Nine Chapters of Strange Cases

Chapter 243 I Came to See You Through the Window

Zhou Zhao put down his chopsticks and stood up abruptly.

She had just reached the door when she heard Zhou Buhai's deep voice, "Zhou Zhao, are you getting up to be a liar if you don't discipline me for three days?"

Zhou Zhao turned his head, glanced calmly at Zhou Buhai, and said nothing.

At this point, Zhou Xuan could no longer hold back and glared angrily at Zhou Buhai.

“Ah Zhao just returned from an official business trip. Not only did she ride a horse through mountains and rivers, but it was also raining outside. What she was wearing wasn’t even her cloak. Even a random passerby asked if your daughter was cold, and Father didn’t even ask before he wanted to hit her?”

Zhou Zhao listened and muttered to himself.

It was Su Changying, not just some random passerby.

However, upon further reflection, she saw the vixen surrounding Zhou Xuan as a treacherous and malicious stranger with ulterior motives.

Zhou Xuan said that Su Changying was just a random passerby, which already meant she liked him very much.

Zhou Buhai was taken aback. He then noticed that Zhou Zhao's hair was soaked, and her sleeves were also drenched by the rain at the elbows. Her face was exceptionally pale, and she looked much thinner than when he had seen her a while ago.

He used to say this to Zhou Zhao often: "If you don't discipline him for three days, he'll be climbing on the roof and tearing off the tiles!"
He wasn't scolding her; this is a true reflection of his daughter, Zhou Zhao.

However, when he said that, Zhou Zhao's clear black and white eyes would dart around, and he could tell at a glance that the child was either thinking of running away or trying to get Zhou Yan and Su Changying to take the blame; in short, he didn't have a single good idea in his mind.

But now, Zhou Zhao's eyes were as calm as if she had just turned around when she heard a colleague call her name on the street, making it impossible to read her emotions.

The anger in Zhou Buhai's heart suddenly subsided. He felt a lump in his throat, and stubbornly stuck out his words.

Seeing that there was no further development and no intention to continue beating her, Zhou Zhao smiled at Zhou Xuan and gave her a reassuring look.

"Sister, I'm fine. I have martial arts skills, what's a little chill? You've eaten your fill, go back and take a bath and change your clothes. You should eat quickly, or you'll get cold."

Zhou Xuan hummed in agreement, then took out a handkerchief and wiped Zhou Zhao's lips as if no one else was around. The handkerchief was stained with some spices.

Zhou Zhao looked at the soiled handkerchief and smiled somewhat embarrassedly.

"Then I'm leaving, sister."

As for Zhou Wan, Zhou Zhao didn't bother to look at her, afraid of exchanging glares with her.

She walked to the door, picked up the umbrella that was leaning against the wall, and rainwater flowed down the umbrella to the tip and then spread out, leaving a puddle of water at the base of the wall.

Zhou Zhao glanced at it and beckoned to the servants by the door, "Wipe up the water in front of the porch so that no one can slip and fall."

The servants dared not utter a sound, nor even raise their heads to look at Zhou Zhao.

In recent years, Zhou Zhao has been like an invisible person in the mansion, and they have almost forgotten what kind of troublemaker she is.

Zhou Zhao ignored it and walked towards his courtyard with his umbrella.

The room was lit. As soon as Zhou Zhao entered, Chu Yi greeted her happily, “Miss, the hot soup is ready. Your clothes are wet, and wearing them close to your skin will make you catch a cold. Why don’t you take a bath and change your clothes first, and then have a bowl of ginger soup? I’ve added a lot of sugar.”

Zhou Zhao smiled and looked at the bundle hanging on the horse's back that Fifteen had brought in.

"Unpack the bundle. I brought you some good food from the Lost City. I heard the dates there are quite nice. I have an abdominal injury, so I can only clean it a little. Could you help me change the dressing in a bit?"

Chu Yi, who had been smiling broadly because of the delicious food, suddenly drooped her eyes and said, "Miss, are you injured again? I'll go and prepare something right away."

As she spoke, her eyes immediately welled up with tears. Her daughter had been falsely accused and imprisoned, leaving her with a neck injury; later, upon returning from Tianying City, she was covered in wounds and also suffered internal injuries; and now, returning from the Lost City, she was injured again…

Everyone says her daughter has had incredible luck, getting into the Court of Judicial Review. But in her opinion, it's not luck at all, it's a gamble with her life.

Chu Yi subtly wiped his eyes with his hand, then carried the copper basin to the side room.

Looking at Chu Yi's appearance, Zhou Zhao gently lowered his eyes. The rain outside the window had not yet stopped, drizzling down, making one feel a sense of loss.

She came over after bathing and changing. A steaming bowl of ginger soup was already laid out on the table. Zhou Zhao swallowed it whole, scalding herself so much that she stuck out her tongue.

Her hair wasn't dry, and she couldn't sleep right now, so she sat down at the table and started looking at the bamboo slips again.

There was no new "Letter to My Deceased Wife," and the bamboo slips were clean and cold to the touch, even cooler than in the summer.

Zhou Zhao looked at it for a while, then wrapped it up again and placed it next to his pillow on the bed as usual.

After she finished putting things down and turned back to sit at the table, she suddenly looked out the window and said, "You're here, aren't you coming in?"

As she spoke, she walked over, opened the window, and a figure climbed in, making a squelching sound as soon as his foot touched the ground.

Su Changying looked down and was met with a bright green skull.

"Move your foot away quickly, you stepped on a poisonous toad. This is a very famous old case. The murderer used poisonous toads to kill people and then used the corpses to grow aquatic plants. When the coroner examined the body, the flesh had already decomposed, leaving only green bones..."

As Su Changying listened, he moved his foot away and, sure enough, saw a green toad that he had stepped on and crushed.

This thing isn't real, and I don't know what Zhou Zhao made it from. It's soft and squishy when you step on it, and it makes a squeaking sound.

Su Changying moved his foot and heard another cracking sound, and a bad premonition rose in his heart.

"General Su, you broke Song Huai's finger bone. He was buried alive, and when he died, he desperately stretched out one finger towards the sky. Later, someone went to the mountains to pick mushrooms and pulled out his finger, mistaking it for a mushroom, and that's how his body was discovered."

Now that you've broken your finger, the mushroom pickers will never find the corpse again. What an injustice!

Su Changying silently lifted that foot, not daring to put it down again.

He was afraid that if he stepped on it again, he would step on Zhang San's forehead, Li Si's chest, and Wang Wu's buttocks... Zhou Zhao was a civil official, so she might call it buttocks.

Seeing Su Changying's awkward expression, Zhou Zhao burst out laughing.

"What brings General Su here in the middle of the night? Is the matter of the Lost City already resolved?"

As she spoke, she walked toward the table. Su Changying followed Zhou Zhao's footprints, using a contorted posture to finally reach the table. He looked carefully and confirmed that Qian Liu's body was not lying there before he stood still with peace of mind.

"No. Is your injury better? Ah Huang saw it that day and we fought on the roof. He's very good to you."

Towards the end, Su Changying's voice became somewhat strange.

“Ah Huang is the brother my brother gave birth to for me.”

This sentence was a bit of a mouthful, but Su Changying understood it; Ah Huang was her older brother.

He picked up a dry cloth from the side, hesitated for a moment, and carefully placed it on Zhou Zhao's head, wiping her still slightly damp hair.

"Yes, he is also my...brother."