Chapter 392 Important Clues
Because the county government office was haunted and two county magistrates died, the officials sent by the imperial court to investigate the case did not stay at the post station, but stayed at the county government office, in order to better find out whether it was caused by human intervention or was a real ghost.
Gu Jingxi went to the guest room where Lord Liu had stayed. Lord Du's family consisted of only a son and an elderly mother. The old mother stayed in the old house in the capital, cherishing the memories of her husband. She did not want to go to his post with him, and her son did not come either, so she came to take up her post alone and stayed in the room where the county magistrate lived. The other rooms were vacant. Lord Liu had died suddenly in the guest room, and no one had lived there since. Now the room was covered in dust.
After entering the room, Gu Jingxi closed the door and looked around at the room's furnishings. They were typical of a guest room, nothing special, and the furniture was all old, not new.
But that's normal. The furniture in the county government office is fine, they won't replace it, they'll just change the bed curtains and bedding. If someone has died there, then someone has died in the room, and even more people have died in the county government jail, so there's simply not enough money to replace everything. If someone minds, the next magistrate will pay for it himself, just like Lord Du's bed, which he paid for himself to get a new one.
Gu Jingxi didn't miss a single corner. He checked every floor tile to see which one was suspicious, and even carefully looked under the bed. He didn't see anything. Just as he was about to leave, he suddenly noticed a symbol carved on the door. The symbol was in the shape of an arrow, with the arrowhead pointing upwards. The arrowhead was deliberately carved thicker, and there were three arrowheads stacked on top of each other.
The symbol is small, about the length of a little finger, and is engraved on the door. When you open or close the door from inside the house, you will see the symbol if you look straight ahead. However, ordinary people will overlook this inconspicuous little symbol unless they have rich experience in handling cases and are used to carefully examining the scene, in which case they will notice it and figure out what it means.
However, the symbol doesn't look old; it couldn't have been carved more than a year ago.
In a flash, Gu Jingxi felt that he had seen this symbol somewhere before. After thinking for a while, he quickly left the guest room and went to Lord Du's room. After opening the door and closing it, he saw the same symbol as the one in the guest room.
Gu Jingxi's gaze froze. His intuition told him that this was an implication. Remembering what A Yao had said, he pondered for a moment, then slowly raised his head and looked up in the direction the arrow pointed. There were no markings on the door, and above that was a wall. There was nothing on the wall either. And above that was the roof beam.
He murmured softly, "A roof beam?"
Gu Jingxi looked at the roof beam above his head, then glanced at the table and chairs next to him. If someone who did not know martial arts did not use any other tools, they could not reach the roof beam. However, by stacking the table and chairs and standing on the chairs, they could reach the roof beam.
Gu Jingxi leaped up, firmly gripping the beam. He glanced at the beam and his eyes lit up when he saw what was on it. He had a strong feeling that this thing would be useful to his investigation, and that it contained the answer he was looking for.
It was something wrapped in oiled paper, square and a little bigger than the palm of your hand. It wasn't thick, but rather very thin, and it looked like a letter. The oiled paper was probably to prevent insect infestation. There was also half a jade pendant weighing it down.
He removed the items wrapped in oil paper and the jade pendant, then leaped to the ground and temporarily left Lord Du's guest room. He went back to the guest room to check the beams, where there were also items wrapped in oil paper, with half a jade pendant pressing down on them.
He took his things down and then returned to the guest room he shared with Ayao.
Meng Jinyao noticed that his clothes were covered in dust, the dust on his light blue robes was very obvious, and even there were spider webs stuck in his hair. She asked in surprise, "Husband, how did you get yourself into this state?"
Gu Jingxi coughed twice to ease the awkwardness: "It's nothing, I just crawled under the bed once."
"Crawling under the bed?" Meng Jinyao's eyes widened suddenly as she looked at him in disbelief, scrutinizing him from head to toe. "What are you doing crawling under the bed, husband?"
Gu Jingxi replied, "I was looking for something, and although I didn't find it, I found it elsewhere."
Upon hearing this, Meng Jinyao was extremely shocked: "Found it? You found it?"
Gu Jingxi smiled and wanted to hug her, but he was dirty, so he said softly, "It was Yao who was smart and reminded me, which is why I was able to find it. If Yao hadn't reminded me, I would have overlooked a detail."
Meng Jinyao was happy to be able to help him and smiled, "It would take my husband's carefulness to notice." After saying that, she stood on tiptoe and reached out to help him take the spider web off his head.
Gu Jingxi quickly took a step back to avoid her. Seeing her looking at him blankly, he explained, "I'm dirty, don't touch me. I'll change my clothes and wash up later."
Upon hearing this, Meng Jinyao had no choice but to give up.
Gu Jingxi sat down and took out the two jade pendants, each only half a piece, and placed them on the table. When put together, the two pieces could be combined into one piece. It was as if the owner of the jade pendants had deliberately broken them in half. However, the broken edges of the jade pendants were incomplete, probably because they had been smashed and no fragments were left, only these two pieces.
When the jade pendants are put together, the characters engraved on them can be seen. Although there is a gap in the middle, it is still possible to make out what the characters are.
Meng Jinyao glanced at the inscription on the jade pendant and asked, "Husband, whose jade pendant is this?"
Gu Jingxi replied, "The previous two magistrates, Lord Sun and Lord Chen, did not have the character 'Yun' in their names. Only Lord Liu did. Lord Liu's surname is Liu and his given name is Yunhe. This jade pendant should belong to Lord Liu."
Meng Jinyao was taken aback: "This is Lord Liu's jade pendant?"
"I'd guess so."
Gu Jingxi nodded slightly, then took out two envelopes wrapped in oiled paper from his sleeve and placed them on the table, saying, "These were found on the beams of my uncle's room and the room where Lord Liu lived, respectively, and each was weighed down by half a jade pendant."
Upon hearing this, Meng Jinyao raised her eyes and looked at him with a puzzled expression: "Husband, why did you think of looking on the roof beam? If it's not on the roof beam, wouldn't you have to dig three feet into the ground?"
“It wouldn’t be necessary to dig three feet into the ground.” Gu Jingxi shook his head and chuckled, then added, “After hearing what A Yao said, I thought that Lord Liu was unwilling to be killed, and might have left some clues in the places he stayed for others to discover. So I went to the room where Lord Liu stayed and found symbols on the door that seemed to indicate directions. I followed the directions and found these things.”
Meng Jinyao said, "Husband, let's open it and see what's inside."
Gu Jingxi first opened the things he found in the room where Lord Liu had stayed. He unwrapped the oil paper and found a letter inside. He opened the envelope, took out the letter, and unfolded it to read the contents. The letter contained only a few dozen words, but it contained important clues.
The text above reads:
By the time you read this letter, I will have already been murdered by treacherous people.
There are no ghosts or monsters in the county government office; it is the work of wicked people.
Sun Chen's death was related to Wei.
Yunhe's last words.
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