Chapter 99 The Strange Boy Who Came to Our Door

The nature of the case, the range of suspects, and key clues.

Jin Shu stood there, sorting out the entire case while referring to the autopsy results, and looked at the busy figures in the yard. She said calmly, "It's too vague."

She said, "I can't determine the nature of the case. It's very strange because it doesn't have the characteristics of revenge or financial gain."

“Strange?” Yan Zhao looked at her face.

“Yes, it’s strange,” Jin Shu said. “It’s like some important link is missing, making it impossible to form a complete chain.”

"Heh." Yan Zhao's expression softened slightly. "So, what are your suggestions for the next step?"

“Gelsemium elegans,” Jin Shu said. “Where it comes from, and how the victims ingested it, is one direction.”

After saying that, she looked at Yan Zhao with some curiosity and asked, "Does Master recognize Gelsemium elegans?"

Of course I recognize it.

only……

He raised his hand and pointed to Li Jin, who was looking helpless outside: "Your Highness knows more about poisonous herbs than I do." As he spoke, he sighed, "You and I only recognize them when we see them on autopsies, and we just need to keep them in mind. But he recognizes them for his own survival. You can't go wrong if you ask him."

At that moment, in the courtyard, Li Jin's gaze fell on a special cup.

The translucent material and extremely smooth appearance resemble white jade, making it visibly valuable.

He held the white, smooth teacup in his hand, turned it over, and on the bottom of the cup was a blooming peony.

This floral pattern is one of the thirteen designs on the scroll in his study.

Jin Shu happened to witness this scene.

She asked, somewhat puzzled, "What is this?"

Li Jin glanced at Jin Shu, hesitated for a moment, then gently turned the cup so that the bottom of the cup was facing Jin Shu's cheek, making the red peony mark stand out brightly.

“That’s probably why he’ll die,” Li Jin said. “Just like Lord Zhang said, he stole something he shouldn’t have.”

Before Jin Shu could speak, Li Jin smiled and asked, "So, have you figured out how you died?"

Jin Shu nodded: "Hooked kiss."

The man in front of him paused for a moment, then turned his head to look at the corpse lying on the bed opposite him, covered with a burlap sack, and nodded knowingly.

Then, Li Jin took a few steps forward, opened the bundled medicine package on the ground, and accurately found Gelsemium elegans among the dozen or so medicinal herbs.

“This looks like daylily, and it tastes bitter, so it’s unlikely he would eat it alone.” He picked it up and said with a smile, “Mixing it into medicine is the most common method.”

Seeing his calm explanation, Jin Shu recalled Yan Zhao's words.

You and I know each other, but we only met by chance during an autopsy, so we needed to recognize each other. As for Prince Jing, Li Jin, he knew each other, but only to save his own life.

She looked at the honeysuckle in his hand with mixed feelings: "You've eaten it?"

Li Jin didn't know how to respond to those words.

"Your Highness."

At that moment, Zhou Zheng's voice came from outside the door. He gripped the hilt of a knife in one hand, his expression serious, and strode towards Li Jin: "Your Highness, Chen Xi has arrived and is waiting in the front courtyard." He paused, "He said he found the location where the body was hidden and also caught a suspicious student."

Inside the Imperial College, in the same dormitory where the body was found, the seals remained, the white mourning ribbons still in place. Chen Xi stood before the room with several people, pointing to the bluestone path in the courtyard beside it.

"Not long after you left, a suspicious-looking student started squatting here, like he was looking for something," Chen Xi said. "The Chancellor suspected something was wrong, so he tied him up, and then..."

Chen Xi took two steps forward, pushed aside the bushes planted in the yard, and walked two steps into the depth of the flower bed: "I don't know who or what the reason is, but they buried such a big wooden box here, just big enough for a person to lie down in."

Looking in his direction, in the garden, beneath a patch of ground that Chen Xi had almost cleared, was a rectangular box with its lid open.

Jin Shu pushed aside the dense bushes, squatted down, and stared at the empty box in front of her.

“This should be it,” she said. “I can still smell a faint stench.”

She looked up at Chen Xi, who was standing with her in the garden: "Lord Chen, what about the student who was arrested?"

It's not accurate to say they were students of the Imperial Academy.

Although the students of the Imperial College were collectively called "College Students," there were more detailed distinctions due to the different backgrounds of the students.

Those like Su Ziping, who paid their way in, were called "donations." And that furtive student who was tied up by the Imperial Academy Chancellor was also a donation.

From the moment Li Jin stepped across the threshold into the house, the boy, whose hands and feet were bound and mouth gagged, stared at him longingly, mumbling and babbling, his face flushed red.

He frowned, walked straight up to the boy, ripped the handkerchief out of the boy's mouth, threw it aside, and watched him pant heavily for a moment before saying, "Tell me, how did you know there were boxes there, and what is your relationship with Su Ziping?"

"He and I are just classmates!" the kneeling boy hurriedly said. "Your Honor, everything I said is true, not a single word of it is false!"

But Li Jin sat down on the octagonal chair in the main hall with a blank expression, looked at his face, and after a long while, chuckled softly: "Is that what I'm asking?"

The expression on the boy's face froze for a moment.

He remained silent for a long time before stammering, "There was a box there. I saw him once. He took a key to the garden, squatted there fiddling with something, and then came out with a few pieces of jade."

"I...I..." He hesitated for a long time before finally managing to say, as if the words were just bursting out, "I was thinking, he's dead now, what about those valuable stones and stuff..."

"I just wanted to dig it up and sell it to get some money..." He said this in a voice so soft it was almost inaudible.

The case was investigated all day, from midday when the sun was high in the sky, to evening when the ground was bathed in golden light.

Like Jin Shu, Li Jin felt that the puzzle of this case was missing its most crucial piece.

In his mind, the appearance of that teacup gave the case three different possibilities.

The first possibility is that the poisoning case itself was caused by Su Ziping's addiction to theft.

During one of his thefts, he stole something he shouldn't have, which brought trouble upon himself.

The second possibility is that the teacup itself was not directly related to his death.

Li Jin was simply manipulated by someone using this poisoning case to lead him to discover this teacup.

The case is an independent case, and the teacup is an independent teacup.

The third possibility is that the murderer's act of killing was precisely to help Li Jin find the teacup.

He glanced at the kneeling boy in front of him and said with cool lips, "Suppose you wanted to exchange for some money, and you decided to kill Su Ziping without hesitation, wouldn't that make sense?"

Upon hearing this, the young man became agitated: "That doesn't make sense! If it were just for money, I could have easily helped Liu Qi; there's no need to kill him!"

Li Jin narrowed his eyes slightly: "Liu Qi?"

The boy in front of him suddenly froze and gave an awkward laugh.