Unyielding Bone of Dust

The constable leader grabbed Lin Suqing by the collar and bellowed, "I can tell just by your look that you're no good!"

Lin Suqing cried out in protest, "Sir, I consider myself a man of integrity. How do I not look like a good person? Moreover, arresting someone must be based on evidence, mustn't it? There must be some misunderstanding here; how could I possibly have committed murder?"

How could Old Man Xu blindly accuse him like this? His daughter-in-law had clearly been dead for some time, so how could he claim that it was he who killed her!

The constable leader, notoriously impatient, shoved him aside, spitting disdainfully, "Such nonsense."

He then impatiently turned to Old Man Xu and demanded, "Who did he kill? Speak clearly; I can't arrest him without details!"

With a grand gesture, he summoned the government officers who had come with him. They immediately understood and formed a circle around the three, their hands resting on the large swords at their waists, eyes fixed on Lin Suqing as if any slight misstep from him would make them draw their swords without mercy.

Seeing the situation, and knowing for certain that he hadn't killed anyone, Lin Suqing also decided against making any rash moves.

Old Man Xu patted his chest, gasping for air, and was about to detail the events when he suddenly saw his second daughter-in-law prostrating on the ground and exclaimed in shock, "How is my daughter-in-law's skeleton here?"

Lin Suqing was taken aback—was the accusation not about him killing his daughter-in-law? Then who was it said he killed?

At that moment, the constable leader interrupted Old Man Xu with a shout, "Stick to the main point! What's there to talk about a person long dead!"

With a look of utter helplessness, Old Man Xu had no choice but to set aside the matter of his daughter-in-law and, breathlessly, started recounting the circumstances involving the three itinerant merchants.

"Around the hour when the tiger gives way to the dragon, three itinerant merchants who were well-known to me came from the south. This time they brought this young man to stay at my place. I was reluctant to host him since he was unfamiliar, but since those familiar fellows brought him along, it seemed impolite to refuse."

The constable leader furrowed his brow with impatience, "Less trivial details, focus on the main point! What exactly happened!"

"Yes, yes...," Old Man Xu immediately responded, "Seeing this young man dressed decently, he did not seem to harbor any ill intentions, so I accepted him. As you know, Sir, my son died early and I live by providing shelter for itinerant merchants overnight."

Lin Suqing was puzzled, wondering why the sudden shift to discuss the three itinerant merchant brothers. Could something have happened to them? He suddenly recalled the scene of the female corpse breathing upon their faces. Could it be… they were dead?

"I'm telling you to focus on the key points! Can't you understand human speech?" the constable leader said, raising his hand as if to slap Old Man Xu, who, fearing the slap was real, quickly complied.

"Yes, yes, I'm getting to the main points," Old Man Xu, clearly frightened, hastened his explanation, the fright more from the constable leader and also from those three itinerant merchants.

"This morning, as usual, I went to wake them up for the market, but when I went there, not only was my daughter-in-law's corpse gone, but those three merchants had also... had also... all died!"

"Died?" The constable leader could not wait for Old Man Xu's rambling and turned to grab Lin Suqing, already demanding an explanation, "Confess! How did you kill them and why did you kill them!"

"I didn't kill them," Lin Suqing replied, his brow furrowed in sorrow. The deaths were indeed not his doing, most likely caused by that female ghost; he wailed, "It's a clear frame-up! How can you accuse me of murder without any distinction of right or wrong? It was that female ghost's chaos!"

"Female ghost?" The people around immediately became panicked, buzzing with rumors.

"Nonsense!" Old Man Xu cursed furiously, "You committed murder and now you even try to blame a dead person! Have you no shame! A man of your stature, daring to do but not dare to admit, blaming it on the dead no less, you're absolutely disgraceful!"

Hearing Old Man Xu's furious denunciation, the crowd became righteously indignant, pointing their fingers at Lin Suqing as utterly inhumane.

Lin Suqing was about to explain in detail, but the constable leader gave him no opportunity.

"You still dare argue? Old Man Xu saw with his own eyes their bodies in his house; how can you deny it?!" the constable leader ordered at once, "Come, arrest him!"

Lin Suqing hastily pointed at the female corpse, "I really didn't kill them, it was the female ghost who killed them, I saw it with my own eyes."

"Utter nonsense!" the constable leader drew his sword, raising it high, and shouted a command, "Arrest him!"

Seeing the situation turn against him, Lin Suqing turned and fled.

Everyone thought he had killed the three itinerant merchants, and with Old Man Xu as the so-called "eyewitness," his status as an outsider gave him no room to refute.

And just now, someone had seen him strike down Old Man Xu's daughter-in-law to "death." With no opportunity to utter a single word despite a thousand mouths, he knew.

Lin Suqing broke through the crowd, running while crying out, "I really didn't kill anyone! It was the female ghost who killed them! Listen to my explanation, give me a chance to explain!"

"Catch him! Catch him!" the constable leader roared like a bell, completely drowning out Lin Suqing's voice.

Lin Suqing ran without choosing his path, occasionally looking back and shouting at the pursuing government officers, "Arresting someone requires evidence; you don't even investigate and just come after me, that's not the way the law works!"

"We'll collect evidence after we catch you! If you didn't kill anyone, why are you running? Stop!"

"If I don't run and you catch me, will I ever get out?" Lin Suqing knew in his heart, given this unreasonable momentum, if he really surrendered, and they still chose not to investigate the case and simply sentenced him, then he would have no chance at survival, and it was better to run with the accusation than to be caught.

He charged through the crowd, forcing everyone to clear a path, and all the while, he lamented his unfair fate in his heart.

What terrible sin had he committed for the heavens to have consigned him to this tormenting world.

Ever since he came here, he had not acquired any skills, yet ironically, the muscles in his legs had gained two extra pounds from all the running; his days consisted solely of fleeing for his life. Without real talent, he had only mastered the art of escape.

Had he stayed longer, when he would eventually return home, what would Bolt and Liu Xiang count for? Right now, if he went back, the world sprinting record would be his.

"Oh, Lord! Please spare me!" he wailed to the sky, while people around him pointed at his spine and cursed.

"You can tell he's up to no good. If he hadn't done something wrong, why would he run?"

"Exactly, I just saw Old Xu's daughter-in-law perfectly fine, but after he slapped her, she stopped breathing right away. He struck her so viciously, look, her hands even embedded into the ground."

"In my opinion, this young man is definitely not a good guy. The body and hair are given by one's parents, look, he even twisted his own hair, there's nothing he couldn't do."

...

It was all baseless conjecture. Hearing this, Lin Suqing felt like confronting them one by one; which eye saw he was not a good person? And which eye saw him killing someone? Truly, their tongues were like sharp swords, slaying without drawing blood!

"Stop there!" The head constable shouted unreasonably. Seeing he couldn't catch up, he simply issued a death order, "Dead or alive, just catch him for me! A reward of fifty kilograms of rice!"

Suddenly, the crowd erupted into chaos, and the spectators swarmed over, scrambling to join the arrest, clumsily grabbing and pulling at him.

Lin Suqing felt incredibly bitter inside. What kind of forsaken place was this? Was his life really worth just fifty kilograms of rice!

In an instant, there was a vast sea of people behind him, bustling and frenetic. Nearly the entire county's population had turned out to chase him, even those uninformed bystanders whom he had just run past, upon seeing everyone including the government officials bellowing to catch him, rushed forward without a second thought.

Turning back, he saw clouds of dust and a whirl of carts and horses. Lin Suqing had grievances with nowhere to voice them. He truly detested this place.

Just then, suddenly, four or five government officials burst out from a side alley and swiftly tackled him to the ground, pulling knives and holding them to his neck.

This was it, Lin Suqing thought bitterly. If he were to die here in this obscure place without clarity or justification, he would haunt this place as a ghost and turn it upside down, making life unbearable for its residents.

Soon, the head constable also emerged from the alley, arms folded, and scoffed, "See, couldn't run away, could you?"

With that, he walked up and kicked him, "Hmph, run then!" followed by several more kicks to Lin Suqing's abdomen, "Come on, get up and keep running!"

This was no way for a government official to act; it was no different from a street thug.

Lin Suqing clutched his abdomen, curling up in pain on the ground, while the other officers forced him to turn over, each holding down his arms and legs, forcibly pressing him face down to the ground.

Before he could understand what was happening, the head constable kicked him in the stomach again.

"I think if I don't teach you a lesson, you won't know what law is!"

He then kicked him repeatedly in the stomach and chest, and with severe damage to his internal organs, a mouthful of thick blood violently sprayed out.

The head constable quickly stepped back, but still got some blood splattered on him, and he mocked, "Hmph, thought you were tough, but you can't even take a few kicks? Think you can run after killing someone?"

"I really didn't kill anyone..."

He couldn't run anymore, nor could he fight back. Lin Suqing was in so much pain he couldn't clearly hear what the head constable was saying, nor could he understand what he himself was saying.

He only felt extreme pain in his abdomen and chest, even his intestines were spasming in agony.

He felt like he was going to die—this time, he might actually die.

He had escaped the Malignant Spirits' persecution, dodged the zombies that wandered at night, avoided the female ghosts who sucked away living essence, and even evaded randomly harmful female corpses. Yet, he had never expected not to overcome a group of ignorant and self-righteous mortals.

Now, he was about to die at the hands of these barbaric and unreasonable villagers.

He hadn't accomplished anything yet; he hadn't managed to formally become a disciple or start his training. He still wanted to go home... but was he really going to be beaten to death here, to die in this neglected backwater, so senselessly and unjustly?

Afterwards to become just another new grave mound at the messy burial hill, a restless spirit added to its ghastly ranks?

No, he wasn't willing, he couldn't reconcile himself to this.

He could die, but he absolutely could not die such a humiliating and obscure death.

Lin Suqing's death should be glorious and grand.

He couldn't die like this, not here, not for such an unworthy reason.

Suddenly, a burning sensation and sharp pain surged in his abdomen, and that scorching heat quickly spread throughout his body like an electric shock. Was this… death?