Chapter 165: The Incident of the Old Man in West City Swallowing the Sword (Part 2)
When they were outside the door just now, Sun Chengtao was the most noisy and jumpy one, but after entering the door and really facing the old man who died with his eyes open, he immediately fell silent.
Sun Chengye was relatively okay, but his throat kept moving. It was obvious that he was imagining how painful it would be to swallow the iron sword.
Yu Qian was silent for a while, then suddenly bowed to the corpse and said, "Father, I'm sorry for the offense."
The Sun brothers finally woke up from their dream and hurriedly stepped forward to pay their respects.
"Finding out the truth will be the greatest comfort to the deceased."
Sun Shaozong took out his pocket watch and checked the time. He said, "It is now 15:00 in the afternoon. I will give you 15 minutes to search the room for anything you want. You can also ask the detectives who were in charge of searching for evidence. Okay, let's get started."
Pah~
He closed the watch cover with a crisp sound and walked out.
The three people in the room looked at each other for a long while before they took action.
However, at first, they did not go close to examine the body.
It was not until half a quarter of an hour later that Yu Qian was the first to come closer...
"It's about time."
A quarter of an hour later, Sun Shaozong came in from outside and raised his eyebrows and said, "Tell me, what did you see?"
The three of them pushed each other around for a while, and it was Sun Chengye who spoke first. He bowed and said, "Uncle, is there less blood flowing from the throat of this corpse?"
Sun Shaozong waved his hand and said, "Don't ask me, just make your own judgment."
"Yes, then my nephew will just say it as a lie."
Sun Chengye then continued, "Last time, one of my servants accidentally bit his tongue, and the amount of blood that flowed out was much more than this. Logically speaking, since it is a fatal external injury, the amount of blood should not be limited to this."
"What else?"
"Also, this iron sword looks shiny, but it's actually not sharpened. It's really strange to kill someone with a blunt sword."
"besides."
Yu Qian hesitated when he heard him say this, and quickly added: "It is not easy to keep the head raised and insert the iron sword. If the murderer is alone, it would be difficult to do it!"
"So, there is more than one murderer?!"
Sun Chengtao exclaimed, "How could he, a 70-year-old man, offend such an enemy? And his method was so cruel?"
Without waiting for others to respond, he asked himself with a look of horror: "Could it be that someone deliberately killed the old man who was going to the palace to celebrate the birthday, so as to demonstrate to Your Majesty?! If so, wouldn't the murderer be a group of heartless and insane people who have no father or king?!"
As he spoke, he was shaking, not sure whether from fear or anger.
This guy has a really big brain hole...
Sun Shaozong asked the other two speechlessly: "What do you think?"
Sun Chengye bowed again and said, "My nephew always feels that Qilang's inference seems to be wrong ."
Yu Qian also nodded and said, "From my perspective... it seems that the old man was not killed by someone else."
"Brother-in-law, you are not kidding, right?"
Sun Chengtao jumped out again and said in disbelief: "I've heard of people committing suicide by hanging, taking poison, and swallowing gold, but this is the first time I've heard of someone committing suicide by swallowing half of an iron sword!"
"But there are no signs of being tied up or suppressed on this old man. He is obviously not an ordinary old man. Even if his strength is weaker than that of an adult man, it is not much worse. It would be difficult to suppress him without leaving any marks."
"If I use drugs or something like that and then force my penis into my penis, since my father-in-law won't be able to open his throat to cooperate, the blood flowing out of the wound will probably be more than ten times what it is now!"
At this point, Yu Qian paused for a moment before continuing, "Also, my uncle once said when he came in that the most important thing in a murder case is to protect the scene. If it was a murder case, I'm afraid my uncle wouldn't allow us to rummage around like this."
Sun Shaozong had been listening indifferently, but at this moment he finally showed some appreciation. Criminal law is certainly useful, but being able to figure out the thoughts of a living person is the capital for gaining a foothold in officialdom!
"Then...then why did he commit suicide in such a weird way?"
Sun Chengtao was still digging into his confusion, but this time Yu Qian was unable to help him. Instead, he cupped his hands and said, "I'm afraid I'll have to ask my uncle to explain the truth behind this."
"It's good to be able to tell that this wasn't murder. At least officials won't wrongly accuse people in the future."
Sun Shaozong said, and waved outside, "Come in and answer the question."
Zhao Wuwei immediately ran in and clasped his fists, saying, "I just listened to the master's instructions and visited several children in the neighborhood. The old man really performed magic tricks before, but he said that if he told the adults, he would not perform again, so few neighbors knew about it."
After hearing this, Yu Qian suddenly realized, "Could it be... Could it be that he was practicing the iron sword swallowing acrobatics and something went wrong?!"
Sun Shaozong nodded and said, "That's right. The deceased's skeleton looks fine at first glance, but a closer look reveals some deformities. This should be the result of acquired training. Usually, such people are either thieves trained since childhood or jugglers."
"The deceased should be the latter."
"But seeing how cautious he has been over the past few decades, not wanting his neighbors to know his origins, I'm afraid he has done some part-time work as a thief."
"As for the reason why he suddenly practiced juggling..."
"The Ministry of Rites issued an order two days ago, allowing talented old men to rehearse their own performances so that they can perform in front of Your Majesty. It is probably because of this that the deceased wanted to return to his old job."
"Unfortunately, an accident occurred during the drill. According to my guess, he probably started coughing violently while swallowing the iron sword, causing his throat to be injured by the blunt sword."
"This was not originally a fatal injury, but the deceased panicked and inhaled the upstream blood into his respiratory tract, resulting in acute suffocation and death."
Seeing that the three were puzzled, Sun Shaozong explained: "In other words, he choked to death on his own blood."
As he said this, he shrugged his shoulders and said, "The Ministry of Rites has flattered the horse."
As expected, after the case was reported, Emperor Guangde immediately issued an imperial edict, fining the Ministry of Rites for three months' salary, on the charge that they were officials of the Ministry of Rites but did not know how to respect the elderly.
As for rehearsing programs to entertain the emperor, naturally, it all came to nothing.
But these had little to do with Sun Shaozong. He went home in the evening to have a light meal of southern dishes with Yu Qian and the other two. In the evening, Xiangling dragged him over to practice some heavy flavors that he usually refused to cooperate with...
