Mao hour, Dougu County town, Xinghua Residence.
Ma He in the private room hadn’t stepped out of his room for an entire day. The proprietor sent a waiter to check on him. The waiter pushed open the door to the private room—it creaked open.
Ma He lay sprawled beside the wine table with his mouth wide open, asleep. The waiter walked over with a worried frown and called out “Master Ma” a few times without seeing any response, so he shook Ma He’s arm. Suddenly, with a “thud,” something fell to the ground. The waiter’s mouth gradually widened… What had fallen to the ground was unmistakably Ma He’s arm!
Before the waiter could scream in horror, there came a series of continuous “crackling and popping” sounds.
Ma He’s other arm, waist, back, and both legs suddenly split apart, section by section smearing onto the ground, a mess of flesh and blood. The last thing that rolled down was Ma He’s head.
In the black, hollow eye sockets flowed endless terror and fury…
“Ahhh, murder!” The waiter finally cried out like a pig being slaughtered.
Meng Rui returned to Dougu County town. Together with the Fu couple, they searched the long street where they’d encountered the beggar twice over but found nothing. Niu Zhiying suddenly became dizzy. She had been ill to begin with, and following Meng Rui on a round trip between Sanfen Village and Dougu County town, her body naturally couldn’t bear it. Meng Rui persuaded the Fu couple to return home, promising them that once there was any news about Fu Dan, he would inform them as quickly as possible.
The Fu couple followed Meng Rui’s arrangement and went home. Meng Rui decided to find Du Yi’an to help. Arriving at the Dougu County Office, he encountered the frazzled constable Chen Shang. Chen Shang explained that at the mao hour today, a strange and terrifying corpse had been discovered at Xinghua Residence.
Meng Rui followed Chen Shang to the county office’s black room.
The stench of corpses in the black room was particularly thick. A small-statured coroner held up an oil lamp to guide Chen Shang and Meng Rui to the innermost part of the black room. The coroner lifted the corpse cloth. The body was none other than Ma He, who had been discovered dead in horrific circumstances at Xinghua Residence at the mao hour.
“This person looks somewhat familiar.” Meng Rui suddenly asked, “Is he from Sanfen Village?”
“Yes. Do you know him?” Chen Shang was somewhat surprised. Meng Rui shook his head: “I don’t know him, but perhaps I’ve seen him before. Has his identity been clarified?”
“It has. The deceased is named Ma He, from Sanfen Village. He once served as a steward at Village Head Jin Yaoguang’s Chunfeng Hall, helping Jin Yaoguang handle mountain goods and medicinal materials trading.” Chen Shang paused. “However, he seems to have been recently driven out of the Jin family.”
“Do you know the reason?” Meng Rui asked. Chen Shang shook his head: “Not yet clear. But we’ve already sent people to find Jin Yaoguang and also Manager Sun from Chunfeng Hall. We should be able to clarify things soon.”
“From what the Xinghua Residence waiter said between the lines, this Ma He was extravagant and domineering—perhaps he embezzled money from the Jin family.” Chen Shang speculated. Meng Rui’s gaze moved up and down with the coroner’s hand. Ma He’s limbs and head had all been severed. At each connecting point was a clear blood line.
The murderer was extremely cold-blooded and brutal.
Meng Rui had originally wanted to wait until Jin Yaoguang came to the office to meet him before leaving, but while waiting outside the county office, he suddenly caught sight of a familiar back—pale gray tattered robes. Could it be the mysterious beggar who had slipped the map into Niu Zhiying’s sleeve pocket!
After chasing for half a street, Meng Rui caught the beggar, only to discover he’d grabbed the wrong person. After all, beggars dressed similarly, and there were many with similar builds. The beggar’s arm was twisted by Meng Rui, causing him to grimace in pain, tears and snot flowing as he begged for mercy: “Sir, I’m just a beggar, I haven’t done anything bad… Please let me go.”
Meng Rui felt apologetic and quickly released the beggar. The beggar rubbed his arm and turned to run. Meng Rui gazed at his back and suddenly grabbed hold of him again.
The beggar asked with a mournful face: “Sir, what exactly do you want?”
Wind swept down the long street, revealing Meng Rui’s ferocious blue face. The beggar jumped in fright, his whole body pushing backward with force. Meng Rui gripped his wrist firmly and said with a smile, “I don’t want to trouble you. I just want to ask you one thing.”
“What thing?”
Meng Rui took out a piece of broken silver and placed it in his palm: “I want to ask if you’d like to earn money.”
The beggar stared at the silver, his eyes flashing with greedy light.
An hour later, the beggar returned to this alley drenched in sweat: “Sir, there’s news about that fake beggar you’re looking for.”
Meng Rui tossed the broken silver to the beggar: “Speak.”
Just as every province and county has official jurisdiction, beggars also have their own territorial divisions. If an uninvited guest intrudes on one’s territory, the consequences are easily imagined. The beggar explained breathlessly that yesterday evening, a group of old beggars had brutally beaten a new beggar. The new beggar was beaten until his head bled, and finally the old beggars threw him onto Luanshi Ridge.
At noon, Meng Rui arrived at Luanshi Ridge on the western outskirts of Dougu.
As the name suggests, Luanshi Ridge was entirely covered with chaotic rocks. Scattered rocks covered the entire hilltop, along with protruding grave mounds. This place was desolate and rarely visited. Aside from the occasional barking of wild dogs, one could hardly hear any other sounds. Following the beggar’s instructions, Meng Rui found some bloodstains on an empty plot outside Luanshi Ridge. Following the bloodstains, Meng Rui came to a dilapidated large building on the edge of Luanshi Ridge.
A dust-covered horizontal plaque hung in front of the building, inscribed with two characters—Yizhuang.
Any unclaimed bodies from the county office’s black room, or nameless corpses of those who died far from home with no relatives to bury them, were all sent to the Yizhuang. The Yizhuang people would arrange to bury them in the graveyard. Meng Rui had been to a Yizhuang before, but had never seen one so crude and dilapidated.
The Yizhuang roof already had three large holes, with countless small ones. One side of the window had collapsed. Cold, stern graveyard winds continuously swept into the Yizhuang, making Meng Rui’s back turn cold. The Yizhuang had five side rooms. The main hall used a simple altar table to enshrine the Judge Messenger who guides dead souls. Half the side rooms were filled with coffins. Some coffins were already badly damaged, with wisps of rotting corpse smell drifting out from within.
The Yizhuang was spacious but empty—not a single person. Meng Rui looked around and only saw twelve wooden coffins. The bloodstains disappeared in front of a covered coffin. Meng Rui hesitated, then reached his hand toward the wooden coffin. Suddenly, the wooden coffin shook… Rustling sounds came from inside the coffin, then a pale human hand stretched out.
Meng Rui stared in shock. A cold wind suddenly rose by his ear. Meng Rui whipped his head around. A hunched old man was raising a wooden club, swinging it toward Meng Rui’s head. Meng Rui turned sideways to avoid the old man’s sneak attack. At the same time, the coffin lid in front of him was pushed open, and a weak voice asked, “Kua Lao, is that you?”
A man covered in tattered clothes with an injured forehead sat upright from inside the coffin. After seeing clearly that it was Meng Rui and the old man, the man roared angrily: “If you want to kill, come at me! Don’t make things difficult for Kua Lao—this has nothing to do with him… He only saved me out of kindness. Come on, come kill me!”
The man was quite agitated, and the wound on his forehead split open. Fresh blood dripped into the coffin.
“Alas, such wickedness.” The old man knew he had no power to resist. His hand loosened and the wooden stick fell to the ground.
Meng Rui was somewhat confused, but he quickly walked to the man in the coffin, drew out his Divine Detective token from his bosom, and said sincerely: “I won’t kill you. I’m a constable.”
“You, you’re really a constable…” The man seemed to have a glimmer of hope, light flashing in his eyes.
Meng Rui nodded: “What’s your name?”
“My name is Wen Nansheng.” The man in the coffin slowly uttered these words.
After Meng Rui explained his intentions clearly and showed Wen Nansheng the half map he’d obtained from Niu Zhiying’s sleeve pocket, Wen Nansheng breathed a sigh of relief and nodded in admission: “Yes, I was the one who slipped the map into the woman’s sleeve pocket. Her name is Niu Zhiying, right? I wanted her to keep this half of the map.”
“Why did you want her to keep it?” Meng Rui couldn’t help but ask.
“Because this may be the only way to help her find her daughter.” After Wen Nansheng spoke, a ghostly cold wind swept into the Yizhuang hall. Gray-white coffins, the mysterious man in the coffin, the ferocious blue-faced Meng Rui, the ashen-faced old man—a scene of eerie strangeness melded together.