Who Stole My Pressure Cooker (5)

Chapter 25

When the door opened, Yun Song saw two thin, haggard middle-aged people.

The couple had the typical appearance of farmers, looking to be in their forties. Because they spent their years walking under the sun, their skin had developed a thick layer of calloused protection against the rays. Now, those thick patches of skin were wrinkled together, speaking of exhaustion and anxiety.

When Yun Song entered, both of them seemed somewhat ill at ease. Because of this unease, they appeared a bit flustered.

“Officer… I’ll go get you a stool.”

“You can call me Yun Song or Comrade Police, either is fine.”

Yun Song noticed that most of the things in their house were packed up.

Yun Song asked, “Are you moving?”

“No… no.” Changgui brought over a stool, still not daring to look the police officer in the eye.

She was still influenced by the words Liao Shanchun had said earlier.

• That policeman can tell if someone is lying just by looking at them.

“Then why are all the pots and pans packed up?” Yun Song asked as if just making small talk.

In truth, the couple could have chosen not to answer, but they had no experience in opposing the police.

“There are some things we aren’t using, so we packed them away.”

It wasn’t just the pots and pans; they had packed away almost everything that was still usable.

In the middle of the room sat two large back baskets stacked together. Inside them were two smaller back baskets. These two small baskets were of different sizes, and their straps were wrapped with red cloth. It was clear that these two small baskets had not been used for a long time.

Yun Song tried to make them relax as much as possible. “Don’t be nervous, we’re just chatting.”

Yun Song said in a gentle voice, “I heard from Dayan’s grandmother that you two are famous across the ten villages and eight shops for your good character, so I wanted to come talk with you.”

Changgui immediately waved her hands. “Oh, that’s nonsense. Dayan’s grandmother thinks everyone is good.”

“Do you know about the pressure cooker from Liao Shanchun’s house?”

“We know. Her husband brought it back when he came home for the New Year.” Many men in the village had gone out to work, and in some families, both the young men and women had left, leaving only the elderly and children behind.

“Do you think anyone in the village might have taken her pressure cooker?”

“We aren’t sure about that.” They truly didn’t know; they had been fretting over their own problems during this time, so how could they pay attention to someone else’s pressure cooker?

Yun Song then followed up, “Then do you think Sun Er is a possibility?”

When Changgui heard that name, she visibly winced. She immediately waved her hands and said, “No, it wouldn’t be him.”

For some reason, Changgui suddenly became talkative at this moment.

“Sun Er likes to steal money, but he’s never stolen things.”

“Right, he doesn’t steal people’s belongings. Once, I can’t remember whose house it was, they lost a large iron pot…” Realizing the policeman before her was from the city, she explained further, “The large iron pots around here, if a thief is hardworking enough to carry it to town and sell it for scrap metal, they can make a little money. At the time, that family said it must have been Sun Er who stole it. Sun Er just said he wasn’t crazy; carrying something that heavy to town would only get him a yuan or two, and he looked down on that. Later, it turned out it really wasn’t him.”

Thieves could be divided into two types. One was the hardworking thief who stole everything and looked down on nothing, from something as large as an iron pot to something as small as dried radish hanging on a tree. As long as it belonged to someone else, they would steal it.

The other was the lazy thief who only stole money. Sun Er was that type.

Yun Song said, “Doesn’t anyone in your village do anything about him?”

Speaking of this brought up a wellspring of bitterness.

Changgui said, “How could we not have tried? His hands were dirty even when he was a child. Back then, to fix his habit, his family tied him to a pillar and beat him. They broke several rattan canes on him, but it was no use.”

“The rest of the village had no choice but to just accept it.”

Yun Song could more or less understand. In a place like this, they relied more on village self-governance. The Village Party Secretary or the village chief wouldn’t call the police over Sun Er’s petty thefts and expect them to rush over from the city. Moreover, since it was just petty theft, even if the police traveled from the city to Tonglin Town and then climbed several mountains to reach this village, it would be difficult to handle. Therefore, for the people here, there were no real means to deal with someone like Sun Er; they could only endure it collectively.

Yun Song said, “This kind of situation easily leads to trouble.”

Doing something wrong once might result in nothing, but as long as it is repeated enough times, a day will come when something goes wrong.

When Yun Song left their house, she returned to Liao Shanchun’s home.

The family was currently chopping red chili peppers. Beside them were two large jars; one was already filled to the brim, while the other was waiting to be packed. Everyone’s eyes were watering from the spice.

Even if there was a murder case, the making of chopped pickled chilies could not be delayed.

As soon as Yun Song returned, several people immediately gathered around.

Yun Song asked, “Do they have children?”

“They have two. The eldest son works in a factory in town, and the younger daughter married into the town. Although she moved there, she still comes back often…”

The younger daughter was different from the eldest son. The son lived and ate at the factory, but the daughter’s husband was a teacher at the town’s primary school. The daughter helped steam rice for the children at the school, but the couple had to cook their own meals.

Since the daughter had no land in town, Changgui and her husband grew many fruits and vegetables, and the daughter would often come up to carry some vegetables back down to eat.

When she came back a while ago, it happened to be the harvest season for the tender ginger back home.

Changgui had dug up the tender ginger early, washed it, added chilies, and made pickled tender ginger.

At the time, she was saying, “When Chunfeng takes this back to the school, she can eat some when her mouth feels tasteless; it’s quite good as a side dish.”

Afterward, it seemed the younger daughter hadn’t returned, and the family had stopped tending to their vegetables.

“How was Sun Er’s relationship with their children?”

“Sun Er has that habit of petty theft, so he doesn’t have a good relationship with anyone. Come to think of it, Sun Er once wanted to propose a marriage to Changgui’s family, wanting to marry their younger daughter. The Sun family knew what kind of person their second son was, so of course they didn’t go and humiliate themselves, and the matter was eventually dropped.” Dayan’s grandmother knew more about these things.

Darkness fell quickly.

Yun Song went into the mountains with Liao Shanchun and the Old Lady to begin searching for the body.

Liao Shanchun remembered the direction they had dragged the body, and she also remembered the direction the couple had been coming from, carrying hoes, when she encountered them later.

In the pitch-black mountains, Liao Shanchun followed behind Yun Song, chattering incessantly without a hint of fear.

“I thought about it after I went back. It’s definitely around here.”

The Old Lady looked more solemn, repeatedly bowing with her hands pressed together in prayer.

This was because the place they had come to was the village’s Grave Hill, a place where people rarely ventured.

In the dead of night, as far as the eye could see, there were nothing but burial mounds.

“Burying it here is the only safe option. You don’t know how wild the children in our village are. There isn’t a patch of ground on the mountain they won’t dig up. Nowhere else is safe. But this place is the exception!”

Even the most mischievous children in the village wouldn’t come here to play. The adults were usually busy and wouldn’t come either.

Liao Shanchun showed no fear at all.

Liao Shanchun called out, “Ancestors, this is a police officer. The officer is here to investigate a case. No offense intended, no offense intended!”

Meanwhile, the Old Lady walked up to a different burial mound. “Xiu’er, this is a police officer. Don’t be afraid.”

Liao Shanchun knew that was her mother-in-law’s young daughter who had died early. She had heard the girl was very timid.

Liao Shanchun wasn’t particularly brave herself; her current courage stemmed entirely from her trust in Yun Song’s status as a police officer.

Soon, the three of them found a new burial mound with burnt spirit money¹ resting on top.

One look was enough to tell it had been dug recently, yet there had been no funerals in the village lately.

Liao Shanchun then watched as Yun Song took the hoe and began… digging… digging it up.

Huh? Wait? Wasn’t the hoe brought for self-defense?

Liao Shanchun asked, “Are we… are we digging it up right now?”

“I need to check the condition of the body first.”

“Can’t it wait until tomorrow morning?” Things like this were better handled during the day.

“By tomorrow morning, everyone will be awake. It might be more troublesome then.”

Guessing that the two women might be afraid, Yun Song said, “You two go back and rest first. I’ll return once I’ve handled this.”

Liao Shanchun swallowed hard and looked at her mother-in-law.

“I’m really not afraid of these things,” Yun Song said, looking at the two of them. “Go on back. If you stay, it will actually make me feel uneasy.”

Seeing her calm expression, the two women thought about it and realized she was right. She was a police officer, after all. A person like her possessed a righteous aura that could ward off a hundred ghosts. She certainly wouldn’t be afraid.

As the two of them walked back, the Old Lady passed the other burial mound and whispered again, “Xiu’er, go to sleep quickly. Don’t look over there.”

Yun Song had already immersed herself in her work, paying no mind to her surroundings.

To her, the only thing that mattered was the task at hand.

Soon, the body began to emerge bit by bit.

Yun Song felt something was off. She had never met Sun Er; she could only piece together his identity from what others had said.

Everyone claimed Sun Er was an incredibly lazy man, to the point where he would only steal money to avoid effort.

But this person… his hands were heavily calloused, and his shoulders bore deep marks from the straps of a carrying pole.

He looked like someone who had performed a great deal of hard labor.

Yun Song found it strange. Was this man truly Sun Er?

Yun Song stood up, intending to go back and find someone to identify the body.

Just as she climbed out of the hollow, she saw Liao Shanchun and her mother-in-law sitting side by side on the hillside.

The two had been terrified down below, but they were also worried about Yun Song, so they had waited on the slope above.

After all, it didn’t feel right to come out with someone and then just leave them behind.

“Officer, you’re up! What’s wrong?”

Yun Song said, “I’ve dug up the body. I didn’t know Sun Er, but something is strange. Would Sun Er have marks of hard labor on his hands and shoulders?”

“Definitely not. He was lazy to the bone, lazy since he was a child,” the Old Lady said.

Yun Song replied, “The body has them.”

The Old Lady’s fear vanished instantly.

Did that mean the person wasn’t Sun Er?

How could that be? Then who was it?

The Old Lady grabbed her daughter-in-law. “Come, let’s go down and see who it is.”

Despite their fear, their curiosity was piqued. If it wasn’t Sun Er, then who in the village had died?

The three of them went down together.

The body lay there, waiting for someone to recognize it.

The Old Lady and Liao Shanchun each grabbed one of Yun Song’s arms, using her as a shield as they slowly shuffled forward. Soon, they reached the body.

Under the moonlight, the face of the corpse was already beginning to rot.

However, the features were not unrecognizable.

“This is Sun Er.”

Translator’s Notes