Chapter 895 Gilded
"Last night, Third Master suddenly said he wanted to go out, and he didn't let us follow him. If I had known earlier, I would never have left Third Master alone..."
"Yes, yes, let's be serious, let's be serious."
"The Third Master has not returned since he left. There was no news around midnight. We brothers feel something is wrong. After all, the Second Master just came back. Even if the Third Master had the guts to do it, he would not dare to stay out all night."
"...After asking around, we found that no one had seen the Third Master, so we asked the steward to send more people to search the whole yard, and we found... found the Third Master..."
"Wow, wow, wow, my poor Third Master, why did you just leave like this?!"
"When the Third Master went out, did he do anything special? This... Oh, right! When the Third Master went out, he specially bought a woolen coat and changed into thick-soled riding boots made of deer velvet!"
"Third Master, oh Third Master, you died unjustly..."
Jia Huan, the personal servant, was a real tough guy. He was afraid of his master's anger, so he rubbed his eye sockets with his hands, which really made him shed two pools of hot tears.
Seeing this, Aunt Zhao, who was standing by, started to cry and wailed, blaming Jia Baoyu for every word, as if she had seen her son being killed by Jia Baoyu with her own eyes.
On the other side, Lin Daiyu and Shi Xiangyun were not to be trifled with either. They stood on either side of Baoyu like two generals, retorting with sharp words.
This one said: The murder weapon was obviously a woman's hairpin, and it has nothing to do with Brother Bao. Please respect yourself, Auntie.
The man said: Brother Ai was invited to stay overnight by Madam Ai because he accompanied Master Ai for a drink. How could he have the time to come to this bamboo forest and kill someone?
Who would have thought that these words would further stimulate Aunt Zhao's imagination, and she jumped up and retorted: "Why does he need to do it himself? Every little slut in this mansion treats him like the emperor's uncle and worships him. As long as he makes a wish, who would worry about no one rushing to help?!"
What a commotion!
Sun Shaozong originally wanted to understand the cause and effect first, but he never expected that after just a few questions, the two started arguing again.
He had no choice but to ask Jia Zheng to take all the idlers and relocate them to another place, leaving only a few servants holding lanterns and torches to assist.
It would have been fine for others, but Aunt Zhao refused to believe that Sun Shaozong would handle the case impartially, so she specially kept her own brother Zhao Guoji and watched Sun Shaozong's every move without blinking.
To be honest, this woman is really annoying.
But her inference just now was not entirely unreasonable.
and……
Jia Baoyu's behavior was also obviously abnormal.
If we say that he was shocked and at a loss at the beginning, it can still be barely explained, but when facing Aunt Zhao's repeated questioning just now, he was still speechless, which is a bit unreasonable.
You know, he has been through quite a few things since the dismemberment of Zhineng'er. No matter how you think about it, he shouldn't be so dispirited.
Especially between him and Jia Huan, there was no brotherly friendship at all...
Of course, this does not mean that Sun Shaozong has determined that Jia Baoyu is the number one suspect - he just does not rule out this possibility.
To find out the truth of the case, we must first investigate the scene before making any inferences.
…
Putting aside all distracting thoughts, Sun Shaozong picked up the lantern and made a spiral inspection several times with the corpse as the center. As expected, he didn't find anything.
After all, dozens of people had trampled on this place before and after the incident, and the sky was so gloomy that it was a pipe dream to want to identify any traces of the incident.
So Sun Shaozong quickly focused his attention on the corpse itself.
The deceased's face was extremely hideous, but it was probably an instinctive reaction to pain. Apart from the twitching expressions on his body, the emotion frozen on his face before death was probably mainly shock.
Carefully pull out the golden hairpin, and estimate that the hairpin is about an inch long [3.3 cm] in the flesh. Some milky white trachea stumps can be vaguely seen inside the wound.
Combined with signs of flesh contraction, blood splattering, and suffocation residue on the face, it can be concluded that Jia Huan's fatal injury was the open wound in the throat.
The cause of death was asphyxiation due to tracheal rupture.
However, there seemed to be something strange about the murder weapon that killed Jia Huan.
Using a handkerchief to wipe off the blood and flesh stains on the golden hairpin, Sun Shaozong weighed it in his palm. Then he squatted down, turned the hairpin upside down, and pushed it against the ground with force.
When he put it under the lamp again and took a closer look, he saw that the gold hairpin had been broken on the surface and was obviously made of gold-plated brass.
Sun Shaozong handed the hairpin to Zhao Guoji who came closer to take a closer look, and asked, "Who in your family uses this kind of gilded hairpin?"
Hearing the word "gilded", Zhao Guoji finally understood what Sun Shaozong had just done. He lowered his head and carefully examined the golden hairpin, but the more he looked, the more puzzled he became: "This... this hairpin... this hairpin is really..."
"How is it really?"
"I can't tell."
Zhao Guoji scratched his head and ears with a bitter face: "I have bought a few gilded hairpins for others, but I have never seen a similar style in the mansion."
Although he did not say clearly what was strange about this gilded hairpin, Sun Shaozong already knew it.
Simply put, if this gilded hairpin appeared on the streets, there would be nothing wrong with it.
But in a wealthy family like the Rongguo Mansion, this hairpin seems very out of place.
The problem lies in its exquisite, luxurious, yet youthful design.
This kind of thing is usually bought for daughters by families with a little savings to show off. Maids in large mansions can afford it, but if they wear it on their hair, it will inevitably seem like they are stealing the show.
Especially for wealthy and powerful official families like the Rongguo Mansion, the most important thing is the distinction between superiors and subordinates.
The head ornaments and jewelry worn by the young ladies in the mansion were all made at home with real gold and silver. How could they lower themselves to use such fake goods?
Therefore, according to common sense, this gilded hairpin should not appear in the Rongguo Mansion.
unless……
There is a certain young lady who, for some reason, must use this thing to pass off a fake as the real thing - the reason why the suspect is locked on the young lady of this mansion is that the weight of this thing is far different from the real gold hairpin, and the trick will be immediately exposed as soon as it is held in the hand.
Therefore, this can only be the work of a certain young lady. Even if others want to pass it off as genuine, it would be impossible to do so.
And considering the personalities and situations of the girls in this mansion, it seems that the only one who can do such a thing now is...
This also explained Jia Baoyu's terrified state just now - the two of them were close, so it was possible that he had recognized the hairpin a long time ago!
Thinking of this, Sun Shaozong passed the hairpin again, carefully weighed it and examined it for a moment, then ordered decisively: "Come here, call Brother Bao to talk to me."
A servant hurriedly responded and prepared to set off.
"etc!"
Sun Shaozong called him again, lowered his head and pondered for a while, then added: "Please invite the girls in the mansion to come over. I have something to ask you about this hairpin."
Although the owner of the hairpin has been roughly identified, the owner of the murder weapon may not necessarily be the murderer of Jia Huan.
If I call her over alone at this time, it will inevitably arouse suspicion from others.
Instead of doing this, it would be better to just invite everyone to come and create a fake one, so as to avoid creating too much pressure on her in advance before the truth comes out.
