The young apprentice’s teasing unto death made Muruo so angry smoke seemed to pour from his seven orifices.

He rebuked with one sentence, “If you don’t speak, no one will think you’re mute.”

“But what I said is all… the truth.” The young apprentice’s voice grew smaller and smaller as he shrank his head.

“Say that again!”

He shut up!

Muruo was angry that his thoughts had actually been seen through by a young brat.

Simply—

He had the young apprentice fetch a pot of wine, so that after drinking the wine, he could get a good night’s sleep.

Soon, the wine was brought over.

Just as it was set down, the young apprentice noticed an ant crawling on the bamboo table.

“Eh? Master, how can there be ants here?”

Ants?

Muruo looked and there really were some!

The bamboo tables in Yuhua Pavilion were all fumigated with medicinal herbs. Unless there were sweet substances, it was generally impossible to have ants.

So he began searching for the source.

Suddenly startled.

“Master, look, the table corner is full of ants.” The young apprentice pointed with his hand.

Sure enough, ants were crawling densely along the table corner, black and clustered together.

Quite disgusting.

Muruo had sharp eyes and saw a small black object being “favored” by a large batch of ants.

Could this… be the thing Ji Yunshu had brought earlier for him to examine and identify what medicinal material it was?

He directly reached out to sweep the ants away and picked up the black object to examine it in his palm, as if he’d obtained some treasure.

Then he carried it toward the room where he researched medicines.

The young apprentice called out helplessly behind him, “Master, how should these ants be dealt with?”

“Bay leaves!”

Bay leaves?

Oh right, bay leaves can repel ants.

The young apprentice then cheerfully went downstairs to fetch bay leaves.

That night, Muruo stayed in the room researching that black object.

Until dawn—

As soon as the rooster crowed, he left Yuhua Pavilion and rode his horse toward the Rong Prince’s Manor.

And the people in the Rong Prince’s Manor had also not slept all night.

All waiting for news!

As soon as Muruo reached the entrance, he almost collided directly with Lang Bo.

“Master Muruo, why have you come?”

“I came to find Master Ji.”

Lang Bo made a sound of understanding, “Then let’s go in together.”

He seemed very anxious.

It appeared his trip to Zhang Family Village had yielded quite a harvest.

Muruo nodded.

The two entered together.

In the great hall, Jingrong and Ji Yunshu had waited all night.

Originally they were only waiting for Lang Bo alone, but unexpectedly Muruo had also come.

As soon as he entered, Lang Bo reported the results of his investigation, “Following Master’s instructions, we pieced together the shattered Buddha statue base. The base’s shape is perfectly square, and inside it is indeed hollow, connecting directly to the dried well below. There’s no mechanism at all. With just a push, one side of the base can be opened. It’s just that the people of Zhang Family Village simply didn’t know, so no one touched it. But the murderer must be very familiar with the great Buddha, which is why they used this point to throw the deceased into the dried well. I also went to find Old Man Zhang once, but since the day Zhang Daqi was taken away by Prince Yi, he disappeared. However, I found something in the house.”

Hmm?

He handed over a piece of silver, explaining, “This was pried off from Old Man Zhang’s wheelchair.”

Ji Yunshu took it to look—it was a perfectly square piece of silver.

Very light!

Very small!

She furrowed her brow and said, “At that time outside the Zhang Family Village ancestral hall, when Zhang Daqi was pushing Old Man Zhang inside, a perfectly square ray of light flashed before my eyes. It should have been metal, or something like an iron piece. But at that time, neither Zhang Daqi nor Old Man Zhang had any metal or iron pieces on them, only the wheelchair’s handle had them. Later when the lights in the ancestral hall went out, I saw that ray of light again. But at that time Old Man Zhang had already been pushed inside to rest, the wheelchair wasn’t outside—where did the light come from? Unless…”

Jingrong picked up the end of her sentence, “Unless, when the lights went out, Old Man Zhang came out from inside sitting in his wheelchair. It was he who killed Silly Four with a silver needle.”

Uh!

The murderer was truly Old Man Zhang?

Everyone present was very shocked.

Ji Yunshu’s expression darkened slightly as she continued his words, “When Old Man Zhang killed someone, Zhang Daqi was right beside him, so when I asked if that person was from Zhang Family Village, he reacted so agitatedly. This shows the person he wanted to protect was his father.”

“But we have no direct evidence.”

Muruo, who had been silent on the side, spoke up, “I think… I should have some.”

Everyone’s gazes turned toward him.

He unhurriedly took out that black thing.

“This is…” Ji Yunshu was startled.

“That’s right, it’s the thing you brought over. I’ve tested it. This medicine is called black chestnut. Mixed with sticky sugar and white wine, it emits a smell similar to garlic paste. It’s specifically used to treat dry bone disease, and this type of medicine is generally applied to a person’s arm. If exposed to sunlight, it will attract ants.”

Dry bone disease?

“Dry bone disease symptoms? On the wrist? Garlic paste?” Ji Yunshu muttered, finally understanding, “That’s right, I smelled that kind of scent on Old Man Zhang’s body. It seems he must have dry bone disease, which is why he applied this medicine on his hands. So when he held the dagger in reverse grip and stabbed it into Gao Meng’s chest from behind, the medicine on his arm rubbed onto the inside of Gao Meng’s ear. Now as long as we find him and prove he indeed has this medicine on his hands, everything will become clear.”

The clouds and mist were gradually being dispelled.

But—

Jingrong still had a question in his heart, “But there’s one point I don’t understand. If the murderer is truly Old Man Zhang, why would there be Zhang Daqi’s blood on that rock?”

This…

“I know!”

A voice came from outside.

Looking at the sound, it was Tang Si.

That girl rushed in excitedly, covered in sweat, swallowed some saliva, picked up a cup of tea and drank it down with gulping sounds.

Only then did she say, “I know, I know why Old Man Zhang killed someone, and I also know why there’s Zhang Daqi’s blood on the rock.”

Her voice was very loud…

At this moment, the Ministry of Justice was using a prison cart to transport Zhang Daqi to the “Vegetable Market Mouth.”

They happened to be passing through the capital’s most prosperous street.

Because the dried well case had caused quite a stir throughout the capital, many commoners had been frightened for quite a while. Now that the murderer was finally found, everyone felt both relieved and furious, one after another carrying baskets filled with cabbages and eggs as they rushed over.

The entire street was blocked so tightly not even water could leak through.

“He should be killed.”

“Death by a thousand cuts.”

“Beat him to death, beat him to death…”

…

Many people cursed while throwing eggs and rotten vegetable leaves at Zhang Daqi on the prison cart.

Zhang Daqi had no will to survive at all, lying there like a pile of mud as he was shackled on top.

He hadn’t applied the wound medicine Ji Yunshu had brought him at all, so much so that wounds all over his body were still continuously oozing fresh blood. His head, face, and body were also covered with smashed eggs and rotten vegetable leaves.

Extremely wretched.

What they call a street rat everyone cries out to beat—that was probably him.

Under the siege of countless condemning curses and eggs and vegetable leaves, the prison cart arrived at Vegetable Market Mouth.

He was dragged onto the execution platform, his hands bound, kneeling on the ground.

The executioner, bare-chested, shouldering a great blade, had been prepared for a long time.

The supervising official for this execution raised his head to look at the sky, seeing that the time was about right, then took the command arrow from the tube.

With a wave of his hand.

The command arrow was flung out, thrown heavily to the ground.

“Execute.”