Chapter 114: Setting up a trap to divert attention
Zhu Yuxuan’s father is Shangshu, an important official in the court.
Shangshu Zhu’s life was smooth sailing, but he was not satisfied with his offspring.
He had a wife, three concubines, and his virtuous wife and beautiful concubines gave him six daughters in total, but he could not give birth to a son.
Shangshu Zhu was anxious. Was the incense of his Zhu family going to end in his hands?
Whenever he was not in court, he would take his wives and concubines to pray to gods and Buddhas everywhere. The doorsteps of temples in the capital were almost trampled by his family. The portraits of Guanyin, the goddess of childbearing, were also pasted all over the house. He even tried all kinds of folk remedies for giving
birth to sons. After giving birth to two more daughters, God helped his wife and gave him a big fat son. He was already 47 years old that year. Seeing his son being born, Minister Zhu cried with joy and ran to the ancestral hall to kowtow to the ancestors: "Ancestors of the Zhu family, our old Zhu family has a successor!"
Minister Zhu named his son "Yuxuan", where "Yu" represents the space of the four directions of heaven and earth, and "Xuan" has multiple meanings of doors and windows, and books. The combination of the two characters implies that he is a man of both military and literary talents, broad-minded, ambitious, and upright.
Minister Zhu held such a child who was full of expectations in his hands for fear of dropping him, and held him in his mouth for fear of melting him. He never said a harsh word to him, let alone scolding him.
When Zhu Yuxuan grew up and started to cause trouble, Minister Zhu was still optimistic despite his headaches.
The child is still young. Which child is not naughty when he is young? He will be sensible when he grows up. Minister Zhu thought.
It is this kind of doting and indulgence that made Zhu Yuxuan become such a hateful person now. He stood in front of Jiang Ning, thinking that everything was under control, but he didn't know that death had quietly arrived.
Zhu Yuxuan was furious at Jiang Ning's contemptuous eyes. He reached out and slapped the shoulders of the seventh and ninth brothers: "What are you still standing there for? Catch this stinky woman, I want to poke her dog eyes out first!"
Jiang Ning was also impatient for a long time. Looking at the two servants who rushed over, he did not retreat but went straight to meet them.
The seventh and ninth brothers looked at the person who rushed over, thinking that she wanted to take the opportunity to escape, and laughed, "Hehe", and each of them reached out to grab her arm.
However, before they touched the edge of the clothes, Jiang Ning raised her hand and slashed quickly from left to right. A cold white light flashed before their eyes. The next moment, there was a knife wound on their necks, blood gushed out, and the two fell straight down, and they were dead in an instant.
Zhu Yuxuan looked at the two servants who suddenly fell down. Before he could react to what happened, Jiang Ning had already rushed in front of him. With a twist of her wrist, the dagger changed direction and stabbed diagonally from top to bottom into his fat belly.
A sharp pain came from his abdomen, and Zhu Yuxuan's strength was drained in an instant. He wanted to scream, but the woman stretched out her hand and pinched his chin. Then there was a "click" sound, and his chin was dislocated. He could no longer control his mouth and could not make a sound.
"Idiot!"
Zhu Yuxuan heard the woman curse again. He opened his eyes with great effort, but could only see those eyes without any warmth.
Jiang Ning raised her hand to pull out the knife. Zhu Yuxuan was powerless to support himself and fell backwards. His huge body hit the ground, making a "bang" sound in the deserted alley.
But in fact, the knife did not hurt his vital parts. He was too fat, and his belly was full of flesh. Jiang Ning also deliberately avoided the fatal part and stabbed a place that could still be saved.
The reason for doing this, of course, was to stab him twice more. What's the point of killing him with one blow?
More importantly, she had to fake the scene to clear her suspicion, so she couldn't let Zhu Yuxuan die so easily.
Now the situation was under control. Jiang Ning bent down, wiped the blood off the blade on Zhu Yuxuan's brocade clothes, then walked back to Liu Ming'an and put him safely into the space.
When he turned back, Zhu Yuxuan had already dragged his bleeding body out of the alley for several steps. Everything was just as Jiang Ning expected.
Jiang Ning walked slowly to Zhu Yuxuan who was crawling slowly on the ground, kicked him over, and stabbed him in the stomach with the knife again.
Zhu Yuxuan's eyes widened, and the pain made him tremble all over. In the moonlight, the face that was just arrogant and domineering was covered with cold sweat, without a trace of blood.
In this way, Jiang Ning stabbed him once in a while, and then stabbed him again after a while, until half an hour later, Zhu Yuxuan died painfully in torture.
Jiang Ning leaned down, cut a piece of cloth from the dead body, dipped it in the still warm blood, walked to the wall, stood on tiptoe, and wrote a few blood words:
Lord Shangshu, how are you.
The woman taught Jiang Ning that there are only two ways to deal with the scene. One is to wipe out all the clues that may point to oneself, so that the case cannot be investigated. This method is very suitable for them to be killers. The killer comes and goes without a trace and will not be targeted.
The other is just the opposite. It is to deliberately leave clues at the scene to mislead the investigators to lead the case in a completely different direction, thereby clearing themselves of suspicion.
Jiang Ning took the second method this time.
She and Liu Ming'an had an argument with Zhu Yuxuan in public. If this man died like this, no matter how stupid the investigators were, they would call them over for questioning. Although Jiang Ning was confident that she would be foolproof in the court, she could not guarantee that these officials in ancient times were all Song Ming from Lingshan Town. What if
they were tortured into confessing in order to give an explanation to the Minister?
Besides, officials in the capital might have seen her face. She didn't plan to expose herself yet, and didn't want these three idiots to ruin her good plan.
Therefore, Jiang Ning left a blood letter on the wall, turning this accidental murder into a deliberate revenge murder, and put the hat of the criminal on the person who had a grudge against Minister Zhu.
Not only that, when Jiang Ning killed the two servants, and every time she stabbed Zhu Yuxuan afterwards, she deliberately used an inconvenient method. If a wound identification was done in modern times, the forensic doctor would conclude that the murderer was a left-handed man who was nearly 1.9 meters tall.
Although it is not known whether the ancient coroners had this ability, Jiang Ning tried her best to pay attention to the details.
Because it was a revenge killing, Zhu Yuxuan could not be allowed to die so easily. This is why Jiang Ning dragged on and tortured him for half an hour. She herself had no interest in torture.
The scene had been processed, and Jiang Ning remembered what the woman said, that there are three elements to judging a case: witnesses, physical evidence, and confessions.
The physical evidence was complete, and confessions were impossible, so they had to create another "eyewitness" to completely remove the suspicion of murder from them.
Jiang Ning put away the knife and entered the space. Liu Mingan slept quietly on the bamboo bed. She walked out of the bamboo house and sat on the steps waiting patiently.
This place is indeed not visited by many people. Jiang Ning waited until the moon was at its highest point before she heard the sound of "bang bang bang" knocking on bamboo tubes.
"It's the second watch!" The man who came was the night watchman. He did not go into the alley, but just shouted at the top of his voice on the empty street outside. But this was enough for Jiang Ning. Jiang Ning came out of the space and walked quietly to the entrance of the alley, less than a hundred meters away from the night watchman. Then he stretched out his hand and pinched the skin and flesh of his vocal cords on his neck... Being a night watchman requires courage. After all, going out at night is not a job for those who are not courageous. The night watchman in Jinse Street has been a night watchman for more than ten years. But a while ago, a man named Jia died here, and everyone around moved away. There was not even a ghost in this area at night. He still felt uneasy every time he passed this alley. It was the Lantern Festival that day, and the moon in the sky was dazzling. The night watchman did not bring a lantern, but walked in the moonlight with the bamboo tube in his hand, feeling more confident. But when he walked to a certain alley, he seemed to hear voices. The night watchman stopped and listened carefully. There was indeed someone talking, with a hoarse voice, and it was obviously a big and strong man. "...Hahaha, Lord Zhu, this is what happens when you go against my master!" The night watchman's heart tightened, and then he heard heavy footsteps, "dong dong dong". He could imagine what a tall and strong man the person walking was. The footsteps and voices gradually faded away from him. The night watchman's heart was beating fast, but he couldn't resist his curiosity and walked into the alley. The air was filled with a faint smell of blood. The night watchman swallowed his saliva and looked at the alley in front of him. His throat tightened a little, and he asked bravely: "Who? Who is where?" No one answered. Reason told him to turn around and leave, but Jin'er was so curious that he finally walked into the alley and saw the three people lying on the ground without a sign of life. "Ah! Murder! Murder!" The night watchman screamed, threw away the bamboo tube in his hand, and ran to the government office without looking back.