Reappearance of the Yong'an Corpse Case 1
Huaiwen firmly rejected Jiang Liyan, and before Jiang Liyan could persuade her again, she threw out a smoke bomb and disappeared from Jiang Liyan's sight with a bang.
As dawn broke, Huaiwen turned back to Xicuo Town. But she knew perfectly well that returning now would make her easy prey. The reason she avoided Xuan Ye and Fu Lin was because she sensed something was amiss with them.
So, while she was staying at a hotel, she began to plan. She knew she couldn't escape Xuan Ye violently, so she would escape gently. If she wanted to investigate the truth, she naturally couldn't take Xuan Ye with her.
For several days in the hut, Huaiwen secretly added a special ingredient to Xuan Ye's tea. It was a colorless and odorless concoction, practically undetectable, developed by a transvestite. Of course, given Xuan Ye's keen senses, Huaiwen couldn't rely solely on drugs to seduce him; she primarily used her beauty.
Who told Onikiri that Gen Ye and Ruan Shiyun were having an affair? She was just taking full advantage of that.
Her seduction tactics were different from others; she deliberately ignored Xuan Ye, leaving him feeling empty, and then offered him small favors.
For example, the day Xuan Ye gave her something delicious, she ate it, but then fed it to Fu Lin; another example is when she copied a painting of an osmanthus tree, and after receiving Xuan Ye's appreciation and praise, she gave it to the homeowner; yet another example is when she left Xuan Ye at night and pulled Fu Lin aside to drink and sing.
Although Xuan Ye was displeased after a while, he couldn't openly bully her anymore. This made Huai Wen very smug for the next few days. In the end, he made Xuan Ye eat that bite of the potent osmanthus cake, forcing him into a deep sleep so he could cast a curse.
The medicine could block Xuan Ye's ability to track her scent, and the white talisman could seal the spells between them. But these were all temporary.
Therefore, she must find out why Xuan Ye killed her and why Fu Lin forbade her from participating in the pursuit of the Yin soldiers during this time. Also, she always felt that the relationship between Xuan Ye and Fu Lin was not simple!
Of course, she also needs to pretend.
Huaiwen peered into a well and examined her own face. Then, she pulled a mask from her pouch, put it on, and instantly transformed into someone else. She also wore a sachet characteristic of demons to mask her scent and avoid being tracked. She then changed out of her Taoist robes and took a jade-green, emerald-green, spiral-patterned robe from her pouch, putting it on.
She entered the western corner and used the white talisman to track Fu Lin and Cang Lun. She quickly located them. She secretly followed them and saw them talking as they walked into the house. She thought for a moment, then, being clever this time, she scaled the walls and entered the house.
When she landed, she felt a wave of dizziness. When she regained her senses, she realized that she had been teleported to another location!
The house in the west wing should be connected to other houses, but where she was, the area outside the wall was empty, and she could only hear the chirping of grasshoppers and crickets.
Huaiwen looked around, and the first thing that caught her eye was a circular archway, with yellow and white chrysanthemums planted on both sides of the archway. She was standing on a quiet path in the courtyard garden, with a walnut tree planted behind her.
Huaiwen guessed that Fulin had found her and moved her away! Before she could think any further, she heard footsteps and quickly hid.
She transformed into a butterfly and hid in a tree, looking down as a maid led someone inside. Upon closer inspection, she recognized the person! It was someone she knew from the City of Demons—Bai Bumian.
Why did she come to Bai Bumian's place? Could it be that Bai Bumian was invited to his home to paint?
Driven by curiosity, Huaiwen followed Bai Bumian inside.
Bai Bumian was invited into the house, where the host greeted him with a smile. After exchanging a few pleasantries, the two took their seats. With no outsiders present, the host got straight to the point, asking Bai Bumian if he had obtained the protective talisman.
Bai Bumian took out several wrapped red amulets from his sleeve. He handed them to the homeowner and instructed him to hide if necessary.
The homeowner, looking worried, asked Bai Bumian again, "What is the state of the world today? What should we do?"
Bai Bumian's expression was somber and extremely serious. He said that plagues and strange occurrences were rampant in the world. Many places had already fallen, and the king was worried and unable to sleep. Therefore, the national advisor observed the celestial phenomena at night, went to see the king, and told him that the current calamity must be related to the stone tablet in Yong'an City that day.
Since the stone tablet fell to the ground, first half of Yong'an City died for no reason, then fires broke out in various places, causing strange mutants to appear, and then the plague brought by the mutants...
So the king ordered their arrest, and that day half the city of Yong'an was slaughtered by men in black. The homeowner was puzzled, because as far as he knew, the men in black had already been ordered to be arrested.
Bai Bumian explained, “That’s right. But at first, the arrest of the man in black was just a pretext used by the local magistrate to deceive the local people. After all, no one saw with their own eyes whether the man in black killed half the city. Besides, he only spread that rumor at the time, which doesn’t mean he killed anyone. But now, the king has issued a death order to kill him.”
The homeowner exclaimed, "To kill half the city in one night... that's not something an ordinary person could do."
“So…” Bai Bumian drawled, “he is not an ordinary person.”
The homeowner, trembling with fear, lowered his voice and asked, "That... is it a demon?"
Bai Bumian shook his head, looking troubled: "I don't know."
At this moment, Huaiwen, transformed into a butterfly, carefully pondered their conversation. What Bai Bumian said now made sense; the Grand Preceptor's words indeed made sense. It was true that since the stone tablet descended, the world had been in turmoil. However, she was even more worried about the matter of the ghostly soldiers, which had triggered such a great calamity!
If this problem is not resolved, no one, whether human, demon, or god, will escape this calamity.
Huaiwen thought that regardless of whether she had been transferred here by Fulin, she couldn't just watch everyone be ravaged by the Yin soldiers. Although her magic was limited, she was not useless; she would do what she could to save the world.
She then flew away.
Once on the street, Huaiwen found an empty alley and transformed back. She walked to the main street and saw people hurrying by. She stopped an old man passing by and asked why no one was doing business.
The old man looked around and whispered, "Run for your life, young man!"
"What happened, sir? Is everyone running for their lives?"
The old man coughed a few times: "Don't you know about the plague? Alas, the world is not at peace. Young man, you should flee for your life. This city is not besieged by those patients now, but it doesn't have much time left."
Huaiwen wanted to ask something more, but the old man waved his hand and hurried away. Watching the old man's receding figure, Huaiwen's resolve to save lives grew even heavier. Therefore, she made up her mind to pursue and kill the man in black who had been ordered arrested by the king.
Darkness fell quickly. Huaiwen had already searched several places in the city, but found nothing. She knew absolutely nothing about the man in black and had no way to track him down. It was like searching for a needle in a haystack, but she had no idea which needle to look for. This was truly worrying.
Unable to find anything, she could only turn back to Bai Bumian. Perhaps she could learn something from him.
Another chance to climb over the wall! Huaiwen prayed that she wouldn't be transferred this time! Luckily, her prayers worked, and she successfully got in. She used the white talisman to track Bai Bumian and quickly arrived at Bai Bumian's guest room.
She didn't knock, but slipped inside unnoticed. Seeing Bai Bumian painting, she waved her hand, extinguishing the candle. As Bai Bumian went to relight it, she revealed herself.
This startled Bai Bumian. Fortunately, he was somewhat of a江湖人 (jianghu person, a term referring to the martial arts world), so he wasn't so frightened that he fainted. However, Huaiwen was now in the face of another man, so Bai Bumian was very wary and immediately asked Huaiwen whether he wanted money or murder.
This made Huaiwen realize that she was wearing a mask. After thinking for a moment, she took it off and explained to Bai Bumian, "It's me, Brother Bumian."
Bai Bumian looked closely and saw a familiar face, then breathed a sigh of relief. But he remained wary: "Brother Huaiwen, what are you doing here in the middle of the night?"
Huaiwen clasped her hands in apology, then explained that she had come to find Bai Bumian because she wanted to know information about the man in black.
Bai Bumian frowned and looked Huaiwen up and down: "Since you know that the king wants to capture the man in black, shouldn't you, as a member of the Bureau of Humans and Demons, know more about the man in black than we do?"
These words made Huaiwen feel ashamed, as she really hadn't gathered any information about the man in black. Bai Bumian looked at Huaiwen's ashamed expression and sighed helplessly.
"Forget it, I can't blame you for not knowing. Your master, like you, knew nothing when he learned that the king wanted to arrest the man in black. Before I left, I asked him if he had found any clues, and he said no."
Upon hearing his master's name, Huaiwen first asked if he was well. Bai Bumian lazily replied that her master hadn't descended the mountain for several days and she didn't know what he was doing.
Huaiwen sighed, then put the mask back on. Bai Bumian was puzzled and asked her if she was in debt and hiding from people.
A slight awkwardness lingered in the air. Huaiwen couldn't help but sigh inwardly, "Bai Bumian truly lives up to her reputation as a seasoned scholar who has seen far too much." She was indeed hiding from someone, and she was indeed indebted to someone…
But she nodded helplessly. Bai Bumian remained calm and smiled, "It's not your fault... Your transvestite institute is already heavily in debt."
Huaiwen didn't want to talk about this topic for the time being, so she changed the subject and asked, "Let's not talk about this for now. I just want to ask you, Brother Bumian, when you were traveling around the world, did you know anything about the men in black in Yong'an City?"
Bai Bumian relit the candle and calmly returned to his desk to continue copying the painting. Huaiwen walked over, knelt before the desk, and continued to press him for answers. Bai Bumian, however, asked Huaiwen to grind ink for him.
"Nobody has ever seen the man in black. How would I know?" Bai Bumian said leisurely. "But you want to know about the man in black, are you trying to catch him and collect the bounty?"
Huaiwen grinned: "That counts too."
"Although I don't know what the man in black looks like, it's said that he left something on the bodies of the people he killed. At the time, everyone thought it was from the decomposing corpses. But then they thought, a person has only been dead for a day or two, so the body wouldn't decompose that quickly. Therefore, that thing must have been left by the assassin."
Huaiwen stopped grinding ink and asked with a heavy and puzzled expression, "Then... why didn't you use this to investigate back then? Now that the body has been buried, the traces have probably been eaten away by insects."
Bai Bumian replied, "Yes. They were all eaten by insects."
"But, a murderer would inevitably leave traces of the crime, wouldn't they?"
These words were a wake-up call for Huaiwen, a moment of profound realization. In other words, after all the twists and turns, she would eventually have to return to the stone tablet to investigate further.
As the painting was nearing completion, Bai Bumian urged Huaiwen to grind the ink, glanced at her, and asked her what she was going to do now.
Huaiwen didn't think much of it and just said that he was going to Yong'an City.
Bai Bumian sketched the picture, then calmly reminded her, "You can't enter Yong'an City without a pass. Of course, you can try to enter by hiding, but... there are a lot of Taoists in the city."
"So, Brother Bu Mian, does that mean you have a travel permit?" Huaiwen asked with an expectant look in his eyes.
Bai Bumian just smiled and didn't say anything. Huaiwen immediately flattered him, "Brother Bumian, for the sake of our friendship, please do me a favor and help me get into the city."
"Want my help?" Bai Bumian laughed, "but there will be a price to pay."
Huaiwen's eyes were firm, brooking no further comment from Bai Bumian: "I can!"
"In that case, let's set off tomorrow."
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