Chapter 69

Carrying the beast skin map rolled inside its bamboo tube, Fang Yuan asks the two hunters whether anyone else remains in old man Wang’s household, and they tell him the wife died decades ago, killed by wolves, and that the elder son Wang Da died hunting on the mountain three years ago, leaving no one else in the family beyond those already dead. ^{ch. 69}

One hunter then recalls that old man Wang also had a daughter-in-law, Wang Da’s widow, whom the village honored with a chastity memorial arch after she died of a broken heart that year, though rumor held that she wanted to remarry and that old man Wang hounded her to death himself, and the other hunter adds that old man Wang always chased away young men who came asking to learn hunting from him. Fang Yuan privately judges that the two hunters’ real interest had been the old man’s daughter rather than hunting lessons, and that old man Wang had caught and punished them for it. ^{ch. 69}

Satisfied that they show no resentment toward old man Wang, Fang Yuan spares both hunters and tells them to leave, but before they can go a rank two Gu Master named Jiang He, stationed in the village by the Gu Yue clan, drops down from a treetop and orders them to explain everything that happened. ^{ch. 69}

Fang Yuan shows the moonlight in his palm as proof of Gu Yue clan status and openly admits killing the Wang family in anger over Wang Er’s offense, which the two hunters confirm, and Jiang He calls the killing justified before complaining that the drop in villagers under his watch will hurt his year-end assessment from the clan. When Fang Yuan offers to let him report the matter exactly as it happened rather than cover for him, Jiang He grows stern and demands his name for the record, and on hearing that he is Gu Yue Fang Yuan he recognizes him as the student his brother Jiang Ya, who sells him Moon orchid petals, has described extorting sixty primeval stones from each beaten classmate and once gambling out a Liquor worm and a Mudskin Toad in a row. ^{ch. 69}

Jiang He then agrees to handle the matter himself rather than report it truthfully, intending to tell the clan the family was killed by a wild beast, and warns Fang Yuan, who has not yet graduated the academy or earned a Gu Master’s uniform, to keep clear of his jurisdiction and cause no more trouble here, and Fang Yuan thanks him for the advice before leaving. ^{ch. 69}