Chapter 12: Born to Investigate Crimes
After his identity was revealed by the Chang'an County Magistrate, Li Nuo's subsequent interrogation went particularly smoothly.
The twenty or so officials, no matter what their official positions were or which government office they worked in, were very cooperative. For every question Li Nuo asked, they answered ten times. Their attitude was surprisingly good. In order to take care of Li Nuo who was sitting, they all half-bowed when answering.
Pei Zhe was extremely envious of this scene.
As the magistrate of Chang'an County, he often dealt with officials and dignitaries in Chang'an. When those people talked to him, they wanted to lift their noses to the sky. However, when they were questioned by Li Nuo, a man without any official position, they didn't even dare to raise their heads.
After questioning the last official, Li Nuo stood up and said, "Thank you for your hard work, you can go back now."
"It's not hard, it's not hard."
"The young master is the one who has worked hard."
"My Lord, I am sorry for the trouble..."
"I'll take my leave..."
…
After Li Nuo opened his mouth, these officials rushed to leave within ten seconds, as if they would be left here forever if they left a step later.
Li Nuo was still a little surprised in his heart. It seemed that his father, whom he had never met, was very prestigious in the court, and even those officials were polite to him.
After letting them go, Li Nuo said to the magistrate of Chang'an County: "These court officials have no motive to commit the crime. If they want to kill Zheng Yuanwai, they don't have to do it themselves..."
In fact, Pei Zhe knew that the murderer was not these officials without Li Nuo's explanation. He had originally planned to release them first, but after releasing more than 20 people, there were still nearly 200 people. He didn't know how Li Nuo could find the murderer among these 200 people in less than two hours just by questioning.
His heart was full of doubts as he watched Li Nuo's performance quietly.
After releasing more than twenty officials, there were still nearly two hundred people. Li Nuo certainly couldn't ask them one by one. He put his hands behind his back, walked around outside several cells, then pointed at a cell and said, "Open the door. The people in this cell can go back."
The jailer glanced at the Chang'an County Magistrate, Pei Zhe nodded and said, "Just do as you say, young master."
In just one morning, he had understood all the details of the case. It was meaningless to keep these two hundred people in custody. They would have to be released in the end. In his opinion, the case should ultimately end up in nothing.
Not all murder cases can be solved. In fact, nine out of ten murder cases in Daxia end up with no result. It is rare for the murderer to be caught.
Li Nuo walked to another cell and spoke again: "The people in this cell can go back now."
All the people in the two cells were released. The remaining two cells were left. One was filled with female relatives, including the maids in the Zheng family, Zheng Yuanwai's wives and concubines, and a few female guests. The other was filled with Zheng Yuanwai's friends in the business community.
Li Nuo asked the jailer to open the two cells and said, "You can all go out now."
The magistrate of Chang'an County was stunned when he heard this. What the hell was going on? After all the trouble, he just let all the people go?
The people imprisoned in the cells didn't care about all this. When they heard that they could leave, they were overjoyed and rushed out of the cells. Just as a handsome man happily stepped out of the cell door, his shoulders were suddenly held down by someone. Then a voice came, which made his body tremble suddenly and his heart instantly turned cold.
"They can go, you stay."
Li Nuo held the handsome man's shoulder with his right hand, held the wrist of a young woman with his left hand, and said lightly: "And you."
The woman looked puzzled, and the handsome man looked a little pale. He asked, "Sir, why?"
Yeah, why?
The magistrate of Chang'an County thought the same. He couldn't understand Li Nuo's behavior at all. He didn't ask anything about the two hundred people, so why did he leave these two behind?
What is the difference between these two people?
Li Nuo smiled at the handsome man. It was a very kind smile, but it made the latter feel a chill rising from his tailbone, as if all the secrets were exposed in front of him.
Li Nuo did not explain anything, but asked the prison boss to lock the man and woman up in two cells farthest apart in the prison. They could not see each other and naturally could not collude with each other.
From beginning to end, Chang'an County Magistrate Pei Zhe's heart was full of confusion.
After Li Nuo detained the two men separately, he finally couldn't help but ask, "Master, why did you keep those two? Is there something wrong with them?"
Li Nuo was looking for questions with answers in mind, and of course he always got the right answer, but he couldn't say it clearly.
He thought for a moment and said, "The people who were detained in the cells just now were terrified because they didn't know what would happen next. Most of them lowered their heads in thought or were at a loss. Their every move was sparsely regular. But in the short two quarters of an hour when I questioned those officials, the man and woman in the two cells secretly looked at each other sixty-eight times. How else can it be explained if they didn't have something to hide?"
The magistrate of Chang'an County stared at Li Nuo blankly, as if he was looking at a monster.
When he was questioning those officials just now, he was able to pay attention and observe that among the more than 200 people in five cells, a man and a woman looked at each other sixty-eight times?
Pei Zhe is a normal person, he can't imagine, is this something a normal person can do?
But considering that he was that man's son, it seemed acceptable that he could do this.
But then again, if that man and woman really looked at each other so many times, then there is definitely something wrong with them.
Pei Zhe looked at a constable and ordered, "Check the identities of those two people!"
Soon, the detective returned with a file in his hand. Pei Zhe took it and glanced at it. He immediately thought of something and murmured, "Could it be..."
Li Nuo asked, "What did Lord Pei see?"
Pei Zhe handed the file to Li Nuo, then he remembered that he didn't know many words, and said, "The man's name is Cui Ze, a newly promoted wealthy businessman in Chang'an, and the woman's name is Zhang Xiaoyun, the eighth concubine that Zheng Yuanwai took in half a year ago... Cui Ze and Zheng Yuanwai had no grudges or hatred, and had no motive to commit the crime, but if he had an affair with Zheng Yuanwai's concubine, all this would make sense."
Killings of love and revenge account for the largest proportion of homicides. Zheng Yuanwai was kind to others and had no enemies, so it was very likely a killing of love. He was over fifty years old and was no longer vigorous, yet he had many wives and concubines at home, so it must be difficult for him to satisfy everyone.
As for the eighth concubine, she was in the prime of her life, an age that needed the nourishment of rain and dew. Cui Ze was young and unrestrained, and it was normal for young men and women to accidentally fall in love with each other.
There is a 90% chance that this case has been solved.
He had just observed carefully that when the two were separated, Cui Ze could not help but glance at Zhang Xiaoyun with panic in his eyes. Although everyone else was released and only they were left, it was normal for them to be panicked, but Pei Zhe, who had seen too many prisoners, was still able to keenly detect something unusual in his panicked eyes.
However, none of this is important to Pei Zhe now.
No case had shocked him as much as the one involving Li Nuo.
What is the Holy Body of Natural Investigators?
That's it.
He doesn't need to go to the crime scene, nor does he need to understand the case. He doesn't need to know anything. He can find the murderer from more than 200 suspects with just a pair of eyes. What kind of incredible skill is this?
If he had been born three hundred years ago, the Legalists would probably have had one more saint.
Unfortunately, this is no longer the Warring States Period. The philosophers have passed away one after another, and the Legalist school has also declined. Even if he is a natural investigator, he cannot go far on the Legalist path. The officials in the court will not allow the emergence of a Legalist saint. What a pity.
With a sigh in his heart, he looked at Li Nuo again and asked, "Sir, what should we do next?"
Unconsciously, he had already regarded Li Nuo as his backbone.
Chang'an County Government Office.
Big prison.
Cui Ze leaned against the cold wall of the cell, his face pale and his heart filled with extreme fear.
How is this possible? How is this possible? They did it perfectly, not even the servants in the Zheng residence noticed anything. The Chang'an County Magistrate investigated for the whole morning and didn't suspect them. How did that person know?
Thinking of that look that saw through everything, he was completely panicked.
If he didn't know that they were the murderers, there was no reason for him to let everyone go and only keep the two of them.
What's even more bizarre is that he had been locked up for nearly an hour, and no one had come to interrogate him. It goes without saying how tormented he had been during this hour.
There were footsteps at the cell door; it was the jailer bringing in food.
He had not eaten or drunk anything in nearly four hours since morning, and he was already hungry. The prison meal provided by the Chang'an County Government was just ordinary cabbage, tofu and rice, and it had a faint smell of sourness, and no one knew how long it had been stored.
Cui Ze himself was very rich and lavish, and he ate delicacies from land and sea every day. This bowl of stale rice was really hard for him to swallow.
At this moment, he suddenly smelled a strong aroma of rice.
Cui Ze was all too familiar with the smell of rice.
"Roasted chicken, steamed fish, braised pork, Buddha jumps over the wall, and this rice... This is the top-quality fragrant rice from Northeast China!"
Although a disaster was imminent, Cui Ze still felt resentful at this moment. We were all prisoners, so why did he have to eat rotten cabbage and tofu rice while others had such good food?
Two jailers carried delicious meals and passed by Cui Ze's cell, seemingly chatting casually.
"Is that woman really going to confess?"
"Isn't it? Otherwise, if you can invest so much, I would also recruit you. The latter will only lead to death. Although the first person to recruit will inevitably be exiled, he still has a glimmer of hope..."
What!
The words of the two jailers resounded through Cui Ze's mind like thunder.
Did she confess?
If he confessed first, he could avoid death. Why didn't anyone tell him?
Damn that bitch, she was the one who seduced him first, killed Mr. Zheng, and then it was her idea to seize his property. In the end, she was the one who died. How could he tolerate this?
The two jailers had already walked away. Cui Ze grabbed the bars of the cell and shouted with all his strength, "Sir, I confess. I confess everything!"
At the same time.
The other side of the prison.
"Is that guy really going to confess soon?"
"Isn't it? Otherwise, if you can invest so much, I would also recruit you. The latter will only lead to death. Although the first person to recruit will inevitably be exiled, he still has a glimmer of hope..."
In a cell in the corner, the young woman listened to the two jailers' seemingly casual words, and looked at the delicious food in their hands. Although she didn't say anything, she couldn't hide her disappointed sigh.
Of course she couldn't admit it, but based on her understanding of Cui Ze, the other party's brain would not be able to resist this obvious plot to sow discord.
Sure enough, the next moment, she vaguely heard Cui Ze's call.
Although the cell was large and the two men were at opposite ends, it was still unable to completely block out the shouting of an adult man at his full strength.
In addition to loss, deep in her eyes, there was a hint of deeper fear and relief.
(End of this chapter)
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