Anciently, Duke Di once fabricated the existence of the underworld to solve an adultery case, while Bao Longtu once disguised himself as Yama to scare the real murderer into confessing.
At most, however, both methods could only be considered tricks for extracting a confession. Neither truly involved consulting the underworld to determine the real culprit.
Xu Qing likewise had no ability to question the underworld, but through the Duren Sutra, he could read the memories of the dead, return to the scene of the crime, and watch the death replay of the constable while he was still alive.
The constable whose cause of death remained unknown was named Wei Fang. His family had worked as constables since his grandfather's time. By his generation, the profession had become a family tradition, passed down in orderly succession.
With that connection, Wei Fang naturally knew the yamen's affairs like the back of his hand. Which money could be pocketed and which could not—after a little thought, he could work out the general rules.
For example, when it came to corpses in the yamen, any unclaimed corpse with no relatives to collect it would be sold by him and two familiar partners to corpse collectors in the underworld trade. As for what the buyer did with the corpse, he never asked.
As long as there was money in it, even if the buyer took the corpse to make bun filling, it had nothing to do with him.
That day, Wei Fang obtained a lucrative job through Fourth Master Li of the brokers' guild: delivering a corpse to the newly opened Corpse Driver's Shop on Jingxia Street.
The young shopkeeper of that funeral parlor was a marvelous fellow. Not only was he generous, he also followed the rules. Ever since he had found this channel, Wei Fang had stopped selling corpses to anyone else.
That day, after Wei Fang and two Fast Squad constables delivered the corpse, they were about to return to the yamen when someone nearby suddenly cried out. It turned out that a gambler had spent the night at an inn opposite a gambling house, only to die inexplicably in his guest room early that morning.
Wei Fang had just sold the corpse and had nothing else to do, so he led his two partners to the scene.
The dead man had no obvious external injuries. His eyes were merely wide open and his mouth agape, as if he had seen some great horror while alive and had been scared to death on the spot.
Wei Fang paid no attention to the cause of death. Instead, he took one look at the Pixiu Jade Pendant clutched tightly in the dead man's hand and fell for it.
Hey! This jade pendant is pretty good. It looks valuable.
After making inquiries, he learned that the dead man was a gambler with no relatives. He was the sort of wretch who would have no one to bury him even after he died.
Wei Fang was even more delighted. The heavens are practically sending me money! Not only is the jade pendant valuable, the corpse is valuable too!
He immediately dispersed the onlookers, then sent one fellow constable to the yamen to notify the Clerk's Office director and the coroner to come examine the scene. He also ordered his other companion to guard the inn's passageway and prevent outsiders from approaching.
He shut the door, pocketed the jade pendant clutched in the gambler's hand, and then pretended nothing had happened, carrying on with his work as usual.
Ordinarily, this would not have been a big deal. There had never been a shortage of constables in the yamen with sticky fingers, and no one had ever been punished by the yamen for taking something from a dead person.
But what happened today was different from the usual.
That night, as soon as Wei Fang returned home, he eagerly took out the Pixiu Jade Pendant and held it up before the lamplight to admire it.
The jade pendant shimmered with brilliant colors, and the little Pixiu carved upon it seemed almost alive, leaping and darting through the candlelight.
The more Wei Fang looked, the more entranced he became. Only when his eyes grew tired and his head began to droop did he place the jade pendant against his chest, lie back down on the bed, and fall asleep.
At this point, Xu Qing had expected the Duren Sutra to skip over this useless scene. Yet near midnight, the sleeping Wei Fang suddenly rose from bed, went outside, squatted in the courtyard, and began grinning foolishly.
"Heh heh, my points are higher than yours. I won! All this silver is mine!"
"Another round? Sure, but this time we have to bet bigger. Ten taels of silver."
"Your luck is terrible. Fifty taels this round."
"One hundred taels."
In the dead of night, Wei Fang squatted in the courtyard in only a thin shirt despite the bitter cold. His empty hands shook back and forth as if he were holding a dice cup for rolling the dice, and he giggled foolishly to himself.
When the stake reached five thousand taels, a new voice suddenly rang in Wei Fang's ears.
"You have such good luck. Why don't we play for something bigger? If you win, I'll give you all the silver on me. If you lose, you can give me your life."
Wei Fang smiled foolishly and replied, "Sure, but if you lose, you aren't allowed to go back on your word."
As the saying went, nine out of ten gambling games were rigged, and not gambling was the real victory.
Wei Fang gambled alone in the courtyard until deep into the night. The cold wind had long since seeped into his bones, but he remained unaware.
It was only when a burst of giggling suddenly rang beside his ear—
"Hee hee, you lost. Your life is mine now!"
—that Wei Fang jolted awake. By then, half his body had already frozen stiff. Forget his numb limbs and rigid legs, which made it impossible to stand; even the last breath he had been clinging to remained only because he had wanted to win and had refused to let it disperse.
Now that he heard the gambling match had ended, he could no longer sustain that breath. He simply leaned backward, and then all sound left him forever.
At the final moment, Xu Qing vaguely saw, in the last frame of the vision, a Ghostly Shadow emerging from the Pixiu Jade Pendant and devouring the final breath Wei Fang swallowed!
And that Ghostly Shadow was none other than the victim whose jade pendant Wei Fang had stolen during the day!
Afterward, Xu Qing gave the Duren Sutra's rewards a cursory glance: a minor tracking-and-arrest technique called Tracking Down Criminals, along with a bottle of Tracking Powder. Sprinkled over a target, it could reveal the target's whereabouts through a special method.
He silently put away the rewards, then turned his gaze back to the corpse before him.
The Pixiu Jade Pendant was not on Wei Fang's body.
The corresponding autopsy case file contained no record of the Pixiu Jade Pendant either.
Xu Qing thought of one possibility: another "lucky fellow" who coveted a bargain had picked up the jade pendant.
That person might have been the first to discover Wei Fang's corpse, or perhaps one of the clerks who had examined the body at the scene!
Xu Qing turned his head toward Wang Lingyuan, who was silently reading a book in the distance, and fell into thought.
It couldn't have been my Senior Brother who took that sinister jade pendant, could it?
"Senior Brother, when you examined this corpse, did you see what items he had on him?"
Xu Qing disliked making wild guesses, so he simply asked outright.
Wang Lingyuan set down his book and said, "All items found on the deceased are stored in the evidence room as a matter of course. The case file also contains a detailed record. You can look for yourself."
Hearing this, Xu Qing felt relieved. Judging by his Senior Brother's reaction, he did not seem to have pocketed the evidence.
He put down the case file and went to the other corpse.
This corpse was the original owner of the Pixiu Jade Pendant stolen by the constable Wei Fang.
"Gambler, gambling demon—what exactly is the connection between the two?"
Xu Qing was like a viewer following a drama, his mind stuffed full of curiosity about the episodes to come.
He lifted the shroud, revealing the gambler's terrified face, mouth stretched wide and eyes bulging.
Xu Qing silently recited the scripture and covered the gambler's stiff face with one hand. Segment after segment of sealed memories stirred again across the screen like a shadow play.
There was nothing worth watching in the gambler's life. He had lost the family fortune in the first half of his life, sold his sons and daughters, and thrown away every shred of his dignity and household wealth.
With no face left to lose and unable to bear being mocked behind his back all day, he sold his wife to a matchmaker, then took his banknotes and headed south all the way to Linhe.
There was a fortune-teller near Shuimen Bridge in Linhe. The gambler thought, I always lose money gambling. It definitely has nothing to do with the gambling house. I'm simply unlucky.
Since that's the case, I'll get my fortune told first. If the divination is accurate, I'll naturally be able to gamble successfully and make money.
If it isn't accurate, I'll come back, flip over his table, make a scene, and force this fortune-teller to compensate me.
At the thought, the gambler could not help clapping his hands together. I really am a Clever Ghost. What a fine scheme!
When he reached Shuimen Bridge, the fortune-teller took one look at his face, then shook his head and swayed it from side to side with a long sigh.
The gambler thought, What performance are you putting on now?
The fortune-teller opened with, "I know what you want to ask. If you want to win money, I can give you a pointer."
"Then tell me—what pointer?"
The gambler became interested. This fortune-teller is a capable fellow. He actually saw why I came with one glance.
I must have encountered a true master. I absolutely have to ask him for some proper guidance.
The fortune-teller bared his teeth in a grin and said, "Go to Cuiyun Tower. There's an old pimp there who has a ghost capable of making people's wishes come true. Buy it from him, and you're guaranteed to win big money!"
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