Chapter Sixty-Eight: The Rumors of the Skinning Monster
The stove fire in the kitchen never went out, the flickering flames reflecting the worried faces of the mother-in-law and daughter-in-law. They were busy chopping vegetables, cooking, and washing dishes, their movements swift yet revealing a heavy weariness.
Bai Yu rolled up her sleeves and began carefully selecting the ingredients she needed. Potatoes, cabbage, radishes, tofu, eggs, vermicelli… She rummaged through them for a while before managing to find some passable ingredients: two potatoes that looked fairly intact, a small, firm head of cabbage, a piece of tofu that looked relatively fresh, the largest eggs she had chosen, a small handful of dried shiitake mushrooms, a small bag of flour, and even a small spoonful of lard, a little coarse salt, and some common seasonings in the earthenware pot in the corner. Even a skilled cook can't cook without rice; for now, she could only try to make the best of what she had.
During the selection process, Bai Yu tried to strike up a conversation with the mother-in-law and daughter-in-law. "Auntie, what's your name? My name is Bai Yu, Bai as in white, and Yu as in the poppy flower." She tried to use casual conversation to build rapport and make it easier to gather information.
“My husband’s surname is Shi, Miss Bai can just call me Aunt Shi.” Aunt Shi was the old woman. Seeing that Bai Yu was beautiful with fair and delicate skin, clearly someone who had never done rough work, and that she addressed Bai Yu as “Aunt Shi” so sweetly, she couldn’t help but feel a little closer to her. She responded as she added firewood to the stove.
Bai Yu picked up a potato, peeled it skillfully, and asked casually, "With such a big inn, didn't you hire any help? I see only the manager in the main hall. It's all your own people doing the work inside and out. You must be working very hard."
“Our family of five lives in the backyard. Besides, this inn isn't very big; it's barely enough to feed our family. Where would we get the extra money to hire help? Family is enough.” Aunt Shi spoke amidst the crackling of burning firewood, a sound full of life, but the bitterness in her voice was undeniable. “His father is in charge of greeting guests and settling accounts at the front, while my wife and I are responsible for cooking and cleaning. His grandfather isn't well, so he usually looks after Xiaohuzi…”
"A family of five? I don't see anyone else here!" Bai Yu asked curiously, her knife skills were excellent, and the potatoes were quickly cut into even, thin strips. Although they said it was a family of five, the shopkeeper and the mother-in-law and daughter-in-law made three. Based on the shopkeeper and his wife's conversation, they should have a child whose name contained the character for "tiger," and an elderly person.
Aunt Shi paused in her chopping, a trace of sorrow crossing her face. She sighed, "Alas... my husband, the child's grandfather, and my little grandson, Hu Zi, have both fallen ill recently, quite seriously. They're resting in the inner room. They can't be exposed to drafts while sick, so they haven't come out." If it weren't for this reason—the family desperately needed money for medicine—they wouldn't have dared to receive so many unfamiliar faces at this time. Life was precious, but without money, the old man and little Hu Zi would run out of medicine, and their lives would be over. How could outsiders understand the hardship and fear they endured?
Their family ran this inn, earning a meager income barely enough to make ends meet and save a little money. However, both the elderly man and his young grandson fell seriously ill, requiring expensive medicine daily, draining their savings and leaving them with debts. Selling the inn would provide some money for emergencies, but it would leave the family homeless and adrift. Moreover, given the current state of the city, no one wanted to take over an inn. With everyone in a state of panic, who had the mind to run an inn? It was practically a case of high demand but no demand.
Driven by the need to make a living, the innkeeper had no choice but to bite the bullet and desperately try to attract business. He didn't care whether the people who checked in were problematic, good or bad, as long as they paid for the lodging. It was a turbulent time, and other inns were unwilling to let strangers check in. However, the outsiders passing through the city couldn't find a place to rest, couldn't leave the city in time, and had nowhere to stay. This "Laifu Inn" became their only option.
“When someone is sick, they need to be carefully cared for.” Bai Yu’s face showed a timely expression of pity. Seeing that Aunt Shi looked distressed, she gently comforted her, “Aunt Shi, don’t worry too much. The illness will eventually get better, and life must go on. Please relax, take good care of them, and they will get better.”
"Thank you for your kind words, Miss Bai." Aunt Shi wasn't one to complain, but mentioning her husband and grandson had put her in a bad mood. She wiped her eyes with her sleeve and forced herself to cheer up. "By the way, Miss Bai, why are you cooking yourself? Judging from your demeanor, you don't seem like..." she seemed like someone who needed to cook for herself.
Aunt Shi was simply a little puzzled. In her many years of experience, she could tell that Bai Yu's clothes were made of exceptional material—delicate, smooth, and subtly shimmering under the light. It was not something an ordinary person could afford. Such a person was likely from a wealthy family. What young lady or favored maidservant would cook for herself when she went out? Shouldn't they be surrounded by servants and waited on hand and foot?
"This is my young lady's first time traveling far from home, and also her first time here. I was worried that she wouldn't be used to the food here, so I cooked some of her usual dishes myself," Bai Yu said with a smile. She soaked the shredded potatoes in water and then began preparing the cabbage.
"Miss?" Aunt Shi was quite surprised, and couldn't help but take a closer look at Bai Yu. She was dressed in luxurious clothes (in Aunt Shi's opinion), her demeanor was graceful and elegant, and she spoke clearly and logically. Even the daughters of wealthy merchants in the city didn't have this kind of air about them. How could such a girl be a maidservant? "Oh my, I really didn't expect... Miss Bai has such a bearing. I wonder what kind of celestial being your young lady is!" She couldn't imagine what a girl more outstanding than Bai Yu would look like.
"My young lady is indeed unparalleled and unique!" Bai Yu proudly raised her chin, feeling honored, but the phrase "like a god" made her feel a little awkward. To orthodox demons, being like a god was not a good metaphor. What about gods and Buddhas? They were also born between heaven and earth, so why were they born to be revered, while demons were condemned as heretics? Of course, she couldn't say this to mortals.
Seeing her proud demeanor, Aunt Shi assumed it was a sign of affection between mistress and servant, smiled, and didn't ask any further questions. However, she became even more curious about the "young lady" she had never met.
Bai Yu had already finished the initial preparation of the ingredients. Then, while starting a pot of water to blanch the mushrooms, she continued her conversation with Aunt Shi, her tone tinged with just the right amount of confusion and curiosity: "Aunt Shi, we noticed something strange about the atmosphere in the city as soon as we entered. The streets are deserted, and every household has its doors and windows closed. They all avoid us outsiders. What's going on in this city? Is there a bandit outbreak? Or... is there something else?"
Understanding the implications of Jiu Ya's words and noticing Rong's thoughtful expression, Bai Yu realized that her master wouldn't stand idly by while the city's strangeness persisted. Although she didn't understand why Jiu Ya was so concerned about human affairs—after all, even if chaos reigned in the mortal realm, it wouldn't concern their demon realm much—as a good subordinate, she didn't need to ask why; she only needed to understand her superior's intentions and act accordingly. If her master wanted to know about the city, she had to find out. Otherwise, Bai Yu wouldn't have wasted time chatting with this mortal mother-in-law and daughter-in-law, and even cooked for them herself.
Upon hearing this, the worry and fear that had just begun to fade from Aunt Shi's brow instantly returned. She subconsciously glanced out the window at the dark night sky, as if something terrifying lurked there. "It's a long story... alas, it's something even more frightening than bandits!"
She paused, her voice unconsciously lowering, "It was about three months ago, when it was still very cold. There was an old night watchman named Wang in the north of the city. When he was striking the third watch, he passed by a dark alley and saw what looked like someone lying at the very end of the alley. Old Wang thought it was a drunkard who had drunk too much, and being kind, he thought that in this freezing weather, if he didn't wake the person up, what if they froze to death? But when he went in with his lantern... oh my God, it was terrifying!"
Aunt Shi's voice was filled with lingering fear: "The person was still human-shaped, but covered in blood, and the skin... the skin was all gone! All that was left was red flesh and tendons, the eyes were wide open, and the mouth was agape. The person had been dead for a long time! Of course, without skin, how could they have survived! I heard the scene was incredibly bloody!"
Bai Yu frowned, slowing down his movements. "Just this one case? It shouldn't cause the whole city to panic, right?" Even if it's an isolated, heinous crime, it's terrible, but it shouldn't cause the entire city to turn into this.
“Miss Bai, if only one person had been victimized, that would be fine! Then the official could say it was a revenge killing or the work of a roving criminal.” Aunt Shi looked around, even in her own kitchen, she was unusually vigilant, and whispered, “What’s scary is that after that day, it’s like a start, every half month, the same thing happens! Sometimes it’s in the east of the city, sometimes in the west, there’s no pattern. From the first person being murdered, to later… once, I heard it was a young couple, they couldn’t escape either! At first, the official didn’t know whose body the first one was, no one claimed it, it was in such a state that no one could recognize it. Later, when it was compared with the people who mysteriously disappeared in the city, they slowly started to match up.”
"The magistrate sent his constables to patrol day and night, saying that the murderer was particularly vicious, targeting lone people at night with extremely cruel methods. But so much time has passed, and the magistrate still hasn't caught the murderer. He's nowhere to be seen, neither alive nor dead."
"Many people are saying in private that this is something no human could do!" Aunt Shi's voice lowered even further. "I heard that the dead person was not only skinned alive, but also... had their heart ripped out! They dug it out with their bare hands! It seems like several of their ribs were broken, as if something had snapped them! Can you imagine how much strength that must have taken? It could have been some kind of mountain spirit or monster, or... or maybe a skinning monster!"
"In my opinion, it's definitely not some ordinary murderer. Otherwise, why haven't the officials caught the so-called killer despite patrolling the streets day and night? Now the whole city is terrified. As soon as it gets dark, the streets are completely deserted, and every household keeps their doors and windows tightly shut. Everyone is terrified of even a stranger, fearing that they might be a monster in human skin." The more Aunt Shi spoke, the more frightened she became, and she couldn't help but glance out the window again, as if the monster might pounce in at any moment.
"Skinning? Heart-ripping?" Bai Yu pondered these two words, his eyes narrowing slightly. In truth, those capable of such feats weren't necessarily monsters. Some mortals who cultivated evil arts or possessed extremely high martial arts skills could also rip out hearts with their bare hands, and breaking ribs shouldn't be difficult for them either. However, to appear and disappear so mysteriously, committing crimes for months without leaving any clues, instilling such fear in the entire city—was this truly human? And why skin them? It seemed to carry some kind of ritualistic significance or special need.
“Mother, Miss Bai, let’s not talk about that anymore—” Tiger’s mother had been listening silently, but finally couldn’t help but speak up. Her voice trembled, and she swallowed hard. The fear in her eyes was almost tangible. “It’s terrifying… Besides, it’s been exactly a month since someone was killed last time. I’m counting the days.”
She was just an ordinary woman, yet she too worried about whether such misfortune might befall her or her family. No, her worries were even stronger than others, because her family's inn had countless strangers of unknown origin. What if... what if that skinning monster had infiltrated among them? Her entire family, the sick and the weak, wouldn't they be lambs to the slaughter?
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