“No, that can’t be it,” Long Qiao said. “Impossible.”
Xue Dongyang was still unconvinced. “Then explain why it’s impossible.”
Long Qiao said confidently, “If you were forced to cut off one of your fingers, which one would you cut?”
It was a good question. After gesturing for a while, Xue Dongyang raised his little finger.
The least useful one, and the least conspicuous.
“Exactly,” Long Qiao said. “Who would cut off their thumb?”
It was ridiculous, but unexpectedly logical.
Long Qiao even added, “Unless that person had only one thumb left.”
The mountain beside the Mortuary was frightening enough as it was, with the wind howling amid the scattered remains. After hearing this, it seemed even more terrifying. Old Man Zhou even cast a suspicious glance at Fang Mingyan, making Fang Mingyan wish he could throw the two of them down the mountain.
Jiang Yunxin rubbed her face vigorously. This was bad. At this terrifying moment, she had thought of the robotic cat’s hand, and even of that joke about playing rock-paper-scissors with the robotic cat. She absolutely could not laugh, or Fang Mingyan would definitely think she was even more perverted than Xue Dongyang.
“All right.” Fang Mingyan had no choice but to interrupt their flights of fancy. “I let you speak freely at the scene of the crime, not spout nonsense. Xiao Jiang says this finger may have been cut off by the corpse thief himself. In that case, our target is very likely a man with a severed finger.”
The target immediately became much more definite.
There were only so many villages around the Mortuary, and there could not be that many people. Even combined, the villages would have no more than a thousand residents.
A thousand people sounded frightening, but once the elderly, children, and women were excluded, along with anyone with impaired mobility, the number dropped further. Old Man Zhou had chased this person over an entire mountain, so he had to be young and strong.
Assuming half of the thousand were women, there would be five hundred men. Of those, having three hundred be young and able-bodied would already be generous.
Surely all three hundred could not have accidentally injured their fingers at the same time.
Fang Mingyan immediately sent someone back to the capital to call for more men. They were divided into several teams and sent to investigate the surrounding villages.
They were to find anyone whose finger had recently been injured or severed.
To avoid overlooking anyone, they would bring in women and the elderly as well.
There was always a chance. People in the mountains worked year-round, and some of the women were stronger than the scholars in the capital.
By the time all this had been arranged, dawn was nearly upon them. There was no need to return to the capital, so Fang Mingyan decided they would go to the nearby Springwater Village, find a local household where they could rest for a while, and begin their investigation there.
It was inconvenient to ride horses up and down the mountain. Old Man Zhou was extremely familiar with the area, so they simply walked.
Jiang Yunxin trudged listlessly along behind them. Thinking that every trip in the future might involve dismounting and walking like this one, she felt utterly hopeless about life.
If she died of exhaustion, would that count as a workplace injury? Even if it did, there was no one in this era she wanted to leave the compensation money to.
Sigh…
Old Man Zhou was not particularly reliable either. Along the way, he said more than a dozen times that they were almost there. But by the time they reached Springwater Village, the sky was already fully light.
They did not enter the village by the main road. Old Man Zhou led them along a narrow path. With a rustle of leaves, they emerged from the woods one after another, only to be met by an indescribable smell.
“Ugh…” Almost everyone retched.
Jiang Yunxin had seen and endured all kinds of things, but even she could barely stand this stench. It was not the smell of a corpse. It seemed to be the rank, fishy odor of some animal.
“Hey, this way, come over here. Don’t stand there—the smell is worse downwind.” Old Man Zhou clearly knew what it was. As soon as he emerged from the woods, he hurried forward and called to them, “This household raises pigs. The smell is especially strong in summer. It’s fine as long as you keep your distance.”
Old Man Zhou pointed, and sure enough, the stench was coming from the nearby courtyard. If they listened carefully, they could also hear pigs grunting and squealing.
No one knew what to say.
Although Old Man Zhou now lived at the Mortuary, a man still had to eat and drink. Springwater Village was the nearest village to the Mortuary, so he often came here to buy wine and meat. This pig-raising household was where he bought his meat.
“The butcher here is surnamed Tu, and his name is Tu Zhengde. Don’t be fooled by the fact that he slaughters pigs—he’s a very good man. I come here every month to buy some meat and treat myself, and he always gives me a little extra offal or something to go with it.” Old Man Zhou explained, “He has a mother in poor health to care for. He was afraid that if he married, his wife would treat his mother badly, so he’s still unmarried despite his age. He’s a truly devoted son.”
Jiang Yunxin admired and respected a filial son like that.
A man should care for his own mother himself. There was nothing wrong with that.
One must never outsource one’s filial duty.
Many people did not want to care for their own parents, yet still wanted the reputation of being filial. So they married a wife to do the caring for them. If she did a good job, the credit went to the husband; if she did a poor job, all the blame fell on her.
Old Man Zhou said warmly, “Lord Fang has walked all this way, and everyone is tired. Why don’t we rest at Boss Tu’s house and have some water?”
Everyone hesitated, and Fang Mingyan hesitated as well.
It was not that he looked down on butchers. After all, everyone needed to eat meat. But with such a strong smell, how were they supposed to rest?
Fang Mingyan was an official of the Judicial Review Office who had seen countless bloody and revolting things. He was also a noble young master from an influential family in the capital. When he was not working on a case, however, he still liked to keep clean.
The moment Old Man Zhou saw Fang Mingyan hesitate, he understood.
“Boss Tu’s courtyard is very clean,” Old Man Zhou explained. “It’s only the pigsty that smells bad… You just have to stay a little farther away…”
That was pure nonsense. Jiang Yunxin had visited pig farms before. The smell of the pigpens was bad enough, but the odor seeped into everything. It was not only inside the pig farm—even the area several hundred yards away reeked.
Just as Fang Mingyan was about to refuse again, they suddenly heard someone speaking inside.
There was more than one person.
A man’s voice said, “Look at your hand. It’s still bleeding. Stop trying to tough it out. Go find a doctor and have some medicine applied. It’s not as though this pig has to be slaughtered today.”
The moment everyone heard that, they pricked up their ears.
An injured hand?
“It’s nothing.” Another man’s deep, powerful voice replied. “It’s only a small wound. Once it’s wrapped, it’ll be fine. The Zhang family arranged this several days ago. They need half a pig for their banquet, so we can’t delay them.”
Fang Mingyan immediately said, “We’ve walked a long way and happen to be tired. Let’s go in and rest.”
Old Man Zhou did not think much of it. He was tired as well and wanted to ask the butcher for some water and rest for a while, so he led the way inside.
“Boss Tu.” Old Man Zhou greeted the people inside as soon as he entered.
Fortunately, although there was still a smell inside, it was not the waves of overpowering stench they had encountered earlier. It was still bearable.
In the large courtyard stood a huge chopping block. The pig was not particularly large, but it had been tied down on its back with all four legs in the air and was squealing loudly.
There were more than two men beside it. Including Tu Zhengde, there were four men in all.
Slaughtering a pig was strenuous work. Pigs were not weak, either. When a pig weighing two or three hundred pounds struggled, even one strong man could not subdue it—unless he was someone like Fang Mingyan, who knew martial arts.