Chapter 265: Lend me your head to use

These past two days, the government office's morgue has received a new piece of good merchandise; I hear it's a large head that won't rot.

Upon hearing this, Xu Qing was like a cat that had caught the scent of fish.

People have heads, and heads have bodies; since there is a head, can the corpse be far behind?

"My lord, I'm familiar with this! Keeping a corpse from rotting is the basic entry-level skill for us in the funeral trade. It's possible this corpse passed through the hands of someone in my line of work. Why don't you let me go take a look? I might just be able to find some clues!"

Chen Guangrui looked at Shopkeeper Xu, who had stepped forward and was willing to contribute to the case, and felt very comforted.

"Good! This magistrate permits you to accompany the coroner to the morgue. If you find any leads, this magistrate will reward you handsomely!"

Having said that, Chen Guangrui instructed those around him: "What Xu Qing said makes sense. That a corpse does not rot is not necessarily some supernatural phenomenon. Constable Zhao, tomorrow you shall take the government office runners to all the funeral parlors and mourning shops to inquire about clues regarding this matter."

Constable Zhao was just about to answer when Xu Qing, who was preparing to leave the hall, kindly reminded him: "My lord, in this Linjiang County, besides my Xu Family Funeral Chain Store, there are no other funeral parlors. Any others are only in the villages outside the city. If Constable Zhao wants to search, he can go visit those outside the city."

Chen Guangrui frowned and said: "I recall there is still a Shi Family Bier Shop in the city..."

"That Shi Family Bier Shop went bankrupt and lost its assets; it has now been acquired by me and changed into the Xu Family Bier Shop."

"..."

Can one even go bankrupt doing business with the dead these days?

Chen Guangrui waved his hand, letting Xu Qing go down with Song Tu. When he saw Shang Shaoyang also wanting to follow, the County Magistrate frowned, but in the end, he did not speak to stop him.

Letting this second-generation heir help investigate a government office case was better than him being out of his sight and causing trouble everywhere. He didn't believe that under his own nose, any major chaos could occur.

After watching the few leave, Chen Guangrui suddenly slapped his forehead: "How could I have forgotten about this?"

"What matter?" the Private Secretary asked curiously.

"What else could it be? My grand armchair in the study was replaced by a small stool by someone. Who do you think did this?"

Chen Guangrui let out a cold snort, turned around, and flicked his sleeves as he left.

At the morgue, after Song Tu had properly placed the little girl's corpse, he led Xu Qing to the side of the head fished up by the angler.

"Uncle-Master Xu, this person's death mask is quite terrifying. Looking at the expression, it seems they encountered great fright before death, and they were likely killed by the culprit face-to-face!"

Song Tu lifted the white paper shroud covering the corpse, revealing the true face of the headless body.

But when Xu Qing saw the face on the head before him, he couldn't help but let out a cry of surprise.

He recognized this person. Half a month ago, someone had ordered a small, narrow coffin at his funeral shop, and after that, there was no further news. The appearance of that person matched this head exactly.

Xu Qing did not hide it; he stated the truth in front of Shang Shaoyang and the other, then added: "This person said that because the weather was hot and his child had drowned in the river while playing, he needed to order a coffin for the burial."

"Song Tu, tomorrow you can go notify Constable Zhao and have him follow this lead to make inquiries; perhaps there will be a harvest."

Although the case had not yet been cleared, the reason for the funeral shop customer's failure to show up seemed to be laid out in the open.

The customer had died, and naturally, no one came to collect the ordered coffin. This was a force majeure factor, so Xu Qing didn't think much more about it.

He reached out and touched the head on the cold stone bed; the *Sutra of Saving Souls* had no reaction.

As expected, a corpse that is too incomplete cannot be properly transcended.

The head before him, like the little girl's corpse, was neither rotting nor decaying. If the corpse had not been artificially damaged, then its torso must still be preserved somewhere.

"Song Tu, after this person's head was discovered, did the government office ever look for the corpse?"

Song Tu nodded and said: "They looked. 'Empty-Basket' Jiang from Tanggu Street often fishes in front of the Tanggu River..."

As if afraid Xu Qing and the other wouldn't understand, Song Tu added a sentence in the middle: "Empty-Basket Jiang's original name is Jiang Maochai, also called Jiang Konglou, simply because he always returns from fishing with an empty basket, hence the nickname. This Jiang Konglou has some tricks; usually, he doesn't catch fish, but he has fished up all sorts of other things."

"I heard he even fished up a cow not long ago..."

Song Tu recalled Jiang Konglou's past and couldn't help but say a few more words, but immediately after, he turned to the main topic and said: "After Jiang Konglou fished up the head, he didn't report it to the officials immediately. Instead, he put the head next to his fish basket and continued fishing, just because he had passed by Tanggu Bridge early that morning and had a fortune-teller cast a lot for him. The other party said he would definitely not return with an empty basket today and had a big catch to haul in, so he refused to leave."

"It wasn't until the sun was past noon that Jiang Konglou finally realized that the 'big catch' the fortune-teller spoke of was the head beside him."

Song Tu said helplessly: "By the time Jiang Konglou carried the head to report to the officials, it was already afternoon. If the corpse had been washed down from the upper reaches of the Tanggu River, I'm afraid it would have already been washed into the Baisha River during those half a day. How could it be easy to find it again?"

"Later, a group of government office runners dredged the river for half a day but didn't find the corpse, so the matter was left unsettled."

After hearing the cause and effect, Xu Qing already had a plan in mind. He said: "How about this, I will go to the riverbank with Young Master Shang to see if we can find the corpse..."

"The corpse is not easy to find, and besides, it is already late. If Uncle-Master Xu insists on searching, you might as well wait until tomorrow and find a government office runner to accompany you." Although Wang Lingyuan often said that Xu Qing's autopsy skills were superb, Song Tu did not believe that Xu Qing could find the deceased's corpse.

This had already gone beyond the scope of his understanding. Could Xu Qing actually ask the corpse's head where the body was?

Furthermore, the head and body had been separated for many days; even if the head could really talk, it might not know where its body was.

A few years ago, when the two fellow disciples Song Tu and Dou Yun occasionally received instruction from Xu Qing on autopsy techniques, the two, then fresh to the trade, might have greatly admired Xu Qing. But now, three or four years later, the two, who considered themselves to have thoroughly understood all the tricks of the autopsy trade, had already discarded the idea of "looking up to Uncle-Master Xu as a high mountain."

It is inevitable for people to have naive thoughts when they are young; this is understandable.

Song Tu advised one last time: "If Uncle-Master Xu insists on going, please wait a moment, let this nephew go get a lantern for illumination."

Xu Qing looked at the thoughtful Song Tu before him and always had the feeling that the other party was taking care of him like an old man out of touch with the times.

On the side, as soon as Shang Shaoyang heard they were going to find a corpse, he appeared more energetic than anyone else!

"This head might be the little girl's father..." Shang Shaoyang bowed to the head on the cold stone bed and said: "Old brother, just rest assured! This matter is handled by me! I will definitely be able to find the mastermind behind the scenes for you and bring him to justice!"

Xu Qing ignored Shang Shaoyang. He vaguely felt that the matter was not that simple. One must know that what the little girl had been saying was always, "My mother is gone, and my father doesn't want me."

There might be some hidden story in this.

Xu Qing took a lock of hair from the head on the cold stone bed and hid it in his sleeve.

When Song Tu brought the lantern, he and Shang Shaoyang left the government office and headed toward the Tanggu River.

On the way, Xu Qing took out the Corpse-Seeking Compass, ignited the hair he had swiped from the sleeve with a yellow talisman, then silently recited the Corpse-Seeking Incantation and pointed the burning yellow talisman at the compass.

Seeing this, Shang Shaoyang asked curiously: "Brother Xu, what is this?"

"I have a poor sense of direction and can't recognize the path, so I'm using the compass to see if I'm going the wrong way."

"A poor sense of direction? Brother Xu, don't try to fool me."

"That's impossible; if I lie to you, I'm not human."

Seeing that the other party had put it that way, Shang Shaoyang believed him a little.

The two twisted and turned, walking and stopping. When they arrived at the pitch-black Liuqing Street, a strange sound suddenly rang out behind them.

That sound didn't seem to come from a mouth; it sounded like it came from the chest cavity, muffled, with the movement of a trachea trembling.