Volume 1 Zhangqiao Iron Coffin Chapter 54: The Last Question
“Wuwuwu… Wuwuwu…”
Seeing the fake Qiu Yongnian being beaten almost brutally by the guards, Xu Zun was shocked. He thought they were going to cut off his tongue to silence him!
But he soon discovered that the guard even put his hand into Qiu Yongnian's mouth, as if he was searching for something carefully.
At the same time, another person conducted a thorough body search on Qiu Yongnian, even checking behind his ears and inside his hair.
After fiddling with it for a long time, the two guards finally let go and took back the pincer-like object.
Looking at the fake Qiu Yongnian again, his mouth was crooked, his eyes were slanted, his hair was disheveled, and he looked extremely miserable.
But even so, the two guards behind him still held the chain tightly, not daring to relax at all.
"I'm sorry," Cai Kun said, "this is the procedure of the Internal Guard Bureau . Poison is too cheap these days."
oh……
Xu Zun then realized that after all the fuss, they were afraid that this fake Qiu Yongnian would commit suicide by taking poison.
Very professional!
Xu Zun was impressed in his heart that the timing of the internal guards' pounce was just right. Even if the fake Qiu Yongnian really had poison in his mouth, he would have no time to take it!
"Alright," Cai Kun waved his hand and questioned the fake Qiu Yongnian, "Now you can tell me who you are, right? Why did you frame Mr. Shen? And where did that jade pendant come from?"
“Ha…hahahahaha…” the fake Qiu Yongnian suddenly laughed, “I just said that I still have a few questions that I haven’t figured out. Once I have figured them out, I will tell you the truth!”
"Problem?" Li Yan stared, "You actually still have questions?"
"Xu Zun," the fake Qiu Yongnian glared at Xu Zun, "Let me ask you, how did you determine that You Dalang committed suicide? Was it because you found that his arm was broken?"
"Wrong," Xu Zun answered straightforwardly, "The answer is - lock!"
"Lock?" The fake Qiu Yongnian was puzzled.
"When we found that You Dalang had died by hitting his head against the wall in the cell, Zhao Yu broke the lock of the cell because he didn't have the key," Xu Zun said, "You didn't notice that I secretly took the lock away afterwards.
"Later, I went to the prison on purpose to get the key from the prison boss .
“As a result, when we compared the lock with the prison boss’s key, we found that it couldn’t be opened at all!
"From this, I have two conclusions: First, someone stole the lock, not the key, so You Dalang was murdered!
"Second, the suspicion of being the prison boss can be ruled out."
"You..." The fake Qiu Yongnian took a breath and asked in great confusion, "When did you become so smart?"
"Hahahaha," Xu Zun used a line from an ancient poem to show off , "Others laugh at me for being too crazy, I laugh at them for not seeing through me!"
"You...are you pretending to be confused?"
"Wrong, it's rare to be confused!"
"This..." The fake Qiu Yongnian frowned and asked, "What about Liu Zhang? Do you know why Liu Zhang's body appeared in the iron coffin?"
"Of course I know," Xu Zun said, "Do you remember the day before the Iron Coffin Case, when you, Liu Zhubu and I met by chance in the Second Hall?
"At that time, you said that Liu Zhubu was a little absent-minded.
"I later recalled the details of the incident and found that Liu Zhubu was not absent-minded.
"When he saw me, he seemed a little nervous, but he responded calmly and without any problems.
"But after meeting you again, Liu Zhubu seemed uneasy and extremely nervous.
“At that time, he was going to enter the second hall to look for something, but after seeing you, he returned the same way.
"I therefore suspect that the real reason for his nervousness is you!"
"Amazing," the fake Qiu Yongnian asked curiously, "Then why did he die?"
"I guess he must have seen through your plot!" Xu Zun speculated, "Based on the route Liu Zhubu took at the time, I judged that he either wanted to go to the archives room or the warehouse.
"At first, I just thought that you had some written or physical evidence that was discovered by Liu Zhubu. It was not until I found the iron coffin secret room in my house that I finally guessed the reason."
"Oh?" Fake Qiu Yongnian was shocked. "Did you already guess it at that time?"
"Yes," Xu Zun replied, "My house is only separated from the county government by a wall. If someone built a secret room in my basement to frame me, then the entrance cannot be in my house.
“So, I suspect the entrance should be in the county government office. Anyway, the county government office is full of your people, so you can do some evil deeds to cover up your tracks.
"Before you framed me, you sealed this entrance in advance, making it seem as if my bedroom was the only entrance and that someone had been maintaining it for a long time, making it difficult for me to defend myself.
"If my guess is correct," Xu Zun said leisurely, "the entrance should be in the county government's warehouse, right?
“Because I had knocked over the bookshelves in the archives room before, and I didn’t find anything wrong with the archives room.
“Besides, the archives room is full of books, which are easily discovered when they are covered with dust.
“But the warehouse is different. Commonly used tools are stored in it, so some dust is normal.
"So, I guess..." Xu Zun said, "Did Liu Zhubu discover the entrance to this secret passage? So, you want to kill people to silence them?
"The disappearance of Liu Zhubu is obviously not conducive to your plan, so you simply put his body into the iron coffin to confuse the direction of our investigation.
"That's why Liu Zhubu didn't die of poisoning, but he showed signs of poisoning. You want us to think that Liu Zhang is also an accomplice of the Japanese assassins, right?"
Wow...
Xu Zun's insightful reasoning was delivered in one go, and was fascinating to listen to.
After a few seconds of silence, the fake Qiu Yongnian nodded and said:
"So amazing! Nothing can escape your eyes. You...you really are worthy of being Xu Changlin's son!"
"No, not all of them can escape," Xu Zun said modestly, "I was sure that You Dalang was murdered, but I never thought that the murderer would be you!
"Because, when You Dalang was murdered, the two of us were discussing the matter between Chunniang and me. You have the most complete alibi, and it is impossible that you killed that person.
"It was not until later, when Wei Zuoyan confessed, that I learned the truth," Xu Zun said. "It turns out that there is a secret passage from the county government office to the prison. Before you met me, you had already gone to the prison through the secret passage and killed You Dalang with your own hands!"
"Okay, okay, okay..." The fake Qiu Yongnian nodded frequently, with complicated expressions in his eyes.
"After you asked me, it's my turn to ask you too!" Xu Zun asked, "There are two questions I have never been able to figure out. Since you have made such thorough preparations, why did you make two low-level mistakes?
“One is that You Dalang didn’t hesitate to murder his wife and put the blame on me. It was so unprofessional and full of loopholes.
"Another question is, since you imprisoned the real Qiu Yongnian in the secret room of Changsheng Temple, why did you allow him to carve words on the wall and leave such a fatal message?"
"Haha...haha..." Upon hearing this question, the fake Qiu Yongnian first laughed foolishly, and then answered blankly with four words, "I'm not hiring the right people!"
"Unsuitable people?"
"Alas!" Fake Qiu Yongnian sighed and said dejectedly, "You Dalang usually talks a lot of nonsense, but I didn't expect that it is neither good nor useful.
"As for the words in the secret room, alas," he said with sadness in his eyes, "I'm afraid he's dead!"
"Afraid he'd die?"
"Yes," the fake Qiu Yongnian admitted, "Qiu Yongnian was weak, and carving was his only motivation to live, so we allowed him to carve.
"But the inscriptions are not the key point," the fake Qiu Yongnian glanced at the crowd and said helplessly, "The key point is that I have sent people to clean up the inscriptions, and I have instructed them to erase all the inscriptions and then set fire to the temple... Alas..."
"oh……"
Xu Zun recalled that only a very small part of the inscriptions in the secret room had been crossed out. He thought that the people in charge of cleaning it up might have found it troublesome and had not crossed out all of it.
"I can't believe it," Xu Zun said sadly, "The answer to a question that I couldn't figure out at all is so simple.
“And the questions you can figure out are often not the answers you need.
“The laws of this world are truly mysterious!
"Then..." Xu Zun looked at the fake Qiu Yongnian and said, "I have another question. What role did the coroner Wang Shuncai play in the Iron Coffin Case?"
"Oh?" Fake Qiu Yongnian narrowed his eyes and asked, "Why are you asking about him?"
"We asked these people, and they all said they didn't know. Wang Shuncai is also your man." Xu Zun replied.
"Then why are you so sure?"
"Not only am I sure," Xu Zun said, "I am also sure that he is a person of the same level as you, or even higher than you!"
"Ah!?" Fake Qiu Yongnian was shocked, "How...how did you know?"
"Because he has been in Xinye County longer than all of you," Xu Zun analyzed, " after the first iron coffin case, he had already arrived in Xinye County, and he is obviously your vanguard.
"After You Dalang was murdered, he mysteriously disappeared and avoided all the limelight. Isn't he still a high-ranking figure?"
"Okay, great, great!" Fake Qiu Yongnian nodded and said, "In that case, I also have one last question. Once you answer it, I will tell you..."
