Chapter 299: Corpse

Yin Suqin's foul mouth was originally famous because he liked to tell stories, and now he was telling a ghost story, telling it with great enthusiasm, so he temporarily restored some of his previous demeanor.

After he finished speaking, he suddenly reacted to who was opposite him, immediately closed his mouth, took a step back, and fell silent.

Li Miao didn't look at him, just twisted his fingers and pondered secretly.

This Xue Bangzhu that the two talked about...

How should I put it, it's a bit like shooting an arrow first and then drawing the target.

First, the appearance, just the brows and eyes being similar, thousands of people in Kaifeng Prefecture can be found, which can't be counted as evidence. And the things the two said later, in fact, can't be counted as seamless.

First of all, the thief who annihilated her family back then, this kind of person is rarely seen in front of people, and it is easiest to die quietly, so saying Xue Bangzhu is a hidden expert just based on this point is actually a bit far-fetched.

Even if this point is skipped, the righteous village matter is also a bit unreasonable. If Xue Bangzhu is an expert, even if she is sixty or seventy years old, she has a foundation, how could she be knocked unconscious by a few commoners pushing her?

Furthermore, Yingzhou has been hunting down Penglai people, and killed Zheng Yi's mother ten years ago, logically these Penglai people should be the ones who least want to attract attention. But this Xue Bangzhu made such a big scene, even the storyteller knew it, doesn't she fear Yingzhou people coming to her door?

Moreover, the second half of this story was inquired from the storyteller, and the truth of it is worth considering.

Cao Hanyan and Yin Suqin are not fools, they wouldn't fail to notice these. I think they were forced by the "three-day" deadline, so they had to bite the bullet and come to Li Miao to hand in the task.

Thinking of this, Li Miao looked at the two with a smile that wasn't a smile. Sweat appeared on the two's foreheads immediately, and awkward and pleasing smiles appeared on their faces.

"Forget it."

"Idle is idle, no matter what the origin of this Xue Bangzhu is, just for this lively ghost story, I have to go take a look."

Li Miao stood up, raised his hand and handed the paper the two gave him to the two maids: "I don't need you to serve me here, go hand these things to your prefect, check the criminal case files to see if there are any records of the merchant disappearance case."

These two maids were sent by the Kaifeng prefect to serve Li Miao, so they nodded and turned away.

Li Miao pointed at Yin Suqin.

"Don't be idle either, go scout the righteous village."

Yin Suqin's face turned white, he gritted his teeth, turned and was about to leave, but was pulled by Cao Hanyan, and the two tore at each other for a while. Cao Hanyan turned to Li Miao and begged.

"Lord Li, he really just drank too much and spoke out of turn... it's not necessary to take his life! If it really doesn't work—I'll go with him!"

Li Miao laughed when he heard this.

These two still remembered the finger Li Miao pointed, plus the three-day deadline mentioned earlier, so they thought they only had three days to live. Now Li Miao sent Yin Suqin out, and he thought he was letting him fend for himself.

Both were quite loyal, Yin Suqin turned and left, fearing he would implicate Cao Hanyan. Cao Hanyan pulled Yin Suqin, begged Li Miao for mercy, and wanted to go die with Yin Suqin.

Li Miao looked at them tearing at each other for a long time with a smile that wasn't a smile, until the two noticed something wrong and stopped, then he said with a smile.

"When did I say that you two would die in three days?"

The two were stunned in unison.

After a while, Yin Suqin said with a crying face.

"Lord Li, senior, ancestor... give me a clear word, whether you want my life or not..."

"How many days can I live... let me be a clear ghost, okay?"

In Yin Suqin's pleading voice, Li Miao turned and went back into the room without looking back.

A mischievous smile appeared from the crack of the door.

Then "bang" closed the door.

————————

That evening.

Abandoned righteous village.

Yin Suqin and Cao Hanyan were distracted by the bonfire, suddenly, Yin Suqin sighed: "Sigh—"

"Brother Cao, sorry."

Cao Hanyan shook his head.

"'Friends are cut and polished,' I knew Brother Yin had this bad habit but couldn't persuade you, instead I kept leading you to talk, it is appropriate to be taught a lesson by Lord Li."

"Let's not talk about this first—what now?"

Yin Suqin smiled bitterly.

"Don't know."

"You and I have been here since noon, and have turned this righteous village over, where are there any ghosts?"

Yin Suqin looked left and right.

This righteous village was originally a broken shed built randomly, far from the official road, and abandoned for several years, already crumbling.

A few long tables were placed in the center, which should have been used for stopping corpses before, and they were also covered with a thick layer of dust, and there were thick layers of corpse oil, blood stains, and other things under the dust.

The door panels had been removed by someone, the cross-breeze blew through, and everything in the house that could shake was creaking. The firelight was jumping wildly on the wall.

With this atmosphere, people with small courage wouldn't need to prepare a night pot if they slept here for a night—washing pants the next day would be enough.

But the two sat until midnight, but didn't see a ghost hair.

The two were at their wits' end, so they took Xue Bangzhu's matter to hand in the task. The more they sat, the more panicked they became—with Li Miao's methods, if there was nothing here, who knew what kind of suffering would follow?

After pondering for a while, Cao Hanyan stood up first.

"Brother Yin, you are injured and it's inconvenient to move, just sit for a while, I'll go to the back of the righteous village and turn it over to see."

After saying that, he turned and walked out of the shed.

Behind the shed was a dilapidated thatched cottage, which should have been Xue Bangzhu's residence back then, even the roof was gone, the door was broken, and the weeds were full outside the door, and even mushrooms grew on the wall.

One glance could see it clearly.

He had been here during the day, the things in the house had long been picked up by someone, the house was empty, leaving only an earthen bed built of stone mixed with mud, on which were some rotten dry grass.

One glance could see it clearly.

To say the only place that hadn't been turned over—Cao Hanyan thought for a while, drew his saber with a clang, and stabbed it into the earthen bed with a hiss.

As soon as the saber went in, Cao Hanyan frowned.

"Not deep enough?"

This earthen bed was also a foot high, his long saber was two feet long, inserted to the root, but didn't touch the bottom.

Cao Hanyan pulled out the saber to scrape off the weeds on the earthen bed, and inserted the saber in again to shake it, opening a hole on it.

As soon as this hole was opened, a foul smell rushed out from inside, the taste was simply like someone reaching into Cao Hanyan's nasal cavity with their hand, fiercely slapping Cao Hanyan's brain, forcing him to retreat several steps, swallowing several mouthfuls of saliva.

Disgusting was disgusting, but a look of joy appeared on Cao Hanyan's face—this taste, was corpse stench.

He found the main subject.

Cao Hanyan took a fire starter from his bosom, lit it, and threw it in along the gap.

According to his thought, this Xue Bangzhu could be found by Li Miao, it definitely wasn't a simple character. This place shouldn't have a secret passage, hiding something extraordinary.

He threw the fire starter in, one was to probe whether the air below could be breathed, and the other was to see how deep it was below.

Who would have thought, as soon as the fire starter went in, only heard a "hiss."

It went out.

He didn't even have time to lean over and take a look.

It seemed that the hollow under this earthen bed wasn't very deep.

Cao Hanyan frowned, drew his saber horizontally!

Only heard a "hiss," the long saber cut in like tofu, from one side, and out from the other side.

Cao Hanyan stepped forward and slapped the edge of the "lid" he had cut out, with a bang, the earthen bed was lifted, revealing the things inside.

"Brother Cao! What's wrong—ugh!"

Yin Suqin heard the sound and ran over, was pushed out by the foul smell as soon as he entered the door, eased for a while, then covered his nose and walked in, looking at Cao Hanyan.

Cao Hanyan was standing by the earthen bed, neither speaking nor moving.

Yin Suqin followed his gaze and looked, only feeling a chill: "Brother Cao, this is!"

After this earthen bed was lifted, it revealed the hollow below. It wasn't big, just extending downward from the ground for two or three feet, large at the top and small at the bottom, rectangular, and the bottom was only a foot square.

In this foot-square space, a skeleton was stuffed "full."

Such a small space, even a young child couldn't lie down, but this skeleton was clearly the size of an adult—the head was folded behind the back, only the broken neck could be seen, the hands and feet were twisted in a circle, as if tied in a knot and entangled on the chest. The waist was folded in half, and the whole person was stuffed inside full.

A puddle of black water accumulated at the bottom, mixed with the filthy things analyzed from the corpse, reflected an oily light that made people feel nauseous when illuminated by the moonlight.

The extinguished fire starter was floating on this black water.

In the Great Shuo, I fear that apart from those who have seen witchcraft, not many Jianghu people have seen such a cruel and strange scene. Cao Hanyan endured not speaking, Yin Suqin was already cursing loudly.

"Your mother—what kind of thing!"

"This damn, what kind of grudge! Killed is killed, what is the point of trampling on the bones like this! What kind of demon is this Xue Bangzhu!"

The words hadn't fallen, a lazy voice suddenly came from outside.

"Cursed too early."

The two recognized Li Miao's voice, and hurriedly bowed and stepped aside.

Li Miao walked in, walked to the corpse pit by himself, glanced inside, and sneered. Zheng Yi followed in, also frowned by the foul smell.

Yin Suqin hesitated, and asked timidly.

"Lord, what do you mean by 'cursed too early' just now?"

Li Miao pointed, and Zheng Yi took out a stack of paper from her bosom and handed it to Yin Suqin.

"This is the case file sent by the Kaifeng prefect."

"This prefect is careful, knowing I wanted to check this Xue Bangzhu, he organized all the case files about her, and even sent the old yamen runner who handled the case back then."

Li Miao looked at the corpse and said.

"The first page records the merchant disappearance case. It matches what you two said, and there is a piece of news you didn't inquire about—a passerby passed by the righteous village that night and vaguely smelled a bloody smell."

Yin Suqin raised his head abruptly.

"Then Lord, this Xue Bangzhu really—"

Li Miao waved his hand.

"Look at the second page."

Yin Suqin hurriedly looked down. The second page of paper recorded an annihilation case that happened in the neighboring prefecture, the details were extremely detailed, hundreds of words.

He hadn't finished reading, Cao Hanyan on the side pointed to the last sentence of the record: "Brother Yin, look here."

Yin Suqin looked at it, this last sentence was written in the tone of an official handling the case, only one sentence: "The method of this case seems to be the same as the annihilation case in Kaifeng Prefecture last month, it should be done by one person."

Below was the date—Jiajing 4th year, September 8th.

Yin Suqin turned back to the first page, which recorded the date of the annihilation case of Xue Bangzhu's husband's family—Jiajing 4th year, August 12th.

Yin Suqin widened his eyes.

"This 'No Trace,' didn't die back then!"

Li Miao nodded.

"At least in the few days Xue Bangzhu disappeared, he was still alive. And he had the heart to annihilate another family in the second month, and then completely disappeared."

Yin Suqin was silent.

Since "No Trace" was still alive, Xue Bangzhu knowing Wu Gong had no basis.

But he still didn't understand, so he asked.

"Then, where did this Xue Bangzhu go for these two or three days, and ran back with blood on her feet? What is her origin, and how to explain the things that happened in the righteous village?"

Li Miao didn't answer, pointing to the stack of case files.

"Third page."

Yin Suqin hurriedly looked.

This third page recorded the testimonies of the few surviving servants of Xue Bangzhu's husband's family back then, as well as the neighbors' testimonies.

After Xue Bangzhu disappeared back then, the yamen suspected that Xue Bangzhu colluded with outsiders to murder her husband and then fled, although it was left unsettled later, this testimony was extremely detailed.

Yin Suqin scanned it up and down, but didn't understand. Because the things recorded on it were no different from what he inquired about, he didn't know what Li Miao let him look at.

It was Cao Hanyan who spoke.

"Brother Yin, look at the servant's testimony."

"What we inquired about is that Xue Bangzhu returned as usual, and moved outside the city after the dharma ceremony—but it is written here that Xue Bangzhu was silent after returning, as if she was too sad to speak."

"And here, the person handling the case back then recorded Xue Bangzhu's appearance in detail, including limb length, waist circumference, it should be because he was afraid she would disappear again."

Li Miao raised his eyebrows, turned to look at Cao Hanyan, and smiled: "You are a smart one, hmm, the martial arts foundation is also firm. How about it, are you interested in working under me?"

Cao Hanyan was silent for a while.

Li Miao waved his hand, not caring, and looked at Yin Suqin who was still pondering with a smile.

"How about it, do you see it?"

Yin Suqin shook his head.

Li Miao smiled and pointed at him.

"You are much worse than this friend of yours, only knowing how to play with your mouth, I don't know what you rely on to be famous with Little Anzi."

"Look at the numbers recorded on this arm length, restore her stature in your heart—don't you feel a bit familiar?"

Li Miao looked at the corpse in the pit that was "stacked" out of shape with his hands behind his back, and said indifferently.

"You ask where Xue Bangzhu went in the few days she disappeared after discovering her family was annihilated, I don't know. But where she is now, it is clear."

In Yin Suqin's shocked gaze, Li Miao pointed to the corpse in the corpse pit.

"That Xue Bangzhu, isn't she lying in front of you?"

(End of chapter) ===== CHAPTER 300 =====