Nine Chapters of Strange Cases

Chapter 396 Why She Must Die

Zhou Zhao took the bowl of medicine and drank it all in one gulp.

A bitter taste shot straight to the top of her head, almost making her gag. She was so uncomfortable that she couldn't speak. She reached out and grabbed at the air, signaling Chu Yi to bring her some water.

With just a couple of shakes, a sweet and sour candied fruit was popped into my mouth.

Zhou Zhao bit into the candied fruit with all her might, and finally the sweet and sour taste overpowered the bitterness, bringing her back to life.

Why is today's medicine so bitter?

Zhou Zhao's eyes were filled with tears; it was too bitter! It was even more bitter than being killed by the King of Hell five times in a row!

It's practically like bitter melon stewed with bile.

Chu Yi blinked. "His Highness the Prince of Chu sent it over, saying that he has changed the medicine for you. He said that if you drink this medicine for ten to fifteen days, you will recover completely."

Chu Yi's face was beaming with joy as he finished speaking, as if he wanted to grab Zhou Zhao's chin and force her to drink it all down her throat, so she would feel much better instantly.

Zhou Zhao looked at it, cleared his throat, placed the little black cat in his arms on the corridor, stood up abruptly, and hurriedly walked towards the door.

"I'm going to the Court of Justice."

Su Changying looked at her, who seemed to be on fire, and shook her head with amusement.

"Good medicine tastes bitter. Pei Jiusi's mother makes excellent candied fruit. I had her make a big jar, which I've already given to Chu Yi. Don't worry, wait for me!"

As Su Changying spoke, she handed the medicine bowl in her hand to Chu Yi, then quickly walked towards the door, following Zhou Zhao.

"Young Master Zhou!"

"You're laughing at me!"

"Innocent!" Su Changying cupped his hands in a gesture of respect, but before he could utter his next sentence, he was met with a series of bursts of laughter.

He looked up and saw Han Ze riding by, leading a group of Northern Army soldiers on night patrol. "That's right! How could our general dare to laugh at Lord Zhou? How could our general possibly laugh at Lord Zhou?"

As he spoke, he put his hand to his ear, and the group of rough-looking soldiers behind him instantly understood, exclaiming with winks and excited shouts, "We love it! We love it! We absolutely love it!"

As Han Ze spoke, he secretly glanced at Su Changying's expression. Seeing that Su Changying was not angry, Han Ze imitated Su Changying and cupped his hands in greeting, "Young Master Zhou, I'm so grateful!"

Seeing his smugness, the Northern soldiers behind him rolled up their sleeves, bowed, and began to imitate him.

Su Changying glared at them, and Han Ze, startled, spurred his horse and led the group away in a gallop. They rode all the way to the alley entrance, where the group then mimicked Su Changying's earlier gesture of bowing and begging for mercy, grinning with their white teeth and silently bursting into laughter.

After they had walked away, Su Changying cleared her throat, "Zhaozhao..."

Zhou Zhao, his face flushed, ignored the group and leaped into the gate of the Court of Justice.

The Tingwei Temple was brightly lit.

There were still many people at their desks looking at case files in the left and right courtyards. Zhou Zhao did not linger and went straight to the small courtyard where Ah Huang was examining the body.

There have been many cases lately, and the main room is full of coffins. Ah Huang stood in front of one of them, looking at it silently.

There was no one around at night, and he wasn't wearing a straw hat, revealing the handsome profile of the young man.

“Ah Huang”.

Zhou Zhao spoke softly, and suddenly, the coffin near the door swayed, and a figure sat up.

Zhou Zhao's pupils contracted sharply, and the coffin nail in his hand slipped out of his sleeve and into his palm, ready to fly away at any moment.

"Brother Changying, Azhao!" Zhou Zhao looked closely and saw a little girl sitting in the coffin. She was wearing a red dress and her cat-like eyes were sleepy. She had obviously been sleeping in the coffin. When her name was called, she couldn't help but yawn.

"Fan Lishen, what are you doing sleeping in the coffin? I thought you'd come back to life," Zhou Zhao said, disappointedly retracting the coffin nails.

If only it were a real zombie, neither she nor Ah Huang had ever seen anything like it.

She didn't have this kind of collection in the Zhou family's house either.

It was all for nothing.

Fan Lishen scratched her head, then brazenly pushed herself up and tumbled out of the coffin.

“Ah Huang is going to perform an autopsy. I heard that Jiang Yan is dead, and I want to come and see,” she said, her expression somewhat complicated. “She really looks like my mother, much more like me. No wonder they all think I’m fake and she’s the real one.”

Zhou Zhao looked Fan Lishen up and down; it was the first time she had ever seen her dressed as a young woman.

Fan Lishen noticed her gaze and blushed slightly. "I thought everyone already knew, and I was still dressed as a man, like a fraud. Well, the former Young Master Fan is gone, and now the new one is Young Lady Fan."

Zhou Zhao smiled and patted her on the shoulder.

She walked towards Ah Huang and looked at the coffin in front of him. The person lying inside was Jiang Yan.

"She didn't hang herself; she was strangled."

Zhou Zhao looked at the corpse in the coffin, his brows furrowing involuntarily.

Ah Huang nodded. "Her mouth was full of blood, she had bitten her tongue, and there were dark red bruises on her face and neck. She must have been strangled. I found some gold powder under her fingernails. I don't know if she picked it off the murderer while resisting, or if she accidentally got it on herself before she died."

Gold dust?

As Zhou Zhao was pondering this, Fan Lishen, who was standing nearby, asked curiously, "Can the coroner tell the difference between hanging oneself and being strangled and then hung up?"

“Of course,” Zhou Zhao said, “hanging oneself uses one’s own weight to compress the rope, while strangulation is the rope strangling the neck, which is very different.”

As Zhou Zhao spoke, he looked at Ah Huang and said, "Ordinary coroners can't tell the difference, but a genius coroner like Ah Huang can see through it at a glance."

She cleared her throat as she spoke, "Ah Huang, can I not drink such bitter medicine, or can I have a different kind?"

Ah Huang answered decisively, "No."

He thought for a moment and added, "It's not that you don't remember you're a patient."

Zhou Zhao was on the verge of tears. Ah Huang would listen to her in everything else, but when it came to autopsies and medication, he was as stubborn as a mule and absolutely could not be changed.

Zhou Zhao, with a pained expression, continued, "When I went in, she was dancing on thorns, her feet bleeding profusely from the thorns, but she seemed oblivious to the pain. There was a man in black lying in ambush in the passageway; he came to kill me, but I killed him instead."

Jiang Yan saw this but continued dancing. I felt it was very incongruous at the time, but I was focused on capturing Commander Huo and ignored her.

Does Jiang Yan have any toxins in her body? Or any other fatal injuries?

Ah Huang shook his head. "There are no fatal injuries, and she doesn't even have a single scar on her body. She's excessively clean. However, she must have just had a miscarriage a few days ago."

Zhou Zhao listened attentively.

What reason could Jiang Yan possibly have to die?
She was just a dancer, and her impersonation of a princess's daughter had long been exposed. Commander Huo had also been arrested, so whether or not she testified was completely irrelevant.

Even if she is arrested by the Court of Justice, it will not affect the overall situation at all. Why must she die?

(End of this chapter)