Gutan Village, September 4th.
Li Si had been unconscious for a full day. When he awoke, he found himself back at the Tong household. Wu Wen and Physician Xing were keeping watch by his bedside, while Tong Baiquan stood at a distance. Li Si discovered he didn’t even have the strength to open his mouth and speak. Physician Xing brewed the medicinal decoction and fed it to Li Si spoonful by spoonful. Li Si felt the liquid flowing through his body, the cold qi gradually dispersing, and color returning to his pale face.
“My lord, you were already afflicted with cold syndrome, and then you carelessly fell into the water pond. The pond water from that centuries-old ancient pond is ten times colder than snow water. This time your recovery will take at least ten days to half a month.” Physician Xing said.
Wu Wen glared at Tong Baiquan with displeasure on his face. Village Chief Tong coughed twice and left the side room. Wu Wen and Physician Xing also departed. After feeling dazed for another while, someone lowered their voice by Li Si’s ear and said, “Are you awake?”
Li Si opened his eyes. It was Wu Wen.
“My lord, I originally didn’t want to disturb you so soon and wanted to let you rest more. But… this matter is truly very important.”
Li Si propped himself up and said, “This little cold sickness is nothing. Speak.”
Wu Wen muttered a couple sentences in Li Si’s ear. Li Si’s expression changed several times, and he said in astonishment, “You’re certain?”
“Yes, I followed Tong Jie and that’s how I found it.”
“Let’s go now.” Li Si threw on a rain cape and walked out of the side room. The main room still had its lamps lit. The two circled around the main room and came to the outside of the firewood storage shed adjacent to the western wing room. Wu Wen pushed the door and entered. Wu Wen fumbled around inside the firewood shed for a short while before saying, “I’ve found the hidden door.”
Li Si picked up the oil lamp from the table and also entered through the hidden door, supporting himself against the ice-cold wall behind it as he descended. After walking a bit further, Li Si felt safe to light the oil lamp. In the bean-sized flickering light, left and right secret chambers were revealed. From the left chamber wafted waves of nauseating stench, while the right chamber had no odor.
Wu Wen said, “I followed Tong Jie and discovered the hidden door in the firewood shed. Later I heard Tong Baiquan’s voice, and worried about exposing my whereabouts, I didn’t go down. However, I heard that the Tong father and son entered the right chamber.”
The right chamber was locked with a large iron padlock, but this posed no problem at all for Wu Wen, who had dealt with thieves for who knows how many years. Wu Wen took out a thin wire and picked at the keyhole. Soon there was a click—the lock opened.
After removing the iron lock, the light inside the secret chamber was dim. What the lamplight revealed was clear at a glance—only four or five large wooden chests, and nothing else. Wu Wen creaked open one large wooden chest, and suddenly rays of golden-white light shot out from within. Inside the chest were ingots upon ingots of gold and silver. Wu Wen opened several other large wooden chests—they too were filled with gold, silver, and precious jewels.
Li Si discovered the small seal script characters “Ding Meisheng” on the inside of a golden bowl. Ding Meisheng should be Ding Laocai’s formal name. These several chests of gold and silver in the secret chamber had originally belonged to Ding Laocai, but now they were all hidden in the secret chamber of Tong Baiquan’s home.
Wu Wen snorted coldly and said, “No wonder we searched the Ding residence for so long without finding any gold or silver articles. They were all stolen by Tong Baiquan and brought here.”
Li Si gazed at the gold and silver filling his vision. Was Tong Baiquan truly a murderous demon wearing human skin?
“I wonder what’s hidden in the other secret chamber. Let’s go take a look as well.” Wu Wen said. Li Si nodded.
The two turned to the outside of the left chamber. This chamber wasn’t locked. Li Si gave it a light push, and a thick fishy stench assaulted them head-on. Li Si thrust the oil lamp into the secret chamber and couldn’t help but gape in horror, unable to close his mouth.
Within the chamber of less than ten feet were piled countless bloody, mangled corpses. Skin had been peeled off layer by layer and hung on the walls. Upon careful examination, they were all dog carcasses. Suddenly, from the densest pile of dog corpses, a head emerged. Its features were smeared with blood and gore, unrecognizable. Black blood trickled down from the corner of its mouth.
“Hey, it’s you two!” The owner of the head laughed foolishly, two eyeballs staring straight over at them.
Wu Wen said in shock, “Tong Jie?”
Tong Jie gave two weird laughs and crawled up from the bloody corpses. The dog carcasses that had been hanging on his neck and shoulders slid off one by one. He grinned with a mouth full of black blood: “Father said that outsiders are not allowed in here. If outsiders come in, they can never leave.”
Tong Jie’s fists went “crack crack” as they popped, and he pressed toward Li Si and Wu Wen.
Li Si’s deep eyes gradually turned cold: “So that’s why not a single dog could be seen in Gutan Village—because the dogs have all been eaten by you.”
Tong Jie shook his head like a rattle-drum and laughed strangely: “I don’t eat meat, I just like to drink blood.” He wiped the black blood from his mouth and pounced forward.
“I want to drink your blood!”
A fist the size of a baby’s head swung over. Li Si’s body was weak and frail, so Wu Wen blocked in front and also threw a punch. After the two fists collided like two stones, Wu Wen clutched his wrist and retreated rapidly, his expression very pained. Clearly in the hard collision he had suffered a loss.
Tong Jie roared triumphantly. Wu Wen drew his blade and chopped toward Tong Jie’s wrist. Tong Jie was very angry at Wu Wen’s attempt to chop his hand. He bared sharp canine teeth and snarled at Wu Wen, his movements and expression exactly like a wolf.
A black shadow flashed, and Tong Jie pounced before Wu Wen like a ghost. Wu Wen raised his blade to hack, but Tong Jie grabbed the back of the blade and with a forceful snap, the blade forged of refined steel broke in two.
Wu Wen was stunned by the scene of Tong Jie breaking the blade. Just as the iron fist was about to hammer into Wu Wen, in a split second another hand suddenly appeared, seemingly weakly giving a light lift, and Tong Jie’s thunderous mighty fist was blocked.
A flush of red appeared on Li Si’s extremely pale face. His hand flicked upward, and Tong Jie was pushed back several large steps with tap-tap-tap-tap sounds. Tong Jie looked at the sickly Li Si in bewilderment, unable to believe the scene that had just occurred. At that moment, several coughs came from outside the door. Wu Wen turned his head—a fourth person had appeared at the entrance, none other than Tong Baiquan.
Tong Baiquan’s tone was mournful: “Stop this at once, you unfilial son!”
Seeing Tong Baiquan, Tong Jie’s earlier savage and vicious expression vanished. He said in a low voice, “Father, they trespassed in here on their own…”
“Shut your mouth!” Tong Baiquan sternly shouted to silence Tong Jie, then lowered his head. “Lord Li, this Tong is guilty.”
Tong Baiquan glanced at the room full of bloody mutilated corpses: “Besides being dim-witted, my son has also suffered since childhood from a terrifying strange illness. He cannot eat anything and can only drink blood, just like the blood-sucking bats in the caves of the old forest. I took him to see many famous physicians, but all were helpless. I wanted to abandon him, but alas, blood is thicker than water. I tried several times but couldn’t harden my heart, and in the end I still brought him back to the village.”
“After returning to the village, I worried that Tong Jie would bite people, so I secretly constructed a secret chamber. When his blood-drinking urge flared up, I would lock him in the secret chamber. Afterwards, I caught wild dogs for him to drink their blood. After he drained the dog blood, he gradually became normal and could eat food.” Tong Baiquan shook his head and said, “But the normal state could only be maintained for a period of time—afterwards he would still need to drink blood. Since it had already begun and there was no other solution, I found ways to catch dogs and cats for him to drink.”
“We’ve lived like this, neither human nor ghost, for over ten years.”
Tong Baiquan raised his eyes to meet Li Si’s gaze: “But Lord Li, I can guarantee that aside from wild dogs and wild cats, Tong Jie has never harmed a person, much less drunk human blood.”
Tong Jie’s Adam’s apple bobbed up and down as he glared fiercely at Li Si. Li Si retreated to lean against the wall, his gaze suddenly shooting toward Tong Baiquan like lightning: “You’re lying!”
“Tong Jie hasn’t harmed anyone—then what is that thing?” Li Si pointed with his hand. In the corner lay a large cleaver about two feet wide. Tong Baiquan’s face suddenly tightened: “That cleaver… Alas, at this point I won’t hide anything from my lord. Five years ago, the killing madman who went on a murder spree in Gutan Village and mysteriously disappeared—he was killed by Tong Jie.”
“The killing madman claimed five lives! No one dared capture him, and he blocked the village entrance preventing anyone from going to report to the authorities. Under desperate circumstances, I released Tong Jie. That night, Tong Jie fought a bloody battle with the killing madman. That fellow wounded Tong Jie with his cleaver, but in the end he was killed by Tong Jie with a single punch.” Tong Baiquan glanced at Tong Jie and said, “I deeply detested the killing madman, so I didn’t stop Tong Jie from carrying the corpse back to the secret chamber. As for that fellow’s fate… you should have already guessed.”
Li Si swept a glance at the bloody corpses in the secret chamber and nodded.
“Afterwards, the villagers spread rumors that the guardian deity had swallowed the killing madman whole, and I went along with it. After that, because of the existence of the guardian deity who had punished the killing madman, no more bad people dared come to the village.”
“In that case, we should thank him.” Wu Wen said with a sigh.
“No, I want to tell Lord Li that killing that man back then was truly forced by circumstances, done out of absolute necessity.” Tong Baiquan said helplessly. Wu Wen pressed toward him a step: “Fine, even if killing that madman was forced by circumstances, then your conduct of directing Tong Jie to brutally murder Ding Laocai and Widow Sun—was that also forced by circumstances?”
After hearing this, Tong Baiquan’s expression changed dramatically: “Where does this accusation come from! I never harmed Ding Laocai or Widow Sun at all!”
“Stop trying to wriggle out of it. The overwhelming evidence is right next door, and you still have the thick skin to deny it. You’re truly shameless.” Wu Wen pointed toward the other end of the secret chamber. Tong Baiquan said, “So you’re talking about those things. Those things are what Ding Laocai owed me. They have nothing to do with Ding Laocai’s death.”