Chapter 114 Qi-Liang Boundary (Twenty-Six) Silver, Murder Weapon? ...
When asked about the two Taoist priests, Enoki rolled her eyes twice and hesitated before saying, "That night, I took advantage of the old woman at the second gate falling asleep in the duty room, and quietly opened the side gate to go out and poisoned the guest room."
The people on night duty aren't always guarding the door, so it's understandable that they wouldn't be disturbed and would come out. But for them to easily enter the guest room of two Taoist priests is a bit far-fetched.
Jiuli smiled slightly, "What excuse did you use to knock on the doors of two Taoist priests in the middle of the night? Didn't they find it strange that they let you in so easily without any regard for propriety?"
"I, Fan Yi, didn't ask me for money. When I knocked on the door, he just assumed I was there to deliver money, so he naturally let me in."
That's completely nonsensical. When Jiuli overheard Fan Yi talking to Man Bao that day, Fan Yi was clearly asking Man Bao for money alone. Besides, Fan Yi shared a room with Tian Qing. How could he talk about such a private matter in front of Tian Qing? Naturally, Fan Yi would have come out of the room to tell her. If that's the case, how could she have entered the room to poison her?
It was clear she was lying, and she probably wanted to take the blame for Xuyun. Jiuli didn't expose her yet, and then asked, "How did Second Aunt know that oleander is poisonous? People who don't understand pharmacology rarely know this kind of thing. Did Second Aunt start learning medicine when she did?"
This time, she answered fluently, "Wang Mama's son is in the business of planting flowers and grass. I heard about it from Wang Mama by chance."
"Is that Madam Wang, the lady's personal attendant?"
She quickly replied, "No! She's an old woman surnamed Wang from another family."
Whose residence is this?
She smiled and said, "What does it matter? I know about the toxicity of oleander anyway."
Seeing the flicker in her eyes, Jiuli knew she was lying. This Wang Mama must be Sirou's personal maid, Wang Mama. If Wang Mama mentioned it by chance, then everyone in the mansion might know, including Manbao and Sirou.
Yes! Sirou! Ever since Chen Zifang died, she has been so frightened that she fell ill. Who knows if she is faking her illness to avoid being questioned by the authorities?
“Miss Jiuli, just take me to the yamen. I will confess my crimes wherever we go, so you don’t need to ask.”
Jiuli turned to look at her and laughed, "I have no right to take people away. I'm not an official from the yamen. If you want to turn yourself in, you can wait until Xubai comes back."
Enoki slowly shook her head. “Xu Bai is my son. He won’t allow me to turn myself in, let alone because of his older brother. I know he looks down on me and resents his older brother. He also doesn’t want my affair with his older brother to become public knowledge. But I can’t just sit here and do nothing, and let his older brother take the blame for me.”
At this point, Jiu Li didn't know what to say, so she could only comfort him, "Xu Bai won't. Give him some more time. Once he understands, he will naturally treat you the same as before."
She smiled and said, "Don't I know my son? He's a heartless man by nature. He only cares about the great affairs of the country and the people, and he can't handle these trivial matters of men and women. If you want him to understand, you'll have to wait until the next life. He can't let me lose face in front of the government. Miss Jiuli, please take me away."
Her face was wet with tears, then dried, then wet again; it was unclear where all those tears came from. Jiuli, fearing she would pester him, could only offer a few perfunctory words, then excused himself and left the room. He found her maid, Xiaoyan, under the eaves outside the cave entrance and instructed her, "You must keep a close eye on your second aunt. Don't let her go out casually. If anything happens, wait until your second master returns."
Xiao Yan didn't understand the reasoning, but seeing her solemn expression, she nodded in agreement.
Jiuli glanced into the main room. Several maids were doing needlework and talking under the eaves. Sirou thought they were taking a nap, so she couldn't go in to check. She decided to go to Xubai's study in the outer courtyard and wait for him to return.
So he walked around the corridor towards the courtyard, when he suddenly saw Granny Wang coming out of the main room with a bundle in her hand. Jiuli deliberately slowed down and met her at the courtyard gate. They came out together, and Jiuli asked with a smile, "Granny Wang, where are you going?"
"We're not going anywhere else, just to the front yard to settle other people's accounts."
No wonder she was carrying such a heavy bundle; it must contain silver. Jiuli glanced at the bundle and asked, "This must be seventy or eighty taels of silver, right? How come it costs so much to clear an account?"
Madam Wang hugged the silver in her arms and smiled. "Is this all? Back when we were in the capital, our mistress would have spent this much every month. Things are different now. This amount of silver is for a section of tailoring and jewelry expenses. Our mistress is a very dignified person. Over the years, she has cut fewer clothes and made fewer pieces of jewelry, and she has suffered a lot of grievances."
"You're complaining? It's so much better than other people's homes!"
"It's not a fair comparison, but what you say makes sense. A few dozen taels of silver is nothing to our ladies, but to us, it's heavy enough to kill someone."
These words struck Jiu Li's heartstrings like a thunderclap, their echoes reverberating. She glanced down at the silver pouch in her arms and suddenly realized that the murder weapon that killed Chen Zifang might have been silver! Perhaps what Enoki said wasn't entirely a lie. The murderer had indeed arranged to meet Chen Zifang at Sishixuan that night to exchange silver, but the murderer changed his mind at the last minute and used the heavy silver pouch to kill Chen Zifang!
As the saying goes, "Heaven helps those who help themselves," she thought to herself, when suddenly Wang Mama tripped and fell forward, scattering several silver ingots all over the ground. Jiu Li hurriedly helped her pick them up, examining each ingot closely, and indeed saw some mud-like filth in the holes of one of the silver ingots, which were of varying sizes.
She reacted quickly, grabbing a handkerchief, pulling out a thin hairpin, and picking at the air holes. As she turned to Wang Mama, she smiled and said, "Let me wipe them for you."
Wang Mama was busy patting her own clothes and didn't even look at her. When she came over with the silver, she saw that the amount matched up, thanked her, and went down another road.
Jiuli went to Xubai's study, asked the servant for a pot of water, closed the door, poured the water on the stains on the handkerchief, and waited for a moment. Sure enough, the stains turned blood red.
She was stunned for a moment, then quickly put away her handkerchief, bid farewell to the Qi residence, and hurriedly rushed to the yamen.
Unexpectedly, she ran into Yu Qi and the other two in front of the yamen. When Yu Qi saw her, he remembered that she hadn't gone with them to the midday coffin exhumation and autopsy. He clearly remembered that she had left with them, but he wondered where she had slipped away to. Seeing that she was in a hurry, he stood in front of the stone lion and called out to her.
Just as Jiuli was about to enter, she heard the voice and turned back, hurrying over to greet him, "Uncle, I've found the real murder weapon!"
Yu Qi wasn't surprised. He just looked her up and down and asked, "You went to the Qi family?"
Jiuli nodded guiltily, then smiled and said, "I thought you wouldn't need so many people to go to Chen Zifang's house, so I went to the Qi residence to investigate. Uncle, what were you doing at Chen Zifang's house? Have you finished your business?"
Du Zhong interjected, "We went to examine that inkstone, and you were right. The inkstone wasn't the murder weapon. So what was the murder weapon you were talking about?"
Realizing she was right, Jiuli quickly pushed him aside and took Yu Qi's arm. "You knew all along that the inkstone wasn't the murder weapon?"
Yu Qi didn't answer, but simply pulled his arm away. "Where's Qi Xubai?"
She shook her head, feigning ignorance, "I don't know."
"Hmph, you think you don't know? Are you going to the Qi residence to investigate, or are you just worried that someone might be in a bad mood and rushing to comfort them? Don't pretend with me. Do you think I can't see through what you're thinking?"
He snorted coldly and turned to walk away. Jiu Li could only purse her lips behind him, "Xu Bai went to Nantou Mountain to find his elder brother!"
As the group was about to enter the yamen, they unexpectedly saw Ah Liu running from the street. Jiu Li saw that he was panting heavily and his boots were covered in yellow mud, so he knew that he had gone to Nantou Mountain with Xu Bai. However, when they looked around the street, they did not see Xu Bai.
When asked, Ah Liu swallowed hard a few times, his face contorted in a grimace. "Lord Qi, Lord Qi took his brother's body home. I came back specifically to tell you this."
The group was shocked upon hearing this. "Qi Xuyun is dead?"
Ah Liu nodded, panting, "When we got to that hut, Grandpa Qi's body was already cold. He committed suicide by poisoning himself."
The four of them immediately rushed to the Qi family with Ah Liu. Xu Bai was also carrying Xu Yun's body to the door with two yamen runners. The two met and said nothing else. Jiu Li saw that Xu Bai's face had traces of crying, his eyes were red and his eyes were lifeless, without his usual spirit.
The arrival of the body drew a flurry of servants, who rushed to see what was happening. Soon after, a chorus of weeping erupted. Xu Bai had just ordered the body to be carried into the small hall when someone went in to report. Man Bao and Enoki arrived one after the other.
Manbao, of course, had the right to do so and wasn't afraid of being laughed at. She burst into tears, burying her face in Xuyun's arms as soon as she entered. Enoki, however, didn't dare approach. She sat motionless in her chair, expressionless, staring at Xuyun's bruised face as if she didn't recognize him. Xu Bai saw her trembling all over, her hands gripping the armrests tightly, the veins on the back of her thin hands grotesque, like the hands of a demon.
He suddenly realized she had aged. He had never noticed before; she, like all women, could grow old. He looked down at Xu Yun lying on the ground and was also surprised; his young older brother could die so suddenly.
Everything that was incomprehensible and unforgivable vanished at this moment.
After a long pause, he looked up at the servants and said, "You may all leave."
Everyone could only wipe away their tears and hand it over. He sat at the head of the table and looked at Yu Qi, "Mr. Yu, please check if my elder brother has committed suicide by poisoning himself."
Jiuli had no choice but to go over and pull Manbao away. Yu Qi squatted on the ground and examined the scene for a while before standing up and nodding. "He did indeed die from taking arsenic. As for whether it was suicide, I haven't seen the scene, so I can't make a conclusion."
Xu Bai nodded first, then slowly glanced at Manbao and Enoki, and said slowly, "Ah Liu and I checked, and there were only traces of my elder brother in the hut. There was also some arsenic left on the table next to the bed. My elder brother must have committed suicide out of guilt."
Before she could finish speaking, Manbao pushed Jiuli aside, struggled forward, and cried, "What do you mean by 'committing suicide out of fear of punishment'? What crime did your elder brother commit?"
Xu Bai glanced at Enoki, then lowered his gaze. "Both Chen Zifang and Fan Yitianqing, those two Taoists, were killed by my elder brother."
Manbao was stunned, but Yu Qi coldly retorted, "You're wrong. These three people weren't killed by Qi Xuyun. The murderer is someone else."
Xu Bai was momentarily taken aback and quickly looked up at Jiu Li.
Jiuli nodded to him, "Uncle examined that inkstone and found it wasn't the murder weapon. It was a fake murder weapon made by Brother Qi. His goal was to make you believe he was the murderer so that he would commit suicide out of guilt and close the case."
His eyes darted around before finally settling on Enoki.
At that moment, Si Rou walked into the hall, tears streaming down her face. She stared at Xu Yun on the ground for a long time, then lunged forward, only to land on Enoki, slapping and hitting her repeatedly. "Why did it have to be my son who died! Why didn't you die! Why didn't you die?! It's all your fault, you scourge! If it weren't for you, none of this would have happened to our Qi family!"
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Author's note: Thank you for reading.
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