46 Corruption

 

“Because of that you killed the 5 of us?” Qian Er clearly did not understand the kind of bond Ol’ Six shared with Chu Ye. “You are crazy. You’re killing us over bean paste noodles? You belong in a mental asylum! Life there will be perfect for you as you’ll be forced to repeat the same thing every day!” Hearing that wrong description of the mental hospital, my eyes twitched. Qian Er couldn’t have been more wrong. Life inside a mental asylum sometimes was more colorful than life outside…

Ol’ Six guffawed. “Yes, I did everything. Originally I didn’t plan to make my move so soon but this time, you all came back to infiltrate our master's tomb, that was my bottom line! I can’t wait anymore, I have to take revenge now!” Ol’ Six continued, “That Zhao woman wants us to look for someone for her, but first she needs the body of the groom from that Minghun. It was why we attended Minghun that day. When that was decided, my plan was already formed. I would purposely wet my pants around 11 pm and then I can use that chance to sneak away.”

So Zhao Minghun hired this group of grave robbers to steal the Minghun’s groom, I wondered why. “As I expected, the woman told me to go back to change. I know that over these years, you people have never really trusted me and you would send someone to trail me.” Ol’ Six said with some pride. “Because I was the only one who was coerced to kill 5 years ago, I wasn’t voluntary.”

Qian Er hissed through his teeth. “Little Three has told us many times that keeping you around is just going to bite us in the ass. If we didn’t stop Little Three last time, he would have killed you already. Now, I see how wrong we were.”

Ol’ Six countered, “Yes, you people should have killed me. Little Three was the cleverest among you lot but also the stupidest. I have already arranged everything, before the Minghun started, I already moved the body inside to somewhere else. After all, that is what we do for a living. Along the way back, Little Three was still mocking me about my ‘accident’ but he had no idea what was awaiting him.” Ol’ Six sounded proud, “I purposely took a small path, telling him that it was a shortcut. He didn’t see the dagger coming at all. Why would every single one of you think that you’ll be better than me at fighting?” There was a scratching sound, it was probably Ol’ Six drawing on the wall with his dagger. He continued, “Using the same tunnel I used to shuttle the groom out, I shoved Little Three into the coffin. At that moment, the coffin bearers arrived, the timing was perfect. What they didn’t know was I was just beside the coffin when they lifted it up from the ground. When I crawled out from the tunnel, someone handed me something. It was a portable music player, it played harrowing female wails. Even though I didn’t see the person who left me the present, I knew it was a woman. Then it hit me. Chu Mei is back, Chu Mei wants to help me to kill you.”

The ghost Chu Mei? So the ghostly sounds came from a portable music player. But if she was really a ghost, why would she need a music player? Technology was a thing in the afterlife too?

“When you guys were still at the Minghun ceremony, I already used my dagger to skin the groom. As you know, that is our sect's rules. I used fishing lines to tie the dagger to the man’s hands and splashed him with Little Three’s blood. With that, you people would have reasons to believe that the body had just died and it was probably me.” So the skinned body was Ol’ Six’s doing after all. To cover his real identity, Ol’ Six had destroyed the man’s face. That was too suspicious for me. Furthermore, if I was him, I wouldn’t have left the dagger on the body. Sometimes, a lack of evidence was the best disguise. The devil’s in the details.

“Then I wrote down the statement that only you people will understand on the wall.” Ol’ Six chuckled. “You’ll be led to believe that Chu Mei has returned. I’ll be honest, at the time, I was hiding on a tree not far away, watching your every move. As I predicted, you guys decided to leave the base. And you seem to believe that the skinned body was indeed me.” The statement left on the wall did convince Wei Er’s group that the body was Ol’ Six and Chu Mei had returned.

Ol’ Six grinded his dagger against the wall. “I know the real game will begin soon. The incident from 5 years ago is only privy to the six of us. Someone must have leaked to the outside world what really happened to Chu Ye, perhaps they wanted to take Chu Ye’s treasures all for themselves. Naturally, that tattletale wouldn’t be among the 2 dead peoples, so the culprit has to be among the 4 living ones. Someone has to be the traitor.” At this point, Ol’ Six guffawed. “Master did say that you will end up double-crossing each other in the end. None of you really trust one another. The reason you people chose to come into this tomb is to silence the others. Every single one of you knows that you are not the traitor, so the only way to make it out alive is to kill everyone else!”

Zhao Mingkun and I experienced the rest ourselves. Qian San was the most naïve among them, perhaps while the others were already plotting the others’ death, he was the only one who believed they were really heading into their master’s tomb to hide from the police. In the cover of the darkness, finally someone made their move. Qian San was the first to fall, after he was attacked, he ran towards the other chamber and crawled into the coffin. Wei Er and Big Egg chased after him. They didn’t stop to check the coffin but directly shuttled through the other stone door. Failing to find Qian San, they turned on each other and neither survived. Qian Er was the cleverest among them. He probably was the first to come down and the moment he reached the tomb, he found a hiding spot in the dark. After everyone made their move, he only started his plan. Sometimes, one didn’t need to lift a muscle to kill, manipulating others to kill was the tactic of a master strategist.

The four of them had zero trust for each other. Even though they might feel something was not right, they wouldn’t share it with the others because they were the enemies. How could you show weakness before your enemies? They would only think the worst of the others because they were horrible people themselves.

Wei Er did send a SOS message to me before they entered the tomb but it was pointless. Everything happened too fast. He wasn’t able to wait for my rescue. So now only Qian Er and Ol’ Six remained.

Qian Er challenged, “So it’s either you or me, huh? I have to tell you, I do not like your chances. I am much better at knives than you do.”

Ol’ Six stopped grinding the dagger because the rustling sound stopped. “That might be true, but where are you going to find a knife? I believe you know better than anyone else whose dagger Wei Er has stolen in the dark. Your younger brother has one, that groom’s body has one, Big Egg has one, Wei Er has two and the last one is with me, so how do you plan to fight me?” Ol’ Six cackled. Then I heard the footsteps, it sounded like Ol’ Six was running towards his prey.

“Move!” Zhao Mingkun’s voice suddenly rang out and it was followed by the bright halo of the flashlight. I saw Ol’ Six had stabbed his dagger into Qian Er’s chest but there was also a dagger stuck in Ol’ Six’s body.

“Ha ha, who do you think you are?” Qian Er spat a mouthful of blood on Ol’ Six’s face. “I am Qian Er, the cleverest among the 6 of us. I saw the problem from miles away but I know those people would not heed my warning. Why would you think I only carry one dagger on me?” Qian Er was proud of his cunningness and he spoke quicker. However, as the excitement took over, the blood gushed out faster. But then again, it did not look like he cared about that anymore. “Who said one can only carry one dagger? You people are too stubborn and doltish… Who said the only reason to start an apprenticeship is to learn new skills, it’s time to revolutionize the system…” Qian San collapsed to the ground. His last word was, “I am the cleverest among all of us, there is no way you people can kill me…”

Perhaps Qian Er did realize this was all a plan by Ol’ Six to turn them against each other but he was still dead. He might be the cleverest of the 6 brothers but he still died.

Ol’ Six sat on the ground and looked so peaceful as he turned towards us. “It’s you guys. It’s quite nice that someone other than the six of us knows the truth in the end. The 6 of us should have died 5 years ago.”

“They deserve to die but why did you steal all those dead brides and kill the Minghun’s organizers?” I held Ol’ Six and asked slowly. Ol’ Six’s eyes flickered, he was leaving us soon.

“Who? I only killed those who deserved it. I have never killed anyone else!” Ol’ Six claimed. I had no idea whether a dying person would lie or not but I believed Ol’ Six would see lying as something beneath him. If Ol’ Six didn’t kill those people, then who did?

“Then tell me about Chu Mei, how did she hand you the music player?” I asked hurriedly.

“She just placed it beside me, what kind of question is that?” Ol’ Six was already fading away. The dagger was sticking out of his heart.

“You said you only killed those who deserved it, then who killed Chu Mei?” I pressed.

Ol’ Six were closing his eyes. “Chu Mei, Chu Mei is dead?”

“You people killed her by bashing her head in!” I shouted.

“No, no… After they gangraped Chu Mei, we left. No one… no one killed Chu Mei…” Ol’ Six whispered with his last breath.

What?! It felt like I was the one who had my head bashed in. No one killed Chu Mei, Chu Mei was still alive? No, Chu Mei was definitely dead. That was clear from the police case file discovered by Zhao Mingkun.

Ol’ Six was wading towards death. He mumbled, “Chu Ye was the only person in this world who understood me, I’m going to meet him now. I never shed a tear for another person but during Chu Ye’s death, I had to hold my tears back so badly. For some reason, I also feel like crying now, but no tears are coming…

“Oh, how I miss a good bowl of bean paste noodles.”