Chapter 17: Fortune
The bamboo forest rustled, and the shadows of the bamboos swayed. Xie Xuan leaned against a bamboo pole, looking at the "anti-riot" operation going on in the village from afar, and just raised his eyebrows indifferently.

Until his gaze shifted to Tang Jiashan and Xu Shanshan.

No, to be precise, his attention was more focused on Xu Shanshan. He saw her decisively kill Luo Yi. The means she used was not traditional weapons, but a simple yellow talisman.

"The expert invited by the Liu family is this Xu Shanshan?"

This name sounds familiar to me, but I can't remember where I heard it.

Someone answered, "We had arranged for Luo Yi to trick Tang Jiashan out, but we didn't expect her to appear. She... killed Luo Yi easily!"

The last sentence was a mixture of anger and surprise.

Although Luo Yi was not the top figure in the killer world, he was also a well-known killer. Yet he was killed in one move. It was really incredible.

"Using talisman paper, it seems that he is a master of magic, am I right? Qi Sha."

A man in yellow robes brushed aside the bamboo leaves, stood on tiptoe on the slender bamboo handle, and landed behind Xie Xuan as light as a feather.

"Meet Mr. Xie."

Xie Xuan said lazily: "Your brother must have been seriously injured by her. If you were to fight her, what chances would you have of winning?"

Qi Sha glanced at it coldly: "100%."

"Hahahahaha...when I massacre the city, you will take her head off her neck and give it to me."

While they were plotting and talking in the dark, Xu Shanshan raised his eyes slightly, and his gaze accurately swept over their location.

"What are you looking at?"

Jiashan followed her gaze, but saw only a desolate bamboo forest, but he sensed a strong and eerie atmosphere in that direction.

"We often hear the saying, 'The mantis stalks the cicada, unaware of the oriole behind it.' Is the oriole necessarily the ultimate winner? Is there also a huge monster waiting behind it?"

Jiashan didn't know why she suddenly had such doubts, but since he had decided to help her become a good person, he would not miss any opportunity to correct her distorted values.

"The original meaning of this sentence is that if someone schemes against others and only cares about immediate benefits, he or she may not know that someone else is also scheming against him or her. Your idea is not wrong. By analogy, people should not be short-sighted, only care about benefits, and have evil thoughts, otherwise they will become someone else's cicada."

Xu Shanshan turned around and smiled: "I am not a cicada, nor a yellow bird."

"But how do you know?" Jiashan asked her.

She just smiled and asked instead of answering: "Do you know what people want most when they are desperate?"

Jiashan couldn't figure out her intention and didn't say anything. He just looked at her quietly.

Xu Shanshan also looked back at him calmly: "If a person is weak, he must hope for a miracle, while a person who is unwilling to give up desires the power to change his fate. And I... am the one who gives others these two things."

Jiashan's expression was indescribable: "You are too..."

Too high a opinion of oneself, or too arrogant?
Xu Shanshan said softly: "Jiashan, you don't understand the meaning of this sentence now, but you will understand it soon."

After leaving behind this sentence that Jiashan could not understand, Xu Shanshan walked towards the officers and soldiers who had already slaughtered the rioters and said, "Cut off their heads and take them back to the city."

"Yes."

Seeing that she would not stop even trampling on the corpse, Jiashan was about to speak...

But Xu Shanshan had anticipated his thoughts. She asked him, "Do you remember the story I told the city magistrate and his men at the city magistrate's mansion that day?"

Of course Jiashan remembers it.

"If your kindness today will lead to evil consequences tomorrow, what will you do, kindhearted person? Between the lives of these criminals and the lives of the innocent people in the city, how will you choose?"

"Human life shouldn't be chosen so easily, nor should it be decided based on right or wrong." He remained unmoved.

He has a strong character and will not be easily misled into a dead end by her words. He believes that there is always a solution to everything, and it is not black or white, right or wrong.

"Then their lives must have some value." Xu Shanshan stared at him. "If you don't want to cause more killings, then I will do as you wish and carry these heads all the way back to the city to intimidate them. This will be a perfect warning to the rebels. As long as they behave themselves and stop causing chaos, I will agree to your request and stop killing them all."

"So, are you satisfied?"

Since he is serious about her, she should naturally return the favor.

She was telling him that as long as he didn't give up on her, she would work hard to change herself in the direction he wanted.

Jiashan was speechless, staring at her straight back as she led her troops away, stunned and speechless.

what is this?
Give him a slap, give him a sweet date, and keep him hanging?
-

There are currently two crises in Jiangling City.

First, thugs with ulterior motives were hiding among the hungry people, intending to take advantage of the court's inaction and incite the hungry people to riot.

Second, food prices skyrocketed, relief food was extremely scarce, and the hungry people could not survive without food.

The first crisis had been resolved by Xu Shanshan with drastic measures, and his ruthlessness and decisiveness were so ruthless that even the city commander was terrified when he heard about it.

He was especially stunned when he heard that she ordered his soldiers to carry the heads of the thugs into the city.

But the results were significant and perfect, though the process was... a little bloody.

The second crisis soon turned around, and the city commander received a piece of great news that day.

"General Huo is coming to Jiangling City! He wrote back saying that he is very concerned about the disaster in Jiangling, and he also brought a handwritten letter from the Capital Grain Transport Commissioner, asking him to help the official warehouse officials open the granaries!"

When the city commander received the letter, he was so happy that he almost danced with joy.

Xu Shanshan was not surprised. She smiled and said, "Congratulations, City Commander."

"Master Xu, in a few days, will you come with me to welcome General Huo? Don't you girls like a handsome general like him who protects the country and the family? I'll take you to see his style."

Xu Shanshan didn't say whether it was good or bad. She just suddenly asked, "City Commander, what do you think of the rebels?"

The city commander was puzzled: "What do you think? People like this who have no backbone and no ambition are naturally despised."

"So, if you were the city commander and someone held a sword to your neck, you would still uphold the justice in your heart and would not succumb to evil forces, right?"

He puffed out his chest proudly: "Of course."

At this time, Xu Shanshan's pupils were filled with a kind of deepness that Cheng Ling could not understand: "Really? But it's not enough to just say it, why not try it yourself?"

"Try?" He looked confused.

"It's time to test whether you are a loyal subject or a spineless person."

She waved her sleeves and pushed open the window. The city commander looked out and saw corpses lying all over the courtyard. They were all his guards.

He was completely stunned.

"What's going on? Who dares to come to the City Commander's Mansion to kill people?"

"Go upstairs."

Xu Shanshan led the panicked city commander to the second floor of the City Commander's Mansion. Looking from above, he saw the eaves, the treetops, the lawn, the wall... At some point, the entire City Commander's Mansion was surrounded by unknown forces.

Until a man riding a tall black horse walked into the city commander's mansion openly.

He was unscrupulous, even arrogant to the extreme, and pulled off the hood on his head.

Standing against the light, tall and thin, with a sharp figure, the darkness all over his body exudes a creepy and dangerous aura.

"It's really annoying. You should just die, but you're still struggling. I have to come here in person just to massacre a city."

(End of this chapter)