Chapter 82
Chapter 82
I returned to the main room.
Zhou Min’s parents had stopped crying, but traces of tears remained in the corners of their eyes and sorrow filled their faces.
The death of their only daughter–parents with white hair burying a child with black hair–had clearly dealt them a terrible blow. Even after two months, the memory still plunged them into grief.
I did not know what else to do. After offering the elderly couple a few words of comfort, I left.
Perhaps the greatest comfort I could give them was to uncover the true cause of Zhou Min’s death and allow her to rest in peace.
When I returned to the coffin shop, Old Cao had stopped working on the coffin.
A man wearing rough cloth shorts and a black hemp shirt stood beside him, quietly discussing something. Old Cao puffed on his pipe, wreathing himself in smoke with a thoughtful expression.
I gave it little thought as I stepped over the threshold and called, “Old Cao, I’m back. Do we have a visitor?”
Both men turned toward me.
“Xiao Wu, you’re back. This is Li Miao, a corpse retriever on the Chuan River.”
A corpse retriever!
I started. What a coincidence.
I had just been thinking that the best first step in Zhou Min’s case would be to retrieve her body. If she had truly died because of sorcery, some trace ought to remain for us to examine.
Of course, I had only just met this man. I knew neither his background nor his purpose for visiting, much less what he charged to recover a corpse, so naturally I did not speak rashly.
Instead, I exclaimed, “A corpse retriever? That’s one of the most formidable professions in the eclectic arts. May I ask, are you a Red-Boat Oarsman?”
The middle-aged man named Li Miao had already found it strange that Old Cao addressed me as more than an ordinary junior. Now my question startled him as well.
He studied me in astonishment. “You’re no ordinary boy! Not only do you know that corpse retrieval belongs among the eclectic arts, but you’ve even heard of the Red-Boat Oarsmen? Unfortunately, I am not one. I’m merely an ordinary corpse retriever.”
His voice sank on the final sentence.
I could understand why.
The Red-Boat Oarsmen did more than retrieve corpses. They also patrolled waterways and monitored river conditions, but they essentially represented the pinnacle of the corpse-retrieval profession.
As the old saying might be adapted: a corpse retriever who did not aspire to become a Red-Boat Oarsman was no good corpse retriever at all.
Old Cao blew a smoke ring beside us and spoke at his leisure.
“Who in all Shuxi County hasn’t heard of Corpse Retriever Li? How could you call yourself ordinary? Xiao Wu, he’s merely being modest.”
I knew perfectly well that Old Cao would never spend so much time talking to a truly ordinary corpse retriever.
Li Miao was clearly highly capable, at least in his profession. He was probably no weaker than Uncle Yuan Fei.
Old Cao turned back to him. “A senior of mine instructed Xiao Wu to stay here at my coffin shop and learn from me. He comes from a very distinguished background. Don’t underestimate him. He just defeated me head-on in a formal contest.”
“What?!”
Li Miao stared at me in even greater astonishment.
“Xiao Wu looks only thirteen or fourteen. He’s a middle-school student, isn’t he? And he defeated you, Coffin-Bearer Cao? I don’t believe it!”
He shook his head vigorously.
Old Cao was about to argue, but I spoke first. After all, I was still a boy. No matter how mature I might be, I could not completely suppress my competitive streak.
How could I tolerate being doubted?
“Brother Li, ambition has nothing to do with age. You shouldn’t underestimate me.”
As I spoke, I took two stones from my pocket, casually tossed them beside my feet, and stepped forward. Li Miao’s expression changed dramatically.
I knew why.
From his perspective, there were now two of me.
Li Miao sighed in admiration. “An illusion at such close range? You truly come from an illustrious school, young hero.”
In truth, it was not a direct illusion. It was the effect of a miniature Qimen formation–the same method I had used in my formal contest with Old Cao not long ago. I had learned it only two days earlier and was already putting it into practice.
I smiled and shook my head. “I wouldn’t call myself a young hero. But I won’t deny the illustrious school. I can’t be modest on Master’s behalf, even if I don’t actually know where she comes from. By the way, Brother Li, what brought you to see Old Cao?”
I asked casually.
Old Cao never kept his business from me, so I might as well ask Li Miao directly.
“Well…”
As expected, Li Miao looked toward Old Cao.
Old Cao nodded. “You can discuss anything you bring to me in front of Xiao Wu. He is entitled to hear it.”
With Old Cao’s permission, Li Miao stopped holding back and repeated the reason for his visit.
More than two weeks ago, a five- or six-year-old child from a family in Xiaowan Village, over ten li south of Lianghe Town, had accidentally drowned while playing in the water.
The grief-stricken family found Li Miao through a friend. He was a renowned corpse retriever throughout the surrounding region, and they asked him to recover their child.
When Li Miao accepted the job, he assumed it would be simple.
It had been an accidental drowning, and the victim was only five or six. There should have been neither trouble nor danger. To a man like him, the task ought to have been as easy as eating or drinking.
Li Miao rowed to Xiaowan Village and met the family outside it.
The father was surnamed Xiao and named Xiao Mao. He was the village chief’s son. After graduating from a junior college, he had returned to the village to raise livestock.
Society was developing rapidly in those days, and the economy was surging. Large, mechanized factory farms had become commonplace in big cities.
The chickens, ducks, and pigs raised by those accelerated methods yielded plenty of meat, but it tasted increasingly bland. As a result, wealthy city residents had begun to favor country food again–free-range chickens and ducks, farm-raised pigs, and other naturally raised ingredients.
It was only the beginning of a trend, but Xiao Mao saw its potential. After graduating, he returned to the village and established a traditional livestock farm.
His business had been growing steadily. His wife was beautiful and gentle, and their adorable child was loved by everyone. Then, one afternoon while the couple napped, the child slipped away alone to play by the river and drowned.
“Mr. Li, I’m entrusting my son’s body to you. Whatever it takes, I want him buried in peace. I don’t want him drifting in the water and becoming a homeless ghost.”
Xiao Mao’s eyes were still red. His wife wept beside him, unable to speak.
Li Miao studied the couple carefully and felt even more reassured.
He was no physiognomist and could not read faces, but his perception of a person’s basic character was far sharper than an ordinary man’s.
At a glance, he could tell that Xiao Mao and his wife were decent, generous people. He had also heard that they had an excellent reputation in Xiaowan Village and treated everyone kindly. Presumably, their drowned child had enjoyed a happy life.
After considering the matter, Li Miao prepared to retrieve the body.
Xiaowan Village took its name from its position at a bend in the Chuan River.
The river flowed down from the north, then abruptly turned west there, creating a broad curve shaped like the Chinese character ji rotated ninety degrees counterclockwise.
The current slowed, causing large deposits of silt and forming a flat bank along the bend. A small village had therefore arisen there in the late Qing dynasty.
Because it lay on a river bend, floating corpses from upstream and bodies of local drowning victims tended to collect along the eastern bank. Unidentified corpses were often seen there.
Generally speaking, a woman’s floating corpse lay facedown, while a man’s floated faceup.
If the position was reversed, the corpse had probably transformed.
Li Miao explained to Xiao Mao and his wife that drowning victims carried the densest yin energy. They rarely surfaced by day and were difficult to retrieve. Only at night would the bodies rise one by one, floating like logs and drifting with the current.
Li Miao asked for the drowned child’s name and learned that he was called Xiao Sheng. Then he told the couple, “At midnight, give me one piece of clothing your child wore, the toy he loved most, and a handful of earth from your threshold. I’ll go to the eastern bank of the river bend and bring him out.”
“The moment I carry him ashore, place him in a coffin and take him home. At daybreak, notify the coffin bearers to prepare the rites and arrange the burial according to the circumstances.”