After a night of light rain, early in the morning, Heiwa Village resident Chen Jia planned to go to the low-lying area at the village entrance to catch some loaches. After rain, loaches liked to burrow out from the mud to swim around—it was the perfect time to catch them.

Chen Jia brought his ten-year-old son, and the two arrived at the low-lying area at the village entrance full of enthusiasm. Chen Jia had just stepped both feet into the depression when his son called out loudly from the other side, “Dad, Dad, there’s a person lying face-down in the depression here.”

Chen Jia shifted over through the depression. Sure enough, there was someone lying face-down in the low area, motionless. Chen Jia thought it was a drunkard who had fallen into the depression after drinking too much, but when he got close, his mouth gaped open in fright. The man lying in the depression had several bloody gashes on his neck. Blood flowed from the wounds, seeping into the black mud.

Chen Jia’s legs went soft, and he plopped down into the depression with a thud.

“Dad, what’s wrong?” His son also entered the depression.

Chen Jia cursed to stop his son. “You damn kid, get away! Go, go find Village Chief Uncle!”

His son patted his bottom and ran back to the village.

Heiwa Village was remote and difficult to reach, and the many depressions made people frown. By the time Li Si and the others arrived at the Heiwa Village crime scene, it was already past the hour of the Snake. The constables blocked the onlooking villagers outside, only allowing Chen Jia, who discovered the body, and the village chief to enter.

Li Si first noticed that to avoid falling into the depressions while walking, the villagers had piled a thick layer of stone sand around the low-lying areas.

Wu Zuo examined the body first. After a moment, he flipped the face-down corpse over. The corpse’s face was covered in black mud, but Wu Wen still recognized him at first glance. “Huang Mazi!”

The deceased was the proprietor of Shanhai Tower, and also the proprietor of the Ji Residence’s Dog Pit—Huang Bingshui, nicknamed Huang Mazi.

The bloody hole in Huang Mazi’s neck made cold gleams flash in Li Si’s eyes. Situ Bo said in terror, “Another blood case of iron fangs biting people! The culprit is truly too cruel.”

“First send Huang Mazi back to the yamen’s dark room. After Wu Zuo examines him, we’ll make a judgment.” Li Si ordered. Several sturdy constables lifted Huang Mazi’s corpse onto a donkey cart, swaying and jolting back.

Chen Jia recounted the process of discovering Huang Mazi’s body. Someone recognized Huang Mazi and informed them that Huang Mazi’s godmother lived in Heiwa Village. Last night, Huang Mazi had come to visit his godmother, never expecting to die in Heiwa Village.

Situ Bo asked the villagers if they had seen a disheveled youth with unkempt hair and ragged clothes. The villagers all said they hadn’t.

After Li Si sent the villagers back, he asked, “Magistrate Situ, are you suspecting Xia Jiuying, who was released yesterday at the hour of the Goat?”

The evidence identifying Xia Jiuying as the murderer had discrepancies, so after discussion, they temporarily released Xia Jiuying. But this didn’t mean Xia Jiuying was completely free of suspicion. After releasing Xia Jiuying, Li Si assigned two clever constables to secretly tail him.

“He was just released yesterday, and someone died in the middle of the night. It inevitably makes one speculate.” What Situ Bo said was reasonable. Li Si nodded. “We’ll know after asking the tailing constables. Magistrate Situ, let’s return to Mingling County first.”

After another hour and a half of traveling, everyone returned triumphantly. Situ Bo summoned the constable who had been tailing Xia Jiuying.

“Did Xia Jiuying leave Luohua Village?” Situ Bo asked impatiently.

“Reporting to Your Lordship, no. Xia Jiuying stayed in Luohua Village yesterday. Xiao Deng and I kept watch all night.” This constable replied.

“What did he do?”

“First, a variety troupe came to the village entrance. Xia Jiuying stood on a hillside watching the troupe perform.” The constable continued, “After the variety troupe left, Xia Jiuying hid in a broken grass hut. Around the hour of the Dog, he ate something, then crouched by the river staring at the pitch-black thickets. Like a wooden stake, he stayed that way the entire night.”

“A strange person.” Situ Bo shook his head.

Situ Bo arranged to continue tailing Xia Jiuying, then followed Li Si to the dark room.

In the dark room, next to Ji Liang’s corpse was one more body—Huang Mazi.

Wu Zuo wiped the sweat beads from his forehead and reported to Situ Bo, “Huang Mazi died the same way as Ji Liang. Both had their neck blood vessels bitten through and died from massive blood loss. The same one-inch-deep wounds—the culprit should be the same person. The deceased has purplish-red bruises near the rib area. Ji Liang also had bruises after death, just in slightly different locations.”

Li Si asked, “Any discoveries among the belongings?”

“There’s a suspicious point.” Wu Zuo brought over the robe Huang Mazi wore when he died. On the waist area of the robe was a copper-coin-sized red stain. Li Si looked at it several times, sniffed it with his nose, then handed it to Situ Bo.

“Just a stain. Didn’t Huang Mazi get it in the depression?” Situ Bo didn’t notice anything suspicious.

“Not so. This red color is pure, definitely not dirty water from the depression.” Li Si thought and said, “This should be cinnabar red used for painting.”

“This humble one thinks so too.” Wu Zuo nodded.

“Cinnabar red used for painting? This Huang Mazi mingled with people from all walks of life all day. Where would he find the leisure and elegance to paint?” Wu Wen said doubtfully. “The cinnabar red might have been brought by the culprit and accidentally stained the robe while killing Huang Mazi.”

“Mm, that makes sense.” Situ Bo nodded. Li Si smiled and said, “Wu Wen is making more and more progress. The cinnabar red stain can serve as a clue for further investigation.”

Li Si retrieved several account books and some interrogation transcripts from the yamen’s side hall.

“The Ji Liang case: the culprit wore iron fangs to bite Ji Liang to death, then shifted the murder suspicion to Xia Jiuying.” Li Si contemplated. “This indicates two facts: First, the culprit knows Ji Liang and has a grudge or connection with him. Second, the culprit also knows Xia Jiuying quite well.”

“These account books are Shanhai Tower’s profit and loss records from the past two years. I had constables retrieve them from Ji Liang’s study.” Li Si opened the account books. Several unclear income and expenditure entries had been circled by Ji Liang with a red pen.

“Mm, it seems Ji Liang had long suspected Huang Mazi of embezzling money from the counter and falsifying accounts. Perhaps he was already preparing to replace Huang Mazi.” Li Si said meaningfully.

“Speaking of which, Huang Mazi had connections with Ji Liang, and Huang Mazi also knew Xia Jiuying.” After Wu Wen finished speaking, he immediately shook his head. “No, that’s not right. Huang Mazi was also killed…”

“Don’t rush, let me finish.”

Li Si picked up the interrogation transcripts again. “These are the testimonies of the Ji Residence servants. Quite a few people mentioned that half a year ago, Chen Er’gou had several big arguments with Ji Liang. The reason was that Ji Liang felt raising dogs cost too much money and wanted to send them to the Dog Pit to be used as fighting dogs. Chen Er’gou firmly disagreed. The two had disputes because of this, and Chen Er’gou even made harsh threats, saying Ji Liang would regret it.”

“What’s incredible is that Ji Liang actually compromised. Not only did he not send the dogs to the Dog Pit, but he also allocated the South Courtyard to Chen Er’gou.” Li Si raised his gaze. “This doesn’t make sense.”

“Could it be that Chen Er’gou had something on Ji Liang?” Situ Bo said suspiciously.

“This requires further investigation.”

“The account books and testimonies point the suspicion for killing Ji Liang toward Huang Mazi and Chen Er’gou. But Huang Mazi has already died tragically under iron fangs, which leaves Chen Er’gou.” Li Si took a deep breath. “Next, we must closely watch his every move.”

“We also can’t forget that youth, Xia Jiuying.” Situ Bo finally said. “I always feel he’s not simple.”

At the hour of the Dog, the starlight was dim. The cold wind blowing from the direction of Black Tiger Mountain was sharp as knife cuts. The youth sitting quietly by the riverbank withdrew his gazing eyes from a dense thicket, climbed up, and roared toward the river.

“Aah… Aah!” The youth vented years of buried resentment in his heart. His roar startled the night birds roosting on the bank into flight, and the gentle, placid river water was also frightened into rushing swiftly into the distance. The youth plunged his head into the icy river water, hoping to isolate himself from despicable people and the heartless world, to never be involved again… Until he could no longer breathe, the youth suddenly lifted his head. The cold wind still cut like knives at his face.

The youth looked sideways. Right by the broken grass hut where he slept, several pairs of spying eyes were hidden—he didn’t know for how long.

“Hmph!” The youth snorted coldly. The muscles of his face were stiff and numb from not smiling for too long.

The youth bent down and suddenly darted out into the darkness, agile as a wolf—a lone wolf thirsting for blood.

“Deng Zi, don’t sleep! Xia Jiuying ran away!” The constable monitoring in the darkness woke his companion.

“Chase, chase!” The two grabbed their official sabers, but where could they still see Xia Jiuying’s shadow?

Xia Jiuying ran wildly, ran until his chest felt like bursting, his heart about to jump out of his throat, his ears ringing, and scenes of black light appeared before his eyes one after another. Still, he was unwilling to stop. Only when he ran and emptied everything did he feel he was alive.

“Huff!” Xia Jiuying stopped. He had long since shaken off those monitoring him. Now he stood in boundless darkness, among the hills of Black Tiger Mountain.

Xia Jiuying closed his eyes and groped his way in one direction. He had walked this hill no less than a thousand times. Even with his eyes closed, he could find that place.

This was a small dense forest hidden in the belly of Black Tiger Mountain. To the north was a solid, towering mountain body; to the south was a cliff. The ground was covered with fallen leaves, and where the leaves were most dense was a new pit that had just been filled in not long ago.

Xia Jiuying’s mouth was dry. He licked his lips and walked over…

The starlight was still dim.

On February 12th, the first news Li Si heard after waking up was: Chen Er’gou was dead.