Chapter 113

Chapter 113

Lu Qiusheng was badly hurt. Blood was pouring from all over him, but whether because the light was too dim or not, at first glance I couldn’t see any obvious wounds.

Since they weren’t whip wounds, Li Qingying hadn’t been the one to beat him into this state.

Which meant there had been a third person here just now.

“Xiao Jiu… Shopkeeper Xiao Jiu.” Lu Qiusheng recognized me. He opened his mouth, struggling to speak. “It… it appeared. Haha… Thirty years. After thirty years, it finally appeared again.”

He had barely gotten those words out before he began vomiting blood nonstop.

His pupils were already starting to lose focus. There was no saving him.

All I could do was crouch down and quietly listen to his final words.

Lu Qiusheng’s trembling hand groped around behind his back. After a long while, he raised his hand again and held it out in front of me.

Clutched in his hand were several bloodstained pieces of Flesh Thorn. They looked very much like the ones he had given me last night, except these were fresher and longer.

I took the Flesh Thorn from him, my heart unbearably heavy. “Officer Lu, I…”

“I’m not going to make it.” Lu Qiusheng seemed to know what I wanted to say and cut me off. “Don’t call the police. Call Uncle Qiang.

“I never married, and I’ve already arranged everything for after I’m gone. After I die, Uncle Qiang will take care of having me cremated and buried. I… I only ask one thing of Shopkeeper Xiao Jiu. When the day comes that the culprit is brought to justice, could you… could you bring a little cake to visit me and tell me the good news?”

“I can,” I promised. “When that time comes, I’ll definitely bring cake and celebrate with you.”

Lu Qiusheng smiled again.

And just like that, he passed away with that smile on his face.

I took out my phone and called Zhang Qiang, my voice choked with tears.

Zhang Qiang arrived quickly. He didn’t seem surprised. He cleaned up the aftermath efficiently and didn’t ask us many questions.

It wasn’t until we returned to the Pawnshop, locked the door, and I sat with Li Qingying in the kitchen while she ate that her emotions finally stabilized a little.

I asked carefully, “What happened on the street just now?”

“I’ll start from this afternoon, when I began following Dou Jinsuo,” Li Qingying said slowly. “Around five o’clock, the Town Head rode a motorcycle and took Dou Jinsuo west. I followed them the whole way, and in the end they stopped at the foot of a mountain.

“That mountain isn’t far from Wufu Town. It isn’t very tall, and it’s still lush and green this season. The person they were looking for lived in a blue-stone brick house in the mountains.

“I watched them go up and knock on the door. They knocked for a long time. I didn’t dare get too close, so I couldn’t hear what they were saying, but I could see Dou Jinsuo kneel in front of the door and kowtow again and again. I don’t know who or what he was begging for.”

I frowned. So they really had gone to look for someone.

Who could it be?

“Later, the door opened, and a little old man came out. He threw a whole basin of water right over their heads. Dou Jinsuo took the chance to grab the little old man’s leg, but the old man kicked him away, and the door was shut again.

“They waited outside for a long time. Dou Jinsuo pressed himself against the door and said many more things, but the little old man never opened it again.

“After that, the Town Head seemed to make some kind of threat. He cursed at the door a few times, then left with Dou Jinsuo.”

At this point, Li Qingying paused, seeming a little puzzled.

I asked, “They didn’t leave right away, did they?”

“No,” Li Qingying said. “They wandered around the mountain for quite a while, as if they were looking for something, but in the end they found nothing and left empty-handed. You can’t get a cab in that area at night, so I came back a little late.

“And then I ran into Officer Lu.”

So that was what happened.

“By then, Officer Lu had already been knocked to the ground. There was a boy of about ten pinning him down. No-that thing couldn’t be called a boy. It was a demon!”

Li Qingying said in terror, “That person’s face was bluish black, and every place I could see was covered in lumpy, bumpy growths. More importantly, his back was covered in Flesh Thorn as long and thin as fingers!”
“He kept driving those Flesh Thorn appendages through Officer Lu’s body. There was blood everywhere beneath Officer Lu, and he was already beyond saving. I lashed out with my whip, but that thing was too fast. In the blink of an eye, it vanished without a trace.”

A boy of about ten?

That was nothing like the mastermind I had imagined.

But clearly, Lu Qiusheng was also certain that boy was the killer who had murdered his father and sister back then.

It chose its targets with purpose. The ones it wanted to skin had a Silver Needle inserted into the back of their head. The ones it did not skin were stabbed to death with the Flesh Thorn on its back.

Li Qingying’s appearance tonight had been an accident.

That thing was likely going to hold a grudge against Li Qingying now.

At that thought, I said, “Sister Qingying, starting tonight, you don’t need to keep watching the Huang Family and the Dou Family anymore.”

Li Qingying was puzzled. “Why? Xiao Jiu, I only just found a lead. If we stop now, everything we’ve done will be for nothing.”

“I’ve already gotten the answer I wanted,” I explained. “Everything that’s happened lately is connected. I’ve come to one conclusion: they want to use Chen Tao’s skin to make a Red Coffin. But Dou Jinsuo’s skills aren’t good enough, so they want outside help. And that little old man you followed into the mountains today is very likely the outside help they’re trying to recruit.”

“A Human-Skin Red Coffin?” Li Qingying’s eyes went wide. “Like the Red Coffin Mei Linshuang had?”

I nodded. “Most likely.”

Li Qingying immediately flew into righteous anger. “Those damned monsters. How long are they going to keep committing these sins?”

Then she seemed to realize something and asked me, “Wait, that’s not right. Wasn’t that Human-Skin Red Coffin meant to… meant to hold you, Xiao Jiu?”

I shrugged and said, “Yes. I’m alive, and that ruined a plan a lot of people had been laying for over a hundred years. Sooner or later, they’ll make another move against me.”

“No.” Li Qingying shot to her feet. “Looking at it that way, that little old man in the mountains was originally from the Dou Family Coffin Shop, but he doesn’t seem to think much of Dou Jinsuo. Xiao Jiu, do you think we should…”

“We should,” I said without hesitation. “I need to meet this little old man in advance. Maybe I can get some key information from him.”

“I’ll drive you there,” Li Qingying said. “I’ve got the route memorized.”

It was already late. I had not wanted to drag Li Qingying around like this.

But this was better done sooner than later. Besides, in broad daylight, it would be too easy for interested parties to catch us in the act. We might as well settle it tonight.

That mountain really was not far from Wufu Town. In the darkness, we could see a faint point of light among the trees.

Li Qingying and I climbed the mountain path. Just as we approached the stone house, we heard the sound of wood being shaved from inside.

Stroke after stroke.

Li Qingying and I exchanged a look, and the same question was in both our eyes-had the little old man already started making the Human-Skin Red Coffin?

Just then, an aged voice came from inside the stone house. “Since you’re here, why don’t you introduce yourselves first?”

I considered my words, then said, “I’m Xiao Jiu, the proprietor of Wufu Town Pawnshop.”

“Pawnshop?” The door creaked open a crack, and a shrewd eye peered out, studying me up and down. Then he asked, “Hey, kid, is that old thing Granny Yu doing well?”

I had not expected him to know my Granny.

A bitter ache rose in my chest. “Granny… has already passed away.”

The little old man’s eyes trembled sharply, but he soon began to laugh. “Good that she’s dead! Now she’s free.”

“Hey, what kind of thing is that to say?” Li Qingying cracked her whip against the front door.

The little old man had already let go. The door was pulled open from both sides. The stone house was not large, yet there were two coffins inside. From the look of them, both had just been made…