HomeThe Brocaded Tale of the Girl SiChapter 165: A Clever Girl

Chapter 165: A Clever Girl

The hour of Mao (5-7 AM) was just when the sky was about to lighten. If Chao Yun hadn’t been burning paper but instead found a way to sneak into the main courtyard to commit murder, it was possible.

“Take me to see the west wing,” Zhen Shicheng said, giving Chao Yun a deep look before temporarily halting his questioning.

A group of people rushed towards the west wing.

At Zhen Shicheng’s request, a maid led everyone to a corner of the courtyard and pointed at the ground. “It’s right here.”

Jiang Si inconspicuously squeezed to the front and looked closely. Sure enough, there were faint traces of black ashes on the ground. If a day or two had passed, even these traces would have disappeared.

Zhen Shicheng stared at the ground thoughtfully.

The ground here seemed a bit unusual—

Thinking this, he walked over and lifted his foot to test the ground.

A slightly soft feeling came through.

Zhen Shicheng’s expression changed, and he immediately ordered his subordinates, “Dig here and see what’s underneath.”

A yamen runner immediately came forward and started digging.

Except for the top layer of loose soil, the soil underneath was very soft. The yamen runner quickly dug out a bundle.

“There’s something here!” Exclamations of surprise rose from the crowd.

At this moment, while everyone’s eyes were fixed on the unearthed package, Jiang Si and Zhen Shicheng simultaneously looked toward Chao Yun.

A person’s immediate reaction is always the most genuine.

Unfortunately, the two were destined to be disappointed. Perhaps because Chao Yun had lived in despair for too long, her face remained expressionless, showing neither tension nor surprise.

Zhen Shicheng sighed his gaze meeting that of the young woman in a green dress and white skirt. He almost couldn’t resist giving her a thumbs up.

His ability to observe the suspect’s reaction first, rather than looking at the physical evidence when discovering a major clue, was the result of years of accumulated experience. The young girl before him wasn’t even as old as his son, and couldn’t possibly have such experience. This could only be attributed to natural talent and insight.

This was truly a promising talent.

Zhen Shicheng’s heart, which valued talent, began to itch again.

Magistrate Zhen had a habit of stroking his beard when his heart itched. He stroked it several times, breaking two whiskers before coming to his senses. He straightened his face to hide the pain and said, “Open it and take a look.”

“Yes, sir.” The yamen runner immediately opened the bundle.

These yamen runners were all experienced, and they were especially careful when opening the bundle. Soon, the contents were revealed to everyone.

It was a set of blood-stained clothes.

There was an immediate burst of gasps from the crowd.

Zhen Shicheng stepped forward, crouched down, and examined the bloody clothes.

The fabric and style of the clothes were unremarkable, and the color was suitable for a middle-aged woman.

The Earl of Yongchang’s wife had been stabbed to death with a candlestick, blood covering the entire bed. It would have been difficult for the murderer to keep their clothes clean. These bloody clothes were almost certainly what the killer wore during the crime.

Zhen Shicheng stood up and looked steadily at Chao Yun. “Did you bury these bloody clothes?”

Chao Yun remained silent.

Zhen Shicheng was patient, but the Earl of Yongchang couldn’t contain his anger. “What’s there to ask? It must be this wretched servant who killed my wife!”

Chao Yun suddenly looked at the Earl of Yongchang, her bloodless lips trembling violently.

“My Lord, please calm down,” Zhen Shicheng advised.

The Earl of Yongchang pointed at the bloody clothes, his face extremely unpleasant. “The evidence is conclusive. What more is there to say? A life for a life, especially since this lowly servant committed the heinous act of murdering her mistress… Magistrate, I leave this wretched woman to your judgment!”

Zhen Shicheng looked at the silent Chao Yun, feeling that something wasn’t quite right.

Was the Earl of Yongchang’s wife killed by Chao Yun?

Although Chao Yun had a sufficient motive for murder, and there were bloody clothes buried in the courtyard as evidence, killing a grown person with a candlestick wasn’t a simple task.

The woman before him was thin and frail, looking as if a gust of wind could blow her over. Did she have the strength to stab someone to death with a candlestick?

Seeing that Zhen Shicheng didn’t respond, the Earl of Yongchang suddenly moved to draw the sword from Xie Yinlou’s waist.

Xie Yinlou instinctively held onto the hilt of the sword.

Unable to draw it, the Earl shouted, “Let go!”

Xie Yinlou barely reacted to his father’s words, instead looking towards Zhen Shicheng.

The Earl was furious. “You insolent boy, let go! Don’t you want to avenge your mother?”

Xie Yinlou, still holding the sword hilt, calmly said, “Of course, I want to avenge Mother, but only after we’re certain of the culprit’s identity.”

The Earl of Yongchang was quite exasperated that his son was stronger than him. He turned to Zhen Shicheng and said, “Magistrate Zhen, is this not enough to prove she’s the murderer?”

Zhen Shicheng stroked his beard, choosing his words carefully. “There are still many suspicious points in this matter. A human life is at stake, so we naturally cannot rush to conclusions.”

He knew that more than 80% of the officials responsible for criminal cases in the Great Zhou Dynasty could close a case based on mere speculation. As long as the speculation was reasonable, they would declare the suspect guilty even without conclusive evidence.

But he wouldn’t do that.

For any case he handled, he would rather let it remain unsolved due to limitations in his abilities than close it based on mere conjecture.

Heaven’s net is wide-meshed but lets nothing through. An unsolved case always has the possibility of being solved, but once a person is wrongly executed, they can never be brought back to life.

Behind every dead person are countless tears of their loved ones.

“What other suspicious points are there?” The Earl of Yongchang, with his wife dead and his consort the prime suspect, could hardly remain calm.

“When was the last time you saw Chao Yun?” Zhen Shicheng didn’t answer the Earl’s question, instead continuing to question the two maids.

One maid said, “This servant brought hot water to the consort before she went to sleep, around the beginning of the Hai hour (9-11 PM).”

This time matched with what Chao Yun had said about when she went to sleep.

Zhen Shicheng then turned to the Earl of Yongchang and said, “One of the suspicious points is how Chao Yun could have sneaked into the main courtyard and hidden in the Earl’s wife’s wardrobe after the Hai hour.”

The Earl of Yongchang was momentarily speechless.

At that time, he and his wife had just retired and weren’t even asleep yet. Unless Chao Yun was a supernatural being, she couldn’t have avoided his notice and hidden in the wardrobe.

“But how do you explain these bloody clothes? The time she was burning paper was most likely after my wife was killed. She probably killed my wife and then used the excuse of burning paper to bury the bloody clothes.”

“But it still doesn’t explain how she could have hidden in the wardrobe,” Zhen Shicheng calmly reminded him.

If the most crucial point couldn’t be explained, no matter how well everything else fit, he wouldn’t carelessly pin the crime on someone.

The Earl of Yongchang thought for a moment, and then his expression suddenly changed. “Someone hiding in the wardrobe has only been Magistrate Zhen’s speculation, right? Perhaps the fingerprints in the wardrobe were just coincidentally left by a maid, not by the murderer.”

Jiang Si lightly coughed and interjected, “Uncle, someone hiding in the wardrobe was my deduction, which Magistrate Zhen merely agreed with. Have you forgotten? It was the discovery of oddly angled fingerprints in the wardrobe that cleared your suspicion—”

The Earl of Yongchang was left speechless.

Xie Qing’ao silently put her hand to her forehead.

In trying to prove the consort was the murderer by overturning the previous conclusion, he had successfully put the murderer’s hat back on himself. Father was truly impressive…

The Earl’s silence made Zhen Shicheng smile at Jiang Si.

He thought to himself, this girl is truly clever.

At this moment, the clever girl smiled back at Zhen Shicheng: “Magistrate Zhen, I believe Chao Yun is not the murderer.”

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