Corpse in the River (Part 1)

A light drizzle fell from the sky. Zhou Yi, enjoying a rare moment of leisure, sat in a tavern in Qingzhu Village, drinking wine.

Looking out the second-floor window, the clouds were so dark that light could barely penetrate. The villagers of Qingzhu Village knew this was the prelude to a storm and had all stayed indoors. Those who weren't home were walking through the drizzle, wearing conical hats and thick straw raincoats.

Zhou Yi withdrew his gaze from the tavern window and quietly pondered how to acquire his next Body Refining Technique. If he relied solely on the merits earned from his usual patrols, it would take at least another half a year. He also hadn't yet revealed to his master that his Jade Lock Skill had already reached perfection...

Zhou Yi tapped his fingers on the table as he thought.

Suddenly, a commotion erupted from downstairs. Zhou Yi's thoughts were interrupted, and he looked towards the source of the sound.

"Shopkeeper Liu, hurry to the riverbank!!!" shouted a slightly hunched old man. He wore a conical hat and a straw raincoat over tattered clothes.

Shopkeeper Liu saw the old man, who usually brought him fish, desperately pulling him outside. He asked in confusion, "Grandpa Gui, what's wrong? Why are you in such a hurry?"

Grandpa Gui, the fisherman, saw that Shopkeeper Liu was still unhurried and said anxiously, "When I was fishing just now, I pulled up a body. The face was so swollen from soaking that I couldn't recognize who it was. But the clothes the body was wearing were exactly the same as the ones your daughter wears!"

Upon hearing this, Shopkeeper Liu's face turned deathly pale. If Grandpa Gui hadn't been there to support him, Shopkeeper Liu probably would have collapsed onto the ground.

Seeing Shopkeeper Liu's reaction, Grandpa Gui also grew anxious. He immediately comforted him, "Shopkeeper Liu, it might not be your daughter. I came to ask you to identify the body!"

Listening to Grandpa Gui's comforting words, Shopkeeper Liu seemed to grasp at a lifeline. His eyes regained focus. "Right, it might not be my daughter. Right, it might not be my daughter."

Shopkeeper Liu kept muttering the words to himself before running out of the tavern.

Seeing Shopkeeper Liu rush out, Grandpa Gui also plunged into the rain.

The patrons who had been eating quietly in the tavern lost their appetite after witnessing this. They began whispering amongst themselves.

"Sigh, I heard Shopkeeper Liu's daughter was quite pretty. Shopkeeper Liu always treated her well. She wouldn't just jump into the river, would she? Did something happen?" said a diner at the table next to Zhou Yi.

"Heh, you don't know about this, do you!"

"What? Is there some hidden story behind this?"

"Well, I heard it through the grapevine, but it might not be accurate."

Before the diner next to him could speak, most of the people in the tavern couldn't wait any longer and shouted, "Hurry up and tell us!"

Seeing so many people listening, the diner next to Zhou Yi didn't dare to hold back any longer and revealed what he knew.

He cleared his throat and then said loudly, "Do you know our village's Scholar Xu?"

"You mean the Scholar Xu who failed to become a Juren after five attempts?" a nearby diner replied.

"Yes, that Scholar Xu. Normally, even if Scholar Xu couldn't become a Juren, he could still be a Teacher in our village. But Scholar Xu wasn't content. He had endured ten years of arduous study; how could he give up so easily? Everyone knows Scholar Xu's family wasn't well-off. He had sold all his family's property just to study."

"What does that have to do with Shopkeeper Liu's daughter?" the nearby diner asked impatiently.

"Don't rush. Isn't this about to lead to the story of Scholar Xu and Miss Liu? So, after Scholar Xu repeatedly failed the imperial examinations, his family ran out of money. He had to make a living by copying books for others."

"Miss Liu also happened to be someone who enjoyed reading. While Scholar Xu was copying books for the Liu family, somehow he and Miss Liu fell for each other. But, you see, could the money-grubbing Shopkeeper Liu possibly approve of a penniless scholar like Scholar Xu? However, he didn't want to break his daughter's heart by outright refusing, so he came up with a plan: he told Scholar Xu to go and take the imperial examination to become a Juren."

"Shopkeeper Liu had a brilliant plan. If Scholar Xu failed the examination, he couldn't marry his daughter. If he passed, Shopkeeper Liu would still be marrying up. Either way, he wouldn't lose out," the nearby diner exclaimed, praising Shopkeeper Liu's shrewdness.

"Exactly. But the problem arose precisely with the imperial examination. Think about it, Scholar Xu, a mere scholar with no strength to even truss a chicken, had to pay to travel with merchant caravans for several imperial examinations to safely reach Luoshi City to take the test. But this time, his luck ran out. The caravan Scholar Xu was traveling with was annihilated by Weirdness."

"When the news reached Miss Liu, she naturally cried and begged to go find Scholar Xu. But how could Shopkeeper Liu let his daughter go? So, he locked her up at home."

After speaking, the man picked up the tea on the table and drank it in one gulp.

The surrounding diners were silent for a long time before a voice suddenly broke the silence.

"Everyone, we don't even know if the body by the river is Miss Liu yet. How about we go take a look?" The voice became quieter towards the end.

"Then, let's go take a look."

In the hall, a table of diners suddenly stood up and walked towards the door, wanting to confirm the identity of the body, heedless of the heavy rain outside.

Seeing this, the other diners also followed suit.

Zhou Yi hesitated for a moment, then picked up the saber on the table and followed them out.

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