Chapter 20: Buddhist Poison (8)

The candlelight flickered but never went out.
Inside the Yanzhou City Militia Commander’s office, Li Kuo sat solemnly at the head, listening to Zhang Yanji’s report.
“A major riot broke out at the Wu family’s manor on the outskirts of the city. According to Wu Weixian, the head of the Wu family, the hired servants and household workers became mentally confused while eating in the dining room and suddenly started attacking each other.”
After a brief pause, Zhang Yanji continued, “Wu Weixian said that the deceased servants were all bitten in the throat by their companions and died from excessive blood loss. The scenes were extremely gruesome. It is preliminarily estimated that they were drugged to lose control of their minds and then exploited.”
Li Kuo’s expression remained icy. Hearing this, he simply waved his hand and said, “Go on.”
“Mm!”
Zhang Yanji nodded and continued, “Last night, a silk shop in the southern part of the city was suddenly set on fire. All seventeen people inside, including the shop owner Liu Run’er, perished in the blaze—no one survived.”
“Are there any clues?”
Li Kuo tapped his fingers skeptically. The fire started in such a strange way, right in the middle of the night. What was most bizarre was that none of the seventeen people in the silk shop survived. Even the heaviest sleepers would surely notice the flames, right?
“According to the coroner from the Jiangdu government office who went to the scene, all the victims had a deep cut at the throat, which was the fatal wound.”
After another pause, Zhang Yanji added, “In other words, the fire was started later; their real cause of death was excessive blood loss. The murderer set the fire to cover up the truth and mislead the authorities.”
“Even worse, according to reports from the county governors of the surrounding counties, the police officers in their county offices died for unknown reasons last night. They were found naked with obvious scratches on their bodies.”
Zhang Yanji sighed and placed a stack of reports on the ebony desk.
So many strange incidents occurring in one day could hardly be mere coincidences. Then who was behind this scheme, and what was their goal?
“Hmph! Such brutal methods—who could be responsible?”
Li Kuo angrily slammed his fist on the desk, filled with rage.
Although he had not been in the Jianghuai region for long, his affection for these people wasn’t as deep as that for the folks he governed in Anxi. Yet seeing them suffer and die unjustly filled him with indignation.
Moreover, he already had a vague idea of who was behind this. Tibetan Buddhist monks—it had to be them. Their methods of killing were strikingly similar to those used in Zhongnan Mountain in Chang’an.

What he couldn’t understand was why, at this critical moment, the Tibetan Buddhist monks were invading Yangzhou City in large numbers. Even according to the teachings in the Luo Shu, they should have focused their efforts on manipulating the people in Guanlong and Hexi regions—so why come to this unimportant Jianghuai area?
Damn it! If they hadn’t lost track of those monks early in the morning, things might have made significant progress by now.
“The Luo Shu appears, chaos overspreads the Central Plains; the Buddha begins his fasting, and the two capitals fall. Five dou of rice goes to Shambhala, and war breaks out, changing the lands of Gualiang! Five dou of rice goes to Shambhala, and war breaks out, changing the lands of Gualiang…”
Li Kuo clenched his fists tightly and frowned. What did this prophecy mean? Could it be hinting that great turmoil would arise in Gualiang under the Tang Dynasty?
“Yan Ji, come with me to the governor’s office right away.”
As if suddenly remembering something, Li Kuo stood up abruptly and strode outside…
“When Li Tuanlian asks questions later, say only what you should say. Better keep anything unnecessary firmly buried in your heart—understood?”
In the back hall of the governor’s office, Xu Runda, the deputy governor of Yangzhou, stood with his hands behind his back, giving instructions to a group of coroners. They had been involved in autopsies of victims from silk shops in the southern part of the city and had, to varying degrees, come across secrets they shouldn’t have seen.
An outsider facing a pile of charred corpses would surely miss any flaws, but as coroners who dealt with dead bodies daily, they couldn’t possibly be unaware of the true causes of death.
Now, this Li Kuo, acting as a Tuanlian, was meddling in the Jianghuai salt case—apparently aiming to side with the Eastern Palace. Under such circumstances, he couldn’t afford to reveal any weaknesses that might give Li Kuo an advantage.
“Sir, we’ve remembered your words,” replied the coroners.
These were all seasoned veterans who had long navigated the world of power and fame, so they certainly understood what Xu Runda was worried about. For them, the best way to keep these higher-ups satisfied was to stay silent and pretend not to know anything. The more humble one appeared in front of the powerful, the easier it was to survive—bowing and scraping was a principle followed by everyone in the bureaucracy.
“Mm.”
Xu Runda nodded in satisfaction and cleared his throat. “Then let’s go…”
“You say there are knife marks on the victims’ throats?” Li Kuo demanded coldly, staring intently into one of the coroner’s eyes.
“Yes, um, no, not really. It might have been caused by a beam falling on them after death—injuries sustained after death!”
After being questioned for so long by Li Kuo, the coroner was already sweating profusely. With such an obvious flaw exposed now, how could he cover it up?

As expected, Li Kuo seized on this point and raised his voice, “You clearly said earlier that the wound was fatal. Why do you change your story now?”
“This, this…”
The coroner rolled up his sleeve to wipe the sweat from his forehead and swallowed hard.
“Ah, General Li, why bother over such trivial details? In my opinion, it’s clearly the shopkeeper’s negligence—kicking the coals out of the stove while getting up at night that led to this tragedy.”
Seeing that the coroner was about to expose the truth, Xu Runda quickly stepped in to defuse the situation.
With Li Kuo’s intelligence, if he continued to press him, the truth would eventually come out. It wasn’t that Xu Runda was timid; it was just that times were turbulent, and such troubles should be avoided whenever possible.
Li Kuo snapped, “Counselor Xu, what do you mean by this? The coroner’s statements are inconsistent—there must be something suspicious. You keep blocking my inquiries. Are you afraid of something?”
Hearing this, Xu Runda smiled brightly and said, “As you put it, I’m just trying to give you some advice to prevent you from going down the wrong path. If you don’t mind, of course you can keep asking.”
“Then that’s good!”
Li Kuo gave him a glare before turning back to the coroner. After some pressure from him, Xu Runda surely wouldn’t dare interfere anymore. The coroner had clearly been threatened, which was why he changed his story. As long as he applied enough pressure, there was no doubt he would reveal the truth.
“I’ll ask you again: Are there any obvious scratch marks on the victim’s body?”
“This, this…”
The coroner, his face pale, bowed to Li Kuo and said, “The victim’s body has been completely burned, making it impossible to identify. How could we possibly tell if there are any scratch marks?”