Chapter 526 Contraceptive Soup
"It is impossible to be 100% sure of convicting Hongyu, but leaving a living person who can provide evidence or clues at any time, and the murderer cannot be sure that Hongyu will be stimulated and go crazy. For the murderer, it can be said that it is extremely dangerous and does not conform to common sense."
"If we eliminate all the unreasonable situations one by one, the only thing left is that Hongyu is the murderer and then pretended to be crazy. Although it seems unreasonable, this is the only one."
"And since Mr. Ma's family was poisoned during dinner in the evening, the poison must have been in the food. But logically speaking, the master and servants never eat at the same time, so it is not easy for everyone to be poisoned and die at the same time. But if Hongyu was there at the time, this matter can be explained."
"Hongyu is serving the master here, and she has ordered the servants to eat early, so that everyone can eat at about the same time." Ding Gaochang nodded in agreement.
"That's right." Chu Jinnian nodded slightly, "So I guessed that this should be the case, so I reminded Lord Ding and Lord Xu to give it a try."
"But since Hongyu is pretending to be crazy, even if she is found out, she won't say anything. The most important thing is to find evidence and leave her speechless. So now we have to go to Mr. Ma's house to take a look."
"Yes, sir, what you said is very true." Ding Gaochang nodded repeatedly, and he admired Chu Jinnian's inference even more.
After a few people packed up and had breakfast, they went to Mr. Ma's home in Majiazhuang.
At this time, there were yamen runners guarding Mr. Ma's house. When they saw Chu Jinnian and others coming, they led the way and introduced the purpose of the house one by one, as well as the appearance of the corpse when it was discovered.
Chu Jinnian followed and checked every place carefully.
"Where is this place?" Chu Jinnian asked after looking at a room carefully from top to bottom.
"This is where the servants live. There are two beds. Judging from the furnishings and clothes in the room, and even from the tailor who came here to make clothes before, this is where Hongyu and another maid, Hongchou, live."
Ding Gaochang said, "The one by the window is made of ruby, and the one over there is made of red silk."
Chu Jinnian took a quick look and said, "Hongyu's bed is wide, and the mattress is thick and soft. Even the quilt she is covering herself with is newer and thicker than the one at Hongchou's place."
"The dressing box contains all kinds of rouge and powder, and even a few pieces of jewelry. It seems that Hongyu is indeed living a very good life in the Ma family."
Good, almost more than a maid should have.
The Ma family was indeed wealthy, but they were not wealthy enough to be so generous to a maid.
Chu Jinnian frowned, rummaged through the dressing box, saw a single silver earring, picked it up, and said, "This is..."
"I have found this before. It should be Hongyu's stuff. Most earrings come in a pair. Maybe it fell somewhere else, so Hongyu just kept this one for now."
"I see." Chu Jinnian nodded and put the earrings in his hand back.
Coming out of Hongyu's room and walking over there, there are the bedrooms of Mr. Ma and his wife Jiang, Ma Liangcai's study and bedroom, etc.
Jiang's bedroom was decorated quite conventionally, and after looking around, there was nothing unusual.
It was a small locked wooden box placed beside the bed.
Ding Gaochang took the key and opened the wooden box. "I have checked it. Inside are some land deeds, slaves' indentures, etc. In addition, there is also a prescription."
"prescription?"
"Yes, a prescription." Ding Gaochang pulled out a piece of paper from the wooden box and showed it to Chu Jinnian, "This is it. I asked someone to look at it and they said it's a prescription for contraceptive soup."
Contraceptive soup? That's interesting.
Chu Jinnian put the prescription back and asked, "Does Mr. Ma have a concubine or maid?"
"According to my inquiry of people who are familiar with Mr. Ma, they said no. Mr. Ma and Jiang are very affectionate and love each other very much. It is said that even the servants often praise them." Ding Gaochang replied.
"Since she didn't have a common bed or a concubine, Jiang had a prescription for contraceptive soup in her hand. Who was this soup for? Could it be that she was going to use it for herself?"
Ding Gaochang was stunned.
Yes, who is this medicine for?
When he first found this prescription, he didn't take it seriously. In the inner house, contraceptive soups and pregnancy-maintaining medicines were very common, so he didn't take it seriously at all. But now, after Chu Jinnian's reminder, he realized that there was indeed something wrong with it.
Chu Jinnian walked out with his hands behind his back, "It looks like the Ma family's inner house is not peaceful."
After saying that, he went over there, to Ma Liangcai's study.
Ding Gaochang and others hurriedly followed.
Ma Liangcai's study is connected to the bedroom. It is very clean and elegant, and the books on the bookshelf are also arranged very neatly.
Chu Jinnian picked up a few books from the bookshelf at random and flipped through them.
There was a small crimson mark on one of the pages, but it had dried and turned a little dark.
"Is this... blood?" Ding Gaochang asked in surprise upon seeing this.
"This is not blood." Chu Jinnian took a closer look and sniffed it. "It seems to be the juice of Impatiens balsamina. It must have been rubbed on by a maid when she was packing books."
After putting the book back, Chu Jinnian checked other places. In the wooden box where clothes were placed, there were some of Ma Liangcai's underwear. The moon-white undershirts were piled there casually, and one of them was stained with the same crimson spots as on the book just now.
"This seems to be Impatiens juice as well?" Ding Gaochang said after taking a closer look.
"Yeah." Chu Jinnian nodded, looked at Ding Gaochang and smiled.
"Master Ding, do you have any clues on this case?"
Ding Gaochang was frowning in thought, and was suddenly stunned by Chu Jinnian's question.
After a moment, he opened his eyes wide, "Master Chu means..."
"Is it true? You can give it a try." Chu Jinnian handed the only earring that he had been holding in his hand to Ding Gaochang, "This thing should be useful to Lord Ding."
Ding Gaochang took off the earrings in surprise and looked at Chu Jinnian in disbelief.
What he meant was, should he still try the case? Officials like this who were sent by the emperor would usually try the case themselves. This would not only be in defiance of the emperor's orders, but also, since the case was solved, the credit would naturally not fall on others.
Chu Jinnian asked him to continue to try the case and gave him this advice. Was it because he wanted him to be in the spotlight, or was it...
To protect him and Xu Zhengping.
After all, this kind of case, although it is very difficult to investigate because there are too few clues, it is ultimately because he and Xu Zhengping were incompetent in investigating the case. If they could realize it later and get to the bottom of the case, it would be considered an explanation.
"Thank you, Lord Chu."
Ding Gaochang and Xu Zhengping understood this and kowtowed in haste to express their gratitude.
Thanks to "Xiaoxiang Book Friends 1****75", "Yan Yin Chou Xin Quq", "Lately Great Rice Bowl", "Blue Sea", "JOjo Xu Xiaozhen" for their monthly votes. Thank you for your support~ (End of this chapter)
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