The Night Watcher of Great Jing - Chapter 44

When a member of the emperor’s personal force—the supposedly sinister and ruthless Jingning Guard whose name stopped children from crying—held up her badge and informed you that your cooperation was required, what could you do?

The village head’s calves trembled as he obeyed Zhao Li. He led the villagers in surrounding the courtyard and forbade anyone from entering or leaving.

The constables from the Five Cities Military Patrol Office looked at one another. In the end, they submitted and waited for whoever stood behind their superior to come rescue him.

As for Fang Huai, whose missing teeth made air whistle through his words, his mouth was stuffed with a dirty rag. He was dragged inside with Granny Oil and her nephew.

After some thought, Cuixiang’s father summoned his eldest son. Armed with carrying poles, the two stood guard before the door.

Zhao Li sat on a stool in the main room of Cuixiang’s home. Three people bound like silkworm cocoons lay before her.

Zheng Lian stood beside her with his saber in hand. At Zhao Li’s signal, he hauled Granny Oil forward first and pulled the dirty rag from her mouth.

The instant it came out, Granny Oil burst into loud wails, crying injustice to heaven and earth.

Her noise gave Zhao Li a headache.

“Zheng Lian.”

At once, Zheng Lian sheathed his saber, pulled a small dagger from his boot, and grinned viciously.

“Yes!”

The grin made his already gaunt face look positively sinister.

Granny Oil, who had been howling about the Jingning Guard abusing a poor, widowed old woman, lowered her voice to a whimper.

“I’ve been wronged…”

“When did you see the second Chen son’s wife leave with someone?”

“On the first day of the third lunar month.”

Granny Oil answered almost without thought.

“What time?”

“The hour of the Dog.”

Again, Granny Oil answered without hesitation.

“It was at the entrance to the village. I saw her with my own eyes, embracing a man in gray before they left together.”

Zhao Li barked, “What were you doing at the village entrance so late?”

Granny Oil raised her chin. “An old friend in the neighboring village invited me to drink, so I returned late. My lord may investigate it however you please.”

“What happened afterward?”

Sensing Zhao Li’s tone soften, Granny Oil became even more confident.

“The two stood outside the village and confessed their feelings to each other. They said all manner of sickeningly sweet things. The peddler in gray even said he had waited for the Chen wife a long time.”

“So you heard them?”

“Yes! I heard them clearly and saw them clearly. It was the second Chen son’s wife and the traveling peddler who often came through the village.”

“Nonsense.”

Zheng Lian backhanded her across the face.

“Two people planning to elope stood at the village entrance proclaiming their love loudly enough for you to hear?”

The slap filled Granny Oil’s mouth with the taste of iron. She immediately revised her account.

“They weren’t loud. Their faces were close together, and they whispered.”

Smack!

Before she finished, Zheng Lian struck her again.

“They pressed their faces together and whispered, yet you heard them? How close were you standing? Were they dead? How else could they have failed to notice you?”

Granny Oil’s cheeks turned bright red. Zheng Lian had restrained his strength, but the two slaps still brought blood between her teeth.

The other two bound men whimpered through their gags.

Zhao Li then asked when Granny Oil had seen the abductors lead the children away.

Even after two slaps, with blood filling her mouth, Granny Oil described the time and place of every abduction with perfect clarity. She could even name the patterns on the abductors’ clothes.

Throughout her account, she stared fixedly at Zhao Li.

If Zhao Li had not studied lie detection as an elective in modern times, the woman might truly have deceived her.

Lies required no searching of memory. A liar could rattle off every invented detail without error while staring directly at the listener to judge whether the deception had worked.

Granny Oil was extraordinarily slippery, but she displayed every fundamental sign of a liar.

Zhao Li snorted. “It seems you still misunderstand the Jingning Guard.”

“Zheng Lian, apply the torture.”

“Yes.”

Zheng Lian stepped forward, planted a boot on Granny Oil’s hand, twisted his dagger, and pried off one of her fingernails.

Her agonized scream echoed through the room.

The two men who had been whimpering instantly fell silent.

“The woman eloped! The children were abducted!”

Granny Oil gritted her teeth and refused to admit she had lied.

At that moment, a timid voice came from outside.

“My lord, the second Chen son has returned.”

Zhao Li received the marriage certificate he had brought and began calculating his wife’s fate.

Her heart sank sharply at the result.

The woman had been born in a yin year, yin month, yin day, and yin hour.

On the third day of the third lunar month, her fate had entered Emptiness. Not only was she already among the dead, but she had suffered an exceptionally violent death and showed no sign of finding peace.

Zhao Li stared at Granny Oil, who lay on the floor hissing through her pain.

“The second Chen daughter-in-law is dead.”

Panic flashed across Granny Oil’s face, but she quickly concealed it.

“I don’t know anything.”

Her face had gone bloodless, and her eyes darted constantly.

“She was carrying a child. Two lives were lost at once,” Zhao Li said quietly as she sat back down.

“If the second Chen daughter-in-law is dead, the children taken with her likely met no better fate.”

Granny Oil shuddered and quickly bowed her head.

Zhao Li gave a soft laugh. She had Zheng Lian gag the old woman again and drag Fang Huai forward.

Throughout Granny Oil’s interrogation, Zhao Li had watched all three captives.

Leaving Granny Oil aside, her nephew had shown no obvious surprise. He plainly knew something.

Considering Great Jing’s punishments for traffickers and ritual harvesting and mutilation, forcing the aunt and nephew to confess would be difficult.

But one person present was different—Fang Huai.

When he heard that the matter involved a pregnant woman and children, he had shouted twice through his gag, shaking his head in terror.

The instant the dirty rag came out of his mouth, he blurted, “I knew nothing about this.”

Fang Huai was not entirely brainless. One look at Granny Oil told him that she had to be involved.

When he came, he had assumed it was a minor case that could be suppressed through his influence.

He had felt a little nervous upon seeing the Jingning Guard, but when he discovered that the team was led by Zhao Li, a raw newcomer, he decided it could not be anything serious.

He had never imagined the Jingning Guard would be outrageous enough to place a trafficking and murder case in the hands of a woman who had joined only days earlier.

Cursing himself for being tripped up by what had seemed a minor matter, Fang Huai began explaining from the floor.

Granny Oil’s nephew, You Xiang, was a parasitic hanger-on among Fang Huai’s circle of idle young dandies.

Such hangers-on were shiftless but well informed.

Perhaps a restaurant had introduced an extravagant new dish, or perhaps a brothel keeper had a young virgin prostitute seeking her first patron…

They learned the news, made the introductions, and earned a little money with each favor to feed themselves and their families.

Some days earlier, You Xiang had brought him money and goods as a gift. He said only that he might encounter a little trouble.

Fang Huai had accepted the payment in front of everyone and thumped his chest as he promised to help.

When You Xiang came rushing to him today, Fang Huai had thought nothing of it and brought men along.

He had never expected to collide with something like this.

At that point, Fang Huai raised his head to Zhao Li.

“Miss Zhao, I truly knew nothing. That lowlife set me up. If you release me this once, I’ll make it well worth your while.”

Blood covered his whiskers, and gaps showed in his teeth. His speech would whistle for the rest of his life.

Zhao Li smiled. “After what I did to you, you don’t hold a grudge?”