The next day at the Hour of the Dragon, Li Si discussed with Bai Zhenzhu and Wu Wen about what they had gained from the vegetable market. Li Si tapped his finger on the table and said, “I asked that fellow and learned that the barrel contained lard—specifically, foul lard rendered from pigs that had died of disease.”
Bai Zhenzhu snorted disdainfully. “Don’t talk about it anymore. Just thinking about it makes me sick. To think there are actually people who eat dishes stir-fried with rancid oil. I really can’t stand it.”
Li Si smiled and then said, “Whether it’s rancid or not isn’t the point. The point is that Hu Hai’s body also carried the scent of lard rendered from diseased dead pigs.”
“How strange! Hu Hai was at least the wealthiest man in Jinxi County. He couldn’t possibly enjoy eating rancid lard. So the only possibility is that the scent was left by the killer,” Wu Wen reasoned based on this deduction.
Bai Zhenzhu’s beautiful brows furrowed. “The killer must be a butcher who slaughters pigs and renders oil! Let’s arrest all the butchers in Jinxi right now. The killer is definitely among them.”
“Nonsense.” Li Si’s face grew stern. “There are at least twenty or thirty butchers selling meat throughout the city. We can’t just arrest people indiscriminately without distinguishing right from wrong. If we did that, we wouldn’t be constables—we’d be bandits.”
Bai Zhenzhu also realized she had misspoken. She stuck out her little tongue at Li Si, giggled once, and turned her head away.
“Head Constable, what should we do?” Wu Wen asked.
“Well, first…” Li Si had just opened his mouth when someone suddenly burst through the door. It was none other than Constable Feng from the Jinxi County yamen. Constable Feng said with a face full of sweat, “Li, Lord Li, it’s happened again.”
“What’s happened again?” Bai Zhenzhu asked curiously.
“A dead person… a dead person with their belly cut open.”
This grand residence with green tiles and red walls, imposing and magnificent, had been rendered with a moist whiteness due to the continuous gloomy rain. County Magistrate Huang Youdao paced with his hands behind his back on the steps before the entrance. When he saw Li Si arrive, he hurried down the steps and said, “Lord Li, you’ve finally come.”
Li Si nodded.
Huang Youdao led Li Si into an elegant courtyard within the residence. It had water pavilions and platforms, flowing water and decorative rocks—everything one could want. In the pavilion at the eastern corner lay a corpse. The deceased was a charming woman in her thirties with eyes wide open in anger, her pupils filled with blood, as if she harbored intense unwillingness and reluctance about her death. Her hands were crossed over her chest, and her neck bore large bruises of black and purple. In her abdomen was a bloody gash that had been cut open. Her intestines and flesh had been stirred into chaos just like the dead Hu Hai’s, enough to make one sick.
The soft, fair face connected to the torn flesh and dismembered corpse, with scarlet red everywhere—it was like an intensely impactful and lurid painting that dazzled every person present, leaving them in a fog.
Li Si didn’t want to examine the corpse carefully on site and instructed Huang Youdao to quickly transport the body back to the Black House.
Huang Youdao said regretfully, “This woman who died so miserably is named Liu Feng’er. She was also one of the top wealthy merchants in Jinxi County, owning three Rouge Pavilions and two silk and satin shops. Liu Feng’er was both talented and beautiful. Though never married, she kept herself pure and had never been involved in any scandalous rumors. Who would have thought that upon waking this morning, I would hear people report Liu Feng’er’s brutal murder? I rushed over hastily only to see this scene of flesh and blood flying everywhere. Truly pitiful.”
“County Magistrate Huang’s benevolent and magnanimous heart—Li Si admires it greatly. But the person who killed both Hu and Liu is clearly the same killer. Not only are the killer’s methods vicious, but they also harbor a clear psychology of revenge. After killing, they disemboweled the victims and stirred their intestines into complete chaos.” Li Si paused. “Such acts cannot be born from ordinary grudges—they can only come from deep hatred and great enmity.”
“This deep hatred and great enmity must be related to both Hu and Liu.”
What Li Si said was both reasonable and relevant to the case. Huang Youdao nodded repeatedly. Then Li Si said sincerely, “Therefore, please have County Magistrate Huang send people to investigate in detail whether Hu and Liu had any common enemies, and also inquire into whether there were any hidden entanglements between the two of them.”
Huang Youdao agreed with a series of assents and immediately had Constable Feng go investigate in detail.
At the Jinxi County yamen, Li Si once again came before the Black House. This time Bai Zhenzhu insisted on going in together, saying that since the deceased was a woman, what was there for her to fear?
Li Si could only indulge this girl.
Inside the Black House burned incense to disperse the stench of corpses, but compared to the special corpse incense specially made by Lao Sitou, it was immeasurably inferior. The putrid smell still smoothly drilled into everyone’s nostrils. Bai Zhenzhu nearly fainted on the spot, but fortunately Li Si had quick eyes and fast hands and supported her from behind. Bai Zhenzhu’s pretty face reddened slightly as she softly said thank you.
Liu Feng’er’s corpse bed was on Hu Hai’s left side. The coroner first examined her once and reported back to Li Si, “Lord Li, the deceased was also strangled to death by someone gripping her neck. There are obvious bruises on her neck, and in addition, the symptoms of bloodshot pupils and protruding tongue are all consistent. The abdomen was similarly brutally cut open, and the intestines were thoroughly stirred into chaos.”
The coroner paused and then said, “Two strands of coarse cloth thread were also discovered in the deceased’s mouth.”
Li Si nodded, and the coroner retreated to the back. This time the coroner’s examination was quite detailed, and Li Si made no particular discoveries. However, Bai Zhenzhu beside him made an “eh” sound. Li Si asked, “Little girl, what is it?”
“Something’s not right.” When Bai Zhenzhu had first entered, she had been somewhat resistant to the completely naked, bloody corpse, but now curiosity surged up, and with Li Si beside her, her courage grew.
She stepped past Li Si and pressed close to the corpse bed holding Liu Feng’er. Suddenly she waved her hand toward her nostrils, tilted her little head, and said, “It’s not right.”
Li Si didn’t understand. “Where exactly is it not right?”
“The scent.” Bai Zhenzhu turned her head to stare at Li Si. “Isn’t your nose quite sharp, Big Brother Li? You could already smell the difference between rancid lard and pork, yet you can’t smell the scent on her body?”
Li Si pressed his finger against his nose. “Apart from the bloody smell on her body, there’s just a little bit of rouge scent. There’s nothing else, is there?”
“That’s both right and wrong.” What Bai Zhenzhu said was confusing. Li Si and Wu Wen exchanged glances and looked at this Bai Family young lady with bewilderment. Bai Zhenzhu then continued, “I say it’s right because apart from the bloody smell on her body, there is indeed only the scent of rouge. But I say it’s wrong because the rouge scent on her body is mixed and inconsistent.”
“Inconsistent?” Among a hundred flavors and a thousand scents, Li Si was perhaps most insensitive to women’s rouge fragrance, so for a moment he couldn’t distinguish clearly.
Bai Zhenzhu said proudly, “What’s applied to her temples and cheeks is the very expensive Huang Nantian Exquisite Rouge, but on the back of her neck and the sides of her ears, she’s wearing cheap, ordinary rouge. Don’t you think that’s strange?”
“One person wearing two different kinds of rouge…” Li Si’s gaze grew deep as he said softly, “Unless one kind was not of her own volition and someone else helped her apply it—undoubtedly the cheap rouge.”
Bai Zhenzhu happily nodded.
“Foul lard, cheap rouge—what exactly is this killer trying to say?” Li Si’s gaze remained on the death-grey faces of Hu Hai and Liu Feng’er. With his many years as a constable, both experience and intuition told Li Si that Hu Hai and Liu Feng’er were only the beginning and the process, not the ending.
The killer very likely had already locked onto the next target. Before that happened, he himself must do something.
At the Jinxi city gate tower, sunlight was dim. The gate soldiers on duty swept their eyes over the various people hurrying past. The tall gate soldier from before rubbed his eyelids and said, “So gloomy—it really makes one drowsy. Are you tired, Qiaozi?”
The one called Qiaozi shook his head and didn’t speak.
There was suddenly a small commotion in the long street within the city. Qiaozi saw Constable Feng leading constables rushing energetically toward the southern part of the city. The tall one smiled strangely. “Want to know what’s going on? Ask me, Tang Dayuan! I have insider information!”
“Insider information?” Qiaozi’s face showed a trace of doubt. Seeing the fish take the bait, Tang Dayuan licked his dry lips and said, “Mm, mm, I don’t know why but I suddenly really want to eat Lao Qingxiang’s oil-soaked duck. Just thinking about it makes my mouth water.”
Without another word, Qiaozi stuffed broken silver into his hand. Tang Dayuan, wearing the face of a petty person who had gained wealth, said, “There’s a fellow townsman of mine among the county yamen runners. He said that last night a murder case occurred. The one killed was Liu Feng’er from the Rouge Pavilion. Tsk tsk tsk, Liu Feng’er’s miserable state when she died was exactly the same as Hu Hai’s. Her belly was also cut open, with intestines and blood all over the ground. It really was too horrible to look at. County Magistrate Huang suspects that the person who killed Hu Hai and Liu Feng’er is the same individual. The constables on the street are investigating the enemies of both Hu and Liu.”
“Don’t spread this around, or else both of us will be in big trouble,” Tang Dayuan warned.
Qiaozi picked at the stone cracks in the parapet wall, unknown emotions rolling in his eyes. Suddenly in the most inconspicuous corner, a figure flashed by, acting furtively and mysteriously. Qiaozi caught sight of the figure’s face—it was a countenance that had experienced the vicissitudes of life… This face made Qiaozi’s heart pound fiercely, as if it had stirred up images from deep in his memory. But no matter how hard Qiaozi tried, he couldn’t recall that scene.
Qiaozi rarely experienced heart-pounding shock, but who would have thought that today, after seeing another person’s face, he would feel it. Qiaozi couldn’t help but think to himself: Who is he, and why does he make me so anxiously uneasy?
Qiaozi looked at his hands rubbed full of stone dust, as if he could see through the dust to the shocking scarlet red beneath.