The Night Watcher of Great Jing - Chapter 76

Old Man Liu’s third son had the undersized corpse bearer by the collar.

He shook the thin man back and forth. “Pay us! Pay for my sister!”

Then he heard a clear female voice shout from the side, “All of you, shut the hell up!”

Anger rose in him. Who was that?

He turned and saw a pretty girl in ordinary clothes.

He sneered inwardly and was about to snap at her when the corpse bearer in his grip called, “Hundred-Household Commander Zhao?”

Old Man Liu’s third son froze.

What Hundred-Household Commander Zhao? Did he mean the sort of commander they thought he did?

His hand loosened.

The corpse bearer dropped like a tiger descending from the mountains and landed at Zhao Li’s feet.

“Hundred-Household Commander Zhao, you have to save this humble man!”

Zhao Li took one look and recognized him.

It was Old Yi, the corpse bearer who had guided them to Lin Yu’s grave at Mount Jin.

They had rewarded him with silver after that matter was settled. She had not expected to encounter him again today.

Old Yi wept with tears and mucus streaming down his face.

“Hundred-Household Commander Zhao, you must save this humble man!”

Zhao Li raised a hand and cut off his lament.

“Head Constable Xing, please disperse the crowd and close the gate. Do not let unrelated people approach.”

Great Jing’s laws prohibited crowds from gathering to discuss ghosts and spirits.

Head Constable Xing knew this and hurried to obey.

As the constables dispersed the spectators, Old Man Liu’s three sons stopped making trouble.

Even obstinate commoners knew how to read the situation. A young woman who could command the Five Cities Military Patrol Office and held the rank of Hundred-Household Commander was not someone to provoke.

The brothers obediently cooperated and hurried into the house to bring out several benches.

The crowd soon dispersed, leaving the courtyard quiet.

Zhao Li inspected the small, simple home.

It was poor but kept reasonably clean.

A shed stood in one corner, sheltering a cart and a skinny old horse.

The main room had been converted into a mourning hall. Two shriveled fruits and two plates of moldy pastries sat stingily on the offering table.

With such miserable offerings, no wonder their father refused to leave.

After making a circuit, Zhao Li returned and briefly displayed her badge.

“What happened? Tell me.”

When the three sons saw the words *Thousand-Household Commander*, they immediately knelt in a row.

“Our father died, but his coffin couldn’t be lifted. We followed custom and made a Filial Son Bridge. Then this corpse bearer’s rope broke, and the coffin fell on our youngest sister.”

After finishing, the third son puffed out his chest, convinced justice was on his side.

Old Yi looked deeply wronged.

“Hundred-Household Commander Zhao—no, Thousand-Household Commander Zhao—we corpse bearers consider it a terrible taboo for a coffin to touch the ground. We fear accidents, so our hemp ropes are frequently replaced and inspected!”

“The ropes were perfectly sound when I left home this morning.”

Old Man Liu’s eldest son interrupted. “Just tell us whether your rope broke.”

He was very good at seizing the decisive point and struck Old Yi directly where it hurt.

Aggrieved, Old Yi said, “I don’t know how it broke!”

When they seemed ready to argue again, Zhao Li impatiently cut them off.

“Enough, enough.”

She was not favoring someone she knew.

She had examined the broken rope. It was as thick as a thumb, and its frayed ends looked as if they had been torn apart by tremendous force.

This had not been a simple accident.

Zhao Li looked at the three brothers.

“I heard your father asked for a good coffin and burial place before he died. Did you provide them?”

The brothers immediately began stammering, looking from one to another.

At last, the eldest, who looked the oldest of the three, gave a bitter smile and clasped his hands.

“Thousand-Household Commander Zhao, it isn’t that we refused. It’s just… our father’s demands were rather absurd.”

Zhao Li raised a brow.

What was absurd about an old man asking for a decent coffin on his deathbed?

The eldest son’s face twisted with embarrassment. He glanced around, made certain no one else was present, then said, “It is shameful to admit. Our father grew old, but his heart stayed young.”

“Outsiders know only that he demanded a good coffin. In truth, he asked for several things before he died.”

The middle-aged man’s face reddened slightly.

“Besides the coffin and burial plot, he said he wanted to keep driving carts in the underworld. He ordered us to burn his carriage, kill that old horse, and bury its hide with him.”

Zhao Li glanced toward the old horse in the yard.

“Besides that…” The eldest son paused and lowered his voice. “Father also wanted a woman.”

“He wanted what?” Head Constable Xing, who was listening to satisfy his curiosity, dug at his ear with his little finger.

“A woman!” Old Man Liu’s eldest son seemed to abandon all restraint and raised his voice. “Father said our mother died young and he stayed a widower to raise all of us. He only wanted a wife after death.”

“That… sounds almost reasonable,” Head Constable Xing said after smacking his lips.

“Then burn him a paper woman,” Zhao Li said, her head beginning to ache. “If one isn’t enough, burn two.”

They could work the old bastard to death a second time.

“Father didn’t want paper women,” the usually silent second son said. “He wanted a virgin prostitute from the Jewel Market buried with him.”

“He said he wanted to taste living vitality.”

Zhao Li and Head Constable Xing both leaned away.

This filthy old man had not been a good person.

Once the secret was out, Old Man Liu’s sons gave up all restraint and spilled everything like beans from a bamboo tube.

“Father saved money his whole life because he wanted to sample the women at the Jewel Market.”

“But by the time he had enough, he fell ill.”

“Even as he died, he kept demanding a double coffin and a tender virgin prostitute to be buried beside him.”

The eldest son slapped his thigh in frustration.

“We aren’t good people ourselves, but we still understand the most basic human morality. How could we take a life just because of a sick man’s delirium?”

Zhao Li nodded despite herself. “That is true.”

After thinking, she asked one of Head Constable Xing’s men to visit the Pacification Office and retrieve her saber.

There was no reason to discuss morality with a lecherous old thing so recently dead.

When word reached the office, Zheng Lian thought something serious had happened. He soon arrived carrying Zhao Li’s saber.

The weapon carried exceptionally dense baleful energy. It had accompanied the previous dynasty’s General Who Pacified the North through campaigns across the realm and was devastating against ordinary supernatural anomalies.

Once he knew Zhao Li was about to work, Zheng Lian went to disperse the spectators still loitering at the alley entrance.

The constables from the Five Cities Military Patrol Office had struggled, shouting and cursing to drive them away.

Zheng Lian merely stood there in his fish-patterned uniform with a saber at his waist.

The effect was immediate.

The spectators scattered like mosquitoes before incense.

Between the high courtyard walls on either side, only the black coffin and several lengths of broken rope remained.

Zhao Li rested her left hand on her saber and pressed the fingers of her right hand lightly between her brows.

She opened her Mind’s Eye.

The scene around her transformed.

A mass of black-red corpse miasma occupied the center.

A stooped figure in dark blue burial clothes sat on the coffin, cursing, “Unfilial descendants. Unfilial descendants.”

The figure suddenly went still.

Its body remained facing forward while its head creaked around to the back and stared at Zhao Li.

It chuckled.

Crooked yellow teeth appeared within the black-red mist.

“I smell it.” Saliva poured from the corner of its mouth.

“Hurry over and serve me.”