“Alright, stop arguing. Listen to Huaisu finish speaking. We only know part of the story, not the whole picture – we’re still completely confused.” Tie Shou quietly rebuked him.

Zhui Ming immediately fell silent, looking at Suzhen with rare reverence.

Murong Jinghou kept nodding, as if he wasn’t the one who had been caught.

“From our perspective, you didn’t know we had learned about Song Tingyun, but for Song Tingyun’s safety, you would still send people to protect her, so I arranged two groups of men. One to restrain your people, one for assassination.”

“Though we didn’t know beforehand that you would separate everyone for examination, these two groups totaled over twenty men. Even if people were separated, they would still follow the most suspicious consorts and ministers, ready to kill as soon as Song appeared.”

“But Magistrate Li made such grand preparations, actually using three waves of people in response – female constables pretending to be Song Tingyun, swordsmen, and Six Doors constables to lure this old man’s subordinates into the trap. Every courtyard was arranged, every ‘Song Tingyun’ performed a scene of identifying the killer, pointing to everyone in each courtyard as the murderer. But only the real killer would receive protection from assassins – is that right, Magistrate Li?”

Though his words carried sarcasm, Suzhen didn’t retort mockingly, only sighing softly: “Huaisu was discourteous.”

“Discourteous? No, Magistrate Li considered things very thoroughly. Rather, this old man has two things he doesn’t understand and would like to ask Magistrate Li about.” Murong Jinghou spoke coldly, but his eyes indeed showed some doubt.

“Please speak, General.” Suzhen made a “please” gesture.

“That day in court, how did you dare assert your father wasn’t the killer? Though we’d prefer Qiu Jing to be the killer, the evidence against your father seems quite solid. Also, how did you know Song Tingyun recognized the killer but didn’t know the killer’s identity? Otherwise, your trap today couldn’t have been set, because if Song Tingyun truly hadn’t died, she could have directly told you who the killer was.”

As he asked, everyone from the Criminal Investigation Bureau and Six Doors constables listened intently.

“These two matters can be answered together, General,” Suzhen didn’t hide Li Zhaoting’s contribution. “He said there was something that bothered him, something related to the palace maids. Only then did I realize I had made mistakes in some things.” She spoke slowly.

“I kept wanting to reconstruct what happened that year, carefully examining the case files the old magistrate left behind, asking His Majesty about events from that time. I was thinking about who had the most motive to kill, whose interests would benefit most from the death. I tried every way to prove who was guilty. But if you fall completely into this kind of thinking, it’s wrong. Before conviction, everyone should be considered innocent.”

“Magistrate Li reminded me of something that bothered him – the palace maids. When I tried to return to the victims themselves, I finally discovered this was indeed wrong.”

“The palace maids were killed because they must have known some inside information. But whether it was Prime Minister Yan, Dowager Consort Ai, or my father, none should have been people they knew about. Yan Da giving soup was seen by many people at the scene. Dowager Consort Ai giving fruit made a huge commotion – not only the few roommate palace maids saw it, but palace maids from neighboring courtyards all witnessed it. As for what my father did, only His Majesty saw it. His Majesty didn’t realize at the time that my father had an inner palace attendant switch his soup. Only years later, when telling the next magistrate, did he mention this. After investigation, finding that year’s inner palace attendant and with Prince Jin’s matter exposed, was my father’s involvement confirmed. In other words, what the palace maids knew wasn’t actually more than others. So why were they killed?”

“I tried making a bold hypothesis – what if Consort Yu actually wasn’t poisoned at all, but was killed while sleeping that night, and when she was killed, some unlucky palace maid happened to wake up and see it? What do you think would happen?”

After speaking in one breath, Suzhen’s previously calm eyes finally showed a sharp gleam as she stared intently at Murong Jinghou.

In the courtyard, someone drew a sharp breath.

Murong still stood with hands behind his back, but his eyes slowly showed some brightness: “Very good, please continue, Magistrate Li.”

“No, Huaisu, but the old magistrate’s autopsy said Consort Yu died of poisoning. This—” Zhui Ming suddenly spoke urgently, then seemed to realize something and understood: “He was also one of them!”

Before he could finish, Suzhen suddenly raised her hand and threw something that flashed past everyone’s eyes. He was startled, but Wu Qing was quick-witted, using his internal energy to leap several zhang away, then extending two fingers to catch something in mid-air.

Everyone was puzzled, even Xiao Zhou stared intently. They saw him in snow-white clothes, between his two fingers a silver needle glinting brightly.

“I understand.” Tie Shou and Xiao Zhou exchanged glances. Xiao Zhou smiled bitterly and nodded, speaking first.

Seeing that Zhui Ming and the constables still looked confused, Suzhen said quietly: “Humans have seven orifices. Dip a needle in poison and insert it through an orifice into the body, leaving no wound on the skin, not even the most minute trace.”

“Consort Yu had no power or position, her life was like an ant’s. After death, like other palace maids, she was hastily buried in a mass grave. Who would care about her? The killer had plenty of time to dig up the body. As long as he used internal energy to force out the needle, he could leave no flaws.”

“This would create the same internal organ condition as food poisoning. After His Majesty was adopted, the Empress Dowager followed his wishes and had the body exhumed. Even though the old magistrate was experienced, he probably couldn’t detect the true cause of death.”

Everyone was stunned. Hearing this, Murong Jinghou laughed heartily and clapped: “Quite ingenious.”

“No, not ingenious at all, because that night a palace maid saw this scene.”

“So what? As long as she wasn’t foolish enough to spread the word, she wouldn’t suffer the killer’s wrath.” Tie Shou immediately blurted out.

“Right, I don’t understand this either,” Zhui Ming continued: “This palace maid saw the killer, so she logically wouldn’t talk randomly. Could it be the killer also saw her? But that’s not right either – if the killer saw her, he would have killed her on the spot. How would she have lived until the next day?”

Xiao Zhou, who always prided herself on being devious, also frowned slightly: “Yes, this doesn’t work. Either kill that unlucky ghost on the spot, or she shouldn’t have been in danger.”

The Six Doors constables, who usually traveled extensively handling strange cases, also looked at each other in bewilderment. Only Murong Jinghou and Suzhen remained calm.

Seeing Murong Jinghou raise an eyebrow and stare at her, Suzhen took a deep breath, looked at everyone, and said word by word: “No, there’s one situation that would make all of this work.”

“Look.” At this point, she pulled out another item from her bosom.

Everyone was astonished and looked closely – it was a token with intricate carved patterns that outsiders wouldn’t recognize.

“Isn’t this a Criminal Investigation Bureau token for you to show when handling cases in various places?” Zhui Ming called out first.

As he spoke, he was still puzzled. Wu Qing frowned slightly, his eyes suddenly brightening as he spoke quietly: “So that’s how it was.”

Everyone was surprised and looked at him together. Wu Qing looked at Suzhen and said slowly: “The killer not only was seen when committing murder that night, but also dropped something – probably a Murong family token that General Murong used when giving orders.”

Everyone froze momentarily, not expecting such depths to the matter. Xiao Zhou’s eyes changed rapidly as she thought and paced, her words flowing like pearls: “Moreover, this token definitely wasn’t picked up by the palace maid who saw the murder, but by someone else the next day. With so many imperial and noble family tokens, and not all having words carved on them, how would ordinary palace maids know whose token this was? One person finds it, thinks it interesting, and inevitably shows it off to others as a treasure. In this case—”

She stopped here in alarm, while Suzhen remained composed, taking over her words: “In this case, the palace maid who knew Consort Yu’s true cause of death also saw this token and immediately realized what it was – this object very likely belonged to the assassin.”

“This girl must have been terrified then. Having lost such an important item, wouldn’t the assassin come back looking for it? Just thinking about it, she’d realize the assassin might think he dropped the item in this damned palace maid’s room.”

Her gaze was profound. The red oil umbrella on the ground moved in the wind, and everyone remembered what they’d seen that day, as if returning to that deep palace room of years past through her slow, measured voice.

The already mottled and dusty bed platform, blue quilt, pillow, bronze mirror, rouge not yet covered, and makeup box all became clear before their eyes.

“Even if these palace maids originally didn’t know what this item was, if news leaked out, it would be terrible. The Late Emperor didn’t care about Little Yu’s life or death, but he absolutely couldn’t tolerate anyone playing tricks under his nose. He loved Dowager Consort Ai, but once Qiu Jing harmed his interests, he could handle him without hesitation.”

“When the assassin reported back to his master, I don’t know how the master treated this assassin, but certainly the master wouldn’t spare these palace maids, because this token dropped in the room might have been discovered by someone. Who discovered it? How many people discovered it? Unknown. The best solution was to kill them all.”

“On the other side, this poor girl had to tell all her… roommates everything she’d seen that night. At this critical moment, everyone had to discuss what to do.” Suzhen stared intently at Murong Jinghou: “Not wanting to sit and wait for death, they could only negotiate with this person. But they didn’t even know who this person was. What to do?”