Nine Chapters of Strange Cases

Chapter 182 The Object Within the Sphere
"Chen Jiyuan, why don't you go and keep an eye on Ji Yun?"

Zhou Zhao looked at Chen Jiyuan with a particularly difficult expression; was this kid perhaps a bit dim-witted?

“Let him watch. He’s an official from the Court of Justice. If he can’t even handle this, what kind of beast of burden is he? He should go back to being a donkey or a mule.”

Li Youdao glared at Zhou Zhao, interrupting her rare "goodwill," and pointed at Chen Jiyuan, "Silly boy, you've got work to do. Take those balls apart one by one. Hurry up, your sister Zhao is waiting!"

Chen Jiyuan listened with bright eyes, and straightened his chest.

After serving Xu Jin like a donkey and pulling a millstone for so long at the Court of Justice, has he finally gotten to be a beast of burden for Li Tingshi?
"My lord, watch me!"

Chen Jiyuan smiled at Zhou Zhao, looked around, and saw the table between Zhou Zhao and Ju Niang. He then placed the five balls neatly in the middle.

Then, with practiced ease, he untied a cloth bag from his waist and took out a sewing kit.

It was a bluish-gray cloth bag. When opened, it contained all sorts of needles and thread, clearly the kind of stuff Xu Jinna was used to for making shoe soles.

He took out a needle, scratched his head, and looked at the ball, momentarily at a loss for what to do.

Zhou Zhao looked at it and sighed softly.

She looked at Ju Niang, "Please go and wait in the next room..."

Ju Niang looked at Zhou Zhao and tentatively asked, "Young Master Zhou, I wonder if I can stay here, I..."

Seeing that she didn't want to leave, Zhou Zhao nodded and looked at Su Changying beside him.

Su Changying nodded, then suddenly drew his longsword from his waist and slashed at the five neatly arranged golden spheres in mid-air. The sword did not touch any of the spheres, but the moment his sword returned to its sheath, all five golden spheres neatly split in two.

Upon closer inspection, everyone gasped in shock. Inside the five golden spheres were various body parts.

Ju Niang covered her mouth and stood up abruptly. Her movement was so sudden that the small table behind her fell to the ground with a loud thud.

Wu Qingshan and Ji Yun, who were waiting in an empty house nearby, rushed in upon hearing the noise.

Ji Yun looked and shouted out loud!

"Corpse corpse corpse..."

Ji Yun felt as if his whole body was frozen. Why were those dead legs running so fast?! He should have listened to Zhou Zhao and stayed to the side!
Although not every ball contains a face, did he sleep with the corpse of his colleague's father every night?
Just thinking about it made Ji Yun realize that he never wanted to play Cuju again.

He was going to perform the Nuo dance next time, but when he thought of the Zhang Ruoqing case, he felt that performing the Nuo dance was not an option.

It was simply worse than death.

Zhou Zhao frowned and looked at Su Changying, "Let's call Ah Huang to perform an autopsy. These might be parts of Wu Heng's body. Wu Qingshan, take your mother to rest over there..."

Ju Niang's lips trembled slightly. She held onto Wu Qingshan's hand and shook her head at Zhou Zhao. "Young Master Zhou, I can do it. I want to know who killed Wu Heng. He... he shouldn't be like this... who hates him so much?"

Seeing that she had calmed down, Zhou Zhao didn't try to dissuade her anymore. Su Changying grabbed the stunned Chen Jiyuan with one hand and lifted Ji Yun, who was standing by the door, with the other, pulling the two of them, who were clearly on the verge of collapse, out the door. Then, she tiptoed off to find A Huang.

Ah Huang arrived very quickly. He was wearing a straw hat, carrying a large wooden box on his back, and entered the house with a gust of wind.

"Yes, it is undoubtedly a human corpse. I'll look at it from left to right. These are two fingers. The body has been specially treated; it should have been soaked in the same solution as the human skin. It also smells of acacia flowers. There is a brown mole on the thumb..."

“It’s undoubtedly Wu Heng,” Ju Niang interjected as she listened to Liu Huang’s words.

Liu Huang's straw hat moved slightly, then remained still for a long while, as if he had been petrified.

He slowly came to his senses, moved closer to Zhou Zhao, and distanced himself from Ju Niang.

"There were blood streaks and bits of flesh under the deceased's fingernails, and the index fingernail was broken, indicating that he must have fought with the murderer before he died..."

The second item was a small section of the right forearm. Like the first finger, the cut was very clean and showed no signs of healing, indicating that the body was dismembered with a sharp instrument after death. The deceased had a distinct, old burn scar on his right arm, about the size of half an ounce.

Ju Niang wanted to speak, but recalling Liu Huang's reaction, she pursed her lips and nodded, indicating that this was indeed Wu Heng.

"There is a wound on my arm, the wound is very thin and fine, I guess it should be a sword wound."

The third body part appeared to be abdominal skin, which had also undergone special treatment. The deceased had a very obvious penetrating wound in his abdomen…”

As Liu Huang spoke, he gestured to his own body without any hesitation, "At this location, the internal organs will be pierced. This could be a fatal wound. Even if the person doesn't die immediately, they could die from excessive blood loss or internal bleeding."

"The fourth thing is a leg bone. The deceased had broken his leg before, but it healed after being treated by a skilled doctor. It was an old injury. The fifth thing is three of the deceased's toes. There were calluses on the toes, indicating that the deceased must have often walked barefoot."

As Liu Huang spoke, he looked at Zhou Zhao and said, "In addition, I found some gold powder in the deceased's hair."

Zhou Zhao was taken aback, "Gold powder?"

Liu Huang nodded, his small bamboo hat swaying back and forth. "It is indeed gold powder, and there are also burn marks on the ends of the hair. Apart from that, I didn't find anything special. However, I have already prepared the potion used by the murderer, the one that can prevent the body from decomposing."

Ju Niang exclaimed in disbelief, "How is that possible? That's a secret family recipe passed down through generations!"

Liu Huang moved and stood behind Zhou Zhao, completely ignoring her. He lowered his head and looked at the ground, as if he had no idea that Ju Niang was talking to him. "But I don't understand why there has to be locust blossom fragrance, it's easy to attract insects and ants."

Ju Niang's eyes reddened. "We have locust trees planted in our yard. When we prepare medicine at home, we can easily get the scent of locust blossoms on our skin, though it's very faint and almost undetectable."

"Others can't smell it, but Ah Huang can. Others can't make it, but Ah Huang can."

As Zhou Zhao spoke, his eyes were filled with pride as he looked at Liu Huang.

She raised her chin with a hint of smugness, as if she were the one who was so powerful.

Watching from the side, Su Changying's heart softened. Zhou Zhao was capable, and every one of his friends was just as capable.

As Zhou Zhao spoke, he looked at Ju Niang and asked, "Why did Shenxiao disband? You're hiding something, aren't you?"