"What?"
Before Lu Baichuan could speak, the yamen runner next to him exclaimed in shock.
That shouldn't be the case. All the people who came have been arrested, and no suspicious people have been found entering other places.
Did Ouyang Hao really commit suicide out of fear of punishment?
Absolutely not!
How could someone so cowardly, timid, and afraid of death do something to harm themselves?
Lu Baichuan thought so too, so he decided to go and see for himself.
Ouyang Hao was indeed dead. His eyes were wide open, his lips were black, and blood was flowing from the corner of his mouth.
This is clearly poisoning, and judging from his wide-open eyes, it could not possibly be suicide.
"What does Lord Pan think?"
Lord Pan was the prefect, and the prefect arrived at the scene immediately, accompanied by a coroner.
“It could not be as simple as suicide by bib. I have dealt with Ouyang Hao before. He is timid by nature and would never commit suicide.”
"There are too many suspicious points in this matter. We still need to catch the person behind the scenes."
The prefect sighed, feeling that every day was truly annoying. The previous matter had not yet been investigated, and now new troubles had arisen.
Lu Baichuan nodded. If the prefect shared the same idea as him, then things would be much easier.
He glanced at the weeping family members beside him, said nothing, and ordered his men to remove Ouyang Hao's body.
The prefect followed him outside, and when they reached a secluded spot, he asked, "General, who do you think did this?"
Lu Baichuan glanced at him and said calmly, "Lord Pan already has his suspicions, so why ask me?"
The prefect hurriedly shook his head: "I have some guesses, but I'm not sure who it is."
He glanced at Lu Baichuan, and seeing that Lu Baichuan had no intention of speaking, he continued, "I just feel that this is not something a professional assassin would do. It is obviously murder, but to insist that it was suicide out of fear of punishment is too far-fetched."
"I suspect it was done by someone in the household, but I'm not sure who it was. We'll have to investigate slowly."
With so many people in this mansion, it would take quite a while to check them all one by one.
At this moment, someone came to report: "Sir, the third young master of the Ouyang family has fallen ill and passed away."
Lu Baichuan focused on the key point: "When did this happen?"
"One hour ago."
Lu Baichuan had a plan in mind. He looked at the prefect, who immediately understood: "This humble official understands, I will go and investigate immediately!"
After saying that, he turned and left with his men.
As a mother, she didn't make any arrangements for her child's funeral an hour earlier, nor did she stay by her child's side. Instead, she immediately discovered that her husband had committed suicide out of guilt.
Yes, the news of Ouyang Hao's suicide out of fear of punishment was released by his wife, Lin.
She was crying her heart out next to the body, but didn't mention her youngest son's death at all.
This looks strange no matter how you look at it.
So why did Lin also kill Ouyang Hao? And she said that Ouyang Hao committed suicide out of fear of punishment. Does that mean that she was the one who had been cooperating with Xu Zhao all along?
The prefect led his men to interrogate Lin. At first, Lin was stubborn and insisted that Ouyang Hao had committed suicide out of fear of punishment.
"What do you know about suicide out of guilt?"
The prefect wasn't stupid, and continued to ask questions following Lin's lead.
To celebrate her suspicion, Madam Lin readily revealed everything she knew: "He's incompetent. All he ever worries about is that the old man won't leave the family fortune to him. This time, someone tried to frame the old man and make the other man take the blame, even promising him benefits. He hesitated for a moment before agreeing. Although he didn't kill the old man, he was watching from nearby, which is why he was able to discover the old man had been murdered immediately."
"He originally thought he could shift the blame to the person outside, but who would have thought that person was not easy to deal with and found out about the two brothers in just one night. He started to panic and thought that rather than being convicted and beheaded, he would rather solve the problem himself, so he committed suicide out of fear of punishment."
The woman's words were reasonable and well-founded, leaving no room for criticism.
But the more this is the case, the more problems seem to arise.
The prefect asked several rather tricky questions, and Lin finally couldn't take it anymore and cried, "That's his business, how would a woman like me know?"
"Now that he's dead, the suspicion against the one outside has been cleared. Why must you make things difficult for a woman from the inner quarters, sir?"
She wiped her face, as if she had suffered a great injustice.
Seeing that she was still being stubborn, the prefect immediately said, "Use torture."
Lin thought that she had told everyone she knew and that everything should be fine, but she was startled when the prefect said he would torture her.
As the terrifying torturers were carried up, Lin was frightened and couldn't help but back away, but was forced to kneel on the ground by two yamen runners.
The prefect kindly advised, "Madam Ouyang, if you still don't tell the truth, these instruments of torture will really be used on you."
"I... I was telling the truth..."
Lin felt a little guilty and dared not look at the prefect's face.
The prefect continued, "If you tell the truth now, I can still deal with you leniently. But if I find evidence later and you still deny it, then I will act according to the law."
"Oh, right, I forgot to tell you. When you came here, I sent people to investigate the cause of Ouyang Hao's death and to interrogate the servants around you. I believe that soon someone will be unable to bear it and tell the truth. At that time, it will be too late for you to regret it, Madam."
Lin was quite frightened. She knew that her methods were not particularly clever, and if someone were to reveal them, she would not be receiving the treatment she was in now.
She closed her eyes and took a deep breath. When she opened her eyes, tears streamed down her face.
“I did kill the man, but everything I said before was true. He gave his approval for the old man’s death.”
The prefect glanced at the person taking notes and, seeing him nod, asked, "Why did you kill your own husband?"
"Why? Naturally, it's because I hate him! My son is about to die, and all he cares about is his family fortune. He even wants to use my son's life to exchange for these things! Before, it was all agreed that the female doctor would treat my son's illness. During this time, my son recovered very well and could even walk again. But he took advantage of the old man's death to harm that couple and ruin his own son!"
“Once the old man died, the family fortune naturally went into his hands. He didn’t care about my son’s life or death. He even said that as long as he wanted, he could have many more sons. That black-hearted bastard, killing him is also doing a service to the people!”
When her son fell ill, she went to Ouyang Hao to explain the misunderstandings and ask Jiang Jiuniang to treat her son. However, the man was heartless and said that her son should have died long ago and that living would only bring suffering. He even told her to bury her son anywhere, since he was just a child and didn't need to be buried in the ancestral graveyard.
No mother would listen to such words, so she immediately found rat poison, put it in the tea, and watched Ouyang Hao drink it.
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