Death Scripture

Shen Yanshi seemed to know something about the murder case and was planning to tell Gu Shenwei alone. The teenager was bewildered, wondering why she wanted to talk to him instead of the two adult men. At this moment, he began to miss his life in East Castle, where killing was merely a skill or a mission.

After meeting with Pot-bellied Buddha’s prostitutes, Zhong Heng returned to his office in North City, and Tie Hanfeng took his apprentice to Southwall Tavern. Gu Shenwei discovered that today his mentor drank and talked with more people than he usually did—he even attentively listened to all of their conversations.

Xu Xiaoyi had claimed that everyone in South City knew him. This point was confirmed by the people who came to talk to Tie Hanfeng. Most of them seemed to know the boy very well and habitually referred to him as “the smart kid”, “the smart boy” or “little pea”. Unfortunately, none of them knew where he and his sister presently were, and no one had found any corpses that resembled them within 5 kilometers around the city.

“It’s strange: they’re the best-informed people in South City. Even two ants can’t disappear from the city without being noticed by them,” Tie Hanfeng grumbled.

As it was getting late, fewer and fewer people came to deliver information to him. At midnight, only he and his apprentice were still sat at the table. He began to rub his cup, looking confused.

“Maybe they’re hiding in North City,” Gu Shenwei suggested; he thought this was the only possibility.

“I’ve thought about it, and it’s unlikely. The boy is a thief, and his sister is a prostitute. They’re not eligible to enter North City. I’ve already checked the records of all the gates, yet there’re no suspicious people among the recent visitors to the city,” Tie Hanfeng replied.

Gu Shenwei could not refute his mentor’s view. All visitors to North City, including Golden Roc Fort’s killers, had to report their names and give their weapons to the gate guards. It was not a simple task for the boy and his sister to sneak into the city.

“Unless they’re burned to ashes, we’ll find them sooner or later.”

With these words, Tie Hanfeng took a swig of his liquor, leaned back and fell asleep in his chair. To this day, Gu Shenwei had never seen his mentor sleep on a bed.

In South City, there was no night watchman who announced the time every two hours. Given that, Gu Shenwei had been counting the passing of time using heart-throbs all the while. He sat alone while seeing the guests of the tavern stagger out of the gate one after another. When it was around 1 am, he stood up, planning to visit Shen Yanshi.

“Where are you going?” Tie Hanfeng suddenly stopped snorting and asked with his eyes closed.

“To get some fresh air.”

Gu Shenwei walked out of the tavern and took a detour around it before entering the city through another breach in the old city wall. He casually walked down a few streets to make sure he was not being followed. After that, he went straight to Pleasure Alley.

Since most of the guests in the taverns had already left, Gu Shenwei only saw some whoremasters in the alley. Some of them openly swaggered out of the brothels with satisfied looks on their faces. Some appeared to be sneaky and hurriedly headed for North City, hoping to arrive at their homes before dawn to avoid being caught by their families.

Gu Shenwei stretched out his hand to his waist in an attempt to hold his saber shaft, but he failed to grab anything there, causing him to feel restless and unsettled.

After those whoremasters left, Pleasure Alley gradually fell into silence. Some prostitutes’ clients stayed for the night, as Gu Shenwei saw the lights in their buildings go out one by one.

He hid behind a wall to observe Xu Yanwei’s and Shen Yanshi’s houses from a few buildings away. There was neither light inside nor outside Xu Yanwei’s house. Shen Yanshi’s house was also dark, but there was a lit lantern hanging at the gate of her yard.

He carefully observed every detail of the houses for 15 minutes and then swiftly scurried to Shen Yanshi’s door. It was unlatched; someone had purposely left the door open for him.

He gently opened the door and entered the yard, discovering that this brother had the same layout as Xu Yanwei’s one across the street. He quickly found the back gate of the yard and unlatched it before stealthily exploring the second floor of the house.

He thought Shen Yanshi must have already sent all of her servants away since he did not find any one of them in the house.

The door of her bedroom was also unbolted. He listened attentively outside the door for a while but could not hear anyone breathing inside.

Pushing the door half-open, he quickly slipped into the room. Moments later, he saw two dead bodies and quietly walked over to check on them. Upon closer inspection, he discovered that they were Shen Yanshi and her elderly woman servant. Shen Yanshi’s fatal wound was located in her lower abdomen, whereas the elderly woman’s was in her neck.

Due to the dilation of the pupils after death, Shen Yanshi’s eyes looked bigger than before, which made her look fake but somehow sharpened Gu Shenwei’s sixth sense.

Suddenly, he felt a chill creep into his bones and he turned around. He saw a man sitting in the corner behind him, silently breathing.

“I was just wondering if the murderer would return,” the man said.

“Or, perhaps the murderer was waiting for a scapegoat.”

Upon recognizing this man, Gu Shenwei decided to stay. He was amazed to discover that the man also knew kung fu and could control his breath so masterfully.

“Or, perhaps the murderer was waiting for our encounter.”

Zhong Heng stood up and walked to the corpse. “They were wounded by a saber, and this murderer’s style resembles that of Golden Roc Fort killers’.”

“No, that’s not Golden Roc Fort’s style.”

“Oh?”

“Golden Roc Fort killers always move fast and kill their every target with only one strike. The wounds they leave on dead bodies are always narrower than the saber’s width, but Shen Yanshi’s wound is obviously wider than a saber. The murderer must have slowly thrust a saber into her body and waited for a while before pulling it out. As for the elderly woman, she was not killed on the spot due to her shallow wound, and in truth, she died from massive blood loss.”

Gu Shenwei was surprised by himself today. He had seen countless bodies in East Castle but had never paid much attention to their wounds. Now it was the first time he realized that he already had such a deep understanding of wounds that he could easily distinguish them.

“You’re right.”

Zhong Heng squatted down to touch the wounds and said, “When Shen Yanshi was killed, the murderer was very close to her. He probably used one hand to stab her with a saber while holding her with the other hand. When the murderer killed the elderly woman, he used a flat-chop—obviously not one of his usual moves.”

“Well then, do you believe me now?” Gu Shenwei asked.

This was the second time he asked someone this question.

“Not really. It’s not easy for someone who moves slowly to speed up, but it’s simple for a fast person to slow down. Besides, you identified the flaws of the murderer so quickly.”

“So what do you want?”

Zhong Heng returned to the corner to sit in a soft chair and said after a thought, “I want to solve the problem.”

“I thought you wanted to find the real murderer,” Gu Shenwei said mockingly.

“No. I just want to solve the problem.”

“You’ve caught me here. Is your problem solved now?”

“No, Golden Roc Fort gave you three days. I won’t take a minute from you.”

Gu Shenwei felt anxious. He really wished to find a knife from his surroundings and end Zhong Heng’s life right now.

After a profound silence, Zhong Heng suddenly asked, “You don’t understand what I mean, do you?”

“I’m not good at riddles.”

Zhong Heng chuckled warmly and explained, “‘Looking for the truth’ and ‘solving the problem’ are completely different concepts. Allow me to give you an example. Let us say that someone in a room lost 100 taels of silver. The one looking for the truth wants to know three things: Did that someone really has 100 taels of silver? Did he really lose the silver? Who’s the thief? However, the one looking for a solution only wants to find 100 taels of silver in order to make everybody happy, no matter who’ll provide it.”

For Gu Shenwei, Zhong Heng’s words sounded as confusing as Tie Hanfeng’s suggestion to just prove that he did not kill the third person. He felt that he began to understand what they meant but still had a few questions.

“What’s the problem you want to solve in this case?” He asked.

“I want to find out who the real murderer is and bring him to justice.”

Gu Shenwei was stunned and then realized that Zhong Heng was just joking. He felt annoyed by these riddle-like talks. Once again, he began to miss his life in East Castle and the simple world of killers. Compared to Zhong Heng, even Mama Xue looked like an honest and straightforward person.

They spoke in many riddles beside the corpse but still did not ask each other: why did you come to this murder scene?

As the day began to dawn, Zhong Heng stood up again. This time he was planning to leave. “I’ll ask around for information. What about you?”

“So will I.”

“Okay.”

The remaining three prostitutes, who originally belonged to Pot-bellied Buddha, lived close to each other in the north end of Pleasure Alley. Zhong Heng came to inform them of Shen Yanshi’s death.

The first prostitute they visited suddenly sat up in her bed upon hearing the news and murmured, “Another one of us is dead now. Alas, we’re just like falling flowers. No one will care about us. Let’s die one by one. I’m dead. I’m dead.” With these words, she fell back into her bed.

The second prostitute they met received them on the first floor of her brothel since her client was sleeping upstairs. “I knew she wouldn’t end well. We prostitutes only work for money, but she was different. She wanted too much, just like Xu Yanwei. Aren’t you investigating that murder case now? She and Xu Yanwei were the dead prince’s favorite prostitutes. They were business rivals. At first, I even believed that it was Shen Yanshi who hired someone to kill Xu Yanwei and her little brother.”

“Why didn’t you tell us about this yesterday?”

“Yesterday? Come on, officer. I didn’t have time to speak to you. I had to take care of my ‘prince’ at that time. As for the dead prince, he wasn’t a nice client at all. I know that I’m a whore and shouldn’t complain about whoremasters behind their backs, but that prince was never my client. Given that, it should be alright for me to gossip about him, shouldn’t it?”

“Yes, you can talk about him.”

“He was way too abusive. Only an extremely cruel man like Pot-bellied Buddha would send his real daughter to serve him. As for Shen Yanshi, that bitch was willing to do anything for money. If it was me, I would never receive such a client, no matter how much he paid me.”

When they entered the third prostitute’s house, they saw her burning incense on the first floor for her dead sisters. She somehow had already heard about the news. “Everyone wanted to squeeze into North City, but still ended up in the wilderness. Yesterday, sister Yanshi said she felt tired and closed her door early. She didn’t receive any guests. Alas, you won’t care about her things since I know you just came to ask me about the dead prince. I don’t know much about him, but I heard that many people wanted to kill him.”

Gu Shenwei wanted to find Xu Yanwei’s elderly woman servant, but none of the prostitutes knew where she was. In the end, an elderly woman servant here reminded him, “You can ask Lady Xiao. She’s the kindest lady in the alley and often helps the elderly and the weak. She probably received her out of compassion.”

After returning to the street, Gu Shenwei could not help but ask, “Are the siblings really Pot-bellied Buddha’s children?”

“Yes. Everyone knew what Pot-bellied Buddha did to them. Hearing that they hired a killer to assassinate their father, no one was surprised. Actually, they expected this to happen.”

Disgusted by Pot-bellied Buddha’s behavior, Gu Shenwei leaned against a wall and started to vomit. After a while, he stood up and asked, “Did you say that everyone knew what he did to his own children?”

“This is Jade City. All kinds of incredible things happen here. You’ll gradually get used to it.”

Zhong Heng replied calmly, which made Gu Shenwei felt somewhat irritated. He forced himself to calm down by recalling that he did not come to save this world and that it would destroy itself sooner or later.

Xiao Fengchai’s house was the most spacious and luxurious one in Pleasure Alley. In fact, it was three buildings combined into one.

Since lady Xiao was sleeping upstairs, Zhong Heng and Gu Shenwei did not get the chance to meet her, but they found Xu Yanwei’s elderly woman servant here. Unfortunately, she did not know much about the murder case, for she had been sent away by Xu Yanwei the day before the crime. According to her, Ju Gaotai was Xu Yanwei’s frequent guest but not her only guest. Given that, she had no idea who her guest had been at that night or who had left the 1,000 taels of silver in her room.

“One thousand taels of silver for one night? I’ve never seen such a generous guest in my whole life,” the elderly woman servant exclaimed.

When they were about to leave, she suddenly thought of something and added, “Recently, a young man has frequently been coming to visit her. She called him Mister Mi. He seemed to be an extravagant, rich young master; I guess only someone like him could afford to spend 1,000 taels of silver on one night.”

According to the elderly woman, Mister Mi acted mysteriously and always wore a long robe or a cape. No one had seen his face except Xu Yanwei. However, since there were many guests in Pleasure Alley behaving like that, the elderly woman had not paid any special attention to him.

Gu Shenwei felt that the appearance of Mister Mi cast some light on the murder case.