That night, Wei Xun went out for a trip and returned the stolen evidence—the Seven Treasures glass lacquered box—to its original place in the Multi-Treasure Pagoda. Two hours later, he returned and said to Bao Zhu, “I’ve found leads on Luo Chengye. Do you still want to take a look? If you’re tired and don’t want to move, I’ll go deal with him directly. This man faked his death to escape and made me his scapegoat. Now that I’ve found his hiding place, I can’t let this grudge last another night.”
Bao Zhu quickly stopped him, “No! I’ve been following this case from the beginning. If you intervene halfway through and kill him directly without revealing the truth to the public, what would be the point?”
Wei Xun laughed, “I thought you wouldn’t let this go easily. Then change your clothes and let’s go.”
Without his reminder, Bao Zhu went to change into clothing suitable for action. Again losing the service of her maid, she could only comb her long hair into a braid, but this time she didn’t plan to let Wei Xun carry her around like a kitten or puppy.
“Move aside, I’ll go down myself.”
Bao Zhu lifted her chin, dismissed Wei Xun, and slowly climbed down by gripping the window opening with both hands. Yang Xingjian, fearing she might fall, was terrified and kept wringing his hands by the window. Wei Xun didn’t know how he had offended her and could only stand below ready to catch her in case her foot slipped and she fell.
Taking up her bow and arrows, the two headed again toward Lianhua Temple. Bao Zhu said in surprise, “Luo Chengye is really hiding right next to his own house? At such close distance, what tremendous boldness. How has no one recognized him?”
Wei Xun said, “He’s indeed a bold and careful character. If he hadn’t left traces when disposing of the head, I wouldn’t have found him either. As for why no one recognized Luo Chengye’s appearance, you’ll understand shortly.”
Lianhua Temple also had officials patrolling outside the compound walls at night. While Wei Xun could come and go freely by himself, he didn’t want to risk bringing Bao Zhu along. He had already scouted an empty house nearby—standing on its roof, one could overlook the entire monastery from above. The two came to the base of the wall. Bao Zhu still stubbornly refused his help, so Wei Xun had no choice but to crouch down and let her step on his shoulders to climb onto the roof. The two hid behind the high ridge, waiting for Luo Chengye to appear.
Bao Zhu tested her bowstring tension and made all preparations, asking quietly, “Where’s Shisan Lang?”
Wei Xun answered, “With Luo Chengye.”
Bao Zhu was startled, her heart stirring as she asked in shock, “Could it be that he shaved off his beard and hair to disguise himself as a traveling monk?!”
Hearing her guess correctly with just one hint, Wei Xun looked at her with admiration and nodded, “If you hadn’t mentioned that the headless corpse had a python tattoo, I wouldn’t have thought to have Shisan Lang watch for this characteristic. Luo Chengye disguised himself as a visiting traveling monk and lived with Shisan Lang and the others. Since they’re all outsiders, as long as he didn’t leave the monk quarters, naturally no one around would recognize the greatly changed appearance of Xiagui County’s constable chief.”
Bao Zhu was greatly shaken, never expecting this Luo Chengye to have such boldness and cunning. No one could guess that he had faked his death to escape and was hiding in Lianhua Temple, the very site of the major case—practically right under the authorities’ noses.
She asked, “The headless corpse and Luo Chengye had the same tattoo—was he a former accomplice from his bandit days?”
Wei Xun nodded and speculated, “Most likely. That unlucky fellow had already become a monk, and somehow the two reunited in Xiagui City. They gathered at Luo Chengye’s house to drink, and Luo Chengye suddenly attacked and killed him, cut off his head, took his monastic credentials, shaved off his own hair and beard to hide in Lianhua Temple. If he hadn’t pinned this crime on me, I’d have to praise his courage and insight. I just don’t know whether this whole affair was premeditated or a drunken impulse.”
Bao Zhu murmured, “No wonder he was obsessed with cutting off the head and threw it into the oil pot to fry to charcoal. A monk’s head is bald—even if left to rot, it wouldn’t grow a single hair. Without such treatment, anyone would see something fishy.” She asked Wei Xun again, “That day at Luo Chengye’s house, you demonstrated how he used the corpse’s intestines to climb up and hide on the beam, showing his lightness skills were poor. The Multi-Treasure Pagoda pearl theft case probably has nothing to do with him. But who actually stole that White Snake Pearl?”
While chatting with Bao Zhu, Wei Xun kept his eyes fixed on the monastery in the distance. Before he could answer this question, he suddenly raised his index finger to his lips signaling silence and pointed toward Lianhua Temple compound. Bao Zhu quickly drew a feathered arrow and looked in the direction he indicated. Under the moonlight, she saw a monk in gray robes carrying a bundle, sneaking along the compound wall into view.
Bao Zhu had excellent eyesight. Though the target was far away, she could see the monk’s every movement. She then calmly and unhurriedly extended both arms, drew her bow to aim, and the feathered arrow shot out steadily with an extremely elegant and dashing posture. The arrow struck the gray-robed monk’s left thigh precisely, and the man let out a muffled scream and tumbled to the ground.
Wei Xun praised her, thinking that for some reason she was using her sleeve to cover the back of her hand while shooting today—if she had used full force to draw the bow, she probably could have been even more accurate.
He said regretfully, “Excellent force, but a pity you missed the vital spot by a bit.”
Bao Zhu looked at him strangely and said softly, “I deliberately aimed for the leg. Except for shooting the ghost in that haunted house, this is my first time actually injuring a person.”
Seeing wavering in her eyes, Wei Xun immediately regretted his words. Their martial school’s practice aimed to kill enemies with one strike, but he hadn’t considered that she was fundamentally a clean person standing in the sunlight, unprepared to stain her hands with blood and bear the burden of human life. Thinking of this, he felt momentarily dazed, his heart wavering too.
Bao Zhu saw that the monk had struggled to his feet after being wounded and was preparing to continue fleeing. She urgently called to Wei Xun, “Why are you still standing there motionless?!” From her hunting experience, after prey was wounded by an arrow, the next step was work for hunting dogs or lynxes. Was he expecting her to deliver the killing blow to Luo Chengye herself?
Wei Xun shook his head and said, “I’ll be lazy today—let Shisan Lang handle it.”
Bao Zhu stamped her foot anxiously, “What are you talking about?!”
But then she saw a small gray figure quickly running from the other side of the monastery compound, pouncing on the arrow-struck Luo Chengye to grapple with him. Bao Zhu watched in shock as Shisan Lang knocked Luo Chengye down again with just a few punches and kicks, then efficiently dislocated both his shoulders, quickly ending the fight.
Wei Xun advised, “Let’s go. Lianhua Temple will be lively again soon.”
Bao Zhu still hadn’t recovered from her shock. Only after seeing Shisan Lang tie up the wounded monk like a cocoon with rope and retreat safely did she reluctantly jump down from the roof and return to the Reflection Study with Wei Xun’s company.
That night Bao Zhu slept very restlessly. Though she had personally solved the headless corpse case and captured the death-faking Luo Chengye, she felt no excitement. Instead, she was disturbed by consciously injuring someone for the first time—a feeling none of her archery and horsemanship masters had ever mentioned. In her youth, she had fantasized about achieving military glory on the battlefield like Princess Pingyang Zhao, but had never considered that killing people was completely different from hunting animals.
The next day’s shocking news that stunned all of Xiagui City was that Constable Chief Luo Chengye, already confirmed dead in the pearl theft murder case, was actually still alive. He had shaved off his hair and beard to disguise himself as a monk hiding in Lianhua Temple, only to be captured by patrolling officials the previous night.
A burly man with a face full of fluffy, curly beard would indeed look completely different after shaving off his hair and beard and changing into monk’s robes. Even former acquaintances might not recognize him if they met on the street. But this person was somehow injured and collapsed in Lianhua Temple compound where the major pearl theft had occurred. Naturally, the interrogation was extremely strict and careful. When they stripped off his monk’s robes, revealing the python tattoo on his arm, he was recognized by his former subordinate constables, shocking everyone.
Luo Chengye had gone hungry for many days in Lianhua Temple and was also wounded, leaving him mentally exhausted. Under Bao Lang’s interrogation, he couldn’t last a day before confessing everything.
He had been lured into gambling and was heavily in debt throughout the city. He had actually long harbored thoughts of retreat, but was watched too closely by creditors to escape. Some days ago, he happened to encounter a former accomplice from his bandit days in the city. That man had already taken monastic vows and went by the dharma name Miaoxing. Luo Chengye invited him to drink and reminisce at his house. Though Monk Miaoxing had no money, he possessed a legitimate ordination certificate issued by the court. Seeing this, Luo Chengye became greedy and conceived the idea of seizing the certificate to change his name and flee far away.
He got Monk Miaoxing drunk and used his own four-sided iron mace to ambush and kill him, seizing the ordination certificate. Just as he was about to flee, his subordinate Wang Liangcai knocked on the door to inform him of the previous night’s theft of treasures from the Multi-Treasure Pagoda. Hearing this, Luo Chengye hatched a plan to pin this murder on the pearl theft case, thus faking his death to escape and even avoid future pursuit.
Using the excuse of changing clothes, he dismissed Wang Liangcai and switched his clothes with Miaoxing’s corpse. To disguise the corpse’s monk identity, he cut off Miaoxing’s head. Just as he was about to flee, Wang Liangcai returned to urge him. If his subordinate saw his appearance at that moment, the death-faking scheme would be ruined. But he had sold all his belongings for gambling, leaving no hiding place in the room. In desperation, Luo Chengye pulled out the corpse’s intestines and used them to climb onto the roof beam to hide temporarily.
When Wang Liangcai’s patience was exhausted and he pushed open the door, he first saw only the headless corpse on the ground. In shock, when he turned back to inform others, Luo Chengye climbed down from the beam, scaled the wall into neighboring Lianhua Temple, shaved off his hair and beard, and directly hid using Miaoxing’s identity. Since Monk Miaoxing was an outsider traveling monk whom no local monks knew, Luo Chengye hid peacefully for several days.
But the hot weather made the head quickly emit an unmaskable rotting stench. Having no choice, Luo Chengye snuck into Lianhua Temple’s kitchen and used hot oil to fry the head beyond recognition, then left behind several of his own hairs, disposing of the last relic left by Monk Miaoxing.
If Lianhua Temple had sufficient food, he could have hidden completely until the pearl theft case ended and the city gates reopened, then leisurely left Xiagui County. From then on, the sky would be high for birds to fly and the sea broad for fish to leap—he could escape his debt-ridden constable chief identity and become a carefree traveling monk. But Bao Lang was cruel and ruthless, directly cutting off the monks’ food supply. Unable to endure his hunger, Luo Chengye became confused and tried to escape, only to be shot through the thigh by someone’s arrow and tied up, thus falling into captivity.
Luo Chengye insisted he had only killed Miaoxing and hadn’t stolen any treasure. Naturally, Bao Lang wouldn’t let this go, using various brutal torture methods. The suffering Luo Chengye endured was a thousand times worse than the murdered Miaoxing’s. Whether he ever regretted killing his former companion and devising this death-escape scheme remained unknown.