The night passed, and the sky brightened at dawn.
In the guardroom outside the county yamen's jail cells, a gruff, bearded man held a wine cup in one hand and used his other to pick up peanuts from a plate with chopsticks.
"Chief Tu, in the mood for a drink so early in the morning?"
A tall young man in a chief's uniform walked in.
"Well, if it isn't Chief Zhao. Care for a couple of cups?" the gruff man said, turning his head with a grin.
"I can't. I have an arrest to make this morning."
The newcomer was Zhao Lin. He walked to the table, sat down, poured a cup from the wine pot, and said, "I hear Chief Tu is a master of one hundred and eight methods of torture. I need to interrogate a prisoner outside the yamen today. I was wondering if you might be free to help?"
The gruff man was the jail's warden. His real name was Tu Wuyan, but he was known by the nickname "Ghost's Dread." He was an expert in all sorts of interrogation by torture and torment.
