Chapter 729 New Evidence
At this moment, Xie Ruoyi ran back and threw herself into her mother's arms, crying again, "Mother, Father hit me, boohoo..." She thought her mother could still control her father as before.
Annoyed by her crying, Zhang Yurou said coldly, "Yi'er, stop crying. Don't you know how to recite the Three Character Classic? Your teacher taught you! Have you forgotten it all?"
Xie Ruoyi was a little scared and didn't dare to speak.
Zhang Yurou said, "From now on, you'd better study hard. If you don't, your father will beat you again, do you hear me?" Xie Yang scolded her and his daughter, complaining that they couldn't study and that she wasn't a true talented woman.
Zhang Yumo was indeed better at studying than her in the past, and over time she got used to relying on Zhang Yumo. Later, when Zhang Yumo helped her, she was called a talented woman, which satisfied her vanity, and she became more and more uncontrollable.
She thought to herself: Will Mo'er really reveal these things? If she does, her reputation will be ruined, and her whole life will be ruined.
Zhang Yurou felt dizzy and disoriented. Did she really have to kill Zhang Yumo? Only the dead could keep the secret forever.
Xie Ruoyi had never seen her mother so fierce before. She wanted to cry but dared not actually cry out loud, because from today onwards, the way her father and mother looked at her was different.
Then, she noticed a bright red ruby earring in the corner of the dressing table, and, finding it pretty, picked it up to play with.
Zhang Yurou was in a bad mood and didn't notice what her daughter was holding. She said to the maid, "Take the little princess away to rest. She can't read, so don't let her go to the palace."
The maidservant hurriedly said, "His Highness said that the young princess must be sent to the palace every day to study with the other princesses and sons. She must go."
Zhang Yurou knew that Xie Yang must have his reasons for making this decision. "Fine, let's send her to the palace school! If she can learn, she can learn; if she can't, let her play."
When she was little, she was always in a bad mood because she could never catch up with Zhang Yumo. She even learned less and less. Her grandparents also favored Zhang Yumo. They knew the suffering of not being able to study and didn't want their daughter to suffer that.
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The Imperial Palace.
That night, Zhang Anyu and Xie Qi brought the interrogation records and the coroner's autopsy results to the palace.
After examining it, Xie Shang concluded, "It was a death by suffocation."
Zhang Anyu said, "He died from strangulation. He was abused before his death, and his chest was cut off..."
He didn't dare to continue, because it was too cruel.
Jiang Fenghua also came to the Imperial Study. She took the coroner's autopsy report, and after reading it, she felt a chill run down her spine and her scalp tingled. "Her breasts were cut off?"
"It's stitched up again." Zhang Anyu almost vomited when he saw the corpse like this. He had never been married or touched a woman before, and he never expected that the first time he would see a woman's body would be under such circumstances.
He had to admire the coroner's perseverance.
Xie Qi took Li Cheng's interrogation record, which stated that Li Cheng said Jin Ji cut the body when he abused the deceased. They saw the horrific scene at the crime scene and brought the severed parts back to the mansion. The maid who dressed the deceased sewed them back on, wanting the deceased to have a complete body for burial.
Jiang Fenghua asked, "Was she assaulted after her death?"
Zhang Anyu asked, "How did Your Majesty know?"
Jiang Fenghua didn't hide anything, "When we were at the Li family, it was Lu Xuefei who opened Shu Xue's coffin. She wanted to investigate the case, so she saw the body. Because she believed it was a rape and murder, she made a point of looking at it."
Xie Qi blushed when he heard this, because he couldn't understand why Lu Xuefei dared to examine the body alone. He still couldn't forget what Lu Xuefei had said: "No matter what face the dead face to the living, they should be respected. They should be single-minded and find answers from the body to speak for the dead."
She had read many files and cases, and her first instinct should have been to observe the deceased. However, she didn't consider herself a woman when she was doing so.
He felt admiration when she said those words.
Zhang Anyu then handed Jiang Fenghua another autopsy report, saying, "Your Majesty, please take a look. This is the same conclusion reached by the coroner after examining the body."
He gritted his teeth, "In the years I have served as the Prefect of Jingzhao, I have never encountered such a cruel and perverted murderer."
“Shu Xue suffered inhuman torture before her death. With such a commotion and other guests at Fulai Inn, it’s impossible that there was no sound at all,” Jiang Fenghua said. “Besides that, is there any other useful information about her?”
Xie Qi said in a deep voice, "There's more."
He said to Zhang Anyu, "Lord Zhang, please take it out!"
Seeing Zhang Anyu and Xie Qi acting mysteriously, Xie Shang asked, "What is it?"
Zhang Anyu walked around the imperial study, then ran to the door and looked out. He saw that in addition to the imperial guards, there were also palace maids and eunuchs outside the door.
He went to close the door himself, his actions even appearing somewhat comical.
Only after the four of them were left in the room did he take out a handkerchief from his pocket. The contents of the handkerchief were wrapped in three layers.
Jiang Fenghua didn't dare blink, wondering if the things they wrapped up so well could prove Jin Ji's innocence.
A blood-red ruby bead appeared in Zhang Anyu's hand.
Jiang Fenghua asked, "What is this?"
Zhang Anyu explained, "This was found on the deceased. Since Minister Tang was also present, I was careful and secretly kept it."
Zhang Anyu recounted the situation, saying, "Fortunately, Minister Tang felt disgusted and stayed far away, so he was unaware of the existence of the beads."
Zhang Anyu knew that Minister Tang really wanted to handle this case, which is why he kept a watchful eye on things.
Xie Shang asked, "Where was this found?"
Zhang Anyu said, "Your Majesty, this bead was found inside the deceased's stomach. My analysis is that she swallowed it. I suspect that it was left by the murderer. Even if it wasn't the murderer, it must be related to the murderer. Such a precious gem can definitely be found if we take it to the market in Shengjing."
Jiang Fenghua stared at the gemstone. "No need to investigate, I've seen it before."
The group looked in Jiang Fenghua's direction. "Your Majesty knows."
Jiang Fenghua said, "On the Lantern Festival, Zhang Yurou's earrings were two rubies. I remember it very clearly, they were hers."
Xie Qi and Zhang Anyu were slightly taken aback and asked, "The Fourth Princess killed her? How is that possible?"
They couldn't believe that the Fourth Princess was the murderer; how could someone as timid as a cat commit murder?
Jiang Fenghua dared not say it wasn't her, because Zhang Yurou was clearly trembling when she saw the corpse. Even if she wasn't the one who killed her, she knew who was responsible for Shu Xue's death. Now that she had the ruby bead, she had basically confirmed that her previous speculation was related to the Fourth Prince's Mansion.
Xie Shang said, "There should be many of these beads on the market! If hers is still around, then this one won't be hers."
"Your Majesty, the matter at hand is not about confirming who the murderer is, but rather that their goal is not just to harm Jin Ji."
Jiang Fenghua knew that Xie Shang could understand, and that it was impossible for Zhang Yurou to make such a big commotion by herself, so it could only be the Fourth Prince who did it.
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