To bloom
By the pond at the Xiao residence, Zhu Qinghe was bent over and crawling on the ground, seemingly searching for something.
Shen Wumei recalled the time she almost fell into the water and a hint of worry unconsciously appeared between her brows: "What are you looking for? If you fall into the pond, I won't save you."
Zhu Qinghe's subordinate touched a small, round pit, paused, looked at it closely for a while, then his eyes lit up, and he raised his hand to beckon to those behind him: "Sir, come and see!"
Shen Wumei stared at the small, fair hand covered in dust, then crouched down with a complicated expression: "What did you find?"
Zhu Qinghe parted a patch of weeds and pointed to a small pit on the ground, saying, "Sir, look, this area was hidden by weeds, so I didn't notice it when I explored it last time. But after carefully searching it today, I have indeed made a new discovery."
Shen Wumei said thoughtfully, "So you think this was left by the murderer."
“Very likely.” Zhu Qinghe nodded. “Xiao Yuanzhou said he heard someone fall into the water that night, and accidental drowning and suicide can basically be ruled out. So there must have been a second person present at the time.”
"But what is this round pit?" Zhu Qinghe asked, somewhat puzzled.
"It might be something like a stick," Shen Wumei speculated, then suddenly remembered the details in the autopsy report, "The blunt force trauma to the butler's head might have been caused by this thing."
Zhu Qinghe suddenly realized: "So the murderer knocked the butler unconscious first, and then threw him into the pond."
“That’s not right,” Shen Wumei objected. “If he was knocked unconscious, the blunt force injury should be on the back of his head, but the autopsy report shows that the blow was at the Baihui acupoint on the top of his head.”
Zhu Qinghe was speechless. This murderer was too ingenious. If the location didn't match, then he wasn't knocked unconscious on the shore.
She suddenly said, "Could it be that the murderer pushed him into the pond and then knocked him unconscious when the butler wasn't paying attention?"
Shen Wumei: "There is a distance between the shore and the pond surface. Standing on the shore, you can't exert any force to knock out a person in the water. No normal person would do that."
Zhu Qinghe sighed, "But we didn't hear the butler cry for help that night, which means he didn't have a chance to speak. So when exactly was he knocked unconscious?"
The two stood facing each other, both with serious expressions, pondering the key to the matter.
The constables nearby huddled together and gossiped in hushed tones: "What's the relationship between the boss and this kid? They seem to get along really well."
"That's right, it's the first time I've seen the boss discuss a case with someone."
Mo Wu leaned to one side with his arms crossed, a deep understanding flashing in his eyes. He thought to himself, "You bunch of silly boys, you don't know anything. What boy? That girl is clearly as beautiful as a flower."
Hey, is the adult finally going to get it this time?
After thinking for a while, Zhu Qinghe had an idea. She looked up at Chen Wumei and said, "My lord, why don't we recreate the scene?"
Having handled cases for many years, Shen Wumei was no stranger to the term "scene reproduction." It was surprising that a young woman like her knew it; fortune tellers were indeed different from others, having acquired a wide variety of knowledge.
“Alright.” Shen Wumei nodded.
"Alright," Zhu Qinghe rolled up her sleeves and was about to jump into the pond when Shen Wumei grabbed her arm in a flash. "What are you doing?"
Zhu Qinghe still looked puzzled: "I'll go into the water, otherwise how can the scene be recreated?" Seeing that his expression wasn't very good, Zhu Qinghe realized something, "Don't worry, sir, I can swim, and I'm quite a good swimmer."
"Oh? Oh my god!" Shen Wumei really wanted to see what was going on in her head. He couldn't stand it anymore and pulled her over: "I don't need you, I'll do it."
So Zhu Qinghe stood there dumbfounded, watching Shen Wumei nimbly jump into the pond. The constables who were resting nearby rushed over and asked, "What happened? Boss, why did you fall into the water?"
Zhu Qinghe realized what was happening and said, "It's okay, go and get a rope and a longer branch."
The items were brought over quickly. Zhu Qinghe told Mo Wu and the others to hold one end of the rope and throw the other end to Shen Wumei. "Sir, catch this and tie the rope around your waist."
Shen Wumei held her breath, tied the rope in the water, and then swung her arm to the surface. Looking up, she saw several bloodstains on the pool wall, the same bloodstains Zhu Qinghe had mentioned earlier.
However, those few bloodstains were intermittent, sometimes there and sometimes they were not, and the height of them didn't quite match up when Shen Wumei reached out to compare.
Above, Zhu Qinghe, holding a tree branch, carefully and tremblingly lowered it down from the bank and gently placed it on Chen Wumei's head.
Shen Wumei looked up at her with a tree branch as thick as a thumb above her head, "You're not taking revenge for someone else, are you?"
Zhu Qinghe looked wronged: "Why do you think of me like that, sir? I just wanted to see how long the stick would have to be to reach the person in the water."
"And the conclusion?"
"The conclusion is that it's over three feet long, close to four feet," Zhu Qinghe said, squinting as she estimated.
The length—if it were a club used as a weapon, it would be much longer than this. Shen Wumei's gaze fell on the bloodstains, and her heart stirred slightly.
He said in a deep voice, "Press me down harder."
"Huh?" Zhu Qinghe was startled by his request. "My lord, please don't do anything rash."
"There's no need to go to such lengths if the case can't be solved. Life is so wonderful."
Veins bulged on Shen Wumei's forehead: "If you utter another word of nonsense, I'll throw you into the river."
Zhu Qinghe immediately fell silent, while the people below continued to urge, "Hurry up and press—"
Zhu Qinghe was unusually nervous. This was the cold-faced Yama Shen Wumei! Was she going to suppress him like pickled vegetables in a jar? How terrifying!
But—we've come this far, there's nothing we can do now.
Zhu Qinghe's eyes hardened, and she spoke up, "Sir, I know you want to simulate the case, but it's too dangerous. I'm not confident in my abilities."
Shen Wumei's eyes were dark and deep, and his wet hair clung unruly to the side of his neck. The pool water soaked his clothes, washing away the sharp and imposing aura around him, giving him a hazy and alluring beauty, like a wet yet enchanting water sprite.
His black hair hung down, his eyes resolute: "I believe you, let go."
Zhu Qinghe's eyelashes trembled slightly, as if a tiny drop of water had just splashed onto her cheek, sending a tingling sensation through her.
Zhu Qinghe pursed her lips: "In that case, I will not let you down. I will exert my strength in three breaths. Please be prepared."
"One, two, three." As soon as she finished speaking, Zhu Qinghe exerted force and pushed Shen Wumei underwater. His struggling hands slashed against the pool wall, almost overlapping with the bloody marks.
And so, he moved his body, and a few breaths later the strength above his head suddenly disappeared. Zhu Qinghe peered into the pool water.
"Sir, Master Shen?"
The water was completely still, not even a bubble rose to the surface. Zhu Qinghe suddenly felt a little panicked. Could Shen Wumei have drowned?
At that moment, she didn't have time to think about anything else. She threw down the branch in her hand and jumped in. As soon as she entered the water and waited for the bubbles in front of her to dissipate, she saw Shen Wumei looking at her with a surprised frown.
She breathed a sigh of relief. Shen Wumei grabbed her wrist, and the two of them swam upwards.
With the help of Mo Wu and the others, they climbed ashore.
Shen Wumei wiped the water droplets from her face and said with slight anger, "Why did you jump down?"
Young women like them don't cherish their bodies at all.
Zhu Qinghe felt wronged after he scolded her, "I was just worried something had happened to you because you hadn't come out for a while."
They really don't know what's good for them. I should have let him soak in the water a little longer. Like a dog biting Lü Dongbin, they don't appreciate a kind heart.
Zhu Qinghe puffed out his cheeks and sulked. Mo Wu thoughtfully handed over the outer robe that Shen Wumei had taken off earlier to put on him, but Shen Wumei took it and draped it over Zhu Qinghe's thin shoulders.
Zhu Qinghe felt a weight on her shoulder, the cold was blocked, and warmth slowly rose up.
"What are you standing there for? Let's go, that's enough for today." Shen Wumei's words woke Zhu Qinghe from her daze. She slowly got up and followed him.
Mo Wu stood among a group of constables, his expression cheerful and his smile undisguised. One of his brothers asked curiously, "Brother Mo, what are you laughing at?"
Mo Wu's expression was inscrutable: "I'm laughing at our boss, this thousand-year-old iron tree is finally about to bloom."
The guy scratched the back of his head, looking a little bewildered, and said, "Huh? What flower? I don't see it."
"Silly boy." Mo Wu gave him a disdainful look.
Because Zhu Qinghe accidentally fell into the water, Shen Wumei insisted that she go back to rest, and even said that she already knew who the murderer was.
When she asked him, he still wouldn't tell her, which was really not cute at all. Zhu Qinghe rubbed her nose and went into Sai Banxian's room, where Ruyi was already eagerly waiting at the entrance of the main hall.
"Miss, you're back." Ruyi smiled happily.
Seeing her excited expression, Zhu Qinghe asked, somewhat puzzled, "Why are you so happy? What good thing happened?"
Ruyi said cheerfully, "Young Master is back. He's waiting for you inside."
"Which cousin?" Zhu Qinghe asked, as she couldn't recall having any cousins.
Ruyi was utterly exasperated: "Which other young master could it be, Miss? Don't you remember Young Master Cheng Lang, who lived in the Zhu family for three years when you were little? Back then, you were clamoring to marry him."
Zhu Qinghe's face twisted in anger as she covered Ruyi's mouth with her hand: "Are you stupid? How can you say such things?"
Ruyi looked defiant and whimpered in her palm, "Mmmmmm (This servant is not talking nonsense)."
Ruyi's big mouth stirred things up, and Zhu Qinghe recalled some things about her cousin Cheng Lang. Although there were only some vague fragments, she remembered that her cousin was physically weak and had a gentle personality. He was often bullied by Zhu Wanting in the Zhu family, but he treated her well.
Back then in the manor, the two of them were kindred spirits, sharing a sense of hardship. If I remember correctly, there were several times when Madam Song punished her by making her kneel in the ancestral hall and not letting her eat, and it was Cheng Lang who secretly came to bring her food.
Recalling these things, Zhu Qinghe felt a greater sense of closeness and warmth towards her cousin whom she hadn't seen for many years. She quickly walked into the house, wanting to see what her cousin looked like now.
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