Chapter 264: Old Zhong
Translator: Transn Editor: Transn
Outside the Blade Scar’s abode, Li Chong was about to say something, but Arrester Little Su interrupted him with a smile, “Arrester Li, where can I find delicious local food here? Can we drink there while talking about the case.”
That was exactly what Li Chong wanted to do. A smile emerged on his wrinkled face. “You have the right guy, Arrester Little Su. In Yamen, I know a lot about the delicacies of Yangxia. The Fish and Goat Restaurant on Lan Street is famous for its jelly, roast lamb leg, and boiled fish fillet.”
They turned onto Lan Street while in the midst of talking, and then found the restaurant. It looked dilapidated outside, but it was brisk on the inside. It was crowded although it was not dinner time yet.
Compared with the Drunken YangXia across the street, the latter looked more splendid, with musical sounds consecutively coming out from its backyard, demonstrating that it was an upscale restaurant. But now it had few guests, even the errand boy was dispirited.
“Although this restaurant is shabby, most of the rich who patronage the Drunken YangXia would furtively send their servants to buy some delicacies here. They just eat in the Drunken YangXia to show off, but they are fond of the delicious food here.” Li Chong got them the only empty table, and their food and drinks would be served quickly as the Turf Lord was acquainted with the owner.
Meng Qi took a sip of the jelly, and he felt its delicious flavor entering into his stomach, head, and soul.
“How fres.h.!.+ Is the chef better than that of the little foodie’s …” Meng Qi was so moved by the delicious flavor that he could not stop eating.
After several drinks, Li Chong was a bit relaxed. “Arrester Little Su, what should we do next?”
“Do you have any suggestions?” Meng Qi asked him back instead of answering the question.
As Li Chong drank, he became a little bold. He said while waving his hand, “It’s courteous that you respect me, but don’t be so polite, and just call me Old Li.”
Meng Qi nodded, and then held a cup of wine to propose a toast. “I shall obey your orders.”
Drinking up the wine at one chug, Li Chong pursed his lips with satisfaction, and then said in a low voice, “Old Zhong is quite sophisticated!”
Speaking of this, he tapped himself on the thigh, making a clear sound, “…since the case was ghastly weird, I should’ve considered earlier that Old Zhong was behind all of these.”
“Is he eccentric?” Meng Qi asked in a sober-minded state.
Li Chong lowered his voice again. “Old Zhong suddenly arrived in Yangxia 20 or 30 years ago. He lived around the mortuary outside the city, and has kept a low profile. But, it’s the ghast mortuary. Can you imagine how horrible it is at night? Someone’s even heard of ghost’s screams. However, he’s lived there for over 20 years and turned himself from a middle-aged scholar into a skinny old man. Very strange isn’t it?”
“A notorious thief robbed Old Zhong’s house when he pa.s.sed by Yangxia several years ago. Can you guess what has happened to him? He became totally insane. An Eight Acupores master urinated himself and cried as if his parents died. He’s been committed to turning himself in, and no one could stop him.”
“Did he end up dead?” Meng Qi got inspired, thinking that the thief must have collapsed.
“Yes. He’s strangled himself to death in prison before being interrogated.” Li Chong drank a cup of strong wine to calm himself. “Based on the rotten guts inside his body, Arrester Cai was already dead for about six months, but his appearance and actions seemed normal. Thus, I should’ve guessed that Old Zhong was behind the whole thing.”
“Since he had to live in the vicinity of the mortuary, he might be adept at some ghost kung fu.”
“Good point.” Meng Qi agreed with him.
Li Chong sighed, and said while putting down the cup, “Thus, Arrester Little Su, we should prepare ourselves if we want to investigate Old Zhong.”
“We better dispatch the others to the job.”
“Old Li, great minds think alike.” Meng Qi said with a smile,” Yan Xiao has opened his nine acupores, and dominated Yangxia. He’s mighty, but he’s also in awe of him. Based on this, Old Zhong must be terrifyingly powerful. Perhaps, he’s opened the Hidden Latch of life-and-death, built the bridge between the heaven and earth, and even linked the Exterior with the Interior. Thus, we should think twice before we come to him.”
Li Chong was so touched that his eyes were filled with tears. “That’s the point.”
“Arrester Little Su is expectedly smart and not arrogant at all. Besides, he takes the lives of his subordinates and himself seriously.”
“If we were in a solo investigation, we would’ve probably stopped by now. But, since we uphold justice and worked for the imperial court, we should report it to the Governor, and then invite the legends and the hidden masters to embark on a joint investigation.” Meng Qi was not a moron. He would utilize the ident.i.ty of Six Fan School rather than risk his own life.
In Yi City, the Governor Arrester Huang Zhiqing had gathered some strong masters from several families to besiege “Evil Avatar”.
It was not his business to care about whether Old Zhong would cooperate with the School and tell what had happened. If Old Zhong chose to tell the whole story, he would feel beneficial; if Old Zhong refused, he could directly leave for Mao Ling with the excuse of the dead-end clues. By then, he would visit some heroes of the River East, especially “Shapeless Sword” and “Ledgerkeeper of Lives”.
“Oh, how responsible am I!”
Li Chong was startled at his words, and he then gave him his thumbs up. “You’re right. Let’s report it to Governor Zheng as soon as possible.”
“Haha! If the sky were about to fall down, the taller people would jack it up.”
“Relax. Let’s think about the Qiu family. Why did Arrester Cai get off their s.h.i.+p on a dark night?”
Since Meng Qi was not in a hurry, Li Chong became more relaxed, hoping that Old Zhong would run away as soon as he heard the news. “Are they accomplices? When they were conspiring some schemes to stir up troubles in Maoling, Arrester Cai figured them out, and made a search of the s.h.i.+p on the sly, but he ended up being killed. In an attempt to cover it up, they took advantage of Old Zhong’s abilities to manipulate him to get off the s.h.i.+p and march toward the ma.s.s graves to bury himself. Unfortunately, the sailor found him when he was stealing things.”
As an experienced arrester, he had made up a reasonable story. Of course, he said something wrong on purpose, and waited for Arrester Little Su to correct, presenting a good opportunity for him to curry favor with his boss.
Meng Qi shook the head. “They weren’t partners.”
“What?” Li Chong had such a guess, but to his surprise, Arrester Little Su firmly ruled it out.
“If they were partners, they would have no trouble disposing of the body, and simply thrown the body into the river center. What’s more, even if the sailor coincidently found out, they could kill him as well on that night. So if they had collaborated with each other, they would’ve furtively buried the whole thing up, leaving nothing for ‘Blade Scar’ to finish up.”
Li Chong put his contempt towards Arrester Little Su away, and began to treat him seriously. Now, he understood that in addition to his Kung Fu, Little Su had become an a.s.sistant Arrester due to his talents in solving crimes. As thus, he could not fool Little Su.
Meng Qi said while licking his jelly. “If they weren’t accomplices, the whole thing would make sense.”
“Under the control of Old Zhong, Arrester Cai sneaked into the s.h.i.+p of the Qiu family to investigate something on that dark night. After all, a dead walker without heartbeats and breath couldn’t easily be detected, so the body-disposing thing didn’t exist at all.”
Li Chong added while swirling his gla.s.s of wine. “If the sailor found him lying on the ground dead, he would be afraid to scream. If the s.h.i.+p had secrets, the Qiu family must send some masters to protect it. Naturally, his screams had to draw their attention. Therefore, Old Zhong couldn’t kill the sailor in front of them, and he had to order ‘Blade Scar’ to annihilate him.”
According to Meng Qi’s explanation, he could determine what had happened at that time.
“Now, we must find out why Arrester Cai traveled from Mao Ling of the River East to Yangxia. Did he target the Qiu family’s s.h.i.+p or Old Zhong?” Meng Qi said thoughtfully.
Li Chong touched the wrinkles on the corners of his eyes, and said with confusion, “Even though he could’ve behaved normally, he’s been dead for more than 15 days. Even if driven by the Zombie Fist, he couldn’t travel such a long distance within half a month.”
“If he’s been healthy, and he’s taken the initiative to investigate, he would’ve spared a little time to report it to the Six Fan School. But, he’s been missing as a result.” Meng Qi clinked the cup’s edge. “Unless Old Zhong manipulated him, and then carried him from Mao Ling to Yangxia. However, there is also one unsolved problem. If Old Zhong just needed some dead man to search the s.h.i.+p, he could easily find one in the ma.s.s graves. Why did he bother to bring Arrester Cai back?”
Li Chong drank and said while shaking his head, “I don’t understand.”
“Neither do I. We have to find out where the s.h.i.+p came from.” Meng Qi ate up all food, and said with satisfaction, “Old Li, let’s go back to Yamen, and report the information to Governor Zheng. We then go to the pier.”
“Okay!” Li Chong’s nose was flushed.
Suddenly, he pointed outside. “What a coincidence! Here comes Governor Zheng!”
Meng Qi also looked outside and saw the Governor Arrester of Yangxia, Zheng Jushan. He was entering the Drunken Yangxia with a group of people.
There were two young men aged around 17 or 18 years old. They dressed like Taoists, but one had a bun and a Seven Star Turban on the head while the other wore a headscarf.
Meng Qi was quite familiar with the one wearing a headscarf.
He was short and good-looking. With his head rising and eyes rolling up, he emitted a visible sense of arrogance. Babyish and immature, he carried a long and a short sword on his back.
“He …he’s Yao Xingliu, the small kid of the Yao family who had a crush on his senior sister?” Meng Qi slightly inhaled while identifying the domineering youth. “Over the past year, he has at least opened the Six Acupores, so now he is on a journey?”
After recognizing the Youth Yao, Meng Qi had already speculated the ident.i.ty of the other little taoist.
With medium height and a round face, he was wearing a smile, looking comfortable with his senses. He had a long sword in a green shark-skinned sheath strapped to his waist. His action appeared to be normal, but each move was filled with meanings. Under these circ.u.mstances, Meng Qi believed that he was a Six Acupores or Seven Acupores master.
“Governor Zheng and the others paid more attention to the little taoist than Youth Yao, so such a respectable young man from the Zhen Wu Sect is …
Though Youth Yao takes the lead, looking more important than the little taoist, he’s crazy about Kung Fu and gives little attention to courtesy …
He’s probably Yang He?”
Yang He, the prodigy in the Zhen Wu Sect, had achieved his Dharmakaya movement after enlightening his Acupores. He was always compared with Jiang Zhiwei from Sword Was.h.i.+ng Pavilion.