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

The constable leading the other side was surnamed Xiao, and Yang Tongchuan called him Constable Xiao.

That evening, the county magistrate arranged a table at a restaurant, asking Constable Wang to host a welcome dinner for the guests.

Yang Tongchuan accompanied him.

They also learned the ins and outs of this dismemberment case.

It turns out that Officer Xiao and his team have recently found other parts of the female corpse's body.

They were all found on merchant ships at the dock.

"So far, besides the head from your county, we've found a left leg and half an upper body. We're still searching for the rest. Our county's dock is a cargo transshipment point; too many ships come and go every day, so the rest are probably hard to find." Officer Xiao had been busy with this case for a while, and he really had no clue whatsoever.

"Have you found out the victim's identity?" Officer Wang asked.

"She might be a government-run prostitute. There's only one missing person reported in our county recently, a government-run prostitute." Officer Xiao didn't say anything more, probably because this government-run prostitute's identity was not simple.

After a hearty meal, Yang Tongchuan escorted Constable Xiao and his companions to an inn to rest.

On my way back, I kept thinking about the case.

Official prostitutes were generally "prostitutes without official status," meaning that after an official or commoner's property was confiscated for committing a crime, the female members of their family were taken over by the government and became official prostitutes.

Official prostitutes were not the same as regular prostitutes; you could just pay a little money to have fun with them.

Official prostitutes were under the jurisdiction of the government, were uniformly trained, and were specifically used to serve high-ranking officials.

This case cannot be handled.

Yang Tongchuan's intuition told him that there was probably a big problem behind this case.

When Yang Tongchuan was almost home, he found that his elder brother was sitting at the door waiting for him, even though it was time for him to rest. Candles were lit in all the rooms of the house, making the yard exceptionally bright.

"What's going on?" Yang Tongchuan realized that something might have happened.

"You're finally back. Come inside and let's talk." The older brother looked around and pulled Yang Tongchuan into the house.

"Erlang, you're back!" As soon as Yang Tongchuan returned, Mother Yang rushed over.

"Mother, let's go inside and talk."

Yang Tongchuan went to the side room where his parents lived and found that his sister-in-law Xiangxi was there.

The entire Yang family crammed into this small house.

"What happened?" Yang Tongchuan first checked Xiangxi's condition. Apart from being a little frightened, there was nothing else seriously wrong.

"Don't worry, Erlang, let me tell you." Yang Tongshan is the eldest son in the family. Fortunately, he was home tonight, which gave the family a sense of security.

After dinner tonight, everyone was talking in the main hall.

Mr. Yang has already started preparing a name for the baby in Xiangxi's belly.

I found several words for everyone to choose from.

Suddenly, there was a loud thud, and a blood-stained sack was thrown into the yard.

Yang's mother was so frightened that her legs went weak.

Yang Tongshan mustered his courage and went into the yard to untie the burlap sack.

Inside was a large yellow dog that had been disemboweled and died a gruesome death.

"That's the big yellow dog from the cargo dock." Xiangxi and her brother used to feed this dog when they had a stall at the dock, so she recognized it at a glance.

Yang Tongshan emptied the big yellow dog out of the sack and found that there were words written in blood on the dog's body: "Don't interfere."

Yang Tongshan immediately realized that Erlang must have run into trouble.

They sent Yanzi to the yamen to find Erlang, but she couldn't find him.

Yang Tongshan gathered his family in the small house while he stayed outside to keep watch.

"Where's the dog?" Yang Tongchuan couldn't imagine what kind of person could get into his house so quickly.

"It's in the backyard, I'll take you there." Yang Tongshan led the person to the backyard.

Upon arriving in the backyard, Yang Tongchuan examined the body of the large yellow dog.

The dog was found to have not only been disemboweled, but its limbs and neck had also been broken, and its death was somewhat similar to that of the female corpse found at the dock.

"What exactly happened?" Yang Tongshan was worried about the safety of his younger brother and family.

"It's probably related to a case I've been involved in recently. They're warning me not to meddle." Yang Tongchuan put the dog back in the bag.

"What should we do? Will you be in danger?" Yang Tongshan usually worked in a pawnshop and had encountered many thugs and hooligans. At this moment, he was also very uneasy.

"It's just a warning, nothing will happen for now. Brother, close the door, I'm going to see Officer Wang."

Yang Tongchuan didn't dare to delay and went out with the sack.

They also carefully avoided the brothers patrolling after curfew on the way.

Sure enough, the candles in Officer Wang's house were also lit.

When Yang Tongchuan knocked on the door, he even heard the sound of a knife being drawn inside.

"Who is it?"

"Officer Wang, I am Yang Tongchuan."

When Constable Wang opened the door, he saw Yang Tongchuan carrying a blood-stained sack and knew that the Yang family had encountered the same thing as his own.

Yang Tongchuan entered the house and chatted with Constable Wang, discovering that the two families were in exactly the same situation.

"What do you think about this?" Chief Constable Wang called Yang Tongchuan into the room.

He arranged for his wife and children to stay in other rooms.

"Could it be that some powerful figure over there killed someone and didn't handle the matter properly?"

Yang Tongchuan had seen those beasts who bullied men and women. In their eyes, human life was just like livestock, worthless.

"Not necessarily. If that were the case, there would be no need to dismember the body. I suspect it's a case of substitution," Chief Constable Wang suggested another possibility.

Yang Tongchuan was startled by the discovery of the substitution.

During dinner tonight, Officer Xiao was unwilling to discuss the missing courtesan's identity.

It's probably because this woman is a relative of some important figure.

At present, every official prostitute is registered, and the law does not even allow them to commit suicide, as that would be disrespectful to imperial power.

If someone is truly sincere in wanting to rescue you, then find a woman of similar build and age, and have the two switch identities.

After murdering and dismembering a body, if the body is disposed of in multiple locations using this method, it becomes very difficult to collect all the body parts and verify the identity of the deceased.

As time went by, the case of the official prostitute being murdered and dismembered became one of many unsolved mysteries.

Yang Tongchuan felt that what Constable Wang said was more likely to be the truth.

"So what do we do?"

"We're just nobody who does things for money; it's not worth risking the lives of our whole family for a little bit of money."

"I understand. Officer Wang, I'll head back now."

"Be careful on the road."

"Um."

When Yang Tongchuan came out of Constable Wang's house, he had an extra sack in his hand in addition to the one he had brought with him.

That was a warning thrown into the Wang family.

Yang Tongchuan found a secluded spot by the river, filled two burlap sacks with stones, and threw them into the river.

He wasn't sure if someone was watching him from the shadows, but all he wanted was to protect his family in this small county town.

The next day, as usual, Yang Tongchuan went to the inn to pick up Constable Xiao and his men, took them around the dock where the body parts were found, and tried not to say a word throughout the process. Then he took them back to the yamen to look at the case file.

Officer Xiao sensed Yang Tongchuan's lack of enthusiasm and resentment, but he didn't say much.

After spending several days in the county without finding anything useful, Officer Xiao and his men took their leave.

They didn't even take the woman's head.

After seeing them off at the city gate, Yang Tongchuan finally felt relieved after several days of worry.