The Farm Girl and the Executioner (Rebirth) 14

Chapter 14: The Third Quarter of the Hour of the Horse

Just then, her sleeve was suddenly pulled.

She turned her head sharply. Seeing who it was, she relaxed slightly and managed to force a smile. “It’s you.”

Wang Chun’er smiled shyly. “I just said we might run into each other here, and I was right.”

“What a coincidence.”

As Lin Shuang spoke, she shifted to the side to make room. Wang Chun’er squeezed in and stood next to her. Her mother, holding the child, was further back, standing with people from their village.

Only then did Wang Chun’er turn to look at the stage, her gaze falling on the young executioner standing with her eyes closed. She lowered her voice and said to Lin Shuang, “This is the first time I’ve seen such a young and slender executioner. I’ve always heard that people in this profession are burly men. Someone like this… I don’t know if she can even swing the saber.”

“She’s been doing it for a few days now. There shouldn’t be any mistakes,” Lin Shuang replied perfunctorily in a low voice.

“That’s what I think too. Such a good-looking person shouldn’t make any mistakes.”

Lin Shuang’s tense mood relaxed at these words, and she smiled. “So you’re saying that good-looking people can do anything well?”

“Of course,” Wang Chun’er said, covering her mouth with her hand as she laughed.

“I heard he’s Jiang Gui’s son. Old Jiang was in this business for decades. His son can’t be that useless, can he?” someone nearby commented.

“How could Jiang Gui have a son? What woman would be willing to marry an executioner? Aren’t they afraid of being haunted by the ghosts of those he’s killed and dying a horrible death?”

Wang Chun’er also heard their conversation and leaned over to whisper in her ear, “If it were an executioner who looked like that, I’d be willing to marry him.”

Hearing this, Lin Shuang turned and raised an eyebrow at her.

She looked so quiet and gentle, yet she was quite bold with her words.

The young girl’s face flushed red at her teasing gaze, but her expression soon turned somber, and she sighed softly. “But when it comes to choosing a husband, how can we have a say in the matter…”

Hearing this, Lin Shuang’s heart sank as well.

The command of one’s parents, the words of the matchmaker.

Even the noble ladies of high society couldn’t decide their own marriages, let alone those from small households, especially an orphan like her with no parents.

In her past life, she had been sold off by her aunt and uncle, and her life had been full of hardships, ending in a terrible death.

Fortunately, the heavens had been kind, and she had been given a second chance.

But how many women in this world could have a second chance like her?

On the stage, a bailiff was loudly reading out the crimes of the five men. The two of them were talking in low voices, and the crowd around them was still chattering.

It wasn’t until the supervising official sitting behind the execution platform stood up and shouted, “The hour has come! Execute—”

The word “execute” was repeated three times. With each shout, the prisoners trembled uncontrollably, and some even had a puddle of water at their feet.

Jiang Huaizhen’s eyes, which had been closed, opened at that moment.

She lifted the ghost-head saber that had been resting on the ground and walked behind the first condemned prisoner.

Lin Shuang’s body tensed up again at the supervising official’s word “execute.” She no longer had the mind to listen to what Wang Chun’er was saying. Her eyes subconsciously searched for Jiang Huaizhen’s figure on the stage, and she squeezed the steamed bun in her hand so tightly that the filling oozed out.

The originally noisy venue fell silent in that instant.

They didn’t have to wait long. The young executioner’s arm suddenly lifted, and the ghost-head saber was raised in mid-air.

The dim sunlight reflected off the blade. The crowd only saw a flash, and the great saber had already fallen.

The gasps of the surrounding commoners washed over their ears like a tidal wave.

A dark head thudded to the ground, then rolled a few times, tumbling toward the crowd.

The front row of the crowd scattered in an uproar.

Lin Shuang’s heart pounded, and her body began to tremble.

She didn’t know if it was because she was witnessing an execution for the first time, or if it was the overwhelming emotions from seeing Jiang Huaizhen successfully complete her first task.

Seeing that she didn’t look well, Wang Chun’er next to her quickly reached out to support her. “Lin Shuang, are you alright? If you can’t watch, you should look away.”

Lin Shuang shook her head, her eyes locked on the figure on the stage.

Jiang Huaizhen had already walked behind the second condemned prisoner, and the ghost-head saber was raised again.

Those in the crowd who had doubted her had long forgotten what they had said. Seeing the head fall, they became excited and shouted at the stage, “These people have committed all sorts of evils, robbing and killing! Don’t let them die so easily! Give them a few more cuts before they die—”

Some still stubbornly tried to save face. “She’s only chopped one. Who knows if she has the strength to chop another?”

Lin Shuang didn’t want Jiang Huaizhen to be disturbed by the people below. She just hoped that she could finish the execution quickly, complete her task, and end this scene that was making it hard for her to breathe.

The second condemned prisoner seemed to have overcome his psychological barrier and didn’t care about his impending death. He stretched his neck and cursed, “So what if I killed people? I don’t have a single grain of rice in my fields. If I don’t kill and rob, how am I supposed to live—”

“You corrupt officials, with your fat bellies! You’re allowed to oppress the common people, but I’m not allowed to kill and set fires? Where is the justice in this world—”

Then he turned and cursed at Jiang Huaizhen, “You dog who helps the tiger! Chop me! Chop your grandpa’s neck! Today you chop my head, and I’ll become a ghost and haunt you, you pretty boy, so you’ll have nightmares every night and never sleep again—”

“May you have no descendants and die a horrible death—”

Before he could finish, with a scream, his head rolled to the ground, and blood spurted from the stump, drenching the ground.

The curses seemed to still echo in the air.

Did Jiang Huaizhen have to listen to such curses every time she carried out an execution?

On her first day at the execution grounds, she had returned late in the rain, drenched, standing at the window with no color in her lips.

Had she heard such curses that day too?

Lin Shuang’s legs suddenly began to tremble violently, unable to support her body. She squatted down in the crowd, covering her ears, not daring to look or listen to the scene on the stage. The steamed bun fell to the ground, and she didn’t even notice.

Seeing this, Wang Chun’er thought she was truly afraid of the scene. She bent down to pick up the fallen steamed bun, gently patted her on the shoulder, and then turned to look at the stage again.

She watched with great interest.

After an unknown amount of time, the gasps from the crowd came one after another, until finally, there were screams, startling Lin Shuang so much that she abruptly uncovered her ears.

She grabbed Wang Chun’er’s skirt and looked up, asking urgently, “What happened?”

“The last one, she’s chopped him five times and he’s still not dead. The blade seems to have been nicked…” Wang Chun’er said.

Hearing this, Lin Shuang shot up, steadying herself on the person next to her, and looked anxiously at the execution platform.

Her eyes met the nicked ghost-head saber. The blade was stuck in the back of the prisoner’s neck. Jiang Huaizhen’s slender body was drawn like a bow, and the fine blue veins on the back of her hand holding the saber were clearly visible.

The prisoner’s twisted neck was facing Lin Shuang, and his bulging eyes made her face turn pale in an instant.

From this angle, she could clearly see the beads of sweat dripping from the ends of Jiang Huaizhen’s hair, one by one, hitting the ground.

She felt her heart leap into her throat.

The blade was nicked. Could she continue?

But it was only a matter of a moment. Jiang Huaizhen raised her head.

“For one whose crimes are overflowing…” her voice was a little low, “he can’t be allowed to die so easily.”

The crowd clutched their chests.

“You can’t just leave us hanging like that—”

Before he could finish, the saber that had been stuck was suddenly raised, then quickly fell. The sound of crying and cursing from in front of her also stopped at that instant.

The head rolled to the ground.

The group of people in the front row let out a cry and quickly retreated, creating a large gap.

At that moment, Lin Shuang finally tasted the metallic tang of blood in her mouth. Her heart pounded violently with the cheers that suddenly erupted from around the execution grounds.

I have to earn money quickly, so Jiang Huaizhen doesn’t have to do this job anymore.

She thought urgently.