Nine Chapters of Strange Cases

Chapter 9 Coroner Liu Huang
Zhou Zhao looked toward the group of Northern Army soldiers and then noticed Zhu Li standing expressionlessly behind the crowd.

Last night, the moon was dark and the wind was high, and her mind was focused on the case, so she didn't take a good look at this person. Now that she looks at him, she finds that although he looks ordinary, he carries a vaguely familiar aura about him.

It's hard to explain, but it feels like I've seen it somewhere before.

Zhou Zhao glanced at him several more times. He noticed that Zhou Zhao had a high nose bridge and large but lifeless eyes. Although he was taller than the others, he seemed to be invisible in the crowd. If you didn't look closely, you wouldn't even notice that there was such a person.

Seeing Min Zangzhi constantly gesturing with his feather fan, Zhu Li silently walked to Zhou Zhao's side, only giving a soft "hmm" before falling silent.

Seeing that the two examiners had arrived, Zhou Zhao was about to leave the courtyard when he bumped into Wu Qingshan, who was rushing over.

The young man, sweating profusely, stood with his hands on his hips, panting heavily. He pointed at Zhou Zhao, but stared at Min Cangzhi with a puzzled look. "Min Cangzhi, why didn't you stop her? She's a young lady, how can she participate in the competition?"

"Does our Court of Justice even have female officials?"

Remembering Zhou Zhao's earlier words of gratitude to the old man, everyone's eyes lit up with anticipation for a good show.

Min Cangzhi scoffed and rolled her eyes at Wu Qingshan, "She is Zhou Zhao."

Wu Qingshan chuckled in exasperation, "I was only anxious because I knew she was Zhou Zhao. Because she really can solve cases!"

As he spoke, his eyes were fixed on the bamboo skewer in Zhou Zhao's hand, as if he were calculating how he could be faster than the monkeys of Mount Emei and snatch the bamboo skewer back from Zhou Zhao's hand.

Zhou Zhao chuckled softly as he listened.

She tucked the bamboo skewer into her sleeve pocket, then waved her sleeve in front of Wu Qingshan before winking and smiling at him.

"Is the Zhou Zhao who can solve cases the same person as the Zhou Zhao who is actually a woman? Chang Zuoping has already answered that question."

Wu Qingshan was taken aback and looked towards the main room behind Zhou Zhao. Although the window was closed, Chang Zuoping's figure could still be vaguely seen.

He felt instantly light, all traces of death vanished, and he came back to life in an instant.

He didn't know the answer, nor did he need to know it, but he understood what Zhou Zhao meant: if the sky fell, Chang Zuoping would hold it up. Although the slip was taken from him, the person had already passed through Chang Zuoping's hands.

As Wu Qingshan pondered, his gaze towards Zhou Zhao became somewhat subtle. He stepped aside, making way for him.

Unexpectedly, Zhou Zhao understood the hardship of being a minor official who feared taking the blame!

Zhou Zhao nodded kindly to Wu Qingshan, and ignoring the various thoughts of the crowd, he hurried towards the eastern corner of the Court of Justice, familiar with the way.

There was a small mortuary there, where coroners came to examine corpses.

Zhang Ruoqing's body is lying here.

At the beginning of the Great Qi Dynasty, many trees and buildings in Chang'an were destroyed in a fire. The trees in the Court of Justice were planted later. At that time, she was still young and followed her brother Zhou Yan, carrying a ladle and watering the trees one by one.

On one of the trees, there are scratches, marks left by her fiancé Su Changying as she grew taller year by year.

At that time, Su Changying kept gesturing, "When A Zhao grows up to this size, it will be the day we get married."

Enraged by this, she jumped up and threw a punch...

At that time, the Great Qi Dynasty was in ruins and there were not many rules. They were like unrestrained birds, traversing every corner of the capital.

Unfortunately, things have changed drastically since then.

Following behind her were no longer Zhou Yan and Su Changying, but Min Zangzhi and Zhu Li, who had come to supervise the examination.

Zhou Zhao snapped out of her daze, pulled herself together, and walked steadily toward the small mortuary. She stopped when she reached the door.

A man in a gray robe was squatting in front of the door. He wore a bamboo hat, his head was bowed, and his face was buried between his legs, as if he were asleep, completely still. "Ah Huang?"

The gray mass stirred, then stood up, and a jade pendant hanging from its waist fell down.

The jade pendant was very clear, with a golden dragon coiled on it, its claws outstretched, clearly indicating its extraordinary origin.

Min Zangzhi, who was following behind, paused when he saw this.

The person with a dragon-patterned jade pendant hanging from his waist, and whom Zhou Zhao also called Ah Huang...

Min Cangzhi's eyes flickered, and he bowed in greeting, "Your Highness, the Prince of Chu."

As he spoke, he looked at Liu Huang with some curiosity.

It's quite strange, really. This Prince Chu is His Majesty's own son. He lost his mother at birth and was raised by the Empress. Logically speaking, someone like him, unless he's a complete idiot, should be a sure thing to be the Crown Prince's right-hand man.

But this prince, not to mention making contributions to the Crown Prince, he never even attends any banquets or ceremonies.

You say he has no favor with the emperor? Yet he was not only enfeoffed as the King of Chu, but was also kept in Chang'an without having to return to his fiefdom.

Just yesterday, Min Zangzhi sealed the case files of Shanming Changyang. In addition to the deceased Zhou Yan and the missing Xiao Luhou Su Changying, there were four other people in Wujin Lane at the time: Zhou Zhao, Fan Lishen, the son of Princess Changyang, Liu Huang, the King of Chu, and a girl named Chu You.

He had heard from an old man at the Court of Justice that King Liu Huang of Chu was a close follower of Zhou Yan at that time.

Min Zangzhi thought to himself, feeling a pang of regret that he hadn't joined the Court of Justice back then and had missed out on many great shows.

"I studied for four years to help you with autopsies."

King Liu Huang of Chu seemed not to notice Min Zangzhi and Zhu Li, and quickly walked up to Zhou Zhao. His voice was cold, like a mountain spring where snow had just melted in early spring.

Zhou Zhao was taken aback, her eyes widening in surprise. Then, she felt a lump in her throat and nodded heavily, "Okay."

She didn't ask Liu Huang why a prince would deal with the dead and do something that the world would avoid.

Just as Liu Huang would not ask her, a mere young woman, why she came to today's grand examination, hoping to become an official in the Court of Justice.

Liu Huang visibly breathed a sigh of relief. He turned and walked into the small mortuary, took off his straw hat, and hung it on a wooden rack to the side.

The old coroner from the Court of Justice had been waiting in the room for a long time. He nodded to the crowd, said nothing, and made way for them.

Zhou Zhao followed, and Zhang Ruoqing's body was placed in the middle of the house, on a heavy wooden board.

Liu Huang washed his hands before approaching the corpse.

Looking at his handsome face, Zhou Zhao noticed that compared to four years ago, his eyes held less timidity and more determination.

“I couldn’t see clearly at the time. I initially saw two fatal wounds on the deceased’s body, one on the chest and the other on the neck. Because I didn’t get close and it was nighttime, I had no way of determining which wound killed Zhang Ruoqing.”

"One thing I'm very concerned about is the amount of blood at the scene. Based on the cases I've seen before, I always feel that the deceased seemed to have lost too little blood."

"Furthermore, the deceased's face could not possibly have been bitten by a ghost, so the cause of these teeth marks is very important."

Zhou Zhao did not forget that this was a competition and many more people would be arriving. She did not want to reminisce with Liu Huang, but went straight to the issue she had observed the previous night.

“I checked the scene and didn’t find any animal footprints.”

(End of this chapter)