Chapter Four: The Plum Blossom Weeps Blood Chapter Twenty-Six: The Search Yields Nothing

The Ministry of Justice’s decree never arrived, but an imperial edict came instead, dismissing the Prefect from office! No one knew what the edict contained. The following day, the Prefect was found to have committed suicide in his study under mysterious circumstances.

Those who had accompanied the Chief Historian of Central Province to investigate the incident in Xiaqiu County spent a month there and reached this conclusion:

At the Chancellor's residence, every soul vanished overnight. There was no blood, no signs of struggle—murder was ruled out. Nothing poisonous was detected—revenge was excluded. Not a single item was missing—robbery was dismissed. The ladies of the household were known for their virtue, beyond reproach—crime of passion, ruled out!

No one had heard of the family planning to leave en masse; no one heard anything unusual that night, making the theory of voluntary departure seem absurd.

The only thing known was that, on the afternoon before the disappearance, a visitor came to call on the Chancellor. That evening, the household was reportedly hosting a lively banquet. This confirmed everyone was indeed at home. Unfortunately, none of the neighbors recognized the visitor; they only noted he carried arms, appearing to be a military man.

Reading this, Yubing found herself beset by countless questions:

Who was he? What was his connection to the Chancellor? Why did he come that night? What did he take with him?

She pressed her fingers to her brow, forcing herself to set aside these unanswerable riddles and continue reading:

Their bodies have yet to be found—over a hundred people, big and small! At first, everyone thought they had gone to a relative’s house, but half a month passed, and there was still no word.

The authorities finally began investigating it as a disappearance. They searched the entire mansion but found nothing.

Then, an official accidentally broke off a branch from a plum tree in the courtyard, and from the wound, bright red blood began to flow!

In an instant, the snowy white plum blossoms turned blood-red, and some claimed to hear the faint sobbing of a female ghost.

The official who broke the branch fainted on the spot, fell gravely ill, and babbled deliriously until his death, repeatedly murmuring, “The plum blossoms cried! The plum blossoms bled!”

News of the haunting spread.

From then on, the place became a haunted courtyard, avoided by all.

“Yubing, do you believe in ghosts?” Zhang Huai put down his scroll and looked at her with confusion.

“If one does nothing wrong, one need not fear a midnight knock at the door,” Yubing replied without lifting her eyes, too busy to waste words with him. She snatched the case file from his hands and studied it closely—the record of the Prefect’s mysterious suicide.

The Mysterious Suicide of the Prefect

Everyone knew it was not suicide. Yet, there was no evidence of murder either! How did he truly die?

This was the first line Yubing saw upon opening the file. Driven by curiosity, she read on:

In the late second month of the Shangyuan year, at night.

In the third watch, the Prefect’s wife, fearing the lateness, brought him a midnight snack. As she walked along the outer gallery, she heard strange sounds from within. The darkness was so thick she could not see her hand before her face.

Afraid, she called her husband’s name, but no matter how she cried, there was no answer.

The door was tightly shut. In panic, she mustered all her strength and finally broke it open.

She was then horrified to see her husband suspended beneath the beam, ghostly pale and clearly dead for some time, his body swaying without a breeze.

The wife screamed in terror and fainted.

Hearing her cry, the servant rushed over and saw the body hanging in mid-air, unsupported, as if an invisible hand grasped his collar, shaking it as though demanding he surrender something.

The servant, shrieking in fright, dared not enter, and immediately ran to report the case.

When the constables arrived, just as they stepped inside, a chorus of crowing roosters sounded outside.

Instantly, the body fell without warning—as if something had been scared away by the rooster’s call!

The coroner examined the corpse and found the cause of death was suffocation, the neck blocked tightly by something. The skin bore a swollen abscess, and the neck’s surface was torn open by the dead man’s own nails, blood flowing freely.

The coroner cut it open but found nothing inside. The mansion was searched thoroughly, but no trace of a second person, nor any e