Chapter 89: Murderer Suspicion (2)

Night moon is not clear

In the guest room of the two-story building, the windows were half-open. Several figures were sitting or standing. Some looked impatient, some were cold and silent, some were calm, some were restless, but they all tacitly stared at the nearby residential house.

"It's already Chou hour, and there's no movement yet. Do you guess it's accurate or not?!" Qian Jing leaned against the window lattice and yawned.

Zhuo Qing stared at him and hummed coldly: "Shut up!" Waiting for a whole night without results, she was already depressed enough, and he still had so much nonsense!

Seeing her angry look, Lou Xiyan held her hand gently, sat on the bench beside her, and asked softly: "Tired?"

Zhuo Qing shook her head and sighed lightly: "I'm not tired, but you, you still have to go to court tomorrow, why insist on squatting here? It would be fine if Mo Bai accompanied me." Although she wasn't Gu Yun, she could still handle staying up for one or two nights, but she didn't expect Xiyan to insist on squatting here with her. Although he hadn't had an attack in these days, his body was always not very good. She was in such a bad mood, actually just worrying about him.

Smiling, Lou Xiyan replied: "The Emperor ordered me to assist Minister Dan, and capturing the murderer is naturally one of my duties." Gently hugging her shoulder, letting her head rest on his shoulder, Lou Xiyan said in a low voice: "Close your eyes for a while, I'll call you if anything happens."

Leaning on the thin shoulder didn't seem very comfortable, but the faint warm affection had already made Zhuo Qing's heart feel warm.

"Someone!" Qian Jing suddenly called out. Everyone was startled and looked out the window immediately.

They saw that in the residence they had been watching all night, a black shadow vaulted over the courtyard wall and darted toward the other end of the street at an extremely high speed.

Fortunately, they were standing in a high place, otherwise even if they guarded several doors, they might not be able to find the man in black.

Qian Jing asked anxiously: "Chase or not?!" If they didn

Lou Xiyan said calmly, "Qian Jing, you go chase him. Don't alert the enemy, and don't let him leave your line of sight." He hadn't committed the crime; catching him now would be useless!

"Understood." As soon as the words fell, Qian Jing's figure followed closely behind the person in black.

Lou Xiyan's steady black eyes looked at the still-quiet Su residence, then said, "Mo Bai, Ye Mei, you two continue to stay here. Even if there is more movement, one person must remain. Do not fall for a diversionary tactic."

Mo Bai replied in an indifferent voice, "Yes."

Ye Mei wore a mask, making her expression impossible to read; one could only see her nod very slightly.

"Generally, bleeding before death causes the blood to coagulate shortly after, while bleeding after death does not. Also, blood from before death has fibrin nets that precipitate and bind tightly to the tissue, which cannot be removed by washing; whereas blood from after death does not coagulate and can be removed by washing." Rubbing her gloved hand vigorously against the ice nearby, the glove became slightly damp. Zhuo Qing rubbed gently at the victim's wound; the dried blood didn't change much. She then moved her hand down to a splash of crimson near the victim's waist and stroked it gently; the blood color had already faded.

"Mm!" Knowing she was anxious, Lou Xiyan held her hand and, under the escort of the dark agents, hurried toward the General's Mansion.

The General's Mansion

In the spacious room, a large bed was simply placed, and beside the bed was a low table; there were no superfluous decorations. Although the moonlight was not bright tonight, without layers of light gauze curtains, the situation in the room could still be barely seen.

On the large bed, a woman lay on her side, her eyes lightly closed, appearing to be asleep.

The weather was too hot, so the two wooden windows were open, allowing the night breeze to blow in easily. Also entering the room just as easily was a slender black shadow.

After the black shadow flew inside, he did not immediately walk to the woman's bedside but stood in front of the window for a while. After a long time, he finally walked to the bed, stared at the woman sleeping peacefully, and stood there blankly again.

Suddenly, he walked to the low table, picked up a cup, and smashed it fiercely onto the floor. The sound of the porcelain cup shattering was so harsh and clear in the silent night.

Gu Yun's brows furrowed tightly, and her sharp eyes snapped open, but the black shadow was already trying to leap out of the window.

"You want to leave just after arriving?!" Her cold voice had not a hint of post-sleep confusion. The black shadow accelerated his pace, but Gu Yun stepped onto the edge of the bed, lunged toward the black shadow, and choked the person in black by the neck from behind. The person in black felt the pain, and his movements stalled. He had not expected the woman to have such sharp skills. The person in black threw a punch toward Gu Yun's abdomen; Gu Yun took advantage of the momentum to turn sideways and struck the person in black's spine with her knee.

The person in black's eyes darkened, and his hand moved to his waist. Gu Yun only saw a flash of silver light. She wanted to retreat to avoid it, but the person in black's other hand dragged her arm, not letting go; she had no chance to retreat. Gu Yun secretly gritted her teeth, deciding to move forward and press close to the person in black. She was shorter than him; perhaps she could dodge this sword.

But before she could move, she felt her waist tighten suddenly. Coming to her senses, she was already held in an embrace, and that silver light was intercepted by a pair of large hands. The smell of blood permeated the room, and a bewitching red was sliding down drop by drop between the fingers. Gu Yun widened her eyes, looking at the man beside her. Ao Tian, in black clothes and silver hair, had a pale, eerie, and cold complexion, yet there was not a hint of pain on his face, as if the blood dripping down were not his own. In the dark night, such a man exuding an evil charm made not only Gu Yun dazed, but the person in black was also stunned.

Ao Tian channeled Qi into his palm and twisted his hand back. The person in black immediately felt an extremely strong force strike, and the soft sword actually flew out of his hand. The person in black panicked and turned to leap out the window.

But inside the courtyard, it was already filled with soldiers holding long spears. The person in black's eyes narrowed slightly. What a "catching a turtle in a jar" trap. It seemed that if they hadn't intentionally lured him, it wouldn't have been easy for him to enter the General's Mansion!

Gu Yun grabbed a silk quilt from the bed, tore it into strips, and wrapped Ao Tian's hand, which was still bleeding profusely. She asked anxiously, "Are you alright?!"

The fresh blood quickly stained the pure white silk handkerchief. Ao Tian withdrew his hand and replied coldly, "I'm fine."

After saying this, he walked out the door without looking back. Gu Yun felt it was inexplicable; this man's personality was too strange!

Both of them went outside the courtyard. No one noticed that at the corner of the wall, a complex light flashed in a pair of deep black eyes. In his tightly clenched hand, a long sword had already been drawn, but his strike had been a step too slow.

Su Ling retreated from Gu Yun's courtyard with an expressionless face, just as if he had never appeared.

Inside the courtyard, countless torches had been lit, illuminating the small courtyard. The person in black was surrounded by soldiers. He realized his situation and stopped resisting, only looking coldly at Gu Yun as she walked toward him.

"I underestimated you, little girl." The person in black spoke, and it was actually a clear and melodious female voice.

With a light wave of her fair hand, the person in black gracefully pulled off the black scarf on her face, and a beautiful, lotus-like face was revealed.

"It's you?!"

Ministry of Justice Hall

The first light of dawn tore through the black clouds on the horizon, signaling that a new day had arrived. After a night of turmoil, the people in the hall showed no fatigue. The culprit who had been heart-plucking and killing with cruel methods for two months had finally been captured; all the hard work of these past days was worth it.

The woman kneeling on the ground had a calm face, without the fear or disdain of being captured; there was only a sense of relief and peace. Gu Yun stared at her beautiful and indifferent face for a while before asking, "Why did you want to kill me?"

The woman looked up, glanced at her, then lowered her head again, saying with a tone of disgust, "A cheap woman like you who only thinks about seducing Mufeng deserves to die!"

Gu Yun's clear eyes flickered. She stared straight at the woman's expressionless face and continued to ask, "Did you also kill the previous women?"

This time she didn't even lift her head, only replying coldly, "They all deserved to die! Who told them to have designs on Mufeng!"

Dan Yulan said in a loud voice, "Gu Yuexin, do you now confess to your crimes?"

Gu Yuexin slowly looked up, glanced at the high-and-mighty Dan Yulan, and replied without intending to defend herself, "Since I have been caught by you, I have nothing to say."

Wrong! From beginning to end, she hadn't answered the question of whether she killed those people! She didn't show much profound hatred for the women she had killed, just a little disgust. Was that enough to make her kill with such cruel methods?!

Walking to Gu Yuexin and squatting down, Gu Yun met her eyes and said word for word, "I am asking you now, you only need to answer yes or no. Were the previous three heart-plucking cases done by you? Did you kill those people?"

Gu Yuexin was already impatient: "I just said—"

"Yes or no?" Gu Yun cut off her words, insisting on an answer.

The girl opposite looked only fifteen or sixteen years old, but those eyes were like a pool of bottomless cold water, making people feel guilty involuntarily. Secretly gritting her teeth, Gu Yuexin replied firmly and loudly, "Yes!"

Gu Yun slowly stood up and looked at Zhuo Qing, who had been watching her, shaking her head slightly. This woman, she was lying!

Now that she insisted on confessing, how could she prove she was lying?

Zhuo Qing frowned slightly and asked, "What was the murder weapon you used?"

"A thin-bladed dagger." This time Gu Yuexin answered very quickly, and the yamen runner presented the dagger found on her, handing it to Dan Yulan.

Zhuo Qing only glanced at it and had already confirmed that the length and thickness of the blade were consistent with the wounds.

While examining the murder weapon, Dan Yulan asked, "How did you manage to commit murder in a locked room?" This point had always been something they couldn't figure out, and the Qing sisters' interrogation of Gu Yuexin showed that they doubted she was the killer. Actually, he didn't quite believe it either, but the murder weapon was right here; if she wasn't the killer, who was?!

Who knew Gu Yuexin would burst into laughter? She glanced sideways at Dan Yulan and sneered, "What is difficult about that? In our Guyue family, besides medicine, the most famous thing is illusion technique. As long as I cast an illusion on the attending maid, they will close the door after I leave, while knowing nothing about it themselves!"

Cheng Hang's eyes widened, and he shouted in disbelief, "Those young ladies also fell under your illusion, so they watched themselves being heart-plucked and couldn't move? That's impossible, is illusion technique really that powerful?!"

That kind of pride was genuine pride from the heart, not a lie, but was it really that powerful?

Zhuo Qing suddenly requested, "Do it for me to see now." Was her so-called illusion technique what the medical field called hypnosis?

Gu Yuexin turned her head away and snorted coldly, "I won't do it. This is our Guyue family's unique skill."

A unique skill, is it? Zhuo Qing raised her eyebrows slightly and asked with a cold smile, "When you plucked the heart, did you cut from left to right or from right to left? Did you sever the meridians before plucking the heart, or pluck the heart before severing the meridians?"

"I..." Gu Yuexin was startled, a flash of panic crossing her eyes.

"You don't know?"

Immediately lifting her head, the calm she had maintained seemed to have been broken. Glaring at Zhuo Qing, as if eager to confirm something, Gu Yuexin said urgently, "Of course I know! I cut from right to left, and plucked the heart before severing the meridians!"

"Are you sure?"

She must be bluffing! She must be! Taking a deep breath, Gu Yuexin insisted, "Sure!"

As soon as she finished speaking, a flash of insight appeared in the eyes of Lv Jin and Dan Yulan. They smiled and nodded. Zhuo Qing replied, "It seems you are not the killer. Anyone who has examined the corpses knows that you are lying." The deceased had clearly had their connecting blood vessels severed before the heart was removed; this was also why she had thought the killer's knife technique was extremely precise at the time.

Dan Yulan's expression changed slightly, and Gu Yuexin hurriedly shouted, "I am the one who killed them, it's just been too long, and I forgot these details."

Forgot? Dan Yulan nodded slightly, and his serious, cold, and handsome voice sounded low: "Alright, since you say you killed to protect Su Mufeng, then let's hear what Young Master Su has to say!"

Turning around abruptly, that plain white figure was already standing behind her, gazing at her deeply.

"Mufeng?!" Although the warm morning light had already shone into the public hall, illuminating Gu Yuexin's slender body, the warm sun didn't make her feel a hint of warmth; she only felt as if she were in an ice cellar.

(End of chapter)