Chapter 20: Blue and White Raccoon Dog
With Cao Chang's directions, Meng Quan spotted the blue-flowered civet cat near Dajue Temple. He also spotted the spotted cats in Qinghua Li's yard, which Cao Chang described as "elusive." Qinghua Li explained that he once kept Dou Shuang's dogs in the yard. During the day, the dogs barked and roamed, and no one could find the cats. At night, the dogs slept in the yard, the cats watching from the wall. One of the dogs died, and no one heard a sound. The dead dog was covered in scratches and bleeding from its neck; it must have been killed by a cat, but no one knew which one had done it. Fearing that Dou Shuang would later learn that he had killed his cat, Qinghua Li cut the dog into pieces, stewed them, and fed half to the cats. A few days later, Dou Shuang came to the cat stall to take the dog. When he asked about the dog's whereabouts, he told Dou Shuang that it had died of plague.
Qinghua Li said that day, he asked Wang Lu to tell Meng Xiao that he wanted to buy a cat and go to Dajue Temple to find the monk Bansan. After leaving the pawnshop, he gave the cat to the monk Bansan and hid with a friend. This friend betrayed him and handed him over to Lao Si. Lao Si, who had learned that Dou Shuang was searching the city for someone, asked him if he knew the whereabouts of Feng Xie and the stolen goods.
Qinghua Li told Lao Si that Feng Xie lost the stolen goods to me at the dog fighting arena. The stolen goods have now been sold to the pawnshop of the Xian family. Dou Shuang asked me to sell them. I sold them for four thousand. I gave Dou Shuang two thousand and kept two thousand. If you don't believe me, go to Meng's Money Shop and ask. Qinghua Li handed Lao Si twenty paper money notes with "one hundred strings" written on them and said, "You can't withdraw this money. If you want to withdraw it, I have to go in person." Lao Si wanted to verify Qinghua Li's words, so he went to Meng's Money Shop. Before leaving, he left a brother behind and asked him to keep an eye on Qinghua Li. Lao Si went to Meng's Money Shop with Pei Lin. Pei Lin said that after Lao Si showed the paper money, the teller said that the money was genuine, but if you wanted to withdraw it, you had to come in person. This made Lao Si believe Qinghua Li. Qinghua Li said that he had sold the items to the pawnshop of the Xian family, so Lao Si went to the pawnshop again. The shopkeeper, Wang Lu, had a sour look on his face. He had already sold the stolen goods to Shi Lang, but now he said to Lao Si, "I bought these for 4,000 yuan. If you want to redeem them, you need at least 10,000 yuan."
The fourth brother said, "Then you keep it for burial. I won't buy it anymore."
The fourth brother left the pawn shop and did not return to the donkey stall, but went to the dog stall to find Dou Shuang. The two sides confronted each other, and Dou Shuang said, "Since the stolen goods were sold to the pawn shop by Qinghua Li, what does it have to do with me?"
The fourth brother said, "Qinghua Li is yours. Now he is selling Feng Xie's things, and Feng Xie's things are mine. I don't care who is in charge between Qinghua Li and you. Now you owe me two thousand."
Dou Shuang said, "Then go find Qinghua Li. If you find him, I'll give you all four thousand. I only want his hand."
The fourth brother said, "The blue cat is in my donkey stall."
Dou Shuang followed Lao Si back to the donkey stall, but the blue-flowered civet cat had disappeared, leaving the guard lying on the ground, still unconscious. Dou Shuang saw that Lao Si was telling the truth and said, "It's yours, I won't cheat you." She then gave Lao Si the jade camel badger that the sergeant had left behind.
According to Pei Lin, the guy who stayed at the donkey stall to guard the blue-flowered raccoon woke up and said that the blue-flowered raccoon was hanging from the beam, farting and having diarrhea non-stop. He went to shovel the shit on the ground because he couldn't stand the smell. Unexpectedly, the blue-flowered raccoon strangled his neck with his legs just as he got there. As for how the blue-flowered raccoon broke free from the rope, he didn't know. Pei Lin didn't believe the guy's words. Pei Lin said that he tied up the blue-flowered raccoon and hung it on the beam with his own hands. Unless the beam broke, the blue-flowered raccoon could not escape. The guy must have been bribed by the blue-flowered raccoon, or the golden raccoon rescued the blue-flowered raccoon and made a deal with the guy, teaching him to explain to the fourth brother in this way.
After escaping, Qinghua Li went to Dajue Temple and took refuge with the monk Bansan who was his friend. The fourth brother went to see Doctor Zhao, the magistrate of Xinfan County, and took the jade badger given to him by Dou Shuang. The fourth brother said to Doctor Zhao that this badger was the same as the one in the postman's bag, and if you want it, you can give him a thousand coins. Doctor Zhao refused, and said that none of your two brothers would be able to get out of jail. After the fourth brother returned to the donkey stall, he thought about it carefully and felt more and more ominous. How did the stolen goods get into the hands of Qinghua Li? If the truth is as Qinghua Li said - Feng Xie lost the stolen goods in gambling, then he should have been out on the street long ago. Feng Xie is a gambler and can't save money. In the past, he would starve if he didn't steal for three days. No one has seen him for several days. Could it be that Qinghua Li killed Feng Xie for money? With this thought, the fourth brother decided to go find Feng Xie.
Pei Lin said that one of the experiences their group had learned from their predecessors was to bury the brothers who died in the fight in the wild grave circle west of the city. The day after Lao Si came back from Xinfan County, he took Pei Lin out of Zaoqiao Gate, walked five miles north through Huanhua Creek, dug up the grave circle, and found a broken body. Lao Si asked, is this Feng Xie? Pei Lin said, I can't tell. It took the two of them half an hour to put the person together before they confirmed that it was Feng Xie. Pei Lin followed Lao Si's instructions and found Dou Shuang. Dou Shuang looked at Feng Xie and didn't seem surprised at all. Lao Si said: "You have to hand over Qinghua Li to me. No matter how bad Feng Xie is, he is still my man."
Dou Shuang said, "Blue-flowered raccoon dog escaped from your donkey stall, and you're asking me for him."
The fourth brother said, "Qinghua Li is your man. Your man killed my man, you have to pay."
Dou Shuang said, "Who knows if Qinghua Lizard killed this man? If Qinghua Lizard killed him, I will pay you."
In the end, both sides decided to offer a reward of 200 strings of cash for the capture of the blue-flowered civet cat. 200 strings of cash was a lot. Both sides were determined to obtain it. In reality, both sides had considered the possibility that the blue-flowered civet cat might not be found. If it wasn't found, the matter would have to end there. The so-called "200 strings of cash reward for the capture of the blue-flowered civet cat" was meant to make the matter more smooth and logical. However, neither of them expected that someone would actually find the blue-flowered civet cat. Even less expected was that the fourth brother would die five days after digging up Feng Xie.
Cao Chang heard about the reward from his brother-in-law, Wei San. Remembering that the jade badger was still with Dou Shuang and worth two hundred strings of cash, Cao Chang went to find Dou Shuang. He said he wanted to take the jade badger back and exchange it for forty strings of cash. The shopkeeper, Wang Lu, hadn't let him go and threatened to withhold four months' wages. Dou Shuang, however, kicked Cao Chang out, saying the badger was in the hands of Lao Si and that if he could, he could ask him for it. Cao Chang came out of the dog stall just as the shopkeeper called him back, saying the boss was looking for someone to do some work. Cao Chang and a clerk from the pawnshop followed Wang Lu to the Golden Horse Square. Meng Shilang's servant was waiting for them there. The servant told them to move the large and small brocade boxes from the ground into the yard, explaining that some were medicine, some were cakes, and some were local Baisha goods. As the two men busied themselves, Cao Chang looked up and saw the large cat, its legs burnt yellow and its ears pitch black, perched on the wall. Cao Chang asked the servant where the cat came from, and the servant said that he bought it from near Dajue Temple.
Cao Chang recognized the cat as the blue-flowered civet cat and went to Dajue Temple that night. Cao Chang was looking for the blue-flowered civet cat because he wanted to collect the 200-string reward offered by Lao Si and Dou Shuang. Cao Chang owed Wang Lu 200 strings of cash, so he had no choice but to take advantage of it.
For three consecutive nights, Cao Chang knocked on every door in the neighborhood near Dajue Temple. On the fourth night, he heard a cat meowing, but still couldn't find it. However, the cat's meowing made Cao Chang firmly believe that the blue-flowered civet cat was nearby. After searching for another two days, he finally found the blue-flowered civet cat in an alley one mile west of Dajue Temple. At this time, Cao Chang wanted to leave and report this place to Dou Shuang the next day, but he was stopped by a night watchman in the alley. The night watchman said, "Thief!" Cao Chang stopped and asked, "Where is it?"
When the raccoon heard the noise, he opened the door and looked outside. He said to the night watchman, "It's my cousin, sleepwalking." The night watchman then let the sergeant go. The sergeant followed the raccoon into the yard, where he saw the raccoon holding a large cat with pure yellow ears and black corners. The raccoon said, "You don't want to live anymore. You dare to get involved in this? Do you want to live anymore?"
The sergeant asked, "What are you talking about?"
Qinghua Li said, "The things I sold at the pawnshop were incredible. I looked at them carefully, and they were all either fakes or defective. None of them were worth anything, not even twenty strings of cash. But the fourth brother was willing to spend four hundred strings of cash on that badger with a broken hoof. How could he, a donkey seller, have the money? This is called having someone behind you. It's not the fourth brother who wants to buy it, but someone behind him who wants to buy it."
Cao Chang asked, "What about Dou Shuang?"
Qinghua Li said, "Dou Shuang'er has no one behind him. He saw that Lao Si was anxious to get it, so he wanted it too. Dou Shuang is a fool. Lao Si is a street urchin. But if Lao Si can offer 400 strings of cash for that camel badger with a broken hoof, then the people behind him can offer 800 strings of cash. If your shopkeeper Wang Lu is willing to offer 4,000 strings of cash to collect all six items, then Meng Shilang can offer 8,000 strings of cash. Not to mention these junks, what can be worth 8,000 strings of cash? You are just a clerk, don't jump into the fire pit blindly."
The sergeant asked, "What pit?"
Qinghua Li said, "If you don't believe me, just wait and see. At least one of the fourth brother, Dou Shuang, will die. If both of them survive, come find me and I'll give you a thousand coins."
The above is what Qinghua Li said to Cao Chang. Cao Chang said that he didn't understand Qinghua Li's words at that time, but he was frightened. After leaving the yard, he decided not to tell Dou Shuang where Qinghua Li was, and not to look for Qinghua Li anymore. Cao Chang thought that as long as he didn't interfere in this matter, trouble would not fall on his head. But a few days later, he was arrested on the street by the yamen runners. The yamen runners said: "Zhao Zhixian has something to ask you." Cao Chang asked which magistrate? The yamen runner said: "Dou Shuang is dead."
When the sergeant arrived at the Xinfan County Yamen, he learned of Lao Si's death. The body of Lao Si, a donkey dealer, was found in a river pond in Xinfan County. The bodies of Lao Si and Dou Shuang were examined by the coroner; the people associated with the donkey and dog stalls were also investigated by the Chengdu Prefecture and Xinfan County Yamen. The authorities ultimately concluded that Lao Si had died at the hands of Dou Shuang. Dou Shuang killed Lao Si because Lao Si wanted to kill him. Lao Si wanted to kill Dou Shuang because Dou Shuang's subordinate, Qinghua Li, had killed Lao Si's subordinate, Feng Xie. Lao Si was killed by Dou Shuang. Therefore, Dou Shuang's death must have been revenge by Lao Si's brothers and subordinates.
All of this happened later. Afterward, Pei Lin, Qinghua Li, and Cao Chang all concluded that besides Lao Si and Dou Shuang, someone else was looking for Feng Xie's belongings. They didn't know who this person was. The only way to find this person was to look for the items' origins and their surroundings. Years later, Meng Quan, under the alias Dao Xi, traveled to Baisha Town in Jiangjin and tracked down his cousin, Meng Xiao. Summarizing the accounts of Meng Xiao, the postman Li Bing, Doctor Zhao of Xinfan, the fourth brother Pei Lin, the cat stall owner Qinghua Li, the pawnshop owner Wang Lu, and the clerk sergeant, Meng Quan said, "That's exactly what happened. The one looking for something is the Taoist in black. He's looking for a bundle that the Wu family, living in Zhuanglang County, Deshun Commandery, had entrusted Qiao Lizheng to deliver to Chongguang Temple in Xinfan County. The Taoist in black firmly believes the bundle contains the Wu family patriarch's last will and testament, as a group of flying horses had previously delivered seven letters to various Wu brothers throughout Sichuan and Shaanxi. Each of the seven letters stated that the patriarch's will would be delivered to Chongguang Temple in Xinfan County. After the bundle was delivered, the Wu patriarch died. Now, seven Wu brothers are looking for the bundle. And because of these seven Wu brothers' desire, the Taoist in black doesn't believe anyone—just as Doctor Zhao, the Xinfan County Magistrate, had said."
Wang Lu, the owner of the pawnshop at the Luojia Pawnshop, said he had seen this man before. On the very night that Qinghua Li had sold his belongings to the pawnshop, a Taoist priest dressed in black entered the shop and asked to see what the cat-head had brought in. Wang Lu placed six items on the table and asked him to examine them. After examining them, the Taoist priest remained silent for a long time. Wang Lu said he was silent for a full moment. Finally, the Taoist priest's gaze fell on Wang Lu's face and asked, "Where is the bundle?"
Wang Lu said, "What?"
The Taoist in black asked, "Where is the bag?"
Wang Lu laughed and said, "You're just messing with me." Afterwards, Wang Lu said to Meng Quan, "What do I need that for? It's just a tattered suicide note. It's unlucky to have it lying around. What is he looking for? He's never been to our Curry."
Pei Lin said that it was the Taoist in black who killed Lao Si, there was no doubt about it. This statement was confirmed by Dr. Zhao, the magistrate of Xinfan County. Dr. Zhao said that Lao Si went back to Xinfan County that day to buy a breeding donkey and died on the dirt road leaving the county. The man who sold the breeding donkey found the male donkey he sold to Lao Si yesterday on the same road the next day. On the day Lao Si was killed, the Taoist in black came to the county government office and said to him (Dr. Zhao): "Monsters and demons. All those who handled the bundle knew that one of the people who handled the bundle was the conspirator. I don't believe that the one who led the donkey (Lao Si) was the one. He said he had never seen the bundle and that it was not him who ordered the gambler to rob the postman. It's not that I don't believe it, but this time I'm working for Lao Wu, and I can't believe what I believe."
Dr. Zhao scratched his head and asked, "What should we do then?"
Dr. Zhao said that before the fourth brother was killed, the Taoist in black went to look for the widow Zhang, who was Feng Xie's lover. The Taoist in black got to know the widow Zhang through him, and he got to know the widow Zhang through the fourth brother. So Meng Quan also went to look for the widow Zhang, gave her five strings of cash, and asked her to tell the truth. Zhang said: "The Taoist in black came to ask for the bundle of skin. I didn't expect that a Taoist priest like him would bully a widow like me. I thought he was lustful, so I told him that he would only do it if he gave me one string of cash. He really gave me one string of cash. I told him that the bundle of skin was snatched away by the donkey leader (the fourth brother). How would I know which thief broke into the house and picked the lock to steal the bundle of skin? But how could I say I didn't know since he gave me one string of cash? Who told the donkey leader to send someone to find me and say that he would give me a wooden donkey to ride? I said it was him, so I can repay his favor."
Dr. Zhao said to Meng Quan, I think this is how he (the Taoist in black) found the fourth brother.
Qinghuali said that the person who killed Lao Si and Dou Shuang must be the same person.
Pei Lin said that Dou Shuang's death had nothing to do with Lao Si. Why would Lao Si kill Dou Shuang for Feng Xie? After Lao Si's death, the county government found his body first, and then we brothers found out. To this day, no one knows the cause of Lao Si's death, so who can seek revenge for Dou Shuang?
Meng Quan believed that Dou Shuang's murderer might be Qinghua Li. Qinghua Li had a motive for murdering Dou Shuang. This motive was that Dou Shuang was searching for Qinghua Li. If he found Qinghua Li, he would either give him the four thousand coins he had obtained from selling the stolen goods or have his hands chopped off. To avoid being found by Dou Shuang, Qinghua Li would have to leave Chengdu. Qinghua Li certainly didn't want to leave. Back when Dou Shuang came to Chengdu, he had paid for the brothel.
I asked, "Can the blue-flowered raccoon dog harm Dou Shuang?"
Meng Quan said, "I've seen the autopsy report written by the coroner. It says he had thirty wounds all over his body. There were no dogs barking in the market the night Dou Shuang died. Dou Shuang wasn't killed by the civet cat himself; he was bitten to death by a dog."
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