Chapter 7 – Wisp of Smoke (1/2)

Chapter 7 – Wisp of Smoke

Part 1

April 17th. High noon.

The huge search for Ingot and Wu Tao continued in Jinan. More and more people were interested in the matter, probably because the Flowered Flag Sect as well as the local authorities had both offered huge rewards for information, rewards big enough to live for years on.

The targets of the search were currently fast asleep in the Den of Immortals, just the two of them.

***

Outside of Sun Jicheng’s 79 businesses were pasted paper posters which read, “Closed, business on hold for five days.” By now, people had heard about Big Boss Sun’s deaths, so there was no need to try to keep it a secret any more.

—The true secret which needed to be kept was that Big Boss Sun actually wasn’t dead.

Great Three Yuan was obviously not open for business. And yet, Zheng Nanyuan hurried on his way to the restaurant. Three important customers awaited him, guests he could not afford to ignore.

The guests included Old Master Tian from the powerful Flowered Flag Sect, and Huang Jun, the man who wished to reform the Beggar Sect, who had single-handedly founded its new Torture Chamber, famous in Jianghu and holder of life-and-death power in his organization.

***

Zheng Nanyuan was just now walking up the stairs of the restaurant.

He was no cripple; he used a wheelchair because of the festering rheumatism which had plagued him for years.

By the time he arrived, a table of appetizers had already been laid out in one of the elegant private dining rooms. The guests had already been seated.

There were three types of alcohol on the table.

A freshly opened jar of Guizhou Maotai, clear and strong, as well as Nu’er Hong from the Jiangsu/Zhejiang region, sweet and gentle, but with a strong delayed aftereffect.

And in a golden pitcher was what remained of the Persian Red Wine that Sun Jicheng had not finished during his lunch the other day. The golden pitcher had just been pulled out frigid cooling water; condensation dripped down its sides.

Old Master Tian drank a cup of each of the different types of alcohol, and then said, “We didn’t come here to drink.”

He could say something like that.

Once a person’s status reaches a certain level, they can say anything, and others can only listen.

The things he said often weren’t very nice; he usually left people unsure of whether to cry or laugh. Sometimes he shocked people, and sometimes left them in fear for their life.

“We are also not here to pay our respects,” he continued. “As well all know, Big Boss Sun isn’t dead.”

It was quite a harsh thing to say.

Zheng Nanyuan didn’t seem to have any reaction whatsoever. He merely poured some Persian wine into his crystal goblet. He poured just enough to fill the glass completely, and yet didn’t spill a single drop.

Such steady hands!

Old Master Tian narrowed his eyes, staring at Zheng Nanyuan. He continued, “Your big search last night was not an attempt to find your supposedly ‘dead’ boss. To search for him in such a fashion would be fruitless. That type of search will only turn up drunks and thieves and idiots. The purpose of your search was to inform Sun Jicheng that you know the corpse wasn’t him.”

Zheng Nanyuan sat listening, much the way a student will listen to his tutor lecture about the Four Books and Five Classics, even though he has no idea what the teacher is talking about. [2]

Old Master Tian drank three more cups of alcohol. His son joined him.

“The reason we are here,” said Old Master Tian, “is that we want to ask you a question.” Questions asked by Old Master Tian always hit the crux of matters. “How did you figure out the corpse did not belong to Sun Jicheng?”

Zheng Nanyuan laughed.

“Actually,” he said, “that is a question I should be asking you.”

“And yet, I asked the question first.”

“Can I refuse to answer?”

“No.”

“Then let me start from the beginning.”

He poured himself another glass of wine, took a sip, and then began his story: “The guards who protect Big Boss Sun’s residence are split up into six shifts, divided under the leadership of Lian Gen and Qiu Budao. Recently I noticed that Qiu Budao had in succession dismissed thirteen men from his squads.”

Old Master Tian knew he wouldn’t speak about things unrelated to the matter at hand, and would recount everything in great detail.

“Who were the people he dismissed?” he asked. “And who replaced them?”

“The ones he dismissed were capable men, and the new arrivals all had sketchy pasts, strangers who had never been seen before in Jianghu, all of them roughly thirty years of age.

“Did you ever bring this up to Sun Jicheng?”

“No. But when he died suddenly, I immediately suspected that his death had something to do with the thirteen men.”

“They hadn’t left yet?”

“No, not yet,” said Zheng Nanyuan. “So, I decided to call back the thirteen men who Qiu Budao had dismissed. Along with the men I sent to find them, I would have two men to deal with each one of thirteen with the sketchy pasts. I would capture them dead or alive.”

“That was the correct thing to do,” commended Old Man Tian. “What happened?”

“The people I sent to find the thirteen dismissed men came back quickly.” He drained the cup of wine in one drink. “They returned, twenty-six men.”

“Where are they now?”

“Downstairs, in the wine cellar.”

“All of them? And they haven’t left?”

“Twenty six men, none of them left,” said Zheng Nanyuan coolly. “I’m afraid they will never leave.”

Part 2

In the dark cellar, the corpses, covered with simple white cloths, had been lined up even more neatly than the jugs of wine.

Zheng Nanyuan followed Old Master Tian inside. He said, “I didn’t place them in coffins because I knew that eventually I would invite you down here to have a look at them.”

He lifted the white cloth off of one of the corpses. The muddled light of the cellar lamps shone dimly on the corpse, revealing a face contorted in terror, one arm dislocated, the elbow snapped, larynx smashed.

“Each one died in the same way,” said Zheng Nanyuan. “Twenty-six men, all exactly the same.”

Old Master Tian’s face suddenly grew very serious.

“The joints and larynxes were not smashed by the same person,” said Zheng Nanyuan. “The force exerted was different, although the technique was the same. This technique is strangely diabolical, and yet effective. There is no school or sect in Jianghu which uses anything remotely similar.”

“You’ve never seen anything like this before?” asked Old Master Tian.

“Never.”

One word at a time, Old Master Tian replied, “Well, I have.”

His expression grew even more serious. Before Zheng Nanyuan could say anything, he continued, “Now I understand why Sun Jicheng would throw away his enormous fortune, feign his own death and flee for his life.”

Of course, Zheng Nanyuan asked, “Why would he?”

“Because he surely noticed that his bodyguard squads had been infiltrated by the thirteen men, and he surely could guess where they came from.”

Frogboy couldn’t help but butt in: “Don’t tell me the thirteen men scared him off?”

“Humph,” said Old Master Tian.

“If he really was the Laughing General,” continued Frogboy, “how could he possibly be frightened of them? When was General Li ever frightened by anyone?”

With a furious glare, Old Man Tian said, “How do you know he was never frightened by anyone? Is he a tapeworm in your belly or something?”

Frogboy didn’t dare to respond.

Zheng Nanyuan did not ask about where the thirteen men came from, nor did he ask Old Master Tian why Sun Jicheng fled in fear.

He calmly continued his explanation.

“After my operation failed, I lost track of the thirteen infiltrators. When Lian Gen learned of the matter, he instigated a large-scale search to try to flush them out.”

Old Master Tian let out a cold laugh. “It’s a good thing you didn’t flush them out. Otherwise, even were your wine cellar three times as large, it wouldn’t be big enough to contain all the bodies.”

“In any case, I just want Old Master Tian to understand that the purpose of our search yesterday was not to because we had learned the body was not Big Boss Sun’s, nor was it to inform him of anything.” As calm as ever, he continued, “The purpose was to track down the thirteen infiltrators.”

He and Xiao Jun were quite different: He spoke in great detail, and in order to make things completely clear, he would even repeat himself multiple times if necessary.

Having explained things clearly, he now asked Old Master Tian a question. “So, how did the Old Master come to find out the corpse did not belong to Sun Jicheng, but was actually a body double?”

Old Master Tian, should he feel like being unreasonable, could refuse to answer the question.

If he refused, who could possibly force him to answer?

Fortunately, at this particular moment, he did not choose to be unreasonable. After someone answered his question in such great detail, he couldn’t possibly refuse to reciprocate.

“Shall I, too, start from the very beginning?” he asked Zheng Nanyuan.

“That would be the best.”

Old Master Tian poured himself a up of alcohol and then began his explanation: “I suspected from the very beginning that Sun Jicheng wouldn’t suddenly die like that, but I had no way to confirm the identity of the body. At first. Then I had a chance.”

“What chance?”

“Sun Jicheng left Great Three Yuan restaurant on the afternoon of April 15th, correct?”

“Yes.”

“On that day, he ate a bowl of chicken and abalone shark’s fin soup, did he not? For appetizers, he ate shelled walnuts, pine nuts, and dried fruits. For his beverage, the Persian wind you just served to us. Correct?”

“Correct.” Zheng Nanyuan laughed bitterly. “I had no idea the Old Master was so familiar with our operations here.”

Old Master Tian ignored the tone of ridicule in his comment, and continued with his explanation. “He died sometime after dusk, perhaps two hours after he parted with you.”

“How could the Old Master confirm that?”

“The chief coroner of Jinan, Ye Laoyan, happens to be my friend. As you know, he is one of the most skilled and experienced in his field. Who knows how many corpses he has examined in the past twenty years? His judgement is impeccable.”

“But we didn’t ask the government to examine the body,” said Zheng Nanyuan. “Old Mr. Ye never saw the corpse.”

“He did.”

“When?”

“Last night after nightfall, when you were mustering your men to begin your big search.”

“At that time, the Boss’s body still lay in the secret room.”

“Correct.”

“How did old Mr. Ye get into the Boss’s secret room?”

“Because I took him there.”

Zheng Nanyuan said nothing further. If Old Master Tian wished to take someone somewhere, it wouldn’t be a difficult thing.

Furthermore, upon mustering and dispatching the full forces of the Sun mansion, among those left behind to guard the estate, surely some were friends of members of the “Flowered Flag” Sect.

Old Master Tian continued on: “After Ye Laoyan determined Sun Jicheng’s exact time of death, a question occurred to me.”

“What question?”

“When a person eats food, how long does it take for it to become excrement?”

This was a superb question, a question which hit to the heart of the matter.