Chapter 32: Li Shu is Dead

  Just as everyone thought Shimazu Village was about to return to peace, Li Shu died. The cause of Li Shu's death was not complicated, he was stabbed to death with a small knife, and the person who killed him was Chen Widow. After stabbing Li Shu to death, Chen Widow pushed Li Shu down the cliff. What's strange is that at the bottom of the cliff, everyone didn't find Li Shu's body.

  Li Shu's body mysteriously disappeared, and Chen widow also disappeared with Li Shu.

  The eyewitness to the murder of Li Shu by Chen's widow was Zhang Bo. According to Zhang Bo's recollection, on that day, Li Shu's wife, Shen Erniang, had returned to her parents' home, and Li Shu was alone at home.

  It was past three in the afternoon, and Uncle Li was chopping firewood on the mountain behind his house when he happened to run into Widow Chen, who had come up the mountain to gather herbs. Who in Stone Horse Village didn't know about Uncle Li's feelings for Widow Chen?

  At that time, Li Shu saw Chen's widow alone, and since there was no one else on the mountain behind, he had a lustful heart and had improper thoughts about Chen's widow. Li Shu's lustful heart had been there for a long time, but a major reason why he dared to have such audacity at this moment was that his wife Shen Erniang had gone back to her parents' home.

  With this courage, Uncle Li should take action. So, Uncle Li put down the axe and rushed towards Widow Chen. This woman still had some integrity, otherwise she wouldn't have been able to stay chaste for so many years after her husband's death.

  Chen widow certainly couldn't just give in to Li Shu like that, so the two of them started grabbing and pulling at each other. No matter what, Chen widow was a woman after all, her strength definitely wasn't as great as Li Shu's. Therefore, when it came to grabbing and pulling with Li Shu, Chen widow couldn't gain any advantage.

  Soon, Uncle Li took the upper hand in the scuffle and successfully stripped off Chen Widow's outer garment. Just then, Chen Widow suddenly pulled out a small knife and stabbed at Uncle Li. This small knife was originally used by Chen Widow to dig up herbs.

  This knife, Chen widow was in a hurry to stab randomly, she just wanted to stop Li Shu's behavior. But after stabbing, Chen widow was stunned, because she found that this knife of hers had stabbed right into Li Shu's heart.

  After Chen widow's conditioned reflex-like knife withdrawal, Li Shu fell down, fell into the blood pool, and died. Seeing Li Shu fall down, Chen widow was frightened silly. The principle of killing people to repay their lives is still understood by Chen widow, so when she saw that there was no one around, Chen widow dragged Li Shu's body to the edge of the cliff and threw it down.

  Just as Widow Chen had just pushed Uncle Li down the cliff, Zhang Bo came.

  Zhang Bo Gang went to Li Shu's home, he was going to borrow a chisel and hammer from Li Shu, but Li Shu wasn't at home, and Shen Er Niang had also returned to her natal family. Therefore, there was no one in Li Shu's home, so he didn't get to borrow them.

  Just as Zhang Bo was about to head back, Wang Wu, who was passing by, told him that Li Shu had gone to the back mountain to chop firewood. So Zhang Bo went to the back mountain. But as soon as he arrived, he saw Chen Widow pushing Li Shu's body off the cliff.

  "Chen widow, what are you doing?" Zhang Bo saw this scene and immediately shouted loudly.

  At the sound of this shout, Chen widow was frightened and took a step back. It was this one step that made Chen widow's foot empty, and she fell off the cliff.

  The cliff behind the mountain is about 60-70 meters high. If someone falls down, they will almost certainly lose their life.

  Seeing Chen's widow also fell off the cliff, Zhang Bo stood up and was frightened. He ran towards the village while shouting for help.

  After learning about the situation, the villagers sent someone to report the case while organizing a dozen people to search for Li Shu and Chen's widow at the foot of the mountain.

  However, the villagers searched for several hours at the foot of the mountain and didn't find Li Shu's body or Chen Guafu who fell off the cliff until nightfall.

  During this time, the police in the town also arrived. The police found nothing but a bloodstain on the mountain and the clothes that Li Shu had torn off Chen's widow.

  As no body of Li Shu was found, the police could only temporarily determine that Li Shu was missing, and Chen Guafu was also determined to be missing. Before leaving, the police reminded the villagers that if there were any new clues, they must go to the town to report the case.

  This case was originally very simple. But because Li Shu's body and Chen Widow disappeared at the same time, this case also became a bit complicated.

  The body has gone missing, this is the second case of a missing body in Shima Village recently. Moreover, within these few short months, except for Chen's widow who fell off a cliff and whose life or death is still unknown, three people have already died mysteriously in Shima Village.

  Three people who have been confirmed dead, Zhang Xiaolan, Zhang San and Li Shu, on the surface, seem to be unrelated to each other. However, upon closer examination, they all have a connection with Liu Renqing.

  Zhang Xiaolan's death, the suspect is Liu Renqing who has escaped; Zhang San died suddenly, but his death is related to Li Tianzhen; Li Shu's death, according to Zhang Bo's confession, should be done by Chen Widow. These three deaths seem very clear and straightforward, but the villagers always feel that these three cases are not so simple.

  Some villagers even think that Shimawan Village has offended some unclean thing and was cursed.

  Dealing with dirty things, it's definitely not feasible to find the police. Therefore, the villagers suggested going to find Zhangshan Old Road to take a look. To know, if the dirty things in Yushimashan Village are not eliminated, who will be the next one to die?

  After arriving at Shimayuan Village, Zhangshan Laodao first went to the scene of the crime in the back mountain. When Zhangshan Laodao went to the back mountain, Chen's widow's clothes that had been torn off by Li Shu had already been taken away by the police as evidence, but the bloodstain was still there. At this time, the bloodstain had long since dried up.

  Zhu Shan Old Way shook his head after seeing the bloodstain and said, "Li Shu did not die at the hands of Chen Widow, but died at the hands of a vengeful spirit."

  After finishing speaking, the old Taoist Bamboo Mountain took out a small ceramic bottle. The mouth of the bottle was plugged with a red cloth stopper. After taking out the small bottle, the old Taoist Bamboo Mountain gently pulled out the stopper and poured the clear liquid inside onto the bloodstain on the ground. As soon as the liquid came into contact with the dried-up bloodstain on the ground, the bloodstain slowly turned black, and then a green smoke rose up.

  "This is 'Soul-Searching Water', which can turn the bloodstains that have been tainted by ghosts black. The green smoke that just rose up is the vengeful spirit's lingering soul," said Zhangshan Old Dao.

  "This thing of yours, I'm afraid it will turn black if it encounters blood?" Zhang Bo was an eyewitness to Chen Widow pushing Li Shu's corpse off the cliff, and since it was in broad daylight, he simply didn't believe it was the work of a ghost. Therefore, after Bamboo Mountain Old Dao boasted about his "Soul-Exploring Water", Zhang Bo questioned him with this sentence.

  "If you don't believe me, then let's shed a few drops of blood on the ground!" Zhushan Lao Dao was indeed someone with real skills. People with real skills are often not afraid of being questioned.

  Zhang Bo was a man who wouldn't give up until he reached the Yellow River. Since Master Zhangshan had spoken, he didn't hold back either. For rural men, shedding a few drops of blood was like spitting out saliva - it wasn't a big deal. So, Zhang Bo bit his own finger and dripped a few drops of blood onto the ground.

  After a while, when the few drops of blood on the ground had dried up, Zhang Bodong spoke. "This blood has not been stained by a ghost, so even if I pour more 'soul-testing water', the color of this bloodstain will not change."

  After finishing, the old Taoist of Zhushan opened the red cloth stopper of that small bottle again and poured the "soul-searching water" onto Zhang Bo's bloodstain. This time, the bloodstain did not change color, nor did it emit a green smoke.

  This obvious fact made Zhang Bo convinced, and he no longer questioned the old Taoist of Zhushan.

  Now, among the villagers, there is no one who doubts the existence of ghosts in Bamboo Mountain anymore. Everyone also believes that Li Shu's death was caused by a ghost. However, whose ghost was it that killed Li Shu? Could it be Zhang Xiaolan again?

  Just as the villagers were discussing it, Zhangshan Old Dao took out his copper, eight-trigram-patterned compass. After measuring with the compass, Zhangshan Old Dao's expression turned serious and he went down the mountain.

  The villagers didn't understand what was going on, but judging from the expression on Bamboo Mountain Old Dao's face, this matter must be very serious. Therefore, all the villagers followed behind Bamboo Mountain Old Dao's buttocks and went down the mountain with him.

  After going down the mountain, Zhangshan Old Dao followed the direction of the compass needle and walked straight to the gate of Zhang San's house. As soon as he arrived at the gate of Zhang San's house, a careful villager found that the needle on the compass in Zhangshan Old Dao's hand was spinning rapidly.

  As for this rapidly rotating pointer, the villagers of course did not know what was going on, but this should not be a good thing. At this time, all the villagers cast their eyes towards Zhangshan Old Road. Now, only Zhangshan Old Road knew what was going on.

  "That ghost is hiding in Zhang San's house," said Bamboo Mountain Old Dao.

  Although it was broad daylight and the sun was shining brightly, when the old Taoist priest of Bamboo Mountain said this sentence, many villagers couldn't help but feel a chill run down their spines.

  "This ghost is full of resentment, it should be a lonely soul. It must have been abandoned in the wilderness, so it has no home to return to, and somehow hid in Zhang San's house." Bamboo Mountain Old Dao waved his hand with the dustpan and continued: "Such a lonely soul, if you want to collect it, just find its corpse and give it a good burial. If you can't find the corpse, this matter will be difficult to handle."

  Since everyone says he was left to rot in the wilderness, where can his body be found? Is it possible to find it? The villagers understood the implicit meaning of Zhushan Old Dao's words. If the body cannot be found, this matter will be difficult to handle. Difficult does not mean impossible, when Zhushan Old Dao says difficult, it simply means more money is needed.

  The money to invite Master Zhushan out of the mountain was originally contributed by the villagers. Now that Master Zhushan has arrived, he hasn't done anything yet, but is already hinting that everyone should pay more, so the villagers are naturally a bit unwilling.