Chương 15: The Butcher

The night was short. In the darkness, blood came silently, took what it wanted, and left without a trace. Morning came. Bang, bang, bang! Urgent knocking came from the City God Temple's doors. Fang Cheng walked out of the main hall, Li Sanshui following behind. The two opened the doors to find a Yamen runner standing outside, his face pale, breathing heavily as if he'd just run from somewhere.

"Yuan Min is dead." The Yamen runner glanced at Fang Cheng, then looked away. His eyes were filled with fear, his face white as powder.

"Who? Which Yuan Min?" Li Sanshui thought he'd misheard.

"The temple keeper, sir. There's no other Yuan Min in White Flower City." The Yamen runner hesitated.

"He's dead? We were just talking about him last night. How could he..." Li Sanshui was bewildered. He turned to Fang Cheng.

"City God, what do we do?"

"What else? A murder. We find the killer." Fang Cheng was thrilled. He'd been bored, and now a case had landed in his lap. He immediately ordered the Yamen runner, "Hurry, take me to see the body." The Yamen runner led the way. Soon they arrived at the Yamen. According to the Yamen runner, the body had been found in the eastern market by a vegetable vendor who reported it. It had been moved to the Yamen's morgue. Fang Cheng walked into the morgue and saw Yuan Min's body.

A knife was stuck in his chest, the wound bloody and torn, his clothes soaked in crimson. A gruesome sight. The coroner stood beside it and explained, "My lord, this knife pierced the heart from the front. Instant kill. Time of death no more than five hours ago. It happened around midnight." Li Sanshui frowned.

"It looks like an ordinary person's work. But the victim was Yuan Min, the City God Temple's keeper. Who in White Flower City would dare kill him? And he's naturally strong. No ordinary man could get close. How could he be stabbed head-on? Unless..." He looked at Fang Cheng, his eyes flickering. He suspected the demon was behind this. Good thing he'd stayed in the temple with Lord Fang last night. The Yamen runner and coroner didn't know about the demon.

Seeing Li Sanshui staring at the new City God, they secretly admired the Magistrate's courage. They'd suspected it all along. Who else in White Flower City would dare kill the temple keeper but the newcomer?

"Magistrate, we're common folk. Some things are better left unsaid." The coroner spoke cautiously. He didn't even dare pull the knife out of Yuan Min's chest, afraid of drawing the City God's attention. Li Sanshui understood they'd misunderstood. He'd been with Fang Cheng all night. He knew Fang Cheng couldn't be the killer. Fang Cheng ignored them, walking straight to the body. He crouched and examined the wound. After a moment, his eyebrows lifted, and a strange smile spread across his face.

"I get it. So that's how it is. Hahaha!"

"What is it, my lord? Did you find something?" Li Sanshui leaned in, whispering. Fang Cheng pulled the knife from the body.

"This is a butcher's knife. Narrow blade, sharp tip. Doesn't need to be long, just sharp. When using it, you press down on the pig's head and stab fast into the neck, hitting the main artery. Quick and precise. Most important is a clean kill. Because if you miss, the pig will thrash in pain, spraying blood everywhere. Such a waste. Pig blood makes excellent hotpot." Everyone stared at each other. Li Sanshui didn't understand what Fang Cheng was saying.

The Yamen runner and coroner were now convinced the new City God was the killer. He was practically describing the crime.

"Lord Fang... I mean, Lord Zhu, could you explain? Who killed Yuan Min?" Li Sanshui asked. Find this and other great novels on the author's preferred platform. Support original creators!

"Who else? The butcher. Who else was it..." Fang Cheng scratched his head. He remembered Yuan Min mentioning yesterday that he was going to buy pig intestines from a butcher. Li Sanshui prompted, "My lord, are you talking about Butcher Zhang in the eastern market?"

"Yes! That's him." Fang Cheng raised the knife, his lips curling into a bloodthirsty smile. The dried blood on the blade seemed to tremble at his call.

"Butcher Zhang. I've finally found you. Hahaha. Prepare to die." Li Sanshui frowned. He knew Butcher Zhang. His pork was delicious, and Li Sanshui bought from him every day after work. Butcher Zhang was just like him. All bark and no bite. How could he be a demon?

"My lord, are you sure you're not mistaken?" Li Sanshui questioned. Fang Cheng wagged his finger.

"No mistake. The weapon is a butcher's knife. The method is a single fatal blow. It's definitely Butcher Zhang." His mind was already weaving the killer's crime scene, and he couldn't wait to share it.

"Yesterday, Yuan Min went to Butcher Zhang's shop to buy pig intestines. He had no money. He'd given all his silver to the noodle shop owner that morning. He wanted to put it on credit, saying he'd pay after buying and going home for money. Butcher Zhang saw he was the temple keeper and didn't dare refuse, so he agreed. But Yuan Min was careless, and with his superior, the City God dead, he had too much to handle. He forgot about the debt.

Butcher Zhang waited and waited at his shop, but Yuan Min never came back to pay. He thought Yuan Min was reneging. He wanted to go collect, but he was afraid. Yuan Min was a big, strong young man, naturally powerful. He couldn't win in a fight. He closed up shop and went home, feeling bitter and resentful. He drank to drown his sorrows. The more he drank, the more he talked. He complained to his wife.

His wife called him a wimp; the only time he acts tough is in the sack, but he's a three-pump chump at best, and then it's done. Butcher Zhang was already drunk. His wife's goading sent him over the edge. He grabbed his butcher knife and went to settle the score with Yuan Min. But Yuan Min had been busy all day and was exhausted. He'd just fallen asleep when the knocking woke him. Everyone gets grumpy when woken up. Yuan Min was no exception.

He opened the door in a fury, confronting the equally furious Butcher Zhang. Words were exchanged, and they were about to fight. Yuan Min had no weapon. Butcher Zhang killed pigs for a living. His hands were fast. He aimed the knife at Yuan Min's neck, but being drunk, he stumbled. The blade hit the chest instead. The wrong spot. But the force was still there, and the knife went straight through the heart, killing him instantly. After the kill, Butcher Zhang sobered up. Oh no. What now?

Damn that wife of his for provoking him! He considered turning himself in. But the victim was a temple keeper, and with the previous City God dead, emotions were running high. He'd be executed for sure. He didn't want to die. Then he had an idea. He'd carry Yuan Min's body back to his shop, chop it into meat filling, and mix it with his pork. No body, no crime. Everyone would just think Yuan Min was heartbroken over the City God's death and had left town. Not murdered. Hahaha, I'm a genius.

The more Butcher Zhang thought about it, the more excited he became. He couldn't wait to carry Yuan Min back to his shop. Just like slaughtering a pig. First drain the blood, then cut an opening in the leg, insert a wooden pole, blow it up like a balloon, pour boiling water over it, and scrape off the hair. People are different from pigs. Less body hair. Easy to scrape. But there's one problem: more sweat glands. The meat always has a sour smell. How to get rid of that? Such a headache."

At this point, Fang Cheng suddenly realized he'd said too much. He stopped and hurriedly explained, "Never mind what I said. My reasoning was wrong. Yuan Min's body is intact. How could he have been blown up? Hahaha. Forget that part about scraping hair." The Yamen runner and coroner nodded weakly, their faces pale. They were too terrified to speak, afraid of ending up like Yuan Min on the chopping block. Li Sanshui, however, was unfazed. He was used to Fang Cheng's odd way of speaking.

Though this time, he'd lost his appetite for pork.

"Why was Yuan Min's body in the eastern market, not in Butcher Zhang's shop?" Fang Cheng raised the question, then immediately gave a reasonable explanation.

"Yuan Min's body was too heavy. Carrying a dead body is different from carrying a live one. Corpses are heavy. Butcher Zhang had to put it down every few minutes to rest. So he set it down in the eastern market. Then he slapped his thigh. Why carry it when he could get a cart? So he went looking for a cart and left the body on the street. He didn't notice that dawn was breaking. The body was right there in the open, easy to spot. And that's exactly what happened.

An early-rising vegetable vendor found the body and reported it. That's the problem with impulsive murders. Without careful planning, the killer's brain short-circuits. They think they're being clever, but they make stupid mistakes. Butcher Zhang is a first-time killer. No matter how many pigs he's slaughtered, pigs aren't people."

"City God, your reasoning is spot on. Brilliant. I'm almost convinced." Li Sanshui shamelessly praised him. He was an expert at going with the flow. Who the real killer was didn't matter. He'd follow Lord Fang's lead.

"Men, go to Butcher Zhang's shop in the eastern market and arrest him!" Li Sanshui had barely given the order when Fang Cheng stopped him.

"No, Magistrate Li. I'll go personally to punish the killer. My sword inside me is desperate for some delicious evil."

"Right, City God. I almost forgot. Butcher Zhang might not be an ordinary man. It's safer for you to go." Li Sanshui nodded as if he'd suddenly understood. Despite Fang Cheng's rambling explanation that sounded like an ordinary person's crime, he subconsciously still believed it was the demon's work. No sane person would pick a fight with Yuan Min. Even drunk and goaded by his wife, he wouldn't challenge a temple keeper appointed by the immortals. Those were celestial beings.

Offend them, and you'd be sent to the Tongue-Pulling Hell, reincarnating nine times before you could become human again.