The Byoukidere Is Her Sweetie
Chapter 287: 287: Xu Fang discovers a secret, startled to find a skeleton (first update)

Chapter 287: 287: Xu Fang discovers a secret, startled to find a skeleton (first update)

“Where is the person now?”

“Can’t get in touch.”

Zhou Xufang asked, “If she doesn’t come, can Luo Changde be convicted?”

Qiao Nanchu glanced at the defendant’s seat, “That depends on how capable his lawyer is.”

Luo Qinghe had invited Jiang Chundong, so Luo Changde invited Du Shaoxing, his archenemy. Both were famous orators in the legal circle, capable of declaring the dead as alive.

“Although the police found rebar and a hammer in the Luo Family’s flower shed, it cannot be directly proven to be the murder weapon from eight years ago. Fang Dashun’s testimony can only prove that Luo San was murdered, not that it was done by Luo Changde. The only verbal witness we have is Xu Pozhi, and, importantly, we can’t even present a motive for the murder. To sentence him to a severe punishment,” Qiao Nanchu thought, “would be barely feasible.”

Luo Qinghe’s charge of attempted murder was inevitable, it was just a matter of whether she could drag Luo Changde down with her.

The motive for the murder was crucial. If Luo Yinghe did not implicate Luo Changde, even the motive for killing Luo San could not be established.

Zhou Xufang pondered for a moment, “I’ll go find Luo Yinghe.”

Jiang Zhi persuaded her to sit down, “You stay, I’ll go.”

She shook her head, “I’m faster.”

“You’re not here, I can’t sit still.” He didn’t stop her, indicating he would go with her.

Zhou Xufang thought for a bit, “Then let’s split up. You follow Luo Huaiyu’s lead, and I’ll handle Xu Yunci.”

Jiang Zhi nodded, instructing her, “Be careful.”

“Mhm.” She got up, “Uncle, I’ll be back soon.”

Zhou Qingrang agreed, advising her to be careful.

Zhou Xufang left first.

Jiang Zhi followed a step later, leaving a message for Qiao Nanchu before departing, “Send me all of Luo Huaiyu’s communication logs from the past few days.”

“Give me ten minutes,” Qiao Nanchu said as he phoned a colleague from the Criminal Intelligence Department.

Ah Wan was outside Court No. 3 when he saw Zhou Xufang and Jiang Zhi exit one after another. The trial was about to start, weren’t they? Why were they heading out?

He followed his boss.

“No need to follow me.”

Ah Wan: “?”

Jiang Zhi dialed a number while walking, “You follow Zhou Xufang and keep in touch with me immediately if anything happens.”

Ah Wan: “Oh.”

Ah Wan changed direction and followed Zhou Xufang.

Zhou Xufang, not taking the elevator, took the stairs while putting on her headset, “Shuangjiang, are you free now?”

This headset could convert voices into text and vice versa, and Shuangjiang replied almost instantly.

“Yes.”

“Check Xu Yunci’s recent contacts for me.”

“Okay.”

She pushed open the stairwell door and went in.

Ah Wan quickly followed behind, “Miss Zhou.” He also pushed open the door, “Wait for me—”

Whoosh—

A gust of cold air swept through, and the stairwell was empty.

Ah Wan: “!” Where is she?

He finally understood why in the circle of professional errand runners, ‘Z’ was spoken of so mysterially.

Zhou Xufang searched every inch of the Luo family’s property but still could not find a trace of Luo Yinghe. Xu Yunci’s last contact was three days ago with Luo Changde’s lawyer, Du Shaoxing, while Luo Yinghe had spoken to her close friends over the phone yesterday and was at home at that time. After that, external surveillance did not capture her leaving.

Likely, she was still at the Luo family’s home.

There was a noise at the stairwell, but Zhou Xufang did not hide. She came out of a room and ran into the cleaning help, Aunt Liu from the kitchen. Zhou Xufang recognized her; she often deducted her food when she was young.

“What are you?” Aunt Liu was startled, agitated, “What are you doing here?”

Zhou Xufang placed a finger over her lips. “Shh!” she said, “Don’t make a sound.”

The Luo family always maintained a lavish lifestyle. There were quite a few servants around, and Zhou Xufang did not want to startle them.

Suddenly, a strange figure appeared in the villa, dressed unusually and wrapped tightly. Aunt Liu thought a thief had entered and screamed, “Someone come, catch—”

Before she could complete the word ‘thief,’ Zhou Xufang had moved in front of her.

“You, you, you,” in the blink of an eye, the ‘thief’ had ‘drifted’ over, and Aunt Liu was so frightened that her eyes rolled back, her limbs trembled, and her lips quivered, “Ghost…”

Zhou Xufang pinched her higher-pitched voice, “Um, I am a ghost.” After saying that, she blew a ‘ghost energy’ towards Aunt Liu.

Aunt Liu’s legs gave out, and she sat down hard on the floor, muttering ‘Buddha bless me’ a couple of times, then pushed off with her feet, retreating backwards.

Zhou Xufang grabbed her leg.

Her eyes rolled back as she was about to faint.

“I’m asking you,” Zhou Xufang wouldn’t let her faint, grabbing her ankle and using a bit of force, “Does the Luo family have any hidden places? Like a secret room?”

Aunt Liu dared not to scream, her foot hurt, and sweat dripped from her forehead as she trembled and replied, “No, none.”

“Really none?”

She nearly died of fright, quickly stammering, “There’s a cellar.”

Zhou Xufang grabbed her collar and hoisted her up, “Take me there.”

Aunt Liu nodded.

As long as her life wasn’t threatened, she would do whatever Lord Ghost commanded. Trembling, she led her to a wine rack behind the kitchen.

Moving the wine rack revealed a door with a lock.

Zhou Xufang glanced at Liu, who immediately shook her head, “I-I-I don’t have the key.”

Unable to do anything about it,

Zhou Xufang stepped back and kicked the door open.

Aunt Liu: “!”

Scared me to death!

Located below the villa, the cellar had no windows and was draped in darkness. Zhou Xufang took out a flashlight from her backpack and descended the stairs with its help.

Above the cellar, Aunt Liu was screaming, “Ghosts!”

Zhou Xufang couldn’t bother about that and continued into the wine cellar, which was massive with layered wine racks filled with various types of red wine.

Being underground and devoid of sunlight all year round, it was both cold and eerie inside. She reached the very bottom and tapped on the walls with her flashlight.

“Tap—tap—tap—”

After three taps, someone responded, “Oooo!”

Zhou Xufang followed the sound, circumvented two rows of wine racks, and found Luo Yinghe tied up at a wooden post behind them. Her mouth was sealed with duct tape, and thick ropes bound her feet and hands, securing her mid-waist to a wooden wine rack.

Luo Yinghe saw the light from the flashlight and, regardless of who it was, started to whimper for help.

Zhou Xufang, shining the light, approached her and tore off the tape from her mouth.

Only then did Luo Yinghe see who it was and immediately asked, “Who are you?”

Zhou Xufang shone the flashlight on her and replied succinctly, “Someone here to rescue you.”

Dressed bizarrely, but Luo Yinghe couldn’t care less at this point and just wanted to get out of this awful place quickly. She urged, “Hurry and untie the ropes.”

Zhou Xufang replied, “Okay.”

But—

She said seriously, “You need to pay.”

Luo Yinghe was speechless.

This person hadn’t snuck in to steal stuff, had they? Otherwise, why demand money right away?

“How much do you want?”

Zhou Xufang said, “Two million.”

Damn! Extortion!

Luo Yinghe immediately became alert, “Who sent you?”

Zhou Xufang didn’t answer but asked, “Do you want them untied?” She held the flashlight upright, the white beam illuminating her face, her peculiar glasses flashing red.

Looking at her getup, she didn’t seem like a good person. Luo Yinghe felt more and more panicked and a bit scared, “…Un-tie them.”

Zhou Xufang then untied the ropes from her feet.

Yes! Two million in hand.

She would take it to buy fashionable clothes for Jiang Zhi.

Luo Yinghe flexed her numb feet and shakily stretched out her hands, “And my hands.”

“That’s another two million,” Zhou Xufang explained, “Hands and feet are separate.”

Luo Yinghe was speechless. Damn it!

Oh right, Zhou Xufang added, “And the waist too, also two million.”

Luo Yinghe was speechless again. Damn, damn! She gritted her teeth, both angry and scared, “Untie all of them.”

Zhou Xufang, wearing a pitch-black skull mask, grinned but held back her laughter and lowered her voice, “Six million in total, I’ll send you the account number. Don’t delay the payment, it has to be in by tomorrow.”

Luo Yinghe’s teeth were nearly ground to dust.

After the ropes were untied, she immediately asked, “Who exactly sent you?”

Zhou Xufang, all business, replied seriously, “Asking questions costs two million.” She was upfront about her rates, “Two million per question.”

Luo Yinghe was speechless.

Had this criminal just seen dollar signs?

Money-eyed Zhou Xufang asked, “Any more questions?”

Luo Yinghe’s face turned green with anger, she wanted to curse but didn’t dare, instead leaning on a wine rack to stand up, “No more questions!”

She left Zhou Xufang behind and started walking briskly. As the lights weren’t on, only a bit of flashlight illumination was available, and she couldn’t see the floor properly. Within a few steps, she tripped over a rope, staggered, and fell forward.

“Thunk!”

A heavy thud.

Luo Yinghe’s head hit an oak barrel filled with red wine squarely.

“Thump~thump~thump~”

Echoes of her head hitting resounded in the wine cellar.

From that hit, Luo Yinghe felt dizzy and saw black. It took her several steps, leaning on the wall for support, before she steadied herself and yelled back, “Why didn’t you catch me!”

Zhou Xufang, devoid of emotion, “Catching you costs money.”

“…”

Luo Yinghe, furious, punched the wooden barrel, producing a loud sound.

Zhou Xufang could tell the barrel was empty. She scanned the wine cellar, finding it odd that it was very clean except for this oak barrel, which was thickly covered in dust and even had mold growing on the wood.

It looked very strange.

Zhou Xufang stepped closer to examine it.

Luo Yinghe, fearful of the dark and not daring to walk alone, called out to her, “Are you coming or not!”

Zhou Xufang ignored her, wearing gloves and knocked on the barrel.

Luo Yinghe thought this person was crazy, “What are you doing?”

“Move aside.”

Luo Yinghe backed away while mustering the courage to talk back, “Don’t mess with my family’s stuff, that costs money!”

Zhou Xufang pulled out a military dagger from her backpack.

Luo Yinghe immediately shut up.

Where on earth did this thief come from?!

Thief Zhou Xufang placed the flashlight around her neck and started prying open the barrel with the dagger in her hand. The oak wood had rotted and was soft, and she easily pried it open without much effort.

As the barrel burst open, a waterfall of sounds followed and a pile of bones rolled out.