Chapter 176 A Case shrouded in mystery

Prince Jing of the Great Wei Dynasty, the war god of his time, wore a light gold outer robe, hunched over, his jaw held by Mr. Jin in front of him.

From his perspective, Prince Jing was surprisingly obedient and remained motionless, allowing Mr. Jin to act as he pleased.

The young clerk was breathing heavily in his throat; though not directly involved, his heart was beating faster than the person directly involved.

With his back to him, Li Jin seemed to feel his burning gaze and raised his voice slightly: "You didn't hit him, stop looking."

These words caused the young clerk's heart to go from excitement to skipping beats in the blink of an eye.

Seeing that he spoke freely, Jin Shu touched the area behind his ear and the corner of his jaw before finally letting go.

She looked at the bewildered constables in front of her and waved her hand: "It's alright, don't be afraid."

Of course you're not afraid!

The person in front of me was almost in tears.

"If you're afraid, then smash both of these." Li Jin glanced at him coldly, handed him the meat mallet, and pointed to the middle piece of meat. "Smash it."

What was supposed to be an exciting experiment turned into a complicated situation for the lowly clerk who was essentially just a tool, due to an unexpected incident.

Li Jin glanced at his back and smiled slightly: "Put some effort into it. You were quite good just now. I'll ask the kitchen to give you two extra pieces of meat for dinner."

Encouraged by this, he shouted to bolster his courage, then swung the meat hammer and began to smash it repeatedly.

No more, no less, ten strokes.

Jin Shu leaned closer and carefully examined the areas where the two pieces of meat had been pounded.

Although the pointed hammer had a depth similar to a wound, the edges of the wound were very smooth. Both the location of the wound and its internal appearance were very different from the blurry state on the victim's body.

As for the other piece of flesh that had been pounded with a meat mallet, although it had a bloody and mangled appearance, the wound was barely half an inch long, making it even more different.

Jin Shu hesitated for a long time before straightening up and shaking her head: "Neither."

She turned to the side, her gaze falling on the wooden stick, which she had not yet tried.

The round wooden stick was about an inch in diameter. Jin Shu held it in her hand and weighed it in her hand: "Can you break it?"

She turned around and looked at the young yamen runner: "Break it in two."

Upon hearing this, Li Jin pondered for a moment and understood Jin Shu's meaning.

Indeed, there were wood shards in the wound. Besides the possibility that the murderer was injured by broken tables and chairs in the house during the fight, another possibility is that the murder weapon itself was made of wood.

The young constable looked at Jin Shu with great difficulty and stammered, "It's so thick, only monsters from mountains and seas could..."

Before he could finish speaking, Li Jin lifted his leg and used his hands to pull hard, and with a "crack," the wooden stick broke in two.

He looked at the young yamen runner with a gentle smile, his eyebrows slightly raised and lowered.

The boy in front of him pursed his lips, stopped speaking, and swallowed the rest of his sentence.

"Come on, ten more times."

He thought Li Jin was going to punish him for his disrespect, but instead he was handed a broken wooden stick.

Just as he reached out to take it, Jin Shu stopped him.

She looked at the broken piece that had split in two, then handed him another one: "This one is closer."

The young constable took a deep breath, raised the wooden stick, shouted as before, then widened his eyes and hammered the last piece of flesh ten times like a storm.

This time was more tiring than the previous two times.

He was panting heavily, gripping the wooden stick in one hand and rubbing his right shoulder with the other, grimacing: "This is way too hard to hammer!"

The flesh was embedded under the wooden stick, and it couldn't fall off even after shaking it twice.

Jin Shu peeled them apart, then held the piece of pork and examined it carefully in the sunlight before nodding and saying, "This is it."

The pork in his hand had a wound like the victim's neck, a bloody mess with many splinters of wood stuck inside.

The appearance, depth, and signs of damage of the wounds all perfectly match the appearance of the victim's body.

She put the meat down, turned to look at the wooden stick, and then at the young constable who was panting heavily. She picked up the stick herself and pounded it several times in front of the two pieces of meat that had just been removed.

I'm exhausted, really exhausted, not just a little bit exhausted.

This type of cross-section is not as hard as a hammer, so the resistance to the flesh is very high when you poke it.

She tried several times, and sweat beaded on her forehead. The flesh in front of her was far from the way the young yamen runner had beaten her.

Thus, Jin Shu could finally reach a conclusion. As she raised her hand to examine the stick, she began to explain in detail.

"Based on the preliminary on-site investigation and the comprehensive analysis of the victim's body, the murder weapon should be a broken wooden stick." She paused, "It wasn't cut open, but rather it was impacted by an external force, split along the wood grain, and had a pointed end, like this."

She showed the wooden stick to Li Jin, then put it aside, raising her hand to rub her aching shoulders.

"The victim had engaged in a fierce struggle before his death and still had enough energy afterward. The perpetrator who killed the victim in such a violent manner must be at least an adult male with a strong physique. The possibility of multiple perpetrators cannot be ruled out."

Li Jin nodded: "In your opinion, how should the nature of the case be determined?"

At this moment, Jin Shu shook his head, which was unusual for him: "Based on the existing traces, we cannot be certain."

Seeing Li Jin's slightly surprised expression, she explained, "As Your Highness knows, to determine the nature of a case, it is necessary to view the crime scene as a whole."

“In the victim’s courtyard, there were many loitering footprints in one of the side rooms. If the footprints were left by the murderer, then it is possible that it was a robbery or revenge killing committed by someone known to the victim.”

Because in that courtyard, besides the victim living there, there was also an elderly man and his family.

The murderer may be hiding inside the house, seeking revenge only against the victim.

It's also possible that he was hiding inside, waiting for nightfall to search for valuables, but he didn't expect to be discovered by the victim, and then he chose to kill him to silence him.

"The victim's body doesn't provide many clues. We'll have to wait for Lord Yun to arrive and reconstruct the scene from his perspective. Perhaps then we can discover more details."

After saying all this, Jin Shu raised her hand and gently stroked her chin. After thinking for a while, she added, "I always feel like something's not quite right, like something's missing, it's weird."

"Hmm." Li Jin nodded. "It's strange that such a loud noise at night didn't bother the elderly couple, who are both healthy and hard of hearing."

Li Jin smiled faintly, waving the fan in her hand.

As the setting sun gradually painted the outside room crimson, Jin Shu asked in surprise, "Then why doesn't the Prince interrogate us?"

"No rush." ​​He raised an eyebrow. "Let them wait for a couple of days."

Li Jin was also waiting, waiting for Yun Fei to arrive and give him irrefutable evidence that the two old men couldn't deny, so that they could find the most crucial breakthrough in the case.