Nine Chapters of Strange Cases

Chapter 19 The Perfect Absence

"Wu Qing, what happened?"

As soon as the singing stopped, a large group of people dressed in black robes and wearing masks emerged from the waterside pavilion.

The mask was deathly white, with fangs in its mouth and horns on its head. It was almost identical to the man named Wu Qing from before. Zhou Zhao counted, and there were eleven people in total.

If Wu Qing is included, then the number of the twelve divine beasts is complete.

The person asking the question removed his mask and looked warily toward the door. His forehead was wet, his face was flushed, and his hand holding the mask trembled slightly.

“Young lady, what has happened? There are twelve of us, fellow disciples, and each of us has invited a deity. Wu Qing is the one who invites Bo Qi. Last night, we held a ceremony to pray for the Cao family’s son, and Wu Qing was the one who presided over it.”

“The entire Cao family witnessed the twelve of us performing the Nuo dance together, and Wu Qing never left our side for a moment.”

Zhou Zhao looked at the person speaking with great interest. He looked quite old and should be the elder among the group.

"Whoever came up with this perfect alibi is quite capable! It's just a pity that Wu Qing's acting wasn't convincing, and yours was even more fake," Zhou Zhao said, his lips slightly curled.

The middle-aged man who was giving the testimony was startled, a hint of panic flashed in his eyes, and his expression changed uncontrollably.

Zhou Zhao looked at him and shook his head. "Your problem is that you're too hasty."

“When I came in just now, I only casually asked if Wu Qing had gone to Wujin Lane. I didn’t say he was the murderer, nor did I say he was related to the case. It would have been better if you had memorized your alibi later.”

Looking at Zhou Zhao's earnest teaching, the middle-aged man suddenly felt an urge to nod and say that he had learned something.

He stood frozen in place, unsure of how to react.

Zhou Zhao did not continue to make things difficult for him. She took a few steps forward and stood in front of Wu Qing, her gaze falling on the crescent-shaped jade pendant hanging from his waist.

“Jianyue was your family. Zhang Ruoqing instigated Cao Ben to capture young boys and girls for sacrifice, which led to Jianyue’s death.”

Wu Qing swayed, his lips trembled, and he lowered his eyes to avoid Zhou Zhao's gaze.

“You didn’t report it to the authorities because they are sons of powerful and wealthy families, and Jian Yue is a servant of the Cao family. You were worried that even if you went to the Court of Justice, you wouldn’t get justice.”

Zhang Ruoqing is likely to be the future Crown Princess, Huo Ting is a nephew of Grand Commandant Huo, and even Cao Ben, who has the lowest status, is a wealthy merchant with tens of thousands of taels of silver in his pocket.

“The Cao family often invites you to perform Nuo dances, but Jianyue was bought into Fuxiao Garden by Cao Ben. I guess you must have been separated and just reunited.”

Zhou Zhao looked at Wu Qing's hand, which was clenched so tightly that his nails must have broken his palm.

"You hated it so much that you wanted to take revenge on Mitsuki yourself."

"You took advantage of the fact that you need to wear a mask when performing the Nuo dance, and with the help of your fellow disciples, you perfectly cleared yourself of suspicion."

"You have two ways to make people mistakenly believe that you've been performing Nuo rituals all along."

Zhou Zhao glanced around, her gaze exceptionally sharp, and none of the masked people present dared to meet her eyes.

The middle-aged man who had spoken earlier was now covered in sweat on his back. He hastily raised his sleeve and wiped the sweat from his forehead.

“Although there are twelve of you performing Nuo, you are not always on the same stage. Just now, when I came in, it was Wu Qing’s solo performance.”

“Wu Qing could have left briefly during the period when there were few people, killed someone, and then come back to remove the mask together with everyone in the end.”

"This is the first method. As long as no one keeps counting the number of people, no one will notice that you left halfway through."

“There are twelve of you who are the main performers of the Nuo ritual. But the entire troupe is not just twelve people; there are also musicians and drummers. As long as there is a thirteenth set of robes and masks, Wu Qing can go out and kill more people…” “It’s still the same as the first method. You only need to come back when you are performing a solo act or when you take off your mask.”

"Therefore, your claim that everyone can prove it is simply unfounded."

Zhou Zhao remained calm, but his words were like a sharp blade, cleaving the group of people in front of him into pieces.

"After Jianyue died, you took advantage of Cao Ben's belief in ghosts and gods. After killing someone for the first time, you were like a frightened bird. So you deliberately wore a ghost mask to scare him, making him think that Jianyue had come to take his life."

"You used the excuse that Cao Ben was possessed by an evil spirit to stay at Fuxiao Garden for a second night. During the Nuo dance, you deliberately provoked Cao Ben and let him run away. Wu Qing, who was hiding nearby, drowned him in the latrine and then hid there."

"When everyone arrived, he blended into the crowd. Jian'an checked the roster and found no outsider who might have committed the murder, because you were there from the beginning."

"Wu Qing, now that things have come to this, let me ask you this: Did you go to Wujin Lane last night? Did you put on that grand show of Xiong Bo eating the demon?"

Wu Qing's lips moved, and he was about to speak when the middle-aged man stopped him, "Wu Qing! She has no evidence!"

Wu Qing shook his head at him, "Senior Brother, there's no point in hiding anything now."

“Zhou Zhao is right. You are an upright and good person. It was difficult for you to lie. I am sorry for Jian Yue. I did not take good care of her before. I will take care of her in the underworld in the future, which can be regarded as fulfilling my parents’ last wish.”

As he spoke, he looked at Zhou Zhao and said, "Jianyue is my little sister. My parents died in the war."

“At that time, corpses were everywhere, and there were soldiers and refugees everywhere. My parents entrusted my younger sister to me before they died, but I lost her. Later, I followed my senior brother to perform Nuo dance and searched for my younger sister all the way. That’s how I got to the capital.”

Wu Qing's eyes were dry. He thought he would cry, but his eyes were empty and not a single tear could come out.

"I thought I would never find her in this lifetime, but I met her again in Dawn Garden."

“You don’t know, I recognized her at a glance. She looks a lot like my mother. My mother was a lark in the green mountains, and my sister is just like her, able to sing and dance.”

"How ridiculous! I thought God had finally opened his eyes and that I had been fortunate enough to experience this."

Heaven knows how overjoyed he was to recognize Jianyue that day. His fellow disciples agreed to pool their money and redeem Jianyue from Fuxiao Garden.

The eldest brother told him that they were frequent guests of the Cao family, and that Madam Cao was reasonable and would certainly not refuse them.

He had already planned it out: once he redeemed Jianyue, he would take her to a mutton soup shop in the east of Chang'an City for some mutton soup.

He clearly remembered that during the days when he and Amei were in exile, they passed by a mutton soup shop. Little Amei was sniffing hard, as if she could suck the mutton soup into her stomach and then she would never be hungry again.

He had promised A-mei that he would treat her to a big bowl of mutton soup someday, with meat piled high on top, overflowing.

“Every day I think, I wish I had never acknowledged her.”

"She wouldn't have appeared near Zhang Ruoqing and Cao Ben just to peek at my Nuo dance, and then been caught by them..."

As Wu Qing spoke, he became furious, his eyes wide open, and he clenched his fists tightly.

"How could there be such a beast in this world? With just that one thought, my Mizuki died."

"She must have been very scared and in a lot of pain at the time, waiting for her brother to come and save her."

"And I, her brother, was right next door, praying for the murderer... Is there anything more ironic than this?"

"They are vengeful ghosts!"

(End of this chapter)