Chapter 69 Chapter 69 Little Carp

The entire family of the then Supreme Court Minister was exterminated, and the bodies in the mansion were moved away, but the large pools of blood were left unattended. A heavy rain fell, and the blood, which was almost dried up, was washed away and diluted, and the blood mixed with rain water flowed out through the mansion gate.

After the rain stopped, the area within a mile of Liu's mansion turned dark brown.

An official, walking by, paled at the sight of the scene. He hurriedly inquired of his servants what had happened. Upon learning that the entire family of the neighboring Liu Mansion had been annihilated, he paled with fear. Fearing that he would be implicated, he asked his superiors for leave and that very day moved his family to a mansion more than a dozen blocks away. He preferred to travel a few extra steps to court rather than live next to a haunted house.

In just a few days, the once prosperous Anrenfang suddenly became deserted.

Upon hearing of the tragic annihilation of a prominent official and his entire family, and the shocking news that a lunatic had dared to build a tomb beneath the imperial family's mountain retreat, the emperor's wrath was unleashed, his divine majesty evident. Emperor Jingren ordered the Chief Censor Gu Ze, the Junior Justice of the Supreme Court Shi Qinglan, and the Minister of Justice Zhu Lingxing to join forces and conduct a thorough investigation into the murder of the official and his entire family.

The atmosphere in the court was as heavy as lead, and all the officials were silent and terrified.

As for the matter of building a tomb under Mount Li, the sage strictly ordered the Jingzhao Yin and the Xuanji Pavilion to lead people to investigate immediately. Anyone who violates the royal majesty will be severely punished regardless of their identity or background, and no leniency will be shown.

For a time, the situation inside and outside Chang'an City changed drastically. All forces were shrouded in the shadow of these two shocking cases, and people were in panic.

Not to mention the huge waves the two cases caused in Chang'an City, the anger of the saint alone was like the dark clouds before a storm, weighing heavily on everyone's hearts.

The bodies of Liu Siyuan and his wife were found in Yuanchun Tower. Yuanchun Tower became the first place for inspection. Wu Hou was stationed at the gate. The three floors inside and outside Yuanchun Tower were surrounded by yamen runners, and everyone in the building was detained.

From time to time, there were a few wailing sounds from the building. No one dared to get into trouble at this time, and they all took a detour.

The backyard of Yuanchun Tower became a place for interrogation and torture. The blood of the suspects flowed down the deck into Huachun Pond. The red-tailed carps in the water were restless around the deck, and their tails occasionally splashed a few drops of water.

At this moment of unrest, a piece of news suddenly came that someone in the building had been skinned to death, and the body was found by the Huachun Pond in the backyard.

The upper half of the body was lying on the deck, while the rest was soaked in water. When it was fished out, the lower half had been gnawed away, leaving only a skeleton.

Everyone thought that the carp in the pond was very evil and they wished they could stay away from it as far as possible, for fear that they would fall into the water and become a meal for the red carp.

At four quarters past dusk, the sky was slightly dark, not yet time for lighting. A head quietly poked out from the deck, its round eyes darting around. The restless carp swimming in the water beside her ignored her and swam past.

The girl was barefoot and after floundering in the water for a while, she supported herself on the deck and walked ashore. She shook off the water on her head and looked curiously at the group of people crying and shouting not far away.

As she took a step forward, a pair of black boots suddenly appeared before her. Before she could move, someone grabbed her hand and placed a talisman on her forehead, instantly rendering the girl unable to move.

She was carried away from Yuanchun Tower by the visitor. Looking back, she saw the busy figures of the people downstairs were quickly obscured by layer upon layer of eaves, and no trace of them disappeared. No one noticed this little episode.

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The girl was thrown to the ground by the man and she said with her hands clasped, "Madam, the person was caught from the pond."

"Go down."

"Yes." The shadow retreated respectfully and merged into the darkness.

The setting sun gradually disappeared into the horizon, and the darkness eroded the sky bit by bit. The maids in the house lit the lights one after another, and the swaying and flickering candlelight gradually illuminated the entire house, and a beautiful and charming face appeared.

The owner of the house was leaning back on the chaise longue in a relaxed posture, with one hand supporting his chin, and he was leisurely looking at the little girl who was frozen in front of him.

The little girl was about eight or nine years old. She had just come out of the water when someone grabbed her and brought her here. She was soaking wet all over and soon the ground was covered in water.

The owner of the house frowned upon seeing this and called out, "Cui Ya, find some towels to wrap her up, and don't let my carpet get wet."

After she was wrapped tightly in three layers of clothes, Cui Ya finally took off the talisman on her face.

As soon as the talisman was peeled off, the little girl rushed towards Chen Qing who was lying on the imperial concubine's couch with a fierce look on her face. However, the bath towel wrapped tightly around her body seemed to have some magic power that prevented her from breaking free. As a result, the girl fell face down on the ground when she was halfway through the rush.

Cui Ya chuckled and stood up the girl, who was wrapped up with only her head exposed, and said, "Behave yourself. Our wife has set a spell on this towel. If you move again, it will wrap tighter and tighter until you become a dried fish."

I don’t know what words irritated her, but although the little girl was angry, she stopped struggling.

"What's your name?" Chen Qing asked her.

Xiaoli pouted subconsciously, "Xiaoli."

"Did you kill the person who died in Yuanchun Tower?" Although it was a question, the tone was firm.

Xiaoli thought about it seriously, then snorted coldly and turned his head to the side, saying, "Hmph, I don't know."

"You are so disobedient... Cui Ya, come on, Li Nu!" Chen Qing shouted.

"Yes! Madam!" Cui Ya hurried behind the screen and took out a black ball.

This black cat was the one Cui Ya rescued out of pity. After carefully raising it for several days, the black cat's injuries have recovered and it has gained a lot of weight.

When Xiaoli saw the fat cat in Cui Ya's arms, her hair stood on end and her pupils narrowed into a line. "Get out of here!" She was wrapped tightly and couldn't move, so she rolled on the ground and tried her best to move to the corner.

Qiu Ren, who was hanging on Chen Qing's wrist, was awakened by the noise. He spit out his snake tongue, crawled down Chen Qing's wrist, and his body instantly expanded several times as much as before, crawling towards Xiaoli.

"Qiu Ren, don't play her to death." Chen Qing said with a curved eyebrow.

Under the repeated threats from the man, the cat, and the snake, the little carp finally couldn't hold it in any longer and burst into tears, "You bully the fish!"

Chen Qing: "I bullied you because you are a bad fish and you kill people!"

Xiaoli cried out, "That's because they are bad people!"

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More than ten years ago, Xiaoli was just a carefree red-tailed carp in Huachun Pond. Unlike many other carps, she had developed intelligence and loved to swim in the water all day long, blowing bubbles.

Suddenly one day, a girl with round eyes and a round face came to feed them with coarse grains. The girl had black hair down to her waist. Because she worked all day, she could only tie her hair behind her with a thick rope.

From then on, the girl would come to the deck every day with coarse grains to feed the carp, and everyone called her Achou.

Ah Chou was ostracized and targeted because of the cluster of human-faced sores on her hands, so she often had new wounds. Sometimes, when her wounds were too late to be treated, she would come with coarse grains, as if she had already taken feeding the red carp in the water as a kind of entertainment.

The blood from the wound flowed down the wrist and fell into the wide mouths of the fish. The blood mixed with coarse grains and entered the stomachs of the fish. After a long time, the carp in the water could no longer tell the difference between blood and food.

It's not uncommon for drunken clients to wander into the wrong place. Today, Ah Chou was washing clothes by the pool when a drunken client suddenly hugged her from behind. He breathed deeply into her neck, his expression fascinated.

When the drunk saw her face clearly in the light of the fire in the yard, he burst into laughter: "Such a beauty is hidden here. Your fake mother is so unfair!" After that, he turned into a ferocious beast and pretended to tear off her clothes, regardless of Ah Chou's struggle.

During his violent struggle, Ah Chou's sleeves were lifted up, revealing a string of horrific sores on the face of a human. The drunk was frightened and fell to the ground. When he woke up, he kicked Ah Chou hard in the stomach and cursed, "What bad luck! Why the hell haven't you killed this thing yet? What bad luck!"

He turned around and was about to leave, cursing, but he saw Ah Chou behind him standing up, holding his stomach, with murderous intent in his eyes.

The drunkard was dead. Achou had picked up the pestle from the basin and smashed him to death. The back of his head was smashed into a bloody mess, and the blood was all over the deck.

Although it was her first time killing someone, Ah Chou seemed to be terribly familiar with the act, with an extremely calm expression. She looted all the money from the drunk, then brought a bowl of coarse grains and stuffed them all into the drunk's mouth, filling his stomach to the brim.

With a "puff" sound, the drunkard's body fell into the water. The carp in the water came over after hearing the sound, thinking that it was Achou coming to feed him again.

The water surface was calm, but it was boiling underneath. The red carps followed the smell and drilled into the corpse's mouth to snatch food from it. Some of them tried their best to drill into the stomach in order to eat the food in his stomach. Finally, they broke through the stomach and blood mixed with coarse grains flowed out. They were so hungry that they could not distinguish between blood and food. They just followed their intention to devour the flesh and blood mixed with coarse grains bit by bit.

The disappearance of a prostitute in Yuanchunlou did not cause any ripples, and Yuanchunlou remained the most prosperous and lively place for entertainment in Chang'an City.

From then on, Achou had his own boat.

When someone asked her about it, she said that she bought it with the money given to her by the ladies in the building.

There are many ladies in the building, and everyone thinks that Ah Chou has a good life and is envious of her.

Some people wanted to take over Achou's boat, but were scared off by what Achou had in his hand.

Because there is a saying in Chang'an City: Anything related to facial sores is unlucky.

A few more years passed, and Achou still fed the carp day after day, but occasionally there was one more thing in the food: her blood.

Ever since the carp "destroyed her body", Ah Chou seemed to have kept the habit of feeding the carp with blood intentionally or unintentionally. She loved to cut a cut on the place where the human face sore appeared on her hand, and drip the blood into the water mixed with coarse grains.

She wanted to see whether the carp that ate the blood from the human-faced sore would die from the bad luck as they said.

But the truth is, no.

The little carp was always attracted by her blood and would always rush to the front. Because of its largest body and the reddest tail, it was noticed by Ah Chou. Ah Chou nodded its head across the water and said, "I'll just call you Little Carp, okay?"

Achou often told Xiaoli about her inner sorrow. Her sorrow was like the grains of corn in the granary, one by one, and she could never express it all.

Sixteen-year-old Ah Chou met his sweetheart, a scholar who accidentally entered the backyard of Yuanchun Tower.

The scholar was forcibly dragged here by his friend. He did not want to participate in his friend's extravagant dream, so he came here to relax and met Ah Chou who was also relaxing.

The scholar fell in love with Ah Chou at first sight and threatened to redeem her. He often visited Ah Chou, bringing her delicious food and fun things, and telling her interesting stories about Chang'an City.

Achou smiled more and more often because her parents came to visit her. Her mother said she would take her home and agreed to Achou's marriage.

During the days of waiting to go home, Achou always felt it was hard, but also full of anticipation. She talked a lot during these few nights.

She said she wanted to take A Si Po away. A Si Po always liked to stew lotus seed soup. She didn't like to drink it at all, but A Si Po stewed it and it couldn't be wasted, so she had to drink it. As a result, A Si Po thought she liked it, so she stewed it again the next day, and A Chou drank it too, and this cycle repeated.

When Ah Chou said this, her expression was firm: "A Si Po must have never tasted anything good. When my parents take me home, I will let her know that there are many things that are far better than lotus seed soup. I also have to take care of Haitangshancha. They always bully me. I will peel off their skin and feed them to the fish." She muttered to herself, and in the water, an exceptionally fat red-tailed carp looked at her with a pout.

One night, the scholar secretly asked Ah Chou out and brought a red wedding dress.

He said he wanted to marry Ah Chou and couldn't wait any longer, so he would take her out tonight. Ah Chou was so happy that she put on her wedding dress, but the scholar took Ah Chou to the Huachun Pool for a wedding ceremony under a tent and on the ground.

Achou didn't refuse.

After the ceremony, the scholar said, "Are we married?"

Ah Chou thought about it and nodded: "Let's get married."

The scholar said, "Tonight you are a bride about to be married."

Before the blush on Ah Chou's cheeks faded, the scholar pressed a needle on her xue point and then hit her on the head with a stick, taking half her life.

The scholar dragged the immobile Achou onto the boat, cut her wrist with scissors and let her bleed.

He said to the air, "The fish in this pond eat blood. Let her bleed for a while before taking her away. Otherwise, when we do it later, the blood will flow everywhere and it will be troublesome."

Ah Chou was terrified, not understanding why her former lover had suddenly changed his face. She rolled her eyes mournfully, but the scholar ignored her and asked, "Do you hate me?"

Ah Chou blinked, and the scholar hit her on the head with a stick again. The severe pain made her tremble all over, and her eyes were filled with faint hatred. The scholar smiled with satisfaction, "Hate me more, so that you will have enough resentment when you die. This is called a 'happy funeral'." After saying that, he tiptoed away from the courtyard wall.

The carp in the water were affected and swam to the edge of the boat to drink her blood. Little Carp also came, but she did not drink her blood. Instead, she touched Ah Chou's drooping wrist with her mouth.

Ah Chou stared blankly at the sky, tears falling from his eyes. "Unfaithful men are not good people. One day, I will skin them alive and tear out their tendons."

The unfaithful man should be skinned alive and his tendons pulled out. Xiaoli rolled his eyes and took note of the words.

"I don't want to die." said Achou.

Unfortunately, no one could hear what Ah Chou said, and unlike what was written in the storybook, the beautiful woman in distress never got to wait for her hero.

On a quiet night, the beauty lay at the bow of the boat, with her white wrists hanging by the water. Scarlet blood dripped from her fingertips, creating ripples on the blue waves, attracting koi fish to swim over and chase after her.