Chapter 24: Mr. Water Ghost, the water here is very salty, hiding corpses is...
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At the village chief's house next door, the lights and fire were turned off and it was quiet.
The room was even quieter.
There was an old man who hadn't slept. He just sat there, his wrinkled face looking gloomy under the cold moonlight.
I don't know how long it was before I heard a familiar rustling sound from under the window outside.
"It's done!"
The old man's eyes lit up, and he quickly stood up, but also cautiously. He quietly opened the window a crack and glanced down.
The cloudy and bloodshot eyes stared straight at the young man under the window. The young man looked nervous and was shocked when he looked up and saw the eyes. He was relieved when he recognized it was his father, but he still looked around and was sweating profusely.
This kind of nervousness and fear is actually not a flaw. The old man is not surprised. After all, he is not a veteran.
He would only be worried if this kid was as steady as an old dog.
However, the old man was also cunning and perceptive. He carefully examined the boy's body from head to toe in the moonlight and found some bloodstains on his sleeves.
"You're not unconscious, but there's blood on you? Did they resort to violence?"
"No, no, those people were drugged and had seizures. We quickly apprehended them all as you instructed. They were still searching for their money and belongings, so they asked me to come back and report. Didn't you say we needed to be quick, ruthless, and accurate, to get rid of them as soon as possible? We immediately cut their throats, and that's when the blood was seen. Don't worry, we'll change their clothes and other things once we've disposed of the bodies. But what should we do with the bodies?"
The old man nodded, satisfied with this. This was indeed his idea. As for the corpse...
"Killed those three women too? Weren't they supposed to be sold for money or kept by their families?"
The young man's forehead was covered in sweat, but thinking of the poison in his stomach, he could only continue to play the game and said, "Stay in the village, in case they report it to the police..."
"Idiot! There are caves in the old mountains, and there are water ghosts... If they throw the bodies into the water, naturally no one will suspect anything. It's their fault that they offended the water ghosts, not us."
The old man had dispelled his doubts, packed up, and quietly walked out of the small door, following the young man to Old Wang's house next door, but he did not forget to put on a black mask.
At first glance, I couldn't tell which family this old man was from. He was hunched over and tiptoeing under the moonlight.
Like an old vixen with no hair.
The door was ajar.
This old man was really cunning. His eyes were rolling around and he didn't go in directly. Instead, he stuck his butt out and peeked inside through the crack in the door, fearing that there was a trap inside.
The young man stared at them, worried that the poison had taken effect. He was anxious and said, "Come in. How can we deceive you?"
At this point, the old man already felt something was wrong, "Where are the others?"
"Why is there no one inside?"
He looked at the boy again and saw in the moonlight that the young man's face was blue and pale, his clothes were almost stoned by sweat, and there was a strong smell of sweat.
Something is wrong!
The old man turned around and tried to run away.
result!
Just as he turned around, several people appeared from all directions, from the shadow of the alley opposite the gate of Old Wang's house and behind the old tree.
Blocked the two at the door.
The old man heard a creaking sound behind him and the door was completely opened.
Behind the door, a tall and straight shadow was reflected neatly. Jiang Hui stood there, looking at him with cold contempt.
"Thieves are so despicable, just like an old yellow dog digging a toilet in the dead of night after not having eaten enough."
Jiang Hui is proud of his status and rarely argues with others. Are these people worthy of it?
But the young man went to the next room to find the old man. With Jiang Hui's martial arts skills, he was always on the roof, floating like a ghost. He heard everything the old man said behind the window.
Now, the old man is smiling and being sarcastic, and words are secondary.
The subordinates all saw the prince touching the hilt of the sword at his waist.
That was his habitual action when he went to the battlefield to kill.
The old man covered his face and retreated step by step. He was afraid of Jiang Hui and would rather face Ruo Zhao and others who were surrounding him from behind.
But when he saw these people were about to draw their swords, and some nearby villagers were woken up to check, he became anxious and raised his voice instead.
"We, the Wang family, are just looking for something in our home. We may have disturbed you, but this is our house after all. Do you really want to take it over and occupy it?"
"Okay, no wonder Master Water Ghost was irritated by you!"
"You bad guys... Come here, this group of bad guys wants to..."
The old man covered his face with a mask and spoke in a shrill voice. The villagers could not see his appearance behind the mask, but his voice sounded quite like Old Wang's. The old man was very sick because of the death of the third brother, and he spoke weakly. He had not been seen for a long time. He only came out today to take care of the matter of vacating the house, but he only made decisions. He was sick and could not be seen in public.
Do you look better now?
It was dark at night and the villagers could not see clearly, but through the shadows of the eaves of the courtyards and the moonlight, they could see that the other person at the Wang family's door was Wang's son.
Wang Laosan?
It suddenly dawned on me: were the Wangs planning to rob and kill these wealthy outsiders? Or were the outsiders up to something else?
It seems that the masked old man is the sickly old man of the Wang family. I didn’t realize it before.
Jiang Hui's expression was indifferent. "They're all surnamed Wang? Not necessarily? If we go home to find something, do we have to work together with both families?"
The masked men inside were escorted out one after another, and all their masks were removed.
When the villagers saw this, their expressions turned unhappy.
The young man was the only son left in Old Wang's family, the third son, also known as Uncle Wang Doudou. He was also the third brother of the recently deceased Wang Laoyao, and was a scoundrel who played around with many idle young men in the village, and was not afraid of drinking and going to brothels.
At that time, among these eight people, except for Wang Laosan, who was from the Wang family, the other seven were from—
Ruozhao threw a stone and knocked off the old man's face mask.
"As the village chief, there are three sons and two grandsons from your family here, right? There are also other families. If they all have the surname Wang, would your ancestors be happy?"
Ruozhao cursed vulgarly, and when the villagers saw the appearance of these young men, they were immediately shocked.
The entire village chief's family was almost wiped out.
The village chief's face was ashen, but he remained stubborn. "Brother Wang is seriously ill and grieving over his son's death. He asked me to take some of his belongings from his room and burn them as a memorial. But since you're from outside, you don't need to be informed of local customs, so I didn't tell you. So, do I need to explain our own village affairs to you?!"
What he said was nonsense, but he was trying to cover up this dirty business by relying on his authority as the village chief who had been tyrannical in the local area for many years.
Jiang Hui didn't bother to pay attention to him and glanced at Wang Laosan.
At this time, two families walked out of the village chief's house together. The Wang family was a little confused. Wang Doudou was half asleep. When he saw his third uncle being escorted to the ground, he looked at the scene and his face turned pale. He had actually seen how powerful this group of people were. Even though he was young and ignorant, he still had a sense of awe and immediately scolded Wang San.
Wang Laosan had taken the pills and was terrified, but he didn't have the nerve to act desperately. Now, with a dejected look on his face, he knelt on the ground and accused the village chief and his son of inciting him...
It's like a dog-eat-dog situation.
"They coaxed me into taking the house key."
"I really don't mean to do anything wrong! Don't tell Daddy... He's still sick."
Wang Doudou almost fainted from the heat of the moment. He wanted to ask something, but was stopped by his family. When he saw the expressions of the villagers, he calmed down.
The village chief's eyes were full of murderous intent, and his subordinates also turned hostile. He shouted to the villagers, "This group of people are very rich and they are all carrying swords. They are definitely not escorts. They are probably bandits who rob and rob to accumulate money. They even want to harm the village chief and occupy the Wang family's house without reason. This is a serious crime. Don't be fooled, everyone. I'm the boss. Let's go together. After we capture them, we will go to the government to punish them. The whole village will testify that they are bandits. At the very least, they have angered the water ghost and made a fortune early. It has absolutely nothing to do with us..."
A cornered dog will do something desperate, which will bring financial trouble.
Quite a few people were interested, at least many young people were ready to make a move. However, some older elders and women turned pale and pulled the younger ones away from getting involved.
The scene was in chaos and the villagers began to look ferocious.
Ruo Zhao directly took out a token.
"This is a government token. We are escorting tribute pearls and jade from overseas on behalf of the government. We didn't tell you before because we didn't want to interfere with people's livelihood and expose secrets. Now you have been deceived and misled by the greedy village chief. If you commit a serious crime and the government investigates, what can you do?"
"If you delay the Licheng prefect's important affairs and the Ministry of Justice intervenes, do you think you can withstand the investigation? Do you think that the superstition of water ghosts will appease the court? What are you talking about water ghosts? Robbing the court tribute is a crime tantamount to treason. Massacring the whole village is no problem."
"You better think about it!"
"If you stop now and apprehend the instigator and his men, you will still be good citizens. You only need to escort these nine people to the authorities to testify with us. You will not be held responsible for anything else. After all, the law does not punish the masses."
"What do you think?"
The evidence was genuine. Some of these villagers had been to the county town and had some experience. In addition, many elders knew what kind of people the village chief and his men were. Seeing the situation and the extremely powerful appearance of these bodyguards, they had already wanted to retreat. After some persuasion from the younger generation, they quickly reached an agreement.
Many people shouted to send the officials away.
Anyway, the village chief's family and Wang Laosan and others who suffered the disaster cannot be implicated by them.
Wang Doudou instigated his father to take the blame so that he could redeem himself for his crime and perhaps even get his third uncle off the hook.
The Wang family took the lead, and many young and middle-aged people in the village participated. The matter was urgent and had to be settled that night.
Jiang Hui smiled: "If the commotion gets too big and angers Lord Water Ghost, we are outsiders and can just leave. But it's different for you guys."
Wang Doudou: "Let's go, let's go. We'll be leaving soon."
It was natural for Jiang Hui and the others to leave overnight. After all, they were water ghosts and assassins, so who would dare to stay?
The villagers also wanted to resolve this matter as soon as possible. At worst, they could replace the village chief, but they couldn't anger the water ghost again.
The village soon became empty, with only some old women and children staying at home waiting for news. However, it was already late at night, and it would take until tomorrow afternoon for the villagers to return after finishing their business with the county government.
The village chief's house and Old Wang's house were the only empty ones in the village, after all, they were involved in too many cases.
Jiang Hui and his group all left.
Yan Siqing sat on the horse and looked back at the village. It was dark. Some old people, women, and children were standing at the doors, but he didn't know if there was anyone in the shadows in the corners and in the dark places under the walls.
The door was locked, the village was quiet, the moonlight was even quieter, and the water was gurgling, as if the terrifying water ghost still remained in this village.
After a few hours, the group left.
The night was about to break, and it was gray and hazy. The lake was covered with mist, the pond was covered with white gauze, and the stream was disturbed by the moonlight, turning over and rolling white. It was blocked by some dilapidated railings and deep in the outskirts of the village where weeds were taller than people. Walking inside, the dilapidated old houses could only barely block the rain, and even the wind was leaking.
When it was dark, a dark shadow climbed over the wall in the backyard of the village chief's house.
The strange shadow staggered very slowly and cautiously as it entered the path, winding its way out of the village and into the overgrown path. It did not look back when entering, but peeked at it through the gaps in the weeds.
It can be seen that its lower limbs are thick, its upper body is bent and round like a turtle's back, its head is pointed, but its hair is disheveled, and its shadow is elongated like an underwater female ghost, walking on land, floating in the weeds, rustling, like both a human and a ghost.
Finally, it crawled into a cave with an earthen kang. It was damp inside, with a smell in the air, and a few pieces of salted wild bacon hanging from the vent.
Looking further inside, it was extremely dark. It took out a tinder from its clothes and lit the wall lamp. The entire cave became bright, and several ancient salt wells appeared.
It lay there, its messy long hair covering its head and cheeks. It took a heavy object off its back and was just about to breathe a sigh of relief.
Behind...
"You must be exhausted carrying all this valuables. Would you like some water?"
"Oh, by the way, the water here is very salty. It's okay for hiding corpses, but it's not suitable for living people to drink."
"Yeah."
"Lord Water Ghost."
It stretched out its body, bent over and lay on the table, motionless.
And the sound of footsteps could be heard slowly from the corridor outside the cave entrance.
Jiang Hui walked out of the darkness.
His long legs were untidy, and he held a sword in his hand, holding the light.
The water ghost said nothing, as if he was doing something, or as if he was thinking about a countermeasure.
After a while, it said, "So you didn't send the village chief and his men out of the village at all. You deliberately lured him in, framed him for the previous murders, and emptied his house to lure me in to steal their property?"
It can speak human language, so it turns out to be a human. But from the back, it looks like a ghost, extremely ugly and not like a human.
He said, "But I was just stealing."
"You can only charge me with theft."
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