Chapter Three: The Foreigner's Head
The severed head tumbled twice on the ground before coming to rest, still faintly shaking as if trying to nod, landing face-to-face with Jiang Xiaodao.
“I…”
Before he could curse, Jiang Xiaodao’s throat spasmed violently, forcing him to swallow the last half of the word. Fear struck him so deeply that he stumbled back two paces, nearly collapsing to the ground.
To say he wasn’t scared would be a lie!
In the dead of night, finding an ownerless severed head was enough to send chills down anyone’s spine.
What was even stranger was the head itself: a young man in his twenties or thirties, blond hair, blue eyes, high nose, deep-set features—a foreigner!
If anyone saw this, what would happen?
Jiang Xiaodao was young and naive about the world, but he knew one thing clearly:
Foreigners were not to be trifled with.
What happened to the “Eldest Senior Brother” two years ago?
And the “Loyal and Righteous Army” last year?
In the end, they were like moths to a flame, meeting nothing but a sizzling demise, unable to stand against the powerful warships and cannons. Even the two women in the palace could only flee in panic.
The foreigners still ran rampant beyond the Great Wall, clanging and hammering away on the railways.
Jiang Xiaodao simply could not fathom how such a thing ended up in Wang Youcai’s household.
“Could it have been the big foreigner’s doing?”
Impossible!
From the moment Jiang Xiaodao slipped into Wang’s compound and crawled out through the dog hole, barely three minutes had passed.
For the big foreigner to have sneaked in, rummaged through the property amid the chaos, was impressive enough.
But to say he also managed to kill a foreigner during this brief period was utter nonsense!
The big foreigner, the severed foreigner’s head, and the mysteriously fallen red-faced man.
Jiang Xiaodao tried to piece these bizarre events together, seeking a clue, but the more he thought, the more confused he became. The only certainty was that he had been set up.
“What kind of so-called chivalrous man is this, with no loyalty at all!”
Unable to understand, he decided not to think about it any further.
Wiping his face, he summoned a fierce resolve.
When the enemy comes, resist; when troubles arise, find a way to cover them.
Rather than stare blankly, it was better to act quickly.
Fortunately, he was no fool; he still had some sharp wits.
He couldn’t just leave the head lying there.
Should he sneak out under cover of night and throw it away?
Throw it with all his might—how far could he possibly toss it?
Running around the streets late at night, clutching a bundle, risked being caught by someone, which would only arouse more suspicion.
The Lord of Death might be easy to meet, but troublesome little spirits were hard to shake off.
Foreigners were domineering, yes, but the real danger came from the traitorous second devils who leaked information; they had to be wary!
Moreover, such a thing, no matter where it was discarded, would bring disaster.
Jiang Xiaodao’s survival owed much to the goodwill of neighbors and friends—one had to be considerate!
What about burning it in the stove pit?
Still no good!
Everyone knew he was poor; if the smell of roasting meat wafted out, who knew what greedy snout it might attract? That would only lead to trouble.
After much thought, the only option was to hide the head at home.
Summoning his courage, Jiang Xiaodao covered the head with a blue cloth and bent down to scoop it up when suddenly, two clear metallic clinks rang out.
Looking down, he saw two copper coins spit out from the foreigner’s mouth.
“Huh? Foreigners have the custom of mouth money too?”
He crouched to pick them up, puzzled.
But then he thought, this must be connected to the big foreigner, and his anger flared.
A surge of pent-up energy quelled his fear.
Carrying the head, he searched around and finally moved two bricks on the kang (heated bed), slipping the head inside.
Glancing left and right, he finally exhaled in relief.
After all this fuss, his nerves were stretched tight; once he relaxed, he immediately fell into a deep sleep.
Long nights breed many dreams.
In a haze between sleep and wakefulness, Jiang Xiaodao felt as if two blue eyes were staring at him unblinkingly from the kang’s corner, and beside them crouched a shadowy figure—apparently the big foreigner.
At cockcrow, Jiang Xiaodao woke with a start and found a note beside his pillow.
Unfolding it, he read the tiny characters:
“Little brother, I’ll leave this with you for a few days. When I need it, I’ll come to fetch it.”
It had to be the big foreigner!
“Stole into my house, of all places?”
Jiang Xiaodao jumped off the kang.
He was truly poverty-stricken; upon such a calamity, his first instinct was to check the two copper coins in his pocket.
Luckily, they were still there, hard and solid.
The doors and windows were intact, with no signs of forced entry.
He climbed back onto the kang, lifted the bricks, and peeked inside.
The head was still there!
The only difference: the foreigner’s mouth now held an additional large coin.
Clearly, the big foreigner had placed it there afterward.
“Unbelievable! Truly unbelievable! Breaking in is one thing, but how did he know I hid the head here?”
Jiang Xiaodao pried open the dead man’s mouth, took the coin, and weighed it in his palm.
A Guangxu Yuanbao coin, twenty wén from the Ministry of Revenue!
Counting the two small coins from last night, that made forty wén—not much, but enough for him to chew on for a day.
“What kind of humanity is this? Promised a fifty-fifty split and gave me just these few coins plus a severed head?”
Though he cursed inwardly, Jiang Xiaodao secretly envied the big foreigner.
With such skills, if he had them, he wouldn’t need to starve.
Just as he thought this, his stomach growled loudly.
He pocketed the money, jumped down from the kang, and headed straight to the southern city morning market.
No thought for soy milk, bean curd, buns, or fried dough sticks—he ate with abandon!
Windfalls come easy and go just as fast.
After gorging himself, his money was running low.
Still unsatisfied, he called out, “Boss! Another bowl of bean curd, with extra topping!”
“Young man, watch the salt; don’t make it too strong!”
Jiang Xiaodao patted his belly. “No flavor in my mouth means no zest for life. I won’t mind the salt!”
As he ate, the streets gradually filled with people.
The morning market, teahouses, and restaurants were the liveliest places for news. Whatever was happening in the city spread from these spots.
Of course, some loved to spin tales, fabricating stories with vivid detail, causing rumors to grow stranger with each telling until they became urban legends.
Among the bustling crowd, it was up to each listener to discern truth from fiction.
Unsurprisingly, that morning, groups of men and boys gathered in threes and fives, chatting eagerly about the Wang family burglary the previous night.
“Did you hear? Wang Youcai’s house got robbed last night.”
“Just now, Dogsheng was muttering that seven or eight thieves came.”
“That many?”
“He’s babbling nonsense! I tell you, only one big thief came!”
“Of course! Otherwise how could they have taken down the Changfeng Escort Agency’s men?”
“This time, the Changfeng Escort Agency really brought disgrace upon themselves.”
“Hah! I said it long ago—the Wang family was doomed to get robbed. Wang Youcai’s wealth is wasted!”
Jiang Xiaodao suppressed a grin as he eavesdropped, secretly pleased, feeling as if he had become a notable figure in the martial world.
Yet, he longed to hear news about the foreigner, but the conversation stubbornly circled back to the Wang family.
“By the way, what exactly did old Wang lose?”
“I heard five hundred taels in silver notes.”
“Sure? I heard it was a thousand taels.”
At this moment, a short man in the crowd leaned in, lowering his voice mysteriously.
“Keep it down, brothers. I’m telling you, Wang Youcai didn’t lose a thing!”
“Nonsense! If he lost nothing, why would thieves break in? The old man is over sixty, you know!”
“Wait! I only heard this—just heard it—the Wang family lost nothing, but—someone died!”