Chapter 55: Layout
"Tea leaves require careful care, and the plants are usually pruned short, so tea farmers use claw rakes to carefully remove weeds and loosen dead leaves." Qian Deng didn't say yes or no, "But I saw them tending their crops on the farm. They use another kind of rake. It's larger than a claw rake, with a long handle. You don't have to bend or squat. You can just hook a tangled weed and uproot it completely."
Shi Jingning said, "It's a bamboo rake."
"Yes, Shangluo mentioned Zhang Laozhang, who testified on Jintang's behalf that the knife had been thrown into the ditch. He went down the ditch that day to look for his lost bamboo rake."
Shangluo slapped his head and said, "Yes, that bamboo rake he threw away..."
"Obviously, it's this one." Qiandeng put the bamboo piece in his hand back into the box and signaled Cui Fufeng to pick up the broken broom handle on the ground.
"Because there were scattered broom heads nearby, we initially thought it was just discarded garbage. However, the worn-out broomstick and the overly long handle clearly didn't match. A long-handled broom can't sweep the ground; it can only be used to scrape away spider webs and dust from high places. How could the broomstick be so worn-out? However, if it were used as the handle of a bamboo rake, it would be the perfect length."
Seeing that everyone might not be familiar with this thing, Cui Fufeng ordered the Dali Temple officials nearby to find a bamboo rake.
"County Lady, I have a question," Ji Linyou, the most impatient, looked at the bamboo handle and then at the bent bamboo strips, asking sincerely, "So, what is the connection between the bamboo rake and Guangling's death? How did Jian Anting not appear in the alley, but instead put Guangling to death?"
"Don't worry, I'll get to it soon." Qian Deng turned to look at Ling Tianshui and said, "Ling Sijie, you went to the charity cemetery to examine Mr. Yu's body. Please tell us in detail."
Ling Tianshui took out the autopsy file that had been prepared long ago from his sleeve, and combined it with the autopsy file transferred by Cui Fufeng, he repeated the findings after the autopsy.
"The victim's wounds indicate the fatal wound was in the left chest area. The murder weapon matches the dagger found at the scene. The killer was extremely strong, and the angle of the blade's penetration was essentially horizontal. Based on the strength of a normal person's arm, a downward thrust would be more powerful. This horizontal thrusting method used by the killer is extremely rare."
"I've said before that the right time, right place, and right people gave the murderer just the right opportunity to kill Yu Guangling in this way." Qian Deng said clearly, "The so-called right time is the heavy rain for several days, which allowed him to hide the murder weapon in the puddle in the alley. The so-called right place is the narrow and unsupported environment of the alley, which allowed the murderer to use the puddle to arrange bricks, forcing Yu Guangling to follow his instructions and step on the bricks to his death. And the so-called right people is Yu Guangling's eye disease, which made him unable to see far and unable to detect his movements in the alley, so he died exactly as the murderer imagined!
"Let me recount what happened that day. Jian Anting, you and Yu Guangling have a close relationship. Perhaps it's because of him that you've paid extra attention to Jin Tang. After he discarded the dagger, you immediately thought of this scheme of borrowing a knife to kill someone. You retrieved it along with the bamboo rake you found, and performed the simplest trick in this alley."
The Dali Temple officials had borrowed a bamboo rake from the storeroom. Qiandeng gestured for them to lay it flat on the ground, pointing at it and saying, "This bamboo rake has a bent front end, shaped like a claw, to make it easier to scoop up grass and leaves. That's why in the farmyard, rakes, hoes, and hoes aren't allowed on the ground; they must be placed against the wall. Anyone who's done farm work knows why."
Shangluo exclaimed, "Ah!" and blurted out, "Because if you step on it, it will stand up and hit you!"
This sentence completely exposed the core of the murder. Jian Anting's face turned pale, and he stumbled back half a step, slamming heavily against the wall behind him.
The calmness he had been trying to maintain finally collapsed at this moment.
Qian Deng's voice was even colder, like a violent storm, without hesitation: "Jian Anting, you stepped on the handle of the bamboo rake and cracked it. According to the position of Yu Guangling's heart according to his height, you removed the handle of the dagger and inserted it into the crack of the bamboo handle. Then, you laid the bamboo rake with a knife flat and hid it in the puddle. Then, you used bricks to arrange the footing in the puddle in order. In this way, when Yu Guangling entered the alley full of sewage, he would naturally step on the bricks - that is, the steps you chose for him. How could he have expected that one of the bricks was carefully placed by you to be suspended above the water, and the one supporting this brick was the claw of the bamboo rake.
"Yu Guangling, flustered, heard that Jin Tang had arrived. As expected, he followed your trap and went into the library alley alone to hide. The narrow alley was only wide enough for one person to pass through, leaving no room for extra movement. He stepped on the bricks you had set up until he stepped on the one he had set..."
Qian Deng said this as he walked to the side of the bamboo rake, raised his foot, and stepped on the upward-curved claws of the rake.
There was a sound of breaking through the air. The angle of the curved claws in the front of the rake quickly changed, which drove the bamboo handle at the back. The whole rake slammed forward and stood up with a tremor.
Fortunately, Qiandeng had been prepared during the demonstration, stepping on the side. If she had stood directly in front of the rake, she would have been hit hard.
Amidst the crowd's exclamations, Qian Deng lifted his foot, letting the bamboo rake fall back to the ground. He looked at Jian Anting coldly and spoke word by word, "Then, the dagger you had stuck in the tip of the bamboo rake quickly bounced up and pierced Yu Guangling's heart with swift force and a perfect angle, killing him instantly."
"But..." Shangluo was terrified, his face pale as he whispered, "Weren't we the first to discover Brother Guangling's body? We've been waiting here for the coroner to come, but at that time, we didn't find the bamboo rake... The officers later found the murder weapon in the puddle. It looked like an ordinary knife with a handle..."
"That's because Jian Anting was the first person to walk into the alley and bring the body over." Qian Deng pointed at the murky pool of water in the alley and looked directly at Jian Anting. "After we saw Yu Guangling's body that day, you were the first to go in and check. At that time, I saw you walking stiffly and flatly, your feet moving forward strangely. I thought you were frightened, so you walked strangely. But now I think it was because you were sweeping away the bricks you had arranged to remove any possible evidence!"
Xue Xiyang, who had also witnessed the scene, showed a look of sudden realization and immediately said, "Yes, the county lady has expressed the same doubts I had in mind. And there's another point. When we found Yu Guangling's body lying motionless in a pool of blood, clearly dead, why did Jian Anting look so terrified, yet insisted on going in and twisting him over to examine him? Could this be his tampering?"
"He had to be the first to touch Yu Guangling's body because he had to take advantage of turning Yu Guangling's body over to remove the dagger from the bamboo rake. Obviously, although the dagger was separated from the bamboo rake, it was also pulled out of the chest, preventing the murderer from stabbing the knife into the chest and escaping."
Qiandeng spoke clearly and lucidly up to this point, laying out the evidence in a clear and organized manner.
But at this moment, she suddenly paused slightly.
The dagger piercing my chest, the life lost, the illusion added to this wound...
On the night my mother died, Doctor Liao sighed after seeing the wound and said, "County Lady, you don't have to come to me."
But before her, Uncle Fu said that the arrow wound had not damaged the lady's heart.
Later, Uncle Fu died mysteriously, and the cause of his death can only be vaguely attributed to Su Yunzhong.
Just like the letter that my mother was still thinking about before she died, it completely disappeared in that dark night and could not be found.
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