Chapter 33: No Good Banquet 12: Dagger
After General Yang left, the yard became increasingly empty.
The crisis was over, the goal achieved, and the memories of last night came flooding back. Xun Shu looked into He Xuan's sparkling eyes, snorted coldly, turned around, and turned his back to him, facing Fang Yan: "Do you think the murderer is Aunt Zheng?"
Doubt flashed across Fang Yan's eyes. He didn't answer, but instead asked, "Ah Shu, do you think County Magistrate Zhao died from the sudden death, rather than the Hundred Grass Bee?"
Xun Shu didn't hide it: "If it's the Hundred Grass Bee, the poison's onset time is really wrong. But if it's the One Step Absolute, just a little bit of it would be poisonous. I always feel like we must have missed something."
He Xuan walked around to Xun Shu, pretending not to understand the unfamiliar look on her face. He smiled and said, "I agree with what Ah Shu said. The light is good now, why don't we go to the hall and take a look? Maybe we can find something we didn't see last night."
Xun Shu felt uncomfortable when she heard his voice. She didn't know how to face him, so she simply didn't even look at him: "I can go with Fang Yan. You were out so late last night, you must not have had a good rest. Why don't you go back first?"
"How did Ah Shu know I was out last night?" He Xuan blinked, hesitating whether to tell her what happened last night. He caught a glimpse of Fang Yan's curious gaze from the corner of his eye and changed the subject. "Ah Shu's eyes are dark blue. I guess he didn't get enough rest last night. If I go with you, we can find clues sooner, and Ah Shu can go back to his room and rest earlier. Besides, County Magistrate Feng has set a rule that only three people can enter to search. If I leave, you can't enter the crime scene, and you have to find another reliable person. Going back and forth will delay you for a long time."
What He Xuan said was true. Xun Shu breathed a sigh of relief and nodded gently: "This is the only way."
The three of them did not delay any longer and entered the hall where the banquet was held that day. Xun Shu covered his nose with his sleeve and walked through the hall filled with sour and smelly air, going straight to the seat at the top, which was also the seat where County Magistrate Zhao sat that night.
Magistrate Zhao's body had long been removed, leaving only a table. Xun Shu swept across the rotting food on the table. Maggots crawled on every plate, especially the roasted lamb leg in the middle, which was so densely packed with tiny, wriggling white worms that it made him nauseous.
Xun Shu muttered, his voice becoming increasingly unclear through the covering of his sleeves: "Look at these insects, they are lively and fat, so the food must not be poisoned."
Fang Yan stood on the other side of the table, his movements and posture identical to Xun Shu's, his voice also unclear. "Yes, but if it wasn't food, how did County Magistrate Zhao get poisoned? ... To be poisoned by a deadly poison, one must swallow something or see blood. But the coroner examined County Magistrate Zhao and found no external injuries on his body, not even a pinhole. How could he have been poisoned? ... Could we be mistaken?"
He Xuan wandered around the house, strolling leisurely, as if his sense of smell had failed him and he couldn't smell the stench in the house. He heard the conversation between the two and couldn't help but say, "There's a wound."
Fang Yan was stunned. Before he could figure it out, Xun Shu turned his head suddenly, his eyes wide open. "You mean the place where the bee stung you?"
He Xuan nodded, walked over to the two men, and pointed at the food on the table. "One Step Absolute Kills the Throat Upon Seeing Blood. If County Magistrate Zhao died from it, he must have come into contact with poison moments before his death. I vaguely remember that after being stung by a venomous bee, he kept his injured hand raised and didn't touch anything until Zheng arrived and the lamb chops were served. He picked up a dagger and cut off the lamb leg, dipped it with chopsticks, dipped it in spices, and brought it to Zheng's lips before collapsing to the ground and dying."
Xun Shu continued, "That means his wound most likely came into contact with the dagger and the chopsticks." She lowered her head, no longer staring at the rotting food, but glanced at the tableware. "The chopsticks are still there, but the dagger is gone."
Fang Yan hurriedly walked around the hall, looking at all the tables and desks. His voice was filled with anxiety. "All the daggers are gone. It seems there is something wrong with these daggers! The murderer came back here later and took all the daggers away." He trotted to the door and asked the guard outside, "Have you been watching here the whole time?"
"Yes, sir. We have been on guard here together since the night before, taking turns to rest."
"Did anyone come here yesterday?"
The two yamen runners at the door exchanged a glance, and one of them said, "Only County Magistrate Feng, Chief Clerk Qu, and County Magistrate Bi came here yesterday."
"When did they arrive, and how long did they stay?"
"The adults came in the evening, about the time it takes for an incense stick to stick."
"What can they take with them from the hall when they leave?"
"It seems the adults didn't take anything out."
While Fang Yan was asking questions, Xun Shu and He Xuan also walked out of the room. After they finished speaking, He Xuan suddenly asked, "Do you know where they went after leaving here?"
One of the yamen runners glanced at Fang Yan and said hesitantly, "After the three gentlemen came out, someone came to report that Lord Fang had returned from outside with important clues. After that, the three of them should have gone to the study to look for Lord Fang."
Fang Yan hadn't expected it to happen then. "So the three of them left from here." He knew Xun Shu and He Xuan were curious about this, so he hurriedly recalled, "I remember that when the three of them went to the study, they didn't have anything in their hands. Could someone else have come and taken the dagger?"
Upon hearing this, the yamen runner nearby hurriedly said, "Sir, this is impossible. This room has only one door, and it was locked until today. I carry the key with me. It was only opened yesterday when Lord Feng and his men arrived. We have been here the entire time and have never let this door out of our sight. How could someone enter this room without us noticing?"
Fang Yan was about to say something when He Xuan tugged on his arm. He Xuan interrupted with a smile, "You dragged me here so early this morning, and I'm still hungry. Breakfast must have been delivered to the courtyard. Why don't we go back and fill our stomachs first? We can talk about the case after we're full."
Fang Yan glanced at the two yamen runners beside him, understood what He Xuan meant, and nodded in agreement.
The three of them left the main hall and returned to the courtyard where He Xuan and Xun Shu were temporarily staying.
When we left, it was just daybreak and still a bit chilly. When we came back, the sun was already high in the sky, and it was scorching hot.
Xun Shu and He Xuan had been eating in the shade of the courtyard these days. The servants had already taken note and placed the food boxes on the stone table. He Xuan opened the lid and took out the dishes one by one, still talking about the case.
"Including County Magistrate Zhao, there were nine daggers at the banquet that day. Those daggers weren't very large, so if they were hidden in a sleeve pocket, they wouldn't be easily noticed."
Fang Yan pushed a bowl of sesame porridge in front of Xun Shu and refuted He Xuan's words: "Nine daggers are hidden in the sleeve pockets. Even if they can't be seen from the outside, they will definitely collide with each other when walking, making noises. Could it be that we are mistaken? The person who took the daggers was not one of the three of them. It was the yamen runner who was negligent and let someone in by mistake. He was afraid of being scolded and didn't dare to speak out."
"Maybe there's more than one person." Xun Shu sipped his porridge slowly, his words a little slurred. "If the nine daggers were divided between two or three people, placed in their sleeve pockets and palms, there would be no sound, and nothing would be visible from the outside."
"Ashu is right!" He Xuan was the first to agree. "If three people took the dagger, they wouldn't even need to hide it from each other. If it were two people, one could cover for the other. With two people helping each other, it would be easier to act."
As the two of them exchanged questions, they almost pinpointed the murderer as one of the three people who had been to the crime scene yesterday. However, Fang Yan still hesitated. "But I don't understand why they wanted to kill Magistrate Zhao. As far as I know, there's no deep hatred between these people. They work in the same government office, and although there may be some friction, it's all official business. Why would they kill to vent their anger?"
He Xuan corrected them, "That day, the mutton and daggers were brought in by a maid and randomly distributed to everyone. All nine daggers are missing, so I think each dagger must have been poisoned. Since they were all poisonous, perhaps they didn't originally intend to kill Magistrate Zhao?" He Xuan said lightly, placing the last plate of jujube cakes from the food box in front of Xun Shu. "Don't forget, Magistrate Zhao was stung by a poisonous bee probably because of the flowers Zheng sent, but that milo flower wasn't originally intended for Magistrate Zhao. The bee sting that night, resulting in the wound on his hand, was completely accidental. No one could have predicted that he would die from it. If the poison was applied to the dagger, the killer probably didn't intend to kill Magistrate Zhao."
He Xuan's words completely quieted Fang Yan and Xun Shu.
If the murderer's target wasn't Magistrate Zhao, who could it be? Why was he so sure that applying poison to the handle of the dagger would kill him?
The clinking sound of a spoon stirring in the bowl echoed repeatedly among the three of them. For a moment, no one spoke, each one preoccupied with their own thoughts. After a while, Xun Shu spoke softly, "We know too little. We know nothing about the entanglement between these people. Perhaps only by thoroughly understanding their relationship can we know the murderer."
This sentence was like a switch, and the atmosphere became lively again. After breakfast, Xun Shu finally remembered his discovery from last night and took out the things he found from his bag. "I couldn't sleep last night, and I found these in the secret compartment under the bed. They look like—Huh?"
Xun Shu's words were cut short halfway through her mouth. He Xuan was about to ask her what was wrong, but she saw her using her sleeve to support her hand, taking out something from her bag and placing it on the stone table.
It was the dagger used to cut the leg of lamb at the dinner that day.
Xun Shu looked at the dagger, his memory gradually returning: "That day I gave the leg of lamb to He Xuan and left the dagger on the table. Later, I suspected that the incense burning in the hall might be poisonous, so I picked up the clean dagger on the table, went to the incense burner to get the incense powder, and then casually stuffed the dagger into my bag, and then forgot about it..."
Fang Yan couldn't help but praise him: "Ashu, you've been a great help! The other daggers may have been destroyed by the murderer, but you just stuffed it in and accidentally preserved the evidence! I'll go catch a mouse and call the coroner to verify the poison on this dagger!"
Fang Yan carefully wrapped the dagger with a handkerchief and rushed out immediately, but was stopped by He Xuan when he was about to leave.
"Don't look for people in the government." He Xuan looked at him steadily and whispered, "Go find someone who has nothing to do with the government."
He Xuan spoke vaguely, but Fang Yanfeiyang's mood instantly plummeted.
He Xuan's meaning was obvious. Fang Yan opened his mouth, but in the end he couldn't utter a word of rebuttal. He could only say dejectedly, "I know."
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The author has something to say: The next update will be on Thursday or Friday~
The time for entering the V-sector is not determined yet. It depends on the situation of the list. It will be entered by next Monday or next Tuesday at the latest.
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