“Salt.” Wen Mingtang’s answer was concise. While replying, she broke off another piece of crispy salt from the pork skin and turned to look at the people behind her—Liu Yuan, Bai Zhu, and Lin Fei, each holding several files, peered in from outside.

Seeing this, Wen Mingtang couldn’t help but think to herself: No wonder there wasn’t a sound of footsteps; they hadn’t come in yet. However, even though they hadn’t entered, their eyes were sharp enough to spot the salt that she had spread on the pork skin.

Seeing her turn around, the three of them entered the kitchen and walked directly towards her.

Watching Wen Mingtang pat the salt off the dried pork skin, then brush a layer of rice vinegar onto the half-charred surface, Liu Yuan unconsciously swallowed, inhaling the aroma. He asked Wen Mingtang, “What’s this snack called? It takes so much effort; it must be delicious!”

Wen Mingtang, focused on brushing on the rice vinegar, replied, “Crispy roasted pork belly”.

As for what makes it crispy… After finishing the pork skin, Wen Mingtang put the half-roasted pork belly back into the “oven” before sitting down again. She picked up the unfinished storybook, feeling the warmth from the fire, and said, “It’ll be ready in about half an hour.”

That really took a lot of time! The constables said they’d seen Master Wen making this snack shortly after lunch, and she’d been working on it until midnight.

But… good that it was midnight; no one else would be stealing the snack! Liu Yuan gathered the stack of files he was carrying, sighed meaningfully, and said, “It seems that working on cases all night isn’t entirely without its advantages.”

Wen Mingtang, who was flipping through a storybook, suddenly realized, “No wonder Liu Sicheng asked me when the pork belly would be ready before leaving for dinner; it turns out he’d already set his sights on it this morning.”

She knew that she usually lay in bed reading and preparing to rest at this time, not grilling pork belly in the kitchen, which was usually deserted at this hour.

These people had clearly come all the way to the kitchen today specifically for that crispy pork belly.

Wen Mingtang glanced at the group, shook her head, looked at the pork belly roasting in the “oven,” and said, “Let’s wait a bit longer. It needs to have most of the fat rendered off before it’s done!”

Smelling the rich aroma of roasting pork in the air, Liu Yuan slapped his thigh and immediately said, “Wait, wait! Patience is something I, Liu, have no shortage of!”

While he was speaking, Lin Fei had already found a small table where Ah Bing and Tangyuan usually sat while preparing vegetables and placed it next to Wen Mingtang. After sitting down, he began to read the case file in his hand.

The warmth and light from the stove were perfect for reading case files and storybooks.

Seeing that Wen Mingtang and Lin Fei had already “snatched” the two best seats, Liu Yuan and Bai Zhu helplessly found two more small tables nearby and sat down. The group sat around the stove, flipping through the case files and discussing today’s case.

“Although Butcher Hu Siming isn’t a native of Chang’an, he’s been here for twenty years. He’s a bit fierce-looking, the kind of appearance that would make even a child cry, but neither the officials nor the neighbors have ever mentioned him committing any evil deeds,” Bai Zhu said. “The government has no record of it, and the neighbors all say he’s never done anything wrong.”

But not having done anything wrong in the past doesn’t mean he’ll never do it.

“Although he hasn’t done anything wrong, Hu Siming is a loner, and he’s never married or had children. After his parents passed away years ago, Hu Siming has lived alone ever since, neither doing evil nor having any close friends. He neither does evil nor good; he’s just an ordinary commoner,” Bai Zhu said.

After investigating Hu Siming, his situation was straightforward: no friends, no enemies.

Therefore, the possibility of him being framed by someone was extremely low.

“Otherwise, it was just bad luck; he didn’t check carefully if there was anything else in the swill bucket before using it,” Liu Yuan continued. “No body parts were found in the other swill buckets, only in his.”

Bai Zhu shook his head, saying, “The body parts weren’t piled up at the bottom of the swill bucket but mixed in with the other waste. It’s unlikely to be bad luck. Choosing the swill bucket with body parts is more like it was thrown in during the slaughter this morning.”

If that was the case… that swill bucket was there all morning, with many passersby. Although Hu Siming was the prime suspect, he might not be the only one who could have done that.

“Anyone with quick hands can do it, like pickpockets.” Liu Yuan paused, then added, “And butchers!”

There was always rivalry among butchers. Hu Siming’s slaughterhouse was the most successful, so if a fellow butcher was jealous, it wasn’t impossible.

But even with the deepest jealousy, they might resort to underhanded tricks. Would they really go so far as to kill someone to frame a competitor?

Liu Yuan shook his head. “I think it’s highly unlikely!” He said, “Finding a human corpse in the swill bucket certainly affected Hu Siming’s business the most, but the butchers’ business also declined significantly.”

When they left, almost no one came to the other slaughterhouses. After all, a kitchen knife had become a “murder weapon”—who wouldn’t be horrified and dare to approach?

“They might secretly switch poultry and livestock, replacing large, slaughtered chickens and ducks with smaller ones, or fresh ones with stale ones, but they wouldn’t commit murder,” Bai Zhu echoed Liu Yuan’s words. After a pause, he added, “I just went to see Wu Bucai, and he said the murderer’s knife work was extremely swift. The way he dismembered the body was very skillful and experienced. Even seasoned murderers and robbers rarely have such familiarity with the structure of human bones.”

At this point, Bai Zhu stopped and said to Wen Mingtang, who had been reading a storybook but suddenly looked up, “Master Wen, this case is truly terrifying. We’ll stop here.” He had become so engrossed in discussing the case that he had forgotten Master Wen was present.

Upon hearing this, Wen Mingtang shook her head, said “It’s alright,” and then said, “So, if the murderer isn’t someone heinous and habitually dismembers bodies, then it’s very likely someone like the butcher who has a deep understanding of skeletal structure.”

Seeing that Wen Mingtang wasn’t afraid and even took over the conversation, Bai Zhu, though somewhat surprised, nodded and said, “That’s true.”

Wen Mingtang raised her hand to look at her own, then looked at the three people looking at her and said, “Then a cook is also a possibility!”

Although cooks did not slaughter piles of poultry and livestock every day like butchers did, because of the need to prepare ingredients, certain complicated dishes, such as Sāntào Yā, required deboning the entire bird directly. Naturally, their understanding of bone structure and skeletal alignment was no less than that of a butcher.

(End of Chapter)

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This video is in Chinese; I watched it for the extraordinary knife skill of the chef.