Chapter 16 Shēng Dōng Jī Xī ( Threatened The East And Strike Towards The West)
Uncle Mei leads the two men behind the village to the mountains. It was not far when Lou Chen and Jin Yan Hen heard the shallow sound of water flow and bypassed a small water bank. Uncle Mei raised his hand, pointed to a place and said, “It’s here.”
The two turned their vision to the place and saw a small grove forest. They did not see the springs described by Uncle Mei but only a channel for water as big as the arm. The channel is made of 3 ten feet bamboo tube that was connected together. The villagers use these bamboo tubes to direct the spring water from the mountain.
At the bottom of the bamboo tube, when nobody catches the water, the water fell on the soil. The muddy water flows down the slope making a stream and waters the trees along the road that it grew relatively taller.
These bamboo tubes look like they have been there some years, and Jin Yan Hen asked, “Did you build it yourself? How long has it been?”
Auncle Mei nodded and explained, “Yes, we also have well in the village, but the water of the spring is sweeter, so we used the bamboo tube to draw the spring water down. The moss grows on the tube so we change the tube every three years. We will about to change to a new one this year.”
Lou Chen squat down and scoop up some spring water and sniffled it. The faint smell seems to be even lighter.
Jin Yan Hen checked the surroundings and he did not find anything unusual, walked to Lou Chen side, whispered: “How?” ”
Lou Chen looks towards the direction of the bamboo tube, replied: “Something is really wrong, with the water. Let us go up and see.” ”
“Okay.” Jin Yan Hen took the lead; they went upward following the direction of the bamboo tube. Uncle Mei hesitated for a moment and also followed. He is also very curious, whether the spring water is really poisonous.
After walking a few minutes, they heard that the water sounded louder and they should be closer to the spring. Jin Yan Hen who was leading the troop suddenly stops. Lou Chen came to him, and she heard the familiar voice whispered, “There are footprints.”
Lou Chen followed his gaze and sure enough, there were a series of footprints from the hillside to the mountains. The direction of the footprints seemed to be going in the direction of the mountain spring.
The two men glanced at each other, and no one spoke, by tacit understanding, they used their qing gong to speed up their steps and rushed upwards.
Although they already have a premonition that the water source might be the problem, when the two reach the end of the bamboo tube, the scene before them made the two people frown.
The so-called mountain spring water is actually coming from the streams of Luo Shen River Mountain. Â The streams flow down from the mountains and the villagers set the bamboo tube under a large rock. When the stream flows down the rocks, it just falls down on the bamboo tube.
At this moment, next to that stone, there is a person lying. Looking at the appearance, it is a woman. Her hand was just under the stone and the stream washes down her wrist and fell into the bamboo tube. There is nothing in her but her broken wrist and the only odd thing is the water mixed with her blood flows into the bamboo tube.
Uncle Mei, whose legs is not as fast as the two, followed with great difficulty, but when he sees the appalling scene, he can’t help but be frightened and back up few steps. He shouted in horror, “How can it be like this?”
Both of them did not care about the cry of panic from Uncle Mei, they silently looked at one another, and when their eyes separated, Lou Chen went to the side of the woman and removed her hand from the stream of water and let her lie flat on the ground. Jin Yan Hen traced the footprints on the ground and searched where it comes from.
After 15 minutes, Jin Yan Hen returned and saw that Lou Chen was not treating the woman. Instead, she was examining the body wounds trying to determine how the woman died.
After the inspection of the body, Lou Chen looked up and saw Jin Yan Hen standing behind her and waiting quietly. Without being asked, Lou Chen had said in a cold voice, “There is no more than one hour of death. The deceased’s body is highly poisoned but not dead. The cause of death was excessive blood loss. Her wounds on the wrists were flat and were caused by sharp weapons. Except for the old ones, on the other hand, there were no other injuries or signs of an obvious struggle. The deceased had fingerprints on her cheeks and her chin was dislocated. There is residual poison in her mouth; the poison should be forcibly poured, she fell into a stupor, then bleed to death.  Her blood is highly poisoned. Fortunately, the water is diluted a lot, and those affected should not worry about their lives.”
Jin Yan Hen did not let Lou Chen wait for a long and also reported her findings, “From the hillside to here, there are footprints of only one person. There is no trace of blood on the way. There is no weapon in the vicinity. The woman should have been taken to the hillside to be murdered. The footprint of the person carrying the woman is shallow, relative to their weight together; the murderer should have an excellent martial arts skill.”
When he finished talking, the two were lost in thought. The murderer is very cruel. The stream was flowing and it was not easy to poison people through it. He actually came up with such an idea of turning a person into a poisonous person and then left it bleeding at the edge of the stream. When the poisonous blood flowed into the bamboo tube and mixed it with the water of the stream, the blood is diluted and red tint cannot be seen as it flowed out of the mountain. The person was actually bled to death and it was timed until the people would come to fetch water in the morning and more people would be poisoned.
However, why did the murderer spend so much trouble doing this? What is the intention of poisoning the people from the village?
At this point, they cannot figure it out anything. Jin Yan Hen smiled wryly and said: “It seems that although this is not an epidemic, we must also summon the authority.”
Lou Chen nodded, she thought to be even further, the poison used by the murderer is not an ordinary poison, this type is not easy to dispose of and it is impossible to sell outside. With such a potent poison and brutal means of murder, is it just for the purpose of overthrowing several ordinary villagers? She has a hunch that this is not just a simple case.
“Dead person! The water is really poisonous! How could this happen? How could it be…” Uncle Mei was standing on one side looking at the ghastly pale woman on the ground, his hands were tight clasps together, obviously at a loss and restless.
Jin Yan Hen went to his side, put his hand on his shoulder and pats him heavily and said, ” Come, you are going to identify this person. Is she from your village?”
Feeling the pain on his shoulders, Uncle Mei come back to his senses. Born as a hunter, he would not be scared of blood, so he walks few steps forward and dares to identify the dead person. He stood beside the body and looked carefully, shook his head and replied, “This one is not from the village, I have not seen her.”
No matter who it is, in short, this is a murder case. Jin Yan Hen took a deep breath and instructs them, “We will go down first, and Uncle Mei and you will stay here near the bamboo pipe outlet. Don’t let anyone pick up the water again, and don’t let people go up the mountain. Chen’er, you stay and help Fang Ru Hui. By the way, also let the people in the village inform each other, not to drink the spring water first. I’m going back to the Yamen.”
Uncle Mei was a bit absent-minded, just simply nodded to what Jin Yan Hen said.
Lou Chen nodded without any objection and the three men walked down the hill together.
Lou Chen glanced at the man at the front leading the trail. Today, he is entirely different from the past when they first met. Her curiosity toward him has only increased. Before, there were other people with him, like Qu Ning Shuang, Jin Ru, and others, but not this time. Jin Yan Hen always appeared unconventional ruffian that’s always comical. However, this time, there were no other people around, he was very calm and sharp, and even between them, there was a tacit understanding. She can feel that he is actually very trusting and caring, especially with his aunt and friends. Why is he hiding his skill and liked to appear dimwitted in front of them?
When the trio arrived from the mountain, they saw the two people rushing towards them. When the people got nearer, Lou Chen was finally able to recognize them; it is Qu Ning Shuang and a young man following behind her. Lou Chen remembered that the last time she was held hostage by Wang Si, the young constabulary was called Wu Yi, who was the son of Wu Shi Ye.
Qu Ning Shuang also saw them. Her eyes brightened, and her pace became faster. They rushed to the two men and said, “Finally… finally, we found you! After you left… something went wrong!”
The words of  Qu Ning Shuang was in fragments and Jin  Yan Hen went past her and looked at Wu Yi behind her. He laughed and said, “What is this happening that she has to anxiously hurry to us.”
Wu Yi’s expression doesn’t help either, and he did not bicker back with Jin Yan Hen. He replied, ” At Thousands of Grass Hospital there’s an accident!”
The smile on the face of Jin Yan Hen froze and asked, “What happened?”
Lou Chen has a bad premonition. At this time, Qu Ning Shuang has finally recovered, pushing one of Wu Yi’s hands and hurriedly said, “Let me! When I went to see you in the morning, you were already gone. There is only Auntie Jin Ru but she wouldn’t tell me where you are. I could only stay in the hospital and wait. Half an hour ago, the two black-masked assassins who were dressed the same as last night actually boldly rushed into the hospital and inside the rooms. Auntie Ru blocked one, and another one went after Xing Mu. I and Xing Mu fought with him for awhile but I could not resist and almost killed by the assassin. Fortunately, those who ran out of the hospital ran to Yamen  for help,  Uncle Xiao brought over Wu Li and Wu Yi, and we were not killed.”
“However…” Qu Ning Shuang looked carefully at his eyes and said nothing.
Jin Yan Hen’s pupil turns cold, “ Say it.”
Qu Ning Shuang was shocked, today Jin Yan Hen is not the same as in the past, under his gaze, she got tongue-tied, ” Aunt Ru got hurt.”
“How could my aunt be injured?”  Looking at the situation of last night, the martial arts of Jin Ru was obviously higher than that of the assassins.Even if the assassin could not be caught, she would not be injured.
Qu Ning Shuang cleared her throat and said annoyed, “Originally, Aunt Ru prevailed, but the other assassin saw that they couldn’t siege her and knew that he could not beat her. He took the black sword of Xing Mu and just wanted to escape. I don’t know why but Aunt Ru chased after him like she wanted to take the sword back, the result, she was attacked by the assassin who had fought with her before, and stabbed her with the sword.”
The face of Jin Yan Hen suddenly went dark, Qu Ning Shuang said quickly: “But don’t worry, she was just stabbed on her shoulder, there is no danger! Really!”
Jin Yan Hen expression was bitter and silent, Qu Ning Shuang and Wu Yi glanced at each other, their eyes full of doubts, but neither of them dared to ask more.
“What about the sword?”
The cold voice suddenly sounded, and Qu Ning Shuang looks at Lou Chen, lick her lips and whispered…”It was taken away.”