Nine Chapters of Strange Cases

Chapter 101 Murder scene
After Zhou Zhao finished speaking, he walked straight toward the Star-Picking Tower, but stopped abruptly when he reached the door.

The latest letter to his deceased wife did not specify the time of death. It was only because Chu You invited them to meet here the day after tomorrow that she assumed the day after tomorrow was the day of death.

But now that a murder has occurred, could it be that... her death is not someday, but now?
She thought about it and went inside without hesitation.

"Young Master Zhou, because we are rushing to finish the work, a large group of us are working here for twelve hours a day. If anything unusual happens, everyone will see it."

Seeing the anxious crowd, Chu Hang jogged over.

Seeing that only Su Changying had followed them in, Chu Hang put his hands into his sleeves, his face showing a pleading look, "Miss Zhou Zhao, the boss is urging us hard. If we can't finish on time, we won't get paid."

"To be honest, the predecessor of this Zhaixing Tower was Linjiang Tower. The former owner was burned to death here, so this place is a haunted house. Strange things happened when we started construction. We had people perform Nuo rituals and offered sacrifices of three animals before we were able to find peace."

Upon hearing this, Zhou Zhao curiously turned his head to look at Chu You outside the small building.

Her sleeves were rolled up high as she patiently spoke with the craftsmen, but their expressions seemed increasingly off.

One of the burly men shouted, "I told you long ago, this place is extremely unlucky. And now that a woman has been put in charge, it's just adding insult to injury. Something bad is bound to happen to Zhaixing Tower sooner or later! Look, Wang Liu has come back to life!"

Zhou Zhao watched quietly, and seeing that Chu You was handling it, he asked Chu Hang, "What strange thing happened?"

“When we were driving the piles, we drew blood… but we later discovered that there happened to be a nest of rabbits underneath. After working for less than three days, one of the master craftsmen, Wan Hao, accidentally broke his arm. There was no other way but to let his junior apprentice, Wang Xun, take his place.”

“Young Master Zhou, you are a woman yourself, so you know perfectly well that these things have absolutely nothing to do with Ayou being a woman.”

“I’m worried that now that Wang Liu’s incident has happened, they…”

Chu Hang said, looking troubled.

He didn't finish his sentence, but Zhou Zhao understood that he was worried the craftsmen would blame Chu You for the incident and then be too scared to continue working, which would prevent the Star-Picking Tower from opening its doors to guests the day after tomorrow.

Zhou Zhao ignored him and walked through the Star-Picking Tower toward the side facing the East Water.

Chu You built a long boardwalk over the water here. Both sides of the boardwalk are now filled with awning boats, with small copper bells hanging on them. When the wind blows, the bells jingle.

"Boss Chu, we don't want to do this anymore! This whole thing is just bad luck! You settle your debts with us, we want to go home!"

Just then, several burly men rushed over, the one leading them being the same one who had spoken loudly to Chu You earlier. "A zombie! Who knows if we'll attract some evil spirits! I don't want to be the next one to die!"

"A lady has arrived; she can find out..."

The man spoke with a series of gurgling sounds, and under Zhou Zhao's gaze, his voice grew softer and softer.

The burly man, who had been fuming and felt like he could plow two miles in one go, suddenly deflated, shrinking back and saying, "Sir... I misspoke."

Zhou Zhao glanced at him coldly, "You were able to find out that this wasn't a case of a corpse coming back to life, but rather murder."

As she spoke, she looked around and said to the people who rushed in, “There is no such thing as a seventh day after death, and no one dies twice. Wang Liu faked his death while drunk. His real time of death was around midnight yesterday, and he died on one of the covered boats in the Zhaixing Tower.”

As soon as Zhou Zhao finished speaking, the scene erupted in an uproar. She looked disapprovingly towards the other side of the Star-Picking Tower and shouted, "Min Cangzhi, why aren't you coming over?"

Although Min Zangzhi is no longer the supervising examiner, he will still be responsible for writing the case documents. Instead of watching or listening, he just stands there like a wooden stake at the front door; no one knows what's wrong with him!

After Zhou Zhao finished shouting, he saw Min Cangzhi covering the lower half of her face with a fan and running over.

His entire face was flushed, as if he were drunk, especially his ears, which were so red they looked like they could bleed. If you looked closely, you could see a thin layer of sweat on his forehead.

Zhou Zhao looked at him suspiciously, "You also get hives from smelling lacquer?"

Min Zangzhi's face turned even redder. He shook his head, completely forgetting to fan himself.

Zhou Zhao ignored him and continued talking about the case, "This case is very simple, the murderer is among you."

After speaking, Zhou Zhao ignored the artisans' chatter and pointed to a pile of sawdust beside the plank road. "When we were examining the body just now, we found fresh-colored sawdust on the soles of the deceased Wang Liu's shoes. According to you, Wang Liu left Zhaixing Tower seven days ago."

"If it was inserted more than seven days ago, the sawdust will get dirty from being stepped on. And some of the thinner and sharper sawdust will pierce the soles of people's feet."

“Wang Liu didn’t clean the soles of his shoes or change his straw sandals. These sawdust shavings were freshly picked up by him last night when he came to Zhaixing Tower, where you piled up waste materials.”

"Not long after, he was killed with a blunt instrument and drowned in the Dongshui River. Once a person is dead, who cares whether their shoes hurt their feet?"

As Zhou Zhao spoke, he walked onto the plank road.

As the night wind blew, the bells on the awning boat jingled, and the ribbon tied to Zhou Zhao's head, which read "Heaven's justice is clear and all taboos are in order," was also blown into the air.

She walked alone toward the center of the shimmering water, the wind billowing her dark official robes. For a moment, the people standing on the shore felt as if she were about to ascend to heaven.

Su Changying watched, then came to his senses. He smiled slightly, and with a light touch of his feet, he floated down to Zhou Zhao's side.

Zhou Zhao stopped beside the second-to-last awning boat. She turned her head to look at Su Changying and said, "If you keep looking at me and then continue walking forward, you'll fall off the plank road."

Su Changying was startled and stopped abruptly, only to find that half of her right toe was already dangling in the air. If she took another step... she would have to force herself to perform a water-skimming feat, just like falling down and forcing herself to do a somersault...

Su Changying withdrew her foot and walked casually to Zhou Zhao's side.

Zhou Zhao rolled his eyes at him, pointed to the second-to-last awning boat, and then took out the small metal ring that he had previously pulled from the sole of Wang Liu's shoe.

At this moment, the others finally came to their senses and rushed over.

Zhou Zhao lightly leaped onto the awning boat beside him, raised the small metal ring, and aligned it with the top of the jingling copper bell.

Su Changying looked at it and said, "This small metal ring is used to hang the copper bell. Ah Huang said that Wang Liu had a fight with someone before. The copper bell must have been pulled off during the fight, and then stepped on in the chaos, embedding itself in the sole of the straw sandal."

"The bells on the awning boat next to us are gone, so that boat is very likely the crime scene."

Zhou Zhao nodded and lightly leaped onto the second-to-last awning boat. As she landed, Su Changying gently landed and lit the lanterns hanging on the boat, instantly illuminating it.