At that time, people believed in ghosts and gods and were afraid to swear to the heavens easily. Once Su Qingxue made her oath, most people believed it.
Jiang Si didn't believe it.
Among the people present, except the one who plotted against her, no one knew better than her why Su Qing wanted to pester her.
If Su Qingyi's meeting with her was a coincidence, perhaps there would not be a third person present. However, since it was the maid in green who deliberately led her to the edge of Juxia Lake, then Su Qingyi and others were undoubtedly arranged by someone to stay at Chaoyang Pavilion.
Just as Yu Qi said, Su Qingyi is a fool. It is impossible to expect him to wait obediently in the pavilion. So there must be someone in the pavilion playing with him.
Jiang Si looked quietly at Su Qingxue who was swearing to the sky, with a slight curl of his lips.
No matter how Su Qingxue explained, the possibility that person was Su Qingxue was the greatest. She would have to be a fool to believe what Su Qingxue said about the handkerchief being blown away by the wind.
Master Su looked at the concubine's daughter with a sullen face, sighed, turned to Zhen Shicheng and said, "Forget it. My son must have fallen into the water. I'm sorry to trouble Master Zhen to make this trip today."
Zhen Shicheng frowned and looked at Master Su.
He clearly sensed that the other party was unwilling to delve further, a common problem among many wealthy families.
To them, the truth is often not as important as the family's reputation.
However, Zhen Shicheng had no intention of saving face for Master Su.
If the people do not report, the officials will not investigate. If the Yining Marquis's Mansion had not asked the government to intervene, he certainly would not have come here to investigate the case. But since he was invited here, and he was asked to leave without finding out the truth, was this intentional to make him unable to sleep?
Anyone who wants to disturb Lord Zhen's sleep will be treated ruthlessly by Lord Zhen like autumn wind sweeping away fallen leaves.
"Who said that your master accidentally fell into the water?" Zhen Shicheng asked with narrowed eyes.
Master Su was startled: "What does Master Zhen mean by this?"
Zhen Shicheng looked at Yu Jin: "The rest——"
After a brief hesitation, Zhen Shicheng called out, "Xiao Yu, tell them about it."
He said that it was so troublesome to even address a prince during an investigation. Fortunately, the Seventh Prince was more capable than he thought and not the kind of fool who only knew how to put on airs.
Unconsciously, Zhen Shicheng had already approved of Yu Jin's performance today.
Yu Jin clearly felt that everyone's eyes were on him. One of the glances made his heart jump a little, but he quickly forced himself to calm down.
He walked towards the edge of Juxia Lake and stopped at the place where Su Qingyi left her last two footprints. He pointed at the ground and said, "I wonder if you have noticed the traces here?"
Traces?
Everyone was stunned by the question.
Yu Jin explained calmly, "The lakeside is damp. If anyone has been here, they will definitely leave traces."
"Are you referring to these footprints?" asked Mr. Su.
"Footprints are just one of them. You can imagine that if Mr. Su had slipped and fallen into the water, there would have been some traces of him slipping into the lake, but there are none here. What does this mean?" Yu Jin threw the question to everyone, and without waiting for anyone to answer, he said in a very affirmative tone, "It means that he was suddenly pushed into the lake, so there are no such traces left."
Zhen Shicheng couldn't help but nodded.
The Seventh Prince had secretly given him this clue when no one was paying attention, which was a pleasant surprise for him.
This unexpected surprise was not specific to the case of Marquis Yining's Mansion, but the Seventh Prince's experience with traces gave him an additional direction for solving cases in the future.
Traces are as important as evidence.
Master Su frowned when he heard this: "This is just speculation—"
Yu Jin sneered and interrupted him: "No, this is solid evidence left at the scene. Prince Su's belief that your son fell into the water is an unfounded guess."
At this point, he raised his lips slightly, with a sneer on his face: "It's not even a guess."
Jiang Si looked at Yu Jin with a deep gaze.
In her previous life, she was used to his sweet words and superb skills, but she never knew that he had such insights in solving cases.
At this moment, Jiang Si felt a little complicated.
She always thought she knew him very well, but now it seems that it is not so easy to fully understand a person.
Noticing the gaze coming at him, Yu Jin turned his head slightly, and his sneer softened in an instant.
Master Su had an extremely ugly face, and he suppressed his anger and said, "Master Zhen, you should restrain your subordinates appropriately!"
Zhen Shicheng said solemnly: "Don't worry, Prince Su, I will discipline him properly when I get back."
It's just an empty promise. It won't pay off in any way.
After hearing what Zhen Shicheng said, Mr. Su felt that he had saved some face and his expression eased a little.
At this time, a soft voice came: "I have a few words to say."
When everyone heard the sound and looked, they saw Jiang Si standing out.
"Fourth sister——" Jiang Yi couldn't help but shouted with a worried look on her face.
Jiang Zhan, however, crossed his arms over his chest as if it had nothing to do with him, and did not make any move to stop Jiang Si from coming forward.
The second young master Jiang thought very simply: there was nothing to stop, and if anyone wanted to bully the fourth sister, he would just pick up his fist and beat them up.
Master Su looked at Jiang Sizhi with a frown on his face, "Don't get involved in the adults' affairs."
Jiang Si said calmly, "Uncle, my niece was previously thought to be the murderer. If the real murderer is not found out and people are left to speculate, some people will always blame me. I don't want to get involved in your affairs, but I am already involved and have no choice. In this case, I am certainly qualified to say a few words, what do you think?"
Master Su had not expected that his taciturn niece would change so much. He looked at her deeply and asked, "What do you want to say?"
Jiang Si walked up to Su Qingxue and looked at her intently.
Su Qingxue had just breathed a sigh of relief, but when she saw this, she tensed up and asked, "What are you going to do?"
"Cousin, do you dare to swear again?"
"What?"
"No need to change anything else, except for one thing. The second cousin said that if the second cousin was killed by you, he would be struck by lightning. I think this is too absolute. It would be better to change it to if the second cousin's death is related to the second cousin, he will be struck by lightning." Jiang Si said lightly.
Since someone was plotting against her and wanted Su Qingyi to ruin her reputation, the next move of the person hiding in Chaoyang Pavilion would certainly be to attract being discovered by others, but the other party did not expect her to escape so quickly.
You can imagine that when she hurriedly left with Ah Man, Su Qingyi's most reasonable reaction was to go back to Chaoyang Pavilion, because there were still people there to play with him.
But Su Qingyi died.
Jiang Si was certain that Su Qingxue might not be the murderer who killed Su Qingyi, so she dared to swear to heaven, but it was impossible to say that she had nothing to do with Su Qingyi's death.
"Why isn't my second cousin talking?"
Su Qingxue's face turned pale and she sneered, "How funny! My cousin is not my parent, so what qualifications does she have to ask me to swear again?"
Looking at the angry Su Qingxue, Jiang Si smiled coldly: "It seems that my second cousin doesn't dare."
Su Qingxue bit her lip and glared at Jiang Si, and couldn't help shivering.
Does she know something?