Volume Two: Blood on the Bodhi Tree, Chapter Twelve: A Convincing, Heart-Pounding Stunt

In the morning, sunlight spilled through the window and fell across the fair face of Qianqian She. Her expression was grave and focused. Before her lay an injured dog.

The dog had run in on its own. It was covered in blood when it entered, with a small knife stuck in its leg.

Seeing how pitiful it looked, Qianqian set about cleaning the wound. But just as she drew out the butcher knife at her side and was about to begin, her hand suddenly froze in midair, as though she had recalled something. She hurried to the kitchen, lit a large bundle of firewood, and placed the knife over the flames to sterilize it.

After Xiao Yan had explained the method to her the night before, Qianqian had come to believe it as well.

Just then, a commotion rose outside the door.

Qianqian, who had been carefully tending the wound, frowned faintly and looked up to see a crowd gathered at the doorway: officers and many townsfolk. Standing at the very front was the old woman who had come with her son to beg for help the previous night.

"It was this woman, Constable Zhao! Arrest her! She is a murderer!" the old woman said through clenched teeth.

Constable Zhao was the foremost constable in Hundred Herbs Town. He was twenty years old, handsome, and highly skilled in martial arts, yet still unmarried.

He was the ideal match in the eyes of many young women in town. Unfortunately, Zhao looked down entirely on the vulgar painted faces of the local girls. He only had eyes for Qianqian She.

"Ma'am, no need to rush. We constables handle things impartially," Zhao said, signaling for the crowd to quiet down as he walked toward Qianqian.

Qianqian merely lifted her head slightly to glance at the crowd, then lowered it again and continued cleaning the dog's wound as though she had not seen them at all.

"Hmph! That woman is still putting on airs! She thinks she can kill someone and not pay with her life?" said a woman dressed like a matron, her voice cold.

"Exactly. She may be a pretty girl, but who would have thought her heart so vicious?" another woman added.

In truth, nearly all the women in town disliked Qianqian. Aside from the fact that she was simply too beautiful, there was another reason: she was unlike them.

She never gossiped, never spread rumors about outsiders, and never had much to say to them. She was far too independent.

Unafraid of the world and untouched by its intrigues, she fit not at all the image a woman of this age was supposed to have.

"I did not kill anyone. Go away," Qianqian said softly, without looking up, while applying medicine to the dog.

Her tone was calm and measured, neither humble nor arrogant.

"Well... Biao, I do believe you, but..." Zhao approached and said with a smile toward Qianqian.

At that moment, a young monk came out from inside the house. He wore a faint smile. Glancing at the crowd, then at the constable, he said, "But what? If you believe her, then leave already. What are you all doing here? You're disturbing people in their sleep! Do you understand? Have you no sense of public decency? Disturbing someone's sleep is as good as robbing and murdering them!"

"You... Who are you? Why are you here?" Zhao stared at Xiao Yan, who had emerged from the house, and for a moment could not make sense of what he was saying.

Though he felt a flicker of displeasure in his heart, he held it back and asked with a smile, "Biao, who is this monk?"

Xiao Yan frowned. He nearly blurted out, "I'm your grandfather," but in the end he shook his head and suppressed his laughter.

Qianqian did not answer Zhao's question. Instead, she frowned and turned to Xiao Yan. "What is the wound suturing method you spoke of last night? Do you really use a needle to sew it closed?"

With that, she pointed Xiao Yan toward the dog's injury.

Of course, this was no challenge to Xiao Yan. Back when he was studying medicine in university, one of his girlfriends had fretted over exactly this. Xiao Yan had no choice but to teach himself first, then teach her. Unfortunately, the moment he finished teaching her, she ran off with some rich old geezer.

"Oh, yes. It is the approximation or reconstruction of tissues or organs that have been incised or torn by trauma, in order to restore their function," Xiao Yan recited almost reflexively. When he had studied it, it had not been especially difficult; he had always been rather interested in the subject.

But when Xiao Yan said that, everyone present looked utterly baffled.

They could not understand a word of it.

Not only them, even Qianqian did not understand some of the terms. Still, judging from the general tone and meaning of the sentence, she could roughly grasp what he meant.

But... wait a moment...

While the others were still struggling to interpret Xiao Yan's words, Zhao had already come to his senses.

He had come today to investigate the cause of Wu the Honest's death. How had things ended up like this?

This was completely against the script.

Zhao hurriedly corrected himself. "Ahem, Biao, I came today to uncover the truth. Rest assured, I won't let anything happen to you."

As he spoke, he looked at Xiao Yan, his eyes filled with hostility.

Yet he was highly confident and, of course, would never believe that this monk, who looked so ridiculous, could be his rival.

"Constable Zhao! You cannot be so biased. It was this woman, together with this wild monk, who killed my son last night! You must uphold justice!" the old woman cried anxiously.

Though advanced in years, she could naturally see Zhao's intentions. Still, she did not dare offend the constable rashly.

"Exactly! A life for a life! Stop dragging in all this other nonsense! Arrest these two and throw them in jail until the county magistrate sentences them to death!"

Someone else shouted loudly in agreement.

Yet Xiao Yan and Qianqian seemed not to hear them at all. Xiao Yan walked over, crouched down, and slowly explained, "Sutures are governed by certain principles. The threads used for stitching can be divided into two kinds: absorbable and nonabsorbable."

"Mm." Qianqian listened earnestly, her beautiful eyes blinking at him, a strange light shimmering within them.

...

"You... you two! Enough! If you still refuse to cooperate, don't blame me for being rude..." Zhao was almost driven mad seeing the two of them converse so intimately.

He had never once seen Qianqian speak so gently. He had always thought she would speak only in short, cool, clipped phrases.

Still, Zhao was clearly no ordinary man. He quickly suppressed his anger and said in a low voice, "Biao, don't be deceived by this wild monk. In my opinion, this wild monk is the true murderer! Men, seize the wild monk and bring him back to the yamen!"

As soon as he finished speaking, Qianqian suddenly stood up. Looking at the crowd, then turning her head to face Zhao, she said, "Last night, her son nearly died! He had already stopped breathing. Who saved him? It was Xiao Yan!"

"You..."

The crowd was stunned by Qianqian's sudden words.

"What do you mean, nearly died? Stopped breathing? If he stopped breathing, wasn't he already dead? How could he possibly have been saved? This wild monk is the murderer!" someone said after carefully weighing Qianqian's words, and immediately sensed something was wrong.

Was that not tantamount to admitting that the wild monk was the murderer?

"Mm, that is indeed the case... Biao, whatever the truth may be, I must handle this impartially!" Zhao said with a nod.

"Didn't you hear me clearly? When he had already stopped breathing, he was saved back to life. When this old woman and her son and daughter-in-law left the door that time, Wu the Honest was still alive," Xiao Yan said with a grin, looking at Zhao as though he were an idiot.

One update today. I have something to do, and I will revise it tomorrow.