Chen Er’gou was dead.
Chen Er’gou’s family said that to chase after a lost wolfhound, he braved strong winds into Black Tiger Mountain. As a result, he accidentally lost his footing on the mountainside and rolled down, ending up mangled with broken bones and torn tendons. He died on the spot.
On the twelfth, Chen Er’gou’s family set up a mourning hall for him. Chen Er’gou lay on the spirit bed with his eyes closed. Although made up, his face was still twisted terribly. After Li Si and Wu Wen looked a few times, they walked out of the mourning hall.
A spirit table was placed in the center of the mourning hall. On it were offerings, incense candles, candle stands, and an eternal lamp.
“His face is so deformed from the fall, but you can still tell it’s Chen Er’gou.” Wu Wen looked back at the mourning hall.
“Chen Er’gou’s death is too bizarre and too coincidental.” Li Si murmured. He had paid attention to Chen Er’gou’s neck—there were no bloody holes. The iron-fanged demon hadn’t attacked him; he had simply died from the fall.
“This is great. Huang Mazi is dead, Chen Er’gou fell to his death, and Xia Jiuying has no time to commit the crime. Brother Li, this case is getting more and more difficult.”
Wu Wen felt a chill down his back. He pulled Li Si out of Chen Er’gou’s house. “Brother Li, do you remember there’s a painter at the Ji Residence named Lu Qianbo?”
“I remember.” Li Si smiled. “You suspect him?”
“The cinnabar red on Huang Mazi’s robe—I always feel it’s hard for this painter to escape connection.” Wu Wen said. Li Si also nodded. “Yes, he’s a painter. What he comes into contact with most is paint.”
“Moreover, according to the Ji Residence servants’ testimonies, Lu Qianbo had an ambiguous relationship with the Ji Residence’s young mistress Ning Suqin, giving him a motive to kill Ji Liang out of passion.” Wu Wen added. Li Si stroked his temples. “But the impression Lu Qianbo gives me is not that of a vicious murderer who would bite someone to death alive.”
“Looking like one and being one are two different matters. Being one and not being one are entirely separate matters.” Wu Wen reminded.
“Also, Brother, about the variety troupe you told me to watch closely earlier—the dark-faced man and dancing woman inside are quite suspicious. The tailing constables said these two people went out at midnight several times, only returning at dawn. The constables followed and discovered these two meeting furtively with people, but it was too dark to see clearly the features of the people meeting with the man and woman.” Wu Wen said suspiciously. “As for the troupe’s manager, tomorrow I’ll invite him back to the yamen for questioning.”
“When looking for the manager, don’t let the suspicious man and woman notice.”
“Don’t worry, Brother.” Wu Wen nodded.
Li Si made an affirming sound and looked back at Chen Er’gou’s house hung with white cloth. A sudden realization struck his mind.
The day of mourning. The third quarter of the hour of the Dog.
Close blood relatives were needed to keep vigil for the dead. Chen Er’gou only had one five-year-old son, Chen Abing.
Chen Abing had a completely shaved head and sat bewilderedly in the mourning hall. In front of him were snacks his mother had prepared, fearing Chen Abing would be bored with nothing to do. The little guy ate a bite of flatbread and glanced at Chen Er’gou on the spirit bed.
After eating a few bites of flatbread, Chen Abing walked over and leaned by the spirit bed, stuffing the bread toward Chen Er’gou’s mouth, saying in a childish voice, “Dad, eat the flatbread. It’s good. Mom made it.”
The little guy still didn’t understand the difference between dead people and living people, thinking Dad was just sleeping and needed to be awakened now to eat flatbread. Chen Er’gou’s body was heavy as stone and didn’t move. Chen Abing pushed him with his hands.
“Creak, creak, creak!” In the darkness, something darted out of the mourning hall spinning rapidly. Chen Abing’s attention was drawn to it. He stared with bright eyes and clapped his hands, saying, “Top, it’s a top!”
The little guy loved playing with tops most. He chased the top running into the open space outside the mourning hall. The moment Chen Abing left, the eternal lamp flame on the spirit table twisted several times, like a crawling light snake. In the flickering flame, muffled, hoarse breathing came from within the mourning hall.
The flame leaped. Chen Er’gou’s corpse seemed to blink in a trance…
Suddenly, a hand emerged from under the spirit bed! Veins bulging, the hand gripped the spirit bed forcefully. Then, a gray-robed person crawled out from underneath.
The gray-robed person stood outside the spirit bed, looked down at Chen Er’gou’s ashen face, and let out a barely perceptible sigh. In the open space, Chen Abing picked up the top and returned to the mourning hall.
The gray-robed person quickly passed through the mourning hall and flashed into a row of small courtyards behind it.
The small courtyard was pitch black without a trace of lamplight. Usually, some废物 and miscellaneous items were stored here—no one lived on this side. The gray-robed person stopped before a stone house at the end of the small courtyard. Inside the house was empty, with only a dozen broken dog cages tossed about.
The gray-robed person moved aside two dog cages and groped on the ground for a while. Suddenly, he felt a small door.
The gray-robed person exhaled with relief. Just as he was about to slip through the door, he suddenly felt an unprecedented bone-chilling cold, as if he had fallen into an ice cave.
The gray-robed person slowly turned his face. Outside the stone house crouched a black shadow.
The shadow’s head was almost pressed against the ground, emitting a hair-raising roar from its throat.
“Ah, ah!” The gray-robed person panicked, hands fumbling wildly in his bosom. The shadow was like lightning piercing through darkness, leaping into the stone house. Before the gray-robed person could resist, he was pressed down by the shadow.
The shadow revealed iron fangs about an inch long. The shadow was the iron-fanged demon!
These terrifying iron fangs were about to pierce the gray-robed person’s neck. The gray-robed person tore open his throat and shouted, “Don’t kill me! Someone help, save me!”
The shadow bit down viciously. With a clang, the iron fangs didn’t bite through the gray-robed person’s neck but bit onto an iron sword’s edge.
Wu Wen, wielding a huge iron sword, saved the gray-robed person. Wu Wen succeeded with one sword strike and was just about to see through the shadow’s face, but only felt a whistling sound by his ear. The shadow had already jumped out the window. By the time Wu Wen chased to the doorway, the shadow had vanished without a trace.
The gray-robed person’s crotch was wet and foul-smelling—turned out he’d been scared into wetting his pants. He lay prone on the ground, trembling all over. Wu Wen frowned and pulled him up with one hand, sneering, “We meet again, Chen Er’gou.”
The gray-robed person looked extremely embarrassed. It was actually Chen Er’gou, “risen from the dead.”
“Let’s go.” Wu Wen said.
Chen Er’gou timidly nodded. Reaching out to touch himself, he discovered the gray robe was stained with fresh blood. He couldn’t help but close his eyes and cry out miserably, “It’s over, it’s over. I’m bleeding. I’m dead!”
Wu Wen looked and saw Chen Er’gou had a dagger hidden under his ribs. The dagger had pierced through the gray robe, the blade tip stained with crimson blood.
Wu Wen wiped some blood and placed it before his nose. His dark eyeballs immediately shot out a sharp gleam.
“Stop howling. It’s not your blood!” Wu Wen irritably slapped Chen Er’gou across the face. Chen Er’gou immediately stopped shouting.
At this moment, Li Si arrived at the small courtyard pulling Chen Abing along. Chen Abing saw Chen Er’gou and happily jumped over to hug him, shouting loudly, “Dad, Dad, you woke up!”
Wu Wen said nothing and opened the small door in the stone house. Inside were hidden several hundred taels of silver in cash and banknotes, plus jewelry.
Wu Wen scooped out these gold and silver items and tossed them before Chen Er’gou. Chen Er’gou’s body went soft and he collapsed to the ground.
“Let’s go. To your mourning hall to talk about how you faked your death.” Li Si smiled sarcastically.
The eternal lamp in the mourning hall flickered bright and dim, like the ghostly eye-light of the underworld judge dividing yin and yang.
“The body double you found has seven or eight parts similarity to you. But you’ve spent many years in the Ji Residence, not traveling much, whereas this corpse’s soles are covered with thick calluses—clearly someone accustomed to walking mountain paths and fields.” Li Si glanced at the corpse on the spirit bed and said, “After I secretly looked at his soles, I knew the dead person wasn’t you.”
“Hurry up and tell the truth.” Wu Wen raised his iron sword. Chen Er’gou hastily nodded.
“Your Lordship is wise. The dead person is my cousin. He was a porter who relied on his feet to earn money to support his family. Yesterday morning, my cousin accidentally fell from halfway up the mountain and died. That’s when I got the idea to make him my scapegoat.” Chen Er’gou knelt and explained.
“Why fake your death? Are Ji Liang and Huang Mazi’s deaths also related to you? How much inside information do you know? Speak!” Li Si’s voice and expression were severe. “Otherwise, we can save you once, but there’s no guarantee you’ll survive next time.”
“Yes, I’ll talk. I’ll tell everything.” Chen Er’gou swallowed saliva. “In previous years, I followed Ji Liang and Huang Mazi doing many unconscionable things. I knew deeply that retribution would come sooner or later. So watching Ji Liang and Huang Mazi killed one after another, I was terrified. I was certain the next one would be my turn.”
“I didn’t want to die, so I thought of the trick of faking death, thinking that iron-fanged demon could be fooled. Never expected I’d still be targeted…”
“You returned home in the dead of night to test whether the iron-fanged demon would come?” Li Si asked.
Chen Er’gou nodded. “Yes, that’s exactly what this humble one thought.”
“What about the gold, silver, and jewels hidden in the small courtyard?” Li Si continued interrogating.
“The silver is…” Chen Er’gou became hesitant. Wu Wen shouted, “Speak quickly!”
“Alright, alright. The silver came from my private sale of the Ji Residence’s guard dogs. The jewelry was stolen from the Ji Residence. Coming back this time was also to take some gold and silver to facilitate hiding outside.” Chen Er’gou’s head hung even lower. Li Si sneered. “Truly, you guard against thieves by day and night, but household thieves are hard to prevent.”
“This humble one knows his crime, knows his crime.” Chen Er’gou kowtowed in admission of guilt.
“Embezzling the Ji Residence’s family assets—it’s useless to confess to me. Never mind that. Let me ask you, from the Ji Residence servants’ testimonies, you repeatedly challenged Ji Liang’s authority, yet Ji Liang still tolerated you. Tell me, did you have something on him?” Li Si got to the crucial point.
Chen Er’gou smiled bitterly. “Things have come to this, and Ji Liang is already dead, so there’s nothing to hide. That’s right, Your Lordship. Ji Liang’s actions, every evil deed—I knew them like the palm of my hand. Ji Liang was also afraid I’d expose his scandals, which is why he tolerated me in every way.”
“What kind of evil deeds did he do?” Li Si was somewhat curious.
“Hmph, this guy appeared dignified and refined on the surface, proper and elegant, but behind the scenes he did all sorts of despicable, shameful things that couldn’t see the light. He instigated Huang Mazi to kidnap several poor girls, raped and humiliated them, then sold them into brothels. He monopolized Mingling County’s rice prices, secretly broke the leg of Boss Xun who also ran a rice shop, and drove Boss Xun’s entire family out of Mingling County. Additionally, there were evil deeds like seizing common people’s land, taking shares from gambling dens—countless.” Chen Er’gou spoke endlessly. “I recorded all of Ji Liang’s evil deeds in a small booklet and used it to threaten him so he wouldn’t dare do anything to me.”
“Hmph, I only knew Ji Liang was no good person, but I never imagined he did so many evil things.” Li Si pondered for a moment, then asked Chen Er’gou again, “Good. Since you know all of Ji Liang’s evil deeds, among these evil deeds, is there anything that could be connected to the ‘iron-fanged demon’?”
“Your Lordship, this I don’t know.” Chen Er’gou said. Wu Wen showed a suspicious expression. Chen Er’gou shook his head vigorously. “I truly don’t know. If I knew, would I need to stage this fake death charade?”
“Mm.” Li Si nodded slightly.
A gust of strong wind blew from outside the mourning hall, making the white cloth before and behind the hall rustle loudly. The eternal lamp struggled a few times and went out. The empty mourning hall revealed a sinister, ghostly air.
“Xia Jiuying.” Li Si suddenly said. “What did Ji Liang do to Xia Jiuying to make Xia Jiuying obey his every command?”
“Xia Jiu… Alas.” Chen Er’gou sighed and said, “Reporting to Your Lordship, this matter goes back seven years.”
Chen Er’gou slowly recounted the events from seven years ago—
Seven years ago, Old Master Ji was still alive. One day, he went to Luohua Village to purchase medicinal herbs and suddenly encountered wild wolves rushing down from Black Tiger Mountain to cause trouble. Old Master was even bitten on the leg by a wild wolf. After Old Master returned, the fifteen-year-old Ji Liang learned of this. Young and hot-blooded, he clamored to avenge his father. Before dark, Ji Liang rushed to Luohua Village.
The people following him included Huang Mazi, Chen Er’gou, and over a dozen guard dogs.
Around the hour of the Rooster, they arrived at Luohua Village. The wolf pack retreated at the first strike—their shadows couldn’t be found at all. Ji Liang refused to give up and led the guard dogs into the bends of Black Tiger Mountain. After walking inward for over half an hour with no gains, just as they were about to retreat, the guard dogs suddenly discovered wolf tracks.
Chasing after them, they found several wolves tearing at a woman. The dog pack drove away the wild wolves, but the woman was already dead.
Ji Liang arranged for Huang Mazi and Chen Er’gou to randomly find a mountain hollow and bury the woman.
Chen Er’gou glanced at Li Si, his expression slightly different as he continued, “This matter passed for seven years and was long forgotten. Until a year ago, Ji Liang learned that a fierce youth appeared in Luohua Village who didn’t fear wild dogs and could even fight wolves. This aroused his interest, so he inquired about the youth’s origins.”
“The youth was Xia Jiuying.” Chen Er’gou made it clear.
“Ji Liang learned that Xia Jiuying’s mother disappeared in Black Tiger Mountain seven years ago, and Xia Jiuying had been waiting for his mother’s return for seven years. Ji Liang turned his thoughts back and realized that based on clothing and age, the woman bitten to death by wolves seven years ago was Xia Jiuying’s mother.” Chen Er’gou licked his dry lips and continued, “Ji Liang had an evil thought. He told Xia Jiuying the truth about the woman being bitten to death by wolves. Xia Jiuying went crazy, ran into Black Tiger Mountain screaming madly. Afterward, Ji Liang asked Xia Jiuying if he wanted to recover his mother’s remains.”
“After going crazy, Xia Jiuying became like a piece of wood. To get back his mother’s remains, he obeyed Ji Liang’s manipulation. Including fighting wild wolves in Black Tiger Mountain and fighting dogs in the Dog Pit—all were instigated by Ji Liang.” Chen Er’gou finished telling the evil fate between Ji and Xia.
“Using a relative’s remains to coerce and threaten a child—worse than a beast!” Wu Wen hated it so much his teeth itched. If Ji Liang weren’t already dead, he would definitely use an iron hammer to smash open this fellow’s chest to see if his heart was red or black.
“Have the remains been completely returned to Xia Jiuying?” Li Si’s face was equally iron-blue, filled with grief and indignation.
“Not yet. Still missing one skull.” Chen Er’gou thought and said.
Li Si calmed his indignation slightly and said to Chen Er’gou, “You’ve already been targeted by the iron-fanged demon. No matter where you flee, it won’t be safe.”
“Ah, Your Lordship, you can’t just watch him kill me.” Chen Er’gou kowtowed begging for his life.
“Don’t worry, I’ve thought of a place for you that can keep you safe.” Li Si walked out of the mourning hall and said to Wu Wen, “Send people to escort Chen Er’gou to the yamen’s death cell. Three shifts rotating guard, watch him well.”
“Yes, Brother.” Wu Wen acknowledged and pulled Chen Er’gou out of the Chen residence.
Li Si looked back at the mourning hall once more, sneered, and forcefully yanked, tearing down the white cloth hanging in the mourning hall.