Chapter 48: Unlucky Pockmarked Zhang

"Who could that be, knocking on the door at this time of night?"
"It couldn't be Widow Zheng again, could it?"
Zhao Zheng directly blew out the oil lamp on the low table, plunging the room into darkness.

The knocking stopped, but a man's voice came from outside, "Old Zhao, open the door, it's me, Pockmark!"
"Father-in-law, don't go." Yang Zhaodi grew anxious. This Pockmark was no good; he was notorious in the village for being idle, and used to drag her father-in-law out to drink and gamble every day.

Mingzhou was suffering from a severe drought, and the common people lacked food. The imperial court strictly prohibited wine-brewing. Anyone caught drinking at a time like this would face a light punishment of beating with a heavy stick, or a severe punishment of exile.
Therefore, this Pockmark was definitely not a good person.

Zhang Xiaoe also pleaded in a soft voice, "Father-in-law, nothing good will come of him looking for you."
Zhao Zheng thought for a moment. Since Pockmark had come knocking, he wouldn't leave easily. "I'll go see what's going on, and just find some excuse to send him away. Don't worry."

Zhao Zheng stepped off the brick-bed, groped his way out in the dark, and before leaving, did not forget to tell Xiaoe to bolt the door from the inside.
"Who is it, rushing people to their graves in the middle of the night?" Zhao Zheng said with displeasure, angrily opening the courtyard gate.
"Old Zhao, it's me, Pockmark." Seeing the courtyard gate open, Pockmark clutched at his trouser leg as if he had found a lifeline. Why his trouser leg?

Because at that moment, Pockmark was lying on the ground.
"Oh, it's Pockmark. What are you doing here instead of being home at night?" Zhao Zheng calmly pulled back his foot.
Over the past few days, ever since he was injured, all those fair-weather friends had completely vanished.
Even when he was being extorted by the Li family and harassed by the Wang family, not a single one of them showed up.

"Old Zhao, I've been stung by hornets. I beg you, take me to Immortal Sun's place, the pain is killing me!" Pockmark's tone carried a hint of a sob. "I'm begging you, good brother."
"Where did they sting you?" Zhao Zheng was also startled. Hornets were large, commonly known among the common people as 'killer bees'. Being stung by one of these things could be fatal; their venom was potent.

"I don't know, my whole body hurts, I've been stung so many times." Pockmark's voice grew weaker and weaker. "Hurry and take me, I'm begging you..."
Zhao Zheng was genuinely afraid that he would die right outside his doorstep, so he shouted at the top of his lungs, "Come quickly, everyone! Pockmark has been stung by hornets, give me a hand here!"
He strained his voice and yelled.

Before long, quite a few villagers emerged, feeling their way through the dark.
"Old Zhao, what's wrong with Pockmark?"
Zhao Zheng said, "I was sleeping at home when he suddenly ran over and banged on my door, saying he was stung by hornets and asking me to take him to Immortal Sun's place. Everyone, lend a hand to carry him to Immortal Sun's, and would someone kindly go to Pockmark's house and give them word."
"I'll go!" said a half-grown boy enthusiastically, taking off at a run.

Although the villagers of the small mountain village had all sorts of minor faults, at critical life-or-death moments, they were quite righteous. One by one, they carried Pockmark toward Immortal Sun's house.
With the villagers as witnesses, even if Pockmark died, it would have nothing to do with Zhao Zheng.

Immortal Sun's son opened the door and woke his mother.
Lighting the oil lamp, everyone gasped at the sight of the swollen Pockmark.
"This is trouble," Immortal Sun said. "Everyone, lend a hand, strip off his clothes, and pull out all the venomous stingers from his body."
In a flurry of panic, the crowd stripped Pockmark completely bare.

Just then, Pockmark's family arrived.
Old Mrs. Ma looked at her unconscious son and burst into tears immediately.
Pockmark's wife slapped her own thighs in despair. "I told you not to go trying to make that kind of money. Well, now look, you didn't make any money and you've killed yourself instead."

Immortal Sun felt his head spinning. "The two of you, stop howling! If you have the energy to cry, come over here and look for the stingers. If you don't pull them all out, he's a dead man!"
The Ma family members came to their senses and hurriedly swarmed over to search.
"The oil lamp is too dim. If only we had a few more," Zhao Zheng remarked calmly.

Villagers could sometimes be very stingy—so stingy they would turn red in the face and curse each other over whose field received a little extra water.
Yet at other times, they were immensely generous. When none of them were well-off, they ran back to their homes one after another and brought out their own lamp oil.
Some families' oil lamps were already down to the very dregs.
Yet that faint gleam of light was enough to illuminate the human heart.

Soon, the stingers were removed.
Immortal Sun produced a special secret ointment and applied it all over Pockmark's body.
However, Zhao Zheng felt that Pockmark was a goner.
Putting aside whether he had an allergic constitution, being stung by so many venomous stingers—that amount of venom was enough to kill an ox.
Of course, he certainly couldn't say those words aloud; he actually hoped Pockmark would survive, seeing as the bastard still owed him a dozen copper coins.

"Pockmark's wife, what on earth was your Pockmark doing going to provoke killer bees for?" someone asked.
Pockmark's wife cried and said, "It... it's because the noble lords in the city want to eat mountain delicacies. Pockmark heard from somewhere that killer bee wine cures rheumatism and that bee pupae are great for restoring vitality, so he said he'd get some and sell them to the noble lords..."

Hearing this, everyone frowned.
"You're out of your mind! Are those noble lords in the city people that mud-legged peasants like us can try to cozy up to?"
"If Pockmark could really cozy up to nobility, would he still be hanging around a little mountain village?"
The villagers all shook their heads.

Pockmark's wife stammered, "It wasn't selling directly to the noble lords in the city, it was, it was..."
She seemed to have some misgivings, unable to force out the words that followed.
"Pockmark's wife, spit it out!"
"You're driving us crazy!"

Amidst the urging of the crowd, Pockmark's wife blurted out, "It was to sell them to Tax Collector Yao!"
Everyone was dumbfounded.
They didn't know any noble lords.
But who in Rich & Noble Township didn't know Tax Collector Yao?
Wasn't he just in the village a couple of days ago conscripting men to go into the mountains to hunt tigers, and he still hadn't come back down yet?
"What does Tax Collector Yao want with these?" Zhao Zheng couldn't help asking.

"I'll tell you the truth, the township hunting for tigers isn't actually to rid us of a pest; it's because the lords in the township plan to give gifts to the nobles in the city."
"They figured a single tiger wasn't enough, so they took men into Pig Mouth Mountain to drive the game, hunt, and forage for mountain delicacies..."

Hearing this, an old woman's expression changed drastically. "My man went into the mountains too. Is he in danger?"
In an instant, the faces of quite a few people turned ugly.
Zhao Zheng cursed inwardly. He had known there was no such thing as a free lunch dropping from the sky.
Three days in the mountains to offset a month of corvée labor?
Could there really be such a good thing?
Who didn't know that the township lords were using public office for private gain?
Would they be that kind-hearted?

Fortunately, his own household enjoyed preferential treatment, so he didn't need to fret over corvée labor.
However, the people who went into the mountains this time were probably in for some bad luck.
Just then, Pockmark regained consciousness.
His family laughed and cried simultaneously, thanking Immortal Sun profusely.

Pockmark thanked Zhao Zheng, then endlessly clamored to relieve himself.
After emptying his bladder, he let out a long breath. "I feel so much better. Old Zhao, if it weren't for you this time, I really would have died out there in the yard."
Zhao Zheng repeatedly waved his hand, refusing to take any credit.
Then he walked out of the room, took out a fire starter, and inspected the urinal. It was stained a bright, vivid red.

"Blood in the urine. He's beyond saving!"