Chapter Thirteen: Leaving the City with Ease

  The old book is finished, focus on the new book, everyone recommends collecting and supporting it. Lao Bai still needs to rush up several more places, thank you.

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  The person being held captive pointed to the door, indicating with certainty that this was the inspector's bedroom. Li Meng withdrew his knife from the man's neck and immediately turned the handle over, striking him heavily on the head. The man fell silent and fainted instantly.

  This kind of door at night must be hung with a wooden door bolt, but this kind of door bolt is also common in modern times. When Li Meng was young, the gate of his courtyard was still this kind of wooden bolt. The method of opening it is very simple. Li Meng inserted the knife in his hand into the gap between the doors and slowly moved it upwards, and indeed encountered an obstacle.

  With a slight effort, the door was pushed open, and Li Meng stretched out his hand to push it. The sound of the door falling to the ground was not loud, but in this quiet space, it was very piercing. Li Meng knew he couldn't delay, so he rushed in as soon as he opened the door. Mou Xun was perhaps drunk, and when Li Meng rushed to the bedside, he slowly sat up on the bed with a drowsy expression. By the time he woke up, the knife was already at his throat.

  His reaction was much stronger than that of the family member outside, his body shrunk back, but one was clear-headed and the other was still unclear about the situation. Naturally, Li Meng reacted quickly, and as soon as he shrunk back, the knife followed him.

  "Good fellow, speak well, speak well."

  "Where did those two women you snatched go!?"

  When Li Meng asked this question, Mou Xun's eyes flashed, but the blade on his neck was pressing against him, and he still answered honestly:

  "The firewood in the front yard has been entertaining friends for two days and hasn't even touched them!"

  Mou Xun Jian's eyes saw the other person's face, Li Meng had a full beard, and his murderous aura made him shiver. The opponent did not cover his face, which meant he was not afraid of being seen, but rather intended to kill. Li Meng looked at Mou Xun Jian, and in the darkness, he could vaguely see that the other person was a chubby round-faced man. Such obesity was rare in this era, and although it was their first meeting, Li Meng immediately had the intention to kill him.

  What he had seen and heard in recent days made Li Meng feel that this person was absolutely doomed, but the modern situation was different from the encounter with Yan Ding that day. The life-and-death struggle at that time did not allow him to think.

  But this time, although Li Mengmou had planned well, when it came to the actual killing, he hesitated for a moment.

  That Mu Xun Jian was a ghostly figure, looking at Li Meng with hesitation, slightly shrinking his neck, seeing that the knife had not followed up, he carefully retreated a step, and knelt down on the bed, repeatedly kowtowing, and begged:

  "Good fellow, good fellow, I've committed a heinous crime and deserve punishment. Please spare my life for the sake of my 80-year-old mother at home and my 10-year-old child."

  His voice was pressed very low, and he spoke out in a string of words. Seeing that Li Meng had no reaction, Mou Xun Jian gritted his teeth and reached out to touch the headboard. Li Meng's knife suddenly approached him, and he explained repeatedly:

  "Spare me, good sir! I have no ill intentions. If you let me off, I'll release those two women and all this will be yours."

  As they spoke, a small box was pulled out. When it was opened, the candlelight flickered and the gold and silver inside sparkled. After Li Meng arrived in this era, he had been troubled by his poor life. Seeing the gold and silver, he was momentarily stunned.

  His slight pause was immediately detected by Mou Xun, who immediately pleaded:

  "Good fellow, if it's not enough, I have more here."

  While talking, his hand was again reaching under the pillow, Li Meng had already relaxed his vigilance...

  But this time, what Mou Xun inspected and pulled out was not gold, silver, or jewels, but a dagger. Just as he was about to shout loudly, Li Meng's reaction was faster. With his left hand, he pushed forward, and the cloth strip in his hand instantly covered Mou Xun's mouth. His right hand's broken knife fiercely chopped down towards his neck.

  "With a 'pu' sound, the artery on his neck was cut off by this knife, and fresh blood suddenly spurted out. His whole body's strength relaxed instantly, and the dagger that had been raised halfway fell limp."

  Li Meng took a few steps back, panting heavily, still somewhat unaccustomed to this era. It seemed that everyone treated life-and-death killings as a trivial matter, like a daily routine. The current Li Meng couldn't accept this method of resolving issues through slaughter.

  Taking a slight breath to calm down, Li Meng suddenly slapped his forehead, having just forgotten to ask where the two women from the Xue family's thousand households were being held. However, thinking again, with the death of the saltworks inspector, those two women would probably be sent back anyway, so there was no need to rush it for tonight.

  The gold and silver in that wooden box had already been scattered all over the floor. From entering the yard to committing the murder, not much time was used. However, there were still people fainting at the door, and inside, the bodies were lying on the bed. Although it was said to be nighttime, the night is long and dreams are many. If they delayed any further, they feared that something unexpected would happen.

  Li Meng simply tidied up and quietly walked out of the house. It was just after three watches, when people were sleeping most soundly. From binding to killing, there hadn't been much commotion, so no one had been startled awake. However, if one listened carefully, they could still hear a woman's crying.

  It must be the two women who were kidnapped. The two of them will be released tomorrow and sent back home. Li Meng didn't pay attention to them and left the mansion by the original route.

  The next morning, a clothing store in the south of Jiaozhou City welcomed a guest with a package on his back. The guest looked sleepy, but was bare-chested, had a thick beard and muttered to himself:

  "Not being at home is troublesome, clothes are broken and no one does them."

  Muttering to himself, he pulled out over ten cents and tossed it onto the counter. It was nothing unusual for outsiders to encounter such a situation, but this customer had a northern accent and an air of nonchalance about him. The shop assistant smiled and handed over several old clothes to the big-bearded man.

  The guest borrowed a quiet room, changed into these old clothes, gave the shop assistant a few more coins, and left the clothing store with a smile. The shop assistants did not notice that when this bearded guest came in, he was not wearing leg wraps, but when he went out, his legs were wrapped with thick leg wraps. However, even if they had discovered it, it wouldn't have been a big deal.

  When Li Meng left the clothing store, he was much cleaner, except for his big beard being quite noticeable. If people who were in the city yesterday met Li Meng without taking a closer look, they would not be able to recognize him as the country bumpkin from yesterday, and now he looked very much like a city dweller.

  If it wasn't for strolling around the city yesterday, Li Meng really didn't know that in this era there were no clothing stores or at least in a city like Jiaozhou, people didn't buy ready-made clothes. Everyone bought fabric and made their own clothes. If you wanted to buy ready-made clothes, you could only go to a tailor's shop.

  Second-hand clothing stores are generally industries of pawnshops. Pledged second-hand goods in pawnshops, after the pledge period, are usually sold in second-hand clothing stores.

  After wandering around yesterday, he specially remembered the location of the clothing store and the barber's stall, and this morning he took advantage of the early hours to finish all these stalls.

  Li Meng, now walking on the main street, is a clean-shaven and neatly dressed traveling merchant. Although his clothes are half old, they are quite tidy, with this small bundle containing changed clothes and some silver money carried with him. No one can say that he has any problems.