Chapter 68

Chapter 68

After the coroner conducted the autopsy, the murder weapon was confirmed to be an ordinary chopping knife.

Wang's eldest son had a cruel habit of killing small animals.

He had killed many small creatures in the vicinity, so the animals in the area were on guard around him.

Because of this, many small animals would instinctively pay attention to his every move.

Once Yun Changxie identified the weapon, he asked Fu Wang and the others to help track it down.

After killing her, Wang's eldest son would definitely need to get rid of the knife.

At that time, Old Ou had already reported his granddaughter missing to the authorities.

Officials and villagers alike were searching for her.

Under such circumstances, he couldn’t go far to hide the knife.

If he suddenly left the village without joining the search for Maisui, he’d look mighty suspicious.

Therefore, Yun Changxie believed the murder weapon had to be somewhere close by.

At first, he thought the killer might’ve tossed the knife in the river—a good hiding spot—the current could bury it in silt.

But he soon ruled that out.

The village had a shallow creek where kids often fished.

During hot weather, young folks sometimes bathed there too.

Fuluo Village’s creek was too shallow, so if he threw the chopper into it, villagers would spot it easy enough.

In a village that small, folks knew every household’s belongings.

If someone found the knife and recognized it as belonging to the Wang family, it’d stick out like a sore thumb.

Especially since the knife went missing around the same time Maisui disappeared—that’d be way too suspicious.

So… he probably didn’t throw it into the river but buried it in a hidden spot instead.

After Maisui had been missing for some time, he could say he’d lost the knife, and no one would bat an eye.

But why bother hiding a missing chopping knife?

The main reason was that in Great Zhou, ordinary civilians were not allowed to possess weapons.

Items like chopping knives and kitchen knives—iron tools that could be used as weapons—had to be registered and numbered by blacksmiths.

For example, when Wang's eldest son bought this chopper, the blacksmith kept records of the sale, and the knife itself would bear an official serial number.

He couldn’t just toss it and get a new one.

Great Zhou enforced such weapon regulations not only to prevent rebellion but also to keep weapons out of civilians’ hands and cut down on killings.

Killing someone, especially an adult, isn’t easy without a weapon.

Even a strong adult man would struggle to kill a grown woman or a male without making significant noise. In Yun Changxie’s view, protecting the weak from being bullied required more than just weapon restrictions—the weak needed to toughen up through training too.

Some elderly, children, and the sick cannot change their vulnerable circumstances.

However, those who are physically healthy but simply lack strength can still engage in exercise.

The idea that women or effeminate men must be slim, fragile, and soft to be beautiful is, in fact, a lie perpetuated by some men.

They merely wish for those in their beds to be easy to control—people they can yell at or hit without fear of retaliation.

In reality, being tall, strong, and healthy is also a form of beauty.

It’s just that this kind of beauty often carries raw power.

When faced with unfair treatment, they might fight back hard, which is why the powerful don’t like them.

The weapon was found on the third morning after the body was discovered.

It was a wildcat that found the weapon, which Wang's eldest son had thrown into a stone cave in the mountains.

The cave was too small for a person to enter and was filled with poisonous snakes and bugs, hidden in a very remote location.

Only animals deeply familiar with the mountains would know of such a secluded spot.

With the weapon found, the rest was easy.

The weapon had a serial number—just tracing it back to the blacksmith who made the cleaver would reveal its buyer.

During these past few days, Wang's eldest son had been quite panicked. He truly hadn’t expected the authorities to find Mai Sui’s body so quickly.

Had he known the new county magistrate was so sharp, he would have moved the body elsewhere.

Unfortunately, due to his previous smooth sailing, he feared being discovered during the transfer and did not dare to act rashly.

In Great Zhou, murder demands retribution.

He had committed the heinous crime of raping and murdering a child, which would certainly result in the ultimate punishment.

He was not afraid of death, but he feared a life worse than death.

Thus, he had been very anxious these past few days, even his simple-minded wife noticed something was amiss.

On this day, he feigned illness, returning early from the fields with the intention of packing up and fleeing.

Their village was close to a large mountain, Xilin Mountain. Once he entered the mountains, it would be difficult for the authorities to catch him.

Once the commotion died down, he planned to run to another place, where he could start anew with a new identity.

When the eldest son of the Wang family returned to pack his things, he did not expect his wife to also be back.

Seeing him packing, she looked at him in terror and asked, "Where are you going?"

"None of your business."

"How can it not be my business? You're my husband; I have every right to ask where you're going."

"Just consider me dead."

"What do you mean? We were fine before, why the sudden change?"

At this, his wife paused, recalling the body of Mai Sui. She asked, almost disbelieving, "Are you leaving because of Mai Sui? Did, did you kill Mai Sui?"

It's said to be a case of rape and murder, Dear God!

She simply couldn't believe that this quiet man before her could commit such an act.

"Why aren't you speaking? Did you really kill her?"

Wang's eldest son grew irritated by her questioning. He glared at her menacingly and said, "This ain't your business. If you ask again, I'll have you join her."

Upon hearing this, the woman went white as a sheet, immediately covering her mouth with her hands, too terrified to utter another word.

By the time the constables arrived to arrest him, Wang's eldest son had already taken to the hills.

They had come to bring him in, never expecting he would make a run for it.

His fleeing at this critical moment only made him look guilty as sin in Mai Sui's case.

His decision to run wasn't due to foolishness or impatience.

He feared that if the authorities uncovered the truth, it would be too late to escape.

Now that he was in the vast, sprawling Xilin Mountains, with more rabbit trails than you can count...

The Qiu Ping County government had only eight constables in total.

Even if they rounded up every villager of Fuluo Village, they couldn't possibly search every inch of the entire mountain range.

And with it being summer, the mountains were crawling with poisonous snakes and insects.

The new magistrate wasn't about to risk more lives just to catch one criminal.

If he kept his wits about him, escaping would be easy.

But what he didn't know was that their magistrate solved cases not with constables or villagers, but with the help of Xilin Mountain's critters.

The authorities found the body so quickly thanks to these creatures.

It was Fu Shun, leading several wild mountain cats, who ran him to ground.

They surrounded and attacked him, leaving scratches on Wang's eldest son's face before he broke a leg while fleeing.

Seeing this, Fu Shun went to fetch Hunter Chen, and soon they dragged his sorry ass back from the mountains.

When brought before the court, Wang's eldest son looked utterly disheveled.

He was dead sure that the mountain cats' attack was retribution.

He had once killed a small mountain cat, nothing but a kitten.

As it screamed its little lungs out, he'd heard other cats calling in response.

Remembering his ordeal in the mountains made his blood run cold.

Could those beasts actually think like people?

Did they recognize him as their enemy and come after him on purpose?

Even after capture, he tried to put up a fight.

He thought if he just kept his mouth shut, the authorities couldn't convict him just for running.

He said to the county magistrate, "I ran away because I couldn't stand my shrew of a wife anymore. She kept bemoaning our poverty at home, saying we had too many children and I couldn't provide for the family. I just couldn't take it anymore and wanted to escape."

When his wife was brought in, she played along with his lie: "Yes, my husband is an honest man. He wouldn’t do something like murder."

Even if he were to abandon her and their children.

Even if he really had killed someone, she couldn’t bear to see him die.

She believed that if he had killed Mai Sui, Mai Sui must have done something.

That little girl was pretty, and pretty women were all temptresses. She must have seduced her man—otherwise, how could such an honest man do something like that?

It must have been Mai Sui. She must have never seen a man before, throwing herself at him and threatening him. Yes, yes, it must have been like that.

Hunter Chen, seeing the couple colluding and still defiant even with no way out, took out the murder weapon he had found.

"What about this knife? It matches the wounds on Mai Sui’s body—it’s the murder weapon."

Wang's eldest son laughed. "How convenient. That chopping knife was lost when I went up the mountain half a year ago. This doesn’t prove I killed her. Our village has three chopping knives like this. Even if it matches the wounds, the other two owners are also suspects."

Seeing him still in the mood to laugh, Hunter Chen also smiled.

"You remember quite clearly. Indeed, your village has three identical chopping knives. But one was lost before Mai Sui disappeared—many in your village know about this. By the time Mai Sui went missing, there were only two such knives left in your village. One was yours, and the other belonged to an old man. That old man is too old and feeble to manage it. The place where Mai Sui was buried is deep in the mountains—he wasn't capable of it."

At this point, Hunter Chen paused and leaned closer to Wang's eldest son.

"But you’re different. You were the last person to see Mai Sui. You had the time to kill her, and you had the murder weapon. Not only that, but I’ve heard from the village children that they’ve seen you torture-killing a wildcat."

"Killing a wildcat is nothing. Who living at the foot of the mountains hasn’t done it?"

"But killing is one thing—torturing is another. When you torture-killed that wildcat, your face was contorted with sadistic glee. That shows your true nature is vicious and ruthless. And then you ran when we were searching for the body, and your chopping knife just happened to be missing. That’s all the proof we need that you’re the killer."

In truth, this alone wasn’t enough to convict him.

Cases weren’t supposed to be tried like this—Hunter Chen was leading the witness.

But trials back then weren’t so by-the-book. As long as it wasn’t a wrongful conviction, most confessions could be beaten out of them.

Because the circumstances were different, Yun Changxie was absolutely certain that Wang's eldest son was the killer, which was why he didn’t stop Hunter Chen’s methods.

For such an evil man, fairness wasn’t necessary—Yun Changxie just wanted him dead.

The people of Fuluo Village also believed Wang's eldest son was the murderer.

When Wang's eldest son fled, he had argued with his wife.

Their neighbor overheard the fight. Though they couldn’t make out the exact words, they heard Wang's eldest son say something about killing his wife.

After saying this, he ran, and then the magistrate’s men came for him.

His leg was broken when he was attacked by wildcats in the mountains, and some superstitious villagers saw it as Heaven’s punishment.

Now, seeing Wang's eldest son still defiant, Granny Ou, who had long been unable to contain her rage, lunged at him like a wild animal.

She wanted to rip him limb from limb. She only had one granddaughter—how could someone’s heart be so cruel and wicked?

The bailiffs on the court instinctively glanced at Yun Changxie. Seeing that he didn’t motion to stop her, they didn’t intervene.

Wang's eldest son was a wolf in sheep’s clothing. After being scratched several times by the old woman, his true viciousness came roaring out.

He brutally pushed the old woman away and even tried to strangle her to death.

Seeing this, Hunter Chen didn’t wait for Yun Zhangxie’s order and kicked Wang's eldest son directly in the chest.

Being a trained fighter, the kick was so powerful that it sent him sprawling to the ground, where he lay for a long time, unable to get up.

Wang's eldest son’s wife, seeing this, stepped forward to help him up.

But a villager shouted, "How foolish! He just said he’d kill you—aren’t you afraid that if you save him now, he’ll murder you later?"

"Exactly! He raped and killed a young girl—a man like that has no human decency. Even if you don’t care about yourself, think of your daughters. You have three of them!"

"That’s right. If his beastly instincts take over, not only will you suffer, but your daughters will too."

"They say men who prey on young girls like that often don’t even spare their own daughters. They’re not normal people—they’re animals, not worth saving."

...

Perhaps out of genuine concern for her daughters, or maybe just fear of being killed, Wang’s wife’s outstretched hand trembled. Suddenly, her expression changed as if she’d become a different person.

"Your Honor, Your Honor! This humble woman lied before. He did kill someone—he killed Maisui. He wanted to run because he was afraid of being caught."

Hearing this, Wang's eldest son turned to look at her in disbelief.

His wife met his gaze, shrinking back in fear at first. But then, realizing his crime meant the death penalty, she slowly steadied herself and found her courage.

"This humble woman can testify—he is the one who murdered Maisui!"