Chapter 41: Case of the Headless Male Corpse (End)

No matter how fast he ran, he could not outrun the constables from the Dali Temple, and Sun the Butcher was quickly pinned to the ground.

"Take it back."

It seemed that he heard that people from the Dali Temple were coming, so he wanted to sneak over the wall behind the house and escape. Unfortunately, he was seen by a sharp-eyed constable.

Xie Hui asked someone to take Sun the Butcher back to the Dali Temple first, while he himself stayed in Liujiazhuang to inquire about Sun the Butcher's situation.

Sometimes being good-looking also has its advantages. When Xie Hui stood there, before he could even open his mouth, the villagers started talking at once about everything they knew.

This butcher Sun was a stranger, and no one knew where he came from. One winter a few years ago, he suddenly settled here.

Because he had the skill of killing pigs, he lived a pretty good life. After the new year, he built a more respectable house than other families in the village. At that time, the matchmaker from the nearby village saw that he was a single man and had made money, so she wanted to find a wife for him.

However, Sun the butcher declined, saying that he came here because his wife and children died, and now he doesn't want to look for another one.

Apart from killing pigs, he usually lives his life behind closed doors and doesn't interact with others. His temper is really weird, but he is from another place and his job is to kill pigs, so the villagers don't usually come near him.

"There's something wrong with looking so gloomy on weekdays."

"That's right, the door is closed all day long, and I don't know what they are doing in there."

The villagers began to count the strange things about Sun the Butcher. Those things that they had never noticed before now seemed to be evidence that he was a murderer.

"My son...! Has the murderer been caught?" Liu Shun'er's mother, who was originally bedridden, heard the commotion in the village and rushed over on crutches.

"They caught him! It's Sun the Butcher. The officials have taken him back."

"Yes, Granny Gui, you should not be too sad. You should take care of yourself. The officials will definitely take care of you in the future! Isn't that right, sir?"

"We still need to investigate whether the murderer is Sun the Butcher, but the court will definitely punish the murderer."

The villagers didn't quite understand that the conviction of a criminal, especially a murder case, was a very rigorous process and it was not possible to simply say who the murderer was.

"What? If the murderer isn't him, then who else could it be? If it's not him, why is he running? Isn't he afraid... afraid..."

Constable Zhang Hui, who was standing behind Xie Hui, could not help but reply, "Fleeing for fear of crime."

"Yes, yes, that's right, he's on the run!"

Just as Xie Hui was about to explain, someone else in the crowd spoke up.

"You haven't seen the play, so what? This man has to be tried after being arrested. What kind of witnesses and evidence are needed to make a judgment? Am I right, sir?"

Xie Hui nodded and said, "Yes, that's pretty much what I meant. It's not certain that people will understand what you mean when you explain the Jokhang Law to them."

"Zhang Hui, take a few people to guard Sun the butcher's house and don't let anyone get close."

After Xie Hui gave his instructions to his men, he went back to the Dali Temple first. Sun the Butcher's home might be the place where Liu Shun'er was killed, but according to regulations, if they wanted to search Sun the Butcher's house, they needed a document issued by the Dali Temple and could not enter and search at will.

He went back, firstly to have someone write the paperwork, and secondly to see how Sun the Butcher's review went.

It was getting late today, and the detectives might have to spend the night in Liujiazhuang. Fortunately, the detectives usually carried dry food and water bags with them when they went out. The weather was warm now, so spending the night outside was not a big deal. They had even lay in the snow during the coldest days of winter before.

But the villagers didn't know this. When they saw Zhang Hui and others sit down and take out dry food and start eating, they came forward and wanted to pull them home to eat.

The enthusiasm of the villagers made the group of tall and strong men blush.

…

When Xie Hui returned to the Dali Temple, Shen Yun was already trying Sun the Butcher.

When he was brought to court, he readily admitted to the murder.

Sun the Butcher's original name was Sun Zhongren, but looking back at this name now seems quite ironic.

"Why did you kill Liu Shun'er?"

When Xie Hui came in, Sun Zhongren was explaining the reason for his murder. He was kneeling on the ground, with a blank expression on his face, as if he was talking about someone else.

"He climbed over the wall and entered my house. I was not at home at the time, and he searched everywhere in my house. I went home and scolded him. But he did not admit his fault and asked me to cut him some more meat. I refused to give him any meat, so he scolded me a few more times. I was upset, so I killed him."

The calmer the narration, the more chilling it makes people feel.

"How did you kill him? And why did you cut off his head?"

"The boning knife hit him in the back of the head and killed him instantly. Didn't he want my pork head? I might as well chop off his head, hahahahahahahahahaha!"

Sun Zhongren suddenly went crazy, "Guess where the head is? Hahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahaha, I threw it into the cesspool at my house."

After working in the Dali Temple for many years, Shen Yun knew that some people were born without emotions. Killing was not a big deal for them. Sun Zhongren was probably such a person.

According to his account, he thought that no one would pay attention to the death of a gangster like Liu Shun'er, so he wanted to throw the body into the cesspool, but the cesspool was not big enough and it was troublesome to throw it in.

Sun Zhongren wanted to bury him in the chaotic graves of Daqing Mountain using a cart under the cover of night, but Daqing Mountain was usually deserted and there was no road. He found it troublesome and went straight to Xiaoqing Mountain, which was easier to walk on.

I thought that at night, no one would be there at either Xiaoqingshan or Daqingshan, but it just so happened that day...

"It was the middle of the night, and there was still someone having an affair with a wild man. Digging a pit made too much noise, so I just found a random place to dump it. If I had known earlier, I would have simply chopped it up and dumped it in the dung pit."

There was nothing much to say to such a fearless person, so Shen Yun had him taken away and the trial would be held on a later date.

The next morning, Xie Hui took the documents and went to Liujiazhuang again.

It took seven or eight constables more than ten times for Liu Shun'er to pull his head out of the cesspool.

At this point, the case of the headless male corpse that caused a stir in the capital was finally solved. In fact, except for the effort it took to confirm the identity of the victim at the beginning, the subsequent investigation was not complicated, and Sun Zhongren confessed his crime very quickly.

After this, Shen Yun sent another document to Sun Zhongren's hometown, Bingzhou. He always felt that this kind of person might not have killed someone for the first time.

However, no matter how many cases he has been involved in, the current case of Liu Shun'er alone is enough to behead him.

The people who suffered the most in this case were probably the people who went to dig out the septic tank that day. They didn't eat for several days after they came back.

This also includes Xie Hui who was at the scene at that time, which frightened Princess Kang Le so much that she even invited the imperial physician from the palace...