Gu Xin stopped and instructed He Gang: "He Gang, take a few brothers and search every room in this courtyard. Don't miss any corner!"
He Gang clasped his hands in a fist and said, "Yes!"
He called a few men and then led them to begin searching the yard from outside.
The Donglin Prince's Mansion is very large. People like Bai Shijie, who are being groomed to be the heir, live in a place that is second only to the main courtyard of the Donglin Prince and the residence of the eldest son and his wife.
Gu Xin led He Qiang directly into Bai Shijie's room.
This is Bai Shijie's study. Bai Shijie's body is in the inner room of his study, a place where he usually rests when he is tired.
As He Gang said, Bai Shijie's death was somewhat strange. His back was hunched over, his head was tilted back, and his eyes were wide open, as if he had seen something unbelievable.
But he wasn't lying down; he was leaning against the bed, his eyes looking towards the ceiling.
Gu Xin stepped forward, examined the area around the body, and then ordered Constable Gao to lead his men to take the body away. Zheng Qiu was already outside making preparations.
There was spilled tea and a few messy footprints on the ground. It was hot, and the water on the ground was almost dry by now.
Gu Xin squatted down, picked up a tea leaf, and smelled it.
Then he asked He Gang to pick up all the tea leaves on the ground.
She walked around the room and found that, apart from the spilled tea on the floor beside the bed, everything else was very clean and tidy.
The thin blanket was also neatly folded.
There was a window on the right side of the bed. Gu Xin walked over and looked out. Through the oil lamp in the courtyard, she could see a small pond outside. The lotus leaves in the pond were lush, and the lotus flowers had buds, but none of them had bloomed yet.
Gu Xin has good eyesight. When the person delivering the food arrived, it was already night, and there were lamps lit everywhere in the courtyard, so she was able to see clearly.
Gu Xin remembered that she seemed to have seen several ponds in the Prince's Mansion today, some planted with lotus flowers, and some without.
As she was thinking, her hand naturally rested on the window, and suddenly she felt a little uncomfortable.
She looked down and saw that the window was made of wood, and everything around it was fine, but the part she touched felt uneven, as if it had been hit by something hard, and wood shavings were sticking out at her.
She turned and took the lamp to the window. Upon closer inspection, she saw that there were not only sawdust shavings, but also ink stains on them.
Gu Xin noted this down.
She glanced into the inner room again, found nothing else, and then climbed out the window.
The window was quite large. Although she was slender, she was tall, so she climbed out easily, feeling that there was plenty of space.
Standing outside the window, she turned back to get the lamp and walked from the window all the way to the pond.
"Third Miss." At this moment, Officer Gao walked over, thinking that Gu Xin had discovered something.
"Captain Gao, have someone go down and check each household to see if they all have lotus ponds. Oh, not just the courtyards of each household, but the entire courtyard of the Prince's Mansion. Have them all go and check if there are any unusual phenomena around each pond. Also, ask the steward if any of the ponds in the Prince's Mansion are connected." Gu Xin said, looking at the watermarks around the lotus pond.
There were yamen runners and soldiers guarding the outside, ten people in total. They could see each other in pairs, which meant that either the murderer was in the courtyard or had entered the courtyard through another passage.
There were water stains next to the lotus pond.
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