Nine Chapters of Strange Cases

Chapter 344 Reunion with the Tiger-Toothed Boy

"Now let's send the items into the palace and hand them over to His Majesty. We'll tell him everything we learned tonight. That will be enough of us as bait."

Zhou Zhao never forgot that their goal was not to intervene in the power struggle within the imperial court, but to find the murderer who killed Zhou Yan.

"Times have changed. Four years have passed. If the other side still doesn't know about this edict, what's the point of talking about vying for the throne? They might as well just admit defeat. And tonight we'll be sending something into the palace. This is our last chance to seize it."

Therefore, their only option was to simply and brutally send in assassins to intercept and kill them.

As Zhou Zhao spoke, she looked at the two people who were listening attentively to her, and headed towards the palace.

"Back when the Shanming Changyang case occurred, His Majesty had just given this item to the princess not long before, and it was a secret known only to three people. The fourth person to know about this was the murderer who killed my brother Zhou Yan."

Only one side, the Third Prince's faction and the Crown Prince's faction, knew about it, so only one group went that day. Think about it, if Li Huaishan hadn't interfered, and if we hadn't gone to the other courtyard and become uninvited guests, that person would have originally planned to threaten the princess to hand over this thing.

The matter was accomplished in secrecy. Without the enemy's knowledge, and with only one decisive strike possible, how could one possibly send someone out casually?
The murderer must be a high-ranking, important person.

Just like the person with the lion's tail we met today.

Su Changying and Ah Huang were both taken aback.

"Zhaozhao, do you know what that is?"

Zhou Zhao nodded seriously, "Changying, you've lost your memory, and Ahuang doesn't usually care about these things. But there are quite a few people in Chang'an who know about this thing. And I not only know about it, I've also seen two of them with my own eyes..."

Su Changying frowned and looked at Zhou Zhao, "Do you have them in your home, and in mine?"

Zhou Zhao gave Su Changying an approving look. "His Majesty has rewarded meritorious officials by casting eight bronze lion-patterned medals. These medals have holes and can be hung at the waist."

Below the seal is a square seal, and above it crouches a lion. Each lion is endearing and has a different posture, with a curved tail and a mane.

When Father brought that seal back, I secretly teased him about it; your father had one too.

As Zhou Zhao spoke, the image of the bronze medal appeared in his mind, and he nodded again in affirmation.

"I only remembered this when you mentioned the tail. As for who else has it, I don't know, but I can find out by asking."

The three sped along, but strangely, they did not encounter any more people who came to ambush or kill them. It was unclear whether they were frightened by the three's decisive killing methods or for some other reason.

The three of them sped along and arrived at the palace gate, where His Majesty had been waiting for a long time.

Zhou Zhao didn't mince words and explained everything thoroughly, handing over the unopened stone tube wrapped in wax.

His Majesty reached out and stroked the stone cylinder, but said nothing, and ordered the three of them to be escorted out of the palace.

It was already under curfew, and there wasn't a single pedestrian on the streets.

Zhou Zhao turned his head and glanced at the palace behind him. It was dark and gloomy, like a beast that would devour people.

She pursed her lips, turned around, and looked at Ah Huang beside her. "Ah Huang, do you remember where you've seen that person before?"

Upon hearing this, Ah Huang shook his bamboo hat and said, "I haven't met many people, and I rarely make eye contact with anyone."

Zhou Zhao pondered for a moment. Yes, Ah Huang usually disliked interacting with people. Even when he encountered someone, he rarely looked them in the eye, usually keeping his head down and shrinking into a corner. Most of the people he remembered were corpses.

In this case, this person must be special to Ah Huang, and they must have met more than once.

Ah Huang thought for a moment, then shook his head. "I can't remember."

“It’s alright, it’s good that you remember, and it’s alright if you don’t. Tomorrow we can follow the clues from the corpse retriever. Changying, I want to go home and ask my father.”

Su Changying stopped in her tracks. "Ah Huang and I will escort you back, and then the two of us will go to the Princess's residence to handle the aftermath."

Zhou Zhao nodded, her mind preoccupied with the matter of the tail.

She had a feeling that the man in black who escaped today was the murderer she was looking for.

The Zhou residence wasn't far away, and the three of them arrived quickly.

Zhou Zhao stood at the door, watching the two leave before entering the mansion.

The mansion was quiet at this moment, with hardly anyone in sight. Zhou Zhao headed straight for the main courtyard, but stopped abruptly as he passed the rockery. "You've been following me since I entered. Aren't you coming out now?"

"Sister Zhao, it's me."

A young man carrying a long sword emerged from behind the artificial hill, and Zhou Zhao immediately noticed his wet hair.

"Yan Junyu? You were the one who killed Ah Huang tonight?"

Yan Junyu hurriedly waved his hand, anxiously opening his mouth to reveal two prominent little tiger teeth, "Sister Zhao, how could I possibly kill Ah Huang? I didn't know it was you guys. I used all my strength but couldn't even pry his leg off. I wonder who has such incredible strength..."

When I surfaced from the water and saw that straw hat, I knew it was Ah Huang. I didn't intend to kill him!

Zhou Zhao was overwhelmed with thoughts. She never imagined that the escaped water ghost would be Yan Junyu, the tiger-toothed boy they had met in Tianying City.

Zhou Zhao thought of the awkward way this guy spread his legs with his hands. The scene when he first met Yan Junyu in Tianying City was still vivid in his mind. This guy was just such a speechless person.

Thinking this, she made a shushing gesture to Yan Junyu, then led him in a different direction into the small courtyard where she used to live.

The room was a mess. When Yan Junyu entered, he was confronted by a skull. He hurriedly covered his mouth to prevent himself from screaming.

"Sister Zhao, is this your place? That's really impressive!"

Zhou Zhao turned to look at the tiger-toothed boy in front of him. "What's going on? You left without saying goodbye in Tianying City. I thought you went back to the Sword Manor. Why did you suddenly come to Chang'an? And you even went to the Princess's Mansion tonight?"

Yan Junyu's expression turned serious. "Sister Zhao, I think I might be in big trouble."

Zhou Zhao didn't reply, but couldn't help but mutter to himself, "Am I in big trouble?"
What good can come of a martial arts figure who gets caught up in the struggle for the throne?

"If I'm not mistaken, you've been used as a pawn tonight."

"Whose subordinate are you? Who sent you? Is that person with the pustules on their face also a member of the Yan family?"

Yan Junyu shook his head. "That's not it. Otherwise, I wouldn't have run away alone; I would have taken him with me. But I heard people call him Abang."