Chapter 548: Fantastic Imagination (Part 1)
Faced with Qiu Yunfei's naked accusation, Jia Baoyu finally woke up from the nightmare that destroyed his worldview. He subconsciously stood up from his chair and blurted out, "Brother Yunfei, do you have any evidence for your inference?"
"Of course there is evidence."
Qiu Yunfei held Zhou Xi's jade between his fingers and explained, "According to the words on the jade, this should have been something he had worn since childhood."
As he spoke, he twisted the jade with his fingertips, showing it to Jia Baoyu from its side, and continued, "And judging from the traces of re-polishing, it was indeed originally made into an ornament to be worn on the body."
"If it is an ornament that you carry with you, why do you need to take it apart and hide it carefully?"
"The only reasonable explanation is that Zhou Xi has discovered the secret hidden in this jade, and it is even possible that he has found his biological father through it!"
"But Zhou Xi's biological father was unwilling or afraid to recognize him, so Zhou Xi was disappointed and hid the token."
This is another inference that is roughly self-consistent.
He has only been working in the Criminal Investigation Department for a little over half a year, but he has achieved such performance. It seems that Qiu Yunfei really has some talent for criminal investigation.
Seeing that Jia Baoyu was confused again, Sun Shaozong comforted him gently, "He was just guessing, it may not be true. Besides, if we really follow his guess, the masked man was sent by your family, so how could he randomly shoot and kill Zhou Xi?"
"What Sun Er said is very true..."
“That’s right!”
Jia Baoyu was greatly encouraged and was about to agree with Sun Shaozong's words, but Qiu Yunfei suddenly let out a strange cry and asked in rapid succession, "When did the old master of the mansion pass away? I remember it was more than 20 years ago, right? But was it between the 22nd and 25th year of Jianping?!"
"How did you..."
Jia Baoyu blurted out three words, and then his face suddenly changed drastically. He asked in a trembling voice: "How old is Zhou Xi now?"
But when he was halfway through his words, he suddenly realized what Qiu Yunfei meant - having an affair with a woman during the period of mourning for one's parents, and even making her pregnant, is a serious crime of disobedience and unfilial piety!
This can also explain why Jia Zheng did not dare to take the woman as his concubine, and why the masked man shot Zhou Xi to death and then committed suicide by taking poison!
All of this is to protect Jia Zheng and even the wealth and reputation of the Jia family!
But no matter what the purpose was, after all, the masked man killed Jia Zheng's son with his own hands, so it was only natural that he should die to atone for his crime.
Jia Baoyu was just thinking about all sorts of terrible things when he heard Qiu Yunfei say, "Zhou Xi was born in February of the twenty-fifth year of Jianping. His neighbors had all seen him when he was a child, so even if his birthday was false, it wouldn't be too far off."
After hearing this, Jia Baoyu could no longer conceal the fear on his face. He trembled and stepped back, not realizing that his legs had hit the chair. He muttered something, but no one could hear what he was saying.
The reason for this change was that his grandfather Jia Daishan died in the summer of the 23rd year of Jianping. This meant that if Zhou Xi was really Jia Zheng's illegitimate son, it must have been caused by committing adultery during the mourning period!
It all seems to have an answer!
"Wait a minute!"
Just at this moment, Sun Shaozong suddenly shook his head and said, "I'm afraid this inference is not valid."
"It cannot be established?"
This was the first time in Qiu Yunfei's life that he had crushed others with his IQ, especially Sun Shaozong, whom he had always looked up to. He was at the peak of his life and was very excited. When he suddenly heard these words, it was like a blow to the head.
I was confused and couldn't help but ask angrily, "My reasoning is reasonable, why can't it be true?"
Sun Shaozong glanced at him and asked Jia Baoyu calmly, "Where is your ancestor's grave?"
"In Jinling..."
Jia Baoyu blurted out the word "Jinling", and suddenly he shook off his dejected look, and said excitedly: "Yes, at that time my father was in Jinling to observe mourning, and he never returned to the capital, so how could he be Zhou Xi's biological father?!"
Now it was Qiu Yunfei's turn to be dumbfounded. He had finally come up with this set of inferences, but who would have thought that it would be overturned by decisive evidence in the blink of an eye!
He opened his mouth , but ultimately there was no room for rebuttal, and finally he had to sit back in his chair dejectedly.
Seeing his dejected look, Sun Shaozong couldn't help but laugh and said, "Why should you be discouraged? Even when I don't have enough evidence, I can't avoid making a wrong judgment. The fact that you can make such an inference is beyond my expectation."
After hearing Sun Shaozong's compliments, Qiu Yunfei felt relieved a little, but then he heard Sun Shaozong suddenly change his tone and scolded, "But how can you say these words in front of Brother Bao? Why don't you apologize to him now!"
Qiu Yunfei then came to realize that his talk had already offended Jia Baoyu - even if his inference was reasonable , it was really too much to tell Jia Baoyu in person that his father had given birth to an illegitimate child during the mourning period.
So he hurried forward, bowed deeply to Jia Baoyu, and apologized repeatedly.
Fortunately, Jia Baoyu was a mild-mannered person to begin with, and was also obsessed with criminal law, so he was familiar with this method of "bold inference" and did not blame Qiu Yunfei.
When the three of them sat down again, Qiu Yunfei had a bitter look on his face, scratching his head and muttering, "Since Zhou Xi can't be the illegitimate son of Duke Zhou, then the spiritual jade must be a counterfeit by him - but why would he counterfeit it and hide it in a secret place with great care?"
"yes."
Jia Baoyu also wrinkled his face like a dumpling and echoed him, "If he really liked this piece of jade and wanted to make a copy to play with privately, he should have made it more realistic. How could he have made such a weird thing?"
The two of them pondered over the matter, but were caught up in Sun Shaozong's original questions again:
Who imitated this jade?
What is the purpose of imitation?
Why did Zhou Xi hide it in a secret place?
"Brother Bao."
At this moment, Sun Shaozong suddenly stood up, took the genuine spiritual jade from Qiu Yunfei, handed it to Baoyu, and said, "We have official business to attend to, so it is inconvenient for us to stay here for long..."
"Brother Sun!"
When Jia Baoyu heard this, he knew that Sun Shaozong was going to say goodbye and leave?
He quickly jumped up from his chair, pulled Sun Shaozong's sleeve and said, "This case is clearly related to me. You can't leave me behind. You should take me with you to investigate the case!"
"Because it is related, you should avoid it even more."
Sun Shaozong's face was stern, but then he slowed down his tone and promised, "Don't worry, if there is any progress in this case, I will definitely let you know."
Jia Baoyu was about to make a scene, but Sun Shaozong refused to give in. Jia Baoyu had no choice but to send the two of them out.
"That's right."
When he got outside, Sun Shaozong suddenly remembered something and turned back to Jia Baoyu and said, "I have already found out who broke into your house a few nights ago. It was the White Lotus rebel I captured yesterday morning..."
He briefly told Jia Baoyu about the White Lotus Sect's desperate search for baby girls in the capital, like looking for a needle in a haystack. He also warned him not to spread the story to others, and then took Qiu Yunfei to the hitching post.
"grown ups."
Qiu Yunfei attentively led Sun Shaozong's mount and asked in a low voice, "Did you just think of any clues to solve the case? Otherwise, why are you in such a hurry to leave?"
This kid really guessed it!
Just now, Sun Shaozong had a sudden flash of inspiration and came up with a bizarre idea, so he was eager to verify it.
However, he never thought of telling Qiu Yunfei about this idea.
He took the reins and mounted the horse, then asked, "Do you know which is the largest jewelry store around here?"
“Really?!”
Qiu Yunfei opened his mouth wide and almost wailed, "Do you really want to go door to door and ask? There are dozens of jewelry stores in Beijing, and three or five of them go bankrupt every year, not to mention that the craftsmen may not still be there..."
However, before he could finish his words, Sun Shaozong turned his horse around and made as if to whip the horse to ride away.
"No, no, no, I'll lead the way, can't I lead the way?!"
Qiu Yunfei panicked immediately, and hurriedly asked Qiu Yi to lead his mount, and hurried to the front of Sun Shaozong, but he immediately pulled the reins again, turned around and asked: "Qiu Yi, do you know any famous jewelry stores nearby?"
