After being released from prison, Li Huowang arrived at the backyard of the Cangshui County yamen. As soon as he arrived, he saw Mantou sticking its head into the horse trough, competing with the horse for water.
When Mantou smelled the familiar scent, it turned its head innocently and looked at him, it was hungry.
Li Huowang brought Mantou to the street. Although the whole Cangshui County was in panic due to the baby theft, at least there were still people doing business on the street.
"Red oil wonton?" Li Huowang looked at the unfamiliar food and walked towards the second shop with Mantou. "Thorn noodle?"
Two bowls of green wide noodles with black spots were served, covered with a layer of fragrant chili sauce.
After seeing Mantou enjoying the food, Li Huowang took chopsticks from the bamboo basket and started eating.
The wide noodles were unique and made his mouth numb, but there was no Sichuan pepper in it. The numbness was caused by the small thorns inside the noodle scraping against his tongue.
The green color of the noodle was actually dyed with thorns. What's more special was that the thorns quickly became soft after entering the mouth.
While Li Huowang was eating this unique food, two men walked in. They spoke in low voices with a special laughter that only men would understand.
"Is it true? How could I deceive you, my brother? There are not only male ghosts but also female ghosts coming out of the Ghost Gate. The female ghost is so beautiful, hehehe~!"
"The female ghost is also suffering... hehehe~! How can I ignore it? The next day I lost eight taels!"
Hearing this, Li Huowang couldn't help but frown. The people in this world live and die in confusion. They believe in these rumors and have no idea what is happening around them.
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While listening to the man boasting about his love affairs, Li Huowang buried his head and ate his noodles.
After finishing his noodles in a hurry, Li Huowang thought that since the last divination talisman worked, he planned to use it again.
He lit the divination talisman again, swallowed the ashes, but this time it didn't work like the last time.
"Why is this divination talisman working sometimes and not working other times? Did I draw it wrong?" Li Huowang looked at the book of divination talismans in his hand and carefully pondered.
Since it was only the second time he used it, Li Huowang was obviously unfamiliar with it.
"Sir, the boss of Shuxintang has come to report to the government!"
As soon as the catcher's voice shouted out, Lou Zhixian pulled him away. "Don't affect the sir's work!"
"I just don't believe it. It's so hard to catch the thief who stole the baby!" Since divination didn't work, Li Huowang decided to use a stupid method and waited.
But after squatting for several days in a row, they seemed to know that Li Huowang was coming, and the baby theft in Cangshui County stopped so strangely.
In a daze, Li Huowang was awakened by the sound of people in his room. When he pushed open the window and looked out, the crowd was rushing eastward along the street, and everyone's expression was extremely excited.
"What is this..." Li Huowang left the guest room and followed them.
Not long after following those people, Li Huowang knew what they were going to do. They surrounded the intersection and tied the Embroidered Man to a wooden stake in the center of the intersection.
"Execution~!" Lou Zhixian threw the red sign and was immediately cheered.
When Li Huowang walked over, the official Lou Zhixian, who was full of authority, sat up and gave up his position.
"Sir, you're here? You can get credit for catching this thief!"
"Are you going to execute him? So fast? Isn't it supposed to be after autumn?"County magistrate Lou looked at the embroidered man with a fierce expression, as if he wanted to eat him alive. "This man is guilty of heinous crimes! How could he be beheaded! For the sake of seeking revenge for the people of Cangshui County, he deserves to be tortured!"
Just then, a muscular man wearing a red short jacket walked out, took a bowl of yellow wine and drank it up, then raised the machete in his hand and began to work.
Every time a piece of flesh was peeled off the embroidered man, cheers came from the crowd.
"What does it mean when those people stuff copper coins into the constable's pocket?" Li Huowang pointed to the corner with his hand.
"Oh, those are the families of the victims. They want to buy back the thief's flesh and bones to feed the dogs, so that he will never be reincarnated. If the hatred is too deep, some people even eat the flesh and drink the blood of their enemies."
"Hey, according to the Daliang Law, this is not legal, but when I think about how that thief almost defiled my precious daughter, I not only want to do it, but I also want to take a bite out of him! He is really hateful!"
The embroidered man's body was gradually dismembered, becoming extremely terrifying, but instead of being afraid, everyone, young and old, became more and more excited, shouting cheers continuously. This scene was bizarre and inexplicable.
With every stroke of the knife, accompanied by cheers from the surrounding crowd, the embroidered man let out a heart-wrenching scream.
As he screamed, he looked around with a resentful expression, and instead of screaming in pain, he cursed loudly, the more painful he was, the louder he cursed.
"What are you pretending for? What's wrong with me playing around? I've played so many times, and not one of them was perfect! The women here are all sluts! They are all prostitutes!!"
This immediately aroused anger and curses from the crowd. If it weren't for the constables holding him back, they would have killed him long ago.
"Hmm? Wait a minute!" Li Huowang seemed to see something and quickly walked down.
When he came to the embroidered man, he was shocked to see the bloody knife marks on his body, which just happened to form the hexagram he had previously divined with human bones! "Are you telling the truth?"
"Am I lying to you? I've had over a hundred women, and not one of them was a virgin! The women in Cangshui have all been ruined by disasters!"
This sounded like a disgusting remark before death, but Li Huowang didn't think so when he saw the hexagram on his body.
"Virginity...virginity..." Li Huowang thought of something and quickly rushed to County Magistrate Lou, saying, "County Magistrate Lou, you said earlier that besides women being defiled and babies being stolen, there were other things being stolen?"
"Yes, what's wrong? Have you found something, sir?"
"Find all the stolen goods! How much was stolen and what was stolen, I want to know!"
Upon hearing Li Huowang's decisive words, County Magistrate Lou quickly went to work.
It's not easy to find a stolen child, but it's easy to count stolen goods.
In no time, Li Huowang had listed all the stolen items in his hand.
"Angelica...Cinchona...Cinnabar..." As Li Huowang looked at these items, his brow furrowed tighter and tighter.
He thought of the embroidered man's words about virginity, the seductive female ghost mentioned by someone earlier, and the missing children.
Finally, Li Huowang picked up a brush and wrote a few words on the paper in his hand: Red Pill, Five Sweet Dews, and Bone Rot.
As he looked at everything he had recorded, Li Huowang's eyes widened.
"The properties of this medicine...and this ratio...this is a prescription for a pill! Someone is using these things to refine pills!"