Nine Chapters of Strange Cases

Chapter 11 Cracking the Ghostly Shadow
Zhou Zhao nodded to Ji Yun, but after taking a few steps outside, he stopped and turned back.

"Lord Zhu, it's time for us to go."

From the moment they entered the small mortuary, Zhu Li leaned against the corner of the wall, not moving an inch.

His face remained expressionless. When he heard Zhou Zhao call him, he turned his head, his eyes filled with blankness, as if he were in a trance.

"Zhu Li? Did that ghost eat your brain instead of Zhang Ruoqing's?"

Seeing him standing there blankly, Min Zangzhi couldn't help but become sarcastic again.

Zhu Li was jolted back to his senses by his sudden attack. With a light step, he was standing beside Min Cangzhi in the blink of an eye.

As Zhou Zhao watched, he couldn't help but exclaim in his heart, "What amazing lightness skill!"
With such abilities, Zhu Li should not be an unknown figure in the Northern Army.

This delay meant that when everyone arrived at Wujin Lane, they found that Chen Yuzhao and his group had already arrived ahead of time.

Seeing Zhou Zhao enter the courtyard, Chen Yuzhao looked a little embarrassed. He said somewhat apologetically, "There were too many people performing autopsies. When I saw you leave, I thought I'd come and see where the murder happened too."

Zhou Zhao nodded at him, not taking it to heart.

She's never been afraid of comparison. The stronger her opponent, the more valuable her victory becomes.

During the day, Wujin Lane is not nearly as terrifying as it is at night. Apart from the old locust trees that block out the sky, it is no different from other alleys.

This area was originally inhabited by moderately wealthy families.

Before His Majesty established the country, Princess Changyang had already married into Wujin Lane.

She and her husband were deeply in love, and she also missed their old residence. So after being made a princess, she bought half of Wujin Lane and spent several years building Shanming Villa, where she planted her favorite camellias.

Apart from Shanming Villa, the other residences have remained unchanged.

However, after the tragedy four years ago, many government officials came to Wujin Lane, and then there were many rumors of it being haunted. Gradually, many people moved away, and the lane was abandoned.

The small courtyard where Zhang Ruoqing died was an ordinary residence right next to Shanming Villa.

There was a small wooden gate to the courtyard that was not painted. It was exceptionally smooth and covered with a coating. Pushing the gate open, you would see the main room right in front of you.

Unlike Chen Yuzhao, Zhou Zhao did not go straight into the house. Instead, he stood in front of the courtyard gate, recalling the scene of "ghosts eating people" that he had witnessed the night before.

She had just come out of Shanming Villa when she passed by the gate of this house. She felt a light suddenly appear on her left. She turned her head and saw that Zhang Ruoqing's maid had just pushed open the gate. A sudden "ghostly figure" crashed straight into her eyes.

She thought about going into the main room, but stood in front of the door without going in.

The moment the maid pushed open the door, the lights in the room were blown out by the wind.

"Zhou Zhao, since you say the wound on your face wasn't from a ghost bite, then what about the ghost eating people that you witnessed?"

Min Cangzhi, fanning himself curiously, couldn't help but ask aloud, as the matter had become the talk of the town.

"It's a pity I left a little too early last night, otherwise I could have witnessed this strange thing with you."

Zhou Zhao raised an eyebrow. "To be precise, I only saw the shadow reflected on the window."

"A shadow is something that exists when there is light, and disappears when there is no light. When the light flickers, it makes you think that the shadow is alive. But in reality, it may be a piece of leather, a piece of wood, or even a piece of bread."

Zhou Zhao's voice wasn't quiet, and Chen Yuzhao, who was searching around the room, couldn't help but look over. The young girl in front of him looked quite similar to Zhou Yan, but her behavior was completely different.

Is she so confident that she can just tell her opponent the clues she has discovered? Will she definitely win?

Zhou Zhao understood the unspeakable look in Chen Yuzhao's eyes, but she didn't pay much attention to it. She walked straight to the lamp on the table and took a closer look.

“A normal person, when hanging someone from a beam, would choose the simpler method of strangling them upright. But the murderer chose to hang Zhang Ruoqing upside down because his ghost was too short, and only by hanging her upside down could he bite the victim’s head.”

As Zhou Zhao spoke, he pointed to the lamp on the table.

It was just an ordinary oil lamp, with a thick stack of bamboo slips piled up in front of it, only slightly shorter than the lamp itself.

"To be precise, the lights in this room aren't high enough. I wonder if any of you have noticed the shadows at night."

“If we place an inkstone in front of a lamp, and it is close to the lamp, the shadow of the inkstone will appear on the opposite wall and will become larger; if we walk forward with the inkstone and move further away from the lamp, the shadow will become smaller.”

"If we hold an inkstone and a wolf-hair brush at the same time and place them in the same spot in front of a lamp, the inkstone will still be wider than the brush, and the brush will still be thinner and longer than the inkstone."

"How would the murderer make the shadow of a ghost eating a human face appear on the doors and windows? It's simple: hang something that looks like a demon next to the victim's face. But if they did that, people would notice the trick as soon as they entered the room."

"After all, such a large object hanging in front of the corpse would not go unnoticed unless the person was blind."

"To keep this secret from attracting attention, the ghost must be made very small so that it won't be noticed in the chaos."

As Zhou Zhao spoke, her eyes shone brightly, and the two groups of people in the courtyard couldn't help but hold their breath, listening to her analysis.

"But if that's the case, the ghosts are small and the human heads are big. What should we do? No one is afraid of having their face bitten by an ant. Of course, I've already explained the solution before."

"Ghosts grow larger when they get close to the lamp; corpses either remain the same or shrink when they are further away from the lamp."

As Zhou Zhao spoke, Chen Yuzhao couldn't help but squat down and look at the table. He shook his head as he looked, "What you said makes a lot of sense. If that's the case, we should find a carved ghost near the lamp."

"But I've looked everywhere, and there isn't a single one like that. Whether it's made of wood, leather, or even the steamed bun you mentioned, I haven't found it!"

Zhou Zhao raised an eyebrow and squatted down beside him.

She scanned the area, her gaze finally settling on some pebbles, then she curled the corner of her lips into a smile, "Found it."

As she spoke, she picked up the largest piece of stone and placed it on the table. The stone was bluish-green, very thin, and had a raised, pointed tip on it.

"The killer was smarter than I thought."

As Zhou Zhao spoke, he stood up and said, "When the maid found out that her young lady was dead, she was so frightened that she pushed the door open and rushed in. The strong wind she generated blew out the lamp and also knocked over the stone shard that was stuck in the gap of the bamboo slip."

"These bluestone slabs are very brittle and thin, and they shatter into pieces as soon as they fall to the ground. Moreover, when the door is pushed open and hits the sides, it makes a loud noise, and the maid's terrified screams will completely cover up the sound of the stone slabs falling to the ground."

"In this way, the evidence quietly destroys itself."

The image of the murderer setting up the "ghost eating people" scene involuntarily flashed through everyone's minds, and instantly the most terrifying scene became less terrifying.

"But the murderer wasn't that clever, because even if a stone is broken into pieces, it can still be pieced back together and used as evidence in court. If it were ice..."

(End of this chapter)