Chapter 90: Suspicious Points in the Dismemberment Case Three Years Ago
"What's wrong, Brother Yin? Any new discoveries?" Linlang asked.
Yin Chuan bent down and pointed at the edge of the wooden door handle and said, "Why is there a mark here?"
Linlang leaned over to take a closer look. Sure enough, there were a few faint vertical marks on the upper edge of the door handle that Yin Chuan pointed out. "This is the base of the wooden door handle. The marks on it look like they were scratched."
Yin Chuan carefully recalled the appearance of the corpse. "Linlang, did you notice before that there were any small sawdust or something like that left under the fingernails of the corpse's outstretched right hand?"
Linlang shook her head. "I didn't care at the time."
"I remember there was one." Yin Chuan said, "The body is still at Lu's house. Let's go and confirm it when we have time."
"Does this have anything to do with the 'reverse chamber'?"
"If I remember correctly, then the question is, why did Lv Shuiqing scratch the top edge of the door handle instead of pulling it?"
This question left Linlang somewhat baffled, and she didn't know how to answer for a moment.
Yin Chuan chuckled, as if he had guessed the answer to the puzzle. "So that's how it is. The so-called 'reverse secret room' is created using such a simple method!"
"Have you seen through it?"
"Look here—" Yin Chuan pointed at a narrow half-inch gap at the top of the door handle shaft. "This is the only possibility, but the key thing must be on the murderer."
"But I still have a question. If Lv Shuiqing couldn't escape and knew her life was in danger, would she have left behind information about the murderer before she died?"
"No, she stayed." Yin Chuan touched his mouth and said, "She used this gesture to remind us."
"Touching the mouth? What could that mean?" Linlang thought for a moment. "Oh, she means... mouth! Is there a word for mouth in the murderer's name?"
"This is the Lu family. The surname Lu has the character 'kou' in it."
"That's true," Linlang said, feeling somewhat discouraged. "Then her suggestion is meaningless."
"Of course it makes sense," Yin Chuan replied, "Only one of those four people has the last name Lu!"
Linlang's eyes lit up, "Lu Enting? Could it be him?"
Yin Chuan smiled slightly. "The problem is that this is just our speculation. We have no evidence and no clear motive. So we still need to investigate carefully."
After saying this, he went to the place where Lü Jiye's body was found and lifted up the felt covering the ground. He saw that the dark mark left on the ground was still shocking, and the positions of the three parts of the body were clearly distinguishable.
"It's been so long, what else is there to investigate?" Linlang asked in confusion.
"Remember the photo of Lu Jiye's body that Lu Changhua showed us? At the time, I felt that the outline in front of me seemed smaller than the bloodstain outline in the photo."
"That's not surprising, it's been three years. The bloodstain will eventually seep down, and generally speaking, the further out it gets, the faster it seeps down. So the outline is definitely smaller now than it was then."
"No, it's not just that." Yin Chuan shook his head. "Didn't you notice that the outlines in the photo looked straight and even, but now they appear irregular. What's going on?"
Linlang was basically unaware of such a subtle difference, but when Yin Chuan mentioned it, she seemed to feel that there was indeed something strange.
"I think the outline in the photo should be the blood flowing out of Lu Jiye's body. Judging from the amount of blood lost from dismemberment, the traces cannot be horizontal or vertical. Unless it is blocked by something, to be more precise, it looks more like a box without a bottom." Yin Chuan analyzed.
"Oh! That makes sense!" Linlang slapped her forehead. "There was so much blood flowing at the time that even if some seeped through the partition, the outline was still very obvious. After three years, the blood gradually seeped down and became what it is now."
"I think the box that blocks the blood from flowing around is the key to Lu Jiye's dismemberment method!" Yin Chuan was very sure.
Just as Yin Chuan and Lin Lang were about to examine the marks beneath the felt more carefully, the sharp-eared Yin Chuan heard a noisy voice coming from outside the open door, approaching from afar. It was the Lu Family disciples returning! Yin Chuan and Lin Lang exchanged greetings and hurried out of the practice room, closing the door behind them.
"Why is the master so anxious? Didn't we agree to officially become a monk in autumn?"
"Who knows? Maybe Feng Shijiu has been making too much noise these past few days?"
"Isn't it? He killed two young ladies in a row!"
"Now the Lu family only has the Third Miss left. If the class leader remains indifferent, perhaps the Third Miss won't be able to be saved."
"Shh—keep your voice down. Don't be afraid that the Lu family will hear you and punish you!"
"The Third Miss is now the only child of the Lu family. No wonder Master Jingui sent her so many delicious dishes, made from Hongyun House. Now, both the head of the family and the uncle have to dote on the Third Miss."
…
The disciples chattered non-stop, their conversations scattered and disjointed, but Yin Chuan grasped the general gist. It turned out that Lü Changhua had gathered everyone in the Lü Clan and publicly announced that in five days he would become a Taoist monk at the Xingquan Temple east of the city. The Lü Clan would then be led by his uncle, Lü Tai. Before his departure, he would personally lead a final performance.
After the two of them brushed shoulders with the disciples and left the training ground, Yin Chuan whispered to Linlang, "From what the disciples said, Lv Changhua wasn't really eager to become a monk. I don't know why—perhaps after a private conversation with me, he changed his mind and will officially become a monk in five days?"
"I think maybe he thought it was Feng Shijiu who was causing trouble for the Lu family and killing their two daughters, so he decided to become a monk as soon as possible," Linlang replied. "But I'm still curious, why did his becoming a Taoist monk stop Feng Shijiu from causing trouble? What is the relationship between them?"
"He's been tight-lipped about the reason he became a monk. Although we suspect it's connected to the movie star Jade Pearl who visited a few months ago—that's the organization itself—we still don't know the exact connection."
After lunch, the two men questioned several of the Lu Clan's disciples. While they were all forthcoming, they offered little valuable information. As for the Third Young Lady and her husband, whom they were worried about, aside from the ritualistic offerings to the spirit tablets of the First and Second Young Ladies, nothing else of note had happened. They even had Jingui deliver a sumptuous lunch prepared by a prestigious restaurant.
As dusk approached, the eldest son-in-law Hai Yifan found Yin Chuan and the others and said that the head of the family was going to hold a dinner for the Lu family members in the main hall and invited the two of them to attend. He also asked someone to invite Du Yunzhang and Baohan from the Cao Gang.
"Brother-in-law, does the head of the family have any important family affairs to announce?" Yin Chuan asked Hai Yifan.
"According to etiquette, a banquet shouldn't be held during the mourning period for the two young ladies, but my father-in-law feels that the situation is urgent and can't be delayed any longer, so he's using the opportunity of the banquet to explain important matters to everyone in the Lu family. He also invited several members of the Cao Gang so that you can be witnesses."
"Hasn't the head of the family already announced that he would become a monk, and that the Lu family troupe would be managed by his uncle? Is there any other important matter?" Linlang couldn't help but ask.
Hai Yifan hesitated for a moment before answering, "It's more than that. Well... you'll know when the time comes."
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