Chapter 5: Fulfilling the Prophecy
At 3:15 pm on the 28th day of the first lunar month, it started snowing again.
The Slaughterhouse Alley outside the Suzaku Gate was already deserted, and all shops had closed their doors early. Not a single light could be seen, and the only sound one could hear was the grunting .
This hellhole was the largest live pig market in Bianliang. Hundreds of pigs were slaughtered here every day, cut up and sold to thousands of restaurants, wine shops, and even the imperial palace. In summer, this was the most smelly and foul place in Bianliang, and it was also the most violent place. It was said that the cracks in the stone slabs on the street were soaked red with pig blood. Of course, in such a heavy winter when the snow covered up all the ugliness, these were no longer a problem.
Dozens of shops along the street have their own large yards for storing pigs. The pigs are packed into huge wooden cages and cannot move at all. This is of course to prevent them from freezing to death in the cold weather. During the national mourning period, business is half of that in previous years. Now these pigs cannot be sold. If another batch freezes to death, it will be a big loss.
In the backyard of the Fuyong, the pigs let out a cry of fear.
Liang Defa, a drunk man, came out to relieve himself. He didn't walk too far in the cold weather, and relieved himself next to the pig cage. Anyway, the place was already stinky enough because of the pig manure, so he didn't mind a little more human urine.
He held onto the cage, watching the steam rising from the urine on the snow. He felt as if he were flying in the clouds, and couldn't help feeling a little proud.
With drunken eyes, he saw something hanging in the air not far away from the heat, accompanied by waves of restlessness from the pigs.
Liang Yongfa rubbed his eyes. Although there was no moonlight, he could see a cloud through the light leaking from the half-open door of the hut behind him. It was just two meters in front of him, floating more than ten meters high. If he jumped up with his pants lifted, he might be able to touch it. The floating cloud was like a Fanyang flat hat with a bulge on it, and the diffuse cloud seemed to be overflowing from the top.
He sobered up immediately. He had been listening to rumors about the hat demon recently. In fact, he had just been arguing about it while drinking with others in the room. Bald Wang Ah Si also swore that the hat demon would appear again and he would win back the money he lost in the treasure game.
Liang Yongfa opened his mouth wide. There seemed to be a person sitting in the mist. It was not clear, but there were two flashing green lights, like a pair of evil eyes.
A shriveled hand stretched out from the clouds. Liang Yongfa was terrified when he looked at it carefully, because there was no flesh on this hand, only the white bones of the forearm and five fingers.
The hand pointed to the pig cage in front. Liang Defa forgot that he had not finished peeing, and stepped back step by step, all the way back to the house. Several guys on duty saw him retreating without pulling up his pants, and they all slapped the table and laughed.
Wang Ah Si grabbed a chicken bone and threw it over: "You damned bastard, aren't you afraid that the wind will blow away the birds? You look like you've seen a ghost, have you really seen a hat demon? Hahahaha..."
When Liang Defa turned his head, everyone saw his pale face.
“Then…then…”
"What then?"
"Hat...hat..."
Several of the waiters knew that the situation was not good, so they stopped laughing and went to the door, but they did not dare to be the first to go out. They made way for Wang Ah Si to come. After all, Ah Si was a butcher with a knife in his hand, and he had some blood in his veins. He grabbed the butcher knife from the wall, pushed away the crowd, and jumped out first.
In front of him, the fog was still gathering and the white bone right hand stretched out from the flowing clouds was gradually retracting. The two faint green lights slowly turned and looked at Wang Ah Si.
"Don't run away, monster." Wang Asi, relying on his drunken courage, threw the butcher knife with all his might. The knife actually went through the clouds. In the distance, a sound of "clang!" a steel knife falling to the ground was heard.
"I have killed countless people and have no taboos. Come down." Ah Si swung his fist and was about to fight with the hat monster.
"Don't be crazy..." Two people came over and hugged Ah Si, fearing that he would do something reckless. The others knelt down and worshiped the hat demon in front of them.
"Please forgive us, Immortal Lord. We beg for mercy. It was Ah Si who got drunk and blasphemed the gods because he lost a bet. It has nothing to do with us. If you want to arrest his soul, just arrest his. We will take care of his funeral."
Ah Si was held tightly by the crowd and regained some consciousness. He grabbed the bucket beside him and took two big gulps of cold water. Only then did he wake up and inevitably felt a little scared.
Everyone kowtowed like crazy, and the hat monster actually retreated gradually. When it gradually disappeared into the darkness, an old cough was heard in the air.
At dawn, a total of 131 pigs died in the seven major shops in Slaughter Pig Lane, all in cages. The Fuyong shop was the hardest hit, with 72 pigs in six of the 16 dead, while the pigs in the other wooden cages in the yard were fine. The situation in other shops was similar, with some dead in one cage and some in several.
When Bao Zheng and Xu Chong rushed to the Slaughtering Pig Lane in the south city, the officers from Kaifeng Prefecture had just arrived. They guarded both sides of the street to let Bao Zheng's sedan chair enter.
In fact, the bosses did not choose to report to the authorities at first. Their first plan was to drag the dead pigs to the Bian River and quickly take a boat to sell them elsewhere. This kind of thing had happened many times before. Fortunately, the news of the hat demon spread very quickly in Bianjing, and the government immediately intervened. Lao Bao also arrived in time, snatched a few dead pigs and sent them back to the coroner for autopsy. The remaining more than a hundred pigs were dragged out of the city and burned and buried, and they were never allowed to be sold again.
Bao Zheng questioned the witnesses last night. In addition to the group of waiters from Fuyonghao who witnessed the incident together at the dinner party, Ah Chou, a waiter from Hua Sanniang Meat Shop opposite, also saw the hat monster hovering over his pig house. However, the waiter was too scared to shout at the time. He watched a strange cloud stay on a cage for a moment and then fly out of the courtyard wall to Fuyonghao. Ah Chou squatted behind the window and shivered. After a while, he heard a commotion over there. First, someone cursed loudly, and then something was thrown over and hit the wall with a loud noise. When he went out to see in the morning, he found it was a butcher knife.
Lao Bao quickly asked someone to find the knife. Xu Chong had already collected the butcher knife and took it out immediately.
The knife was thick and heavy, and there was nothing wrong with it. Xu Chong called Wang A Si, who had thrown the knife, and asked him what he had seen. Wang A Si was a drunkard who remembered things clearly and could explain them clearly. He remembered that the knife flew through the demon fog at a height slightly higher than the two green lights. If the two green lights were the eyes of the demon, he thought it should have injured the scalp. He did hear a "puff!" at the time. With his experience in slaughtering pigs, it should not have hit the bones, but at least it had scraped the skin. However, his words were not confirmed. The other guys on the Fuyong did not hear the "puff!" sound, but only heard the sound of the old man coughing afterwards.
There was no blood on the knife. If the hat demon that appeared this time was the same as the one on Yulin Street, then there should be a skeleton sitting in the cloud. Lao Bao looked carefully and found some white debris on the knife. It didn't look like broken ice or snow. He exhaled hot air and the debris didn't melt. It was definitely not ice or snow. He sniffed it closely. There was no smell. It looked like translucent white mucus. He didn't know what it was.
"Xu Chong, be careful to put away the knife."
"yes!"
Xu Chong put the knife into a box.
Wang Ah Si, who was standing next to him, wanted to get his knife back: "Sir, this is the weapon I use to make a living."
Xu Chong had already written a receipt and slapped it on Lao Si's chest: "Listen, from today on, you are not allowed to leave the capital. You are here whenever you are called."
Wang Asi stood there in a daze, watching Lao Bao and his group leave with several dead pigs.
