An Oriental Odyssey

    "Little hoodlum," That's what he called Yuan'an, "Come over, I've been refining this pill for forty-seven days, come and try it."

　　"What will happen?" Yuan'an nonchalantly asked.

　　"You will definitely look better than you do now once you eat it." The man in black flattered.

　　Yuan'an scoffed: "I'm already beautiful enough. Since it's so good, you can eat it yourself." 

    Hearing this, the man in black threw the copper plate on the table with a slam, and the refined pill he had just spent forty-seven days, the pill he had just been claiming was so precious was thrown into the fire. 

　　Yuan'an smirked: "I knew it. Last time you refined a pill for eighty-six days and also just threw it away... Isn't it exhausting? Knowing all this, why bother to continue to refine medicine with so much effort?"

　　The man in black raised his sleeves and turned to Yuan'an with his arms on his hips. "You know that I have worked so hard yet you won't help me test the medicine!"

　　Yuan'an retorted, "You don't even dare to eat it yourself and you want me to eat it?!"

　　The man in black angrily responded: "Hmph, since you're like this, you shouldn't have let your brother go, you should have kept him for me to test the medicine!"

　　As his words landed, Yuan'an's face sank, with one step forward, a sharp dagger was already on the neck of the man in black, the man in black raised his head, looked down at her, and the two stood in a stalemate.

　 Yuan'an did not have a smile on his face at this time: "You and I have an agreement, you are hiding in this basement, because of me, no one dares to come over to disturb you. My brother is an idiot, I scared him off this time, so he will not dare to come here again, but if there is next time, if he doesn't look where he's going and falls into your hands again, I ask that you consider my face. Only I can mess with my brother, if you dare to use him for your experiments, I'm telling you now I'll kill you... Do you understand?"

　　The man in black cautiously and solemnly nodded, "Understood. The queen who suddenly becomes hostile and changes her face." He stretched out a finger and gently pushed away Yuan'an's blade, "...What is this knife for? I didn't give it to you, did I? Is it for cutting meat? Did you bring me meat?" The man in black's eyes shined brightly.

　　"The five-spice beef made by the cook is the same as what you talked about last time. It's well-cooked on the outside, tender on the inside, and a jar of tribute wine. It's in the box over there." He quickly sat on the ground holding the food box that Yuan'an brought, he took out the wine and meat, and didn't bother to use chopsticks or cutlery, he immediately devoured the meat, and halfway through eating, he looked at Yuan'an, "Ah, I don't owe you any favors. The invisible cloak you lost before, I've sewed another one for you, this time you must remember not to lose it again..."

　　"Alright, alright, thank you." Yuan'an squatted beside him, she smiled, eyes twinkling, "Is the wine and meat good? Is it delicious?"

　　"The meat is good, the sweetness is a bit heavy. Remember to put less sugar next time..."

　　"Rest assured." Yuan'an graciously said. 

　　The man in black suddenly felt uneasy, and raised his eyes to look at Yuan'an: "...Little hoodlum, you are smiling so suspiciously, what are you going to do? What precious treasure of mine did you remember baby?"

　　"Look at what you are saying... but I indeed do have something I don't understand, and I want to ask you about it, teacher," Yuanan smiled casually, seeing that he was almost done, she went over and explained the situation: She explained how she got involved in Xiao Yu's case of false accusation of murder, and how she got entangled with LouYang's constable and how they bet on catching the real murderer, and how they went to the morgue to see the dance girl Ru Yue's corpse and the strangeness of the corpse... 

　　"Just now, my brother's face was lightly touched by the fire and his eyebrows and eye lashes were gone. But the female corpse had all her hair, it was even rolled up. The hands and feet were all hooked, and the blood rushed to the skin. The color of the skin was blue and the coroner said that the form was the same as one that was burned to death, but it did not seem to have touched the fire!"

　　The man in black licked the beef sauce off his fingers, and seemed to be a little interested in this incident.

　　Yuan'an was even more enthusiastic: "And there was water next to the scene where she was killed... It's just that doesn't make sense. It's like, this thing was done by a ghost or some supernatural being!"

　　The man in black laughed: "You idiots, you have little knowledge and can't understand things, you just want to blame ghosts and supernatural beings. What did you say? No matter how you look at it, it appears it was burned to death, but it didn't touch the fire, right?"

　　"Correct!"

　　The man in black stood up, found a piece of leather to wipe his hands, dug out a fragrant hand ointment from a jar on the side and smeared it on the back of his hand while talking: "If you want someone to die, there are two ways. The most common is to harm them physically, slicing their neck, cutting their stomach, drowning, burning and strangling are all conventional methods."

　　Yuan'an: "Besides this, is there any other way?"

　    Man in black: "Of course. Kill them mentally. Make them see the scariest things, so much so that they can't live anymore. Make them think to death. The human mind produces a huge stimulus, and it is difficult for the physical body to adapt fast enough. Like this, can cause a person to eventually die from their own illusion. And the described state of the dead body is fully in line with the scene of someone who died in their own illusions!

    Yuan'an's eyes widened as she heard this: "Are you telling the truth? Has there really been such a case?"

    Man in Black: "Many years ago, there was a sword caster in Qilian Mountain. He finally made a good sword with great difficulty, but he didn't guard it well and he lost it. The swordsman suspected that it was his apprentice who stole it, so he tied the young man up, cut his veins, blindfolded him, and put a bucket next to him so that the young man could hear the dripping sound of water, making him think that he was bleeding. . Consequently, it didn't take long for the young man to die, as if he had lost too much blood and died. But in reality, the wound on his veins had already coagulated!"

    Yuan'an got up and wandered around a few steps: "What you said just gave me a bit of inspiration. If this is the case, Ru Yue did not really burn to death in the room. It was an illusion created by someone, and she was actually scared to death, but how did this happen? Ah, thinking of it..."

    The man in black curled his mouth and said: "Do you still have to ask me? If you kneel down and think about it, it was drugs! But if you want to thoroughly understand the situation, you have to go to the place where she died!"

    Yuan'an seriously nodded: "You are right, I have to go to that Qianduan Pavilion to explore!"

    At the same time, the dying salt dealer in the cell finally couldn't survive Zhao Lanzhi's interrogation. For two days, he only drank salt water. Now his lips are dry and chapped, and his chest was burning like it was on fire. At this moment, he was exhausted and muttering to himself: "I'm thirsty, I'm thirsty..."

    Zhao Lanzhi's experience told him that it was almost time.

    He put a bowl of water on the saltwater in front of the dealer's mouth and happily said: "So, what's the use of making so much money? At the critical time, you can't even drink a mouthful of clean water. How's it going? Will you talk or not? When, where, and from whom did you get your private salt?"

    The salt dealer bit the edge of the water bowl with all his strength. This time Zhao Lanzhi did not take the water bowl back, instead, he sent it forward and let the person drink it. The salt dealer gulped twice, then spat out the water, wanting to cry without tears, and finally collapsed: "I'll talk, I'll talk - the person who traded with me, I don't know his name, he had a medium-sized figure, and there was nothing special about his eyebrows, and such a guy can be found among a random pile of people. But once, the two of us drank happily, and when we were drinking, I saw an eagle tattoo on his wrist."

    Constable Zhao smiled, still patient: "Let's be more clear, where were you trading?"

    "Qianduan Pavilion."

    "Qianduan Pavilion? It's Qianduan Pavilion again!"

    Zhao Lanzhi turned around and pondered for a moment: The two recent cases, the strange death of the dancer Ru Yue, and the salt dealer's trading place are all in this Qianduan Pavilion. Could there be a subtle connection between the two? If he wanted to understand what was going on, it seems he had to go explore the Qianduan Pavilion.