Chapter 013 Bodhisattva Man (I)
"The clay Buddha temple on Qingyuan Mountain has been abandoned for more than ten years. Who knows how a corpse was sealed inside the Buddha..."
In the meeting room of Guangning Prefecture, Yang Fupan sat in a red robe, with deep marks of rain on his shoulders. He wiped the fuzz off the peach with a sweat towel, and suddenly lost his appetite when he thought of the corpse he had seen in the morgue before dawn. He put the peach down and picked up the tea bowl instead: "I heard that the person who smashed the back of the Bodhisattva and found the body of the scholar was the scholar's own sister."
"Sister?"
Judge Tao, who was leaning on a folding chair and occasionally beating his rheumatic legs under his official robes, could not help but sit up straighter after hearing this. "In a remote temple, how could a weak woman like her know that her brother was sealed in that clay Buddha statue?"
Even the beggar grandfather and grandson living in the temple didn’t know, how could she find the place and know that the body was inside?
"She said it was her brother who came to her in her dream."
A magistrate added respectfully.
"Dream?" Judge Tao was shocked and put the tea bowl aside. "What kind of excuse is that? It's unreasonable!"
"Where is that woman now?"
Yang Fupan's hand was pricked by the peach hairs on the sweat towel and he frowned uncomfortably.
"I am in the prison of the Silu Division. Earlier, the beggar grandfather and grandson came to report to the police and alarmed Lord Yin Zheng. Lord Yin Zheng meant that what she said was not enough to explain why she appeared in the clay Buddha temple. Therefore, Lord Yin Zheng asked Tian Qizhong to bring her to the Silu Division for interrogation."
The judge continued.
"In this case, don't we have to use a beating first?" Upon hearing this, Judge Tao looked at Judge Yang and stroked his white beard, "This case is very strange..."
Tian Qizhong, who was mentioned in the meeting room, was another prosecutor in Guangning Prefecture. It was raining heavily at the moment, and he was trying a case in the Silu Prison.
"Miss Ni, do you still insist on your story about the dream?"
Tian Qizhong had an expressionless face as he sat behind his desk, looking at the young girl lying on the stool.
Mei Ziqing's dress was soaked with blood, her temples were covered in sweat, a few strands of light hair stuck to her cheeks, her face was as pale as paper, and her whole body was shaking unconsciously.
"yes."
Ni Su leaned on the stool with one hand, breathing softly.
"The Master does not speak of strange things, supernatural powers, or gods."
Tian Qizhong frowned and shouted, "You little girl, why don't you confess quickly?"
With just a glance from him, the jailer beside him raised his water and fire stick and hit her hard, forcing Ni Su to scream in an almost hoarse voice. She trembled even more violently. In the dim yellow light, half of Ni Su's face was resting on the bench. Under her sweaty messy hair, the back of her white neck looked slender and fragile.
The pain of being beaten with a stick will never become numb, but will only become more painful with each blow, making the skin and flesh tremble with pain, and one can even clearly feel the stickiness of blood soaking through clothes.
"Since you don't believe in ghosts and gods, why do you carry a yellow talisman to ward off evil?"
Her lips trembled as she tried to make a sound.
Tian Qizhong's expression froze, and he couldn't help but touch his waist. Under his green official uniform, there was indeed a yellow talisman with a folded corner tied.
That was something his old mother had specially asked for him to carry with him. Even though he didn't believe in it, he didn't want to let his mother down.
But the yellow talisman was hidden under the official uniform, how did this woman know it?
"I said, I dreamed of that clay Buddha temple, and I also dreamed of smashing the Buddha's back," Ni Su breathed hard, speaking word by word, "I even dreamed of you, sir. It was raining and the road was slippery, and your yellow talisman fell on the mountain path, and then the servant beside you helped you pick it up..."
The more she spoke, the more strange Tian Qizhong's expression became.
"Oh, Master Tian, how could she know..."
A jailer standing next to Tian Qizhong covered his mouth in shock.
The west city gate had just opened this morning, and the beggar grandfather and grandson ran to Guangning Prefecture to report to the authorities. Tian Qizhong then led his men to the clay Buddha temple on Qingyuan Mountain.
There is a rotting corpse in the temple, and this young woman kneeling beside the corpse.
Tian Qizhong first ordered someone to escort her away, while he and several jailers followed slowly behind. He clearly remembered that when the yellow talisman fell off his body, the woman had already been escorted to the bottom of the mountain path, so it was impossible for her to see anything fall from his body.
But in this way,
This matter is even more strange.
Could it be that... there really is such a thing as dreams? Tian Qizhong touched the edges of the yellow talisman under his robe, feeling doubtful and uncertain.
"My Lord, she has fainted."
The jailer standing next to the spring stool suddenly spoke, interrupting Tian Qizhong's thoughts.
Tian Qizhong looked up and saw that she was indeed unconscious. However, since she responded to the interrogation of Guangning Mansion with absurd remarks, according to the rules, she should be given a beating first to teach her a lesson so that she would not dare to disrespect Guangning Mansion.
But as a weak woman, she not only survived the beating, but also did not change her words.
"Find a doctor."
Tian Qizhong was halfway through his words when he remembered that the girl was a woman, so he pointed at the jailer nearby and said, "Ask your wife to help apply the medicine to her."
"yes."
The servant nodded quickly.
Ni Su was drowsy, occasionally hearing some deliberately suppressed voices, and she also felt someone unbuttoning her dress, peeling off the clothes that were stuck to her skin bit by bit. The pain was so severe that she wanted to scream but her head was dizzy and she couldn't open her eyelids.
The scent of medicine was the most soothing smell to her. She subconsciously tried to identify which medicines were there. Her thoughts gradually became confused again. She didn't know how much time had passed before she managed to half open her eyes.
There was no sound of human voice in the dark prison.
But there was one man who stood there cleanly, because the prison blocked out the light of the sky and the lights in the prison were of no use to him, and his eyes were dim and lifeless.
Perhaps because he heard her breathing sound when she was not asleep, Xu Hexue looked towards her keenly. He couldn't see her, but he could hear her sobbing softly.
He groped his way slowly to her bed and squatted down.
"Xu Ziling."
Ni Su's eyes were moist and she murmured, "It hurts so much."
Her voice was dry and hoarse.
Xu Hexue was silent for a moment, then said, "I could have..."
"We agreed,"
Ni Su interrupted him, her half-open eyes unable to see his face clearly, "You have helped me find my brother, but I haven't had time to help you yet."
"Even if the beggar grandson and grandson weren't there, I would still report it to the police. But then, how can I explain why I knew my brother was in the Clay Buddha Temple? They all found out that I just arrived in Yunjing yesterday. What means and connections can I have to help me find out that a person who has been missing for several months is in that abandoned temple on Qingyuan Mountain?"
She shook her head slowly. "If none of your explanations make sense, then so be it. But if you use your magic to help me escape this beating, then by then, either you will be discovered or I will be treated as a monster."
"Anyway, since they know that I just came to Yunjing yesterday, then the murderer who killed my brother could not be me. I am an orphan from Que County, I have no power or influence, and I don't have the time or motive to murder my brother. No matter what, they can't close the case with me."
In the Clay Buddha Temple, beside her brother's decaying body, Ni Su had already thought these things through.
The yellow talisman on Tian Qizhong's body was actually what she had in mind. The one who saw the yellow talisman was not her, but Xu Hexue. She mentioned Tian Qizhong's yellow talisman only to confirm her words that "the wronged person sent a dream."
Ni Su was in so much pain that she was blurry-minded. She could not even see the young man in front of her. Tears weighed down her eyelashes and she soon fell asleep again.
The cell was quiet and Xu Hexue never heard her voice again.
The rain was drizzling like silk. Outside the main gate of the Guangning Prefecture's Silusi faced a long alley. Across the alley was a busy street. A poor scholar with a mustache set up a stall under the wall, but he didn't get any work for writing documents this morning.
He was bored and was about to sigh when he felt a breeze blowing on his face. He raised his eyelids slightly and saw that there was a person in front of the stall.
The man was wearing a fur-covered winter coat. The old scholar was very surprised, but he heard a sharp and calm voice from under the fur: "Please write a handwritten letter for me."
"ah?"
The old scholar saw the man's pale fingers put a piece of silver on his stall, and he reacted and said hurriedly, "Okay, okay, sir, just tell me what you want to write."
The old scholar hurriedly ground the ink and wrote, but the more he wrote, the more frightened he became. He couldn't help but ask, "Sir, where are you going to send this handwritten letter to?"
Since the young man didn't answer, he didn't dare to ask again. He blew the ink dry and handed it over.
The man had walked a long way away, but the old scholar could not help looking around. He saw the young man squatting by the roadside and seemed to say a few words to a child. The child then took the letter from his hand and ran away happily.
A few streets away from the Guangning Prefecture's Silusi, inside the Diqian Gate on the left is the Youyesi.
In the middle of the night, Han Qingzheng, the Chief of the Inspection Office, was listening to reports from his close officials.
"Yesterday, the government returned Mr. Zhang's original residence to him. After Mr. Zhang returned home, he personally packed up the miscellaneous items in the house and burned them in the yard."
"Miscellaneous items?"
Han Qing was a eunuch, about thirty years old, with a serious look and a clear voice without any shrill tone.
"Replying to the envoy, twenty years ago, when the traitor Xu Hexue passed the imperial examination, he presented a painting he had painted himself, "Fishing Alone in the Snow on the River," to Mr. Zhang. At the time, Mr. Zhang praised the painting highly and wrote a poem on it, which became popular for a while."
The close attendant official answered respectfully.
"You mean, Mr. Zhang burned the picture?"
Han Qing held the tea bowl, about to drink it.
"Yes, I burned it myself."
After the personal attendant finished speaking, he saw that the envoy was still silent and didn't know what he was thinking, so he cautiously said: "Emissary, now you can reply to the emperor. Zhang Xianggong has long lost his friendship with that traitor."
The raindrops rustled outside the eaves, and Han Qing held the tea bowl in his hand for a long time.
"Your Excellency."
A personal officer came in hurriedly, bowed and said, "There's a child outside our main gate, saying someone asked him to give you this handwritten letter."
Han Qing took a glance and asked the person beside him to get it.
Han Qing put down the tea bowl, unfolded the letter and took a look. His brows knitted slightly, his eyes wandered back and forth on the paper, and then he raised his head: "Where is the child?"
The official immediately went out and brought the child back. Han Qing's companions went up to him and asked him several times, but they only learned from the child that it was a letter that a young man asked him to deliver.
"Did anyone from Guangning Prefecture report to the authorities today? Was the deceased a scholar from Que County? Was the body found on Qingyuan Mountain outside the west city gate?" Han Qing asked several close officials.
"It seems to be the case."
There was a close official who had just taken up his post and lived closer to Guangning Prefecture. Before he came, he heard from his family that "the body of the scholar was sealed in that clay Buddha statue."
A scholar died, and he was the one who came to Yunjing to take part in the winter examination.
Han Qing lowered his eyes. The person who wrote this handwritten letter was certain that he would take care of matters related to the winter exam, but who was this person?
Han Qing's eyes stopped at the words "Ni Su" on the paper, "Is the deceased's sister Ni Su currently in the Records Department of Guangning Prefecture?"
"I heard that the woman was full of absurd things. She should be punished by being beaten to death in the Records Department."
The close follower answered.
Han Qing rubbed the handwritten letter and said sternly, "You guys take my seal and go to the Records Department to bring the person to my Night Department."
Several personal officers filed out and ran out in the drizzle.
None of them saw the tall figure standing under the eaves.
If Xu Hexue was too far away from Ni Su, he would have to endure even greater pain. All the lamps that Ni Su had lit for him yesterday were used up on this journey.
His soul became fainter and fainter.
Droplets of dust were submerged in the rain and mist. Xu Hexue held the pillar with one hand. The wounds on his body were tearing again. He was in so much pain that he took two steps forward, but suddenly stopped. Turning back, he saw the eunuch standing in a trance in the hall.
He didn't remember what this person looked like.
Because when he left Yunjing, this person was only eleven or twelve years old.
Xu Hexue turned around, and his thin figure blended into the rain and fog.
But in my mind, there are always some voices circling:
"Mr. Zhang personally collected the debris and burned it in the yard."
"I burned it myself."
"Mr. Zhang has long lost all affection for that traitor."
Xu Hexue could not help but look up. In the hazy blue-grey sky, the eaves and ridges were lifelike, just like the time when he was riding a horse in the spring breeze. He was attentively listening to his teacher's teachings in his teacher's house.
"Zi Ling, I hope you can fly high and never lose your ambition."
The teacher’s words full of expectations are still ringing in my ears.
But in the end,
At the age of fourteen, he went against his teacher's earnest expectations.
