I bring bad luck to my husband, you bring bad luck to your wife.

"You're lying, I don't look like that." Xiangxi still had some self-awareness; the person in the painting was fair-skinned and delicate, like a fairy, how could it be her?

"My facial drawing skills are limited, but the spirit is still very similar. Look, isn't this little mole on your neck in the exact same place as the one on your neck?"

Xiangxi didn't even notice the small mole on the back of her neck; she only knew that Yang Tongchuan liked to nibble on that spot when he was aroused.

"And this one too." Yang Tongchuan picked up another picture, "Beauty Emerging from Bath."

"Look at this bathtub, this background, isn't it ours? I bathe you every day, you can't even recognize your own bathtub, can you?" Yang Tongchuan was eager to express his feelings.

"Let's talk about this one..." Yang Tongchuan picked up the paintings, intending to explain them one by one.

"Really, really it's me?" Xiangxi realized that she might have really misunderstood Yang Tongchuan.

"If it's not you, then who is it? You're always thinking nonsense." Yang Tongchuan felt relieved when he saw that Xiangxi had stopped crying.

However, Xiangxi still needs to change her tendency to be easily anxious and insecure, otherwise it will be too draining and could easily lead to illness.

"How could you draw such indecent things?" Xiangxi looked at the contents of the painting again more carefully.

Is this what my husband wants? I can't do it!

"How is it indecent? My drawing is not as vulgar as that book of eroticism that's hidden at the bottom of your dowry chest. I'm just expressing my feelings through my writing."

"How did you know..." Xiangxi's face turned as red as a boiled shrimp.

"Heh, I've been taking care of your laundry every day these past few days. What in your suitcase don't I know? You silly girl, don't forget what your husband's job is." Yang Tongchuan suddenly became tough again.

Xiangxi couldn't win an argument with Yang Tongchuan.

I feel like I've been tricked by him again.

Yang Tongchuan held Xiangxi in his arms. He had been abstaining from sex for three months, but seeing these "old works" today made him a little tempted.

"The doctor said it's okay to be careful now, what do you think?" Yang Tongchuan's hands started to wander.

Xiangxi felt a little itchy, but he didn't have any romantic feelings for her and didn't know how to say no.

"I'm afraid of hurting the child," Xiangxi said with some concern.

"No, I will be very, very careful. I don't indulge in pleasure." Yang Tongchuan felt that he had good self-control.

Xiangxi touched her still unremarkable belly and leaned against Yang Tongchuan.

Behind,

Yang Tongchuan kept his word and indeed held back.

Although I didn't get to my heart's content, I at least got to eat something, so I won't go hungry.

------------

Sleepy in spring, lacking in autumn and taking a nap in summer.

Everyone in the government office has been listless lately.

The reports were mostly about trivial matters between neighbors.

The most serious case is just a minor incident where someone's chicken flies into the neighbor's house and gets eaten.

Without cases, there are no kickbacks or rewards, and Yang Tongchuan is getting a little anxious.

Since it wasn't Yang Tongchuan's turn to patrol the streets that day, he stayed in the yamen to pass the time.

Suddenly, the drum at the entrance sounded, someone was beating the drum to report a crime, shouting that someone had died at the dock.

The dock just started work this morning, and the workers are busy unloading cargo.

The first ship carried tea and porcelain from the south, and the unloading was done very quickly at the beginning.

After all the tea leaves were moved, the workers noticed a strange smell of dead rats on the boat.

When moving the porcelain to the back, there was a very heavy floor vase, about the height of a person, supported by a wooden frame. When we moved it, there was a clanging sound of water inside.

The workers felt something was wrong and, fearing responsibility, reported it to the authorities.

Uncle Chen rushed over to handle the situation and discovered that the large bottle that had been placed on the ground did indeed appear to contain water.

He then instructed the workers to move the bottles to the side of the boat and slowly lay them on the ground in an attempt to drain the water from inside.

As the bottle was poured, black, foul-smelling water flowed down the neck and into the river at the dock.

Suddenly, there was a thud.

A black, furry thing fell into the water.

Uncle Chen originally thought it was a black cat that had fallen into the bottle and died because it couldn't get out.

But upon closer inspection, it turned out to be a human head that had already begun to decompose.

After receiving the report, the constables from the yamen arrived at the dock, and Yang Tongchuan followed them.

The rotting head had been retrieved and placed on the shore of the dock.

The large floor vase that held his flowers was also placed aside.

Officer Wang, along with Yang Tongchuan, Uncle Chen (the person in charge of the dock), and the captain of the cargo ship, learned about the situation.

The decomposed head was so badly damaged that facial features were no longer discernible; only the skeletal structure suggested it was a woman.

The boat captain came from Suzhou and Hangzhou. After unloading the cargo at this dock, he will continue north to Liaodong to pick up some furs and ginseng.

We came to this county simply because a regular customer placed an order, and we stopped to replenish our supplies.

"Who is the buyer of this large floor-standing porcelain vase?" Yang Tongchuan asked while taking notes.

"It's Yinghui Porcelain Building in the west of the city." The boat captain was most afraid of encountering this kind of thing when running a boat, as it was not only bad luck, but also delayed the sailing schedule.

The constables in the yamen were divided into several groups and acted separately.

One group came to inquire about the deceased's identity, while another group followed the direction of the porcelain buyers to see if they could find any useful information.

Yang Tongchuan was in charge of the porcelain shop line, and by the time he finished and returned to the Yang family home, it was already past mealtime.

Yang Tongchuan was afraid that something unclean might harm Xiangxi and the baby in her womb. So he specially bathed with mugwort at the yamen before returning home.

Xiangxi had already prepared dinner for her husband and kept it warm in the kitchen.

"What did you do today? Why did you take a bath outside?" Xiangxi had a keen sense of smell; he could smell soap and mugwort on Yang Tongchuan.

Yang Tongchuan dared not lie, fearing that Xiangxi would overthink things, so he told him what had happened at the dock.

"Are the brothers alright?" Xiangxi hadn't expected something like this to happen at the dock; it was terrifying.

"That's nothing. It's just that this case is probably beyond our capabilities." Yang Tongchuan was just a junior constable and had never handled such a serious case before.

Several groups met at the yamen tonight to exchange information they had found.

They came to a very fatal conclusion.

The female corpse was most likely not a local. She was probably murdered and dismembered on the way by a merchant ship, and her head was thrown into a large vase.

Where was the initial body disposal site? Where are the remaining bodies? Why was the murder committed? Why were the bodies dismembered? And how were the bodies disposed of...?

None of these problems are ones that a lowly constable like Yang Tongchuan could solve.

The magistrate will send a document tomorrow to the local government office at the dock where the boat captain previously loaded his cargo, hoping for their cooperation in handling the case.

However, based on Yang Tongchuan's years of experience in muddying the waters, this case will most likely remain unsolved.

The case took a turn for the better half a month after the documents were sent out. A team from the county government where the crime actually occurred came to Changxing County and asked Yang Tongchuan and his team to cooperate in the investigation.

Officer Wang and Yang Tongchuan received the other party and kept Yang Tongchuan as a liaison to help them investigate the case locally.