“That’s their own business – why should you concern yourself with it? Besides, that man surnamed Wu has been running rampant in our Deyue Ward for so many years, he must have accumulated quite a fortune. A few days ago I saw him at the gambling house entrance with that man surnamed Zhao. From his tone, he should have plenty of money.” With that, he said: “Alright, we still have work to do. Let’s go quickly.”

Master Wu… Deyue Ward… Could the dead person be the one he had seen at Qingxu Wine House that day?

Thinking of this, Du Ruhui hurriedly stepped forward to stop the two middle-aged men, bowing: “Brothers, do you know this household?”

One of them said with disgust: “In all of Deyue Ward, there isn’t a single person who doesn’t know this household. Even three-year-olds know, but no one wants to know him.”

The other person added: “This man was in league with someone surnamed Zhao, running rampant in Deyue Ward, extorting the money we worked hard to earn. If we didn’t give it to him, he’d smash our stalls or go cause trouble at our workplaces. He wouldn’t leave until we paid him money. Truly detestable. Now that they’re dead, we can finally have peaceful days.”

“They?” Du Ruhui frowned: “Are there others who died?”

The man jerked his chin: “Isn’t it Zhao Laojiu who mixed with him? He died yesterday too.”

Zhao Laojiu? Could it be the person who was with the man surnamed Wu at the wine house that day?

“Do you know why he died?” Faced with Du Ruhui’s question, the two exchanged glances and shook their heads: “Who knows? He suddenly died just like that. In my opinion, they must have done too many evil deeds and received retribution.”

After the two left, he entered the house from which came waves of crying. Passing through a small courtyard, there was a large house with azure tiles – quite decent by common people’s standards. A woman dressed in hemp mourning clothes held a pair of children, kneeling on the ground crying continuously. In the center of the room sat a coffin, with only three lonely incense sticks in the incense burner – clearly no one had come to pay respects. Come to think of it, the merchants and common people of Deyue Ward had been exploited by him for years. Now that he was dead, those people would be too happy to celebrate – where would they come to pay respects?

Although Du Ruhui also disapproved of this man surnamed Wu’s character, after all, the dead deserve respect. Since he had come, he took a stick of incense and lit it for him, then walked to the woman: “Sister-in-law, please accept my condolences.”

The woman raised her swollen red eyes from crying. After seeing Du Ruhui’s appearance clearly, she asked in confusion: “Who are you? I’ve never seen you before.”

Du Ruhui lied: “I met Brother Wu at Qingxu Wine House. We drank together several times and got along quite well. I was thinking of inviting Brother Wu to gather at my home next time, but who knew he… suddenly passed away.”

The woman didn’t doubt his words and wiped her tears: “Who would have thought he had such a refined friend as you. Sigh, when he was alive, I don’t know how many times I advised him to find proper work and stop taking that kind of money. He just wouldn’t listen. Now this… I wonder if it’s Heaven’s punishment for him.” At this point, she began crying mournfully again, and the two small children beside her, seeing their mother cry, also began wailing.

Du Ruhui probed: “I saw Brother Wu was in good health. How did he suddenly pass away?”

The woman cried while saying: “I’m not too clear either. That day he went out drinking with Laojiu as usual. Since he often stayed out all day, I didn’t pay attention. Who knew that in the evening, someone came to the house saying he’d been beaten to death by people from the gambling house. I quickly took the children and rushed over. When we got there, both he and Laojiu had stopped breathing, lying straight on the ground. Later the authorities came too and took those gambling house thugs to the yamen.”

Du Ruhui frowned: “So it was accidental killing?”

The woman nodded: “It should be. I asked the gambling house people why they beat him. They said it was because he lost money but lied that his money pouch was missing and refused to pay. Later he even falsely accused the gambling house of cheating. In the commotion that followed, they fought, and in a moment of carelessness, beat him to death!” The woman said excitedly: “When Ah Li left home yesterday morning, I saw with my own eyes him put the money pouch on his person. But when his body was brought back, no money pouch was found. It really was stolen – he wasn’t lying.”

Du Ruhui nodded: “Has Brother Wu shown any unusual behavior in the past month?”

“Unusual?” The woman thought for a while: “There is one thing. Previously he would bring home hundreds of wen at a time, but about half a month ago, he suddenly brought back several strings of coins. When I asked how he got them, he wouldn’t say. Later once, he brought back nearly ten strings of coins, saying he would be rich from now on and could have as much money as he wanted. He kept laughing nonstop, like he’d gone mad.”

Du Ruhui’s expression changed as he asked urgently: “Did Brother Wu later say where the money came from?”

The woman shook her head: “No, no matter how I asked, he wouldn’t say. He just told me to spend freely, saying there would be plenty more in the future.”

Half a month ago – that was shortly after they encountered the man surnamed Wu. Could there be some connection between the two?

Thinking this, he said: “Sister-in-law, could I see Brother Wu one more time?”

“Of course.” After the woman agreed, Du Ruhui walked to the coffin. The lid hadn’t been placed yet, so he could clearly see Wu A’Li lying inside. Taking advantage of the woman’s inattention, Du Ruhui reached out and slightly parted Wu A’Li’s clothing. He could see that his chest, like his face, bore traces of having been beaten. According to the woman, this was his cause of death, but… gambling houses only seek money – why would they strike so heavily, and kill two people at once?

After asking for Zhao Laojiu’s home address, Du Ruhui went to the Zhao family. There, like at the Wu family, mourning banners and paper money were everywhere. Like Du Ruhui had learned, half a month ago Zhao Laojiu had also brought home much money. But there was one thing Du Ruhui hadn’t expected – before Zhao Laojiu’s incident, his money pouch had also been stolen.

Afterward, he went to see the coroner who had examined their bodies. According to him, both men’s fatal injuries were heavy blows to the back of the head.

Both suddenly came into wealth half a month ago, both had their money pouches stolen, and both died accidentally from heavy blows to the back of the head. There were too many similarities between them – their deaths were likely not simple.

And that money – who gave it to them, and why? To be able to produce so much money at once, it certainly wasn’t from an ordinary household. Could it be… no, it couldn’t be him!

After suppressing the thought that arose, Du Ruhui went to the prison. The several people who had beaten Wu A’Li and the others to death were currently imprisoned there, awaiting judgment.

When those men heard Du Ruhui mention the matter, they hurriedly said: “Those two really weren’t beaten to death by us. We’re wrongly accused!”

“If you didn’t beat them to death, why would the authorities imprison you here?” Faced with Du Ruhui’s words, the men fell silent. After a while, one of them sighed heavily: “We can only say our luck was bad. We’ve worked at the gambling house for so many years and have always been measured when beating people – never had an incident before. Who knew that this time we’d just give them a casual beating and two would die. Truly unlucky.”