Chapter 23 Qingyan Residence
Most of the things in the warehouse were old. They were covered with dust and had dark colors after being stored for a long time, but the pile of pine wood had been used some time ago, so it was still clean.
Qiandeng flipped through it briefly and saw that there was a piece of wood with some strange bark on it, so he rolled it down and took a look.
A log as thick as a bowl had a mark of pressure on the front half of the bark, and the soft bark was flattened.
Cui Fufeng covered the wound on his chest and walked over slowly. "It looks like this piece of wood has been hit... Maybe it accidentally fell to the ground during transportation?"
Qiandeng nodded, and slid his fingers forward along the flat bark. He found that the bark was intact and soft again at the front third of the wood.
"Strange, why is there only a large part of it broken?" Cui Fufeng looked at it, a little surprised. "Where could it fall that only half of it would be broken?"
Qiandeng continued to look forward along the wood, then raised his hand and pointed out the window.
Cui Fufeng saw the pool outside and immediately understood: "The flattened half hit the stone, while the unmarked side was suspended in the air above the water, which caused this mark."
Qiandeng nodded, and that was why the path near the pond was left with fragments of bark left by falling trees.
She stroked the pine wood, her expression a mixture of hesitation and speculation. "I suspect the murderer used this pine wood to cross the river, sneak into the pavilion, kill my mother, and then sneak away without leaving a trace."
Cui Fufeng raised his hand and pinched the dry bark. "But pine wood absorbs water the best. If this piece of pine wood has been soaked in water, let alone just used last night, it won't dry out easily within three to five days."
"Perhaps, the other party used some method..." Qiandeng clenched the wood tightly, letting the rough bark prick his palms. "Otherwise, how could my mother be murdered in this heavily guarded manor!"
Her fair white fingers gripped the wood tightly, and her knuckles turned slightly blue. Cui Fufeng's heart beat slightly, but as men and women were bound by rules, it was inconvenient for him to pull her hand up.
As I was hesitating in silence, I saw a pool of dirty stuff stuck to the top of the pine wood. It was clearly a few flattened snails, which must have died within a day or two. The mucus was still shiny.
Seeing that her crystal fingertips were about to touch those dirty things, he immediately raised his hand, held her hand, and pulled it away from the wood.
"County Lady, you have a dirty heart."
He came from a prominent family and had been well-mannered since childhood. He simply pinched her slightly cool fingertips, and after removing her hand from the snail slime, he let go.
Qian Deng looked up and saw the flattened snail corpse in front of him, with a look of surprise on his face. He looked up and looked around, but found that the warehouse was very cool and dry, with no signs of snails or slugs rampant.
Her eyes passed over a pile of dusty things and landed on a large bamboo mat that was rolled up and leaning against the wall. "This mat is huge. It looks like it's at least two meters wide. Is it for drying grain and wheat?"
"That should be it." Cui Fufeng came from one of the most prestigious families of the time and had always been in the court, so he wasn't familiar with these things. He unfolded the outer layer of the bamboo mat and took a look, noticing a green blade of grass stuck in the bamboo strips at the top edge.
Qiandeng gestured for him to remove the blade of grass and hand it to her.
A piece of green leaf is the centipede grass that can be seen everywhere. The leaves are slender and slightly hard.
I think when the bamboo mat was spread outside, the tip of the leaf naturally pierced into the gaps between the bamboo strips and got stuck, and was pulled off when the bamboo mat was rolled up.
"You take a rest, I'll open this roll of bamboo mat and take a look." Qiandeng motioned Cui Fufeng to rest nearby, then he untied the hemp rope that bound it and spread out the mat.
She shook the bamboo mat, and besides one or two shriveled wheat grains that fell off, she also found one or two grass leaves among the bamboo strips. They were still green, and it was obvious that they had just been pulled off.
"It seems that this mat was last used when drying wheat..."
The wheat was harvested in May and June. Now it is almost August. The large bamboo mat that has not been used for more than two months looks very clean, without any dust on it.
However, the few blades of grass stuck on the bamboo mat obviously could not be two months old. It was only possible that someone had used it in the past two days and spread it on the grass.
Back in the woodshed, Daimao was still guarding Nanyu, but his face was even more bruised.
Qian Deng ignored it and pointed at the remaining bloodstains and asked Nan Yu: "Since you said you didn't kill anyone, what happened at that time? Please tell us in detail."
Nan Yu raised his bound hands in panic, pointing at the door. "I was tied to a pillar at the time. I was so tired that I sat down on the ground. Uncle Fu squatted in front of me, facing the door, and fed me... Then I heard a whoosh and saw blood coming out of his neck..."
Cui Fufeng looked at the bloodstains splattered on the ground and nodded to Qiandeng, meaning that the bloodstains were correct.
"So, when Uncle Fu was feeding you, did you see anyone appear at the door?"
Nan Yu shook his head vigorously. "I'm shorter when I'm sitting than Uncle Fu when he's squatting. He's completely blocking the back of me. I... I can't see anything happening at the door!"
Qiandeng walked to the pillar and squatted down like Uncle Fu as he said. Then he raised his hand and touched the back of his neck, comparing it to the direction of the wooden door, which was in a straight line, facing diagonally.
Cui Fufeng, who was leaning against the doorway, patting his chest, looked along her snow-white, slender neck. He raised his hand, pointed to the corner of the woodshed, and whispered, "There."
Qiandeng stood up and walked diagonally across without hesitation.
In the corner opposite, there was a neatly stacked pile of firewood. She flipped through it a few times and soon found what she was looking for in the direction she estimated.
Embedded in the firewood was a thin iron blade, about two fingers wide and one finger long, pointed and with a slight rust on the back of the blade.
She took it off, feeling a little hesitant, as if she had seen this thin blade somewhere before. Turning the blade slightly, she saw the three characters "Qingyanju" on it.
Cui Fufeng recognized it immediately and said, "I once bought a carving knife from Qingyanju to carve seals. It is indeed sharp and strong. But this one looks old, so it must be an old item."
Qian Deng scraped the rust on the back of the scraper with his fingertips and agreed, "Only something this sharp can quickly cut the neck and kill someone."
Daimao was stunned and grief-stricken. Looking at Nanyu, who had been beaten into a pig's head by him, he couldn't help but cry out in grief: "Then... who was the person who killed my father?"
Nan Yu was both surprised and delighted, and cried out repeatedly: "County Lady, I am innocent! The murderer framed me! Uncle Fu was guilty, and so was Madam. I really didn't kill anyone..."
Qiandeng was afraid of alarming the people in Zhuangzi, especially the nine candidates for fiancé whose backgrounds were unknown, so she signaled him to shut up.
She threw the broken porcelain pieces on the ground, looked directly at Nan Yu and said, "The truth hasn't come out yet, and it's not time for you to cry out for justice. Just stay here for now."
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