Nine Chapters of Strange Cases

Chapter 102 You are the murderer
Chu Hang parted the crowd, squatted down at the edge of the plank road, and looked towards the awning boat.

"Young Master Zhou, the cabin is very tidy, just like any other awning boat. Was Wang Liu really killed on this boat?"

Zhou Zhao held up the lantern, shone it on himself, and replied without turning his head, "Of course."

"The boat had been cleaned, but the murderer did it very roughly; anyone who has been investigating cases for years could tell at a glance."

As Zhou Zhao spoke, he looked at a flat, round wooden carving hanging above the awning.

"This wooden carving must have fallen during the fight. When the murderer was restoring it, he was in a panic and hung it up incorrectly. The figures on top are upside down."

As she spoke, she took a few steps forward and crouched down to illuminate the floor of the cabin.

"See this? It was caused by a blunt object. The mark is very fresh. Although someone washed it with water, bloodstains have still seeped in. I guess there were two murderers. One was fighting with Wang Liu, and the other was attacking from behind with a blunt weapon."

"The person behind him suddenly struck him on the back of the head, and Wang Liu died on the spot. The murderer did not expect this to happen, and the murder weapon fell from his hand and landed in the cabin, leaving this mark."

"After Wang Liu died, he collapsed to the ground. The two murderers tied him up and sank him into the Dongshui River. A large pool of blood flowed from the back of his head."

The scene flashed through Zhou Zhao's mind. She looked at the rope tethering the awning boat and, sure enough, noticed that this boat had one less rope than the others. That missing rope was used to bind Wang Liu.

“Bloodstains aren’t so easy to clean,” Zhou Zhao said, standing up and carrying the lantern as he came out again.

She and Su Changying stood at the bow of the boat, looking at the crowd on the pier. "Finding the murderer is very simple. After hearing what I say, each of you will be able to guess who the murderer is."

As she spoke, her eyes swept across the faces of the crowd.

Those present gasped in surprise upon hearing this. The burly man who had caused the trouble pointed to his own nose. "Me? I know too? Madam, are you joking? I don't even know who my parents are, how could I know who the murderer is?"

Zhou Zhao nodded. "Of course you know."

“Last night, around midnight, it was already late, and everyone was hungry and tired. At that time, one of them left first, making an excuse to relieve himself or get some fresh air, and then went up the plank road. Not long after, another person, who was very likely related to him or was his inseparable friend, also left.”

“You all have mentors to guide you in your work, and you all work together as a team. Everyone knows perfectly well who goes out and who comes in…”

"They went out but didn't come back for a long time. With the construction schedule so tight, the master or the foreman, Boss Chu, probably criticized them."

The expressions of the craftsmen on the plank road changed, and Chu Hang covered his mouth.

Zhou Zhao looked on, not surprised at all.

The Star-Picking Tower has been operating non-stop for twelve hours a day. Someone went out to kill, dispose of the bodies, and clean the awning boats. It was impossible for such a long time to go unnoticed.

"Moreover, these two people drank with Wang Liu, carried his coffin... and even took the initiative to dig a pit to cover Wang Liu with soil."

Zhou Zhao's gaze finally fell on Chu Hang. "Yes, they even received their wages in advance, just seven days ago."

Chu Hang stiffened his neck and slowly turned his head to look at Wang Xun, Wang Liu's master, in the crowd, and a thin, small boy standing next to him.

The boy felt as if he had been burned by the stares of many people. He quickly hid the hammer he was holding behind his back, but his action was like trying to hide something obvious, instantly causing an uproar.

"If I'm not mistaken, this old man is Wang Liu's master, Wang Xun, and the young man holding the hammer is the murderer."

Wang Xun's expression remained unchanged, but the young man holding the hammer shuddered and couldn't help but tremble. Zhou Zhao raised an eyebrow, lightly leaped ashore, walked up to the young man, and held out her hand to him, "Give me your hammer. That's the murder weapon. The evidence of your killing is on it. No matter how you clean it, you can't wash it clean."

No sooner had Zhou Zhao finished speaking than a sudden change occurred.

The elderly man with gray hair, Wang Xun, snatched the hammer from the young man's hand and threw it violently into the East China Sea.

Zhou Zhao shook his head without moving.

"General Su, thank you for your trouble."

As Zhou Zhao spoke, Su Changying took flight like an eagle. He stepped on the shimmering water, reached out and gently grabbed the heavy hammer in his palm.

Wang Xun was horrified. He grabbed the young man's hand and led him outside.

Zhou Zhao remained motionless.

Wang Xun held a dwarf in his hand and waved it around incessantly. The crowd dared not stop him and parted to make way for him.

But after running only a few steps, Wang Xun's body stiffened and he stopped again.

On the plank road ahead stood a boy wearing a straw hat.

They couldn't see his face, but they could see the wooden pillar he was carrying on his shoulder, a pillar that would take several people to lift. No one knew better than them how heavy that piece of wood was! Yet this coroner from the Court of Judicial Review carried it as if it were a straw, with complete ease.

The wooden pillar was placed across his shoulder, completely blocking the entire walkway.

"Grandpa, that's enough, don't run away!"

The young man, his voice trembling with tears, turned around and walked through the crowd to Zhou Zhao. “My lord,” he said, “I killed Wang Liu, but it wasn’t intentional. Wang Liu first extorted money from us, and then tried to kill my grandfather. I saw him pinning my grandfather to the ground, and to save him, I hit him from behind!”

"I had a hammer in my hand at the time, and with one blow, he died!"

Upon hearing his confession to murder, the crowd erupted in discussion.

Wang Xun sighed, patted his head, and bowed to Chu Hang. "Brother Chu, I'm so sorry. I was responsible for the bleeding during the pile driving and for my senior brother's injury. My wife is seriously ill, and I desperately need money, so I came up with this scheme."

“Once this place becomes a cursed location, our wages will increase dramatically…”

“Achang is young and inexperienced, and Wang Liu accidentally tricked him into revealing information. Wang Liu used this to threaten us, demanding that we give him some money and arrange for him to fake his death and leave Chang'an to escape his gambling debts.”

As he said this, he suddenly remembered what Zhou Zhao had said earlier and looked at her as if she were a monster.

"You act as if you saw it with your own eyes! You know I took money from Boss Chu. I arranged everything and thought the matter was over, so I focused on my work. But Wang Liu went back on his word and was insatiable. He came looking for me again last night."

"Now that he has some money, he's reluctant to leave Chang'an, so he went out and indulged in debauchery, gambling away all his money. He wants me to give him some more money for his journey..."

“I’m not some naive child, how could I not know that he was determined to leech off us? So I refused to pay him anymore, and we started fighting over a disagreement. When A-Chang saw that I hadn’t returned for a long time and was almost beaten to death by Wang Liu, he accidentally killed him.”

As Wang Xun spoke, he knelt down with a thud and kowtowed twice in the direction of Zhou Zhao.

"Sir, Ah Chang is young, and he did it to save this old man like me. He really didn't mean it..."