Suicide

Lv Mingyue had gone missing for nearly two days without any news. Zhao Zhi had sent teams of people out to search for her everywhere but still had no clues whatsoever.

Song Caitang had just gathered enough information to confront Madam Gu, but before she could get a reply from her…

Lv Mingyue was found dead.

And she had just died. Her body had just been found, and it was also at Zhaoze Temple!

It was quite late and the sky was dark, but now wasn’t the time to think about eating or sleeping. Zhao Zhi and Song Caitang exchanged long glances.

The next moment, Zhao Zhi put two fingers into his mouth and let out a long whistle.

The dark clouds swirled slowly in the dim, depressive evening air when a black horse came riding toward them like a bolt of lightning, whooshing through the wind.

The horse neighed loudly and looked incredibly impressive. The road seemed too small for it as it swung its tail both wildly and arrogantly, raising its head without a care in the world. The sound of its galloping was like the sound of an army coming!

As it came closer, Song Caitang realized that it wasn’t entirely black. There was some white just above its hooves and another white line on its forehead that resembled a lightning bolt. The tiny bit of white really stood out against the rest of its black hair.

The horse was quite a vain one too. It noticed that Song Caitang was staring at it, so it purposely stretched its neck forward, then raised it high as it let out a neigh, making the lightning mark on its forehead even more obvious.

If it could speak, it would definitely be saying in a smug voice: I’m so handsome, don’t you think?

Before the horse could even get to them, Zhao Zhi leaped up like a nimble leopard and landed on the horse’s back.

As the horse continued running, he stretched his hand toward Song Caitang.

She stared at his brows and eyes that were as black as ink and put her hand in his without even thinking.

The next moment, her world spun.

She could feel the wind whoosh loudly past her ears and cold air blew too hard against her face for her to open her eyes. An arm held her securely round her waist and her back was against a tall and tough torso.

Suddenly, a soft item wrapped itself around her, cutting everything off, including her line of sight.

She reached out to feel what it was and opened her eyes to see, only to realize it was Zhao Zhi’s coat.

It was made from ermine fur, which was lightweight and luxurious yet sufficiently warm.

“Don’t move.” His arm tightened its hold around her waist and his voice resounded in her ear like the current of deep waters, “Otherwise you’ll feel very cold.”

Song Caitang’s face was blocked by the coat, her hands were buried in the thick and soft fur, her back was up against his chest and his arm was around her waist. She wasn’t feeling cold at all, so her response was very slow, “…Okay.”

The horse galloped very, very quickly. It was hard to say if it was because it hadn’t been able to run so freely in a long time or because having a pretty girl on its back put it in a good mood. It ran a long distance without slowing down at all, then it secretly turned its head back a little to steal a glance at Song Caitang.

Its eyes were round, black, bright and filled with curiosity.

When it noticed Song Caitang peep out from inside the coat and met its eyes, it raised its head and snorted, as if to say: yeah, I’m looking at ya! So what!

Song Caitang was speechless. How could such a playful horse run so quickly and even turn its head without losing its sense of direction

“It likes you.”

Zhao Zhi pulled the coat around her tighter.

Song Caitang stared at the horse and asked out of curiosity, “What’s its name?”

“Super black.”

Super black? Song Caitang nearly burst out laughing.

Just because it was especially black?

The horse seemed unhappy that Zhao Zhi had called it that and started shaking its butt from side to side.

Song Caitang was shaken out of her position and Zhao Zhi quickly held onto her more tightly. “Blackie, stop playing.”

But the horse refused to listen to him and continued swaying from side to side as it ran. It clearly did not like this name at all.

“Fine, fine! Snowstep! Snowstep will do, right?”

The horse finally nodded and snorted at Song Caitang, as if to say: Remember that, young lady! That’s my real name! Doesn’t it sound so cool?

Song Caitang couldn’t believe this horse.

Zhao Zhi, on the other hand, was rather upset. He was used to riding horses and this was his own steed, so he could adjust accordingly no matter how playful it got. But Song Caitang had never ridden a horse. What if she got hurt?

Even though he did kind of enjoy having to hold onto Song Caitang to keep her from being thrown right off the horse… this would not do.

“Snowstep, gallop properly,” Zhao Zhi combed the horse’s hair. “Now, full speed ahead!”

The horse knew his master well. It knew what every small change in Zhao Zhi’s tone of voice meant. Zhao Zhi had gotten serious now, so it stopped being playful and focused on getting them to their destination as quickly as possible.

The horse galloped at high speed all the way.

Night came early in winter, along with the chilling cold, but Song Caitang didn’t feel cold at all. With these broad shoulders and chest behind her and the powerful steed beneath her, both her time and memories felt warm.

The scene of the crime was at the bottom of the five-story pagoda at Zhaoze Temple. Coroner Zhou had already arrived and was inspecting the body.

The horse came to a stop. Zhao Zhi got off the horse first, then carried Song Caitang off.

The horse bowed its head and gently bumped it against Song Caitang’s waist, as though it couldn’t bear for her to leave.

Song Caitang turned to look at it and touched its face. “I’ll have to trouble you later to bring me back.”

The horse let out an excited snort.

It was hard to tell if it had understood her or if it was just doing that for fun.

“Let’s go.” Zhao Zhi put an arm around Song Caitang and glared at his horse as he insisted that Song Caitang step away. “It’s time to focus on the case.”

Song Caitang had come here precisely because there was a case that needed investigation, so she immediately focused and walked toward Coroner Zhou.

The horse sneezed extremely loudly and nearly sneezed in Zhao Zhi’s face.

The pretty girl likes me! What can you do about that! Neigh!!!

Zhao Zhi just glared at it.

While he was still savoring the journey earlier where he got to hold Song Caitang all the way here, Song Caitang had already switched modes and focused on the details of the case.

Lv Mingyue’s body had been found lying on her back. Some of her skin had come off, and she had several scrapes and bruises from bleeding under the skin. It didn’t look too bad until one looked at her head. The back of her head had been crushed inward. There was blood and bits from her head flowing out and blood coming out from her nose and mouth…

These were typical wounds found on someone who had fallen from a high place. It often did not look too bad on the outside, but usually the person would suffer several fractures and rupturing of the internal organs.

“The body is still slightly warm, so the victim has not died for too long.” Coroner Zhou had only rushed over after receiving the news and had arrived not too much earlier than Song Caitang. “There isn’t much livor mortis, they’re either striped or small in size now, so they haven’t combined to form a patch yet.”

Song Caitang squatted down and opened the victim’s eyelids, then moved the body’s limbs. “Her eyes are slightly cloudy and rigor mortis is just setting in, so you can still move her limbs. She has suffered a lot of fractures… The victim couldn’t have died more than six hours ago.”

Coroner Zhou nodded gravely. “I agree.”

Song Caitang took two steps back and looked up at the pagoda. “She fell from up there?”

“I’m afraid she took the jump herself.” Coroner Zhou pulled out a piece of paper and passed it to Song Caitang. “She wrote a suicide note.”

Song Caitang took the paper from him and was able to read it clearly thanks to the torches the runners were holding.

The paper was folded into four neatly. When she unfolded it, all she saw was an entire page of “I’m sorry”.

The words “I’m sorry” were written so many times in a row, they filled up the entire page. The words were repeated so many times, the handwriting became unsteady and there were tearstains on the paper too. At the end of the page, there were finally a few “I was wrong” followed by “your boy, Zhou.”

The only boy with Zhou in his name that Lv Mingyue knew was probably Lin Feizhou.

Coroner Zhou’s graying beard flew in the wind, but he didn’t seem to feel cold at all. He looked at Song Caitang with a solemn look in his eyes, his body energetic. “This Lv Mingyue might have been Lin Feizhou’s killer.”

Song Caitang was expressionless and chose not to say anything yet.

Coroner Zhou went on, “People who kill themselves usually have their own way of bidding the world farewell. Lv Mingyue was clearly wearing a clean dress, her hair was freshly set, and she even drew her brows, dabbed lipstick on her lips and put blusher on, and finally, she carried this letter with her. It seems like she had already decided that she wanted to leave the world like this a while back… Of course, we will still need more details and evidence, plus we haven’t finished inspecting this place yet, so it’s still too early to conclude.”

Song Caitang understood why he had temporarily concluded this way. Her first conclusion when she arrived at the scene was also suicide.

But there were too many secrets surrounding this case, so she felt that it had to be more than suicide.

She looked up and stared carefully at the pagoda, then back down on the ground. “Why… was the victim found lying on her back?”

While it was true that different people landed differently when they threw themselves off buildings, most of them wouldn’t land like this.

“This pagoda doesn’t look very high, but the width of the building is about the same, there are no branches or roofs or other things sticking out to block her fall. There wouldn’t be anything that could have changed her position while she fell. So, why is she lying on her back instead of on her face?”

Could it be that as she fell, she still managed to do a double turn to rotate her body by 180 degrees? That was ridiculous.

Song Caitang frowned.

Coroner Zhou stared up at the pagoda and frowned too. He clearly started having suspicions now. “It’s very rare to find a body that’s lying on their back if they had jumped off a building.”

But Lv Mingyue was clearly lying on her back.

It was hard to see, but you just had to feel the body to discover that her back was completely limp because her spine had shattered. Her head had taken a hard hit, but the back definitely took the most impact.

Song Caitang asked, “Have we confirmed where she jumped from?”

Coroner Zhou replied, “We’re still looking—”

Just when they started talking about it, Zhao Zhi waved from the top floor of the pagoda. “It was from here!”

Song Caitang and Coroner Zhou exchanged glances, then said in unison, “Let’s go up and take a look!”

The pagoda was part of Zhaoze Temple and only the lower floors were open to the public. The highest floor had been locked and nobody was allowed to enter. Song Caitang helped Coroner Zhou up the stairs and their first impression was… the layer of dust was super thick.

Even though the wind had been very strong lately and it had certainly left strange and unique lines in the dust, the footprints in the dust were very obvious.

Besides Zhao Zhi’s footprints, there were a few more obvious ones around the sides.

There was also another set that went from the door straight to the outside. They clearly belonged to a woman’s embroidered shoe.

The shape was small and the distance between the footsteps was short. Every step was very clear. You could see obvious outlines.

And the footprints only went in one direction. Outward.

“It’s obvious that someone had stood here too,” Zhao Zhi pointed at the floor next to the banister. “That’s probably where she jumped from.”

Song Caitang and Coroner Zhou walked over. That was pretty obvious.

The two small shoe prints in the dust matched Lv Mingyue’s feet.

Could she really have killed herself?

Song Caitang frowned hard.

“There’s no trace of a second person, so it does really look like suicide,” said Zhao Zhi in a low voice. “But I feel like the timing is a little too coincidental.”

Lin Feizhou had been killed in the middle of a huge crowd and Madam Gu had admitted to the killing. If Zhao Zhi and Song Caitang hadn’t turned up, anyone else in a position of authority would have closed the case immediately. But the two of them had prevented that from happening.

After they had pulled away all the cobwebs and made further investigations into the truth, they were almost able to prove that Madam Gu wasn’t the killer. Instead, they suspected that Lv Mingyue was the real killer. And now, this “real killer” had died.

And she even had a suicide letter as an admission to her guilt. Her death looked straightforward.

The authorities had reason to close the case again.

Everything seemed to be working out well, yet it was so unsettling.

“Most people who decide to commit suicide have a similar psychological journey. Before they finally decide to kill themselves, they would feel conflicted and hesitant, and they would start to show signs of these in their words and actions. For example, they might suddenly start talking about topics related to suicide, or joke about it, or suddenly start saying goodbye to their loved ones, or give their prized possessions away, or make detailed arrangements for what happens after they die…”

Song Caitang spoke in a clear voice, and the more she spoke, the clearer her thoughts became too. She looked at Zhao Zhi and said, “I’ll like to ask if Investigating Censor Zhao could send some people to ask her friends and family to check if she had shown such signs, and—”

She didn’t need to say it out loud. Zhao Zhi had already thought of it, “And to check if the words on this letter match Lv Mingyue’s handwriting.”

“I heard that Lv Mingyue had gone missing before this,” Coroner Zhou smiled faintly as he added one more thing, “so I think it’s best if we look around nearby to see if we can find where she was living during this time.”

There might be clues there as well.

Zhao Zhi nodded. “I agree, Mr. Zhou.”

“As for the remaining work of inspecting the body…” Song Caitang smiled at Coroner Zhou, “I’ll handle it with Mr. Zhou.”

The three of them quickly shared their thoughts and got down to work.