After giving Duan Zhengchun a thorough thrashing, Emperor Baoding sat down to rest, drenched in sweat.
Just then, a scout's report suddenly arrived. "Your Majesty, two more pieces of news have come from the jianghu!
"First, the Beggar Gang assembled at Apricot Grove in Wuxi and opened Ma Dayuan's coffin to examine the body. As identified by Master Zhiguang, Ma Dayuan died beneath Shaolin's Great Vajra Finger.
"From what everyone surmises, Ma Dayuan stumbled upon the affair between Shaolin Abbot Xuanci and Ma Dayuan's wife, Kang Min, and the two of them joined hands to kill him.
"The Beggar Gang is now preparing to fight its way up to Shaolin Temple and make Shaolin hand over the killer!
"There is also this: the Western Xia First Rank Hall meant to seize the chance and wipe out every fellow of the martial world gathered in Apricot Grove, but was instead destroyed by Qin Zheng, the Great Hero of Guanzhong."
At these words, Duan Zhengchun's pupils shrank in spite of himself. Ma Dayuan was Kang Min's husband?
Emperor Baoding was stunned as well. In disbelief, he looked at Duan Zhengchun, whose face had gone blank.
Had he beaten the wrong man?
No. This younger brother deserved a beating!
Though somewhat guilty, he put on a majestic air that needed no anger. He pointed through the air, unsealed Duan Zhengchun's acupoints, and barked, "You heard all of it. Get to Shaolin Temple at once, and before the heroes of the world, make it clear that you had nothing to do with Ma Dayuan's death!"
Duan Zhengchun's expression was complicated. "Elder Brother, I can't go. That Kang Min... was once my woman. If I go and explain, the more I say, the blacker it will look."
"What? You had a fling with Kang Min too?"
Emperor Baoding's eyes flew wide. After staring blankly for a long while, he pointed through the air, sealed Duan Zhengchun's acupoints once more, and with a dark face snatched up the ferule again.
It seemed the beating just now had still been too light!
In the quiet of deep night, the people of the jianghu in Apricot Grove had all dispersed. Only Qin Zheng and the people of the Longmen Escort Agency remained.
Qin Zheng glanced at Ma Dayuan's corpse and instructed the old woman, "Dispose of the body at once. Say Jiumozhi snatched the corpse. Those Tubo monks like making ritual implements out of bone anyway."
He had only learned of Ma Dayuan's death the night before. To cross several thousand li in a single night, dig Ma Dayuan's corpse out of the ground, and haul it from Luoyang to Wuxi was simply impossible.
The dead man in this coffin was in fact a Taihu water bandit who murdered and robbed. Qin Zheng had killed him, disguised his face to look like Ma Dayuan, and put him in the coffin.
That was why the coffin bore no trace of having been opened.
The old woman nodded, ordered the corpse carried away, and asked, "Chief, then what should we do with the real body of Ma Dayuan?"
Qin Zheng put on a righteous face. "Send it to Shaolin, of course. After all, I, Qin Zheng, am the Greatest Detective of the Jianghu. What I like cracking best are strange cases as twisted and bizarre as this!"
The old woman: "..."
The case was strange enough, true. But did he have the slightest idea where all that strangeness had come from?
Three days later, at the foot of Mount Song.
Because of the jianghu rumors of the past few days, the disciples of Shaolin Temple started at every sound, and a stifling atmosphere filled the temple.
Even the farmer Qiao Sanhuai noticed that the monks who came from Shaolin Temple to buy vegetables wore wary faces and ducked away at the sight of a stranger.
When the sun went down, Qiao Sanhuai, full of worry, carried the unsold vegetables home on his shoulder pole. Qiao Dasao washed the unsold vegetables and went into the kitchen to cook.
Ye Erniang sat beside the well, thinking over the recent rumors about Abbot Xuanci of Shaolin Temple. Her face went green and white by turns, and her nails dug into her palms.
A fine sanctimonious eminent monk of Shaolin he was. Besides herself, there were actually other women!
Her poor child... perhaps this man had forgotten the boy long ago...
While her heart was full of grief, Qiao Sanhuai looked at this sister who had come seeking her kin and let out a helpless sigh.
As early as last month, his sworn brother Qin Zheng had sent word that a woman suffering from a fatal illness, her face ruined as well, would come to Shaolin Temple seeking her kin, and asked him to take the woman in for a year.
A few days ago the woman had finally arrived, and he had settled her in the house.
Sure enough, just as Qin Zheng had said, every time her illness struck she was in such agony she wished she were dead. Those cries of pain were so chilling that he and his wife had nightmares for days.
Seeing that his wife had finished cooking, he called, "Sister, time to eat."
Ye Erniang came back to herself, nodded, and followed Qiao Sanhuai into the house.
At the table, Qiao Sanhuai said, "These past few days, the masters of Shaolin Temple have all been extremely wary. It seems the manure thief has come. Sister, don't go out at night, lest you run into that manure thief."
Ye Erniang was utterly at a loss. "A manure thief?"
Qiao Sanhuai explained, "Last month my second brother had someone bring me a message. He said a manure thief had shown up nearby, one who specialized in stealing fertilizer for the fields, and told me to be on my guard."
Ye Erniang had been born a farm girl, and naturally knew that night soil was a fine thing for common folk. She nodded. "I understand. If I hear a stir at night, I'll call you."
Qiao Sanhuai gave a simple, honest smile, then sighed again. "Ah, what a pity Feng'er isn't here. Otherwise he would have slapped this damned thief dead long ago."
Qiao Dasao grumbled, "Feng'er is busy handling the Beggar Gang's great affairs. Where would he find the time to come back and catch a thief for you? But that child, really—he's been away from home so long this time, and he hasn't even thought to have someone bring word back."
Ye Erniang's pupils shrank, and her heart gave a sudden jolt.
Feng'er, the Beggar Gang, and the surname Qiao?
This couple's son was Qiao Feng, chief of the Beggar Gang!
Why had Qin Zheng settled her in Qiao Feng's home? Could Qiao Feng be her own child?
But his age didn't match her son's either, unless Qiao Feng... had been born looking old?
Sunk deep in doubt, Ye Erniang finished the meal in a daze, went back to her room, and sat there blankly.
She did not know how long had passed when a sudden sound of air being split rang out. Ye Erniang snapped alert and cried, "Who's outside!"
The words had barely fallen when Qiao Sanhuai was already out the door with a sickle. Seeing a black-clad man with his face covered standing in the courtyard, he shouted in fury, "Manure thief—take my blade!"
Xiao Yuanshan was struck dumb. "Ah??"
This masked man was none other than Xiao Yuanshan, who had rushed back from Wuxi without a pause.
Because Qiao Feng's identity was unclear, he had hurried back in great anxiety to the foot of Shaolin Temple, meaning to find Qiao Sanhuai and get a clear answer as to whether Qiao Feng was his son.
He had never expected that the moment he arrived, Qiao Sanhuai would pin the name of manure thief on him, leaving him thoroughly vexed.
"This old man is no manure thief. I... blade qi?!"
Xiao Yuanshan had just been about to explain when he suddenly saw Qiao Sanhuai swing the sickle in his hand. It gave a sharp chi as it split the air. A chill shot through him, and he hastily twisted aside to dodge.
After that one cut, Qiao Sanhuai bent at the waist and swung the sickle as if mowing grass. A streak of blade qi swept toward his knees.
"Mow grass! Split firewood! Quick—transplant the seedlings!"
The sickle in Qiao Sanhuai's hand danced in a wild flurry. Between vertical chops and horizontal cuts, several sharp streaks of blade qi lashed out.
Xiao Yuanshan dodged the blade qi with his scalp prickling. After three slits were cut in his clothes, he tapped the ground with both feet and flew up onto the top of the wall.
He gave Qiao Sanhuai a long, deep look and said in a grave tone, "I never thought you were a master of the martial world. All these years, and I never saw it. You hid it deep!"
The words had barely fallen when Ye Erniang shoved the door open and charged out. Eyes full of fury, she stared at Xiao Yuanshan. "Give my child back to me!
"I remember your voice. It was you who stole my child!"
At that moment Qiao Dasao reached Ye Erniang's side like a flash of lightning and seized her as she rushed forward. "Danger! Don't go over there!"
Xiao Yuanshan glanced at Qiao Dasao, who possessed peerless lightness skill, and felt that things were growing stranger still. He said in a low voice, "I admit defeat today. We shall meet again!" With that he leapt beyond the wall and ran toward the wooded hills not far away.
Chapter 27