Now that he had the house, there was still much work to be done.

In Zhao Lin’s eyes, the residence was far from secure. It needed further reinforcement. He had to seal the doors, windows, and chimney to prevent bandits from sneaking into the rooms or spraying poisonous smoke inside.

He also needed to set up traps in hidden spots and dig a few escape tunnels.

In short, he had to turn the residence into a fortress.

With this goal in mind, Zhao Lin and Liang Song went to the Artisan Workshop in the southern part of the city and hired several bricklayers, stonemasons, and blacksmiths.

"Replace the main house’s front door with an iron one. Reinforce the outer walls and roof with rammed earth. The sturdier, the better. Money is no object."

The leader of the artisans was a blacksmith. After hearing Zhao Lin’s requirements, he said, "I worked on repairing the city walls when I was young. Sir, if you want the house to be sturdy, it’s best to use a lime mortar mixed with sticky rice soup and add a layer of fired bricks to the outer walls."

"A house built like that won’t fall down even after a hundred years of wind and rain."

’Sticky rice lime mortar?’

Zhao Lin remembered that the Ming Great Wall was built with this very material, its durability comparable to concrete. He immediately agreed, "Alright, do as you say."

The blacksmith rubbed his large, dark hands together and said a bit awkwardly, "Building a house like this... the cost of labor and materials won’t be a small sum..."

Before he could finish, Zhao Lin had Liang Song give him two taels of silver. "Take this to get started. Just give me a detailed account later."

Seeing how generous the boss was, the blacksmith grinned. "You got it, you got it." He then started directing the other craftsmen to take measurements and purchase materials.

Noon had passed, and Zhao Lin and Liang Song were still hungry. They gave a few instructions and found a nearby restaurant to have a proper meal.

While they ate, Liang Song looked dejected, his brow furrowed. Zhao Lin asked with concern, "What’s wrong? Worried the bandits will come looking for trouble tonight?"

Liang Song shook his head. "My cousin and Headman Zhou Pao’s bodies are still hanging at the village entrance. They can’t rest in peace."

"Ah, right..." Zhao Lin realized this was a major problem.

In this era, it was important for the dead to be buried for them to find peace.

If a body wasn’t touching the sky or the ground, its soul couldn’t ascend to the heavens and be reincarnated.

He had known Headman Zhou Pao and Zhu Dachun. He couldn’t just let their bodies be exposed to the elements like this.

Thinking of this, Zhao Lin said to Liang Song, "Let’s retrieve their bodies tonight and give them a proper burial."

Liang Song was initially happy, then became worried. "Is that wise? The bandits are waiting outside the city. Won’t we be walking right into a trap?"

Zhao Lin leaned in and whispered, "I’ll be straight with you. I can run faster than a horse now. If we run into the bandits, I’ll carry you. They’ll never catch us."

Liang Song recalled Zhao Lin’s performance when he was chasing down those thugs. His brow relaxed. "Alright, let’s do it!"

After their meal, the two returned to their residence on Shuncheng Street. The artisans were already hard at work.

The artisans worked until dusk and then went home. Liang Song and Zhao Lin made it out of the south gate just before it closed for the night.

They had gone less than two *li* from the city when a sharp whistle sounded behind them, followed by a shout: "They’re out! Don’t let them get away!"

Zhao Lin and Liang Song turned to see three men following them. One of them had a bamboo whistle in his mouth. They immediately spun around and charged.

The three men never expected that not only would their targets not panic, but they would launch a surprise counter-attack. Terrified, they turned and fled.

But there was no way they could outrun Zhao Lin. He caught up to them in just a few breaths.

By now, the sky was dim, and there were no pedestrians on the road. Zhao Lin held nothing back. He drew his axe and cut down the man with the whistle in a single strike.

The other two were scared out of their wits and fled to opposite sides of the road.

Zhao Lin and Liang Song each chased one, ending their lives in moments. 𝒻𝑟𝘦𝘦𝘸ℯ𝒷𝑛𝘰𝓋ℯ𝘭.𝘤𝘰𝘮

After killing the three lookouts, Zhao Lin and Liang Song didn’t forget to search the bodies and take their silver coins.

Just then, torchlight flared in the distance, and the sound of hooves echoed. Twenty-some fast horses galloped toward them, their riders holding torches, sweeping in like a cloud of fire.

"Archers, fire! Fire now! This kid is fast!"

The one shouting was the same bandit leader who had chased Zhao Lin the other day. He knew how fast Zhao Lin was and immediately ordered his men to loose their arrows.

Liang Song looked nervously at Zhao Lin. Seeing so many bandits bearing down on them, he wondered if Zhao Lin could make good on his promise.

Without a word, Zhao Lin grabbed Liang Song by his belt with one hand, changed direction, and sprinted east.

The bandits nocked their arrows and let them fly, a swarm of locusts in the air.

Zhao Lin leaped into the air, jumping two meters straight up from where he stood.

Liang Song felt as if he were soaring through the clouds, the wind rushing beneath his feet. He looked down and saw the arrows all miss their mark.

With just a few bounds, Zhao Lin disappeared into the night, leaving the bandits staring at each other in disbelief.

"Dammit, he fucking got away again!"

The bandit leader spat fiercely and scanned his men. "You all saw it. It’s not that I’m bad at chasing. That kid is faster than a rabbit."

"Boss, we can vouch for you."

"Yeah, I think I saw wings growing out of his back..."

The bandits immediately voiced their support.

"Brother Zhao, how did you train your leg skills? It’s like you can fly!"

The moment his feet touched the ground, Liang Song couldn’t help but exclaim excitedly.

"I didn’t train it. I was born with it."

Zhao Lin didn’t know how to explain it, so he could only use this as an excuse.

But Liang Song took him at his word. "You’re right, I was thinking about it the wrong way. Even the masters at our martial arts school don’t have skills like these."

By now, the sky had turned completely dark. No longer worried about being spotted, the two took a short detour and used a shortcut to reach Baiqiao Village.

"There!"

Liang Song pointed, and following his finger, Zhao Lin saw two bodies hanging from a locust tree.

The bandits would never have dreamed they’d come back. They had only assigned two grunts to guard the bodies from the gatehouse at the village entrance, preventing the villagers from burying them.

Zhao Lin and Liang Song snuck up and silently dispatched the two snoring bandits.

The bodies of Headman Zhou Pao and Zhu Dachun were covered in wounds. It was clear they had suffered inhuman torture before their deaths.

Zhao Lin sighed, a bitter feeling in his heart. Liang Song was already streaming with tears.

The bodies had been hanging for two days and a night and had already begun to decompose slightly. They stripped the clothes off the grunts and dressed Zhu Dachun and Zhou Pao in them.

As payback, they hung the two grunts’ bodies from the tree, then each shouldered a corpse and headed into the mountains.

Neither of them knew anything about feng shui, so they just found a quiet, hidden spot, dug a pit, and buried the two men.

Worried the bandits would find and desecrate the graves, they only made two burial mounds and erected no headstones.

"Headman Zhou Pao, Brother Zhu... may you both have a safe journey. Let’s be brothers again in the next life..."

Zhao Lin and Liang Song bowed three times to the graves. They stood in silence for a long time before tearfully departing.

It was late, and they couldn’t return to the county seat. After a brief discussion, they went to Headman Zhou Pao’s home.

There was a cellar in Headman Zhou Pao’s backyard used for storing food for the winter. The bandits would never think to look for them there, making it the safest place for them.

The two climbed into the cellar and made do for the night. Before dawn the next day, they snuck back into the county seat.