False evidence

Chapter 426 Rekindling the Bond (11)

Jiang Budai would occasionally bring me sick or injured stray cats and dogs, but he never took favors for nothing; he would always cast a divination for me.

Although I was unable to obtain the royal remains using the three-legged sheep last time, I am still very grateful to him.

But this time, what he delivered was a dead body!
The body was able to fit into a snakeskin bag not only because the flesh had dried and shriveled, but also because it was the mummified body of a child!
I asked in a low voice, "What do you mean this thing is mine?"

Jiang Budai put down the snakeskin bag, picked up the bottle, and took a big gulp of water. "Take a good look at what's in the bag first."

Seeing his increasingly strange gaze, I suspiciously squatted down and opened the snakeskin bag again.

Upon closer inspection, I noticed something was amiss.

This looks like a child's mummified body, but who has hair on their body?
I had heard Lu Zelin say that ancient corpses could grow scales and feathers or even transform into corpses due to changes in feng shui, but the appearance of this mummified corpse was really too strange.

The more I looked at it, the more suspicious I became, so I simply opened the bag halfway.

Now I finally realized that it was indeed a mummified corpse, but it wasn't a human body; it was a macaque!
I looked at Jiang Budai and saw him nod at me. A thought struck me, so I found a pair of gloves, put them on, and pulled the monkey carcass out of the snakeskin bag.

He glanced at the monkey's rear end and was immediately startled again.

This is actually one of the two macaques brought back from Nanjing, it's Er Gou Dan!
This monkey was perfectly fine just a few days ago, how did it suddenly die?

And in such a short time, it turned into a dried corpse!
Also, the body surface was shriveled, but when you picked it up, it seemed boneless and limp.

I put the monkey carcass back into the bag and asked Jiang Budai what exactly happened.

Jiang Budai, however, said, "Heavenly secrets cannot be revealed."

I'm getting really impatient. What kind of tricks are you playing with me at a time like this?

Jiang Budai gulped down the rest of his water, took a few deep breaths, and said, "Don't misunderstand. I didn't kill the monkey. I went to a specific place on a chosen day and brought it back. When I saw the monkey, it was already in its current state."

How could it be like this?

As a veterinarian, asking such a question is incredibly unprofessional. But the questions in my mind have expanded to the point where I can't think of anything else.

Jiang Budai said in a low voice, "There are some things I don't want to say, but I really can't say them! I can only tell you two things now. First, this monkey is not dead!"

"Bullshit!"

Even if I were a quack, could I not tell the difference between the dead and the living?

Jiang Budai then asked me, "Have you forgotten something?"

I waved my hand forcefully. "Just say what you have to say. Be clear. I'm really losing patience."

Jiang Budai pointed to the snakeskin bag on the ground and said, "I found this monkey on the crossbeam of the pavilion in front of Jiang Baohan's grave."

His reminder made me realize that there was something I hadn't done yet.

Jiang Baohan wrote down how to handle his funeral arrangements and even requested that a memorial tablet be made for him. Out of respect for the dead, I arranged his burial. But when it comes to the memorial tablet, we're not related, we're practically enemies. Where am I supposed to put such a tablet?
We can't exactly treat him like an ancestor and keep him at home, can we?
So I pretended not to know anything about it and let it slide.

Jiang Budai said, “I know that Jiang Baohan committed heinous crimes during his lifetime, but you still have to do what he asked you to do. Not only do you have to carve a memorial tablet, but you also have to enshrine this monkey in your home.”

"Are you looking for a fight?" I asked, half-seriously.

Jiang Baohan was getting a little anxious. "There are some things I really can't say clearly, otherwise I'll die as soon as I step out of this door! I still have my daughter. Although I can't see her, as long as I'm alive, I can at least take care of her secretly!"

I let out a long sigh. "I'm not forcing you to explain, but think about it. You want me to keep a stranger's memorial tablet in my house? Fine, I'll build a shrine next to his doghouse and put the tablet in the yard. But you want me to keep a dead monkey in my house? Do you think that makes sense?"

Seeing Jiang Baohan scratching his head and looking confused, I suddenly thought of something, "Hey, did you see Jiang Baohan when he was alive? Otherwise, how do you know he committed such heinous crimes?"

Even the most miraculous divination method, the Cloth Bag Divination, cannot predict the past deeds of the dead, can it?
Jiang Budai seemed to have finally found a topic to talk about, and immediately said, "Have you forgotten that I also have the surname Jiang?"

A nerve in my brain tightened, "You and Jiang Baohan are...?"

“My hometown is Heqian Town.” Jiang Budai nodded slightly to me. “I know you’ve been to Heqian Town because I was there at the time. I was at the foot of the mountain when you went up Centipede Mountain.”

I wasn't following you. It's just my own home, not far from there. It was such a coincidence that I peeked out the window and saw you driving past my house. You were in the back seat, smoking with the window down.

"Speak the key."

"The Jiang family of Heqian Town were relatives of Jiang Baohan. To achieve a certain goal, Jiang Baohan murdered the entire Jiang family. But he didn't know one thing: the youngest son of the Jiang family, the Fourth Young Master Jiang, had never returned home since joining the army at the age of fifteen. The Jiang family all thought he had died on the battlefield, but he didn't die. Instead, he was hit in the head by shrapnel during the battle. He was treated as a seriously wounded soldier and left to recuperate at the home of a local villager. After he recovered, he couldn't remember anything from before and didn't even know who he was."

"Amnesia?"

Jiang Budai nodded. "He settled down in the area, and after getting married and having children, he suddenly remembered the things from before."

"You are……"

"My grandfather was the fourth young master of the Jiang family."

"and then?"

“Now that you remember who you are, then I have to go home!” Jiang Budai asked me for another bottle of water, opened it, and took two sips. “When I got home, I found that everyone in my family was dead.”

Jiang Budai said that his grandfather, the fourth young master Jiang, although he joined the army at a young age, always held a clerical position in the army because he had studied in a private school. Compared to soldiers who only knew how to fight, he was quite shrewd.

Upon learning that members of the large Jiang family had died suddenly or gone missing in a short period of time, Jiang Si Shao felt something was amiss. After carefully inquiring with the local villagers, he suspected that the deaths of the Jiang family members were related to Jiang Bao Han.

After serving in the military for over a decade, he returned home to find his entire family gone. How could Jiang Si Shao not pursue the matter?
But by then Jiang Baohan had already gone to the Great Northern Wilderness to serve his sentence in a labor camp. It was unrealistic to try to find him and investigate.

How can we not avenge the massacre of our entire family?
If you want revenge, you can only wait until Jiang Baohan is released.

Young Master Jiang did not simply wait idly.

During the time he was wandering in a foreign land and suffering from amnesia, he encountered a strange man who carried a large bag and told fortunes...

(End of this chapter)