The Meng family's pharmacy.
The pharmacy had been converted from a storeroom. All kinds of herbs hung inside, and a long wooden table stood by the window, with a long bench opposite it.
Every day, Meng Anzhi sat here listening to Jin Shanyao explain the properties of medicines.
Tonight, the two little ones sat across from Jin Shanyao, watching her mix various herbs together and put them into sachets.
"The medicine in these sachets is highly poisonous. In carefully measured small doses, it can cause a deep coma; only an overdose is fatal." Jin Shanyao tied the sachets onto the two little ones.
Humans were too frightening. They even attacked little ones. Still uneasy, she added a layer of spiritual power.
"The necklaces around your necks can counter a hundred poisons. As long as you don't take them off, no one else can remove them."
Meng Anzhi and Meng Anci nodded obediently. "Don't worry, Auntie. We won't take them off."
These were the first gifts they had received. Even if Auntie hadn't said anything, they couldn't bear to take them off.
Jin Shanyao smiled and pinched the two little tots' cheeks. "Good children. Tomorrow at noon, we'll go eat at the Top Scholar Tower."
Meng Anci was shocked. "We're eating there again? Auntie, the food at the Top Scholar Tower is very expensive."
Jin Shanyao put away the bottles and jars on the table and said, unconcerned, "We earn money to make our lives better. Otherwise, what's the point of earning it?
"There's no shame in eating, drinking, and having fun. As long as it's within our means, nobody else gets a say."
Little Meng Anci stared with wide eyes, his brain nearly turning to paste. What Auntie said was different from what his teacher said.
The next day, the county yamen was surrounded by people, with the five victims' families packed among them.
The killing of children and removal of their hearts had stirred public outrage, and half the county had come.
Inside the courtroom.
Magistrate Yang sat at the high bench. The gavel beside his hand felt as heavy as a thousand catties, and he couldn't bring himself to strike it.
Concubine Liu and Wang Wu knelt before the bench. Zhao Mingjing stood outside the courtroom, staring fixedly at the magistrate.
When the chief constable made the arrests yesterday, Zhao Mingjing had declared that if Magistrate Yang couldn't get to the bottom of the matter, he would take his complaint to the prefectural city.
The trouble was that Magistrate Yang had the bear's gall but no evidence. He straightened his back and tapped the screen twice. Jin Shanyao sat steadily behind it.
Spiritual power flickered around her fingers.
Magistrate Yang said sternly, "Liu Ruyan, Wang Wu, do you two confess to your crimes?"
Liu Ruyan cried out, "Please look into this clearly, Your Honor. I truly don't know what I've done wrong. Besides, I don't even know him."
Wang Wu hurriedly chimed in. "Your Honor, this commoner spends all day dealing with cattle and horses. I truly don't know what I've done wrong. You locked me up all night for no reason. I've been wronged!"
Magistrate Yang put on a stern expression and got straight to the point. "I ask you, what were you doing around the time of the Lantern Festival?"
Liu Ruyan's head buzzed, and her vision went black. She nearly collapsed to the floor.
Forcing herself to stay upright, she shouted, "Your Honor, do you remember what you ate last night?"
Bang! The gavel came down hard on the table. "Impudent!"
At the same time, Magistrate Yang desperately pounded on the screen, sweat covering his forehead. He looked at Wang Wu and continued the questioning. "Wang Wu, did you know the youngest daughter of Butcher Hu's family in the east of town?"
Wang Wu was calmer than Liu Ruyan. He flatly denied it. "Your Honor, I spend all my time in the west of town. I haven't been to the east of town at all in the past six months."
Just then, Jin Shanyao cast the Truth Incantation. Wang Wu felt his tongue stiffen, and then the words in his heart came tumbling out as though beyond his control.
"Half a year ago, Liu Ruyan met a wandering Daoist. He said that putting on rouge red could hold a man's heart."
Liu Ruyan stared at Wang Wu in shock. "What nonsense are you spouting? Shut up!"
Magistrate Yang's eyes lit up at once, and he pressed, "What is rouge red?"
Wang Wu clapped a hand over his mouth in terror, but his tongue refused to obey him. "It's made by soaking rouge in the blood from a child's heart for seven times seven, forty-nine days, then leaving it to dry in the wind in a dark place.
"When a woman puts it on, she becomes so ravishing she looks ripe enough to burst, and men can't get enough of her..."
Before he could finish, Liu Ruyan sprang to her feet. Baring her teeth and claws, she lunged at Wang Wu. "I'll kill you! That'll teach you to spout nonsense!"
Wails rose from outside the courtroom.
"My poor little girl! You died such a terrible death!"
"Kill this beast!" The victims' family members picked up stones and hurled them viciously at Wang Wu. Countless more stones followed, crashing into the courtroom.
The courtroom fell into chaos.
"Silence!" It was the first time Magistrate Yang had encountered a murderer who confessed without being beaten. His hands and feet trembled with excitement, and he failed to grip the gavel firmly. It fell onto the table with a thud.
Magistrate Yang said, "Someone, pull Liu Ruyan away." Then he pointed outside the courtroom. "Silence! Anyone who dares disrupt these proceedings again will be dragged away and beaten with a rod."
At that, the people outside had no choice but to swallow their anger.
They all stared at Liu Ruyan and Wang Wu, wishing they could tear them apart. Zhao Mingjing stood in a corner, looking at Liu Ruyan in utter shock and disbelief.
Magistrate Yang said, "Wang Wu, who else was involved in this? How many children did you kill, and where did you bury them?"
Wang Wu covered his mouth, his expression pained. He wanted to dash himself against a wall and end it all, but the yamen runners pinned him to the ground, leaving him unable to move. "Liu Ruyan was in charge of luring them in, and I was in charge of killing them.
"There were five children in all. The last child was Zhao Mingjing's son, Zhao Zhiyuan."
For some reason, Wang Wu burst out laughing, his laughter unhinged. "Just a little more, and we could have killed Zhao Zhiyuan. Too bad Zhao Mingjing found out."
Zhao Mingjing swayed when he heard this. He didn't understand. Hadn't he treated Liu Ruyan well these past three years? Why did she want to harm his child?
Seeing that all was lost, Liu Ruyan sank to the floor as though drained of strength and laughed. "Rouge red worked well. Every time I used it, Zhao Mingjing would come to my room.
"But I wanted a child, and he..." Liu Ruyan suddenly pointed at Zhao Mingjing. "He played deaf and dumb and refused to give me a child. Do you know how awful that contraceptive decoction tastes? You don't, because you don't have to drink it."
Madam Hu couldn't bear to listen any longer. She roared, "You wanted a child, so you killed mine? You evil spirit!"
Liu Ruyan gave a low laugh.
The case was quickly solved, and the four bodies were claimed by their families. Only Li Dequan kept his hands clamped tightly over his ears, glaring viciously at Wang Wu and Liu Ruyan.
His son wasn't dead. As long as he couldn't hear it, as long as no one dug, his son wasn't dead.
Magistrate Yang dismissed the court, went around the screen, and walked up to Jin Shanyao. He gave a deep sigh. "Master, I nearly knocked a hole in my screen." He flung a hand out in frustration. "You... you... you can go."
He had asked too much of her. It was one thing for a young girl to tell fortunes, but how could she know anything about trying a case? He shouldn't have imagined Jin Shanyao possessed such far-reaching Divine Abilities.
Jin Shanyao offered no explanation. Humming a little tune, she left the county yamen.
She had a faint sense that the merit in the inner core in her abdomen had grown another layer thicker.
Several days later, people said that Li Dequan had bought the Land God Temple. He often went there and leaned against the third tree, staying for an entire day.
The Land God Temple was kept spotless, but wild grass grew thick around the third tree alone.
Li Dequan's missing-person notices were still posted everywhere. He would press two of them on every passing merchant caravan, repeating the words he had said thousands of times. It was said that not long after the case ended, his wife remarried.