Chapter 127: Murder at the Inn (part one)
‘Choosing costics?’ Ji Yunshu showed an expression that implied she had no idea how to choose costics. In the modern days, she was dedicated to her work and spent a lot of her ti holed up inside the library to read. From morning to night, she would have a bare face and being the least inclined to draw even her eyebrows. Ever since she ca here, she worked herself to the bone to earn money, but later on, Luan’er used so of the money to buy her so makeup, and she ended being the object of dedication that Luan’er engrossed herself to beautify. Ji Yunshu didn’t even care about whatever brand of makeup Luan’er used on her. Under her veil, Ji Yunshu’s lips parted as she inford Constable Zhang, “Between costics and dead people, if you let choose, I’ll gladly pick so dead bodies over costics.”
‘Huh?’ Constable Zhang looked down on the woman in his heart, and Ji Yunshu, who was only a slender young woman, was no exception to the rule. Thus, the man went straight to the heart of the problem. “Young lady, I advise you to obediently stay inside your room. I don’t want you to get involved in this case.”
Ji Yunshu finally understood sothing; this man is sexist. For a brief mont, she felt that Jing Rong was infinitely much better. Anyway, she was too lazy to talk nonsense with that man. As she walked passed Jing Rong, she whispered to him, “Can you delay him?”
“No problem. Just go.”
“Hmm!” Ji Yunshu walked away toward the room where the murder took place. Seeing that Ji Yunshu was leaving, he quickly moved with the intention to obstruct her, but Jing Rong sent an order, “n, stop whoever wants to disturb Miss Ji’s autopsy.”
“Yes!” Jing Rong’s subordinates are all martial arts experts and won’t lose out in a confrontation with the yan runners. As for Constable Zhang, his skills were pretty good as he was able to fare against Lang Po. “Let give you so advice. Don’t think about going against my young master. Besides, if you want to solve this case, it won’t do without Miss Ji!”
“Who in the world are you guys?”
Lang Po took out a command tile from his waistband and showed it to Constable Zhang. When he saw the word on the command tile, Constable Zhang’s solemn expression abruptly changed to surprise. Then, his sight shifted to Jing Rong. He was about to bow, but Jing Rong stopped him with his raised hand. Jing Rong stated, “I don’t want to reveal my identity. Now, all of you retreat.”
‘This man is a prince. Compared to the magistrate of Yu province, his authority is more extensive.’ Constable Zhang obeyed Jing Rong’s order and made his people retreat to the side. Jing Rong imdiately followed after Ji Yunshu, leaving Constable Zhang still in doubt. The man was still suspecting how a woman can have the ability to solve this homicide. Thus he asked Lang Po, “Earlier, you said that Miss Ji can do autopsies. Is she a coroner?”
‘Err…’ Lang Po didn’t give him an answer, since he once heard Ji Yunshu said that a coroner would examine the internal organs of the dead whereas she was only a painter. After pondering a mont, he answered, “She is not.” Right after, Lang Po instructed two people to guard the door and watched over Wei Yi while he was gone.
Constable Zhang clearly couldn’t make sense out of Lang Po’s answer. ‘If she’s not a coroner, how can she do autopsies?’ He flung his head back and quickly rushed to where Ji Yunshu went.
At the cri scene, the first thing Ji Yunshu did was examine the room. The place was very neat and tidy, devoid of any trace of struggle. After she was done with the surroundings, her gaze landed on the corpse placed on the floor. She crouched near it, and from her waistband, she took out a handkerchief. She wrapped the handkerchief around her index and middle fingers. Next, she turned the corpse’s head to the side, revealing the two ligature marks on its neck.
The ligature marks were as described: one of the bruises was parallel to the jawline with a slight inclination downward, and the other bruise clearly went upward, extending from the neck to the ears. The body didn’t show a droop of the feet. Ji Yunshu lifted the hands of the deceased and examined his fingernails. Under the nails, fragnts of fabric and skin could be seen. On the corpse’s thumbs, there was an obvious white mark encircling each thumb. This ant that the deceased was wearing thumb rings all year long. However, the rings couldn’t be seen anywhere. ‘Was he robbed?’ Ji Yunshu digested the new findings, but the body’s wrists caught her attention. The wrists were glossy as if it ca in contact with a wet substance. Ji Yunshu used her finger to wipe it a bit, then she sniffed her finger. ‘It’s oil!’ She turned around and placed her handkerchief next to her before asking the innkeeper, “Excuse , when did that person co here?”
The innkeeper didn’t know where this woman ca from, but he still honestly answered her question, “It should be around noon when he ca here.”
“He was alone?”
“That’s right. Alone.”
“His ti of death should be around an hour ago. Before that, did anyone co in? Or perhaps, did anyone hear sounds of fighting?” The questions made him quite dumbfounded, as he was engrossed counting money and didn’t notice anything else! He turned his head and looked at the approaching waiter before pointing at the latter. “You should ask him.”
The waiter’s complexion paled quite a bit. Then, he lowered his head. “Miss, this… There were too many guests that ca to our inn. I couldn’t notice all of them. The only thing I can say is that man never ca out of his room ever since he ca in. As for the rest, I really don’t know.” The waiter spoke each sentence with undisguised honesty.
Jing Rong ca into the room at this mont and walked until he was next to Ji Yunshu. Then, he whispered to her, “How is it? Did you find sothing?”
Ji Yunshu’s brows and the tip of her nose wrinkled as she frowned. She glanced at him and asked, “Do you rember the man who bumped into when we went upstairs?”
“I rember!”
“There’s a layer of oil on the victim’s wrists. The scent of the oil indicated its sesa oil, and the man who bumped into also had the sa sll.”
Jing Rong understood her aning. He nodded, turned around, and raised his chin arrogantly before asking the innkeeper, “Your inn uses sesa oil?”
“Yes.”
Jing Rong suddenly waved his sleeve. “Go and call all your kitchen staff here.”
“Ah?” The innkeeper was dumbstruck. Why would he call all the kitchen staff for no reason? He glanced at Constable Zhang, awaiting his instructions. Constable Zhang nodded at him, thus the innkeeper summoned everyone from the kitchen. From old to new, including the dishwashers, there were 10 people in total.
Ji Yunshu looked at the crowd and recognized the man who bumped into her. She saw his flustered expression and his evading glances with both of his hands hidden behind him.
‘What a suspicious behavior!’
She walked to him and inquired, “An hour ago, I saw you running down the stairs in a hurry. Did you co into this room at that ti?”
Once the man heard her words, he trembled and hurriedly shook his head in denial. “I-I didn’t co in here!”
“You obviously have a guilty conscience.”
“NO! I really don’t!”
“There is sesa oil on the victim’s wrists. Not only that, there are fragnts of human skin under his nails. Do you dare show your hands to let confirm if there are no scratch marks on your hands?”
“…” The man tightly kept his hands behind his back. His courage was quite small to start with, combined with Ji Yunshu’s accusing tone, he was now completely panicking. He trembled and suddenly broke into a run, trying to escape the crowd. Unfortunately, he barely took two steps before he was intercepted by runners.
Constable Zhang’s spirit was stimulated as his whole person burst with anger. He lifted the suspect’s sleeves, and as expected, there were scratch marks on the man’s hands.
In an instant, he grabbed his blade hilt and ferociously struck the man’s abdon with it.
“You kill people but still want to escape? Tell the truth. How did you kill him?”
The man bent down from the pain. He bitterly and painfully beseeched, “I didn’t kill him. I really didn’t kill him. Let go!”
“Let you go? If you didn’t kill him, then why are you running away?”
“I…”
“Drag him back to the yan. Let’s see how hard your mouth is.” Constable Zhang was furious. He turned to the two runners and ordered, “Bring him back. I’ll personally interrogate him.”
“Wait!” Ji Yunshu tily stopped them.
Constable Zhang turned around to look at her with doubtful eyes. “Young lady, there are scratch marks on the back of his hands. The evidence is undeniable.”
At this instant, Ji Yunshu felt a surging headache. ‘Didn’t they say that ancient people have more passive personalities? How co each and every one of them is so impatient instead?’ She shook her head. “When did I say he was the murderer?”
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