Chapter 41 I really want to bully him.
To be honest, after what happened with Fang Qing, Li Jin was really afraid that she would just say something like, "I saw it, I heard it, it's right here."
It was as if the content following those words automatically took on a false appearance.
He held the small blue-and-white porcelain cup between his long, slender fingers, looking down at the clear wine, remaining silent.
He Lin knew that he was waiting to hear what was to come.
She pinched her fingers lightly, leaving a clearly visible crescent-shaped mark on the pad of her thumb with her index finger, and her brows furrowed even deeper.
“Last night, after I closed the restaurant, I didn’t hear anything. But when I left the restaurant to go home and rest, the Lin family’s servants found Miss Lin by the canal.”
“I stood aside and watched the commotion for a while, and then I heard the waiter from Jinhua Tower say that Miss Lin had caused a scene in their building, and then drank for more than an hour before leaving drunk.”
She pursed her lips, racked her brains for a long time, but couldn't think of anything else. She bit her lip and shook her head: "There really isn't anything special about it."
Li Jin put down her teacup and glanced at her: "You caused quite a scene?"
He Lin hesitated for a moment, then nodded: "I don't know the details either, but you can ask at Jinhua Tower."
The location where Li Jin and Jin Shu are now is the irrigation ditch where Lin Ruxue discovered the waterway. The shop on the left is one of the two buildings that Zhou Zhengfang climbed up and observed from the rooftop.
Her words had been on Li Jin's mind for a long time.
If what she said is true, then the ditch where Miss Lin and her maid were found was not the primary crime scene.
"When you close your shop, is there anything unusual on the street?" he asked.
He Lin pondered for a while, then suddenly paused, widened her eyes, and said, "Yes, there is something unusual about it."
“I didn’t realize it last night, but now that I think about it, it makes no sense.” She took a deep breath. “The sect leader must know that Chang’an City has a curfew, and carriages will no longer be allowed to pass through the gates after 7:45 PM.”
“But last night, after I closed the shop, as I was putting the doors away, a gray-canopied carriage drove past me.”
A carriage? Li Jin lowered his eyes and said nothing more.
It was indeed unusual. At the fourth quarter of the hour of Xu (7:45 PM), the gates of the ward would close, and unless there were very special circumstances, carriages were not allowed to travel after that.
If He Lin wasn't lying, then the carriage was quite out of place.
Following He Lin's clues, the three of them stood at the bustling intersection of Dongshi Street, under a sky filled with dark clouds.
Jin Shu was surrounded by bustling activity: teeming restaurants and jewelry stores filled with the laughter of young women.
From beginning to end, the long shop signs, colorful and vibrant, swayed gently in the breeze. The sounds of Han Chinese, non-Han Chinese, Western Region dancers, Jiangnan folk songs, and Northern opera clappers filled the air, rising and falling in waves.
The dance depicts a prosperous and enlightened era, while the song sings of the flourishing and powerful Wei Dynasty.
Beneath the vast sky, this is the epitome of the mighty power of the Great Wei Dynasty, and the extraordinary demeanor of the most domineering empire in the universe.
Among them, Li Jin, dressed in a light yellow robe, stood at the busiest intersection of the commercial street with Jin Shu and Zhou Zheng, waving a fan in his hand.
He paid no attention to the magnificent scenery of this prosperous era; his mind was filled with the trajectory of the carriage.
The four directions: east, west, south, and north.
When Lin Ruxue was thrown into the ditch, she was still breathing, which is why there was mud on her mouth and nose.
This means that neither a severe blow to the head nor mercury poisoning could kill her within a certain timeframe.
"In your opinion, how long does mercury poisoning take to cause death?"
“At most half an incense stick’s time,” Jin Shu said. “With mercury lines appearing and such a severe acute reaction, death can happen very quickly.”
In other words, the distance between the location where she was poisoned and this ditch is at least the time it takes for an incense stick to burn.
If we transported her here by carriage and then abandoned her here, after deducting the time spent transporting and abandoning her, at most it would only take half an incense stick's worth of travel time.
However, this half-incense stick journey did not cover the Jinhua Restaurant that He Lin, the restaurant owner, had mentioned.
The journey from Jinhualou to the site where the body was dumped was much longer than half an incense stick's time.
"What if we get stopped along the way?" Jin Shu looked at the commercial street in front of her and pointed to the various signs. "There are small restaurants everywhere on this street. Besides, you don't necessarily have to go to a restaurant to drink, do you?"
This prompted Li Jin: "Mr. Jin, where do you usually choose to drink with your friends?"
Jin Shu was taken aback: "Me?"
"Hmm." Li Jin gazed at her. "You."
He only meant to ask where a woman would choose to drink, but he saw Jin Shu's expression change rapidly. She raised her eyebrows in surprise and stammered, "I don't go out to drink."
Her appearance aroused Li Jin's itch to tease her.
He then raised his fan, adopting a brotherly stance, tapped her shoulder, leaned closer, and said jokingly, "Oh, right, you're a three-cup wonder."
Before Jin Shu could react, he took a 180-degree turn, taking advantage of her surprised expression with one eyebrow raised and the other lowered: "I mean, if you were a woman, where would you go to entertain guests and drink alcohol?"
The leap is too great, and the mockery is too obvious.
Jin Shu's eyes widened, and after a long while, he gritted his teeth and retorted fiercely, "Me?! Me, a grown man, how would I know?!"
"Pfft!" Li Jin was completely taken aback by his use of the word "big man," and laughed so hard that her shoulders shook. She jokingly commented with three words: "Bean sprout."
After saying that, he turned around with great satisfaction and walked away on his own.
Teasing this Mr. Jin, who is dressed as a man, and watching her try so hard to maintain a masculine appearance always puts Li Jin in a great mood and makes her feel exceptionally happy.
This made him increasingly look forward to the day when Jin Shu would find out he had known she was a woman all along, and what a wonderful expression he would have on his face.
However, Mr. Mou's mood wasn't very pleasant after being teased every time.
Although she was indeed weaker than the men, she wasn't as weak as a bean sprout!
Watching his retreating figure, Jin Shu pursed her lips into a thin line, clearly displeased: "That's a personal attack."
Li Jin turned her head to the side, smiling, but said nothing.
He glanced up and down, then turned and continued forward.
That one glance conveyed a sense of "I love that you can't stand me, but you can't do anything about it."
Jin Shu felt a lump in her throat, her mind replaying the phrase "Can't afford to offend, can't fight, keep calm, keep your temper in check," as she tried to console herself while hardening her fists.
But Prince Jing, walking ahead of him, seemed to have eyes in the back of his head. He waved his hand as he walked and said without turning his head, "Save it, we can't beat him."
She froze.
Ugh! I'm so annoyed!
Why are there people with perfect intelligence and logic, yet such a terrible personality?
Jin Shu took a deep breath, looked at the dragon pattern on his back, embroidered with gold thread and presented like a work of art, and rolled her eyes.
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