Night had deepened. The black room of the Suishui Prefecture Yamen.
Beads of sweat rolled down from Fang Zheng’s forehead drop by drop. He had been staring at Du Zhongtao’s corpse for a good half hour already. Aside from the gradually obvious corpse spots and damaged skull, he hadn’t discovered anything else.
Turning his head, Meng Rui was still observing with rapt attention. Using tweezers to spread flat the corpse’s hands, there were blue bruise marks on the palms. Meng Rui furrowed his brows. Fang Zheng brought his face close and said: “The palms look like they were pinched by fingernails.”
Meng Rui paid him no attention and asked the coroner on the other side: “Where are Du Zhongtao’s personal effects?”
“Right here.” The coroner had already placed the personal effects in a wooden tray. There was a money pouch, a white silk handkerchief, a piece of mutton-fat jade pendant, and a small packet of brown medicinal pills. Meng Rui looked at the small packet of brown medicinal pills. Fang Zheng hastily said: “I already asked about the pills. Du Zhongtao had a coughing ailment. Sometimes he coughed severely, so he carried cough-suppressing pills with him.”
“Mm.” Meng Rui responded, when suddenly his nostrils caught an inexplicable scent. This scent was identical to the mysterious smell he had detected the night Du Zhongtao fell to his death, and the scent came from that white silk handkerchief.
His heart beat rapidly several times. Meng Rui picked up the handkerchief. This handkerchief was woven from the finest Minjiang white silk, embroidered with patterns of white snow and red plum blossoms. Among the pale red plum blossoms, there seemed to be a faint glimmer flashing… Meng Rui carefully picked out the object emitting the faint light—it was actually a grain-of-rice-sized silver particle.
“What is it?” Fang Zheng asked curiously.
Meng Rui sniffed it, then after a long while said: “This is a flower seed.”
“Flower seed?” Fang Zheng slowly nodded. “But what flower’s seed could be silver colored?”
Lao Sitou, the Great Shi Dynasty’s foremost coroner and also Meng Rui’s close friend, had once collected a volume recording ancient strange objects called “Chronicle of Ancient Objects.” Meng Rui had read about silver-seeded rare flowers in it, but at this moment his mind was blank—he couldn’t remember it no matter what.
“It’s called… let me think again.” Meng Rui temporarily gave up.
“Constable Fang, this is for you.” Meng Rui handed the small packet of pills to Fang Zheng. “Check where this medicine was prepared.”
“Right away.” Fang Zheng carelessly received the pills, but inadvertently dropped the medicine packet, scattering pills all over the floor. Fang Zheng stuck up his rear end to pick them up, placing the pills one by one in the wooden tray.
Meng Rui suddenly shouted: “Wait!”
Among the cough-suppressing pills, one was different from the others. It was slightly larger, and its color was also deeper. If Fang Zheng hadn’t scattered the medicine, he himself wouldn’t have discovered it. Meng Rui secretly blamed himself for being too careless.
Meng Rui scraped out a bit of medicinal powder and sniffed it, cold light flashing in his eyes. After the coroner examined it, his face turned deathly pale as he said: “My Lord, this… this is a poison pill!”
“Correct, a pill of deadly poison.” Meng Rui’s gaze fell on Du Zhongtao’s ashen cheeks. “It seems someone truly wanted to put Du Zhongtao to death.”
Just as the several people in the black room were shocked repeatedly, two yamen runners suddenly rushed into the black room.
“Constable…” One yamen runner said breathlessly, “Someone has delivered many corpses!”
When Meng Rui and Fang Zheng rushed to the front hall of the Prefecture Yamen, they saw corpses being carried down from flatbed carts one after another and laid out below the hall. Two rows front and back, six corpses per row—a total of twelve corpses.
Kong Pei’s face was the color of pig liver as he asked in astonishment: “What are you trying to do?”
A man in silver-white armor beside the flatbed cart spoke indifferently: “This humble one is Chi Yun from the Nanhu Camp. Following the General’s orders, I have transported the murdered fishermen to the yamen. I hope Lord Kong will capture the culprit soon.”
Kong Pei had also heard the news of the fishermen being murdered. His face showed difficulty as he said: “General Chi, the murder cases all occurred in the territory under Nanhu Camp’s jurisdiction. This matter should be handled by you, shouldn’t it?”
Chi Yun raised his sword-like eyebrows: “Lord is joking. When the Sacred Grand Ancestor established the six great camps, there was also an iron rule: unless there is military rebellion or banditry, the six great camps shall not participate in provincial and county local important matters. And these villains committing murder—first, it doesn’t count as military rebellion; second, it’s not banditry. Naturally, our Nanhu Camp cannot intervene.”
“This…” Kong Pei stamped his foot hard. “But you can’t just throw all the trouble at us!”
“That is Lord Kong’s matter then. Chi takes his leave.” Chi Yun leaped onto his horse and led his troops out of the Prefecture Yamen.
Kong Pei huffed and puffed and glared for a while, then pulled over Fang Zheng, gave him a few instructions, and threw this matter at Fang Zheng.
Fang Zheng, regardless of anything, excitedly spun in circles on the spot: “Twelve people died! This is a rare major case. As long as I brilliantly solve the case, then becoming the Great Shi Dynasty’s Fifth God-Catcher won’t be far off, right? Hehe!”
People who never think things through—their lives are so simple and happy! Meng Rui thought this as he watched the spinning Fang Zheng. The case of the twelve murdered fishermen was obviously not simple. Otherwise, the proud Nanhu Camp wouldn’t have handed it to the Suishui Prefecture either—it must be extremely thorny.
Meng Rui’s gaze turned toward the twelve corpses. Suddenly, on the side of the neck of one corpse, he discovered two scratch marks. The marks were identical to the scratch marks on Chen Shi’s neck in Jinxia County—narrow and long, penetrating to the bone. Could it be that the murderer who slaughtered the twelve fishermen was actually the green-eyed person?
The green stone hidden against his chest seemed to move slightly. If he could capture the green-eyed person, then he would have a chance to find his sister.
“I’ll help you with this case.” Meng Rui said thus.
The twenty-second day, foggy and undispersed. Huangyan Village.
Huangyan Village was a small village bordering the great sea. Eight or nine small wooden houses were dilapidated and worn. Fishing nets hung drying on fences. The entire village presented a suffocating deathly stillness. Fang Zheng emerged from the last wooden house, sweating profusely: “Strange! In the whole village, forget about people—you can’t even find a fly.”
“Not just that… the dining tables, windows, bed boards, and so on have all been wiped completely clean. Obviously someone deliberately did this.” Meng Rui said with furrowed brows.
“Why would they do this?”
“Destroying evidence and traces. Someone doesn’t want you to discover problems.” Meng Rui grabbed a handful of sand.
“That bastard! Who exactly is he?”
Meng Rui stared at the sand sliding through his fingers, slowly saying: “Could be anyone. The murderer, the Nanhu Camp, even Kong Pei.”
Fang Zheng’s expression twisted. He strode to the sand tree and viciously smashed his fist into the tree, roaring: “Detestable, detestable, damn it!”
Fang Zheng struck six punches. The sand tree couldn’t bear the force of the punches. The emerald green tree leaves rustled down, as if a green rain had fallen. Meng Rui stared at the green leaves, his heart suddenly wrenching, as if something enormous wanted to drill out.
Wait—Biqing, it’s Biqing!
The four strange lines: At the fifth watch, sparse and about to cease, one tree green and unfeeling. Intentionally gambling without fate, Yama watches the twin gates.
In the third line, “bo” meant fighting for extinction; “bo wu” meant extinguishing nothing. Then in the previous line, “bi wu qing” (green unfeeling)—after extinguishing “wu” (without), it became “bi qing” (green feeling).
Turning his thoughts to this point, Meng Rui finally recalled the description in “Chronicle of Ancient Objects” regarding the silver-seeded rare flower: In the Southern Border there is a flower, its name is Biqing. Born with silver seeds, absorbing the roots, stems, and leaves for all nourishment, until the green flower blooms, then all else perishes. It can be called “life withers for the flower, preserving feeling in green.”
The fragrance of the Biqing flower is peculiar, containing acidic, sweet, fishy, and astringent scents.
Note: The Biqing’s fishiness rivals snake saliva.
Meng Rui’s heart surged with waves: The green-eyed person’s strange words actually concealed key evidence in the Du Zhongtao case. Was it coincidence, or had someone deliberately designed it? Did Du Zhongtao’s death have any connection to the green-eyed person? What other secrets were hidden in the remaining strange words?
The green-eyed person, Du Zhongtao, his sister’s disappearance, the four strange lines—layer upon layer enveloped Meng Rui within them, feeling as though they wanted to twist him into pieces, crush him to pulp, then throw him into eternal darkness where not half a bit of light could be found.
His shoulders suddenly felt weighed down. Meng Rui looked up in confusion. Before him stood the tall figure of Fang Zheng. Fang Zheng said with concern: “Are you alright? Just now I saw you swaying as if you were about to faint.”
Meng Rui pressed his lips together: “I’m fine. I’m just a bit thirsty.”
“Thirsty! That’s easy to solve. I’ll treat you to some wine.”
Meng Rui had thought Fang Zheng would take him to a restaurant, but who knew they would actually go to his home. Fang Zheng’s home was in a large area of poor people’s houses in the north of the city—a cramped, broken tile-roofed house. Inside the house could be described with three words—dirty, messy, poor.
Fang Zheng went out to buy wine. Meng Rui wandered around the house for a while and suddenly discovered there was another small room.
Pushing open the door to the small room, Meng Rui was stunned. Outside was dirty and messy, but the small room was very tidy and clean. There was an exquisite pink carved wooden bed, freshly picked flowers and plants, spotless delicate tables and chairs. It wasn’t hard to tell that living in this room was a young girl.
“This is my younger sister’s room.” Fang Zheng’s voice came from behind, containing indescribable desolation.
“Let’s drink.” Returning to the main room, Fang Zheng poured the wine and handed it to Meng Rui. Meng Rui paused and said: “Your sister…”
Before Meng Rui could finish asking, Fang Zheng said directly: “She’s dead.”
Draining the wine in his cup in one gulp, Fang Zheng’s clear eyes became turbid, as if falling into distant memories: “My younger sister was called Yatou. When we were little, our parents died very early. It was just Yatou and me depending on each other. The heavy pressure of life made me keep a straight face all day and night. Yatou would try every trick to make me happy, acting spoiled toward me. She said: If you always keep a straight face, you’ll forget how to smile. But at that time, I wouldn’t listen at all.”
“The year Yatou turned fourteen, I went out to work on sea vessels to earn money. That stinking girl stubbornly insisted on following. But that time there was a storm at sea and the vessel capsized. Yatou fell into the sea… I never saw her again.” Fang Zheng raised his cup toward Meng Rui. “After coming back, I learned to smile, just as Yatou said, being cheerful all day long. She had said she didn’t want to see me looking gloomy and worried.”
“Hahahaha, stinking girl, even dead she still manages me! Stinking girl, stinking girl…” Fang Zheng shouted twice, then suddenly collapsed on the table without speaking, his shoulders heaving up and down. Meng Rui reached out wanting to comfort him, but extended his hand halfway before putting it down. Sometimes grief needs release.
“I so hope to see Yatou one more time. Even if she manages me all day, even if I have to listen to her chatter—but it’s already too late. No matter how great my efforts, Yatou can no longer see them.”
Meng Rui felt as if cold water had been splashed on him. His heart became instantly clear and transparent. All distracting thoughts receded, leaving only one thought—as long as he could find his sister, nothing else mattered! Difficult puzzles were merely thorns and weeds in the process of searching. As long as his footsteps didn’t stop, nothing could obstruct him.
“Brother Fang, thank you.” This was the first time Meng Rui addressed Fang Zheng this way. Fang Zheng lifted his head, his eye sockets red around the rims.
Meng Rui patted his shoulder: “Please lend me a hand, Brother Fang.”
Although Fang Zheng didn’t understand, he nodded heavily.