As Yun Biqiu and Li Lianhua ate noodles together, Guo Fu was contemplating the tunnel entrance in Baichuan Courtyard.
There was one thing he could not figure out: the person in the tunnel had boiling oil poured on her body, thus causing her skin to melt off, so where did the oil come from?
He went up and down the passage dozens of times, but he didn’t see any sign of an oil pan. If there was no oil pan, where would the boiling oil come from? Fu Nanfei, another disciple, called him impatiently several times from above, but Guo Fu persisted. Until dusk fell and Nanfei had left, he was still looking around in the tunnel with a torch.
Although Guo Fu was not very smart, he was a man who was never discouraged. After several hours of searching, he found something that Ji Hanfo and others had missed – it was a fist-sized piece of something charred and black. Thinking it was a stone, he stepped on it and found that it was soft.
As Guo Fu was staring at the thing in a daze, someone spoke from behind him, “Ah…”
Startled, Guo Fu turned around suddenly, immediately changing his stance to attack like a tiger pouncing on a sheep, “Are you a human or a ghost?”
The person behind him jumped in shock and looked around frantically, “Where is it? What ghost?”
When Guo Fu saw the appearance of the person behind him, he exhaled a long breath and relaxed his posture, “Li Lianhua!”
Of course, the person was Li Lianhua. As soon as Yun Biqiu left, Li Lianhua re-entered the tunnel to examine the places that he hadn’t had a chance to earlier. Unexpectedly, he saw Guo Fu contemplating a piece of coal, which he found impressive.
“Master Li, why are you here?” Guo Fu asked.
Li Lianhua smiled, “Why are you here?”
Guo Fu touched his head, “I came down to find the oil pan. “
Li Lianhua nodded and said in a serious tone, “So did I.”
“But I can’t seem to find it,” Guo Fu said confusedly.
Li Lianhua said, “Let’s not talk about this for now. After Ji Hanfo returned, did he count the number of people and check if any of the disciples of Baichuan Academy were missing?”
Guo Fu nodded, “Master Ji investigated immediately. No disciples in the courtyard are missing, only the servant who helped around the kitchen has been missing for a few days, but maybe she returned home.”
Li Lianhua hummed, “This is strange. Is it possible that the body is her?”
Guo Fu shook his head blankly, “I don’t know.”
Li Lianhua retreated to the spot where he saw the dead body that morning, took a few more steps, and carefully examined the marks on the ground.
He muttered to himself, “In the morning, there was a stove with a pot of boiling oil standing here, and two people were here. The person standing in my position did a flying kick,” he leaned as if to kick forward, “Kicking the oil pot over and spilling the boiling oil onto the person across from him, the person fell to the ground and the oil flowed towards the entrance of the cave, causing the fire. ‘My’ way out was blocked, so I turned around and ran towards the exit at the other end of the tunnel…”
Guo Fu nodded repeatedly, “Aha… I think so too.”
Li Lianhua sighed, “Actually, I’m just talking nonsense…”
Guo Fu was suddenly shocked. His mind had already been in chaos, and now it just felt like it had turned into a paste.
Li Lianhua walked around the tunnel several times, and Guo Fu followed him holding a torch.
Who killed this woman four times? She was stabbed in the chest with a thin but sharp sword and suffered a large wound on her forehead. Her right hand was chopped off at the wrist, and she was splashed with boiling oil and had her skin melted off. Who would treat a woman with such cruelty?
Guo Fu’s torch swayed back and forth at the entrance of the cave, and several pieces of gravel fell, almost hitting Li Lianhua’s head. He was so scared that he jumped aside and gave a little shout. Suddenly, he saw the piece of ‘coal’ that Guo Fu had been staring at, and exclaimed, “What is that?”
Guo Fu said, “It seems to be the hand…”
Li Lianhua was shocked, “What hand? The hand that was chopped off of the body?”
Guo Fu nodded, “It seems that it was… fried.”
Li Lianhua gasped. The hand had been fried in the pan of oil, and the fist was closed tightly as if trying to grasp something.
He picked up two broken dry branches from the ground and pried the hand open with them. What was in the hand made his hair stand on end.
After pondering for a moment, he carefully put the fried hand in the corner of the tunnel, took the torch from Guo Fu, and looked around. He saw that there were many scratched writings on the tunnel wall, many of which were hard to decipher. It was like someone scratched randomly and drew chickens and birds, but there was one sentence that was repeated twice. The handwriting was large and slanted, but it was obviously not written by a scholar.
It read, “Love brings joy and sorrow.”
“Master Guo, can you ask anyone in Baichuan Court who knows the missing girl to come and see if they can identify her?”
Li Lianhua stared at the writings and added, “Also, can you ask the kitchen what the meals have been served yesterday and today?”
Guo Fu suddenly remembered something and said, “Ah-fa said he saw a half-bodied female ghost last night. I believe Sister Wang and Ah-fa would be able to recognize Ah-ri.”
Li Lianhua nodded, “Abbot Wu is going to treat me to a midnight snack tonight.”
Guo Fu nodded, “I will find you at Pudu Temple then.”
Li Lianhua hummed, “I will probably be in the kitchen.”
Guo Fu said firmly, “I’ll find you in the kitchen!” Then he turned and left.
YOU ARE READING
Mysterious Lotus Casebook
FantasíaTen years ago, Li Xiang Yi, the master of the Sigu Sect, dominated with his superior swordsmanship and was a symbol of light in the martial arts world. However, he suddenly disappeared along with Di Fei Sheng, the leader of the Jinyuan Alliance, aft...
