Detective in the Red Chamber

"Lin Delu, go find out which room the deceased fell from, and then protect the scene!"

Zhou Da and Lin Delu took the order to go, and then Sun Shaozong walked to the corpse, knelt down and examined it carefully.

The deceased was a 25-year-old young man of medium height, slightly fat, with fair and lustrous skin, and a slight callus on his right hand, which should be the result of long-term writing—it seems that he was usually a pampered master.

The deceased had a strong smell of alcohol, and seemed to have drank a lot of alcohol before falling from the building—but the possibility of the murderer's suspicion cannot be ruled out for the time being.

The expression of the deceased was relatively serene, his muscles were relaxed, his hands were naturally spread out, and he did not show the usual grasping shape of a person who lost his footing. According to preliminary analysis, he should be unconscious or in a state of confusion when he fell from the building.

There were no other wounds on the body of the deceased, but part of the skull had been severely deformed due to the violent impact on the back of the head, which was enough to cover the traces of secondary injuries—so it was impossible to judge whether he had been attacked before falling from the building.

"Dong Weng."

Cheng Rixing looked around curiously for a while, and couldn't help expressing his opinion, "Look at it, it seems that I accidentally dropped it after drinking too much - five years ago, there was a case where a new division Jinshi got drunk. Then, accidentally drowned."

"It's possible."

As Sun Shaozong spoke, he turned the corpse over carefully.

A lot of brain matter, which was originally blocked in the cranial cavity, suddenly gushed out, white and greasy, causing a sound of horror from around, and Cheng Rixing jumped out like a rabbit all the way.

Sun Shaozong turned a blind eye and continued to examine carefully from the head and neck.

Suddenly, his eyes stayed near the lower back of the deceased, and after a while, he lowered his head and brought his nose up.

Before he could smell anything, someone in the crowd screamed, "He...he's eating that man's brain!"

The people onlookers suddenly went into an uproar, for those who are timid and afraid of getting into trouble, they should get rid of it even if they want to smear the soles of their feet.

rely on ~

What kind of eyes are these? !

Sun Shaozong raised his head speechlessly, and was about to explain a few words, when Cheng Rixing put his hands on his hips and roared, "My lord is Sun Tongpan, the 'Shenduan' of Shuntian Mansion, who is currently investigating the case, who dares to speak nonsense here?! "

It was heard that Sun Tongpan, the 'Shen Juan', was in person, and the crowd was in an uproar again.

But this time, no one was willing to leave, and they all looked at Sun Shaozong with burning eyes, wanting to see how this well-known "Shenduan" master solved the case.

There were even a few people in the crowd who were at a loss, and twisted an old man with a white beard to Cheng Rixing.

The old man had been frightened for a long time, and without waiting for others to testify, he kowtowed like pounding garlic and begged, "My lord, please forgive me, my lord, please forgive me. The little old man really missed his point, and he didn't intend to falsely accuse Master Qingtian!"

Cheng Rixing rolled his eyes, and was waiting for the fox to pretend to be a tiger, but he heard Sun Shaozong say, "Forget it, since he is old, let's spare him this time."

As he spoke, he leaned over and sniffed at the back of the corpse, then pulled up the clothes of the deceased, and looked at the sun from several angles.

After confirming the speculation in his mind, he immediately got up and said, "Let's go upstairs and have a look."

As soon as the words fell, I heard someone asking in a hurry

"Master Patrol Envoy, was Brother Su Nian killed by someone?"

"My lord, did the murderer kill for money, or for vendetta?!"

"My lord, you just watched for a long time, what did you see?"

"That's right, my lord, what clues did you find out?"

But it turned out that during this short period of time, many people gathered around to watch the fun, among them, the scholars and Juren living nearby were indispensable.

These people have their own fame and reputation, and they are not afraid of the government like ordinary people. Therefore, seeing that Sun Shaozong was about to go upstairs after inspecting the corpse, they all started to ask questions.

It stands to reason that everything found at the murder scene should be kept secret.

But considering that there are a large number of scholars gathered in the vicinity, if they blindly conceal it, there may be some messy rumors, and if it causes panic, it will not be beautiful.

Furthermore, after the Lu Ming Banquet tomorrow, there will be quite a few people here who will become his 'students', and it is necessary to leave an unpredictable impression in advance.

Thinking in this way, Sun Shaozong said solemnly, "Among you, many people will set foot in the officialdom in the future, and inevitably they will also be involved in the judgment of criminal names—well, I will make an exception today and explain a little bit about the joints."

Everyone was overjoyed when they heard the words, and hurriedly raised their ears and held their breath.

Sun Shaozong pointed at the corpse and said, "This person smells of alcohol, at first glance, it seems that he accidentally fell to his death after being drunk."

"But after preliminary observation, it can be found that the muscles on his body are very loose, and the palms are naturally spread out, without any trace of grasping."

Speaking of this, seeing that everyone around was a little puzzled, he had no choice but to explain, "When a person is under high tension, the skin and flesh will automatically tighten and harden, and the person who stumbles and falls is the same as the drowning person, always struggling to think. What to catch."

At this moment, someone finally suddenly shouted, "My lord, you mean that he wasn't nervous at all when he fell, and he didn't struggle at all?!"

"That's right!"

Sun Shaozong first affirmed what this person said, and then added, "To be precise, when he fell, he should be in an unconscious state—of course, if he gets drunk, there is a certain chance that a similar situation will occur."

"However, after I turned the body over, I found a small dragging wet mark on his lower back, and I confirmed that it was the mark left by the wine."

At this time, someone was puzzled and asked, "My lord, what are dragging wet marks?"

"This is..."

Sun Shaozong pondered for a while, and then made an analogy, "When you wipe things with a wet rag, there will always be wet marks like lines. This kind of mark is the so-called 'dragging'."

"Conversely, if there is a puddle of water on the ground, cover it with a clean cloth, press it down and drag it vigorously, the same marks will appear on that clean cloth."

"If this kind of mark appeared on the front chest, it might be caused by the deceased's carelessness, but now the mark is on the back waist!"

"So I infer that the deceased was most likely dragged to the window forcibly after being unconscious or dead, and then pushed down!"

Chapter 141 Wenxin Pavilion Fall Incident [Part [-]]

Three more

When listening to a story, the most unbearable thing is probably the most exciting part, but suddenly there is no more.

In modern times, this kind of behavior is called 'broken dog'.

Although there was no such statement in the Great Zhou Dynasty, the audience who were stopped outside the Wenxin Pavilion just after listening to half of the reasoning were equally itchy and unsatisfactory.

Although no one dared to attack the cordon set up by the yamen servants, all kinds of complaints kept coming and going.

There is even a father-fighting party inside, shouting slogans such as "My father is Li Gang, the head of the Ministry of Punishment", "My father is Li Erjiang, a member of the Ministry of War", "My brother is Li Zongrui, the secretary of the Jiaofang Division", and other slogans, intending to let the guards guard the gate. let go.

Not to mention how chaotic below.

But after Sun Shaozong entered the door, he asked the room where the deceased was, and asked the waiter to lead him up to the third floor.

Lin Delu had been waiting at the stairway for a long time. While obsequiously slanting his shoulders, he led Sun Shaozong to the deceased's room, while reporting, "My lord, the deceased's name is Su Kunmao, a native of the capital, and there are 126 high school students this time."

"In addition, there are a total of 72 people living in the inn. Because during the autumn period, the guest rooms are charged according to the number of occupants, so the guests live alone, and there are no servants to serve them."

Because in the past there were always some poor and poor scholars, in order to get a taste of the literary spirit of their predecessors, they collectively pooled their wallets and went to a guest room, and then a dozen or even dozens of people made the floor and ate dry food in it.

The inns near the Gongyuan were too troublesome, so they set the rule of charging by head during the autumn period.

"Don't worry about others."

Sun Shaozong stopped, stretched out his hand and swiped from east to west, and ordered, "Call all the guests in these rooms over, and remember to ask them to bring the round table from the room."

The third floor of Wenxin Pavilion is a standard type, with a north-south corridor and an east-west corridor.

The stairs are located at the southern end of the North-South Corridor, while the East-West Corridor is connected to the northern end of the North-South Corridor.

As for Su Maokun's room, it is located at the end of the east-west corridor, and it is also the room in the whole Wenxin Pavilion, which is the most suitable room for overlooking the Gongyuan.

And Sun Shaozong's strokes included nearly twelve guest rooms in the entire east-west corridor.

"Let them bring the round table over?"

Lin Delu said in astonishment, "My lord, why is this?"

"Because the round table is the most important physical evidence in this case, remember, let them move it by themselves!"

Sun Shaozong nonsense nonsense, and then Shi Shiran walked into Su Maokun's room.

This guest room is not big, and it is divided into two rooms by the wooden grid, which makes it even more cramped. It is estimated that Su Maokun may not be used to living in this kind of place if there is no "literary style" bonus.

On the round table in the center of the outer room, there was a broken table with four wine glasses in total, but the dishes were basically untouched.

Seeing him staring at the wine table, Lin Delu hurriedly explained, "After Su Maokun won the imperial examination, he immediately set up a banquet and invited familiar classmates over to celebrate, but after a few drinks, he satirized the three of them." After a bit of ridicule, the banquet naturally broke up unhappy."

"Among the three people, do you live in this east-west corridor?"

"One of them lives diagonally opposite, and his name seems to be... called Liu Xianglian!"

Liu Xianglian?

I really don't know how his parents came up with this girly name.

While talking, the seven guests who lived in the east-west corridors carried the tables to the door one after another. Most of them were out of breath, and some of them were half dragging and half hugging.

There was only a young boy with a face like a powder and picturesque eyebrows, holding the table with one hand without feeling any reluctance.

Sun Shaozong's eyes rested on that person for a while, and he bowed vigilantly and said, "Student Liu Xianglian, I have seen Mr. Patrol Envoy."

It really matches the name!

But judging from this meaning, it seems that he has martial arts in his body.

Sun Shaozong doubted him a little more, but he still ordered with a blank face, "You all raise the table higher, so that I can take a good look at it."

Except for that Liu Xianglian, most of these people were frail scholars, and even if they obediently tried their best, only two of them managed to lift the folding round table above their heads.

Sun Shaozong walked up to the four losers first, observed them carefully, and waved his hands until the faces of the four losers looked ashen, "You four step aside first."

Then he turned to the other three and asked, "You three, tell me what you were doing when the crime happened?"

Liu Xianglian was the first to say, "Responding to my lord's words, the students broke up because of the quarrel with this Su Kunmao. After returning home, they drank two pots of mulled wine and sang some ditties for fun."

Generally, even if it is not a murderer, they are not willing to disclose information that is not good for them, but this Liu Xianglian did not hide the conflict with Su Kunmao at all.

This made Sun Shaozong look at him again.

"Go back to the words of the adults."

The second person said with a dejected face, "Because the student failed the ranking, he hid in the room and was sad, but he didn't do anything special."

"grown ups."

The third person said triumphantly, "The student was lucky enough to be selected. At that time, he was writing a letter to his family in his room, so as to tell the good news to his father who was away in Ren Zhizhou."

"So neither of you has been drinking?"

After Sun Shaozong listened, he immediately ordered, "Come here, give me a good sniff and see if there is alcohol on the hands of these two people!"

The failed scholar was a little puzzled, but the expression of the Zhongju man changed, and he hurriedly argued, "My lord, what do you mean? I did have a few drinks outside, but what does this have to do with Su Kunmao's death?"

"Is it?"

Sun Shaozong sneered and said, "Then open your mouth and let out a few breaths, and let my yamen servants take a sniff—you are both studying ink and writing family letters, the smell of alcohol in your hands has not dissipated, and the smell of alcohol in your mouth is always there." Wouldn't it be gone first?"

The new imperial examiner was even more panicked, but he still tried his best to argue, "Even if this is the case, what can you prove? You can't just say that I killed Su Kunmao for such a ridiculous reason?!"

"It's not enough to rely on this alone, but you have revealed far more than just a little bit."

Sun Shaozong continued to sneer and said, "First of all, when I went upstairs, I asked the waiter in the shop. Before and after the incident, he was cleaning near the stairs. He didn't see anyone entering or exiting the east-west corridor, so the murderer must be among the seven of you."

"Secondly, in order to create the illusion that the deceased was drunk and fell out of the window by himself, the murderer spilled some wine on the collar of the corpse—probably because of his haste, some wine spilled on the handle of the pot, which naturally got wet. The murderer's hand."

As Sun Shaozong said, he picked up the jug, revealing the slightly reflective water stains on the handle.

Then he pointed to the window of the room, and said, "Furthermore, the height of the window here is close to four feet. It takes a lot of strength to throw a fat dead person out, and it just passed my test..."

"grown ups!"

The new imperial examination officer hurriedly interrupted Sun Shaozong's deduction, pointed at Liu Xianglian and said, "Doesn't he also meet these three requirements? And he is so strong, it's easy to throw Su Kunmao down!"

"I did doubt him at first."

Sun Shaozong said, "However, in his testimony just now, there is one sentence that is enough to prove his innocence."

The new imperial examiner immediately roared, "Which sentence? Why didn't I catch it? Besides, he obviously didn't say anything special!"

This is still a product that will not die until the Yellow River.

Sun Shaozong walked to the wooden wall with some helplessness, tapped it lightly with his fingers, and said, "The guest rooms here have been remodeled, and the sound insulation effect of the wooden wall added later is quite poor. If someone sings a ditty in the room, do you think it will Won't it spread to the next door?"

"Yup!"

As soon as Sun Shaozong finished speaking, a scholar who was excluded before suddenly said, "I did hear brother Liu singing a ditty next door, and it seemed to be..."

A person next to him said, "It's "The Romance of the West Chamber", and the lyrics are still written by Cui Yingying!"

"look."

Sun Shaozong threw up his hands at the new imperial examiner, "Now you are the only one who meets all the suspect conditions."