Nine Chapters of Strange Cases

Chapter 184 He is the murderer
Jingyi felt a chill run down his spine under Zhou Zhao's gaze, and he almost lost his breath and fell off the roof.

"When you two investigate cases, do you usually walk straight across the rooftops instead of riding horses?"

Zhou Zhao nodded slightly, "My lightness skill is excellent, faster than a horse. The person who tried to kill me couldn't catch up even if they wanted to."

"Young Master Zhou, why should we go to the Dai residence? The owner who uses live human sacrifice is surnamed Dai. There are many people under the Shaofu Tongcheng; how can you pinpoint just one surname?"

Zhou Zhao pointed to his head, "I am not very talented, but I used to conquer all of Chang'an."

She wouldn't dare say she knew all the new faces in the court, but she had some dealings with the former officials of the previous dynasty and the nobles of the six kingdoms. Did the adults not know, or hadn't the children been disciplined by her?
Jingyi was speechless.

"That's truly a remarkable achievement."

Jingyi's praise came out of his mouth, but it was somewhat dry.

Upon hearing this, Zhou Zhao smiled slightly but did not reply. Watching Su Changying's movements ahead, she suddenly leaped off the roof and landed directly on a large tree in the courtyard. Jing Yi only felt a blur before his eyes; the two people who had been flying in front of him had vanished in an instant.

Oh no, he flew by.

Jingyi stopped, turned around, and jumped down, landing on the big tree where Zhou Zhaotong and Su Changying were.

He wanted to ask why they were sneaking around and not using the main entrance.
Aren't they officials from the Court of Justice, here to investigate a case?
As he was thinking, he saw two people in front of him huddled together, parting the leaves to look into the courtyard. Jingyi's lips twitched, and he also parted the leaves in front of him to look into the courtyard.

"How could there be such an inhuman creature as Zhou Zhao in this world? Playing football is fine, but why kick off my hair! I burn the furnace day and night, and my hair has been burned off. What's so strange about that? People shouldn't laugh at me; they should praise me!"

An old man was squatting in the courtyard, poking the ground repeatedly with a wooden stick, looking extremely angry.

Jingyi recognized the man as Dai Changsheng.

It was clear that the other Cuju players at the Court of Justice had already questioned him, and since the ball had nothing to do with him, he was released.

Jingyi pondered for a moment, then looked intently at Su Changying.

If he remembered correctly, Su Changying had lost his memory. He'd only been in Chang'an a few days, yet he already knew the entire terrain and where everyone lived? He even knew which courtyard Dai Changsheng lived in—it was terrifying.

"Waaah... The news that I'll be bald tomorrow will surely spread throughout Chang'an, and everyone will laugh at me. Ji Yun isn't a good person either; that scoundrel brought some kind of broken ball. But thankfully, I had that broken ball, which prevented Zhou Zhao from scoring five goals..."

Otherwise, tomorrow not only will people laugh at me for being bald, but they'll also laugh at me for losing fifty goals!

As Dai Changsheng was speaking, he suddenly stood up and stomped his foot.

As he looked up, his pupils suddenly contracted sharply, and he saw a woman's face hanging upside down in front of him, looking like a ghost.

He was about to scream when he realized that the face was incredibly familiar.

Dai Changsheng gritted his teeth and shouted, "Zhou Zhao!"

It's true what they say: you can't talk about people during the day, and you can't talk about ghosts at night. It almost scared the soul out of him.

“I’ve said everything I needed to say. I didn’t know Ji Yun would bring that golden ball, let alone that there was a corpse hidden inside. This case has nothing to do with me. Why is Lord Zhou here instead of investigating at the Court of Judicial Review?”

Zhou Zhao looked at his forced composure and clicked his tongue a few times. "If I hadn't come, how would I have known you were secretly cursing me at home? You're balding, but you've got quite a lot of thorns in your heart."

Zhou Zhao put his hands behind his back and looked at Dai Changsheng in front of him. "Why did Ji Yun's father choose you to be his teacher? It's because your family has a long history of learning. The Dai family has been minting coins for generations, and many members of the family have become copper minters."

Dai Changsheng's heart skipped a beat. Was Zhou Zhao praising him?
"Since you already know, why are you still saying anything? Zhou Zhao, what exactly are you here for?"

Zhou Zhao looked intently at Dai Changsheng, "I envy your family for choosing such a good location for your ancestral graves, which allows them to produce half an ounce of gold on their own."

As Zhou Zhao spoke, he opened his palm to Dai Changsheng, revealing the two half-ounce gold coins strung on red ropes.

The moment Dai Changsheng saw this thing, his pupils shrank sharply. He looked at Zhou Zhao in disbelief. He solemnly took the half-ounce of gold from Zhou Zhao's hand, examined it carefully over and over, and then looked at Zhou Zhao angrily, "You've desecrated my family's ancestral grave?"

Zhou Zhao looked at Dai Changsheng as if he were an idiot.

"Neither the previous dynasty nor the present one has ever ordered the minting of this half-ounce gold. It seems that your Dai family has been privately minting coins... Tsk tsk, why would I dig up your ancestral grave? To steal the funerary objects inside?"

Dai Changsheng's expression changed, and he glared angrily at Zhou Zhao, "How dare you! You crazy girl!"

He's crazy when it comes to playing football, and he's crazy when it comes to solving cases!
"The past cannot be undone. We opened a furnace of gold and a furnace of silver so that I could be buried with my father. He spent his whole life minting half-ounce coins, so what's wrong with us minting some funerary objects that he liked? Now that the world has changed hands, does your Court of Justice still want to pursue past mistakes?"

Zhou Zhao shook his head. "Who was in charge of the burial back then?"

Dai Changsheng immediately sensed something was wrong. He stared intently into Zhou Zhao's eyes, trying to glean something from them.

But those eyes were exceptionally clear, reflecting nothing but his own somewhat foolish appearance.

"Why are you asking these questions? By what right do you ask them? What does this have to do with Wu Heng's death?"

"Of course, it's the identity of the investigator. Even if you don't tell me, I can find out, after all, I'm already standing here."

Dai Changsheng pursed his lips, not daring to respond. He looked towards the door and saw a figure rushing in. "Third Brother, I heard you guys play football..."

Zhou Zhao looked at Dai Changsheng and saw the urgency on his face. He immediately followed Dai Changsheng's gaze and saw a man who looked somewhat similar to Dai Changsheng, but much younger. He walked very fast, but although he was in a hurry, he was not panting heavily, and there were no beads of sweat on his forehead.

He was wearing a football robe, the sleeves of which were pulled up to reveal two tanned arms with visible scars.

"Su..."

Zhou Zhaogang had just uttered the word "Su" when Su Changying was already standing next to the newcomer, her long sword pressed against his neck.

Dai Changsheng's expression changed drastically, and he looked angrily at Zhou Zhao, "What are you doing? Are you lawless?"

Zhou Zhao pointed thoughtfully at the newcomer, "Back then, he was in charge of the burial arrangements, wasn't he?"

Dai Changsheng took a deep breath and said helplessly, "Yes. He is my younger brother, Dai Changming. Zhou Zhao, I think I should know what happened."

This time, Zhou Zhao finally answered Dai Changsheng's question.

"Yes, because your little brother Dai Changming is the murderer who killed Wu Heng. Now I'm taking him to the Court of Justice to pay for his crime with his life."