"Third Miss, you said last night that the deceased embroidered a purse to confess his feelings to Song Yi. Is this it?" Zheng Qiu had already lit a tinderbox and handed it to Li Dali. She squatted down and pieced together some scraps of cloth. Although she hadn't finished piecing it together, the pattern of ink bamboo could still be seen.
“Yes, Mozhu.” Gu Xin walked over and took a look, then glanced at the fire next to her.
Clearly, these pieces of cloth were not completely burned, and judging from the cracks, they were not cut by human hands, but rather by a sharp knife or scissors.
"If the murderer is Song Yi, why would he cut it up and then burn it? Wouldn't it have been better to just burn it whole instead of throwing it away?" Li Dafei asked from the side.
“That means it’s not Song Yi!” Chen Xiaoli said, then began to let her imagination run wild. “The murderer hates a purse so much that they cut it into such small strips, they must hate either Song Yi or the deceased who embroidered the purse! I guess they hate the deceased, probably another admirer of Song Yi. A woman as strong as Third Sister could kill someone all by herself and…”
As Chen Xiaoli spoke, he noticed that his brother Li Dafei's eyes were twitching. Then he remembered what he had said: "Third Miss is incredibly strong." Oh dear, even though what he said was true, a girl certainly wouldn't like to be told that she is incredibly strong.
Just as Chen Xiaoli realized he was about to apologize, Gu Xin told him to continue.
Chen Xiaoli stammered, not daring to speak.
Gu Xin said speechlessly, "Are you afraid I'll get angry by stating the facts? I'm naturally stronger than the average girl. My martial arts skills are also better than the average man's, so what's there for me to be angry about? None of you men with poor martial arts skills are angry."
Chen Xiaoli: "...Third Miss is right. I think the murderer might be a woman who, like the deceased, admires Song Yi. On the day of the incident, when the deceased was about to confess her feelings to Song Yi, the murderer discovered her. Since the deceased wasn't accompanied by her personal maid as usual, the murderer tricked her away. The murderer is a woman, and the deceased must have followed her without any suspicion. Hmm, that's about all I can think of."
Based on Chen Xiaoli's words, Zheng Qiu analyzed, "If this purse was indeed embroidered by the deceased, then this place is very likely the crime scene. Judging from Xiaoli's guess, the murderer may know Song Yi and be very familiar with him. Moreover, Song Yi may have discovered something and is therefore hiding it from us."
Gu Xin thought for a moment, then nodded and said, "Then take the purse back to Madam Xie for identification. Madam Xie will definitely recognize the deceased's needlework. When we get back, Chen Xiaoli, take my token and go to the general guarding the city to ask him to find all the records of people entering and leaving the city from the time of You Shi on the seventh day of the month until the night before last. Find all the people who drove horse-drawn carriages, donkey carts, pushed carts, and carried sacks."
The three city gates of the capital city record the people entering and leaving the city every day. Under normal circumstances, they will not check what is loaded on your vehicle or what you are carrying on your back, but they will record where you came from and where you are going.
There was nothing else in the cave except for the purse and a large pool of dried blood.
The three of them walked out of the cave. Gu Xin had Li Dafei carry the two chickens, and then showed Zheng Qiu the pearl hairpin and pearl earring she had just found: "I found these in the forest where I found the bloodstains. The hairpin is a product of Xie's shop, and I don't know about the earring yet. My intuition is that it's related to this case."
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