Preparing a corpse meant wiping down the deceased from head to toe, restoring what needed restoring, suturing what needed suturing, making everything clean and presentable before dressing the body.

The coroner had pulled out the intestines but hadn’t fully tucked them back in, leaving a bit exposed.

Chen Pi thought that this was after all the general’s son, and the general was still on the battlefield killing enemies for the country, so he took the intestines back out, coiled them properly, and tucked them back in.

As he coiled them, he ground his teeth in hatred.

The intestines connected to the stomach, and the stomach above the intestines had actually been torn somewhat.

At the time, the truth of the case hadn’t been uncovered yet. He didn’t know that the Zheng family’s youngest son had pulled out these intestines himself, and only assumed some damned bastard had done it. He cursed thoroughly in his heart.

He cursed eighteen generations of ancestors.

“More than ten days later, we corpse preparers were talking together about the Zheng family case. Someone mentioned that piece of cowhide hidden behind the intestines, and I…”

Chen Pi closed his eyes. “That’s when I learned those intestines were pulled out by the Zheng family’s youngest son himself.”

He immediately felt something was wrong.

That day when he wiped the Zheng family youngest son’s hands, the right palm was completely clean—only the back of the hand had bloodstains.

The left hand did have a palm full of blood, but the direction the intestines were pulled out clearly went toward the right.

Why was this?

He thought over and over about the scene when he entered Haitang Courtyard that day, and suddenly understood why the Zheng family’s youngest son had a left palm full of blood.

Because his right hand held the knife, and with his lower abdomen injured, he could only use his left hand to cover it.

But then another problem arose.

If it was confirmed not to be the left hand, then how did the Zheng family’s youngest son pull out his own intestines with his right palm not stained with even a drop of blood?

This was impossible to do.

If he didn’t pull them out himself, then who would pull at his intestines?

And also…

Was that half piece of cowhide really stuffed in there by the Zheng family’s youngest son himself?

Thinking of this, Chen Pi broke out in cold sweat.

—

“As the cold sweat came down, I thought of the second strange thing.”

Yan Sanhe: “What was it?”

Chen Pi licked his dry, cracked lips. “It was that charred female corpse.”

Yan Sanhe: “The adult or the child?”

Chen Pi: “The adult.”

Mother?

Xie Zhifei’s eardrums were suddenly struck by something—not only did it hurt sharply, but it also buzzed.

How could there be something strange about Mother’s corpse?

If there was something strange, shouldn’t it be with Huaiyou’s corpse?

He stared at Chen Pi, forcing out each word.

“What was strange about the adult female corpse?”

“Those two charred corpses were on the bed in the west side room. The small one lay on the inside, the large one on the outside. The fire clearly started from the headboard, so the adult’s feet weren’t burned.”

Xie Zhifei clenched his jaw tightly, his voice trembling slightly. “The strange thing was on her feet?”

“Yes.”

Chen Pi closed his eyes as if recalling the scene at the time.

“The tops of those feet were very clean, but the soles were dirty.”

“Wh-what does that mean?” Xie Zhifei felt his heart being tightly gripped by something.

“I, I don’t know…”

Chen Pi became somewhat incoherent again. “I, I, I just felt something was wrong. How could they be… be… dirty?”

A charred corpse, yet the feet were white and tender—this strong visual impact made Chen Pi particularly attentive to these feet.

People in the funeral business were divided into men and women.

Men prepared male corpses.

Women prepared female corpses.

Unless there were special circumstances, this was the custom.

He didn’t know what those officials were thinking, but in Haitang Courtyard, they actually sent only him.

So this was the only woman’s feet he’d seen in all his funeral work.

When wiping them with clean water, he discovered the woman’s soles were very dirty—not only covered with dust but also with a clump of mud.

“I thought at the time, how strange—this woman was already sleeping with her daughter in her arms, so why were her feet still dirty?”

Xie Zhifei suddenly stiffened.

Strange things weren’t limited to just this one thing. Mother had never liked Huaiyou much, rarely even going to her room, let alone the mother and daughter lying on the same bed sleeping.

July fourteenth was his and Huaiyou’s birthday.

Father personally went to a restaurant to bring back more than ten good dishes to celebrate their birthdays, and also bought a lot of sweet and sour preserved fruits for Huaiyou.

Huaiyou even stuffed one into his mouth, nearly souring his teeth off.

This was the real reason the four people in Haitang Courtyard hadn’t been knocked out by the sleeping drug—they hadn’t eaten the food from the main residence.

The four people’s birthday feast was very warm.

After eating, Father accompanied Mother for a walk in the front courtyard to digest, while he and Huaiyou went to the back courtyard. He planned to catch some fireflies for her to put inside the bed curtains.

He returned empty-handed, having only caught a few crickets. Huaiyou was extremely disgusted and pouted at him before going back to her room to sleep.

This girl absolutely had to go to bed after the second watch—nothing could change that.

He pestered her at the bedside for a while, but seeing she was truly exhausted, he returned to his own room.

In the middle of the night, he was awakened by the need to urinate. Waking up, he discovered Mother’s room still had a lamp lit.

Why wasn’t she sleeping yet?

After relieving himself, he headed toward Mother’s room. Turning his head, he found the main gate open, with Father standing in the courtyard with his hands behind his back, his silhouette silent as a mountain.

Possessed by something, he walked over.

Hearing footsteps, Father turned his head and asked, “Why aren’t you sleeping yet?”

“Woke up needing to pee.”

“Go to sleep. Don’t kick off your blanket at night—be careful not to catch cold.”

“Oh!”

He wanted to turn around, but for some reason, Father’s silhouette, silent as a mountain, weighed heavily on his heart.

“Father, once I’ve practiced my martial arts well, I’ll make you proud.”

Father was startled, then smiled in his eyes. “Good!”

Seeing Father smile, he felt relieved and left. But after only a few steps, there was movement behind him.

He turned to look and saw Father dash to the weapon rack in one swift motion, grab a large blade with his hand, and rush out of the courtyard.

He’d practiced martial arts with Father since age three and had never seen Father rush so fast, as if facing a formidable enemy.

Could something have happened up ahead?

All his drowsiness vanished. He went to the weapon rack, took his own blade, and chased after with blade in hand.

Once they left, only Mother and Huaiyou remained in Haitang Courtyard.

He remembered very clearly—Mother was clearly in her own room. How did she end up on Huaiyou’s bed in the end, and barefoot at that?

Xie Zhifei’s throat bobbed. “Most likely she discovered her daughter’s room had somehow caught fire and in her panic…”

“This mother and daughter were clearly killed in their sleep!”

“Killed?”

Xie Zhifei’s voice cracked. “Why are you so certain?”

Chen Pi: “The mother and daughter were just lying there with no signs of movement or struggle.”

Xie Zhifei’s heart pounded violently. “Where was the fatal wound? Was it a blade? A sword? Or a dagger?”

“The wound was at the neck—a blade was used.”

Chen Pi said, “I could tell just by touching it, but the corpse was charred and pitch black, so it wasn’t very visible.”

Xie Zhifei’s face was completely bloodless, even paler than Yan Sanhe’s.

The case file had written nothing about this—only one phrase: burned to death.

Only that one phrase!!