TGCFNM -Chapter 68 No Ghosts

Lu Shiming unlocked the door and slowly pushed open the courtyard gate, gesturing for Chu Ling to enter first.

Chu Ling glanced around, then turned her gaze toward a certain spot.

Bai Su shook her head slightly at her. “I don’t see any ghosts.”

“Master, what are you looking at?” Yang Huaishan asked curiously.

“The place where my mother was stabbed,” Lu Shiming said, pointing to the spot Chu Ling had been observing. “Master, you noticed it immediately—amazing.”

Chu Ling cleared her throat lightly, masking her reaction, and briskly walked over.

“This is… the study?” Chu Ling looked back at Lu Shiming and asked.

Lu Shiming nodded. “It’s a small study. My mother would organize accounts here, and Uncle Lu sometimes brought me and my brother here to study.”

Chu Ling hummed in acknowledgment and walked over. “After your mother’s death, Uncle Lu locked this courtyard gate. That means no one has come in, no one has cleaned, so these bloodstains have remained.”

“Yes,” Lu Shiming said sadly. “When Uncle Lu saw that scene, he immediately took my brother to the government office and carried my mother out. The gate was locked afterward, and no one approached.”

Chu Ling crouched slightly, examining the bloodstains on the ground.

In other words, the crime scene had not been tampered with—this was actually good news.

Yang Huaishan also stepped closer, looking at the blood on the ground. His face went pale, and he trembled. “So much blood…”

Chu Ling nodded. “It is a lot, but the distribution of the blood is somewhat strange.” She hesitated, then stood up and asked Lu Shiming to fetch a short branch.

“Hold this end,” Chu Ling instructed Yang Huaishan.

Yang Huaishan immediately grabbed it.

Chu Ling positioned the other end toward her own abdomen, then looked at Lu Shiming. “This close?”

“Uncle Lu said they were less than a foot apart, maybe even closer,” Lu Shiming demonstrated with his hands.

Frowning, Chu Ling snapped the branch slightly, adjusting the distance, and looked at Lu Shiming again.

Lu Shiming nodded.

Suddenly, Chu Ling grabbed the branch and jabbed it toward her own abdomen. Yang Huaishan jumped in shock, quickly reaching out. “Master, are you crazy?”

Chu Ling released her grip and looked at them. “How tall is Lu Anming?”

“As tall as me,” Yang Huaishan replied.

“And your mother?” Chu Ling asked Lu Shiming.

Lu Shiming studied her briefly. “About a head shorter than you, Master.”

Chu Ling measured Yang Huaishan’s height with her hand, glanced at the branch aimed at her abdomen, then placed her hand under her neck and shifted the branch slightly downward, murmuring, “This is roughly the posture.”

“Master, what’s wrong?” Yang Huaishan held the branch tightly, afraid she would stab herself again.

Ghost Scholar had already caught on and explained to Bai Su and Cui Xi beside him, “With this height difference, if the man stabbed the woman, the blood shouldn’t be on the floor like this.”

Chu Ling released the branch and explained to them. “Normally, when a stab is delivered, blood would spurt outward. So Lu Anming’s chest down to above the waist should be covered in quite a bit of blood.”

Lu Shiming scratched his head. “I… I don’t know. I didn’t see it.”

Chu Ling pointed to the blood on the ground. “Look. If someone is stabbed from the front, people would naturally dodge. According to your Uncle Lu, your mother and Lu Anming were only a foot apart—but that can’t be right.”

“Also, if your mother was truly shocked and didn’t dodge, then the spot where Lu Anming was standing would have blocked the blood splatter, meaning there should be a gap. But look at the floor—there isn’t one.”

Lu Shiming’s eyes widened in shock.

Chu Ling exhaled and continued, “Actually, under normal circumstances, whether someone anticipates it or is shocked, the body reacts before the mind. That is to say, if someone is being attacked, their body will instinctively dodge, rather than just stand rigidly and take the blow.”

Lu Shiming murmured, “So, what Uncle Lu saw doesn’t add up.”

“Are there any other witnesses?” Chu Ling asked. If there were more testimony, at least Lu Anming wouldn’t be in immediate danger.

Lu Shiming shook his head. “Only the maid heard the argument inside, but she didn’t know what it was about. She just hurried away to avoid it.”

Chu Ling frowned. “So the maid testified about the argument, your Uncle Lu personally claimed your mother was killed by your brother, and the authorities—based on just these two witnesses—directly handed down a death sentence?”

“Yes,” said Lu Shiming.

Chu Ling clicked her tongue and said helplessly, “Was there an autopsy?”

“No…” Lu Shiming pressed his lips together. “Uncle Lu was too distraught, so there was no autopsy.”

Chu Ling clasped her hands behind her back and looked at Lu Shiming with a serious expression. “The evidence I’ve found so far is enough to show that something likely did happen between your mother and your brother. But whether your brother actually killed your mother, we still can’t conclude with certainty.”

Tears glimmered in Lu Shiming’s eyes. The feelings he had been suppressing all this time suddenly burst out, and tears fell instantly. “Master Chu, thank you, thank you, truly, thank you.”

These past days had been unbearable. His mother’s death had hit him hard, and with Uncle Lu personally accusing his brother, he had felt utterly powerless.

But now—now there was a new lead.

So, it definitely wasn’t his brother who killed his mother! It definitely wasn’t!

“I’ll go take a look inside the study,” Chu Ling said.

Lu Shiming wiped his eyes with his sleeve. “Master, feel free to look around, look anywhere.”

Chu Ling nodded and stepped into the study. Her eyes scanned the entire wall of books before stopping at the desk, where some books lay casually open.

One was Yunxiang Ji, the other a miscellany.

Clearly, one was a book a woman would enjoy, the other something a man might like. The two books were placed together, along with two rocking chairs—indicating the two often read together.

On the other side of the desk were account books, with circles drawn in ink, apparently marking mistakes.

“Master, can you see anything?” Yang Huaishan looked around as well, but really couldn’t find anything.

Ghost Scholar shook his head slowly as he looked at Chu Ling. There were still no ghosts in the study.

This was strange. If a person had died unjustly, their spirit would linger at the scene of their death. But here, there was nothing.

“Tonight, we should go to Madam Lu’s grave. An autopsy is necessary. Without it, there can be no conclusion,” Chu Ling murmured softly.

If even at the grave there was no ghost of Madam Lu, it would mean she harbored no lingering attachment, no resentment. Her death was either natural or willingly accepted.

Yang Huaishan spoke softly, “Maybe we shouldn’t tell Lu Shiming about the autopsy. He… he might not be able to handle it.”

“Yes. We’ll tell him after the autopsy,” Chu Ling replied.

Yang Huaishan nodded, then let out a relieved breath. “Master, when you said it might not have been Lu Anming who committed the murder, it really eased my mind. I trust him, but my heart still hesitated.”

“That’s normal,” Chu Ling said. “Who hasn’t felt a moment of malice? Some people might be good all their lives, yet in a single instant, a murderous impulse can arise. It’s possible to kill in that moment.”

Yang Huaishan murmured, “I hope he’s not that kind of person.”