Nine Chapters of Strange Cases

Chapter 23 The Real Culprit is Him
"You brat, don't be so arrogant..."

Zhou Zhao's words were astonishing, and the hall erupted in chaos.

Zhou Zhao didn't even bother to look at them. Instead, he glanced at a large pillar on the right side of the courtroom. If you looked closely, you could see a corner of a bamboo hat peeking out from behind the pillar. "Ah Huang, what do you think?"

Liu Huang peeked out slightly to make sure Chang Zuoping saw him, then quickly shrank back.

"As you instructed, I examined the teapot and teacups at the crime scene, and then re-examined the body with the old coroner. As you predicted, although only a small amount of tea remained, it was indeed light yellow and had the smell of datura and hemp seeds, which is the main ingredient of the sleeping potion."

"This explains why the deceased did not resist or show any signs of injury. The sleeping pills made her drowsy and confused."

After Liu Huang finished speaking, he felt the gazes directed at him and his scalp tingled. He even used a pillar to cover one corner of his straw hat.

Zhou Zhao nodded slightly. "Alibis can be forged, but corpses cannot, so coroners are crucial in investigating cases."

"When Wu Qing broke in, Zhang Ruoqing was already dead, lying motionless on the table. He didn't think anything of it. This was because Linglan had told him beforehand that she would drug Zhang Ruoqing to prevent her from calling for help and attracting others."

“As a maid, it is unreasonable to leave the young lady alone in the abandoned and haunted alley, because the master may summon her at any time.”

"But Linglan confidently took Zhang Tan to the alley entrance because she personally drugged Zhang Ruoqing with a sleeping potion, and Zhang Ruoqing was already drowsy when she left."

The surroundings suddenly fell silent, as most of the people present had some experience in solving the case.

They both understood what Liu Huang and Zhou Zhao were saying. The sleeping potion would take a certain amount of time to take effect. It couldn't be that the murderer squatted at the scene and gave the person the sleeping potion first. If the person rushed over and aimed straight for the heart and neck, killing them instantly, who would have the patience to play this game?
Zhang Ruoqing must have been drowsy after taking the sleeping potion, but Linglan, her personal maid, didn't mention it at all.

There's only one possibility: she was the one who drugged him.

"Your alibi is itself an unreasonable flaw. You had a good plan, but unfortunately, the world is full of surprises."

"The restaurant is at the entrance of the alley. You can see everyone coming in and out of Wujin Alley from there. At this moment, someone you didn't expect appears..."

As Zhou Zhao spoke, he looked at the coachman who was standing with his back slumped behind Zhang Xun.

"When Lily of the Valley was listening to the storyteller, she must have left your sight at times, right?"

As if he had just realized something, the coachman Zhang Tan's face suddenly turned pale, and he looked at Linglan in disbelief.

“I went to the restroom once. At that time, Linglan told me that the young lady would be staying for a long time, and asked me to take the opportunity to go there. There were many people in the restaurant, and it took me a while to come back... but not for long... when I came back, Linglan was still there.”

He licked his lips and said in a slightly hoarse voice, "We were only separated for a short while."

If Zhou Zhao hadn't mentioned it, he would never have thought of this. He had always believed that Linglan had never left, which was why he had confidently given her an alibi.

Lily of the Valley listened, and her composure crumbled.

Her lips trembled slightly, and she couldn't help but glance at the group of spoiled young men not far away.

Zhou Zhao followed her gaze and said, "The person you saw is among them, right?"

"Because he had a close relationship with Zhang Ruoqing, you were worried that things would be disrupted, so you sent Zhang Tan away and followed him. It was at this time that you changed your original plan to have Wu Qing put the wooden plaque into Zhang Ruoqing's hand and did it yourself."

"Because Zhang Ruoqing was killed beforehand, the box containing the wooden plaques on the table was overturned, and the plaques were scattered everywhere."

"You were worried that by the time Wu Qing arrived, Zhang Ruoqing, who was already dead, would be too stiff to grasp the wooden plaque naturally, so you put it in her hand beforehand, creating the illusion that she had grasped the murderer's name before she died."

"I'm saying all this not only to prove that you were the mastermind, but also to prove that you are the most important eyewitness in Zhang Ruoqing's murder case."

Linglan's body trembled, and she looked at Zhou Zhao in disbelief...

She pursed her lips, her eyes shimmering, and finally spoke, "I thought you would believe that I killed Zhang Ruoqing."

"After all, you've proven that I went back to Zhang Ruoqing's room before Wu Qing arrived, so it's difficult for me to deny that I inflicted the wound on her chest."

“I thought I had planned everything perfectly, but I didn’t expect a few unexpected things to happen.” Linglan said, laughing self-deprecatingly, “I didn’t expect someone to interfere and kill Zhang Ruoqing ahead of time; I also didn’t expect Wu Qing to be so determined to die, confessing as soon as you asked him…”

"What I least expected was that you got out of the Tingwei Temple prison so quickly, and then the truth came out so quickly."

"This makes all our preparations seem like a waste of effort."

Linglan looked at Zhou Zhao with a complicated expression. "I have a few questions for you, Miss Zhou. First, why don't you think I'm the murderer? Second, if Wu Qing disposed of the murder weapon and blood-stained clothes, do you still have evidence to convict him? Third, if I don't identify the murderer, do you know who that person is?"

As Linglan spoke, she raised her hand and pointed to the group of young men, "The murderer is indeed among them."

Zhou Zhao nodded. "I will answer these three questions. Tell me the truth about why you wanted to kill Zhang Ruoqing. You must not hide anything."

"When a murder weapon is plunged into the chest and then pulled out, there will be splattered blood. The murderer will have blood on his body. You didn't have time to change your clothes, and the Court of Justice and the Northern Army didn't find any blood on you last night. Besides, you've already arranged for Wu Qing to kill him, so there's no need to go through the trouble of stabbing him first."

Even though Wu Qing disposed of the murder weapon, he still left one fatal piece of evidence on Zhang Ruoqing's face: teeth marks.

"As for the murderer..."

Upon hearing this, everyone immediately turned their attention to that group of people.

Huo Ting was quite fierce-looking, clearly from a military family. He reeked of alcohol and femininity, and snorted in displeasure at the people looking at him. Zhu Huan was a handsome young man. He gripped the hem of his clothes with both hands, his fingertips white and slightly wrinkled. His face was flushed, whether from anger or embarrassment, it was hard to tell.

Chen Shanhai was dressed in fine clothes, like a male peacock spreading its tail feathers, his eyes darting around; Liu Qi, on the other hand, shrank his neck, lowered his head, and looked extremely flustered, his guilty conscience practically overflowing.

The discussion suddenly grew louder, with many people eager to speculate.

"It's Zhu Huan."

"It's Zhu Huan."

Zhou Zhao and Linglan said in unison.

"After Cao Ben died, you took his place and became Zhang Ruoqing's number one lackey... The blood of your beloved girl splattered on your face must be hard to wash off, right? Your face is all red from rubbing, and your fingers are all wrinkled from being soaked in water."

As Cao mentioned before, after Cao Ben died, Zhu Huan accompanied Zhang Ruoqing to look for him alone.

Huo Ting was at Chunfeng Tower last night, and he and Han Ze can provide each other with alibis, so they can be ruled out first.
Chen Shanhai was clearly very wealthy, but he did not repay Zhang Ruoqing's debt. This shows that although he coveted beauty, he was far more rational than Cao Ben, and it was unlikely that he harbored any deep hatred towards Zhang Ruoqing.

Zhu Huan and Liu Qi were left. Liu Qi's panic was written all over his face, and he clearly lacked the decisiveness to kill with a single blow.

Zhu Huan suddenly raised his head, but burst into laughter in despair. "Look, you think I'm nothing but a dog, just like Zhang Ruoqing. I truly love her, I want to marry her, pamper her, and grow old with her."

"She said yes!"

"She said she would marry me after I helped her pay off Han Ze's debts."

“My family is all honest and upright, unlike Cao Ben’s vast wealth. For Zhang Ruoqing’s sake, I went against my conscience and helped her kidnap several children from merchant families. But the money still isn’t enough.”

"She listened to Linglan and decided to harm Cao Ben's younger brother. Cao Ben emptied his family's coffers for her, broke with his family, and even killed Jianyue for her, ultimately meeting his end."

“He gave her everything, but in the end, Zhang Ruoqing still wanted to kidnap his brother. I really regretted it then. I didn’t dare to look in the mirror every day. Because I fell in love with a demon, I turned myself into a demon.”

As Zhu Huan spoke, tears streamed down his face. He squatted down and covered his head.

“We’ve raised enough money, and we agreed to stop. I thought it was finally over, but what about her? She hasn’t changed at all. She’s still the same Zhang Ruoqing who’s always wanted to become the Crown Princess and climb the social ladder.”

"And like Cao Ben, I was just a dog in her eyes, a dog that she could use and then discard at any time."

"She deserves to die."

(End of this chapter)