The Strange Case of the Green-Headed Fly

I forgot which dynasty and year it was, the solar terms were over the second of February, and the day was still particularly cold. Gaomi County, who arrived in Gaomi County a few years ago, was bored in the county court for a month, wanted to go out to breathe, and intended to go to the countryside to make a private visit. After breakfast, he rode a black donkey and a personal old servant out of the city from the east gate and walked slowly on the dirt road in the countryside, because the weather was cold, the road was sparsely pedestrianized, and there were no peasants working in the field.

In the middle of the day, the two of them came to the boundary of Gaomi Dongxiang and rested on a donkey at the head of a large village. The old servant was preparing to take out a snack to fill Zhixian's hunger, when a big green-headed fly flew to Zhixian's face and kept buzzing around him, unable to drive him away. The cold weather in early spring should not have flies, and it is not uncommon for such a large fly to be common, and the county magistrate made a muttering in his heart, so he stepped forward along the road on the edge of the village, and it was strange to say that just now the green-headed fly no longer circled around him, but flew forward a foot away in front of him, not far away, as if to guide him, he followed the flies curiously forward, and soon came to the edge of a ditch and cliff covered with trees and grass. At this point, the flies no longer fly forward, but only around the neighborhood. The county official looked into the ditch and found that the ditch was very deep, and the bottom of the ditch was messy, and he had some understanding in his heart.

Zhixian turned around and ordered the old servant to go to the village to summon Lizheng in the village, to reveal his identity, and Li was about to kneel down and salute, but was stopped by Zhixian. Zhixian asked Li Zheng if anyone in the village had gone out and not returned during this time. Li Zheng said that the people in their village are very rare to go out of the land, only someone is a cargo man, usually rush to the store nearby, last year heard his wife say that the business at the door of the house does not make money to go out to do business, and the New Year did not come back. The county magistrate asked Li Zheng to lead the way to someone's house, Li Zheng called the door, someone's wife went out and asked Li Zheng what orders did he have, Li Zheng said where did you go to do business, did you have a letter? The woman said that her legs were long on the body of the boss, and that what was in charge of the house was where she knew, and when she left, she only said that it was a distant door, and when she left, there was no letter, and she did not expect him to live at home. When the woman said this, she saw that there were two people not far behind Li Zheng, and the words turned, your old man's home has nothing to do, I am a woman and a Taoist family can't invite you to eat wine, nothing to do with your going, there is still work in the house. The woman finished with a big grin, and before Li Zheng could speak again, she turned around and went back to the house, flashing the old man Li Zheng in the cold wind. Zhixian, who was looking at the distance, saw that the woman was in her early thirties, and seemed to have a two-point posture, sharp teeth, and a tight mouth, and she had an idea in her heart.

Zhixian instructed Li to find a few young adults from the village, and came to the edge of the ditch cliff with shovels and asked the young people to go down to the bottom of the ditch to dig. The crowd did not understand, nor did they dare to ask more, but the frozen soil was difficult to dig, and several people dug for half a day before digging a foot, wanting to stop and rest, but the old servant would not let them. After a long while, the people in the ditch suddenly exclaimed, and everyone looked at the bottom of the ditch and dug up a dead body. After the whole body was excavated, the body was found to be somewhat decomposed, but the sharp-eyed villagers had recognized from their clothes that the deceased was someone who had gone out to do business last year. The county magistrate ordered the servant to take the woman to the ditch to identify the body, and the woman did not look at it, saying that the deceased was her man, and immediately lay on the ground and rolled around, shouting loudly, which heaven killed the fierce heart of her family man. The county official didn't say anything when he saw the situation, and directly rushed back to the county court with a cadre of people.

A few days later, people heard that the case had been tried by Zhi County, that is, the woman had murdered her husband, and the woman had been sentenced to death.

Gao Mi's folk customs are simple, and there has not been a major case for many years, and murdering her husband is a heinous crime. Soon the news spread throughout Gaomi County, and everyone knew about it. On the day of the execution of the woman, the county town saw a lively sea of people. At that time, there was an unwritten rule in the locality, which was indignant and exemplary, but the execution of female prisoners was generally punished separately. I don't know whose idea it was, but the servants set up a dozen iron hammers of flapjacks on the street, lit firewood at the bottom, burned the hammer red, and let the female criminal who murdered her husband walk back and forth on the hammer seven times barefoot, and after the woman walked back and forth on the hammer seven times barefoot that day, her feet were blurred with flesh and blood, but her face did not change color, and shouted that the old woman would send it three more times and make a whole number. So in the midst of the exclamations of the spectators, she actually walked three more times. The woman's feet had been miserable after ten times on the fiery red hammer, and everyone said that they had never seen such a cruel character.

Why did the woman murder her husband, people knew the reason, they all sighed. It turned out that the woman was originally a good girl, but she was born spicy, her parents did not have a son, and she was raised as a boy when she was a child, and she was also called by a boy on weekdays, she had great strength, could speak, was capable, and was the head of the house when she was in her mother's house.

When the woman grew up, her parents wanted to make money and married her to a short, thin man. Men can't do farm work, they just rush to the market to do small business. Men rush to the market early and late to return home basically, the family's farm work and inside and outside the big things and small affairs are handed over to the woman to deal with, the woman does not matter, anything can handle the head of the land is the Tao, at the beginning there are things to discuss with the man, and then see the man can not come up with any big ideas, simply no longer ask, the family affairs are all their own decisions.

The wife is capable, the man is worry-free. But the family is full of yin and yang, and the man's heart is actually not a taste. There are many idle people rushing to the store, and people who know the details of his family will inevitably talk in front of him and play right and wrong, so he sometimes goes home and causes trouble for no reason. The woman's heart is big and thick, and she stays at home and does not know what the man is doing outside, and she has a fiery temper, and the house has been noisy ever since. Once, he heard a long-tongued woman from a neighboring village say that his wife and a certain woman in the same village were pulling and pulling. The man did not distinguish between true and false when he heard it, and rushed home early to find his wife Xingshi to ask for guilt. Who knows, the coincidence of the performance, entering the door is running into the same village of the man came out of their house with a smile, he did not dare to theorize with others, rushed into the door and quarreled with his wife. The wife said that the man's ploughing was good, and she could do anything as a woman, but she would not make the cattle plough the land. In order to make other men help her own work, she played some small tricks, and the men set up something almost wrong, and did not suffer losses, and others looked at the gossip and let them go. The woman felt that she was doing this for the sake of the family, and she was not ashamed. So the two quarreled fiercely that night, and finally the man did not know where the evil energy came from, touched the square wood block of the top wardrobe and threw it at the woman, the woman could bear this, turned around and grabbed the wooden block and patted it at once, which knew that it was not biased or obliquely on the back of the man's head, the man fell on the ground in front of the kang and did not get up again, the woman went forward to check and found that it had lost its breath.

Seeing that something had happened, the woman was also very frightened in her heart, but she did not panic, and took advantage of the night to get the man's body into a ditch on the edge of the village and bury it. When asked, they only said that the man went out to do business, everyone's life was very difficult, no one asked much, besides, the neighbors all knew her temper and did not dare to inquire. Such a day passed peacefully for more than half a year, until the green-headed fly attracted Zhixian county before the East Window Incident occurred.