Huang Donglai and the others did not quite follow what Zhu Jiaduan had said.
Because the three of them still had no idea that Zheng Mukai was dead.
Zheng Mukai's body had indeed been found in the alley behind this inn, but it had happened in the middle of the night. The people handling the case could hardly stand in the alley shouting, 'There's a dead man here!' to announce it to the world.
Moreover, the authorities had never intended to investigate the matter deeply. If they had wanted to, they would long ago have come to this inn and knocked on every guest's door to question them at length.
At present, the ordinary townsfolk who knew that Zheng Mukai and two escort hands of the Guangxing Escort Agency had been killed were mostly gathered on the west side of the city. The two bodies had been found inside an inn room there, and Zheng Mukai and his companions had been staying at that inn, so at the very least the innkeeper and waiters there would have to be questioned.
'Senior Zhu,' Huang Donglai said, afraid that Lei Buji would say something reckless and suffer for it. He hurried to answer before Buji could speak. 'What do you mean? We do not quite understand.'
'Do not understand?' Zhu Jiaduan forced the words out from between his teeth. 'Hmph... Fine. If you want to play dumb, I will spell it out.' He paused for half a second, then went on. 'I ask you: my disciple, the chief escort of my Guangxing Escort Agency, Zheng Mukai, and our two escort hands—did you kill them?'
'Ah?' The three men at the table reacted almost in the same second with the same response.
After a breath, Huang Donglai was the first to speak. His face was full of doubt. 'Brother Zheng... he is dead?'
Seeing their reaction, Zhu Jiaduan was slightly taken aback, but then he thought: Could these three have guessed that I would come and rehearsed their lines to put on a show for me?
At that thought, anger rose in his heart again, and he shouted sternly, 'Bah! What Brother Zheng? Who is your brother? You think I do not know? The day before yesterday, you three were openly mocking my disciple in a restaurant in the city. He caught you in the act, and you had no choice but to admit fault and accept punishment. I think... that is why you bore a grudge and killed him that very night!'
At those words, the three finally understood roughly what this was about.
'Damn it!' Sun Yixie could not hold back anymore. Playing the fool depended on the situation; when one needed to show one's true colors, one showed them. 'If you had not come and told us, we would not have known that Zheng guy was dead. Goddamn it... do not smear us! You say we killed him—do you have any proof?'
He really had not killed anyone, so his attitude was rather firm.
Hearing that, Zhu Jiaduan thought, 'Aha, this brat is getting angry out of shame after being exposed.'
So he flung the logical chain and deductions he had pieced together from the available information at Sun Yixie, Huang Donglai, and Lei Buji in one breath. Afterward, he added with confidence, 'Well? What else do you have to say?'
If he had not asked that, it would have been fine.
Since he had asked, what greeted him was surely the following...
'Are you a fucking idiot?' Huang Donglai was almost angry enough to laugh. He dropped all politeness and spoke bluntly. 'Do you not think your deductions are full of suspicious points and holes?'
'What?' Zhu Jiaduan did not understand the term, so for a moment he did not realize he had been insulted. Instead, he asked, 'Holes? Where are the holes? Explain them to me.'
Huang Donglai gave a dry laugh. 'Heh... first, as the young master of the Huang Clan, if I really wanted to kill Zheng Mukai, would I need to fight him? Would poison not be enough?' He paused. 'I am not boasting, but if I wanted to poison him properly, unless you could invite my father, no one would be able to determine that he was poisoned.'
That first point left Zhu Jiaduan stumped.
Before he could respond, Huang Donglai continued, 'Second, the body was discovered at the end of the Hai hour, but whether it was the government's coroner or the one you invited yourself, the time of death they determined was the beginning of the Hai hour. You just said the waiter at the inn on the west side of the city testified that Zheng Mukai left the inn alone before the end of the You hour that night. So during that entire stretch of more than two hours, where did he go? Who did he meet? What did he do? Did you investigate? Where were the three of us during that time? Did you ask us?'
Zhu Jiaduan truly had not thought that finely, so now he asked, 'Then I ask you: what were you doing at that time?'
'Bathing.'
'Taking a shit.'
'Sleeping.'
Those were the answers of Sun Yixie, Huang Donglai, and Lei Buji respectively.
They were all telling the truth. They had just arrived in Xuzhou that day, and for once they could stay at a large inn in the city rather than a roadside post station. Sun Yixie wanted a good long soak; Huang Donglai had eaten too much crab during the day—everyone knows what that does to a bad stomach; Lei Buji had drunk himself under the table at dinner and had not woken up since. He had been carried back to the inn on Sun Yixie's and Huang Donglai's shoulders.
'Hmph!' After hearing their answers, Zhu Jiaduan gave another cold snort. 'Does that not mean no one can vouch for you?'
'Never mind us for now,' Huang Donglai said. 'Where your disciple went during that time is the key to the whole case. In my opinion, he must have done something during that two-hour stretch that brought death to himself and his two brothers.'
'Now the dead cannot testify... Naturally you would say that to clear yourselves,' Zhu Jiaduan said, still refusing to let it go. 'Then how do you explain that all three were killed by the Five Thunders Piercing Heart Fist? And... why was my disciple's body found precisely in the back alley of your inn?'
'May I say something...' Lei Buji suddenly spoke up. 'Since Senior Zhu has already guessed who my father is, I will not hide it anymore. That is right—my father is the Eight Wastes Fist Sage. But to be honest... I only know of the Five Thunders Piercing Heart Fist; I have never learned it. A ruthless skill like that, one that must kill as soon as it is used—my father does not teach me that kind of thing.'
Before his words ended, among Zhu Jiaduan's disciples behind him, some tactless idiot spoke in a not very loud but audible, sarcastic tone. 'Heh... now that death is near, even if you know it, you would lie and say you do not.'
Bang—
Lei Buji lost his temper immediately. He slapped the table and shot up, roaring at the man, 'What did you say?'
As he spoke, he lunged forward to grab the man by the collar.
That man was not to be outdone; his hand was already pressed on his saber, ready to draw at any moment.
The distance between the two was not great, and it looked as if they were about to come to blows. Fortunately, Sun Yixie stepped in time to stop Lei Buji. 'Calm down! Do not be impulsive!'
While saying 'calm down,' Brother Sun used the posture of stopping him as cover and, in one smooth motion, unleashed a 'Flying Dragon Swings Its Tail,' delivering a groin kick to the Guangxing Escort Agency disciple who had spoken and dropping him flat.
After the kick, he turned to the escort agency disciples and said, 'Everybody, quit running your mouths! It is all a misunderstanding! Everyone take a step back!'
The kicked fellow had let his guard down for a moment. He had been glaring at Lei Buji, eyes locked on him, and had not regarded Sun Yixie, who had come to 'break up the fight,' as a threat. Who knew this bastard was only pretending to mediate and actually exploited the opening with a low blow?
As a result, after Sun Yixie's meddling, the escort agency's men became even more unwilling to stand down, and the whole lot prepared to draw their sabers.
'Stop, all of you!' Seeing his disciples in an uproar, Zhu Jiaduan shouted them down on the spot. 'Are you street thugs brawling? What sort of conduct is this? All of you, fall back!'
He was, after all, the head of a faction, and he still had some dignity. Zhu Jiaduan's thunderous rebuke successfully prevented these escort guards of the Guangxing Escort Agency from being dragged by Sun Yixie into a fish-market-style brawl.
After the noise died down, Zhu Jiaduan composed himself and said again to the three before him, 'I do not care now what excuses you find or how many doubts you can raise... In short, for now, regarding my disciple's death... you three are the most suspect, and you cannot prove you had nothing to do with it. Especially you, Lei Buji—whether you know the Five Thunders Piercing Heart Fist is known only to you. We cannot exactly go ask your father at the moment. And stepping back further... you sneaking out alone during the Xu hour while hiding it from Sun Yixie and Huang Donglai, and coming into conflict with my disciple—that is not an impossibility either...'
'Then what do you want?' Lei Buji no longer stood on courtesy with him and asked directly.
'You come back with us first,' Zhu Jiaduan replied. 'Until the matter is cleared up, I will not make things hard for you, but you cannot leave.'
'What?' Lei Buji said. 'You want me to go with you without any evidence? On what grounds?'
That put Zhu Jiaduan in a bad mood. After all, he was a respected figure in the jianghu, and he felt he now had reason on his side and had already made a concession. If Lei Buji still refused, was that not a guilty conscience?
This kind of thinking—what modern people would see as robber logic and a violation of the spirit of law—was the norm in the jianghu of that era.
As long as the side with strength and power did not kill with reckless disregard for life, it was already considered fair, and as a concession. The weak had no right to talk about human rights. Put bluntly, even if you were killed, or killed wrongly, the party that killed you would at most drink three cups of wine as penalty... And even that was rare, because most people would not even be punished with those three cups; the other side simply would not admit fault or mention the matter again.
The fact that Zhu Jiaduan could say 'investigate the matter further' today was partly because he himself was not wholly bad, and partly because he was showing respect for the Eight Wastes Fist Sage.
Though Zhu Jiaduan believed revenge was only natural and proper, considering that Lei Buji's father was the sort of man who could wipe out his entire Guangxing Escort Agency single-handedly, he naturally had to be cautious and at least ensure he did not kill the wrong person.
If the investigation finally proved that Zheng Mukai and the others really were killed by Lei Buji, then even if Lei Buwei came, he would have nothing to say. By the rules of the orthodox path—unprovoked vengeful killing among the orthodox should be paid for with a life.
If the Eight Wastes Fist Sage sought revenge because his son had committed murder and paid for it with his life, the Guangxing Escort Agency could openly ask all other peers of the martial world to uphold justice... Of course, whether they would come, or would demand certain conditions before coming, was another matter.
'Preposterous!' Seeing his 'forbearance' rejected, Zhu Jiaduan felt his dignity could not bear it. 'I have yielded again and again, and promised to handle this impartially. If your conscience is clear, what is there to fear? I think... you killed them! Refusing to come with me means you want to run, does it not?'
'All right! Everyone calm down! Listen to a fair word from me!' At that moment, Sun Yixie shouted loudly, then, using 'a fair word' as an introduction, put forward a 'compromise' suggestion.
..........
That afternoon, after Lei Buji had been settled into the jail by the yamen gate, Sun Yixie and Huang Donglai returned to the inn.
The suggestion Sun Yixie had made earlier was this—hand Lei Buji over as the suspect in the murder case to be guarded by the yamen until they found the real killer.
The guarantors for this arrangement were Sun Yixie and Huang Donglai, along with the Da Ming court, which had been inexplicably 'represented' by the two of them; his exact words were, 'If Lei Buji runs, Agency Head Zhu, you can come find us, the guarantors.'
This idea of his both ensured Lei Buji would not fall into the hands of the Guangxing Escort Agency's people and formally restricted his freedom, achieving both aims.
Since it was the arrangement of his 'big brother,' Lei Buji naturally agreed.
Zhu Jiaduan thought it over; it could work. If the man were truly held in his own hands, he would have to find people to guard him day and night and attend to his eating, drinking, and bodily needs; sending him to the yamen saved him trouble.
In fact, though, the difference between the two was quite big...
If Lei Buji had fallen into the hands of those Guangxing Escort Agency people, even without torture, he certainly would not get a warm welcome. They might feed him thin rice gruel every day and maybe even spit into his pickled vegetables—anything was possible.
But once in the yamen jail, it was much more comfortable.
As mentioned earlier, Sun Yixie and Huang Donglai now had 'carte blanche' with the authorities; whatever they wanted to do, people had to cooperate somewhat. Even the local officials of Xuzhou had to show them some respect. Arranging a VIP-within-VIP cell for him in the jail was naturally no problem.
In addition, they had Constable Head Dong Wan quickly mobilize the constables in the city to help them gather information...
As for jianghu affairs, the authorities generally did not interfere, but in special cases—when someone who could command you demanded that your men must get involved—you had no choice but to get involved.
Around evening, Dong Wan came to the east-city inn and told Sun Yixie and Huang Donglai in detail all the information gathered so far about the case.
Constables, after all, specialized in criminal investigation. In investigating cases, they were much better than those Guangxing Escort Agency people; the things they asked about differed in direction from those who only wanted 'revenge.' Their information was more abundant and deeper, and it was easier to reconstruct the full picture of the case.
To make a long story short, after collecting and analyzing that information, they found that one place was likely connected to Zheng Mukai's death and to his earlier duel with Ge Shi.
That place was the most famous brothel in Xuzhou—Qiliu Youran.
As the saying goes, strike while the iron is hot. That night, Sun Yixie and Huang Donglai bathed, changed clothes, and dressed themselves properly; both put on luxurious outfits fit for rich young masters, intending to visit that pleasure quarter... and investigate!
Chapter 72