His brain halted. Li Si had no direction for his thoughts. At the breakfast table, Wu Wen was composed like everyone else. Could it be he hadn’t experienced this terrifying nightmare?
“My lord, why aren’t you eating even a bite? At least eat something.” Wu Wen said.
Li Si drank two mouthfuls of hot soup, recalling what he had experienced: he had discovered a suspicious black-veiled person, tracked the black-veiled person to the graveyard, they had fought fiercely, he had removed the black-veiled person’s veil only to discover—the black-veiled person looked exactly like himself. After tremendous shock, he had fainted. Upon waking, he found he had returned to the previous day, that is, September second.
No matter how one thought about it, it was too absurd. Not only had he seen another version of himself, but it was as if he had fallen into a vortex of reincarnation, returning to the past. This must be a nightmare, a nightmare that coincidentally overlapped with what had happened. Li Si had experienced prophetic dreams like this before, but never one this realistic.
He ate breakfast without tasting the food. Li Si focused on the Ding residence to continue investigating the case. Around the si hour, urgent footsteps sounded at the door.
“My lord.” Xiao Sanzi came, just like in the dream. A coincidence, right?
Li Si watched Xiao Sanzi’s mouth open and close, but didn’t hear clearly what he said at all. After Xiao Sanzi finished speaking, he left dejectedly.
Cold sweat mixed with rainwater stuck to his clammy skin. Li Si felt indescribably uncomfortable. Wu Wen noticed Li Si’s face growing paler and paler. He came over and said, “My lord, your complexion is too poor. Go back and lie down. I’m here for this.”
Li Si obediently nodded.
Returning to Tong Baiquan’s house, Tong Baiquan summoned the village doctor. The doctor was surnamed Xing, fifty or sixty years old, with a white goatee. He took Li Si’s pulse while stroking his beard and said, “Your body is somewhat weak. Perhaps you’re not accustomed to Gutan Village’s water and soil upon first arrival. It’s nothing serious. I’ll prescribe some remedies to regulate your qi and warm your body. Take one dose and it’ll work. You’ll be fine afterwards.”
Tong Baiquan immediately sent someone to fetch and decoct the medicine. Li Si took the medicine. His head felt like it was filled with lead blocks. He fell into a heavy sleep.
He slept until deep in the night before opening his eyes. Li Si turned his head to look at the misty sky outside the window.
Suddenly his heart stirred. Would the mysterious black-veiled person appear again as in the nightmare?
Outside was quiet. The only sound was the chattering noise of mountain rain washing over the corridor pillars. It seemed that black-veiled person really was just a nightmare after all. Afterwards, Li Si dozed off for a while longer. Morning came quickly.
Li Si finished washing up and ate breakfast with the Tong Baiquan family. With a glance, Li Si noticed Tong Jie holding up chopsticks making strange ghost-like noises. Tong Baiquan’s face darkened as he said, “Wu Sao, didn’t I tell you not to give him chopsticks? He doesn’t know how to use them. Soon he’ll get angry and smash the table again.”
“Yes, young master, give me the chopsticks.” Wu Sao snatched away the chopsticks. Tong Jie angrily punched the table, creating a dent.
“Ai, this child.” Tong Baiquan sighed.
Li Si asked Tong Baiquan, “Has your son learned martial arts before?”
Tong Baiquan nodded. “Yes. I worried that after I’m gone, someone would bully him, so I found him a master to learn some fighting skills for self-defense. But who would have thought—Tong Jie has no hope learning anything else, but when it comes to practicing boxing and footwork, he learns as soon as taught. His master also praised him as a martial arts prodigy rarely seen in a hundred years. It’s just a pity he’s simple-minded, wasting all this natural talent.”
Tong Baiquan revealed disappointment.
Li Si didn’t want to stir up the village chief’s sad matters further. After leaving Tong Baiquan’s house, Wu Wen carefully and constantly looked back over his shoulder. After passing through a small alley, Wu Wen pulled Li Si aside and said, “My lord, actually yesterday I had some findings and also have a new suspect.”
“Mm, speak quickly.”
“I’ll take you to see someone.” Wu Wen and Li Si passed through the small alley. Gutan Village was peaceful and quiet. By rights, every household in the village should keep dogs, but since arriving here, aside from the Tong family’s old mongrel dog, Li Si hadn’t seen a second dog, much less heard any barking. Li Si was somewhat puzzled, but this wasn’t any major issue.
Li Si and Wu Wen crossed the water pond in the village center and came to the village’s east side.
Before the middle alley stood a row of catalpa trees about three or four zhang tall. Under the trees were four or five rooms of bluestone. Beside the outermost bluestone room, a woman around forty years old wearing a plain skirt waved at Li Si. Li Si recognized her at a glance—Niu Sao.
Niu Sao opened her door. Wu Wen went in first, with Li Si following closely behind.
Niu Sao’s home was arranged very neatly. Li Si asked, “Niu Sao, where are your husband and child?”
“Those father and son went into the old mountain wilderness before the winter snow at Wumo Mountain to hunt some game to sell for winter provisions.” When Niu Sao spoke of her husband and son, her face beamed with pride. “Those two are the best hunters in Gutan Village.”
Li Si smiled and nodded.
Wu Wen said, “Niu Sao, tell my lord again what you told me yesterday.”
Niu Sao looked at Li Si with some difficulty. “My lord, I can tell you. But once I tell you, you can’t tell others it was me who said it, especially not that person.”
Li Si was very curious about who “that person” Niu Sao referred to was, so he agreed to her request. “Rest assured, I won’t tell others.”
Niu Sao breathed a sigh of relief. “Actually, after Ding Laocai died, I suspected him. Because just two days ago, I saw ‘that person’ had just gotten into a huge argument with Ding Laocai. It seemed ‘that person’ had borrowed money from Ding Laocai but never paid it back.”
Li Si followed up, asking, “Who exactly is ‘that person’?”
“Oh my, look at my brain—I thought you already knew. ‘That person’ is the village chief, Tong Baiquan.” When Niu Sao spoke, her movements were like those of a restless magpie, twisting her tail this way and that.
“Tong Baiquan?”
“That’s him. I heard him arguing with Ding Laocai, and then not three days later, Ding Laocai died.” Niu Sao spoke as if revealing a tremendous secret. “And then there’s Widow Sun who died later. All these years, she and Tong Baiquan have been sneaking around in secret, tsk tsk tsk, doing quite a few shameful things.”
Li Si naturally understood what “shameful things” meant. He raised his slender eyebrows and said seriously, “If you don’t have solid evidence, you can’t say such things carelessly.”
Niu Sao thought Li Si didn’t believe her and became somewhat anxious. “Who says I don’t have solid evidence? I do. To tell you the truth, my lord, Tong Baiquan’s woman died at the beginning of the year. Do you know how she died?”
“Madam Tong?” Li Si indeed hadn’t seen the lady of the house at Tong Baiquan’s home.
“That’s right, Madam Tong. She was driven to death by Tong Baiquan. Those affairs between Tong Baiquan and Widow Sun—she had discovered them long ago. But Tong Baiquan threatened that if she spoke of these scandalous matters, he would drive her and that simpleton Tong Jie out of the house together, out of Gutan Town.” Niu Sao sighed. “Madam Tong suffered in silence and pretended she knew nothing for the sake of her son. But she secretly told me, because I was her best friend before she married.”
Li Si kept Niu Sao’s words in his heart.
Wu Wen raised a question. “Wait. The person who killed Ding Laocai was a martial arts expert, but Tong Baiquan doesn’t know martial arts.”
“He doesn’t, but his simpleton son Tong Jie does.” Niu Sao said.
“That’s right. Tong Baiquan also said his son is a martial arts prodigy rarely seen in a hundred years.” Wu Wen recalled Tong Baiquan’s words.
After leaving Niu Sao’s house, Wu Wen said, “My lord, what do you think?”
Li Si thought for a moment and said, “Based on Niu Sao’s words and Tong Jie’s martial arts skills, Tong Baiquan is worth suspecting.”
“Right, a pair of large foot bindings was discovered at Widow Sun’s house. Let’s go to Widow Sun’s house.” After Li Si finished speaking, the two of them headed straight for Widow Sun’s house.