Several years ago, when Xu Qing occasionally taught Song Tu and Dou Yun, the two junior brothers, forensic techniques, perhaps they were quite impressed with Xu Qing, but now three or four years have passed, and the two who consider themselves to have fully understood all the ways of forensic examination have already dispelled the thought of 'seeing Uncle Master Xu as a towering figure'.
It's inevitable that one might have immature thoughts when youthful. There's nothing wrong with that.
Song Tu made one last attempt to persuade, "If Uncle Xu insists on going, please wait a moment, allow your nephew to fetch a lantern for illumination..."
Xu Qing looked at the accommodating Song Tu, always feeling like the latter was treating him as an elderly man out of touch with the times.
To one side, upon hearing they were going to find a corpse, Shang Shaoyang appeared more eager than anyone!
"This head might be the father of the boy..." Shang Shaoyang gestured respectfully towards the cold form of a head on a bench, saying, "Don't worry, old friend! This matter is handled by us! We will surely find the real culprit behind this and bring them to justice!"
Xu Qing ignored Shang Shaoyang. He had a vague feeling that things weren't so simple. After all, the boy had always been saying things like 'My mother is gone, and my father doesn't want me.'
There might be some hidden story here.
Xu Qing plucked a strand of hair from the head on the cold bench, silently tucking it into his sleeve.
When Song Tu brought the lantern, Xu Qing then left the Government Office with Shang Shaoyang, heading towards the Tangguh River.
Along the way, Xu Qing took out the Corpse-Seeking Compass, using a yellow Talismanic Guide to burn the strand of hair from his sleeve, quietly chanting incantations and pointing the burning talisman at the compass.
Shang Shaoyang, seeing this, curiously asked, "Brother Xu, what is this?"
"I have night blindness, can't see the path clearly, just checking the compass to see if we've gone the wrong way."
Isn't night blindness the inability to see? What does it have to do with direction?
"Oh, I see." Seeing Xu Qing's reluctance to explain further, Shang Shaoyang sensibly refrained from asking more.
The two twisted and turned, walking and pausing, until they reached Liuqing Street when suddenly a strange voice echoed behind them.
The voice didn't seem to come from the mouth, more like it emerged from the cavity, muffled, tinged with the vibration of the windpipe.
"Lend me your head."
In the mid of night, the street was desolate, and suddenly hearing such a voice behind was terrifying!
Head? What head? Who is speaking?
Shang Shaoyang instinctively wanted to turn back but was slapped away by Xu Qing.
"Haunted, don't turn back."
"If you turn back, your head will be gone!"
Shang Shaoyang had never encountered anything like this before. The more Xu Qing prevented him from turning back, the more he felt a tingling needle sensation on his back.
"What should we do, Brother Xu?"
At this moment, Xu Qing employed trickery, using the second face behind to see the scene behind them.
After a moment's contemplation, he said, "Walk ahead, see that old willow tree over there, circle around the tree. As long as we're faster than it, we can get behind it, making its magic invalid!"
With Shang Shaoyang beside him, Xu Qing didn't want to rely solely on brute force, but this didn't mean he couldn't resolve spontaneous issues without using violence.
Following Xu Qing's suggestion, Shang Shaoyang and Xu Qing went to the old willow tree, which was so thick it required three or four people to wrap arms around it, and began circling it.
Initially, the head-borrowing ghost was quite quick; the two of them could constantly sense gusts of cold wind from behind, along with the phrase 'Lend me your head' echoing.
However, after they had circled the tree fifty times, the headless ghost finally noticed something amiss.
It felt like someone was continuously following it from behind?
Sure enough, in the next moment, the headless ghost heard from behind a voice saying, "Lend me your body."
Instinctively, the ghost turned around, and seeing Xu Qing and Shang Shaoyang behind, it was already too late.
"Now your body is mine!" Xu Qing grinned, and the headless ghost collapsed.
Shang Shaoyang thought Xu Qing's suggestion was what disintegrated the ghost's magic, but was it truly so?
Among demonic spirits, there is a hierarchy. Beings like the headless ghost, often earth-bound spirits, typically have singular methods of harming people. If an ordinary person breaks the predicament created by such spirits, the ghost abandons its hunting, but can't be counter-killed.
Xu Qing, however, is not ordinary. Once he participated in the ghost's game, the nature of this game transformed into mutual hunting among demonic spirits.
Similarly, Xu Qing's higher level relationship with the headless ghost is akin to that of the ghost with ordinary people.
If Xu Qing lost, his head wouldn't be lost, but if the ghost lost, its body would no longer belong to it.
"Brother Xu, look, what a big pit!" After the headless ghost's body fell, Shang Shaoyang aimed the lantern at the ground, revealing the intact surface suddenly subsided, pulling the ghost down into a pit.
Xu Qing jumped into the pit, tossed the ghost's body out, and upon emerging from the pit, Shang Shaoyang, channeling his detective spirit, declared, "Brother Xu once mentioned that there are five ghostly trees in the world, with locust trees being chief among them. The child's body was buried under an old locust tree. This headless ghost was buried under an old willow tree, could this willow also be one of the five ghost trees?"
"Pine, poplar, locust, willow, mulberry; this willow is indeed a ghost tree."
Looking at the corpse in front, Xu Qing was somewhat puzzled: "Wonder if the killer is unfortunate or intentionally did so, how come they specifically choose shady wetlands to hide bodies?"
Shang Shaoyang, being a wanderer, had some experience and speculated: "I've heard those bloodthirsty villains on the road favor burying bodies under trees. The reason being that soil can cover the corpse's odor, these trees' roots can absorb the body as nutrients, and there's shade under the trees, making those areas much damper than others, speeding decomposition..."
Killing is easy, disposing of bodies is not, Shang Shaoyang's analysis is quite reasonable.
But none of that matters anymore. Once the culprit is captured, all truths will naturally be revealed.
Xu Qing has always been holding a simmering determination since the moment the girl's corpse appeared before him, with a resolve to thoroughly investigate this case.
Now, this corpse possibly connected to the girl might be the key to unveiling the truth.
The two hurried back, and upon returning to the Government Office's morgue, the new candle Song Tu previously lit was yet to be extinguished.
"You really brought the corpse back?"
Song Tu was stunned.
Xu Qing patted Song Tu's shoulder, grinning, "Just a matter of luck, nothing significant."
Song Tu dryly laughed and promptly lit the lamp for Xu Qing.
"Do you want to examine this body or shall I?"
Upon hearing Xu Qing's inquiry, Song Tu's eyes brightened, "It would be best if I could have guidance from Uncle Master."
Xu Qing chuckled and proceeded to place the head from the cold bench together with the newly found headless body, perfectly matching the two.
"It's indeed the same corpse," Song Tu marveled.
Xu Qing briefly scanned the deceased's body from head to toe, then laid his hand on it, and in an instant, the phantom memory belonging to the corpse was displayed in his mind.
In the city's East Gate Alley lived the Qiao Family. The family head was a 'half-in-the-door' son-in-law. What does half-in-the-door mean?
Relying on the wife's finances and connections to prosper, yet still retaining his surname and not adopting his wife's, is called half-in-the-door.
The family head was named Qiao Fang, known in East Gate Alley for being extremely henpecked.
Qiao Fang and his wife, Zhang Shi, shared a bed for five years without having any children. Qiao Fang believed the issue lay with his wife, absolutely not related to him, while Zhang Shi thought it was Qiao Fang's problem.
Their disagreement over this matter caused great discontent, resulting in Qiao Fang leaving early and returning late, rumors circulating outside that he was keeping a mistress, intending to leave an heir for the Qiao Family, namely a bastard.
Zhang Shi, unable to conceive, no matter how arrogant, couldn't control Qiao Fang, who prioritized continuing the family line.
After several more months, during which Qiao Fang stopped sharing a room with her, Zhang Shi grew resentful and in a fit of pique, decided to have an affair with the family's groom.
The groom was a widower, hadn't touched a woman in decades, so his frustration was evident.
They exchanged seductive glances, easily clicking together!
Zhang Shi was in her early thirties, at the peak of her needs, and the groom exerted every effort. After half a year, not only did Zhang Shi's belly remain unchanged, but she nearly worked the groom to collapse in the stable.
That day, Zhang Shi emerged from the stable in disarray, hurling curses, with the groom trailing behind, laughing flatteringly, "Madam, don't be angry. I have some news, would Madam like to hear?"
"What news?"
"I've found out where the master's mistress is, the master secretly had a big daughter!"