Chapter 49 Enlightenment
They already knew where Zheng Junshan's dormitory was, so there was no need to search it this time. The three of them walked directly to the word "Lan" left by Zheng Junshan and stopped in front to check.
The blood had dried into a dark brown, mixed with ink, turning into an unpleasant, dirty color.
Cui Fufeng took out Zheng Junshan’s daily homework from the drawer and compared it carefully with the words on the ground.
Qian Deng looked at the grass-roots stroke of the character "Lan" and said, "Look, the horizontal stroke at the beginning is particularly broad, thick and heavy."
Ling Tianshui squatted down and took a look. He said, "The blood I dipped in at the beginning was quite large and thick, and it was also mixed with ink. When writing, if there is too much ink, it can be used to lift the pen. But he was on the verge of death, so he obviously couldn't and didn't have the energy to pay attention to this."
"That's true, but there's another possibility. He was completely exhausted before his death, and the final message he left behind couldn't be written clearly..." Qian Deng flipped through his homework, found one, and showed it to them. "It's like he hastily scribbled it down before the deadline."
The content above was obviously written in a hurry. The strokes were sloppily and crookedly, with many strokes omitted. Some characters were so simplified that they were almost like cursive script.
Comparing the handwriting on the ground, Qian Deng analyzed: "At the moment when he was about to lose consciousness, he naturally couldn't write every stroke. Therefore, the grass root of the word "Lan" and the outer "Men" were all scribbled in one stroke. But, look at the word "Cambodia" inside..."
Three pairs of eyes were fixed on the “Cambodia” in the middle of the word “Lan (Lan)”.
"The writing style of the word '门' on the outside is no doubt his usual sloppy handwriting: a vertical stroke on the left, two circles, then a downward stroke on the right, then turning to the upper left, in the center of the '门'..."
Qiandeng flipped through Zheng Junshan's homework and found words with similar structures.
Before his death, he wrote the character "Cambodia" neatly inside the character "Lan", but when he was scribbling to deal with his schoolwork, he often wrote the character "Dong" with only four or five small turns.
"Why would he choose to write the middle stroke clearly in this case?"
"Because, what he wants to write is another word." Cui Fufeng blurted out.
"Yes, a character that's very similar to the character 'Lan'. It can be transformed with just a few strokes." Qian Deng pointed to the scratch marks on the sole and said clearly, "When the murderer realized that the deceased's information could no longer be erased, he could quickly change it to a character that could be used to frame Meng Lanxi."
The three of them looked at each other, and that word was about to come out.
Qiandeng closed Zheng Junshan's homework, stood up, and said, "Let's go to the library corridor. If I'm not mistaken, the key evidence we need to find should still be there."
In the corridor between the libraries, mud, broken bricks and tiles, garbage and dirt were still piled up in the wet mud pits because the Dali Temple officials stopped it in time. It was really not suitable for respectable people to pass by.
But Qiandeng, who had seen the decaying corpses before, seemed completely transformed and no longer cared about these things. She covered her mouth and nose, broke off a thin branch, and stepped into the alley.
Using stride length as a measure, and comparing it with the mark that the officers had previously marked where Yu Guangling fell, she measured the approximate distance, walked in the dirty water to a place not far from his toes, and squatted down to take a closer look.
The blood in Guangling that day flowed into the pool of water. Although it was later diluted by rain and scooped up by students, it was still bloody due to the dampness, so mosquitoes and flies laid eggs in it, and now there are white maggots wriggling in it.
Qiandeng seemed unaware of anything. She was focused on checking the situation in the low-lying area and didn't care that her white skirt was stained with mud.
Seeing the broom scattered not far from the mud puddle, her eyes lit up slightly. She walked over and squatted down to take a closer look. The white gauze of her veil had just touched the ground and fell into the mud.
Cui Fufeng walked quickly to her side, helped her lift the veil of her hat, leaned over and asked, "What are you looking for? I'll ask the yamen runner to come and check it out."
"No need, I've found it." Qiandeng stood up. Under the lifted gauze, the corners of her lips slightly pursed showed her confidence. It was obvious that she was sure of it.
She pointed to the tattered broom lying in the alley and asked, "Have you ever seen a broom with a handle this long?"
Cui Fufeng looked at the scattered broomsticks and thin bamboo poles on the ground and was a little surprised. "I've definitely never seen this before."
"You're from an aristocratic family, so naturally you haven't seen these before." Ling Tianshui came over to take a look and said casually, "This long pole is usually used to sweep dust and cobwebs from higher places, such as eaves and caissons."
"So, this broom has a similar meaning to the character 'Lan'," Qiandeng said, pointing to the broom handle and the scattered broom branches nearby. "If it's used to sweep eaves and caissons, why are the branches so short? But if it's used to sweep the floor, why is the broom handle so long?"
Cui Fufeng subconsciously asked, "Could it be that someone also transplanted flowers and trees?"
"I see..." Ling Tianshui was different from Cui Fufeng, a noble family member who was untainted by worldly affairs. He measured the length of the broom pole, observing the broken cracks on it, and understood Qiandeng's meaning. "So, Zheng Junshan was murdered because he discovered the murderer's clues from it?"
"Yes, this is the method that killed Guangling, and it was also the cause of Zheng Junshan's death."
The sky was gloomy, and Qiandeng's gaze slowly shifted from the broomstick covered in dirty water to the narrow and cramped alley in front of him.
In this gloomy weather, the blood rushed through her body, and all the details were quickly combined in her mind.
The fatal wound on Yu Guangling's chest;
The murder weapon that Jintang had discarded in the ditch and retrieved from the stagnant water in the alley;
The stiff body turned over by Jian Anting in the rainstorm;
The last words written by Zheng Junshan in blood and ink;
The dam was washed away by the continuous heavy rain...
Everything already had an answer, as if there was an invisible thread behind, stringing all the beads together. Thoroughly and completely, all the evidence was clearly presented before her, forming a rope that ran through everything from beginning to end.
"Why?" She murmured in disbelief. "What good would it do him to kill Yu Guangling? Why would he do that?"
Ling Tianshui dropped his broomstick and said coldly, "Do we need to come up with a reason to arrest a suspect? First, arrest him and throw him in jail. After torturing him and forcing a confession, the whole story will naturally become clear."
Qian Deng slowly shook his head. "Jin Tang and Meng Lanxi are both in prison. Meng Lanxi was even forced to confess to the murderer through torture. It's easy to throw a suspect into jail and force a confession, but if we really act that way, what's the difference between us and Gao Shaoqing, who hastily closed the case, and those who just sat there doing nothing and shirking their responsibilities? Why bother investigating this case all this time?"
"Don't be so pedantic. To achieve your ultimate goal, what's wrong with using a little trickery?" Ling Tianshui said mercilessly. "Didn't you even create a fake thread to force Su Yunzhong to confess? Why are you acting so obediently now?"
Qian Deng was slightly startled and looked at him sideways. How could this newcomer Ling Tianshui know what she had done at the manor?
Suspicious, she looked at Cui Fufeng, but he misunderstood her and said, "But murder must have a motive. I can't understand the murderer's reasoning. What prompted him to do it? Why would he make things easier for others?"
Qian Deng pondered and nodded. "There are many people who have motives for targeting Guangling, from Xue Xiyang to Meng Lanxi, and even Shangluo, who might compete with Yu Guangling for the top spot. But this murderer... I really can't think of any reason why he would target Guangling."
Jin Tang is possible, Meng Lanxi is possible, and every man in her backyard is possible.
However, this murderer was absolutely impossible. After all, if Yu Guangling really became the county lord's husband in the future, he would immediately be appointed an official and have a bright future. For a child from a poor family, his best option was to befriend Yu Guangling and cling to this friend who was about to rise to prominence.
Unless the murderer is crazy, killing his best friend out of baseless jealousy will do him no good but only harm.
Continue read on readnovelmtl.com