Dream Weaving Technique

As the saying went, distant relatives were no match for close neighbors, and close neighbors were no match for the household across the door.

Xu Qing took out eight strings of cash. Four strings were for helping Wu Yaoxing, while the other four...

He had long since taken advantage of the moment when the tax collectors were handing over their belongings, using the Thousand Shadow Thievery Technique and the Stealthy Theft and Sun-Stealing method to steal two booklets issued by the Tianxin Cult.

Xu Qing's hands moved with astonishing speed. In the instant he brushed past them, he took the booklets from his robes and handed them to the leading tax collector.

"These two booklets—one was thrown into my courtyard by those Tianxin Cult demons, while the other was left at the entrance of the Incense and Candle Shop across from me. There's no need for you gentlemen to waste any more breath or legwork. These extra four strings of cash can count as the fine paid jointly by me and the owner of the Incense and Candle Shop."

The leading tax collector raised his chin and was about to say something else when Xu Qing took out another one tael of silver.

"The Tianxin Cult has bewitched people's hearts and done them great harm. Consider this two taels of silver an additional gift from me, and my small contribution toward exterminating those heretical demons."

At the sight of the silver and hearing such polished words, the leading tax collector's expression instantly softened.

"Look at this! This is what it means to understand justice and recognize the greater good. This is how the people of our Yong Dynasty should be!"

When the constables saw money, cats and mice slept together.

Xu Qing watched this group of well-dressed greedy cats leave. Across the slanting alley, the lady boss of the Incense and Candle Shop blinked, her face full of disbelief.

Why had those official bandits not come to her house? Could it be that they had changed their ways?

At the entrance of the Paper Craft Shop, Wu Yaoxing held two strings of cash and two taels of silver and insisted on stuffing them into Xu Qing's arms.

"You paid for me, so you have to let me pay you back. Otherwise, I won't be happy!"

How could Wu Yaoxing know that all the money Xu Qing had given him had been tampered with? As long as Xu Qing was willing, once the mother coin refined with the Green Cicada Money Returning Technique called out, wouldn't all the child coins obediently return to his side?

"Just keep the money with you for now. I'll surely need to ask you for some paper figures and paper horses when I conduct funerals in the future. Besides, you know what I'm like. Whenever I have a bit of money, I like to run to the Willow Lane brothels. Won't it all end up thrown into a ditch anyway? Just help me save it!"

Xu Qing was not short of money. Besides, the Green Cicada Coins he had given out could return to him. If he truly accepted Wu Yaoxing's hard-earned silver now, how would he be any different from the official bandits who had come today?

The lady boss of the Incense and Candle Shop had remained confused from beginning to end. Only after Wu Yaoxing, who could never keep his mouth shut, ran over and explained everything did she understand that Xu Qing had paid her taxes for her.

Later that evening, Xu Qing shut the shop door and was just preparing to go to the office to look for his Senior Brother Wang Lingyuan when Cheng Caiyun from the Incense and Candle Shop came over carrying a basket of country eggs.

"Shopkeeper Xu, Sister-in-law specially went to my younger sister-in-law's home to get these fresh eggs. I heard you like them, so take them and have a taste."

Xu Qing arched a brow and accepted the basket with a beaming smile.

Cheng Caiyun and Wu Yaoxing were rather different. The latter had repeatedly refused before reluctantly accepting the idea of repaying him.

But the lady boss of the Incense and Candle Shop merely brought over a basket of eggs and wanted to settle the daytime taxes with it.

Xu Qing was not surprised in the slightest. After all, he had only eaten the Incense and Candle Shop's inferior candles that morning. From that moment onward, he had understood that Cheng Caiyun was a petty woman who was greedy for a bargain.

Cheng Caiyun watched his expression carefully. Seeing that Xu Qing did not mention repaying the money at all, she was especially delighted. When she left, she even shot him a flirtatious glance, making Xu Qing's skin crawl.

She was already in her thirties. Was it really necessary to degrade herself like this over two strings of cash?

Xu Qing naturally had no designs on a woman past her prime. In his eyes, she was not even as fresh as the Hen that had laid this basket of eggs!

He would go buy several Hens and raise them in the courtyard. Wouldn't that let him eat freshly laid eggs every day?

With two country eggs tucked in his arms, Xu Qing slurped on one as he headed toward the Patrol Office.

When he reached the office, Wang Lingyuan waved to him. Xu Qing then followed the "madam Wang" to the morgue with the excited look of a client visiting a brothel.

Several Green Lamps illuminated the room.

Around a dozen neat rows of hard wooden beds stood in the morgue. Three of them were covered with plain white cloth, and the faint outlines of human bodies bulged beneath the coverings.

On the other side stood a bookshelf holding copies of case files, as well as a desk for examining corpses.

Coroners were not only responsible for examining bodies. According to the laws of Great Yong, they also had the authority to access case files and participate in deducing cases.

If there was a difficult and unjust case and proper examination could clear the deceased's name, the court would additionally bestow reward money as recognition.

Thus, coroners were also part of the thirty-six trades. It was a true profession that required a certain level of skill and experience.

Xu Qing was just preparing to use the Corpse-Driving Method to help Wang Lingyuan move the body to the examination table when Wang Lingyuan raised a hand to stop him.

"Junior Brother, examining a corpse is different from driving a corpse. We must preserve the body's original state as much as possible. If we use the Corpse-Driving Method, we may alter the posture the body had when the victim was killed and lose important clues."

The moment Wang Lingyuan began discussing his profession, his entire bearing changed.

He truly intended to teach Xu Qing how to examine corpses!

Speaking of which, he was already advanced in years, and he indeed had no disciple to pass this art of examination down to. Now that his cheap Junior Brother was willing to learn, he naturally took it exceptionally seriously.

Carefully moving the body to the designated position, Wang Lingyuan went from observing the deceased's posture to explaining how to determine the cause of death.

He held nothing back, sharing all the precious experience he had accumulated since entering the profession of coroner.

Xu Qing listened attentively from the side, occasionally pouring tea and water for Wang Lingyuan. Only after he had thoroughly filled the man's belly did he stop.

It was roughly time to add oil to the lamps. Wang Lingyuan, who was over fifty, had drunk quite a lot of tea and could no longer suppress his need to urinate. After casually giving Xu Qing a few instructions, he hurried off to the latrine.

Seeing that his plan had succeeded, Xu Qing immediately turned his gaze toward the corpse on the examination table while Wang Lingyuan was away.

Before him lay a female corpse. Judging from the strangulation marks around her neck, she had apparently died of suffocation.

But Xu Qing did not care about that. He needed no technique whatsoever to examine the deceased; he could see everything that had happened in her lifetime.

Reciting the Duren Sutra, he saw the netherworld and the Yellow Springs flicker into view in his mind. The deceased's memories blossomed before Xu Qing without reserve, like clusters of Lycoris Radiata.

The deceased was named Sai Yuxian. She had been an actress in a pear garden opera troupe. Because a patron often listened to her sing, she had fallen in love with him, redeemed herself from the troupe, and married him.

But good times did not last. After the two had managed their household together for less than half a year, Sai Yuxian's husband incurred enormous debts and spent every day getting drunk and taking his anger out on her.

One day, after drinking heavily, her husband pointed at her and said, "They all say actresses are heartless. If you truly have feelings for me, you should go sing and entertain patrons, repay my debts, and save me from suffering every day."

Sai Yuxian was also a woman of extreme temperament. Because of those words, she actually went to the Willow Lane brothels and became a clandestine prostitute!

After two or three months, Sai Yuxian held her neck high like a proud white goose and handed all the silver she had earned to her husband.

"Today, I'm going to tell you that an actress can have feelings and honor too!"

What Sai Yuxian never expected was that after hearing this, her husband instead began berating her for failing to observe feminine virtue. If she had entertained patrons for two or three months, wouldn't all the neighbors, relatives, and friends know that he had a wanton wife?

How could Sai Yuxian have imagined that her husband had two faces? He had been the one to tell her to become a prostitute to repay his debts and prove her feelings. Now, the one calling her unchaste and wanton was still him.

In a fit of rage, Sai Yuxian put on a show of force and said she would go ask the neighbors to judge the matter, to see who was truly heartless and faithless.

Her husband cared deeply about his reputation. Even when his family was drowning in debt and could not afford food, he would wipe his mouth with thick pigskin and refuse to go out until his lips shone with grease. Upon hearing her words, how could he suppress his fury?

Thus, the husband immediately reached out and pinned down his wife, who was pretending to leave. He pulled the sash from his waist and tightly strangled her throat, terrified that she might cry out a single sentence that would damage his reputation.

And so, the actress who had repaid her husband's debts met her final curtain.

After watching this great drama of loving spouses becoming mortal enemies, Xu Qing did not know what judgment to pass.

All he could say was that even after a priceless jade body had endured every manner of grinding, it still could not grind away a lover's greed and desire.

Afterward, the Duren Sutra gave him a mid-grade human evaluation, and the reward was the Dream Weaving Technique.