"None of this works, that doesn’t work either, you usually seem quite capable, so tell me, what should we do?" Carpenter Jin, having no solid plan, discussed fruitlessly with his son.
Jin Wanshan suddenly grinned shamelessly, "Dad, I have a way to not only repay the debt but also gain two hundred taels of silver for free..."
The following morning, before dawn, Jin Wanshan sneakily brought his made-up father to the Commander’s Office in the Capital City.
With Jin Rengui tightly bound, he couldn’t help but ask again, "Confessing to the crime will really get us off the hook?"
Jin Wanshan confidently assured, "Once we receive the reward for turning you in, I will repay the debt and then retract the confession in a couple of days. I consulted a Litigation Master; retracting a confession at most will result in a sentence of exile. Think about it, Dad, exile for at most a year or two. With your carpentry work, even four or five years wouldn’t earn three hundred taels of silver..."
Jin Rengui sighed and said, "It doesn’t matter how much money it is, as long as you can live and be safe, I’ll be content!"
Before they could say much more, a Government Official came to question them at the Government Office entrance.
According to their pre-prepared plan, Jin Wanshan pushed the tightly bound Carpenter Jin forward.
He claimed to have captured a long-wanted river pirate from the wanted posters and came to claim the reward!
It being the end of the year, the people were disturbed by the pirate, and the Government Office, already worried about this matter, immediately started the trial upon hearing the news.
But Carpenter Jin, honest for a lifetime, had no idea what a ruthless pirate even looked like.
Was the Government Office blind? Any clear-eyed person could tell that Carpenter Jin’s honest demeanor signaled something was wrong.
Yet, after repeatedly asking Carpenter Jin if he confessed his crime, the office simply had him press his fingerprint and then jailed him directly.
Initially, watching his father’s slow and unresponsive trial demeanor, Jin Wanshan felt uncertain. It wasn’t until the case was smoothly concluded that he calmed down.
The main clerk in charge handed a hundred taels of silver notes to Jin Wanshan.
Looking at the amount on the silver notes, Jin Wanshan hurriedly said, "This amount isn’t right, the wanted poster clearly states a three hundred tael reward..."
The clerk, hearing this, sneered, "Be satisfied with a hundred taels of reward. Do you really think others aren’t aware of the situation here?"
Jin Wanshan, suspicious, asked, "What do you mean by that?"
The clerk chuckled, "It means nothing else. Since he has already pressed his fingerprint, he is the river pirate. What’s there to distinguish?"
Clutching the silver notes, Jin Wanshan walked out of the Government Office. By this time, he knew his father certainly won’t survive.
"Dad, rest in peace. Once I make a lot of money, I’ll buy you the best coffin and give you a grand send-off..."
After feeling a bit sentimental for a moment, Jin Wanshan turned and headed to the gambling house.
Upon reaching the gambling house, planning to clear his debts, Jin Wanshan’s eyes couldn’t move away from the gambling table!
"Sixteen years, nobody can lose for sixteen years! Crap goddess, she’s probably a demon in disguise tricking people!"
Swept away by his gambling addiction, Jin Wanshan couldn’t care about anything else. As long as he won money, he felt like a god!
That day, Jin Wanshan not only lost the hundred taels he earned from selling out his father but also ended up owing a hundred and twenty taels.
Coupled with the hundred taels he already owed, his total debt reached two hundred and twenty taels!
Now, who to sell? Jin Wanshan had no one left to sell, he couldn’t sell off his own mother!
The gambling house enforcers meant serious business this time, but in this critical moment, the gambling house owner intervened, sparing Jin Wanshan’s life.
However, they required him to kill someone in return!
Jin Wanshan thought, if I dared to sell my father, killing a person shouldn’t be hard.
Thus began his dangerous life of killing for the gambling house.
On the fifteenth day of the twelfth lunar month, the day Jin Rengui was executed at the Vegetable Market, Jin Wanshan didn’t go to collect his father’s body. Instead, he painted his face, took a sharpened knife, and prepared to kill a spectator at the theater!
In one moment, a spectator’s head fell to the ground; in another, Carpenter Jin’s blood stained the execution platform.