At the mention of this, Elderly Madam Qiu immediately collapsed to the ground, muttering:
"Gousheng is frail, so I thought I'd have Gui go into town and buy a ewe that had just lambed, so Gousheng could drink its milk. We really had no money left at home, so I gave him my pair of silver hairpins to pawn. It was me, I killed him! Boohoo, my poor son! How are Gousheng and I supposed to live now?"
Elderly Madam Qiu beat her chest and stamped her feet, consumed by regret!
Had she known this would happen, she would never have let her son go into town, even if it killed her. Now she, with her white hair, had to bury her black-haired son.
Fu Shaoping searched Qiu Gui's body.
He found no silver hairpins.
He looked at Village Chief Huang.
Village Chief Huang hurriedly shook his head:
"As soon as the body was pulled out, I had people guard it. Nothing was touched."
The silver hairpins were missing.
Yet there was no sign of a sheep.
That meant someone had murdered him for his valuables.
Village Chief Huang's mouth went dry as he said:
"Sir... surely no one would kill over a pair of silver hairpins? That... that would be utterly devoid of conscience!"
A human life was worth less than a pair of silver hairpins.
It was hard to say.
Sometimes, murder happened at random.
A single word, a glance, or a gesture could stir murderous intent in someone already on the brink of breaking down.
Fu Shaoping rose and walked to the riverbank. So many villagers had come to gawk that they had trampled the bank into a muddy mess. Standing beside the river, he noted that the wind blew downstream, in the same direction as the current.
He raised a hand and said:
"Village Chief Huang, have the villagers stay where they are. No one is to move."
With that,
he used Ethereal Steps and sped upstream like a gust of wind. Roughly half the time it took to drink a cup of tea later, he returned, his face bright with delight:
"I found two different sets of footprints upstream. If I'm not mistaken, one belongs to Qiu Gui, and the other was naturally left by his killer. Gather everyone in your village. Have them form two lines and come forward one at a time to compare their footprints."
"If I'm not mistaken,"
"this was clearly the work of someone he knew. First, the killer got Qiu Gui to drink with him, then pushed him into the river while he was drunk and off guard."
So...
it really was a murder!
Village Chief Huang dared not drag his feet now. If there really was a murderer in the village, none of them would sleep soundly at night. He hurriedly picked up a brass gong and gathered everyone.
Then he repeated Fu Shaoping's instructions.
Before he had even finished,
Zhou Pan'er's voice rang out from the carriage that had been parked beyond the great locust tree all this time:
"Shaoping, the culprit is running up the mountain!"
Fu Shaoping immediately turned.
Sure enough, a thin, small figure dressed in black was fleeing up the mountain.
His feet moved.
He shot after the fugitive, leaving a trail of afterimages.
Zhou Pan'er leaped straight down from the carriage and picked up a stone from the roadside. After charging forward a few steps, she sent the stone flying, striking the fleeing man's right leg as swiftly as lightning.
Thud!
The fugitive fell flat on his face. But his instinct to survive immediately drove him back to his feet, and he continued scrambling up the mountain at tremendous speed.
Yet that brief delay
was enough for Fu Shaoping to catch up behind him.
Roar!
A muffled tiger's roar sounded.
His Tiger Roar Fist slammed straight into the man's back.
Pfft!
The fugitive spat blood and collapsed, unable to rise.
Hum...
The Treasure Mirror in his sea of consciousness trembled faintly.
A strand of energy shimmering with a hazy red glow slowly rose from the man on the ground and settled into Fu Shaoping.
At the same time,
A line of text flashed within the Treasure Mirror:
Tiger Roar Fist: beginner (40/100)
Astonishingly,
after he apprehended the criminal, his first-grade martial art, Tiger Roar Fist, had gained forty points outright.
Sure enough,
going on missions and personally apprehending criminals yielded greater rewards from the Mystic Mandate Codex.
Moreover,
compared with his cultivation, alchemy, and the second-grade martial art Ethereal Steps, the points added to Tiger Roar Fist had a much more pronounced effect. The punch he had just thrown had considerable power. Once he reached minor mastery, a single punch could shatter his opponent's internal organs!
By then,
Zhou Pan'er was the first to catch up. A trace of admiration filled her eyes as she looked at Fu Shaoping. "Shaoping, you're amazing! You bluffed the real killer into exposing himself with just a few words!"
A light rain had clearly fallen the night before.
How could any footprints have remained beside the river? Fu Shaoping had plainly intended to make the real killer give himself away.
Hearing this,
the gambler Gui Shan lay on the ground, bitterly regretting his moment of panic. Then, as though something had occurred to him, his eyes shifted. Since there were no footprints, there was no evidence that he had killed anyone. Like a drowning man clutching at a straw, Gui Shan hurriedly said:
"I didn't kill him! I didn't kill him! He got drunk and slipped into the river himself. Don't you try to-"
"Shut up!"
Fu Shaoping raised his foot and kicked him in the chest.
He bent down and searched him, then pulled out a pair of silver hairpins and said coldly:
"If you didn't kill him, why do you have the silver hairpins?!"
He immediately bound the man with hemp rope.
Murder for money.
There was no escaping a death sentence.
Fu Shaoping decided to execute him personally!
Apprehending criminals earned him points, but disposing of prisoners should earn points as well.
By this time,
several young men had carried Village Chief Huang up the slope on their backs.
Village Chief Huang looked at the silver hairpins in Fu Shaoping's hand, then at the gambler Gui Shan, whom Fu Shaoping had beaten until he rolled about on the ground. Disbelief filled his face:
"You conscienceless cur!"
"When you nearly drowned in the river as a child, it was Qiu Gui's father who saved your life! You... it was bad enough that you showed no gratitude, but you actually murdered your savior's son over a pair of silver hairpins! You... aren't you afraid the King of Hell will rip out your heart and lungs after you die and cast you into the eighteen levels of hell?!"
"You cur! You've ruined Yellow Creek Village's good name!"
Village Chief Huang opened his mouth and spat a thick glob of phlegm onto Gui Shan.
Just then,
Elderly Madam Qiu arrived on the slope, supported by others. With a howl, she straddled Gui Shan and clawed and struck him like a woman possessed. The words she repeated most were:
"We should have let you drown in that river!"
Fu Shaoping did not stop her.
Only after Elderly Madam Qiu had vented her rage did he tie one end of a rope to the back of the carriage and the other around the prisoner Gui Shan's hands, forcing him to run behind the carriage all the way back to town.
As they were leaving,
Village Chief Huang insisted on pressing several chickens on Fu Shaoping to take home. Elderly Madam Qiu also brought over the only pair of ducks her family owned as a token of thanks.
Fu Shaoping accepted them all.
However, he asked Village Chief Huang to pass a small piece of silver to Elderly Madam Qiu.
On their way back to town from Yellow Creek Village, Zhou Pan'er got out of the carriage before they reached the ceremonial archway. Fu Shaoping escorted the prisoner to the jail at the rear of the Hundred Households Office. After obtaining his written confession, he went to report the completion of his mission.
Old Zhan smiled so broadly that his eyes disappeared beneath his brows.
Their squad had finally notched up its first success:
"Shaoping, you were incredibly fast! It hasn't even been four hours since the report came in, and you've already completed the mission perfectly. Now that's efficiency!"
With this,
Old Zhan finally felt reassured. Completing five missions this month should not be difficult for their squad. Smiling, he pushed the reward he had collected over to Fu Shaoping.
Before you continue