The judge's name was Zhao Zhe. He was already over 50 when the case happened. Now he is in his sixties with a head full of grey hair.
However, he seemed to be in good health, just a little tired from the journey, but he did not look sick at all.
Jiang Lingyao and Duan Nanqi hurried forward, and together they greeted this senior criminal lawyer.
Zhao Tuiguan had been a magistrate all his life. Because of his meritorious service in arresting bandits, he was promoted from a small county to Shuntian Prefecture, and was appointed a sixth-rank magistrate. When he was about to retire, Emperor Xuanhua had just reached adulthood. In addition, Zhao Tuiguan had always been diligent and had made outstanding achievements, so Emperor Xuanhua promoted him to the position of Shuntian Prefecture Chancellor. It can be said that he retired with honor.
It was already noon, so Duan Nanqi said, "You have come a long way and must have worked hard. I would like to invite you to rest at Baiweiju. Please."
So, everyone went directly to Baiweiju. It was actually past dinner time at this time, and the second wave of diners in Baiweizhai had already left, so it was quite deserted.
A few people asked for a private room, and when they sat down, Duan Nanzhui decisively ordered a few dishes, and then he personally took out the tea set to make tea.
He used the White Snow Plum Blossom tea he brought from home. The tea soup was extremely tranquil and there was a sense of peace as soon as it boiled.
Zhao Zhe smiled and said, "Good tea."
Duan Nanqi smiled sweetly, poured him a bowl of tea, and then said, "I don't know what your taste is, old sir. I ordered Baiweizhai's signature dish. Their roast duck and sesame cakes are very delicious. If you are not used to it, you can order something else."
Zhao Zhe waved his hands and said, "I am old now, I can't eat that much, as long as I can have a full meal."
As he said this, his eyes unconsciously fell on Jiang Lingyao and asked, "Is your last name Qiao too?"
Jiang Lingyao was slightly stunned. She said, "My Lord, my surname is Qiao, and I am the Magistrate of Shuntian Prefecture."
Zhao Zhe recalled and said, "When I retired, I also transferred a magistrate from another county. I remember his last name was Qiao. He was also very intelligent."
Jiang Lingyao was a little dazed.
There were only Jiang Lingyao, Duan Nanqi and the old man in the elegant room this time, so Jiang Lingyao didn't care about anything and said directly: "The old man has a good memory. Qiao Shengqiao is my master."
Duan Nanqi had an obedient smile on his face all the time, and even when he heard Jiang Lingyao's words, his eyelids did not even tremble. He pushed another cup of tea to Jiang Lingyao's hand and just listened to what the two of them said quietly.
Zhao Zhe was also surprised when he heard Jiang Lingyao's words, but after a moment, his slightly sad eyes showed a little more relief.
"Okay, those who do criminal investigations have to be professional criminal investigators. Not everyone can do criminal investigations, and there is a difference between having someone to teach you and not having someone to teach you."
As he spoke, he seemed to be about to rehash something old, but just then the waiter brought the dishes, so he stopped talking about the old stuff and just said, "Wanping's fried bean curd noodles are very good. I eat them every time I come here."
When the dishes were served, the waiter left. Duan Nanqi first offered Zhao Zhe a cup of tea and exchanged a few pleasantries before saying, "Old sir, we asked you to come here today because of the Tongzhou case. Do you have any clues?"
Zhao Zhe was not afraid or looked down upon because he was a member of the Imperial Guard. He treated all civil and military officials who were serious about their duties equally. Seeing Duan Nanqi being so serious, he was very pleased and said, "Young people are to be feared. You are much better than the leader back then. No wonder."
Zhao Zhe just said something casually, and then said: "The files of the Tongzhou Prefecture should be very clear about the case back then, and Master Xiao Chu has brought them all. I came here to see the new crime scene and to talk about my speculations over the past few years."
Most criminal officials have the same temper. Even if the case has been sealed or the official has retired, the unsolved case is a knot hanging in their hearts. As long as the case is not solved, the knot will not be resolved.
Despite his age, Mr. Zhao still remembers the case like the back of his hand and never forgets it.
He said, "The case back then was different from the cases we usually handle. I thought there was no grudge between the deceased and the murderer, and the deceased was dumped in a strange place, with no evidence on his body that could prove his identity, so the investigation was extremely difficult. I was not the only one in charge of the case back then, but also the prosecutor of Tongzhou, Xu Qing, and Xiao Zheng. We were all top criminals in Yanjing back then, but we still didn't solve the case."
"Although Chen Zhen was arrested in the end, I think it was only for the sake of His Majesty to have an explanation. Don't let the investigation end up with no suspects at all. That would be really embarrassing."
Duan Nanqi and Jiang Lingyao did not speak, nor did they interrupt the old man's recollections.
Zhao Zhe continued, "After I retired, I had nothing to do except farming, so I reconsidered all the unsolved cases I had handled. This case was the first one I reconsidered. Because my memory was clear, I thought there wouldn't be much deviation."
"There were two victims in this case. The identity of the second victim was very clear, but no one knew the identity of the first victim. Later, when I recalled it carefully, I suddenly remembered a detail."
"The apprentice coroner who recorded the scene wrote in the autopsy form that the flowerbed was full of roses. Roses bloom in late spring and midsummer. Once they bloom, they are gorgeous, colorful and very beautiful," Zhao Zhe said with a sigh. "The victims died one after another in the city garden. Later, there were fewer tourists there and it almost became a deserted garden. In late autumn of that year, I happened to go to Tongzhou to investigate a case. Because I was thinking about the nameless double corpse case, I went to the city garden again."
"The abandoned garden naturally had no gardener to take care of it, but I found a few small-leafed green chrysanthemums growing in the rose bush where the first dead person appeared."
As a criminal official, Zhao Zhe paid close attention to every case, which is why he discovered these clues.
These words made Jiang Lingyao and Duan Nanqi admire him, and they looked at Zhao Zhe with even more respect.
Zhao Zhe waved his hands and said, "This is the only clue I found later. At that time, I just filled it in the file and it didn't contribute to solving the case. But after I retired, I thought about it again and again, and suddenly I thought, why would another kind of flower bloom in the rose bed in the unattended garden? Does this mean that the small-leafed green chrysanthemum is also one of the evidences in this case, because..."
Zhao Zhe said in a low voice: "Because it is not the flower bed's own, but was taken away by the deceased."
Hearing this, Jiang Lingyao was shocked.
The experienced prosecutor was extremely meticulous and was able to deduce the complete case from clues found many years later.
She really still has a long way to go.
Duan Nanqi was also like this. The two young men were so shocked by the old man that they were speechless. However, Zhao Zhe continued, "This is just a guess I have been thinking about day and night after failing to solve the case. It cannot be used as evidence. But if you look at it based on my guess, I think we can follow the clues to deduce the identity of the deceased or the house where the murderer imprisoned the deceased."
"There must be green chrysanthemum seeds on the body of the deceased or in the murderer's house. So what kind of family would have green chrysanthemum seeds?"
The old man said, "Either the deceased is a flower girl, or the murderer is a gardener, right?"
Jiang Lingyao's eyes widened unconsciously, and her voice became a little hurried: "Old man, your speculation is really amazing."
Zhao Zhe made a request: "But this is just my speculation. I have no evidence. Besides, time has passed. More than ten years have passed. Even if this clue is true, how can we find the murderer?"
"Of course you can," Duan Nanqi said in a deep voice, "Old man, now there is a third person who has died because of this. The coroner in charge of this case happens to be Coroner Zheng. He recognized at a glance that the scene was exactly the same as that year, so we were able to find you so quickly and combine the three cases into one."
"Combining the clues we found back then with the clues we have now, we can draw countless conclusions and find more directions for investigation."
Jiang Lingyao also said: "That's right. There is no perfect killer in this world. As long as he kills, there will be flaws. The more people he kills, the more flaws he will have. The net of heaven is vast and will definitely not let any one slip through."
This time it was Zhao Zhe who was intimidated by the two young men. He smiled bitterly and sighed, "Young people are to be feared. You two are really good."
After briefly discussing the case, the three continued with their meal.
During the meal, Jiang Lingyao told Zhao Zhe several clues about the new case, focusing on Rong Niang and Xiu Ying, and then made some guesses about the identity of the third deceased.
After the case was finished, Zhao Zhe was thoughtful: "In fact, more than ten years ago, the Baihe River connected Wanping and Tongzhou, but the water in the Tongzhou section was very narrow, even for fishing boats. Therefore, few fishing boats were willing to go to Tongzhou to fish. Most of them concentrated on the upper reaches of the Baihe River. After fishing, they transported the fish to Tongzhou by horse-drawn carriages. However, the Baihe River in Tongzhou is not completely impassable. Canoes can pass through, and some fishermen will also use small boats to sell fish."
Zhao Zhe asked, "Could it be that the case back then was really related to Wanping? Was the body of the deceased transported to Tongzhou via the Baihe River?"
After this speculation came out, the three of them discussed it seriously again, until they could not figure out anything. Zhao Zhe said: "Well, we can't solve the case with just these clues. We still have to look through the files. It would be best if we can find out the identities of the people."
"If we know who the deceased is, we can follow the clues and find out who the murderer is."
A few people went downstairs, and Jiang Lingyao followed behind Zhao Zhe. While waiting for the carriage, she couldn't help but ask Zhao Zhe: "Old man, what kind of person is my master?"
Zhao Zhe saw that she was serious and clearly concerned about his master. He did not ask where Qiao Sheng had been, but only said, "Your master is a genius."
Seeing that the carriage had not yet arrived, he said, "I remember that the year I was about to retire, your master had already come to Beijing to take over. That year, a horse murder case occurred at a horse farm outside Yanjing. A large number of horses died for no reason. The owner of the horse farm could not bear such a loss and chose to report the case."
"But when we arrived, we found another dead person at the scene. The dead person's face was pale and his lips were red. He seemed to have died of heart failure."
"At that time, your master concluded that the deceased was poisoned by a poison. The horses on the horse farm were poisoned first, and the deceased was reluctant to see so many horses die, so he cut off the meat to eat. He was then poisoned again through the horse meat, and that's how he died."
When Jiang Lingyao heard the rosy red lips, her heart began to beat like a drum.
She could almost hear the trembling in her throat: "What kind of poison is that?"
Zhao Zhe said: "You should have heard that it has become a banned drug. The poison is called safflower, and the name was given by your master."
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