Chapter 320 Murder

Zhu Lan gradually regained some consciousness from the darkness.

She slowly opened her eyes and found herself lying on the ground, her mind blurry.

She gritted her teeth and sat up, calming herself for a moment. She finally remembered that she had come to Chu Xiuning to inquire about the prince's life experience, and she had drunk tea from her. Not long after, she fainted.

Chu Xiuning also drank the tea and fell down before she lost consciousness. It seemed that she was not the one who drugged her.

...By the way, where is Chu Xiuning?

The dim moonlight shone in through the window. Zhu Lan stood up shakily and managed to observe the surrounding situation with the help of the light.

The candle on the table was extinguished, and he had no lighter with him. The door and windows were closed.

"Madam Ning?" Zhu Lan called out tentatively in the dim light.

Deathly silence.

Is she still unconscious?

Zhu Lan narrowed his eyes and finally saw a pair of feet on the ground. They were wearing women's embroidered shoes. Her body was completely submerged in the darkness.

Zhu Lan moved closer and could see the person's lower body clothes from where the light shone. It was indeed Chu Xiuning, and she was lying on her back on the ground.

Zhu Lan hurried over and wanted to help her up, but when he stretched out his hand, he felt something cold and hard on Chu Xiuning's chest.

Her face changed, and when she reached her hand down again, she felt something cold and sticky!

“Bang, bang, bang!”

The door was suddenly slammed roughly, which scared Zhu Lan. Before she could react, the door was already opened.

There was a crowd of people outside the door, and more than a dozen people rushed in with torches.

"Who's there? Freeze—"

Zhu Lan recognized it as Si Ying's voice.

Then Chu Xin's scream was heard, and she threw herself behind Zhu Lan, crying in panic.

Zhu Lan turned around, and with the help of the torchlight, he finally saw clearly—

Chu Xiuning was lying on the ground with a pair of scissors stuck in his chest. His entire chest was stained with blood and he had been dead for a long time.

"Come here, capture him!" Si Ying gave an order, and the constables from the Dali Temple behind him immediately rushed up and tried to hold Zhu Lan down.

"Inspector Si, it's me!" It was not until Zhu Lan spoke that Si Ying looked at her carefully and recognized her as Zhu Lan.

Si Ying frowned, but asked his men to wait for a while and surrounded Zhu Lan.

"Zhu Xiuzhuan, why are you here?" Si Ying said, glanced at Chu Xiuning's body on the ground, and asked Zhu Lan what was going on.

Although her tone was still polite, her eyes were full of obvious suspicion, and she had clearly regarded Zhu Lan as the murderer.

"Sister Zhuangyuan, why...why did you kill my aunt!?"

Chu Xin knelt on Chu Xiuning's body and asked Zhu Lan while crying, his eyes full of grief, anger and disbelief.

"It's not me..." Zhu Lan's mind was still a little confused at this time.

This matter was indeed beyond her expectations. She had not thought that such a thing would happen just when she came to Chu Xiuning to inquire about the prince.

She rubbed her brows and calmed down.

"I came to consult Madam Ning about something. I kept talking to her in the room until she drank the tea - yes, tea!"

Zhu Lan's face darkened and she was about to check the remaining tea on the table, but Si Ying got the teapot before her.

She opened the lid of the pot and smelled it, then called her men over and asked them to check if there was anything unusual about the tea.

"Go on." Si Ying looked at Zhu Lan again with sharp eyes, with a hint of sternness in her eyes.

Zhu Lan sorted out his thoughts and continued, "Madam Ning and I both drank the tea, and then I saw her faint on the ground. I wanted to help her, but I fainted as well. I just woke up and found that Madam Ning was already... and then you guys came."

Si Ying stared into her eyes, as if trying to determine whether what she said was true or false.

After a while, he asked, "Did you see anyone else while you were here to find Chu Xiuning?"

Zhu Lan shook his head.

"There were only you and her in the room. If you are not the murderer, did she commit suicide?" Si Ying continued to ask.

Her eyes never left Zhu Lan's face, as if she was waiting for her to prove herself.

Zhu Lan lowered his eyes and thought for a moment, "I didn't kill her. Madam Ning was talking to me peacefully, and there was no reason for her to suddenly commit suicide."

At this time, a gust of wind blew and the window of the room was blown open. Through the window, the shadow of the big banyan tree outside the yard could be seen.

Zhu Lan turned around and looked at Si Ying. "Officer Si, since the windows were not completely closed, it means that during the time when Madam Ning and I were unconscious, someone may have entered this room and killed Madam Ning."

After saying this, Zhu Lan suddenly remembered that when he came, Chu Xiuning seemed to be in a trance, looking a little anxious and nervous.

Did she have a premonition of something?

Si Ying looked towards the window, narrowed her eyes slightly, and was obviously thinking.

Since it wasn't a murder in a closed room, the suspicion cannot be pinned on Zhu Lan.

At this time, the constable who had left earlier came back with the teapot and said that he had asked a doctor to check and found that the tea was indeed drugged.

"Sir..." the constable hesitated.

Si Ying frowned and told him to speak quickly.

"The tea poured out of the teapot was drugged, but the teapot...we can't open it."

"Can't open it?" Si Ying asked someone to bring the teapot, only to see that the pot was tall and thin, with the lid on it properly.

Si Ying reached out to lift it up, but found that the lid seemed to be embedded in it. No matter how hard she tried, it didn't budge at all and she couldn't take it off at all.

Zhu Lan asked if she could give it a try. Si Ying glanced at her with some hesitation in her eyes.

Zhu Lan understood her concerns, withdrew his hand, and looked back at Chu Xin who was crying heartbrokenly.

Zhu Lan's eyes flashed with reluctance, but in order to get to the bottom of the truth, he had no choice but to ask:

"Chu Xin, do you recognize this teapot?"

Chu Xin cried and nodded, "It's... it's my aunt's teapot, a reward she brought from the palace. There's a mechanism on it, and you can't open it."

She sobbed and stretched out her hand, motioning Si Ying to hand her the teapot.

Si Ying thought for a moment, handed over the teapot, and stared closely at Chu Xin's movements.

Chu Xin didn't know where he pressed the mechanism on the pot, and sure enough, the lid made a "click" sound and was easily taken off by Chu Xin.

Si Ying's eyes gradually changed, and she asked Chu Xin: "Is it true that only your aunt and you two know the mechanism on this teapot?"

Chu Xin nodded, then shook his head, "And Uncle He...Aunt should have taught him too."

He Shan had already been buried, so he was naturally not considered.

Si Ying and Zhu Lan looked at Chu Xin at the same time without speaking for a long time. They were both analyzing the same possibility in their minds.

Judging from the structure of the teapot, if one wants to put medicine in the tea, the lid must be opened; it is impossible to pour it in through the slender and winding spout.

Zhu Lan was a temporary visitor and she didn't know the mechanism on the teapot. She also had no chance to touch the teapot before, so the possibility that she was the one who drugged the teapot was basically ruled out.

There was no reason for Chu Xiuning to drug herself, so it could only be done by a third person, and this person must meet two conditions -

One is to know the secret of the teapot.

Second, he had a close relationship with Chu Xiuning and had access to this teapot.

Apart from He Shan, the only person who meets the requirements is Chu Xin.

Chu Xin felt the gazes of the two men, and after a long time he suddenly realized something. He was frightened and aggrieved, and tears fell again like a broken string.

"You...you doubt me!? How could I kill my own aunt!?"

Si Ying's eyes turned cold, and he asked her where she had been and what she had been doing all day.

Chu Xin's words were a little incoherent, but he still made it clear that he had gone out this morning and had been telling stories in the teahouse all day. The waiters and customers in the teahouse could testify to this.

Zhu Lan suddenly realized something and asked Si Ying:

"Inspector Si, how did you know that a murder had occurred here?"

Zhu Lan remembered that the door of her room was still closed when she just woke up, but Si Ying came with Chu Xin. If no one notified her, how would she know that something happened in the room?

So who reported the case?

"It's me." Chu Xin said, crying out of breath.

Chu Xin said that she had been reading books in the teahouse all day and left after dark. She now lives with Chu Xiuning, and when she came back, she found that there was candlelight in the house, but the doors and windows were closed, and no one answered no matter how she knocked on the door.

"Wait." Zhu Lan suddenly interrupted her, frowned and asked, "You said that when you came back, the lights were still on in the room, and the doors and windows were closed!?"

Chu Xin nodded in a daze, "Yes, I felt something was wrong at the time, so I ran out to find someone to help. I happened to see Sister Si Ying nearby, so I quickly brought her over."

Zhu Lan only felt that the clues in his mind were suddenly disrupted.

"It's cloudy today, and the light is dim. It was almost dusk when I arrived. I remember clearly that the room was a little dark, so Madam Ning lit a candle."

Zhu Lan recalled and looked at the candlestick on the table.

"When I woke up, the room was pitch black, but you see - the candle was not completely burned out, which means someone blew it out. The murderer must have entered the room after Madam Ning and I fell unconscious, killed Madam Ning, blew out the candle, and left."

Since the room was still lit when Chu Xin came for the first time, it could only mean that the murderer had not yet come in at that time, or that the murderer was in the room and had not left yet.

Chu Xin also understood Zhu Lan's words and murmured:

"But... the doors and windows were closed at the time, which means no one had come in yet. If the murderer came later, how did he get in?"

Si Ying frowned and immediately asked his men to carefully check the doors and windows of the room.

"Sir, I checked and found that the window and door have latches. If they were opened from the outside, it would definitely cause damage and leave traces.

The window is now open, but the latch is intact; it must have been opened from inside the house.”

When Zhu Lan heard this, he thought of a terrible possibility and his whole body stiffened slightly, and even a chill rose on his back!

Since it is impossible for the murderer to force his way into the house from the outside, could it be that -

Before he arrived, the murderer had already hidden in Chu Xiuning's house! ?

The murderer had been secretly observing the two of them from beginning to end. He showed up and killed Chu Xiuning after the drug took effect, then blew out the candle, opened the window and escaped...

Then it all makes sense.