“This child…”

　　William Harris’s brows furrowed, and his heart skipped a beat.

　　But immediately, he shook his head vigorously and muttered to himself with a laugh, “That child is usually so timid—how could he have such courage? Impossible, absolutely impossible!”

　　With that thought, he squatted down and continued tidying up.

　　But just then, a rapid knocking sounded at the door.

　　William Harris got up and opened the door, only to see Chris Clark outside, panting and looking terrified.

　　“Brother, what’s going on with you…”

　　Chris Clark swallowed hard and waved his hand to cut off William Harris’s words. “Big brother, has my Peng’er come to your house?”

　　“Ah Fu?”

　　William Harris was taken aback. “No! I’ve been home with Hutou all along, haven’t seen him come by.”

　　“Then where did he go?”

　　Chris Clark stomped his feet anxiously. “After my wife and I got home, we found Peng’er was nowhere to be seen…”

Chapter 06: A True Man Must Kill (Part 3)

　　Night had fallen!

　　Eighteen hundred years ago, in Zhongyang Town, there was no such thing as nightlife. There were no taverns open all night, nor brothels bustling with music and dancing girls. After a day’s work, people would return home early to rest… rising with the sun, sleeping with the moon—more or less like that.

　　The marketplace was deserted, with hardly a soul in sight.

　　Ryan Clark, dressed in a gray robe, used the cover of darkness to approach a high wall.

　　Seeing no one around, he walked to the base of the wall and pushed aside some dead grass, revealing a small dog hole. Judging by the grass at the entrance, it must have been unused for years. Ryan Clark took a deep breath, crouched down, and crawled through the dog hole, squatting in the corner behind the wall, carefully surveying his surroundings.

　　This was the backyard of Chengji Trading House, with two buildings of different heights.

　　One served as a warehouse, the other as living quarters.

　　In his previous life, Ryan Clark had dealt with people like Cheng Ji… He knew very well that such people were narrow-minded and vengeful—typical petty villains.

　　What do the rich care about?

　　The answer is simple: face!

　　William Harris had embarrassed Cheng Ji during the day. With Cheng Ji’s personality, how could he possibly swallow his anger?

　　Not to mention that this whole affair started because of Ryan Clark’s mother, but just the fact that Cheng Ji forcibly took his mother’s jade pendant meant Ryan Clark could not let him off easily.

　　He couldn’t remember which novel it was, but there was a line: Everyone has a beast hidden in their heart.

　　In a law-governed society, whether or not those two words “rule of law” are in quotation marks, the effect is clear. Layer upon layer of laws firmly suppress the beast within people’s hearts. Ryan Clark had been a law enforcer himself, so this suppression was especially pronounced for him. But now, reborn into the chaos of eighteen hundred years ago, all those restraints seemed trivial. When Ryan Clark helped his mother away during the day, he keenly caught the murderous intent hidden in the eyes of Cheng Ji and the three elders… At that moment, Ryan Clark knew this matter was far from over!

　　Rather than wait to be harmed by them, it was better to strike first!

　　That gunshot by the Xiong’er River Reservoir not only cost him his life, but also unlocked the shackles that had bound Ryan Clark’s heart.

　　If people don’t offend me, I won’t offend them…

　　But since you’ve provoked me, don’t blame me for being ruthless.

　　Chris Clark was an honest and simple man. The fact that, after learning what happened, his first reaction was to go reason with Cheng Ji and seek justice shows his character; as for William Harris’s past, Ryan Clark didn’t know and didn’t care to find out. But he knew that maybe William Harris had once been lawless, but now… Matthew Harris had become his shackle, making it impossible for him to act as he pleased.

　　Matthew Harris was indeed a reckless fellow, but this matter couldn’t be told to him.

　　So, Ryan Clark decided to seek justice himself.

　　While buying medicine, Ryan Clark had observed the layout of Chengji Trading House and discovered this little-known dog hole. He knew that Chengji Trading House was the best lodging in Zhongyang Town, and from what he’d learned, Cheng Ji always stayed at the trading house when he came to town…

　　It wasn’t that the three elders weren’t hospitable, but that Cheng Ji was a man who loved comfort.

　　Since his own trading house was comfortable, he would never stay at someone else’s place.

　　Ryan Clark checked the situation in the courtyard, crept along the wall, and silently made his way to the door of the room. He reached out and gently pushed the door… it opened a crack. The door wasn’t locked, and the room inside was pitch black and silent.

　　Cheng Ji had been invited by the three elders to drink that night, so there was no one else in the room at this hour.

　　Ryan Clark slipped into the room and quietly closed the door behind him.

　　It was so dark he couldn’t make out the furnishings.

　　Ryan Clark squinted, trying to adjust to the darkness, and groped his way forward, soon getting a sense of the room’s layout. Directly opposite the door was a low pallet bed. Beds in the Three Kingdoms period were quite peculiar—about two meters long and 1.4 meters wide, with six legs and twenty centimeters high. The surface was a movable drawer board, with railings on all four sides and an opening at each end for getting on and off. One side of the bed was against the wall, leaving only one opening for use.

　　Though he couldn’t see the whole bed clearly, Ryan Clark could roughly make out its shape.

　　In front of the bed was a low table, on which lay several scrolls of bamboo slips.