Nine Chapters of Strange Cases

Chapter 315 Instant Crack
Now that Su Changying had seen it, Zhou Zhao didn't hesitate. She put the scroll away and placed it in a box.

I listened intently.

The courtyard was quiet all around, presumably because Old Madam Zhou had been kicked by Ah Huang and vomited blood, and her mother was also ill, so the Zhou family members had all gathered there.

The two did not linger. Su Changying carried the boxes and disappeared in a flash, while Zhou Zhao climbed over the wall empty-handed and then slowly headed towards the new house.

She appeared relaxed, but in reality, she was quietly observing her surroundings.

Why would someone suddenly sneak into Zhou Yan's courtyard these past two days? It's a pity she hadn't noticed this before. She wondered if her brother's courtyard was often visited by people in the past.

Based on her previous speculation, her brother likely knew the secret as well, but he never revealed it until his death.

Could it be that for the past four years, the murderer has been searching for that secret, like a pair of eyes hidden in the night, watching everyone related to Zhou Yan and Chang Yang?

And then there were those bamboo slips. After the incident, everyone believed that they were very likely the brother's last words.

So who is the murderer?
Given my brother's intelligence, he certainly wouldn't have left such obvious clues while the murderer was still alive. So, when the murderer left, he was very likely still breathing and slowly placed his hand on the blank bamboo slip.

Otherwise, if she were the murderer, she would have taken the bamboo slip on the spot.

There wasn't one on the spot, but what happened later?

Details of the Shanming Changyang case have not been released to the public, but anyone involved in His Majesty's secrets must be of high rank and power. Would such a person fail to obtain a blank bamboo slip from the Court of Justice? This bamboo slip, sealed by Min Zangzhi, has been kept in the evidence storage room.

Why didn't the murderer take this thing away?
Even the murderer and Li Huaishan allowed Min Zangzhi to hand this thing over to her.

As Zhou Zhao pondered, his steps suddenly faltered. Why?

That day was the anniversary of Zhou Yan's death. Min Cangzhi went to Shanming Villa to return Princess Changyang's belongings. Coincidentally, she was there as well, so he handed the bamboo slip directly to her.

It was because four years had passed and the bamboo slips had not changed at all that they had given up on their plans, which is why they allowed Min Zangzhi to return the items.

Or perhaps they couldn't decipher the bamboo slip, so they sent it to her, waiting for her to solve it so they could reap the benefits?

Just thinking about it sent chills down Zhou Zhao's spine.

This murderer was far more cunning and composed than Li Huaishan.

As Zhou Zhao pondered this, he entered his new home near the Court of Justice. Su Changying was already waiting inside. Not only him, but Ah Huang had also arrived at some point and was squatting on the ground, staring intently at the little black cat, their expressions tense, neither side willing to move.

Zhou Zhao found it amusing, "Ah Huang."

When Ah Huang heard Zhou Zhao's voice, he turned around and looked over. "Ah Zhao, let me take your pulse."

Zhou Zhao walked into the room, sat down at the table, and then stretched out his hand. Liu Huang didn't hesitate and placed his fingers on the table. After a while, he put his hand down and nodded. "You can finish this prescription. Don't get into fights recently."

As Ah Huang spoke, he added, "If we're going to fight, let Brother Changying fight. He should."

Zhou Zhao chuckled and looked up at Su Changying. "Quickly bring out that little wooden house. Ah Huang, take a look too, and see if you can figure anything out."

Su Changying nodded, opened the trunk, took out the wrapped wooden house, and placed it on the table.

Seeing that he was still unpacking the bundle, Zhou Zhao told Ah Huang about her previous discovery. Once the entire wooden house was revealed, Zhou Zhao carefully lifted the roof of the house. "Ah Huang, you remember, right? Brother always only uses a pure white handkerchief."

Ah Huang nodded heavily, his straw hat shaking.

Zhou Zhao took out all the handkerchiefs in the wooden house and placed them on the table. "Look, there are twelve handkerchiefs in total. Each handkerchief has an ink dot on top, and the position of each one is different. It can be said to be a mess."

As Zhou Zhao spoke, he searched for a piece of white silk near the table. This piece of silk was much larger than a handkerchief.

Because bamboo slips were sometimes inconvenient, visiting cards or correspondence between nobles were sometimes written on silk.

As Zhou Zhao thought about it, he quickly drew a square of handkerchief on the silk, with straight lines as if it had been measured with a ruler.

She looked at it, compared it with the first handkerchief, and made a dot on the silk, marking it with a small character.

"The handkerchiefs are all folded together, probably to conceal their purpose. The reason they are folded together is very likely that they were originally meant to be on the same piece. And it is highly likely that there was a specific order in which they were placed; it's not like they just randomly poked a few ink spots in and stuffed them in to amuse someone."

My brother isn't that kind of person. If he left this thing behind, then it must have a deeper meaning.

If he didn't leave it behind, then someone must have deliberately presented this riddle to us, waiting for us to solve it. If that's the case, then we can be almost certain that this riddle is related to that so-called secret.

As Zhou Zhao explained his solution, he marked all the ink dots on the remaining eleven handkerchiefs in order.

"Look at this, what does it look like?"

When she first saw the handkerchief, she wanted to untie it this way, but it wasn't convenient to do so in Zhou Yan's room.

Su Changying and Ahuang leaned closer to take a look, and both of them had their brows furrowed.

“It looks messy and doesn’t form a pattern,” Su Changying said, then thought for a moment and said, “Could it be the solution to some kind of mechanism? Back in Tianying City, those mechanisms were also very complicated to operate.”

Ah Huang thought, "It could also be words from a book; twelve words put together form a sentence."

"It's also possible that these dots represent locations, hinting at twelve positions within Chang'an City. However, as for the solution to the mechanism, we don't know what mechanism it corresponds to. As for the words on the book, we don't know what book they correspond to. Zhaozhao, what do you think?"

Zhou Zhao shook his head and looked out the window. The sun had already risen completely.

The black cat perked up, leaping and bounding about, its jet-black tail swaying back and forth, its shadow swaying with it. It looked as if there were two black cats.

As Zhou Zhao pondered this, a thought suddenly struck him.

She folded the twelve handkerchiefs back to their original state, restored them to their original shape, and then put the lid back on.

Then, kneeling behind the desk, he moved the lamp on the desk according to his memory, making it the same position as the lamp on Zhou Yan's desk.

"Changying, close the doors and windows, I need to light a lamp."

Su Changying got up and closed the doors and windows. After thinking for a moment, she deliberately sat opposite Zhou Zhao to block the light coming in from the window.

Zhou Zhao lit the lamp and then peered into the wooden house. This was Zhou Yan's first wooden house, and it wasn't very exquisite. The windows couldn't be opened easily, and the roof was made of wooden planks laid side by side.

A single piece of wood can form an entire row of roof tiles. There are small gaps between the tiles; you don't notice them in bright daylight, but when you shine a lamp in the dark…

Then, beams of light appeared in the wooden house, looking like neatly arranged vertical stripes of light and shadow.

"They are bamboo slips."

Zhou Zhao said.