Jiang Zhan was startled: “The corpse?”
He wasn’t surprised that a corpse could leave footprints, but rather by his Fourth Sister’s casual tone when discussing the body.
However, Jiang Zhan quickly recovered and pointed at the footprints on the ground in disbelief: “Wait, that’s not right. A corpse can’t walk, so how could it leave footprints?”
Jiang Si pointed to the pair of footprints Jiang Zhan had discovered: “Second Brother, haven’t you noticed that these footprints are different from normal ones?”
Jiang Zhan bent down, almost pressing his eyes to the ground: “The size of the footprints isn’t unusual.”
Long Dan and Old Qin exchanged glances.
Jiang Si reminded him: “The left and right footprints are side by side, not staggered.”
Jiang Zhan was puzzled: “You’re right, but how could someone walk like that?”
“They weren’t walking,” Long Dan interjected.
Jiang Zhan looked at him.
Long Dan stretched both hands forward and hopped twice.
Jiang Zhan’s eyes widened, and he said with a twitching mouth: “What are you doing? Pretending to be a zombie?”
Long Dan stopped, bent slightly to look directly at the half-squatting Jiang Zhan, and gave an eerie smile: “Exactly, like a zombie.”
Jiang Zhan kicked out at him.
Caught off guard, Long Dan was kicked in the knee and fell to the ground.
Jiang Zhan angrily said: “Damn you, why are you trying to scare people for no reason?”
Long Dan rubbed his backside as he got up, looking aggrieved: “Second Young Master, how could I joke around in such a serious, solemn, and eerie situation?”
Jiang Zhan was taken aback and looked towards Jiang Si.
In Jiang Zhan’s heart, his younger sister was naturally the most pure and reliable.
Jiang Si nodded, her face calm: “It should have been left that way.”
“Fourth… Fourth Sister—” Jiang Zhan licked his lips. “Are you saying the corpse hopped away on its own?”
“Saying it hopped away on its own isn’t accurate. It was probably driven by someone,” Jiang Si said, then added with a sigh, “It might have been that young man who took Second Brother away.”
An image of a somewhat ugly young face immediately appeared in Jiang Zhan’s mind.
Calling him somewhat ugly was being polite. In Jiang Zhan’s opinion, that guy was quite ugly…
“He followed us to the inn. That’s quite persistent,” Jiang Zhan shook his head, thinking of the strange youth.
Long Dan asked Yujin: “Master, what should we do now?”
Yujin pondered: “That young man probably doesn’t have ill intentions. Let’s follow these footprints first and see which direction they went.”
The group searched by the light of the oil lamp, following the trail until it disappeared on the stone-paved road.
Yujin stood facing the wind, and after a moment said: “Let’s go back to the inn.”
“Master, what if trouble arises if we don’t find the body?” Long Dan asked.
Yujin raised his chin: “It’s almost dawn. We’ll return to the inn, pack up, and head north. Even if there’s trouble, it won’t catch up to us so quickly.”
With the body vanishing, staying to search aimlessly would be a waste of time. The best course of action was to leave.
Jiang Zhan rubbed his nose, thinking to himself that the Prince acted much more impulsively than he did. How come he got beaten by his father for such behavior, while the Prince faced no consequences?
As Yujin had predicted, the Xuemiao Clan was in chaos, so much so that they couldn’t even focus on extinguishing the spreading fire.
The Clan Leader was dead, and it felt like half the sky had fallen. Cries and wails could be heard everywhere.
Amid this chaos, a figure entered the fire with a very strange gait.
The houses were on fire, and people were gathered in front, either crying or trying to put out the fire. No one noticed the figure that entered the fire from behind the houses.
“Put out the fire first! If we don’t extinguish it soon, the entire village will burn down!” shouted an elder who was second only to the Xuemiao Clan Leader.
The crying stopped, and more people joined in fighting the fire, making the scene even more chaotic.
In this confusion, a thin young man quietly slipped away.
The fire was finally extinguished. Some people began to clean up the aftermath, while others gathered around the Xuemiao Clan Leader’s body, weeping bitterly.
The elder carefully examined the Clan Leader’s body and said with a pained expression: “There are no external wounds on the Clan Leader’s body.”
The absence of external wounds suggested a higher possibility of accidental death.
“Not even on the neck?” someone asked.
The elder shook his head: “The Clan Leader died in the fire. If there were strangulation marks, they’d be hard to detect unless—”
“Unless what?”
The elder hesitated, then said: “Unless we use a sharp tool to peel back the skin and flesh of the neck to check for damage to the throat bone…”
This statement immediately caused an uproar.
Both in Great Zhou and among these tribes, there was general respect for the dead, and bodies were not to be casually damaged.
Finally, the Xuemiao Clan Leader’s son gritted his teeth and said: “Elder, please examine thoroughly. We can’t let my father die in vain.”
With the Clan Leader’s son’s approval, the elder no longer hesitated and conducted a more detailed examination, ultimately shaking his head.
“Impossible!” The Clan Leader’s son became emotional. “Even if there was an accidental fire while my father was sleeping, the insects he raised would have warned him. He couldn’t have been unaware.”
Many clan members chimed in: “That’s right, how could the Clan Leader so easily—”
It was hard for people to accept that the usually high and mighty Clan Leader had died so easily.
“Why was Father in the study today?” the Clan Leader’s son asked.
The Xuemiao Clan Leader was known for his romantic pursuits, with many wives and concubines. The fact that he was in his study on a cold winter night instead of enjoying the warmth and comfort of his bed chambers indicated he had business to attend to.
The elder lowered his eyes in silence, while another elder’s eyes flickered, lost in thought.
At this moment, someone exclaimed: “There’s another body!”
Several people carried over another corpse.
The body was charred black, but not as severely burned as the Clan Leader’s, making it immediately recognizable.
“How is it, Ashan?”
Ashan was considered the Xuemiao Clan Leader’s confidant and rarely left his side.
The elder who had spoken earlier bent down to examine the body, his expression grim: “Ashan’s neck is broken…”
Everyone’s gaze shifted between the bodies of the Clan Leader and Ashan.
“What exactly happened here?” the Clan Leader’s son asked in bewilderment.
The elder looked around and said: “Let’s discuss this inside.”
Seven or eight people, including the Clan Leader’s son, rushed into a room.
These seven or eight individuals were considered the ruling class of the Xuemiao Clan.
The room was as bright as day. The elder who had spoken earlier looked at another elder: “Elder Rong, do you know something?”
Elder Rong’s lips twitched.
“At a time like this, if you don’t speak up, are you going to let the Clan Leader die in vain?”
After an internal struggle, Elder Rong said: “The Clan Leader received news yesterday and planned to eliminate the Seventh Prince of Zhou who was visiting the Wumiao. Last night, the Clan Leader probably sent Ashan to carry out the task. Who would have thought that both the Clan Leader and Ashan would die in a fire…”
“The Seventh Prince of Zhou? Could he be responsible for my father’s death?” the Clan Leader’s son asked.
Someone else wondered: “Why did the Clan Leader want to kill the Seventh Prince of Zhou?”
“That’s not right. Even if it was the Seventh Prince who did this, how could he enter the village? There’s a cluster of fragrant bamboo inside the village gate. Any outsider passing through would surely fall unconscious…”
After some discussion, a voice suddenly emerged: “Didn’t the Seventh Prince of Zhou go to visit the Wumiao? Could it be that the Wumiao gave him some protective medicine?”