Lu Qing seemed to be startled by Lu Zheng's words. He raised his hand and slapped him: "What nonsense are you talking about? If you are not my son, then whose son are you?"

Lu Zheng covered his forehead which was red from being slapped. The original sad mood was wiped out in an instant, and he swallowed the words he wanted to say.

Lu Qing glared at him: "If you keep talking nonsense, I'll beat you up!"

"Got it." Lu Zheng rubbed his forehead again and complained, "Dad, you hit me too hard!"

"You'll feel the pain only if it's harder!" Lu Qing cursed again, and after a long time, he pretended to be casual and said, "If it's still red later, I'll ask a doctor to apply some medicine on you."

Lu Zheng's lips slowly curled up, and his heart, which was originally immersed in ice water, slowly warmed up. He rubbed his nose and responded softly: "Yeah."

The wheels of the carriage were turning, and the small wind lanterns hanging on the eaves showed a different kind of warmth in this cold winter night.

At this time, in Lu's mansion, the eldest young lady Lin hurriedly crossed a path, but stopped when she saw the figure standing in front of her.

"I knew... you wouldn't let me go." Lin laughed miserably and tightly held the cloth bag in her hand.

The figure didn't say anything.

But Lin seemed to have accepted her fate and whispered, "I should have known... you wouldn't let me go." Her lips trembled, "I know, I know..."

The figure took a step forward, and the woman's voice came through the light gauze of the curtain, and it seemed vague and blurred in the wind: "You saw something you shouldn't have seen... Actually, I didn't want to kill you."

"You..." Lin suddenly remembered something, and her face suddenly became fierce, "My husband, and my child... Did you kill them?"

The other party sighed: "Yes."

Lin's eyes were bloodshot: "Why!!"

"They blocked the road." The woman's voice came lightly, "They left quickly and didn't suffer much."

"You vicious woman! I'm going to kill you!" Lin's voice was filled with deep hatred. She rushed straight towards the woman, but her face changed halfway. She grabbed her neck with both hands and made a "click, click" sound in her throat.

She stretched out her hand to grab it, but it fell to the ground in vain. She watched helplessly as the cloth bag in her hand was taken away by a slender hand.

Lin tried her best to grab her clothes, but she couldn't control her fingers because of the poison. She could only watch her back holding the cloth bag gradually walk away.

Lin's vision gradually became blurred, and she uttered an indistinct curse from her throat: "... must not... die well..."

The next day, while the Lu family was having breakfast, they received news from the Lu Mansion. Last night, the eldest young lady, Lin, was poisoned to death. Her body was found in the abandoned garden and was only discovered by the maid this morning.

Lu Zheng was stunned for a moment, then he remembered that it was the eldest young lady who was a little mentally unstable. Two poisoning cases occurred within a few days, and Lu Qing's face became ugly.

"Let's go and take a look."

The father and son led a group of guards to the Lu Mansion, and found that all the servants were panicked, and the masters were also at a loss. The house was almost in chaos.

Before coming, Yun realized that something like this might happen, so she asked Yu to come along. Seeing this, Yu got Lu Qing's approval and went forward to command the servants of the Lu family, at least giving them a backbone.

The second son Lu Yuan was imprisoned in Jingzhao Prefecture, and the family was temporarily managed by the third son Lu Cheng and the fourth son Lu Juan. However, these two had never managed a family before, and they had never done anything before. Suddenly, so many things were thrown at them that they felt dizzy. The first wife

Wu used the excuse of catching a cold and lay in her room. The second young lady Qu seemed to be a little unwell since the second young master was taken away, and she was also resting in her room because she was not in good health. The third young lady Li was always submissive, and in the end, only Tong stood up to take charge.

"I'm sorry to offend you, Third Cousin." Tong bowed, "People in this mansion are in a panic now, and I don't know what to do."

Lu Qing said, "Let Madam Yu help you for a few days."

Tong was grateful, "That's great, thank you, Third Cousin."

Before Lu Qing could ask what happened, Tang Min and Zhao Xueqian also came with a group of constables.

Lin was a woman, and Shihu, as a coroner, naturally couldn't take off her clothes to examine the body. He could only observe her face and confirm that she was poisoned, and it was also a kiss.

"Then how did she get poisoned?" Tang Min asked.

Shihu walked around Lin a few times, but accidentally found some bald spots on her head. He reached out and played with Lin's hair, then went over to smell it, and his face suddenly changed.

"What's wrong?"

Shihu ignored him, but carefully pulled out a few strands of Lin's hair and gently rubbed them on the silver needle he carried with him. The silver needle immediately turned black.

Suddenly, everyone around understood.

"Was the arsenic applied to her head?"

"No, it should be applied to her hair." Zhao Xueqian said immediately, "Brother Tang, please send someone to surround the eldest young lady's room immediately. The poison may be in the room."

Several people hurried to Lin's room. Because she was in mourning, Lin's room was extremely simple. On her dressing table, there were only a few wooden hairpins and a pair of yellowed pearl earrings, and no other ornaments. This didn't look like the dressing box of a young lady from a wealthy family. Even a small family would have a few gold and silver ornaments.

Lin's maid knelt on the ground and trembled.

"Tell me, what do you know?"

The maid said in a trembling voice, "On the day when the second young master was arrested... the young mistress went out for a while, and after she came back, her face was always very ugly... I asked her, and she scolded me, so I... I didn't dare to ask again."

"Yesterday, the young mistress suddenly returned to the yard in a panic... She also chased me out. I was worried, so I hid behind the window and peeked... I saw the young mistress holding a cloth bag and walking out in a hurry. I thought... it was the eldest uncle and his men coming again... to ask for money again, so I didn't follow them. I didn't see the young mistress come back until very late, so I... I went to find the mistress."

"But...but the sister in Madam's room said that Madam was not feeling well and went to bed early. I had no other choice but to...to..."

The maid burst into tears: "Madam...it's all my fault...it's all my fault..."

Tang Min and Zhao Xueqin looked at each other, while Lu Zheng lowered his head and thought. At this moment, the constable who was looking for poison on the side said, "Sir, we found it."

He held in his hand a round box with a picture of a lady on it. When he opened it, there was a light yellow oily substance inside. There was a faint fragrance, but the silver needle inserted in it had turned black.

"Put away the evidence and bring it back to the government office."

Tang Min breathed a sigh of relief. There had been no significant progress in the case. Although Lu Yuan had been arrested, he refused to admit his guilt. The evidence was not conclusive, and he could not be tortured into confessing. If the stalemate continued, the case would be handed over to the Ministry of Justice according to convention. Who knows how the case would turn out in Lu Che's hands.

Now that someone had died again, at least key evidence had been found, which gave him the capital to continue the investigation.

Tang Min asked the maid again: "Where did this hair oil come from?"

The maid looked up carefully: "The hair oil is the quota of the mansion. I...I got it from the housekeeper nanny..."

"Housekeeper nanny?"

"Yes...it was from the madam's companion..."

At this time, the news about Dendrobium also came. According to Lin's symptoms, it was not a sudden poisoning like Lu Jian, but a chronic poisoning over time. Judging from Lin's appearance, it had been at least half a year. The poison of Dendrobium is highly toxic. To achieve this level, the murderer must be a master of poison.

However, Lu Zheng suddenly asked the maid, "Does the eldest young lady never wear gold or silver ornaments?"

The maid whispered, "Since the eldest young master passed away, the young lady put away most of her jewelry in order to observe mourning, and she rarely wore it on weekdays. Until the youngest young master passed away, the young lady believed in Buddhism and put away all the gold and silver jewelry. She only wore wooden hairpins and ate vegetarian food on weekdays."

Lu Zheng nodded and asked, "You said before that you thought the eldest cousin's wife went to see the uncle. Who is that?"

"He is the young lady's biological brother. Since the young lady's grandfather passed away, the uncle was not good at business, so he often came to the young lady for help. Almost all of the young lady's dowry was... supplemented by him."

Lu Zheng asked what he wanted to know and got a look of concern from Zhao Xueqin, but soon, he followed Tang Min to the main hall.

Mrs. Wu's face did not look good and she coughed occasionally. The nanny beside her supported her and wiped her tears, saying, "My Lord, I am innocent! The hair oil was purchased by the housekeeper. Although I received it from me, I took it myself. How could I know that there was poison in the box? I am innocent!"

Although the Lu Mansion was a little chaotic, it still had the rules of a wealthy family. The purchase account books and the account books of the housekeeper and nanny for each courtyard to receive the oil matched each other, indicating that she did not lie. Could it be that the poison was given after the oil was received?

In order to poison Lin's hair oil over the years, someone must be very close to her. However, Lin lived in seclusion in the mansion and rarely interacted with people. In addition, her personality became very strange after the death of her husband and son. Even the maids did not dare to approach her easily.

Tang Min sent someone to check Lin's daily relationships, and asked Wu: "Where did Madam Lu go last night?"

Wu's face turned pale and her voice suddenly became sharp: "What do you mean by this, Lord Tang?"

"Nothing, it's just that it's getting darker and the dew is heavier, and Madam Lu still has the interest to go to the garden to enjoy the scenery. No wonder she caught a cold."

Everyone looked down along his line of sight and found that Wu's embroidered shoes exposed under her skirt were covered with mud.

Almost all the courtyards of Chinese families are paved with bluestone slabs. Except for the garden, there is really no other place that can stick so much mud.