"Although the body was badly damaged, it was not beyond repair. Moreover, the woman playing the zither in the painting had a black mole on her right hand. Such an obvious feature made it easy to guess."
Although most of the body was damaged, the hands were relatively well preserved.
Upon hearing Su Yan's words, Sun San shifted his gaze to the woman playing the zither's right hand and indeed saw a mole. "Wow... you were right after all. Brother Su Yan, you're so observant..."
Sun San also noticed something unusual about the painting. "The woman brewing tea in this painting looks quite similar to Xin Yunniang, the madam of Wanhualou. Could it be that the painting depicts all four of them?"
Su Yan looked at the woman brewing tea in the painting, and indeed, as Sun San said, she looked exactly like Xin Yunniang. "Brother Sun, have you investigated the background of the deceased Jingci?"
Sun San nodded. "I've checked. He came from a brothel in Yangzhou and became a monk at Baima Temple ten years ago."
"Have you checked whether Yun Hua and Yun Ying have any connection with Jing Ci?"
"I haven't looked into that, but it seems that Yunying, Yunhua, and Xin Yunniang all came from brothels in Yangzhou and only moved to Chang'an ten years ago."
Since all three people in the painting were dead, Su Yan couldn't help but become suspicious of Xin Yunniang, so she asked, "Brother Sun, what has Xin Yunniang been up to these past few days?"
“Um… there have been a lot of murders these past few days, and all the brothers under my command have been called up to the scene… we have no information about her current situation…” Sun Sanyue said, becoming less and less confident.
"It's alright, as long as they haven't left the city..."
"No, that's not possible. Suspects connected to the murder case are not allowed to leave the city for a month. They should still be in the Wan Hua Lou."
Xin Yunniang was originally a suspect in the Yunhua case, but now that murders are happening one after another, the government simply doesn't have the manpower to investigate her.
Sun San pressed on curiously, "You suspect her?"
"Without evidence, I won't make wild guesses about whether someone is guilty or not. Let the brothers leave first, and I'll go to Wan Hua Lou to ask Xin Yunniang about the origin of this painting."
Su Yan naturally knew that the murderer wouldn't choose a painting that wasn't worth much for no reason; the portrait must contain information that she didn't know.
"Okay, I'll go with you..."
Su Yan glanced down at Sun San's injured leg and politely declined, "Brother Sun, you shouldn't go. Your leg injury is quite serious; you need to rest and recover properly. Don't worry your wife..."
Sun San looked at his leg, sighed, and knew he couldn't go against Su Yan's wishes, so he could only say, "I know, Brother Su Yan, you must be careful when you're alone."
Sun San's concern softened Su Yan's cold expression, replaced by a faint smile. "I understand..."
Just as everyone finished packing up and was about to leave Baima Temple, the wind intensified, and several streaks of purple lightning flashed in the dark night. Soon after, thunder rumbled and a torrential downpour began.
Unfortunately, the weather turned bad; the rain was heavy and torrential.
Jingxin Lake is not actually a lake, but a river. It swells when it rains, and it's impossible to take a boat back to shore for a while, so everyone had to go back to the temple to take shelter from the rain.
Su Yan stood under the eaves, looking up at the sky, reaching out to catch the rain falling from the eaves. In the pitch-black night, the thunder and rain always made people feel uneasy.
The rain continued all night, only subsiding as dawn broke.
Because Baima Temple is a nunnery, in order to avoid suspicion between men and women, Su Yan and her group could only rest in the front hall. As soon as the rain stopped, the sky was still foggy, so they took a boat back to shore without stopping.
Having not returned home all night, Su Yan planned to go home first to check on her son, Su Bao'er, before going to Wan Hua Lou to ask Xin Yunniang for clues about the painting.
Unexpectedly, just as dawn broke, another murder occurred, catching everyone off guard.
The heavy rain last night made the roads slippery. Upon hearing the news, Su Yan rushed over from home, carrying her toolbox through the bustling crowd. She saw the head constable guarding the alley entrance and walked over. "Brother Sun, why are you here too? Wasn't I telling you to rest and recover from your injuries?"
"It's okay, I'm not in pain. I can't be left alone right now, this little injury is nothing."
Su Yan couldn't change Sun San's mind, so she didn't try to persuade him further. "So what's the situation now?"
“Just like the previous three,” Sun San sighed. “This is the fourth one.”
As he spoke, he led Su Yan into the alley.
“Last night’s rain washed away the scene, and we couldn’t find any useful clues, except for yellow talismans scattered all over the ground.” He frowned. “There were no eyewitnesses either. The deceased was found by the brothers while they were patrolling the streets.”
The alley was deep and secluded, with gusts of cold wind blowing from time to time, stirring the yellow talismans on the ground. The air was filled with a strong, pungent smell of blood, which made people shiver.
The evidence at the scene had been destroyed, and the only hope for finding other clues was through an autopsy.
Su Yan opened the wooden box, put on a white apron and sleeves, and covered her face with a square scarf. After completing the preparations, she walked towards the body lying in the drainage ditch at the street corner.
To avoid causing panic, the body was covered with a white sheet. Su Yan squatted down and reached out to lift the white sheet.
A woman's body lay in disarray, half of her body submerged in blood. Her eyes were bloodshot, and she died with her gaze unclosed. Her clothes were stained red with blood, making it impossible to discern their original color.
His body was covered with countless knife wounds, his skin and flesh were torn and crawling with ants and flies, which were gnawing at him bit by bit. His face, in particular, had been disfigured by the erosion and was unrecognizable.
The manner of their deaths was truly horrific.
Su Yan carefully examined the corpse. Her fingertips felt a cold touch. The body was stiff, the pupils were cloudy, and there were a few purplish-red livid spots on the parts of the body that had been in contact with the ground. The time of death should be more than three hours. According to the time, the deceased was murdered at the hour of Yin last night.
The body was covered in knife wounds, the cuts were crescent-shaped, but none of them were fatal. The cause of death was excessive blood loss. Most of the wounds on the deceased's body were from before he was born. He was tortured to death in a way that resembled killing a chicken by bleeding it out, which can be described as extremely cruel.
Although the deceased's face was disfigured, the floral tattoo on his back shoulder was strikingly beautiful when his clothes were removed. Su Yan's gaze was drawn to the pattern, which looked very familiar.
"How is it?" Sun San walked over to inquire about the situation, also drawn to the patterns on the deceased's body. When he came to his senses, he couldn't help but exclaim, "Isn't this Xin Yunniang, the manager of Wan Hua Lou?"
Su Yan was surprised that Sun San recognized the deceased at a glance. "Brother Sun, how did you know?"
Sun San pointed to the tattoo on the deceased's shoulder, "All the men in Chang'an know that Xin Yunniang has a hibiscus tattoo on her shoulder, and they all call her 'Hibiscus Lady' behind her back."
"Brother Sun, you're not kidding me, are you? The deceased really is Xin Yunniang?"
Su Yan scrutinized the deceased, whose figure and posture were indeed seven or eight parts similar to Xin Yunniang.
"Of course it's true. Wan Hua Lou is a mixed bag, and fights occasionally break out. I happened to see Xin Yunniang wearing off-shoulder clothes a few times when I was on duty, and this tattoo isn't a secret."
Although Sun San said that, Su Yan still had doubts in her heart. The fact that the deceased's appearance was disfigured was a point of suspicion.
Although the surrounding environment was dark and there were many insects and ants, it was impossible for them to bite only the same spot. There was only one possibility: the murderer deliberately applied something to the victim's face to attract a large number of insects and ants to eat the skin on the face in a short period of time.
It's hard not to suspect that the murderer deliberately disfigured the victim's face to prevent the victim's true identity from being easily discovered.
A hibiscus tattoo alone is not enough to convince Su Yan that the deceased was Xin Yunniang.
Su Yan felt increasingly uneasy and voiced her doubts, "Brother Sun, this time the murderer deliberately disfigured the victim's face. I feel this case is different from the previous three murder cases."
"Huh? How can it be different? I've fought with the murderer before. She's quite skilled in martial arts. The knife wounds on the victim's body clearly indicate that it was done by someone who practices martial arts. Moreover, the presence of yellow paper money at the crime scene also meets the criteria."
"No, if the murderer was only seeking revenge, why would he need to disfigure himself? Doing so would only make things look like he's trying to cover his tracks."
“You’re not the murderer, how would you know what the murderer is thinking? Since you don’t believe me, I’ll send the brothers to Wan Hua Lou to see for themselves, then we’ll know whether what I’m saying is true or false.”
Su Yan thought for a moment and agreed to Sun San's suggestion, "Okay..."
Continue read on readnovelmtl.com