Chapter 12 Suspicion
Just as she was lost in thought at the name on the paper, she suddenly heard a clear voice. Meng Lanxi had been summoned. She put down the medicine basket and saluted her: "County Lady."
Qiandeng came to his senses and looked up to see Meng Lanxi's jade-like face. His face showed sadness, loneliness, fear, and even more concern for her.
Qiandeng motioned him to sit down and asked, "Mr. Meng, do you know anything about what happened in Guangling?"
Meng Lanxi nodded gravely and said, "Yes, I heard. The death of a rabbit makes the fox mourn, and I feel deeply saddened as well... However, the dead cannot be brought back to life, so please accept my condolences, County Lady."
Qian Deng looked him over and said, "Master Xue is giving a lecture today. Since you're in the Imperial College, why don't you go and listen?"
Meng Lanxi said calmly, "I'm not here to listen to a lecture. I just thought that after a great disaster there will be a great epidemic. After the flood recedes, there may be a disease spreading in Chang'an. I remembered that I saw some herbs when I was walking around the Imperial College, so I thought I would pick some and take them back to the county lady and the people in the palace to take precautions as soon as possible."
Qiandeng's eyes fell on the medicine basket beside him, and he saw that there were indeed many herbs such as perilla and artemisia annua in it.
Xue Xiyang glanced at it and said sarcastically, "How bizarre! Lord Meng doesn't want to come to my lectures, but instead comes to the Imperial College to pick this stuff? Perilla and Artemisia annua are everywhere. There's a huge pile in the backyard of our palace. You could pick some there and weed it, but why did you come all the way here?"
Meng Lanxi's expression changed slightly as she defended herself, "I came here because there were so many Platycodon grandiflorum and Scutellaria baicalensis plants near the Imperial College ditch. But when I got here, I found they had all been flattened by the backflow of the ditch. I didn't want to go back with an empty medicine basket, so I just picked a few to make up the difference."
Xue Xiyang asked back, "You just picked them randomly, and it took you two hours?"
Meng Lanxi said coldly, "I don't know what Xue Lecheng means, but I've never been to the library, and I heard that the person lingering there at the time was you, Xue Lecheng, right?"
Listening to their argument, Shangluo next to them pouted and his eyes turned red.
They heard hurried footsteps and panicked cries, and everyone in the hall looked towards the door, only to see the yamen runners who were investigating the murder weapon pulling Jin Tang over.
"County Lady..." Jin Tang stumbled into the room and just as he called out, the yamen runner pushed him in front of Qian Deng and reported, "County Lady, the source of the murder weapon has been identified. It came from Jin Tang!"
This one sentence made everyone shocked and stared at Jintang.
Jin Tang had been spoiled and comfortable since childhood, and had never experienced such a situation. Facing Qian Deng's gaze, he couldn't even speak a coherent sentence: "No, I don't have it. I lost the dagger... the dagger..."
Xue Xiyang said coldly, "That's right. After killing someone, the murderer dropped the murder weapon and fled."
Jin Tang's face turned pale. He rushed over and grabbed Qian Deng's sleeve, saying anxiously, "County Lady, I am innocent. I have nothing to do with this matter!"
Qian Deng did not comfort him. Instead, he pointed at the dagger he had fished out of the puddle and asked, "Is this yours?"
Jin Tang stammered, not daring to speak, but his expression became increasingly ugly.
The bailiff said, "I have already investigated the source of this murder weapon. It was purchased by Young Master Jin at a nearby blacksmith shop early this morning."
The Dali Temple runners were familiar with the place after all. Not only was Jin Tang brought in, but also a little old man with white hair and beard, who said he was the owner of Zhou Ji Blacksmith Shop; and a middle-aged man with red nose, who was the owner of the restaurant next door.
The restaurant owner testified that Jin Tang had an argument with Yu Guangling yesterday and after being expelled from the school, he went to Yu Guangling's house in anger and got drunk and stayed in the restaurant.
Early this morning, Xue Xiyang came to the vicinity of the Imperial College and saw that Jin Tang was groggy after waking up from a hangover, so he spoke a few words to him through the car window. Then he saw Jin Tang jump up, walk out of the door angrily, and go to Zhou Ji Blacksmith Shop next door.
Unexpectedly, Xue Xiyang's matter was also mentioned. Qian Deng frowned slightly and glanced at Xue Xiyang.
Xue Xiyang gave her an aggrieved look and said, "I came here to give a lecture, and when I saw Jin Tang was here, I naturally had to say hello to him."
"You...you weren't even saying hello to me!" Jin Tang looked at his innocent face and finally came to his senses. He pointed at him and cursed, "You! You bastard! County Princess, he hurt me! He...it was he who asked me to buy the dagger. He must be the murderer! It must be him!"
Xue Xiyang smiled and sighed, "Young Master Jin, please stop slandering me. How could I be related to you and order you to kill someone?"
Jin Tang collapsed and yelled, "It was you who saw that I was hungover and not in my right mind, so you took the opportunity to instigate me! You told me that Yu Guangling relied on his fate to get to the top. If someone scratched or scarred his forehead or philtrum, his fate would be ruined. I wonder if the Si Tiantai would still recommend him, and whether the county lady would be interested in him?"
Qiandeng felt the depression in his heart rushing to his head, and his right hand subconsciously raised up, stroking the scar on his eyebrow with a cold expression.
"So, you bought the dagger because you wanted to disfigure Yu Guangling?"
"Yes... but, after I bought the dagger, I rushed into the Imperial College. The wind blew me sober! I hid the dagger in my sleeve, hesitating whether to attack Guangling. Then I heard everyone talking about Xue Xiyang coming to give a lecture today, but he'd never been to the Imperial College before!" Jin Tang pointed at Xue Xiyang and roared, "I suddenly realized that this bastard was trying to kill someone with a borrowed knife, and he was pretending to be nothing and just came to watch the show! I... I was so angry that I threw the dagger into the ditch!"
"Young Master Jin, you're so suspicious. I just saw you were feeling down, so I made some small talk as a joke. Who knew you'd listen to everything I said?" Xue Xiyang looked innocent, smiling as he watched Jin Tang's fury and curse. "By the way, you said you lost the dagger. Then how did it end up in the library corridor, next to Yu Guangling's body?"
"I...I don't know!" Jin Tang looked at Qian Deng, his eyes filled with pleading and bewilderment. "I really threw it away! I threw it into the ditch of the Imperial College!"
Qian Deng lowered his eyes and looked at the weapon beside him. The blade of the dagger was rough, and even the fire spikes on the dagger had not been sharpened off. It looked unsuitable for the son of the richest man. It must have been a last-minute purchase.
Qiandeng looked at Zhouji's boss and asked, "Did you make this dagger?"
As soon as the old man picked up the dagger, he immediately recognized it: "Yes, this is it. Master Jin bought it this morning!"
"Why don't you sell him a better one?"
Hearing her complain about his poor craftsmanship, the old man immediately explained, "Due to the recent unrest, all the other daggers in the shop have been sold, leaving only this one. Actually, the blade hasn't been completely polished yet, the spikes are still there, and the handle isn't secured properly. But Young Master Jin just left the money and took it and left. I called out twice but there was no response, so... I just let him do what he wanted."
"So, it's different from the other daggers in your shop?"
"That must be different. There must be only one like this one sold!"
This decisive answer directly confirmed that the knife was the one Jintang bought, overturning his defense that he threw the knife into the ditch.
"Impossible, I...I really lost that dagger!"
Seeing that Jin Tang was still resisting, Qian Deng asked, "So where did you go after you threw away the dagger?"
Jin Tang said, "After throwing it away, I felt relieved. I wanted to go to the lecture platform to find Xue Xiyang and have a big fight, but I was too sleepy, so I went back to the school to catch up on my sleep. I was not woken up until the yamen runners came looking for me..."
Xue Xiyang chuckled softly: "So, there are no witnesses?"
Jin Tang was dumbfounded, his face pale: "No...it seems like everyone has gone to the lecture..."
Qiandeng sighed, disappointment flickering in his eyes as he looked at him.
Nie Hezheng, the Dali Temple official, asked, "So, Mr. Jin, you have no alibi, yet you insist that the dagger you threw into the ditch turned up at the crime scene. And the coroner's examination showed that the marks on Yu Guangling's fatal wound matched the dagger's. It's clear he died from this dagger—what else do you have to say?"
Jin Tang's body trembled slightly, and he had obviously realized the seriousness of the problem. His tone of voice changed: "It must be... when I threw the dagger away, someone saw it, so he picked it up and killed Yu Guangling, and put the blame on me!"
No one in the library spoke, including Qiandeng.
Nie Hezheng asked Qian Deng, "Now that we have all the evidence, the Dali Temple should take the suspect into custody for trial. What do you think, County Master?"
Qiandeng lowered his eyelashes, thought for a moment, and nodded: "But there are still many doubts in this case. I hope your company will not be impatient and ask in detail. I hope we can make other discoveries."
Jin Tang was still in a state of panic. When the cold iron chain was locked on his wrist, he woke up as if from a dream and shouted anxiously: "County Lady... County Lady, please understand! I really threw away the dagger... I have been sleeping in the school until now!"
The bailiffs ignored him and dragged him out.
I could only hear him still shouting in the corridor: "County Lady, I didn't kill anyone! I am innocent..."
Before he could finish his words, the rest of his sentence was cut off. It was obvious that the yamen runners were too lazy to listen to his calls and blocked his mouth.
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