Chen Gege shook her head slightly and said truthfully, "I don't recognize that person. We were far away at the time, and he had his back to me. I was afraid of being discovered, so I didn't dare to look closely. I only remember that he had a wart behind his ear."
A wart behind the ear? With this clue, Hongli finally had a direction and immediately ordered Li Yu to investigate the people in the mansion.
There were 120 servants in the mansion, 70 of whom were men. Li Yu sent men to gather all the servants and arrange them in six rows for him to examine one by one. In the end, he found two people with warts behind their left ears and one person with warts behind their right ears.
Since Chen Gege couldn't see the person's face and couldn't determine who it was, Li Yu asked Chen Gege to stand behind the screen and let the three of them each say a sentence, so that they could determine the person by their voices.
The three were bewildered, but dared not disobey, and spoke in turn. When it was the third person's turn, the moment that person spoke, a sense of familiarity instantly filled Chen Gege's mind!
"That's him! That's the voice!"
After confirming, Li Yu asked Chen Gege to stay there for the time being, while he took the man in brown to see the Fourth Master.
Once inside, Li Yu scoffed, "Why aren't you kneeling down?"
The man in brown shifted his eyes slightly, then knelt down, his expression full of doubt. "I wonder what offense this servant has committed? Please enlighten me, Fourth Master."
Hongli, who had been standing with his hands behind his back, slowly turned around. His dark eyes were now flushed red with rage. He raised his leg and kicked him in the chin. "You dog slave! How dare you drug and murder my woman!"
The man in brown was suddenly kicked in the jaw, and his jaw and teeth ached terribly. A metallic taste filled the air, and blood trickled from the corner of his lips. Yet, he dared not straighten up, enduring the pain as he lay prostrate on the ground, kowtowing repeatedly.
"Fourth Master, please calm down! This servant has never plotted against Consort Su!"
Upon hearing this, Hongli immediately noticed something amiss. "Did I say it was Consort Su? You've already admitted it!"
The man in brown was sweating profusely and replied in a trembling voice, "The only one who has been harmed in the manor recently is Consort Su. I have heard about it. I suppose Fourth Master has misunderstood me."
At first, Hongli had considered that Chen Gege might have mistaken someone for someone else, but seeing how nervous the person was, Hongli had no more doubts and was certain that it was him.
"There are pearls in the rouge, and you gave those pearls to someone else. How dare you deny it?"
"What 'flowing pearl'? This servant does not understand what you mean, Fourth Master."
Ignoring his feigned ignorance, Hongli glanced down at him and bluntly said, "On the eighteenth, you handed the pearl to a woman by the artificial hill. Who was that woman? Who instructed you to drug Su Gege? Confess and you'll be treated leniently. If you try to deny it again, I'll break your neck!"
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