Chapter 385: Chapter 331: Loophole
At that moment, everyone suddenly remembered that the winding, twisting trail of bloody footprints had come all the way from the prayer hall.
Staring at the footprints on the ground, Yang Xiao remained silent, as if something puzzled him.
Quan Doufeng looked at the footprints for a long time without discerning their purpose, and couldn’t help but speak up, "What are you looking at?"
"Don’t you find it strange?" Yang Xiao looked up.
"What’s strange?" Hu Yanming didn’t want to stay here another second; the room gave him a creepy feeling, as if even during the day, a mysterious chill lurked inside.
Yang Xiao slowly exhaled, "What did the ghost come to the Du Family mansion for?"
"To kill, of course." someone answered.
"Kill who?" Yang Xiao asked again.
"The daughter of the Du Family Patriarch." Quan Doufeng looked at Yang Xiao with confusion, suspecting he might have amnesia as he asked such foolish questions.
Yang Xiao was undeterred and continued to ask, "Did the ghost succeed?"
Quan Doufeng didn’t feel like talking to Yang Xiao anymore, but Tong Han seemed to understand what Yang Xiao meant and responded, "It succeeded."
After a pause, Tong Han continued, "Not only did it succeed, but after killing the Du Family Patriarch’s daughter in the prayer hall, it rushed to Miss Du’s boudoir and killed Liu Haiping, who was impersonating the miss."
At this moment, everyone finally realized there was a huge flaw; the ghost had already killed Miss Du, so theoretically its purpose had been achieved. Why then would it specially go out of its way to kill Liu Haiping, who had nothing to do with it?
"Could it be... could it be that Liu Haiping did something stupid while impersonating Miss Du and offended the ghost?" Lu Youcheng proposed a hypothesis after pondering.
Yang Xiao raised his hand, pointing directly at the dressing table soaked in blood, "Liu Haiping was sitting in front of the dressing table until the second before her death, not even turning her head. Tell me, does such a cautious person seem like someone who would act foolishly?"
Nobody spoke in the room; indeed, they had to admit, even if someone else were in her place, they probably couldn’t have done better than Liu Haiping.
Seeing Liu Haiping’s tragic death, everyone felt increasingly depressed and even fearful, because nobody knew who might inexplicably die next.
The urgent task was to quickly find clues about the ghost.
"Miss Du was killed, and then the ghost rushed to the boudoir to kill the substitute Liu Haiping. That really is unusual." Cheng Cha seemed to think of something, "Let’s consider it from a different angle: if we were the ghost, what would be the reason to kill Liu Haiping?"
"She was mistaken for Miss Du." Tong Han replied without hesitation.
"Exactly!" Cheng Cha nodded, "This is the contradiction: theoretically, Liu Haiping’s death means that at least at the moment of her death, the ghost had not found Miss Du!"
"Are you saying Miss Du didn’t die?" Quan Doufeng’s brain was overwhelmed, "How is that possible? In the prayer hall, we saw..."
The next second, Quan Doufeng opened his mouth, but couldn’t utter a word; though he was slow to react, he wasn’t stupid.
He remembered that in the prayer hall, they had only seen a woman’s head wrapped in scripture-yellow cloth with some blood-matted long hair poking out, but no one could confirm that it was indeed Miss Du’s head.
Lady Du’s heart-rending cries, Patriarch Du’s devastated appearance, and the supporting chorus of the Du Family only convinced them at first that Miss Du had been killed by a monster last night, and the package indeed contained Miss Du’s head.
"But... but if it isn’t Miss Du’s head, whose head is it?" Mi Shu asked the crucial question.
At that moment, Tong Han sneered, "Did everyone hear a scream this morning?"
The next second, Quan Doufeng’s face turned deathly pale, he evidently thought the same, "It... it’s that maid, Xiao... Xiao Zui!"
With those words, it became somewhat clearer in everyone’s minds. Indeed, from the morning until now, they had not seen the maid, Xiao Zui.
Sui Chengguo furrowed his brows, his voice growing lower, "Everyone, if this is indeed the case, and the Du Family has deceived us on such a matter, then things could get a bit tricky."
Yang Xiao decided it was safer to withhold judgment for now, "Let’s get the facts straight first, we’ll go back to the temple and find a way to see whose head is really inside."
"Do you have a way?" Mi Shu hurriedly asked.
The biggest problem was that among them, only Tong Han, Liu Haiping, and Mi Shu had seen Miss Du in person; the rest wouldn’t recognize her from just the head.
"Let’s pretend to pay our respects first and under the guise of viewing the remains, have them open the package. Tong Han and Mi Shu, try to get as close to the front as possible. It would be best if you can make the identification. If the Du Family refuses, then someone will have to make a sacrifice," Yang Xiao immediately said.
Lu Youcheng’s eyes hardened, "If all else fails, we could find someone to knock over the altar in front of the Buddha, letting the head roll off. This sacrifice would be significant though. If it really is Miss Du’s head inside, the Du Family might start trouble."
"Brother Lu, your method is sound, but too aggressive. Have you considered, if the head inside the package isn’t Miss Du’s, it could be even more troublesome?"
This remark by Sui Chengguo served as a reminder to everyone present. If it was not Miss Du’s head inside, it meant they were outright antagonizing the Du Family. If the villagers of Du Family Village discovered their scheme, it could lead to chaos.
Yang Xiao suddenly frowned; he noticed something very peculiar. Just after he spoke, Cheng Cha’s reaction was strange. He glanced surreptitiously at him, then quickly averted his gaze, subtly observing Tong Han who wasn’t far away.
Yang Xiao’s first instinct was that the boy had sensed something, but he and Tong Han hadn’t had any direct contact that should make their association obvious.
Replaying the previous conversation in his mind, Yang Xiao soon realized he had made a basic mistake.
His wording had been sloppy.
The conversation just before was initiated by Mi Shu asking if he had a plan, to which he naturally responded. However, in his reply, he habitually put Tong Han first, saying: Let’s first pretend to pay our respects... Tong Han and Mi Shu, try to get as close to the front as possible.
This statement inadvertently revealed their relationship. From Yang Xiao’s perspective, entrusting Tong Han, who he felt more confident in for tasks requiring intelligence, was completely subconscious.
However, from an observer’s standpoint, Tong Han hadn’t shown himself to be significantly superior, at least not enough to make a clear distinction from Mi Shu. So, anyone paying close attention would find his statement quite strange and inappropriately timed given the context.
Cheng Cha was more perceptive than he expected, as evidenced by how he handled himself around Patriarch Du; a man capable of both taking up and setting down.
In other words, a man who would stop at nothing to survive.
Yang Xiao appreciated clever people.
As long as they didn’t get in his way.
