngster half squatted in front of the bed, smiling as he stared at the old man, as if he saw an old friend from a foreign land. At the same time though, he was holding a two inch long table leg in his hand. In this situation, with such an attentive look, Ning Que unavoidably looked somewhat crazy—-

Ning Que seriously looked at the censor’s red face, smiled mildly, and said “I will untie the towel on your mouth, but please control your volume. If you are loud, I will have to kill you immediately. I know that many Tang officials don’t fear death but they definitely don’t include you.”

In Zhang Yi Qi’s eyes, such an immature face and such a warm smile ironically gave off a very cold feeling. The opponent did not cover his face, which meant that he was not worried about letting him see him, or maybe he wanted him to see him. These were the only two possibilities: the youngster had a very great background and completely did not worry about the censor’s anger after being humiliated, or….he wanted to kill him.

“Is there any hostile thing between us?”

Zhang Yi Qi forced himself to suppress his fear and asked, recalling quickly his foes in politics and the offsprings of the officials he punished before. But he found out sadly that in the recent few years, he was suppressed ruthlessly by the emperor to the edge of the court, so he did not have the ability to offend anyone.

“In a common story, at this moment, many avengers will say, there’s no hostility between us, I’m just trying to help everyone in the world, to represent the Heaven and kill you treacherous court officials, but unfortunately…..”

Ning Que shook his head and said, “there’s actually hostility between us. Therefore I am not one of those people who represent justice; I’m just an insignificant guy who bears a grudge on you.”

“You are so young, how can there be hostility between us?”

Ning Que coughed and then began using his most emotional tone, most saturated spirit to slowly recite, “I come from the mountains, to take your life; I come from the river, to take your life; I come from the grasslands, to take your life; I come from the unmanned little village in Yan, to take your life; I come from the uninhabited General’s mansion in Chang An, to take your life.”

Hearing the two sentences about the unmanned little village in Yan and the uninhabited general’s mansion in Chang An, Zhang Yi Qi almost passed out. Finally, he knew the hostility that existed between the youngster and him. But it was already too late.

If constant praises could make the opponent stop seeking vengeance, he wouldn’t mind to use the best poems in Tang to applaud him but he knew it was impossible. The slaughtering of the village and the death of the entire Xuan Wei general’s family were hostilities that could not be resolved in the world.

Zhang Yi Qi looked hopelessly at the youngster and knew that he could not live today but he wanted to buy some time so he cried and said, “Someone ordered me to do it, I’m just….”

He prepared to shout out for help as he believed that if the seemingly hopeless beg for mercy eventually became a scream for help, then the youngster would not be able to react fast enough. He believed that as long as he spoke the word help, his guardian or the hatchet man in the brothel would respond. At that point, the youngster will die with him too, or even….probably the youngster would forget to kill him.

This plan looked very promising but the censor who lived in Chang An for so long did not know how cautious Mian Mountain hunters are with seemingly dead prey even before they actually cut the prey’s meat and separate the prey’s skin. When he just about to breathe, as the air in his lungs was still very far away from his vocal cords, Ning Que’s hand was already out.

The iron-like hand harshly stabbed into Zhang Yi Qi’s throat. His skin did not look broken at all, but the tenders inside were already fragmented.

Ning Que stood up, took out a nail which he casually picked up from somewhere, aimed at a point on the back of the censor’s brain, put up the rusty yet still sharp nail point and used his right hand to harshly punch down the table leg.

Pu, like the sound of grassland barbarians using sharp knives to pierce the bag that was filled with wine, the rusty iron nail penetrated through Zhang Yi Qi’s skull and stabbed in completely.

Ning Que quickly put a white towel on the back of his brain, to the place where the rusty nail penetrated into the skull. He used his two hands to press down the towel hard. His two feet tiptoed and he used all of his power and because he pressed so hard, the bed began to make a sound as if it were about to break.