Chapter 80 Missing

The sky in the east was turning white, and a ray of dawn light appeared through the hazy clouds, as thin as a thread. The dull night faded away, and looking at the rising sun, everyone understood that a new day had arrived.

County Magistrate Liu, who was originally sleeping soundly with his beloved wife, was awakened by a loud knock on the door. With his hair flying and sleepy eyes, he was told that County Magistrate Song's family was the mastermind of the missing case and had committed suicide.

"ah?"

Liu Liang pinched his thigh cruelly. After feeling the intense pain, he clearly realized that he was not dreaming. So he and the person who came to report the news hurried to the Song Mansion. He finally understood the whole story from the testimonies of Ji Xian and a few others as well as the servants of the Song Mansion.

As a result, several more people stayed awake that night.

The entire Song Mansion was thoroughly searched, and all the servants were called together to be interrogated one by one.

"grown ups!"

Two yamen runners helped an unconscious woman out of the secret room. The woman had disheveled, spotted and ragged hair and was terrified when she saw them.

At the same time, there was a commotion in the crowd, and a man took advantage of the chaos to run out. Before the bailiffs could stop him, he was seen hugging the unconscious woman.

"Ah Shui, I'm your sister, don't be afraid, don't be afraid."

Jin Liu ignored the dirt on the other person's body and hugged him with great heartache. Under her gentle comfort, the person in her arms gradually calmed down. The other person seemed to recognize Jin Liu and opened his mouth to call her sister.

The bailiff originally wanted to separate the two men, but Ji Xian immediately stopped him upon seeing this. He signaled the bailiff to step back and then walked forward.

"Miss Jin Liu, I believe you still remember me. Is this your sister? Her condition is not good. You can let her go. We will find a doctor to treat her. Can you tell me what happened?"

Jin Liu's eyes were slightly red and tears were welling up in them. She was reluctant to leave her sister in her arms, but she also understood that all she could do at this moment was to tell everything. Perhaps this way she and her sister would still have a glimmer of hope.

Song Zhuang committed suicide out of fear of punishment, so all affairs were taken over by Liu Liang. However, he did not use his power to show off his authority. Instead, he sincerely invited Ji Xian and others to interrogate the case together.

Jin Liu knelt on the ground, her voice seemed to be hoarse from crying, and she told everyone everything she knew word by word.

Jin Liu's parents died when she was young, and her sister also suffered from a high fever which damaged her brain. In order to take care of her sister and to survive, she sold herself to the Song Mansion as a maid.

An accident allowed Jin Liu to see the face of the young lady. Originally, she could not escape death, but perhaps because she was more in control, the other party used her sister as a key to force her to become an accomplice, and in order to test her loyalty, asked her to drink a mute drug. After drinking the drug, her throat was sore and she vomited blood. Although she did not become really mute, her voice became hoarse and unpleasant. However, the other party was relieved. Even so, Jin Liu's sister was still detained. Only if she was obedient enough, she would have the possibility of meeting her sister.

"The young lady is particularly concerned about her appearance. In order to make the red spots on her face disappear, she even tried all the methods of harming one's life told by those who pretended to be charlatans. Unfortunately, the results were not satisfactory." Jin Liu's breathing became heavier, as if as soon as she closed her eyes she could remember the faces of those people who were tortured to death by Miss Song because their lies were exposed.

"The man named Gu Ye took the initiative to approach the young lady. He claimed that he served an immortal and that if the young lady was willing to make offerings to the immortal, she would get everything she wanted."

"The lady didn't believe him at first. She had heard too many lies over the years. But after using the holy water he left, the red spots on her face miraculously disappeared. Although it only lasted for one day, it gave the lady hope. So she quickly found him and promised to agree to whatever Gu Ye wanted."

"Gu Ye said that there was a saint under the immortal's seat, and this holy water was refined by that saint. However, the saint was seriously injured in order to protect the human world, so the immortal made an exception and left a prophecy. The prophecy said that when the human world is destroyed, the saint will find her medicine and save the human world once again. The medicine is a woman who does not look like an ordinary person. The blood flowing in her body will dispel the saint's pain, and the human world will once again usher in light."

"Therefore, Gu Ye asked the young lady to find medicine for the Saint. As long as they are beautiful women, regardless of age or status, he will bring them to the Fairy Island. Even if they are not medicine, the Saint will be kind enough to keep them and teach them the art of cultivating immortals."

"I thought it was ridiculous, but the lady agreed without hesitation. In fact, I think the lady never believed the other party's words, but as long as the holy water is still effective, the lady will not expose the other party's lies."

Perhaps it was because he hadn't talked so much in a long time, Jin Liu couldn't help coughing. Perhaps to atone for his sins, he still persisted even though his throat was burning.

Li Qingruo handed over a cup of tea upon seeing this. Jin Liu was startled at first, looked at her with complicated eyes, and quickly took the cup. After drinking the cup of cool tea, the stinging sensation was much less. It was just ordinary tea, but Jin Liu inexplicably felt a hint of sweetness.

"After that, the young lady started looking for medicine, and Gu Ye was responsible for taking the medicine away. However, the young lady was not satisfied with the temporary removal of the red spots, so she began to study the holy water privately, and even captured a woman with the same red spots on her face for testing. However, the test was not successful. Not only did the red spots not disappear, but the woman died. This was not the first person to die at the hands of the young lady. There is no such thing as a wall that is impenetrable. There are some people who accidentally got involved in this matter like me. They are not as lucky as me, and I am responsible for handling these corpses and cleaning up the mess for the young lady."

"There is little I can do. I can only bury them in the forest. I can't even erect a tombstone for them because if the young lady finds them, maybe not even our bodies will exist in the world anymore."

Thinking of the young lady's vicious eyes, Jin Liu knew that the other party's words of "crushing bones and scattering ashes" were never just talk. Even though he knew that the other party was already dead, he still couldn't help shuddering.

"But..." Jin Liu seemed to have thought of something. She took out a wooden hairpin that had been broken into two halves from her waist. On the hairpin was carved a little cat playing with a ball. The cat looked very lively and vivid.

"The young lady's experiment killed many people, but there was one person who survived after drinking the medicine. The young lady got this hairpin from Hua Niang. One day, when she was going out with the hairpin, she was bumped into by Wei Yu. Wei Yu recognized the hairpin on the young lady's head and pestered her all the way. So in order to prevent the matter from being exposed, the young lady personally fed Wei Yu the failed product of the experiment and threw him in the suburbs. Unexpectedly, Wei Yu actually survived, but he became a fool."

"Later, the young lady felt it was unlucky, so she broke the hairpin and threw it away casually. I took it back when no one was around." Jin Liu didn't know why she picked up the broken hairpin, but it was a pity that this hairpin, which was made with so much love, was thrown away so casually.

Ji Xianyi took the broken wooden hairpin. In the dilapidated temple, besides the tattered red cloth strip, there were also some unformed wooden hairpins scattered on the ground. It seemed that this hairpin was carved by Wei Yu himself. No wonder he recognized it at a glance. Unfortunately, fate played a trick on him. Hua Niang was now unknown whether she was alive or dead, and Wei Yu was unconscious.

"I have fantasized countless times that if I hadn't seen the young lady's face that day, perhaps everything would be different." Jin Liu murmured to herself. She was forced to become an accomplice, suffered the reproach of her conscience, and worried about her sister day and night. On the day she entered the Song Mansion, she thought she and her sister would have a happy future, but the reality was always so cruel. From then on, she seemed to have become an emotionless executioner. She dared not fall asleep every midnight. She was afraid that she would dream of those people's faces, but also afraid that she would not dream of them and become numb and not care about it all.

Jin Liu told them her past events one by one. She did not expect to be forgiven, but only hoped that they would treat her foolish sister well. However, perhaps because they disliked Jin Liu's dullness and mediocrity, Madam Bai and the others did not let her participate in the crime of murder. Jin Liu was only responsible for cleaning up the aftermath for them, dealing with those poor dead people and covering up their traces. Therefore, Liu Liang did not hastily convict her directly, but only temporarily restricted her freedom of movement for subsequent handling.

Who could have thought that the culprit behind the missing case that caused such panic among the people would be the county magistrate whom everyone had always respected. Fortunately, Liu Liang immediately ordered everyone not to spread what happened tonight. Thinking of this, he could not help but sigh. This case was of great importance and he needed to report it to his superiors. However, with the help of several young heroes from the Taibai Sword Sect, at least the black gauze hat on his head should be able to be kept.

After the overnight interrogation, when they walked out of the room, the sun had already risen, and the sunlight passed through the treetops, leaving mottled traces. Looking at the sun in the distance, everyone understood that the darkness would eventually fade away and the light would always come.

—————

Inside the temple, Wei Yu was humming a ballad while combing the hair of the red-dressed doll in his hand. Ji Xianyi's arrival did not attract any attention from the other party until Qiu Muli, who was also wearing red clothes, walked in.

Wei Yu seemed a little confused. He was holding the red-dressed doll in his hands and wanted to walk towards Qiu Muli. Everyone could see the entanglement and confusion on his face. It seemed that he didn't know why there were two Hua Niangs in front of him.

However, after Ji Xian took out the wooden hairpin that had been broken into two halves, Wei Yu began to tremble almost uncontrollably. He took the hairpin with both hands, and tears instantly flowed out.

"Flower Lady...Flower Lady..."

Wei Yu seemed to recognize the wooden hairpin. He carefully placed it on his chest and stubbornly called Hua Niang's name over and over again.

Ji Xian and a few others stopped disturbing each other and left the ruined temple. Although the missing case had been solved, there were still more mysteries ahead. Their mood did not improve after finding the real murderer. Instead, they had more complicated emotions. The crying sounds were still faintly heard from the temple, and they seemed to have shouldered more responsibilities without realizing it.

"Senior brother, why are you distracted again? What are you thinking about?" This was the second time today that Li Qingruo noticed Ji Xianyi distracted. She knew her senior brother, so she couldn't help but feel a little worried.

Ji Xian shook his head when he heard this.

He was just wondering why Gu Ye's swordsmanship gave him a familiar feeling, but he also knew clearly that this was the first time he met him. However, he didn't intend to tell his junior sister about this, so as to avoid her worrying too much.