Compendio de hombres apuestos en el mundo de las artes marciales

Capítulo 113

As soon as Qingzi saw Duan Chen, she sidled up to him, her big, cat-like eyes first glaring at the Zhan brothers, Zhan Huan and Zhan Yun, then pouting as she looked at Duan Chen: "Xiao Luo, I chatted with Sister Qin all day. Master was so annoyed by our nagging, and you didn't even come..."

Qin Qin smiled and glanced at Duan Chen, then stepped forward and took her hand: "You're leaving in just a couple of days, aren't you? You two will be spending a lot of time together in the future, so spend these few days with us, and Master Xiao too. Let's go shopping and have some tea together, instead of always staying at home."

Duan Chen didn't know what to say, so he just nodded and tried to force a smile. Qing Zi and Qin Qin then pulled Duan Chen to the table on either side and sat him down, chatting and laughing as they did so.

Xiao Yiyi glanced sideways

Chapter Two: Green Hair and Sweet Words...

She glanced at the two unfortunate brothers, smiled wryly, and followed the three girls to sit down. In her heart, she thought that Zhan Ye had taught them very well. Xiao Yiyi sipped her tea, narrowed her eyes, and a bright smile appeared on her lips. If she were fifteen or sixteen years younger, she might consider marrying a man from the Zhan family for fun…

Author's Note: There will be an update tomorrow at 9 AM!

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Chapter Three: Gardenias • A Chance Encounter...

The next morning, Zhan Yun cut a bunch of snow-white gardenias and took Duan Chen to the cemetery behind the villa to pay his respects. Duan Chen stood to one side, while Zhan Yun knelt on one knee in front of the tombstone. He first poured three cups of clear wine, then untied the gardenias and scattered them on the ground in front of the tombstone.

He spoke softly for a while, and then turned slightly to the side, extending his hand to Duan Chen. His handsome face was adorned with a warm smile, and his usually gentle crescent-shaped eyes reflected a faint glimmer of water.

Duan Chen stepped forward, a slight smile playing on his lips, and placed his hand in Zhan Yun's palm. Then, to Zhan Yun's surprise, Duan Chen bowed slightly and knelt down before Jing Ruchu's grave, bowing three times respectfully, and then softly calling out, "Mother."

This sound delighted Zhan Yun, filling her heart with warmth and brightness. After a moment of commotion, her breathing gradually lost its usual calm rhythm. Her crescent-shaped eyes almost became crescent moons, and her slightly pink lips opened and closed, unable to utter a single word for a long time!

Duan Chen remained calm and softly said to the tombstone, "Please rest in peace, Mother. Duan Chen hereby swears that in this life and the next, I will treat Zhan Yun well, never cause him any sorrow, and never betray his affection..."

Zhan Yun blinked her crescent-shaped eyes, almost bursting out laughing. Shouldn't these be the kinds of promises a man makes to his girlfriend's parents? But looking at Duan Chen's serious, furrowed brows, a warm feeling welled up in her heart. She turned to look at the gray stone tablet, a gentle smile curving her lips, and silently murmured in her heart: Mother, you should be at ease now.

The two walked hand in hand back to the villa. As they passed a secluded flower garden, Zhan Yun couldn't help but stop and asked with a smile, "Chen'er, you already call my mother 'Mother,' so why are you still calling me Zhan Yun?"

Duan Chen didn't think so much about it. He only felt that his childhood was marked by a great upheaval, with the sudden loss of his family members, which was very different from Zhan Yun's experience of losing his mother after growing up. For more than ten years, he hadn't visited the Bianjing cemetery even once, and the voices and smiles of his loved ones were already etched in his heart. At first, he wanted to go but couldn't, but in recent years, he had gradually come to understand and was no longer fixated on the matter of paying respects.

Since his mother's passing, Zhan Yun had been tending to her grave for many years. Whenever he was at the mountain villa, he would go to the grave every two or three days to clean it, cut flowers, offer wine, and talk to Jing Ruchu. Before, he had only spoken casually to her, but seeing it with his own eyes just now, the words he spoke in front of the tombstone alone were incredibly heartbreaking.

Now that the two have been gone for almost half a year, and it was to fulfill a long-cherished wish of hers to accompany him, Duan Chen felt somewhat guilty. In addition, he had great respect for this extraordinary woman who was once famous in the Jiangnan region, so Duan Chen simply called her "Mother" in advance and made some promises, both to comfort Jing Ruchu in the afterlife and to reassure Zhan Yun not to be too saddened.

Therefore, Zhan Yun's sudden question caught Duan Chen off guard, and he immediately looked at him and asked in return, "Otherwise, what should I call you?"

Zhan Yun smiled slightly and coaxed, "Call me Xingzhi. Or just Yun." Anyway, Jing Ruchu had never called him by his courtesy name since he was a child, so calling him "Yun" alone felt very intimate to him.

Duan Chen pursed his lips, glanced at him, and then looked ahead: "Go ahead."

Zhan Yun could tell she was a little awkward, so he stopped teasing her and, with a gentle smile, took her hand and led her back to the front hall.

Originally, Duan Chen had planned to go for a stroll with Qingzi and the others after visiting Jing Ruchu. However, upon entering the house, not only Qin Qin, Qingzi, and Xiao Yiyi, but also Zhan Huan and Zhan Ye were there, along with two young men who appeared to be constables. Upon seeing the two return, everyone's expressions subtly changed. The two constables turned around, first bowing respectfully to Zhan Yun, then hesitantly scrutinizing Duan Chen.

The two exchanged a glance, and the older one spoke first: "I wonder if this is Young Master Duan?"

Since Duan Chen had become Zhan Yun's fiancée, she no longer needed to care about her identity as a woman disguised as a man, so she readily nodded: "I am."

The young constable was starting to lose his composure. Upon hearing this, he gasped, his eyes widening in surprise. How could this be different from what his master had said! The older constable beside him coughed twice, then smiled and looked at Duan Chen: "It's like this. Two years ago, my master received help from Young Master Duan and has always praised his exceptional talent and wisdom..."

Duan Chen nodded slightly, indicating that he remembered the matter. The constable then smiled and continued, "Several bizarre cases have recently occurred in Suzhou. We have been investigating for over a month, but we still haven't made any progress. The other day, we heard that Young Master Duan is currently at Xingyun Manor, so my master sent the two of us here to ask Young Master Duan for some guidance."

Duan Chen subconsciously looked up at Zhan Ye, only to see the other party smiling slightly as he put down his teacup, glancing meaningfully at Zhan Yun beside him, and sighing softly, "Xingzhi, Chen'er, judging from the situation, you two won't be able to leave for a while."

Xiao Yiyi laughed along, "Looks like we can't go shopping today. Qinqin, Qingzi, why don't the three of us go have some tea?" After waiting for a while, they finally saw Duan Chen brought back by the boy, but then something else came up. Duan Chen couldn't stand idly by in such matters, and when Xiao Yiyi and Qingzi saw someone in official robes enter the room, they knew things were probably not going well.

Qingzi wasn't angry this time. She just glanced at Zhan Yun and stared at him with her big, cat-like eyes: "You have to protect Xiao Luo, understand?"

Zhan Yun nodded repeatedly under Qing Zi's sweet scolding, promising everything. Xiao Yiyi laughed heartily, and Qin Qin also turned her head and chuckled softly. Finally, everyone boarded two carriages. Xiao Yiyi and the other two, along with two maids, rode slowly through the city for sightseeing. Zhan Yun and Duan Chen, along with two constables from Suzhou Prefecture, boarded the other carriage and hurried to the Suzhou Prefecture government office.

On the way, one of the constables took out several sheets of paper from his pocket, which recorded the basic information of three women who had died tragically in the city over the past month. The first woman, who had died more than forty days ago, was Yang Xiaoru, Zhan Yun's cousin.

Duan Chen and Zhan Yun quickly finished reading the contents of the paper, then looked up at the two constables: "How did you connect the three cases?"

The older constable smiled and said, "To be honest, Suzhou has been very peaceful ever since that case two years ago. We officers are strict about maintaining order in the city. There are only a few cases of people dying in a year, and they are mostly just fights between hooligans or family squabbles that have escalated into big trouble. We can usually solve the cases within three days."

“But this time, from the very first case, when we adults saw the girl’s body, we shook our heads and said something was wrong.” The constable said, and sighed. “At first, no one believed it. Some people even suspected that the woman’s husband did it, after all, the Yang family left in a very hurry… But more than ten days later, another case occurred. It was the same young and beautiful young woman, and she was strangled to death with a strip of cloth. Gradually, everyone realized that something was wrong.”

The younger man next to him chimed in, “We’ve been investigating ever since the second case, but we really haven’t made a single clue! Until a few days ago when another person died, my master got a little anxious. Last night, he went to the coroner’s office again to examine the body and gave us all a dressing down. Then, he casually mentioned your name…” In addition, Lord Ding had a chance encounter with Zhan Ye in the city a few days ago and knew that Duan Chen was at Xingyun Manor, so he sent his men over early this morning to ask for help.

Zhan Yun looked at Duan Chen's pensive expression and then turned to the two constables with a slight smile: "Later, we'll need your help to take us to the coroner's office."

The two constables nodded repeatedly: "Of course."

Upon entering the Suzhou government office, the two exchanged brief pleasantries with Lord Ding, and were then led by constables to the coroner's office in the back courtyard. The on-duty coroner assisted them, with Zhan Yun reviewing previous autopsy records while reading them aloud in a soft voice, and Duan Chen carefully examining the only corpse.

The first victim had already been transported back to his hometown. The second victim's body had decomposed severely due to the passage of time, so they could only be identified from previous records. Duan Chen listened as Zhan Yun read out the details, carefully examining each part of the corpse before him.

The deceased was only in her early twenties, with delicate features and a petite figure. Aside from a circular ligature mark on her neck, there were no other signs of abuse. The coroner added, "When this young woman was found, her clothes were perfectly neat; even the tassels at her waist had been carefully smoothed..."

Duan Chen looked up upon hearing this, his brows furrowing slightly: "What you mean, sir..."

"I wouldn't dare," the old man hurriedly waved his hand, then continued to explain, "In my humble opinion, the murderer must have stayed at the scene for quite some time and left very calmly." The deceased's clothes were neatly pressed, and the hairpins and accessories in her hair were all worn in an orderly fashion, even the pale pink tassels at her waist were combed perfectly. If it weren't for the fact that the previous two cases were also like this, at first glance one might have thought it was a suicide.

Duan Chen and Zhan Yun exchanged a glance, thanked the coroner, and then went to the front hall together to hear Lord Ding and the registrar explain the details of the case.

All three victims were married young women. The youngest, Yang Xiaoru, was not yet twenty, while the oldest, the woman who was murdered a few days ago, was only twenty-four or twenty-five. The three victims also came from different family backgrounds. Yang Xiaoru came from a merchant family, while the other two victims' husbands were either owners of a security escort agency or small-time street vendors.

Yang Xiaoru was strangled to death with a white cloth strip at the inn. The other two victims died in different places: one in a back alley of a teahouse and the other in their own bed. However, the cloth strip used in the murder was not found near the latter two victims.

Based on the fact that all three victims died from asphyxiation caused by being strangled with cloth strips or similar objects, and that the time interval between their deaths was approximately twelve to fifteen days, and that their clothing and accessories showed signs of being tidied up after their deaths, the Suzhou Prefecture has grouped the three cases together. The constables under Lord Ding have been investigating for nearly a month, but the case remains unsolved. The only clues left at the scene, besides a still well-preserved body, are the white cotton strip used to strangle Yang Xiaoru.