Chapter 84: Chicken Blood

"Chief Heifu, where are those few garrison conscripts? Why haven't they come back yet?"

Elsewhere, in the village head's home, Feng, the headman of Blind Mountain Village, rose to glance outside as if troubled by something on his mind.

"Perhaps they've gone too far. No need to mind them, Headman. You and I should continue our talk."

On the surface Heifu wore a cheerful smile, but inwardly his thoughts never paused for an instant.

His plan was actually very simple: stall the village officers who might shield the local folk, along with the villagers who had come to gawk, and let their guard down. Meanwhile, Ji Ying and Li Xian would take the chance to nose around the village, see if any house looked suspicious, and whether it held the person they were looking for…

In his previous life, as a police academy graduate, he had picked up a fair bit about trafficking cases. A veteran from the force had even given them a lecture once — on his ten years working trafficking.

In class, the old-timer had spoken entirely in stiff, proper platitudes: the harm trafficking did to society, the state's achievements in combating it, and so on…

But after class, when they sat down to eat together, a few cups of liquor down his throat, the old man began to speak his mind.

The veteran said that in trafficking cases in those remote mountain villages, the whole village was usually complicit. A palm-sized place — you couldn't avoid seeing each other every day; who didn't know what was going on in whose house? And often, once one family made a purchase, the neighbors would follow suit. A whole nest of crime — pull up one radish and out comes the mud.

Even the village cadres would help cover it up, because if they didn't, their post as village official was finished. That was why, on several trafficking raids, the moment the police cars entered the village, the entire village would mobilize to block and obstruct them, refusing to let them pass — all because the snakes had been startled.

The villagers possessed a kind of invisible collective consciousness. On this matter especially, they were very united. Because if you didn't help someone else hold down his wife today, then tomorrow when your own wife ran off, you'd have nothing left. In the village, buying a wife cost at least several thousand, up to tens of thousands — basically a family's entire savings, a lifetime's worth, enough to afford just one.

In a place like that, buying an ox — that was also about one in a lifetime, wasn't it?

The gap between human and beast is sometimes that small.

So what do you do in that situation? Open fire? The veteran chuckled and said, impossible — that would spark a violent incident, and everyone would be in deep trouble. In the end, all you could do was slink away like a defeated army, hoping to come back better prepared next time. But by the time you returned, the person would already be impossible to find…

If things were still like that in the 80s and 90s of later ages, how much more so in this Qin, over two thousand years ago?

Heifu did not trust the village officers of Blind Mountain Village one bit. Asking them about abduction and trafficking was no different from plotting with a tiger for its hide.

He could only play the part of a mediocre, incompetent garrison chief, putting on the look of a man ready to wallow in the same mire as the village officers. In any case, information was so cut off here that from the officers down to the villagers, no one even knew his name or his deeds.

The plan had been going smoothly at first, but now, the villagers who had come to watch the excitement had gradually dispersed, while Li Xian and Ji Ying remained utterly silent. The longer it dragged on, the more the headman's suspicions would grow. Heifu's stalling tactic was about to lose its effect.

Just at that moment, the headman's dull-witted younger brother, a man in his twenties, came running out, shouting and yelling at them, breaking the awkward silence of having nothing left to say. The headman frowned and hastily had someone drag him away, then sighed and explained that this younger brother of his had fallen and struck his head as a child and had been like this ever since.

And then, the chicken was finally slaughtered…

A cook who looked like an old matron carried a pottery li-cauldron into the main hall. Before everyone's eyes, she poured in a little rice wine, added some wild Sichuan pepper, salt, and sauce, stirred it rapidly with a wooden stick several dozen times, then poured the steaming contents of the li into a pottery bowl…

The color that met the eye was vivid — fresh, hot, bright-red chicken blood, with a few wild Sichuan peppercorns floating on top and a layer of bloody froth. When it was set before Heifu, a thick, rank stench hit him full in the face.

"Chief Heifu, please, eat!"

The headman and the village clerk introduced it, saying that raw chicken blood was a delicacy hereabouts, good for invigorating the blood and restoring deficiency. As they spoke, the two of them demonstrated by downing a bowl of raw chicken blood each, then belched, looking thoroughly satisfied.

Dongmen Bao also tried a mouthful, furrowed his brow, but in the end finished the bowl.

Now it was Heifu's turn to feel a headache coming on. Raw chicken blood — this was probably a recipe handed down from the Pu and Yue peoples of the Jianghan region. Nowadays, the common folk in the remote villages of Nan Commandery were mostly descendants of those two peoples, only their language had been Chu-ified.

Although one had to eat at least a little of the food a host presented to be polite, Heifu truly did not want to drink this…

He was afraid of parasites. If he caught something, it would be no laughing matter.

So Heifu raised the pottery bowl, and just as he was about to drain it, he suddenly clutched his stomach and cried out in pain, excusing himself by saying he had to visit the privy.

After Heifu hurried off, the headman and the village clerk could not hide the scorn in their eyes. They even laughed and said, "Chief Heifu couldn't possibly be afraid of a bowl of raw chicken blood, could he…"

Dongmen Bao, standing nearby, flew into a rage at these words. Wiping the blood from his lips, he was about to go over and give those two a harsh lesson — let them know that the Huyang Garrison Post was where the most vicious and desperate thugs in Anlu County gathered!

But remembering Heifu's instructions to him, the thief-catcher just barely restrained himself.

And so the headman and the village clerk grew even more contemptuous of Heifu…

Had they known that what they had led through their door was a fierce tiger and not a village cur, what would they have thought then?

…

"Why can't I go to that privy over there?"

In the headman's courtyard, on his way to the privy, Heifu was stopped by the headman's nephew, who adamantly refused to let him go that way. Instead, he was led to a corner of the wall and invited to make do and relieve himself there.

Without batting an eye, Heifu undid his belt while drawing out this simple, honest young man in conversation.

"That spot is off-limits — could it be because bondservants are locked up next to it? Were those bondservants bought from outside? By the way, has the headman's younger brother taken a wife?"

The headman's nephew woodenly nodded, then immediately shook his head vigorously. When Heifu tried to question him further, he refused to utter another half-word.

Rebuffed, Heifu began to ponder what he should do next.

The bowl of chicken blood was a trivial matter, of course. What worried him was: what if Ji Ying and Li Xian came up empty-handed, found nothing at all?

Just then, from the distance, a sharp whistle suddenly rang out — "Shwee!"

Heifu jerked his head up, and then heard a second, and a third!

Shwee! Shwee! The whistle was shrieking in urgent, frantic wails!

Three sharp whistle blasts came from the north end of the village, piercing through a distance of over a hundred paces to reach the sky above the headman's house, leaving the people nearby bewildered.

Only Heifu's expression instantly turned grim.

He had once asked his brother-in-law in the county seat to help forge a few small bronze whistles — brass for the body, high-quality cork for the pea. They could produce a very shrill sound, clearly audible from over a hundred paces away! The item had now become standard gear for the beat officers of Huyang Post. In an era where communication basically relied on shouting, a bronze whistle could undoubtedly be of enormous use.

Before entering Blind Mountain Village, Heifu had left one bronze whistle with Little Tao, given another to Li Xian, and kept one for himself.

He and Li Xian had agreed to use the bronze whistles to stay in contact, blowing them only if they ran into danger.

One blast meant the person hadn't been found, but there was danger.

Two blasts meant the person had been found, but they had run into danger.

And three blasts… meant the situation was already extremely complicated, that they were in imminent mortal peril, and needed immediate rescue!

"Something's definitely gone wrong!"

Heifu immediately fastened his belt and strode quickly back to the hall.

Inside the house, the headman and the village clerk had not heard the whistles outside. By now they held Heifu in some contempt and did not even rise, merely remaining seated where they were and laughing, "The chief comes at just the right moment — the chicken blood is still warm…"

The words had barely left their mouths when a great shout suddenly burst from outside!

"Help!"

…

It was a woman's shrill voice!

Heifu turned his head to look — and saw that inside the courtyard, in the direction he had just been blocked from going, a woman had shoved aside the village chief's dull-witted younger brother and was running this way like a madwoman, only to be suddenly seized by two people who tried to cover her mouth as well…

But the woman bit down hard on the hand covering her mouth, and in the brief moment she had, she screamed toward Heifu: "Save me! I was abducted and sold here — my name is Yuan…"

Before she could finish, she was dealt a vicious slap that knocked her unconscious, and the village chief's two family members forcibly dragged her away — she must have been working in the back courtyard earlier, and had seized the chance to run out when the whistle drew everyone's attention.

"Yuan…" Heifu chewed on the name, and sudden understanding dawned.

So all along, they had been riding a donkey while searching for a donkey!

At this moment, the bushy-bearded village chief had already risen to his feet, his face deeply embarrassed, and he kept explaining: "Sheriff, don't listen to her nonsense — she's my younger brother's wife. What could we do? No woman was willing to marry him, so we had to make do with a mad bondservant woman. Come, come, let's keep talking — the chicken blood must be drunk while it's hot, and the chicken meat is nearly done too…"

"Yes, yes, there are madwomen everywhere — just now, I didn't hear a thing!"

Heifu laughed loudly too, but inwardly he thought coldly: This fellow really has some nerve — a village chief who knows the law yet breaks it, taking the lead in buying an abducted and trafficked woman to be his idiot brother's wife…

As if he didn't take it seriously at all, he picked up that bowl of chicken blood and walked toward the village chief, saying as he went that he would treat this as wine, to toast his host's warm hospitality.

The village chief had no idea what Heifu was thinking and suspected nothing — but who could have guessed that when Heifu raised the bowl before him, his smile vanished and he struck out violently!

A bowl of chicken blood smashed squarely onto the village chief's head!

The pottery bowl gave a sharp crack and shattered into several pieces; that bright red blood splattered everywhere, carrying bits of Sichuan pepper and clots of blood, sticking in sticky globs all over the village chief's topknot and thick beard — impossible to tell whether it was chicken blood or the village chief's blood…

Heifu was truly furious now, and he burst out cursing: "Madwomen are everywhere — it's only thanks to you that Blind Mountain has so many more!"

The village chief was stunned by the blow; Heifu seized his arm and threw him with a shoulder throw, slamming him hard onto the low table and smashing it to pieces, then twisted his arm behind his back — only then did the village chief howl in pain!

Everyone was stupefied by this sudden turn of events — only Heifu raised his head and shouted to Dongmen Bao: "Ah-Bao, strike!"

"Aye!"

Dongmen Bao had been holding back for a long while, ever since he heard the village chief and Tian Dian mocking Heifu for cowardice, saying this sheriff didn't even dare drink chicken blood. Now he sprang to his feet in one motion, like a nimble leopard, and lunged fiercely at Tian Dian, who was still standing there in a daze — pinning him to the ground!

The village chief's family members heard the commotion and rushed over at once, grabbing whatever was at hand — kitchen knives, wooden clubs — but when they reached the hall, they found it in complete disarray, chicken blood splattered all over the floor…

Behind, Heifu already had his sword laid across the village chief's throat, rendering him unable to move.

In front, Dongmen Bao had Tian Dian pinned under his foot; he flung open his own lapels, revealing the leather armor underneath, and the two hand-axes tucked at his waist!

One man facing five, Dongmen Bao showed not a trace of fear; his eyes bulging wide, he bellowed:

"Who dares take half a step closer! Your grandpa here will splash you all with this dog-official's blood!"

PS: A new week begins — the author, face covered in chicken blood, begs for recommendation votes…

(End of chapter)