Legend of Zhan Zhao

Chapter 44 Cracking the Locked Room
It was undoubtedly a long night.

No one is asleep.

Within a short span of 15 minutes, everyone in the Gu family mansion had gathered.

Madam Yun stood in front of the house, with Granny Jiang standing behind her, and the rest of the servants in the mansion behind them.

Opposite them was "Five Clouds".

Of the former "Seven Clouds," only five remain.

"Flowing Clouds" Shen Lan, "Walking Clouds" Chu Zhirou, "Weaving Clouds" Lin Yuxian, "Hidden Clouds" Li Kong, Lian Caiyun.

Seeing that all the people involved in the case had gathered, Zhan Zhao did not hesitate and walked to the middle: "Gentlemen, the case tonight has become clear, and we can reveal the truth."

Shen Lan was overjoyed, yet unable to hide her grief: "Who? Who killed my second senior brother?"

Chu Zhirou and Li Kong were equally concerned and urgently asked similar questions: "Who is the murderer? Has Su Wuqing confessed to the crime?"

This clearly indicates that Tang Lei's true stance is unclear.

It's also possible that they're pretending not to know.

“We previously suspected that the murderers were Su Wuqing and Zhao Wujiu, but after our nighttime investigation of the Six Doors, we have made new progress.”

Zhan Zhao, of course, didn't keep them in suspense and directly took out the secret letter: "Please take a look at this letter first."

"what!"

After being passed around among several people, they all stared wide-eyed.

But after repeatedly reading the letter, they couldn't deny it: "It really is Second Senior Brother's handwriting..." "He's actually corresponding with Su Wuqing?" "That traitor! How come I didn't see it sooner!"

After Zhan Zhao and the others accepted this to the beginning, he continued, "Tang Lei's letter proves that he has no enmity with the Six Doors. On the contrary, they are cooperating in secret. To put it another way, even if the Six Doors wanted to target your manor, they would not choose Tang Lei."

The group fell silent.

After a moment, Shen Lan gritted her teeth: "So, the murderer..."

"Not bad!"

Zhan Zhao said, "Because Tang Lei's stance has changed, the pool of suspects in this case has also changed. I'm afraid the murderer is right here! Among us!"

The atmosphere in the room changed immediately after these words were spoken.

The group exchanged bewildered glances, their faces turning grim.

"If the suspect is an insider, identifying him becomes simpler."

"Whoever doesn't have an alibi is the prime suspect!"

Zhan Zhao looked directly at Wu Yun: "Please tell us one by one where the incident occurred."

Shen Lan said, "I found my second senior brother's body. I first saw Granny Jiang, who was guarding the window. She told me to go to the door. I pushed the door open and went inside. I saw my second senior brother... I saw Tang Lei fall down and ran to find my master's wife."

Chu Zhirou said, "I heard Fifth Junior Sister's exclamation and went out with Sixth Junior Brother to rescue her, but unfortunately we were a step too late and failed to find the thief. Fortunately, Young Hero Zhan rescued Fifth Junior Sister. Didn't we see him on the way?"

Lin Yuxian said, "I was kidnapped by thieves, but fortunately I was rescued by Young Hero Zhan. When I returned, I did see my fourth senior brother."

Li Kongdao said, "My fourth senior brother and I left the compound and went to rescue my fifth senior sister separately. I came up empty-handed and couldn't find her."

Lian Caiyun said, "When Master's wife was practicing her internal energy, I stayed in front of her house. Later, I saw Third Senior Brother rush over and go inside to talk to Master's wife. Granny Jiang also arrived soon after. They all told me to wait in the front yard. Then, I saw Brother Zhan and Fourth Senior Brother, who brought Fifth Senior Sister back with them."

"From their respective accounts, it seems that everyone has an alibi; at least during the time the murderer was at the scene, each had a specific target..."

Zhan Zhao said, "But there are several people whose whereabouts have been witnessed by more than one person—"

"For example, Brother Shen met Granny Jiang and Miss Lian; Miss Lin was kidnapped by thieves, but I personally rescued her and met Brother Chu on my way back; Miss Lian first met Brother Shen and Granny Jiang, and later joined us..."

"There was only one person whose whereabouts were known only by one testimony, and no one else saw him from beginning to end!"

Following Zhan Zhao's gaze, everyone's eyes turned to him, landing on the shortest of them, Li Kong.

Zhan Zhao also stared at this person: "You said you chased after her to find Miss Lin, but was there at least one eyewitness?"

Li Kong frowned: "My fourth senior brother and I left the courtyard. My fourth senior brother was going to the north because the thief seemed to have taken my fifth senior sister there. But at that time, I heard a faint sound from the southeast. I thought it was a trick by the thief to feint to the east while attacking in the west, so we split up."

Chu Zhirou immediately added, "Young Master Zhan, what my sixth junior brother said is true, and I am willing to vouch for him."

"Unfortunately! A single piece of evidence is not enough!"

Zhan Zhao shook his head.

Chu Zhirou's face darkened: "Young Master Zhan, why do you make such unfounded accusations? According to you, I colluded with my sixth junior brother to commit the crime?"

"Not bad!"

Zhan Zhao nodded directly: "At first I only had suspicions, but later I became completely certain, because the abduction of Miss Lin had two purposes—"

"First, the murderer's method of setting up a locked room was to avoid me, an outsider, being the first to discover the body. Otherwise, if I just stayed at the scene and didn't move, the method would fail."

"So the man in black kidnapped Miss Lin and deliberately passed by my house, calling for help. His purpose was very clear: to lure me out of the mansion."

"Secondly, it is to create a long-term alibi for the murderer."

"The method of setting up a secret room is not difficult to implement, but it requires a lot of time to clean up and clean up afterward, so that the person cannot appear in the sight of others."

"And so, you orchestrated Miss Lin's kidnapping."

After a pause, Zhan Zhao continued, "But there are still drawbacks." "For example, the man in black clearly had a hostage in his hands, but he neither spoke nor held her hostage. He abandoned Miss Lin after the slightest contact, precisely to conceal his martial arts skills."

"But other martial arts can be disguised, but lightness skills cannot. The man in black was using the Cloud Crane Ascending to Immortality Step."

"Therefore, excluding others, the true identity of the man in black can only be you—'Xingyun' Chu Zhirou!"

Upon hearing this, Lin Yuxian instinctively took a step back, looking at Chu Zhirou and Li Kong with surprise and uncertainty: "Fourth Senior Brother, Sixth Junior Brother...you...you guys..."

"Fifth Junior Sister, don't believe what outsiders say!!"

Chu Zhirou said sternly, "Master's wife! This person harbors malicious intentions and must have been invited by the Six Doors to sow discord. That letter is also a forgery. If we fall into internal strife, we will be even more controlled by Su Wuqing, which will only bring pain to our loved ones and joy to our enemies!"

Li Kong also spoke up, "We, fellow disciples, have been in the same sect for over a decade. Are we really inferior to a few words from an outsider?"

Lin Yuxian looked around, somewhat bewildered, and hesitated.

Zhan Zhao continued, "Miss Lian once described to me the battle where the Seven Clouds destroyed the Blood Dragon Gang. She mentioned that 'Fourth Senior Brother was skilled in disguise, and Sixth Senior Brother was skilled in stealth. They were the first to infiltrate the gang and scout out the sentry posts'..."

"This time, you will still be disguised. First, you will become a man in black and pretend to kidnap Miss Lin. Once I catch up, you will immediately release her and leave. Then, you will take off your night clothes, reveal your true appearance, and wait for us on the way."

"This not only explained his whereabouts, but also provided a perfect cover for Li Kong's next move."

Upon hearing this, Lin Yuxian immediately moved closer to Zhan Zhao.

Chu Zhirou's cheek muscles twitched, and Li Kong clenched his fists.

The two of them instinctively looked at their teacher's wife.

Madam Gu remained as calm as ever: "Go on."

Zhan Zhao continued to stare at Li Kong: "There are no wrong nicknames, only wrong names. You are skilled in stealth and are known as 'Hidden Cloud.' You must have exceptional skills in this area, right?"

Li Kong remained silent.

But Lin Yuxian slowly said, "Dai Xing, the fourth leader of 'Langli Shibawu', was originally a traitor to the Canal Gang. He once robbed government salt and slandered the Canal Gang. Because he was afraid of retaliation, he had no fixed place to live after that and often slept in the dark cabin of the dock."

"There were trusted men patrolling in front of the gate, and inside the gate, there were repeating crossbows and buried spikes. There were also many secret passages. We thought we were invincible."

"Six months ago, however, my sixth junior brother, who was as thin as a baby, hid in a hidden compartment of a box and infiltrated the secret chamber to assassinate me!"

Lian Caiyun continued, "In the battle against the 'Blood Dragon Gang,' it was thanks to our sixth senior brother's ability to infiltrate the gang first using his bone-shrinking skill that we were able to strike at the heart of the enemy, and our eldest senior brother beheaded the 'Blood Dragon King,' restoring peace to the region!"

"Since you are skilled in bone-shrinking techniques and have successful cases, it's no wonder."

Zhan Zhao understood: "In fact, after identifying the biggest suspect and combining it with the victim's physical characteristics, the truth about the locked room has become clear."

"This is a method with extremely limited limitations."

"To be precise, this locked-room mystery could only have been possible if Tang Lei was the victim and Li Kongshi was the murderer!"

Everyone frowned, while Chu Zhirou and Li Kong's expressions changed completely.

Zhan Zhao said in a deep voice, "First of all, we need to be clear about one thing: Tang Lei died long before he made any noise."

"The murderer killed Tang Lei and arranged the scene, mainly doing two things—"

"The first step was to leave sharp, cut marks on the edge of the door to direct suspicion toward Su Wuqing of the Six Doors."

"The second method was to dismember Tang Lei after he was murdered, remove his organs, and lay them on the ground."

"Next, whether it was making a sound to make Granny Jiang stand guard outside the window and not enter the house, or screaming and splitting the body in two when Brother Shen opened the door, it was all the work of the murderer."

"The key question is, how did the murderer leave this locked room?"

“Grandma Jiang stood guard at the window, while Brother Shen entered through the door. With the front and back blocked and their lines of sight intersecting, if you two are not lying, this seems like an impossible locked-room murder.”

"But what if the murderer never left?"

"Is this person hiding at the scene?"

Shen Lan said bitterly, "That's impossible! There was nowhere to hide at the time!"

"There is a place where people can hide; it's a secret room within a secret room—"

Zhan Zhao uttered two words: "Corpse!"

He paused, then added, "A skeleton that was already much larger than a normal person's, with its internal organs removed, and on top of that, a long winter robe with a trailing hem!"

The surroundings were quiet.

The first reaction of everyone was bewilderment.

How can a body be hidden?

After hearing the supplementary information and considering the previous issues, his expression changed drastically.

Shen Lan felt a chill run down her spine, and even Granny Jiang felt her hair stand on end: "Could it be..."

"Not bad!"

Zhan Zhao revealed the unbelievable method used in this locked-room mystery: "From beginning to end, the murderer was right next to you, but none of you ever thought of turning the upper half of the dismembered body over..."

"Otherwise, you would have seen the real killer hiding inside the corpse!"

(End of this chapter)