The Famous Detective of the Red Mansion

Chapter 407: Suspected Murder Case [(1)]

| Central Judicial Office, main hall of the Criminal Department |

After yawning heavily, Sun Shaozong picked up his pen with drowsy eyes. He was about to drop it on the official document but suddenly forgot what comments to write.

As he pondered and finally remembered some features, he only heard a click, and the thick ink had already fallen onto the official document.

Damn it!

Sun Shaozong hurriedly took a soft cloth to dip it in. Fortunately, he was using high-quality ink from the State of Hui, which stuck to the paper. After using the soft cloth to absorb the ink, only a piece of ink about the size of a chess piece was left, which didn’t stain the original words of the official document.

Seeing this, Sun Shaozong breathed a slight sigh of relief in his heart, but he had no intention of continuing to review the official documents. So he washed the wolf hair pen thoroughly, put it on a mountain-shaped pen holder, and walked to the window to scoop out the water from the copper basin. He rubbed his face several times.

So and so, he was finally refreshed.

Sigh~

These days, he has been indulging in debauchery and has finally the sign of excessive indulgence!

It seemed necessary to exercise some restraint, otherwise, if there were any mistakes, it was not fun.

Speaking again, Second Sister You was really a natural beauty. Her tall, plump, and snowy satin white body was like a tailored one for men, and Sun Shaozong was always carefree and unable to extricate himself.

Moreover, she was willing to obey all kinds of tricks and loved to be obsessed with being charming and naive, actively inviting battles. She was not as shy as other women, so in recent days, Sun Shaozong has rarely been able to sleep soundly.

In addition, there was also a need to spare time to ”comfort” Ruan Rong. This kind of sweet pain was not enough for external humanity, which was not to be told.

Fortunately, Jia Yingchun has already confirmed her pregnancy. Otherwise, his Big Brother would have been pushing for ”planting” every day; even if it were a hard-hit body and bones, it would have been difficult to sustain her.

“Uncle.”

Just as he was thinking about some things he shouldn’t have, he heard Sun Chengye reporting outside, "The notice for the trial implementation of the beggar system has been written. Would you like to take a look first?”

“Come in.”

Sun Shaozong walked up and opened the door, took the notice with ease, glanced at it in ten lines, then shook his head and said, "It would be better to be more straightforward in wording. How many beggars can understand this elegant thing?”

Sun Chengye quickly arched his hand and said, "I shall go and draft a new one.”

“No need.”

Sun Shaozong said, "First post this notice outside the mansion door, and then draw up another simple one so that the Yamen Servants in the mansion can memorize it. Call on the beggars to read it directly.”

After Sun Chengye agreed and went out to explain the posting of the notice, Sun Shaozong sat back behind the case and prepared to continue issuing official documents.

Unexpectedly, he had just stained the ink and was about to pick up the pen to write when he heard a sudden sound of footsteps coming from far to near outside. Then Qiu Yunfei shouted, "This weather is really hot! Lord Sun, I have already led someone to investigate the murder of the husband this morning, and it is indeed that woman who killed him.”

“This woman got into a hot fight with her husband, who had been away for four years and had not returned. She was originally meeting with a handsome scholar and was planning to marry over with her family property, but her husband suddenly returned, which ruined her plan.”

“Therefore, the couple has always been at odds, arguing every three days, and it is not the first time knives were used.”

“It was just that this time, she was agitated and cut the man's throat with a knife, causing him to die instantly.”

“The case is simple and clear. She also admitted that she had killed him, but I didn't know which side of the woman's mind was wrong. She insisted that the deceased was not her husband.”

“Nowadays, all the relatives of the man have come over and are making a scene in front of the mansion, asking you to kill her to appease the public's anger.”

Sun Shaozong could hear it clearly inside, so he simply left his wolfskin pen and got up to the outside hall. He asked Qiu Yunfei for the records of the on-site investigation and saw that it was densely packed with more than ten pages of records.

From the first discoverer to the reporting public, from neighbors to relatives and friends on both sides and even the rumored ”traitor,” they have carefully questioned.

“Not bad.”

Sun Shaozong nodded uncontrollably and said, "Recently, what you've been doing on this errand has become increasingly apparent.”

Although it might not be considered a serious compliment, obtaining Sun Shaozong's affirmation still made Qiu Yunfei smile and boast a few words as he took the opportunity.

Sun Shaozong waved his hand again and unquestionably ordered, "Since the bitter lord has followed and it is a case of murdering her husband's life, let's have a trial first. Go and find all the witnesses, and I will hold the court for questioning after 1 p.m.”

When Qiu Yunfei was ordered to go, Sun Shaozong carefully considered the exploration record twice, from beginning to end.

At first glance, there was indeed nothing strange about this case.

The deceased, named Song Changgeng, was 26 years old. His parents passed away early and he has no children. His family ran a medium-sized tea plantation. Four years ago, he led a young man to plan to go south to purchase tea, but to his surprise, there was no news from then on.

Over time, his wife, Xu-Shi, also believed that he had died outside. Therefore, six months ago, after being arranged by neighbors, she met a nearby scholar named Zhou Yuansheng.

Because the scholar was very handsome and had a reputation, after meeting him a few times, Xu-Shi secretly promised to marry him into the Zhou family with the mansion and shop left by Song Changgeng.

Unexpectedly, just as the two of them were preparing for their wedding, Song Changgeng suddenly returned home, saying that he had suffered a major disaster outside and contracted a serious illness. It took him several years to recuperate before he could finally recover.

In this way, the marriage between Xu-Shi and Scholar Zhou naturally collapsed, and Song Changgeng even gathered two cousins of his uncle's family to come and beat Scholar Zhou up on the charges of seducing his wife.

With these causes and consequences, both Xu-Shi and Song Changgeng had grudges in their hearts, and they would make a scene every three to five days.

This morning, the two of them started to make a scene again. Song Changgeng said he was going to divorce Xu-Shi and let her leave without any property. But Xu-Shi was so angry that she grabbed a kitchen knife and threatened to die.

Unexpectedly, between the two of them pushing and shoving, the kitchen knife cut Song Changgeng's neck, causing him to suffocate and die on the spot.

Due to the fact that beggar Hong Jiu happened to hear about the incident, Xu-Shi couldn't deny it and had to confess the act of killing her husband. Therefore, there was nothing worth investigating and questioning in this part of the case.

The only oddity was that Xu-Shi insisted that the deceased was a fake, not the real Song Changgeng.

This statement was strongly refuted by Song Changgeng's Uncle, who believed that she had woven such a ridiculous lie to alleviate the charges.

But…

If she wanted to make up a lie to exonerate herself, shouldn't she use such a bizarre excuse?

Sun Shaozong looked at this exploration record and couldn't help but fall into contemplation.

It was said that Hong Jiu, who happened to be involved in a human life lawsuit, was also taken as a witness to the Central Judicial Office.

Because Qiu Yunfei saw that he was a rootless beggar and was afraid that he might disappear without paying attention, he simply ordered someone to temporarily detain him and Xu-Shi in the lobby.

In the beginning, Hong Jiu was frightened and felt weak all over. He knelt in the hall and didn’t dare to even breathe.

But after kneeling for more than half an hour, Hong Jiu couldn't continue as he saw that it was already past mealtime and his stomach was growling with hunger. However, no one came to inquire.

He peeked left and right and saw that the Government Officials were all outside and no one was paying attention to him. He simply tilted his body and collapsed onto the ground, grinning and rubbing his knees.

After rubbing for a while, he found that there was still no one to interfere. His courage increased a bit as he rubbed his knees and peeked at the nearby Xu-Shi.

He saw Xu-Shi kneeling on the ground in a daze, her skirt torn apart by relatives of the Song family, revealing half of her white porcelain-like arm. However, she couldn't even remember to cover it up.

Tch tch tch!

What a fair and charming woman! How could she be so determined to murder her husband?

Hong Jiu stared at the white porcelain-like arm, drooling for a long time, but suddenly realized that Xu-Shi's cherry mouth was constantly opening and closing.

What was she muttering about?

Hong Jiu couldn't help but be curious and cautiously moved towards Xu-Shi. After listening for a long time, he finally recognized that Xu-Shi was repeating the phrases ”He's not my husband” and ”He's not Song Changgeng.”

How could she still say that even now?

Hong Jiu was a bit speechless at first, but upon closer inspection of Xu-Shi's appearance, it didn't seem like she was lying. Hong Jiu has always been quite complacent. If he couldn't tell the appearances of others, even his skillful mouth would be like rootless duckweed, unable to scratch the itch of others.

But if she wasn't lying, should it be that…

Was the person who died really not her husband?!