Chapter 9: Fist Master Encounters Blood Case on the Twenty-Fourth Day

The mud on the riverbank was damp and uneven, and especially toward evening, dew began to form on the grass, making it easy to slip.

When Meng Shuangjiang walked over, he did so with a bit of caution, steady and sure, one step at a time.

Chu Tianshu had come all the way from the woods with long, sweeping strides, his robes catching the wind, as if the grassy riverbank on his side were a vast, flat stretch of dry land.

"Brother Chu is not only skilled in medicine, but also so agile."

Meng Shuangjiang said with a hint of envy, "When I was a child, I learned some fist and foot techniques from the estate guards, and later I even wanted to apprentice under Master Zhong of the militia."

"Unfortunately, I couldn't endure the hardship and never made anything of it. Later, seeing how heavy I'd become, I repeatedly thought that losing some of this excess weight would be good, but I still haven't managed it."

Chu Tianshu laughed: "If it's just for weight loss, that requires not only exercise but also dieting. I suspect the second part is even harder for you, old brother."

He had already reached the bridge and noticed that Meng Shuangjiang had a child with him.

Wearing a melon-skin cap and a thick padded jacket, the child looked quite cozy, which only highlighted his fair, cute face; his chubby, baby-fat hands were clutching the leg of Meng Shuangjiang's trousers.

"This is my son, six years old. His formal name is Meng Huaiyu, but that's too stuffy, so I usually call him Meng Xiao Bao."

Meng Shuangjiang patted the child's head. "My wife is worried the child will grow as fat as I am, so she usually doesn't let him eat much. I brought him out today to have a proper meal."

Chu Tianshu's fingers twitched; he wanted to give the child some candy the moment he saw him.

Unfortunately, it wasn't as convenient here as it was back home, and he had forgotten to keep some on him recently.

The three of them walked toward the town. Meng Xiao Bao was a bit shy at first, but he soon became lively.

Even though Meng Shuangjiang was the one who knew the way, Meng Xiao Bao kept running ahead of him, and whenever he felt he was too far away, he would run back.

Not long after reaching the main road of the town, Meng Shuangjiang turned into a side alley.

These alleys between the residential houses were just dirt paths, somewhat pitted and uneven, naturally not as spacious as the main road.

Moreover, the shops on both sides of the main road had people out sweeping every morning, and when vendors set up their stalls, some would just spread a piece of coarse cloth on the ground, so there wasn't much debris left behind.

The alleys here were different.

Outside the foot of many walls, there were piles of broken pottery jars, stools with missing legs, undried grass, broken cat bowls with leftover soup, and coarse firewood that had been doused with water because the owner thought the rice was cooked halfway through.

These things weren't necessarily discarded by the owners; they might just be piled outside temporarily because there was no room in the house.

Occasionally, one could see someone walking out of a door to rummage through this debris for something.

But since these things could be left outside, they were mostly the kind that wouldn't be a pity to lose, and their appearance was certainly poor, adding a sense of clutter to these alleys.

Chu Tianshu's senses were sharp now, and he smelled quite a few strange odors, but they weren't too pungent, so he took them in stride.

In fact, every evening when he returned to the restaurant, he often deliberately took detours to wander around, so he was quite familiar with these situations.

Suddenly, the aroma of braised meat wafted into his nose, instantly suppressing all the surrounding smells.

A small eatery appeared before them; the open space in front of the door was tidier and cleaner than other places, and it was bustling with noise inside.

Meng Shuangjiang was familiar with the place; before he had even fully stepped inside, he shouted: "Mo Daniang Zhou, give me three pots of Dragon-Phoenix Stew today."

The atmosphere of this eatery was completely different from Old Ma's restaurant. Although people chatted while eating at the restaurant, the volume was generally low.

The eatery, however, was very noisy. Everyone seemed to be shouting, and at the five or six tables, there were only men in short jackets, all eating until their faces were red.

Meng Shuangjiang's shout as he entered became completely unremarkable, blending into the voices of the others.

At one table with only two people, they had already finished eating. Seeing Chu Tianshu and the others enter, they consciously stood up and walked to another table to continue their loud discussion.

Just as Chu Tianshu and the others sat down, the cloth curtain of a door in the back was lifted.

A short, plump woman with graying hair walked out carrying a clay pot.

"As the old saying goes, when the autumn wind rises, the three snakes grow fat. I knew you'd have to come these few days."

Mo Daniang Zhou was clearly very familiar with Meng Shuangjiang. She set down the clay pot and said, "You brought Meng Xiao Bao today too? Oh? This young man looks a bit unfamiliar."

Meng Shuangjiang lowered his voice and said mysteriously: "This is Brother Chu, the divine physician who makes the deworming medicine."

Mo Daniang Zhou's face lit up with joy: "So it's the divine physician! Please, sit, please sit. That medicine is truly good. I will definitely use my best skills today and get the heat just right to repay the divine physician."

She turned and went back into the kitchen.

Meng Shuangjiang explained: "Mo Daniang Zhou raised two sons by herself. Thanks to her excellent skill in stewing snake meat, she has quite a reputation in our town."

"Her business has been booming these years, and the ingredients in the clay pot have become increasingly substantial, but the eatery still only serves this one dish. It used to be called Stewed Snake, then Braised Snake Meat, and now it's called Dragon-Phoenix Stew."

Meng Xiao Bao stood on the stool, already using his chopsticks to poke at the lid of the clay pot.

"Don't be impatient, it's still hot. Wait for me to pick some for you."

Meng Shuangjiang hurriedly went to lift the lid himself and added, "I won't say more, Brother Chu. You'll know once you eat it."

Although the clay pot was off the fire, it continued to boil for a while. As the lid was lifted, the aroma in the eatery grew even stronger.

The sauce bubbled, and the thick snake meat was soaked in the rich broth along with chicken, pork lungs, green onions, and ginger slices.

There were many snakes in Yizhou, and there had been many snake catchers since ancient times. Snake meat was relatively cheaper than other meats, so for those who had to do heavy labor and wanted to have some meat, eating snake was a top choice.

Chu Tianshu had eaten snake before and only felt that snake meat was too thin, but the snake here was like a large, thick slice of pork belly.

The resilient, springy feeling of the snake skin was more like the texture one could only get after frying local pork to create a tiger-skin effect and then braising it.

Having grown accustomed to the food at Old Ma's restaurant, eating this for the first time felt much better than the dishes at the restaurant.

"Hey, this really is a great flavor."

Chu Tianshu couldn't help but squint his eyes and picked up another piece.

Seeing him put the whole piece of snake meat into his mouth and chew it a few times, Meng Shuangjiang hurriedly said: "This snake has bones..."

Chu Tianshu said: "It's fine, I can chew through them and digest them."

Meng Shuangjiang added: "No, even if you can chew them, eating it with the bones is one flavor, and eating it without the bones is another."

Chu Tianshu paused his chopsticks, thinking that made sense, so he controlled his force and bit the meat off the snake bone. It was indeed a different kind of richness.

Over the past twenty-plus days, he had unconsciously developed the habit of chewing food with the bones, because chewing bones made him feel fuller.

But since he was here to taste the food, he still had to enjoy the advice of a gourmet.

His teeth were already indifferent to the hardness of snake bones. The feeling of eating only the meat wasn't much different from before, but his tongue seemed to recall a long-lost sweet, soft comfort at this moment.

"This isn't even the best part. Once you're done and step outside, under the moonlight, with the cold wind biting at you—that is the most wonderful moment to eat clay pot stew at night."

Meng Shuangjiang chewed on a piece of chicken skin and said, "Don't look at our place as just a small town; those who truly know how to eat can taste dozens, if not hundreds, of delicacies."

"When we find a suitable time later, I'll take Brother Chu to eat them all, and sooner or later we'll have eaten everything here."

Chu Tianshu nodded and praised: "I thought you were busy with the medicine pills recently and that delicacies would inevitably be put aside. It seems your foundation is still solid."

Meng Shuangjiang smiled: "As for the medicine pills, our old man is busy with them. Anyway, he has so much energy; I just need to be responsible for giving ideas, and I let him handle the specifics."

Chu Tianshu laughed: "This is making your father work for you."

Meng Shuangjiang chuckled wickedly: "I'm afraid the old man will feel empty and lonely, so I'm letting him have a fulfilling old age. This is called filial piety."

Meng Xiao Bao was poking a piece of boneless snake meat with his chopsticks, his round, dark eyes fixed on his father.

Chu Tianshu noticed this scene: "Meng Xiao Bao, you must learn well. Your father living like this is called living freely."

Meng Xiao Bao nodded obediently: "I will definitely learn well."

Meng Shuangjiang's face stiffened: "Hey, this..."

He puffed out his cheeks and picked up a piece of green onion for Meng Xiao Bao. "You just eat your food, kid, don't learn everything."

Chu Tianshu laughed out loud.

It was a good thing that the eatery was so noisy; laughing out loud here was still normal, and there was no need to restrain himself at all.

Chu Tianshu realized the charm of this small eatery and ate even more heartily.

Originally it was three pots, but they ended up eating five full pots, and only one and a half pots were finished by the Meng father and son.

By the time they finished, there weren't many people left in the eatery, and Meng Xiao Bao had already fallen asleep on the table.

Chu Tianshu seized the opportunity to hold the child, took him into his arms, and stood up to say goodbye to the auntie.

Walking out the door, the moonlight was indeed perfect, and the cool breeze was blowing.

Meng Shuangjiang shook his head and said: "This kid, he's usually like a little monkey, never tired, but when he wants to sleep, he can fall asleep instantly. I guess it's because children have no worries; it's comfortable enough."

This wasn't just because he had few worries.

Chu Tianshu was a witch doctor and usually liked to read some books on modern medicine.

A child's metabolic rate was nearly thirty percent higher than an adult's, and their dopamine secretion was also thirty percent higher. Their fast-twitch muscle fibers, muscle glycogen synthesis speed, and so on, were all superior to adults.

Therefore, children could more efficiently convert food into energy, eliminate fatigue, restore physical strength, make bones harder, and make muscles stronger.

In a sense, once a martial artist had an epiphany, they were adjusting their body's state to lean toward that of a child, taking its advantages.

With an adult's basic quality, once they could obtain those advantages and continue to develop them, their performance would be far beyond what a child could compare to.

Old fist manuals said, "The heart is like a newborn, the fist is like lead." That was the principle.

They had only walked a short distance on the alley when they saw a carriage coming.

A wind-proof lamp hung under the horse's neck, and because the wheels rolled over the uneven path, the light was also swaying.

Meng Shuangjiang looked up and recognized the coachman: "It's Old Wang, the guard our family hired."

The man driving the carriage was a sturdy fellow: "Young Master Meng, the Young Mistress is worried about the child, so she sent me to pick you up."

Chu Tianshu handed the child to Meng Shuangjiang.

Meng Shuangjiang said: "Brother Chu, come on the carriage, we'll drop you off at the restaurant on the way."

"No need, I really love this moonlight and wind."

Chu Tianshu chuckled, "You go ahead slowly, I'll take a walk back to the restaurant myself."

Meng Shuangjiang had no choice but to say goodbye to him and climbed into the carriage with the child.

The carriage couldn't turn around in this alley, but the driver was an old hand, familiar with the terrain, and headed toward the front right, clearly preparing to take a wide detour.

Chu Tianshu watched the carriage go far away, turned back, and walked slowly, taking advantage of the moonlight.

After the moonlight shone on the pits and bumps of the dirt road, it looked as if light spots of different brightness appeared.

Chu Tianshu walked with his hands behind his back, his steps aimless, but every footstep landed on those protruding places.

He walked like this for about a quarter of an hour and still hadn't reached the restaurant.

His playfulness gradually faded, he raised his head, and his steps became faster.

The front door of Old Ma's restaurant faced the main street, and the back door faced a small street.

He turned a corner and had already reached this small street when he suddenly heard a noisy sound of gongs.

With his hearing, he seemed to faintly hear someone shouting that someone was dead.

Chu Tianshu thought of the carriage that had just left, his heart jumped, and he ran toward that direction.

Less than a hundred meters away, turning a street corner, he saw the night watchman beating the gong standing on the small street.

The men from several nearby households had also come out, holding rakes and shovels, looking around with a fearful expression.

Suddenly seeing a figure dash over, these people were startled and scattered one after another, their backs pressed against their own door panels.

The corpse on the road that they had been blocking was thus exposed under the moonlight.

Chu Tianshu stopped, looked closely, and saw it was not the Meng father and son.

But he was a bit familiar with this person; he seemed to be a man who set up a stall not far from the restaurant selling rain capes, bamboo baskets, and winnowing pans.

Now there were still a few rain capes lying in the pool of blood.

The man who sold rain capes could never pick them up again.

The corpse's face was terrified, eyes wide open in death, and there were miserable wounds on the neck, chest, and legs, making it unbearable to look at.

(End of chapter) ===== CHAPTER 10 =====