Chapter 439: Blade Burn (2/2)

With little to do after dinner, I followed Song Jie to the martial arts hall. This old manor had the exact same layout as my grandfather’s home. We put the patio here while the Songs had a martial arts hall with eighteen weapons on display on both sides.

Song Jie changed into her training outfit and practiced boxing on the wooden dummy.

”This is where I grew up,” said Song Xingchen.

”You seem rather close to Song Jie!” I commented.

”Unfortunately, she’s my cousin!” lamented Song Xingchen.

Upon hearing this, I couldn’t help but wonder if he meant something else.

Grandfather once recounted the birth of the martial Songs. Our ancestors realized that members of the Song family who could only solve crimes were too easily harmed in the line of duty, so they split the Song family in two–the martial branch and the civil branch. The two families complemented each other like two sides of a coin.

There have been well-known martial Songs, such as Song Buping, the number one constable of ancient Guangdong and Guangxi, as well as Song Shirong and Song Shide, founders of the Song family’s internal martial arts technique.

After practicing a set of the Xingyiquan, Song Jie proceeded to practice Wing Chun, her entire body covered in sweat. During this time, Song Xingchen suddenly disappeared while I wasn’t paying attention and came back with a towel. As Song Xingchen patiently wiped away the sweat on Song Jie’s face, she smiled and said, ”Thanks!”

For the rest of the afternoon, Song Jie suggested we play Honor of Kings since she usually had no one else to join her. Although Song Xingchen wasn’t interested in the game, he went along with her proposal. In fact, Song Xingchen was like a different man before Song Jie.

The day passed uneventfully. The next morning, we headed to the banyan tree. Song Xingchen pulled out his Tang sword and sliced into the tree trunk while I placed my ears against the bark to listen. ”Watch out for your ears. You might be injured by my sword,” reminded Song Xingchen.

”Don’t worry!” I replied.

The sword seemed to have been embedded into the skeleton. I grabbed an alcohol burner and began heating the blade. A few minutes later, I told Song Xingchen to remove the sword.

There was banyan sap of different shades on the blade. After glancing at it, I surmised, ”This corpse has been trapped inside for five years!”

”How can you tell?” Sing Jie asked in surprise.

”I heated the blade so the sap would stick to it,” I explained. “As you can see, there’s the outline of the annual rings–five of them means it’s been enclosed in there for five years!”

Song Jie arched an eyebrow, ”How did you come up with this? Did you learn this technique from a book?”

”This is expected of the best Traditional Coroners. We can determine the best autopsy methods in different environments,” I smiled.

We met up with the village chief who greeted us enthusiastically and pulled out the household registration files of the entire village. Unfortunately, no one disappeared five years ago. Even when I expanded the scope to seven years, I was surprised to find zero disappearances.

The corpse inside the banyan tree was obviously an adult, and a grown person had to have a file. So I turned to the village head, ”Has anyone from the village disappeared over the past few years?”

The village looked at me strangely, ”No, we often see each other so I would definitely be aware if someone’s missing. There are several young ones who leave the village for work but they come back to visit every year.”

”Are there any outsiders or visitors missing?” I added.

“There are very few outsiders in this village. The few outsiders we have here are like you, relatives of the villagers,” answered the village chief.

This whole thing was bizarre. Did the bones just appear out of thin air?

Older male patrilineal cousin

Zhongnanhai is a former imperial garden in the Imperial City, Beijing, adjacent to the Forbidden City.