Chapter 32: An Accident That Left Even the Thieves Bewildered!

"What!?"

"It wasn't lost here!?"

Cheng Chumou was completely stunned by Liu Shuyi’s words.

"Director Liu, what, what do you mean by that? What do you mean it wasn't lost here?" He couldn't help but press for an answer.

Zhao Feng also looked astonished. Having followed Liu Shuyi and listened to Du Gou’s detailed account of the case, he was certain—as everyone else was—that the corpse had mysteriously vanished from this very tomb chamber. Why, then, was Director Liu now claiming it wasn't lost here? Was he serious?

Du Gou, who had been involved in the investigation alongside his father and possessed a more comprehensive understanding of the case than the others, felt his pupils contract. He stared at Liu Shuyi in disbelief.

Liu Shuyi observed their shocked expressions without a hint of surprise. He knew exactly how much weight his words carried. Without keeping them in suspense, he spoke directly: "First, let us discuss the tremors felt by the mausoleum guards on the night of the incident and the collapse of the tomb chamber."

"Initially, I speculated that someone had used a powerful explosive, like black powder, to blow open the tomb, causing the collapse and allowing them to enter and steal the remains. But there are two suspicious points."

"First, I discovered that the cracks were not limited to this tomb chamber; even the floor of the Offering Hall outside, used for rituals, had cracked. You must understand, the Offering Hall is quite a distance from here. The black powder currently produced by alchemists, no matter how powerful, has its limits. It is impossible for an explosion here to have impacted the Offering Hall that far away."

"Furthermore, if it were powerful enough to affect the floor of the Offering Hall, the entire tomb chamber would have been pulverized, not just partially collapsed. That is why I became skeptical of this possibility."

"Second, if thieves had truly used black powder to blow open the tomb, there should be blast craters and charred traces inside. However..." He looked at the three of them and shook his head. "I did not find even a single crater or a patch of char in the entire chamber."

"Later, I wondered if they were hidden by the rubble, so I had General Cheng clear the debris. But even then, there was nothing."

Cheng Chumou realized then: "So that’s why you had me clear the stones! No wonder you made me keep cleaning even when I said there was nothing there. It was the absence of evidence that confirmed your theory."

Liu Shuyi nodded with a smile. "Moreover, if such a massive explosion had occurred, it would have been impossible for there to be no sound. Yet, the guards and servants that night heard nothing but the howling of the blizzard."

"All of this proves that the collapse was not caused by explosives."

Zhao Feng listened as Liu Shuyi dismissed that possibility in a few short sentences, his eyes filled with admiration as he nodded repeatedly. "Director Liu’s reasoning is sound."

Du Gou, after a moment of contemplation, also nodded in agreement.

Liu Shuyi continued, "If it wasn't blown up by explosives, how could such a sturdy tomb chamber collapse?" He scanned the floor and stone walls of the corridor. "And the affected areas include not just the chamber, but the floor and walls of the corridor, and even the outer Offering Hall, where the floor looks as if it were sliced by a giant blade..."

"As I said, even the most powerful black powder known to us cannot achieve this. So, what could? Or rather..." He narrowed his eyes and looked at them. His voice dropped, becoming heavy and somber, as if an invisible hand were gripping their hearts, forcing them to hold their breath.

"Is it possible," Liu Shuyi said, "that this was not the work of human hands at all?"

"Not the work of humans?" Cheng Chumou’s eyes widened, his dark face a vivid portrait of confusion.

"Are you suggesting..." Du Gou seemed to grasp Liu Shuyi’s meaning. "An earthquake?"

"You mean it was caused by an earthquake?"

To everyone’s surprise, Cheng Chumou shook his head immediately. "Impossible. My father and the others already ruled that out."

Ruled it out? Liu Shuyi raised an eyebrow.

He looked at Du Gou, who nodded. "Indeed, after my father and the others arrived, they suspected an earthquake had caused the collapse. My father questioned the mausoleum guards about the intensity of the shaking and checked if nearby villages had felt anything."

"The guards all said it only shook a few times, not very severely. As for the surrounding villages, they felt nothing at all. This suggests that if it were an earthquake, it must have been a very minor one, but..." Du Gou turned his gaze toward the stone door.

He raised his hand and pointed at it. "Director Liu, look at this. There is a crack running almost the entire length of this stone door."

"This door was commissioned by His Majesty and transported all the way from Mount Lao. It is a single, massive boulder, carved and polished by the finest artisans of the Ministry of Works. Its hardness is rare. His Majesty had it built specifically to ensure the Prince of Xi could rest in peace, undisturbed. The Ministry of Works estimated that even after a thousand years, this door would protect the tomb from grave robbers."

"If such a sturdy door were cracked in this manner by an earthquake, how terrifying would that tremor have to be? If an earthquake of that magnitude had occurred, the entire imperial mausoleum would have been reduced to ruins! Yet, the reality is that only this area collapsed; other places had only minor cracks, and the villages felt nothing. This does not match the damage to the door."

"That is why," Du Gou said, looking at Liu Shuyi, "my father and the others ruled out the possibility of an earthquake during their initial investigation and shifted their focus to how the thieves could have caused the collapse."

Listening to Du Gou, Liu Shuyi nodded in understanding.

The people who investigated this case before—Du Ruhui, Wei Zheng, and even the hostile Pei Ji—were all men of great wisdom. They might not be experts in detective work, but they would certainly not overlook the obvious. Since His Majesty was so concerned about this case, it was natural that they had investigated and verified it immediately.

However... while his starting point was the same as theirs, it did not mean the conclusion would be.

"Assistant Minister Du, you are a man of great learning. Are you familiar with the omens of an earthquake and the environmental changes that follow one?" Liu Shuyi suddenly asked.

Du Gou hesitated, then shook his head. "To be honest, Director Liu, earthquakes are considered inauspicious. Historical records mention them only in passing." He cited examples from the *Bamboo Annals* and the *Book of the Later Han*, noting how brief the entries were. "They never wrote of omens, and as for the aftermath... just cracked earth or collapsed houses. I have never personally experienced an earthquake, so I am ashamed to say I cannot answer your question."

Liu Shuyi smiled. "It is perfectly normal that you wouldn't know."

Du Gou, being sharp-minded, realized something. "Does Director Liu... still believe this was caused by an earthquake?"

Liu Shuyi did not hide it. "I was fortunate enough to have encountered people who fled during an earthquake. I heard them speak of it, so I happen to know some of the omens and the subsequent environmental changes."

"Please, tell us," Du Gou urged.

"Generally, the arrival of an earthquake is abrupt and without warning, at least to us humans. But," Liu Shuyi continued, "I heard that before the quake, the chickens and dogs they kept showed clear abnormalities. They would howl and act restless, as if they knew something terrible was about to happen. And it wasn't just chickens and dogs; even the rats would emerge from their burrows and run toward the fields..."

"These abnormalities didn't happen in just one or two households, but in over eighty percent of them. So, I believe these animals can sense an earthquake coming."

Cheng Chumou was shocked. "Really? These animals are more capable than us humans?"

Zhao Feng had also never heard of such a thing.

Liu Shuyi laughed. "Humans cannot outrun horses. Are horses not superior to humans in speed? Is it not normal for animals to be superior to humans in certain respects?"

Cheng Chumou pondered this and nodded. "That's true. So, are you saying an earthquake really happened that night?"

Although Du Gou did not know if animals could predict earthquakes, he had cooperated with Liu Shuyi on two previous cases and understood his character well. He knew that Liu Shuyi had an inexplicable obsession with detective work—an obsession that prevented him from being sloppy or making mistakes. Therefore, Liu Shuyi would never speak lightly. If he said it, he was certain.

Watching Cheng Chumou’s inquiry, he stared intensely at Liu Shuyi, his heart rate accelerating. He realized this was a completely different judgment than before. Perhaps this was the key to breaking the case!

"The abnormalities in the animals are the omens before the quake. After the quake, there are also environmental changes," Liu Shuyi continued. "Cracks in the ground or collapsed houses are the most obvious, but there are others, often overlooked, that are more indicative."

"For example," he said, looking at them, "the churning of silt at the bottom of wells, leading to muddy water, or cracks appearing in the deep well walls. These environmental changes occur more frequently than surface cracks or collapsed buildings."

"After all, not every earthquake is violent. Minor ones might only cause a few shakes, not enough to collapse a house. But earthquakes propagate from deep underground to the surface, so the closer one is to the depths, the more one feels it. The silt at the bottom of a well is easily disturbed by the slightest vibration."

Zhao Feng suddenly understood. "So that is why you had me ask about the wells."

Cheng Chumou finally realized: "Zhao Feng said the well water was indeed muddy the next day... the animal omens matched, and the well water matched. So, this means..." He swallowed hard. "An earthquake really happened that night? And it really was the earthquake that caused the collapse?"

"But..." Cheng Chumou looked at the stone door. "How do you explain this stone door? The earthquake obviously wasn't very strong. How did it end up like this?"

Du Gou was also confused. This was the very reason his father and Pei Ji had ruled out an earthquake.

"The stone door..." Liu Shuyi walked slowly to the door, looking at its foot-thick slab and the straight, vertical crack that ran through it. "Do you know that earthquake-induced cracks follow a pattern?"

"A pattern?" Du Gou frowned, a glimmer of realization dawning on him, but it was still hazy.

"Assistant Minister Du, recall the floor of the Offering Hall. The stone slabs there also had cracks. What did they look like?" Liu Shuyi prompted.

"The floor of the Offering Hall..." Du Gou recalled, then his eyes widened in shock. "Could it be..."

He looked at the stone door, then tilted his head to look at the crack in the wall above, then down at the floor.

"So that’s it!"

Cheng Chumou blinked in confusion. "Assistant Minister Du, what do you understand?"

Du Gou’s face was still filled with shock. "The cracks on the floor of the Offering Hall are jagged, like saw-teeth. The cracks on the ceiling and the floor are all twisted and irregular."

"But this stone door..." He stared at it. "The crack runs from top to bottom, almost splitting it in two, but it... it is not jagged. It is a straight line! A perfectly smooth straight line!"

"This proves that the crack on the stone door is not the kind of crack caused by an earthquake! In other words..." Du Gou looked at Liu Shuyi, his voice tight. "The crack on the door was not caused by the earthquake!"

"What!?" Cheng Chumou felt his heart tighten. If Du Gou was right, it meant the earthquake was a fact, but the door... it meant Du Ruhui and the others were wrong! Everyone had been wrong from the start!

Facing their tense and expectant gazes, Liu Shuyi finally nodded slowly.

"The pattern of the crack confirms it was not caused by the earthquake, though the earthquake might have been the catalyst that triggered it. However, that is not important. What is important is that we can confirm the earthquake happened that night."

"It wasn't particularly violent, nor was its range large. It just so happened that this tomb chamber was at the epicenter, or perhaps it was already unstable due to the excavation... and it collapsed."

"Earthquakes are unpredictable. We couldn't predict it, and neither could the thieves."

"So, does this imply one thing?" Liu Shuyi looked at the three of them. "The collapse of the tomb was an accident! An accident not just for us, but for the thieves as well!"

An accident for the thieves? The three of them thought for a moment and nodded in agreement. Indeed, there was no way the thieves could have known when or where an earthquake would occur.

"And when the earthquake happened, it was at the height of a blizzard," Liu Shuyi said. "At that time, even the guards were forced to stay indoors. How could the thieves have known the tomb collapsed? If they didn't know, how could they have come to steal the body?"

Du Gou and the others were stunned. They had no answer. No matter how they looked at it, the thieves couldn't have come to steal the corpse.

"And this coffin..." Liu Shuyi walked over to it. "The lid shows no signs of being opened, and the nails are still firmly in place. The only crack where one might see inside was caused by the falling rocks, but it’s not wide enough to extract a body, let alone reach in to write characters..."

"I know you think the thieves used some special method to do the impossible. But what if you are overthinking it? What if the fact is that it was simply impossible to remove the body from this coffin?"

"When we exclude all possible explanations, whatever remains, no matter how incredible, must be the truth!"

Liu Shuyi’s voice struck their hearts like a drum.

"The truth is, they could not have removed the remains from this coffin! And combined with what I said—that the earthquake was an accident they couldn't have predicted or known about during the blizzard—then is there only one conclusion?"

He took a deep breath, his voice low and solemn. "The remains were never in this coffin in the first place. The body had already vanished before it was even brought here!"

"The fact that you found an empty coffin and blood-written characters... it was just a coincidence! An accident that even the thieves didn't expect!"

"The true time the Prince of Xi’s remains went missing was not the night of the collapse, but..."

They swallowed hard, their bodies tense.

"...before the coffin was delivered, at least a month before the night of the collapse!"

"And that is why you have had no success," Liu Shuyi said, looking at the three shocked men. "Trying to catch thieves who fled a month ago using the methods for catching thieves who just escaped... how could you possibly find them?"