Xue Zhiyi and Shen Qingtang waited in the guest room for a while, and the shopkeeper finally arrived.
He sat down in front of the two of them and asked, "Which family are you two from?"
Xue Zhiyi didn't play dumb with him and simply said, "Boss, the Xue family has been placing orders with your store quite a bit recently, right?"
Knowing the visitor's ill intentions, the shopkeeper wiped the sweat from his forehead calmly. He smiled apologetically, "If the young lady is from the Xue family, why would she ask me? If she is not from the Xue family, how could I reveal the guest's identity to the young lady without reason?"
But such excuses were clearly not working for him. Xue Zhiyi went straight to the point and said, "Shopkeeper, I won't discuss anything else with you. I'm just telling you that something's happened to your material. If you don't want the Xue family to report it to the police, I hope you can answer a few of my questions."
The shopkeeper was shocked, probably because he thought he had done everything perfectly and didn't expect that someone would find out something was wrong so quickly.
But at this moment, he couldn't admit it. He just groaned and said, "So you're here to blackmail me."
Upon hearing this, Shen Qingtang was about to slam the table and stand up, but was stopped by Xue Zhiyi.
I only heard the shopkeeper say, "What's wrong with the material? So many people have handled it, how can you be sure it's related to Jinxiu Zhai?"
Xue Zhiyi chuckled and said, "It's easy to judge."
Seeing the shopkeeper startled, she continued, "To mix the Jingluo flower juice into the fabric without being detected, it needs to be boiled with the fabric for about half an hour, then air-dried. It's been raining non-stop lately, and the clothes won't dry at all unless they're aired for four or five days. The Jinxiuzhai account books for the clothes sold to the Xue family should clearly record the time, right? If the sale time was no more than four or five days, then the fabric must have been tampered with in Jinxiuzhai."
"I don't know what you're talking about."
Xue Zhiyi wasn't the least bit offended by his denial. He just smiled casually, "The person who instigated you to poison me didn't tell you, right? Once the juice of the Jingluo flower comes into contact with your body, within half a month, if you wash it with alkaline water, red marks will appear on your skin. No matter how you wash, they won't come off."
She made up these words on the spur of the moment. Jingluo flower juice was not a common thing in Dayong, and ordinary people were not familiar with its medicinal properties. She made it up casually, betting on whether the shopkeeper dared to take a risk on something he was not familiar with.
At this point, the shopkeeper's expression finally changed: "What...exactly do you want to do?"
"I don't want to do anything." Xue Zhiyi said, "You know, a family like the Xue family also has to save face. Naturally, they don't want this matter to be reported to the government, but that doesn't mean they won't deal with the person who harmed the Xue family's descendants privately."
She smiled slowly: "I want you to tell me the person who bribed you to give her the drug."
The shopkeeper remained silent for a moment before he said, "Who knows if you're trying to trick me into confessing? If I confess, you'll bring me to justice?"
"Do you want to take a gamble?"
"What?"
Xue Zhiyi smiled and said, "Don't forget, shopkeeper. It's easy to prove that Jinxiu Zhai poisoned the food. The Xue family cares about their reputation, but that doesn't mean they won't sacrifice it at all. If the Xue family insists on getting revenge for their dead child, they can ask the government to intervene in this matter. Shopkeeper, you can also take a gamble and see if the government will be blinded by their age and fail to see the glaring evidence, allowing Jinxiu Zhai to escape. But if you lose the gamble—"
Her smile deepened. "Boss, are you capable of taking the responsibility for the crime of poisoning?"
I saw a layer of cold sweat suddenly appear on the shopkeeper's forehead.
Seeing that he was still hesitant, Xue Zhiyi continued, "The person who ordered you to do this disregarded your safety and didn't tell you about the flaws in the Jingluo Flower Juice. Why are you still hiding it for him? The Xue family is giving you a chance now. We'll take a step back and save face, and you can also take a step back and save Jinxiuzhai. How about that?"
After that, she took out a heavy purse and placed it on the table. "Of course, since that person tempted you with money, the Xue family will naturally not be stingy. Please accept this little gift, shopkeeper."
The shopkeeper remained silent, and Xue Zhiyi waited patiently for his consideration.
After an unknown amount of time, the shopkeeper finally spoke with difficulty: "It's a woman."
"woman?"
"Yes," the shopkeeper said, "The woman knew that the Xue family's concubine had been often making clothes for me since she became pregnant, so she bribed me to put flower juice on her underwear. She also said that she would dispose of the evidence herself and would not implicate me. She also gave me a large sum of money. I was blinded by the money and took the job."
Xue Zhiyi asked him, "Do you know his name? Or his appearance?"
The shopkeeper shook his head. "Judging from her hair, she's an unmarried woman, thin and slight. But like the two of you, she's wearing a veil, so I can't see her face clearly."
As he spoke, he suddenly realized, "Oh, right, although she speaks standard Mandarin, her tone is soft and doesn't sound like a native of Huajing. She sounds like a foreigner."
"Foreign place? Where exactly?" Xue Zhiyi asked.
After thinking carefully for a while, he said, "It seems like...Linzhou."
Xue Zhiyi sneered: Linzhou, then it can only be that old acquaintance. Just as she guessed, it was indeed the mother and daughter who did it.
"That's all I know. The woman was too cautious to even leave behind any banknotes. She used all the cash, which was heavy and inconvenient to bring all at once. She paid in two installments, and finally settled the bill five days ago..."
"What did you say?" Xue Zhiyi suddenly interrupted him, her breath choking. "Five days ago, are you talking about... the day when the murder happened across the street?"
Beside him, Shen Qingtang also took a deep breath and looked at Xue Zhiyi.
"Isn't that right?" the shopkeeper sighed. "It's scared all the shops on this street. I don't know if the murderer has been caught."
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