Nine Chapters of Strange Cases

Chapter 301 On-site Autopsy
As Min Zangzhi spoke, she gripped her clothes tightly.

To make the performance more realistic, he was punched in the face by Chen Yin's guard, and now it hurts a lot whenever he speaks.

"Zhou Zhao, please help me... please help me..."

Zhou Zhao's face turned cold. "You made this mess of your own business, so you have to deal with it yourself. Sister Chu You won't forgive you easily. Although this wasn't your intention, you know she finally took this step after a lot of effort."

If Su Changying hadn't returned, she would have remained just Lady Zhou for the rest of her life, and never considered marrying anyone else.

She thought that Sister Chu You originally thought the same thing.

People like them have their own goals to pursue, and love and marriage are, in essence, optional for them. Not to mention, in their youth, they have already encountered the most amazing people of their lives.

That passionate and innocent love alone has already taken up the space they had painstakingly carved out.

"Don't forget, it was you who shamelessly begged and pleaded to marry Sister Chu You. Although it wasn't your fault, it's your own problem to have made the wrong friends. Back when you were calling Chen Yin and the others brothers and frequenting brothels, weren't you quite proud of it?"

With each word Zhou Zhao spoke, Min Zangzhi's face paled a little more.

She looked at it and couldn't help but turn her head away.

Although Min Zangzhi was also her friend, the way Sister Chu You had just looked was like a nightmare replaying in her mind.

Zhou Zhao thought about the changes in Min Zangzhi over the past few days and snorted coldly, "Aren't you the most outspoken person in the Court of Judicial Review? Can't you just say it yourself?"

Upon hearing this, Min Cangzhi gave a wry smile, "If I didn't care, I could speak freely just now. But if I really cared, I would carefully consider every word and phrase, for fear of..."

Min Zangzhi didn't continue. He took a deep breath and looked at Zhou Zhao. "However, I understand what you mean. Thank you, Zhou Zhao."

As he spoke, he noticed that Zhou Zhao's face was as white as a corpse, not much better than his own. He frowned. "Why do you look like you're half-dead? Did some major case happen while I was missing for the past two days?"

Zhou Zhao rolled her eyes at Min Zangzhi.

"Didn't do anything? I just held a funeral for myself, then sent Li Tingwei to the underworld, and prepared to become the Tingwei myself."

Min Cangzhi suddenly stood up, his head hitting the roof of the carriage. He covered his head and looked at Su Changying questioningly.

Su Changying nodded unhappily, "Keep it down. If you knock a hole in the carriage, the cold wind will blow in and Zhaozhao will catch a cold."

Min Zangzhi could hardly believe her ears.

"Zhou Zhao, you call those 'just'? Su Changying, this is a human head, not an iron head!"

The southern city was some distance from the Court of Justice. When the carriage stopped, the snow began to fall heavily again.

The secret room was located below the study in the main courtyard of this villa. There were two guards standing at the door. As soon as Chen Yin saw them, he impatiently shouted, "Get out of the way, don't block my sister Zhao's way."

He was used to being bossy and arrogant, and he was nervous because he was worried that he would be mistaken for a murderer.

Seeing Zhou Zhao follow him, he couldn't help but tremble again.

The two guards were used to his behavior and silently made way for him. Upon seeing this, Chen Yin turned around and looked at Zhou Zhao ingratiatingly.

Zhou Zhao glanced at him coldly. "Get out of my way." Chen Yin stiffened, then awkwardly jumped back and hid next to Huo Ting. What was he doing? He'd tried to flatter someone but ended up hurting them.

Zhou Zhao ignored him and went straight into the study. The door to the secret room was open, and a lamp was lit underneath. Although there were no windows, the view was very clear.

Zhou Zhao immediately noticed the human head rolling on the ground.

The man had a somewhat effeminate appearance, but possessed a rather handsome face. His once affectionate peach blossom eyes, which had been gazing lovingly at the stone lions by the roadside, now revealed a look of terror on his face, his eyes wide open as if they were about to pop out.

On the right corner of Song Ran's mouth, there was a noticeable small mole.

But that wasn't the most intriguing thing. What Zhou Zhao found most strange was that bamboo strips were stuck in his severed neck, each one resembling a menacing monster.

"His head was chopped off and then held in place with bamboo skewers. Hmm, this shouldn't be the primary crime scene. Ah Huang..."

Zhou Zhao called out to Ah Huang, who nodded with his straw hat and squatted down beside the head to examine it. "The amount of bleeding is very small. The deceased was probably killed first and then his head was cut off. There is no cyanosis on his face, and his lips are a normal color. He probably did not die from suffocation or poisoning."

The killer's method of decapitating was not skillful; the dismemberment weapon used was likely an axe, as it wasn't severed in one go but rather through multiple cuts.

As Ah Huang spoke, he walked to the headless male corpse on the wooden shelf. "There was a lot of blood on the deceased's clothes around his abdomen. It looks like there were five wounds. He was probably stabbed to death."

Ah Huang skillfully examined the corpse, while Chen Yin beside him stared wide-eyed like copper bells.

Everyone says that the King of Chu is a fool, and that he can't even speak clearly.

But if this is a fool, then what is Chen Yin? A talkative fool, or a fool among talkative fools?
That's fucking amazing!

As Chen Yin thought about it, his gaze toward Ah Huang grew even more intense.

Ah Huang felt the gaze behind him and couldn't help but shrink back. He reached out to try and roll up the male corpse's sleeve, but as soon as his hand touched it, the arm fell off completely.

Ah Huang blinked, turned around holding the arm, and said, "Ah Zhao, it fell! I didn't pull hard!"

Chen Yin reacted like a cat whose tail had been stepped on; his expression changed, and he jumped high into the air, shouting, "It fell! It fell!"

Ah Huang's straw hat swayed. "Like the head, the hands were also chopped off with an axe after the victim died, and then hastily tied to the body with bamboo strips. The victim's arms had defensive wounds, indicating that he had fought with the murderer before he died."

The weather is cold now, so the body won't decompose that quickly. Based on preliminary observations, the time of death was likely the night before last or yesterday morning.

Zhou Zhao listened and walked over, "Where is An Ning, the other female victim?"

“An Ning was also stabbed to death indiscriminately. Unlike Song Ran’s abdominal wound, the stab wounds were not random. The one on her chest was probably the fatal wound. She was not dismembered; her head, hands, and feet were intact. As for the time of death, it was around the same time as Song Ran’s.”

Zhou Zhao nodded and looked at the ropes binding the two bodies. "The murderer didn't tie the two people together, but used two ropes, one after the other. He tied An Ning up first, and then carefully tied Song Ran up as well."

Judging from these two knots, they should have been made by the same person.

The murderer is very likely someone Song Ran knew and harbored hatred towards him, otherwise he wouldn't have dismembered Song Ran's body. Moreover, he knew what ideas Song Ran had given Chen Yin, and even knew that he was going to the mass grave to kidnap two people.

Isn't that strange? Normally, a murderer would find a place to bury the body and conceal the truth after killing someone. Why would he deliberately expose the body to the public?