Heaven's Net Is Vast, Its Meshes Wide but Nothing Escapes

Heaven's Net Is Vast, Its Meshes Wide but Nothing Escapes

Not only were the two sailors shocked out of their wits—even Lin Yi, the constable of Linshui Street, was given a tremendous fright!

He had only summoned people to the riverbank because last night's dream had felt far too real. Besides, Linshui Street was his turf, so he had come to take a look with the mindset of giving it a try.

Even if he found nothing, at least he could set his mind at ease.

But who would have thought that the moment the hook net went in, it would truly dredge up a corpse!

"Hold on!"

One of the sailors suddenly shouted, pointing at the dripping-wet corpse as he cried out strangely, "Isn't this Jiang Sanyu from Spring Breeze Pavilion? I saw him just a few days ago!"

The moment those words fell, they struck Constable Lin Yi's heart like a bolt from the blue!

—In last night's dream, that ghost had said he was Jiang Sanyu, a cook from Spring Breeze Pavilion!

Could it be... that the ghost had sunk into the river with resentment in his heart and appeared in a dream to solve his own case?

But no matter what, Lin Yi suppressed the terror in his heart and dealt with the urgent matter before him!

Since there truly was a victim, and his identity matched what the ghost had said last night, everything that followed became simple.

—Hadn't he said his wife and her adulterer had murdered him? A little investigation would reveal the truth.

Thus, before dawn had even broken, Lin Yi ordered the corpse taken away, then hurried to Jiang Sanyu's Household with his men.

The moment they pushed open the door, they saw clothes scattered all over the floor. Two fleshy grubs lay fast asleep on the bed, drooling as they snored!

Looking closely, one of them was Jiang Sanyu's wife!

The table still held the leftovers from last night's meal.

Lin Yi immediately ordered his officers to seize them and bring them back to the constabulary.

Afterward, Lin Yi indeed found half a bag of knockout powder beneath the bed in Jiang Sanyu's Household.

That afternoon, Jiang Sanyu's autopsy results came out. He had drowned, and traces of knockout powder remained in his stomach.

Moreover, the adulterous pair had likely believed their deed flawless, so they had not even cleaned up the bowl Jiang Sanyu had used for soup. Traces of knockout powder were found in it.

Later, Lin Yi made inquiries around Linshui Street. By chance, a night watchman had seen the tavern girl and that wastrel pushing a handcart toward the river in the dead of night.

Every clue pointed to the adulterous pair.

Lin Yi interrogated them that very night.

At first, the two stubbornly refused to confess. They admitted only to their affair and denied everything about Jiang Sanyu's death.

But after Lin Yi laid out the mountain of evidence, the wastrel confessed first, saying that in a moment of reckless passion, the two had killed him.

Seeing this, the tavern girl had no way out either. She confessed in full how they had drugged Jiang Sanyu unconscious before throwing him into the river.

—They had bought the knockout powder from a drug dealer in the Blackwater Gang. The handcart used to move Jiang Sanyu had been parked outside the house. The time and location where they dumped the body also matched where Jiang Sanyu had been found.

The truth was laid bare!

At daybreak the next day, Jiang Sanyu's case was brought before the court. The two had committed adultery and murdered a husband, crimes so heinous that they were sentenced to be beheaded!

From beginning to end, it had taken less than two or three days to thoroughly uncover the death of Jiang Sanyu, the cook of Spring Breeze Pavilion.

Though the yamen did not publicize the matter, how could such explosive news—adultery and husband-murder—possibly stay hidden?

Amid the drunken loose talk of the yamen's many blabbermouths, the tale of the adulterous pair swiftly spread throughout all of Weishui.

It became a topic of conversation after tea and meals.

The common folk felt boundless pity for Jiang Sanyu. He had been an honest, simple-hearted cook whose food was delicious, yet he had died just like that.

As for the adulterous pair, they were despised beyond measure. It was one thing for her to climb over the wall with a red apricot blossom, but she had even dared to kill someone. They were worse than beasts!

—Fortunately, the tavern girl and the wastrel had been locked in prison before their execution. Otherwise, the people of Weishui City could have drowned them in spit, one mouthful each.

In short, the case was closed just like that.

Constable Lin Yi of Linshui Street had solved his first murder case as well.

But later, people grew tired of discussing Jiang Sanyu, the tavern girl, and the wastrel. The common folk began wondering how exactly the case had been solved.

By all reason, the Weishui River was deep and swift. Let alone a corpse, even if a small boat sank into it, it would not raise the slightest ripple.

So how had Constable Lin Yi of Linshui Street known that Jiang Sanyu's corpse was by the riverbank?

For a long time, this remained an unsolved mystery. It was not until one night, when Lin Yi got drunk and told his colleagues about seeing a ghost that night, that the entire chain of events finally became clear!

It turned out that Jiang Sanyu had died with unclosed eyes. He had transformed into a ghost and sought out Constable Lin Yi, exposing this vile murder case!

Such a fantastical and thrilling tale was naturally later fashioned into a story by storytellers, who spoke until sparks flew from their lips without stopping.

They said that in the bitter cold, with the Weishui surging fiercely, once the river thawed and Jiang Sanyu's corpse was swept away, even a celestial immortal could never find it.

The tavern girl and the wastrel would naturally have flown off together from then on, dwelling together as husband and wife and getting exactly what they wished for.

Yet the affairs of the world were ever unpredictable. Jiang Sanyu had died with unclosed eyes, transformed into a ghost, and found Constable Lin Yi. He recounted every detail of how he had been murdered, and only then was the vicious case solved!

At the end, they would add a single judgment.

Heaven's net is vast; its meshes are wide, but nothing escapes!

And Constable Lin Yi gained a title from this, though none could say whether it was praise or mockery.

—Dream-Sleeping Constable.

At Qingfeng Mausoleum, after Jiang Sanyu's case came to light, Yu Chen often went down the mountain to gather news.

Hearing the common folk eagerly recount how "Jiang Sanyu's ghost appeared in a dream to solve the case," he could not help but laugh.

—That cook's soul was currently sprawled by the Yellow Springs River!

What Constable Lin Yi had truly seen on that drunken night had not been Jiang Sanyu's ghost at all, but one of Yu Chen's paper figures!

Using the paper figure to cloud his eyes, Yu Chen had taken on the appearance of Jiang Sanyu's ghost and told Lin Yi the truth he had seen in the carousel of memories.

The reason he had chosen Lin Yi was not for any other reason. Linshui Street, where Jiang Sanyu lived and where he had been thrown into the river, simply fell under Lin Yi's jurisdiction.

In short, gods and ghosts might truly exist, but the supernatural ghost in this case had been the gravekeeper of Qingfeng Mausoleum.

A few days later, Yu Chen finally set his mind at ease when he heard that the adulterous pair had truly been beheaded before the public.

It was also when their heads fell and the people cried their approval that Jiang Sanyu's final wish on the Scripture of Deliverance finally dissipated like smoke. His ghost seemed no longer afraid of the cold, stepping aboard the boat of Yellow Springs and crossing over into the distance.

One final wish had finally come to an end.

This time, amid the great blaze of golden light from the Scripture of Deliverance, Yu Chen received a glittering golden pill the size of a fingertip.

It was called "Strengthen the Foundation and Cultivate the Origin."

As its name implied, it was a medicinal pill used to strengthen the body and condense Internal Force.

Yu Chen did not hesitate. After swallowing it in one gulp, he felt a warm current in his abdomen scurry through his entire body like a great black rat. Under its effects, the Internal Force flowing through his limbs and bones grew considerably richer.

At the same time, Yu Chen's skinny frame became somewhat broader, and the lines of muscle across his chest, abdomen, and limbs grew clearer.

He was still far from a burly man like Xie Qing, but at least he was no longer as frail as before.

This was the day after the tavern girl and the wastrel had been beheaded. A yamen clerk came up Qingfeng Mausoleum and buried their corpses in the snow-covered earth.

The sight left Yu Chen sighing with emotion.

The case had been solved, but a perfectly good Household had been destroyed because the tavern girl had behaved without restraint and climbed over the wall with a red apricot blossom, ending in this fate.

The Household shattered, its people dead.

Why go to such lengths?

(End of Chapter)