Chapter 70: They Are Eating People
With Lu Ye, the Assistant Minister of Rites, forced to step down, Fang Wenfu—the man originally meant to be the scapegoat—was spared and released from the Ministry of Criminal Justice.
He had been inside for twenty days and came out rail-thin, which broke old Fang Xiaolin’s heart.
"You’re back, that’s all that matters! You’re back!"
Having survived a crisis that nearly saw him bury his own son and could have led to the extermination of his entire clan, Fang Xiaolin was now filled with nothing but relief. He no longer cared much about whether his eldest son could resume his post as a fourth-rank official.
But he had forgotten that things would not stop just because he willed it.
Fang Wenfu was out, but whether his position could be restored was another matter entirely. With just the lift of a finger from the right person, he could be thrown back into the Imperial Prison.
The game had begun, and no piece could leave the board before the end.
Unless it was dead.
Another letter was delivered into Fang Xiaolin’s hands. Previously, the Fang family had only spread rumors, using them as a pretext to lash out at the Lu family. Now, the time had come for them to truly start paying the price.
Fang Xiaolin read the list of tasks the mastermind had laid out for his family. One by one, he went through them, each making his heart pound in terror. A single one of these tasks was enough to get them all beheaded.
On the surface, these tasks seemed chaotic and unrelated, but he was certain they were all connected, all part of a massive conspiracy aimed at the Lu family.
Pitting the Fang family against the Lu family was like throwing an egg against a stone. Twenty days ago, Fang Xiaolin wouldn’t have dared, even in his wildest dreams, to make an enemy of the Lu family. But now, he had no choice.
If he cowered and tried to seek peace, the only fate awaiting the Fang family was utter ruin. This was especially true since he had already spread rumors to attack the Lu family—a fact they could not possibly be ignorant of.
Even if he backed down now, the Lu family would retaliate. He would be completely defenseless, left to die an even more miserable death.
The mastermind was using him, but this was his only path forward. Retreat meant death; his only option was to gamble everything on this one chance.
Be the blade in someone else’s hand, or be the meat on his enemy’s block? It wasn’t even a choice.
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Good people always need solid evidence to prove a crime. Bad people, on the other hand, can invent any crime they wish.
This time, however, Xiao Li didn’t plan on resorting to any dirty tricks. The corruption of this world was far filthier than any method she could possibly devise.
She didn’t even need to commit any evil deeds herself. She only had to lift a small corner of the world’s veil, and the darkness and rot festering beneath would swallow countless souls.
The bait had been cast, one piece at a time. All she had to do was wait for it to ferment, to brew, and finally, to erupt.
The ninth day of the ninth month, the Double Ninth Festival, began as a brilliant, sunny day.
But just as the sky began to brighten, a scream tore through the dawn.
In the Capital City, at a brothel tucked away behind the West Street market, there were dead. A lot of them.
The screams alerted the soldiers of the Patrol Camp. When they went inside to investigate, they were all left in stunned silence.
Many people had died, and in gruesome ways, but that wasn’t what shocked the soldiers most. The true shock came from the victims’ identities.
They were all men from first and second-tier aristocratic families, several of whom held high-ranking positions at court.
With these esteemed lords from aristocratic families dead in their patrol zone, the soldiers of the Patrol Camp felt as if the sky was caving in.
Men from the Ministry of Justice and the Ministry of Criminal Justice arrived swiftly. As the bodies were carried out one by one, it was clear the fatal wound was a large gash in the neck. However, their injuries didn’t stop there. Their chests were riddled with stab wounds, like hornets’ nests. All ten of their fingers had been severed and their kneecaps had been gouged out. Most horrifically, when the forensic doctor inspected the area between their legs, he found it had been beaten into a bloody pulp.
The forensic doctor concluded that the neck wounds hadn’t been immediately fatal. They had been tortured for some time *after* their throats were cut, only then being allowed to die. This explained why each man’s face was frozen in an expression of sheer terror, their eyes wide and unclosable.
The cause of death was easy to determine. The culprits seemed just as obvious: the courtesans of the brothel.
The brothel’s madam took a headcount and found that every courtesan who had attended to the men had vanished into thin air. Not only were the women gone, but they had also taken all their gold, silver, and valuables. It was clearly a premeditated, organized slaughter.
While the Ministry of Justice was still investigating, representatives from each of the victims’ families arrived to claim the bodies.
Most of the victims were from second-tier aristocratic families. The most shocking discovery, however, was that one of them was Lu Ye’s paternal cousin. A member of the Lu Family had died in the massacre.
The case was not yet closed, so by law, the bodies could not be removed. But the Minister of the Ministry of Justice could not afford to offend these powerful families. In the end, he allowed most of the bodies to be taken, keeping only a few of the less prominent victims as evidence.
"Minister, Minister, there’s trouble!"
A Government Official rushed in, clutching a piece of paper. "Minister, you must see this."
Qin Mu, the Minister of the Ministry of Justice, took the paper and saw that it was a public letter, jointly signed by the courtesans of the Chang Chun Building.
The Chang Chun Building appeared to be a cheap brothel, tucked away on the impoverished West Street, a place where even common peddlers and laborers could go to seek pleasure.
In reality, however, the back courtyard of the Chang Chun Building was a different world entirely. It was a venue that exclusively served nobles from the great aristocratic families—those with particularly depraved tastes.
The letter’s authors were the courtesans who served in this hidden courtyard. Some had been purchased, others abducted off the streets, and still others tricked into coming.
Some were commoners, others were the daughters of wealthy families. There were girls, and there were boys.
The oldest of them were merely fourteen or fifteen; the youngest, just six. No one ever survived in that place for more than a year.
The noble officials would sneak in to unleash their most cruel desires. Beatings and verbal abuse were the mildest of torments. Some enjoyed slicing skin and carving flesh with knives during their assaults.
They tortured, violated, flayed, and deboned them for sport. After tormenting them to death, they cooked and ate their victims.
Yes. They ate people.
They were turned into fine delicacies, paired with exquisite wine, and savored with abandon.
A dried-up well behind the Chang Chun Building was perpetually covered by a massive boulder. The official reason was to prevent people from falling in. In reality, it was a dumping ground for bones. Inside, the boiled-clean remains were piled high as a mountain. If it were ever opened, the stench would fill the heavens.
After reading the letter, Qin Mu’s face darkened, and he clenched the paper in his fist. "Where did you get this? Who else has seen it?"
He was the Minister of the Ministry of Justice, but he was also a direct descendant of the Qin Family’s main branch. He had to consider more than just the investigation.
The Government Official, completely oblivious to his imminent doom, answered honestly, "They’re circulating everywhere outside. A lot of people have already seen them."
SLAM!
Qin Mu shot to his feet and strode out the door. Just as the official had said, crowds of people were reading copies of the same paper, their faces contorted with righteous indignation and uncontainable fury.
"Bring my horse."
The Government Official, having no idea he’d just had a brush with death, respectfully fetched the horse. "Minister, your horse is ready."
By the time Qin Mu and his men reached the Chang Chun Building, it was already surrounded by an impenetrable crowd of commoners. The dry well in the back had been uncovered, and the scene was exactly as the flyer had described: an overwhelming stench filled the air.
Someone bold had already lowered a bucket into the well. After rattling it around a few times, they slowly hoisted it back up, filled to the brim with white bones.
"It’s real! They’re bones! Everything written on that paper is true!"
"The Chang Chun Building is eating people! They’re eating people!"