Chapter 2143: Chapter 2000: Yang Corpse_6
The wind blew again, and the two people turned to dust, scattered by the wind, and the ghosts roaming the desert also dispersed on their own.
Zhao Ruonan came back to his senses and saw that inside the box he opened, only a handful of ashes remained.
The "Bao Gong Case" records an event like this: a loving couple was forcibly separated and both died of illness. After being cremated, their hearts did not burn. Due to their sincere love, they turned into three-inch Little Golden Figures. Later, they were buried together, and the two Little Golden Figures placed together turned back into two lumps of tainted blood.
Song Xiaodong and the others couldn’t help but exhale a long breath and gathered in front of Zhao Ruonan.
"After Mr. Zhao reminded me, I went back to find the woman’s heart. After finding it, I decided to burn it, and it burned into a Little Golden Figure," Zhao Ruonan explained briefly to everyone.
"Old Li thought of the story recorded in the ’Bao Gong Case’. Perhaps they just wanted to be buried together, so I brought the woman’s heart here for the man," Zhao Ruonan said, surprisingly somewhat emotional.
"In life, they couldn’t be together, and after death, they were separated by a stretch of water, unable to embrace for 600 years. Today, they finally reunite, it can be considered a happy ending for all," said the Young Taoist.
"General Zhao, now, there shouldn’t be any more deaths here," Mr. Zhao said.
An uneventful night passed.
Early the next day, General Zhao came to knock on everyone’s room doors.
"What’s up, what’s up?" Song Xiaodong, Sun Yiyi, and Chu Xianling began packing their bags, ready to return.
"No need to pack, we definitely can’t leave today," Zhao Ruonan said to Song Xiaodong.
"Ah—" came a long, distressed sigh from Sun Yiyi and Chu Xianling.
"What happened again?" Song Xiaodong saw Zhao Ruonan’s serious face and asked.
"Something happened again," Zhao Ruonan replied.
"Someone died again?" Song Xiaodong asked.
"No," Zhao Ruonan replied.
"If no one died, why are they looking for us?" Song Xiaodong asked.
"A sheep died," Zhao Ruonan replied.
"I’m not a vet, why are they looking for us because a sheep died?" Song Xiaodong grumbled.
"Of course, I wouldn’t look for you for just one dead sheep," Zhao Ruonan said.
"Then how many died?" Song Xiaodong asked.
"500," Zhao Ruonan replied.
"What?" Song Xiaodong asked in surprise.
"Let’s go, let’s go have a look," Zhao Ruonan said.
Mr. Zhao, the Young Taoist, the Old Taoist, Song Xiaodong, Sun Yiyi, Chu Xianling, Zhao Ruonan, and ten warriors rode through the desert in four vehicles, arriving at a desert prairie.
After walking through the desert for two hours, they came to a Uyghur nomadic camp.
After seeing the situation around the camp, everyone’s faces changed.
At eleven in the morning, the midday sun began to blaze, and the air was filled with a bloody smell, with the sound of flies flapping their wings in the wind.
Some of the weaker young warriors began to vomit before even getting out of the car.
The camp was by a lake, without fences surrounding it, and groups of dead sheep lay on the ground, their bellies ripped open, intestines spilling everywhere. After a morning, the bloody smell began to be overshadowed by the smell of rot.
The blood of the dead sheep soaked into the sand, reminding Song Xiaodong and the others of the eerie night that claimed Master Benwu’s life.
Mr. Zhao and the Young Taoist said nothing, their eyes coldly surveying the area around the camp. Sun Yiyi and Chu Xianling held their noses, unwilling to get out of the car.
Zhao Ruonan followed Mr. Zhao, the Young Taoist, and Song Xiaodong out of the car.
The camp owner, a middle-aged Uyghur man, came to see Zhao Ruonan with his wife and children.
"Officer Zhao, please help us, our children’s school fees depend on these sheep!"
The owner of the sheep could speak Chinese.
"Did you hear any sounds last night?" Zhao Ruonan asked.
"No," the owner shook his head.
"Over five hundred sheep gutted like this, and you didn’t hear a thing?" Zhao Ruonan asked incredulously.
The owner still shook his head, saying, "I have over ten dogs at home, and not a single bark was heard. If the dogs didn’t hear anything, how could I hear it?"
"Where are the dogs?" the Young Taoist asked.
The owner then led them to the dog pen.
A group of dogs, silent, seeing the crowd of strangers, neither barked nor bit, just cowered in their pen, trembling quietly.
Song Xiaodong went directly to observe the gutted sheep.
After a while, the group gathered again.
"Wolves?" Zhao Ruonan first proposed his idea.
"If there were wolves, the dogs would notice," said the Old Taoist.
"Badgers? Foxes? Bears?" Zhao Ruonan suggested again.
"Badgers and foxes are too small, over five hundred sheep, how many foxes would that take? Bears, it’s impossible for them to kill over five hundred sheep in one night," said the Young Taoist.
"It must be a large group of animals to kill so many sheep, but a large group of animals would definitely be noticed by the dogs," Zhao Ruonan said.
This led to a dead-end.
"Killing without eating, it doesn’t seem like animals," Song Xiaodong said.
Song Xiaodong voiced what the Young Taoist and Mr. Zhao were most worried about.
"Wolves and foxes also kill sheep out of sheer pleasure or revenge," Zhao Ruonan said.
"Let me share the conclusions I’ve drawn from observing the sheep," said Song Xiaodong, a Special Forces soldier skilled in analyzing corpses.
"First, whatever attacked the sheep wasn’t big, because the wounds aren’t big, probably smaller than a fox," Song Xiaodong said.
"Second, either it’s very fast, or the sheep were terrorized into a stupor," Song Xiaodong added.
"Hmm? Why do you say that?" Zhao Ruonan asked.
"All the sheep’s wounds are similar, all on their bellies," Song Xiaodong said.
"In a pack of wolves, there are big and small ones, they can’t be exactly the same, but these sheep’s wound sizes look exactly alike, like they were cut from the same mold," Song Xiaodong continued.
"You mean, all these sheep were killed by a single animal?" Zhao Ruonan asked in confusion.
Song Xiaodong nodded and said, "Based on the shape of the wounds, it must have been very sharp claws, judging by the shape..."
"It should be a human hand," Mr. Zhao suddenly realized.
"Ah?"
"And... it should be a child’s hand," Song Xiaodong added.
"This... how is that possible?" Zhao Ruonan didn’t believe it.
"How could a child have the strength to tear open a sheep’s belly?" Zhao Ruonan wondered.
The Young Taoist suddenly remembered what he saw in the Water Moon Mirror while shining it on the Yang Corpse and suddenly said, "Oh no, we’ve forgotten someone!"
"Who?"
"The child inside the Yin Corpse’s belly!" the Young Taoist gasped.
"The Yin Corpse has a child?" Zhao Ruonan echoed the Young Taoist’s words.
"The Yin Corpse is a Hanged Ghost. When it died, it was already pregnant with the theater owner’s child!"
