A Transaction with Problems Everywhere

If he had truly been dead for two or three days, then who had been following me?

Or perhaps the state of his face represented his true time of death—but then why had his organs rotted so quickly?

Chen Yuliang had similar abnormalities too?

Ding Songyan felt as though he had been struck by lightning. One thought after another flashed through his mind, yet his body remained frozen where he stood.

"Isn't this Second Brother Ding? Here at the yamen to see Clerk Ding?" A constable beside the donkey cart spotted Ding Songyan standing nearby.

He stood just under eight feet tall, with thick brows, large eyes, and short whiskers on his chin. He looked to be past thirty.

Ding Songyan immediately moved closer.

"Constable, I just heard you say that Chen Yuliang from the Small Boat Gang was like this man too?"

"Constable?" The constable was initially taken aback, then laughed. "Just as Clerk Ding said—you were frightened out of your wits and developed a wandering soul disorder. You always used to call me Brother Li. Why are you calling me Constable?"

The previous owner of this body had some standing among the constables... Xu Chang'an had always called me Second Brother Ding. Besides wanting to curry favor with Qingyan, he was probably valuing this connection too. Tsk, you really can't judge a book by its cover. The kid wasn't terribly calculating, but he still had some scheming in him... Ding Songyan gave an "ah."

"Brother Li, sorry for the trouble, sorry for the trouble."

Only then did Constable Li answer Ding Songyan's earlier question.

"Chen Yuliang was the same."

"The other Small Boat Gang member who died that day—was he the same too?" Ding Songyan recalled the red-nosed man his elder brother had blasted to death with a single punch.

"Why are you asking this?" The Xiaoming Sect disciple present looked at Ding Songyan warily.

He was in his twenties, with a square face and an air of stern lethality.

Seeing that Constable Li and the other constable, who had already gone around to the front of the donkey cart, were both scrutinizing him as well, Ding Songyan pondered briefly before saying,

"I was involved in the Chen Yuliang affair."

He intended to give a simple account of what had happened that day, then try mentioning Yan Changqing in the Zhen Estate's secret prison at the end, to see whether it would work.

The expressions of Constable Li and the others turned solemn.

"My wandering soul disorder came from excessive fright, and that excessive fright came from someone trying to murder me." Ding Songyan began there, recounting how he had escaped death, sought aid from the Zhen Estate, and how the red-nosed man had been tricked, forcing Chen Yuliang, who had been secretly confirming the situation, to flee in a sorry state before Mr. Yu tailed him.

Ding Songyan did not mention anything related to the Secret Classic of Mountains and Seas. He merely said that the red-nosed man had demanded, the moment he appeared, why Ding Songyan had returned to Dingjiang Prefecture instead of fleeing to the ends of the earth. The man had later revealed in a few words that Chen Yuliang had a problem, but before he could explain what exactly had happened, everything had ended.

While recounting it, Ding Songyan did not conceal the possibility that he himself had a problem.

He did so deliberately, hoping that the Xiaoming Sect and the Yi family would occasionally question and investigate him in the days ahead!

If necessary, even arresting and imprisoning him would be acceptable.

Upon hearing that the red-nosed man had been killed by someone from the Zhen Estate hidden in a blind spot behind a tree, the Xiaoming Sect disciple gave an almost imperceptible nod.

"His name was Wang Yishu. When we took custody of his body, his flesh and organs were also putrid and stinking, as if he had been dead for two or three days. As for his face... his face was impossible to tell."

Uh, recalling the way Wang Yishu had died, Ding Songyan felt that "his face was impossible to tell" was entirely normal.

Whether it could even be recognized as a face was another matter.

Having confirmed that Wang Yishu, the red-nosed man, had also displayed the abnormality of excessive decay, a chill surged through Ding Songyan's heart. Though he stood amid the blazing heat of midsummer, it felt as if he had fallen into the bitter cold of midwinter.

Previously, he had believed that the issue with that copy of the Secret Classic of Mountains and Seas mainly lay in its suspicious origin, which might have led to his own death and the death of Zhang Rui, Xu Chang'an's master.

But now, it seemed the buyer was abnormal too.

The seller had problems, the buyer had problems—there were problems everywhere with this transaction!

Could I, the broker in the middle, have problems too? Ding Songyan gave a bitter smile and said to Constable Li and the others,

"Unfortunately, I have this wandering soul disorder. Otherwise, I might have remembered the crucial details."

The implication of his words was: please, officials, pay more "attention" to me.

"The Four Waters Gang reported their conflict with the Small Boat Gang last month. Wang Yishu's death is to be handled according to martial world rules, so it doesn't involve you. Once those above give us an answer about these abnormal deaths, we'll question you again." Constable Li patted Ding Songyan's shoulder. "Relax. Nothing major will happen."

Perhaps nothing major would happen, but whether my little life would be spared was another question... Ding Songyan put on a deeply worried expression and keenly repeated one phrase.

"The Four Waters Gang reported their conflict with the Small Boat Gang as early as last month?"

"That's right. They've had many clashes over the past two or three months. Once a report is approved, it means blood will be spilled." Constable Li explained casually, then added, "My name is Li Wu. Second Brother Ding, don't forget it again."

Ding Songyan considered for a moment.

"Does the Small Boat Gang have a Martial Grandmaster?"

"Yes, in the provincial capital." Li Wu frowned slightly, feeling that Second Brother Ding was asking too many questions.

"Then why is the Small Boat Gang confronting the Four Waters Gang in Dingjiang Prefecture? Old Master Zhen could crush them with one hand, couldn't he?" Ding Songyan voiced his doubt.

The Xiaoming Sect disciple beside them said,

"Perhaps the Small Boat Gang's Martial Grandmaster secretly came to Dingjiang Prefecture, intending to lay a trap and deal with the elderly Zhen Qianfan first."

"Mhm." Ding Songyan asked no more and bid the three farewell.

It was not until he had walked out onto the street where the county yamen stood that he realized he had "forgotten" to mention the Zhen Estate dungeon again.

"The preliminary judgment is that Yan Changqing was crying thief to catch thief. It's unlikely that the Zhen family's hidden agent could monitor me at every moment without being discovered while following me..." Ding Songyan was no longer as furious or frightened as before. Instead, he began examining matters with relative calm.

Because he had discovered that, just as Yan Changqing had said, danger lay on every side. It was not the Zhen Estate alone.

He even suspected that Yan Changqing had deliberately used the arts of calculation to deduce that if he came to the county yamen, he would encounter something that revealed the danger. That was why Yan Changqing had used words to manipulate him and provoke him into visiting the yamen.

"If Yan Changqing weren't so vicious at heart, and if the Zhen Estate matter weren't so obviously dangerous, I really would want to learn his secret art—his arts of calculation, and the cultivation method that could send qi into the brain and influence another person's mind.

"Leaving Yan Changqing aside for now, Chen Yuliang's problem is just as serious.

"After Second Brother Ding obtained the Secret Classic of Mountains and Seas, I can understand why he sold it to the Small Boat Gang rather than the Zhen Estate. After all, Cousin Nuansheng was only a concubine. Second Brother Ding was dispensable to the Zhen Estate, and there was a great chance they would kill him to silence him. But the Small Boat Gang would have to consider the Zhen Estate and might not dare kill him. Mm, that choice depended on Second Brother Ding not knowing that the conflict between the two gangs had already turned white-hot and been reported to the yamen.

"Yet with the conflict between the Small Boat Gang and the Four Waters Gang so intense that both had reported it to the yamen, Chen Yuliang still dared buy a rare edition of the Secret Classic of Mountains and Seas from Second Brother Ding, half a member of the Zhen Estate? Bold indeed! Wasn't he afraid it was a pit dug by the Zhen Estate?

"If it really were the Zhen Estate's doing, they could simply sell out Second Brother Ding, this discarded pawn, afterward and report to the yamen that Chen Yuliang was suspected of possessing the complete Secret Classic of Mountains and Seas. Then the entire Small Boat Gang would be left unable to carry the burden.

"Combined with the strangeness of Chen Yuliang's corpse, could he have been acting against his own will?

"Was red-nosed Wang Yishu the same? Right. When I tricked him, I never expected him to answer so many questions in such detail. It was as though he treated me as an insider. Hiss... was he acting against his own will too?"

To focus on thinking, Ding Songyan found a quiet stretch along the street. Without lifting his long robe, he simply sat down.

What he needed to deduce now was this: if he had not transmigrated and Second Brother Ding had died completely, what would have happened afterward?

"The Ding family would certainly have gone to the Zhen Estate to weep and complain. The Zhen Estate would inspect Second Brother Ding's corpse. Without interference from a transmigrator, they might truly have discovered something.

"If I were Old Master Zhen, since the report had already been approved, then regardless of whether the clues pointed to Chen Yuliang, I would rake up grass and catch rabbits, directing the spearhead at the Small Boat Gang. Using revenge as an excuse, I could openly and justifiably launch a gang war. At that point, if the Small Boat Gang's Martial Grandmaster had truly infiltrated Dingjiang Prefecture, Old Master Zhen would have no choice but to act...

"That would mean he would very likely leave the Zhen Estate.

"If he wasn't at the Zhen Estate, someone could take advantage of the empty space?

"Would it be for Miss Xiaoqing's side and the True Spirit Sect's purpose in coming to Dingjiang Prefecture, or for Yan Changqing in the dungeon?"

Having deduced this far, Ding Songyan's spirits rose.

"So, the one who killed Second Brother Ding was the person behind the scenes?

"Let's first assume that the person behind the scenes truly wanted to intensify the conflict between the Four Waters Gang and the Small Boat Gang, forcing Old Master Zhen, who had lived in seclusion for years, to leave the estate and act. Then after I occupied the magpie's nest, what would he—or they—think?

"They would find my return from death strange. If the matter was not yet urgent, they might temporarily hold back and observe the changes, lest they encounter something too horrible to speak of.

"Was that why the other group had been following me?

"To halt the original plan, they had to confine matters to Chen Yuliang's purchase of the Secret Classic of Mountains and Seas. That was why red-nosed Wang Yishu knew everything and said everything. That was why, even if he and Chen Yuliang were not killed on the spot, they would 'disappear' afterward. That was why Xu Chang'an's master died not long after I came back to life—he had originally been a clue the person behind the scenes left for the Zhen Estate.

"And the Small Boat Gang's side, since the Secret Classic of Mountains and Seas was involved, should not make a move.

"But the problem is that the Small Boat Gang is now on the verge of being uprooted entirely in Dingjiang Prefecture. They have no reaction at all?

"And did Chen Yuliang actually report the matter of the Secret Classic of Mountains and Seas?

"Or rather, the one who determined that the Secret Classic of Mountains and Seas was a complete edition was neither Chen Yuliang nor the Small Boat Gang's Martial Grandmaster, but that person behind the scenes?

"What was the purpose of having him say it through Chen Yuliang's mouth?"

Ding Songyan thought until his head swelled. He rose and slowly paced the street.

Now that he had a comprehensive understanding of the matter, he felt that regardless of how much he had guessed right or wrong, he at least had several directions to probe and verify.

What he feared most was a fog so thick that he had strength but nowhere to use it.

"Now, I am no longer someone too weak to bind a goose. The strand of 'qi' Yan Changqing gave me can be used twice, and its power should be remarkable.

"When it comes to shattering delusion, I must be wary. What I see may not necessarily be the truth beneath the illusion—it could be another layer of illusion Yan Changqing created to mislead me. Shattering delusion, shattering delusion—the thing shattered may not necessarily be delusion.

"Mm. When it comes to preserving my life and harming others, Yan Changqing is unlikely to have lied. My death brings him no benefit whatsoever. On this point, he can be trusted."

Just as Ding Songyan's thoughts began to wander, a familiar call suddenly sounded by his ear, the voice kept very low.

"Second Brother Ding..."

Miss Xiaoqing? Ding Songyan quite naturally looked around, but did not spot that figure who would inevitably draw attention.