Chapter 572: Little Red

Pan Yun stared fixedly at the last blank sheet of drawing paper, then gently closed the album: "She's dead."

Pan Yun shook out Xiyan's portrait and asked, "Do you recognize her?"

Fu Danian said at a glance, "This is Xiyan, also from Wan Chun Tower. She used to be the top courtesan. The name Zhaoyan was taken after hers."

Pan Yun's heart clenched, and she asked, "What was Zhaoyan's real name?"

Fu Danian shook his head: "They themselves may have forgotten it; how would people like us know their real names?"

Magistrate Wu: "You suspect she is that skeleton pinned with soul-locking nails?"

Pan Yun's face darkened. She tightened her grip on the portrait in her hand: "Didn't the county lieutenant say that the reason he first investigated this case was because a girl named Liu Xiaohong went missing? Bring the Liu family here to identify the corpse!"

"But the body is already a skeleton—how can they identify it?" If Pan Yun hadn't used extraordinary means to make the remnant soul appear, they wouldn't have been able to identify a single one of so many skeletons.

They could only determine the identity of the skeletons by cross-checking the missing persons records.

Pan Yun said quietly, "You just find the people. I have my own way."

Young Master Li handed her a handkerchief.

Pan Yun didn't take it.

Young Master Li said softly, "Take it. You're about to cry."

Pan Yun ignored him. With reddened eyes, she carefully put away the entire album and said in a low voice, "Let's go. We're heading back now!"

Everything in the hidden room had to be moved back to the county office—not even a single needle could be left behind.

Young Master Li hurriedly helped gather things. The county office was in desperate need of manpower, so Magistrate Wu had even put people like Old Man Li and his son to work.

Young Master Li followed Pan Yun step for step and asked in a low voice, "You don't really know the people in there, do you?"

Pan Yun ignored him and stormed toward the back courtyard of the county office.

"You're back? Hey, you…"

Pan Yun said nothing, walking straight past him into the formation.

Standing in the formation, she looked left at the fourth-rank registrar tortured until his flesh was torn open, and right at the dazed, tortured fourth-rank former Prefect.

After a brief thought, she reached out, grabbed Qian Zhixiao, dragged him out of the ghosts' encirclement, threw him to the ground, seized his hair to force his head up, and shoved a portrait in his face: "Do you recognize her?"

Qian Zhixiao's pupils contracted sharply. The man, already terrified, actually shuddered violently in Pan Yun's grip. His already deathly pale face turned instantly whiter still—and faintly bluish?

Pan Yun whispered in his ear: "That scared? What are you afraid of? It'll be a while before she gets here…"

Qian Zhixiao trembled, shaking his head again and again: "No, impossible, she was sent far away, she can't come back, she can't come back…"

"Once she became a ghost, couldn't she come back?"

"No, no, she can't come back, she can't come back, she was sent away, sent away…"

Pan Yun's heart stirred. She had assumed "sent away" meant the person was sent away, but if it was…

Thinking of the three missing bones from that skeleton, Pan Yun tightened her grip on his arm and said in a sinister tone: "Do you mean the skeleton that was sent away? It was dug up. She's come back…"

Qian Zhixiao screamed, shoved Pan Yun away in terror, scrambled to the corner on hands and knees, and tried desperately to shrink himself back: "No, no, impossible, there were soul-locking nails, she was nailed to death, she can't come back, she can't come back…"

What else did Pan Yun need to understand? She rose and gathered up the portrait.

Li Wenying hurried over, saw the portrait in her hand, and was startled: "Isn't this the little ghost you raised?"

Pan Yun said expressionlessly: "Li Shixiong, don't wrong me. I abide by the law and walk the righteous path—I wouldn't practice such evil arts as raising ghosts. That ghost was raised by Zhang Weiliang. I rescued her from his hands."

Li Wenying: "…Sure, whatever you say. How did she… how did she die?" Pan Yun rolled up the album, her eyes seeming to bristle with knives: "Li Shixiong, I'm taking this case!"

Li Wenying: "As you wish."

Pan Xiaohei meowed too.

Magistrate Wu obtained the album and a ledger, along with the letters Fu Danian had collected. Everyone thrown into the back courtyard was now officially taken into custody and locked in the prison.

Taking out the album and ledger to cross-check dragged in quite a few more people.

And a considerable number of them were in Nanchang Prefecture, which was outside Magistrate Wu's jurisdiction.

Even if he wanted to use the procedural rule that "all county affairs are decided by the county magistrate" as a pretext to arrest them, he couldn't.

This matter could only be reported up to the imperial court for them to handle.

Magistrate Wu held court overnight.

The interrogation lasted one night and one day. By the time he had organized everyone's statements, it was already evening of the second day.

Pan Yun sat dazed on the steps of the main hall, with no one around.

!

Magistrate Wu came over with a stack of statements and handed them to her.

Pan Yun took them, puzzled: "What for?"

Magistrate Wu: "Last night I ordered Fu Danian to copy some portraits, and had the ledger transcribed in duplicate. This copy is for you."

Pan Yun: …

"Statements, album, ledger—are you trying to make me repeat the act of going to Jingcheng to plead grievances?" Pan Yun looked up at Magistrate Wu.

Magistrate Wu gave a bitter smile: "My rank is low and my position is small. I've already sent someone galloping at full speed to the capital to lodge a complaint. The remaining copy will be submitted to the prefecture according to procedure. Whether the case can be investigated further, and how far it can go, I don't know. But I do know that no matter how this case ends, I won't be able to keep my position."

"If this case is ultimately dropped, the evidence in your hands will be their last, slender hope," Magistrate Wu said. "Daoist Pan, you are a good person. If you have the chance in the future, please let their grievances see the light of day."

He bowed deeply to Pan Yun: "I entrust this to you."

Pan Yun gripped the thick stack of statements in her hand. She turned her head to look toward the morgue, and after a long while, softly hummed "Mm."

Magistrate Wu straightened up, his eyes red, and let out a long breath of relief.

"I've already posted a notice for their families to come identify the bodies, but they all came from the pleasure quarters—either sold by their families or trafficked here—and had long since lost contact with them. Very few can be reached. So the county office has decided to bury them first and erect wooden markers. If their families come looking in the future, they can dig up the remains and take them back based on the markers."

Pan Yun said: "Give me Zhaoyan's skeleton. I'm taking it with me."

Magistrate Wu: "Based on their statements, we've already confirmed that Zhaoyan is Liu Xiaohong. Her family moved to Beiyuan Township. I've already sent constables to notify their village headman…"

Pan Yun cut him off: "The county lieutenant said Xiaohong was sold to Wan Chun Tower by her own father?"

Magistrate Wu paused, then nodded: "Yes, it's recorded in the case file. When the Liu family came to report back then, the case notes stated that Liu Xiaohong was sold to Wan Chun Tower by her father because a family member was seriously ill."

Pan Yun said, "Then there's no need to wait. I'm taking the remains with me. If they wish to bury her themselves, tell them to come find me at Long Hushan."

Magistrate Wu: "I wanted to ask last night — you knew her?"

Pan Yun looked up and gave him a faint smile: "I knew her. I already told you, she was my elder sister."

Magistrate Wu: "... How old were you when she died? She never left Ji'an her whole life. Were you in Ji'an at the time?"

Pan Yun: "Who says she never left Ji'an? She's free now — she can go anywhere in the world." (End of chapter)