Who Stole My Pressure Cooker (1)

Chapter 21

For someone like Yun Song, this matter was not particularly difficult, but for the elderly couple, it belonged to an entirely different world.

She accompanied the couple to Dazhou and contacted the cemetery staff.

In this manner, they finally brought their child home.

That same day, news of the event spread throughout Tonglin Town. No one knew exactly how this police officer had managed to find the body.

Everyone in Tonglin Town knew the two eccentric elders of Maotou Mountain, and everyone knew what had happened to their child.

They had such strange temperaments that for a time, if anyone from the town walked past their door, they would be chased away with bamboo poles.

It reached a point where adults would scare children by saying the person from Maotou Mountain was coming to snatch them away.

The elderly couple had turned their lives into a terrifying symbol, ensuring that everyone remembered their child.

Now, seeing the situation resolved, many people felt a lingering sadness in their hearts. Not a few residents of Tonglin Town sent funeral wreaths up the mountain.

Compared to the couple’s story, which had been discussed countless times before, everyone was more interested in the police officer this time.

“How on earth did she know where the corpse was?”

“They are the police. The police must have skills we don’t know about.”

To the ordinary folk of Tonglin Town, these matters were fodder for conversation, even carrying a faint, reassuring power.

But the joys and sorrows of people are not always shared; there were also those who felt panic because of the police officer’s deeds.

The center of Tonglin Town consisted of two streets built along a river, surrounded by mountains dotted with villages of various sizes.

In a mountain village north of Tonglin Town, people were talking about these same things.

“I heard them say this police officer is incredible. They say with one look at a person’s eyes, she knows exactly what they’re thinking.”

Stories always tend to gather the personal interpretations of the storyteller as they spread. Sometimes, due to a storyteller’s whimsical imagination, the tales become quite bizarre.

“She has extraordinary abilities. Just one look at that manure pit and she knew there was a body inside. I heard from others that she was by the river, and as soon as she touched the water, she knew exactly where the elderly couple’s child had gone.”

The woman speaking was named Liao Shanchun. In her thirties, she was a well-known “Chuichuike¹” in the village. A Chuichuike meant that no matter the subject, once a story came out of her mouth, it became exceptionally exaggerated and mysterious.

For example, once she tripped and fell in the mountains. By the time she returned, the story had transformed into an encounter with a ghost, and she gave the villagers a full account of how she had fought the spirit off.

Her stories were quite hilarious. Although everyone knew she was talking nonsense, they enjoyed listening to her.

But today was different. Liao Shanchun did not use her usual exaggerated body language. Instead, she said very seriously, “I was joking before, but this time, the business about the police officer is all true.”

“Everyone in town is talking about it.”

The woman in front of her was in her forties, known to everyone as Sister Changgui. Upon hearing this, the needle for the shoe insole she was sewing went astray, pricking her own finger.

This was highly unusual.

Liao Shanchun continued, “I heard this police officer is exceptionally good, and many people in town are seeking her help. Speaking of which, my Pressure Cooker has been stolen for so long, and I still can’t let it go. Tomorrow, I’m going to find the police and have them come to the village to investigate, to see exactly who stole my Pressure Cooker.”

As she spoke, she kept her eyes fixed on Sister Changgui. Sure enough, she saw a flash of panic in the other woman’s eyes.

“I have things to do. I’m going back now,” Changgui said.

Liao Shanchun saw this and knew it was a guilty conscience.

Her daughter came out from the inner room. “Mom, was it her?”

Their Pressure Cooker was no small matter; it had been bought in the city by the man of the house.

Liao Shanchun’s husband had gone out to do manual labor with her brother and couldn’t usually come home.

During this year’s Spring Festival², the man had returned and bought a Pressure Cooker for the family, saying that people in the city all liked using them for cooking because they were fast and didn’t waste firewood.

Usually, the Pressure Cooker was Liao Shanchun’s greatest pride.

A few days ago, that pot had vanished.

She had gone to the Village Party Secretary, but he was helpless. After all, he couldn’t exactly go searching through other people’s houses, could he?

Besides, it was just a pot. No matter how precious it was, how valuable could it really be?

But the mother and daughter were unwilling to let it go. They had been loitering around other people’s doors, figuring that if someone stole a pot, they would eventually have to use it.

When they lingered near other houses, no one said much. Only Sister Changgui had immediately chased them away the moment she saw them.

“I don’t have dragon meat³ in my house! Why are you sticking your heads in here to look all day long!”

That wasn’t right. The family wasn’t usually the biting type, so why did she have to snap at them just for passing by her door?

Liao Shanchun figured that they must have stolen her Pressure Cooker and were using it secretly at home every day, which was why they chased people away even if they were just standing near the door.

Today, she had specifically mentioned the police and said she was going to find them. The other woman’s reaction was indeed abnormal.

“She definitely stole our Pressure Cooker.”

That Pressure Cooker really was wonderful to use. You only had to put in the rice and water, and it cooked incredibly fast. It even made a nice crust at the bottom without sticking to the pot. When the rice was ready, it made a sizzling sound that felt very impressive.

Cooking rice in an iron pot meant first adding the rice, boiling the water, then pouring out the excess hot water before continuing to steam it. It was a huge hassle.

She had grown accustomed to the Pressure Cooker. These past two days, she wasn’t used to the iron pot and had even burned her hand. The more she used it, the angrier she got.

“Mom, are we really going to find the police tomorrow?” The daughter had been listening from the room and naturally heard her mother mention the police.

Liao Shanchun chuckled. “Silly girl, if we go to the police over a lost pot, won’t they laugh at us? I was just scaring her to see if our pot was in her house.”

“Huh?” Even her own daughter wasn’t used to her mother’s habit of letting lies fly so easily. “Then what do we do?”

“As long as we know the pot is at their house, that’s enough. We’ll go back tonight and take it.”

The eldest daughter felt that this wasn’t quite right.

Liao Shanchun didn’t see any problem with it. They had stolen her pressure cooker, so she would steal it back. It was only fair.

Liao Shanchun wasn’t afraid of being caught, either. She just needed to find the pressure cooker. After all, her family was the only one in the village who owned one.

That night, once everyone was asleep, Liao Shanchun nudged her daughter awake.

She was still a little scared to go alone.

The daughter climbed out of bed in a daze, thinking it was morning. She went straight to comb her hair, preparing to change into her clothes for school.

“It’s not morning yet. We’re going to get the pressure cooker.”

Only then did the eldest daughter fully wake up. Mother and daughter stepped out of the house.

Liao Shanchun rarely went out at night. The village nights were so quiet they were almost terrifying.

But the pressure cooker… that was a pressure cooker, a very useful pressure cooker.

The eldest daughter pressed close to her mother. As they stepped outside, the harvested paddy fields lay to their left, filled with the rising and falling chorus of frogs. Behind them was the forest, faded into a black silhouette, with the cries of some unknown animal echoing from its depths.

She pulled even closer.

“Mom, I don’t think this is a good idea.” The eldest girl was ten years old. She was already afraid of the dark, and now she spoke hesitantly, “I feel like I’m being a thief.”

Liao Shanchun was actually a bit scared herself, but with her little accomplice getting cold feet, she had to quickly coax her daughter. “Silly girl, we’re going to get our own things. How can taking your own things be called thieving?”

“But I still feel like it’s wrong.” The young girl wasn’t fooled by her mother; she couldn’t get past the moral hurdle in her heart.

“Mom promises you, once we get it back, we’ll stew some pig’s trotters!”

Pig’s trotters… The girl swallowed hard.

“Pig’s trotters stewed with potato chunks. Isn’t that your favorite?”

The girl was tempted. She had been craving the pig’s trotters at home for a long time.

Liao Shanchun continued, “Besides, they suddenly stole our pressure cooker, maybe they’re using it to pressure-cook pig’s trotters right now.”

In Tonglin Town, people slaughtered pigs every year for the New Year. Fresh pork was coated in salt, chili powder, and Sichuan peppercorns, then hung over the stove to be cured by the smoke and heat.

It was now October, and the cured pig’s trotters were smoked so dry that even a knife might not be able to cut through them. They were very difficult to cook until tender.

“When the time comes, we’ll just take the pig’s trotters back with us as compensation.”

The eldest daughter swallowed again, but she still had a sense of propriety. “We’ll just take our pressure cooker back. Don’t take other people’s pig’s trotters. We’ll stew our own.”

That worked too. No need to offend them too deeply. Her daughter had a good head on her shoulders, so she’d go along with it.

Liao Shanchun thought about it and decided that just getting the pressure cooker back was enough. After all, she had both elderly family members and children at home; she shouldn’t go around spreading the word that they had stolen the cooker. It was best to avoid making enemies.

Her plan was simple, but once they actually reached the door, she still felt nervous. After all, it was the first time she had ever done something like this.

Mother and daughter walked outside the house, peeking in from time to time, trembling and cautious. They… really did look like thieves.

Just as they were trying to figure out how to get inside, the front door suddenly opened.

Changgui and her husband were dragging a long object out of the house.

It looked very heavy, and they were clearly exhausted from the effort.

But they had no choice.

They had heard that the policeman had returned to Tonglin Town, and they were truly terrified.

The couple strained, and soon they had dragged it outside.

They stopped in the courtyard. The couple, who had seemed so easy to talk to during the day, now looked eerie and frightening under the cold white moonlight and against the backdrop of the dark, looming forest.

“What do we do now?”

“Find a place to bury it first.”

Under the moonlight, the thing they had dragged out revealed its true form. It was a person.

In the moonlight, the man’s face was already rotting, making his features indistinguishable, but his eyes were still wide open, as if staring at the moon.

The couple gave the corpse another tug, and its head tilted to the side.

Those wide-open eyes stared straight toward the bellows⁴ nearby.

At that moment, behind the bellows next to the earthen wall, Liao Shanchun was frozen in shock, her soul nearly leaving her body.

The daughter was further back and couldn’t see what was happening.

In the next second, Liao Shanchun snapped back to her senses and covered her daughter’s eyes.

Mu… mu… murder?

Translator’s Notes