TWWDS - Chapter 15

Chapter 15

Perhaps because few people knew about the incident, Chao Qingxiu's Fame Points rose only slightly. At most, in Xu Zhongzhi's mind, she had gone from "a perceptive physician" to "an especially perceptive physician."

Xu Zhongzhi was deeply impressed and grateful. "If not for Doctor Chao uncovering this, I never would have thought that someone close to my elder sister would harm her."

Chao Qingxiu asked, "Does A-Shan have any close friends?"

Xu Zhongzhi thought for a moment, then shook his head. "She spends most of her time with my elder sister and has little contact with the rest of the family. She has only one brother. He went into town today to help out at the shop, and I still do not know whether he has returned." Without waiting for Chao Qingxiu to give him any further instructions, he went outside and called for a male servant to ask about A-Shan's brother. The reply was, "He hasn't come back yet."

Chao Qingxiu nodded. "In that case, there is no need to disturb her brother." She then said to Xu Zhongzhi, "Please prepare some paper and a brush. I will write a new prescription for your elder sister."

Xu Zhongzhi came to his senses and hurriedly rose, leading Chao Qingxiu to the study.

After the prescription was finished, Xu Zhongzhi took it and saw that it listed herbs such as gastrodia, coptis, and white atractylodes. Curious, he said, "These differ quite a bit from the medicines prescribed by Doctor Gu."

Chao Qingxiu nodded. "Your sister has a headache and cannot sleep. No medicine seems to do her much good. Let her take two doses of a decoction to calm her spirit and remove the poison, and give her a good rest. We can discuss everything else later."

Xu Zhongzhi suddenly understood and immediately agreed. He then suggested, "It is already late, and it would be inconvenient to go out. Doctor Chao, if you can put up with the simple accommodations, please stay at my humble home tonight."

"Very well," Chao Qingxiu said. "With your sister in such a condition, I should observe her a while longer before I can feel easy."

The Xu family was wealthy and had connections with a pharmacy in the city, so someone was quickly sent to bring back the medicine, dispensed according to the prescription.

Chao Qingxiu went to the kitchen herself and watched over the preparation. Then she called Xu Feiqu awake and had her take the medicine again.

Xu Zhongzhi did not know that she was building proficiency with the Medical Arts. He only thought that she truly was a kindhearted physician.

As she had when treating Li Yao, Chao Qingxiu channeled a small amount of internal power into Xu Feiqu to help the medicine work through her. After a quarter of an hour, Xu Feiqu, who had long been tormented by her headache, finally drifted off to sleep.

Xu Zhongzhi exhaled in relief. "You truly are a divine physician."

Chao Qingxiu smiled without replying.

She knew that this was not entirely the work of the decoction. The main reason was that she had just used the internal strength of the Qingxin Formula to press gently on Xu Feiqu's sleep acupoint...

The Xu family was well-to-do. Although Xu Feiqu had collapsed and was temporarily unable to manage the household affairs, Xu Zhongzhi still did everything he could to entertain Chao Qingxiu. He had prepared roast rabbit legs, diced chicken with sesame oil, stir-fried vegetable gourds, stir-fried goji berry sprouts, fish soup, and steamed flatbreads. He had also thought of warming a jug of wine, but Chao Qingxiu made it clear that she never touched a drop, so he abandoned the idea.

Chao Qingxiu said, "Remember to return to the kitchen later and boil some more plain congee."

Xu Zhongzhi quickly asked, "Could it be that the doctor finds the steamed flatbreads unsatisfying?"

Chao Qingxiu smiled. "I am not fussy about food, and anything is fine. However, your elder sister's health is poor, so for the next few days she had better stick to plain congee and rice water to build up her vitality. Although she is asleep now, she has been poisoned for so long that she will probably wake again in about two hours."

Xu Zhongzhi was deeply moved by her thoughtfulness and said quietly, "I will remember."

After dinner, Xu Zhongzhi checked on his younger sister, then went to the kitchen to make sure the servants prepared congee for his elder sister.

Chao Qingxiu took a walk around the Xu residence. She did not need attendants to follow and wait on her, so she wandered a couple of circuits before returning to the guest room.

Since the light was poor that evening, Chao Qingxiu moved the lamp to the wooden table beside the couch. She was very fond of the cushions at the Xu residence, which were stuffed with feathers and scraps of cloth, and leaned against one while reading several pages of the Medical Arts. At the same time, she silently reviewed in her mind what she had learned while treating the eldest Miss Xu that day. Only after reviewing every point of knowledge worth remembering did she gently blow out the oil lamp.

In an instant, both inside and outside the house sank into a heavy, unbroken silence.

Spring nights in the south often bring a fine drizzle.

Rain threaded through the grass with a soft rustle, making the night seem stiller.

From the shadows of the trees at the Xu residence, a figure suddenly emerged.

The figure moved lightly and swiftly toward the rear courtyard, finally coming to a stop inside a room built against the courtyard wall.

That evening, Xu Zhongzhi had locked A-Shan in this room. He did not want to make an uproar and let the matter become common knowledge, so he assigned no one to guard her, merely hanging a padlock on the door.

The figure drew an iron wire from the hair bun and easily pried the lock open.

Outside was dim, and the room inside was even darker. The visitor narrowed their eyes and made out a person lying across the bed. They drew a sharp breath, took a small iron hook from their bosom, and drove it viciously down at the person on the bed.

The hook plunged straight down, its point piercing even the bedboard. The entire attempt had gone with almost unnatural ease, yet the attacker's movement suddenly stopped.

If the iron hook was telling the truth, the figure lying on the bed was not A-Su at all, but a sheaf of straw bound into a human shape.

"Miss A-Su really did come here tonight to silence the witness."

Not far away, a gentle voice spoke slowly. There was not the slightest surprise or anger in it, yet when it reached A-Su's ears, it struck like thunder on a clear day.

A-Su whipped around and assumed a defensive stance. "...Who are you?"

Facing an enemy who seemed to have emerged from the darkness itself, A-Su's mind raced through many thoughts. She suspected that she had exposed her trail long ago and that everything that had happened today was a trap designed to lure her into a net.

The figure in the darkness did not speak again. The heavy silence of the night pressed down on A-Su's heart. Without hesitation, she raised her hand and fired three flying needles, then forcibly gathered her energy and vaulted toward the window.

The needles vanished into the darkness, seeming to have struck nothing but empty air. Halfway through her leap, A-Su suddenly heard several sharp sounds of air tearing behind her. She immediately dropped lower to avoid them and simultaneously fired off another six needles.

The one attacking with hidden weapons was, naturally, Chao Qingxiu outside the window. Qinglian Seed, her only attack skill, was best suited to hidden weapons such as Iron Bodhi seeds and iron chains. Unfortunately, the situation had arisen too suddenly, and with no time to buy anything suitable, she had simply grabbed a handful of river pebbles from the courtyard and used them as her projectiles.

The river pebbles were heavy and solid, whereas the needles were light, fine, and elusive, making them far better suited to attacking an enemy in the dark. Unfortunately, A-Su lacked the strength in her wrist. Though she sent a dozen or more long needles flying one after another, she was unable to block every one of her opponent's projectiles in midair.

Only a few light clinks rang out in the darkness. The needle tips struck the river pebbles, but they were knocked back toward A-Su. Immediately afterward, she felt a faint stinging pain in her back.

The sting was followed by a numbness that kept spreading.

"..."

After hearing the dull sound of a body falling to the ground, Chao Qingxiu stood outside the window for a while longer. Only then did she light the oil lamp and slowly enter the room.

She had been standing between the two windows. When her opponent fired the hidden weapons, Chao Qingxiu had only to shift her body slightly for the long needles to miss her. If the situation had turned bad, she would also have been able to slip away.

Chao Qingxiu had reasoned beforehand that whoever tampered with Xu Feiqu's medicine had chosen poisoning and had then delayed until today without truly succeeding. Even if that person possessed considerable skill, their ability must have had its limits. She therefore told Xu Zhongzhi to send the family members away, then stood outside an empty room to see whether the murderer would come to walk into her trap in the middle of the night.

Under the lamplight, A-Su lay silently on the floor. Her lips had darkened from the poison, and black blood seeped from all seven orifices. Shock and confusion still lingered on her features. It seemed she could not understand: how had Chao Qingxiu discovered that someone was coming to silence the witness?

She had poisoned Xu Feiqu, and the flying needles she carried were coated with poison as well. When the needles had struck the pebbles Chao Qingxiu had thrown and rebounded, several had pierced A-Su's own skin.

The poison was extremely potent, racing through her bloodstream and killing her on the spot in moments.

[System: The subplot [Silencing by Murder] spawned by the Xu family poisoning incident has been resolved. The user has gained 3 Detective Points and 1 Fame Point.]

Chao Qingxiu closed her eyes briefly.

The system had indeed announced earlier that the poisoning case had been resolved, but resolved in that announcement did not mean that the true culprit had been found.

...As expected of the Detective System, even its prompts are full of trickery.

[System: After testing, the user is in the novice stage. Luck has increased, and one random event-related skill has been successfully acquired.]

[System: The user has acquired one copy of Feizhen Art.]

The Feizhen Art and the Qinglian Seed were both green-grade hidden-weapon techniques, but the former was paler in color and probably slightly less powerful.

Chao Qingxiu glanced at the system prompt and then returned her gaze to the corpse. Holding the lamp in her right hand, she bent down and studied the body on the floor.

Perhaps because she had died from poison, A-Su's face looked very strange. A seam had even split open at her temple.

It was as though another layer of human skin had been laid over her own face.

Through a handkerchief, Chao Qingxiu gave the body a cursory examination. The false A-Su's belt had been cinched tightly around her waist, and something was clearly tied beneath it.

Chao Qingxiu took it out and found that it was an untitled book.

The contents of the book were a chaotic mess. At first glance, it seemed to be a manual for cultivating inner strength, but when Chao Qingxiu examined it more closely, she found that the different phrases upon its pages were jumbled together. After reading only a few lines, she felt her vital energy and blood surging and an indescribable sense of vexation.

[Untitled Scroll: A martial arts book with scrambled words and phrases.]

The Untitled Scroll was white quality and clearly not very powerful. After studying it for a moment, Chao Qingxiu kept wondering whether the book might be connected to the false A-Su's motive. Hoping to use it to test the waters, she put the scroll away for the time being and watched to see how the others reacted.

---

In fact, Xu Zhongzhi had been uneasy all day. When Chao Qingxiu had asked him for the key to the room's lock, he had sensed vaguely that something was wrong. He tossed and turned in bed without being able to sleep, but by midnight he understood that there were advantages to sleeping badly.

For instance, it made it very easy to climb out of bed and report the matter to the county authorities.

The registrar on duty first sent people to the Xu residence to seal off the scene. Early the next morning, Deputy Magistrate Han hurried over, looking haggard as she surveyed the body in the empty room and Chao Qingxiu standing beside it.

Chao Qingxiu saluted. "Deputy Magistrate Han."

Han Sihe returned the salute. "Miss Chao, though it has been only a few days, your bearing is even more striking than before."

She was right. The last time they had met was indeed only a few days ago. For a private citizen, Chao Qingxiu encountered government officials so frequently that one had to suspect that the [Case Trigger] might increase the owner's odds of stumbling upon an unexpected incident even without being formally activated.

Han Sihe studied the young woman before her and grew more convinced that her earlier judgment had been broadly correct. Chao Qingxiu must certainly have come from some martial arts clan, which was why she had become involved in cases involving people from the martial world.

After a brief exchange of courtesies, Han Sihe ordered the coroner to examine the body.

A human-skin mask had been fitted to the false A-Su's face. She wore an outfit for moving about at night, and had poison and hidden weapons concealed on her person. Finally, county officials used a hunting dog to search a flowerbed and found the real A-Su's remains. The evidence was complete, fully satisfying the criteria for notifying the Wulin Alliance and the Wenbei Sect.

The murderer had been brought to justice. After inspecting the scene, Han Sihe dismissed those guarding it, then merely pulled Chao Qingxiu aside to question her privately.

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