I rushed out to see a chaotic scene: a crowd murmuring and yelling, retreating quite a distance. Some of the more timid ones had already bolted, while the rest stared, frozen, at the corpse on the ground, inching forward only to quickly back away again. I looked at the body; there was nothing unusual about it. Wasn't it just a layer of white shell coating the left side? Was that cause for such a fuss? Honestly... I silently scorned the cowards and turned back toward the house.

But no sooner had I turned than the crowd erupted again, shouting, "Look... it's moving again!" "The foot... the foot..." I spun around and saw it was true—the corpse's left foot twitched mechanically, and the white shell seemed ready to flake off. Sensing trouble, I shouted for Old Li to come out.

Tang Minghao nearly wept, looking at Old Li. "How can this be?"

Old Li didn't speak. He told everyone to step back, then approached the corpse to examine it closely. He frowned at first, but when he reached the corpse's left foot, he suddenly burst out laughing and beckoned us over. When I looked, I couldn't help but laugh too. It turned out that an extremely fine, long, yet incredibly tough silk thread had been tied to the corpse's left foot and right hand. Some joker in the crowd must have given the thread a slight tug, making the limbs move.

Seeing this, Tang Minghao’s eyes looked ready to spew fire as he glared fiercely at everyone watching. They glanced at each other, intimidated by his imposing presence, and none dared speak. He followed the line of the silk thread into the crowd, determined to catch the prankster, while the four of us positioned ourselves to watch the onlookers—if anyone dared run or make a move, we’d take them down immediately without a word!

Slowly, as Tang Minghao advanced, the crowd parted to make a path. Strangely, the silk thread was excessively long, snaking and twisting until it nearly circled the entire area. Just as I was growing impatient, Tang Minghao's expression darkened. He grabbed the shoulder of an old woman, about sixty years old, and said with chilling composure, "Granny Ma, the Tang family has never wronged you. Why must you disturb the peace of the departed?"

It turned out the end of the thread was in Granny Ma's possession. It seemed she was the culprit. As we stepped closer, Granny Ma immediately began wailing and crying out to the heavens, weeping as she protested, "Which vengeful spirit is pinning this on me? I'm an old woman, one foot already in the grave—how could I commit such a wicked deed? May the heavens strike me down, may I suffer a thousand cuts!" She cried with earth-shattering grief, as if her own son had died.

But Tang Minghao gave her no quarter. When she finally stopped crying, he said coldly, "Granny Ma, then explain to me how this thing ended up with you." As he spoke, he nudged the thread with his toe.

Hearing this, Granny Ma sat down on the ground, beating the earth with her fists, continuing her lament: "Which vengeful spirit is trying to frame me? May you suffer a thousand cuts..." She added, "Minghao, I swear on my life, if I am responsible for what happened to your elder brother Mingsheng, may I be struck by a car the moment I step outside, and may no one even claim my body when I die!" Apparently, Tang Mingjie’s brother was named Mingsheng.

For an old woman to utter such a dire oath confirmed that it likely wasn't her. Some people in the crowd began urging Tang Minghao not to press Granny Ma, while others claimed they had seen an unfamiliar person squeezed into the crowd moments before, who had since vanished. As people offered disjointed comments, Tang Minghao spat onto the ground in frustration. He returned to the body of Tang Mingsheng and quietly began untying the thread, stealing glances at the crowd for any unusual behavior. But everyone maintained the same sanctimonious look of concerned spectators, showing nothing out of the ordinary. He finally had to give up.

By custom, those who die violently outside the home cannot be brought inside the doorway, so even after this incident, Tang Mingsheng’s body had to remain outdoors. Tang Mingsheng’s wife, once slightly revived, immediately rushed out to guard the body, fearful of further incidents. Tang Minghao went off to prepare the funeral rites. The three of us outsiders, unfamiliar with local customs and unsure how to assist, could only follow behind Geng Wei, awaiting his instructions.

Geng Wei, respecting us as guests and wishing to maintain propriety, tried to keep us from doing strenuous work. He called seven or eight men to help him, then came back to keep us company.

"This matter is not simple," Geng Wei said, ushering the three of us to sit down. "It's obvious someone is causing trouble. We searched so many times and couldn't find the body, so why would someone suddenly deliver it?" As he spoke, he slapped his thigh in sudden realization. "How could I forget something so crucial!" He stood up and called up the stairs to Yu Ying to come down.

Yu Ying, busy herself, hurried down the stairs with hurried steps, asking what was needed.

Geng Wei asked, "Did you see who delivered your brother's body?"

Yu Ying replied, "Just two fishermen, said they were neighbors. We didn't know them. They claimed they found it while fishing, learned our family was in trouble, and guessed it was our brother, so they brought him back."

"Did they say anything else? Did you get a good look at those two?"

Yu Ying shook her head. "I didn't see their faces clearly, but they insisted that Mingjie must absolutely not see his brother's body, or something terrible would happen."

Geng Wei pondered for a moment, finding no explanation, and waved Yu Ying back upstairs.

I also felt the situation was strange, but many parts didn't add up, leaving me at a loss for where to begin. Xu Zhiwu was the first to speak. "Brother Geng Wei, this whole thing smells deliberate. Otherwise—why not call the police?"

Geng Wei sneered. "Here in Yunnan, there are countless eccentrics, and people die in the most bizarre ways. Call the police? The police are afraid they might die inexplicably themselves just by being careless. What good would calling them do?"

His words left a bad taste in my mouth. After all, I was someone tasked with protecting the public's safety, and to hear such a dismissive judgment... Ah, well, I wasn't exactly a saint myself.

Xu Zhiwu said with some reluctance, "So, we just let it go?"

Geng Wei waved his hand. "No. I believe we can still find many clues. Mingsheng was a child I watched grow up; he won't have died for nothing."

Old Li suddenly interjected, "Last time when you and Minghao went down into the water, Uncle Geng, those fishermen wearing bamboo hats, and that Zhang Yuanda who came to his house early this morning, and that little girl you said you didn't remember clearly—could any of them be involved?"

His question instantly reminded me of the people we encountered in Lhasa—the girl singing Tibetan opera, the shoe-shining boy. Each of them looked utterly ordinary, yet they all turned out to be agents of Zhuoma Yangjin. "Yes, possibly," I agreed immediately.

Geng Wei hesitated. "If you put it that way, they were a bit strange, perhaps. But Chengjiang County is large... it's normal that there are people we don't know..." He added as an afterthought, "The key is that we have absolutely no concrete evidence that their behavior was suspicious, that they were the culprit."

What Geng Wei said had merit; we were merely speculating based on conjecture. At this, everyone fell silent.

I felt an answer was on the tip of my tongue, yet something vital was missing to connect all the pieces. Moreover, a terrible premonition struck me, much like when I saw Section Chief Wang whose eyes suddenly lost their whites—an intense sense of unease washed over me.

I stammered toward Old Li, "Do you think... does this resemble anything we've encountered before?"

Old Li murmured thoughtfully. After a pause, he replied, "Let's hope it doesn't."

Hearing his words, my heart sank violently. No, surely not this time. If it really was that scenario... I felt like crying, yet had no tears left.

Xu Zhiwu mumbled, "Could it be some kind of ritual magic? The corpse was so strange."

Geng Wei responded, "I thought so too, but the problem is I’ve lived here for fifty or sixty years and never heard of any powerful figure capable of this. It can’t be that a formidable person suddenly appeared out of nowhere to perform dark arts and kill someone, right?"

Xu Zhiwu countered, "Didn't you say the Giant Catfish only appeared over a hundred years ago? Now that it's shown up, could it be that someone summoned it?"

Summoned! The image of Zhuoma Yangjin compelling Old Li and me to summon the monster from the rock with our blood flashed through my mind. Could the Giant Catfish really have appeared this way? But then I immediately dismissed the notion. Yunnan was Yunnan; this wasn't Tibet! How could something from Tibet be connected to Yunnan, separated by tens of thousands of miles?

Old Li said nothing more, lost in his own thoughts.

Xu Zhiwu continued, "That old woman just now—I keep feeling something off about her expression. Did you all notice?" He looked at the rest of us.

I shook my head. "I didn't notice."

Geng Wei said, "Old people are like that; they swear poison oaths when agitated. We’re used to it." His tone implied Xu Zhiwu was overreacting.

Xu Zhiwu clarified, "It’s not that her swearing was strange, but her eyes. I just felt something wasn't right. Her crying was real, and her oath was genuine, but her eyes were off—it was as if... as if a person was watching themselves act in a mirror. No matter how realistic, it lacked a certain authenticity... I don't know if I'm describing it correctly."

To be honest, I hadn't noticed any of that, and hearing Xu Zhiwu's description made me secretly ashamed.

Xu Zhiwu's words prompted everyone to meticulously recall Granny Ma's demeanor and actions at the time. After a while, Old Li spoke first. "It does seem a bit off now that you mention it. Could the old woman truly be the perpetrator? But then why didn't she just let go of the thread? That wouldn't have been difficult. Moreover, even though the thread was thin, it was still blatant evidence. She wouldn't be foolish enough to wait for everyone to come looking for trouble, would she?"

Geng Wei said gravely, "Perhaps someone framed her."