Nine Chapters of Strange Cases

Chapter 207 He Has a Problem
He Tingshi nodded solemnly.

"There are indeed suspicious points in this case. You may send men to arrest Cao Yuanxu. I will report this matter to the Minister of Justice. A formal overturning of the case is not something that can be done with mere words; it requires a written order from the Minister."

He paused, then added, "Because this case involves Li Mu of our Right Court, in order to prevent your Left Court from settling personal scores, I must get involved."

Zhou Zhao was somewhat surprised.

She knew that He Tingshi would not stop her from reopening the case now, but she did not expect that he would give her some pointers.

Formal overturning of a case requires a warrant, which means conducting a secret investigation without any authorization.

She cupped her hands in a gesture of respect to He Tingshi, saying, "Lord He, it is my greatest honor to have you help me with this case."

He Tingshi snorted coldly, stroked his white beard, and then reached out to pat Li Mu's shoulder. "Don't take Zhou Zhao's words to heart. Don't you know who her father is? In our Great Qi Dynasty, almost everyone's law of investigation is surnamed Zhou. Isn't it normal that she can find your mistakes?"

He coughed again as he spoke, "Besides, who among us investigators can guarantee that we'll never make a mistake in our entire lives? Wait until she makes a mistake, then you can laugh at her."

He Tingshi said this without offering any further advice, and simply put his hands behind his back before leaving the Tingwei Temple prison.

Zhou Zhao gave Su Changying a look, signaling him to send Shao Qingqing back to prison.

Then she rubbed her temples and walked out. As she passed Li Mu, he grabbed her sleeve.

"Zhou Zhao, do you really want to kill me? I don't think I've offended you. You've had famous teachers teaching you since you were born, and your family's legal documents are piled up higher than mountains. You can even come to the Court of Justice and learn to investigate cases from the most capable people in the world."

What you have from birth, I, Li Mu, have crawled through the mud for decades to get here.

The legal code in my home was transcribed by me, one bamboo slip at a time. I started from the lowest rank of official and have diligently investigated every case over the years. When my mother learned that I could enter the Court of Judicial Review, she was so happy that she didn't sleep for three days and three nights.

Zhou Zhao, do you know that what you're doing will ruin me? Last time you stole my case, and I was already losing my footing at the Court of Justice. This time…”

As Li Mu finished speaking, his voice became pleading.

Zhou Zhao pried open the fingers that were gripping his sleeve and looked calmly at Li Mu. "What do you mean by that, Lord Li? Do you want me to pretend nothing happened and send Shao Qingqing to be beheaded? Or should I let the murderer go next time he begs me?"

Li Mu was taken aback, lowered his head, said nothing, and strode out.

Once his footsteps had completely faded from view, Zhou Zhao called out, "Lord He, aren't you coming out yet? Could it be that you're too old and have fainted?"

He Tingshi came out of the next room, rolled his eyes at Zhou Zhao, and said, "You brat, you're really annoying. Doesn't Zhou Buhai get angry with you when he's at home?"

"The more you get angry, the less angry you'll get. No rush, Lord He will soon have a deep understanding, and then he can exchange his thoughts with my father."

He Tingshi was so angry he almost fell backward.

He wanted to laugh, but couldn't. He looked at Zhou Zhao with an extremely serious expression.

"What exactly do you mean?"

Zhou Zhao ignored He Tingshi's probing and said directly, "Doesn't Lord He think so too? Li Mu is very problematic."

He Tingshi remained silent.

After a long silence, he finally said, "I'm old enough to be your grandfather. I saw you investigating the case during the Court of Justice's Grand Examination. Originally, we wanted to bring you to the Right Court. You come from the Zhou family of the Court of Justice, which is a legitimate family. Unlike those unorthodox individuals, you were born to be a member of our Right Court."

"It's a pity that during the competition, that old scoundrel Chang Zuoping preemptively gave Min Zangzhi to you, making you follow Li Youdao." He Tingshi said, raising his eyes to look at Zhou Zhao. Because of his age, his eyelids seemed to be layered, making him look particularly lazy.

While organizing the case files, Min Zangzhi said speechlessly, "My lord, I, Min Zangzhi, am still here alive and well!"

As he spoke, he clicked his tongue a few times, "How dare you try to undermine me right in front of me? If Zhou Zhaoruo goes to the right courtyard, won't you be living in the Zhou family and discussing with Zhou Ligong how not to be so angry that you die?"

So what if someone is unorthodox? There are geniuses among those who are unorthodox, and even your orthodox families can produce good-for-nothings who don't understand the law.

"Your children and grandchildren are useless, otherwise you wouldn't be so envious of Zhou Zhao!"

He Tingshi almost lost his composure as a member of a noble family. He glared at Min Zangzhi and said fiercely, "What kind of behavior is this! Now, let's talk about..."

Min Zangzhi raised his hand. "Stop! I don't want to hear about the creation of the world from Pangu. Just tell me about Li Mu!"

He Tingshi was so angry he was practically spitting out his nose!

He had figured it out: Li Huaishan's division of the court into left and right wings was not intended to weaken the orthodox faction, but rather to protect them.

What infuriatingly ugly and deformed people are in the left courtyard!

"Li Mu was unremarkable before, he could be said to have worked hard but had no merit. He became famous because of three things. The first was that he solved the case of the theft of local military funds, not only recovering all the money, but also catching the traitor in the camp."

The second matter was the suppression of bandits at Black Tiger Mountain. As far as I know, they killed every single one of the bandits and rescued the hostages; they were extremely brave.

The third thing is the Cao family's locked-room serial murder case.

Because of these three cases, he was transferred from Lujiang to the Court of Justice.

Distracted by Min Zangzhi, He Tingshi stopped mentioning the matter of the left and right courtyards and started talking about Li Mu.

As he spoke, he gave Zhou Zhao a deep look, "Indeed, as you said, the cases he handled were full of loopholes, and the method of murder..."

The method of murder was known only to insiders; if the murderer was not a person involved, then someone must have been guiding him.

He Tingshi sighed and did not continue speaking.

Do you have any plans?

Zhou Zhao nodded. "If you keep stopping me from nagging, I'll fall behind Su Changying, and my plans will become unrealistic."

He Tingshi was stunned, then looked angrily at Zhou Zhao, "You brat!"

Zhou Zhao chuckled, "I bet the most anxious person right now isn't you, but Li Mu. If he really has a problem, he'd be frantically trying to find Cao Yuanxu to coordinate his testimony, and Cao Yuanxu is currently in Chang'an."

"how do you know?"

Zhou Zhao did not answer, but lightly stepped past He Tingshi and disappeared from the interrogation room in an instant.

Once outside, her expression turned cold. She carefully searched for the marks left by Su Changying, and then quickly followed in that direction.

How does she know?

While she was questioning Li Mu, she had already laid the bait. Whether there was a problem or not depended on whether the fish took the bait.