Mysterious Lotus Casebook

Chapter 13: Xiling Underground Palace (Part 3)

“The person who killed Zhang Qinghu was Ge Pan,” Li Lianhua said slowly.

He continued, “To open the entrance to the Xiling Underground Palace, one must have an arm that can lift a thousand pounds. If one wanted to lure multiple people into the underground palace, one must have a gatekeeper. It must’ve been one of the Zhang brothers who was hired by Ge Pan to open the entrance. Zhang Qinghu was skilled at using iron bars, which could be used as crowbars, and Zhang Qingshi was good at Shaolin boxing.

When pretending to be Zhang Qinghu, it was necessary for Qingshi to use more than just one iron hook. If it wasn’t for the help of Fang Duobing’s short weapon, we wouldn’t have been able to open the door. That’s how I knew he was Zhang Qingshi because Zhang Qinghu would have been strong enough to do it without help. And since the Zhang brothers lived together, Qingshi couldn’t have been unaware of his brother and Ge Pan’s conspiring.

So when Ge Pan arrived with us at Xiling, Zhang Qingshi’s face looked strange – he recognized Ge Pan as the person who often came into contact with Zhang Qinghu. And if that were the case, Ge Pan would certainly kill Zhang Qingshi to silence him.”

Yang Qiuyue nodded again, “But how did you know that Zhang Qinghu was killed by Ge Pan?”

Li Lianhua said, “That’s very simple. Zhang Qinghu was killed in place of Qingshi by mistake. The order of everyone’s rooms in Xiling was like this: you, the Zhang brothers, and Gu Fengxin on the left. Then Fang Duobing, Zhang Qingmao, Ge Pan, and myself were on the right.

The snow was very bright that night, reflecting from left to right. If someone passed through the corridor and walked into the Zhang brothers’ room to commit murder, there would be a shadow reflected in our rooms on the right. The eight of us are all martial arts practitioners. Even if some of us have higher or lower martial arts skills, how could we not be aware of it? Therefore, the murderer did not go into the Zhang brothers’ room.”

Zhang Qingmao collapsed on the ground and murmured, “You’re correct. I didn’t see anything that night…”

Li Lianhua smiled slightly, “If I were the culprit and I wanted to kill one of them without entering their room, I would also probably end up killing the wrong person by mistake. I think there is only one way that could happen…”

Fang Duobing thought for a moment and shouted, “Hidden weapon!”

Yang Qiuyue also blurted out, “That’s it!”

“Exactly, ” Li Lianhua nodded, “Some small hidden weapon was fired from the door of the room, probably into the brain, killing Zhang Qinghu on the spot, so he didn’t even move before dying. Then Zhang Qinghu’s head was chopped off. That’s why there was no injury on his body. “

Fang Duobing said, “Darn it, you took a few glances at the headless corpse and you could immediately tell what happened. But even if Zhang Qinghu was killed by a hidden weapon, what does that have to do with Ge Pan? Ah! That’s right, he shot Commander Zhang with a dart and extinguished the torches, so he’s indeed a master of hidden weapons. No, wait, these were all things that happened later, but you knew he was the murderer all along?” Fang Duobing was confused.

Li Lianhua sighed, “To kill with a concealed weapon, you must find the right angle. So the two people living on either side of the Zhang brothers are not the murderers. Yang Qiuyue and Gu Fengxin could not have walked over and shot the concealed weapon through the door. Only those on the right side of the hall could shoot through the open doors and windows without being seen. Of course, Fang Duobing and I did not kill anyone. If Commander Zhang was the murderer, why would he invite Fobi Baishi to investigate? Therefore, Ge Pan is not Ge Pan, he is the murderer.”