Chapter 16 He's Jealous!

Last night, Li Jin was caught in a trap set by the corrupt official Yang An.

Singing, dancing, and fireworks displays were all included. Except for the lead girl, who was dressed in gorgeous and exquisite clothes, everyone else was dressed in plain clothes, like stars surrounding the moon.

Yang An's intentions were all too obvious.

But Li Jin wasn't someone to be trifled with all these years, and her attempts to seduce him naturally failed. So, Yang An changed her strategy. She was the one who poured tea for Li Jin while she read at night, added incense to the burner, lit the lamp, and made the bed.

Who would dare sleep here!

What's even more outrageous is that, in the middle of the night, seeing that he was as unmoved as a stone, Yang An actually let his daughter climb onto the roof in the middle of the night, lean against a piece of silk, and do something like parachute from the roof.

If Li Jin hadn't been awake and anticipated further developments, he probably would have mistaken the girl for an assassin and riddled her with holes.

Who would come to sleep at Jin Shu's place if they weren't forced to? Although she's dressed as a man, she's still a girl at heart.

Thinking about this, Li Jin was actually quite glad that she had disguised herself as a man quite well; otherwise, if word got out tonight, it would be a huge problem.

For some reason, watching her whispering to Zhou Zheng always felt jarring.

It was clearly me who brought her out of Dingzhou. I should be grateful and get closer to her, and she should be closer to me. How did she end up acting like a good buddy with Zhou Zheng?

At this moment, Zhou Zheng was also completely bewildered.

It wasn't just admiration, it was respect. He respected all the capable and ambitious people who could provide assistance to the prince.

Seeing that Li Jin seemed determined to get an answer, Zhou Zheng pursed his lips, cupped his hands, and said, "This subordinate has something to say. If I have offended Your Highness, please forgive me."

At the courtyard gate, a camellia was in full bloom. Li Jin, dressed in a white fur coat and standing tall and straight, turned around and glanced behind him. Seeing that Jin Shu had already returned to the house, he slowly spoke: "Speak."

Zhou Zheng took a deep breath and said sincerely, "Your Highness, if we don't explain this clearly, I'm afraid Mr. Jin will be traumatized by the fact that two men are sleeping together. I remember Lord Liu once said that Mr. Jin has a habit of being eccentric and particularly averse to living with others. Your Highness has finally found such a talented person, so you should carefully protect and win him over."

Two people, one in black and one in white, walk on a bluestone path, surrounded by white walls and gray tiles, with birdsong in their ears, petals falling before their eyes, blue sky and white clouds overhead, and the golden light of the rising sun shining on them.

After a long while, Li Jin's eyebrows rose and fell, his Adam's apple bobbed, and he said nothing, unable to utter a single word.

He was convinced!

At midday, when the sun was at its brightest, Jin Shu stood at the entrance of the courtyard where the crime occurred, looking at the dilapidated door and pondering the clues she had obtained the day before.

The main gate faced the burial pit where the body was buried. If this courtyard hadn't been a desolate and isolated place, the corpse with half a leg and half a foot sticking out would have been discovered long ago.

Thinking of this, she suddenly realized and exclaimed, "So that's how it is!"

"It seems you've noticed too." Li Jin took two steps forward, his face dark and his smile gone.

Behind him, the blind man, whose face had been beaten beyond recognition by Yang An, followed with shuffling steps. The sound of the shackles on his feet startled the sparrows in the wasteland, which flew away in a flurry.

Li Jin glanced back, exhaled an angry breath, and walked straight ahead. Jin Shu obediently followed behind him, holding the protective manual she had written the night before, and followed him into the courtyard.

The identity of the murderer was actually quite clear from the beginning, with very clear clues.

This is a typical rural courtyard, with a gate on one side, a house on each of the other three sides, and a small courtyard in the middle.

The radish pit was almost in the middle of the yard. After the constables dug it up, it was about 30 centimeters deep, and they could still find remnants of radishes and cabbages.

Aside from a blind person, no one would choose such an easily exposed location for burying a body. And only a blind person would bury half a leg and half a foot when burying a body.

Jin Shu walked around half of the small courtyard and found the stone embedded in the ground, revealing half of its rounded shape, with bloodstains still visible on it.

But apart from that, the entire courtyard has lost all traces after being exposed to the wind and sun during this period.

"I have a few questions for you, and you must answer them truthfully." In the courtyard, Li Jin stood by the radish pit, his gaze fixed on Jin Shu. The blind man, held down by two constables, was kneeling before him.

"I ask you, which room do you usually live in?" Li Jin turned his gaze to the blind man, stared at him blankly for a moment, and then pointed in the direction of Jin Shu: "That one."

"Sure?"

“I'm sure. Although I can't see, my sense of direction is excellent.” He chuckled after saying that.

When Jin Shu turned around and looked at the door next to her, Zhou Zheng had already unlocked the door.

A foul odor billowed out of the room, making her frown.

All the items were laid out on the ground, and there was only one window facing the courtyard, through which a little sunlight could get in.

Just as she was about to go in, Li Jin called out to her, "Wait a moment." He took two steps forward, stood at the door, and tied his cuffs tightly.

Then he squatted down, tilted his head, and stared at the floor of the room in the dim light.

Sure enough, because he was blind, he didn't have the skill to clean the house. Although some of the traces of the struggle and fighting were destroyed, the vast majority were still preserved in the house.

The handprints on the ground, the bloody scratches on the wall, and the messy, mixed footprints all showed Li Jin a scene of intense fighting.

He stood up and looked at the blind man: "How many times have you fought with him here?"

The blind man paused for a moment, then suddenly shook his head and said, "No! I didn't kill him. I never fought him! How could a blind man like me fight him? It was the lame man next door who hired someone to kill him!"

"The deceased often took money from your bowl and often beat you. Is that true?" Li Jin narrowed his eyes slightly and gave Jin Shu a look, indicating that she could go in now.

Upon hearing Li Jin's words, the blind man in the courtyard gripped the hem of his clothes, sweat beading on his forehead, and nodded after a long pause: "That's how it is."

Li Jin stood calmly in front of the door and recounted: "That day, you had a fierce argument with the victim and got into a fight because he often stole your money and often punched and kicked you, so you decided to kill him."

His gaze remained fixed on the blind man's expression, watching as his surprise turned into terror.

“You were fighting all the way to the yard when he slipped and hit his head on a stone. Take this opportunity to take out a rope, strangle him, and pin him down to the ground, killing him.”

He flicked his fan away with a whoosh, and the unfamiliar sound made the blind man kneeling there tremble.

The blind man remained silent, and Li Jin asked no questions. He simply held his fan and waved it repeatedly, looking down at him.

Watching his face gradually turn pale with guilt and contort with fear, I saw his expression change.

In less than a quarter of an hour, Jin Shu came out of the house, holding a rope of just the right thickness and length in one hand. The middle of the rope was stained with several bloodstains.

In his other hand, he held a pair of worn-out, dirty trousers, with several bloodstains on the waistband.

Jin Shu placed the pants and rope side by side in front of Li Jin, and the location and appearance of the bloodstains perfectly overlapped under the sunlight.