Chapter 185 Zhu Chong Investigates the Case
Crown Prince Zhu Biao looked around in confusion. How could he possibly know the answer to such a small matter? At this moment, all around him was quiet and no one stood up to speak.
Seeing Old Zhu's face flush, Zhu Chong quickly shouted angrily: "What happened to the copper basin? Whoever did it should come out and speak, otherwise don't blame me for being ruthless!"
Everyone's heart skipped a beat, and a palace maid immediately pointed the finger, and it turned out to be the palace maid who had just spoken.
The maid was pushed back to the ground and replied, "Yes, it was you. This morning, I brought water in to help His Highness wash up, but I found that Your Highness had already... I, in a moment of panic, overturned the basin..."
"You're lying!" Zhu Chong shouted sternly, "Show me what this is!"
Zhu Chong grabbed the maid by the collar and dragged her to the overturned basin. "You said you overturned the basin, then what is this? Why is there still a trace of a basin? Where is the basin?"
Everyone was stunned and looked in the direction Zhu Chong pointed. They saw a puddle of water next to the water stain from the overturned copper basin. From the outline, they could tell that a basin or bucket should have been placed there before, but there were no buckets or basins around.
"Your Highness, you are wrong. There was nothing here when I arrived." The maid quickly defended herself, "I remember it very clearly, but that place is usually where the ice basin is placed."
"Ice basin?" Zhu Chong was shocked. What was that?
"Yes!" the palace maid quickly explained, "His Royal Highness cannot tolerate the heat, so every day the female officials order the servants and others to place ice basins throughout the palace for His Royal Highness to use to cool down."
Yingtian Prefecture is a hot place. Although it is not summer yet, it is still a bit hot. Children cannot tolerate the heat. As Zhu Xiongying is a nobleman, it is reasonable for him to place an ice basin in the palace.
But when too many reasonable things come together, that is the biggest unreasonableness, otherwise how could Zhu Xiongying die!
Zhu Chong left the palace maid behind, squatted on the ground to pick up the copper basin, then stood up and looked around. He soon saw the wooden mat not far from Zhu Xiongying's bed, where there were traces of the copper basin.
If what the palace maid said was correct, then there had been a basin of ice on the wooden mat before. So Zhu Chong walked to the wooden mat, kicked it with his foot, revealing the wet ground underneath, and he immediately understood.
After observing so much, Zhu Chong already had some vague guesses about how Zhu Xiongying died.
However, this method that appeared in his later movies was unexpectedly used in the Ming Dynasty. Regardless of whether the final result was like this, Zhu Xiongying's murder was a foregone conclusion.
"Second brother, what did you see?" Old Zhu was watching from the side, puzzled, but he could feel that Zhu Chong must have seen something, so he immediately asked in a hurry.
"Your Majesty, please be patient." Zhu Chong bowed and apologized, then looked at the maid again. "Let me ask you, this wooden mat is used to hold the ice basin, right? When you came in this morning, did you see the ice basin on it?"
"Ice basin?" The maid was bewildered at first, then, as if she had thought of something, she shouted loudly, "Your servant, your servant didn't see it..."
"Didn't you see it? There was no ice basin when you came in?" Zhu Chong's pupils constricted, and he grabbed the palace maid's hair and asked loudly.
"Your servant, your servant is certain!" The maid nodded repeatedly, ignoring the fact that her hair was being pulled. "When your servant entered, the ice basin was gone from the palace. I can confirm, Your Highness, that your servant is truly innocent!"
"Whether it's unfair or not is not up to you to decide." Zhu Chong sneered, "Then you should know where the ice basin is, right?"
"I don't know." The palace maid was confused by Zhu Chong's words and didn't know what Zhu Chong's intention was.
But everyone around, including Zhu Yuanzhang, heard that Zhu Xiongying's death was closely related to the ice basin.
The ice basin should have been used to cool Zhu Xiongying down in the main hall. Logically, the palace maid entered the hall early in the morning to help Zhu Xiongying get up. According to common sense, the ice basin should still be in the hall at that time.
But the palace maid said that the ice basin was no longer in the hall at that time, which means that someone had come and taken away the ice basin before the palace maid entered the hall.
It goes without saying what the man's purpose was in taking the ice basin. One can even boldly infer that the person who entered the hall before the palace maid was the culprit in the murder of Zhu Xiongying!
"I don't know?" Zhu Chong's tone changed, and he sneered coldly, "Then don't blame me for being so heartless!"
"No, I know!" At the critical moment of life and death, the palace maid's desire to survive was overwhelming. She suddenly thought of something, looked back abruptly, then pointed at someone and screamed loudly.
"It's her, Qi Sishe, it's her. She's the one who set up the ice basin in His Royal Highness's palace these past few days. It's her who harmed the Crown Prince. It's her..."
In a word, everyone looked at the person pointed by the palace maid, and saw that the person kneeling there was a female official in charge of the interior decoration.
The bedding in each hall of the Eastern Palace was under the jurisdiction of the Shangqin Bureau, and the Sishe Bureau was in charge of the beds, curtains, mats, sweeping and setting up the beds, but he usually directed the palace maids to do the work and almost never intervened personally.
Upon hearing this, the female official, known as Qi Sishe by the palace maids, had a fierce glint in her eyes, but she showed no sign of panic. "Your Majesty, the Crown Prince, and His Royal Highness the Prince of Qin, I was indeed the one who took the ice basin."
"But I am only doing my job. Every day before sunrise, I remove the ice basin to prevent the early morning chill from entering your body when you go to bed."
Zhu Yuanzhang and Zhu Biao stared at the female official with narrowed eyes, saying nothing. Zhu Chong smiled slightly, walked up to the female official, and paced around her. "Then I suppose you should remember what time you come to the Crown Prince's palace every day?"
The female official bowed her head slightly, and after a moment she replied, "Your Highness, Prince Qin, I can't remember the exact time, but it was probably around the hour of Mao..."
"You are lying!" This time, Mao Xiang suddenly interrupted Qi Sishe, then knelt down and reported to Zhu Yuanzhang.
"Your Majesty, she's lying. I've just carefully examined His Royal Highness, and in my opinion, he passed away at Cow's Crow at 11:00 AM. Qi Sishe said she came to take the ice basin at 11:00 AM. How could she not have noticed that His Royal Highness had passed away?"
Qi Sishe's eyes widened slightly, and he quickly said, "Your Majesty, please allow me to report this. We were afraid of disturbing Your Highness, so we didn't go forward to investigate, and therefore didn't notice anything unusual."
"Really?" Zhu Chong sneered and glanced at Mao Xiang, only to find that Mao Xiang was silent.
After frowning slightly, Zhu Chong turned back and stared at Qi Sishe. The female official was frightened by Zhu Chong's stare, but she still said firmly, "I didn't notice anything unusual!"
"Palace rules dictate that no matter when entering the palace, at least a minimum inspection is required, right?" Zhu Chong scoffed. "Especially during the morning hours, the quietest time of day. Didn't Qi Sishe notice that the Crown Prince had stopped breathing?"
"Uh..." Qi Sishe's face suddenly changed and he could no longer speak.
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