Tang Dynasty Puppet Doctor

Chapter 22: Painting the Skeleton's Appearance Before Life

"This Xiao Zhongcheng is a descendant of the renowned Lanling Xiao family. At the age of eleven, he was already renowned for his exceptional talent and beauty. However, his entire clan was later suspected of treason and exterminated by the Sage. He was destined to die, but because of a poem he wrote, he earned the sympathy of the current Sage..."

When Lu Shiyilang said this, he was met with a glare from Lu Ling, and he took back the rest of his words.

At the same time, Murong Huan heard the voice of a constable: "This is it, Lu Shaoqing, I have ordered everyone to pull out the corpse at the bottom of the well!"

As the sound came, the abandoned old house in her dream appeared before her eyes.

Although it has been abandoned for a long time, it can still be seen that this is an aristocratic mansion with lofty pavilions and magnificent palaces. In front of the gate there are golden animal faces and colorful dragon heads, but the dragon heads seem to have been cut off in half by a sharp blade, making them look shabby and dilapidated.

Looking at the mansion, the red-clothed youth, Lu Shiyilang, sighed softly and walked forward to introduce it to Murong Huan, saying, "This was once the residence of Prince Huo, Li Yuangui. Prince Huo, Emperor Taizong's younger brother, was quite capable and trusted by Emperor Taizong. Later, when Emperor Gaozong ascended the throne, he still entrusted him with important tasks. Unfortunately... in the fourth year of the Chuigong reign, the Prince of Yue and the Prince of Langya rebelled, and Prince Huo was implicated. Falsely accused by Zhou Xing, he and nearly a thousand members of the Li Tang royal family and their families were killed. Originally, this mansion was to be reclaimed by the court, but then something happened, and a sorcerer declared the mansion unlucky, so it was abandoned."

"What happened?" Murong Huan asked.

"During that time, several young girls disappeared in Luoyang City. Night watchmen reported seeing a female ghost in this house, and the house was subsequently sealed off!"

Murong Huan noticed that when Lu Shiyilang mentioned the missing girl, Lu Ling's footsteps suddenly stopped, his body tensed, and he looked quite depressed.

"What about those missing girls? Were they found?"

"No, we haven't found any. To this day, no one has been found."

"So you suspect the remains pulled from the well are most likely those missing girls?"

Murong Huan asked, and at the same time took a step forward and stepped over the threshold. Immediately, another bleak, desolate and even somewhat terrifying scene appeared before his eyes.

Su Sanlang couldn't help but let out a scream of horror when he saw this.

Ah Shu was so scared that she quickly hid behind Murong Huan.

Murong Huan suddenly felt a sense of desolation in his heart, and he stopped in his tracks, his gaze fixed on the seven or eight corpses neatly arranged on the ground by several constables.

Lu Shiyilang replied, "That's right, because you said you could draw Bai Gu's appearance when he was alive, so Shilang...that is, Lu Shaoqing brought you here."

"How is it? Can you really draw it?" he asked again jokingly.

Murong Huan pondered for a moment and said, "Prepare pen, ink, paper and inkstone for me!"

Lu Shiyilang's eyes lit up again, and he pointed at the skeletons in disbelief. "It's already like this, and you can really draw it?"

"It doesn't matter if you can't draw it. Juro isn't a heartless person. He has a sharp tongue but a soft heart. As long as you're not the murderer, he won't do anything to you."

In response to Lu Shiyilang's kindness, Murong Huan just smiled and nodded, then walked to the corpses, squatted down, and touched the heads one by one.

"Ah Huan, that's scary. Why are you touching them?"

Ah Shu ran over to persuade her, but she was so frightened that she trembled and didn't dare to take another step forward.

"I said, they are not scary, they are all pitiful people!" Murong Huan said.

When Su Sanlang heard this, a rare look of shame appeared on his face.

"Why didn't you think of searching the bottom of the well before?" Murong Huan suddenly asked.

Lu Shiyilang replied, "Because Zhou Jiulang didn't allow us to search, and this well had been filled in before, we couldn't see its original appearance. It was because Zhou Jiulang happened to die next to this well that we discovered the abnormality of this place. We ordered people to dig deeper, and finally dug out this well!"

"Speaking of which, I really admire the murderer who killed Zhou Jiulang. He is a chivalrous man who eliminates harm for the people. He is so brave!"

Lu Shiyilang sighed, and Lu Ling glared at him again. Lu Shiyilang then bowed and stopped talking.

At this time, a clerk brought writing brush, ink, paper and inkstone.

Lu Ling asked the chief clerk to place the writing brush, ink, paper and inkstone in front of Murong Huan. He also asked someone to bring a screen, spread white paper on it, and let Murong Huan paint.

Murong Huan did not hesitate and began to trace the bones in front of him on paper.

Lu Shiyilang watched impatiently from the side until the first skeleton appeared as a beautiful woman under Murong Huan's pen.

"She's a beauty! And she looks no older than 15 years old. What a shame!"

Immediately afterwards, the second skeleton appeared!

It was not until the fourth skeleton's appearance before death appeared on the paper that Su Sanlang could not help but scream again!
"That's her! I've been dreaming about her a lot lately. She's always calling for help in my dreams, asking me to save them. She told me to report it to the police, but I didn't. I was scared... I was afraid that my Su family would be implicated!"

Upon hearing this, Lu Shiyilang immediately turned Su Sanlang over and asked, "Have you seen the woman in this painting?"

Su Sanlang nodded subconsciously, then shook his head desperately.

"No, I haven't! I haven't!"

Su Sanlang still didn't dare to admit it, so Murong Huan followed up, "Now that Zhou Jiulang is dead, you don't have to be so afraid to hide it!" "Even though Zhou Jiulang is dead, he still has his father, Minister Zhou. If Minister Zhou wasn't around, Zhou Jiulang wouldn't dare to be so lawless and disregard human life!"

Lu Shiyilang was displeased after hearing this. He half-comforted and half-threatened, "Su San, with our Lu Shaoqing here, Minister Zhou wouldn't dare do anything to you. Otherwise, even if you don't want to talk, our Lu Shaoqing will find a way to make you talk. Do you think the Dali Temple prison is just for show?"

Lu Ling also cast a cold light over.

Su Sanlang immediately knelt down timidly: "Lu Shaoqing, spare my life, I will tell you! I will tell you everything!"

After sorting out his frightened and chaotic thoughts, Su Sanlang said:
"A year ago, I came here with Zhou Jiulang and the two young men from the Guo and Hou families. At that time, I saw several young girls kneeling on the ground in this courtyard. Their hands were bound and their mouths were stuffed with cloth. It seemed that Zhou Jiulang had just ordered people to take these decent girls from somewhere. Oh, and he also said that some of them were seized during house searches!"

A year ago, when the sage first ascended the throne, Zhou Xing, as a knife in the hands of the Wu family, indeed caused many prime ministers and princes of the royal family to be unjustly killed. Among them were Prime Minister Wei Fangzhi, Prince Ze Li Shangjin and his brother Prince Xu Li Sujie. Most of the men in their clan were killed on the way to exile, and their women were sent to the Ye Ting or the Jiaofangsi.

"Zhou Jiulang said he'd found a new way to play. Not only did he strip the girls naked and humiliate and whip them, he also used some extremely cruel torture!" Su Sanlang pointed at the fourth woman Murong Huan had drawn. "That's her. I was hiding in the dark at the time, but I could clearly see her face through the crack in the door. Coincidentally, she looked at me. Although her mouth was blocked and she couldn't speak, I knew she was begging me to save them. Oh, and there's a plum blossom mark on her body."

Hearing this, Lu Shiyilang couldn't help but shout, "You're worse than an animal!" He couldn't help but lift Su Sanlang's collar, "Why didn't you report it to the police? Even if you couldn't save them by yourself, if you had reported it to the police and called the Dali Temple, they wouldn't have died!"

"I, I thought about it, but Zhou Jiulang said that if I said a single word, he would have his father exterminate my entire family. I dare not... I really don't dare..."

Su Sanlang kowtowed repeatedly, and when his eyes swept over the woman in the painting, he couldn't help but lower his head in fear, sobbing in silence.

The abandoned house of Prince Huo was silent for a moment, seeming even more eerie and terrifying. For a long while, it seemed that only the sound of pen hitting paper could be heard.

After an unknown amount of time, Murong Huan said, "I've finished the painting! Come and see it!"

Seeing each person's portrait in the painting, Ah Shu was no longer afraid. Instead, she sighed with regret: "This is what they looked like when they were alive! What a beautiful time of their lives! And they are all so beautiful!"

When Lu Ling saw the last portrait, he was slightly stunned. He suddenly tore off the portrait and put it away. When Lu Shiyilang turned around, he saw that the portrait was crumpled in his palm.

"Who is this? Let me see!"

"stop looking!"

Lu Ling suddenly shouted loudly, exerted a little force with his hand, and the portrait turned into pieces.

Lu Shiyilang was stunned. He picked up some fragments and tried to piece them together, but he couldn't put them together.

"Who is this last one?" he asked Murong Huan anxiously.

"I do not know!"

"Then draw it for me again. I didn't see it!"

"Axun, stop asking!" Lu Ling interrupted again and said, "Let's just leave it at that!"

He then said to the constables, "Take these corpses back and bury them properly!"

"There's someone you know, right?" Lu Shiyilang couldn't help but turn around and ask Lu Ling, "Is he the person you're looking for? Or is he the person I'm looking for?"

Lu Ling didn't answer. At this moment, a clear voice came from outside the house, saying, "Lu Shaoqing, do you no longer want to investigate the case? Do you think Zhou Jiulang's death was not a pity, and there is no need to investigate the murderer anymore?"

Lu Ling looked back and saw that it was Xiao Muchen who walked into the house with a guard.

"Zhongcheng Xiao is also interested in this case?"

"I'm more interested in the murderer who killed Zhou Jiulang!"

After Xiao Muchen said this, he came to Murong Huan, glanced at her first, and then cast his gaze on the portraits she had drawn one after another!

"Great painting! Very lifelike, very talented!"

After praising her, he looked at the corpses lying on the ground and sighed, "So many young girls were murdered unjustly, dying in their prime years. What a pity!"

Lu Ling was silent for a moment, then sighed, "It's a shame, indeed, but they couldn't get justice for their deaths. They didn't even leave their names behind after death. They're just a few bones. If it weren't for Su Silang drawing their appearances in life, I'm afraid no one would know who they were."

Xiao Muchen said, "Since Lu Shaoqing also lamented that these girls suffered injustice in their lives and were nameless after their deaths, why is he unwilling to tell this Lu Shiyilang who this last skeleton belongs to?"

Lu Ling suddenly raised his head and looked at Xiao Muchen with a stern gaze.

Xiao Muchen continued, "If I'm not mistaken, this last skeleton should be the youngest daughter of Prince Ze Li Shangjin. After Prince Ze Li Shangjin and his brother were forced to death in prison by Zhou Xing, Zhou Xing brought Zhou Jiulang to search their homes. At that time, the women were confiscated by the Jiaofang Division, but when the people from the Taichang Temple counted the roster, they found one person missing. This person was Prince Ze's youngest daughter, Li Xiaomei!"

When he mentioned the name Li Xiaomei, Lu Shiyilang's eyes changed completely. He murmured "Li Xiaomei" several times, and suddenly ran to the skeleton, reaching out his trembling hand to touch the skull.

"Xiaomei...Xiaomei..."

Silent anger spread around him. After whispering for a long time, he suddenly stood up and ran to Su Sanlang, grabbed Su Sanlang's shirt and asked angrily, "Why did Zhou Jiulang kill them?"

(End of this chapter)