Following the trail
The wind rustled, and a mountain rain was brewing.
Zhou Yanzhi followed the footprints to the place where Jie Xiangsi had previously hidden. He slowly squatted down, his gaze falling on the patch of earth that was clearly soaked in blood, his eyes narrowing slightly.
There was significantly more blood here than near the well, and... it was concentrated in one spot, as if someone had stayed here for a while.
Thinking of this, a cold glint flashed in Zhou Yanzhi's eyes.
He brushed away the blood-stained dead leaves with his hand, and suddenly felt a sharp pain in his fingertips. Then, drops of bright red blood quickly gushed out from the wound.
Looking down, Zhou Yanzhi's pupils suddenly contracted when he saw something—in the blood-soaked soil, there was a dark yellow piece of paper stuck to a broken blade.
Perhaps because it had been buried in the blood and mud for a long time, the dark yellow paper had changed color, and the whole piece of paper had become soft and limp, sticking tightly to the broken blades, as if it would rot at any moment.
Zhou Yanzhi's breath hitched, and a strange feeling suddenly rose in his heart. An intuition told him that this was a clue deliberately left behind by Xie Xiangsi.
Carefully digging away the soil around the shattered blade, Zhou Yanzhi painstakingly peeled the almost blood-soaked piece of paper off the broken blade. Looking at the edge of the paper, which was not yet stained with blood, he unconsciously frowned.
This edge... seems to match the book Jie Xiangsi gave him before.
After regaining his composure, Zhou Yanzhi's gaze fell on the ink characters on the piece of paper.
Suddenly, his fingers paused, and he hurriedly took out a book from his pocket, quickly flipping to the page with the missing corner. Then, he gently aligned the edge of the missing piece of paper with the page, and after seeing what words were put together, his pupils contracted sharply.
—It is a "knife".
In the blink of an eye, a name suddenly popped into Zhou Yanzhi's mind.
—Sword Shadow!
My cousin left this piece of paper to tell him that the person who kidnapped her was Dao Ying!
After a moment of silence, Zhou Yanzhi closed the book with the blood-stained paper inside, put it back inside his clothes, and turned to leave. The blood from his fingertips, cut by the broken blade, had stopped flowing, but the lingering smell of rust wouldn't go away.
...
A moment later, a falcon flew out of Xiangguo Temple, soared straight into the clouds, and flew away into the distance.
Here, the water in the well had been completely drained, and the dark chamber made of refined iron was fully revealed. Under the torchlight, the iron walls emitted a cold light, and a chill swept over you.
With everything prepared, the officers, who were properly protected, entered the dark room one by one. Their boots were soaked in the icy well water. Even though they had prepared themselves mentally, the exceptionally cold temperature still made their hair stand on end.
Suddenly, the sound of metal being struck rang out.
An iron wall slowly opened, and then, accompanied by a rush of water, the officials who were struggling to keep their balance in the water felt as if they were suddenly hit by something.
One of the officers lost his balance and fell straight into the water. The well water was slightly cool, and as the water rippled, a gentle touch suddenly swept across the back of his hand, bringing a tingling sensation.
A very faint scent suddenly wafted through the air.
Instinctively, he sniffed hard, and suddenly shuddered. Having worked in criminal investigation for many years, how could he not recognize the smell? This…this was clearly the smell of blood!
That...that feel...
A sudden chill ran down his spine. He swallowed hard, opened his eyes which he had closed moments before to keep them dry, and slowly looked down to his side.
Then……
Unsurprisingly, I was met with a pair of eyes that had turned white from being soaked in water.
In an instant, a shrill scream pierced through the well shaft, bursting out of the well and dissipating into the air.
"There's a dead body! There's a dead body—!"
The others who were lucky enough not to have seen the bodies directly heard the sound and instinctively opened their eyes to look. They saw several bodies, pale from being submerged in water, lying quietly, half-floating in the water.
Her hair was disheveled, her eyes were wide open, and there seemed to be a lingering sense of astonishment in them.
The skin and flesh of the neck, slashed open by a sharp weapon, rolled outwards, and streaks of blood continued to gush from the wound, running down the neck and into the cool well water.
Tick-tock...tick-tock...
The group: "..."
The next second, several even more intense screams burst from the well opening.
—"Holy shit!!!!!"
...
Inside the makeshift autopsy tent, several monks stood beside the neatly arranged corpses, their lips moving as they softly chanted the Rebirth Sutra with their eyes closed.
You committed evil deeds in your past life, and you will die a violent death in this life. Reciting Buddhist scriptures will help you enter the cycle of reincarnation.
Zhou Yanzhi squatted down beside a person, carefully probing the wound with his fingertips, lifting the rolled-up flesh slightly, feeling a slight warmth from his fingertips. After a pause, he used scissors to cut open the person's clothes under his armpit, gently placing his hand on it, still feeling a faint warmth.
His eyes narrowed. Considering that the coldness of the well water would cause the corpses to lose temperature rapidly, the time of death for these people must have been about half an hour ago.
It happened at the same time as my cousin was kidnapped.
Thinking of something, he quickly cut open the clothes of the men, revealing their pale chests, and pressed his hands against them with a bit of force.
Feeling the touch under his palm, Zhou Yanzhi frowned slightly, then pried open one of the people's mouths, paused for a moment in the mouth before quickly looking away, and then used a little force to close the open mouth.
“The wound is clean and dark red. The lungs are not seriously injured, and there is no mud or sand in the mouth and nose…” Zhou Yanzhi got up and removed his veil. While washing the blood off his hands, he concluded, “The throat-cutting must have been done before death, and soaking in water means the body was disposed of after death.”
The official who had been hastily brought over quickly scribbled down notes, then cautiously asked, "Sir... do we still need to have a coroner perform an autopsy?"
Zhou Yanzhi nodded. "This is just a preliminary assessment. The coroner will be more thorough. When the coroner from the Dali Temple arrives, let him examine it again in detail. You can stay here and keep an eye on things for now."
The junior official nodded quickly, "Yes!"
Zhou Yanzhi patted the minor official on the shoulder and smiled slightly, "Yes, thank you for your hard work."
Staring blankly at Zhou Yanzhi's retreating figure, the minor official wiped the cold sweat from his forehead, suppressed his fear, squatted down beside the corpses, and continued writing the unfinished record.
He will certainly not let Lord Zhou down!
...
Upon reaching the well, Zhou Yanzhi donned protective gear and, along with a few others carrying tinderboxes, descended into the well.
The dark room had been cleaned up again. Along with the corpses, some large pieces of rubble had been washed out by the water, which were blown down when the secret passage was blasted earlier.
The scattered rubble in the secret passage had been mostly cleared away, revealing a dark passage that seemed to stretch endlessly.
"My lord." Hearing the noise, one of the men who was moving things turned around, clasped his hands in a salute to Zhou Yanzhi, and then pointed to the wooden boxes they were moving and said, "We found this in a deeper part of the place. After inspection, it is the 'Moon Gazing Powder' that we have been looking into these past few days, but most of them have been soaked in water."
Zhou Yanzhi nodded. "I understand. Send someone to escort these things back to the Dali Temple and have someone guard them. I'll deal with them when I get back."
"yes!"
Then, Zhou Yanzhi turned around and walked towards the cleared secret passage.
He silently breathed a sigh of relief as he ran his hand over the slightly deformed iron walls on either side of the secret passage—thankfully, the passage was sturdy; otherwise, if it had all collapsed, it would have been a real headache.
They walked along the narrow, dimly lit passage for an unknown amount of time until they finally reached the end. Then, a beam of light shone down from the square floor window above them, illuminating their faces for a moment.
It's for export!
Accompanied by a strong smell of blood, Zhou Yanzhi used the force to exit the secret passage, stepping into a pool of blood on the ground, feeling a sticky and slippery sensation coming from the sole of his boot.
By the bright candlelight inside the room, the person who came out of the secret passage could see the scene inside the room clearly - there were people lying haphazardly on the floor of the small room, just like the corpses found in the well, all of them had been killed by a single sword to the throat, and were already lifeless.
Without the well water to dilute it, the ground was covered with blood gushing from the severed neck, the bright red blood flowing everywhere, emitting a strong stench of blood that made people feel physically nauseous and vomit.
Along with the corpse were some boxes. Zhou Yanzhi casually opened one of them and, as expected, found the Moon Gazing Powder inside.
After closing the box and scanning the room, Zhou Yanzhi strode outside.
Outside, the distant mountains are shrouded in mist, and the fragrant grasses sway gently.
His gaze lingered on the surrounding scenery for a moment, and he could faintly hear the rumble of carriages and horses. After a brief silence, Zhou Yanzhi quickly came to a conclusion in his mind about this place—it was a courtyard located on the outskirts of the capital, very close to the official road, but still some distance from Xiangguo Temple.
There was no blood outside the courtyard, only some scattered specks of blood. Zhou Yanzhi's heart sank - this bloodstain didn't seem to be from a fight, but rather from something stained with blood.
For example—sword, knife.
An official walked in from outside the courtyard, handed a velvet flower to Zhou Yanzhi, and said with his head bowed, "Sir, we found this outside the courtyard."
Zhou Yanzhi took the velvet flower, examined it carefully, and suddenly his eyes darkened—this was the flower his cousin had worn this morning.
Since this velvet flower is here, it means that my cousin was also here after she was kidnapped.
Looking at the velvet flower in his hand, Zhou Yanzhi gently rubbed it with his fingertips. Perhaps it had hit a stone when it slipped off his head; the once delicate and shiny velvet flower was now dull and gray, its beautiful shape somewhat distorted, and the smooth silk threads were snagged, making it look frizzy.
After a moment of silence, Zhou Yanzhi gently blew the dust off the velvet flower before placing it back in his pocket. Having done this, he raised his eyes. "Have you found any footprints around here?"
The official nodded respectfully and said, "Your Excellency, there are indeed traces around, but they are not footprints, but wheel tracks."
“Wheel tracks?” Zhou Yanzhi frowned slightly. “Are the wheel tracks leading to the capital, or away from it?”
The officials, with solemn expressions, announced, "Heading towards the capital."
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