Chapter 82
Jiang Lingyao's eyes lit up, and she suddenly asked, "Master Duan, could this be an agency?"
Duan Nanqi suddenly raised his head and looked at Jiang Lingyao, who had a bright face.
"Agency?" he repeated the word.
Jiang Lingyao pointed at the tinderbox, then the oil lamp next to the iceberg, and made a bold guess: "We inferred the time of death from the autopsy and the confession of the servant."
"The boy said that he saw the light come on at the beginning of the night, so we infer that the deceased died after that. But what if the deceased was already dead when the light came on?"
"The light that was on was nothing more than a false proof that the deceased was still alive. The door of the study was closed from the inside, so that people would think that the deceased had lit the light himself."
"But the rear window was open, and the latch on the rear window was broken, so anyone could come in and out of the study."
The servant said that he did not see any outsiders in the main courtyard at that time, so he naturally thought that it was the master who lit the lamp himself, but what if it was not the case?
Perhaps Zhengyang Bo was already dead at that time, and the light in the house was either caused by a device related to the tinderbox or was lit by the murderer.
If this is the murderer, then no one in Mingxin Hall is the murderer. If not, then the Xue family would have had time to commit the crime.
Jiang Lingyao said: "I still think that the murderer is one of these people from the Xue family."
Duan Nanqiao nodded faintly, and found that the two people had been squatting in front of the desk, so he reached out and helped Jiang Lingyao to stand up.
After she stood still, he said, "It's strange that Lord Zhengyang has been going in and out of Guiyin Temple so often in recent years. Guiyin Temple is not as popular as Changle Temple, and its abbot, Master Sibian, is not famous either. It's just a small temple hidden in the streets and alleys. The monks there can be counted on one hand, and they are all middle-aged men over 30 years old, with no young apprentices."
If a temple wants to be popular, it has to be passed down from generation to generation. If the temple is filled with elderly monks and there is no young nun at all, it would seem strange.
Jiang Lingyao asked, "Sir, can you send someone to keep an eye on this place?"
"There are already some Tiqi lurking around Guiyin Temple. Except for the head monk who has not gone out to discuss the rituals, the other monks do go out, but they only go out to buy food and oil, etc. There is nothing unusual."
Duan Nanqi paused and said, "We have also checked the shops that Guiyin Temple often buys from and the pilgrims that often go in and out of Guiyin Temple. We should be able to find clues in the near future."
Jiang Lingyao breathed a sigh of relief.
The case was handed over to the Jinyiwei. Apart from other things, their ability to investigate each case one by one was something that other government offices could not match.
No wonder everyone is afraid of the Golden Guard, and no wonder everyone wants to be a Golden Guard.
The two of them whispered about Xue Dingshan for a few words, and then they heard Chu Xiunian's voice from outside: "Sir, Shuntian Prefecture has sent the autopsy certificate over."
Duan Nanqi asked him to escort the autopsy case into the study, and he and Jiang Lingyao sat on the tea chair that had been straightened and started to read it.
According to Xu Qing's autopsy, the deceased Xue Dingshan died from the dagger in his chest.
The dagger stabbed into the right spot, hitting the target with one strike. Xue Dingshan died instantly from a ruptured heart.
Because there was an iceberg in the deceased's study and it was not very hot, the deceased's time of death was probably between 11:00 and midnight yesterday.
The deceased's body was in a state of complete rigor mortis. His upper body was sitting on a chair, leaning back slightly, with his legs straight and only slightly bent at the popliteal fossa.
There were no signs of a fight on the victim's body. The murderer stabbed the victim's heart with a dagger quickly and accurately, and the victim died suddenly without any reaction.
Jiang Lingyao looked at the detailed autopsy form and her brows gradually relaxed. She finally turned to the drawings drawn by the young apprentice that showed abnormalities on the deceased's body, clothing, etc., and fixed her eyes on the wax mark on the sole of the shoe.
"I know why the light was on in the deceased's room." Jiang Lingyao said.
Jiang Lingyao pointed at the dead man's rigor mortis and said, "Look, if a normal person was stabbed to death while sitting on a chair, even if the body was rigor mortis, our legs would be bent on the ground, but this was not the case with the dead man."
Indeed, they felt something was amiss when they were moving the body this morning, and now it seems that this is the biggest abnormality of the body.
Duan Nanqi thought thoughtfully: "You mean, after killing the victim, the murderer deliberately stretched his legs straight and put them directly into the inner cavity of the desk."
Jiang Lingyao's eyes sparkled with the excitement of solving the puzzle. She said, "Yes! Based on the tinder, tinder cover, wax marks and powder inside the table, I speculate that the deceased was placed in a stretched-out position so that he could light the lamp and escape the crime."
The light in the study was on, either by the deceased or by the murderer. In either case, only someone who had the opportunity to commit murder at the time would become a suspect.
Thanks to that lamp, all the Xue family members from Mingxin Hall were cleared of suspicion.
But if the light was lit by the deceased himself after his death, then the Xue family would have no evidence of being at the scene, and would all be suspected of murder.
Jiang Lingyao grabbed Duan Nanqi's wrist, pulled him up and back to the desk, and sat on the armchair herself.
She pointed to the side of the sole, the same spot as Xue Dingshan's, and said, "Look, there are wax marks on the round cover of the tinderbox, and there are also wax marks on the wall of the tube. If the wall of the tube is glued to the sole of the dead person's foot with wax, and the round cover is glued to the ground, then the dead person's legs that were not bent after death will gradually stiffen and stretch forward, slowly pulling into a straight position."
"In this way, the tinder will be separated from the dome, and once it leaves the dome, the coal inside that has not been completely extinguished will reignite."
Jiang Lingyao's eyes were full of excitement, and she spoke faster and faster: "In this way, as long as we stick the fuse on the burning hole and lead it all the way to the oil lamp placed next to the iceberg, the fuse will ignite into the oil lamp and light it directly."
Jiang Lingyao said: "Of course, if we do this, there will be ashes left on the ground after the fuse burns out, but the wonderful thing is that it is midsummer now, because the house is too hot, and there are icebergs placed there. After being parked for a long time, the icebergs will gradually melt, and the flowing water will wash away the ashes, leaving sticky marks on the ground."
Duan Nanzhu suddenly became enlightened.
He said, "As long as you mess up the study after the murder and overturn everything on the floor, you can confuse people and make them think that the tinder on the floor inside the table is nothing special."
Jiang Lingyao nodded: "Therefore, a very clever time confusion of the suspects was created."
After hearing this, Duan Nanqi suddenly felt clear-headed. All his doubts were solved in this agency, and the case became much clearer.
"Master Jiang, you are amazing." Duan Nanqi praised.
Jiang Lingyao said modestly: "No, no, thank you for the compliment, Master Duan."
Being able to solve the various mysteries of the case is a great joy for a criminal judge. Even if the case has not been solved yet, the scope of suspects has been narrowed.
"This device may not succeed, but if it fails, it won't have a big impact, because the murderer has also set up the scene after the theft."
The two disturbances in the house made the case seem a little confusing from the beginning.
But once the fog is removed, the case is actually quite simple.
The murderer arrived at the study room in advance, killed the victim and arranged the scene, and then went to Mingxin Hall to listen to Master Kong’s lecture with others.
When the two of them talked about this, Jiang Lingyao paused and said, "But this lecture was suddenly proposed by Master Liaokong. It was not originally arranged. And the murderer must have planned this series of actions in advance, otherwise he would not have thought of such a wonderful mechanism."
Duan Nanqi said: "Perhaps, this sermon was just an accidental success. The murderer originally wanted to act today. If there was no sermon, he would have arranged other things."
Jiang Lingyao shook her head, but still felt that there was something blurry that she couldn't see clearly.
She murmured to herself, "Why must it be yesterday? They knew that today was Xue Dingshan's birthday and the family was going to host a banquet, but they still had to kill someone yesterday. If Xue Dingshan didn't show up at the birthday banquet today, they would have to send someone to invite him. Then the Xue family would definitely be in an uproar."
The birthday celebrants died on their birthdays day, and those who came to the Xue family to celebrate were all close relatives. It would have been strange if this hadn't caused a huge uproar.
Such a big fuss must have the intervention of Shuntianfu or Jinyiwei, and they will not let it go. In fact, it is very disadvantageous to the murderer.
Jiang Lingyao said: "That is to say, the murderer had a reason to act, and it would not work a day earlier or later."
What is the reason?
Jiang Lingyao frowned in thought. Duan Nanqi looked at her serious expression and was moved. He said, "Why not gather everyone together and ask them together?"
Jiang Lingyao raised her head and looked at Duan Nanqi: "Master Duan means..."
Duan Nanqi smiled faintly: "Each of them has something on the others, so why not gather them together and see if they can still tell."
"That's great. We can invite Master Lekong to come and ask him about his lecture yesterday."
This is a very good idea. Jiang Lingyao's eyes lit up: "Master Duan, what a good idea."
Duan Nanqi also smiled modestly: "Master Jiang, you are too polite."
The two men first asked the Imperial Guard to call someone, while they carefully looked through the book in the study.
Xue Dingshan appeared to be a staunch believer in Buddhism, so naturally there were many Buddhist texts in his bookcase. However, Jiang Lingyao flipped through two of them at random and found that they were empty, with no signs of repeated reading.
The book on military strategy beside him, however, had been studied repeatedly by Xue Dingshan, and the book looked a bit old. Apart from that, he rarely read the classics, history, and miscellaneous works, but he had read them all.
Jiang Lingyao said: "It seems that there must be a ghost in Guiyin Temple."
"We have sent people to conduct a thorough investigation. No one will be missed. Don't worry."
Jiang Lingyao nodded. At this moment, she was rarely hesitant.
Should she tell Duan Nanqi the secret of her family? If she tells him, the case will be easier to investigate and there will be a clear line of defense. It will be much easier for her and she will be able to clear the injustice of her family as soon as possible. But for Duan Nanqi, he will have to bear this heavy past with her.
If the verdict cannot be overturned, Duan Nanzhui and the Jinyiwei may be implicated.
Jiang Lingyao was once again in a dilemma.
Duan Nanqike pressed Jiang Lingyao's slightly furrowed brows, and somehow, an idea suddenly came to him, and he immediately understood Jiang Lingyao's concerns.
He stretched out his hand and gently touched Jiang Lingyao's forehead.
"We can talk about it once this case is solved, okay?"
The warm touch on her brow dispelled Jiang Lingyao's gloomy thoughts. She raised her head and looked at Duan Nanqiao, who had a smile on his face.
At this moment, there was only determination and persistence in his beautiful peach blossom eyes.
Jiang Lingyao took a deep breath and suddenly stopped panicking.
"good."
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