Fake Divorce Turns into Murder Case (1)

Chapter 53

Above Tonglin Town sits a Great Reservoir. Built in the seventies, it was a massive undertaking; back then, every household in Tonglin Town contributed one or two laborers to the project.

The person currently guarding the reservoir is a sixty-five-year-old woman. Her daily task is to patrol the area, preventing people from swimming or fishing in the summer, and stopping people from poisoning the fish in the winter.

She also forbids anyone from dumping trash into the water, as most of the drinking water for the entire town of Tonglin comes from this source.

At times, the Old Lady also acts as a ruthless enforcer.

When a few wild swimmers appear in the reservoir, she takes a long bamboo pole and wades into the water herself. She chases them all the way, skillfully beating them back to shore.

Of course, there are other times when she gets up early to patrol and sees someone floating in the distance, motionless. She pokes them with her bamboo pole, and they remain still.

In such cases, the person cannot come ashore on their own.

Consequently, the Old Lady also works part-time as a body retriever. After the retrieval, she takes on the role of a harbinger of death¹.

Finally, she must be nimble and fast on her feet, because the relatives of the deceased might try to shift the blame onto her, claiming that she, the cursed messenger of death, failed to guard the reservoir properly and caused the fatality.

Naturally, she doesn’t take these words to heart. The Old Lady feels she guards the reservoir very well. One shouldn’t just look at the bodies pulled out; every year, many living people are driven away by her. One shouldn’t ignore people just because they are still alive.

Of course, the living people she drives away always leave grumbling and cursing, calling her a busybody and a withered old hag.

Part of this is because she ruins their thrilling, adventurous, and refreshing swims. Another part is because every time she encounters night fishers, she waits until they have caught a small bucket of fish before she starts chasing them away with her two-meter-long bamboo pole. Naturally, she releases the caught fish back into the reservoir one by one, ensuring the chances of them returning to fish next time are slim.

This inevitably leads to verbal abuse. When she encounters someone with a bad temper, they might even chase her, trying to hit her. But it’s useless; this is her territory, and evading such situations is easy for her.

The days pass one by one. She drives people away once or twice a week and retrieves a body once every year or two. She doesn’t think much of it; life just goes on. If a year passes without her having to retrieve a single body, she asks someone to bring her a pig’s trotter when they buy fresh meat in town, as a way of rewarding herself for a year of strict vigilance.

When the Mobile Court arrived, the entire town was buzzing with excitement. Everyone wanted to go and see the spectacle.

The Old Lady wanted to go too, but as she almost reached the town, her heart grew increasingly uneasy. Scenes of retrieving bodies kept flashing through her mind.

Over there, the honorable judge was presiding over cases. A large platform had been set up on the middle school playground in their town for the proceedings.

She heard that several cases were to be tried, all by judges from Xiangjin Town.

She wanted to watch, but her mind felt as if it were tethered to the reservoir. The moment she moved slightly away from it, she felt a sense of distress and panic.

The Old Lady gritted her teeth and returned to the reservoir.

She was truly afraid that someone might take advantage of a day like this to go swimming or fishing.

When she returned to her small house by the reservoir and saw that there was no one on the water, she felt an inexplicable sense of peace.

Gripping her bamboo pole, she patrolled along the forest path bordering the Great Reservoir, surveying the area like it was her own kingdom.

Today was quieter than usual. As she walked, she scanned the water and the shoreline.

From a distance, she spotted two people fishing on the opposite side.

Since she was already there, the Old Lady decided she would let them catch a bucket of fish before intervening.

She lightened her steps, preparing to go over and see how many fish were destined for release today.

The fishers were two men. Because their backs were turned to her, she couldn’t see their faces, but judging by their silhouettes, they were both adults.

As she approached, she could hear snippets of their conversation.

One man said, “Let’s hurry up. That old woman will definitely be back once she’s done watching the court cases.”

The Old Lady stared at this man, finding him a bit strange. He seemed to be constantly moving, either standing up or lifting his fishing rod.

“No rush. I heard several cases are being tried today. After watching one, people will definitely stay for the next. She won’t be back that soon,” the other, shorter man replied.

The two seemed to be on very good terms. There probably weren’t many fish in the bucket yet, so the Old Lady walked off in another direction, leaving them there to check on them again in a while.

When she returned twenty minutes later, she felt something was wrong. The tall man was standing directly behind the short man, appearing as if he were about to push him.

“You two!” the Old Lady shouted. “You fishers! Fishing is not allowed here!”

The moment she spoke, the situation changed. Both men turned their heads to look at her.

Brandishing her two-meter bamboo pole, she said, “Put the fish down, and you can leave!”

As she spoke, her eyes remained fixed on the tall man. He looked at her, then at the short man, his gaze turning fierce.

At this moment, the short man was completely oblivious to the tension of the situation, only focusing on venting his temper at the Old Lady.

“Old woman, this reservoir belongs to everyone. What’s wrong with us catching a couple of fish?”

“Fishing is strictly prohibited! If you want to eat fish, wait until the New Year when the production brigade² comes to harvest them.” The Old Lady noticed that the tall man hadn’t said a single word. He stepped to the side, seemingly vacating the spot near the water, leaving room for her and the short man to scuffle over the fish.

The short man held the bucket, looking like he had no intention of giving it up.

So, the Old Lady said, “In the past, I wouldn’t have let you take the fish. But seeing as you’ve worked hard today, take the fish and get going quickly.”

Everyone knew how stingy she was. They had been prepared to get into a fight to keep the fish once discovered, but they hadn’t expected her to be lenient for once. The short man said, “It seems the Old Lady is in a good mood today. We’ve caught four fish; that’s enough.”

As he spoke, he called out to the tall man who had remained silent, and the two of them left together.

The old woman watched the two men leave, her heart still pounding with lingering fear.

She was certain that the tall man had wanted to kill the short one just now, and likely intended to kill her along with him.

If she had insisted on taking the fish and the short man had fought her for it, it would have been much easier for the tall man to kill them both right then and there.

The man’s gaze remained etched in her mind.

It was the look of a killer.

The two men had already walked far away. Now that the perfect opportunity had passed, surely the tall man wouldn’t resort to murder on the open road.

She desperately wanted to go to town and tell the police about this.

But Something behind her seemed to pull her back, constantly telling her that she couldn’t go to the authorities.

In the afternoon, her goddaughter came to visit.

“Godmother, I went to town today to watch the excitement. On my way back, I bought some ribs and stewed them with taro. I brought some over for you.”

She had taken in this goddaughter over twenty years ago. At the time, she was forty and working with everyone else to build this reservoir. The girl was only seven or eight then, the age to start school. Back then, things were strict; without a Household Registration, the village school wouldn’t accept a child.

But the girl was the third child in her family, and her parents didn’t want to spend the money to register her. They came up with a plan to get her a Hukou by finding a household that still had an open slot and listing her under their name.

The old woman had just started her own household back then. At her age, she didn’t plan on having children and was just looking for a companion to live with. So, the family came to beg her for a favor, asking to put the girl’s Hukou under her name.

She had refused.

The next morning, the girl came by herself. She leaned over the old woman’s courtyard wall and said quite boldly, “Auntie, I’m Sanniu³. If you help me get my Hukou, you’ll be like a second mother to me. When I grow up, I’ll honor you. I’ll treat you even better than my own mother. When I stew meat soup, my mother will get the broth, but I’ll give the meat to you.”

She had personality and a silver tongue.

For some inexplicable reason, the old woman had agreed.

The child was as good as her word. Even if she just caught a few thumb-sized bamboo weevils⁴, she would roast them on a skewer and share them with the old woman.

In time, even a heart of stone would have softened. When the girl was sixteen or seventeen, the old woman paid for her to apprentice as a tailor so she would have a way to earn a living. After that, their bond grew even stronger.

Now, the goddaughter was married with two children of her own. She lived up on the riverbank, quite a distance from the reservoir, but she still treated her godmother like her own mother. Whenever she stewed meat, slaughtered a chicken or duck, or caught some eels, she would never find it too much trouble to bring a bowl over.

Seeing her daughter made the old woman happy. She immediately pushed the matter of that man to the back of her mind and chatted with her daughter while they ate.

The daughter had gone to town that morning to watch the Mobile Court, and she had endless stories to tell.

“There were so many people today! Your oldest granddaughter even lost a shoe in the crowd. They set up a stage on the middle school playground, and it was packed inside and out. The butcher was clever; I heard he slaughtered four pigs and sold them right there. They sold out completely.”

“What was the trial like?” the old woman asked curiously.

“Well, there were three people sitting up high, and people sitting on both sides. The ones on top would explain what the case was about. It was incredibly noisy at first. Every time the presiding official said something, someone in the crowd would chime in. It was a whole mass of people chattering away. The official kept shouting for everyone to keep quiet! No wonder in the old plays about ancient trials, there’s always a group of men standing on both sides holding sticks. When I was little, I thought those were for beating the criminals. Now I see they might be for beating the spectators.”

“Luckily, they started escorting the talkative ones out later, so everyone settled down and it wasn’t so noisy.”

“The first two cases were about theft, which wasn’t very interesting. The interesting one was a divorce case afterward. It was hilarious! The judge asked why they wanted a divorce. The woman said the man had a bad temper and never did any work, and if she said even a little something, he would hit her. She couldn’t live like that anymore. At first, the man said it was because the woman had a bad attitude and didn’t give him face in front of others, so he couldn’t help but hit her. He said if she changed her ways, he wouldn’t hit her anymore, and besides, they had a child. The judge started lecturing the man, saying that since they had a child, he should try even harder to live a good life. That Wu Laosan⁵, with his temper, probably felt he’d said enough and that no one else should speak. When the judge kept lecturing him in front of all those people, his temper flared up. He charged forward to hit someone! Fortunately, there were police there who tackled him, so nothing happened.”

“I heard they’re going to lock him up. But that wasn’t even the funniest part. The funniest part was that his father and brother were there too. When they saw their son and brother being arrested, they ran out with a stick and started chasing the police. The police had no choice but to handcuff those two as well.”

The old woman tried to imagine the scene. How could it be so chaotic?

“I told the person next to me that if we waited a bit longer, maybe the whole family would end up in jail, haha!”

They had been standing there in the crowd, watching one scene after another, their eyes barely able to take it all in.

The old woman didn’t find it funny. She simply asked, “So what happened in the end?”

“The divorce was granted on the spot.”

The old woman sighed. “Times are better now. It wasn’t like that in our day.”

“Godmother, I was just a child back then, but it’s true I never heard of anyone getting a divorce.”

“In our day, if your man liked to drink, had a foul temper, and liked to hit you, there was nowhere to go for a divorce. If you were being beaten to death by your husband, your only choice was to run. But your man, face red with rage, would chase you with a hoe like a madman, swearing he’d kill you. Just as he was about to catch you, he’d swing the hoe at your shoulder. You’d keep running, and your shoulder would be strong enough to wedge the hoe tight. The hoe would slip from the man’s hands, and you’d pull it out, stop, turn around, and bury that hoe in your husband’s head. Of course, your husband’s head wouldn’t be quite as strong as your shoulder…”

In a situation like that, the woman would still be seized by the people around her and put to death.

“Sigh, the women of your era… they had it so hard.”

“Yes, women had a bitter life back then. The people in the village wouldn’t call the police. They knew your husband beat you, but no matter what, you weren’t allowed to kill him. Either way, you were expected to die back then.”

“So, did she really die in the end? Could she have escaped?”

“Unless you were smart enough. They locked you up, and you waited until the middle of the night. You loosened the ropes binding you, knocked the guard unconscious, and took advantage of the darkness to run away.”

The goddaughter let out a sigh. “It’s good that she escaped.”

The old woman did not continue speaking, but in her heart, her thoughts flowed onward.

You were afraid of death, so you could only wander constantly, never staying in one place for long.

Until one day, you secretly broke into a house. This house stood alone. Along the way, most people lived together in clans, and there were always children or elderly people in the courtyards. Only this house had no one around it. So, you found the right moment to slip inside, intending to steal something.

Of course, you only wanted to steal. After all, having killed once didn’t mean you would kill every time you faced a problem.

But you didn’t expect the couple to return early. You had no choice but to hide.

You hid in their cellar for a few days. It was pouring rain outside, and you didn’t want to leave, so you stayed tucked away in the cellar.

One day, the heavy rain stopped. you planned to leave the next morning.

However, that night, you heard a loud crash, as if something had collapsed. You felt something was wrong because, after such a loud noise, the couple should have checked to see what happened. You climbed out of the cellar and immediately saw that the western wall of the earthen house had collapsed. The couple’s bed was right there.

You rushed over and pulled them out. The man’s leg was crushed, and the woman’s head was injured. She was unconscious. The man found a stick to lean on, and you hurriedly carried the woman on your back to see a doctor.

When you reached the doctor’s place, he treated her. He turned around and saw you standing at the door in your tattered clothes. The doctor knew everyone in the area, and seeing a fresh face, he found it strange. He asked the couple, “Who is this?”

“A distant relative from my mother’s side. She came to stay with us.” The couple didn’t mention that you were likely a thief, and the matter passed just like that.

And so, you finally had a place where you could stop.

But you could never forget what happened in the past. You couldn’t forget the way your husband looked at you that night, nor the way the villagers looked at you when they caught you.

Being someone like that, it was easy for you to recognize that look… the look of someone who wants another person dead.

Now, you feel that you have discovered someone who might be planning a murder.

But… you can’t go to the police.

Because you can’t just say, “I think that person might want to kill someone.”

“Why?”

“I saw him looking like he wanted to push someone into the Reservoir.”

The other party would only need to say, “I was just joking,” and that would be it.

You certainly couldn’t say you just had a feeling based on the look in his eyes.

Translator’s Notes