Transmigrated into a minor official in a county government, with children at home waiting for rice t

The mule cart was already waiting outside the door.

Liu San loaded the coffin and several other items onto the cart, tied it with two hemp ropes, and patted the cart's sides. Eight archers were already lined up on both sides of the mule cart, one of them leading a chestnut horse, the reins handed to Sun Jizu.

Sun Jizu took the reins with one hand and mounted the horse.

He reined in his horse and turned to look at Zhang Sanlang: "Zhang Yashi, you can ride in the carriage."

Zhang Sanlang nodded, got onto the mule cart, and found an empty spot to sit down next to the coffin.

Fang Zhong'an followed and squeezed into a seat on the other side. Xu Fang and Lu Qiucheng walked behind the mule cart at a steady pace, keeping up with the pace of boarding.

The chestnut horse took two steps, and Sun Jizu shook the reins. The horse's hooves landed on the bluestone slabs, and it headed north of the city with a clattering sound.

The crime scene was near the north gate of Juancheng. After walking for half an hour, the group saw an open-air brick pool, about two zhang square and deep enough to reach a person.

Several rusted shovels were piled up nearby, and a rake with broken teeth leaned against the wall. The stench wafted over from dozens of steps away, a pungent and suffocating smell of decaying vegetation at the end of summer.

A rope had been strung around the cesspool, with several bamboo poles planted diagonally in the ground to support the rope, enclosing an area of ​​about five zhang square.

Twenty or thirty onlookers crowded outside the rope, some with their arms crossed, some on tiptoe, and some craning their necks to look towards the cesspool while covering their noses.

Two archers dressed in gray stood at the entrance of the rope circle, while several others were scattered around the dung pit, holding short sticks horizontally in their hands, posing as if to block their way.

An archer's voice boomed over the buzzing of the crowd: "Idlers, get out of the way! Don't come any closer! Everyone step back! What are you pushing for!" His voice was hoarse, as if he had been shouting for a while, and a fine layer of sweat beaded on his forehead.

Wang Shi stood at the edge of the cesspool, holding a bamboo pole in his hand, one end of which was stuck into the cesspool as if to probe the bottom.

Hearing the sound of horses' hooves, he straightened up and turned his head to look. Seeing that it was Sun Jizu and his group, he immediately put down his bamboo pole against the wall, hurried over, and cupped his hands in greeting: "County Commandant Sun, Clerk Zhang. They're over there."

He pointed towards the latrine, "The porter was emptying the latrine when he felt something very heavy under the hook. He couldn't pull it up, but it didn't look like a stone."

"He poked at the bottom a few times with a bamboo pole, realized something was wrong, and pulled half of it up to see what it was—an arm. He was so scared that he threw the hook away."

Sun Jizu dismounted, tossed the reins to the archer behind him, walked to the edge of the rope circle, and glanced towards the dung pit. He turned to Wang Shijiang: "Did you pull them out?"

Wang Shi shook his head: "No. The porters were too scared to touch it anymore, saying it was bad luck. I was also afraid they would damage the body by moving it around, so I didn't let them touch it anymore. We'll talk about it when you arrive."

Sun Jizu nodded and then turned to Lu Qiucheng: "Go and take a look."

Lu Qiucheng grinned, put the wooden box on his shoulder on the ground despite the stench, and didn't rush to approach the cesspool.

He stood outside the rope circle for about ten breaths, his gaze slowly sweeping from the edge of the cesspool to the pile of shovels and rakes at the base of the wall, then to the messy footprints on the edge of the cesspool, and finally to a shallow scratch on the base of the wall.

He looked away, then picked up the wooden box, stepped over the rope, walked to the edge of the cesspool, squatted down, and placed the wooden box at his feet.

A woman in the crowd shouted, "Let's fish it out and take a look! What can you tell just by squatting there?"

Someone nearby chimed in, "That's right! Once they've pulled the person out, at least let us see if it's our enemy!"

The archer immediately yelled, "Shut up! Shout again and I'll whip you with a stick!"

The crowd fell silent for a moment, then began to buzz again, though this time it was a little quieter.

Sun Jizu stood at the entrance of the hemp rope circle and glanced at the two porters standing by the manure pit.

A thin, long-faced man in his thirties, dressed in a grayish-brown short coat, with his trousers rolled up to his knees and wearing straw sandals covered in dark brown mud.

The man next to him was older, probably in his early forties, with high cheekbones and a face full of sun-tanned, dark red wrinkles. He had a downturned mouth and was holding a manure scoop hanging by his side.

Sun Jizu walked to the edge of the cesspool and glanced down.

The cellar was pitch black, the bottom invisible, with only a layer of dark brown foam floating near the edge. A stench assaulted his nostrils as he bent over; he frowned. "Who found it first?"

The older one spoke up, his voice not loud, but it was quite forceful: "I found it. The neighbors all call me 'Old Intellectual.' Today, I was digging in this cellar, and when I got to the third scoop, it suddenly got heavy at the bottom. I tried to pull it out a few times but couldn't."

"I felt something was wrong, so I changed the bamboo pole and poked it down a few times. I poked something soft, hooked it up, and saw an arm. I guessed it was lying down."

As he spoke, he gestured with the manure scoop in his hand, drawing a circle in the air with the scoop head. "I didn't dare look again, and told my apprentice to quickly run and find the archers patrolling the streets."

After listening, Sun Jizu pointed to the cesspool: "Since you discovered it, you're the one who has to pull the person out. The county government's staff have never done this kind of work before."

Old Ninth's face changed.

He took a half step back, gripping the latrine scoop tightly: "I only do latrine shoveling. Scooping latrine is fine, but scooping people out is another matter. My hands have never touched a person lying down. Please find someone else."

As he spoke, he hid the manure scoop behind his back, as if afraid that Sun Jizu would reach out and snatch it.

Sun Jizu frowned. "You found the body, so you should retrieve it. This is official county business; what kind of excuse is this for making excuses?"

The old intellectual stiffened his neck and raised his chin: "Even if you beat me to death, I won't take it. This is bad luck. I need to make a living in this line of work. If I get involved with that kind of stuff, who will dare to hire me in the future?"

After saying this, he simply put the manure scoop against the wall, clapped his hands, took two steps back, and retreated to a distance of three steps from the edge of the manure pit. He then crossed his arms, pursed his lips, and looked like a dead pig that wasn't afraid of boiling water.

Sun Jizu's face darkened. "Say that again!"

The old scoundrel glanced at him, his gaze lingering for a moment on his empty right sleeve. "I'll say it ten times, it'll still be the same. If you're willing to reward me with ten strings of cash, I might consider using a long pole to help you hook him up."

Upon hearing this, Sun Jizu's face throbbed with anger, his veins bulging.

Zhang Sanlang felt uneasy and couldn't stand the stench, so he didn't go near the cesspool.

Seeing Sun Jizu clench his fist and then at the stubborn, unyielding face of the old intellectual, a cold smile crept onto his lips. He gave Xu Fang, who was standing by the mule cart, a wink.

Xu Fang understood, quickly walked around the rope loop, and stood in front of the stinking old man. He had a half-smile on his lips. "Stinking old man, you were the first to discover the corpse. According to the law, you deserve a reward for bringing it to the authorities."

"If you can get the person out of the water now and cooperate with the county government in handling the case, you will be credited for both being the first to report the crime and for your effective assistance. You will be rewarded with at least two or three hundred coins."

He paused, then changed the subject: "But if you refuse to bail them out and instead try to blackmail the government for a reward, that's a different story. You're in charge of this latrine; who knows if this person was thrown in there by you before?"

"Instead of rushing out to prove your innocence, you're here haggling. Has your brain been soaked in a cesspool, or do you think we can't see through your little scheme?"

The fat on Old Ninth's face twitched.

Xu Fang coldly snorted, "The longer this corpse soaks, the less certain the coroner will be of a clear examination."

"You've wasted time and disrupted the yamen's investigation. If you're implicated in these crimes, will you be spending your time in the county jail or carrying stones in the prison camp? You decide for yourself!"

The old man swallowed hard, his voice lower than before, dry and strained from being cornered: "I... I'll take care of it."