Chapter 2071 They've been captured.
Indeed, Cao Jiang's body was brought back to the yamen very quickly, and the coroner examined the cause of his death overnight.
The results came out early the next morning: Cao Jiang had indeed been killed by that hoe, and the time of death was just half a month ago.
Afterwards, Officer Jiang began visiting Ruanjia Village and the village where Caojia lived, asking Cao Jiang about the people he had offended during this period, as well as the interpersonal relationships around him.
Everyone connected to Cao Jiang was questioned one by one. They were asked where they were and what they were doing on that evening half a month ago, and whether there were any witnesses.
Most of them had alibis, and those whose timelines conflicted were excluded. A few others did not have alibis and had to remain at home pending questioning.
Unfortunately, among those who had conflicts with Cao Jiang were Ruan Kewei and several of his cronies.
According to his cronies, Cao Jiang recently took a fancy to a courtesan and was obsessed with buying her freedom and marrying her. But he had no money, and the Cao family was dirt poor. Cao Jiang was trying every means to raise the money when, unexpectedly, the courtesan who said she would wait for him for a while was already having a passionate affair with Ruan Kewei.
Unlike Cao Jiang, the Ruan family, though not a wealthy one, still had some resources, and he could afford to visit a brothel occasionally.
Cao Jiang was naturally dissatisfied with Ruan Kewei. It is said that the two even had a fight back then.
Because Cao Jiang was alone, while Ruan Kewei was with a group of cronies, Cao Jiang was beaten so badly that he couldn't fight back and ran away after uttering some threats. Ruan Kewei wanted to chase after him, but his cronies dragged him away to drink.
This happened just over twenty days ago. After that, Cao Jiang never mentioned redeeming the girl, but he still harbored a grudge against Ruan Kewei.
Now that things have turned out this way, with a grudge between them and the conflict erupting just days before Cao Jiang's murder, Ruan Kewei naturally became the primary target of interrogation.
However, when the constables went to Ruan Hai's house, they couldn't find him.
Ruan Hai said he had gone out, and because this happened frequently, Ruan's family did not know where he was.
Officer Jiang began his routine questioning, asking Ruan Kewei if he was home that day. Ruan Hai only said he wasn't home during the day, that he was probably out with friends, but he didn't know which friends they were.
At this point, Ruan Hai understood that the most important thing was to create an alibi for Ruan Kewei and to communicate with him.
However, he couldn't find Ruan Kewei!
Just as Shu Yu said, letting Ruan Kewei escape was the worst move he made.
Under those circumstances, he should have let Ruan Kewei stay at home; at least then, the two sides could have checked their testimonies. Now, he can't even find him—how can they check their testimonies?
Ruan Hai could only send his family to search. At this critical juncture, the more thoughtful members of the Ruan family were already starting to have doubts. Especially Ruan Hai's wife; that night, when he and his son returned late at night, they had woken her up to wash her clothes.
The Ruan family searched everywhere Ruan Kewei might have gone, but they couldn't find him.
Ruan Hai was furious, but because he was under Shu Yu's watchful eye, he couldn't go home to meet Ruan Kewei in person, which caused his youngest son to misunderstand his meaning.
Meanwhile, the constables from the yamen were also looking for him.
Just as Ruan Hai was praying that he would find the person first, Constable He brought a dejected Ruan Kewei back to the yamen.
(End of this chapter)
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