Mysterious Lotus Casebook

Chapter 4: Late-Night Ghost Talk

late that night ~

Zongzheng Mingzhu had already gone down the mountain to do what Li Lianhua had asked.

In the soft candlelight, Li Lianhua stood facing Yu Qiushuang’s body, which was still in the ice coffin. Yu Hongzhu was originally set to meet him there, but she had another matter to deal with. Now, Li Lianhua was alone, staring at the half-burned, half-rotten body of the young woman.

“Aiya…” Li Lianhua sighed, shaking his head as he held the candle. Even though he had seen many corpses that were much more terrifying than this, he still felt that this killer had to be especially evil to do something so horrible to a young, innocent girl of only seventeen or eighteen years old.

At the door, there were two Yu City swordsmen guarding the room. Li Lianhua gently opened the wound on Yu Qiushuang’s abdomen with a knife wrapped in a blue cloth. Yesterday, he had taken out a blood clot and saw the destroyed intestines, but now he didn’t know what he was looking for.

It was pitch black outside the window, and the clouds were thick. Neither the moon nor the stars were visible as Li Lianhua boredly examined Yu Qiushuang’s corpse. He used the knife to inspect her body, for Li Lianhua knew nothing about medicine. All he knew was to cut open people’s stomachs to see if there was anything out of place — Truthfully, he had no idea how to perform an autopsy. 

He continued to inspect the body, his knife making creepy tap, tap, tap,  noises against the frozen skin. If one were to see Li Lianhua then, they would think he was having fun.

As the swordsmen outside the door stood quietly, there was a sudden commotion. In the dark night, a particular sound could be heard. It was the same song – the song of a broken tongue.

The voice was coming from behind a big tree in the courtyard. The song only went on for a few lines, then stopped. The Yu City swordsmen looked at each other, shouted loudly to ask who goes there, and searched behind the tree.

They found that the courtyard was empty due to the late hour, so the two leaped over the wall to search for the source of the song, the two of them going in opposite directions.

Li Lianhua held the candle and smiled. Yu City swordsmen were known to be well-trained, and it seemed they were living up to their reputation. 

At the moment, there was no one around, and the night air was silent. 

“It seems to be a night for ghosts to come out and scare people,” Li Lianhua muttered. 

He yawned, “I’d better go back to my room and hide. It’s a little scary here…” 

Suddenly, a gust of cool wind blew through the room, and a tall shadow suddenly appeared at the door, its disheveled hair completely covering its head and face. 

Li Lianhua’s white robe fluttered in the breeze and he whispered, “Well that’s quite terrifying…” 

He carefully put the knife back into his blue satchel, and without looking back, he slowly turned and walked in the opposite direction of the shadowy figure. 

He hadn’t noticed it standing at the door.

The long-haired ghost stood at the front door, frozen. For a moment, it seemed to be trembling with anger as it stood there unnoticed. 

Then, it quietly followed Li Lianhua into the room that he and Zongzheng Mingzhu shared. 

°°°°°°

Yu Palace Guest Room ~

After Li Lianhua returned to the room, he lit a few candles and closed the doors and windows.