Chapter 102: Reasoning about the Second Poisoning Case
At this time, Lu Changhua was looking hesitantly at the person next to him. That person was his cousin Lu Enting.
"Enting, I gave you full authority over the performance arrangements that day. You didn't need me to make the final decision. Could it be that you were the one who was responsible for the Narcissus incident..."
Lu Enting looked innocent. "Brother, why do you think so? Why would I harm Shuixian? These two people from the Cao Gang are singing the same tune and are simply making up stories. Don't believe them!"
Yin Chuan smiled, "Why are you so excited? I didn't even know it was you who decided the program, so why should I be so mean to you? And I have to sigh, this murderer's method of poisoning is really unique!"
"Oh, yes, you've been talking for a long time. How did the murderer poison her?" Du Yunzhang asked, unable to hide his curiosity.
"Do you remember what was missing when we checked the water tank where the body was?" Yin Chuan asked back.
"Hmm... let me think about it. Oh yes! It's a wine jug!" Du Yunzhang slapped his forehead.
"Yes, since we are going to perform drinking in water, we must use a wine jug. But when the body was found, the wine jug that should have been left at the scene was missing. But since the person has died of poisoning, what does it matter whether the wine jug is left at the scene?" Yin Chuan asked.
Du Yunzhang shook his head, indicating that he didn't understand at all.
"Because there was no poison in the wine jug at all! The murderer took it away just to prevent anyone from discovering this."
Du Yunzhang was a little confused. "There's no poison in the wine jug? Then where did the poison in Lu Shuixian come from?"
"Snake venom can only come from one place, and that's the water in the tank!" Yin Chuan pointed to the huge water tank next to him. At this time, the four walls of the water tank were covered tightly with wooden boards.
"Lü Shuixian had no way of fully understanding the drinking process in the Color Water Drainage Water, so it's not surprising that she ended up drinking the water from the tank. Evidence of poisoning in the water comes from the autopsy. Not only did the victim's mouth show signs of poisoning, but there were also traces of snake venom in other areas of her body, nostrils, and ears, though the venom wasn't as noticeable as in her mouth."
"Why bother? Why would he just poison the wine jug? Why go through all the trouble of poisoning the water tank?"
"There's only one possible reason the murderer could have done this. He didn't have any ready-made snake venom on hand, only a live fire snake. So he could only place the snake directly into the water tank, intending to let it bite Lü Shuixian and kill her. However, the fire snake wasn't interested in biting people, and simply got frightened, spitting out its venom. Thus, the water in the tank became poisonous. The murderer must have put a string around the snake to control its movements. When there was no movement inside, assuming the person had died from the poisoning, he used the string to remove the snake. That's when we checked the tank after draining the water, and only then did we discover toxins remaining on the bottom of the inner wall. This is the entire process of the first murder."
"Who is the murderer? Lu Enting?" Du Yunzhang looked at Lu Enting.
"You can convict me just because I was responsible for arranging the program for the performance? This is ridiculous!" Lu Enting said with a look of disapproval.
Yin Chuan smiled. "It's a little early to draw conclusions now, but it doesn't matter. Let's move on to the second case." He held up two fingers. "The day before yesterday at midnight, the Flying Thief Feng Shijiu visited the Lu residence again, alarming everyone in the Lu family. There were five people who chased them here: the eldest brother-in-law Hai Yifan, the second brother-in-law Gu Yan, the second young lady Lu Shuiqing, Master Jin Gui, and you, Lu Enting. I remember when Lao Du and I asked about what happened that night the next day, Master Jin Gui said that you four men entered the room first, and the second young lady Lu Shuiqing was waiting outside the door at first.
"The four of you searched the room for a while. Lu Enting was the first to claim to have been bitten by a snake, followed by Gu Yan and Hai Yifan. The second young lady heard the noise and immediately came in to check on the situation. Unfortunately, she was bitten last. Fortunately, Jin Gui dodged the snake and was able to escape the room. She quickly found the antidote and injected it into you. But no one noticed, and the second young lady was left in the room. As a result, she missed the best opportunity to detoxify and died from the poison. That's roughly what happened, am I right?"
Everyone nodded, indicating that there was nothing wrong.
"What's so strange about this is that most people were able to escape the room successfully, so why didn't the Second Young Lady come out? That's why we called this a 'reverse chamber' technique. There's no doubt that this chamber was created by the murderer, so that the Second Young Lady would be trapped and die from the poison in the room, unable to detoxify. But how did he do it?"
As he spoke, Yin Chuan slowly walked to the door of the training room and opened it. "Please look, everyone! This door is incredibly thick, and the walls are just as thick. There are no windows, so it's incredibly soundproof. This design was created by the Lu family's headman to practice and teach the three unique skills of the Lu family, to prevent his disciples from stealing them. Of course, other disciples who have unique techniques they don't want to show publicly can also use this room for private practice. The murderer exploited this characteristic to accomplish his murderous tactics."
In front of everyone, Yin Chuan gently closed the door and said to Du Yunzhang, "Can you leave this room now?"
Du Yunzhang looked puzzled. "What's so difficult about this?" He walked forward and reached out to pull the door open, but was stunned in an instant - why was the door handle gone? He squatted down to take a closer look, and saw only a smooth piece of wood where the door handle should have been, with no support at all. "What's going on?"
Yin Chuan did not answer Du Yunzhang immediately, but glanced at Lu Enting and found that his face was turning red and white, and he was rubbing his hands back and forth with his fingers crossed, as if he had something to say but didn't dare to say it.
"You can't open it, right?" Yin Chuan laughed. "That's what happened to Lu Shuiqing back then. Without a door handle, no matter how hard she banged on the door or how much strength she had left after the poison took effect, she couldn't be heard by anyone outside. She even tried to dig her fingernails into the wooden board, trying to pry open a crack, but it was useless. That's why there are scratch marks here."
"Where did the door handle go?" Du Yunzhang asked.
Yin Chuan raised his left hand, and in his palm was the doorknob that had been on the door just moments before. Attached to its base was a cylindrical object with protruding metal wedges on either side. "This is the key to the murderer's creation of this 'reverse chamber'."
"Wait!" Hai Yifan suddenly said, "When you opened the door just now, the door handle was clearly there. How did it suddenly disappear? What method did you use?"
"It's very simple, just use this secretly." As he said that, Yin Chuan raised his right hand and showed his thumb to everyone. It turned out that he had a ring on his right thumb at some point, and there was a very thin protrusion on the outside. "Look, everyone, I use the protrusion on this ring to press the top of the door handle shaft and turn it lightly, and the spring inside will shrink." He connected the door handle to the middle of the wooden board at the edge of the door, and then connected it back. "This is what it looked like originally. At that time, the murderer was the second to last to go out the door, and behind him was Lu Shuiqing. Before he followed the person in front of him out of the room, he took this thing and pressed it into the thin groove on the door handle, twisted it to the middle, and the door handle was easily removed. He closed the door, and Lu Shuiqing, who had not yet come out of the room, could not get out no matter what. This is his method of creating a reverse secret room."
"This ring belongs to Lu Enting!" Jin Gui shouted.
"It seems there's no way to escape! You are the murderer!" Du Yunzhang raised his eyebrows.
"This ring... the ring is mine, sure, but there's one thing you can't explain," Lu Enting said, trying his best to hide his inner panic. "How can I be sure that Lu Shuiqing will be the last one left? What if she leaves first? How should I proceed?"
Yin Chuan laughed heartily, with a hint of sarcasm in his laughter, "How can you be sure? Isn't it obvious? Do you really have to let me explain it clearly? Well, let's just not cover it up. Of the four gentlemen who came here that night, Hai Yifan, Gu Yan, Jingui and you, Lu Enting, who would still care about Lu Shuiqing in times of crisis? Brother-in-law," Yin Chuan first looked at Hai Yifan, "since you came to the Lu family, how has the head of the family viewed you? I believe that not only you, but everyone in the Lu family should be clear about this. Judging from your reaction after the eldest lady was murdered, I don't believe that you would still care about Lu Shuiqing's safety when you were poisoned.
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