Chapter 606: Mysterious Case in Jinling (Part 2)
The night deepens.
The lights in the front hall of the palace were on. Sun Shaozong was lying on the round table after the banquet was cleared away, flipping through the files intently. From time to time he would write quickly, briefly transcribing some questions or supporting evidence on paper.
Wang Ren, who had been so excited before, had no idea where he had gone with Xing Zhong. Only Xue Ke and Sun Shaoxu were left, guarding Sun Shaozong on the left and right, trying desperately to figure out something from those scrawled talismans.
However, they obviously could not keep up with Sun Shaozong's fast-paced thinking, and finally had to give up deciphering the messages and waited obediently for Sun Shaozong to start interrogating the case.
"grown ups."
At this time, Jiangning County Magistrate Li Mou came over with a few pieces of rice paper and said carefully: "This is the crime scene and the topographic map of the Liu family's backyard."
Sun Shaozong took it and took a look. Although the picture was a little simple, it was well-organized and had a touch of landscape charm. It was much better than he expected. He asked subconsciously, "Who made these?"
"It's Shuxuan, Sun's maidservant who came with her as a dowry."
Magistrate Li quickly replied, "She is most familiar with the layout of Sun's bedroom, and is also good at fine brushwork and painting. She is indeed the perfect choice to draw the topographic map."
At this point, he complained: "Mr. Liu wanted to cover up for his son at first, so he ordered people to completely destroy the scene. When I sent people to investigate, not only the blood on the ground, but even the blood-stained screen and mattress were burned clean."
Because the laws of the Zhou Dynasty generally encouraged relatives to protect each other, it was not uncommon for relatives and friends to destroy the scene.
This is exactly the reason why Sun Shaozong is not planning to investigate the scene for the time being - first it was severely destroyed, and now it has been two months, the chance of finding clues is very slim.
Nodding without comment, Sun Shaozong first picked out the layout of the crime scene and verified it with the confession in the file.
The crime scene was located in the bedroom on the east side of the main hall. The door was in the middle of the west wall, and the screen where Sun's body was tied was right opposite.
It was for this reason that the two maids discovered Sun’s body at first sight after entering the room.
According to the description in the complaint, the screen was about 12 feet away from the main door, and the back was about four feet away from the east wall. It was a place to store bathtubs and other miscellaneous items.
As for the bed where Liu Yiqing was sleeping soundly at the time of the incident, it was located in the north, about 15 feet away from the screen and the entrance.
Because it was rainy weather, the windows on the south side were locked from the inside.
After looking for a long time, Sun Shaozong took the topographic map of the backyard of Liu Mansion and looked at it carefully.
As mentioned before, the Liu family was also a family of officials, and like the Southern Branch of the Sun family, they settled outside the city, so naturally the courtyard would not be small.
According to the picture, if a thief really broke into the Liu family and killed Sun, he would at least have to climb over two high and one low walls, and also hide from the several dogs raised in the Liu family.
This was already quite difficult, not to mention it was rainy at the time. It was even more difficult to move up and down without leaving any trace.
As for the male servant in the Liu family who committed the crime...
According to the topographic map and the confession, there were maids guarding the backyard and the front yard 24 hours a day.
Moreover, because it was raining continuously, most of the Liu family's servants gathered together to deal with some trivial matters in the house. Even if someone left the group to be alone, it was less than a quarter of an hour.
With such a short period of time, it might be possible to climb over the wall and sneak into the backyard, but it would be absolutely impossible to kill Sun and then tie her body to the screen with the intention of putting the blame on Liu Yiqing.
For all these reasons, it is no wonder that Jiangning County determined that Liu Yiqing killed Sun when there were still doubts in the case.
After looking over the remaining topographic maps one by one, Sun Shaozong turned his gaze to the dozen or so witnesses crowded outside the gate.
"First, bring up Liu Changfeng and his son, the maids Shuxuan and Muqin, the housekeeper Song Ji, and the servants Liu Yan and Sang Youfu."
There is no need to say much about Liu Changfeng and his son and the two maids. The housekeeper and servants behind them were the ones who were responsible for cleaning up the scene.
Magistrate Li went downstairs in person to pass on the message, and soon brought those people in.
Liu Changfeng is a wealthy middle-aged man. Although his son Liu Yiqing is wearing shackles and looks a little thin, he is still slightly more handsome than Sun Shaozong.
After entering the door, the father and son knelt down first, and several servants behind them also prostrated themselves on the ground.
"injustice……"
Liu Changfeng was about to cry out for justice when he heard Sun Shaozong ask, "Song Ji, Liu Yan, Sang Youfu, what did you see when you cleaned up the crime scene? Tell me one by one."
The three of them obviously had not expected that the official would ask them first, and Liu Yan and Sang Youfu were a little flustered.
After all, Song Ji was the housekeeper and was calmer than the other two. He immediately recounted what happened when Liu Changfeng called him to the backyard to help clean up the bloodstains on the corpse.
However, what he mentioned were basically recorded in the files of Jiangning County, and there was nothing new about them.
So Sun Shaozong asked again: "Besides this, do you have anything else to add?"
"I have nothing to add."
Song Ji flatly denied it, but Liu Yan subconsciously looked at Liu Changfeng, with a look of embarrassment on his face.
How could such a small move be hidden from Sun Shaozong?
He immediately called out his name and asked, "Liu Yan, are you hiding something?"
Upon hearing this, Liu Yan hadn't said anything yet, but Liu Changfeng urged him, "It's already this late, is there anything you can't say? Are you trying to kill the young master?!"
Seeing the official called out his name and the master urging him again, Liu Yan said tremblingly: "I dare not fail you, sir. When I was cleaning the blood on the ground, I picked up a candle stained with blood..."
This was actually recorded in the files, but Sun Shaozong saw that there was something else going on, so he ordered, "Go on."
Liu Yan stammered, "Besides...besides the bloodstains, there was also...some sticky stuff on the candle. It seemed...it seemed to be something that was left behind when a man and a woman did that."
"Also, the base of the candle is a little flat, as if it was... as if it was squeezed flat..."
It turns out that such a thing was kept secret. No wonder this guy was cautious in front of everyone.
Sun Shaozong hesitated for a moment, then asked further: "Has it been stained with the man's semen?"
"This... seems to be the case."
"You're not sure?"
"Yes! I remember clearly that it was indeed stained with men's dirty stuff."
Hearing this, Sun Shaozong pointed to the candlestick not far away and ordered the servants of the palace to bring down two candles, one for himself and one for Liu Yan.
Sun Shaozong slowly exerted force and flattened the candle a little, then asked Liu Yan if it was in this shape.
"It needs to be flatter."
After receiving a negative answer, Sun Shaozong squeezed it even harder, and then he got Liu Yan's confirmation.
Throwing the crushed candle aside, Sun Shaozong instructed: "Try it and see if there is any difference in softness, hardness and toughness between this candle and the one you found at the crime scene."
Liu Yan squeezed the candle a few times, broke it in half, and then shook his head and said, "This candle is softer, not as hard as the one in our house."
Tsk~
The candles used in the palace are already quite hard, but those of the Liu family are even harder - it seems that they must have been used for a long time and intensively, otherwise they would not have been obviously deformed.
So what does this new detail mean?
Is the murderer a pervert?
So after entering the sage time, he still took the risk that Liu Yiqing might wake up at any time and repeatedly humiliated Sun with candles?
Or maybe…
The murderer is actually a fast boy, who was despised by Sun because of his quick ejaculation, so he used external force to vent his shame and anger?
Or...
The murderer is Liu Yiqing himself, so naturally there is nothing to worry about?
After briefly recording the suspicions in his mind on paper, Sun Shaozong asked again: "Besides this, do you have anything else to add?"
Seeing that Liu Yan really added some details, Liu Changfeng immediately became more energetic and turned around to promise: "If anyone can come up with something useful, I will definitely reward him handsomely!"
With this huge reward, a brave man indeed emerged.
But Sang Youfu muttered, "Master, I... I also saw some things, but I don't know if they are useful."
Sun Shaozong said decisively: "Whether it is useful or not, your master will reward you!"
Encouraged by this free promise, Sang Youfu said hurriedly: "When I was sweeping the bloodstains, I found some white wax fragments in front of the screen. They looked like they fell when I was peeling wax balls..."
Wax pellet fragments?
Sun Shaozong turned his gaze to Liu Yiqing: "Did you and Sun use any pills before the incident?"
"No!"
Liu Yiqing shook his head like a rattle and said confidently, "My wife and I are in good health. Have we ever used any pills or medicine?"
Sun Shaozong asked the two maids again, but they kept shaking their heads.
So...
It is very likely that this thing was not originally present at the crime scene.
In other words, this was most likely brought to the scene by the murderer.
Could it be that some kind of drug or something like that was installed to break down Sun's resistance?
This seems to make sense.
but……
Is it necessary for the drug to be made into pills?
This thing should be as convenient to use as possible, right?
Even if it is made into pills, it should be peeled out in advance when preparing to use it.
As for the volatilization of medicinal properties...
Solid pills should not have this problem.
As for the liquid anesthetic...
If you really want it in liquid form, just use a water bag, bamboo jar or something like that. Isn't that much more reliable than wax pills?
In short, this is another clue that cannot be connected to the case for the time being.
After writing down all his speculations on paper again, Sun Shaozong immediately turned his gaze to one of the maids.
After Sang Youfu told her about the "wax ball" and was promised a big reward, the maid was eager to try it out. It was obvious that she had thought of a clue that had not been recorded!
