Chapter 159

Chapter 159

Hearing Xia Ximo’s reply, Ren Fengjue immediately halted mid-step. Instinctively, he pressed down the corners of his mouth first, then pretended nothing was amiss and said, “All right.”

The two of them went downstairs together.

When Shopkeeper Wang saw them leaving the inn one after another, a chill crept into his heart. He hurried forward and asked, “Honored guests, when will you be back? Upstairs…”

There was still a corpse upstairs.

Though he did not say the rest aloud, Ren Fengjue understood perfectly. “It won’t be long. If you’re afraid, lock that room first.”

Shopkeeper Wang had no desire to admit he was timid, so he casually found an excuse. “It’s mainly that after dark, no one in town really goes out anymore. I still have a storm lantern here. Take it with you.”

After Ren Fengjue took the lantern, he thanked him, then left with Xia Ximo.

Shopkeeper Wang watched the two of them walk away, but could not help shivering again.

Business at the inn had been especially poor lately, so he had only hired one waiter. Now that the kitchen staff had finished for the day and gone home, he was the only one left in the entire inn.

At that thought, another chill ran down his back. He hastily lit every lamp in the main hall to bolster his courage.

After struggling with himself for a while, he still took out a lock, braced himself, went up to the second floor, and locked the door to the room where the waiter’s body lay.

Only when he heard the click of the lock did Shopkeeper Wang feel the slightest bit at ease.

He looked at the key in his hand, then thought of the waiter’s death, and could not help feeling a few more sighs rise in his heart.

–

Yunxia Town was not large.

Before entering the town, Ren Fengjue had already noticed that the town yamen was located by the entrance to the town, not far from the inn. They would reach it after crossing two streets.

What he had not expected was that not long after nightfall, the yamen’s main gate would already be tightly shut. There was not even anyone on duty.

This displeased Ren Fengjue. He stepped forward and rapped on the door with no trace of politeness.

Only after several rounds of knocking did someone finally come to open it.

It was a young bailiff. Not only did he reek of wine, he was so drunk he could barely open his eyes.

“What are you doing here this late at night?”

Ren Fengjue shot back in a cold voice, “You’re the official. You tell me what someone would come looking for you for in the middle of the night.”

Hearing that his tone did not sound easy to provoke, the young bailiff forced his eyes open and sized them up for a moment.

A man and a woman stood before the gate. They looked rather wealthy, and they did not look like locals. They were probably travelers from out of town.

He immediately put on an official air. “You’re from elsewhere, are you? Did you lose something and want this official to go catch a thief for you?”

Ren Fengjue had no interest in wasting another word on him. He kicked the main gate open outright.

“Tell your town official to come out and see me.”

The young bailiff had been leaning against the side of the door. Ren Fengjue’s kick was so forceful it was practically trying to send both man and door flying together.

Already muddled with drink, the bailiff was jolted backward, staggering several steps before landing on his rear on the ground.

In an instant, he sobered up.

Looking for the town official?

With that kind of attitude?

Then he had to be someone with a powerful background.

As the saying went, a wise man submitted to circumstances. The young bailiff hurriedly scrambled up from the ground and, without another word, rushed to the back courtyard of the yamen to call someone.

Before long, a broad and portly man of about forty hurried out, panting for breath.

This man’s name was Li Cheng. He was a backdoor appointee with no real talent. He had come to this remote, impoverished place to serve as town official simply to seek an easy and comfortable life.

He narrowed his eyes and sized Ren Fengjue up. Finding that he did not recognize him, he could not help giving a small “hm?”

Then he glanced at Xia Ximo beside him. He recognized her even less, and immediately clicked his tongue.

Still, the two of them did indeed have an uncommon air about them. They did not look like ordinary people.

So he jerked his chin at the subordinate beside him, signaling for them to be invited into the hall.
Once they were seated, Li Cheng asked cautiously, “It is so late. What business brings you to this official?”

Ren Fengjue did not beat around the bush. He asked directly, “What exactly happened with the plague in Tu Family Village, five li from here?”

At that, Li Cheng was first startled, and his doubts only deepened.

“Who exactly are you? Why are you asking about that?”

Ren Fengjue swept him with a cold glance. “I hadn’t intended to ask you, but Ge Chuan is too far from here. He won’t be able to come at a moment’s notice.”

“What? Were you planning to wait until he arrived before speaking?”

True, Yunxia Town was remote, but it was in fact under the jurisdiction of Kaiming County. Because it was so far away, even if something happened, the county could not arrive immediately.

And it was precisely because of this that the people in the town office dared to neglect their duties.

The moment Li Cheng heard him address the county magistrate by name, he knew the man’s identity could not be simple.

At once, he could no longer sit still. He hurried to his feet and even bent slightly at the waist to show respect.

“There is no need to trouble Magistrate Ge to make the trip personally. The plague incident in Tu Family Village happened sixteen days ago…”

Under Ren Fengjue’s stern gaze, Li Cheng quickly recounted the whole matter from beginning to end.

At the time, it was a woman surnamed Tu, who had married into the town, returning home to visit her family who discovered it.

It was said that early that morning, when she reached the village entrance, she nearly fainted from fright at the sight before her.

The dozen or so households in the village had all been reduced to corpses strewn across the ground in heaps. Not a single person was left alive.

When Li Cheng received the report, he panicked as well. So many people had died; this was certainly not something a minor town official like him could resolve.

He did not dare make decisions on his own and immediately reported it to the county office.

After County Magistrate Ge Chuan learned of the matter, he rushed to Tu Family Village at full speed on horseback.

And thinking back to the scene then, Li Cheng still felt a lingering fear.

“At the time, all the bodies were piled up at the village entrance. Most of them were rotting and oozing pus, no longer resembling human beings at all, and they gave off a foul stench. It was truly bizarre.”

Hearing this description, Ren Fengjue frowned. For some reason, the corpse of the waiter at the inn immediately came to mind.

Li Cheng watched his expression, his own heart thudding uneasily. He deliberately added something to make himself seem less incompetent.

“To be honest, with something like this, never mind us-even the people from the county office were at a loss for a time.”

“But in order to determine the cause, we still conducted a thorough search throughout Tu Family Village. After working for several hours, however, we found nothing.”

At that time, it was nearly dark. The stench from the corpses was overwhelming, and the coroner could barely bring himself to begin.

Of everyone present, aside from Magistrate Ge, who only vomited once, the rest threw up at least three or four times.

After all, with so many dead, experience suggested that poisoning was the most likely possibility.

Next was plague.

Ge Chuan had people first examine all the water sources in the village, and even the grain. After confirming there was no poison, they could only tentatively conclude it had been caused by a plague.

But the corpses decayed at an astonishing rate. In only a few hours, they had rotted until they were no longer human in shape.

The stench grew even stronger.

It was then that a wandering Daoist happened to pass through. With just one glance, he declared that there was something strange about the corpses and that they should be burned on the spot at once.

Although Ge Chuan did not believe in talk of demons and evil spirits, on second thought, if it really was an epidemic, then it was very likely to spread and affect the surrounding people.

He was also afraid the situation would spiral beyond control, so he immediately ordered the village sealed off and had the corpses burned right there.

“After the bodies were destroyed, Magistrate Ge remained in town for another two days and led us in continuing to search the surrounding area. Only after confirming there was nothing unusual did he return to Kaiming County.”