Chapter 1786 - The Legend
The large amount of blood left at the dump site also supported this reasoning. Not only that—the remaining bloodstains proved the interval between murder and dumping was very short.
A person's blood volume is finite; decapitation causes massive loss immediately. To transport the body immediately and still leave behind substantial blood at the dump site indicated the victim had been beheaded very recently, and the distance from the crime scene to the dump site was extremely short. The murder scene should be within a small radius centered on the mouth of East Branch Alley 7.
The patrolmen who discovered the corpse had been moving from south to north, heading toward the culprit. Therefore, the scene should lie on the road segment north of East Branch Alley 7.
Following this reasoning, Li Zhenguo looked north. Apart from West Branch Alley 11, which he had just searched, the section directly ahead was unremarkable. Besides a few shops on both sides, it was all residential facades. The residents here were mostly middle-class, their frontages neat and orderly. Since it was late May or early June, households had their main doors wide open, with only the slatted outer gates closed for ventilation. Nothing looked suspicious at a glance.
Li Zhenguo walked another round along the corpse transport route he had deduced, hoping to find more blood traces—since massive bloodstains had been found at the dump site, the wrapping couldn't have been waterproof. Blood must have dripped during transport, and not in small amounts.
However, this walk yielded none of the discoveries he anticipated. The deviation from his deduction was troubling. He decided to conduct house-to-house visits in this section himself to look for suspicious circumstances. He instructed Li Ziyu to fetch the Tithing Head for this area.
The man was surnamed Xie, in his forties, a small merchant. His business was modest—in his own words, a "trade where water doesn't cover the instep." Superficially, he dealt in seedlings, but actually he trafficked tobacco: buying from farmers and reselling. Since the Chongzhen Emperor ascended the throne, this trade had become illegal; strictly speaking, getting caught meant losing one's head. Shopkeeper Xie dared to do this only because he had confidence—broad associations and friendships across all walks of life. His business had always been peaceful.
After the Senatorial Council entered the city, tobacco had theoretically become a monopoly good. However, the Monopoly Bureau currently lacked the capacity to control tobacco supply and distribution. Small merchants like him who connected rural and urban areas were actually important suppliers for the bureau's cigarette enterprises. His life remained quite comfortable.
Li Ziyu said this was easy; no need to visit his house. He drank tea every morning, and they could find him at his usual teahouse.
As the patrolman for this precinct, Li Ziyu regularly interacted with Baojia heads and team leaders and knew their habits well. Fortunately, the teahouse Shopkeeper Xie frequented was on this very street, saving the trouble of opening gates.
The teahouse was small but had two floors. Many tea guests sat in the ground-floor hall. Li Ziyu went in for a look but didn't spot him. A waiter approached: "Officer Li! What brings you here? Tea or official business?"
To facilitate their work, the three had changed into plain clothes at the station. But the waiter still recognized Li Ziyu and Zhao Gui.
Li Ziyu said: "Official business. Shopkeeper Xie didn't come today?"
The waiter explained that Shopkeeper Xie hadn't arrived yet—he'd been called to the police station early this morning, presumably for official matters. "Would the three of you like to find a seat and have some tea and dim sum first?"
He mentioned that Shopkeeper Xie usually sat upstairs. The three went up together and chose a corner table, ordering a pot of tea. Li Zhenguo had been running around all night and was starving. Seeing the two patrolmen looking equally exhausted, he said: "Let's have tea too. Fill our stomachs first."
Li Ziyu was accustomed to consumption and enjoyment from his past, but recently, being short of money, he hadn't had morning tea in some time. According to officialdom etiquette, when a superior from the Municipal Bureau treated, it was rude not to actively offer to pay the bill oneself to appear "sensible"—but he had no money.
Zhao Gui chuckled foolishly. "Good, good. I'm hungry." Li Ziyu wanted to kick him.
Seeing Li Ziyu's expression shift, Li Zhenguo understood the misunderstanding. He laughed: "I'm treating for this tea! Consider it a token of our acquaintance—I'll need your help with official matters later."
Li Ziyu hurriedly demurred: "Master Li... what are you saying? You came here to handle a case; how can you treat..."
Li Zhenguo was a bodyguard by background and judged people accurately. He could tell Li Ziyu was a young master from a propertied family, spoiled growing up. Becoming a patrolman was likely a last resort after family misfortune. This gave them common ground. Feeling closer, he spoke pleasantly: "You're a new patrolman, right? No need to learn Old Gao's ways—he can't change. Just call me 'Comrade.' What's treating you to tea? You're new and haven't been graded yet; how can someone without wages treat? I at least have some salary; treating you to tea isn't hard."
Since he said so, Li Ziyu relaxed. Li Zhenguo ordered several baskets of dim sum. The three ate and waited for Shopkeeper Xie, incidentally listening to the tea guests' chatter. This was called "Listening to Leaks"—a primary method for gathering information, whether for constables solving cases or bodyguards tracking kidnap victims.
The tea guests upstairs were almost entirely discussing the headless corpse found last night, but they revealed no new information.
Li Zhenguo finished his preserved egg porridge and was considering going to Team Leader Xie's house to see if he'd returned when footsteps sounded on the stairs. A sturdy man in his thirties rushed up like the wind. Judging by his clothes, he was a manual laborer of decent circumstances. He was looking for a suitable seat when a guest at a window table called out: "Old Cui, sit here! Tea is ready—just add a bowl."
Evidently, this Old Cui was popular among the tea guests, likely because he always had rumors to share. As soon as he sat down, a tablemate poured tea into his bowl and asked: "Old Cui, where have you been running lately? Haven't seen you for days. Any news?"
"News? Isn't the biggest news the headless corpse on the street last night?"
"They say headless, but they haven't found the body. Two corpse-handlers fished the river for half the morning and caught nothing!"
"I think the patrolmen were possessed..."
Mentioning possession and the supernatural easily sparked conversation. People discussed animatedly: some said possession, some said ghost-walls—getting lost walking in circles—others claimed someone had used sorcery to move the corpse.
At this moment, the waiter brought pig's blood porridge and fried crisp crackers. Old Cui picked up a cracker and said: "Speaking of ghosts and hauntings, East Alley 7 is the most fitting place on Scissors Lane. It would be abnormal if it didn't have ghosts."
An old man objected: "Old Cui, you're talking nonsense. East Alley 7 is just a backstreet—what's strange about it? I've lived on this street all my life and never heard of ghosts there."
The tea guests, all longtime residents, knew the old man spoke truth. They accused Old Cui of bragging.
Old Cui wasn't flustered. He slowly finished his cracker, then said: "Do you know whose back alley that is?"
Everyone paused, thinking. The old man suddenly slapped the table. "Could it be Zhenbo Garden?"
Old Cui didn't speak, just nodded while sipping his porridge. The table of guests erupted in discussion.
When Li Ziyu was assigned to the station, he had roughly toured the precinct. He knew the place and its story.
Zhenbo Garden was originally a "Golden House" built by a wealthy city merchant specifically to house a famous courtesan he had redeemed from Jiangnan at great price. After a few years, the merchant inevitably favored the new and tired of the old, visiting less often. During his absences, the courtesan met a scholar and fell in love at first sight, carrying on a secret affair. Over time, they planned to elope.
No wall in the world fails to leak. Hearing of this, the merchant calmly arranged a trap. The scholar usually entered and exited through the small back garden door with a maid's help. That night, amid wind and rain, he was seized the moment he stepped inside. Under clubs and fists, he immediately confessed the affair.
The merchant executed family law that very night, beating the two messenger maids to death with staves. He planned to deliver the scholar to the officials at dawn, strip him of his degree, and humiliate him thoroughly. But the guards grew lax overnight, and the couple found a chance to escape. They committed suicide together in the garden for love. From then on, legend held that the house was haunted—the ghosts of the couple and the two beaten maids were said to appear frequently. The merchant himself reportedly died when the vengeful spirits claimed his life. Thereafter, no one dared live there.
Terrified, the merchant's family sold the garden at a low price to the adjacent Shaanxi-Shanxi Guild Hall.
By the time Li Ziyu started work, fifty or sixty years had passed. Though no one had actually seen the ghosts of Zhenbo Garden, the reputation of the haunted house remained loud. Ordinary people wouldn't step inside without good reason.
Li Ziyu wasn't exactly a materialist, but ghosts and gods held no value for solving cases. Besides, the blood on the ground was real. As for Li Zhenguo—he was a bodyguard. Bodyguards often traveled night roads and wild places; guarding courtyards and sitting in shops meant constant night activity. He had witnessed many strange things, but upheld the belief that "a straight body doesn't fear a slanted shadow" and "a body of righteousness suppresses a hundred evils." Old Cui's ghost talk didn't impress him.
Hearing their chaotic rehashing of old stories with nothing fresh to offer, Li Zhenguo felt disappointed. Then suddenly someone said: "Whether Zhenbo Garden is haunted is hard to say, but it's true that Widow Wang's house was 'haunted' yesterday."
(End of Chapter)