Chapter 31: Cheng Chumo's Astonishment, Director Liu, How Could You Say Such a Thing!

Because of the freezing cold, these blood-written characters still retained the original color of fresh blood.

Crimson and shocking to the eye!

The metaphor implied behind the date of the Xuanwu Gate Incident, which the characters pointed to, was even more chilling.

Who didn't know that the one thing Li Shimin least wanted to hear mentioned right now was the Xuanwu Gate Incident?

Yet, these blood-stained characters served as a constant reminder to everyone who saw them of what had occurred on the fourth day of the sixth month of the ninth year of Wude.

Once the contents of the blood-written message within the coffin were made public, it was easy to imagine the rumors and gossip that would spread throughout the imperial court and beyond.

No wonder Du Gou and Cheng Chumo had kept their mouths shut and had not breathed a word about the blood-written characters to him before he officially took over the case.

They couldn't speak, and they dared not speak!

As for the person who stole Li Jiancheng’s remains and specifically left such blood-chilling characters, their intent was self-evident.

Liu Shuyi took a deep breath to steady his turbulent emotions and stood up straight.

Looking around at the collapsed tomb chamber, he said, "Assistant Minister Du, please give me a detailed account of the situation on the night of the crime."

Everything he knew about the case had been pieced together from bits of information casually dropped by Ministry of Justice officials involved in the investigation, as well as occasional fragmented details leaked by Du Gou and Cheng Chumo; it was far from complete.

Now, he needed the most accurate and comprehensive intelligence.

Du Gou had been prepared ever since he learned that Liu Shuyi had specifically requested his assistance.

On the way here, he had mentally organized the information he held. Hearing the question, he did not need time to think and replied, "Around the hour of the Rooster (5 PM to 7 PM) that day, the wind began to rise and snow began to fall. An hour later, it reached the intensity of a blizzard."

"The howling wind blew people off balance, and the blizzard beat against their faces so hard they couldn't even open their eyes. Consequently, the mausoleum guards were forced to retreat inside the rooms to seek shelter from the storm."

"In the interval while they were sheltering from the blizzard, around the hour of the Ox (1 AM to 3 AM), the ground suddenly shook violently a few times. This unprovoked tremor, combined with the terrifying and rare blizzard, made the guards feel uneasy. However, because of the howling snow and the pitch-black darkness outside, they could see nothing. Filled with fear, they had no idea what was happening."

"It wasn't until the hour of the Tiger (3 AM to 5 AM) that the blizzard subsided enough for the guards to leave their rooms and investigate what had happened."

"Then, they discovered that the tomb chamber, which had been intact, had collapsed."

"The self-locking stone that sealed the stone door had been knocked over by falling debris, and the stone door was left wide open. According to the law, the mausoleum guards were strictly forbidden from entering the underground palace without authorization. But with the chamber collapsed and the door ajar, they feared an accident had occurred and were forced to enter. As a result..."

Du Gou looked at Liu Shuyi and said in a low voice, "As a result, they discovered that the coffin was frozen over by fallen snow, the side wall had been cracked by falling rocks, and looking inside through the crack... the remains of the Prince of Xi had vanished."

"Afterward, they immediately sent men to report to the palace. Before dawn, officials from the Golden Guard, the Supreme Court, the Ministry of Justice, and the Censorate had locked down the area and begun their investigation. At the same time, they sent men on horseback to gallop along every road leading out of Chang'an to pursue for five hundred li, setting up checkpoints to search all incoming and outgoing personnel and vehicles."

"However..."

He shook his head with a heavy expression. "To this day, no news has returned. No suspicious persons have been found, no suspicious vehicles have been spotted, and, most importantly, the remains have not been recovered."

Listening to Du Gou, Liu Shuyi frowned slightly, sensing the thorny nature of this case.

On a night of such a blizzard, it was difficult for a person to even stand still, let alone for a carriage to make progress.

Therefore, if someone wanted to transport the remains by carriage, they would have had to wait until the blizzard subsided.

The mausoleum guards had come out to investigate the moment the snow eased. Once they discovered the remains were missing, they immediately sent men to the palace to report it.

After that, the various offices began their operations.

This meant that the person who stole Li Jiancheng’s remains could have departed at most one hour earlier.

Yet, a carriage's speed could never compare to that of a strong warhorse.

The cavalry had galloped five hundred li along every road; it was impossible that they could not have caught up with a carriage that had only a one-hour head start.

And yet, they had found no such carriage.

The subsequent checkpoints also failed to uncover any suspicious vehicles or individuals.

Why was this?

Could it be that the thief did not use a carriage to transport the remains, but used horses instead?

But a five-hundred-li journey was impossible for ordinary horses to complete in one go; they would have to rest.

As for the cavalry, they rotated between two or three horses, allowing them to travel day and night without rest.

In other words, even if they had used horses to transport the remains, they could not have outrun the pursuing cavalry.

Unless... the thieves also used warhorses and had two or three horses accompanying them simultaneously.

But the difficulty of such a situation was immense.

As a strategic resource, horses were precious and scarce.

Warhorses were under the direct jurisdiction of the Ministry of War; they were impossible to acquire in the private sector.

Moreover, the thieves would need to transport the remains; they couldn't just let the corpse ride a horse alone. Someone had to accompany it, which meant even more horses were needed. In Chang'an, under the emperor's feet and with the court's eyes everywhere, it was impossible for a group of people to acquire so many horses without being noticed.

Not to mention that with so many people and so many horses, it would have been impossible for them to travel along the road without being seen by passersby.

But the fact remained that the court had sent men to investigate along the roads and had gained nothing.

So, while this possibility existed, it was very low!

But if they didn't use horses to carry people, how were the remains transported?

Or perhaps, they weren't transported at all, but were hidden somewhere near Chang'an?

"Has the area around Chang'an been searched?" Liu Shuyi asked, voicing his hypothesis.

Du Gou nodded. "My father considered that the thieves might be trying to confuse us, creating the illusion that the remains had been taken away when they were actually hidden right under our noses. So, he sent men to search every household in the surrounding villages and counties, posted reward notices, and used bounty money to entice the commoners to dig in the fields. If anyone could find the remains, there would be a heavy reward..."

"But the result..."

He shook his head again. "The commoners dug day and night for the reward money, but they found no buried unidentified corpses. Searching house-to-house also yielded nothing."

Du Ruhui was clever and cautious enough; every possibility he had thought of, his father had also considered, and over these past twelve days, he had already put them into action.

Yet, there was still not the slightest clue.

No wonder a man like Du Ruhui said he saw no hope.

Li Jiancheng's remains had truly disappeared without a trace.

At the time the remains were stolen, Chang'an was already under curfew and the city gates were closed. After the disappearance was discovered, the city gates of Chang'an were strictly monitored; all incoming and outgoing personnel were searched and identified, and vehicles were carefully inspected. Thus, the remains could not have been smuggled into Chang'an.

There were none in the city, none in the surrounding countryside, and nothing found along the pursuit routes...

Coupled with this inexplicably collapsed newly-built underground palace, it really felt as if something supernatural was at play.

Before coming, Liu Shuyi had thought it would be difficult, but he hadn't expected it to be this difficult.

No wonder that if he could solve this case, he would be promoted directly to the sixth rank; such difficulty was entirely worthy of such a reward.

Liu Shuyi took a deep breath, forcing himself to calm down.

It was impossible for the thieves to make the remains vanish without a trace; there must be something that he, Du Ruhui, and the others had overlooked or failed to discover.

He looked around the tomb chamber once more, at the collapsed area, the piles of rubble, and the snow-covered ground. The once-dark underground palace now resembled an open-air snowy mountain.

After a moment's thought, he lowered his head again and looked at the coffin before him.

He saw that the surface of the coffin was covered with fallen snow, and the lid was still firmly nailed in place, with only a few scratches on the surface caused by the falling rocks.

The only part of the entire coffin that showed clear signs of damage was on the side.

And even that damage had been caused by the falling rocks.

Judging by the black wood shavings stuck to the surface of the fallen rocks, it was clear there was nothing amiss there.

"The coffin shows no signs of being pried open, and the crack caused by the falling stones is not large enough to remove the remains..."

"Not to mention, they would have had to write these neatly formed blood characters inside."

Liu Shuyi rubbed his chin, deep in thought.

"How did the thieves manage to remove the remains without prying open the lid, and then write the blood characters?"

"And..."

He looked at the collapsed part of the tomb, then at the cracked floor, and the almost shattered stone door...

"Were all these things done by the thieves?"

"Just to enter the tomb, they went to such great lengths, collapsing the entire chamber?"

"And what method could they have used to turn the underground palace into this state?"

"Gunpowder? But in the Tang Dynasty, I don't think there was gunpowder with such explosive power yet, right?"

"Even if they had coincidentally and secretly concocted powerful gunpowder, there should be obvious traces of an explosion... but here..."

Liu Shuyi’s gaze scanned the tomb chamber inch by inch, not missing a single detail.

He found no signs of shockwaves or charring from a gunpowder explosion, no craters, let alone sulfur crystals or saltpeter frost.

"Could it be that it was buried by falling rocks?"

Liu Shuyi’s eyes flickered, and he turned to Cheng Chumo. "General Cheng, please have your men clear away these piles of rubble."

"Are you trying to see what’s beneath the rubble?" Cheng Chumo asked. "We already cleared it before; there is nothing underneath. The Minister of the Secretariat was afraid of destroying clues, so he didn't let us move anything else."

Liu Shuyi knew that Du Ruhui wouldn't have left the rubble unexamined, but what he was looking for was different from what Du Ruhui had been looking for.

Just because there was nothing there didn't mean there were no clues.

He said, "Go ahead, I have my reasons."

Seeing Liu Shuyi’s insistence, Cheng Chumo did not hesitate further. "Alright! I'll have them clear it immediately."

With that, he personally led the Golden Guard, rolled up their sleeves, and began to work vigorously.

"Official Liu."

At this moment, Zhao Feng, who had been following behind Liu Shuyi, spoke up. "Let me go help as well. I don't have any special skills, but the only thing I can do to help Official Liu right now is to put my back into this manual labor."

Liu Shuyi turned to look at Zhao Feng.

He knew that Zhao Feng, having just followed him today, was afraid that if he didn't do anything, he would appear useless and eventually be discarded.

Zhao Feng was originally the son of the Vice Minister of the Ministry of Revenue; his status was not much lower than that of Cheng Chumo and the others.

Yet, because his father’s position was coveted by Zhao Chengyi, he had died unjustly, and his entire family had been exiled, turning the once-confident young man into the sensitive and humble person he was now, terrified of being despised or abandoned.

The current Zhao Feng was so similar to his own predecessor.

He smiled and said in as gentle a tone as possible, "I have other tasks for you, so you don't need to help General Cheng."

"Other tasks?"

Zhao Feng’s eyes lit up, and he asked expectantly, "What tasks? Don't worry, Official Liu, even if it's climbing a mountain of blades or diving into a sea of fire, I will surely complete it."

Liu Shuyi laughed. "It’s not that serious. Go help me confirm a few things."

After hearing what Liu Shuyi needed him to do, Zhao Feng looked a bit confused, as if he didn't understand what this had to do with the case at hand.

But since this was a request from his benefactor, no matter how strange it seemed, he would not hesitate.

"I will go do it immediately."

Having said that, he ran off, seemingly afraid that if he were one step too slow, it would affect Liu Shuyi.

Watching Zhao Feng’s retreating figure, Du Gou said, "I met him before his father’s incident. He was a student at the Imperial Academy then, and thanks to his outstanding painting skills, he was often praised by the instructors. He was truly full of spirit."

"I never expected that when I saw him again, he would be like two different people. The high spirits of the past are no longer visible."

Du Gou felt a sense of emotion and regret.

Liu Shuyi simply replied calmly, "People’s temperaments inevitably change after experiencing great ups and downs, and it’s not easy to walk out of a painful past. He has only just regained his freedom; he needs time for his wounds to slowly heal."

"But I believe..."

Recalling the bright look in Zhao Feng’s eyes when he looked at him, he said, "One day, he will be full of spirit again."

Listening to Liu Shuyi, Du Gou couldn't help but look at the man before him, wearing a green official robe, calm and composed.

He knew very well that Liu Shuyi’s past was no better than Zhao Feng’s.

The bullying of colleagues, the plunder of others, the dislike of Pei Ji’s faction, the stigma of being the son of a disgraced official—the overt attacks, the covert arrows, the rumors, the mockery—none of it had ever ceased.

Yet, Liu Shuyi had not become what he described as someone who "couldn't easily walk out."

He was much like Zhao Feng, yet completely different.

Zhao Feng needed the encouragement and pity of others.

But Liu Shuyi never needed these things.

"Assistant Minister Du, can anyone usually enter this tomb chamber?"

As he was lost in thought, Liu Shuyi’s voice rang out.

Du Gou quickly steadied his mind. "No! Ever since the Prince of Xi’s coffin was brought to the tomb, once the stone door was closed and the self-locking stone fell, the door became impossible to open."

"Moreover, our Great Tang has laws that strictly forbid anyone from entering the underground palace privately; otherwise, it is treated as treason. Therefore, neither the mausoleum guards stationed here nor the household slaves responsible for cleaning would ever enter the underground palace."

"Furthermore, the entrance to the underground palace is always guarded by the mausoleum guards, so no one could have sneaked in."

Liu Shuyi nodded. "So, you mean the only time the palace entrance was unguarded was during those few hours of the blizzard?"

"Yes."

Du Gou said, "But even if it were unguarded, the door to the palace was locked. As you saw when you came in, there are several gates along the way that cannot be opened without keys, and the stone door held in place by the self-locking stone is even less capable of being opened by human strength."

Liu Shuyi nodded again. He rubbed his chin, his eyes flashing with deep thought.

A moment later, he exhaled softly. "Let’s see the results from General Cheng and his men first."

Cheng Chumo and the other Golden Guards were very efficient. In less than half an hour, all the fallen rocks had been cleared.

"Official Liu, see? Isn't there nothing here?"

Cheng Chumo said as he wiped the sweat from his forehead with his sleeve while walking toward Liu Shuyi.

Liu Shuyi looked toward the collapsed area and saw that there was not a single fallen stone left.

The stone-paved floor was perfectly level, with only a jagged crack snaking across it.

"Official Liu, I’ve returned."

At this moment, Zhao Feng’s voice came from behind.

Liu Shuyi turned around and saw Zhao Feng running over, looking anxious.

After stopping in front of Liu Shuyi, he couldn't stop panting.

"Don't rush."

Liu Shuyi laughed. "Catch your breath, speak slowly."

Zhao Feng took a deep breath and let it out slowly, finally regaining his composure.

He said to Liu Shuyi, "Just as you predicted, Official Liu, I inquired about it. On the second day after the incident, the water in the well here was indeed murky; you could see obvious silt and sand, and there were cracks in the well wall. Also, I went to the nearby village to ask, and although they didn't feel any shaking, the livestock they raised did indeed behave very strangely that night..."

Listening to Zhao Feng, Cheng Chumo’s black face was filled with confusion.

"What murky well water? What strange livestock? Official Liu, why did you have him look into these things?" Cheng Chumo asked, bewildered.

Du Gou also looked at Liu Shuyi with confusion.

He saw Liu Shuyi’s eyes flicker for a moment, and then his lips curled up slightly.

Seeing the others looking at him with confusion, he said slowly:

"Tell me, is there such a possibility..."

"What?" Cheng Chumo asked.

Liu Shuyi said meaningfully, "What if the remains of the Prince of Xi were not lost here at all?"