Chapter 141: The Emperor's Mind, Who

is the Real Murderer After leaving Liu Ming'an's courtyard, Lou Lianyu turned around and went back to the Dali Temple.

It had been a few days since Zhu Yuxuan's case, and there was no clue at all.

Minister Zhu had been crying in the study for several days, and he cried so hard every time that he looked like he was going to cry until the end of time.

The emperor had just recovered from a long illness, and he was not in a good mood to begin with. Hearing people crying in his ears every day made him even worse.

The emperor was upset, and the ministers suffered.

And the people in the Dali Temple were the first to bear the brunt.

Lou Lianyu was lucky to be the Shaoqing of the Dali Temple. The lower the official rank, the less responsibility. On the contrary, his boss Yuan Kaizhi, as the chief of the temple, was called by the emperor every day to inquire about the progress of the investigation in front of Zhu Shangshu. When he found that there was no progress in the case, Zhu Shangshu cried and wailed beside him. The emperor could only pretend to reprimand him, repeating the same few sentences over and over again.

"You dare to commit a murder under the feet of the emperor, and the one who killed is the only son of an important official of the court. You are simply lawless! Yuan Sizheng, I order you to lead all the people in the Dali Temple to solve the case as soon as possible, bring the murderer to justice, and give an explanation to Zhu Aiqing!"

What could Yuan Kaizhi say? Cooperate with His Majesty in acting.

He is an old minister, who has been an official for so many years and never takes sides. He is only loyal to the emperor. Therefore, he sees some inside stories more clearly than others.

This case happened at this time, and the emperor must be very happy.

The emperor is getting old and weak, and the successor of Daliang has not been appointed. The various forces in the court are surging, checking each other, just waiting for an opportunity to take action.

But the emperor's illness made some stupid people think that the time has come, and they couldn't wait to take action, and even dared to assassinate Prince Xiang Yuwen Yan in Jinzhi City.

The older people get, the more obsessed they are with power. The emperor is no exception. What he hates most is that others covet his position.

Even if it is his own son, so what?

It doesn't matter who the real murderer who killed Zhu Yuxuan is, as long as he can use the dead to make a fuss.

Yuan Kaizhi knew this very well, and the case would soon have a conclusion, but he did not tell these words to Lou Lianyu, who was investigating the case seriously.

Lou Lianyu returned to the Dali Temple and went directly to the morgue.

It was a cold winter, and ice cubes were placed in the morgue to keep the bodies from decaying. It was so cold that people shivered as soon as they walked in.

"Lou, sir."

Several coroners in the room stopped what they were doing and bowed to Lou Lianyu when they saw him.

Lou Lianyu raised his hand to indicate that he did not need to bow, tightened his cloak, walked around the bodies of Zhu Yuxuan and his two servants, and asked, "Mr. Ling, have you found anything?" Mr. Ling's

name was Ling Xianzhang. He was in his fifties this year. He had inherited his father's career as a coroner at the age of sixteen. No one in the capital had more experience in performing autopsies than him.

Ling Xianzhang shook his head, his face full of bitterness and hatred: "It's very tricky!"

Ling Xianzhang's apprentice Zhang Zhu said: "Master Lou, the autopsy can't reveal anything. The murderer is a veteran. His method of killing is very clean..."

Zhang Zhu paused, pointed at the black and blue wounds on the necks of the two servants, and continued: "These two people were not his targets. They were killed with a single knife. The knife wound is deep on the left and shallow on the right, low on the left and high on the right, and deep enough to see the bone."

At this point, Zhang Zhu clenched his left hand into a fist, as if holding a knife. He half-raised his hand and quickly drew from left to right and from bottom to top: "That's what the murderer did. He killed two people in a short time, leaving them no chance to fight back."

Lou Lianyu pondered for a moment and concluded: "So it's the same conclusion as before. The murderer is left-handed, very strong, quick, and tall, at least a head taller than the two servants, which means he's over seven feet three inches tall, right?"

Ling Xianzhang said "hmm" and walked to the middle of the morgue, where Zhu Yuxuan's huge body was lying on the wooden bed.

The body was covered with a white cloth, which Ling Xianzhang pulled off, revealing Zhu Yuxuan's body.

The naked body was a horrible pale color, with seven knife wounds on the abdomen, which was dark red and faintly black. There were multiple scrapes and bruises on the shoulders, arms and face, and light corpse spots had appeared on the fat neck.

"The murderer's target was Zhu Yuxuan, and killing those two servants was just a coincidence," Ling Xianzhang stared at the seven wounds with a serious expression: "He first killed the two with a knife, and without any pause, he rushed to Zhu Yuxuan, still using the knife, turned his wrist, changed the knife holding posture, and stabbed it here--"

Ling Xianzhang pointed to one of the knife wounds and pursed his lips: "Look, the first knife was stabbed here, and then he pulled out the knife, and dislocated his jaw, making him unable to scream, alas~"

Lou Lianyu also looked at the knife wound. It was stabbed very deep, with the skin and flesh rolled up. One can imagine how blood was gushing at that time.

Ling Xianzhang picked up Zhu Yuxuan's hand and showed it to Lou Lianyu. All ten fingers were broken, the nails were turned outward, and there were bloodstains.

"After Zhu Yuxuan fell down, he crawled on the ground. I went to the scene and saw the bloodstains on the ground. He crawled more than once. The murderer did it on purpose. Each stab was not fatal. Zhu Yuxuan finally died of excessive blood loss."

Ling Xianzhang put down Zhu Yuxuan's hand and simulated the situation that night in his mind: "The murderer killed the servant first, then stabbed Zhu Yuxuan, breaking his jaw, and watched him crawl on the ground. After a while, he kicked him over and stabbed him again. He continued to watch him struggle for life, and when he crawled a few steps away, he stabbed him again... A total of seven stabs, from the first stab to the last, a whole hour passed!"

The room was silent for a long time. Ling Xianzhang sighed and covered Zhu Yuxuan's body with the white cloth again.

"He is decisive, thoughtful, cruel, calm... He is a tough guy." Lou Lianyu glanced at the dazzling white, feeling a little heavy-hearted.

Ling Xianzhang nodded and repeated his apprentice's words: "Lou Sir, an autopsy won't reveal anything. You need to investigate this case from other aspects."

Lou Lianyu said "hmm" and turned to leave the room.

Other aspects?

The eight-character blood writing on the wall and the testimony of the night watchman have pointed the finger at Zhu Shangshu's opponent. The people in the Dali Temple have sorted out Zhu Shangshu's interpersonal relationships in the past few days, and have arranged people to investigate all suspicious ones. I hope there will be a good result.

Lou Lianyu had just taken a few steps when he bumped into Yuan Kaizhi who had returned from the palace.

"Sir Yuan."

Lou Lianyu bowed respectfully.

He knew that Yuan Kaizhi must have been summoned to the palace by the emperor for questioning again. He felt a little guilty about this superior who treated him well on weekdays. So when Yuan Kaizhi came over, Lou Lianyu took the initiative to say, "Sir Yuan, why don't you let me go to see the emperor tomorrow? You are old, and it is not easy for you to go back and forth between the Dali Temple and the palace."

Yuan Kaizhi looked at the young man in front of him. He looked a little haggard, with bloodshot eyes, dark circles under his eyes, and stubble on his chin. It was obvious that he was too busy to rest well.

On the contrary, he, the Dali Temple official who ran around every day, was in much better spirits than Lou Lianyu.

Yuan Kaizhi suddenly felt sorry for him, so he pulled Lou Lianyu aside and whispered, "Don't check, it's not necessary!"

Lou Lianyu was puzzled, and then he heard Yuan Kaizhi continue, "Don't ask me, if you really don't understand, go home and ask your father."

Lou Lianyu was stunned and wanted to say something, but Yuan Kaizhi patted him on the shoulder and advised, "Go home and have a good rest, you have worked hard these days."

Yuan Kaizhi pushed Lou Lianyu's shoulder and pushed him a few steps towards the door, then waved his hand, "Go home, it's okay, I'll take care of it."