Chapter 49: Bone Hairpin 4: Faceless Corpse
Yesterday, when the carriage entered the village, it did not stop, and Xun Shu only took a few glances through the window. Today, the sky was clear and the air was fresh, so he took advantage of the gap in the sky and finally had the opportunity to see the whole place clearly.
Xun Shu stood in the gap in the sky. In front of him was a narrow passage with no end in sight, and behind him was a village that looked like a paradise. The mountain walls on both sides were straight and steep, and the tops could not be seen at a glance. They seemed to cover the sky and the sun. The sky above his head was surrounded by only a gap, which made people feel dizzy and breathless.
The high mountain walls are dotted with black caves of varying sizes. Yesterday, I wondered what they were used for, but today, knowing each one holds the remains of Ningyuan Village's ancestors, the scene becomes even more eerie. At the base of the mountain wall, near the village, the names of every deceased interred there are inscribed. In one corner, a cave, about a meter high, holds the village's memorial tablets, where villagers pay respect to their ancestors.
Xun Shu and Li Xuanhe took Chi Xiao and Yu Chang and walked south along the Tianxu. After walking about a hundred steps, they saw the corpse that Wei Langjun mentioned.
It was a male corpse, still warm, likely recently deceased. He lay face-up in the middle of the road, as if attacked by a wild beast. His clothes were torn to shreds, and his face had been scratched and bitten, leaving only a bloody mass of flesh, his features unrecognizable. His limbs were mutilated, the texture jagged at the fractures, unlikely to have been caused by a sharp blade. His limbs were twisted into an almost bizarre position, evidently from a fall from a height, shattering his bones.
The corpse looked truly horrifying, far more terrifying than the others at Zhao's residence. Li Xuanhe walked over to the body, squatted down, and using a handkerchief to cushion his hands, he carefully examined the body, searching for any suspicious marks. Xun Shu took a quick glance before turning his head to gaze at the mountain wall to the side, trying to ease the discomfort in his chest.
Xun Shu's eyes swept across the mountain wall, and his eyes were filled with blue-gray. A hint of green flashed across his peripheral vision, and when he looked closely, it seemed to be a blue flower swaying in the wind.
The wall is thousands of feet high and is made entirely of rocks, yet there are plants that can take root on the rocks and bloom. They are truly tenacious.
A gust of wind whistled through the crack in the sky, swaying the flower left and right. Finally, unable to withstand the force of the wind, it fell from the cliff and floated to the ground more than ten feet away. Xun Shu ran over to pick up the flower, but when he got close, he realized that it was not a flower at all, but a piece of tattered green cloth the size of a palm.
The fabric was silky smooth to the touch and looked quite familiar. Xun Shu remembered something and ran back to the corpse with the piece of fabric in his hand. After comparing it with the clothes the corpse was wearing, he confirmed that the material and color were exactly the same.
"He Xuan, look what I found!"
Li Xuanhe's eyes never left Xun Shu, so he naturally saw what she had discovered. He flipped through the tattered clothing on the corpse and found a similar-shaped gap on the back. He pointed and said, "It looks like it fell here."
Xun Shu placed the piece of cloth on the gap, fitting it perfectly onto the dress. She sighed, "When this piece of cloth was caught on the rock, I thought it was a flower... This must have been the victim's clothing that got caught on the rocks when he fell from the mountain, and tore it apart?" She lowered her eyes and stared at the torn clothes. The more she looked at them, the more familiar they looked. It seemed as if she had seen them before. She frowned and thought for a moment, then suddenly realized, "This morning, when I was setting up my stall, I saw a man wearing clothes of this color leaving the village through the south gate. He was in a hurry, carrying a bundle on his back. I wonder if it was this person."
"Ashu may be sure?"
Xun Shu glanced at the corpse's face, then quickly moved away and said slowly: "Not to mention someone I only glanced at briefly, even if you were in this state, I wouldn't recognize you..."
Li Xuanhe: ...
Xun Shu ignored him and replayed the scene of seeing that person in her mind. Suddenly, she remembered something and hurriedly looked at the dead man's hand. "I remember there was a black birthmark on the back of his hand. It was very conspicuous. If this person also has it, it must be the same person—" Her voice was hoarse in her throat, and she sighed. "This is unfortunate."
The back of the corpse's left hand was covered with scars, without any birthmarks. The right hand was broken at the forearm, and not even the shadow of a palm could be seen.
"It's okay, we can always find other clues." Li Xuanhe comforted her.
While the two were talking, Wei Langjun, who had returned to the village, arrived with his fellow villagers. The leader, a man with white hair and beard, was the village chief, Hu Wenlin, over sixty years old. He approached the corpse and, with a stern face, berated the two men, "Who are you? Why are you here?"
Chi Xiao rushed to speak, revealing the two's false identities. Village Chief Hu's fierce expression faded a little after hearing this. He waved his hand and said, "Someone has died here. This is truly ominous. Please return to the village and rest."
Xun Shu and Li Xuanhe didn't want to reveal their identities, so they quietly retreated to the side and hid in a corner without leaving. Fortunately, many of the people in the crowd were outsiders who came to join in the fun, so they didn't stand out among them, and no one drove them away.
The village chief and a few others tried to stop and disperse the crowd, but how could they control so many people? For a moment, the sky gap was overcrowded and in chaos.
In the midst of the chaos, someone suddenly raised his voice and said, "Isn't this Xili Zheng Cai You?"
The scene fell silent. Village Chief Hu looked at him and said sternly, "This man is completely unrecognizable. How did you recognize him?"
Everyone's eyes were fixed on the speaker. He flinched and stammered, "I got up early today and when I left the house I saw Cai Li walking hurriedly south. I greeted him, but he just waved without stopping. He looked like he was on a hurry. He was wearing this very dress at the time. I can't remember it wrong."
The crowd exploded instantly, and everyone was talking about it.
"Why is Li Zheng Cai here? Doesn't he go fishing in the east pond every morning? Why is he here today? Is he leaving the village?"
"Even if you want to leave the village, there's no need to be so anxious, right? You didn't even tell the villagers, it's like you're running for your life."
"Yes, when the rocks fell in the north last night, Li Zheng Cai was there too. We chatted for a while then, but he didn't mention that he was going out of the village today!"
"This might be related to my sister-in-law. Last night, after Zhang Maozi and Huang Mazi finished watching the rocks falling from the north, we didn't rush to leave. We took advantage of the cool night to chat for a while. On our way home, we were passing by Cai Lizheng's residence and heard a commotion inside. I didn't hear what was going on, but it sounded like they were going to tear the roof off."
"Could it be that after an argument with his sister-in-law, he was so angry that he wanted to leave the village to relax, but was killed by a wild beast in the mountains? Or did he fall from a height and die? That death is too tragic."
"Could he have been murdered?"
The more they talked, the louder and louder their voices became. Village Chief Hu shouted a few times, finally managing to quiet everyone down with the authority he'd built up over the years. He cleared his throat and said, "Li Zheng Cai used to be a doctor, often going to the cliffs to harvest herbs. He might have encountered a wild beast, been seriously injured in the fight, and then fell here, ending up like this. He looks so miserable now. Everyone, please stop making random assumptions. Let's carry him back to the village and bury him as soon as possible."
Village Chief Hu is highly respected and no one questions his words, but Xun Shu has her doubts. She glanced sideways at the person next to her and saw that his eyes were serious, obviously he also did not agree with what Village Chief Hu said, so she felt relieved.
Xun Shu and Li Xuanhe were mingling in the crowd, jostling each other as they made their way towards the village. Suddenly, they heard someone behind them laughing and saying, "Wei Sheng, you and the village chief Cai have always been at odds. Now that he's dead, you must be overjoyed, right?"
The Wei Sheng this person was talking about was none other than Wei Langjun who had asked Xun Shu to tell his fortune that morning.
Wei Sheng's voice seemed to be filled with laughter, not hiding his joy in the slightest. "Of course. This man was lustful and had always been obsessed with my eighteen wives, wishing he could abduct them all to his house. Now that he's dead, my wives can rest in peace, and I can rest assured too."
Another person said, "You can't blame Cai Lizheng entirely for this. The village has fewer and fewer new men, and the vitality is gradually dying out. How can the village head and the lizheng not be anxious? You relied on your good looks and your wealthy family to trick so many young ladies into marrying you, but after all these years, they haven't gotten pregnant at all. Isn't this a waste?"
Young Master Wei smiled and shook his head, "Brother Zhang, what you said is too harsh. It is my blessing that the ladies are willing to marry me. They trust me, and I cannot let them down. Village Chief Cai's idea is ridiculous. He wants me to send the ladies away and then distribute them to the unmarried young men in the village. Doesn't this treat the ladies as slaves or goods to be traded? Naturally, I won't allow it." He sighed, as if helpless. "I am not in good health. I cannot let the ladies bear children for me. This is my problem. I will go find a famous doctor tomorrow. I will definitely not let my Wei family's incense be cut off."
Someone else asked, "Speaking of which, Wei Sheng, you were the one who discovered the body today, weren't you? Cai Lizheng's death isn't related to you, is it?"
"How is that possible? I had just left the village when I saw the body. How could I have had time to kill someone?" Wei Sheng smiled and shook his head. "Speaking of which, when I was leaving the village, I met a fortune-teller at the village entrance. I asked her to help me predict when I would have a child."
The people around were curious and asked, "What did the fairy say?"
"The fairy lady said..." Wei Sheng stretched out his voice, "Although there are difficulties, your wishes will always come true."
"You're lying, aren't you? Why didn't I see the fairy lady you mentioned when I left the village?"
Did she say that? Xun Shu, listening to Wei Sheng's words from the front, felt something was amiss, but she couldn't quite place it. Wei Sheng's words had already given her a warm feeling, and she couldn't help but stop, turning around and waiting for the others to approach. She gently defended Wei Sheng, "I'm the fairy lady that Wei Langjun was talking about. I arrived here before you to witness the excitement, so naturally, you wouldn't have run into me."
Wei Sheng was very surprised to see Xun Shu, and hurriedly said to the people beside him: "Did you see it? I didn't lie. The fairy lady can testify for me. I left the village and entered the sky gap, but I returned in just a moment. I definitely didn't have time to kill anyone!"
Xun Shu nodded. "Indeed. I remember that Lord Wei returned shortly after leaving. I saw him panicking and wanted to stop him to ask what happened, but he acted as if he hadn't noticed me and was in a hurry to get back to the village to report. If this person had died not long ago, he certainly wouldn't have had the time to kill."
Wei Sheng's smile froze on his face, and he explained awkwardly, "I've never seen a corpse like this before. I was so flustered that I didn't notice you. I'm so sorry."
Xun Shu blinked, not understanding why Wei Sheng wanted to apologize when she was just stating the facts.
Passersby noticed what was happening and cast curious glances. Li Xuanhe was about to pull Xun Shu away when someone recognized Xun Shu and said, "Isn't this the sister of the tea merchant from our inn? She's a lady from a wealthy family, so how did she become a fortune-teller?"
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