Hua Hanyun quickly regained his composure and explained with a smile, "I used to know Miss Wushuang's father, but I heard that the father and daughter died young. I never expected that I would be involved in a case."
"Dr. Hua, aren't you from Pear Blossom Village?"
Hua Hanyun shook his head. "I was just a homeless and jobless itinerant doctor. Later, I realized that my old bones couldn't handle the hustle anymore, so I settled down in the mountains of Lihua Village."
"I never thought about leaving..."
Hua Hanyun smiled but did not directly answer Su Yan's question. "I don't have that idea for now. I might leave in the future."
"I heard that the Zhao family buried Miss Zhao under the locust tree on the back mountain. Doctor Hua, would you like to go and pay your respects to the deceased?" Su Yan suggested.
Hua Hanyun shook his head, declining Su Yan's suggestion, "Not today. Banxia is still waiting for me at home, and I can't leave her unattended. I'll go to pay my respects another day..."
Su Yan didn't insist, watching Hua Hanyun leave, "Dr. Hua, please take care on your journey..."
Hua Hanyun smiled and waved, his figure gradually disappearing down the path.
With her keen investigative skills, Su Yan noticed something unusual.
"Lord Shen, don't you feel like there's a hand pushing us, trying to draw our attention to Zhao Wushuang's murder case?"
Shen Yao nodded. "I feel that Sister-in-law Yang deliberately revealed this information about Zhao Wushuang to us."
What do we do next?
After a moment of contemplation, Shen Yao said, "Let's go check the back mountain and see Miss Zhao's remains. At least we need to figure out why the murderer cut off the victim's hand."
…………
After leaving Pear Blossom Village, Su Yan and Shen Yao took their tools to the location Zhao Liangde had mentioned. After digging for an hour, they discovered a decayed coffin lid in the pit.
The two men swiftly opened the coffin, only to find it completely empty.
"Lord Shen, what do you think?"
Shen Yao looked at the empty coffin and said in a deep voice, "There's no one in the coffin. There are only two possibilities: either Zhao Liangde is lying to us, or..."
Shen Yao hesitated, as if he wanted to say something but then stopped.
"In the second scenario, it's very likely that Miss Zhao is still alive?" Su Yan chimed in.
"This is just a guess, but I don't think Zhao Liangde has any reason to lie."
If Zhao Wushuang is truly not dead, he is most likely to seek revenge against the Zhao family.
Finding a living person is difficult enough, let alone a dead one. Finding Zhao Wushuang is no easy task.
"Sir, I think we've all overlooked a detail."
"What details?"
"In Miss Zhao's story, there is another person."
"who?"
“Jiang Han! He is Zhao Wushuang’s sweetheart and the top scholar in the imperial examination five years ago. Logically speaking, his official position should be quite high now, but I have never heard of this Jiang Han in Chang’an.”
Shen Yao thought Su Yan's guess made a lot of sense. After all, Gelsemium elegans was a very rare poison, and it would be difficult for Zhao Wushuang, a countrywoman, to come into contact with it, but Jiang Han might not be so lucky.
“Indeed… I will immediately write back to the capital and order someone to find out where Jiang Han is currently holding an official position.”
Not long after Shen Yao sent the letter by carrier pigeon, he received a reply from Chang'an.
Looking at the letter in Shen Yao's hand, Su Yan felt uneasy.
"My lord, I have a bad feeling about this..."
Unexpectedly, this premonition came true.
After Jiang Han passed the imperial examination with top honors, he returned to his hometown to visit relatives and soon disappeared. He has not returned to Beijing to resume his post since.
Su Yan and Shen Yao exchanged a glance, their thoughts unspoken.
The last time I left Dr. Hua's cabin was five days ago.
Su Yan stood at the door of the wooden house, looking dazed, and hesitated to push the door open.
Shen Yao looked at her with concern, "What's wrong?"
Su Yan shook her head. "My lord, I'm fine. I'm just afraid to face the truth. Miss Zhao is so pitiful..."
Shen Yao reached out and touched Su Yan's head. He understood Su Yan's hesitation. The murderer was avenging Miss Zhao. It was a righteous and bloody counterattack.
What's more, the other party was his savior.
"Su Yan, what's done is done, there's no chance to undo it. Sometimes the truth is bloody, and all we can do is restore the truth and warn the world."
Shen Yao's words gave Su Yan courage, and she put aside her distracting thoughts and pushed open the door of the wooden house.
Hua Hanyun was sitting in the courtyard, quietly brewing tea. He was not surprised by Su Yan and Shen Yao's arrival and seemed to have been waiting for them for a long time.
Hua Hanyun pointed to the empty stool beside her and said to the two of them, "They're here... Come and try my freshly brewed tea."
Su Yan didn't step forward, but went straight to the point, "Dr. Hua... no... I've already called you Jiang Han, right?"
Hua Hanyun smiled calmly and did not refute Su Yan's words. "Lord Shen, Young Master Su, this is the pear blossom tea that Wushuang loved to drink when she was alive. Please try it. You may not be able to drink it again in the future."
This time, Su Yan did not refuse. She sat down next to Hua Hanyun and took a sip of tea.
It has a light, sweet taste with the fragrance of pear blossoms, and leaves a lingering, delightful aftertaste.
"Excellent, excellent, this tea is truly delicious..."
Shen Yao nodded in agreement.
Seeing the two praising the pear blossom tea, Hua Hanyun smiled brightly, her eyes filled with tears, as if a deep memory had been stirred up.
"In life and death, we made a vow; I will hold your hand and grow old with you..." Hua Hanyun said, then covered his face and wept bitterly, "Wushuang and I shouldn't have ended like this."
The thought of the Zhao family's true colors instantly darkened Hua Hanyun's face, and he cursed angrily, "They all deserve to die... You guessed right, I was the one who poisoned them..."
Su Yan watched quietly as Hua Hanyun, with a mixture of pain and composure on his face, calmly recounted the process of committing the murder.
Hua Hanyun returned to Pear Blossom Village full of joy, only to receive news of Wushuang's death.
Furthermore, because the Zhao family members deliberately concealed the truth, Hua Hanyun genuinely believed that Zhao Wushuang had died from depression due to excessive grief over her father's passing.
On the day he was about to leave Pear Blossom Village, he learned the truth about Zhao Wushuang's departure from Sister-in-law Yang.
Hua Hanyun was indeed furious at the time, and he was determined to take revenge. However, he knew that the laws of Daliang would not bring anyone who had harmed Wushuang to justice.
Therefore, Hua Hanyun decided to take revenge himself and make everyone pay the price they deserved.
From an ancient book he obtained by chance, Hua Hanyun concocted a remedy called "Gouwen" and then administered it to the Zhao family members.
Su Yan looked at Hua Hanyun with a complicated expression as he recounted the killings, but she still pressed for details about Zhao Wushuang's whereabouts. "Jiang Han, I'm not going to play games with you anymore. Why did you cut off their hands?"
In fact, Su Yan had already guessed that Miss Zhao was probably in grave danger, otherwise Hua Hanyun would not have taken such a crazy revenge.
But Su Yan couldn't understand why Hua Hanyun would cut off the hands of the Zhao family members after they died.
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