Niu Xingzu’s Death

“Niu Xingzu wasn’t poisoned by me!”

Those words were like a thunderstorm. A violent gust of wind. Like a meteorite crashing onto Earth. The tension in the air shot up suddenly, and even the sun seemed to become unbearably hot.

The moment everything around her fell silent, Fourth Missy Gan regretted saying those words.

Wasn’t that as good as… admitting her guilt?

Her hands trembled slightly as she raised them to cover her mouth and stared at Niu Baoshan with a terrified look in her eyes.

And of course, Niu Baoshan exploded.

“So it WAS you who killed my son! I just KNEW you were a wicked woman!”

His eyes bulged and gleamed murderously as he pounced toward the widow and looked like he was about to strangle her to death, “My son was such a wonderful person who thought of you all the time, who took care of everything you needed and made all his plans with you in mind! And this is how you repay his kindness?! You fucking bitch, go to hell! GO TO HELL!”

Fourth Missy Gan perspired profusely. It took every ounce of energy inside her to barely dodge Niu Baoshan’s hands as they came for her neck, “No… It wasn’t on purpose… I didn’t mean to kill Xingzu…“

Her eyes were reddening and her tears fell continuously. She looked so pitiful.

Any other man would have backed off if he saw such a beautiful woman cry so miserably. At the very least, they would not get physical with her. But not Niu Baoshan. This woman was the one who killed his precious son and destroyed whatever was left of his family. He had cursed her in the face for years now, anyway. So, now that she had actually admitted to killing his son, he wasn’t going to back down!

Pak!

He slapped her hard across the face.

“I don’t believe you!” His eyes burned with rage. “Did you think you could get away by pretending to be pitiful? If that worked, half the prisons would be empty by now!”

That slap was clearly not enough. Niu Baoshan tried to strangle her again.

She tried her best to dodge his attacks and didn’t have any energy to cry anymore.

As she dodged him, her eyes darted about, hoping that a man might walk past. It didn’t matter if only one came, as long as that one could help her!

But there wasn’t a single person in sight. There were so many attendees at this party, yet this path seemed to be sealed off or something. Nobody came this way at all!

Fourth Missy Gan suddenly felt overwhelmed with despair.

Was she going to die here? At Niu Baoshan’s hands?

Everything had happened extremely quickly. It hadn’t taken more than half a minute.

Qi Yan had started thinking about whether he ought to hop down from the wall he was on and help the widow. Regardless of whether Niu Baoshan had the right to take revenge or not, he couldn’t just watch the man murder someone in front of his eyes.

But Song Caitang stopped him with a glare.

Fourth Missy Gan always gained confidence when a man appeared, so it wasn’t appropriate for Qi Yan to appear now…

She’d do it instead!

Qi Yan nodded and signaled to his subordinates on the ground to listen to Song Caitang’s orders.

Song Caitang waited until Fourth Missy Gan looked like she had completely run out of energy to dodge the attacks and was on the verge of giving up. Then, she waved her hand to get all the maids in the vicinity to swarm over and pull Niu Baoshan away.

Fourth Missy Gan’s face was all red and she was choking from being out of breath. When she saw Song Caitang emerge from the crowd, her eyes lit up like the younger woman was her savior, “Miss Song!”

But Niu Baoshan continued to struggle and roared, “Let go of me! She killed my son! I want to take revenge!”

Song Caitang looked at Niu Baoshan, then at Fourth Missy Gan, “Is there a misunderstanding between the both of you?”

Niu Baoshan bellowed, “There is no misunderstanding! I’m going to fucking kill her today! Don’t you dare stop me, or I’ll kill you too!”

Fourth Missy Gan shook her head profusely in fear, “There is a misunderstanding! Miss Song, you heard him! He wants to kill me! Please, save me!”

Song Caitang looked down at Fourth Missy Gan, who had fallen to her knees. Her voice was clear and calm, “I am helping the authorities to crack Commissioner Lu’s case, and both of you are considered persons connected to the case, but you’re fighting each other during this time of investigation… If I don’t ask you two any questions and let you go, Surveillance Commissioner Zhao will hold me responsible.”

“Madam Gan, since you claim that there is a misunderstanding between yourself and Niu Baoshan, why don’t you explain what’s going on?”

“I promise that you will be safe during this time.”

Her voice was on the slow side and she spoke in a peculiar rhythm that was comforting, but also came with a warning.

If Fourth Missy Gan wanted her help, then she had to make sure that Song Caitang did not get into any trouble for it, so everything had to be said here. If Fourth Missy Gan was willing to talk about it here, she would listen and intervene. If Fourth Missy Gan didn’t want to talk about it here, then she was going to let go of Niu Baoshan and wash her hands off this matter.

Fourth Missy Gan’s heart trembled as she secretly glanced at Niu Baoshan.

He was being held down now, but he was still struggling, as though he might suddenly break free, pounce on her and bite her to death.

She shuddered all over and quickly reached a decision.

She bowed to Song Caitang, “I wouldn’t dare to hide it from you… Niu Xingzu’s death back then… might have something to do with me…“

Song Caitang waved her hand and some maids got a chair for her as well as a cup of tea, so that she could quietly and calmly listen to Fourth Missy Gan confess.

“It was very hard for me to bring up my son by myself, so… when I moved in next to the Nius 11 years ago, after some time, I thought of remarrying. My feelings for Niu Xingzu were true.”

“But Niu Baoshan disapproved of our relationship. He felt that his son was clever, filial and a good craftsman, so his future was bright and he could find a nice, young lady to be his wife. Why should he marry a widow with a child?”

She glanced at Niu Baoshan with some anger, as though she still felt indignant about what happened back then, “He felt that because I’m pretty, I would attract a lot of trouble. And he even said that he didn’t know anything about my roots, so it was hard to say if I was really a widow or not… he forced Xingzu to choose between me and his father.”

“My son was only four at that time and didn’t understand a thing. He was afraid of strangers, was very timid, and would cry his lungs out whenever I was out of his sight. That… made me hesitate. No matter how much you like someone, you can’t go against their parents’ wishes. As long as Niu Baoshan disapproved of us, Xingzu and I were never going to be happy together.”

“I was already willing to take a step back, but Niu Baoshan only became more forceful and wanted me gone. But Xingzu wasn’t willing to give up on us. So, he tried to console me while finding ways to keep his father happy.”

“He had put in a lot of effort.”

For example, he would practice his art in the day and at night he would look for work in as many places as he could; he…. tried to get more people on his side.

He did his best to get into the good books of anybody Niu Baoshan liked and respected, so that this person could put in a good word for him in front of Niu Baoshan.

Back then, Lu Guangzong’s reputation was excellent and Niu Baoshan respected him a lot. Lu Guangzong was also a high ranking official with a lot of clout. Once, Niu Xingzu happened to run into Lu Guangzong, so he tried to get close to the old man.

He didn’t have much hope that things would work out, but Lu Guangzong was very kind and friendly, and he also happened to need a good woodworker to work on a project for him. This was the perfect chance. Niu Xingzu accepted the job.

Fourth Missy Gan’s voice began to crack as she went on, “Xingzu hoped that this job would make his father look at him in a new light. He hoped that Commissioner Lu would help to persuade his father to let us be together. My heart ached when I saw how hard Xingzu was working, but I was so touched too. I don’t think I’d ever find another man who would care so much about me again…“

“I didn’t want to lose him.”

“I too, hoped that things would work out. I wanted to be with him and grow old with him like a normal husband and wife. But things don’t always go the way we want them to. On that day, I went to the temple to worship Buddha and Xingzu came with me…“

She eyed Niu Baoshan, “We prayed that his father would approve of our relationship soon.” She bent her head and looked down as her fingers fiddled with the hem of her sleeve, “At first, everything was fine. But when we were about to head down the mountain, I… had a stomachache and had to go to the bathroom. I came back out to find that Xingzu had eaten something he shouldn’t have.”

“My place was having a rat infestation, so I got some cookies with rat poison mixed in and they were in my bag… Xingzu didn’t know about these cookies. He was just looking for something to munch on because he was hungry.”

Niu Baoshan’s teeth were chattering in anger, “It was YOU! You wicked woman, you did it on purpose, didn’t you? You deliberately fed it to my son, didn’t you?!”

“I didn’t… it was really an accident…“

As Fourth Missy Gan spoke, tears rolled down her cheeks again, “I really didn’t mean for this to happen…“

Song Caitang observed Fourth Missy Gan’s expression. Her eyes, lips, the timing of her reactions and expressions… everything looked fine.

She probably wasn’t lying.

“What happened after that?” Song Caitang rapped her knuckles on the chair’s armrest.

“After that… I was very scared,” Fourth Missy Gan covered her face with her hands, “Xingzu just lay on the ground and didn’t move at all. I really didn’t mean to bring harm to him, but he was already… I had a young son to take care of and I couldn’t let myself be arrested… I’d be sentenced to death…“

“I was too frightened and didn’t know what to do. My mind was a blur, so I dragged him to the foot of a tree by the roadside, covered him with some tree leaves and went down.”

“Shortly after I arrived home, I regretted doing that. Xingzu had been so good to me and I know that he would have forgiven me no matter what I’d done. But I couldn’t forgive myself… I gritted my teeth and went up again, hoping to bring him down so that he could be properly buried and own up to what I had done. But Xingzu was nowhere to be found.”

Song Caitang narrowed her eyes, “Nowhere to be found?”

“That’s right… he was nowhere to be found…“

Fourth Missy Gan’s expression froze, then began to change.

It was as though she had suddenly thought of something. Her eyes were slightly narrowed, her lips in a straighter line, and her expression was more relaxed.

She bit her lip and her pupils dilated in excitement, “That’s right! He had gone missing, but he didn’t die… perhaps he walked away! I didn’t poison him to death!”

Song Caitang raised an eyebrow.

There was something off about her expression now.

Fourth Missy Gan was lying.

Song Caitang sighed, “No, you knew that he was dead.”

Fourth Missy Gan’s gaze flickered as she continued to struggle with her own emotions, “No! I didn’t see his body then! So, he didn’t die!”

Song Caitang decided to drop a bomb at this point, “Niu Xingzu’s bones are in the corpse examination room in the courthouse right now.”

Fourth Missy Gan instantly froze, as though someone was squeezing her neck. Her eyeballs nearly fell out of their sockets from how round her eyes were.

She… she didn’t know about that!

The authorities had found Niu Xingzu’s bones?

Where?

She wanted to ask Song Caitang, but when she looked at Song Caitang’s jet black hair, serious red lips, as well as those bright eyes that seemed able to see through everything… she didn’t dare to ask.

Then when she remembered how Song Caitang was able to glean so much information from just examining a dead body… she heard that the King of Hades himself had taught her and the young woman had a way to find out everything about a victim…

Lying was clearly useless.

She didn’t dare to lie to Song Caitang.

Song Caitang watched as Fourth Missy Gan slowly bowed her head. She said, “Commissioner Lu started interacting with you more often, and some rumors went around because of that. Did this matter have anything to do with Niu Xingzu’s death?”

Fourth Missy Gan pursed her lips tightly and did not answer.

Song Caitang tried again, “It’s been more than ten years. Niu Xingzu has become nothing more than bones and even Commissioner Lu has left this world. There is no need to hide what happened anymore. Madam Gan, are you sure you want to keep quiet?”

Madam Gan paused for a long time before finally biting her lips and said, “Yes… Xingzu had asked Commissioner Lu to look out for me. He didn’t have to do so all the time – Xingzu just wanted him to help me out if I was facing any difficulty…“ She raised her head to meet Song Caitang’s gaze, “That day, I couldn’t find Xingzu’s body and was very scared. But Commissioner Lu came to look for me soon after and told me that Xingzu was already dead, but I didn’t have to be afraid. He had already taken care of everything and I wouldn’t be in trouble.”

Niu Baoshan’s eyes widened angrily, “My son had nothing to do with him and hardly knew him! Why would he do such a thing?!”

Fourth Missy Gan licked her dry lips, “Perhaps… it was because of that sandalwood box.”

Song Caitang recalled that Qi Yan had told her about a sandalwood box that Lu Guangzong had commissioned Niu Xingzu to make for him. But Niu Xingzu suddenly went missing one day and the box went missing too. Niu Baoshan did not see it and Lu Guangzong had not received it either.

If that was the case…

Her gaze darkened, “That sandalwood box is with you.”