Chapter 462

Ding Yukang was born with a very easygoing nature; no wonder he was used to mediating family disputes. Such a face was indeed easy to insert into a conversation.

The coroner's autopsy report was written very briefly: 【Examined Ding, age 49, body length 4 feet 5 inches, with 5 abrasions, 3 bruises, fatal wound at the temple, with 2 punch wounds.】

"Does Constable Ding have cultivation?" Seeing Pei Ye untied the burial clothes and asked while carefully checking the neck.

"Ah? No, my lord, Uncle Ding had no cultivation," Xu Liu replied somewhat cautiously.

There was a reason why Zhao Yi himself was unwilling to come here. Autopsy was not only a dirty job but also a tiring one. Xu Liu had entered the County Office for two months, and this was the first time he had watched a murder corpse so closely.

He didn't know where this lord beside him came from, but he was clearly excessively young, yet at this moment, he was looking calmly at the terrifying dead state with blood and bruises on half his face.

"Do you have a friendship with Constable Ding?" Seeing Pei Ye captured this form of address.

"... Reporting to the lord, actually it doesn't count as very familiar. I run external affairs with Head Constable Zhou. But sometimes when I run into Uncle Ding... he would take the initiative to chat with me," Xu Liu said. "He said he also ran external affairs in his early years, and told me... to endure it, and it would be fine after a while."

"Oh." Seeing Pei Ye nodded and had already stripped the corpse completely. A rough scan showed that the body was indeed basically intact, with no wounds. "In your impression, has Constable Ding had anything different recently?"

Seeing Pei Ye knew very clearly that in the eyes of different people, the appearance of the same thing is different: "For example, did he go anywhere or see anyone? Think carefully."

Xu Liu really thought carefully. He had just entered the County Office and was at the time when he took every word of his superiors and colleagues seriously. At this moment, he furrowed his brows for a long time and said, "... Not really. I don't often watch Uncle Ding either. He went to the room to be on duty as usual, and when it was late, he would go to Pingkang Ward to stroll. If I had to say, it's that he seemed to have stopped drinking these past few days, and didn't look for me to chat idly much either."

"Stopped drinking?"

"Yes. In the past, he often said 'a slight intoxication beats a fairy,' and after drinking two cups, he would float away to stroll the night scenery, but for the past few days, you couldn't smell any wine in the room."

Seeing Pei Ye nodded and gestured with his hand. "Come, support the feet, flip him over."

Xu Liu's body tightened slightly, and he pursed his lips as he stepped forward to grasp the ankles. Just as he was hesitating about how to exert force, the heavy corpse was already turned over lightly and nimbly with a soft and steady light-and-heavy motion.

He didn't understand for a moment what use his support had, but the next moment he remembered that when he first entered the office, the old coroner told him that death is a heavy matter, and even if one's true Qi is abundant, one should still have two people lift it when moving it if possible; this is "not disturbing the remaining soul."

Seeing Pei Ye's gaze scanned the spine again. This was indeed a very concise and clear corpse, with a few abrasions on the hands and elbows, a bruise on the lower back that was a bit heavy, not like falling on flat ground, but like hitting some corner. There were also two abrasions on the legs, and then there were the three fatal heavy punches.

For a seven-life cultivator against a fifty-year-old mortal with no cultivation, it can be such a clean and neat slaughter.

Seeing Pei Ye remembered when he first saw him in the prison, that silent Wildman who hadn't yet entered the evil path—he could indeed coldly throw such three punches, and of course, it wasn't because they bumped into each other on the road; this was just the prison entry reason he had chosen.

But at that time, Ding Yukang wasn't wearing a constable's uniform.

Seeing Pei Ye called Xu Liu to flip the corpse back, tied the burial clothes, and the two washed their hands by the pool.

Seeing Pei Ye thought in his mind, and still went back to the room to ask for the case files of the past two months to read.

Four cases of wandering swordsmen fighting, seven cases of theft.

No human lives, two cases of one-on-one causing injury, two cases of group fighting—all were those few groups of people who were common.

The thieves were skilled hands in the Jianghu, so the types were varied, and basically, they couldn't be solved. There was gold disappearing from locked cabinets, there were people walking on the road who suddenly discovered their purses were gone, there were two punks beaten down by a masked person who robbed them of five taels of silver, and there was also a report from the Wannian County Office in the East City saying that someone had sneaked into two rice shops in Pingkang Ward, but no theft was discovered for the time being, only that the thief had tripped and smashed a flower pot...

Seeing Pei Ye read them one by one. In this matter, the youth showed unimaginable patience. He knew what kind of enemy he was ultimately facing, and therefore he absolutely refused to let go of every detail.

But he really didn't see any place related to Ding Yukang. Seeing Pei Ye closed the case file, nodded and said goodbye to everyone in the County Office, and took the next step straight to Ding Yukang's residence.

Yonghe Ward, a very decent small courtyard, with a seal already pasted on the door.

Seeing Pei Ye pushed the door and entered. Trees were planted and grass was grown in the courtyard, all tended with quite a bit of interest. It was indeed as the constables of the County Office said; this was a person already on the road to retirement.

It was just that now, after days without water, it had already withered somewhat.

The furnishings in all places were very simple; it was the appearance of a person living alone, everything just for his own convenience and ease.

The west side room was locked. Seeing Pei Ye picked the lock to check; it was all miscellaneous items stacked and piled. A stove was set up in the courtyard. Seeing Pei Ye lifted the pot to look—it was clean, and dust had fallen on the bottom of the stove. He paused his steps.

The east side room was the kitchen. The people in the County Office had mentioned that Old Ding often bought wine and cut meat after work. Even if he didn't invite guests on weekdays, he always had cold and hot, meat and vegetable dishes for himself.

But this room was now clean to the point of being cold and lonely. It wasn't that there was no one to clean up after the owner suddenly died, but that there were no ingredients prepared at all.

There was no wine in the pot, no leftover meat in the pot, the utensils were all placed on the rack, and the bowls and plates were also cleanly stacked in the cabinet; it was completely the appearance of no one using them. A set of better wine utensils was preciously placed in a high place, but even the ordinary set below was not placed in a commonly used place.

—Even in the days when the owner was there, he didn't eat here.

But the answer was soon revealed in the bedroom.

The bedding was spread out messily, as if it hadn't been tidied for days. The place for dining had been moved here. A small broken square table was set on the ground, small dishes were placed on it, the remaining pickled radish inside had already grown mold, and beside it was a half-eaten steamed bun, also dotted with mold stars.

A strange smell was emitted. Seeing Pei Ye lifted the lid of the small jar beside it; a wooden spoon was soaked in the pickled vegetables, looking like it had just been scooped. Four paper-wrapped steamed buns were stacked beside the table. Seeing Pei Ye counted them; there were fifteen left, which was a man's food intake for two days.

In the few days before he died, he didn't drink wine anymore, and ate steamed buns and pickled vegetables for several days in a row.

Seeing Pei Ye stared for a while. Beside it, a table and chair were set up, and books and papers were placed on the desktop. Seeing Pei Ye walked over; the oil in the lamp was still solidified and unburned. He picked up several sheets of paper one after another; they were all sketches and drafts that he couldn't understand. They looked like some place, and also like some kind of path, while some were calculations of numbers.

Seeing Pei Ye felt as if he had seen this scene before; it was Old Xiangzi's bedroom.

But there was nothing supernatural or insane here. Seeing Pei Ye only saw a kind of meticulous calmness. He flipped through these drafts one by one and finally found a clean and clear sheet of paper, as if it were used to record the results after some kind of effort.

"Jiutao, about sixty. September 8th, 800 catties; September 20th, 800 catties; October 1st, 800 catties.

Lingfang, about seventy. September 1st, 1,200 catties; September 15th, 800 catties; September 25th, 1,500 catties.

"

The whole sheet of paper was full of such strange nouns and numbers, listed for more than ten lines, but it was unknown what they indicated.

Seeing Pei Ye frowned as he looked, until his gaze paused, and he suddenly saw a familiar noun mixed in among them.

—"Lianzi Xiang, about eighty. September 11th, 1,000 catties; September 22nd, 1,000 catties; October 3rd, 1,000 catties."

Seeing Pei Ye remembered the three words "Lianzi Xiang." That night when he went to stroll in Pingkang Ward, the artist girl dancing on the lotus platform flew down from this building.

Were these the brothels of Pingkang Ward?