Detective in the Red Chamber

"Erlang doesn't have to..."

When he managed to get a word out, Wang Ren on the side sat on the main seat eagerly, urging repeatedly, "Since Erlang has already started the trial, don't delay, and settle the case earlier. We brothers also like to talk at night by candlelight!"

Xing Zhong held back his old face and blushed, but he didn't dare to complain, he just sat back on his seat listlessly, with a harmless smile on his face.

Seeing Xing Zhong's shameless face, Sun Shaozong couldn't help shaking his head inwardly, no wonder this Uncle Xing, bearing the name of an in-law in the Rongguo Mansion, was so condescending that he wanted to go north to visit his relatives.

When everyone was seated, Sun Shaozong asked the names of the two maids again, but it turned out that the maid in the blue dress was named Mu Qin, and the one next to her in the white dress was Shu Xuan who was a good painter.

"You two, what do you want to report?"

Sun Shaozong said "two people" in his mouth, but his eyes fell on Mu Qin.

Sure enough, Mu Qin opened her mouth immediately, ready to say something.

However, the words reached her throat, but she swallowed them back abruptly, and inquired expectantly, "If the servant has spoken, will there be a reward?"

tsk~

I don't know if this girl is short-hearted or obsessed with money - even if she wants to reward her, she should never say it in front of her master.

Both Liu Changfeng and his son were a little displeased, but they still promised in unison, saying that as long as she can remember something, naturally there will be rewards.

Na Muqin immediately beamed with joy, but never thought that this might be the last sum of money she received from the Liu Mansion in her life?

She heard her crisp voice, "Qingtian Elder Master, after the slaves and Shu Xuan helped the Elder Young Master into the house, they took out the fire pocket and came out to light the lamp, but found that the shadow of the screen on the south wall seemed not right, as if the peaceful Days are a little different…”

"what?!"

When Liu Changfeng heard this, he almost jumped up from the ground excitedly, turned around and scolded Namuqin angrily, "Why didn't you say something so important earlier?!"

As he said that, he knocked his head to the ground again, and said excitedly, "My lord, it is clear that there was a thief hiding behind the screen long ago, and after the maids left, they waited for an opportunity to kill my daughter-in-law!"

slap~

"shut up!"

Sun Shaozong slapped the table with a slap and scolded, "Although this place is not a court, it is not your turn to teach me how to settle cases. If you dare to be rude again, I will not forgive you lightly!"

The county magistrate of Jiangning was still a little clever, and as soon as he stopped talking, he quickly called a few yamen servants in and told them to line up.

Although the water fire stick and Tang Wei are missing, the atmosphere in the hall is still quite awe-inspiring.

At first Liu Changfeng wanted to distinguish a few words, but when he met Sun Shaozong's cold eyes, he crouched down as if he had been hit by a blow.

Then Sun Shaozong asked Namuqin again, "What is the difference between the shadows?"

"This……"

Seeing that the master had already taken the lead, Mu Qin was a little timid at first, but when she heard Sun Shaozong's questioning, she panicked even more.

Just as he hesitated, he heard Shu Xuan on the side say loudly, "My lord, Mu Qin didn't see it clearly at that time, and she extinguished the flame with a shake of her hand."

"Yes, yes, that's what happened!"

Mu Qin hurriedly nodded as if she was being amnesty, and continued to say, "I just felt something was wrong, and the fire was extinguished. It really didn't cut it, and I don't know if I read it wrong - because of this, the officials and gentlemen at the time When asked, the servant did not dare to speak nonsense."

No cut?

Sun Shaozong frowned and said, "Since you feel something is wrong, why don't you light the fire book and confirm it?"

"Because the servant...the servant is afraid."

Muqin's voice couldn't stop trembling, "Back then, Lvyi had been soaking in the well for a day and a night before fishing it out. It was really... really..."

"After that, the family was a bit uneasy. I heard that Lu Yi turned into a ghost, and wanted to... want to demand the life of the young lady!"

"So as soon as the fire was extinguished, the slaves panicked, and Shuxuan was terrified even if she was beside her. As soon as the two of us made up our minds, we hurried out to find the young mistress."

Sun Shaozong couldn't help being disappointed when he heard this.

Originally, I thought that this maid could be the first-hand evidence at the scene, but who would have thought that such a vague clue could be found.

The shadow of the south wall...

Sun Shaozong took out the layout plan of the bedroom and scanned it, then asked, "Where were you standing in the room when you lit the book?"

"It's . . . almost in the middle of the room."

According to the complaint, the screen is five feet high, approximately 1 meters, and seven feet long, approximately 55 meters. If someone deliberately hides behind it and lights it from the front, no shadow should be reflected.

While deliberating, he asked again, "How thick is the screen? Can it transmit light and reflect the figure behind it?"

"This……"

Mu Qin hesitated for a moment, and suddenly exclaimed, "Ah! I remembered something was wrong. The screen is usually a little bit transparent when illuminated with a lamp, but it was dark that day, and it looked very permeable. , so I was taken aback!"

It used to be transparent?

Was it opaque before the incident?

Sun Shaozong's spirit lifted, and he seemed to have something in his mind.

But at this moment, Shuxuan suddenly interjected, "It's dark, that's right. It was raining that day, and the young mistress didn't let anyone carry the tub out after washing in the afternoon. There was a tub behind her." Looking at it, it naturally looks dark."

As she spoke, she shook her head speechlessly, "You couldn't explain why at the time, I really thought you saw something dirty, but it turned out to be..."

With these words, Mu Qin was speechless, and she secretly glanced at her master, obviously worried that the "big reward" would disappear.

And everyone around, including Wang Ren, originally thought that some serious case would be revealed, but now they found out that it was a misunderstanding, and they were all disappointed.

But Sun Shaozong was not disappointed this time, his sharp eyes were directly locked on Shuxuan, and he asked in a deep voice, "In the statement recorded in Jiangning County, it only said that the two of you went to find Mrs. Sun together, but I don't know that before that , where are you all? Then who is serving by Mrs. Sun's side?"

Mu Qin, "The slaves are in the small kitchen, urging the cooks to make the pastries for August [-]th, and the young mistress is served by sister Shuxuan."

Shuxuan: "The maidservant was indeed serving in front of the young mistress, because the young mistress was worried about the small kitchen, so she sent the maidservant to ask what happened - later, because of some tricks, the two of us couldn't make up our minds, so we decided to invite the young mistress call the shots."

Sure enough!

One time could be called a coincidence, but twice in a row, Shu Xuan denied Mu Qin's words when everyone became suspicious.

This inevitably makes people feel a little weird.

Especially with Liu Changfeng's words in front, everyone should know that if the words of someone hiding behind the screen are true, it will undoubtedly be extremely beneficial to Liu Yiqing.

However, as the eldest maid of the Liu family, it is really unreasonable to deny this possibility one after another.

In addition, she was already serving by Mrs. Sun's side, so if she committed the crime in advance, she would have enough time!

As for why, didn't Mu Qin find the body when he went in earlier...

Sun Shaozong suddenly bowed his hands to Wang Ren, and said, "Brother Wang, can someone bring some screens over? It would be best if they could see through the light—by the way, please prepare another bathtub."

As soon as Wang Ren heard this, he also guessed that Sun Shaozong probably wanted to test something, and there was no embarrassment about it, so he immediately ordered his servants to search for screens, bathtubs and other things according to Sun Shaozong's instructions.

Taking advantage of this opportunity, Sun Shaozong asked Shuxuan and Mu Qin a few more questions, such as where they went to find Mrs. Sun, whether they separated on the way, and so on.

After learning that Shuxuan had gone to the latrine to relieve herself on the way, and spent about three to five minutes for half a cup of tea, Sun Shaozong's balance tilted a little more towards her.

But after a while, several servants of the palace brought several screens, large and small.

Sun Shaozong first asked Liu Yiqing and two maids to choose screens with slightly different sizes on both sides according to the degree of light transmission in memory.

Then he ordered someone to carry the bathtub to a corner, and gradually turned off the nearby lights until the brightness of the murder scene was adjusted to be about the same as that evening, before placing the smaller screen in front.

But all I saw was a pitch-black mass nearby, not to mention the bathtub at the back, even the screen in front could only faintly be seen as an outline.

"Muqin, you stand at a similar distance from that day, and try to light the torch."

Under Sun Shaozong's order, Namuqin stood about six feet away from the screen, about 1 meters away, and carefully lit the fire fold.

But seeing the flames lit up, the center of the screen was still dark, but there was some light faintly seeping through the sides.

Sun Shaozong asked in a timely manner, "What did you see that day, but this kind of situation?"

Mu Qin shook her head without hesitation, and was about to say something, but Shu Xuan couldn't help interjecting, "My lord, she only glanced at that time, how could she remember..."

"shut up!"

Sun Shaozong scolded, and encouraged Mu Qin, "You just need to tell the truth, not only your master will reward you, but my Sun family will not treat you badly either!"

Na Muqin was a bit hesitant when Shuxuan said it, but when she heard that the reward was doubled, she immediately shook her head and said, "That's not the case. I looked behind the screen at the time, and it was obviously pitch black, and there was no light on both sides!"

When Sun Shaozong heard this, he immediately ordered that the slightly larger screen be lifted up and placed in front of the previous screen at a distance of about 311 foot and [-] centimeters.

This time without Mu Qin opening her mouth, everyone immediately noticed the difference - the places on both sides where there was some light were also darkened.

Although carefully discerning, the degree of darkness is still somewhat different from that in the middle, but at first glance, it can be called the whole body is pitch black.

"That's right, that's right, that's the way it was!"

While Na Muqin was yelling happily, Wang Ren couldn't help the curiosity in his heart, and asked wonderingly, "Erlang, what's going on here? You let people set it up for a long time, what did you try?"

Sun Shaozong smiled slightly, pointed to the two screens and said, "Just now I heard people say that there is a bathtub behind the screen, so the light is not penetrated, so I feel a little strange-since it is a screen for bathing, it is naturally better than the screen. The tub is much bigger, otherwise how can it cover the tub behind it?"

"Similarly, just because the bathtub is much smaller than the screen and has a curved oval shape, it is almost impossible to cover all the light leakage from the screen!"

"So I assumed that there might be something else in front of or behind that screen—for example, another screen!"

"If my guess is correct, when the two maids entered the door that day, there were also two screens in the room—as for the purpose, I'm afraid it's not to cover the living, but to cover the dead body of my niece!"

"what?!"

Wang Ren was shocked, and said in disbelief, "You mean, when Liu Yiqing came home, Mrs. Sun was already dead?!"

"This... is this impossible?!"

Sun Shaoxu was even more dumbfounded from the sidelines, and blurted out, "Who is the murderer? And why did he... make such a trick?"

Sun Shaozong smiled slightly, "The murderer made such tricks, naturally, to create an alibi, and at the same time push the crime to Liu Yiqing."

As he said that, he turned around slowly, fixed his eyes on Shuxuan, and said with a sneer, "Miss Shuxuan, I don't know my deduction, is there anything wrong?"

At this time, there was not much light in the surroundings, only the fire pocket in Mu Qin's hand reflected Shu Xuan's pale and bloodless face.

She was obviously flustered, but forced a smile, shook her head and said, "What does the old man mean by this? I really can't understand."

"do not understand?"

Sun Shaozong snorted, and said, "If my deduction is not wrong, you have the opportunity to kill Mrs. Sun in advance, and then wait for the opportunity to withdraw the agency afterwards, and expose Mrs. Sun's body, I am afraid that you, the personal maid, will be the only one! "

"Master!"

Shuxuan knelt down on her knees, screaming for grievances repeatedly, "The maidservant is the dowry maid of the young mistress, and has always been used by the young mistress and the young master, so how could... how could she do such a rebellious thing?!"

Sun Shaozong spread his hands together, "Indeed, I haven't figured out your motive until now, but it should have something to do with that Lu Yi."

Seeing that Sun Shaozong still believed that he was the murderer, Shuxuan raised her head abruptly, gritted her teeth and asked, "My lord, you said that only slaves can commit this crime, but you don't know where the slaves found the second screen, and how to move it afterwards?" Go somewhere else?!"

"You need to know that this servant is just a mentally handicapped woman, and she is not a strong general in the army like the old man. Don't say that you don't have enough time. Even if you have enough time, I'm afraid it will be difficult to carry the screen to other places by yourself!"

Everyone had followed Sun Shaozong's rhythm and began to doubt Shuxuan.

But after hearing her rebuttal, he couldn't help but waver.

There may be a way to move the screen over there.

But afterwards, Shuxuan stayed with Muqin all the time, and she only left for half a cup of tea, so how could she have the chance to move the screen away?

Everyone was suspicious, but Sun Shaozong sneered and said, "If it is a real screen, it will be difficult to move, but what if it is an incomplete screen?"

As he spoke, he strode to the round table in the middle, held the topographic maps in his hand, and showed them to everyone, "Everyone, don't forget that our Shuxuan girl is the best at painting and calligraphy!"

Chapter 608 Jinling Mysterious Case 【End】

Incomplete screen?

The best calligraphy and painting?

"Could it be..."

Others were still thinking hard, but Xue Biao on the side blurted out, "Could it be that this Shuxuan copied a picture of a screen and hung it in front of the real screen?! In this way, she only needs to quietly remove the picture. The corpse tied to the screen can be exposed, so naturally it doesn’t take too much time!”

Only then did everyone suddenly realize.

"Bitch!"

At this time, there was a roar from behind, followed by the rattling sound of iron locks, but it turned out that it was Liu Yiqing who heard this, couldn't help jumping up from the ground, and rushed forward a few steps.

Seeing his blustering appearance, everyone thought he was going to fight for his life with that Shu Xuan.

Just as he didn't know whether he should stop her, Liu Yiqing stopped his steps, stretched his arms and stretched his neck, and asked like a fighting cock, "I treat you well all the time, and Xi Niang regards you as a confidant, you But why are you so insane, not to mention killing Xi Niang, but deliberately blaming me?!"

That Shu Xuan was startled by him at the beginning, it can be seen that he held his footsteps halfway, but instead of showing relief, he showed a little resentment.

However, the look of resentment and resentment subsided in an instant, and was replaced by a pitiful look of grievance.