Chapter 129: Homicide Case (II)
Translator: Storm in a Teacup
Three days later, news came from the border that Shi Qingshan led his troops and destroyed two more cities in the north. Then, they turned back and now was within the border.
The army of the Northern Barbarians was completely routed and they were suing for peace.
All the envoys that came to the imperial city earlier were under control.
That was to say, if the Northern Barbarians wanted to make peace again, they must send some other people here.
The last bunch of envoys from the Northern Barbarians, who were in the imperial city, had been put under house arrest in the inn because they had done something that Long was not very satisfied with.
Moreover, Long had never met them, as if those people never existed.
Hearing the good news, Long said happily, “Great, great! Qingzhou, your father is remarkable!”
Shi was also pleased to hear the good news and tenderness filled his eyes. “Yes, my father is really excellent. In those days at the border, every decision of my father’s has made the Northern Barbarians suffer great losses.”
Long laughed. “With such a great man, Shi Qingshan, the border will be absolutely safe.”
As Long was praising Shi’s father, Shi’s lips curled upwardly.
Long was so excited that he pulled Shi to him and kissed his lips passionately.
Shi knew that Long was doing that because he was elated, so he did not refuse.
Long deepened the kiss and after quite a while, he let go of Shi.
At this time, both of them were panting.
Long kissed Shi’s ear and said, “Qingzhou, I’m so lucky to have you in my life.”
“Really?” Shi looked at Long.
“Yes.” Long kissed Shi again.
The two of them looked at each other and the atmosphere became intimate.
At night, Long dragged his empress to bed early and went all the way till the middle of the night. When Shi finally let go, he felt totally powerless.
Long carried Shi to wash their bodies before they went back to bed.
The next day, both of them had missed the morning meeting when they woke up. The eunuch outside had already been ordered to wait for them to wake up naturally and not to go in to disturb them.
Therefore, they had breakfast an hour later than usual.
Both Long and Shi had a good sleep.
After breakfast, Shi received a message from the Shadow Guardian, saying that Zou Qingyuan of Tianji Sect had found out something new. On that day, in order to make Long less worried, Shi originally decided to ask other organizations to find more information of the jade pendant.
However, Long told Shi to ask Tianji Sect for help, so Shi entrusted the task to them.
Shi didn’t expect them to reply so soon.
After Shi read the message, Long asked, “Is it Tianji Sect?”
“Yes, they’ve found out something.”
Long said, “Let’s go there later.”
Shi looked at Long. “You’ll go there, too?”
“Of course, I will surely accompany you to that place.”
“Huh? Why?” Shi didn’t understand.
Long blinked. “Uh…” Of course he couldn’t tell Shi that he wanted to go there because of his potential rival in love. So, Long just said, “I’ll be worried if you go there alone.”
Hearing this, Shi said softly, “If it’s still early after we finish business in Tianji Sect, I want to go back home to visit my mother.”
“Okay.” Long naturally wouldn’t object to that. “I’ll go with you.”
“Good.” Shi smiled.
After breakfast, Long and Shi put on ordinary people’s clothes and got out of the palace from the secret passage.
They didn’t know if that was an illusion… but they felt that the atmosphere was a little strange on the street…
Long didn’t know what was wrong, so he turned to look at Shi.
“Qingzhou… do you feel… it’s a little strange here?”
Shi nodded. “Yes.”
Shi said firmly.
Long frowned. “What’s going on? How about we send some Shadow Guardians to have a check?”
Shi nodded.
The Shadow Guardians took the order.
After a short while, they came back to report that a homicide case happened on the East Street. It was found out an hour ago and all the ten people in the family had been killed!
All the people in that family were killed… And every victim had a sharp blade inserted in their chest.
After Long heard that, his face darkened.
Shi said, “We can go to Tianji Sect later. I think this case is a little unusual. Let’s go to the crime scene to have a look.”
Long took a deep breath and nodded. “Mhmm.” His face looked a little stiff.
Turning around, Long and Shi rushed to the crime scene.
It only took them a quarter of an hour to get to East Street. That seemed to be a very rich family. The two big stone lions at the gate were imposing and the big gate showed that it wasn’t a small family.
However, there couldn’t be only ten people in such a big family.
“Whose family is this?” It seemed that Long was talking to Shi who was beside him.
In fact, Long was asking the Shadow Guardians who had investigated it and they were standing right behind him at the moment.
“The biggest rice merchant, Liu family.”
“Do they work for the royal family?” Long asked again.
“No.” The answer was brief.
Shi said, “Although Liu family didn’t work for the royal family, they had a good reputation in the local area. Besides, there weren’t many people in this family.”
“Since they had a good reputation, who would be so cruel to have killed all of them?” Long frowned hard.
Shi did not answer.
When they got to the crime scene, Shi showed his jade pendant, because the area had been surrounded by soldiers.
Shi and Long went inside and saw Hu Qingyuan.
Hu was surprised to see them and hurried over.
Long waved, showing that Hu didn’t need to kneel, so Hu just bowed respectfully.
Shi said, “Is there any clue?”
“It seems like a revengeful murder,” Hu said immediately, “The killer must be a very powerful martial artist. Every victim has a blade in their chest and they were killed by one stroke.”
“There’s something wrong with it.” Shi frowned. “They were just businessmen and they didn’t work for the royal family. Why would somebody kill them so ruthlessly?”
“I’m investigating.”
“Well, you can go back to your business, Minister Hu. We’ll look around.”
“Yes, Your Majesty.”
After Hu left, Long and Shi went to a corpse.
That was a little girl who was only seven or eight years old. She was wearing a scarlet shirt, but her face was pale…
Her big eyes, which must be bright and attractive in the past, kept staring at the front dully…
Long looked at the little girl. After a long time, he crouched down slowly and closed her eyes…
Shi gently held Long’s hand, and Long smiled. “I’m fine.”
“The killer will be caught.” Shi said firmly.
Long nodded.
After looking around Liu family’s mansion, Long and Shi decided to leave, but they found a suspicious figure around the corner. Before Shi ordered, the Shadow Guardians had already gone to chase him.
However, they didn’t catch up with him!
When the Shadow Guardians came back to report that they failed, Long immediately turned his eyes to Shi. “Qingzhou, we are going to Tianji Sect anyway. Maybe we can ask them about this.”
Shi was stunned. Then, he nodded. “Okay.”