“You also paid attention to Brian Carter yesterday, and even complained that he was too skinny. I’m guessing you want a ruthless killer.” William Thompson said, “I can be that killer.”

In his previous life, he wasn’t a killer; fencing was just a sport, not something used for killing.

But after crossing over, he saw that “he” had died, while Matthew Cooper still had a chance to live. He realized that in this place, only the most vicious people had a chance to survive.

On the other hand, he felt a sense of “disconnection,” which allowed him not to see the people here as real, living humans, so he could kill them without hesitation.

Later, his self-protection mechanism told him, “Just treat this world as a real game,” which minimized the negative emotions he felt after killing.

So, at this moment, when John Foster looked over, what he saw in William Thompson was a villain.

However, John Foster shook his head and said, “You guessed wrong. I’m not looking for Matthew Cooper to be a killer. I sought him out because of his status as a Jin dynasty remnant, because he still has connections in the old Jin territories. Now that you’ve killed the person I needed, you must die too…”

“No.” John Foster continued, “You’ve ruined my plans. Killing you would be too easy; I want you to die a miserable death.”

After speaking, he didn’t wait for William Thompson to respond, snorted coldly, “Clever fool,” and turned to leave…

……

Henry Clark curled his small body into a ball, trying to make himself as inconspicuous as possible.

He only poked his head out after John Foster left, and whispered to William Thompson, “What are you going to do?”

William Thompson glanced at the jailers outside the cell. He saw them take away the bone knife left outside the bars, but they didn’t open the cell door to move the corpse.

“It’s fine. I was a condemned prisoner to begin with. No matter what happens, things can’t get any worse.” William Thompson said, “Besides, he’ll take me out of here.”

Henry Clark was a bit intimidated by William Thompson, muttering to himself, “You’re still bragging at a time like this,” but put on a concerned face and asked, “Why?”

“There are too many reasons.” William Thompson said, “The first thing he did was size me up, not vent his anger; he’s testing me, investigating me, and trying to suppress my arrogance; he’s a man of action.”

“Well… that’s great then.”

Henry Clark also hoped William Thompson would leave soon, because he didn’t want to share a cell with him any longer.

Before, Brian Carter was a murderer, but he was easy to get along with and never tried to do anything to Henry Clark. But this William Thompson really killed without batting an eye—a villain among villains.

“White Mouse, you don’t want to leave with me, do you?” William Thompson asked.

Henry Clark instinctively took a few steps back and said, “I’ll stay… I’m a thief, I deserve a few more years in prison, I should be punished more under the ‘Song Penal Code.’”

William Thompson didn’t push it.

He could tell that Henry Clark had some connection with Edward Brooks, and was able to stay in the death row cell because it was more spacious here.

But he saw through it without saying anything.

Henry Clark rolled his crafty eyes, searching for something to say, and said, “I just think, going out to do business with that guy can’t be a good thing. If it were, why would he come to death row to pick people? I was doing just fine, but if I go out, I might end up dead, right? But then again, you’re not like me, you’re already dead… uh, I mean, you’re really capable…”

……

John Foster took a big bite of his flatbread, not caring that crumbs stuck to his lapel.

He was still standing outside the county office, eating his breakfast while waiting for news.

He wanted to scare William Thompson a bit, to see how brave he was.

When John Foster did things, he had the courage of Jing Ke trying to assassinate the King of Qin, but he wouldn’t bring along a Qin Wuyang who would lose his nerve at the last moment.

Before long, a jailer came over and handed him the bone knife, quietly reporting something.

John Foster nodded and tucked the bone knife into his robe.

After a while, a young man came running over and said, “It’s all been checked…”

This man’s name was “David Green.” He was usually playful, often joking about his own name, saying, “When the David Green (forest) is big, you get all kinds of birds. I don’t have much else, but I sure have a lot of birds.”

But when it came to getting things done, he was very reliable. While John Foster was eating breakfast, he had already found out everything he was asked to investigate.

David Green said, “William Thompson, sixteen years old. His father is Charles Thompson, courtesy name Shouyuan, who once served as the registrar of Yuhang County, but was dismissed from office for a crime four years ago. William Thompson’s mother, Lady Yang, also died four years ago. Charles Thompson did not remarry, but took a concubine, The Brooks Family. There are no other relatives in the family…

According to the neighbors, the father and son of the Li family kept to themselves and rarely interacted with others.

The day before yesterday, at Jianjia Tower, William Thompson got into a jealous quarrel with Sun Yingzhi’s fourth son, Samuel Harris, who is a vice minister at the Court of Imperial Sacrifices. In the heat of the argument, William Thompson beat Samuel Harris to death, and was thus imprisoned and sentenced to death by hanging.”

John Foster said, “So this was a ‘fight killing’ rather than a ‘premeditated killing’—he killed someone in a brawl out of anger. Why was he sentenced to death?”

David Green said, “Probably because the Sun family is powerful, so it was judged as premeditated murder. The Criminal Investigation Office and the Ministry of Justice immediately reviewed and confirmed the verdict, and William Thompson was sent straight to death row.”

“Ha, that’s what you call swift justice.”

John Foster bit into his flatbread, freed a hand, and pulled out a bloodstained bone knife from his robe to hand over.

“What do you think is the story behind this knife?”