Chapter 57: Cliff of Broken Mouths

  Liu Xiangzheng panicked and blurted out: "No! My sister-in-law hanged herself, and Jin Lao San jumped into the river from the Broken Mouth Cliff to kill himself. It has nothing to do with me..."

  "Duan Zu Cliff? Liao River?"

  Xiao Jiading knew that there was a river called Lian River below Huangyan Village, which was a tributary of Jinjiang River in Yizhou. This river flowed from the village to the estuary, more than 30 miles away. But according to Chrysanthemum's words, Jin Laosan's body was found in Jinjiang three days later, not in Lian River. And it's unlikely that anyone saw him jump into the river. Xiao Jiading immediately sensed that this might be where Liu Xiangzheng killed and silenced someone!

  Liu Xiangzheng had just spoken these words when he realized they were incorrect, and immediately corrected himself: "I was wrong, it was the Jinjiang River, he jumped into the Jinjiang River to his death."

  Xiao Jiading sneered: "What are you panicking about? I didn't say you were wrong."

  Liu Xiangzheng was indeed flustered, having been caught in the act of private communication and then paraded through the streets, with people throwing feces and urine at him, making him feel extremely ashamed, his entire head a mess. Adding to this, the fact that his bribery of officials to clear Zhao's name had been exposed made him even more flustered, causing him to blurt out something he shouldn't have said. Hanging his head in shame, no matter what Xiao Jiading asked him, he remained silent.

  Xiao Jiading ordered him to be taken away and called Luo Cunzheng in, asking: "There is a river outside our Huangyan Village, is there a place called Duanzui Cliff?"

  "Yes, it's just outside the village towards Yizhou along the Lian River, about five or six miles away."

  "I want to go there and take a look. Will you show me the way?"

  "Alright!" Rōmura Masayoshi didn't ask any further questions about why they had to go there so late.

  Xiao Jiading brought Dai Boutu and several other servants, following Luo Cunzheng and others down to the village. There was a small path leading there. Due to the rugged terrain, there were basically no houses inhabited here. It wasn't until they arrived that they saw a slightly flat area with a house standing alone by the road. After passing that house, going further forward, there were no more houses, all rugged small paths, all the way to the riverbank.

  When they arrived at the riverbank, they were already in a place about two zhang higher than the water surface. A cliff stretched out in front of them, and when they reached the end, it suddenly broke off cleanly. It was as if an eagle's beak had suddenly broken off from the middle, so this cliff got a name called Duan Zui Cliff (Broken Beak Cliff).

  This cliff has stretched out to a place close to the center of the river. If you jump from here, you will fall directly into the middle of the river. If you want to kill someone, this is a good place.

  Xiao Jiading held up the lantern and took a look around at the top of the cliff, but didn't find anything unusual. He looked around in all directions, but there were no houses or people anywhere. He furrowed his brow and said, "Let's go back!"

  Luocun Zheng and others didn't know what he was doing by coming here in the middle of the night, turning around and then leaving again. But it's also not good to ask too much, so they just followed him back.

  When they reached the house by the small road, Xiao Jiading stopped and said to Luo Cunzheng, "We're tired from walking. You go knock on the door, we'll go in and sit for a while and have a cup of water. Let's take a rest."

  Luocun Zheng was originally going to tell him to rest at his house, but Xiao Jiading had already gone to the first house. Hurriedly rushing forward, he knocked on the door and shouted: "Wang Dalang! Get up! Open the door, something's happened!"

  Is the master also called Dalang? However, this is not strange, as it was popular in the Tang Dynasty to refer to men by their birth order followed by "Lang", and women by their birth order followed by a certain "Niang", similar to modern-day terms like "Lao San" or "Lao Si".

  The door opened quickly. A middle-aged man came out, looked at them and recognized Luo Cunzheng, and hurriedly bowed his head: "Luo Cunzheng, is there something?"

  "Of course you have something to do with the county government, this is Xiao Zhīyī, who is beside County Magistrate. He came down to investigate the case. Didn't you hear the gongs and drums just now?"

  "No, I fell asleep, what happened?"

  It's still a distance from here to the village, so it's normal that he can't hear. Luo Cun is looking at Xiao Jia Ding, wondering whether or not to mention that matter.

  Xiao Jiading said: "Liu Xiangzheng was having an affair with Zhao's family in your village and was caught red-handed."

  This kind of thing is most likely to arouse people's interest, especially in ancient times when entertainment projects were extremely lacking. Such scandalous news would naturally be more exciting, and Wang Dalang immediately became excited: "Really? I think Zhao's wife is not a good thing, her husband is at home, she can bear it! How about that!"

  Xiao Jiading interrupted him: "We didn't knock on your door to tell you this. We were passing by, got tired and wanted to rest our feet at your place, have a drink of water, is that okay?"

  The people from the government office, followed by several yamen runners with swords at their waists. What could Wang Dalang say? He hastily ushered them into the house while calling out to his wife and children to get up and entertain the guests.

  Several servants were helping to make a fire and boil water, when Wang Dalang's wife and children came out. The daughter was about twelve or thirteen years old, the son seven or eight. Seeing a room full of people, and that they were armed constables from the yamen, they became somewhat flustered, and stood there smiling foolishly, not knowing what to do with their hands and feet.

  Xiao Jiading asked them to sit down. Wang Dalang had already told his wife and children about Zhao's affair with Liu Xiangzheng being caught in the act. His wife and children immediately became spirited, constantly asking Luo Cunzheng for details. Luo Cunzheng saw that Xiao Jiading didn't say anything, so he didn't dare to say more, only saying hurry up and boil water.

  They couldn't get any detailed information, so they started to imagine and speculate. This kind of thing is the easiest way to get people talking. They immediately began to gossip about the adulterous couple's past misdeeds. When they saw that Xiao Jiading was listening with great interest, they became even more enthusiastic and spoke even more freely. They mentioned that in Luo Village, there was a very fierce guard named Hong Shan who could kill a cow with one punch. Normally, when someone needed to be beaten, it would be Hong Shan who took action. Those who were beaten by him wouldn't be able to get out of bed for at least half a month.

  Xiao Jiading heard this and remembered the day he had wine at Luo Cun Zheng's house, where Liu Xiangzheng came uninvited with a burly man by his side, who was probably this Hong Shan.

  When the wall falls, everyone will push it. Now that Liu Xiangzheng has been arrested, these villagers naturally won't have any scruples and vented all their past dissatisfaction with him. They said a lot about the bad things Liu Xiangzheng did with his henchman Hong Shan.

  The water has been boiled, Xiao Jia Ding held a clay bowl and drank water while asking: "How was this year?"

  Wang Dalang smiled bitterly and pointed to the simple house: "What else can we do? As farmers, we can't even afford a meal of meat during Chinese New Year."

  "Aren't you close to the river? Why don't you go fishing?"

  "Go fishing?" Wang Dalang glanced at Luo Cunzheng beside him, "I can't afford the fish tax..."

  "Is this also taxable?" Xiang Jiading also took a look at Luo Cunzheng, but didn't continue the topic. He wasn't here to investigate the people's feelings this time. He asked: "You just said that Liu Xiangzheng bullies people everywhere, has he ever bullied you?"

  "No, I'm just a poor man with only a few dry fields, and my family doesn't have any good looks or anything that would catch his eye."

  His wife hit him and said, "I didn't, but our daughter is growing up slowly. I've seen him staring at our daughter several times. That day they passed by our door, weren't you also scared to death?"

  Xiao Jiading hastily asked: "Which day?"

  "It was just on New Year's Eve that he scared me to death, I thought he was going to make a move on our daughter!"

  "How did you know it was them?"

  "That's Hong Shan's broken gong voice, you can tell at once." Wang Dalang's wife said, "That night we had already gone to bed, and heard from outside that a few people came from afar. Then I heard Hong Shan's broken gong voice say: 'Hurry up!' I was so scared, because there is no one else around our house, and in front of us is the Broken Cliff, there is no road ahead, so almost everyone who comes here is looking for my family. We quickly got up, and didn't know what to do at first. Fortunately, they didn't stay, but passed by directly."

  Upon receiving this important news, Xiao Jiadeng's heart was filled with joy, and he asked: "Besides Hong Shan, did you see anyone else?"

  "See? Where would we dare to look? Scared to death. Luckily it didn't come to our house."

  Wang Dalang also smiled and said: "Yes, we didn't go out to look, heard them pass by, knew it wasn't our family's, so we felt at ease."

  "Did he come back this way too?"

  "Yes, there is only one way, and it must be passed through."

  "About how long will it take to come back?"

  "It'll be quick! It shouldn't take even a meal's worth of time."

  From here to Duanzui Cliff and back, it's just a meal's worth of work. It seems they didn't stay at Duanzui Cliff for long. Xiao Jiading asked: "What did they go to do? Do you know?"

  Wang Dalang shook his head: "As long as he doesn't come to our house, I'll thank heaven and earth, who cares what he does."

  "Do you hear several footsteps?"

  Wang Dalang and his wife recalled, "There weren't many people, probably just three or four."

  "Can you be sure?"

  "It should be correct, because our residence is just by this small road, and people passing by can hear it very clearly."

  "Which specific day was it? Can you recall?"

  Wang Dalang hesitated for a moment and said: "It's January 18th!"

  "Why are you so sure?"

  "On the 21st of the first month, Jin Lao San's body was found in the brook. A few days ago, it was said that Jin Lao San had an affair with Liu Xiang Zheng's sister-in-law and they were caught. Liu Xiang Zheng was furious and paraded them through the streets. Later, for some reason, he let them go. Then, after a few more days, Jin Lao San died. Everyone says it was Liu Xiang Zheng who had him killed. Jin Lao San's family went to the government office to file a complaint, but nothing came of it. Because these two events happened close together, I remember them quite clearly."

  Xiao Jiading drank a bowl of water, thanked him and bid farewell, leading the crowd to walk back. Luo Cun Zheng and others saw him walking forward with his head down, and didn't dare ask more questions.

  Returning to Luocun Village, in front of Luo Cunzheng's house, many people were kneeling and crying at the door. It was unclear who they were, but Xiao Jiading looked towards Luo Cunzheng.

  Luocun hastily went up and took a look, saying: "What are you kneeling here for?"