Chapter 28: Little Beggars

Chapter 28: The Little Beggars

Qin Hu’s eyes flashed with a sharp gleam, and he ordered a dog to be brought.

Soon, a constable led a dog over. Lin Su wet his hand slightly with his superpower, invisible to the naked eye.

Though it might not be of much use, as a precaution, he let the puppy drink a little, treating it as a reward.

He extended his hand to the puppy’s mouth. The puppy looked puzzled, as if wondering what he was doing.

Was it supposed to bite him? Really?

“Little one, just lick it?” Lin Su said helplessly, reaching into the dog’s mouth and secretly slipping some Ability Water into its mouth.

The puppy thought: *Why does this guy’s hand smell like braised meat? So tasty, lick, slurp!*

Once the puppy had licked enough, Lin Su pulled Fu Yun’s hand over: “Fu Yun, let the puppy lick your hand too.”

Fu Yun obediently offered both hands for the puppy to lick. The rough, wet tongue tickled him, and he couldn’t help but chuckle softly.

After licking all five people, the puppy no longer tasted the delicious braised meat flavor. It couldn’t help but return to Lin Su, wagging its tail. Lin Su also fed it some more Ability Water.

The puppy continued wagging its tail. After a while, it was still full of energy and bouncing around.

“Your Honor, the ingredients and utensils on the food stall are all poisoned, but how could we, who cooked the food, not come into contact with any of it? This poison must have been planted by someone to frame us. Please investigate thoroughly.”

At this point, not only Qin Hu but also the crowd outside the yamen understood. Indeed, if Lin Ji had poisoned the food, the cooks would have gotten some of it on themselves from handling the tainted utensils and ingredients.

“Hah, someone set a trap for Lin Ji? Who would be so vicious?”

“Oh my god, I ate Lin Ji’s rice noodle pot at noon too. I almost got killed. Whoever poisoned it must be found—so evil.”

“Yeah, Lin Ji sells so many rice noodle pots a day. If this...”

The crowd buzzed with discussion, both shocked and angry.

“Silence!” Qin Hu banged the gavel to restore order. “Lin Ji’s owner, do you have any suspects?”

Lin Su pretended to think for a moment, then pointed at four constables.

“Apart from us, only these constables have touched the items on the food cart.”

Faced with his accusation, before Li Cheng and the other man spoke, the two tall and thin constables knelt in fear: “Your Honor, we are wronged!”

“It’s easy to verify whether it was you. Just lick your own palms,” Lin Su said coldly.

Better not let the puppy lick—it’s not worth the risk of poisoning him.

The tall and thin constables’ faces darkened. Why did they have to lick it themselves when it came to them?

Li Cheng and the other didn’t find it objectionable. They had only touched Lin Ji’s people, not the cart or the food. Since Lin Ji’s men were fine, they were naturally fine too.

The two were honest and straightforward; they actually licked their own palms, which made the tall and thin constables’ faces even darker and left them embarrassed and unable to save face.

If it hadn’t been for running into those two colleagues, they wouldn’t have left such a big loophole. What should they do now?

Though they could let the dog lick and take a gamble, they knew well that some poison had indeed gotten on their hands.

Damn it! If only Li Cheng and the others hadn’t meddled, they would have even had a chance to destroy the evidence!

The two stayed still for a long time. With a sharp bang of Qin Hu’s gavel, they both flinched.

“Your Honor, when we confiscated the food cart, we might have also gotten poison on us. But that doesn’t prove we planted it. Maybe... maybe they washed their hands and then used that water to rinse the utensils, which caused the poison to be on the ingredients and utensils while their hands were clean.”

Now it was the tall and thin constables’ word against Lin Su’s. For a moment, the old man temporarily withdrew from the argument.

Qin Hu felt a headache coming. The situation had become tricky. Neither side had absolute evidence to prove their own innocence.

Of course, there was also no absolute evidence to prove either side’s involvement. The principle of giving the benefit of the doubt and leniency applied, but since someone had been poisoned to death—and the poison was planted on a food stall, causing such a big impact—letting the criminal go would not satisfy public opinion. Worse, if others copied this tactic, the consequences would be unimaginable.

Just then, a child with a dirty, unrecognizable face pushed through the crowd outside the yamen gate.

He dropped to his knees, shouting, “Your Honor, the dead child is not that old man’s grandson! He was just a little beggar in the city. He never had a grandfather.”

“Nonsense! He is my grandson!” the old man yelled angrily.

Qin Hu narrowed his eyes—a breakthrough! He waved his hand and ordered a deeper investigation into the old man.

The two tall, thin constables remained unconcerned; they had already looked into it. The old man’s wife and son had abandoned him, leaving only a five-year-old grandson. The old man didn’t treat him well—he was often beaten and scolded, and was even willing to sell his grandson for money.

However, when the constable returned about an hour later, he brought shocking news.

The old man was named Zhang Da. Five years ago, his daughter-in-law died. His wife and son later went mad and ran away, leaving only a grandson.

But his grandson had died a month ago, and the old man had eaten the corpse!

“R-Reporting to Your Honor, Zhang Da’s grandson died long ago.”

Aunt He, brought to the courthouse by the constables, was frightened. She never thought that just gossiping a bit would land her in front of the county magistrate.

“He ate the body, I swear it! I live next door, and the courtyard wall isn’t tall. I saw it myself!”

God knows how terrified she was that day when she saw the old man chewing on a human finger while muttering, “Children are tender and tasty.” She had nightmares for days after.

So today, when she saw constables entering the neighbor’s house, she couldn’t help asking if that old man had finally been arrested. It was long overdue anyway.

The constables unearthed a skeleton in the old man’s yard—indeed, that of a five- or six-year-old. They also found bloodstains in the kitchen.

“How dare you, Zhang Da! With both witnesses and evidence, confess quickly!” Qin Hu banged the gavel with real feeling, the sound echoing through the hall.

“Your Honor, I’m wronged! Those bones have nothing to do with me. *This* child is my grandson!” the old man cried out his innocence, looking so pitiful and wronged that no one would suspect he was a cannibal.

The crowd hesitated. Was this for real? Had the old man really eaten his own child?

Yucheng County was something of a utopia. No major disasters had happened in decades. Such a horrifying story was almost unheard of. Now, everyone was in disbelief.

The filthy child’s face turned crimson with rage. Fighting back tears, he shouted, “If he’s your grandson, then tell me how old he is!”

The old man sneered, “Of course he’s five!”

Then, as if catching himself, he hesitated, then added, “Six. This year he’s six.”

“Wrong! Xiao Shiyi is nine years old! He is not your grandson!” As the child finished speaking, suddenly, more than a dozen children tumbled through the yamen gate, falling to their knees. Their scrawny little bodies trembled uncontrollably.

“He is Xiao Shiyi, not your grandson!”

“Xiao Shiyi went out this morning and never came back. You must have killed him!”

“You wicked old man, give us back our Xiao Shiyi!”

They shouted all at once, until the first child calmed them down, seeming to be their leader.

Just then, the old doctor from Xinglin Hall stepped forward: “Your Honor, I have some skill in reading bones. I can examine the child to determine his age—and thus who is lying.”