Chapter 172 - 133: Formal Investigation! The Monk, Du’e?

Wang Chao was utterly fascinated.

He still remembered the time he took Sun Yang out to play. A fat, greedy-looking old monk at the temple had scammed him out of his money!

’Pah! He even scammed me out of money that nearly landed me in jail. That goddamn bald donkey!!!’

"The temple has been gone for a long time. There’s no point in talking about who is and isn’t a monk."

A bitter smile appeared on Du’e’s face.

Xu Huo raised an eyebrow and continued his questioning.

A moment later, they learned the story behind Master Du’e and the children.

Master Du’e was a monk. Or rather, he *had been* a monk until a few years ago.

About a hundred miles north of Linlan City, there was a mountain. On that mountain stood a very sacred temple, with a small village nestled at its foot.

The temple was managed by four or five monks.

Ten years ago, an infant was abandoned at the temple gates. After some deliberation, the monks decided to raise the child.

They felt that by raising the child, they could save it from suffering.

But they never expected...

Instead, it brought out the worst in other people.

When people heard about this, they made special trips just to abandon their own children at the temple gates, leaving them for the monks to raise.

They knew the monks were compassionate and were certain the children wouldn’t be turned away.

Eventually, the old monk at the temple died of old age.

A young monk who had joined halfway through his life and treated monasticism like a business took his place.

He found that the children were the temple’s biggest expense. Since he couldn’t resolve the issue, he decided to sell the children to human traffickers. He planned to use the money to build a new statue of Buddha, hoping it would attract more donations.

Du’e couldn’t bear it, so he renounced his vows and left, taking the children with him.

In the beginning, there were three children and a few scriptures.

’Three is enough,’ he thought. ’Even without the temple, I can manage to support three.’

Then there were four. He thought about it. ’Four is manageable too. I’m no Buddha; I don’t have limitless power, but we can scrape by.’

Then there were five.

Then six, and now, finally, seven.

"Xiao Bai has problems with her eyes, but she’s not completely blind. Because she was born with a physical disability, she was about to be sold to human traffickers. I sold my scriptures, my Buddhist Beads, and everything else I owned to save her."

"I found Niuniu. A village doctor said she has polio, but I can’t afford to get her treated."

Du’e continued, introducing the children one by one.

When he spoke of Xiao Bai and Niuniu, a look of guilt appeared on his face.

’If only I had money, their conditions could be treated...’

"We kept walking and walking. A few months ago, we arrived in Linlan City."

"A lot of tourists visit Linlan City. The food they throw away is just enough for me to feed the children. There are kind people, too, who often give us bread and milk."

"So we settled down here."

Monk Du’e explained.

"I can only manage these seven. I wouldn’t be able to feed another one. They may be small, but they eat a lot."

At his words, everyone present fell silent.

’Is living on the streets really better than being sold by traffickers?’

’If they were sold to families who wanted a son or daughter, that would indeed be better.’

But...

’But traffickers have more than one type of client.’

Their clients ranged from the upper echelons of society to street-side Beggar Gangs, and even included foreigners.

All of them were clients of the traffickers.

And for the children sold into their hands... compared to where they were going, a life on the streets was Heaven.

Du’e knew.

He knew all too well what kind of people bought children with crippled limbs or partial blindness, and what they intended to do with them.

Even though he was an orphan with no legal identity, raised in a temple by an old monk, he was not blind to the ways of the world.

"Bene... Police Officer, sir. How much is the fine...?"

After he spoke, Monk Du’e looked anxiously at the officers before him.

"Two hundred? One hundred?"

Qian Hua ventured, thinking it over.

Just as Du’e was about to agree, however, Xu Huo cut in:

"Let’s do it by the book."

At the same time, he gave Wang Chao a pointed look.

A troubled look immediately crossed Du’e’s face. He was clearly in a tight spot. His lips quivered for a moment, but he didn’t try to bargain.

"Alright, the main reason we called Master Du’e in is because of another case."

Xu Huo said, steering the conversation back to the matter at hand.

"Niuniu, right? She gave me a bag of fried chicken nuggets earlier."

"I found pieces of human flesh in it. Do you understand my meaning?"

Monk Du’e looked stunned, his face filled with remorse.

"I picked that up at a fried chicken shop. I saw someone leave without finishing their food. I went up, said a few words to him, and he gave it to me."

"Who was that person?"

"I don’t know him. The fried chicken shop has surveillance. It was around three-thirty yesterday afternoon," Monk Du’e said.

"Alright. I’ll have to ask you and the children to stay at the station for now."

Xu Huo paused, then turned to ask the room at large.

"By the way, if they stay at the police station as suspects, do the police have to provide room and board?"

Qian Hua snapped out of his daze and nodded quickly. "That’s right."

"What kind of food?"

"Steamed buns and pickled vege— Ahem, the same fare as the police cafeteria."

"Let’s stick to the rules. Give them whatever they’re entitled to."

Xu Huo said, then tossed a look to Wang Chao before heading out.

"I’m going to check out the primary crime scene."

’Du’e wasn’t lying; his micro-expressions and his eyes proved it.’

’Besides, his story can be verified in minutes. With the surveillance footage from the fried chicken shop, it’ll be easy to check.’

’Staying here any longer would be a waste of time.’

"I’ll go with you."

Wang Hu followed him.

In the blink of an eye, the two of them disappeared from where they stood.

Only Monk Du’e, Qian Hua, Wang Chao, and a few little turnip heads remained in the hall.

Du’e turned out all of his pockets.

He pulled out a pile of loose change—mostly small coins and bills. The largest was a single ten-yuan note.

The fine was one hundred yuan, which, according to regulations, had to be paid.

Qian Hua, however, didn’t take it.

Wang Chao pulled out a hundred-yuan bill and handed it to Qian Hua.

"Welp, there go nine savory crepes and a hundred bucks."

Grumbling to himself, Wang Chao squatted down in front of Xiao Bai, the girl with poor eyesight who was actually quite chubby.

He poked her face.

Xiao Bai considered crying for a moment, but the aroma of the savory crepe in her hand overwhelmed her senses. All she wanted to do was eat.

"Benefactor..."

"None of that ’Benefactor’ stuff. Just call me Wang Chao."

Wang Chao waved his hand dismissively.

"Brother Huo’s covering it. And that bread, too. I’ll bring it to you guys in a bit."

"By the way, Monk... are those robes of yours really a kasaya?"

Wang Chao had been thinking of getting him some new clothes, but as he spoke, he looked at the filthy robe Du’e was wearing. It was sewn together from countless scraps of ragged cloth, and a look of confusion crossed his face.

’This doesn’t look like a kasaya at all.’

Du’e blushed and said, embarrassed:

"To save Xiao Bai, I had to raise money... I sold my kasaya."

"After that, it was hard to beg for alms without a kasaya..."

"So I took out what I’d brought from the temple—the diapers and swaddling clothes the children used as babies—and sewed a new one together. It’s ugly, I know, but it’s good enough to get some non-vegetarian alms."

"It’s nothing like the kasayas of the Buddha or the abbot."

"Please, Benefactor, don’t make fun of me..."

’Begging for meat, sewing a kasaya from diapers.’

’The people giving alms didn’t care who he was, only that he wore a monk’s robe...’

Wang Chao found himself thinking more and more that this monk was a truly remarkable man.

A monk, sure...

...but not at all dogmatic.

"Let’s go eat."

"Brother Huo talks tough, but he’s not stingy with money. He’ll definitely cover the expenses."

"Let’s go."

...

...

Wang Chao had a very enjoyable meal.

Li Jianye, on the other hand, was not.

Their investigation had immediately led them to the fried chicken shop. They had it completely surrounded, locking it down tight.

They had expected to find a wealth of clues at the location, but the crime scene survey revealed...

This was not the murder scene!

It wasn’t even the dismemberment site!

The only trace the killer left was evidence that the deep fryer had been used.

In other words, someone had murdered a person, hacked them to pieces with a cleaver, and chopped the body into countless chunks of flesh.

Then, they drained the blood, packed the pieces into some kind of container, and snuck into the back kitchen at night when it was empty. Using the oil and vats, they deep-fried the pieces of the body until they were crispy on the outside and tender on the inside.

"How’s the collection of the remaining body parts coming along?"

Outside the crime scene, beyond the police tape, Li Jianye took a drag from his cigarette. With a weary sigh, he looked at the Police Officer beside him and asked the question.

"It’s been difficult to collect them."

The Police Officer sighed.

"This place pre-cooks some of its food. The killer mixed the fried body parts in with the prepared batches. None of the cooks would have ever suspected they were handling human remains."

"Once it was served, there’s no way of knowing which pieces were eaten by customers."

"We’ve only managed to find a few suspected human bones in the trash to piece together. So far, we’ve only recovered about a tenth of the skeleton."

the Police Officer reported.

Li Jianye was just about to speak, but in the next second he suddenly froze and shot to his feet.

In the distance, a car had just parked, and walking toward them were...

Xu Huo and the others.