Ex-Wife is a Big Villainess
Chapter 47 - 43: Dumping the Body

Chapter 47: Chapter 43: Dumping the Body

The capital truly flourished.

When she was in Anhe Village, Qu Hongling had heard Sister Ye speak of the land around the capital as a place where the human world abounded in fireworks; its prosperity was a spectacular sight to behold.

There were teahouses and taverns with never-ending music, tile-roofed brothels with continuous opera singing, shops and stalls full of rare treasures glittering to catch the eye, street performers juggling and showing off their skills in every corner, with crowds of onlookers packed like sardines...

Yet, Qu Hongling, who had long yearned for this place, didn’t feel the excitement she had imagined when she truly stepped into this bustling area.

The busy streets filled with carriages were no match for the narrow, old alleys of Anhe Village.

The dance sleeves fluttering and diverse performances of the high tile-roofed buildings were no match for the simple erhu playing of a few old men sitting under the eaves in the village.

The flower lake reflecting twinkling stars under the initiation of lantern-light was no match for the small stream in front of her house.

No match, no match, nothing compared...

It was all because the figure who used to accompany her was no longer by her side.

Her little Jiang was gone.

Dejected, Qu Hongling followed Mr. Shen around the City God Temple and then lost all interest, returning to the inn to rest.

Seeing this, Shen Shengyuan also felt uneasy and decided to fully commit himself to investigating the rabbit demon Xi’er.

Although the capital was under the emperor’s feet, a place where no demons or evil spirits could even touch, the Demon Clan was ultimately a powerful force, always secretly embedding spies and outposts in various locations.

Initially, Qu Hongling’s ability to kill the former Magistrate in Qingzhou and remain hidden in the city was largely due to the help provided by the spy of the Demon Clan.

The next morning, Shen Shengyuan returned to the inn.

"I’ve found out some things. Over half a month ago, Xi’er came to the capital and engaged in a transaction with the people from Xichu Pavilion, but ended up getting tricked by them," he said.

Shen Shengyuan paused for a moment, accepting the cup of spilled tea from Qu Hongling, and then continued, "While fleeing, Xi’er encountered the Liushan Division’s hidden agents and was ultimately killed. We can’t track her whereabouts for now."

Qu Hongling pondered for a moment and said indifferently, "Xi’er has our Sky Demon Sect’s ’Life-Death Mysterious Thunder Talisman’ on her; she wouldn’t die so easily. We can use that to track her."

Shen Shengyuan nodded, "I’ll find her as soon as possible."

——

Another day, another morning awakening from a dream.

Awakened from the fragmented dream laced with his late wife’s memories, it was still dim outside the window.

After washing up, Jiang Shouzhong spent a while in a daze, and then began to gather his thoughts, seriously considering the next direction for his investigation.

Although the murder case was solved, there was still no clue to the demon-heart gouging cases.

According to Li Nanshuang, if it were indeed a recently possessed demon that took Ge Dasheng’s heart, then it means the demon had to have appeared within roughly half an hour after Wen Zhaodi left.

Because once past half an hour, the vital blood contained within the dead man’s heart would completely dissipate.

For a demon, a heart at that point would be of little use.

Therefore, there were three guesses.

First, the demon happened upon Wufeng Temple by chance and saw Ge Dasheng, who had just died, and thus took his heart.

Second, the demon was hiding within Wufeng Temple and witnessed everything that happened.

Third, the demon had been following Wen Zhaodi the whole way.

Jiang Shouzhong preferred the last two possibilities since the first guess was too random.

If the demon didn’t commit another crime, it would be very hard to catch it.

As for the second guess.

The crime scene had already been inspected at the time, and no traces were found. It was also possible that the inspection was not careful enough and missed something, so another visit to the temple was necessary.

But if the third guess was correct, then a thorough investigation of the neighbors around the Zhang Family was needed.

After pondering for a while, Jiang Shouzhong noticed that it was already light outside. The morning sun rose from the east, fiery and brilliant like molten steel just poured from a blast furnace, with the glow of the dawn spreading like red waves.

Jiang Shouzhong stretched lazily, put on warm clothes, and prepared to go out for a bite to eat before investigating Wufeng Temple.

Unfortunately, he was interrupted by a shoehorn face.

Jiang Shouzhong squinted at Lu Renjia, who was holding roasted sweet potatoes, and smiled, "With such a rosy face, it seems like someone got to taste Qing Niang’s meat buns yesterday? Congratulations."

"Taste nothing!"

Lu Renjia handed the other person a steaming hot sweet potato and, sniffling with his red, frozen nose, he said, "I did go to Spring Rain Building yesterday, but didn’t see Qing Niang."

Jiang Shouzhong brushed off the char from the sweet potato, took a bite, and asked unclearly, "So what were you doing all day long?"

When Lu Renjia saw the newly bought apricot tea on the table and instinctively reached for it, Jiang Shouzhong glared at him, causing him to sheepishly withdraw his thieving hand and laugh awkwardly,

"I swept the snow in Qing Niang’s yard, wiped the tables, chairs, and pavilion railings, and then went back."

"Good, good, good."

Jiang Shouzhong gave a thumbs up, "Keep it up, that’s how you should lick boots."

Lu Renjia glared and retorted, "How can you call this boot-licking? Don’t you understand devotion? True love requires selfless dedication, and you’ll understand that when you’re my age."

"Right, right, right."

Jiang Shouzhong nodded in agreement.

Realizing that he wasn’t going to convince the other party, Lu Renjia snorted coldly and didn’t persist on the topic, instead asking, "Any leads on the case yet?"

"Here I thought Jia had forgotten we were on a case."

Jiang Shouzhong said sarcastically.

Jia, who was generous and knew a thing or two about selfless devotion, also knew he was in the wrong.

He pointed at the roasted sweet potato in Jiang Shouzhong’s hand and said with a smile, "Knowing that you’ve been getting up late these days, I brought you some breakfast to fill up on—a hot belly in the cold weather."

Jiang Shouzhong rolled his eyes, "Let’s first go to Wufeng Temple, and I’ll explain it to you slowly."

Halfway through their journey, they happened to come across the county constable Liao, who, leading a few government officials, was unhappily heading towards the county office.

"Liao."

Lu Renjia’s eyes lit up as he greeted him.

When Liao saw that it was Jiang Shouzhong and Lu Renjia, his gloomy face squeezed out a thin smile, "Are you two on your way to handle a case? Where’s Zhang?"

"Zhang is still at home."

Liao flashed a smile at the other government officials, greeted them, and then asked in a low voice,

"What’s wrong, Liao? Why the long faces? Did the Magistrate scold you? If you want, I can speak on your behalf; the Magistrate and I are tight."

Liao waved his hand dismissively and said with annoyance,

"A pea-brained kid came to report a crime, claiming he saw someone dumping a body in Cloud Lake in the middle of the night. Scared the hell out of us, a bunch of government officials and constables went looking for a corpse in Cloud Lake, and didn’t find a damn thing.

Oh yeah, that pea-brain said that the body-dumper looked like Zhao Wancang, that is, little Zhang’s neighbor..."

Zhao Wancang?

Jiang Shouzhong’s expression grew focused.

So far, he had already included Zhao Wancang on the list of people to investigate.

On the surface, Zhao Wancang had no connection with Ge Dasheng’s heart-stealing case. The only question was why Zhao Wancang, who was supposed to go to his father-in-law’s house to coax his wife to come home, instead returned home in the middle of the night.

Otherwise, Zheng Shanqi, the thief, would not have had the misfortune of being caught red-handed.

Upon hearing Liao suddenly mention it, Jiang Shouzhong asked out of curiosity, "Are you sure the person who reported it saw clearly?"

"Saw clearly my ass!"

Liao said angrily, "We went to question Zhao Wancang at his house yesterday, and at first, he did look very flustered, which was suspicious. When I heard his wife had gone back to her parent’s house, I was about to send someone to verify it.

To be honest, having worked on cases for so many years, when I saw Zhao Wancang’s flustered demeanor, I suspected he might have really killed his wife and dumped her body. We were just about to bring him in for questioning, but his wife suddenly returned from her parent’s house.

Damn it, we were so embarrassed at that moment, we wanted to hang the pea-brain who reported it and whip him.

But we were fools for believing that pea-brain in the first place, just wasted half a day..."

As he listened to Liao’s endless complaints, Jiang Shouzhong was deep in thought.

Zhao Wancang’s wife had gone back to her parents’ house because she heard from Wen Ba that someone was having an affair in Ms. Zhang’s mill shed, and the man looked like her husband.

Zhao Wancang went to convince his wife to return but came back empty-handed.

Yet now, just a few days later, his wife’s anger had subsided?

After Liao left, Jiang Shouzhong weighed his options and ultimately decided to focus the investigation on Zhao Wancang first.