In the dead of night, another person had died—Huang Gang. For such a series of murders to occur during his three-year term of office, Huang Youdao was so worried and anxious that he couldn’t sleep or eat. Early in the morning when he arrived at the Jinxi County yamen, he received another great shock.
In his eight years as an official, Huang Youdao had never seen such a group, such a group of rough fellows run into the yamen’s main hall.
To expedite the investigation, Wu Wen had summoned overnight all twenty-one butchers in Jinxi City. Having left in haste, all twenty-one butchers wore the greasy grey smocks they wore when slaughtering pigs and cutting meat, covered with countless star-like splotches of blood. The group of butchers, seeing no one in the main hall, each found a corner to either squat or sit, dozing off sleepily.
Li Si and Bai Zhenzhu also came to the county yamen. Huang Youdao had been waiting early and grabbed Li Si, asking urgently, “Lord Li, why is there a group of fierce and menacing brutes inside the yamen?”
Li Si smiled. “County Magistrate Huang, please set your mind at ease. They are all Jinxi butchers whom I invited.”
“Ah!” Huang Youdao was stunned.
Wu Wen explained to Huang Youdao in a low voice for a while. Huang Youdao’s expression changed dramatically as he followed Li Si up to the hall together.
Li Si avoided the butchers and quietly entered the hall from the back room.
With a heavy slap on the gavel block, the dozing butchers throughout the hall were startled into trembling alertness. They immediately opened their eyes and looked around. When they saw County Magistrate Huang and Li Si, only then did they repeatedly stick out their rear ends and kowtow.
“How dare you! You actually dare to doze and sleep soundly in the public court. Do you know this is already the great crime of contempt of court? To arrest all twenty-one of you and throw you in prison would not be excessive,” Li Si said with both severity in voice and expression.
“Please forgive us, my lord, please show mercy…”
“Spare us.”
All twenty-one butchers begged for mercy in unison. Li Si changed his tone. “Considering this was an unintentional error on your part, County Magistrate Huang and I will give you one chance to atone for your crimes through meritorious service.”
“Bring it up.”
Four yamen runners carried up a large barrel emitting a fishy stench of yellowish-brown lard. Wu Wen stood beside the barrel. Li Si’s eyes narrowed slightly as he asked, “Do you recognize what’s in the barrel?”
“Isn’t this just lard?”
“Wait, it seems to be oil rendered from pigs that died of disease.” Some butchers smelled the different odor.
“Precisely—rancid lard rendered from diseased dead pigs,” Wu Wen confirmed.
Li Si smiled faintly. “There’s also a person for you to recognize.”
Wu Wen descended from the hall and before long pushed a wooden plank cart up to the main hall. He pushed the cart into the middle of the butchers and suddenly pulled back the white cloth on top—beneath the white cloth was clearly a cold corpse, Hu Hai!
“All of you take a look.”
Although these butchers slaughtered countless pigs on ordinary days and had seen many dead pigs, where had they ever seen a dead person, and moreover a corpse whose intestines and belly had been cut out! The twenty-one butchers looked at each other, every one of them breaking out in a cold sweat across their foreheads.
“The corpse is Hu Hai, the wealthiest man in Jinxi.” Li Si’s tone hardened. “This time we’ve summoned you all for nothing else but to figure out the story between Hu Hai and the lard. If you tell me, I’ll release everyone. Otherwise, you’ll all be imprisoned for contempt of court.”
After Li Si finished speaking, the yamen runners on both sides forcefully struck their fire-and-water sticks in accompaniment, and for a time the clamor in the public court was incessant.
In the back hall, Bai Zhenzhu almost laughed out loud. She hurriedly covered her mouth and said in a low voice, “Big Brother Li’s unreasonable appearance really does look like a great bandit chief.”
The butchers were terrified. To be imprisoned without cause—wouldn’t that be an undeserved disaster? The twenty-some butchers discussed things with trepidation and anxiety, but no one responded to Li Si. Li Si pretended to be angry and quietly gave Wu Wen a meaningful look.
Wu Wen understood tacitly and pointed accusingly at the butchers. “Since you won’t speak, you’ll all be locked in the great prison. Left and right attendants—”
Just as the left and right yamen runners were about to move, someone among the group of butchers spoke up.
The one who spoke was the oldest butcher, with tiger-like eyes and a broad face, sporting a silver carp beard. Wu Wen heard the other butchers call him “Uncle Dong,” so he was probably an elder in the butcher trade.
Uncle Dong stepped forward two paces and kowtowed to Li Si and Huang Youdao. “The others are still young and unfamiliar with Hu Hai’s affairs. Only I alone know.”
“Please speak.”
Uncle Dong hesitated. “If I tell, will you really let us all go?”
“Even if you don’t trust me, you should surely trust County Magistrate Huang, the father and mother official of Jinxi.” Li Si looked at Huang Youdao, who said slowly, “Just speak. I guarantee you’ll all be safe.”
Uncle Dong glanced at Hu Hai’s corpse and exhaled a breath of turbid air. “Everyone in Jinxi City knows that Hu Hai was the wealthiest man, but few know that he was once also a butcher, and moreover, to make money, he often sold toxic oil rendered from diseased dead pigs to restaurants.”
“Hu Hai was a butcher?” Everyone present was shocked. No one had imagined that the wealthiest man in Jinxi had come from a butcher background. Li Si raised his eyebrows slightly, as if he had already anticipated this, and continued listening to Uncle Dong speak further.
“He sold meat at the city outskirts. By nature he didn’t like to talk, so very few people remember him.” Uncle Dong paused slightly. “Then he suddenly had money and stopped slaughtering pigs and selling meat, instead going into business. As time went on, his business grew bigger and bigger, and Hu Hai transformed into the wealthiest man in Jinxi.”
“Wait a moment. You said Hu Hai suddenly had money. Where did his money come from?” Li Si found a point of doubt. Uncle Dong’s silver carp beard twitched as he shook his head. “My lord, this I truly don’t know. Hu Hai wouldn’t tell me either.”
What Uncle Dong said was correct. Li Si’s heart was full of confusion that was hard to dispel. “Very well, then do you remember which year he suddenly had money?”
“Let me think.” Uncle Dong calculated silently in his heart and suddenly replied, “Fifteen years ago, yes, it was fifteen years ago. That year my younger sister had just given birth to a child, so I wouldn’t remember wrong.”
“Fifteen years ago.” Li Si repeated.
“Yes, please investigate clearly, my lord.” Uncle Dong prostrated himself in the public court.
Li Si saw that Uncle Dong didn’t seem to be lying. He descended from the hall to help him up, saying at the same time, “This time, in order to investigate the case as quickly as possible and reduce redundancy, we have greatly offended you all. Naturally we won’t throw you in the great prison. County Magistrate Huang and I have also set up a banquet at Fulai Inn as an apology and thank-you feast.” Uncle Dong and the butchers withdrew from the public court in a state of pleasant surprise, escorted by Constable Feng to take seats at Fulai Inn.
Li Si turned and said, “Fifteen years ago, Hu Hai was a butcher who profited by selling toxic pig oil. This is the subtle connection between Hu Hai and lard. By this reasoning, are Liu Feng’er and cheap rouge, as well as Huang Gang and coarse salt, the same… Wu Wen, just like the method of inviting those twenty-one butchers, invite all the notable rouge merchants and salt merchants in the city to the main hall. I’ll treat them all to tea together.”
Wu Wen immediately turned to handle it.
“Big Brother Li, Hu Hai’s sudden wealth is truly suspicious. To get rich without working for it—I think he must have done something shady behind the scenes. If he gained money, naturally others lost money. Would people be willing? Perhaps his miserable death today is connected to his shady dealings. What do you say?” Bai Zhenzhu supported her chin with her hand, analyzing in a logical and orderly manner.
“You’ve really made progress being at Xuan Yuanshan’s side, little girl.”
“Don’t mention him. This young lady was born this clever.” Having received Li Si’s praise, Bai Zhenzhu happily raised her little face and said.
“However, we still need to look more closely at the ins and outs, and wait and see.” Li Si gazed outside the hall and said steadily.
An hour later, the Jinxi County yamen became lively again. Large and small rouge merchants and salt merchants totaling over a hundred people packed the huge public court so full that not even water could leak through, with another twenty or thirty people standing at the corridor edges outside the hall.
Li Si conversed in low voices with Huang Youdao for a while, then as before followed the pattern and gave the hundred-some people a good frightening and shocking. The hundred-some people knelt in the hall with unpleasant expressions. Over there, Huang Youdao scolded and cursed a few more times. When the yamen runners on both sides struck their fire-and-water sticks, the merchants couldn’t take it anymore.
Among the rouge merchants and salt merchants, only four or five people knew about Liu Feng’er and Huang Gang’s past affairs.
After detailed testimony—
Liu Feng’er had long ago been a small merchant selling rouge, selling only cheap rouge.
Huang Gang had been a smuggling salt peddler who had also adulterated coarse salt to cheat people.
Both had similarly become rich overnight, the specific time also being fifteen years ago. It was just that Liu Feng’er carefully managed her rouge shops and silk and satin stores, while Huang Gang gambled all his money away. So today Liu Feng’er remained wealthy and prosperous, while Huang Gang was like a rat crossing the street that everyone wanted to beat.
The testimonies of these several people matched Li Si’s thoughts. He then had Constable Feng invite them to drink wine. However, the formation of these hundred-some people made Huang Youdao bleed heavily once, spending two hundred taels on banquet expenses—but this need not be mentioned.
After the others left, the public court quieted down.
“The killer deliberately left clues about Hu Hai and the others’ circumstances from fifteen years ago. The underlying meaning is undoubtedly that his killing is related to events from fifteen years ago, but the specific motive is not yet clear. However, that Hu, Liu, and Huang all three acquired ill-gotten wealth is truly suspicious—pay close attention.” Li Si summarized the results gained from half a day’s busyness.
Huang Youdao nodded in agreement. “Next we need to thoroughly investigate the events from fifteen years ago.”
Bai Zhenzhu stuck out her tongue. “Events from fifteen years ago are so distant—how do we investigate? Moreover, things and people have changed. Where should we even start?”
Huang Youdao sighed miserably. He had no leads either.
While they were discussing, suddenly a shadow moved in the public court. The coroner in a brown robe timidly ascended to the hall.
After bowing respectfully to Li Si and Huang Youdao, the coroner spoke, “Two lords, this subordinate has made a new discovery in examining Huang Gang’s corpse.”
“Speak quickly.”
The coroner said hurriedly, “This subordinate was negligent before, but this time during the examination I became fully alert. I discovered that only one-fifth of the wound where Huang Gang’s abdomen was cut open was pierced by sharp weapons like knives or swords. Actually, more of the wound appears to have been, to have been…”
“To have been what? Don’t stammer when you speak.” Huang Youdao’s eyebrows shot up as he barked.
“Yes, yes. The wound appears to have been torn open bit by bit by someone’s hand.” The coroner’s words were shocking. “It gives the feeling that the perpetrator wanted to take something from inside the deceased’s belly!”
Li Si’s eyes flashed as he penetrated the previous circumstances. “The negligent one is me. I only focused on the differences among the three deceased and forgot I should start with the commonalities first. I nearly delayed the investigation—how regrettable! The commonality among the three deceased is none other than the bloody holes in their abdomens. And as the coroner speculates, what exactly does the killer want to take from inside the bellies?”
Bai Zhenzhu suddenly let out a cry, her beautiful eyes wide and round. “A child!”
Li Si slowly nodded. Bai Zhenzhu had thought the same as him.
“Give first to take later. The killer’s murder motive very likely arose from a pregnant woman fifteen years ago. Judging from his cruel hand-tearing of belly flesh, the pregnant woman died during childbirth. As for her child, the child… fifteen years have passed, mm.” Li Si said solemnly with sudden realization, “County Magistrate Huang, starting today, search in Jinxi for a youth about fifteen years old, whose parents died long ago, who has a foundation in martial arts, and whose height is around five chi.”
“Good, good.” Huang Youdao agreed.
Bai Zhenzhu looked at Li Si and asked in a low voice, “Is this youth the killer?”
Li Si let out half a soft sigh and turned aside without speaking.