Nine Chapters of Strange Cases

Chapter 316 Hidden Secrets
Zhou Zhao suddenly sat up and took out the blood-stained, cold bamboo slip from beside his pillow.

She spread the bamboo slip out on the table, the dark red bloodstains on it were shocking.

Ah Huang looked at it, his nose tingled, and his voice suddenly choked up, "This is Brother Yan's blood."

His voice was muffled, as if he had caught a cold. "The bamboo slips are completely blank, so there's no way to string twelve characters together into a sentence. Besides, each bamboo slip is so small, how could it possibly contain a mechanism?"

No wonder Ah Huang was puzzled.

This bamboo slip is so plain and unremarkable. It doesn't have the corresponding twelve ink dots, no words, and you can't even tell that there's a mechanism to hide a secret.

"It might be referring to the Tingwei Temple prison, with its rows of bars resembling familiar dungeons."

Zhou Zhao was speechless. If she hadn't known the wonders of the bamboo slips, she would have thought Ah Huang's words made sense.

She laid out the white silk she had previously marked in order in front of the bamboo slips and compared them one by one.

"Who do you think is the smartest person in Chang'an right now? No, to be precise, who is the most famous for their intelligence and skill in solving riddles?"

Su Changying and A Huang said in unison, "Zhou Zhao."

Zhou Zhao felt no embarrassment whatsoever. "The cunning old foxes are well hidden, and the one who is most active in the open is naturally me."

Sister Chuyou said that Princess Changyang once praised my brother as the smartest person in Chang'an. I guess that it was because of my brother's great reputation that she secretly asked him to solve a certain mystery. Just like how I am famous now, and some people would rather die in front of the Court of Justice than let my case be overturned.

The older brother should have succeeded, but everything that has been done leaves a trace, and the murderer knows that besides Changyang, he also has a way to break the code.

The fact that the murderer took his brother back to the basement shows that he knew the secret was hidden in the blank bamboo slips, but he didn't know which one it was or how to decipher it.

I've been wondering what connection the secret His Majesty told the princess, as mentioned by Prince Consort Fan, has with the blank bamboo slip left by my brother. Now, it makes sense if the secret is on the bamboo slip, or if the clues to the secret are on it.

As Zhou Zhao spoke, he stared intently at the bamboo slip, examining it carefully.

"Bamboo slips are larger than silk handkerchiefs, so we need to zoom in to see them..."

As Zhou Zhao spoke, she focused her mind, and the twelve dots on the small piece of silk in front of her were magnified proportionally in her mind. She pursed her lips and stared intently at the bamboo slip, trying to find the marks that represented ink dots.

Once one of them is found, you can begin to solve the puzzle by following the order of the ink dots.

Now, she no longer doubted that someone had deliberately placed the solution in the wooden house; it must have been a clue left for her by Zhou Yan.

Because if they had the solution, this blank bamboo slip would never have ended up in her hands.

Zhou Zhao thought for a moment and then chose a spot.

"I couldn't find the ink spot on the bamboo slip, but I can pinpoint its location using both my mind and eyes. I want to give it a try..."

Although there were no ink dots, she could easily select the twelve dots on the bamboo slip by magnifying the image.

Su Changying and A Huang nodded at the same time, signaling Zhou Zhao to give it a try.

Zhou Zhao took a deep breath and his fingers flew across the bamboo slip.

Her fingers were long and slender, white and delicate. When they moved up and down, they resembled a white butterfly fluttering in the air. Although the bamboo slip was completely blank, the twelve points on it were crystal clear in her eyes.

For Zhou Zhao, this was easy.

But for others, it was extremely difficult. She quickly finished counting twelve times, and then she heard a faint clicking sound.

It was so soft that the three of them would have been completely unaware of it unless they had all held their breath in unison.

“Zhao Zhao, you’re right, it’s a bamboo slip. The mechanism should have been triggered.”

Su Changying stared at the bamboo slip, but it was exactly the same as when she had brought it before; it was still so ordinary and unremarkable, offering no indication of anything special. No words appeared on it, nor did anything unexpected suddenly spring to life.

Zhou Zhao picked up the bamboo slip and examined it carefully. Suddenly, she became excited.

"Look, a crack has suddenly appeared here."

As Zhou Zhao spoke, he noticed a crack suddenly appearing on the side of the sixth bamboo slip. The crack was so fine that it was almost invisible without careful observation. "Ah Huang, silver needles!"

Ah Huang turned around, opened the small box he carried with him, took out a thin silver needle, and handed it to Zhou Zhao.

Zhou Zhao brought the bamboo slip close to the lamp, then gently picked at it with a silver needle.

She picked out a piece of cloth that was as thin and transparent as bamboo membrane and stuck it onto the silver needle.

Zhou Zhao removed the silver needles and placed them on the table. Then, she carefully spread the thin, cicada-wing-like cloth on the table. Her movements were exceptionally gentle, as if she were afraid that she might accidentally tear this fragile thing to shreds.

All three of them held their breath, feeling as if if they sneezed, this thing could fly into the sky.

Once the thin cloth was fully unfolded, the three of them could see clearly.

"This is a treasure map."

Zhou Zhao said with some surprise, "There are markings on the map, indicating that it is a secret treasure left by the previous dynasty."

Although she was surprised, she was also somewhat disappointed. "So what if it's a treasure from the previous dynasty? Only someone like Li Huaishan would want a treasure to make a comeback. Princess Changyang knows the treasure map, so there's no reason for her not to present it to His Majesty. And if His Majesty were to send someone to search for the treasure, it would definitely be Consort Fan."

This can't be considered a secret that can't be told.

"Your Majesty has no need to hide anything from the驸马 (the驸马's husband), does Your Majesty?"

She couldn't bring herself to say it; she thought that following Zhou Yan's method of deciphering the bamboo slips, she might see words appear on them.

It was only after Su Changying saw these characters that he mastered the use of bamboo slips, and then he wrote the letter to his deceased wife.

But now it seems that this is not the case; he must have had another extraordinary encounter later on.

Zhou Zhao stopped looking at the treasure map and instead examined the bamboo slips over and over again. This examination led her to discover another clue.

"Changying, Ahuang, there's another crack, and it seems like there's something hidden inside."

As Zhou Zhao spoke, he picked up the silver needle on the table and gently flicked it again. This time, however, it revealed a strip of cloth. This strip of cloth was far less clear than the previous treasure map; it looked like an ordinary piece of gauze with a simple poem written on it.

The writer's handwriting is elegant and appears very neat.

"A lone boat reflects its image as it floats eastward, while a white hawk soars into the distance, heralding a new era of peace. The evening drums mourn the passing of Duke Huan of Qi, and the wine of the night deepens my regret for the contentious disputes."

"There are four more words: never seeing the light of day."

Ah Huang lifted his head from under his straw hat and blinked. "What does this mean?"