Chapter 218 The Mysterious Fifth Case
Li Jin opened all the drawers and cabinets in the room. Apart from the clothes and toys of the two children, the rest were all men's clothing and personal items.
He turned around and looked at the dilapidated tables and chairs in the room, feeling very puzzled.
What could cause one of the two people living under the same roof to disappear without a trace?
Not only was it not as good, but although the whole house was old, it was surprisingly clean and tidy.
It's like you've deliberately cleaned it many times.
Li Jin pondered for a moment, then waved the fan in his hand, turned around, and left the room.
Standing under the eaves, Li Jin looked at the two men, who were still at each other's throats, and asked calmly, "What is your relationship with the dead woman?"
"This is Xu Lin, her younger brother, and this is my brother-in-law, Yang Defa." Xu Lin, who looked to be in his twenties, angrily pointed at Yang Defa, who was sitting against the wall with a blank expression. "It's him! He killed my sister!"
Perhaps because he had been identified many times, Yang Defa, who was sitting against the wall, was unmoved by his anger. He simply turned his head and looked in another direction without any emotion.
It was quite peculiar that he neither admitted nor denied it, and showed no reaction whatsoever on his face.
But Li Jin stared at his posture and narrowed her eyes slightly: "You've been to Fengxian Pavilion?"
Fengxian Pavilion was where the Crown Prince and his tutor entertained their guests.
Upon hearing those three words, a hint of unease flashed across Yang Defa's face. He glanced at Li Jin's face, slowly adjusted his posture, and adopted an arrogant and unruly demeanor, raising his chin slightly.
"You, Yang Defa! Are you tired of living?! His Highness Prince Jing is asking you a question!" Xu Lin, seeing his "dead pig doesn't fear boiling water" attitude, pointed at him furiously, "After killing my sister, are you trying to kill me too?! Disrespecting the royal family is a capital offense!"
Hearing Xu Lin's voice, Li Jin frowned slightly.
Yang Defa, sitting against the wall, remained unmoved, even watching Li Jin with a slight smile.
That smile, tinged with a chilling aura, was particularly unsettling: "I didn't kill him."
He leaned there lazily, the autumn sun just barely shining on him.
"When I saw it, it was already like this." Yang Defa's tone was extremely calm, and his voice revealed indifference.
He said, "I have to go out to make a living every day. She was fine when I left the day before yesterday, but I haven't seen her since."
"Where do you make a living?" Li Jin looked at his face, her gaze sharp as a knife.
He felt like he'd seen this man somewhere before.
The familiar movements, the familiar face, the familiar voice, even that arrogant and unruly expression—all were so familiar that Li Jin was somewhat surprised. But he just couldn't remember where he had seen him before.
The victim's husband, Yang Defa, was dressed in tattered clothes, patched upon patched, with his toes sticking out of his straw sandals.
He tilted his head and stared at Li Jin for a long while, then chuckled softly, his eyebrows furrowing, and uttered a startling statement: "What business is it of yours where I am?!"
The more he acted this way, the more Li Jin subconsciously felt that there might be a story behind this case.
During this stalemate, Jin Shu fastened her handcuffs, put on gloves, and leaned into the victim's coffin, searching for clues to the case.
She lay there peacefully, as if asleep.
Besides the obvious ligature marks on his neck and the bluish discoloration on his cheeks, there were several visible external injuries on his body.
All of them were fresh wounds, without scars. The most serious one was on his shoulder, as if he had been scratched by something not very sharp. The wound was not deep, about half an inch, and the skin and flesh were turned outwards.
The spot she initially noticed that resembled a scratch actually had three marks: a faint one above and two more inconspicuous ones.
The more thoroughly one examines the corpse, the more suspicious points emerge.
Before entering, Feng Chao said that the body was discovered yesterday, which means that at most twenty-four hours have passed since then.
However, the state of rigor mortis in the body is closer to what it would look like thirty-six hours later, meaning that she should have been dead for nearly three days.
There was a full day difference between them.
She was struggling financially, had two children under eight years old, and a husband who had been murdered. In the three days and two nights since she died, where was she on the first night?
At this moment, Yang Defa in Li Jin's eyes seemed to be covering up some special event.
He lowered his eyes, feigning retreat, and called the victim's younger brother, Xu Lin, into the house, questioning him separately.
"Why do you think he killed your sister?" Li Jin found a sturdy-looking stool, sat down, and fanned himself while looking at Xu Lin's face.
He grinned, clearly furious, and pointed at the dilapidated house: "Look at you! Your Highness Prince Jing! Although our family isn't wealthy, we're still a respectable gentry family in the surrounding county. When my sister married him, it was a match made according to the principle of social standing!"
"We only found out after we married into the family that Yang Defa was dirt poor! That's all! That's all!" Xu Lin pointed to the roof. "It's drafty in winter and leaks when it rains. Our family was completely cheated!"
He pursed his lips, his mouth trembling with anger: "But what can we do! My sister is heavily pregnant, we can't just take her back!"
Xu Lin took a deep breath: "After that, whenever my sister took the child back to her parents' home, I would see that she had bruises all over her body, and my sister would cry when she got back."
He pointed outside in Yang Defa's direction: "That guy is a piece of trash! He's useless, but he comes home every day and beats my sister!"
Li Jin narrowed his eyes slightly: "How many years have they been married?"
Xu Lin glared and puffed out his beard: "A little over six years."
wrong.
Li Jin glanced at him, and after a long while, nodded.
After Xu Lin left the room, Li Jin slowly got up and walked around the side room once again.
He carefully examined everything, from the dilapidated little table to the bed with its peeling paint, and even the old wardrobe.
This family is so strange.
In the side room where a mother and two girls lived, there were only the children's outer garments, but no inner garments.
There wasn't even an undershirt for the child to wear to bed at night.
There were no children's shoes, no women's shoes, only a row of straw sandals and two pairs of black cloth boots.
No matter how I think about it, it's wrong.
Even if the child was taken away by the maternal grandmother, it's impossible that she would only take the inner shirt and shoes and leave the outer shirt here.
Moreover, the child's age is inappropriate.
They had been married for six years, and their eldest child was six years old. Their marriage was arranged by their parents and a matchmaker, meaning they had never met before the ceremony.
Li Jin crossed his arms and looked at Yang Defa, who was still lazily leaning against the wall in the courtyard with his eyes closed, his eyes filled with an unfathomable light.
What is he hiding?
If this case has nothing to do with him, then why does he refuse to speak when he is identified as the murderer?
Just when Li Jin was completely clueless, Jin Shu walked in from the courtyard.
She glanced at Li Jin, frowned, and slowly opened the hand she was holding: "It was taken out of her mouth."
In Jin Shu's palm was a small, white, lustrous jade.
It was carved in the shape of the character "五" (five).
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