Chapter 25. It's him!
The whispers among the servants suddenly rose in volume.
The copper basin in the cook's hands crashed to the ground with a loud bang.
Water mixed with vegetable leaves spilled all over the ground, but she was completely unaware.
Staring intently in the direction the courier had run in, his lips trembled as he stammered, "How...how could he be gone? Just now, before I came to the east courtyard, he was squatting in the corner of the west courtyard..."
Pei Zhiwei took off running towards the west courtyard.
Li Si was Liu Mingyuan's personal servant. Liu Mingyuan lost his life last night, and all the testimonies currently indicate that Li Si was the last person to see him.
The case is still unclear. There are still courier guards in the west courtyard. How did he disappear?
Did he run away on his own? Or was he called away by someone?
The west courtyard is now in complete chaos. The servants are filled with fear and look at each other with suspicion, as if everyone except themselves could be the murderer.
"Don't panic!" Pei Lin's voice cut through the noise in the courtyard as he strode up to the postmaster.
"Search immediately! He must still be at the post station. Search! Don't miss a single corner!"
The postmaster nodded frantically, "Yes, yes, he can't escape!"
He turned to the stunned postmen and roared, "What are you all standing there for? Divide into four groups and search!"
One group in the east courtyard, one group in the west courtyard, and two groups in the back courtyard! Whoever finds Li Si first, I'll reward him with a string of cash!
Lured by the reward, the courier and servants finally took action, scattering in a panic.
Pei Zhiwei didn't go to join the fun; instead, she turned around and went back to Liu Mingyuan's room.
Xiao Yunzhan followed her in: "What came to mind?"
“There’s something wrong with what Li Si said.” Pei Zhiwei walked to the table and pointed to the empty bowl on it.
"He said Liu Mingyuan wanted to brew the medicine himself, but look at this room, there isn't even a medicine pot."
When questioned earlier, the kitchen staff also said that they hadn't seen Lord Liu send anyone to ask for medicine to be decocted last night.
Either Liu Mingyuan deliberately sent him away, or he was lying, but why would he lie?
"Let's go check the backyard." Pei Zhiwei seemed to have thought of something and turned to rush towards the backyard.
"The postmaster said there are several abandoned guest rooms in the backyard, which are usually used to store miscellaneous items and are the easiest places for people to hide."
Xiao Yunzhan responded and followed her outside.
Just as I stepped out of the room, I saw Pei Lin leading two couriers toward me.
His face was expressionless. He simply said to the two of them, "We've searched the front and east yards, but we didn't find anyone. We're still checking those abandoned houses in the back yard. Let's go take a look."
Just as the group headed towards the backyard, they heard the courier shouting, "Sir! We've found him! In the abandoned guest room C!"
Pei Zhiwei sensed something was wrong and quickened her pace.
The abandoned guest room is in the most remote corner of the official post station. Several roof tiles are missing, and a broken wooden sign hangs on the door frame with the words "Guest Room C" engraved on it.
Two couriers who had been searching the brothel stood trembling at the entrance, their faces ashen.
"My lord... please come and take a look."
As soon as Pei Zhiwei stepped into the house, a musty smell mixed with a faint smell of blood rushed into her throat, choking her and making her cough. She raised her hand to cover her mouth and nose before she could see the situation inside the house.
Li Si lay on his side on the ground, his chest soaked in blood, dark bloodstains running down his clothes and pooling on the ground.
A dagger pierced his left chest, the hilt protruding from the outside, and upon closer inspection, it was covered with some indistinct substance.
On the ground beside him lay a crumpled piece of paper with a few lines of crooked writing on it:
"I am Li Si, a servant of Liu Mingyuan. Master Liu has always treated me harshly, owing me money for three months and not paying it back, and often beating and scolding me."
Last night, I argued with him, and he even tried to expel me from the mansion. In a moment of confusion, I killed him with a dagger.
Now, fearing punishment, I am willing to atone with my death; this has nothing to do with anyone else.
The final signature was "Li Si," written in an even more illegible hand than the main text, as if the hand was trembling while writing.
"This...this is suicide out of fear of punishment?" The courier had seen two corpses in one day, and he was really overwhelmed. His voice was so weak that it seemed to float away, and he dared not look down at the ground.
Pei Lin strode in, squatted down to carefully examine the suicide note, and then touched Li Si's neck.
“He’s already dead.” He stood up and shouted outside, “Coroner! Is the coroner still here? Come and examine the body!”
Just as the coroner finished tidying up the autopsy kit, he was dragged over by a courier. Upon entering and seeing the corpse on the ground, he couldn't help but frown.
"What happened again? Is this post station bewitched today?"
Despite his complaints, he skillfully put down the box, took out linen gloves and silver needles, and squatted down to begin his examination.
Pei Zhiwei stood by the door, her gaze sweeping over every corner of the room.
The ground was originally paved with blue bricks, but it has been in disrepair for many years and is quite broken.
Apart from the bloodstains under Li Si, there were no other drag marks, no signs of being moved, and no signs of a struggle.
The windows were made of wood, the latches were intact, and the windowsill was covered in a thick layer of dust, showing no signs of being touched.
The door was ajar, with no signs of forced entry, just like the room in Liu Mingyuan's room.
"There were no signs of binding on the deceased's body, nor any signs of resistance." The coroner squatted on the ground, repeating the statement as he examined the body.
"The murder weapon was five inches long and two inches wide; it was an ordinary iron dagger."
He then examined Li Si's fingernails and cuffs, and shook his head: "The color of his lips is normal, there are no signs of poisoning, and there is no skin or flesh residue under his fingernails."
The cause of death was a dagger stab to the heart, a single fatal blow; no autopsy is necessary. I will fill out the autopsy report later for Lord Pei to review.
Pei Zhiwei walked to the corpse, her gaze falling on the hilt of the dagger.
The handle was made of wood and was covered with a dark substance that looked more like fine particles than blood.
She crouched down, gently rubbed her fingertips together, and felt the particles rustling on her fingertips. She brought them to her nose and smelled them, but they didn't have much of a scent.
What is this? Did Li Si put it on himself?
She looked closely at Li Si's hands again. The dust on his hands was the same as that in the room, but different from that on the knife hilt.
She took out a white silk handkerchief from her brocade pouch, carefully scraped off the dirt from the knife handle, wrapped it up, and stuffed it into the pouch.
The doubts in my mind grew larger and larger:
Why is there something like this on the hilt? Was it already on the knife before Li Si got it?
Why did he come here to commit suicide?
And that suicide note, the handwriting was crooked and crooked, but the wording was quite neat, completely different from the wording he used when he first talked about seeing Liu Mingyuan for the last time.
"Alright, the person has been found. He committed suicide out of guilt!"
Wang Chengsi's voice suddenly came from the doorway. He pushed aside the postman and went inside. When he saw the corpse on the ground, he showed no fear on his face. Instead, he seemed to breathe a sigh of relief.
"Now that the murderer is dead, can we finally leave? If we delay any longer, our departure date will be missed!"
Cui Xiaozhong followed him in, glanced at the corpse on the ground, looked away in disgust, and turned to leave.
"Lord Pei, now that the case is clear, Li Si killed Liu Mingyuan and committed suicide out of fear of punishment. Shouldn't we all be put in custody no longer?"
My Cui family has a long-standing reputation for integrity; we cannot afford to be associated with such a murder case.
Wang Jingzong also joined in and said slowly, "Yes, Lord Pei. We are not familiar with Lord Liu and Li Si. We only met them a few times on the boat yesterday."
Now that the murderer is dead, there's no point in continuing the investigation; it would only delay important matters.
If you're worried, we can leave a written agreement, and you can summon us back for questioning if needed later.
Zhao Yan stood at the very back, his face even paler than before, but he still nodded.
"Yes...yes, Lord Pei, we really have nothing to hide. If we don't leave soon, we'll really miss His Majesty's mission."
The officials were all talking at once, each wanting to leave as soon as possible.
Pei Zhiwei felt increasingly that there was something strange about them. Not to mention that according to the laws of the Great Liang Dynasty, her father, Pei Lin, as the Vice Minister of the Court of Judicial Review, had the right to investigate the cause of an official's untimely death and question suspicious persons.
Take, for example, the Prince Rui, Xiao Yunzhan, who is known throughout the entire Liang Dynasty and is the most favored by the Emperor. Instead of trying to curry favor with him, they would rather upset Xiao Yunzhan than not leave.
This is so illogical! There must be something fishy going on when things are out of the ordinary! They definitely have a problem.
The postmaster chimed in, wiping the cold sweat from his brow. He said to Pei Lin, “Lord Pei, look… two people have died in this post station. The people here are in a panic. If we don’t settle things down soon, things could get out of hand.”
Why don't we do as the adults suggested and let them go for now? If needed later, you can send someone to deliver a message.
Pei Lin did not agree immediately.
Pei Zhiwei quietly tugged at Pei Lin's sleeve.
Pei Lin understood, and after a moment of contemplation, he slowly said, "Although Li Si's death seems like a suicide out of fear of punishment, there are still some doubts."
However, their eagerness to take up their posts is understandable.
He changed the subject and looked at the officials, "But before you leave, please leave a detailed record of your whereabouts, especially what you did in each hour between 9 PM and 3 AM last night. Write down who can testify to this."
In addition, everyone should also do a quick check of their luggage to make sure they are not carrying any suspicious items.
This is simply following the rules, and we hope for your understanding.
The officials' expressions changed slightly. Wang Chengsi was about to retort when he caught a glimpse of Xiao Yunzhan leaning against the door frame, and he swallowed his words.
"Lord Pei is right. According to the law, all relevant personnel must cooperate with the investigation before the murder case is solved."
"If you are all innocent, what is there to fear for this short time?" Xiao Yunzhan expressed his agreement.
These words left the officials speechless, and they could only reluctantly agree.
The couriers followed the officials back to their rooms and checked their luggage one by one.
Pei Zhiwei then returned to the west courtyard, took the post station's entry and exit registration book from the postmaster, and sat down at the stone table to carefully review it.
The register had a leather cover, and the inside was filled with dense handwriting, recording the time and reason for each person's entry and exit.
She started reading from the room where Liu Mingyuan had checked in, scanning line by line:
"Shenzheng, Lord Liu Mingyuan and his servant Li Si have checked in and registered for the north room of the west wing."
At the second quarter of the third month, four officials from Xuzhou arrived: Magistrate Wang, Military Advisor Wang, Registrar Li, and County Lieutenant Zhao. They stayed in the main room and side rooms of the west wing.
At the beginning of the day (5-7 PM), the courier Chen Er went out to buy lamp oil and returned at the hour of You (5-7 PM). Li Si went out to buy stomach-soothing powder and returned at the hour of Xu (7-9 PM)...
Pei Zhiwei gripped the register tightly, then suddenly looked up. It turned out the murderer had always been there; they had just overlooked the person they least wanted to ignore.
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